New Delhi is likely to send reinforcements to accelerate the work of constructing a network of roads linking Afghanistan with Iran. They will supplement the Border Roads Organization personnel working there, according to well-placed sources tracking India's involvement in the region.
The reinforcements in significant numbers will go towards an additional section of road that India is expected to build. This will be in addition to some of the projects which the Indian agencies, like the BRO, are already undertaking on the outskirts of Kabul, Asian Age reported here quoting sources.
The decision to despatch engineers and other personnel comes despite New Delhi suffering reversals of the killings of Indian personnel working in Afghanistan.
India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2003 to augment Afghanistan's connectivity and access to the coast.
The BRO is constructing the 218-km road that will link Delaram on the main Kandahar-Herat highway in Afghanistan and Zaranj on the Iran border. The US $850 million project is being funded by India and will provide the landlocked nation a shorter transit route (by about 700 km) to the sea via the Iranian port of Chahbahar than it now has through Pakistan. It was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security on February 4, 2004.
Under this project, Iran is building a new transit route to connect Milak in the southeast of Iran to Zaranj in Afghanistan. The sources said India would be able to use Chahbahar port for transit.
India and Iran have also agreed to build a railroad from Chahbahar to the Iranian Central Railway System to link with the Karachi-Tehran Railway line, which goes further westward, the sources added.
During Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's visit to India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged an additional $50 million in assistance to Kabul, bringing the total Indian pledge to $650 million. Several Indian companies are engaged in Afghanistan and undertaking infrastructure projects. The Czars were always very careful to never build good roads from eastern Europe to Russia. You never know who might end up using them.
July 21, 2006: The May 5 Darfur peace agreement is not working. Violence, in fact, appears to be increasing once again. A tribal leader (Masalit tribe, South Darfur) said the peace agreement has proved to be "just paperwork." South Darfur is reportedly experiencing a new wave of attacks by the Sudan-government backed Janajaweed militia. Many of these reports and claims are fragmentary, but UN humanitarian services have been interrupted by the fighting and ambushes. Despite the fragmentary and often unconfirmed reports, it is clear that the Sudan government has not disarmed the Janjaweed militia. Likewise, African Union (AU) peacekeepers have proved to be very ineffective. The AU peacekeepers complain that they were sent to Darfur to observe a ceasefire. The AU forces lack trained troops. Their firepower has proved to be insufficient firepower and the troops they do have lack mobility.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/21/2006 10:33 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
The top security official of the Islamic CourtsSheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad known as Indha-adde said on Thursday if Ethiopia invades Somalia capital then they would attack Addis Ababa, amid fears of possible confrontation between increasingly powerful Islamic militiamen and Ethiopian forces who entered Baidoa town, to defend the UN-backed Somalia government based there.
A little ambitious, isn't he?
Speaking with the recently defected militiamen from the government, Sheikh Siad Indha-adde emphasized the militiamen to show more patriotism and join honestly to Islamic courts. 130 militiamen originally from Somalia Hiran central region have defected from the military camps outside of Baidoa after they had lacked care from the government. If Ethiopians dont spare a peace to us, we would promise to engage a war with them and we will see then the result of that, Sheikh Indha Adde said adding I would recommend that Ethiopia should peace initiative with its neighbor country and respect its independence. We urge again Ethiopian government to withdraw its troops from Somalia and also we ask the international community to press Ethiopia to abstain from interfering Somalia affairs, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Ethiopian armies are mass armies. Somalia would be razed.
#2
Please Jesus, let the Islamists be this stupid and carry out their threat! The Ethiopian Army has access to good upgraded Soviet tanks and light armour, as well as American military aid. Also, the Israelis have a long-standing relationship with Ethiopia and would be willing to sell just about anything the Ethiopians want to buy. And the Somalian Islamists? They get the castoffs of Eritrea and use "technicals" - Mad Max trucks. This would be a glorious slaughter of Allah's Lice.
#3
Ethiopians would probably inter rather than embed obnoxious journalists and fifth-columnists. I don't think they would be concerned about the use of "disproportionate force" and would, as is befitting an Old Testament country, go Old Testament on the Islamists.
Those among you who like your skies darkened by black helicopters are invited to mosey on down to the remote Chinese village of Huangyangtan which hosts what must be the strangest military installation ever spotted by the Google Earth Community:
Zooming in for a closer look, we have what appears to be a 900x700m scale model of a mountainous landscape...
...complete with lakes, valleys and snow-capped peaks:
Truly bizarre. Google Earth aficionados can examine the evidence for themselves here (.kmz) while wondering what on Earth, or where on Earth for that matter, this remarkable landscaping project is.
Don't, however, spend the next three days scouring the world's mountain ranges trying to find a geographical match: the legwork has already been done for you by this enterprising Google Earth Community member who correctly identified the model as representing this disputed area on the Chinese/Indian border.
Here's a comparison of the Chinese model and the Google Earth image of the region in question...
...while a closer look reveals the meticulous attention to detail:
It's clear that a huge amount of time and resources has been invested in this perplexing scale model, which incidentally represents an area of around 450 by 350 kilometers. The big question is: why?
The only sensible explanation we can come up with is that it's a training aid for pilots - possibly helicopter jockeys - designed to familiarise them with the landscape should military action ever be required.
No doubt you lot can come up with some better suggestions, but while you ponder this mystery keep one eye open for the black helicopters of Huangyangtan.
#1
Chicom ambitions for [East] Asian-Pacific hegemony is being steadily obstructed by US-Allied geopol arrangements-treatises - short of war, the Chicoms have to go south [India-SE/SW Asia-Aussies-Africa]or andor west [Russia-Central Asia]. In any case, the Commies-Maoists have supporting local terror orgs-networks for years and decades before 9-11, and have intensified efforts post 9-11. Theres always the "liberation" of Mother Cindy's Bush- and Fascist-occupied CONUS-NORAM, aka Clintonian sacred Socialist-Communist, Hated Despicable Nazi = Well-meaning but grotesquely defective HalfCommunist-Stalinist, Amerika.
#5
Advocates of India choosing the F-18 Super Hornet for its MRCA fighter tender point out that China is already familiar with the Su-30 Flanker (it has its own versions, though without the French, Indian and Israeli avionics that the Indian versions have) and with the F-16 (courtesy of Pakistan which supplied one to China for an attempt at reverse engineering).
In a conflict with China, the unknown F-18 with its air to ground munitions would be an advantage.
Posted by: john ||
07/21/2006 8:50 Comments ||
Top||
#6
This was probably the pet project of some commie General who wanted to put his idiot artist son to work for the summer on the parties dime.
"I think he's retarded," General Yap said. "But he's my son so I got him the gig. I knew it would impress the Party bosses, if you've ever seen how they get gooey eyed around Kim Jung Il's model train set you'd know what I mean."
TENS of thousands of people are expected to march through the Sydney CBD today calling for an end to Israel's attacks on Lebanon and Palestine.
The protest is expected to start at Town Hall at midday and move along George Street to King Street and into Martin Place.
Keysar Trad, from the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, said despite a last-minute change of venue and expected bad weather, up to 20,000 people would turn out for the protest.
"We think there will be anywhere between 10,000 and 20,000 people," Mr Trad said. "There could be a lot more - if we didn't have these dramas, I would expect maybe 100,000."
Mr Trad said he expected to see many mothers and children taking part in the march after seeing images of the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon.
"One thing that has really been heartbreaking is the number of mothers who have called us to join the rally after seeing the images of all those children dying," he said.
Mr Trad said the message of the protest would be one of peace.
"We just want to give a message that peace is the only solution for the world community," he said.
"It's just a terrible, terrible human catastrophe that's taken place as a result of the bombing. We just have to do what we can to put an end to it."
Mr Trad promised the rally would be a peaceful one.
"We will not tolerate any violence, we will not tolerate any racism, we will not tolerate anything that does not serve the cause of peace."
Police said anti-social or criminal behaviour would not be tolerated and about 400 police would be out in force.
"We have been assured by the organisers that the protest will be peaceful, and we want to facilitate the protest in the same manner," Assistant Commissioner Mark Goodwin said.
"Our aim is to ensure the protest causes minimal disruption to the city. However, if this changes in any way, our response will be swift and sure."
