A top al-Qaida suspect arrested in Pakistan could have vital information about possible terrorist attacks on Britain, intelligence sources believe.
British security and intelligence officials are seeking information from Abu Faraj al-Libbi, believed to be number three in the al-Qaida leadership, to find out what he knows about any operations planned against Britain or British interests abroad.
Mr Libbi had no direct contact with al-Qaida sympathisers in the UK, officials say. But, as the controller of a number of overseas networks, he would be in a position to know what attacks, if any, were being prepared against Britain and other western targets.
"He masterminded operations and had oversight over funding," an official said, describing him as "top of the [al-Qaida] machinery".
MI5 and MI6 officials have yet to interrogate Mr Libbi, preferring to leave initial questioning to the Pakistani authorities. But British anti-terrorist sources are anxious to find out as soon as possible what he knows about al-Qaida's networks.
The US is also keen to question him.
The New York Times reported yesterday that Mr Libbi, a Libyan, was still in Pakistani custody and would not be handed over to the US quickly.
It quoted the Pakistani foreign minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, as saying: "Until all the issues are cleared, there is no question of him being handed over to anyone else. Anything relevant to American security is being shared."
Mr Libbi is suspected of planning two assassination attempts on Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, and a plot to kill its prime minister, Shaukat Aziz.
A number of arrests followed the seizure of Mr Libbi near Peshawar, the capital of the country's North-West Frontier Province, which was announced 10 days ago. Pakistani officials said the army had stepped up the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
Mr Kasuri said Bin Laden was probably continually moving among the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan - and was not with a large group of people, "otherwise he'd be detected".
George Bush described Mr Libbi as "a major facilitator and a chief planner" for Bin Laden and said his arrest removed a "dangerous enemy".
There have been reports from Pakistan that he has not provided significant information during interrogations, during which he came under "physical pressure".
Intelligence officials say Mr Libbi had taken over from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, believed to be a mastermind behind the September 11 attacks in the US, who was arrested in Rawalpindi in March 2003.
Sheikh Mohammed was the head of al-Qaida's "military committee", in charge of operations and recruiting overseas fighters. He is believed to have been behind the kidnap and murder of the US journalist Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002, and a suicide bomb attack on a Tunisian synagogue in which 21 people died.
He is understood to have referred under questioning to two Britons, at least one of whom has been arrested. Officials say he was particularly interested in the UK.
Though officials say Mr Libbi had no known direct link with Britain, given his importance as successor to Sheikh Mohammed they believe he must have significant information to divulge.
Madeline Bunting of al-Guardian "explains" suicide bombing by glorifying it. She also thinks that it's derailed the reconstruction of Iraq. Truly malodorous.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Soviets used dogs as suicide bombers in WWII, ROPers use their own people. One is tempted to make a comparison.
A suspected bomber was shot and killed Friday morning outside the Israeli embassy in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent as unrest racked the eastern part of the country, according to the U.S. embassy and Israel's Foreign Ministry.
The Israeli ambassador, in a conversation with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, confirmed a report by an Uzbek police official who said the suspect was carrying wooden objects that only appeared to be explosives, Israel Radio reported.
The clothing of the suspected bomber, who was wearing an overcoat, aroused the suspicion of the guards outside the embassy, who called for him to halt. When he continued approaching the building, they shot him in the leg. The suspect continued moving toward the embassy, and was shot and killed by the guards.
Stubborn.
The five Israeli staff members at the embassy were inside the building at the time of the incident and there were no injuries. The incident is being investigated.
Shalom said he ordered security measures boosted at Israeli diplomatic missions around the world. He also told the radio that the Tashkent Jewish community went on alert following the Friday morning incident. Shalom said the high alert - entailing stepped up patrols at each embassy - was in place until further notice. "There are many groups always trying to attack Israeli missions ... We have to always be prepared," Shalom said. "The alert will be continued as long as the situation warrants it."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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This story has got that Darwin Award feel to it, Dr Steve! Suicide by cop. I hope he hadn't reproduced, yet.
U.S. authorities have sent a German court new evidence for the retrial of the first September 11 terror attack suspect convicted, a court official said yesterday.
The Hamburg state court has received six pages of summaries from the interrogations of two captured al Qaeda suspects, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mohamedou Ould Slahi, said Sabine Westphalen, a court spokeswoman. She refused to comment on the contents, saying that the evidence must be translated into German before being read in court on May 24.
The summaries came with a letter from the German Justice Ministry saying that U.S. authorities "consider the matter closed," Miss Westphalen said -- indicating that Washington does not intend to provide further evidence or witness testimony in the retrial of Mounir el Motassadeq.
The 31-year-old Moroccan is being retried on more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization on suspicion he provided logistical support for the September 11 suicide hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Samir Jarrah.
He was convicted in 2003 on the same charges and sentenced to the maximum 15 years, but an appeals court threw out the conviction last year and ordered a retrial. It ruled that he had been unfairly denied testimony by key al Qaeda suspects in U.S. custody. The Hamburg court has for months pushed for further information from Washington, and the German government has said Homeland Security adviser Frances Townsend told German Interior Minister Otto Schily when he visited Washington in February that the U.S. would send more documents.
When Motassadeq's retrial opened in August, the Justice Department had supplied summaries of the interrogations of Binalshibh -- a Yemeni believed to have acted as al Qaeda's liaison with the Hamburg cell -- and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, thought to have masterminded the attacks.
A Mauritanian, Ould Slahi, is suspected to have been an al Qaeda contact in Germany.
An FBI agent was also sent along with a member of the September 11 commission to testify in the Hamburg court. Motassadeq has said he was close friends with Atta and others in the group, but did not know they planned to attack the United States. That assertion was backed by Binalshibh and Mohammed in the transcripts provided last year, but the Justice Department cited "inconsistencies by at least one of the individuals" and cautioned that they may have been trying "to influence as well as inform."
A senior French politician said on Friday he had been implicated in an oil-for-food scam in Iraq in an effort to discredit President Jacques Chirac, a fierce opponent of the US-led war in Iraq. A US Senate report on Thursday said Senator Charles Pasqua - once a close Chirac associate and former interior minister in a conservative government - had received an allocation of 11 million barrels of oil with the personal approval of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Pasqua, who has immunity from prosecution as a member of the French Senate, again denied any link to Saddam's Iraq and said he had urged the president of the French Senate to launch a separate probe into the allegations made against him, other French nationals and leading French companies.
Asked on LCI television if he was being targeted in an effort to discredit Chirac, Pasqua said. "To me, that's obvious. Perhaps also, those who think that, through me, they can strike Jacques Chirac, are unaware that the nature of our relations has changed, at least politically. And if they think I could have influenced France's policy, they are wrong," said Pasqua, who fell out with Chirac in the mid-1990s over European policy. "I'm capable of defending myself, that's not the issue. (What is at issue is) the campaign that's underway that is targeting a certain number of big French firms and French interests. In the United States, there is a real psychosis. This psychosis consists of them saying, 'if France was hostile to the American intervention (in Iraq), it's due to its economic interests or preferential relations it had with Saddam Hussein'."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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US does not have to lift a finger. Chirac is doing a superb job at discrediting himself already.
This weekend, the Central Performing Arts Center in Hollywood, Florida, will play host to one of the most radical Islamist leaders in Americabut few will know it.
The occasion is a conference, titled "America & The Rights of Those Who Believe in God," which will feature Maulana Shafayat Mohamed, the supposedly moderate religious leader of the Darul Uloom Islamic Institute. In fact, Darul Uloom, a madrasa (religious school) located in Pembroke Pines, Florida, is notorious for the number of terrorists that have worshiped and taken classes there, including the so-called "Dirty Bomber" Jose Padilla and Adnan Shukrijumah, who is on the FBI's "Most Wanted" list.
