Yemen's ruling party has re-elected the country's long-serving President Ali Abdullah Saleh as its head, in a move analysts said signalled he was likely to seek a new term. Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since unification in 1990 after 12 years as president of North Yemen, had indicated he would not seek re-election as president in 2006 and pave the way for political change in the poor Arab state.
Delegates at the convention of the ruling General People's Congress, held on Friday in the southern port city of Aden, voted for Saleh to continue as party leader, and elected Prime Minister Abdul Qader Bajammal as the new secretary-general. "Saleh's re-election is a strong indication that he may run again next year. But Bajammal's election is likely to mean he will be replaced as prime minister as traditionally the premier does not hold such a high party post," a Yemeni analyst said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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As Bangladesh continues its descent into chaos ...
Dec 17: Terrorists shot dead a young wild elephant in the hilly area of Ukhiya under Cox's Bazar south forest division recently. According to Ishtiaque Uddin Ahmed, divisional forest officer, Cox's Bazar south forest division, Cox's Bazar sources said, a group of terrorists chased 10 to 12 wild elephants when they were eating ripe paddy at Golachapa village under Dochari forest beat under Cox's Bazar south forest area. At one stage the terrorists fired three rounds of rifles bullets. At this one young elephant died on the spot.
Later, the terrorists cut the tusk of the elephant about 8 to 10 inches long. Forest officials visited the spot and completed the post-mortem on Dec 11.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2005 00:46 ||
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#1
Elephants eat paddy (rice). Elephants get chased away and one gets shot. Therefore terrorism.
Bangladeshâs Prime Minister Khaleda Zia vowed to fight terrorists saying bombs and terrorism cannot halt the nationâs progress.
Yep. She's gonna start any time now...
Speaking at a Victory Day parade in the capital yesterday, Khaleda said her government was committed to fight the terrorists. âNo one can thwart the nationâs progress through terrorism and bombing,â she said.
"We've thwarted our progress without them so far, and there's no need to stop now..."
âWe must search out the bombers and give them exemplary punishment. This is my commitment to you on this auspicious victory day.â
Warm, buttered words. The rubes eat them right up. She hasn't done anything of note, but the words are tasty...
At least 8,000 troops patrolled the streets of Dhaka as the country celebrated the 34th anniversary of the victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war of independence. The country has been on heightened alert since August when militants calling for the imposition of Shariah law launched a wave of deadly bombings. Under a blanket of security, Khaleda and Hasina, the leader of the main opposition party, laid wreaths at a war memorial for the dead near Dhaka. Hasina, who leads the Awami League, urged countrymen to unite and give a âbig push to end Khaledaâs ruleâ â which otherwise will not end until next October. The opposition says the government has failed to contain militancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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The PM's wife is a good example of many things that are wrong in Britain and Europe. Among them a hatred of Blair's policies whenever they don't fit the Tranzi/Socialist checklist.
Cyprus was left fuming on Sunday after British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife joined a hugely sensitive case involving property in the breakaway Turkish-held north of the divided island. Cherie Blair, a top lawyer by profession, is representing a British couple, Linda and David Orams, who have been told to demolish their home in the north for illegally building on land belonging to a Greek Cypriot refugee. Her move threatened to spark a diplomatic incident, with President Tassos Papadopoulos denouncing her involvement as a "provocative action" and the Greek Cypriot media condemning the prime minister's wife in the harshest terms.
Nationalist Machi newspaper on Sunday described Cherie Blair as a "an advocate to crime" on its front page. It said Blair's involvement in the Orams' case was a "bombshell to Cyprus and caused a strong reaction". Communist-backed Haravghi said she was "counsel to the embezzlement" of Greek Cypriot property.
Papadopoulos said Nicosia had made its displeasure known to Britain, although he had not raised the issue in person with Tony Blair at last week's European Union summit in Brussels. "It's a provocative action for many reasons, as it is difficult to separate the fact that she is taking a case concerning human rights violations, the right to property, and she is the wife of the British prime minister," Papadopoulos said on Saturday. He said the foreign ministry has already made "strong protests" to Britain, even though the British High Commission in Nicosia issued a statement saying Cherie Blair was acting in a "professional capacity".
The issue is of huge importance to Greek Cypriots as around a third of them owned property in the Turkish Cypriot north before the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island when Turkey intervened following a Athens-orchestrated coup to join Cprus with Greece. A Cypriot court has ordered the Orams to pay compensation to Meletios Apostolides for building on his property without permission and has threatened to seize their assets in Britain if they do not comply with the local ruling.
#1
The Greeks tried a coup in order to annex Cyprus and now act like whiny little pricks when things go agaibnst them? They didn't have any concern for the Turks when they tried their power play. You lost the war and any hold on land in the north. Suck it up.
Posted by: ed ||
12/18/2005 18:04 Comments ||
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Intelligence agencies warned Tony Blair government before the July seven suicide bombings that Al-Qaeda was planning a "high priority" attack specifically aimed at the London's underground subway network, a report said today.
"A leaked four-page report by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), which oversees all spying, is the first definitive evidence that the intelligence services expected terrorist to strike at the underground," The Sunday Times claimed.
The report also suggested that it could be the reason why Blair ruled out a public inquiry into the bombings last week.
"The document, marked Top Secret and signed off by the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ, the government's evesdropping centre, was based partly on the interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Al-Qaeda's then operations chief," it said.
Mohammed was arrested in Pakistan in March 2003 and suspected of involvement in the September 11 attacks in the United States, the killing of Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl.
The report dated April 2, 2003 is entitled International Terrorism: The Current Threat from Islamic Extremities. It states: "The UK and its interests remain high in Al-Qaeda's priorities. Interrogation of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other detainees confirms this." After the July 7 attacks, police said they had been given no prior warnings.
However, two British newspapers had claimed that security officials in Saudi Arabia had conveyed warnings to Britain's intelligence agencies about the possibility of attacks earlier this year.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:38 ||
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LAWYERS for a former pupil at a top British independent school have accused the government of colluding with the CIA to send him to a series of prisons where he was abused.
The claims relating to Bisher al-Rawi, a former student at Millfield now being held at Guantanamo Bay, will raise fresh questions about British involvement in the controversial American practice of âextraordinary renditionâ.
The procedure, in which prisoners are secretly flown by the CIA to countries where they may face torture during interrogation, has sparked a string of investigations across Europe.
The government has faced mounting criticism from human rights groups and opposition politicians since it emerged that CIA-operated planes had landed at British airports on dozens of occasions.
Al-Rawi, 37, an Iraqi national who has lived in Britain since 1985, and his business partner Jamil al-Banna, a Jordanian who was granted refugee status in Britain in 2000, were detained three years ago in Gambia. They were later flown by the CIA to Afghanistan and then to Cuba in March 2003.
The men are accused of being associated with Al-Qaeda and Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric who has been described as Osama Bin Ladenâs European ambassador. Qatada is in a British jail pending deportation to his native Jordan.
In Cuba one interrogator is alleged to have told al-Banna: âWhy are you angry at America? It is your government, Britain, the MI5, who called the CIA and told them you and Bisher were in Gambia and to come and get you. Britain gave everything to us. Britain sold you out to the CIA.â
The comments, recounted by al-Banna, 43, to Clive Stafford Smith, his British lawyer, are outlined in transcripts of interviews recently declassified by the Pentagon.
Al-Rawi has claimed he was approached by MI5 in London to act as an unpaid intermediary with Qatada. When the preacher supposedly went into hiding at the end of 2001, al-Rawi admits finding Qatada a new flat. However, he also claims he told his MI5 handlers where the preacher was staying.
Last year al-Rawi asked for three MI5 agents to be called as witnesses before a military tribunal at Guantanamo.
The British authorities refused to co-operate, but it is understood the same agents may have interviewed al-Rawi at the American prison on âa handful of occasionsâ.
Prior to travelling to Gambia in November 2002 to set up a peanut-oil processing factory, al-Rawi and al-Banna were arrested at Gatwick airport and questioned by police about a suspect electronic device. They were released when it turned out to be a battery charger.
The pair flew out to Gambia about a week later, but were stopped again by local intelligence officers at Banjul airport and handed over to the Americans. âThey said they were from the (US) embassy,â al-Banna told a military tribunal last year. âThey were wearing black, they even covered their heads black.â
His account matches descriptions of the CIAâs rendition unit. Flight logs reportedly show that a CIA-operated Gulfstream jet, registration N379P, was in Banjul on the day of the menâs arrest. The same plane has landed at five different British airports.
Al-Banna and al-Rawi were held for about a month in Gambia before being flown to the notorious âdark prisonâ in Kabul and the US military airbase at Bagram.
There, al-Banna claims he was offered $10m (£5.6m) and a US passport to testify against Qatada. When he refused, an interrogator told him: âI am going to London . . . I am going to f*** your wife. Your wife is going to be my bitch. Maybe youâll never see your children again.â
Al-Banna was so angry that he spat at his interrogator, but was allegedly slapped around the face until he bled.
Al-Rawi claims that an American soldier punched him in the eye when he was being transferred from Kabul to Bagram. He alleges that interrogators threatened to send him to Jordan where âelectric cablesâ would be used to extract evidence.
Both men have been repeatedly questioned at Guantanamo by American intelligence officers. Al-Banna claims he was kept in interrogation rooms for up to 14 hours a day with the air-conditioning on full so that it was freezing cold.
The Home Office, which covers MI5, refused to comment. The US State Department said: âWhen we act, we do so lawfully.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:43 ||
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Families of the 11 British victims killed in last summer's Egyptian terrorist attacks claim that they were treated 'like lepers' by the UK government.
As a two-day inquest begins tomorrow into the deaths, relatives of those who died in the triple bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh have issued a joint statement saying they have been 'abandoned, isolated and ignored' by the UK authorities since the 23 July attacks.
While victims of the London bombings two weeks earlier began receiving money within three months from the government's compensation agency, those affected by the Egyptian attacks have been told they will never receive a penny. The criticisms of the government also echo those of families of victims of the tsunami, who said they received poor levels of support.
In the case of the 7 July London suicide bombings, Tony Blair promised to personally investigate payment delays to victims. Those who lost loved ones in the Egyptian attacks claim, however, they have not even received a letter of condolence from the Prime Minister.
Relatives of victims of the Sharm el-Sheikh attack will not receive money, despite being insured, because the insurance industry continues to refuse cover for victims of terrorist atrocities. Some claim they have been forced to borrow money to bury their dead. Others admit their bitterness has been intensified by the belief that their loved ones were indirectly targeted by the government's foreign policies and, in particular, the war in Iraq. Groups with links to al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks.
John Corke, stepfather of Annalie Vickers, 31, who died in the attack, said: 'Foreign policy puts holidaymakers on the front line. It is they who need the most protection. The British government has failed to take any responsibility towards those who were killed.'
Trevor Lakin, whose 28-year-old son Jeremy, Vickers's boyfriend was also killed, said they were actually told by the government to sue the suicide bombers if they wanted compensation. He said the government's treatment of them could be typified by a letter that arrived at the homes of families on Friday.
The letter was 'a compassionate and touching apology' from the Egyptian authorities. However it was dated 28 August and had been sent to the Foreign Office in London, which had somehow not dispatched it to the families for more than 15 weeks.
Lakin, 56, a company director, said: 'That sums up the way we have been treated. People ask what I want for Christmas and I say I will get my son's death certificate.
'People have been financially destroyed and emotionally destroyed and their anguish has been increased by people just walking away from us.'
The criticism follows recent condemnation by the National Audit Office of the way in which the Foreign Office dealt with relatives in the immediate aftermath of the Asian tsunami.
'It seems that none of the criticisms levelled at the British government after the tsunami have been learnt - we too are suffering from ineffective management and poor communication,' said Lakin.
Families have also not received any special payments for terror victims, because no special fund was set up for them, unlike those killed or maimed by the London bombings.