Police said motorists could expect disruption to traffic in the city, and four streets - King, Pitt, Castlereagh and Elizabeth - would be closed from 6am to 4pm.
Similar protests will be held in Adelaide and Melbourne today.
#1
Bring the 173rd Airborne and the US Air Force at Aviano home.
Posted by: ed ||
07/21/2006 18:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
We will not honor the extradition request. The Italian prosecutors, if they want to get pissy about this, can explain why there are no American tourists coming to Italy after the US puts a travel advisory out.
We are in a war, Italy, better check out your local armories mosques. They are hornets nests of anti-western activity, and they do not wish you well.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/21/2006 19:14 Comments ||
Top||
...by giving up Hebrew and yarmulkes, of course...
The Mosaic Religious Community has advised its Jewish members against speaking Hebrew loudly on the streets of Oslo or wearing Jewish emblems. The suggestion has infuriated some in the membership. It comes after a Jewish man wearing a kippah, or yarmulke, was assaulted on an Oslo street Saturday. The Mosaic Religious Community wants its members to be careful.
"We have encouraged our members to avoid speaking Hebrew loudly on the street," Anne Sender of the Jewish organization told newspaper Vårt Land. She also told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) that men may want to reconsider wearing the yarmulke. Sender said she wanted to stress that "the situation for Jews in Norway is better than it has been for a long time," despite current tensions caused by the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel that broke out last week.
That's provoked journalist Mona Levin, daughter of the late pianist Robert Levin. "We can't conceal that we're Jews," Levin said, adding that she intended to start wearing her Star of David. "That's letting ourselves down."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/21/2006 8:43 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I'm of partial Norwegian stock. I'm ashamed of this crap. I also wouldn't touch lutefisk if you paid me.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/21/2006 9:14 Comments ||
Top||
#10
...and don't argue. Just get on the trains when they tell you. It'll be okay. Don't make trouble.
I wonder how many Anne Senders were around in the 1930's?
#11
Norway also sent its sons to patrol the border between Lebanon and Isreal in the 90's. They would have pot shots taken at them on a regular basis, because Norway is regarded by local thugs as being rich. If they responded with force, usually the village would file a grevience and get a make good payoff for damages. Then the UN put rotated in Pakistani troops and the local vilages screamed "bring back the Norwegians". The violence went down immediately when the locals realized they couldn't "sue" for damages anymore.
#12
I have a good friend, Ketil, who was with the Norwegian force in Lebannon. He is very worried about the friends he made there but doesn't think the Israelis should not have retaliated. He was involved in firefights with Hezbollah and still has bad dreams of having to kill people. He wouldn't go back to Norway now for anything. His family all live there but the Islamization of Norway and the Norwegian capitulation to the Muslims gets him depressed very easily. He says most people don't believe they will be affected by the Islamists and he doesn't see any way to change that opinion until something really bad happens.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/21/2006 10:49 Comments ||
Top||
#14
Norway has long been a friend of Israel, and of the Jews generally.
I presume the violence is due to muslim immigrants. I might want Norway to be more effective in clamping down on such violence, but I wouldnt make snide remarks about Norway.
#15
In order to understand the current European stand on Jews, we must first find the root cause of the spreading (like a airborne virus) modern day Jew hatred. The answer is not good news for Jews in Europe.
Everyone knows what happened 60 to 70 years ago. The modern day Jew problem totally different from 60 to 70 years ago. The modern day European Jew hatred is about European existence, not Jew hatred. Of course, there will always be some fringe elements out there.
The root cause is a massive decline in Anglo European birthrates. The Anglo European population is aging rapidly with retirees flooding the socialistic and dependent public sector. With the Anglo birthrate population degradation, Europe is forced into mass immigration. This majority cheap labor immigration influx is from, unfortunately, Islamic states. One can reach the conclusion that this is the reason for all the Jew hatred.
I reach a different conclusion, the problem is not the massive immigration of Muslims alone, the problem is that there was absolutely NO assimilation. The Europeans have made a very dangerous miscalculation in not assimilating the Muslims into the European culture. Well whats the solution? Europe has run into a T intersection. Something has to give. Take care of the aging population or stand with the Jews. Since the Jews are few in number the aging population has the ear of the politicians. It saddens me to say this but the Jews in Europe have no choice but to emigrate to Israel or America. The situation will be very dire in the next 20 to 30 years in Europe. Here is a link with some scary details.
"However appealing the exclusionary impulse of the far right seems, Europeans cannot afford to close their doors to newcomers. Without immigration, the population of most European countries is poised to age and shrink. Europe's fertility rate is well below what's needed to keep the population at its current level. Today, there are 35 pensioners for every 100 workers within the European Union. By 2050, current demographic trends would leave Europe with 75 pensioners for every 100 workers, and in countries like Italy and Spain, the ratio would be 1 to 1."
"The European Union is already home to about 15 million Muslims, and this number is expected to double by 2015. About 5 million Muslims live in France alone. Although at least one-half of France's Muslims are French citizens, the community as a whole has been growing more radicalized. A sense of social isolation (many Muslims live in urban ghettos) and of disenfranchisement (there is not a single Muslim in the National Assembly) has been fueling a mounting and angry Islamic fervor."
#22
#21 NS - I've said that for several years now.
It would solve problems for both of us.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
07/21/2006 21:58 Comments ||
Top||
#23
During WW-II, Norway showed unbelievable bravery in the effort to neutralize NAZI "Ch"erman seapower. Their efforts and sacrifices, still, to this day, go largely unrecognized here.
"So, I lit a fire, isn't it good Norwegian wood"?
Being so Right-wing that I can't even see through my Left eye, I have to admit that we don't treat our friends and allies fairly. We shift with the prevailing breeze...
Posted by: at ||
07/21/2006 22:17 Comments ||
Top||
The CIA has been taken over by a dissident faction that seeks to undermine President Bush.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra has identified the anti-Bush faction in a letter to the president. Mr. Hoekstra said the faction appears to be led by Mr. Bush's recent appointments to the agency.
"In fact, I have been long concerned that a strong and well-positioned group within the agency intentionally undermined the administration and its policies," Mr. Hoekstra wrote in a May 18 letter to Mr. Bush.
The letter echoed assertions throughout the intelligence community that senior CIA officials sought to undermine the U.S.-led war against Iraq.
Sources in the community said the dissident faction joined with colleagues in the State Department to target exiled Iraqi democrats, particularly Ahmad Chalabi.
"There is clearly a faction in the CIA that appears sworn to overturn the president's policies," said a congressional source responsible for monitoring the CIA. "What is amazing is that the president has undermined his loyalists and promoted his enemies."
In his letter, Mr. Hoekstra agreed with this assessment. The House committee chairman said the anti-Bush faction has taken over the CIA with Mr. Bush's appointment of Stephen Kappes to be the agencys deputy director. Mr. Kappes quit the agency in 2004 when he disagreed with then-Director Porter Goss' changes at the CIA. In particular, Mr. Kappes was said to have been angered by Mr. Goss efforts to clamp down on leaks to the media that were unfavorable to the Bush administration.
"I understand that Mr. Kappes is a capable, well-qualified, and well-liked former Directorate of Operations (DO) case officer," Mr. Hoekstra wrote. "I am heartened by the professional qualities he would bring to the job, but concerned by what could be the political problems that he could bring back to the agency."
Mr. Hoekstra said the dissident faction has for years been successful in politicizing the agency. He said Mr. Goss had tried and failed to end this process and was replaced by a leadership that supports an anti-Bush agenda.
The dissident faction, the letter said, was responsible for a number of damaging leaks from the CIA. Mr. Hoekstra said this could have included the criticism by former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife is CIA operative Valerie Plame.
In 2002, months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Mr. Wilson was sent by the CIAon the recommendation of Mrs. Plameto Niger to examine reports that Iraq sought to procure uranium ore from the African country.
Later, Mr. Wilson accused the administration of exaggerating the Iraqi threat. In 2003, Mrs. Plame's identity was leaked by the administration to columnist Robert Novak. Mr. Novak said he was informed of Mrs. Plame's identity by an administration source, who he has not named, and that her identity as a CIA operative was confirmed by Mr. Bushs Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove.