At the center of it all is Maulana Shafayat Mohamed himself. Born in Trinidad, West Indies, he graduated from Darul Uloom Deoband, the largest Islamic university in India. This fundamentalist madrasa served as a prototype for another madrasa located in Pakistan, the Darul Uloom Haqqania. Scores of Taliban leaders, including Taliban head Mullah Muhammad Omar, were taught at Darul Uloom Haqqania. Indeed, it acted less as a place of learning than as an al-Qaeda recruitment center.
There is a disquieting resemblance between this Taliban terror factory and Shafayat Mohamed's current institution, Darul Uloom. Shafayat Mohamed opened Darul Uloom on February 24, 1995, with himself as the Registered Agent. On the list of founding directorsand still a directorfor the madrassa is Nashid Sabir, a lawyer for a former Darul Uloom student, Imran Mandhai. Authorities suspect that Mandhai intended to take part in a jihadist-hatched campaign of terror bombings in South Florida. Set to join him in the terror spree was Mandhai's friend Hakki Aksoy, another Darul Uloom alumnus.
Despite his ties to terrorism, Shafayat Mohamed postures as a moderate. Interfaith activities particularly are a big part of his life. Beyond serving as president of the Hollywood Interfaith Council and co-founder of JAM (Jews & Muslims & All), Shafayat Mohamed presides over a monthly publication called Al-Hikmat Insight, which devotes an entire page to interfaith activities. In fact however, the publication, founded by Shafayat Mohamed in 1983, provides a revealing showcase of his extremist views. Rest at link.
This article starring:
ADNAN SHUKRIJUMAH
Darul Uloom Islamic Institute
HAKKI AKSOY
Darul Uloom Islamic Institute
IMRAN MANDHAI
Darul Uloom Islamic Institute
JOSE PADILLA
Darul Uloom Islamic Institute
MAULANA SHAFAIAT MOHAMED
Darul Uloom Islamic Institute
NASHID SABIR
Darul Uloom Islamic Institute
Darul Uloom Haqqania
Darul Uloom Islamic Institute
Posted by: ed ||
05/14/2005 14:05 ||
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damn shame if he died....abruptly...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 17:52 Comments ||
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Via Lt-Smash.us
A military judge ordered a Navy sailor on Thursday to complete three months of hard labor for refusing to deploy with his ship in protest of the war in Iraq, but he declined prosecutors' requests for time in custody. Lt. Cmdr. Bob Klant also reduced Pablo Paredes' rank from petty officer third class to seaman recruit, the lowest in the Navy.
Before the sentence was imposed, Paredes read an impassioned statement of his beliefs. "If there is anything I could be guilty of, it is my beliefs," he said. "I am guilty of believing the war is illegal. I am guilty of believing war in all forms is immoral and useless, and I am guilty of believing that as a service member I have a duty to refuse to participate in this war because it is illegal."
Paredes showed no emotion as the judge delivered the sentence. He left the court without speaking to reporters. Prosecutors had asked Klant to sentence Paredes to nine months in confinement, three months less than the possible maximum, and a bad conduct discharge. "He is trying to infect the military with his own philosophy of disobedience," prosecutor Lt. Brandon Hale said. "Sailors all over the world will want to know whether this will be tolerated. Sailors want to know whether doing what he did is a good way to get out of deployment."
Prosecutors left the courtroom without making any statements, but Sam Samuelson, a Navy spokesman, said Paredes' guilty verdict sent a message. "His actions were in conflict with his duty and taxpayers' obligations that the Navy maintain good order and discipline," Samuelson said.
The sentence of hard labor normally involves extra duty. For two of the three months, Paredes also will be restricted to his naval base.
Paredes' lawyer, Jeremy Warren, called the judge's lesser sentence "a stunning blow to the prosecution." "This is an affirmation of every sailor's and military person's right to speak out and follow their conscience," he said.
Posted by: seafarious ||
05/14/2005 12:04:40 AM ||
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Add this word to your vocabulary, Pablo Cruise - hoosegow.
#3
He was anti-war and anti-US before he enlisted. Did it for the $$ and perhaps to cause trouble.
Posted by: too true ||
05/14/2005 7:16 Comments ||
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What a loser. If they had found he had tried to talk a couple of other sailors into doing what he did, then I wonder if he would have been charged with sedition or some such which would carry a harsher sentence.
#5
Ironically it is those personnel in uniform that he deserted that resulted in his light sentence. Had they been suffering and dying in numbers, with low morale, bright boy there could have faced several years in Leavenworth. As it is, they are doing a very good job, appreciate that what they are doing is for a good cause, and have high morale because of it. So dumbass almost walks.
Reg required. Posting text in full.
A House committee yesterday disclosed Iraqi documents that it said provided new information on what has long been seen as a campaign by Saddam Hussein to secure international support at the Security Council in exchange for lucrative oil contracts under the United Nations oil-for-food program.
The documents, released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in advance of hearings planned for Monday, showed that Iraqi intelligence officials focused on French and Russian officials as part of what the Iraqi memos and letters described as a deliberate strategy to overcome sanctions and create divisions on the Security Council.
As the new details were released in Washington, two politicians from France and Britain reacted angrily to renewed accusations that they took bribes from Mr. Hussein's government.
In London, George Galloway, a British legislator who had met at least twice with Mr. Hussein, most recently in 2002, said he would testify in Washington before a Senate subcommittee, which on Wednesday said he had received the rights to buy millions of barrels of Iraqi oil.
In Paris, Charles Pasqua, a French senator and former interior minister, said "there's nothing new in this report," and suggested that the repetition of statements implicating him was politically motivated.
The investigations by the House and Senate panels are among several inquiries into the oil-for-food program, under which Mr. Hussein's government was allowed to sell some oil, despite United Nations sanctions, in order to buy food, medicines and other necessities.
The documents from the Iraqi Intelligence Service released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee also listed French and Russian individuals, companies and political parties that the Iraqi agency said were sympathetic to Iraq and powerful enough to advance its interests. One memo stated that while an Iraqi official offered financial assistance to the re-election campaign of President Jacques Chirac of France, the offer was rejected.
According to one of the documents, Mr. Hussein personally "ordered the improvement of dealing with France" in early 2002. A memo dated May 6, 2002, described a reported meeting between an unnamed Iraqi intelligence official and Roselyn Bachelot, whom the memo described as a French parliamentarian and "official spokeswoman" for Mr. Chirac's re-election campaign.
The memo stated that Ms. Bachelot noted that "the subject of Iraq will be the first in the priorities and concerns of French politics on the condition that Mr. Chirac wins." It also stated that Ms. Bachelot assured the agent that France would "use the right opposition (veto) within the Security Council against any American decision regarding the attack on Iraq," and would "work throughout the upcoming period to lift sanctions." The Iraqi agent, for his part, conveyed to Ms. Bachelot that "Iraq is prepared to offer financial support to Chirac, for his election campaign." The memo said a campaign officer later "expressed gratitude" then added, "(but he apologized) because they do not require the money."
Lisa Miller, a spokeswoman for the House committee, said the Iraqi memos came from the thousands of documents that were collected by Charles A. Duelfer, the top American arms inspector. She said the Iraqi intelligence service memos were provided to the committee by the Central Intelligence Agency, and then translated by a member of the Iraq Survey Group that Mr. Duelfer led.
The Iraq Survey Group issued a voluminous report in 2004 concluding that Mr. Hussein's government had used the oil-for-food program to try to weaken United Nations sanctions and finance weapons purchases. The report also charged that Mr. Pasqua and Mr. Galloway had received the right to buy Iraqi oil. It also said that Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his Liberal Democratic Party in Russia had received oil allocations, accusations that both he and the party denied.
The House committee yesterday released a letter signed by Mr. Zhirinovsky on his party's stationery to the effect that a company called Nafta Moscow was to receive rights to buy up to 2.5 million barrels of oil under the program.
Ms. Miller said that House committee staff members had met with diplomats from the French and Russian Embassies late last year to seek cooperation in its investigation, but none had been forthcoming. Neither the French nor Russian Embassies responded to requests for comment.
