International investigators and western intelligence have for the first time named Sudan as a major conduit for sophisticated engineering equipment that could be used in nuclear weapons programmes.
Hundreds of millions of pounds of equipment was imported into the African country over a three-year period before the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington in 2001 and has since disappeared, according to Guardian sources. Western governments, UN detectives and international analysts trying to stem the illicit trade in weapons of mass destruction technology are alarmed by the black market trade.
A European intelligence assessment obtained by the Guardian says Sudan has been using front companies and third countries to import machine tools, gauges and hi-tech processing equipment from western Europe for its military industries in recent years. But it says that Sudan is also being used as a conduit, as anything more complicated than a wheelbarrow or an AK-47 much of the equipment is too sophisticated for use in the country itself. "The suspicion arises that at least some of the machinery was not destined for or not only destined for Sudan," the assessment says. "Among the equipment purchased by Sudan there are dual-use goods whose use in Sudan appears implausible because of their high technological standard."
And the export control officers were all asleep ...
Western analysts and intelligence agencies suspect the equipment has been or is being traded by the nuclear proliferation racket headed by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who admitted nuclear trading two years ago and is under house arrest in Islamabad.
Sudan has been ravaged by internal conflicts for decades, and has until recently been governed by an Islamist regime. Analysts point out that a "failing state" such as Sudan is an ideal candidate for the illicit trading.
David Albright, who is investigating the various players in the Khan network and tracks nuclear proliferation for the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said about £20m worth of dual-use engineering equipment was imported by Sudan between 1999 and 2001. The purchases were denominated in German marks (before the introduction of the euro), suggesting that at least some of the equipment came from Germany.
Investigators say the machinery has not been found in Sudan. Nor has it been found in Libya, since Tripoli gave up its secret nuclear bomb project in December 2003. Given Osama bin Laden's long relationship with Sudan, where he lived before moving to Afghanistan, there had been suspicions of al-Qaida involvement. But the goods have not been found in Afghanistan either. "A huge amount of dual-use equipment was bought by Sudan and people don't know where it went to," Mr Albright said. "It's a big mystery. The equipment has not been found anywhere."
Say, anybody look in Pakistan? Or Iran? Just a thought ...
A senior international investigator confirmed that Sudan had been importing the material and that the transports had ceased in 2001. "No one now seems to be buying to that extent," he said. "Perhaps the activity stopped because they got all that they needed."
While the Khan operation is a main suspect, Iran is also suspected of being behind the Sudanese dealings. "There is the Khan network and then there is a much bigger network in this, and that is the Iranian network," the investigator said.
Yesterday, the Guardian reported that the same European intelligence assessment - which draws on material gathered by British, French, German and Belgian agencies - concluded that the Iranian government had been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to build a nuclear bomb.
Western intelligence and Mr Albright identified a state-owned firm in Khartoum as a "pivotal organisation" in Sudan's procurement of weapons and dual-use technology in eastern and western Europe and Russia. The named company has offices in Tehran, Moscow, Sofia, Istanbul and Beijing. According to the European intelligence assessment, the company "is cooperating intensively with Iran". "It is striking," says the document, "that [the company's] partners are enterprises subordinate to Iran's Defence Industries Organisation. Technology transfer between these two states and links between their programmes cannot be ruled out."
While the machinery was dual-use, meaning that it could be used in civil or military applications, Mr Albright said he understood the equipment was "nuclear-related". "For the people following this, the interest is whether it's nuclear. The assumption is it is."
The likelihood that the machinery was for Sudan is slim, say experts and investigators. "The idea that Sudan could buy and make use of extremely sophisticated nuclear technology is obviously a question mark," said Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear proliferation expert at Washington's Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Sudan is known to have a small civilian nuclear programme, researching nuclear medicine, radiological safety and food irradiation techniques. Never before has it been suspected of involvement in nuclear weapons research, however. It signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 2004.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2006 01:09 ||
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Clandestine nuclear deals traced to Sudan
I won't believe anything in this report until Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame tells me it's true.
#2
Howard was just playing, wr. Purdymouth's christian name is Haroon Rashid Aswat, and he's 31 years old, ie old enough not to enjoy himself in prison.
#3
He migth be joking with the name but I think it should stick. The USG promised not to send him to Gitmo. This guy is really stupid, or at least the folks defending him are. I would much rather be detained at Gitmo, safe and isolated, than say in general pop at Rikers! At Rikers they will have a lot more names for this purdymouth terrorist. His fun is about to start.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
01/05/2006 9:09 Comments ||
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Prominent Jewish rights group, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday of using what it said were anti-Semitic remarks and demanded an apology.
In a televised Christmas Eve speech, Chavez, a left-winger and a former soldier, said that "minorities, descendants of those who crucified Christ ... have grabbed all the wealth of the world for themselves."
Chavez, a Catholic, did not mention the Jewish people and in the same comments referred to the betrayal of Venezuelan liberation hero Simon Bolivar. But the group said his remarks represented central arguments of anti-Semitism -- accusing the Jews of killing Jesus Christ and associating them with wealth.
"Both elements have served as a perfect excuse to justify the most cruel persecution and killing during two millenniums," the Wiesenthal center said in a statement.
"Our center strongly condemns his anti-Semitic declarations. This insult to universal humanitarian values demands an immediate retraction and public apology," it said.
An official from Chavez' presidential palace said the government had no immediate comment.
The center's International Relations Director Shimon Samuels and its Latin America representative Sergio Widder also sent a letter to Chavez demanding an apology, according to the center's statement.
They said they would call on the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay to suspend Venezuela's entry into the Mercosur trade bloc until Chavez apologizes.
The center said "the reactionary and medieval rhetoric" echoed that of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last month expressed doubt the extermination of Jews by the Nazis known as Holocaust occurred and suggested the Jewish state be moved to Europe.
Chavez, a vocal critic of Washington, has recently been fostering ties with Iran as he builds political and trade alliances as an alternative to U.S. influence.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/05/2006 03:04 ||
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#1
With his anti-American rants, his trips to Iran, and now this, Shovez is practically painting a bull's eye on his head.
#4
minorities, descendants of those who crucified Christ ... have grabbed all the wealth of the world for themselves."
Gosh.. I wasn't aware that Pilot and those Roman soldiers had done so well for themselves. Did they get the book and movie rights from HollyRome? Judas must be really ticked that he only got 30 pieces of silver instead of a percentage of the royalties.
Deputy Military Commander Abu Hafs has sent a message to this yearâs Pilgrims, in particular, and to the rest of the Ummah, in general, calling on every Muslim not to forget their brothers in Chechnya, especially during this Holy time of year as he reports on the progress within the Caucasus.
A Message From The Mujahideen In Chechnya To The Ummah
In The Name Of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Praise be to Allah, and peace and prayer be upon our prophet Muhammad, the Imam of Mujahideen who was sent with mercy to all mankind and Jin, his family, and his companions.
Pilgrims Brothers At The Sacred House Of Allah, Muslim Brothers Everywhere
Assalamualikum Wa Rahmatu Allahi Wa Barakatuh
This time is a special time, the first 10 days of Dthu Al-Hejjah, and this season is a special season, it is Pilgrimage season. I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that we are in the best condition; we go from one victory to another, by the Grace of Allah, and by your support and invoking Allah on our behalf. In spite of all plots and slanderous acts against Mujahideen everywhere, Allah will not allow but His light to be perfected, even though the unbelievers may detest (it).
My Muslim Brothers,
The long duration of fighting in Chechnya has strengthened Jihad and the Mujahideen, by the Grace of Allah. Thousands of young and elderly men have come from everywhere to Chechnya and the rest of the Qoqaz area to the point that we felt bad as the facilities and the nature of our operations do are inferior for such a huge number. But Alhamdulillah firstly and Alhamdulillah lastly. Our jihad bore fruits not only on the battle field but also in the political arena. The duration of fighting has already weakened the Russian enemy.
In addition to daily losses, the enemyâs president (Putin) can not fulfill the promise he made to the Russian people before his election. He is facing a real political problem, locally, and internationally. He has promised to put an end to the resistance in Chechnya, but Allah has disgraced him. Signs of victory are very clear here, your brothers are in very high spirit and determination in spite of their injuries. Your brothers here revived those old heroic days of Khalid and Hamza, may Allah be pleased with them. Their performance against the enemy of Allah has been outstanding, so is your brotherâs performance, especially their latest battle in which Shiekh Omar Al-Saif was killed, may Allah accept him as martyr.
O you Muslims who are getting ready to stand atop of Mount Arafat! You owe your brothers here something. You cannot forget them and you must do everything you can to help them and invoke Allah on their behalf. You must stay by their side until total victory is realized, by the Grace of Allah.
And remember, the prophet, peace be upon him said:
âThe relationship between the believers is like one body, if a part of that body suffers from anything, the rest of the body responds by feeling the heat and staying up.â
May Allah accept good deeds from us all. Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the worlds.
Allahu Akbar and glory is to Islam.
Your brother,
Abu Hafs
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/05/2006 00:23 ||
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O you Muslims who are getting ready to stand atop of Mount Arafat! You owe your brothers here something. You cannot forget them and you must do everything you can to help them and invoke Allah on their behalf. You must stay by their side until total victory is realized, by the Grace of Allah.
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - A U.S.-based human rights group said Wednesday it suspects the CIA had a secret prison in a third European country and it plans to investigate. Human Rights Watch did not identify the third country but said it was one of the 25 members of the European Union. Previously, the group identified Poland and Romania as sites of possible secret detention centers run by the United States.
"We do have one other individual allegation of a country, a country that is a member of the European Union," Lotte Leicht, director of the group's Brussels-based office, told the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights on Wednesday. "We are trying to conduct a surprise visit there."
"Right after our PR department gets the press release out!"
Leicht refused to give more details, fearing it would compromise the investigation. But she told The Associated Press the New York-based human rights watchdog considered its source "very credible." "We have lots of information from intelligence sources that are so far not willing to go public. We know that if they do, they will ... lose their jobs," Leicht told the committee.
As they should, of course.
Allegations that the CIA hid and interrogated key al-Qaida suspects at Soviet-era compounds in Eastern Europe were first reported Nov. 2 in The Washington Post. After the report appeared, Human Rights Watch said it had circumstantial evidence indicating the CIA transported suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania.
Both countries have repeatedly denied any involvement and EU officials say nothing has been proven.
Despite all the 'credible' sources HRW had.
Poland said last week it had closed its investigation into allegations that the country may have hosted secret CIA prisons, but did not release any findings.
Leicht urged the European Parliament to pressure member governments to help obtain details from secret services on the alleged detention centers. "Getting information from those sources is almost impossible," she said.
Which is the way it should be. It's hilarious: he says they have credible sources, then he pleads for access.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2006 01:29 ||
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' "Getting information from those sources is almost impossible," she said.' Probably about equal of her chances of gettting laid.
#4
This is the leak case that should have been prosecuted to the max to set the example so the one we are dealing with now never would have had to happen. Either way these guys should be prosecuted to. Treason is Treason is Treason
#6
"suspects...
possible...
one other individual allegation...
refused to give more details, fearing it would compromise the investigation...
allegations...
circumstantial evidence...
allegations..."