Tomorrow, families of the Britons killed by a car bomb at the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay in the early hours of 23 July will gather at a coroner's office in Chelmsford, Essex, to hear the cause of death. On Tuesday, the families of those killed by a device that exploded near a taxi rank in Sharm el-Sheikh will also be told details of how their relatives died.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:35 ||
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John Corke, stepfather of Annalie Vickers, 31, who died in the attack, said: 'Foreign policy puts holidaymakers on the front line. It is they who need the most protection. The British government has failed to take any responsibility towards those who were killed.'
Investigators have found nuclear material capable of being used in a dirty bomb in an abandoned factory in Chechnya.
It was not clear why the radioactive source had been kept in the factory in Grozny, but officials said it posed a severe threat to anyone who came near it. Site contamination was found to be tens of thousands of times more than normal levels.
Valery Kuznetsov, a Chechen prosecutor, told NTV television: "This is above all now a threat to the population, because the leadership and officials of the firm did not take the necessary steps to isolate the isotope."
Almost all of Grozny was destroyed by Russian bombing in 1999-2000 when Russian troops poured back into the region to reassert central control over separatist rebels, who still attack troops and police every day.
Once a mighty industrial centre, Grozny's factories are now derelict, many of them dotted with machinegun nests.
Other Chechen officials did not wish to comment on the presence of the radioactive material, which was named by the prosecutors as Cobalt-60, an isotope of cobalt used as a source of radiation in food processing, hospitals and elsewhere. Cobalt-60 has also been identified as one of the most likely elements to be used to make a "dirty bomb".
Prosecutors said it had raised radiation levels to 58,000 times above normal.
A member of Chechnya's emergencies committee, who asked not to be named, said: "This is not a one-day problem. This problem of radiation leaking into Grozny's air has been going on for a decade." He said looters had uncovered the materials.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:00 ||
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Grind it up into powder and spread it around the towns there. "You want radioactive materials? Here!"
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has indicated that Europeans are being disingenuous when they deny knowledge of the rendition of terror suspects.
Mr Powell said the recently highlighted practice of moving people to places where they are not covered by US law was neither "new or unknown" to Europe.
A number of countries where flights allegedly stopped have said they were unaware of their land being used.
Talking to the BBC, Mr Powell also described his difficulties over Iraq.
In an interview with Sir David Frost for the BBC World TV channel, he described his disappointment with the failings of US intelligence on Iraq, and his arguments with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the campaign.
He was speaking after his successor, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, faced tough questioning about the use of rendition during a recent trip to Europe.
She admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation, but said this was "a lawful weapon", and denied the prisoners were tortured.
She refused to address claims that the CIA runs secret prisons abroad where suspects are interrogated without reference to international law.
But Gen Powell was dismissive of the furore in Europe.
"There's a little bit of the movie Casablanca in this, where, you know, the inspector says 'I'm shocked, shocked that this kind of thing takes place'.
"Well, most of our European friends cannot be shocked that this kind of thing takes place... The fact that we have, over the years, had procedures in place that would deal with people who are responsible for terrorist activities, or suspected of terrorist activities, and so the thing that is called rendition is not something that is new or unknown to my European friends."
He accepted that Washington's moral authority was under pressure at the moment.
"The United States is going through a period right now where public opinion world-wide is against us.
"I think that's a function of some of the policies we have followed in recent years with respect to Iraq and in not solving the Middle East's problem and perhaps the way in which we have communicated our views to the rest of the world, we have created an impression that we are unilateralist, we don't care what the rest of the world thinks.
"I don't think it's a fair impression"
Questioned on the evidence held up by the US as proof that Iraq had a weapons of mass destruction programme, he said: "I was deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us, and what really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced up to us."
He also referred to his relationship with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice-President Dick Cheney - often depicted as icy.
"Secretary Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney and I occasionally would have strong differing views on matters. And when that was the case we argued them out, we fought them out, in bureaucratic ways," he said.
"Often maybe Mr Rumsfeld and Vice-President Cheney would take decisions into the president that the rest of us weren't aware of. That did happen, on a number of occasions."
Asked about post-war planning for Iraq, Gen Powell said his state department staff drew up detailed plans, but they were discarded by Mr Rumsfeld's defence department, which was backed by the White House.
"Mr Rumsfeld and I had some serious discussions, of a not pleasant kind, about the use of individuals who could bring expertise to the issue. And it ultimately went into the White House, and the rest is well known."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:08 ||
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Tensions have risen between Turkey's military and Islamist government. Officials and military sources said the tensions stem from efforts by the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan to sharply reduce the role and profile of the military. The effort has been supported by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, or AKP, which has a huge majority in parliament.
The latest tiff was sparked by a parliamentary demand to remove the military contingent from the government complex in Ankara. Parliamentarians said the military presence in the complex was not appropriate for a country that sought to join the European Union. "Ankara, which is the center of national politics, has a military appearance rather than a political one," parliamentarian Resul Tosun, an AKP member said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
sounds less like the Turkish Military is going to rise up than it's going to be stood down. While this could be worthy of popcorn - and I hope it is - chances are Erdogan sufficently neutered them before mentioning it.
#2
Betting against the Turkish military is something I wouldn't do, no matter how strongly I felt about "issues". I think Erdrogan has neutered himself. The Turkish military has been the power behind the politics in Turkey since Ataturk. There isn't any way to truly "neuter" them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2005 18:31 Comments ||
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#3
Betting against the Turkish military is something I wouldn't do, no matter how strongly I felt about "issues". I think Erdrogan has neutered himself. The Turkish military has been the power behind the politics in Turkey since Ataturk. There isn't any way to truly "neuter" them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2005 18:31 Comments ||
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It is perhaps not surprising that Crook is a neo-Nazi as well as an anti-military activist, according to this article in Wikipedia
The little cockroach is currently reported to be infesting the village of Liverpool, NY (pop 2505), near Syracuse.
Whatever you do, do not visit any of his websites. That's how the little vermin makes his money. With unusual candor for a media career-seeker, he admits that money is the only reason he does this.
I have added a WoT Futures entry on his near-term prospects.
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan led a small protest Saturday outside the U.S. Embassy to denounce the war in Iraq. About 100 protesters carried banners criticizing President Bush. Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq, called Bush a war criminal and said, "Iraq is worse than Vietnam."™
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Free trips - all for the simple act of dishonoring your own son's sacrifice. Isn't that soooo cool?
#7
Rather than Spain, why doesn't she go to Iraq to protest the war in Iraq? Afraid of getting her ass kicked by a bunch of old ladies with blue fingers?
#8
Re: Sheehan. Follow the money, find the financiers that are picking up the tabs for her junkets. Then everything else becomes clear. She is a useful idiot.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2005 23:28 Comments ||
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Son of Accused al-Qaida Financier Arrested
TORONTO (AP) -- Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they have arrested the eldest son of an accused al-Qaida financier on a warrant issued by the United States. RCMP spokeswoman Corporal Michele Paradis said the warrant for Abdullah Khadr was issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. He was arrested on Saturday and is being held in a Toronto jail.
Paradis would not say what the charges are. But the suspect's lawyer, Dennis Edney, told the Globe and Mail.com that his client faces extradition to the U.S. for allegedly planning to kill U.S. soldiers abroad.Calls to Edney's office were not immediately returned.
Khadr, a 23-year-old, who had just returned to Canada after being detained for more than a year in Pakistan, was arrested at his family's apartment in Toronto, Edney was quoted as saying. Khadr is the eldest son of Egyptian-born Canadian Ahmed Said Khadr, an accused al-Qaida financier who was killed in a battle with Pakistani forces in 2003.
Each of the four siblings in the family has separately been jailed and accused of links to terrorism.
A group linked to terrorist organization Hezbollah has cloned the cellphones of Rogers Communications executives, including that of CEO Ted Rogers, The Globe and Mail reported Saturday.
Cloning involves duplicating a cellphone's number and encrypted security code.
The story came to light after law professor Susan Drummond returned from a month-long trip abroad, only to find her Rogers cellphone bill was more than $12,000, The Globe reported.
The Rogers Wireless bill listed more than 300 calls made in the month of August, some to foreign countries, including Pakistan, Libya, Syria, India and Russia.
When Drummond called about the bill, she was told she would have to pay it -- and that prompted her and her partner, Harry Gefen, to begin researching the cellphone giant.
In September, Gefen attended the Toronto Fraud Forum -- an annual conference for security experts -- where he spoke to Cindy Hopper, a manager in Rogers security department.
She told him that terror groups had repeatedly cloned cellphones of Rogers executives to make thousands of calls overseas, The Globe reported.
Hopper also terror groups had identified Rogers executives as perfect targets because the company would be reluctant to shut off their phones due to inconvenience to busy executives.
Gefen, who is a technology journalist, tape recorded his conversation with Hopper, who did not know he was an aggrieved customer, according to The Globe.
Based on that interview, Drummond is considering legal action against Rogers. She claims that Rogers can spot a fraud-in-progress, and yet does not shut down the phones.
Rogers has automated security systems alerting them to radical changes in calling patterns, Hopper reportedly told Geffen.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:49 ||
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This, and Harry knowing about it, makes it complete. Both these losers said nothing negative about it until the NY Slimes article came out.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi confessed late Saturday that she signed off on President Bush's decision to have a top intelligence agency conduct "unspecified activities" to gather intelligence on possible terrorists operating inside the U.S. in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
"I was advised of President Bush's decision to provide authority to the National Security Agency to conduct unspecified activities shortly after he made it and have been provided with updates on several occasions," Pelosi admitted.
The San Francisco Democrat claimed she expressed "strong concerns" about the "unspecified activities" at the time, but offered no evidence to that effect.
Pelosi declined to explain why she didn't make public her concerns about the authorization, which Democrats now say was an outrageous abuse of civil rights.
Instead, Pelosi admitted keeping silent about the "unspecified activities" even though she now believes they may have been illegal, saying Bush's acknowledgment of the NSA program on Saturday "raises serious questions as to what the activities were and whether the activities were lawful."
On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid also admitted he kept silent about the controversial program, even though he was briefed on its existence "a couple of months ago."
Still, he insisted that it made no difference that Democratic congressional leaders knew about the NSA program, telling Fox News Sunday: "This is something that's [the responsibility of] the president and the vice president and there's no way he can pass the buck."
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/18/2005 18:08 ||
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An uncomfortable Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid admitted on Sunday that he was briefed on the Bush administration's decision to have the NSA monitor domestic communications in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, as reported in the New York Times on Friday.
"I was briefed a couple of months ago," the testy-sounding Democrat told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, after complaining: "Listen - the program has been in effect - it's been in effect for four years now."
Reid's admission came only after Wallace pressed him twice about President Bush's claim yesterday that congressional leaders had been briefed on the program.
Asked the first time Reid dodged the question, saying: "[The president] can't pass the buck on this one. This was his program. He's commander in chief. But the commander in chief does not, I think, trump the Bill of Rights."
After Reid finally admitted that he knew about the domestic surveillance program, he again tried to shift blame to the White House, saying: "This is something that's [the responsibility of] the president and the vice president and there's no way he can pass the buck."
The top Democrat declined to explain why he didn't raise objections when he was first briefed on the spy program that suddenly has Democrats and the media up in arms.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/18/2005 12:16 ||
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#1
The top Democrat declined to explain why he didn't raise objections when he was first briefed on the spy program that suddenly has Democrats and the media up in arms.
Because he can score more political points now, or at least he thought he could. Dumbass.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 13:48 Comments ||
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#7
Release the names and dates of each time senators were briefed. Add a gold star next to those who have been shocked, shocked that eavesdropping on terrorists has been going on.
Posted by: ed ||
12/18/2005 15:33 Comments ||
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#8
I was heard about the wire taps before I was against them.
#10
Harry Reid needs to be shot in the gut with a 12-gauge double-barrel using #2 buckshot, and 6 inches range. That way he can experience the pain and agony our GIs go through because of his ego tripping, power-pushing descent into lala land. The man is a total waste of good protoplasm.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2005 18:36 Comments ||
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#11
These Demsobitches are nothing more than plain old garden variety communists bent on the destruction of the free world. I think it is high time congressionl term limits become law. The longer these vermin stay in Washington, the more hate and disconent they create. How can they get any work done? They are absolutely consumed with destroying the president.