Mr. Kappes is said to be part of a dissident faction that sent Mr. Wilson to Niger to get evidence on the Iraqi connection. This was done without the authority of then-CIA Director George Tenet.
Several conservative Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill charge that the dissident faction within the CIA has been deliberately pursuing an anti-Bush, status-quo agenda, refusing to make the necessary intelligence changes at the agency to deal with the new post-Cold War threats posed by al Qaeda, Iran, Iraq and North Korea. The faction was said to be key in the harassment and near assassination of Mr. Chalabi in 2004 near Baghdad, amid the accusation that he was an Iranian agent. Mr. Chalabi, a pivotal Iraqi exile who supported the administrations campaign to topple Saddam Hussein, challenged the CIAs anti-war and status-quo agenda. Mr. Chalabis opposition sparked major questions in Congress on the agency's knowledge of Iraq, its view of the Saddam regime and the CIAs refusal to include pro-American Iraqis within the interim government in Baghdad.
"In fact, I have long been convinced that a strong and well-positioned group within the Agency intentionally undermined the Administration and its policies," Mr. Hoekstra wrote. "This argument is supported by the Ambassador Wilson/Valerie Plame events, as well as by the string of unauthorized disclosures from an organization that prides itself with being able to keep secrets."
Mr. Hoekstra identified a close associate of Mr. Kappes, his deputy Michael Sulick, as another anti-Bush suspect. The chairman said Mr. Kappes and Mr. Sulick were bypassing Congress in an effort to promote their personal agendas.
"The fact, Mr. Kappes and his deputy, Mr. Sulick, were developing a communications offensive to bypass the Intelligence Committees and the CIA's own Office of Congressional Affairs," Mr. Hoekstra said. "Every day we suffer from the consequences of individuals promoting their personal agendas. This is clearly a place at which we do not want or need to be." There is a killer argument to be made between "operationally effective" and "politically loyal". It is a hard choice when your enemies are better than your friends, and you really need "better" right now.
#1
This is a result of the rot I told you all about long ago.
CYA behavior, empire building and plitical toadying are how these people got ahead under Bush I and Clinton. They are why wer hit aspririn factories, ineffective cruise missles on empty camps, the Cole, 9/11. The list goes on and on while the ass coverers and political operatives (Democrats) chew up the agency's resoruces in their attempts to trash Bush so they can preserve their jobs and cold-war central-managed top-down risk averse bumbling bullcrap.
Disband the CIA, and parcel its functions to NSA, NRO and DIA, and establish a new HUMINT agency. Break up the cabals in the CIA before they destroy our nation in their selfishness.
#3
OS -- glad you popped in. I do believe this is going on. My question. Why are these people doing this? Is there something about power that I just don't understand? Do they so think the Repub are so wrong, that it is their duty to do this? Or, is it a money issue, or just simply, a power question?
If you can't answer, I do understand. Thanks for staying close to us.. I always feel much better, seeing your name!
#4
What about the SSB and Cambone? CIA is a clearing House now, a phone in a dusty room in a cardboard box. The SSB will be providing the useful intell.
Actionable intell and inside lines are not dependable at CIA. That is just to keep some boys busy. Someone else is doing the real work. CIA is just what's in the window, not the stock.
The Spooks really are spooks. CIA is a dummy in the window.
#5
The DemoLeft will vote for it a'fore voting against it afore voting .... afore voting .... afore voting ........................@ eternal perpetual wafflins. Worse to worse, Lefties are their own biggest [self] justification for Communism, Totalitarianism, and Policratism/Politicism, etal. - can't = won't trust themselves, let alone anyone + everyone else, to get a glass of water or make simple toast bread, etc!? Need a lawyer to see a lawyer, and sworn affidavits to use the restroom, etc.
Bush's problem is that he genuinely believes there is good in everyone, even Democrats. This is demonstrably false, but he believes it anyway. So he trusts them. And they kick his teeth in. And he just keeps trusting them.
#7
You said, it, Iblis. I kinda doubt that the trust is at the same level after getting burned by obvious adversaries. In other cases, such as Norm Mineta, he is the very embodiment of perfect loyalty - for better or worse.
Sometimes it makes me want to scream... then other times, such as believing in and sticking with Bolton, I love the guy.
A coalition of liberal groups this week launched a nationwide campaign to educate Americans on impeachment and encourage them to support impeaching President Bush.
"Since 9/11 it has been clear that the principle enemy of democracy has been in the White House," said Bill Goodman, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in the group's documentary "How to Impeach a President."
The group claimed that Bush should be impeached because of the warrant-less wiretapping program, alleged torture of Muslim detainees in U.S. custody, and because he "committed fraud on Congress."
In order to promote the video and its goal of impeaching Bush, CCR has teamed with AfterDowningStreet.org, CODE PINK and Iraqi Americans for Peaceful Alternatives to organize "teach-ins" in at least 27 cities around the country.
CCR is a civil rights advocacy group that promotes reparations for descendants of slaves and urges the government to lift the travel and commerce embargos against Cuba, among other causes listed on its website.
David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org, told Cybercast News Service that the teach-ins are aimed at "impeaching the president and number two in selling books and they're using the video and the events and the organizing to help sell books."
Melville House published CCR's "Articles of Impeachment Against George W. Bush," an outline of CCR's case against the president that sells for $9.95.
Swanson said most of the people who attend the teach-ins are "99 percent in favor of impeachment so the goal is not exactly to persuade or to win over but it is to make those people aware that they're not some fringe minority, that in fact they're part of a majority and that there is a growing movement."
He said he was optimistic that the efforts to promote impeachment would be successful. "[T]he evidence is there more than it's ever been in U.S. history. It's a question of whether we can make it happen," Swanson said.
Brian Walsh, a senior legal research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said he would not give the impeachment efforts much credit "because I think to a large extent what they're doing is couching their policy complaints against this administration in legal and constitutional terminology."
Walsh said CCR's claims against Bush are "based on misrepresentations and many of the 'facts' are based on one-sided and unsubstantiated allegations."
He categorized the impeachment movement as "the war against the war," which he said was led by "people who are frustrated that they weren't able to defeat Bush in 2004 when we basically had a referendum on the war in Iraq and he won convincingly against a candidate who tried to cast great doubt on whether we should have been in Iraq in the first place."
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush is considering renominating John Bolton as the US ambassador to the United Nations, a year after appointing him to the job over Senate objections, aides said on Thursday.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said White House officials were talking to Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, about renominating Bolton for the position. The job requires Senate confirmation.
Bush gave Bolton a recess appointment last August -- meaning he appointed Bolton to the job when the Senate was in recess -- because many senators opposed the former State Department official for what they called an abrasive style. That appointment will run out at the end of the current congressional session in January.
Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who opposed Boltons nomination a year ago, said on Thursday he would now support him for the job.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/21/2006 00:32 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
So at the end of the day Prez Bush was RIGHT! Bolten was the BEST CHOICE for the job. You will only hear that here at RB and in the White House, certainly not on CNN. Bolten is leading the charge, saw him on FOX last night, what a great sence of humor.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/21/2006 7:42 Comments ||
Top||
#4
No, 49 Pan, Senator Voinovich wrote that Mr. Bolton has done a good job since that recess appointment, and he would be pleased to vote to confirm his nomination. And they say the Age of Miracles has passed!
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have had the rare opportunity to witness firsthand how the diplomatic process works and, in some cases, how it fails. Recently, despite our nation's best efforts, the world -- and particularly the Middle East -- has become a more dangerous and volatile place.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, and our nation's initial response in Afghanistan, the global war on terrorism has taken many twists and turns.
First, Iraq became the primary focus of our troops and our public attention. Then, the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea reached critical mass, followed by the quickly changing and deteriorating situation with Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Meanwhile, the administration nominated John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. At the time, I opposed Bolton's nomination because I truly believed he was not the right person to represent America in the United Nations. And it's in the nomination process that we have the opportunity to find someone who is not just adequate but right for the job.
After countless conversations and hours of research into his professional record, I came to the conclusion that the country could do better, and I announced that I would not support the Bolton nomination.