Remember, folks. When a government goes after somebody working with the above criteria, Human Waste Watch is all over them for rights violations. When Human Waste Watch goes after a government with the above criteria, they are "seizing the moral high ground".
Looks like we found Risen's probable source, my guess is he gets the Dick Clarke treatment from the press.
A former National Security Agency official wants to tell Congress about electronic intelligence programs that he asserts were carried out illegally by the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Russ Tice, a whistleblower who was dismissed from the NSA last year, stated in letters to the House and Senate intelligence committees that he is prepared to testify about highly classified Special Access Programs, or SAPs, that were improperly carried out by both the NSA and the DIA.
"I intend to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency and with the Defense Intelligence Agency," Mr. Tice stated in the Dec. 16 letters, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Times.
The letters were sent the same day that the New York Times revealed that the NSA was engaged in a clandestine eavesdropping program that bypassed the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. The FISA court issues orders for targeted electronic and other surveillance by the government.
President Bush said Sunday that the NSA spying is "a necessary program" aimed at finding international terrorists by tracking phone numbers linked to al Qaeda.
Mr. Bush said during a visit to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio that al Qaeda is "making phone calls, [and] it makes sense to find out why."
Critics of the eavesdropping program, which gathered and sifted through large amounts of telephone and e-mail to search for clues to terrorists' communications, say the activities might have been illegal because they were carried out without obtaining a FISA court order.
The Justice Department has said the program is legal under presidential powers authorized by Congress in 2001.
Mr. Tice said yesterday that he was not part of the intercept program.
In his Dec. 16 letter, Mr. Tice wrote that his testimony would be given under the provisions of the 1998 Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, which makes it legal for intelligence officials to disclose wrongdoing without being punished.
The activities involved the NSA director, the NSA deputies chief of staff for air and space operations and the secretary of defense, he stated.
"These ... acts were conducted via very highly sensitive intelligence programs and operations known as Special Access Programs," Mr. Tice said.
The letters were sent to Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican, and Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican. Mr. Roberts is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Mr. Hoekstra is chairman of the House counterpart.
Spokesmen for the NSA and the Senate intelligence committee declined to comment. Spokesmen for the House intelligence committee and the DIA said they were aware of Mr. Tice's letters, but had not seen formal copies of them.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/05/2006 03:00 ||
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1998 Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act
for Dhimmidonks, MSM slime & Poseurs, this be the artifice for treason.
Under the provisions of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act (ICWPA), I intend to report to Congress probably unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency (NSA) and with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). These acts involve the Director of the National Security Agency, the Deputies Chief of Staff for Air and Space Operations, and the U.S. Secretary of Defence.
The probably unlawful and unconstitutional acts were conducted via very highly sensitive intelligence programs and operations known as Special Access Programs (SAP)s. I was a technical intelligence specialist dealing almost exclusively with SAP programs and operations at both NSA and DIA.
Due to the highly sensitive nature of these programs and operations, I will require assurances from your committee that the staffers anb/or congressional members to participate retain the proper security clearances, and also have the appropriate SAP cleared facilities available for these discussions.
Please inform me when you require my appearance on Capital Hill to conduct these discussions in relation to this ICWPA report.
#4
So here is some more from an interview Tice had with Amy Goodwin.
"Tice:But when weâre talking about information on the American public, which is a violation of the FISA law, then I think it's even something more to be concerned about.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you ever asked to engage in this?
RUSSELL TICE: No, no, and if I did so, I did so unwittingly, which I have a feeling would be the case for many of the people involved in this. More than likely this was very closely held at the upper echelons at N.S.A., and mainly because these people knew -- (lots of names dropped) ---they all knew this was illegal. So, you know, they kept it from the populace of N.S.A., because every N.S.A. officer certainly knows this is illegal."
So, I take from this interview, he never actually did anything he is now willing to report to Congress. He only knows of it, perhaps, at best, as second hand knowlege. The interview goes on to talk about compartmentalized programs and such and can be found here:
#5
I think I warned you all about the LLL trotting out Russell Tice as their next patriot/traitor. Just for full disclosure Tice was removed from his NSA job after accusing a co-worker of spying. After it was determined that the co-worker was not a spy, Tice was forced to undergo a psych evaluation. After the evaluation Russ was diagnosed as paranoid delusional, this is a common symptom with people with depression. So to make this long story short (to late) Russ is a certified Moon Bat. Please OH PLEASE let him testify on behalf of the left in Congress, I will bet that at some time ole Russ will slip back and reveal his true LLL moonbat self in front of congress.
#6
A National Security Agency official should know not to go to the press with national security issues, but to go to Congress. That is why we have a freaking balance of power. I don't care if he's completely correct and laws were broken this tool could very easily have hurt the war effort.
If it is determined that what he reported was a crime, he should get life in prison.
If it is determined that what he reported was not a crime after all, he should be hung.
BY NOW it is no secret that the timing of James Risen's December 16 bombshell concerning the NSA's eavesdropping program coincided neatly with the publication of his new book, State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration. As a veteran reporter covering the U.S. intelligence community for the New York Times, Risen is uniquely positioned to spill at least some of the details of this secret history. But perhaps not in the manner he thinks.
Risen's book-promoting tour made a stop on NBC's Today Show with Katie Couric on January 3. Risen used the opportunity to testify to the veracity and nobility of his sources in the NSA eavesdropping matter. According to a summary of his appearance offered by ABC:
On NBC's "Today" show this morning, New York Times scribe Jim Risen told Katie Couric that he hopes he will not have to reveal his sources to a grand jury and declared his story to be the exact opposite of the Plame case. Risen claims his sources revealed information for the best possible reasons and he went on to declare those sources "patriots."
According to media critic Mark Finkelstein, "time and again, Risen defended his sources as having the 'purest' and 'best' motives, springing entirely from their concern for the rule of law."
But if history is any indication, Risen should be a bit more skeptical of his sources and their motives, in general.
As has been pointed out previously (see articles in THE DAILY STANDARD here and here), Risen's sources led him astray regarding the interrogation of senior al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. Risen's anonymous sources told him that Zubaydah had denied that Saddam and al Qaeda were working together and he reported this bogus account ("Threats and Responses: C.I.A.; Captives Deny Qaeda Worked With Baghdad") in the New York Times on June 9, 2003.
"Several [anonymous] officials," told Risen that a transcript of Zubaydah's interrogation was circulated "within the American intelligence community last year . . . his statements were not included in public discussions by administration officials about the evidence concerning Iraq-Qaeda ties."
Thus, according to Risen's sources, the Bush administration was being duplicitous by not citing Zubaydah's testimony, which supposedly cut against the case for linking Saddam and al Qaeda.
What Risen's sources did not tell him--and we did not learn until more than a year later, when the Senate Intelligence Committee issued its report on prewar intelligence--was that Zubaydah "also said, however, that any relationship would be highly compartmented and went on to name al-Qaida members who he thought had good contacts with the Iraqis. For instance, Abu Zubaydah indicated that he had heard that an important al-Qaida associate, Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, and others had good relationships with Iraqi intelligence."
That portion of Zubaydah's interrogation never made it into Risen's June 9, 2003 account. Why? Because his anonymous sources--the same types he now tells us have the "purest" and "best" motives and who are "patriots"--didn't tell him that.
As Edward Jay Epstein noted in his 1975 book, Between Fact and Fiction, "The problem of journalism in America proceeds from a simple but inescapable bind: journalists are rarely, if ever, in a position to establish the truth about an issue for themselves, and they are therefore almost entirely dependent on self-interested 'sources' for the version of reality that they report."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/05/2006 02:53 ||
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Was he joking or was the President tacitly giving the go-ahead to torture al-Qaeda leaders?
âWho authorized putting him on pain medication?â U.S. President George W. Bush reportedly said to George Tenet, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency who had just informed his boss that captured and badly wounded al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah was too drugged to answer his interrogators coherently, according to an uncorroborated account to be published today.
That enigmatic exchange between Mr. Bush and Mr. Tenet â the CIA chief who famously said finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq would be a âslam dunkâ â appears in State of War, a searing indictment of the CIA and the Bush administration's secret operations.
Author James Risen, the New York Times national security correspondent, suggests the President may have been signalling that rough handling was fine with him.
âIt is possible that this was just one more piece of jocular banter between two plain-speaking men, according to the source who recounted this incident,â Mr. Risen writes. âBut it is also possible that the comment meant something more. Was the President of the United States secretly encouraging the director of Central Intelligence to order the harsh treatment of a prisoner? If so, this episode offers the most direct link between Bush and the harsh treatment of prisoners by both the CIA and the U.S. military. If Bush made the comment in order to push the CIA to get tough with Abu Zubaydah, he was doing so indirectly, without the paper trail that would have come from a written presidential authorization.â
Like most of the most damning indictments in Mr. Risen's book, to be published Thursday, the account comes from anonymous sources. Mr. Risen defends his reliance on them, saying âall reporters know that the very best stories â the most important, the most sensitive â rely on them.â
His own reporting, notably the bombshell revelation last month that Mr. Bush had ordered clandestine eavesdropping on U.S. citizens and residents without bothering to seek court orders, has already rocked the administration. The President has both confirmed the substance of the domestic eavesdropping story and defended it as legal and vital for national security.
âNo one disputes that we should be listening to terroristsâ Mr. Risen said yesterday. The issue, is whether the President has circumvented the law to order electronic surveillance not on a handful of al-Qaeda suspects but hundreds, perhaps thousands, of U.S. residents.
The CIA has counter-attacked the book, accusing Mr. Risen of disclosing details of ongoing intelligence operations. âSetting aside whether what he wrote is accurate or inaccurate, it demonstrates an unfathomable and sad disregard for U.S. national security and those who take life-threatening risks to ensure it,â the CIA said in an e-mailed statement when asked for comment. âReaders deserve to know that every chapter of State of War contains serious inaccuracies,â it added, without saying what they are.
In the murky and clandestine world of spying, Mr. Risen sources may be driven by noble motives; dismayed at what has become of the once-proud CIA under the Bush administration. But they may also be engaged in deliberate disinformation campaigns.
State of War chronicles both stunning incompetence by the CIA and portrays the Bush administration as driven by neoconservatives determined not to let facts get in the way of an ideological war aims. âThe CIA has been so deeply politicized by the Bush administration that its credibility has vanished,â Mr. Risen writes.
The CIA has also been transformed from a spying operation to something far larger and more ominous, a hybrid that even CIA staff question, Mr. Risen said. âDo you want a large paramilitary operation in your intelligence community along with secret detention facilities at a time when your basic intelligence gathering capabilities are in question,â he asked.
Among the more recent and egregious CIA blunders, according to Mr. Risen, was the outing of the agency's entire list of spies inside Iran because their handler at headquarters in Virginia mistakenly sent a mass e-mail disclosing their identities to Tehran âThis espionage disaster left the CIA virtually blind in Iran, unable to provide any significant intelligence on one of the most critical issues facing the United States â whether Tehran was about to go nuclear,â Mr. Risen writes.
Even if the CIA knew, it might no longer be believed.