THE US administration was never told of doubts about the secret intelligence used to justify war with Iraq, former secretary of state Colin Powell told the BBC in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday night.
Mr Powell, who argued the case for military action against Saddam Hussein in the UN in 2003, told BBC News 24 television he was "deeply disappointed in what the intelligence community had presented to me and to the rest of us."
"What really upset me more than anything else was that there were people in the intelligence community that had doubts about some of this sourcing, but those doubts never surfaced to us," he said.
Mr Powell's comments follow US President George W. Bush's acceptance earlier this week of responsibility for going to war on intelligence, much of which "turned out to be wrong".
The British government, Washington's key allies in the invasion, has similarly refused to give a withdrawal date for its 8,000 or so troops in Iraq's four southern states, although has said it could happen next year.
For his part, Mr Powell considered the US military could not be deployed in Iraq at its current strength for years to come, raising the possibility of withdrawal from next year.
But he told the BBC that "essentially just to walk away, to say that we're taking all of our troops out as fast as we can, would be a tragic mistake". A US presence would be required in Iraq for "years", he added.
"We've invested a great deal in this country, and the Iraqi people deserve democracy and the freedom that they were promised when we got rid of Saddam Hussein and we have to stay with them... until they decide that they can get it now on their own, they don't need us any longer," he added.
"And even then, I suspect, there will be a continuing relationship and presence of some significance for some years to come."
In the interview, Mr Powell confirmed that White House "hawks" US Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had bypassed him and other colleagues on occasions.
Mr Powell's former chief-of-staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson made the damning allegations last month, accusing Cheney and Rumsfeld of running a "cabal" and hijacking US military and foreign policy.
Discussions with Rumsfeld about dealing with the aftermath of the Iraq invasion were "not pleasant", Mr Powell admitted in the interview.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:56 ||
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#1
Well Hell!
There goes the democrat's impeachment case.
What are they going to use as a political platform now?
When Muhammad Saad Iqbal finally got a chance to plead his case to a panel of military officers at the American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, he insisted that he had nothing to hide.
"If I have committed any crime, I am ready for the punishment," Mr. Iqbal told the officers a year ago, according to a transcript of the hearing. "But I know that I am innocent. That is why I am here."
When he finished his tale of having fallen in with Muslim radicals during a brief visit to Indonesia in late 2001, and having bragged to them about exploding chewing gum, shoe bombs and Osama bin Laden, one member of the tribunal praised him for being "very cooperative, very truthful." Another member told Mr. Iqbal he seemed to have "a very big ego."
Democrats and Republicans called separately Sunday for congressional investigations into President Bush's decision after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to allow domestic eavesdropping without court approval.
"The president has, I think, made up a law that we never passed," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis.
Sen. Arlen Specter R-Penn., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he intends to hold hearings.
"They talk about constitutional authority," Specter said. "There are limits as to what the president can do."
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada also called for an investigation, and House Democratic leaders asked Speaker Dennis Hastert to create a bipartisan panel to do the same.
Bush acknowledged Saturday that since October 2001 he has authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international phone calls and e-mails of people within the United States without seeking warrants from courts.
The New York Times disclosed the existence of the program last week. Bush and other administration officials initially refused to discuss the surveillance or their legal authority, citing security concerns.
Administration officials said congressional leaders had been briefed regularly on the program. Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., said there were no objections raised by lawmakers who were told about it.
"That's a legitimate part of the equation," McCain said on ABC's "This Week." But he said Bush still needs to explain why he chose to ignore the law that requires approval of a special court for domestic wiretaps.
Reid acknowledged he had been briefed on the four-year-old domestic spy program "a couple months ago" but insisted the administration bears full responsibility. Reid became Democratic leader in January.
"The president can't pass the buck on this one. This is his program," Reid said on "Fox News Sunday." "He's commander in chief. But commander in chief does not trump the Bill of Rights."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement Saturday that she had been told on several occasions about unspecified activities by the NSA. Pelosi said she expressed strong concerns at the time.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush "has gone to great lengths to make certain that he is both living under his obligations to protect Americans from another attack but also to protect their civil liberties."
Several lawmakers weren't so sure. They pointed to a 1978 federal law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which provides for domestic surveillance under extreme situations, but only with court approval.
Specter said he wants Bush's advisers to cite their specific legal authority for bypassing the courts. Bush said the attorney general and White House counsel's office had affirmed the legality of his actions.
Appearing with Specter on CNN's "Late Edition," Feingold said Bush is accountable for the program regardless of whether congressional leaders were notified.
"It doesn't matter if you tell everybody in the whole country if it's against the law," said Feingold, a member of the Judiciary Committee.
Bush said the program was narrowly designed and used in a manner "consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution." He said it targets only international communications of people inside the U.S. with "a clear link" to al-Qaida or related terrorist organizations.
Government officials have refused to define the standards they're using to establish such a link or to say how many people are being monitored.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., called that troubling. If Bush is allowed to decide unilaterally who the potential terrorists are, he becomes the court," Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
"We are at war, and I applaud the president for being aggressive," said Graham, who also called for a congressional review. "But we cannot set aside the rule of law in a time of war."
The existence of the NSA program surfaced as Bush was fighting to save the expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the domestic anti-terrorism law enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Renewal of the law has stalled over some its most contentious provisions, including powers granted law enforcement to gain secret access to library and medical records and other personal data during investigations of suspected terrorist activity.
Democrats have urged Bush to support a brief extension of the law so that changes could be made in the reauthorization, but Bush has refused, saying he wants renewal now.
#1
Why do I get the feeling that our very survival pivots on this wankfest of hypocrisy?
On a less obvious level, this fires off...
[nano-rant]
This will bring out every brand and flavor of moonbat and conspiracist. And this is where such personal, and seemingly inconsequential, foibles aid and comfort the enemy. Everyone dragging around a herd of personal sacred cows, such as being a-skeered of the Patriot Act against all evidence to the contrary, is party to the fallout from this endless campaign against common sense and security. Everyone, in the end, pays the price of the Death of a Thousand Cuts which conspiracists foster, intentionally or otherwise. You coulda had BBQ. Instead, you helped your own enemies.
[/nano-rant]
If Bush doesn't get down 'n dirty, this will end badly for the Good Guyz.
#3
As said elsewhere...Char-B-Q. Right now, the theatre of operations in the WOT is the home front. Take off the gloves or pack up and hoist the French naval ensign.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/18/2005 17:11 Comments ||
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Urgently trying to improve relations with the United States, the Saudi Arabian government is promoting a scholarship program that has already more than doubled the number of new Saudi enrollments at American colleges and universities since last year.
The program, aimed in part at reducing widespread hostility in the Saudi public toward the United States, has reversed a steady plunge in Saudi students here that started immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
The Saudi government offered 5,000 students full four-year scholarships, complete with living allowances. About two-thirds of the 5,000 students enrolled in American schools this fall, the State Department said, and the number would have been higher had the United States been able to process all the visa requests.
Posted by: john ||
12/18/2005 13:23 ||
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#1
"The program, aimed in part at reducing widespread hostility in the Saudi public toward the United States"
#2
I keep seeing the 5000 figure and thinking -- 5000 Mohammed Attas
Posted by: john ||
12/18/2005 15:04 Comments ||
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#3
Class Schedule Spring 2006
Chem 331 - Chemistry of Highly Exothermic Reactions
Bio 319 - Pathogenic Organisms
Phys Ed - Adv. Marksmenship
History 103 - History of Oppression in the US (Dr. Churchill)
Aviation - Pilot Licensure 2
Rel 622 - Grad. Studies in Islamic Jihad
#4
Amen, john. Even if it's only 50, it's breathtakingly foolish. I'm all for widespread "hostility" between a Wahhabist "society" and the Last Bastion of Individual Freedom. Makes perfect sense. Just as taking them down and out of the World Game makes perfect sense.
I worked with these guys - and there is another rather large program that you probably don't hear about, perhaps it's even larger than this "student" BS. Aramco sends lots of "chosen" (read: Mucho Wasta) employees to the US and UK for 1 year work assignments, supposedly to "season" them with a little "international" experience, at various oil companies - who are always more than willing to take on these drones cuz nothing says sucking up to the Saudis better. If they are seriously well-connected, they have wives which they get to take. It is expected, and probably encouraged, that they crank out at least one child during the gig - which means it gets to be an instant US citizen.
If anyone here didn't think the Immigration bill debate regards automatic US citizenship wasn't important, think again. That was at least as important as any other part of the wrangling over the long run - and the Tranzi-symps knew it. The same shit happens with other hostile states, such as China, which send many thousands of their citizens here to "study". Adding it up and letting it percolate a bit and it's easy to see where this leads. It should make everyone here very very nervous and committed to overturning this moronic policy.
#5
jeez Fulbright's for Pakis and Saudi "yellow brick roads" - no wonder it's so hard to put my kids through college....they're Americans and patriotic
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 15:41 Comments ||
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#6
Franks, haven't you figured out which side the academics are on? Hint: it's the same side as the MSM.
After a series of embarrassing disclosures, Congress is reconsidering its relatively lenient oversight of the Bush administration.
Lawmakers have been caught by surprise by several recent reports, including the existence of secret U.S. prisons abroad, the CIA's detention overseas of innocent foreign nationals, and, last week, the discovery that the military has been engaged in domestic spying. After five years in which the GOP-controlled House and Senate undertook few investigations into the administration's activities, the legislative branch has begun to complain about being in the dark.
On Friday, after learning that the National Security Agency was eavesdropping on conversations in the United States, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said that the activity was "wrong and it can't be condoned at all," and that his committee "can undertake oversight on it."
That same day, the House approved a resolution that would direct the administration to provide House and Senate intelligence committees with classified reports on the secret U.S. prisons overseas.
Democrats have long complained about a dearth of congressional investigations into Bush administration activities, but their criticism has been gaining validation from others after the botched response to Hurricane Katrina, problems in Iraq and ethical lapses.
Lawrence B. Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, said this fall that "the people's representatives over on the Hill in that other branch of government have truly abandoned their oversight responsibilities [on national security] and have let things atrophy to the point that if we don't do something about it, it's going to get even more dangerous than it already is."
In an interview last week, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said "it's a fair comment" that the GOP-controlled Congress has done insufficient oversight and "ought to be" doing more.
"Republican Congresses tend to overinvestigate Democratic administrations and underinvestigate their own," said Davis, who added that he has tried to pick up some of the slack with his committee. "I get concerned we lose our separation of powers when one party controls both branches."
Democrats on the committee said the panel issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002, at a cost of more than $35 million. By contrast, the committee under Davis has issued three subpoenas to the Bush administration, two to the Energy Department over nuclear waste disposal at Yucca Mountain, and one last week to the Defense Department over Katrina documents.
Some experts on Congress say that the legislative branch has shed much of its oversight authority because of a combination of aggressive actions by the Bush administration, acquiescence by congressional leaders, and political demands that keep lawmakers out of Washington more than before.
"I do not think you can argue today that Congress is a coequal branch of government; it is not," said Lee H. Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman and vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, told reporters this month: "It has basically lost the war-making power. The real debates on budget occur not in Congress but in the Office of Management and Budget. . . . When you come into session Tuesday afternoon and leave Thursday afternoon, you simply do not have time for oversight or deliberation."
Last week, Democrats in the House denounced their GOP counterparts for failing to pursue investigations. Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, criticized Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) for his handling of an inquiry into former committee member Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), who resigned after acknowledging he took bribes. Hoekstra's decision to proceed with existing committee staff without the House counsel or inspector general "threatens to compromise our ability to conduct a thorough, expeditious and bipartisan investigation," she said.
Democrats demanded that Davis, who heads the select committee investigating the Katrina response, issue subpoenas to get e-mails and communications of White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. and three other White House officials. "Congress will never understand why the federal response failed unless we obtain access to the e-mails and communications of Andrew Card and other senior White House officials," committee Democrats wrote Davis.
Last month, House Democrats tried to pass a measure criticizing the GOP for a "refusal to conduct oversight" of the Iraq war. In the Senate, Democrats forced the chamber into a closed session to embarrass Republicans for foot-dragging on an inquiry into the alleged manipulation of Iraq intelligence.