When Bolton was given a recess appointment to the U.N. post by President Bush in August 2005, I voiced my opposition but told him that I would work tirelessly to help him reform the United Nations. I also told him that his success in his new role would have an impact on our country, the world and the future of the United Nations.
My original concerns about Bolton involved his interpersonal skills. Also of concern was his reputation for straying off message and a tendency to "go it alone" instead of working to build consensus with his colleagues. I have met and spoken regularly with him since his appointment, discussing my hope that the United States would indeed build such a consensus at the United Nations and work with our allies.
My observations are that while Bolton is not perfect, he has demonstrated his ability, especially in recent months, to work with others and follow the president's lead by working multilaterally. In recent weeks I have watched him react to the challenges involving North Korea, Iran and now the Middle East, speaking on behalf of the United States.
I believe Bolton has been tempered and focused on speaking for the administration. He has referred regularly to "my instructions" from Washington, while also displaying his own clear and strong grasp of the issues and the way forward within the Security Council. He has stood many times side by side with his colleagues from Japan, Britain, Canada and other countries, showing a commitment to cooperation within the United Nations.
The deteriorating situation in the Middle East cannot be ignored. The terrorist organization Hezbollah has all but formally declared war on Israel, taking Israeli prisoners and launching more than 1,000 rockets into Israel over the past week.
The United States, along with the rest of the free world, must confront Iran and North Korea and defend Israel and its democracy while working to bring stability to the entire Middle East and Darfur.
Ambassador Bolton's appointment expires this fall when the Senate officially recesses. Should the president choose to renominate him, I cannot imagine a worse message to send to the terrorists -- and to other nations deciding whether to engage in this effort -- than to drag out a possible renomination process or even replace the person our president has entrusted to lead our nation at the United Nations at a time when we are working on these historic objectives.
For me or my colleagues in the Senate to now question a possible renomination would jeopardize our influence in the United Nations and encourage those who oppose the United States to make Bolton the issue, thereby undermining our policies and agenda.
Should the president send his renomination to the Senate, I will vote to confirm him, and I call on my Democratic colleagues to keep in mind the current situation in the Middle East and the rest of the world should the Senate have an opportunity to vote. I do not believe the United States, at this dangerous time, can afford to have a U.N. ambassador who does not have Congress's full support.
For the good of our country, the United Nations and the free world, we must end any ambiguity about whether John Bolton speaks for the United States so that he can work to support our interests at the United Nations during this critical time.
The writer is a Republican senator from Ohio.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Who's crying now
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/21/2006 0:14 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Give the guy credit for being big enough to admit he was wrong. Not many politicians would do that.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/21/2006 8:20 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Wow -- I post a comment about Voinovich in the thread above, and here Fred posted his entire statement, hours earlier I must be Nostradamus reincarnated. ;-)
#6
I don't know if he's admitting that he's wrong as much as he is saying Bolton is better than changing U.N. ambassadors.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
07/21/2006 9:07 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Bolton also went out of his way at the press conference to answer a reporters question about this. He said ,dispite their differences, he is in contact with Voin regularly.
Bolton deserves the credit for suffering fools much better than most RBers.
by Stephen Spruiell, National Review Media Blog Boldface in the original.
Signs of the apocalypse, perhaps, or just an outbreak of common sense?
We are often very critical of the New York Times, but when its reporters and editors get something right we like to be the first to point it out. Today's coverage of the conflict between Israel and two Middle Eastern terrorist groups merits a few words of praise. At a time when Israel is facing growing criticism from the "international community" for its "disproportionate response," the NYT's story today includes a few helpful reminders about those doing the talking. Take Russia, for example:
Russia, which reduced parts of Chechnya to rubble in its fight against rebels there, also sharply criticized Israel, with the Foreign Ministry calling Israels actions in Lebanon far beyond the boundaries of an antiterrorist operation and urging a cease-fire.
Ouch. I didn't expect to see such a sharp rebuke in the pages of the NYT. Even more surprising was this reminder about the nature of Israel's enemy:
The small force of about 40 marines who landed in Beirut on Thursday were the first American military personnel to be deployed in Lebanon since the withdrawal of forces after a Hezbollah suicide bomb attack killed 241 Americans, mostly marines, in 1983. The marines who landed Thursday were from the same unit as those killed 23 years ago.
Finally, the NYT's account closes with the angry words of Nayla Moawad, the Lebanese minister for social affairs, who tells the world which country truly deserves the wrath of the "international community":
Ms. Moawad blamed Syria for setting off the crisis, saying that she was expressing her personal opinion. The decision of the Hezbollah operation was not taken in Lebanon, she said. Lebanon was taken a hostage, a mailbox of other peoples interests. It has been taken in Damascus, probably with an Iranian coordination.
Ms. Moawad was one of the leaders of the Lebanese revolt last year that led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.
Syria has tried to destabilize Lebanon since her troops pulled out, she said.
The NYT's story today was no whitewash of Israel. The reporters didn't hold back in reporting on the horrible toll Israel's response has taken on civilians in Lebanon. But the reporters did provide essential context by pointing out the hypocrisy of Israel's critics, her enemy's terrorist past and the trail that leads back to Syria and Iran. We'd like to see more of that in the NYT and other news reports.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/21/2006 11:21 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
Wonder if people with the finger on the NYT advertising revenue would have taken a new look at where they spend their monies if it had been any different? You know, with the paper imploding, downsizing, and all. Not that it would have been considered by the NYT editorial board. No, never, not here.
A lot of people in Pakistan say that the Indo-Pak process of normalisation is at an end because India has not reciprocated Pakistans flexibility on Kashmir. Pakistans foreign minister Mr Khursheed Kasuri has gone so far as to say that Pakistan and India may go back to being hostile towards each other. He actually pointed to the tendency in the bilateral relationship to dip suddenly into the negative, meaning thereby that if it happened this time, it would be nothing new. Musharrafs policy towards India has come under attack because of Indias failure to match Musharrafs flexibility.
It was a tough choice for President Musharraf when he began violating the catechism on Kashmir. He may have started veering away from the traditional stance on Kashmir after the Kargil Operation, but the change came more overtly after 9/11. There was a sharp reaction against him for this, but a number of factors helped him change the hard line on Kashmir. First of course was the factor of the failure of covert war. It was virtually declared terrorism after 9/11, and the world balked at a reference to it after that. The mercenaries, labelled as mujahideen, had been successfully prevented by India from separating Held Kashmir from India and joining it to Pakistan. The second factor was the emergence of the indigenous Kashmiri resistance as the third party to the dispute outside of the UN resolutions.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john ||
07/21/2006 08:41 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I think India's still flexible and willing to deal with you Pakis, right after you cowards get the F**K out of Kashmir. As usual, all problems were instigated and perpetrated by Pakland and can be solved when all Pakis there are terminated or they slink away with their tails between their legs. End of negotiations.
A man sentenced to life imprisonment in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case today moved the Madras High Court to direct the Tamil Nadu government to consider granting him premature release on the ground that he had been held in prison for over 14 years.
Rajiv's not dead anymore, y'know...
When the petition by Robert Payas, a Sri Lankan Tamil, came up for hearing, Justice K Raviraja Pandian ordered notices to be issued to the Tamil Nadu Government and prison officials to seek their response in the matter. Payas, convicted of murder and criminal conspiracy in the assassination case, claimed he was entitled to premature release according to guidelines and policy of the state government as well as under Article 161 of the Constitution. Stating that he had made a representation on December 28, 2004 to the superintendent of the Central Prison in Vellore, where he is being held, seeking premature release, Payas contended his request was not considered on the ground that a report from a probation officer in Sri Lanka was essential for him being released.
Claiming that the requirement of the probation officer's report was "unfair and unreasonable" and "is impossible of compliance", he claimed that he could not be denied premature release only on this ground. The government's failure to release him would violate Article 21 of the Constitution, he said adding that the authorities had to only determine whether there was a possibility of him committing a crime in future, whether a convict had lost his potentiality of committing a crime and whether there would be any fruitful purpose of confining a convict further.
Have you, maybe, thought about keeping him in jug until he's doorknob dead? That's what I'd expect from a "life" sentence.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a phone talk with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked for the convening of an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to seek a way to end Israeli attacks against Lebanon.