âWill the American people trust what the CIA says about other countries and WMD [weapons of mass destruction] after Iraq,â Mr. Risen asked. âHow much can you trust what they say after they were so adamant that there was WMD and now we know there wasn't and we went to war on that issue,â Mr. Risen added in the interview. âIt doesn't get much worse than that.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/05/2006 00:16 ||
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I'll go one better. I don't trust the CIA or Risen.
I sure as hell don't trust a press willing to print our most vital secrets in a time of war. Reporters and The MSM are trators. Trators must pay.
Finally, and relatedly, the details of the program from Risen's book arguably explains the national security interest in keeping the domestic surveillance program a secret. It's not that terrorists may suddenly realize that they may be monitored; that argument never made much sense, as every member of Al-Qaeda must know that they may be monitored. Rather, I suspect the security issue is twofold. In the short term, terrorist groups now know that they can stand a significantly better chance of hiding their communications from the NSA by chosing communications systems that don't happen to route through the U.S. And in the long term, some countries may react to the disclosures of the program by redesigning their telecommunications networks so less traffic goes through the United States. The more people abroad know that the NSA can easily watch their communications routed through the U.S., the less people will be willing to route their communications through the U.S. Cf. Bruce Hayden's comment. No doubt it was a long-term priority of the NSA to ensure that lots of international communications traffic was routed through the U.S., where the NSA could have much better access to it. Indeed, Risen's book more or less says this. The disclosure of the program presumably helps frustrate that objective.
Orrin Kerr is one of the smartest, most astute commenters on the NSA program kerfluffle out there; his other posts at the Volokh Conspiracy are well-reasoned, taut and clear. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand the legal issues in surveillance and eavesdropping in a time of war.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/05/2006 00:13 ||
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Nice try, but not good enough as US capabilities and systems have their Radical asses covered no matter where in the earth they are. THE SPETZLAMISTS ARE DEALING WID A NATION THAT IS ALREADY DEPLOYING GMD AND SPACED-BASED/LOW + HIGH ORBIT RECCE AND LASER FIRE SUPPORT. Its Navy, etc. ships and air are intended to have BMD capabilities. Iff America's enemies in the future wanna see a USAF bomber they have to use a telescope. In any case, the DemoLefties will have IMPEACHMENT TALK = INDICTMENT = AMER HIROSHIMA(S), ETC for America's national summertime TV viewing later this year.
#2
by chosing communications systems that don't happen to route through the U.S.
There it goes, Risin did it. Bloody Hell were screwed! That will do it, we're all washed up, finished. Might as well turn Meade into a looooooong term Katrina refugee center. Wonder how many folks you could bed down in the FANX?
President Bush said Wednesday that the Iraqi police and armed forces were improving their performance and that if 2006 unfolded as he expected, he should be able to consider reducing the number of American troops in Iraq later this year.
Speaking after a briefing with his senior commanders at the Pentagon, Mr. Bush continued his campaign to shore up public opinion about the war, casting it again as part of a broader struggle to protect the United States from Al Qaeda and pointing to the progress Iraqis are making toward democratic self-government.
Painting a picture of progress while acknowledging that violence would continue, he spoke about how the Iraqi Army had taken the lead in protecting polling places during the Dec 15 parliamentary elections and about the halting steps since then toward the creation of a permanent Iraqi government. He discussed a new program under which American forces were working side by side with Iraqi police trainees, much as they have with Iraqi military units.
Concerning troop levels, Mr. Bush stuck to the formula he has used for the several years: American troops will begin coming home in large numbers only when his generals determine Iraq has stabilized and Iraqi forces can keep it that way.
In doing so, he took a veiled swipe at Democrats in Congress calling for an immediate or speedy withdrawal.
"Later this year, if Iraqis continue to make progress on the security and political sides that we expect, we can discuss further possible adjustments with the leaders of a new government in Iraq," he said.
"My decisions will be based upon conditions on the ground and the recommendations of our commanders, not based by false political timetables in Washington, D.C.," he said. "I'm not going to let politics get in the way of doing the right thing in Iraq, and the American people have got to understand that."
Mr. Bush and his team get regular briefings from commanders in Iraq, and the session at the Pentagon on Wednesday appeared to be as much an excuse for him to continue his efforts to rally public opinion about the war as for him to get any new information on the military situation.
A few hours after Mr. Bush spoke, Vice President Dick Cheney struck some of the same themes in a speech in Washington. Mr. Cheney, who has consistently advocated an expansive view of presidential powers, especially in wartime, also made an unusually personal defense of the administration's use of the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on some international calls involving people in the United States. Disclosure of the program set off a storm of criticism that the administration had infringed on the civil liberties of Americans and possibly acted illegally.
Mr. Cheney cited his early career in Washington, in the Ford administration right after Watergate, "at a time when there was great and legitimate concern about civil liberties and about potential abuses within the executive branch." That period, he said, "shapes my own outlook to this very day."
"We were adamant about following the law and protecting civil liberties of all Americans, and we did so," he said. "Three decades later, I work for a president who shares those same values. He has made clear from the outset, both publicly and privately, that our duty to uphold the law of the land admits no exceptions in wartime."
In his appearance at the Pentagon, Mr. Bush repeated themes he has struck in recent weeks, including an acknowledgment of the difficulties the United States has faced in Iraq.
He referred to reports of abuse of Sunni Arabs by Shiite Iraqi policemen, saying such conduct was unacceptable. And he acknowledged the pain of Americans who had lost service members, including "those who had a sorrowful season because a seat at the table was empty."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/05/2006 00:13 ||
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#1
Scroll down on Officers Club's homepage, for a discussion of US field use of After Action Reviews (AARs), to maintain tactical advantage over Iraq terrorists. I like the tactics; the general nation-building strategy is what is unworkable.
http://officersclub.blogspot.com/
#3
President Bush said Wednesday that the Iraqi police and armed forces were improving their performance and that if 2006 unfolded as he expected, he should be able to consider reducing the number of American troops in Iraq later this year.
I don't see the need to keep repeating this. Objectives and details should be old hat by now, and anyone that still doesn't get it at this late date should just get a swift boot in the ass instead of an explanation. If GWB really needs to "shore up public opinion", he would do well to point out clearly how the opposition and most of the media are obviously trying to torpedo our chances for success.
EFL. (really)
Bandits armed with guns easily purchased in the United States are making the border more dangerous for illegal immigrants, law enforcement agents and those who live, work or visit along the border.
Reports of attacks began coming across Mitch Ellis' desk a year ago when he became manager of Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, a rugged expanse of mesquite- and prickly pear-studded desert about 60 miles southwest of Tucson along the Arizona-Mexico border. Just a couple of paragraphs long, they document stories of women raped by masked gunmen and men wounded or killed trying to protect the little money they had. The crimes have become common here since the U.S. crackdown on urban areas along the border pushed illegal immigrants, and drew the bandits, or bajadores, who prey on them, into Arizona's deserts. The bandits add another layer of criminal activity to the drug and human smuggling along the border. It's always America's fault.
Five people were shot in bandit-related attacks on or near the refuge during November alone. Deputy Dawn Barkman, a spokeswoman for the Pima County Sheriff's Department, which investigates many of the incidents, called the bandit attacks an "epidemic." The department recorded 39 incidents - accounting for hundreds of individual victims - in 2005, up from 31 in 2004.
But the numbers barely scratch the surface, said sheriff's Sgt. Gary Anderson, who is in charge of investigating assaults for the department. "The victims tell us that they've already been assaulted two or three times before the last incident," he said. Most attacks aren't reported, and illegal immigrants continue on their way.
Long-time ranger and National Guard member Todd Kyle takes no risks. Each morning at dawn, he pulls on the same bulletproof vest that protected him during his tour of duty in Iraq. He returned home early last year. He brought back an extra vest for visitors who accompany him on patrols. "I won't go out there without one, so why should I let someone else?" he asked.
Adam Blankenbaker hunts white-tailed deer and javelina on the refuge with his bow and arrow several times a year. He started carrying a 9 mm handgun last year after he found an illegal immigrant trying to steal his truck. It's against Game & Fish regulations to carry a gun during archery hunts, but it's become common among hunters. They have little choice, he said. "If I walk around a corner down in a wash and next thing you know there's 10 guys there with assault weapons and I've got my bow and arrow," he said, "my bow's not going to do me any good."
A year ago, the refuge began distributing fliers warning its estimated 35,000 annual visitors to "stay alert" for illegal activity, high-speed chases, and large, potentially armed groups of illegal immigrants or drug smugglers.
Of the five people shot in November, two died. Four were illegal immigrants. One was a bandit killed in a shootout between two gangs trying to rob the same group
To evade capture, bandits typically operate within a few miles of either side of the border. If the bandits are in Arizona and American law enforcement officers show up, they dash across the barbed-wire fence into Mexico, said Enrique Enriquez Palafox, Nogales coordinator of Grupos Beta, Mexico's official immigrant aid organization. If they're south of the border and Mexican authorities appear, they dart into the United States, he said. A wall would make that a lot harder. Or, since Mexican Army units cross the border to help criminals against BP units, why not have our BP chase them across?
Enriquez came across a gang holding up a large group while patrolling the border west of Nogales. They took off as soon as they saw his bright orange Grupos Beta uniform but he managed to nab one just feet from escaping into the United States. "As soon as I grabbed his leg, his friends started shooting at me," said Enriquez, as he leaned over to undo the laces of his boot. He rolled up his pant leg to reveal an 18-inch scar that runs the length of his right calf. "I took five bullets," he said. It took him a year to recover. Some Mexicans are as brave and believe in duty as much as any American.
It often seems the smugglers are in cahoots with bandits. "They never touch the smugglers," said Francisco Garcia, who runs an immigrant shelter in Altar, "even though they carry the most money."
Or it could be that the bandits simply leave the smugglers alone. The smugglers bring the bandits business, he said, "and you don't kill the goose that lays the golden egg."
#1
the crimes are Mexican upon Mexican. Before the San Diego Sector fence was built it was documented that the VAST majority was Mexican predatation, very often with police and army personnel getting a little mordida or rape
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2006 21:09 Comments ||
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This site hosts a nicely done interactive map showing the current domestic and international basing at the brigade level. You can click on the Maps link for information at other levels as well.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/05/2006 16:13 ||
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This is cool and all but I can easily remember a time when whispering this type of intel in a bar would get you orders to Kodiak or Thule for the rest of your tour (if you were lucky).
The Joint Chiefs of Staff will endorse a Defense Department plan to raise TRICARE fees sharply over the next three years for under-65 retirees and their families, senior military officers said.
That really cheeses me off. One of the big reasons many of us hung around for 20 was so we wouldn't have to worry about healthcare costs.
The chiefs are doing so because they're alarmed that soaring health care costs are crimping dollars for higher-priority programs, the officers said. One officer described a likely scenario, early in 2006, of the nation's top military leaders sitting shoulder to shoulder before Congress' armed services committees, testifying that medical costs were now a critical readiness issue.
Most of the doctors we see are contract civilian doctors, not military doctors.