In an interview yesterday in Paris, Mr. Pasqua said there had never been any substantial proof to back up the memos and statements that were disclosed Wednesday by the Senate committee, and he repeated his earlier denials that either he or his supporters had received anything from the oil-for-food program.
"What I don't accept is taking at face value what has been said by the Iraqis without evidence to support it," Mr. Pasqua said.
At least one member of the Iraq Survey Group offered a similar caution about the memos from Iraq's intelligence service that the House released on Thursday. "You must be skeptical of their claims," the investigator said. "Iraqi agents may have exaggerated or misconstrued statements by people they met with to make themselves look more active and effective."
In a statement issued by his spokesman in London, Mr. Galloway also criticized the Senate panel for not having interviewed him before it accused him of receiving rights to buy up to 20 million barrels of oil. "I repeat once more, I have never traded or benefited from any oil deals with Iraq," he said.
Following Mr. Galloway's initial denials of the Senate panel's charges, a spokesman for the committee said that its chairman , Norm Coleman, Republican of Minnesota, had invited Mr. Galloway to appear at a hearing on May 17.
On Thursday, Mr. Galloway said in the statement relayed by his spokesman: "I'll be there to give them both barrels - verbal guns, of course, not oil - assuming we get the visas. I welcome the opportunity to clear my name. My first words will be 'Senator, it's a pity that we are having this interview after you have found me guilty. Even in Kafka there was the semblance of a trial.' "
Posted by: ed ||
05/14/2005 14:40 ||
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"If you say that the US is an imperialist country, then you are right. Had Sweden, Liechtenstein, France, come, it would have been wonderful. But they gave the US free rein; I am extremely pleased."
Funny how all those little imperalists couldn't take Sammy down.
The scene of jubilation in the final moments of the film was "still valid. I would like to say I am optimistic, he said. "The problem with Iraq is that it was not born of the will of a single people, but because Churchill wanted it. Power went to the people who had the most Kalashnikovs."
Spoken like a Kurd.
The story is set during the Iran-Iraq war. Ako, an Iraqi Kurd, goes out one morning in his pyjamas to buy bread. He is arrested by the Iraqi military and sent to fight on the dusty, brutal Iranian front in Basra. One day he is ordered to accompany the body of a dead soldier as it is returned to the family. So he and an Iraqi Arab driver set off together across the unremitting landscape.
The film, partly funded by the Kurdistan regional government and partly from France, reads as a strong political statement of Kurdish identity. Some also see it as anti-Arab, accusing it of presenting the driver as dimwitted and dominated by naive religious feeling. Saleem responded: "The Arabs don't know the Kurds well. They forced us to study Arab history and culture. But they know nothing of our history, culture, sensibilities, dreams. An effort must be made by them to understand us."
He denied that the film was overtly political in its message: "You don't produce a film to draw people's attention to politics. I wanted to show the hills of Kurdistan, the faces of the people. I don't think I have produced a military or political film.
"It is not an ideological film. It doesn't say we are the most wonderful people on earth ... but I am thrilled people will be able to discover, to drive through Kurdistan for an hour and a half in this film."
Sami Shorashi, the Kurdistan regional government's culture minister, said: "This is a major step forward for the Kurdish people ... I see it as a work of art that well portrays the misfortune of the Kurdish people caused by the regime of Saddam Hussein."
Saleem, who has lived in France since the early 1980s and whose previous work includes Vodka Lemon, said the film was based on real events that happened to his brother. The making of the film, he said, presented enormous practical difficulties. Because of the lack of indigenous film culture ("except for a few propaganda films"), technicians, crew and equipment had to be brought from France. "It was a nightmare to get the cameras and crew to Kurdistan and even harder to get them back. We seriously thought of contacting the smugglers on the borders to help."
Posted by: too true ||
05/14/2005 6:29:30 AM ||
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I won't get a single vote. The judges will turn their backs when it plays.
The Army will allow recruits to sign up for 15 months of active-duty service, rather than the typical four-year enlistment, as it struggles to lure new soldiers amid the Iraq war, a general said yesterday.
Maj. Gen. Michael Rochelle, U.S. Army Recruiting Command head, also said this was "the toughest recruiting climate ever faced by the all-volunteer Army," with the war causing concern among potential recruits and with civilian job prospects.
Rochelle said the Army this week expanded nationwide a pilot program in place since October 2003 in 10 cities offering recruits the option of a 15-month active-duty enlistment. The Army said some young people might want to serve the country but do not want to dedicate the amount of time required by the normal four-year active-duty enlistment. They will be offered the option of serving 15 months on active duty after completing their training, and then two years in the part-time Army Reserve or National Guard. The soldier then would spend nearly seven years in the Individual Ready Reserve, which requires no training and until recently was rarely mobilized, or would serve in a program such as the Peace Corps.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Dude, even the Soviets didn't shorten deployments THIS bad. (Theirs was two years.)
Me smells a bad idea, and the Army incorrectly attributes (I think) the problem to time ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
05/14/2005 1:01 Comments ||
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I've read here at Rantburg that a significant number of troops who've spent time in Iraq or Afghanistan are re-upping because they feel the work they're doing is important. Could the Army be offering this short enlistment option as a way to put more people in the way of this seduction? Even if they aren't thinking in those terms, what are the odds that will be the result?
#3
Could be, TW. Part of the problem is self-imposed: we don't want to dilute our standards for recruits, especially given the sophistication of battle technology now. But that means that a fair number of potential enlistees don't make the cut.
My own take? Let women serve in more combat-related positions if/where they are really able to do the job. Which means push back on the jCongresscritters who want to block that from happening.
Also: recruiters report that an obstacle to enlisting black males is the Mom Factor, i.e. a political dislike of Bush &/or just wanting baby boy home. We need to counter that with more effort towards a pro-service atmosphere here at home.
Posted by: too true ||
05/14/2005 7:54 Comments ||
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#4
Take a closer look."They will be offered the option of serving 15 months on active duty after completing their training".
Basic trainig:7.8 weeks for the Army(Marine Corps is a solid 90 days)+3-4 months AIT(advanced infantry training}.5 or 6 months of training+15 months on the line=21 months.After troops return from combat they have to spend about 3 months on duty to unwind(not sure if that's the right word)from the combat mind set and help in dealing with DSS.Total time on active duty 24 months,15 months in combat is a loooong time.
#5
Recruitment is tied to the economy, not the war. The high retention figures reflect that. So, should we scuttle the economy?
However the catch is that while its only 15 months of active up front, they are still on the hook for a total of eigth years. By the number of reserve call ups, a good chance to do more active time than you might think.
Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte sent a message to the CIA chiefs of station around the world last month telling them to report back to him when carrying out matters related to the overall U.S. intelligence community, according to senior intelligence officials.
Some agency officials feared the cable could represent an invasion of the CIA's role and leadership, but others discounted such worries and viewed it as a logical move by Negroponte to establish his office.
Who wants a system in which the boss isn't told of matters relating to intel?
The message reiterated that the CIA station chiefs would remain the chief U.S. intelligence officers in each capital and that they should continue operating largely as they have. But it said that on matters involving the intelligence community -- which includes agencies other than the CIA -- the station chiefs should report to Negroponte in his new role as DNI. In the past, such reporting went to CIA Director Porter J. Goss in his secondary role as director of central intelligence (DCI).
Negroponte, whose position was created by Congress last year as part of the intelligence reorganization, is to oversee and coordinate efforts of the CIA and 14 other intelligence agencies. As a result, he has taken over some of the roles historically played by the CIA director, and the cable reflected that shift. As a practical matter, the CIA director will still see the station chiefs' communications to Negroponte, according to a former senior intelligence official who has looked into the matter.
Some present and former CIA officials said yesterday the Negroponte cable made clear that the CIA station chiefs would be senior among other intelligence representatives in a country, such as FBI agents or Defense Intelligence Agency officers.
Negroponte, Goss and their senior staffs are still working on how the new DNI structure will relate to the rest of the intelligence community, and in that climate even routine communications can come in for special scrutiny.