"The House has absolutely zero oversight. They just don't engage in that," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week.
Specifically, Democrats list 14 areas where the GOP majority has "failed to investigate" the administration, including the role of senior officials in the abuse of detainees; leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame; the role of Vice President Cheney's office in awarding contracts to Cheney's former employer, Halliburton; the White House's withholding from Congress the cost of a Medicare prescription drug plan; the administration's relationship with Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi; and the influence of corporate interests on energy policy, environmental regulation and tobacco policy.
Meanwhile, the House ethics committee has not opened a new case or launched an investigation in the past 12 months, despite outside investigations involving, among others, Cunningham and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
In most cases, Republicans have said that Democrats are motivated by partisanship rather than fact-finding. After Democrats forced the closed Senate session last month over the slow pace of the inquiry into alleged manipulation of Iraq intelligence, Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) railed: "They have no conviction. They have no principles. They have no ideas. This is a pure stunt."
Among the most visible oversight battles is Davis's Katrina inquiry, which most Democrats have boycotted as a "sham." Davis said he would "bet my reputation" that the committee will disprove doubts.
At times, Davis has been irritated by administration intransigence. At a hearing last month, he condemned the "lack of production of documents from various executive branch offices" and warned: "We're not going to be stonewalled here."
Democrats, who have tried to get Davis to subpoena the White House for Katrina documents, are not impressed. "Republicans have made a mockery of oversight," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), the committee's ranking Democrat. "There was nothing too small to be investigated in the Clinton administration and there's nothing so big that it can't be ignored in the Bush administration."
Davis said his reluctance to issue a subpoena is practical. The select committee faces a Feb. 15 deadline, and a subpoena -- even if approved, as required, by the entire House -- would be tied up in court by the administration until the committee's writ had expired. Issuing a subpoena would do nothing "except embarrass" the White House -- which Davis has not ruled out doing. "As of right now, I'm not satisfied" with White House cooperation, he said.
Davis said his Government Reform Committee has investigated the administration's handling of bioterrorism defenses and preparing for avian influenza and held four hearings on Halliburton's contracts -- after the House Armed Services Committee refused to do so. Similarly, Davis called hearings on the administration's policy on mad cow disease after Agriculture Committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte (R-Va.) declined.
"They said it would embarrass the administration," Davis said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:53 ||
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#1
Well Dan Darling,
If you get your head out of butt long enough to listen to everything that came out today indicating that congress knew all about this from day one, but no, the liberal BS flows.
Dan's reporting the news. You don't like it, do something about it.
Dan's also a moderator here, and we mods don't take kindly to name-calling.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2005 1:11 Comments ||
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#3
RG:
I know that Congress already knew about it - I posted the article saying just that the other day. All the same, we need to be aware of what's happening on Capitol Hill with regard to the prosecution of the WOT even if we don't like it, especially if the result of this stuff is another Church Commission or an attempt to make us fight a war by committee.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 1:21 Comments ||
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#4
"...with regard to the prosecution of the WOT..."
Thats right. Prosecute the HELL out of the War on Terror. You give 500 congressmen and women the likes of Pelosi, Kerry, Kennedy, Conyors, and Murtha, "oversight" on the war on terror that they want stopped, immediately, you might as well ignore the voters that put them in a minority.
Steve, "we are moderators" big bad dog. You suddenly don't like rant, crawl under your bed, son.
Congress has too much oversite NOW. That is how this was leaked!
America elected this President for a second term becuase he promised to do this very type of security effort on behalf of America against terrorists, and if these morons, oh lets not let STEVE hear that, might hurt his wimpy ears, who are trying to alert Al Qaeda where there boys are being held, or that we are monitoring their conversations being made locally, then we need LESS oversight. A whole hell of a lot less!
They've been prosecuting not only the WOT but our leadership involved in the WOT since these Dhimi's lost the election!
#7
Who the f*ck stepped on you. jeebus RD, did Dan disagree with you? must be stuck on stupid this morning, it ain't like you.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/18/2005 4:05 Comments ||
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#8
RG
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/18/2005 5:26 Comments ||
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#9
RG is angry at the Congress, but taking it out on DD. While I would not shoot the messenger, I do empathize with his fury at the fecklessness of Dhims. They are going to get a lot of innocent Americans killed. When that starts, the revolutions is here.
I think RG's sentiments represent a growing segment of the people, but he has the wrong target today.
#10
Angry at Congress - fine. I can barely say the word lately without spitting, myself.
But a shitstorm on Dan is not only uncalled for, it suggests an appalling ignorance and/or basic lack of housetraining on RG's part.
Dan is scarcely on the side of the anti-war weenies. That's why his stints here, at Winds of Change and elsewhere won him an internship at the American Enterprise Institute with Michael Ledeen and now a position with the Manhattan Institute.
And RG, if you don't know who they are, or what positions they take on this stuff, google is a good way to keep from embarassing yourself with more attacks on Dan and others here. Or you can search through the RB archives to see what other things Dan has posted - and what he's said about them.
#11
Looks to me like "RG" is confused: he thinks Dan is the article's auther.
Clue to RG: the name you see at the bottom of an article here on Rantburg, where it says "Posted by..." is **NOT** the author of the article; it indicates the person who **FOUND** the article and posted it on Rantburg for us to throw darts at, laugh at, or whatever.
In this case, the author of the article is a Washington Post professional jerkoff and moonbat named Dana Millbank.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/18/2005 8:54 Comments ||
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#12
Steve, "we are moderators" big bad dog. You suddenly don't like rant, crawl under your bed, son.
White puts the pitch down the middle, RG swings, and it's ssstrike one...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 13:50 Comments ||
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#15
Everyone is pissed off at the traitors in Congress, RG. Especially here at Rantburg. More like the Fury level of the emot-o-meter. These traitorious overfed, overbribed pigs are trying to snatch victory and security away from all of us.
Take a deep breath, count to a number between 10 and 10,000, and start coming up with some rational solutions on how to get this government unstuck off stupid. We do not need internal personal attacks, we need solutions, and we will need them in a timely manner.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2005 14:59 Comments ||
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#16
If every member of Congress placed greater value on to the safety and security of the US than they do on the stroking of their massive political egos, or their constant state of apology for American foreign policy, or their desire to be liked internationally, they might be trusted with information. As long as America's security comes second, third, or so below the meter as to be unmeasurable, questionable secrecies will abound.
#17
"frankly RG - you owe Dan an apology" - Frank G.
I am tired of watching conservatives apologizing. I am tired of a bunch of people calling themselves "conservatives" raising hell about the libs at their favorite conservative blog on the internet and then demanding others conservatives apologize to them if one of them steps on anothers toes and then looking for the TV remote. NEVER confronting a liberal and demanding an apology. I am tired of having a majority in the house, the senate, the oval office asking our 18, 19, 20, 21 year sons and daughters to go over there where the terrorists are and DOING SOMETHING, even to the extent of getting their arms and legs blown off if not out right killed fighting terror while this majority of conservatives on the hill allows these liberals run amuck since Vietnam, liberals standing up for any enemy of America that comes along.
Regarding Darling. Each evening I go to conservative and even Iraqi blogs and see highly orchestrated attacks on the war on terror by CAIR, MOVEON.ORG, George Soros, Green Peace, etc., etc. etc.. These people constantly posting articles such as Dans. Until that post I did not know Dan. He appeared to me to be one of those many libs at other sites dropping in posting an article to support their "cause", which they are doing EVERY DAY NOW in swarms at many of the other conservative sites. If a platoon is coming under a hell of a lot of fire and a stranger you do not know walks up with a notice that you ass is going to be kicked some more that stranger may find himself dancing to the tune of a 30 round clip. But there are a group of us who are doing a hell of a lot more than posting or commenting and then looking for the TV remote. We are trying to as much as we can to support those permanently disabled kids coming in from the battle field who look at you and say, "What did you do for me while I was over there losing my arms and legs for you?"
I am tired of conservative apologies. If people can post a bunch of comments and articles here, they can post comments at their representatives sites, or at the sites of their party in support of getting things changed on there area.
If all you can do is ask other conservatives for apologies, and not actively pursue the libs for an apology - NO - not anymore. Not this conservative.
Nobody's saying not to shoot the bastards. But you might want to take at least the basic precautions to make sure it's not friendly fire you're shooting off.
AND .... there are plenty of posters here who are either current or retired military or military spouses. Tell us - I'm one of the latter - what we don't already know about young men and women losing limbs and lives on our behalf.
I personally have stood at the grave of several in the last few months. And one I care about very personally is about to deploy.
#20
RG, you're hollering at the wrong person. Again: Dan's not the guy who wrote the article. He knows it's political posturing as well as you do. He's a valued poster and a moderator here.
Conservatives are perfectly capable of apologizing when they're wrong. An "Oops, sorry, thought you were somebody else" would be perfectly appropriate.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 22:06 Comments ||
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A Republican senator on Saturday accused The New York Times of endangering American security to sell a book by waiting until the day of the terror-fighting Patriot Act reauthorization to report that the government has eavesdropped on people without court-approved warrants. Cowards, sellers of national security for profit and partisan gain = traitors
"At least two senators that I heard with my own ears cited this as a reason why they decided to vote to not allow a bipartisan majority to reauthorize the Patriot Act," said Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. "Well, as it turns out the author of this article turned in a book three months ago and the paper, The New York Times, failed to reveal that the urgent story was tied to a book release and its sale by its author." Pimps of whores selling out national secrets
Cornyn did not name the senators in his remarks on the Senate floor.
A call to The New York Times' Washington bureau was referred to spokeswoman Catherine Mathis, who could not be reached immediately. wonder why? - time to push
Times reporter James Risen, who wrote the story, has a book "State of WAR: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration," coming out in the next few weeks, Cornyn said.
"I think it's a crying shame ... that we find that America's safety is endangered by the potential expiration of the Patriot Act in part because a newspaper has seen fit to release on the night before the vote on the floor on the reauthorization of the Patriot Act as part of a marketing campaign for selling a book," Cornyn said.
Since October 2001, the super-secret National Security Agency has, without court-approved warrants, eavesdropped on the international phone calls and e-mails of people inside the United States. President Bush said Saturday that the White House had kept the congressional leadership informed, which a Republican lawmaker confirmed.
But several senators cited the NSA revelation as a reason to uphold a filibuster on the renewal of the expiring portions of the USA Patriot Act â the domestic anti-terrorism law enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 â without getting additional safeguards into the law. Supporters of renewing the law failed to get 60 votes needed to break the filibuster.
Bush on Saturday also attacked the disclosure. "As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "The unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk." Democratic partisans may find satisfaction at selling our national security for partisan gain, but what's new since Loral, Gore, Buddhist Temples...traitors
The libbies at all the usual sites are calling this illegal, impeachment material, etc. They miss the bigger points in GWB's speech: that the program was vetted carefully, it was reviewed frequently, and all the proper Congressional committees and ranking members were informed and consulted both at the beginning and at periodic intervals. WaPo notes that Congressional leaders were briefed 'a dozen times'. No one said that this couldn't be done. If the program was outrageous, illegal, and a clear violation of the Constitution, the oversight committees in both the House and Senate could and should have forced the administration to shut the program down. They didn't. That tells me something.
Further, a conundrum for the NYT: if the program was illegal, and the NYT knew about it over a year ago, why not go public then? It would have been before the election. Think the NYT would sit on an illegal program just because of 'national security' the month before the election with John Frickin' Kerry just panting for a chance to nail the President? Nah, me neither.
So if the program was legal (or so close to the line that it wasn't clearly illegal), and it did advance national security, why come out with the story now? The simplest explanation I know is that the lead author has a book coming out next month, and some advance publicity never hurts. If the NYT didn't publish and the book came out, it would have lost its investment. So publish now and to hell with national security.
Has the NYT ever leaked anything that was to the benefit of national security? I don't recall such an occasion going all the way back to the Vietnam War.
The NYT has crossed a line. If outing Valerie Plame was a crime, then disclosing the existence of an active intelligence operation is a dastardly crime.