Higher TRICARE fees for younger retirees also will be endorsed in the Quadrennial Defense Review report. The chiefs are completing the report to propose a realignment of programs to meet future needs. The review's recommendations are expected to be unveiled in early February, when the Bush administration sends its 2007 defense budget request to Congress. The "24-star" endorsement is a reference to the six four-star officers who make up the Joint Chiefs: the chairman, the vice chairman and the top officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. The endorsement is seen as necessary to persuade Congress to accept the first TRICARE fee increases in a decade - then help insulate supportive lawmakers from the wrath of angry retirees.
They'll feel my wrath, by golly...
As first reported here, defense officials want annual enrollment fees for TRICARE Prime, the military's managed-care plan, to more than triple by October 2008 for working-age retired officers. They would go from $230 for an individual - and $460 for family coverage - to $750 and $1,500, respectively. The fees would double - to $450 and $900, respectively - for under-65 enlisted retirees. Retirees who use TRICARE Standard, the military's traditional fee-for-service health insurance, would also see their annual deductibles raised. They also would pay - for the first time - an annual enrollment fee. Beyond 2008, all TRICARE fees and co-payments would be indexed to medical inflation.
I know the fees are reasonable from a civilian point of view, but when compared to the expectation of military healthcare for life at no out of pocket cost they're pretty high.
TRICARE retail pharmacy co-payments also would be raised, which would be the only change to also affect Medicare-eligible retirees. The goal would be to discourage purchase of maintenance medicines through the more expensive retail network by increasing the $3 co-payment for generic drugs to $5 - while offering free generic drugs for mail orders. The current $9 co-pay for brand name drugs would jump to $15 by retail and $10 by mail order. Officials assume a 14 percent shift of TRICARE retail users to base pharmacies or into the mail-order program.
#1
The chiefs are doing so because they're alarmed that soaring health care costs
Don't suppose "soaring costs" would have anything at all to do with the federal gov'mnt mandate to treat everybody that walks through the door of a hospital, no matter if they have money, insurance, citizenship or not. A mandate that has essentially turned hospital emergency rooms into free clinics?
"Look Ben, recruitment be up - slip this one in NOW!"
#2
While I am NEVER happy about paying more money for anything, I was halfway expecting some sort of hike. I didn't quite expect that big of a hike and it will be a little painful. Luckily I have some other option at work and will explore those.
#3
Part of the problem is the Hollywood bookkeeping the government does. The Pentagon is charged with the cost on their books even though it is retirement. Retiree support is an obligation, one done by contract between two parties which are operating with honorable intentions, which we see now are not. The obligation only disappears when the government declares unilaterally that what it 'promised' is now null and void. I can certainly understand the active duty leadership being concerned as they see that they are being tagged with an obligation which by 2010 means that 70% of all health care costs will be spent upon retirees. That is nothing to sneeze about. However, it is really Congress' obligation for having run the system that way for years [just like Social Security]. The proverbal hens are just coming to roost sooner with TriCare. This will impact the 12 to 15 year service personnel who will be in the commit or get out time frame. They have to think about taking care of their families. Every year they delay getting out means they have to compete that much harder against someone who's work the company for years before them. It will certainly not be an incentive to stay. They need to start securing their families' medical insurance right then cause they see there is no 'promise' that will be upheld by the pols. After 10 years there is no service obligation, so once they're gone, they're not coming back. Hard to make up 12 years of experience. Once the threat slackens its going to be very hard to keep the good ones, but Congress would rather nickel and dime them to death but have lots of pork for the newspaper columns back home. Nothing changes.
#5
It may be time for another Veterans' March on Washington, to remind Congress and the bureaucracy that they made promises, and we expect them to keep them. Between having to wait a month for even a routine appointment, and having to pay so much out of pocked for seeing a doctor, prescriptions, and non-standard treatment, it's beginning to cost more and more every year. Perhaps the Congress should end some of THEIR benefits, if they expect us to accept higher costs for what was promised as free. A good oak "reminder" may help jog a few memories, starting with people like Byrd, Schumer, Kerry, Kennedy, Levin, and a bunch of other pork-snarfers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/05/2006 21:50 Comments ||
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Posted by: Captain America ||
01/05/2006 08:29 ||
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Russ Tice, a whistleblower who was dismissed from the NSA last year
NB: He was fired after repeatedly making accusations that a co-worker was a Chinese spy. The co-worker was investigated and cleared.
Funny how Tice is a "whistleblower" while Linda Tripp was savaged for exposing Clinton's perjury.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/05/2006 8:42 Comments ||
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#2
It's kinda like losing your license to practice law or medicine. You may still call yourself a lawyer or a doc, but nobody will hire you. Go wacko and lose your access and guess what, you can still call yourself an analyst, but SCIF access is a real bitch. Shoot the bastard and be done with him.
#3
Whistleblowing is one thing. Leaking classified to to the NYT is treason. Send this ass to jail.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
01/05/2006 9:00 Comments ||
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#4
"I intend to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency and with the Defense Intelligence Agency," Mr. Tice stated in the Dec. 16 letters,".
So this means that anytime any employee of any organization feels something is illegal, it is? This whole thing is based on probable unlawful acts? Of course this is coming from the MSM which has given us Katrina reporting and West Virginia coal mining reporting.
#6
he's trying to get immunity from congresscritters that'll protect him from his actions. Pelosi and Murtha and Reid would surely grant that in hopes that he could damage Bush, even if the monitoring was legal (which it is). They'd rather damage national security in hopes of scoring political points. Scumbags. Fortunately, they won't be deciding whether to grant immunity. Mr. Tice is sweating a Leavenworth cell
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2006 9:48 Comments ||
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#7
He's also hoping to become a media darling, courageous whistleblower telling all on the evil policies of BusHitler and Challiburton. Perhaps he hopes to win an acquittal in the court of public opinion. His chances might be higher if he hqad gone to Congress before going to the Slimes.
#8
He's also hoping to become a media darling, courageous whistleblower telling all on the evil policies of BusHitler and Challiburton. Perhaps he hopes to win an acquittal in the court of public opinion
#9
I repeated this in the other thread:
I think I warned you all about the LLL trotting out Russell Tice as their next patriot/traitor. Just for full disclosure Tice was removed from his NSA job after accusing a co-worker of spying. After it was determined that the co-worker was not a spy, Tice was forced to undergo a psych evaluation. After the evaluation Russ was diagnosed as paranoid delusional, this is a common symptom with people with depression. So to make this long story short (to late) Russ is a certified Moon Bat. Please OH PLEASE let him testify on behalf of the left in Congress, I will bet that at some time ole Russ will slip back and reveal his true LLL moonbat self in front of congress.
#11
It's seems an unsavory pattern of several agents having these "episodes", of ratting out our government.
We need to step up our screening for these guys/gals to get into this job. Not as severe as the BUDS program, but better than getting in because of who one knows possibly. It sure seems to be lacking in getting quality folks here.
As it only takes one bad apple....
Most importantly, we need to severely punish these "whistleblowers". Swiftly. Let it be known to anyone even remotely thinking about ratting us out, that we will snuff them out.
Better to have quality folks rather than have to worry about the media.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/05/2006 10:29 Comments ||
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#12
CyberSarge, thanks for the tip on the article. Very helpful. You may want to upload it as a post.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2006 10:47 Comments ||
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#14
I warned you all about the LLL trotting out Russell Tice as their next patriot/traitor. Just for full disclosure Tice was removed from his NSA job after accusing a co-worker of spying. After it was determined that the co-worker was not a spy, Tice was forced to undergo a psych evaluation. After the evaluation Russ was diagnosed as paranoid delusional, this is a common symptom with people with depression.
Is Karl Rove really this much of genius or is the left really this stupid? With all that's transpired since 2004 - I think the answer is obvious.
#17
So this means that anytime any employee of any organization feels something is illegal, it is? This whole thing is based on probable unlawful acts?
Isn't there a chain of command to follow when a problem arises, and if no satisfaction is to be had in the process, either live with it or quit?
#19
Rumor has it, the whistleblower act he testified under was NOT about the program, but about a coworker being a spy, which turned out to be unproven and improbable (i.e. the person didnt lose their job). His harassment after the fact probably cost him his job.
The NSA is not exempt from having self righteous pricks, and this guy sounds like one.
Mr. Tice said yesterday that he was not part of the intercept program.
So - he was not in the program, and knowing the NSA, this was probably compartmentalized all to hell. So what security breach did he commit to access material he had no "need to know"? Or is he talking hearsay and innuendo? Either way he broke law: improper access to classifed, or perjury before congress.
makes it legal for intelligence officials to disclose wrongdoing without being punished
This does NOT exonerate him from leaking the data to the NYT. If he did so, he comitted a crime under U.S.C. 18 s 768.
One other thing: check his background. This guy is a walking s**tstick, and I'll be gald when they prosecute him and lock him up with the Walkers and Hanassen. He is costing US lives.
#20
Heh - someone DID check his background and foudn what I was talking about (I didn't know if it was unclassified or not - it was "RUMINT")
They get on the psychiatry stuff, the Dems will drop him like a hot potato.
NYT and the Dims are going to be eating it bigtime on this: they are going on the word of a psychotic paranoid disgrunteled ex-employee.
Apparently the Dems and NYT will accept anythign uncritically as long as it agress with thier "bush is evil" world view - they didnt even bother to check this guy out sufficiently!
#22
oooh...nimble. That's interesting. I've been thinking for some time that we have a group, very high up in the intelligence committee that has been working against our interests. Saddam and Osama always getting the heads up moments in advance of strikes, etc.
If Tice indeed has ties to Wilson and Co, it may be that this group's connections and their abuse of power is about to become exposed.
I think lots of these people are going to be just ordinary guys who abuse their power because they believe their motives are pure. Funny how as much things change, they stay the same. In the sixties - the CIA was accused of abusing power for political purposes - and the left was all over it. Now they support it. Sheesh.
This could be big - but it will be 20 years before it all gets sorted out.
#23
OS, He is a raving loon on par with Bill Burkett (or Guard memos fame). The picture at the link is a classic "I am a spy" photo op that NOBODY ever takes at the Agency unless it is for comedic purposes. All, yes NSA has all kinds of safeguards and operators get an annual briefing about not intercepting U.S. person and the law. If it were illegal there would have been a stampede of employees coming forth from the agency and not a single clinically depressed ex-employee. P.S. I worked there 1983-1988.
#25
Rush's soucer was The American Thinker blog. It is swamped, so here is the excerpt:
More significantly, Tice is a member of a group formed in August 2004 called National Security Whistleblowers. Hereâs their website.
But if you look at the NSW group you may notice that the founder, director and chief spokesperson of the group is Sibel Edmunds. She has faced a real uphill battle in her struggle with the FBI, which dismissed her. And her story about why she was fired from the FBI has a number of variations, although she, like Wilson/Plame, numbers among the darlings of the Bushitler crowd.