Although some CIA officials said they worried the cable represented an attempt by Negroponte to bypass the agency, others disagreed. A senior CIA official, who like others would comment on the memo only anonymously because of the political sensitivities involved, said that "under the law, the DNI is head of [intelligence] community functions and the chiefs of station are his representatives out there, and that is all it is."
Negroponte has also sent out a cable to intelligence officers who had represented the DCI at U.S. military headquarters commands around the world, saying they now represent the new DNI. Those CIA personnel essentially provide intelligence backup to the commanders and serve as a liaison with the agency. "That was just a name change," the CIA official said.
One former senior CIA official said the new reporting directive showed the CIA chiefs of stations "now wear two hats in the field and thus report to two bosses" -- the DNI and the CIA director. That should not cause problems, he added, "unless it introduces ambiguities about who reports to whom or it gets into clandestine operations."
The cable also illustrates one of the problems critics of the reorganization plan noted when the legislation was before Congress last year. The bill was sometimes ambiguous in laying out the authorities possessed by the DNI, and Congress left it to the new director to work them out.
Negroponte's office refused to discuss the contents of the cable, whose existence was disclosed in the National Journal. The office released a statement that said, "The chiefs of station will serve as DNI representatives in carrying out overseas responsibilities and functions related to the intelligence community. At the same time, the chiefs of station will continue to serve and support the CIA through their already established CIA reporting channels."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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This is only the first blow of the hammer in building this bureaucracy. There are many more nails, blows, tearouts, rebuilds and redesigns to come. Also, you can expect strikes, slowdowns, lockouts, switching jobs, resignations, new hires, belly-up contracts (policy) and all the other constraints and restraints of design and construction. When it is all done I want it to look like something that makes sense, is substantive and effective and has durability to get the job done. But I have a feeling that unless we get better quality in the management and interagency coordination - this org is going to look like a bowl of spaghetti.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/14/2005 14:16 Comments ||
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Jack, what are you alking about? It already does look like a bowl of spaghetti.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) did not initially tell investigators in the Oil-for-Food probe that he met twice with representatives of his son's employer as the Swiss company began soliciting United Nations business.
Annan's omissions last November raised credibility concerns with the chief investigator, Robert Parton (search), that persisted even after Annan later provided his recollections about the meetings. Investigators had uncovered the contacts in calendars recovered from computers, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
Kofi Annan's lawyer acknowledged Friday that his client didn't provide or recall certain information about 6-year-old events during his first interview with investigators last November, blaming it on poor preparation.
"During many different meetings with the panel and its counsel, the Secretary-General took pains to answer questions truthfully and completely. In his first interview, however, Mr. Annan had no advance knowledge of the specific topics of greatest concern to the panel and had not prepared himself adequately," attorney Greg Craig said.
"For later interviews, he reviewed his schedule, his calendar, his appointment logs and other records, and was able to provide additional information to the Committee."
Parton's lawyer, Lanny Davis (search), declined comment, citing a judge's order barring him from disclosing any information recently provided to Congress under a subpoena.
Paul Volcker (search), the chief of the Independent Inquiry Committee, has acknowledged that there was debate among his investigators about how to interpret its findings on Annan, but denied leaving out any material facts.
Annan has maintained he didn't know his son's company got Oil-for-Food business until after it was awarded in December 1998 and a newspaper reported it the following month. The final version of the investigative report released March 29 concluded there wasn't evidence the U.N. chief tried to influence the world body's decisions to benefit his son's business interests.
The House International Relations Committee is poring over boxes of documents and audiotapes that Parton provided this month under a subpoena after resigning in protest as the lead investigator in the case.
Parton was charged with determining how the U.N. came to award business from its Oil-for-Food humanitarian program in Iraq in December 1998 to Cotecna, the Swiss firm that employed Annan's son Kojo.
Parton's acrimonious departure from the U.N. probe has turned into a legal battle, with the U.N. trying, unsuccessfully, to stop its former investigator from complying with the subpoena to provide his investigative files to Congress.
Those files provide a detailed account of what Annan told investigators and when, and show the frictions over how to interpret evidence that ensued between Parton and the three-member committee, led by Volcker, that supervised his work.
In his first of four interviews with investigators, Annan did not disclose last November that he met in September 1998 with his son Kojo and Cotecna consultant Pierre Mouselli — and then, two weeks later, with Cotecna's chief executive Eli Massey — as the company was gearing up to bid for business under the Oil-for-Food program.
Annan generally acknowledged in the first interview that he knew Massey — referring to him as "the old man" — and occasionally met with him, including once in 1999, several months after Cotecna won the U.N. contract.
In a subsequent interview in January after consulting the calendars that were turned over to Parton, Annan divulged he met twice with Massey before the Cotecna contract was awarded, including on Sept. 18, 1998.
But the U.N. chief testified that the meeting did not involve Cotecna's pursuit of Oil-for-Food business. Instead, he said, the two discussed an idea Massey had for an international lottery to raise money for the U.N.; Annan said he referred Massey to another official to discuss the idea further.
The U.N. chief also indicated he didn't recall a man named Pierre Mouselli, though he said he often doesn't recall people he meets casually in his high-profile job. The final report makes no mention of Annan's November denial about Mouselli.
During a March 17 interview, Annan was quizzed about a calendar entry indicating he had a "private lunch" on Sept. 4, 1998, with his son Kojo and "his friend" during a world conference in Durban, South Africa.
By that time, Parton had already learned that the friend was Mouselli, a businessman who, like Kojo Annan, was working as a consultant with Cotecna.
Parton also secured testimony from Mouselli stating that he and the Annans had discussed at the South African lunch that Kojo Annan and Mouselli were setting up companies and were interested in business, including Iraq. The final report said Mouselli's account of the meeting couldn't be verified elsewhere.
In the March interview, Kofi Annan said he did in fact remember a "brief encounter" he had in Durban with his son and a friend, whom he described as a Lebanese businessman whose first name might have been Pierre.
But despite his own calendar notation, the elder Annan insisted he still could not recall having lunch, the last name of the friend or any discussion of his son's business endeavors during the encounter.
The final report also excluded detailed testimony from Mouselli that he and the Annans discussed their interest in Iraq business. "We discussed Iraq," Mouselli told the AP in an interview this week. "We discussed about even my way to go to Iraq. ... We were joking if Kojo wants to come."
Parton sought to make an issue of Annan's veracity, concluding the U.N. chief wasn't initially forthcoming and his story evolved as new facts emerged. Parton also noted Annan's account sometimes conflicted with other witnesses deemed credible. Drafts of Parton's report, however, were substantially revised.
The three-member committee that supervised Parton used a different tone when it laid out the discrepancies in the version of the report released to the public two months ago. "He had checked the records and now remembered the meeting," the final report said about one of the meetings Annan hadn't originally disclosed.
The final report also didn't mention that Annan had originally denied knowing one of his son's business associates with whom he had had lunch. Nor did it mention that the business associate testified that he specifically discussed Kojo Annan's (search) interest in doing business in Iraq with the U.N. chief.
Posted by: too true ||
05/14/2005 6:33:08 AM ||
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"Mr. Annan had no advance knowledge of the specific topics of greatest concern to the panel and had not prepared himself adequately to lie with conviction,"
More on the Annan-Parton story as reported in another post, most snipped here as duplicative, though .com struck first :-)
The final report also excluded detailed testimony from Mouselli that he and the Annans discussed their interest in Iraq business. "We discussed Iraq," Mouselli told the AP in an interview this week. "We discussed about even my way to go to Iraq. ... We were joking if Kojo wants to come." Lol! Funny stuff, Mouselli! Too bad it didn't make it into the report, eh? Volcker, you whore, I hope you fall along with the rest of the crooks, scammers, and Moonbats. And the funny thing is, you just might - for obstruction of justice, perhaps. Bastard.
LONDON - Prisoners detained by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere are still at risk of torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International said on Friday.