According to the Press Affairs Bureau of the President's Office, President Ahmadinejad considered urgent consultations among OIC member states, particularly the regional countries, a bare necessity under the current conditions.
He added, "The Islamic governments, including the regional countries, must heed their responsibilities by acting more dynamically, since if they would fail to do so the dimensions of aggressions would not be limited to Lebanon."
Continued on Page 49
SPIEGEL: Is the secretary general the main referree?
Annan: He is a sort of referree, but without red and yellow cards. He cannot raise them, but he can raise his moral voice.
SPIEGEL: That is, at best, a yellow card.
Annan: You're right. A united Security Council would be a red card.
SPIEGEL: The biggest team, the United States, likes to play by its own rules.
Annan: There is a certain tendency on the part of some Americans to treat the UN as a multilateralism à la carte where you pick and choose where it suits you and when it doesn't suit you, you pull back. In Iraq, they want us to work closely with the Iraqis and lead an international compact for economic reform. They are within the UN on Iran and they are working closely with us on avian flu. In these cases they are working very closely with us because they have nowhere else to go. You cannot put together a coalition of the willing.
SPIEGEL: Have the Americans changed their behavior as a result of problems in Iraq?
Annan: There has been a very important lesson that everyone has learned from Iraq. Future American administrations will be much more hesitant to embark on a military action. It will also make Congress much more reluctant to appove military action and much more demanding of the justification and rationale for going to war.
SPIEGEL: It seems that every US generation in recent history has had to go through the experience of losing a war.
Annan: Yes, and it is a bit sad to put it that way. One has to learn from history. Quite frankly, it is almost impossible to have a sense of vision without a sense of history. If history is learned, then it doesn't have to repeat itself over generations.
#1
Future American administrations will be much more hesitant to embark on a military action.
Or maybe it's just that future American administrations will be much more hesitant to undertake nation-building.
Posted by: Matt ||
07/21/2006 17:03 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Future administrations will be much more hesitant to go to the UN. Hopefully future administrations pull the US out of the UN and banishes them from our shores.
#3
while i dont much sympathize with Kofis response, the line comes from the interviewer, and his response doesnt quite justify the headline. Obviously the only generations even the interviewer had in mind was this and the last one, and I doubt Kofi had time to consider the implications of his response.
#10
"There has been a very important lesson that everyone has learned from Iraq. Future American administrations will be much more hesitant to embark on a military action."
Many people have learned many different lessons in the nearly five years that have passed since 9/11. And I doubt very many of them dovetail much with "the" lesson Kofi Annan thinks we've learned.
Yes, we've all learned a lot since 9/11.
Suggestion to Kofi: don't be living in an Islamic country, or downwind from one, if and when the United States suffers another mass-casualty terrorist attack.
Your health might be affected.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/21/2006 20:33 Comments ||
Top||
#11
SPIEGEL: It seems that every US generation in recent history has had to go through the experience of losing a war.
Maybe. Or we could just ask the Germans what it's like.
You know what I'd like to know from history? What the fuck has Ghana ever done for the planet? Besides inflict Kofi on it...
#13
This guy is going away... maybe in December? Is that when his term is up? This job is a term limits job. Sad part, Bill Clinton wants his job and the world would love to give it to him. Wonder if that will come up in the new hearings for Bolton?
Some democrat Senator, with his half glasses resting on his somewhat tweaked nose, sniffing, condesentingly, "Will you work to get Bill Clinton as the next US Secretary General?"
#14
We have one of two choices as American conservatives when it comes to the selection of the next head of the United Nations. We can A) push for the guy best qualified for the job. That would probably be the former president (or was it Prime Minister?) of Singapore, a known if I am not mistaken for stiff-necked, brutal honesty. Or we can B) push for the guy most likely to piss off enough of our fellow citizens to allow us to leave the damn thing and kick it out of our territory with 80% plus popular support. That would be the guy from Ceylon who wants to send the BATF to kick down every Americans door.
#15
At least now I know why Ahmadinejad is always glad when the little pygmy shows up. He can con the shit out of him and he doesn't have to use the stool.
Turkish Political Leaders: If Iraq's Kurds won't deal with the PKK terrorists in their midst, we may go over there and do it for them!
U.S. Embassy: We don't think that's such a good idea. It would be better if the Turks, the Iraqis, and us cooperated on dealing with the PKK.
Turkish political leaders: How dare you tell us what to do! We're a sovereign state, and will do whatever is necessary to protect our citizens!
Turkish press: Hey, yeah, you guys are looking like lapdogs of the Americans. Let's you and him fight! (Alternately, "either shoot or stop talking.")
So now the Turkish government is reaching a point where they have two bad options: 1) Send troops into Iraq to hunt down the PKK, and accept the military and diplomatic consequences; hope that the fog of war doesn't cause some sort of incident between Turkish forces and coalition troops, and hope that the Kurds/Iraqis don't see the incident as an invasion of their country; or, 2) don't send troops over the border after talking about it for a week, and risk getting ripped in their own press for backing down and looking like they took orders from the Americans.
The situation in Israel appears to be a convenient comparison for the Turks. If Israel can cross a national border to deal with terrorists, why can't Turkey?
(Well, there aren't a bunch of coalition troops over the border in Lebanon, for starters...)
If nothing else, Turkish forces entering Northern Iraq would provide us with some bitter humor. "Oh, sure, NOW you guys want to invade. Where was this "can-do" spirit back in 2003?"
By the way, if you want a really bad scenario, imagine if the Turkish forces cross over; the Iraqi Kurds see this as an invasion and call on Iraq's military/militias/Shia and Sunni to help them defend their territory; the answer from non-Kurdish Iraqis is "no, this is your problem;" and then the Kurds respond by saying, "To hell with this, we're declaring independence."
Kurdish independence is the Turkish nightmare scenario; they see it as their Fort Sumter, as they fear an independent Kurdish nation on their border would inspire their own Kurdish populations to aim for independence.
So - maybe all of this is still rhetoric. But maybe I'm mistaking what I hope happens with what is likely to happen...
Posted by: Mike ||
07/21/2006 17:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
With the OIC meeting and TURKEY/IRAN saying stupid things.. Would Turkey be ready to attack the US in Iraq while Iran attempts nukes?
#2
3dc, who do you think is the Secretary General of the OIC? Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu. A Turk. An AKP Turk, part of the Gülen Gang--Fethullah Gülen, that is.
Old Fethullah got himself in a pickle with the pashas, so he's in self-imposed exile in the US for the time being. It seems that the Gülen Gang (AKP) thought it could take over the system in Turkey but recently it's been a bit of a battle.
So, it's not only EU accession pressure, Kurds, the US regional presence and Iran's lust for nuclear weapons that's the problem for Turkey. The real problem is the internal power struggle from AKP's attempts to take over the system.
I think AKP is trying to create a military situation to cater to the pashas, while at the same time catering to the Islamist crowd in order to give it more prestige with the pashas, and therefore more leverage in their attempt to take over the system.
After reading the most recent interview with Murat Karayılan (leader of Koma Komalên Kurdistan and one of the HPG's senior commanders--also an original founding member of PKK), it seems that he suspects the same thing.
The HPG Headquarters commander has issued a statement this week, saying that if Turkey persists in it's violence (meaning, invasion of South Kurdistan), the gerîla war will extend to the Mediterranean and the Aegean areas.
So far, only TAK has targeted the Mediterranean and Aegean areas.
Posted by: Azad ||
07/21/2006 21:41 Comments ||
Top||
#3
So basically the political party nominally in charge in Turkey thinks military action in Iraq would be a winner because they could keep the anti-Kurdish military and the religious party "base" at least singing from the same songbook?
Posted by: Phil ||
07/21/2006 22:17 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Yes but the tie in with Iran really bothers me. I think the US needs to make sure our bases in Turkey are safe. I smell Turkey and Iran ganging up on the US!
#5
Smell some bad juju if that happens 3dc. NATO will not sit it out if NATO Turks should happen to team up with Iran. Greece would get very nervous and Turkey could catch a cold.
#2
They need to go x10. More commercials, more scenes, more information and dialogue. They could take it viral over the Internet to cut down on bandwidth expense.
It's an investment. Eventually, typical Americans should be able to "invest in Kurdistan" as direct from their home computers as possible.