Then look at the groupâs list of members. Along with more familiar names like Daniel Ellsburg, youâll see Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer on the list. Youâll also find Ray McGovern and Larry Johnson. These are members of VIPS, the group that encouraged intelligence agents to leak, shopped Wilson and his story (Johnson was in the agency with Plame and is close to her.) As I noted earlier here, they seem to have been behind much of the Plame/Wilson story. I smell the same public relations/media campaign .The same phony claims of maltreated government employees. If Tice was a source for Risen, and itâs not clear he was, the reporter was certainly casting a broad net. For as Mr. Gertz notes in his article:
âMr. Tice said yesterday that he was not part of the intercept program.â
The only significant difference between the original Plame/Wilson scandal and the revival at NSA is that the same folks who moaned about a major intelligence breach that had to be punished when Valerie Wilsonâs desk job at the CIA hit print are now openly supporting a leaker and claiming he is entitled to protections â even though he hasnât gone through the channels established by law. Clarice Feldman 1 05 06
#26
"The president's current posturing is a Kubler-Ross twofer, combining both denial and anger in one handy stage-straddling step. It allows him to deny that what he did was wrong and illegal while simultaneously venting his anger on the enemy. No, not al Qaeda -- but the spy program whistleblower.
It's Classic Bush: challenge him and find yourself targeted for aiding and abetting the enemy. "The fact that somebody leaked this program causes great harm to the United States," he told reporters ominously. "There's an enemy out there. They read newspapers, they listen to what you write, they listen to what you put on the air, and they react."
Which is really the underlying strategy of the president's aggressive defense: the hope that by replaying his effective use of the Fear Factor, he can undercut the planned congressional investigations into the legality of his actions and shift the focus to identifying who let the spy cat out of the black bag. In Bushlandia, you see, undermining the Constitution isn't what "causes great harm to the United States"; it's the public finding out that you are undermining the Constitution that does.
But coming on strong only to eventually retreat in the face of insistent pushback is also Classic Bush. But only if the pushback is really insistent -- and especially if it's coming from members of his own party."
Arianna Huffington
Posted by: Grand Am ||
01/05/2006 13:04 Comments ||
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#27
Better still the moonbat did an interview on Democracy Now which he claims: "I'm involved with some certain aspects of the intelligence community, which are very closely held, and I believe I have seen some things that are illegal." Check me but doesn't he do a 180 when interviewed by Katie? Also he claims some pretty outlandish stuff that I am sure was the reason he was sent to the shrink for an eval. Oh that Karl Rove is just a friggin genius!
#29
The problem with the left is just they are such a massive, freaking, bunch of loons. Who in their right mind would take Arianna Huffington seriously. It's like listening to Zha Zha (SP?) Gabor for financial or political advice. (Ok...maybe some financial advice from Zha, Zha would be good - ie: Marry a rich man and take his money - but other than that :-)
The leaders of the left have become such a joke. What is amazing to me is how dedicated their following of over 50's boomers is and the amount of hypocrisy they are willing to tolerate and explain away. It's like they need the left to hold onto the sixties and thus their youth...or something.
This latest crap has nothing to do with the NY Times.
"Mr. Tice said yesterday that he was not part of the intercept program."
This is just all too convenient timing. Takes some of the heat off the NY Slimes. I can't wait for Dems to start falling all over themselves demanding a Congressional investigation into Tice's allegations.
#38
It's hard to testify from jail which is where this mental case belongs. He should be picked up at once and held while an investigation is done into everyone he has had contact with since he was let go and what he told them. We are at war. Our Justice Department needs to start acting like it when it comes to leakers.
#41
Now that the President has admitted to wiretapping without warrants, it doesn't matter whether Tice blows goats or not. The question now is whether the Constitution applies just because someone in the government says you're a "bad person". Even when you support Bush on other fronts, it's worthwhile to roll words like "Ruby Ridge" and "Waco" around in your mind before answering that question.
Scare quotes around 'deserter' removed, as are the silly blabberings of the director of an anti-war group at the end of the article.
In a possible message to would-be deserters in Iraq, the US marines have charged a pensioner for not going to war in Vietnam 40 years ago. Former marine private Jerry Texiero was found selling boats and classic cars in Florida under a false name. He was identified as a result of a fraud conviction in 1998, which he said was the result of wrongdoing by a former partner.
Seven years later marine investigators from an "AWOL apprehension unit" compared his fingerprints with their records of deserters. He was first arrested by Florida police in August and handed over to the military on December 21.
Mr Texiero, 65, is being held in Camp Lejeune, a marine base in North Carolina. No date has been set for preliminary hearings. If he is convicted of desertion in a court martial, he could serve three years in a military jail. His lawyers were due to discuss the case with him yesterday.
I suspect they'll cut some sort of deal, but Mr. Texiero is going to prison for a while, despite the sputtering of all the anti-war groups.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2006 01:14 ||
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#1
The Marines don't need to send any message to their troops in Iraq, reenlistment is up. Todays troops are not going AWOL and are far different than the draftees, before I get hate mail - most all but a few Marines in the 60's were warriors and honorable. This is a message to the losers in the boomer generation that even at 65 we will find your cowards and send them to jail.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
01/05/2006 7:47 Comments ||
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#2
He's evidently a successful business person and US taxpayer now, fine him $10,000 and just forget it. At least he's paying taxes here, not in bloody Canada where they all got off free!
#3
Besoeker, I don't consider some used-car salesman who was using a fake name and got busted for fraud (sure, pal, it was all your business partner's fault, right...) to be someone who turned his life around and was a decent guy.
He's more like a stupid thug who slipped up and got busted.
#5
Trailing Wife, I thought Carter forgave them and they were able to return to the US. Draft evaders that is, not deserters.
The fact that this guy isn't in Canada says a lot about his intelligence. I wouldn't want to be put into a military prison run by Marines. No thank you. If he's smart he'll cut a deal that gets him full time for the fraud and zero time for the desertion to ensure a minimum security civilian cell.
#7
I thought Carter forgave them and they were able to return to the US. Draft evaders that is, not deserters.
I'm sure you're right, rjschwarz -- I wasn't yet paying close attention to the outside world at the time. ;-) Did many of the runaways return home thereafter, or are they still up North, pretending to be relevant?
#8
Tod Ensign, the legal director of Citizen Soldier, an advocacy group representing conscientious objectors, wrote to Camp Lejeune's commanding officer, Brigadier General Robert Dickerson, asking: "Why are scarce marine resources being squandered on the prosecution of a senior citizen whose only 'crime' is refusing to fight a war that today is universally discredited?"
I had a good chuckle at that one. I'm sure the first thing on Tod's mind was his concern about "scarce marine resources being squandered".
#9
agree with TW. I didn't notice that either. Pity for him.
a used-car salesman who was using a fake name and got busted for fraud (sure, pal, it was all your business partner's fault, right...) to be someone who turned his life around and was a decent guy.
So true, DB. Like any deserter, he's just a cheat and loser. Leopards don't grow stripes.
#10
I suspect the Marines won't 'honor' Texiero with a general court martial. What will likely happen is he'll face a special court martial (with one judge), end up with a Bad Conduct Discharge plus whatever fines, rank-reduction and confinement (whatever has already been served) is awarded.
The danger in that is that he could try for an upgrade-in-discharge later. May not sound like much, but a few years, a new administration, a general discharge, and a medical condition puts this waste-of-air into the VA system.
#13
Draft dodgers were accepted by Canada and later given amnesty by Jimmy Carter. Deserters were not welcomed (though most probably got in) and did not get amnesty.
The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday summoned police officials and issued notice to the Interior Ministry for keeping a man in detention for 15 months on suspicions of having links with Al Qaeda and involvement in terrorism.
A single bench headed by Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai heard the habeas corpus petition.
Father of Shafiq Ahmad, the detainee, filed a petition saying that intelligence agencies, headed by the area station house officer, arrested his son from his clothes shop during business hours on September 28, 2005. He said that he, his brother and nearby shopkeepers were present when Ahmad was arrested.
He said the police took him to the Charbagh Police Station and when he went to there to meet his son, the police told him that he had been moved to another location by intelligence agencies for interrogation. He said that the police did not register a first investigation report (FIR) for Ahmadâs arrest. He made the Interior Ministry, the SHO and the senior superintendent of police, Swat, respondents to the writ petition.
The petitionerâs counsel told the court that the father of the detainee had been receiving phones from Rafique Ahmad and Waqar for the last one year saying that his son was in their custody and in good condition. He said that the petitionerâs son was an ex-activist of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a defunct organisation, but he had never been involved in criminal activity before the arrest. He said Ahmadâs arrest without charges and FIR was illegal and against the liberty laws of the citizen. âIf there are any charges against him then why the have not the intelligence agencies brought them up,â the petitionerâs counsel said. He said that after Ahmadâs arrest, the government issued a press statement claiming that it had arrested an activist of Jaish-e-Mohammad. He said the government had also claimed that explosives were also seized from the activist of the organisation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/05/2006 00:11 ||
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The Ittehad-e-Tanzimat-e-Madaris-e-Dinya (ITMD) plans to hold talks with the government on the repatriation of foreign madrassa students after Eidul Azha. "A meeting of the ITMD with President General Pervez Musharraf is expected in this connection," ITMD sources said. They said the top ITMD leaders were currently in Saudi Arabia for Haj and talks with the government would take place after their return. The ITMD has resisted the government's decision to deport all foreign students studying in Pakistani madrassas. The sources said Ejazul Haq, the federal minister for religious affairs, would hold an informal meeting with ITMD leaders during his visit to Saudi Arabia and finalise a schedule for the talks to resolve the issue. The ITMD wants the government to at least allow the more than 700 foreign students to finish their courses, which end in eight months.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could be sedated for up to three days as doctors fight to keep him alive after emergency brain surgery for his massive stroke, a hospital official said Thursday.
Dr. Shlomo Mor-Yosef, director general of Hadassah Hospital, said Sharon would remain in deep sedation and on a respirator for at least two and possibly three days to allow him to "recover from severe trauma." The treatment would decrease pressure in Sharon's skull, and after the sedation period, doctors hope to gradually awaken him, Mor-Yosef said.
Sharon's pupils were responding to light, "which means the brain is functioning," Mor-Yosef said at a news conference. Other doctors not involved in his treatment said this was a positive sign of independent brain activity. Mor-Yosef said the surgery was carried out on the right side of Sharon's brain. That could make it less likely that his speech and comprehension would be impaired. The doctor said it was too early to assess whether there would be any paralysis.
A brain scan after surgery showed that the bleeding had been stopped, and he was transferred to the intensive care unit, Mor-Yosef said earlier in the day.
In the March, 2005 election, Sharon was to face off against Likud's candidate, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Amir Peretz, the union leader who recently took control of the dovish Labor Party. Olmert, who could emerge as Sharon's successor as head of Kadima, would likely have a far tougher time in the election than Sharon.
You can only access these links if you fill out the free registration for the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal, but following is a quote courtesy of BotW. link1link2link3
From Best of the Web:
A former mayor of Jerusalem, Olmert has contributed several op-ed pieces to The Wall Street Journal, which you can read here, here and here. In September 2003, after Israel's cabinet decided to expel terror honcho Yasser Arafat*, he wrote:
If Palestinian voices of moderation are capable of rising up and making themselves heard over the extremist roar, all Israelis will be very willing to continue the path toward peace. But for the moment we will place our trust in our own ability to confront the terrorists directly. And as the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, approaches, tradition dictates that we review past mistakes and try sincerely to repent. The Oslo decade has shown us what is the incorrect and foolhardy way to try to make peace between Arabs and Jews. Armed with this new clarity, we can now attempt to rectify our errors--and set out down a safer, better-calculated road.