All Abu Ghraib, all the time. These guys are worse than Andrew Sullivan.
A year after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal caused an international uproar when US guards were photographed abusing detainees, the human rights group said the Bush administration has shown a chilling disregard for international law. "The conditions to facilitate torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, all of which are equally prohibited, remain in place," an Amnesty spokesman said.
Of course, as far as we know it isn't actually happening at this point in time, and everyone from an O-9 down to an E-3 understands that they'll be turning rocks into gravel if it does happen again, but do carry on ...
He added that basic safeguards against ill-treatment were not being met and cited secret detention and incommunicado detention as forms of inhuman treatment.
Newsflash: in most prisons, the inmates aren't allowed unlimited communication with the outside, particularly if the goal is to communicate with one's terrorist pals.
"Human dignity has fallen victim to the USA's 'war on terror' and interrogation regime, as the administration has not only rejected international human rights law, but also adopted a selective disregard for international humanitarian law," Amnesty said in a report.
It added that United States' approach to detentions is characterised by hypocrisy, an over-arching war mentality and a refusal to adhere to international obligations.
Unlike the UN, the EU, and their own organization ...
"The USA's policies and practices have led to serious human rights violations and have set a dangerous precedent internationally," Amnesty said.
The US State Department said in a report last week it was abiding by global anti-torture rules and any abuses of detainees in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were not systemic. The US military says its treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is humane and justified and says it has changed some of its policies in Iraq since the abuses at Abu Ghraib.
Amnesty said there is mounting evidence of torture by US forces but only a few, mainly low-ranking soldiers have been tried or sanctioned.
Mounting evidence: oh right, Sy Hersh must have spoken there last week ...
No American agent has been charged under the country's Anti-Torture Act or War Crimes Act, it added. "As the culture of impunity and military leniency grows, including in cases in which Afghan and Iraqi detainees have died as a result of abuses by US agents, the administration continues to seek to try members of the 'enemy' for war crimes in front of military commissions or executive bodies, not independent or impartial courts," the report said.
Which we're allowed to do under the Geneva Conventions, but don't let that stop you ...
Amnesty called on the US Congress to set up an independent commission to delve into the country's detention and interrogation policies.
And if the commission fails to find anything wrong, they'll ask for another one ...
It also wants the United States to appoint an independent special counsel to conduct investigations into officials against whom there is evidence of involvement in crimes linked to torture, disappearances and inhuman and degrading treatment.
Maybe Ken Starr ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Prisoners detained by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere are still at risk of torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International said on Friday.
< burnt commentary >
Well, I just got the latest Victoria's Secrets catalogue in the mail, no fuckin' thanks to my cunt ex-girlfriend ripping me off for thousands and this shit being the byproduct like urine from beer, and this article just made me want to mail a huge order to Gitmo so they could floss the muzzie's crotches with the latest in silk lingerie, but then I start thinking - you know? - it's gonna be a huge shipment, and I got these things around the house I need to fix, and after a day or two I won't be able to read the damn things anyway 'cuz I'm just gonna jizz all over the shit, and you ever try to read one of them damn things with half the pages stuck together? Yeah, good freakin' luck with that angle, brother. Yo, you got that next page? Is that a 4 or a 6 on the crotchless?
#2
Who are you and what have you done with the real Raj?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/14/2005 2:37 Comments ||
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Prisoners detained by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere are still at risk of torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International said on Friday.
#5
"Real torture." This shit is so old it doesn't even taste like shit anymore. Adding these clowns to the beat on sight list with the BBC and ACLU I am.
#10
Prisoners detained by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere are still at risk of torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International said on Friday.
We would much rather see Americans abused/killed than our pals in Al Qaeda.
Iran may develop the know-how to make nuclear weapons in six to nine months, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Friday. He called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Iran. "Iran poses an existential threat, and that's why I think that the entire world understands that it's impossible to give such an extremist regime the possibility of having a nuclear bomb that can essentially threaten the integrity of the world," Shalom said Friday in an interview with Israel Radio.
The day before, Shalom warned that Tehran was close to knowing how to make nuclear weapons. "Iran's announcement of their decision to renew uranium enrichment is, of course, a very dangerous announcement that must be viewed with appropriate concern," he told foreign diplomats at a reception at the President's Residence on Thursday. "Unfortunately, we see that indeed Iran will do everything to reach nuclear capability. The question is not whether Iran will have a nuclear bomb in 2009 or 2011. The question is when will they have sufficient knowledge [to build one], and we think that this possibility even exists, possibly, in another six to nine months."
Shalom also called on the International Atomic Energy Association to use its June 13 meeting to make a "clear and unequivocal decision" to bring the Iran issue before the United Nations Security Council, which he said "has the sole authority to impose sanctions on Iran."
Time to up-tempo the training missions in the Negev.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Hmmmm - the Norkies and the Mad Mullahs, etal. a Limited Liability Clintonoid/Conspiracy - err, I meant Company - are all but officially demanding Dubya and America's volunteer Army INVADE, vv VOTE FOR HILLARY IN '08. Even the anti-US UN and our Allies want us to attack!?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 13:37 Comments ||
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LOL< - Joe mixes the nuggets in, so you have to mine the Betty Crocker OWG melange to find them
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 15:49 Comments ||
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Wasn't it Israel who gave us the marvelous fail-proof 100% sure WMD intelligence info about Saddam? That worked out swell, didn't it? Why doesn't Israel pony up some Israeli young men on the front lines and call Iran's bluff, if Israel is so worried about Iran's nuclear capabilities? Iran doesn't worry America's mainland. I'm not certain, but I do not think that we have any treaties in force to protect Israel's security? Did Israel send forces to help us in Vietnam?
#6
CG - Master of Irrelevancy and Straw Monsters. Where to begin? Nah, with less than 10 minutes to go before rollover, it wouldn't make sense to start the "conversation".
So, it's quickie answer time!
Answers:
No, Tenet.
No.
Idiot Idea Of the Day.
?
Yes, we do.
Why, did you go? No fuckwit Cromombles I ever heard of in the 'Nam and no Glailets on The Wall. Oh, I get it - it was just a brain fart. Feel better?
Was it good for you, CG? I hear Windex works best - all the little moonbats vouch for it. Too bad you're suffering from such a warped view, obviously born of ignorance and bile. Makes me all sad thinking about your condition. The Cure: Read. Lots. Read some more. Think. Read things you don't agree with and let them digest. Think. Ask questions of your elders. Listen, Think. Get it? No, of course you don't. Predigested shit is your style.
Interesting that in the first video, the munition penetrated some 5-6 feet of reinforced concrete before detonation, but in this video, it appears to detonate before hitting the rocket launcher vehicle. That must be some interesting fusing.
Determination high in the Bush administration to begin irreversible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq this year is reinforced by the presence at the State Department of the most dominant secretary since Henry Kissinger three decades ago. Condoleezza Rice is expected to support administration officials who want to leave even if what is left behind does not constitute perfection.
Amid the presidential campaign's furious debate over Iraq, I reported last Sept. 20 ("Quick exit from Iraq is likely") about strong feeling in the policymaking apparatus to get out of Iraq in 2005 even if democracy and peace had not been achieved there. My column evoked widespread expressions of disbelief, but changes over the last six months have only strengthened the view of my Bush administration sources that the escape from Iraq should begin once a permanent government is in place in Baghdad... Aw, phooey on him. For the US to leave Iraq in force would be to abandon the best strategic position that could be held on that half of the world. It projects massive power to the entire middle east, northern Africa, and central Asia. Anywhere else and the logistics and expense of force projection to these regions skyrocket. And give one one good reason *why* we should leave. Piker.
If Novak's right, and we bug out this year-- or next, or the one after-- without taking full advantage of the strategic position we've won, I'm giving up not only on this President, but on this country; it would mean our entire political leadership is simply too fucking stupid to win this war.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/14/2005 19:45 Comments ||
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Agreed. He wants to elect Repubs in 06 and 08, doesn't give a damn about the longer term consequences.