One goal of asymmetrical warfare is to encourage fractures in the powerful side. Well, the fractures have been here since before 9/11 but the GWOT has certainly clarified the sides. This goes way beyond anything the NYT and the "transnationals" did re: Vietnam. I wish I had more confidence than I do that it will be seen for what it is. IMO now is the time for every voter in this country that does not applaud them to say so, LOUDLY - to Congress, to the White House, to the media if you can get a letter to the editor published.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Good re-cap Frank.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/18/2005 5:25 Comments ||
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#2
What bothers me more then the Times (which bothers me a lot by the way, the publisher should be arrested)is the fact that we have people in the NSA that commited treason and will probably go unpunished.
#3
How the Hell are we supposed to win this war-- or any war, for that matter-- with these people running around loose and undermining everything we do?
You know what? This morning, reading this article, what little was left of my "Inner Liberalhawk" finally died-- murdered by the NYT and the lying scumbags of the Democratic Party.
This is going to end in civil war.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/18/2005 9:12 Comments ||
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#4
What the MSM and the Democrats have done here is make it sound like thousands of ordinary people have been wiretapped. The White House has made it very clear there were only 36 persons who were wiretapped and that only because they had ties to Terrorists organizations. This wasn't the Government listening to Smith and Jones, but Mahmoud and Mahmet. SOmone needs to go to jail over this and it's not anyone in the White House. The leaker and leakee should be prosecuted.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/18/2005 9:51 Comments ||
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#5
Who is going to call to task the US Senate for endangering the US?
#6
Did the info provided to the NYT come from NSA people, from the CIA, or some congress-critter? I am unclear on this. I am not at all, however, unclear as to my disgust and revulsion aimed squarely at the traitorous NYT and its continuing acts of perfidy. The clearly un-American activities of the NYT need to be addressed.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/18/2005 10:05 Comments ||
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#7
The NYT is a filthy rag whose scumbag editors promote wreckless endangerment, libel, and treason. And that's all the more disgusting when you consider that 9/11 occured on their doorstep. Anyone who subscribes is a fool.
It is one thing to Bush-bash, but it is quite another to distort the news, slant the headlines, and encourage treasonous leakers. It's about time that Bush, Cornyn, and others to start naming names of writers and editors and demanding special prosecutors to ferret out the lawbreakers.
#10
I am reminded of a line John Houseman delivered as Mr Wabash, CIA Biggie, in "Three Days of the Condor":
[Wabash talks about his entry into the US intelligence field.]
Mr. Wabash: I go even further back than that. Ten years after The Great War, as we used to call it. Before we knew enough to number them.
Higgins: You miss that kind of action, sir?
Mr. Wabash: Nope. I miss that kind of clarity.
After the 60s-70s, when this sort of half-baked angst-ridden stuporous navel-gazing hot tub tummy-rub chattering pseudo-intelligentsia was tres chic, we have come full circle. Precisely those who reveled in destroying the institutions that had saved Freedom from Nazism, are in charge of those institutions, today... And working hard for their Tranzi masters.
As dupes and stooges of Socialism, they have become the photophobic 'evil' creatures of the gray zones they once thought they were 'outing' and defeating (Danial Ellsberg, The President's Men, Church Committee, Philip Agee, et al).
Though unintended and ironic, they have brought us clarity.
Thank, Pinch, old boy, now we know whom to shoot first when CWII comes.
#11
I look forward to hearing the President's speech tonight. I expect him to follow up on his hard hitting speech of yesterday. Pelosi is a lieing bitch and the NYT is a bunch of traitorous lapdogs. .com is right, as usual. The hammer needs to come down, and hard.
#12
Wait for the POTUS speech tonight, and then decide if it's "money time". CWII indeed. Our reps in congress (both houses and mostly political whores) need to be reminded loudly where their butt butter comes from. If the GOP does not come out swinging over this they are dead. The MSM / Dhimmicrat / Moveon triumvirat is going to go wild sow with this. The GOP needs to counter their bluster with endictments and prosecution for crimes that are substantiated in fact as opposed to rampant BDS which is all the left has going. Time to open the Home Front for real. No waiting for 2008....get r done now.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
12/18/2005 15:45 Comments ||
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I would think that each one of us should send a FAX to each of our two senators and one to the representative denouncing this traitorous behaviour by the NYT and certain Senators. We must ask them what they think about this behaviour and what they are going to do about it. We will advise them what we will do about them in the next election, depending if they have a spine or not. In business-like, respectable language, of course, this time only.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2005 23:33 Comments ||
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PESHAWAR: Speakers at a seminar accused the West of imposing its culture on the entire world, including Muslims, and stressed greater ties among the Muslim countries to foil its attempt.
More deep laid plots: sinister conspiracies hatched by men of dark visage in smoke-filled back rooms. Happens all the time.
The seminar âThe Cultural Dimensions of Pak-Iran Relationsâ was jointly organised by the University of Peshawarâs Department of International Relations and the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the Sir Sahibzada Abdul Qayyum Hall on Saturday.
I'm sure all the gaily colored turbans made it quite the festive occasion...
Mohammad Hasan Imani, the consul general of Iran, accused the West of working for the elimination of the historical identity of the Muslim world. He said that modern technologies such as satellite channels and Internet were being used to distance Muslim youth from their culture.
"It ain't like we can compete in those areas, y'know. Allan knows we've tried and tried, but the little bastards would rather watch MTV than listen to holy men chanting the Koran over an over. I can't figure it!"
Imani called upon Pakistani and Iranian scholars and intellectuals to chalk out strategies for strengthening relations to face the cultural challenges of the future. He said although the geographical frontiers of the two counties were separate, the depth of cultural and religious commonalities between two nations through out history had embodied a portrait of congeniality and support between these two vast lands in different political, social and international landscapes. He called Persian language the most important characteristic of common culture between Pakistan and Iran.
"You guys are just like us. Only shorter. And darker. And not as civilized. And Sunnis, most of you..."
Mumtaz Gul, the vice chancellor of Peshawar University, said that Iran had been dear to Pakistan but relations between them had not been as good as they should have during the past two decades. âWe have found Iran distant from Pakistan. We tend to forget our neighbours because of globalisation,â he said.
That must be an example of Islamic logic. I'd think that given the nature of globalization you'd become more aware of your neighbors...
He said the cultural roots between the two nations were being downplayed by globalisation and that the world had become too materialistic and was drifting away from faith. He said that Muslims were under constant attack from the West through the media and that they should unite to defend themselves.
"They just won't let us practice our religion in peace!"
âIran and Pakistan are brotherly nations sharing common history and culture and there are many imprints of the Iranian culture over the Pakistani culture,â he said.
"Most of them shaped like horse shoes, where you rode over us, of course..."
He asked the International Relations (IR) department of the university to record the seminar proceedings and give them a documented shape so that the suggestions could be passed on to the foreign office for streamlining foreign policy.
"The fact that our comments are vapid attempts to shift the blame for our own lack of competetiveness onto others is no reason they shouldn't form the basis of national policy."
Presenting his paper on âPak-Iran Political and Security Relationsâ, Javed Hussain, a former ambassador, said during that during pre-1979 era, Iran and Pakistan were in the Western Camp and during this period their friendship was strengthened because of their common strategic outlook as reflected by their membership of the Baghdad Pact followed by CENTO. During the post-1979 era, bilateral relations were radically transformed by the Islamic revolution in Iran, he said. During the 1980s, their common stand against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and Pakistanâs support to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war helped in maintaining the traditionally friendly ties between the two counties, he said. Dr Adnan Sarwar, the chairman of the IR Department, Faiza Mir of the Balochistan University, Nazir Hussain of the Qauid-e-Azam University also presented papers.
But everybody was sound asleep by then...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 14:54 ||
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âIran and Pakistan are brotherly nations sharing common history and culture..."
And a common nasty fate, I hope. Heh, Fred - excellent and informed inline commentary, lol.
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Ewww! Culture -- don't impose THAT on us, we Muslims don't want no stinkin' culture! We like living in the dark ages just fine! Except for cell phones... give us your modern cell phones - and guns! But NO culture, you infidel bastages.
Posted by: ed ||
12/18/2005 17:28 Comments ||
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Right ... the "West" represents hope and opportunity for the future. Islam so far represents the Grand Tradition of the Seventh Century. Seems like a no-brainer here.
It is always dangerous for soldiers, sailors and airmen to play at politics. They enter a sphere in which the values are quite different from those to which they have hitherto been accustomedâ.
(Winston Churchill, The Second World War). During the long silent nights of each cold December, I recall filled with sadness, the scene shown only once on PTV in its six Oâclock English news, our Tiger Gen Niazi, signing the âinstrument of surrenderâ in the packed, Dhaka Stadium, and how he stood de-robed of his military honours, amidst the thunderous applause of the crowd. Our heads hung in shame and shock. Even Hitler had preferred suicide in his bunker, over surrender!
I was then in class IX and had grown to be a proud Pakistani teenager, who unflinchingly believed on the propaganda that we had given the âveggieâ Indians a drubbing during the 1965 war and also firmly thought that we would repeat the performance in 1971. But alas, the hoax of having won the â65 war, ended with those glimpses from Dhaka. I remember closeting myself in a room, away from the family and crying my heart out, at this blatant surrender of a âMuslim Armyâ. The mood in the air was one of total dejection. We stood as morally, financially, economically, politically and militarily bankrupt nation.
According to Lt Gen Gul Hasan (Page 344) â19 December 1971 was indeed a day that I will never forget it was the worst I had ever experienced in all my long service. The discipline in the army was on the verge of snapping and the repugnant odor of anarchy was in the air. The climate was all the more awesome because there would have been no authority to arrest the rot, should it have set in. The induction of a company of SSG, by no stretch of imagination for a Samaritan role, was a move so reckless that had it materialized, it could have dispatched the country into oblivion. It would also have been a benefiting finale to Mrs. Gandhiâs act to restore âall joy to Pandit Nehruâs heartâ.
The misplaced hope of the Seventh Fleet coming to our rescue or the expectations that the Chinese would militarily intervene in Eastern theater of war, emerged as a major hallucination of our Foreign Office. No such thing happened. On the contrary, both our US and Chinese friends, coaxed and goaded the then Government, to instead mend fences with the political forces of East Pakistan. Lt Gen Gul Hasan, in his memoirs says on page 281, âBhutto discussed political issues, wherein Prime Minster Zhou-en-Lai stressed that the turmoil in east Pakistan should be resolved politically. Use of force would exacerbate the environment. I conveyed all that transpired to the COS. What Bhutto told the President, I do not knowâ. Such was the state of mind and distrust at the top. As regards, our brethren Muslim countries, they were a sleeping Ummah then and continue till date to act as descendants of Rip van winkle!
I remember how excitedly proud, we were as youngsters, when Mr Bhutto gave an awesomely inspiring speech, at the Security Council, and then stormed out of it tearing to shreds, the proposed resolution calling for cease fire, initiated by Poland. Today on hind sight and with maturity, I feel Mr Bhutto by doing so had put the last nail on the tragedy of East Pakistan! Any possibility of keeping the federation intact, had been thrown into the dustbin of history.
In those days of immense grief and vast hollowness, we (youth) heard a call from Mr Bhutto, who appeared as our only hope, who said in his inaugural address on assumption of office of President, âwe will pick up the pieces; we will rebuild, we will create a ânew Pakistanâ; we will steer the ship of the state to waters of safetyâ Rhetoric it was at its best, but; only my generation knows how it lifted our morale from the dungeons of self-pity. Here was a political messiah offering us a better tomorrow. We loved him, adored him and were willing to do anything, he would ask us for. That was the magic of Mr Bhutto.
Herbert Feldman, in his analytical study âThe End of the Beginning â Pakistan, 1969-1971, ends his book with, âin the New Pakistan it remained only for Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto to enter upon the task of restoring the countryâs shattered fortunesâ. While embarking on a peace journey to Simla, Bhutto spoke of a thousand year war with India; it is another matter that he signed a peace treaty. The enigma he was, Mr Bhutto successfully negotiated with the âvictorsâ the vacation of 5000 sq miles of occupied West Pakistan territory, the release of 90,000 prisoners of wars and got the iron lady, Mrs Gandhi to accept his slogan of âpeace with honourâ. He returned to Lahore and roared to the teeming millions, âwe lost a political war and not a military engagementâ. By this remark and its continued use in his public addresses, Mr Bhutto restored the pride and image of our armed forces, in the eyes of the public.