Israel never carried out the expulsion, and Arafat is now dead, but it remains highly doubtful that "Palestinian voices of moderation are capable of rising up."
Palestinian leaders anxiously followed reports of
Ariel Sharon's deteriorating health Thursday, fearing the prime minister's departure from the political scene could worsen turmoil in the West Bank and Gaza â or even derail Palestinian elections.
The Israeli leader is still widely reviled in the Arab world, but reactions among ordinary Palestinians were largely subdued. A few schoolchildren handed out candy in a Gaza refugee camp and hoisted posters saying, "Death to Sharon."
While I don't advocate deliberate targeting of the entire population, I have absolutely no concern about collateral damage when striking on the terrorists. If they hide in a school, go ahead and napalm it anyway. Nits make lice.
#1
"Palestinian leaders... fearing the prime minister's departure from the political scene could worsen turmoil..."
Enjoy the candy, fools -- it may be the best thing you get from this. Even your leaders recognize that.
A recent poll, released Thursday evening on Channel 10 news, claimed that Vice Premier Shimon Peres would be the best choice to lead the Kadima Party if Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was unfit to continue in his role.
The survey revealed that Kadima, with Peres at its head, would earn 42 mandates if the elections were held Thursday. In contrast, Kadima front-runners, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Justice Minister Tzippi Livni would earn 40 and 38 mandates respectively...
#2
I like the JPost, but they've got SDS (Sharon Derangement Syndrome) after the Gaza withdrawal.....
all polls in Israel should be considered suspect til the man's well or dead and the succession and state of the next election's settled. IMHO
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2006 21:33 Comments ||
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The Palestinian Election Commission (CEC) said on Thursday it had resigned, but may reconsider if the government keeps a promise to heed its demands to reduce interference in a January 25 election. Hanna Nasser, the commission's president, had told Reuters it had submitted a letter of resignation in protest at a government decision to allow 60,000 security men to vote in their own barracks instead of going to vote in their districts.
The PA has 60,000 security men? Criminy. What do they *do* all day?
Half of them are holding the other half hostage ...
Commission officials later said they were told that Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie's cabinet was rescinding the decision, clearing the way for the CEC to cancel its resignation. "Apparently there are attempts by the government to resolve the problem and retract ... In such a case the CEC will reconsider its decision to resign," a senior CEC official said. The CEC is an independent commission that supervises Palestinian elections. It would be impossible to conduct the parliamentary balloting without it as it is in charge of making logistical arrangements. Nasser said allowing security men to vote in their barracks would amount to interference and lack of transparency in the election process.
It might also prevent them from intimidating voters at the polls. Intimidation and bullying are the legitimate right of all Paleo hard boyz. You could look it up.
He sent a letter of resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas's office late on Wednesday, but Abbas was abroad begging for moneytrying to find Suha's boodle and had not received it. Abbas has come under pressure from many senior members of his own deeply divided Fatah faction, including Qurie, to delay the election. Qurie resigned his candidacy last week in a move seen as a bid to postpone the balloting. Some in Fatah are worried by polls predicting the militant Islamic group Hamas, running for the first time for parliament, will make substantial gains, at the expense of the longtime ruling party founded decades ago by the late Yasser Arafat.
#1
Gotta work to get paid. And it looks like the "security forces" might be all booked up if you're gonna try and put a semi automatic resume in there.
See ya in the morning...
#2
Some in Fatah are worried by polls predicting the militant Islamic group Hamas, running for the first time for parliament, will make substantial gains, at the expense of the longtime ruling party founded decades ago by the late Yasser Arafat.
What's the difference whether it's Fatah or Hamas running the show???
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
There's definitely no need to postpone it - they'll vote for shariah law and jihad whether it's next week, next month, next year, or whenever. Just let 'em get on with it, but stop subsidising it.
The Paleos never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
Pan-Arab satellite television broadcasters beamed out largely straightforward, nonstop live coverage early Thursday from outside the hospital where Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon -- a particularly despised figure among Arabs -- struggled for his life. But a radical Palestinian leader in Damascus, the Syrian capital, called Sharon's health crisis a gift from God. "We say it frankly that God is great and is able to exact revenge on this butcher. ... We thank God for this gift he presented to us on this new year," Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Syrian-backed faction Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a small radical group, told the Associated Press. He said Sharon's legacy would be one of huge damage inflicted on the Palestinian people.
Jibril will have no legacy. As soon as he's dead he'll be forgotten.
A Palestinian commentator on the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya network offered Sharon unexpected praise as "the first Israeli leader who stopped claiming Israel had a right to all of the Palestinian's land," a reference to Israel's recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. "A live Sharon is better for the Palestinians now, despite all the crimes he has committed against us," said Ghazi al-Saadi. The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera aired an extended interview with Sharon adviser Raanan Gissin, who explained the Israeli leader's condition and treatment. Sharon's illness cast a huge shadow across the political life of the region, where the Palestinians were to vote in parliamentary elections Jan. 25 and Israel slated a nationwide vote March 28.
In Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, a key figure in the militant Hamas group, told AP he saw no justification for postponing the Palestinian vote because of the political turmoil in Israel. "On the contrary, it could be an opportunity for the Palestinians to take advantage of the jolt caused by Sharon's absence to conduct an election away from pressures. Sharon out of the picture is a way out for Palestinians to escape the pressures," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
My prayers are with Israel and Sharon. The Paleos furthr demonstrate their lack of any desirable human qualities. I almost hope they (or hezbollah) try and use this period to stupidly perpetrate their cowardly attacks - I think "retribution" wouldn't begin to cover Israel's response
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2006 0:08 Comments ||
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#2
If and when Bebe comes to power the Paleos will call this time the good old days. So keep this crap talk up, please.
Sharon has spent his whole life defending Israel. This is a bad thing to happen to a good man.
#3
The Paleos think they are so smart. Maybe they get what they deserve: Although Ariel Sharon fraudulently misrepresented himself as a "right-winger" in order to get elected Prime Minister, Sharon shares the anti-Zionist views of Peres and Avital in their belief that Israel must surrender her sovereignty.
By making it clear that he will never disobey the United States and George Bush, Ariel Sharon has transformed his office into that of an American puppet willing to make suicidal concessions whenever his White House masters demand them
Sharon has openly made it clear that he will never do anything without U.S. permission. He has thus officially transformed the office of Israeli Prime Minister from that of a sovereign leader of an independent nation to being a mere puppet of Washington.
Since Washington seeks to appease Arab oil sheikdoms and Islamic terrorism by making little Israel a sacrificial lamb, that means that Israel as a dutiful puppet state must be willing to make the utterly suicidal concessions that America demands of her.
Ariel Sharon wants the Jews of Israel to allow the creation of a Muslim terrorist state in the Jewish Biblical heartland - Arab Muslim Nazis pray for the destruction of America and Israel under the PLO terrorist flag
When George Wahabi Bush says that an independent PLO terrorist state must be created in the Jewish Biblical heartland of Yesha - even though such a move would be national suicide for Israel - Sharon tells the Jews that they have no choice and must always obey Washington.http://www.jtf.org/israel/israel.how.to.stop.elite.htm
Just for a second to stop this eternal crap you see everwhere.
#6
Sharon also missed a good opportunity in his military days: he should've clipped Arafat when he had the chance.
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/05/2006 3:13 Comments ||
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#7
Bardo; please clarify comment 3. I can't figure out whether it is a quote or a statement. Is this a quote from the web site you linked to (didn't see it but I didn't spend a lot of time there), or is it your point of view.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
01/05/2006 6:32 Comments ||
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#8
I hesitate to say it, but if the old general does not survive, they had better hold the funeral in Kalamazoo or in private. This event would be an extremely target rich environment for the gleeful, ecstatic paleo scum.
#10
WhiskeyMike, that is from a rightwing pro-American-Israel website jtf.org.from Queens. They have a great cable show in NYC. You can hear the audio. His 1994 Show predicted WTC in 9/11.They've got a sizable conservative Christian following. My views, to me, the Israelis get nothing form concessions. Here's the link: Link: http://www.jtf.org
I am using Safari and the link did not work in Preview.
#11
The self-hating Jews who control Israel's Bolshevik establishment actually support the Arab Muslim Nazis who vow to annihilate the Jewish people and who have already murdered thousands of innocent Jewish men, women and children.
And Ariel Sharon is a left-wing Stalinist according to this site. On the basis of adjectives alone, Bardo's site can be discounted as honest reportage. Their hero is Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht, who raised millions of dollars to support Irgun, their clients are the Hilltop Settlers who've been causing Israel so much trouble in the Territories. They'd rather be right than effective, the kind of people who make the Best the enemy of the Good.
Please don't click on their site. They get a little too much pleasure out of it.
#12
that is from a rightwing pro-American-Israel website jtf.org.from Queens. They have a great cable show in NYC. You can hear the audio. His 1994 Show predicted WTC in 9/11 They've got a sizable conservative Christian following
LOL! Yeah right, rightwing pro-American-Israel from Queens no less frequently make comments like, "By making it clear that he will never disobey the United States and George Bush, Ariel Sharon has transformed his office into that of an American puppet willing to make suicidal concessions whenever his White House masters demand them"
ROFL! Hey Bardo, I'm glad we've met because I need someone like you, who can really smell a fraud a mile off, to help me. I've come into some money from a Nigeran widow that I need to shelter for a brief period of time. If you send me your bank account number and password- I will deposit in your account and give you half of it for your efforts.
#15
Some of their comments are dead-on accurate though, even if confrontational
*Scoff* With the example provided - do you think anyone would bother to click the link. Hey, your IQ may be under 50 and... I don't know what to say, except perhaps, I'm sorry ??
#16
do you think anyone would bother to click the link.
I'm pretty sure you didn't. If you did, you'd probably agree with what they have to say about the PLO, "Palestine", and Islam as a tolerant religion. Hence my comment that some of their statements are accurate.
Hey, your IQ may be under 50 and...
Maybe so, but at least I went and objectively perused most of their website before commenting. Your mileage may vary.
#17
with all the websites available at my fingertips - why would I waste one more second of my time on one that is such an obvious fraud as this one? So, apparently they say things about the PLO," "Palestine", and Islam as a tolerant religion" that you think rantburgers would agree with, and therefore we would be sucked into believing any other blatantly obvious BS, such as what was posted above. Yeah right.
No thanks, my IQ is over 50, making me smart enough not to waste my time with frauds.
#18
and therefore we would be sucked into believing any other blatantly obvious BS, such as what was posted above.
Since you claim your IQ is over 50, you should not fear being sucked in. Frauds or not, some of their statements are correct. That's all I'm claiming. You don't have to like it.
#19
So I guess your point is that I should go to this and other really stupid sites that post lots of garbage and spend lots of time reading them because - even though what was posted above was so fraudulent as to be humorous I shouldn't worry about getting sucked in because "it is correct".
#21
The self-hating Jews who control Israel's Bolshevik establishment actually support the Arab Muslim Nazis who vow to annihilate the Jewish people and who have already murdered thousands of innocent Jewish men, women and children.
What is Oslo, the Road Map, etc?