#4
Novak's been against the Iraq war (in fact he's had an unabashed affection for Arab dictators and against Israel... neocons =jooooo tools)since the start. Anything he says was spoon-fed by an Anti-W side, like, say...the State Dept
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 19:48 Comments ||
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don't believe me? Find a kind word he's written about Wolfowitz, just one sentence. Novak is what Chris Matthews will look like when balding and half-a-stroke to slow down his interrupting interviewees
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 19:50 Comments ||
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Lol. Novak's as politically schizophrenic / goofy as Buchanan, as self-absorbed as Krugman and Friedman combined, and as credible as Jeanne Dixon, whom he emulates regularly. He was cominc relief 20 yrs ago when I watched him on TV. Now, well, he's just kinda pathetic.
#7
Both he and Buchanan have that dark-we-don't-wanna-talkaboutit streak...I loved when commenters on his last presidential speech said it sounded better "in the original German" lol
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 20:09 Comments ||
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Novak has been on a bender of late, more misses and hits.
Condi works for Bush, period. Colin worked for himself, period. Bush isn't turning on the Iraqi nascient government. We will draw down by June 2006, leaving a significant embassy and military base. "Escape from Iraq?" What a loser phrase.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/14/2005 21:31 Comments ||
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Why so responses inspite of no article to read? Is it knee jerk/diss Robert Novak happy hour time?
#11
plato (not) - Little Bobby Novak has been around a looooong time and is extremely well known to those who aren't fucking idiots or children. This would be just one more Bobby Novak Magical Mystery Tour.
Saddam Hussein's spies planned a wide-ranging scheme to bribe members of the French political elite in the run-up to the Anglo-American invasion, including an offer to help fund President Jacques Chirac's 2002 re-election campaign.
That bid failed, according to Iraqi secret service papers seen by The Daily Telegraph, when Mr Chirac's aides allegedly said they did not need the cash.
According to the series of Iraqi intelligence service memorandums uncovered by investigators working for the energy committee of the US House of Representatives, the Iraqis identified a group of politicians and businessmen close to Mr Chirac.
A memo from the head of the 2nd Department of the Mukhabarat, the Iraqi intelligence service, purported to report on conversations between its representative in Paris and Roselyne Bachelot, then a member of the National Assembly and the spokesman for Mr Chirac's re-election campaign. The Mukhabarat described Mrs Bachelot as "a friend of Iraq".
The spies claimed that Mrs Bachelot offered an assurance that France would veto any American proposal to invade Iraq at the UN Security Council and would work to have UN-approved sanctions against Saddam lifted.
But the memo also claimed that Mr Chirac's team had turned down the cash. The Mukhabarat had conveyed the message that "Iraq is prepared to offer financial support to Chirac, for his election campaign. [Mrs Bachelot] replied joyfully that she will deliver this offer to the financial official of the election campaign." The Chirac campaign had expressed the "gratitude and appreciation of France" but turned the offer down because the money was not required, the document says.
Mrs Bachelot, 58, who later became French environment minister and is now an MEP, said yesterday that she had not received such an offer.
Though she had met many Iraqis in the course of her duties and was a campaigner against UN sanctions, she had not met any intelligence agents. The allegations in the files were "deplorable insinuations", she said.
The documents state that the plot to buy influence in France began in early 2002 on the direct orders of Saddam Hussein, just as America was issuing ever more bellicose statements about Iraq's flouting of UN security council resolutions.
A paper dated Feb 5, 2002, headed "Iraqi-French relations" and written by the assistant director of the Mukhabarat, suggested that Iraq should offer inducements to whoever seemed best placed to win the presidential race, which Mr Chirac ultimately won three months later.
Iraq should "study the possibility to support one of the candidates in the French political elections, after it becomes clear who is going to win the elections, through the offer of oil contracts . . ." the paper says.
As the plot developed, other sections of the Mukhabarat were drawn in. A memo from the head of department M4 dated March 11, 2002 identified politicians and businessmen with close ties to Mr Chirac. Among them was Mrs Bachelot.
The planned campaign included a long list of potential targets that read like a who's who of the country's senior statesmen.
It included former President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, former interior minister Charles Pasqua, former defence and interior minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement, former defence and interior minister Pierre Joxe and former European Commission president Jacques Delors.
Mr Delors said yesterday: "I was at the [European] Commission at the time. I had a lot of contact with European heads of state, but none with Iraqi officials." Mr Joxe, former Socialist defence and interior minister, called any allegation that he had taken money "false and absurd".
The new material does not state that any of those named were in fact approached or offered inducements. But it relates in great detail the planning behind the scheme and those who it should approach.
The uncovering of the material by the House energy committee came during its inquiry into the misuse of the UN's $64 billion oil-for-food scheme.
The committee is one of five in Congress examining the scandal. On Thursday another committee in the Senate said that Iraq earmarked oil allocations for George Galloway MP and Mr Pasqua. Both men deny the charges.
BRITISH marines returning from an operation deep in the Afghan mountains spoke last night of an alarming new threat - being propositioned by swarms of gay local farmers.
An Arbroath marine, James Fletcher, said: "They were more terrifying than the al-Qaeda. One bloke who had painted toenails was offering to paint ours. They go about hand in hand, mincing around the village."
While the marines failed to find any al-Qaeda during the seven-day Operation Condor, they were propositioned by dozens of men in villages the troops were ordered to search.
"We were pretty shocked," Marine Fletcher said. "We discovered from the Afghan soldiers we had with us that a lot of men in this country have the same philosophy as ancient Greeks: 'a woman for babies, a man for pleasure'."
Originally, the marines had sent patrols into several villages in the mountains near the town of Khost, hoping to catch up with al-Qaeda suspects who last week fought a four-hour gun battle with soldiers of the Australian SAS. The hardened troops, their faces covered in camouflage cream and weight down with weapons, radios and ammunition, were confronted with Afghans wanting to stroke their hair.
"It was hell," said Corporal Paul Richard, 20. "Every village we went into we got a group of men wearing make-up coming up, stroking our hair and cheeks and making kissing noises."
At one stage, troops were invited into a house and asked to dance. Citing the need to keep momentum in their search and destroy mission, the marines made their excuses and left. "They put some music on and ask us to dance. I told them where to go," said Cpl Richard. "Some of the guys turned tail and fled. It was hideous."
The Afghan hill tribes live in some of the most isolated communities in the country. "I think a lot of the problem is that they don't have the women around a lot," said another marine, Vaz Pickles. "We only saw about two women in the whole six days. It was all very disconcerting."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 18:18 ||
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This should give Andrew Sullivan something else to write about...
#5
Jeebus. I can hear AS: "but are they allowed to marry. See? The Taliban is more advance than you christian majority 'persons'. At least they are open with the military"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/14/2005 20:14 Comments ||
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Chris Stephen In Bagram, "journalist" interviewed Brit marine James Fletcher, after the unit returned from an operation DEEEEP in the Afghan mountains.
#8
The date on that article is from May, 2002, and was reported here in November of that year. I knew it sounded familiar. I've always figured the reporter was having his leg pulled. A google search on "Vaz Pickles" turned up only references to this article.
Hat tip Instapundit . You can get the UN report here as a series of PDF files. EFL on the Times article.
THE invasion of Iraq and its aftermath caused the deaths of 24,000 Iraqis, including many children, according to the most detailed survey yet of postwar life in the country.
The UN report paints a picture of modern Iraq brought close to collapse despite its oil wealth. Successive wars, a decade of sanctions and the current violence have destroyed services, undermined health and education and made the lives of ordinary Iraqis dangerous and miserable.
The survey for the UN Development Programme, entitled Iraq Living Conditions Survey 2004, questioned more than 21,600 households this time last year. Its findings, released by the Ministry of Planning yesterday, could finally resolve the debate over how many Iraqis were killed in the war that overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.