Mr Iqbal Akhund, in his âMemoirs of a Bystanderâ chronicles truly the enigmatic personality of Mr Bhutto, in these words, âA senior army officer once said to me, âa combination of political acumen and military power leads to caesarismâ. We had been talking about Mr Bhutto. Bhutto never directly wielded military power but it was not too fanciful to see points of analogy between Caesar and Bhutto. He was not a military conqueror but a leader who after a defeat without honour, had recovered what had been lost on the battle field and redeemed the countryâs self-respect. Like Julius Caesar, Bhutto was a man caught between his radical ideas and the interest of his own land owner class; his reforms and diplomatic triumphs reunified a country emerging from civil war and dictatorship. His ambition was in conflict with his professed ideals. His rise was meteoric and the fall at the hands of his own people, who were closest to him, sudden and tragicâ.
In the book âMy Pakistanâ which was based on a constitutional petition filed in the Lahore High Count against the illegal and improper detention of Mr Bhutto, he remarked by way of a rejoinder to the allegations made in the material placed before the court, âmy foot prints can be seen in the remotest part of Pakistan. My mark will be seen on every brick and mortar that has rebuilt, nay built this countryâ. The history of 1971 debacle has been chronicled through biographies, auto-biographies inquiry commissions etc. but none of these have been able to place responsibility at the door step of the âguiltyâ.
Divine retribution and nature has its own way of reckoning. It is sad and tragic that, Mr Bhuttoâs hand picked General sent him to the gallows! In fact, all the architects of the 1971 trauma who were either directly on indirectly involved in the killing of innocent people ended up in bloody death. Mrs. Gandhi was shot by her most trusted personal security guard, Mr Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, the âfather of nationâ was assassinated by the very same crowd about whom he often used to say, âI love my people and my people love meâ. As regards, General Yahya Khan, he lived in isolation and died miserablyâ. The history of East Pakistanâs separation shall remain shrouded in mystery, filled with biased accounts and feelings.
Posted by: john ||
12/18/2005 11:55 ||
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And not a word of regret for the genocide and mass rapes ... how typicaly paki...
Posted by: john ||
12/18/2005 12:53 Comments ||
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The worst mass slaughter of my lifetime (with the possible exception of Cambodia). Estimates as high as 3 million dead. Systematic elimination of the entire middle class. I still remember graphic descriptions of people leaping to their death from the highrise student residences at the main university in Dacca as the Pakistani army worked its way up floor by floor systematically killing and raping everyone.
From the Dept. of Are You Sure You Thought This Thing Through?
The governments of Pakistan and the United States on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a new Fulbright scholarship program worth $157.5 million that will make Pakistan the biggest beneficiary of the scholarship in the world. The programme will fund 750 Pakistani students for their Masters and PhD degrees for five years in various disciplines. The US will contribute $105 million for the project and the Higher Education Commission $52.5 million.
The MoU was signed by Dr Attaur Rehman, the HEC chairman, and Dr Grace Clark, the executive director of the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP). Ryan C Crocker, the US ambassador in Pakistan, was also present on the occasion. The USEFP will administer the program.
Speaking after the signing ceremony, Dr Attaur Rehman said that the government was working on a strategy to move from an agricultural based economy to a knowledge-based one by providing its students more educational opportunities at the worldâs best institutes. Rehman said that the program would provide an opportunity to the students to become a part of the countryâs socio-economic development.
The HEC chairman thanked the government of the United States for helping the country and said that students would gain admission to the top US universities in various disciplines, including basic and applied sciences, information technology, bio-technology, management and economy. The US ambassador termed the agreement a âhistoric momentâ that would, he said, expand the existing cooperation between the two countries and bring them closer.
Crocker said that the Fulbright program was the flagship educational and cultural exchange program of the US government and with the signing of the MoU, Pakistan would have the largest Fulbright degree program in the world. Crocker said that the US government was proud of its Fulbright commission in Pakistan, the USEFP, for its record of selecting deserving candidates through open competition and its transparent administration.
Crocker said that he was pleased that the USEFP had been able to negotiate an agreement that was acceptable for both the governments. He said that the recipients of this scholarship would return to Pakistan on completion of their education to serve in public and private universities and a large number of Pakistanis would benefit from their higher education.
Crocker said that Pakistan would top the list of 140 countries that competed for the Fulbright scholarships. âIt is a substantial investment in Pakistanâs future and the future of Pak-US relations,â Crocker said. Dr Clark said that the development was a momentous occasion in the academic history of Pakistan. She said that it was very difficult for her to select only a few students from so many talented people that applied for the scholarship programme.
Under the program, Pakistan will contribute $10.5 million to the programme annually for five years, while the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will provide $4.5 million annually for the same period. One hundred students will complete their Masters in physics, mathematics, biology, botany, biotechnology, information technology, social sciences, economics and management and 50 people will be funded for a PhD programme annually under the programme. The new program will operate as a companion program to the existing Fulbright/USAID Masters program, under which 100 students are sent to various US universities every year. The new program will provide funds for some students who are pursuing their PhD studies in the US.
Blech. The Soddies just bought Harvard and G'town, and now the US is paying the Paks to study here??? This is insane!
#1
The programme will fund 750 Pakistani students for their Masters and PhD degrees for five years in various disciplines. The US will contribute $105 million for the project and the Higher Education Commission $52.5 million.
WTF
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/18/2005 5:38 Comments ||
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I view this as a finishing school for hard core jihadists. Perfect opportunity for the Pakis to establish double agents to work against the forces of light. Gonna win over some hearts and minds, huh? Yeah right.
Posted by: Mark Z. ||
12/18/2005 8:07 Comments ||
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I guess they couldn't find 750 kids in the U.S. that could use a free ride through a school that their parents taxes pay for. These kind of handouts piss me off. I went to U.K. and graduated with a little over $50,000 in student loans. I'll be paying on them for the next 15 years. Fuck me for trying.
LAHORE: Formation of the religious partiesâ alliance was a âgreat achievementâ and people who wanted to interfere with it would fail, said Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad at a meeting of JI leaders on Saturday.
"Ev'rything's just fine here in Islamostan! There is no dissension! We agree on ev'rything! Or else!"
He said that leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) should try to strengthen their party. He said that Americans were targeting Islamic organisations and their war was not against terrorism, but against Islam. He said that heads of various Islamic states were supporting America. MMA Deputy Secretary Liaqat Baloch said that the country was going through a tough phase because of military rule.
"It's a military thing! Ignore those purple fingers an' folks thinking for theirselfs! What we need here is more Islam! Allan sez so! An' so do these here holy men..."
Lahore JI chief Hafiz Salman Butt said that the JI wanted to bring a revolution in Pakistan. He said the JI would arrange special classes to educate the people about Quran.
It's just like summer camp, only more pious. Ever so much more pious.
#1
He said that Americans were targeting Islamic organisations and their war was not against terrorism, but against Islam.
We haven't decided 100% yet that Islam's the problem. If we do, it'll end up like National Socialism, practiced by a few historic revisionists in dark corners, late at night. Rhetoric like this is evidence that can and probably will be used against Islam. Either curb your tongue, knave, or have it cut off - just below your ears.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/18/2005 19:08 Comments ||
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The Sindh government has imposed a ban on the Urdu poster âRiaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi - Imam Mehdi Al-Muntazirâ, stated a press release on Saturday. The poster, allegedly issued by the Anjuman-i-Sarfroshan-i-Islam, was found pasted in some parts of the city and calls upon people to recognise Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi as Imam Mehdi. All copies of the poster must be submitted to the government with immediate effect.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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wonder if they have bumper stickers that say 'honk if you love Riaz Admed Gohar Shahi who is Iman Mehdi'
Arguably, the best outcome for the December 15th parliamentary elections in Iraq would be for no âpartyâ or coalition of two parties to secure the 2/3rds majority of delegates necessary to permit it to form a government. This would force a broader coalition, which would permit an opening for Sunni âaccomodationistâ participation. Sunni leaders are aware that they made a serious political blunder by boycotting the January elections for the provisional parliament that wrote the new Constitution. As a result of the boycott, there was relatively little the Sunni input in the framing of the Constitution, and Sunni representation in parliament will be on the low side. As a result, Sunni accomodationists are likely to welcome a niche if a coalition has to be formed.
Toward this end, it was interesting to note that some Sunni insurgent groups declared a âcease fireâ during the election, and others declared that they would attack anyone attempting to interfere in the voting. While some extremists among the Shia Iraqis would undoubtedly prefer to exclude the Sunni Arabs totally from government â feeling that after generations of Sunni Arab domination of Iraq âitâs payback timeâ â the chances of establishing a relatively stable government are likely to be dim unless thereâs significant Sunni Arab acquiescence.
Al Qaeda was humiliated during the elections, after having proclaimed that voting was against Islam, and that good Moslems should rise up and prevent this abomination. About 70 percent of eligible voters turned out, and there were few incidents of violence. The word on the street was that al Qaeda had called off its anti-democracy campaign. This bothered al Qaeda so much that they issued a statement denouncing it. But al Qaeda claims that they did attack the voters rang hollow. The Sunni Arab community had decided to either vote, or not try and fight those who were. In areas where al Qaeda still has a presence, local tribal or Mosque based militias put out armed guards to keep al Qaeda away from the polling places. These guys are usually shooting at government or American troops. But on election day, they were left alone by Iraqi troops, as everyone turned out to protect the voters from Islamic terrorists.
This relentless progress of democracy is causing quite a commotion throughout the Arab world. While it is fashionable to denounce the American presence in Iraq, and what the Americans were doing, the Arab language buzz on the net is going in unexpected directions. Because of al Jazeera and the Internet, young Arabs everywhere are not only able to observe what it happening in Iraq, but to discuss it with young Iraqis. These discussions are not noted much in the West, because they generally take place in Arabic, and often via email and listservs. The non-Iraqi Arabs are impressed at the proliferation of media in Iraq, and the eagerness of Iraqis to vote, and make democracy work. The economic growth in Iraq is admired, and is already attracting entrepreneurs from other Arab countries. The more cynical non-Iraqis believe that it will all come to nothing, and that another Saddam will eventually emerge and shut down all this democratic nonsense, as is the case in most of the Arab world. But the pessimists appear to be in the minority. Arabs are tired of dictators, economic stagnation, the corruption and living in a police state. Moreover, thereâs a nimble quality in Arab thinking that allows them to simultaneously blame the Americans for going into Iraq, and praising the result.
Posted by: ed ||
12/18/2005 19:17 ||
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Democracy is infectious. I gather the Iranian Kurds have now learned of the concept of Federalism, and it is the topic of choice throughout their territory, no matter what the mullahs think.
Everywhere else in the Middle East, the two questions keep arising: why is the dictator in charge, and why does he remain in power if we outnumber him?
Remember 1848. The year in which democratic revolutions happened in every country in Europe but two.
Insurgents could be using satellite images from a popular website to mount attacks on British and American bases in Iraq, defence experts said last night.
Google Earth allows users to zoom in on almost any location in the world to such close range that cars can be recognised. The site even provides latitude and longitude co-ordinates for buildings.
Bill Sweetman, a technological warfare expert with Jane's, the military and intelligence specialist publisher, said the images could enable terrorists in Iraq to pinpoint targets inside military bases.
"Information gleaned from Google Earth can be of use to these people," he said. "They can use overhead images to get co-ordinates for a mortar attack or for a suicide bomber to try to figure out where a building is in the base so they don't get lost on their way in."
The Google Earth website, which uses free software downloaded from the internet, was launched this summer and has attracted a variety of users, from web surfers wanting to see a view of their home from space, to people searching for the hotel nearest the beach. It has also been used to help relief workers to get resources to the scenes of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.