Jews get it from the well-meaning nazis of today. Its not my site but I love it and watch the weekly TV shows which can be listened to if the monitor permits it. JTF is responsible in part for getting Jews out of Russia in the eighties not the (some) dummies on this site.
It is intended as an alarm bell sounding in the boardrooms of western Europe's leading engineering companies as well as the common rooms of campuses and cutting-edge science labs. It is also a wake-up call to EU governments, spy agencies and customs officials struggling to keep the ingredients for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) out of the hands of some of the most unsavoury regimes in the Middle East and the far east.
But if the 55-page confidential "early warning" intelligence assessment is impressive in the sheer mass of detail on the names and locations of suspect players in the global WMD game, the information may be seen as deeply troubling. It emphasises that west European engineering firms, germ laboratories, scientific thinktanks and university campuses are successfully preyed on by multitudes of middlemen, front companies, scholars with hidden agendas and bureaucrats working for the Iranian, Syrian or Pakistani regimes.
The report from a leading EU intelligence service obtained by the Guardian represent, it seems, the pooled knowledge of at least four major EU member-states on how countries such as Iran, Syria, and North Korea orchestrate a vast network of traders, phoney companies, state institutions and diplomatic missions internationally to procure the means to develop chemical, biological, nuclear and conventional weapons.
Given the hi-tech nature of the coveted parts and materials, the west European marketplace is the principal shopping mall, while Russia and the former Soviet Union are targeted for talented if impoverished brainpower. The Iranians, for example, are using middlemen in the neighbouring and post-Soviet countries of Azerbaijan and Armenia to tap the post-Soviet market, the document states.
Or the Pakistanis. The world's biggest clandestine nuclear proliferation racket, centred around the Pakistani metallurgist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, was exposed more than two years ago. Khan is under house arrest and several of his collaborators in Europe have been arrested in Germany, Switzerland and South Africa. Yet the business rolls on, according to the document almost from the moment Khan went on Pakistani television to "confess" in February 2004. "Since the beginning of 2004 extensive procurement efforts for the Pakistani nuclear sector have been registered." Furthermore, the range of materials and components being bought "clearly exceeds" that required for spare parts and replacements in Islamabad's nuclear programme. That suggests the nuclear black market is trading on the surplus goods.
The report notes, for example, that Khan's shopping sprees included high-grade aluminium tubing for the centrifuges that spin uranium into bomb fuel. He sold the pipes to Libya's Colonel Muammar Gadafy, who has since given them up. "The procurement efforts for such tubing were not halted after the uncovering of the procurement network."
Khan's power base outside Islamabad, the Khan Research Laboratories (named after him), remain a central institution in the Pakistani nuclear programme, according to the document, served by an array of front companies who are past masters at disguising the real "end users" for the components and equipment they purchase in western Europe.
While the Pakistani bomb project has long been realised, Iran's nuclear ambitions are not as advanced and have the makings of an international crisis. So it is not surprising that much of the document focuses on Iranian activities - not only in the nuclear field, but in bio-chemical and conventional weapons, notably its "very ambitious" missile programmes. The document lists more than 200 Iranian companies, institutes, government offices and academic outfits said to be engaged in weapons research, development and procurement, and mostly subordinate to the defence ministry in Tehran's armed forces logistics department.
Russia, which has just clinched a billion-dollar missile deal with Iran, is identified as crucial to Iran's military programmes, especially the missile development; 16 Russian companies and academic institutes are named as helping and profiting from the Iranian military effort. They range from the Glavkosmos space agency to St Petersburg's Technical University.
The Iranians, as well as the Pakistanis and the Syrians, are also benefiting from North Korean military prowess and exports, the document says, noting that "the export of arms equipment is currently reckoned to be North Korea's most important source of income."
To maintain this performance, the document says, the North Koreans increasingly depend on being able to import western goods and equipment. To this end they use a dense web of firms and offices, their roots going back to the 1970s.
More than 30 of the named companies and institutions said to be involved in the North Korean arms procurement endeavour are in China and most of those are Chinese state firms or bodies.
Last week the US State Department slapped sanctions on six Chinese companies for their alleged supplies to Iran's military industries.
The main market for the North Korean exports is the Middle East. "The most important buyers are Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and Syria."
Damascus, the document says, has been striving for self-sufficiency in its WMD efforts for years through substantial supplies of material and knowhow from Russia and through purchases in western Europe. Most surprisingly perhaps, the report says that Syria "has recently strengthened cooperation in the [arms] sector, particularly with Iran".
The 55 pages list hundreds of companies and institutions from Pyongyang to Beijing to Sofia said to be in the WMD business, often using front companies in Dubai to disguise their true dealings.
The aim is to "name and shame", to warn off EU companies from doing business with the listed organisations. What the intelligence assessment does not include are the names of the west European firms and scholars believed to be profiting handsomely from the trade in military knowhow and components.
Posted by: john ||
01/05/2006 05:18 ||
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#1
What has gotten into the Guardian lately? They seem to be reporting reality instead of the usual anti-Israel, anti-America, distantly-related-to-the-truth slime. Did someone get mugged?
The South Korean newspaper, The Hankyoreh reports that the Islamic regime has threatened the South Korean government, demanding that they do not vote against the Islamic regime in the March meeting of the IAEA or else there will be major backlash in the relations of the regime with South Korea.
Based on this report, after the October session of the IAEA, where South Korea voted against the Islamic regime, the import of South Korean goods into Iran was discontinued. A South Korean authority, in an interview with the newspaper, The Korea Times clearly indicated that Seoul will not be pressured by the Islamic regimes threats and will certainly not reconsider its' stance where the IRIâs nuclear pursuits are concerned. This authority also reiterated that South Korea would continue to support the international community's objections in the face of the proliferation of nuclear arms around the world.
Syria has frozen the assets of former Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam and his family after lawmakers accused him of corruption and demanded that he be charged with treason for criticizing the president.
So *that's* how it feels to be Public Enemy #1.
The state-run al-Thawra newspaper ran a decree by the finance ministry, which it said was in response to parliamentary debates on Saturday. "The finance ministry issued a decree to freeze the assets of Abdel-Halim Khaddam, his wife, descendants male and female and their spouses and their descendants...pending judicial investigation," it said. Officials were not immediately available for comment.
Not much more needs to be said, really...
On Friday, Khaddam launched from Paris an unprecedented attack on President Bashar al-Assad, saying he had threatened Rafik al-Hariri, the Lebanese ex-Prime Minister who was assassinated last February. Assad has denied the claim. Khaddam, who moved to Paris after resigning in June, also accused the government of making political blunders in Lebanon and of failing to deliver economic and political reforms at home, leaving millions of Syrians to go hungry. Khaddam, in an interview with Al Arabiya television aired on Friday, would not speculate on who had ordered the killing of Hariri, saying "we must wait" for the results of an ongoing U.N. inquiry that has already implicated senior Syrian officials.
An Iranian delegation expected in Vienna to explain to the IAEA Iran's decision to resume nuclear fuel research did not show up for a meeting on Thursday, the IAEA said. The meeting was called off after the delegation did not appear, said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. The IAEA does not know why the Iranian delegation missed the appointment, and no new meeting has been scheduled, she said.
#2
ARE THEY DELIBERATELY TRYING TO SEE HOW FAR THEY CAN PUSH, BEFORE THE REST OF THE F'ING WORLD WILL RESPOND???!!!! SANCTIONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE 6 MONTHS AGO.
#3
Youre not going to get a vote for sanctions with Russia and China having veto power in the security council. They don't give a fuck if Iran has nukes, they cant wait to sell them the stuff to do it. Anyway, if it pisses us off in the U.S. they prevent sanctions at any cost.
#7
Any day now in the middle of one of those joint UN press conferences the Iranian Diplomat is going to just up and smack one of the EU diplomats in the back of the head in mid sentence then step forward and say his peice while the EU guy head down slinks to the background quitley.
And China and Russia I dont think even matter when we do Iran I doubt thier will be any UN deliberations we learned that lesson all to well with Powel's yearlong UN fiasco with Iraq, giving Saddam time to prepare for the Insurgency, not to mention I think move or destroy the weapons and the paper trail. With the Iran phase we will wake up one day I think soon to reports of massive air strikes across Iran, if we telegraph it they will strike first and have a good chance of causing some major damage if we take the inisiative with suprise after the first strike they will be pretty much limited to some long range missles left and of course their terrorist assests.
The Lebanon-based Higher Islamic Shiite Council on Wednesday said anti-Israeli armed resistance was a basic right and armed factions were not militias. In a statement it issued, the council said UN Resolution 1559 was "not applicable." The council added the Lebanese people stood up against Israeli occupation and resisted it, adding that armed resistance was a national right and an indication of patriotism. It praised Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's initiatives for laying down national dialogue channels, and called for strengthening Lebanese-Syrian relations and easing tension between the two countries.
#1
IOW, they are affirming that assorted armed fractions are in reality valid extensions of the State andor the State's general armed forces ergo Israel, etc. has the right to de facto mil retaliation against the main Govts and territories no matter their PC, anti-Militia/Terror, legalist rhetoric. SUB-IOW, THE IDF AND DUBYA CAN NOW ATTACK AND CONQUER ALL OF LEBANON, ETAL. AND NO CARE WHAT THE RULING GOVTS THINK AS BY THE COUNCIL'S DECISION ANY ORGANZ TERROR AGS ISRAEL IS BY DEFINITION AN ATTACK AGS ISRAEL BY THE STATE OF LEBANON.
#3
Not just Leabanon but ther Government of Iran as well they are the true funders and backers of these groups.
I that allens will so be it. Bibi will not be light handed Leabanon. You will wail at the distruction these asstards bring down on your poor counrty when they attack Israel from your nation.
#5
Is the Higher Islamic Shiite Council's opinion the law of Lebanon or just a bunch of gasbags protecting the remenants of Syrian imperialism. I'm guessing the later.
Hezbollah owns the lower chunk of Lebanon. At some point Israel (or the US) will be provoked enough and that area will be cleaned up.
The family of George Hawi, late head of the Communist Party, demanded Wednesday that Lebanese authorities question the infamous masked Syrian witness Houssam Houssam as a suspect in Hawi's murder. Showing pictures of Houssam amongst crowds of onlookers in the immediate aftermath of Hawi's assassination on June 21, Rafi Madoyan, Hawi's step-son, said: "It is high time the Lebanese authorities investigate Hawi's murder and arrest those responsible for it."
Discovered by local photographer Wael Ladeki, the pictures were first published by the Elaph website. "It's weird how such a witness was present at several crime sites without being arrested," Madoyan said. According to Houssam's fiance, he was also at the site in Ain al-Mreisseh where former premier Rafik Hariri was assassinated, minutes before the explosion happened. "We, the family of George Hawi, also ask the Lebanese Judiciary to interview Rustom Ghazaleh and all Lebanese and Syrian security officials to find the answer to why this man, who works with the Syrian Intelligence, was present at all those crime scenes," Madoyan said. "The presence of this man at all those crime scenes also make us wonder about the role of the Syrian intelligence and their Lebanese counterparts and partners in all those murders," Madoyan said.