#4
South Kurdistan made National Geographic in January. There's a video here , and I think it's pretty accurate. But if you can get a copy of the January issue, the article is really good and I don't like journalists.
They even interviewed Mam Rostam Hamid Rahim (Germîyanî tribe--a TRUE warrior). He's a legend. You should read the article for Mam Rostam alone.
Posted by: Azad ||
07/21/2006 21:52 Comments ||
Top||
While the world's attention shifts toward the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Baghdad, as one popular Iraqi blogger puts it, is burning. Outside the bunker-like Green Zone, the Iraqi capital remains a hotbed of sectarian mayhem. A recent wave of tit-for-tat violence between Sunnis and Shiites has left hundreds dead (LAT). Infrastructure is crumbling and municipal services continue to perform below prewar levels. Foreign journalists rarely roam the streets, for fear of kidnappings or worse. According to a new UN report, civilian deaths have climbed to over 100 per day, and "the overwhelming majority of casualties were reported in Baghdad." This new Backgrounder assesses efforts to stabilize the Iraqi capital.
A much-touted security clampdown in the capital, which coincided with the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "has not produced the results I expected so far," admitted U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad in a recent speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Part of the problem, argues Kenneth M. Pollack of the Brookings Institution, is the Iraqi government is trying to secure Baghdad with half the number of troops necessary to bring order to a city of six million inhabitants.
Khalilzad has outlined a strategy of "focused stabilization operations" meant to restore order to Iraq's urban areas and root out sectarian militias while building municipal institutions, improving governance, and jump-starting the local economy. Much of that approach was spelled out by Andrew Krepinevichwho famously called it an "oil-spot strategy"last fall in Foreign Affairs. In this recent podcast, Krepinevich assesses the implementation of his strategy one year later and finds it working but requiring more time.
Some of the blame for the recent bloodshed in Baghdad has been placed on Moqtada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric whose militia, the Mahdi Army, has carried out reprisal killings against Sunnis and lures many of its recruits from Sadr City, a Baghdad slum. Yet the so-called Sadrists, despite their spoiler status, "cannot be reduced to an unruly mob, fired up by a populist leader," says Peter Harling, an International Crisis Group senior analyst. "It is a phenomenon with deep roots in contemporary Iraq and expressing a large number of justified grievances." Opposing them is a collection of insurgent fighters and suicide bombers who remain capable of devastating attacks (AP).
#1
The problem is we have never aknowledged that Iran is our main enemy in Iraq. The crackdown was directed at Al Qaeda in Iraq, but now the main enemy is Sadr (financed by Iran). Until the Coalition and ISF focus on Iran's assets in Iraq, there will not be any progress.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/21/2006 17:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
This article makes it seem like fighting between Sunni and Shiite is a bad thing.
Posted by: ed ||
07/21/2006 18:02 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Many years ago, somebody had a lot of fun with this quiz, in which you had to guess which excerpts came from Al Gore's Earth in the Balance, and which ones came from the Unabomber's "manifesto." Seems to me you could do something similar with a page of quotes from (1) Saddam Hussein (2) Osama bin Laden (3) Cindy Sheehan (4) Pat Buchanan (5) Cynthia McKinney and (6) Howard Dean.
Posted by: Mike ||
07/21/2006 12:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
But will they count the write-in votes for Saddam in the New Hampshire Democrat Primary in 2008.
Judging by how the trial is going, he'll still be alive...
Iraq's most prominent Shia cleric, Ali al-Sistani, has called for an end to sectarian "hatred and violence".
Yep. That oughta take care of it...
The grand ayatollah said the violence would only prolong the presence of US forces in the country. His call came as the US military admitted the level of violence was little changed since a large security crackdown in Baghdad last month.
Still too many masterminds at large. And too many money men.
A number of people were killed in fresh violence in the capital and other parts of the country on Thursday.
And, I might add, too many holy men. With Iran driving the violence from one direction and the Saddam remnants from the other — Izzat Ibrahim's still at large, Raghad's still comfy in Jordan, and Assad's still in power in Syria — we're not going to see a significant dropoff. The bad guyz, on the other hand, can't kick us out, so the best they can do is try to make the country uninhabitable.
Correspondents say the ayatollah's comments were his strongest public statements on the issue of sectarian violence in recent months. "I call on all sons of Iraq... to be aware of the danger threatening their nation's future and stand shoulder to shoulder in confronting it by rejecting hatred and violence," he said.
Blah blah... shoulder to shoulder... reject hatred and violence... we should all be nice... Whoopdy doo. Killing Tater would be a lot more to the point...
Ayatollah Sistani said the bombing in February of a Shia shrine in Samarra had unleashed "blind violence".
I'd call it "mindless violence," myself. It's pure destructiveness...
Unless halted the violence would "harm the unity of the people and block their hopes of liberation and independence for a long time", he said.
I think that's been done...
The US military on Wednesday again urged the Sunni and Shia communities to root out militias and death squads.
The bad part about the death squads is that both sides can use them...
But the US military admitted on Thursday the massive security clampdown that followed the killing of al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had achieved only a "slight downtick" in violence.
On the other hand, he is dead. That counts for a lot in my book...
The security plan included up to 50,000 police and soldiers on the streets of Baghdad and more checkpoints and raids on violent areas. US Maj Gen William Caldwell said: "We have not witnessed the reduction in violence one would have hoped for in a perfect world." The US said attacks had risen from an average of 24 a day between 14 June and 13 July to about 34 a day over the past five days.
Has anybody but me noticed that we've got two offensives going between competing death squads? Maybe we should kill the people behind both of them, which'd be Tater and the Association of Muslim Scholars.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yea, perhaps putting the competing forces in the Roman Coliseum theater of death. Let the lions have the remains
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/21/2006 0:16 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Sistani may not be everything we could hope for but at least he was OK on this issue.
Obviously, 50k police and soldiers can't handle the job if they face both Sunni and Shia terror gangs (partly because some of the police are part time terrorists).
You would think that, at some point, the supply of terrorists would shrink simply because they are killing each other. I also thought that by now the supply of high power explosives would be somewhat constrained.
#3
i was wondering when he would speak out. Im not sure how much influence he has on the street - the continued violence has left plenty bad feeling among the Shiites of Baghdad, and I dont know that they will listen to Sistani any more. OTOH maybe this gives more support to Maliki and others Shiite pols (whose base is the whole Shiite south, not just Baghdad) to push harder against Sadr. We HAVE seen some arrests of Mahdi army figures, though not of Sadr himself.
And yeah, when we look at the civilian death numbers (which ARE really bad) we should take into account that now thats deaths going both ways - the Sunni insurgency may well be weakening, but thats offset by more deaths at the hands of the Sadrists.
Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said on Thursday night that the two Arab children who were killed by a Katyusha rocket in Nazareth on Wednesday were "martyrs for the Palestinian cause."
Nasralla offered his condolences to the family of the two brothers in an interview with Al-Jazeera television. Disgusting.
#2
So, YOU kill them Nasrallah, and then call them "Martyrs"? This is prime time. Nevermind that you fire missiles at anyone at all in Israel. I'm not done with you yet.
#3
Hey, it's OK, they're martyrs now! But wait, there's more! The for the destroyed families of the first 100 unwitting martyrs I make under the age of 13, they all get to be martyrs, too! All you have to do is express your overwhelming joy about your kids' hideous death and badmouth Israel on TV! Hurry up and call now, it doesn't get any better than this!
#4
Just like the several hundred Muslims who died at the World Trade Center.
Hey Nasrallah, you dips**t, if they were Druze, are they still martyrs?
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/21/2006 8:40 Comments ||
Top||
#5
So does this win the family like a free grenade or a mortar round personally autographed by Naz or something?
The prizes just aren't nearly as good since Sammy got the jug...
He was been dubbed the region's Osama bin Laden but he's the terrorist no one wants to talk about. When the 44-year-old Hambali was arrested in August 2003, US President George W. Bush described him as one of the world's most lethal terrorists and Prime Minister John Howard proclaimed his capture as a huge blow against terrorism. Now, though, it's impossible to get the authorities to say anything about the Indonesian-born man who went by the name Riduan Isamuddin and is allegedly one of the masterminds behind the Bali bombings and a string of attacks across Southeast Asia. While his Bali bombing compatriots Dulmatin and Umar Patek are being hunted on the Philippines island Mindanao, Hambali remains hidden in a secret prison known only to a few CIA operatives. No one else knows where he is being held.