No word on whether it will resolve the debate over how many Iraqis were dumped into mass graves by Saddam.
The 370-page report said that it was 95 per cent confident that the toll during the war and the first year of occupation was 24,000, but could have been between 18,000 and 29,000. About 12 per cent of those were under 18.
The figure is far lower than the 98,000 deaths estimated in The Lancet last October, which said that it had interviewed nearly 1,000 households. But it is far higher than other figures.
Some of the findings will come as no surprise to Iraqis, who have grown used to poverty, unemployment, power cuts, open sewers and an overwhelmed healthcare system.
And that was before liberation.
The report said that unemployment was now more than 18 per cent, compared with just over 3 per cent in the 1980s. Basic services have also collapsed. Some 85 per cent of households complained of electricity cuts and 29 per cent relied on generators. Only 54 per cent of Iraqi families had clean water. Only 37 per cent were connected to a sewage network, compared with 75 per cent in the 1980s. "If you compare this to the situation in the 1980s, you will see a major deterioration," said Barham Salih, the Iraqi Planning Minister, who described life for Iraqis as tragic.
If only the Iraqi government then had paid attention to basic services.
The report highlighted falling standards of education and healthcare, which had been among the highest in the Arab world but were now among the lowest. The number of Iraqi mothers who die in labour reached 93 in every 100,000 births, compared with 14 in Jordan and 32 in Saudi Arabia.
Mr Salih said that the condition of his country was particularly tragic given its huge oil wealth and access to water. He insisted that the blame lay with Saddam's regime, which had embarked on two wars against its neighbours, persecuted its population and provoked sanctions. "Undeniably, from the perspective of many, the former regime's aggressive policies, its wars, its repression and mismanagement of the economy are an important part of why we are here today," he said.
Wonder if WaPo and the NYT will report that quote.
But he vowed that the new Government would address the formidable problems highlighted by the report. "I hope we will be able to bring a model into Iraq that will turn Iraq from the land of mass graves, lack of development, child mortality and illiteracy into a land of peace, stability and prosperity," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 13:39 ||
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The report is crap. They have more power generation now in terms of MWs than pre-invasion. The large metropolitan (Baghdad, Mosul, Bosra, etc.) have expanded and fully operational H20 treatement and Waste Water Treatment plants at high availability and reliability. Lets not forget the major port and waterway rehabilitation, the renovation and modernization of the railroad and rebuilding of all major bridges. The infrastructure is there and working. There are also more cell phones working now than pre-invasion as well as more businesses and small enterprises operating. Then you have all the new media - print and electronic. But then the report is 2004 and based on interviews. Think about the poll results you would get if you asked people in Florida after the hurricans about electricity, water and transportation effectiveness.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
05/14/2005 14:00 Comments ||
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If you look for the worst, expecting to find it, you surely will.*
*UN motto, yes?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/14/2005 15:27 Comments ||
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They mention The Lancet's 100,000 death count but fail to note how absurdly flawed The Lancet's methods were:
http://www.chicagoboyz.net/archives/002543.html
They note the deaths of 24,000 Iraqis "including many children" but then wait three paragraphs to say that "About 12 per cent of those were under 18". Do they think 12 percent is shockingly high? It is actually shockingly low! 51 percent of the population is 19 or under! See the last table here:
http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/idbsum.pl?cty=IZ
And how does 24,000 dead compare to the 400,000 dead unearthed from Saddam's mass graves to date? It appears to me that Saddam's thugocracy was on average putting about 15,000 to 20,000 people a year into mass graves -- for over 20 years! And his supporters continue their homicidal rage to this very day.
http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/legacyofterror.html
This report is yet another piece of UN crap. We need to stop funding this crap.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/14/2005 16:30 Comments ||
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This report is indeed heavily flawed. What was the cut-off date, April 2004? October, 2004? It can't have been any time in the last three months.
According to Arthur Chrenkoff, almost 2,000 megawatts of new electrical production has come online in the last month. Construction continues on more than a dozen additional power plants that will increase electrical generating capacity to three times prewar level. There are almost 700 sewer and sanitation projects in the works, and another 400+ water projects, ranging from new wells to city water supply products for Basra, Mosul, and Tikrit. One of the biggest problems slowing development in Iraq is the constant barrage of assaults from the old Baathists and Al-Qaida.
Another question the UN failed to ask is how many of that 24,000 were killed by terrorists and their IEDs, VBIEDs, and just plain murder. BIG questions that weren't asked, or at least not reported. The UN strikes again - from the back, with poor aim and no judgment.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/14/2005 16:58 Comments ||
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It is as if the Pakistani powers that be have had, ever since Al Qaeda's retreat from Afghanistan and their withdrawal into Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi, a precise idea of where the chiefs of Al Qaeda could be found. It is as if Pakistan's formidable intelligence service, the ISI, had not only localized but kept these public enemies of the U.S. — and theoretically of Pakistan — under observation, handy for periodic culling.
Posted by: john ||
05/14/2005 13:10 ||
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An investigating officer has recommended that the Marine Corps drop murder charges against 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano, who shot to death two Iraqi insurgents a year ago during a raid on an insurgent hideout in the "Triangle of Death."
The 16-page report from Lt. Col. Mark E. Winn castigates as unreliable the prosecution's chief witness, Sgt. Daniel L. Coburn, whom Lt. Pantano had removed as squad leader weeks before the April 15, 2004 shooting.
"The government was not able to produce credible evidence or testimony that the killings were premeditated," Col. Winn wrote in his May 12 report, a copy of which was obtained today by The Washington Times.
"I think now [Sgt. Coburn] is in a position where he has told his story so many times, in so many versions that he cannot keep his facts straight anymore," Col. Winn wrote of the chief witness.
Col. Winn's decision follows a five-day pretrial hearing last month at Camp Lejeune, N.C., Lt. Pantano's home base. His role is to conduct the hearing and decide whether a court-martial is warranted.
At the Article 32 hearing, defense attorney Charles Gittins argued that Lt. Pantano fired in self-defense after two captured Iraqis moved toward him and ignored his warning, in Arabic, to stop. The two were unarmed.
The case has drawn national attention because the Marines charged Lt. Pantano, 33, with offenses that could bring the death penalty. Critics said the Corps was, in effect, second-guessing the officer at a time of heightened violence in the "Triangle of Death" south of Baghdad, where Iraqi insurgents were killing Marines with some regularity.
Lt. Pantano also boasts a storybook life: After serving in the Marines as an enlisted man and graduating from New York University, he embarked on careers on Wall Street and then as a TV producer. But he gave up a comfortable Manhattan lifestyle and talked his way back into the Marine Corps at 31 to fight terrorists after the September 11 attacks by al Qaeda.
Col. Winn recommended to Maj. Gen. Richard Huck that all criminal charges be dropped, including murder and destruction of the Iraqis' vehicle.
Col. Winn recommended that Lt. Pantano face administration punishment for firing too many rounds at the two men.
Gen. Huck can accept the recommendations or overrule them and order a court-martial of Lt. Pantano.
Since the Hollywood folks have run out of ideas and only to sequels and new editions of old stuff...
Why don't they make an updated Iraqi version of the Rat Patrol? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060018/
I mean, how easy would that be? Plenty of script ideas are around.
Posted by: Christopher George ||
05/14/2005 11:02 Comments ||
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These guys are filming dramatic TV series on location in the middle of a war zone and all the great and holy NYT can say is that they look kind of amateurish?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
05/14/2005 12:04 Comments ||
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#3
Franchise it to Fox and I will make a point to be in front of the TV to watch just to spite the other networks.
#4
Phil: It looks amatuerish because there are no IRL dead Americans. Put a few dead Americans on TV and it just makes the NY Times' day. Then they'll give it rave reviews.
#1
I've got a better idea, why don't you apologize to us for killing innocent civilians, causing the mobilization of our forces and the deaths of our servicemen trying to stamp the crazy turds amongst you out.
RoP my ass.