He described how Houssam used to live in an apartment right next to Hawi's murder scene in Wata Mousaitbeh and how he "suddenly was out of reach and sight on the days following the attempt."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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A top British politician urged Syria Wednesday to "recognize Lebanon as a sovereign independent state and to set up diplomatic relations with it," stressing the necessity that it fully cooperate with the UN probe into former Premier Rafik Hariri's murder. British Foreign Secretary Jack straw was speaking during his two-day visit to Lebanon, the first by a British official since Syria was forced to withdraw its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon last April following the assassination of Hariri, for which Syria and its Lebanese allies were blamed. "I urge Syria to fully cooperate with the Security Council resolutions, in particular with the UN investigation into the assassination of Hariri," Straw told reporters following a meeting with Premier Fouad Siniora.
Straw strongly denied any intentions, be they international or British, to change the regime in Syria. "We have no policy whatsoever of regime change in Syria and any change of government in Syria must be a matter of the Syria people."
"Again let me say, I urge Syria to do what it has done with so many countries around the world which is to exchange ambassadors, to recognize Lebanon as an independent sovereign neighbor of Damascus," he added. Commenting on the implementation of 1559, Straw said: "Resolution 1559 does not lay down a specific time frame, it is important that all groups like Hizbullah are disarmed." However Straw said: "What the international community wants to see is the government of Syria, whoever that is, meeting its international obligations especially those laid down in a series of Security Council resolutions as well as cooperating with the Hariri investigations."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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As international calls for Syria to cooperate "more fully" with the UN probe into the murder of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri intensifed on Wednesday from French President Jacques Chirac, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the Saudi King Abdullah, Syria confirmed it had agreed to the probe's request to interview its Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa.
How about Pencilneck?
"Syria must answer the demands" of the international inquiry into Hariri's killing, Chirac was quoted by a spokesman as saying during talks with his visiting Egyptian counterpart Mubarak on Wednesday over the Syrian issue. The latest UN commission demands include requests to interview Syrian President Bashar Assad and Sharaa, and Syria was given a 10-day deadline, ending on January 10, to respond. Syria, as it undergoes greater international pressure, agreed to an interview with Sharaa, while the request for an interview with Assad is expected to be more difficult, given that an earlier request in July to interview him was refused, stated diplomats close to the case. "The request is being considered while other capitals are in contact with Syria on the same subject," a diplomatic source said. "As announced before there is no objection that the committee meets Sharaa. That position did not change."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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The US warned Syria on Tuesday that its president and other top officials should submit to interviews by UN investigators probing the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister. The UN commission set up to investigate the assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has asked to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as his foreign minister, Farouq al-Shara. âNo one is immune the obligation to provide evidence to a legitimate judicial inquiry,â US Ambassador John Bolton told reporters.
He said that Syriaâs ârecord to date has been one of obstructing the investigation, of tampering with the evidence and not making witnesses available in a timely fashionâ. Bolton warned Damascus that the Security Council had made clear it expected âfull and unconditional complianceâ with the UN investigation and that âadditional measures could be taken if need beâ. These actions could include blanket sanctions although such measures are unlikely to get the needed support. They could also include a travel ban and a freeze on assets of anyone who refuses to cooperate. UN investigators want to meet former Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, now living in Paris as soon as possible.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"psssst, Assad? They're on to you.... Amscray!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2006 0:10 Comments ||
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#2
Maybe France and Syria can work out a disgraced leader swap.
#4
Look, somebody's got to keep the hot lunch providers in business. It's just a pity that each "negotiation" doesn't take a year off of their lives. We'd be rid of this bunch in a heartbeat.
Syria needs to comply with the demands of the UN probe into the murder of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, French President Jacques Chirac warned on Wednesday. âSyria must answer the demandsâ of the international inquiry into Hariri's killing, the president was quoted by a spokesman as saying during talks with his visiting Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.
Chirac, a personal friend of the murdered leader, stressed âFrance's determination that the United Nations commission be able to fully carry out its mission,â spokesman Jerome Bonnafont told reporters. Mubarak's visit to Paris followed a lightning trip to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, during which he discussed the Syrian crisis with King Abdullah, according to Egyptian diplomats.
The UN probe into Hariri's murder in February has already implicated Lebanese and Syrian officials, and UN officials have requested interviews with both President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa. Former Syrian vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam, who is now based in Paris, charged last week that Assad had threatened Hariri just a few months before the assassination. The French president earlier Wednesday described Syria's situation as âvery serious.â âEverything that destabilises Lebanon will end up turning back against Syria,â he warned, speaking on the sidelines of a new year's press conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Am I the only one that thinks it odd that Chirac and the UN seem to be doing such a great job on this Hariri investigation. They are always on the wrong side of everything. It just seems wrong somehow that they seem to be handling this so well.
#2
France, Germany and Russia have sunk a ton of money into these shitholes for years.(Don't ask me why)
Havent you noticed that every time we go after a middle east tyrant one or all three of them go ape shit nuts? France must be Syrias largest foreign investor, and I'd guess Chirac has more than a few francs of his own money invested there.
#3
Hariri was a close personal friend of Chirac's. I also think Jacques was all quelle surprise when his other good buddies the Syrians stuck that knife in his back.
#4
Ahh..ok. My world is coming back into order now. I never bought much into the Saint Rafiq, protector of the poor meme either.
So basically - Hariri was working personal deals with Chirac, Schroeder and Putin and was going to get to become "King of Lebanon" in exchange. Then when Bashir didn't play along with the plan, lots of good blackmail information about Chirac, Schroeder and Putin, as well as lucrative financial arrangements were in jeopardy.
So... I guess the real question is..how much is the information in Assad's little black book really worth to Chirac, Putin, Schroeder and the rest of the UN double dealers?
The Reverend Pat Robertson says Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's massive stroke could be God's punishment for giving up Israeli territory.
God's been really busy punishing people lately, hasn't he?
The founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network told viewers of "The 700 Club" that Sharon was "dividing God's land," even though the Bible says doing so invites "God's enmity." Robertson added, "I would say woe to any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course."
I'm sure Sharon would have had the same stroke even if he had been 27 instead of 77...
He noted that former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
Not by God, though...
Robertson said God's message is, "This land belongs to me. You'd better leave it alone."
Pat Robertson sounds like a very blissful person, doesn't he?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2006 16:36 ||
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#1
Remind me to open a bottle of Champagne when this maggot finally shuffles off of this mortal coil. His appalling abuse of ministry places him on a par with Fred Phelps, Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker. If, indeed, there is a hell, a most special corner of it is reserved for Robertson and his ilk.
#3
Doesn't this idiot ever shut up? Would that this idiot gets a terminal case of hemorrhoids or some other suitable malady so we can all flaunt "God's punishment" back in his own face. Arschloch...
Posted by: Dar ||
01/05/2006 17:01 Comments ||
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#4
Bush should make him ambassador to Iran or maybe Saudi. He's got the In'shallah thing down pat.
#6
Robertson is to Christians what Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, and Cynthia McKinney are to Liberals - hypocritcal frauds who collect money from well meaning suckers.
#7
Though Mother Sheehan and Jimmeh Cahtah have since stolen the title, didn't Charles of LGF originally use the term "idiotarian" to refer to Robertson (Falwell?) for stoopid comments on 9/11?
#9
It just warms the cockles of my heart that know that when he dies, this clown will be spending eternity in the same special corner of HELL that houses Arafish, bin Ladead, et al.
Does that make me a bad person?
Good! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/05/2006 20:20 Comments ||
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Neither does Robertson miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
#12
Sharon and God are sitting up there watching Robertson and the Paleos all saying it's Gods will. It is his will, but the punishment crap has the big guy and Sharone laughing till they pee! No need to be upset by fools, I'm certain its just amusing to them in heaven.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/05/2006 21:12 Comments ||
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#13
As a Christian I disavow all associations with Dr. Robertson, his opinions, and his rhetoric. Indeed, he will answer to a higher authority and I believe he will be found even more lacking than the average sinner.....buh-bye, Bob
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2006 21:26 Comments ||
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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.
The Ittehad-e-Tanzimat-e-Madaris-e-Dinya (ITMD) plans to hold talks with the government on the repatriation of foreign madrassa students after Eidul Azha. "A meeting of the ITMD with President General Pervez Musharraf is expected in this connection," ITMD sources said. They said the top ITMD leaders were currently in Saudi Arabia for Haj and talks with the government would take place after their return. The ITMD has resisted the government's decision to deport all foreign students studying in Pakistani madrassas. The sources said Ejazul Haq, the federal minister for religious affairs, would hold an informal meeting with ITMD leaders during his visit to Saudi Arabia and finalise a schedule for the talks to resolve the issue. The ITMD wants the government to at least allow the more than 700 foreign students to finish their courses, which end in eight months.
It is intended as an alarm bell sounding in the boardrooms of western Europe's leading engineering companies as well as the common rooms of campuses and cutting-edge science labs. It is also a wake-up call to EU governments, spy agencies and customs officials struggling to keep the ingredients for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) out of the hands of some of the most unsavoury regimes in the Middle East and the far east.
Syria has frozen the assets of former Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam and his family after lawmakers accused him of corruption and demanded that he be charged with treason for criticizing the president.
An Iranian delegation expected in Vienna to explain to the IAEA Iran's decision to resume nuclear fuel research did not show up for a meeting on Thursday, the IAEA said. The meeting was called off after the delegation did not appear, said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. The IAEA does not know why the Iranian delegation missed the appointment, and no new meeting has been scheduled, she said. 
The Lebanon-based Higher Islamic Shiite Council on Wednesday said anti-Israeli armed resistance was a basic right and armed factions were not militias. In a statement it issued, the council said UN Resolution 1559 was "not applicable." The council added the Lebanese people stood up against Israeli occupation and resisted it, adding that armed resistance was a national right and an indication of patriotism. It praised Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's initiatives for laying down national dialogue channels, and called for strengthening Lebanese-Syrian relations and easing tension between the two countries.
A top British politician urged Syria Wednesday to "recognize Lebanon as a sovereign independent state and to set up diplomatic relations with it," stressing the necessity that it fully cooperate with the UN probe into former Premier Rafik Hariri's murder. British Foreign Secretary Jack straw was speaking during his two-day visit to Lebanon, the first by a British official since Syria was forced to withdraw its troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon last April following the assassination of Hariri, for which Syria and its Lebanese allies were blamed. "I urge Syria to fully cooperate with the Security Council resolutions, in particular with the UN investigation into the assassination of Hariri," Straw told reporters following a meeting with Premier Fouad Siniora.
As international calls for Syria to cooperate "more fully" with the UN probe into the murder of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri intensifed on Wednesday from French President Jacques Chirac, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and the Saudi King Abdullah, Syria confirmed it had agreed to the probe's request to interview its Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa.
The US warned Syria on Tuesday that its president and other top officials should submit to interviews by UN investigators probing the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister. The UN commission set up to investigate the assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri has asked to meet Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as well as his foreign minister, Farouq al-Shara. âNo one is immune the obligation to provide evidence to a legitimate judicial inquiry,â US Ambassador John Bolton told reporters.
Syria needs to comply with the demands of the UN probe into the murder of Lebanon's former prime minister 
The Reverend 