All requests from other nations to interview the man named as the linchpin between bin Laden's al-Qa'ida and the Southeast Asian-based terror group Jemaah Islamiah have been refused by the US Government despite assurances three years ago by former US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage that Australia would be given access to the captured terrorist mastermind. Nor will the US even comment about when, or if, he will be brought to trial.
Howard's office has similarly refused to comment. But during a recent trip to Indonesia, Howard was questioned as to whether Indonesian politicians had asked for Australia's help to get access to Hambali. The Prime Minister said it had not, "to my recollection, been raised with Australia by Indonesia, so if it were raised then I would think about it".
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
This is part of the first surge toward "where are the rest of them" with Guantanamo closing down. There'll be a lot more curiosity over what happened to Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, and the rest of the larger wigs.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 16:12 Comments ||
Top||
LEBANESE Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said there was no apparent political settlement to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and has accused the United States of encouraging Israel's offensive on Lebanon. "The United States is allowing Israel to pursue its aggression," he said.
Mr Siniora said the UN delegation in charge of negotiating a ceasefire did not return to Lebanon from Israel because the Jewish state gave a "negative response" to ideas put forward for a halt to hostilities during a visit in Beirut on Monday. "The Israelis are rejecting a ceasefire to continue to exert pressure in order to reach their objectives," he said, without elaborating.
He got one right!
Mr Siniora said the Lebanese government was working for a "ceasefire and a solution to the issue of the (captured) Israeli soldiers and the Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons".
Asked about the fate of the two captured soldiers, Mr Siniora said his government "did not ask Hezbollah" to hand them to Lebanese authorities.
Because he knows better.
He said he has not had "direct contacts" with Hezbollah since the start of the offensive, but that links between the two sides were maintained through parliament speaker Nabih Berri - a Hezbollah ally - for "practical reasons". He did not elaborate.
Nor did he need to.
Mr Siniora said "the government should be the only party to decide important issues such a war and peace" and that "the Lebanese want no state but the state and no arms but those of the state".
"But our priority is to preserve national unity and it is a matter which is not subject to any compromise," he said. "Hezbollah's position is different but we should reach a solution in concert with them," he said.
Mr Siniora said he was determined to extend state sovereignty over all Lebanese territories. However, he said that extending state sovereignty would not be carried out at the expense of national unity and that Hezbollah's disarmament - also a United Nations demand - would not be imposed with force.
Which means it won't happen unless the Israelis squash them.
Mr Siniora said the damage inflicted by Israel's offensive on Lebanon was "enormous" and has "brought back the country dozens of years".
#2
LEBANESE Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said there was no apparent political settlement to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and has accused the United States of encouraging Israel's offensive on Lebanon.
Not the brightest bulb is he?
1. Resolution 1559 - you should have done something about it
2. The endless 'ceasefire/hudna' merry go round is over - deal with it
3. The Israelis are going to kill Hezbollah - don't stand in their way
4. Of course the United States is encouraging Israel's offensive - on Hezbollah
5. At the end of this, you might well get your country back free of Syrian influence, certainly Hezbollah will be lying on it's back spasmodically kicking - a can of raid should help...
Don't Prime Minister's have to take an entrance exam or something; "Basic Geopolotics" or somesuch?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/21/2006 2:17 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Do I understand correctly that this guy is going to sic the Lebanese army on Israeli troops if they invade Lebanon? That's about the only fate worse than attacking Hezballah itself! It must be a political ploy. Any ideas?
#7
Mr Siniora said "the government should be the only party to decide important issues such a war and peace" and that "the Lebanese want no state but the state and no arms but those of the state".
Ms. Seniora cannot even decide if she is a women or a man , how can she decide on issues of State and arms ??
"But our priority is to preserve national unity and it is a matter which is not subject to any compromise," he said.
Ms. Seniora, you may not know it yet but your country has nbeen hijacked by Iran about six years ago - you are bassically the front post of Iran in their war against western civilization.
"Hezbollah's position is different but we should reach a solution in concert with them," he said.
If you are going to reach a solution in concert with the Hizbollah, I am afraid the concert is going to be your Requiem !
Mr Siniora said the damage inflicted by Israel's offensive on Lebanon was "enormous" and has "brought back the country dozens of years".
Don't worry, by the time we're through with you and your Hizbollah friends and colleagues, your country is going back to the stone age !
This is the price you pay for letting the turbans take over your country, so stop whinning, step aside and let us do you the undeserved favor of kicking the Hisbollah's ass out of your country.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/21/2006 6:38 Comments ||
Top||
#12
No shit sherlock, we are encouraging and providing ammo for it too. More dead terrorists that aren't gonna hurt us or our friends. Don't look like a terrorist, get it?
#13
Seniora wakes up every morning, looks in the mirror, and says what? "I'm the weak, ineffecive leader of a country held hostage by terrorists, drawn into a devastating war. But I get to wear natty suits, eat good food, and live in a mansion. Man, life is good! Please don't hit me!"
#14
Bush had stated that we will fight terrorism and the countries that support them. Back then, I thought he was urging Israel to stomp on Hamas and Hezbollah. The WOT is ongoing. Israel, India, the UK, the USA, Australia, and a gaggle of other countries are fighting the WOT.
To VICTORY !
HONG KONG - Asian governments struggled on Thursday toevacuate nationals from war-torn Lebanon, with some coming in for criticism, as the Philippine president asked for 30,000 Filipinos trapped by the conflict to be spared.
Guess we're not the only ones a little slow off the mark.
President Gloria Arroyo, facing criticism for failing to do enough for the stranded Filipinos, many of whom are female domestic workers, insisted her government was doing everything it could.
But Filipino officials have conceded they are unable to evacuate thousands of people on their own and have asked foreign governments for help. The Philippines makes a special appeal to all combatant forces to spare Filipino nationals who have no wish other than to be taken out of harms way, the president said in a statement. In the name of humanity, I ask the combatants not to harm them, she added, while appealing for other countries to help us in the evacuation process.
The foreign ministry said a majority of thw workers wanted to stay with their employers and the decision on evacuation was up to them. But Connie Regalado of suppport group Migrante International denied most Filipinos wanted to stay. There is just neglect in the slowness by which the government responded, Regalado said as she led families of workers stuck in Lebanon in a protest outside the ministry.
Criticism of Australias evacuation effort also mounted Thursday. The effort has suffered several setbacks, including the failure of a chartered ferry to arrive at Beiruts port Wednesday because it was double-booked.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said hundreds more Australians were left stranded on the dock after Israel refused to extend a deadline and guarantee a Greek navy rescue ship safe passage. He said six ships were scheduled to arrive in Lebanon from Friday to evacuate around 6,000 Australians, providing the ships could get into Beiruts packed port.
People have the impression that the evacuation is a farce and the government does not care, Keysar Trad, the outspoken founder of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, told AFP. Sections of the Australian press were also critical. Exodus descends into farce, said The Sydney Morning Herald in its front-page headline.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected criticism. The main message I want to convey to distressed relatives in Australia and indeed through them to their loved ones in Lebanon is that we are concerned, we have not abandoned them, he said.
Canberra said there were some 25,000 Australians in Lebanon, although the majority have dual nationality and did not plan to leave.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/21/2006 00:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
If Ameica went in and pulled every filipino out the government would bitch that we did not pull them first. That country sell their people for near slave labor, human services is their #1 export, and then begs for help when trouble arrives. Leave them there, make arroyo responsible for her own. Rememder how they cut and run from Iraq over one hostage.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/21/2006 7:38 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Some Asian governments are evacuating just fine
Foreigners of mainly Indian nationality queue up next to the INS Mumbai, as they wait to be evacuated at the Beirut port
The evacuees are being ferried to Larnaca in Cyprus by INS Mumbai, which reached the Beirut port earlier in the day as part of the mission -- 'Operation Sukoon'. After reaching Larnaca tomorrow morning, they will be airlifted to India by special flights of Air India. Two more warships -- INS Shakti and INS Betwa -- are near the Beirut port and will enter the harbour one by one to rescue about 12,000 Indians living in Lebanon.