#3
An apology for something we didn't do? Well, maybe if Clinton was still in office you'd get the concerned, biting-lip type of feel-good nonsense, then we could all hold hands and sing "Give Peace A Chance" like in one of those sappy Coca-Cola ads from the '70's, and wouldn't that be just freakin' wonderful?
No chance, ragheads. You drew first blood, not us. So go hump a few goats for me, will ya?
#4
This isn't our fight, folks. Newsweak is without a doubt saddened this report didn't kill Americans. Mebbe the MooseLimbs should apologize to Newsweak for failing to kill Americans.
Oh wait... I forgot. Mooselimbs are pussies and don't like standup fights.
#5
Such opporunities for American Torte Lawyers [tm] to sign up those who have been injured or had family members killed, to sue Newsweek for publishing unsubstantiated rumor thus creating havoc. IIRC a famous Supreme Court comment, its roughly, 'you can not scream fire in a crowded theater'.
#11
The Parliament of Pakistan - house of enlightened and moderate islam
http://www.dawn.com/2005/05/14/top1.htm
âThis century will be the century of Islam and a day will come when the banner of Islam will fly on the White House,â said MMAâs Sahibzada Abul Khair Mohammad Zubair.
âThere no need to complain to the enemy, it is necessary to take revenge, it is necessary to launch jihad against it,â said another MMA member Maulana Abdul Hakim from the NWFP.
A woman MMA member, Shahida Akhtar Ali, said those defiling the holy Quran outside Pakistan should be punished in the same manner as those committing such act inside the country, and called for a fatwa against them similar to one issued by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeni against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses. After the passage of the resolution, the house was adjourned until 5pm on Monday.
Posted by: john ||
05/14/2005 22:38 Comments ||
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#12
And what if the Newsweek report were true? What difference does the disposition of any particular book make? It's not our holy law. The US doesn't punish anyone for insulting the Prophet, his Quran, or for leaving Islam for another religion. Sharia is not in effect in the US, not yet anyway.
PESHAWAR: Afghan mobs, protesting the desecration of the Holy Quran in Guantanamo Bay, set fire to the offices of the Red Cross in Jalalabad, desecrating the holy book, reported a local TV channel on Friday. The Islamabad-based Pashto language channel AVT Khyber showed footage of angry Afghans setting fire to Red Cross posters that had Quranic verses written on them. These posters are usually used to create awareness about many things; such as, the fight against landmines. "The Red Cross helps Afghanistan and we need to think about what the Afghans achieved by burning their offices," the AVT Khyber TV reported.
That makes sense, in an Islamic kind of way. I guess.
Were they storing polio vaccines in there?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't know, in a way, torching the Red Thingy Cross is a step forward.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/14/2005 11:21 Comments ||
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Controversial Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi would not accept any pardon from Jordan in connection with his conviction for bank fraud, his spokesman said on Friday. Jordanian officials said in Amman on Thursday that the kingdom was considering a request by Iraq to pardon former Pentagon ally Chalabi, but would insist on the return of millions of dollars he was convicted of embezzling. "With reference to the stories in the press about the resolution of the Petra Bank case, Dr Chalabi will not accept a royal pardon," his spokesman Entifadh Qanbar said in a statement. "Such a pardon was offered to Dr Chalabi by His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan in March 1998 but he declined to accept."
"Keep it and buzz off!"
Chalabi's resurgence as one of four deputy prime ministers in Iraq's newly elected government has forced his status onto the agenda of Jordanian-Iraqi ties, the Jordanian officials said. They said King Abdullah told Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who visited Amman this week, that he was ready to review Chalabi's 1992 conviction by a military court. But Qanbar denied Jordanian assertions that Iraq had requested a pardon for Chalabi. "Jordanian officials asked the king to resolve the issue in the interest of relations between Jordan and Iraq," he said. "Dr Chalabi maintains that the shareholders of Petra Bank and its clients must be compensated by the Jordanian authorities for the wrong doing done to them by the martial law committee that took over the bank and squandered its assets."
Translation from the original Arabic: he needs to be compensated.
Jordanian investigators estimated the missing bank deposits at $300 million. Chalabi was convicted in absentia of embezzlement, fraud and breach of trust after Petra Bank collapsed in 1989, shaking Jordan's financial system. Jordanian investigators say they unravelled a web of gross irregularities at the bank which Chalabi founded during a long residence in the country, involving the siphoning of depositors' money to Chalabi's offshore accounts. Chalabi, who fled Jordan as the scandal broke, denies any wrongdoing and says the charges were politically motivated. A pardon would lift a sentence of 22 years hard labour on Chalabi. In the past, Jordan has said Chalabi should face trial even though it has never formally sought his extradition from Iraq. Chalabi has threatened to react to any such move by implicating members of the Jordanian establishment.
"I have a little black book!"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh, like the Republicans want more Democrats in positions of authority and power after the Dems lost the election. Time to flush the State Department once and for all.
Judges in Egypt have refused to oversee September's presidential election unless new legislation is passed guaranteeing their independence. They also want assurances they won't be killed will be allowed to oversee all stages of the electoral process. More than 2,000 judges backed the demands at a Cairo meeting of the judge's club, an elected body of Egypt's judiciary. This is an unprecedented show of defiance to the Egyptian government. The Egyptian government is used to getting its own way, but now it is facing a revolt from a key branch in the state. The country's judges have voted massively to refrain from supervising presidential elections later this year unless the government agrees to their demands. They want parliament to adopt legislation that would make the judiciary completely independent of government control. They also want to supervise all stages of the election, from the preparation of voters' lists to the announcement of results.
There was no mistaking the anger of the judges who attended the Cairo meeting. Speaker after speaker said the judiciary refused to function as a tool in the hands of the government to legitimise fraudulent elections. They complained that in elections five years ago they were restricted to overseeing the actual casting of ballots, while outside voting stations police erected barricades to prevent opposition supporters from entering. The judges agreed they would meet again in September to consider the response to any concessions the government might offer. The meeting was due to be broadcast live by al-Jazeera television, but the station says police arrested its crew to prevent the transmission. Authorities appear to have decided the fury of the judges was too incendiary to broadcast to the general public.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Police registered a case against Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) secretary general Maulana Fazlur Rehman, MMA Punjab President Liaqat Baloch, secretary general Ejaz Hashmi, Maulana Abdul Jalil Naqvi, Senator Sajid Mir, MNA Gul Rehman, district president Sheikh Shahid Hamid, Rana Zahid Farooq and 49 other activists for violating Section 144 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The accused are charged with inciting hatred in their speeches, creating a law and order situation and chanting slogans against the government on May 11 in a public rally at Jogi Chowk. Allegedly, police here sealed the first information report after the case's registration. No one had been arrested yet.
Yeah. Right. We're waiting. I'd guess there'll be token arrests, immediate bail, and then the whole matter will be quietly dropped. We've seen this before.
This article starring:
EJAZ HASHMI
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
FAZLUR REHMAN
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
GUL REHMAN
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
LIAQAT BALOCH
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
MAULANA ABDUL JALIL NAQVI
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
RANA ZAHID FARUQ
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
SENATOR SAJID MIR
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
SHEIKH SHAHID HAMID
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Posted by: Fred ||
05/14/2005 00:00 ||
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Sorry if I copped someone else's goof, but are these guys doing the wave?
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.
Iran may develop the know-how to make nuclear weapons in six to nine months, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Friday. He called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on Iran. "Iran poses an existential threat, and that's why I think that the entire world understands that it's impossible to give such an extremist regime the possibility of having a nuclear bomb that can essentially threaten the integrity of the world," Shalom said Friday in an interview with Israel Radio.
BRITISH marines returning from an operation deep in the Afghan mountains spoke last night of an alarming new threat - being propositioned by swarms of gay local farmers.
Controversial Iraqi politician 
Judges in Egypt have refused to oversee September's presidential election unless new legislation is passed guaranteeing their independence. They also want assurances they 
Police registered a case against 