But since its launch, allied forces servicemen in Iraq have suspected that terrorists are using it, along with GPS (global positioning system) units - available in the high street for as little as £150 - to carry out attacks on their bases.
In an e-mail recently posted on the internet, a United States marine who has served in Iraq lamented how the rebels were using easily available resources. "Bad guy technology: simple yet effective," he wrote. "They use GPS units for navigation and Google Earth for overhead views of our positions."
Brian Collins, a professor of information systems at Cranfield University, said: "Coalition soldiers will have access to more up-to-date images, but websites like Google Earth give these people [insurgents] the possibility of levelling the playing field a bit. If you can locate a target on the image it will give you very accurate co-ordinates and a terrorist will know exactly where to aim a missile. If you also have a GPS then you know exactly where you are and you can sit there with your PC and look at these very high resolution satellite image and you will know where to fire your missile from and what to fire it at."
The images on the website are not live and are, on average, about 18 months old, but Prof Collins said this would not make them obsolete as an aide for terrorists. "If you were interested in vehicles, then that would be a problem but if you are looking at a fixed installation like a military base then it won't have changed that much."
The Conservative MP James Arbuthnot, who is the chairman of the House of Commons defence select committee, last night promised to look into the claims.
A spokesman for Google said it acquired the images from a number of companies and that the data was already available from these sources directly.
"We takes governmental concerns about Google Earth very seriously and welcome dialogue with governments about any concerns they may have," she added.
"Our technology is used for vital purposes such as fighting forest fires and emergency response.
"We believe that the benefits of access to the information provided by Google Earth for such valuable purposes are greater than any negatives from potential abuse."
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "Google Earth is compiled from still images that are already available from both commercial and public sources. The pictures are very dated and do not show any live activity."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:02 ||
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In other news, terrorists are allegedly using both electricity and dynamite. Messrs. Edison and Nobel are reportedly appalled.
#3
Hell were turning over bases on a regulsr basis to the Iraqi forces. the terrorists can do better than 18 month Google shots. they can use GPS / laser/compass range finder.
Google Earth 3D is real kool though. ;-)
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/18/2005 4:37 Comments ||
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A map from google Earth is less helpful than a map from AAA. Especially if your traget is not in one of the high detail areas.
Knowing the internal layout of a military base doesn't do a lot of good if the gates are still maned and secured.
#5
I looked up the site where I live, it's at least two years old. (Building improvements are not there on the image)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/18/2005 9:58 Comments ||
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Wouldn't co-ordinates for urban targets outside Iraq for buildings such as Big Ben be useful to terrorists? Maybe the NSA and other spy agencies should be monitoring who uses Google Earth.
#7
NSA monitors all communications on the face of the earth, googleearth monitoring, don't waste my time or bandwith. Childsplay. The extent of their monitoring ability is beyond comprehension. Wake up. This story is idiot crap for idiots.
U.S. military officials in Iraq were fully aware that a Pentagon contractor regularly paid Iraqi newspapers to publish positive stories about the war, and made it clear that none of the stories should be traced to the United States, according to several current and former employees of Lincoln Group, the Washington, D.C.-based contractor.
In contrast to assertions by military officials in Baghdad, Iraq, and Washington, interviews and Lincoln Group documents show that the information campaign waged over the past year was designed to cloak any connection to the U.S. military. "In clandestine parlance, Lincoln Group was a 'cut-out' -- a third party -- that would provide the military with plausible deniability," said a former Lincoln Group employee who worked on the operation. "To attribute products to (the military) would defeat the entire purpose. Hence, no product by Lincoln Group ever said 'Made in the U.S.A."'
Several workers who carried out Lincoln Group's offensive, including a $20-million, two-month contract to influence public opinion in Iraq's restive Al Anbar province, describe a campaign that was unnecessarily costly, poorly run and largely ineffective at improving America's image in Iraq. The current and former employees spoke on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality restrictions. "In my own estimation, this stuff has absolutely no effect and it's a total waste of money," said another former employee, echoing the sentiments of several colleagues. "Every Iraqi can read right through it."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:57 ||
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yawn - another tempest in the teapot for the hissy fit crowd. Maybe Eason Jordan can shed more light on how the process should be properly accomplished.
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So the real problem for the MSM is that they weren't paid off? Ticked off that they have to write their own crappy stuff rather than have someone else do it? Since they were more than happy to 'secretly' pay Saddam and his thugs to report state approved good news out of Baghdad, it couldn't be some sort of principle involved here.
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Cars and trucks returned to Iraq's roads Saturday as authorities eased tight security imposed for the parliamentary election, and the main Sunni Arab alliance said it was open to forming a governing coalition with a religious Shiite bloc.
With Thursday's voting held peacefully, Iraqi officials also reopened border crossings, except on the frontier with Syria. They said the Syrian crossings would resume in a few days, but did not say why there was a delay.
There were few violent incidents reported for a third day. In four shootings, attackers killed a former Iraqi air force officer, a member of a prominent Shiite party and two policemen, authorities said. The U.S. command also reported the death of a Marine from a non-hostile wound.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2005 00:39 ||
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Why?
Until the "insurgency" is DEAD, why in the world would this even be considered, much less done without the least challenge to the "logic"?
Don't like it, Iraqis? Then stop them and help us to help you do it.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari yesterday urged Sunni Arabs to unite with Shi'ites in Iraq's new parliament following a general election that many hope can help ease ethnic tensions. "To our brothers in Mosul, Ramadi and Tikrit, I say your brothers in Najaf, Karbala and Hilla have waited a long time to work hand in hand with you, under the dome of the next parliament, to build the new Iraq," he announced.
Outgoing premier Jafaari urged Sunni clerics to use their influence "to spread principles of unity and freedom" and reached out to Baathists from Saddam Hussein's former ruling party to help rebuild Iraq.
Leading Sunni politician Adnan Al Dulaimi also called for a parliamentary coalition to promote national unity. "We will work towards finding a strong coalition in the national assembly that can protect the rights of Iraqis," said the politician, a leader of the Iraqi National Concord Front, the largest Sunni group to contest the vote.
Sunnis, who largely boycotted a vote for a transitional parliament in January, flocked to polls on Thursday to elect a full-term parliament and boost their political representation over the next four years.
Dulaimi also thanked insurgents for holding to a promise not to attack polling stations. "The election process succeeded ... Thank God there were only a few cases in a huge country where there is death and violence," Al Dulaimi said at a news conference.
The Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda, meanwhile, urged the country's Sunni Arabs not to be fooled by the apparent success of the elections. "The coming days will show you the fate of this 'democratic marriage' and the marriage of prostitution that it celebrated," the group said in a statement on a frequently used Islamist website. "Their armed forces (of the Iraqi government) will be useless." The authenticity of the statement, however, could not be verified.
The group, led by Jordanian Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, is threatening to continue its attacks in Iraq and says it did not halt them during the polls.
Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed in the Internet statement that it carried out multiple attacks on US and Iraqi forces during the elections. A day before the elections, five militant groups including Al Qaeda in Iraq, issued a statement condemning the elections, but stopped short of threatening to attack polling stations. This was perceived as an attempt to not harm voters from the Sunni Arab community.
It remains unclear whether Jaafari - part of the conservative Shi'ite grouping, the United Iraqi Alliance, which is again likely to win a majority in parliament - will hold on to his post, particularly if Sunnis or secular Shi'ite candidate Iyad Allawi post strong results.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:32 ||
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Sunni Arab participation in the elections could have been even higher if there had been more polling centres in key Sunni areas, a head of the largest Sunni Arab slate said yesterday. Adnan Al Dulaimi, of the Iraqi Accordance Front, said his group's first task when they enter the parliament will be to work on calming the security situation. He predicted that the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance will not retain the slim majority they hold in the outgoing parliament because his Sunni group, the Kurdish Alliance and former Prime Minister Eyad Allawi's ticket will gain strength. "It makes the heart happy that all Iraqis went out and participated in the elections in large numbers, even in the areas that are referred to as hot. The situation was quiet, there were not any confrontations or riots," Al Dulaimi said in the telephone interview.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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A leading Sunni politician reaffirmed Saturday his partyâs commitment to forming a coalition in the next parliament and thanked insurgent groups for not carrying out attacks during the election. âThis is an important matter and we will do it in order to create a strong coalition in the Council of Representatives that is able to safeguard the rights of Iraqis,â said Adnan al-Dulaimi, a former Islamic studies professor who heads a Sunni Arab bloc that is now expected to have power in parliament - also known as the Council of Representatives.
âThe election process succeeded ... Thank God there were only a few cases in a huge country where there is death and violence,â said Adnan al-Dulaimi told a news conference. US officials view al-Dulaimi, who heads an alliance called the Iraqi Accordance Front, as a possible intermediary who could persuade some Sunni-led insurgent groups in restive Anbar province to join the political process after boycotting previous votes. Al-Dulaimi thanked insurgent groups for keeping to a pledge not to carry out attacks during Thursdayâs elections. Sunnis Arabs had boycotted the Jan. 30 elections, many heeding a warning by such groups not to vote. âThe resistance groups committed themselves not to attack but to protect voting centers and not allow any other group to attack them. They kept their promise and we thank them for this,â he said.
Though the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq cautioned that ballots were still being counted and official results would not be available for some time, preliminary estimates indicated polarised results similar to the last elections in January.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Love the pic. It is a dance.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
12/18/2005 13:35 Comments ||
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fateh party held urgent talks Saturday with a breakaway faction of young activists in hopes of reuniting the party and boosting its chances of defeating Hamas in January parliamentary elections. The faction split from Fateh Wednesday and formed the Future movement after Abbas, ignoring the results of party primaries dominated by the young guard, announced a parliamentary slate filled with corruption tainted old-timers.
Abbas sent an envoy to Future's leader Marwan Barghouthi to request that the sides merge their party slates, and officials from both groups met Saturday to try to work out a deal, Fateh and Future officials said. Future official Kadoura Fares said the atmosphere was positive and the two sides would meet again Sunday. However, their talks were complicated by a decision announced Saturday by the elections committee forbidding the merger of two party lists. The two sides discussed maintaining the separate lists and merging the two parties after the vote, Fares said. But the continued split could still give Hamas an advantage, since some of the seats are chosen by districts and Fateh and Future candidates could split those votes. The remaining seats are chosen from the national party lists.
Any agreement between the two sides would have to be approved by Barghouthi, who is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in attacks that killed four Israelis and a Greek monk. The Fateh infighting has already given a lift to the Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction and has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis over the past decade. The Islamic group won sweeping victories in key West Bank municipalities during local elections Thursday, the final electoral test before the January 25 parliamentary vote.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Saturday that Abbas should bar Hamas from the election and warned that a victory by the group would set the region back 50 years. "A victory for Hamas would turn the territories into Hamastan and [create] a situation in which none of us want to be," Shalom told Israel Radio. "Today is the time to make the tough decision, the strategic decision, to dismantle the terror infrastructure and go to elections with the intent of afterward going to peace with Israel."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 11:36 ||
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Israel faces an ominous new threat on its eastern front, where Jordan is under pressure from political and religious radicalization spearheaded by al-Qaida, says a top Israeli policy adviser.
"There are serious implications for Israel in the future from the growth of al-Qaida-related terrorism, as exemplified by the attacks of the Zarqawi network in Jordan," claims Dore Gold, Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations, in a new policy paper just published by Israel's Institute for Contemporary Affairs.
"After the November 2005 suicide attacks on three hotels in Amman, King Abdullah stressed that this was the work of Iraqis and not Jordanians," Gold writes. "The Western press went out of its way to emphasize how Jordanian opinion had turned against terrorist groups that would kill innocent Jordanian civilians. This analysis, however, tended to paper over the radicalization that segments of Jordanian society had undergone as a result of the Iraq War."
Gold cites a poll by the Pew Global Attitudes Project in mid-2005 which revealed that 60 percent of Jordanians expressed a lot or some confidence in Osama bin Laden. In comparison, in Morocco, only 26 percent responded the same way, and in Lebanon just two percent were willing to express support for bin Laden. More worrying, Gold suggests, was that Jordanian sympathy for bin Laden was increasing in comparison with Pew's findings in 2003, while such sympathy was decreasing at the same time in Morocco, Lebanon, and Turkey.
"The radicalization of Jordanian opinion has many sources," Gold suggests, in his new analysis, 'Zarqawi and Israel: Is There a New Jihadi Threat Destabilizing the Eastern Front?' It is co-authored with Lt. Col. Jonathan D. Halevi, a former advisor to the Policy Planning Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Some attribute it (this radicalization) to the Iraq War; if that is the case, then as the Sunni insurgency in Iraq persists, the process of radicalization is likely to continue, even if there was a discernable downturn after the November bombings in Amman," the paper says.
"But even prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the emergence of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, now infamous as the al-Qaida terrorist leader in Iraq, was not a unique phenomenon in northern Jordan. In the late 1990s, it had been reported that 500 men from Zarqa and the adjacent Palestinian refugee camp were in Afghanistan fighting with the Taliban. The neighboring city of Salt has contributed even more mujahideen that have been killed in Iraq than Zarqa, including the suicide bomber who murdered 125 Shiites in one attack on Feb. 28, 2005. What is striking is that many of these volunteers came from the same Transjordanian Bedouin background as Zarqawi."
Jordan has one of the best intelligence services in the Arab world, particularly in response to domestic challenges, Dore notes. But as the threats come from outside its porous borders with Iraq or Syria or even Saudi Arabia, Jordan will have a far more difficult time contending with the threat of terrorism.
"In the past, Israel could be certain that if there was a violent organization determined to attack it from Jordanian territory, the Hashemites would not permit their kingdom to be exploited for such purposes," Gold writes. "With the spread of al-Qaida-related terrorism throughout the countries neighboring Jordan, the kingdom's capacity to block such attacks may be reduced."
"Israel's national security doctrine for decades viewed the Jordan Valley as critical for Israel's security from threats along its Eastern Front," Gold continues, as part of his strong contention that Israel must buttress its defenses on the eastern front.
"Were Israel to make a territorial withdrawal from the strategic barrier it controls in the Jordan Valley (which it once considered at Camp David in 2000), then Israeli vulnerability could very well attract more global jihadi elements to Jordan, who would seek to use the kingdom as a platform to reach the West Bank and then target Israel's civilian infrastructure," he argues.
"Those advocating such a withdrawal take for granted that Jordan will remain a stable buffer that can thwart threats to its own security and to the security of Israel, as well. Jordanian stability is a global interest of the entire Western alliance. It can only be hoped that this beleaguered state will be provided the resources it needs by the United States and its allies to contend with the new threat environment it faces."
"In the past, radical challenges to the Hashemite regime emanated from the Palestinian population in Jordan," Gold contends. "With the spread of Islamic militancy in Jordan, the Hashemites are now facing an added internal threat from the direction of those who had been its most important pillars of support. Of course, Transjordanians had been involved in the Muslim Brotherhood in the past, but they were primarily active in its pragmatic wing that worked with the Jordanian government."
What changed, says Gold, was the arrival of Muslim fundamentalism, specifically the coming of Salafi jihadists. He says this first became apparent in 1993, when Jordanian security forces uncovered a plot by Hizb ut-Tahrir to assassinate King Hussein. Radical Islamists set off bombs in cinemas in Amman and Zarqa in 1994.
"But now there is a danger of this activity becoming more widespread," Gold stresses. "Jordanian security officials have estimated that recently 500 Jordanians have been arrested for links with al-Qaida. Indeed, according to a report in the London Sunday Times, Jordanian security sources believed that the Iraqi suicide bombers who attacked in Amman received help from Jordanian soldiers. If the report is true, it means that Zarqawi's network had penetrated the Jordanian defense establishment in a manner reminiscent of al-Qaida's recruitment of members of the Saudi National Guard."
"Jordan now faces multiple challenges to its security," Gold concludes. "It hosts nearly half a million Iraqi refugees, some of whom could be recruited for jihadi activities. Its border with the Sunni portions of Iraq is relatively porous. In addition, Jordan will undoubtedly be affected by developments within two other neighbors -- Syria to the north and Saudi Arabia to the south. Saudi clashes with local al-Qaida cells have become a regular occurrence since May 2003. Syria, which serves as the main conduit for the mujahideen fighting for the insurgency in Iraq, is paying a price for this role."
As the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad becomes further isolated and embattled by the pressures of the international community due to its involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, Gold suggests that militant Islamic elements, that have grown with the Syrian involvement in Iraq, will become emboldened.
"All this will have implications for Jordan," Gold suggests. "Zarqawi's strategy is based on a significant escalation of the destructive power of terrorist attacks: from bringing down U.N. headquarters in Baghdad to trying to destroy whole hotels elsewhere. Of greatest concern has been his readiness to employ even the crudest weapons of mass destruction. The sophistication of his network is bound to increase. It becomes a paramount interest for Israel to recognize the changing threat of terrorism as Zarqawi's network threatens to become active in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle."
"Al-Qaida's global strategy has been to seek the weakest link in any region it hopes to penetrate," Gold writes. "Al-Qaida thrives in weak or failed states like Sudan, Afghanistan, remote Iraqi Kurdistan prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion, or Chechnya. If the state structures are in a process of being built up, al-Qaida is seeking to destabilize them by increasing insurgent activities. That has been the primary goal of Zarqawi's network in Iraq and is likely to become his chief political strategy in Syria and Jordan. All of this indicates that the region to Israel's east is likely to enter a period of greater instability."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 01:50 ||
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Leaders of six pro-US Gulf Arab states are to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions and a stand-off between the United Nations and Syria. Foreign ministers from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) will meet on Saturday before a summit that some analysts expect will call for intensified diplomacy with Iran. The GCC members are Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
N Jahardhan, analyst at the Gulf Research Centre, said: "GCC countries are getting worried that things in Iran are getting out of hand. The GCC realises Iran is definitely a threat ... Things have reached a critical stage and they feel they will bear the brunt of any escalation. It is clear that there is no defined policy in Iran about what to do if it is attacked." An official associated with the two-day meeting, to be held in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, said: "There is concern that Iran's nuclear programme could be weaponised. At the end of the day they [Iranians] are building a nuclear reactor across the Gulf.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 11:34 ||
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Buried in the NYT promo of his book, lest someone claim that it's just the Bush administration that says this ...
n Clarke's novel, the United States has declared victory in Iraq and pulled out, leaving in place a Shiite government that's a puppet of Iran. Distracted by Iraq, America has ignored the far more serious threat posed by Iran and its little-known Qods (or Jerusalem) Force, "the covert action arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps," which Clarke asserts (here and in his nonfiction) has long been among Al Qaeda's chief backers. "Washington did Tehran's work for them," one of his characters explains. "While all the American attention was focused on car bombs in Baghdad, the Iranians secretly built nuclear weapons while denying it and tricking the Europeans and Americans into thinking that they were five years away from a bomb."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/18/2005 00:37 ||
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the Iranians secretly built nuclear weapons while denying it and tricking the Europeans and Americans into thinking that they were five years away from a bomb.
Yeah - big secret only to obtuse brains like Clarke.
Syria welcomed yesterday a UN Security Council resolution that extended a probe into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri but did not widen it to include dozens of other attacks on anti-Syrian figures. Hariri was killed in a Beirut car bombing in February, setting off a massive domestic and international outcry that led to Syria pulling its troops out of Lebanon after dominating the country for 30 years. Three more prominent anti-Syrians have been murdered since then, the most recent victim being newspaper magnate and MP Gebran Tueni this week. Damascus has been widely blamed for all four murders, something it strongly denies.
The resolution, unanimously adopted by the council on Thursday, extended the investigation for six months, maintaining pressure on Syria to cooperate. The Syrian press said yesterday that Resolution 1644 was âbalancedâ and that Damascus continued to be committed to cooperate âfullyâ with the Hariri probe. It also quoted Syriaâs ambassador to the United Nations, Faisal Mekdad, as reiterating that âSyria is innocent,â and promising âfull cooperationâ with the Mehlis panel.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Ghassan Tueni, the father of the slain MP, on Friday said he would sue Syria's ambassador to the United Nations for derogatory comments about his son. The elder Tueni, a veteran Lebanese diplomat, accused Faysal Mekdad, Syria's ambassador to the UN, of comparing his son to a "dog" in comments reported on Wednesday by the US daily, The New York Sun. "I will sue him (Mekdad) before the American courts," Tueni, 79, said on Friday.
In its report from UN headquarters in New York, the Sun quoted a diplomat who overheard a conversation between Mekdad and an Arab diplomat in which the derogatory comments were allegedly made. "So now every time that a dog dies in Beirut there will be an international investigation?" the paper reported Mekdad as saying to a colleague during a closed-door session. The diplomat who overheard and reported the conversation declined to be named, the US newspaper said. The Tueni-owned Al-Nahar newspaper said Mekdad had sent a letter to Tueni in which he "categorically denied" the comments attributed to him by the US daily.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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European Union leaders on Saturday condemned Iranâs president for denying the Holocaust, and warned Tehran the chance of a diplomatic solution on its disputed nuclear programme would not last forever. The 25 EU heads of state and government said of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejadâs statement that the Nazi mass extermination of Jews was a myth: âThese comments are wholly unacceptable and have no place in civilised political debate.â
They also voiced grave concern at Iranâs failure to remove suspicions about its nuclear intentions, saying in a statement: âThe window of opportunity will not remain open indefinitely.â
Ahmadinejad, a former Revolutionary Guardsman who was elected president in June, in October called Israel a âtumourâ which must be âwiped off the mapâ, provoking a diplomatic storm and stoking fears about Iranâs nuclear ambitions. Last week he first aired his doubts about the veracity of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany. His comments drew rebuke the world over. The tough language on Iran was part of a wider statement on the Middle East issued early on Saturday after a marathon summit which ended in an agreement on the EUâs long-term budget.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2005 00:00 ||
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âThe window of opportunity will not remain open indefinitely.â
yeah, or what? Send another nasty letter. Time to do your own heavy lifting, Europe. The missles are pointed at you.
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.
Yemen's ruling party has re-elected the country's long-serving President 
Bangladeshâs Prime Minister 
Cyprus was left fuming on Sunday after British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife joined a hugely sensitive case involving property in the breakaway Turkish-held north of the divided island. 
Tensions have risen between Turkey's military and Islamist government. Officials and military sources said the tensions stem from efforts by the government of Prime Minister 
Anti-war activist 
in Ahmad at a meeting of JI leaders on Saturday. 
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Cars and trucks returned to Iraq's roads Saturday as authorities eased tight security imposed for the parliamentary election, and the main Sunni Arab alliance said it was open to forming a governing coalition with a religious Shiite bloc.
A leading Sunni politician reaffirmed Saturday his partyâs commitment to forming a coalition in the next parliament and thanked insurgent groups for not carrying out attacks during the election. âThis is an important matter and we will do it in order to create a strong coalition in the Council of Representatives that is able to safeguard the rights of Iraqis,â said 
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' Fateh party held urgent talks Saturday with a breakaway faction of young activists in hopes of reuniting the party and boosting its chances of defeating Hamas in January parliamentary elections. The faction split from Fateh Wednesday and formed the Future movement after Abbas, ignoring the results of party primaries dominated by the young guard, announced a parliamentary slate filled with corruption tainted old-timers. 
Leaders of six pro-US Gulf Arab states are to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions and a stand-off between the United Nations and Syria. Foreign ministers from the 
Syria welcomed yesterday a UN Security Council resolution that extended a probe into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri but did not widen it to include dozens of other attacks on anti-Syrian figures. Hariri was killed in a Beirut car bombing in February, setting off a massive domestic and international outcry that led to Syria pulling its troops out of Lebanon after dominating the country for 30 years. Three more prominent anti-Syrians have been murdered since then, the most recent victim being newspaper magnate and MP Gebran Tueni this week. Damascus has been widely blamed for all four murders, something it strongly denies.
They also voiced grave concern at Iranâs failure to remove suspicions about its nuclear intentions, saying in a statement: âThe window of opportunity will not remain open indefinitely.â 