Posted by: john ||
07/21/2006 9:08 Comments ||
Top||
#3
anybody in Lebanon, knowing it was on the frontlines of a war zone, should STFU and quit bitching cuz their ass isn't being pulled from the fire fast enough. Has Hezbollah been a secret? No. Has the Syrian/Lebanese conflict been a secret? No.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/21/2006 9:24 Comments ||
Top||
#4
and the Toronto Sun lets us hear from the grateful "Canadian" lebanese evacuated yesterday:
LARNACA, Cyprus -- The first group of Canadian evacuees fleeing war-torn Lebanon began the day on a hellish boat ride marked by seasickness, sunstroke and dehydration -- and they ended it aboard the prime minister's plane.
About 260 weary evacuees disembarked yesterday from the Blue Dawn, with passengers describing the trip across the eastern Mediterranean as difficult -- without air conditioning, adequate water and provisions for the ill.
"It was hell,"cried one woman, wheeling her baby away from the boat in a stroller.
"Everybody was vomiting on everybody," said Caroline Nohra of Montreal. "It was very miserable. The kids were scared, screaming, panicking."
But the owners of the boat clear up a few things.. Ian Wilson, engineering consultant to the owner of the ship, denied that the ride was out of the ordinary. He said people get seasick on every ride, especially those who ride boats for the first time.
The Canadian government didn't put enough water on the boat, which has air conditioning, Wilson said, but passengers kept opening the windows.
Whining muslims, right through the rescue. Appalling. Should've left them there. Same whining women flew back to Canada on Harper's plane - still bitchin'.
I say leave the remaining 49,000 in southern Lebanon where they are. Most haven't been in Canada in decades. Canadians of convenience. It's not convenient to come get your Hezb-loving asses.
#5
I don't think we should be responsible for paying for the exit of dual-nationals unless they can prove they have a residence in the USA and were just visiting. People make a choice to keep dual nationality.
#6
It's not just me then, questioning the nationalilty of these "evacuees" the abilty to speak fluent english/hindi/spanish whatever! and a single nationality passport should be a prerequisite.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Thursday for an immediate halt to the violence between Israel and Lebanon, saying a cease-fire would be the first step toward ending the escalating war. Israel, backed by the U.S., immediately dismissed calls for a cease-fire and said the military operation _ which was undertaken to free two captured Israeli soldiers but has spread to target all of Hezbollah _ will "take as long as it will take."
"When you operate on a cancerous growth you do not stop in the middle, sew the patient up and tell him keep living with that growth until it kills you," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman said. "You make sure it is totally removed."
Annan went before the council shortly after the return of a three-man U.N. team that met with leaders throughout the region. The team, led by Annan's special political adviser, Vijay Nambiar, came back with a list of proposals to quell the conflict. Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had a private two-hour dinner Thursday night at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, ahead of a planned Rice trip to the Middle East. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana had been expected to attend the dinner, but he was still in the region.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Kofi is the biggest limp dick on earth
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/21/2006 0:17 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The disproportionate use of force is called total war. It is how wars are won.. Ask Germany ansd Japan. This is a struggle on that scale. This nonsense going around about Israel being given one more week is excreta. It must utterly destroy The self named 'party of god'. To do that will likely destroy what little of Leabanon is left. That is tragic but realistic.
Annan would prefer Israel just quit and be murdered. The man an those around him are useless as well as clueless. Aanan seems to not know When you try and balance or be fair between good and evil parties, the evil party always wins. Hizballah is evil to the core.
#3
Becuz the several 000's already there have been so effective for decades at NOT preventing Radic Terror groups from shelling/rocketing northern Israel.
#4
You made the point, Sock. You cannot be the mediator between good and evil, and this is what the fighting is all about. Hizb'Allah is a death cult proxy of Syria and Iran, mainly the latter. The clinics and the so-called charities are a PR sideshow. Hizb'Allah's and Iran's stated goal is the destruction of Israel and her people. You cannot negotiate between a victim and his avowed murderer. You take out the murderer. The real issue in this war is how to take out the murderer with the least collateral damage.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/21/2006 0:36 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Kofi isn't interested in actually SOLVING anything. Has the U.N. every really solved anything in all of its pathetic existance? To solve something is to remove a reason for the U.N.'s existence.
So Kofi and his buddies don't want peace in the middle east. They are protecting their pathetic jobs and prestige. Peace in the ME would remove one of their jobs.
That is one of the reasons (besides old-fashoned hatred of the Jews) Kofi covertly supports Hezbillah and Hamas all the while publically stiving for 'peace'.
#8
Oh, koffi, if only you had acted so tough when you were the right hand man of boutros-boutros ghali charged to act on Rwanda...
But, of course, none of the parties involved was jooowish (bad!), or muslim (Master Race!), and the USA hadn't a dog in this fight (unlike France who supported and enabled the hutus), so you let 800 000 people get hacked/clubbed to death, or die of hunger and disease.
But that's okay, they weren't important people.
#10
1) Bring forth all the kidnapped soldiers.
2) Immediately evacuate all Hezbollah out of Lebanon back to Iran.
3) Purge all Lebanon of Hizzbi long range weapons
Kofi, you sick son of a bitch, do all these and I promise you we gladly stop the war.
Can't Deliver ?
So Shut the fuck up and let us do the dirty work that you cant.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
07/21/2006 7:02 Comments ||
Top||
#11
He wants the fighting to stop, just long enough so he can send in food and aid, skimming off the top of course making his friends and family rich.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/21/2006 7:46 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I just had this really terrible dream thing. In it, al Qaeda carries out a suicide bombing plot on the UN... Inadvertantly, Bolton discovers the plot and has 20 minutes to alert the Staff of the US, Aus, Israel, Japan, New Europe, and the UK - maybe - and the NYPD cops assigned duty there - and gives instructions to vacate in two's and three's quietly, but quickly.
Imagine how touching the following press conference would be. *wipes tear*
#15
C'mon guys, I think Koffi understands total war better than you give him credit for. I mean after all, he has been sitting back observing the janjaweed do it for years.
#16
collective punishment of the Lebanese people must stop
Hmmm...collective punishment, like the German and Japanese people. Mighty peaceful lot they are today I notice.
Collective punishment, you mean like being white and male in America and being punished for something that happened over a hundred years ago be it slavery or suffrage?
Collective punishment for, like, violating international law. International Law? Yep.
The Hague Convention of 1907 which states a neutral country has the obligation not to allow its territory to used by a belligerent. If the neutral country is unwilling or unable to prevent this, the other belligerent has the right to take appropriate counteraction.
Or does international law only apply to Israel and the United States? [Rhetorical question].
#20
He would make a cease fire deal with the martians from "Mars Attacks"...
"a cease-fire would be the first step toward ending the escalating war..."
Ack-ack-ack-ack-ack - PPPFFFT!
#21
It amazes me (but doesnt surprise) that the Islamists idiots decide to pick a fight and once they get one they want to claim victimhood. I remember the 70s and 80s when Egypt, Jordan, and Syria would start a battle and once it was clear they were not going to win they would running crying like Voinovich to the un for a cease fire. When Israel invaded Lebanon the first time Arafish was beaten badly and spent about five days dodging Israeli bombs and making emergency phone calls to the un. Too bad the un (make the U.S.) intervened and allowed Arafish to escape to Tunisia or maybe thing would have been different. IF the PM of Lebanon wants to aid peace, how about he turns his Army (sic) loose on Hezbullah and make that very real problem go away for both sides. I really think they would fare better against Hezbullah than they will against the Jews, but hey maybe they need an ass whoopin to be reminded that they are not in the same league.
Lebanons government, and not Hezbollah, should make all political and military decisions, if the current crisis is to be solved, Samir Geagea, told Asharq al Awsat on Tuesday. The head of the executive committed of the Lebanese Forces also indicated that Lebanon was at the center of a conflict between the United States and the West, on the one hand, and Iran and Syria, on the other.
In an interview with Asharq al Awsat, Geagea declined to hold any party responsible for the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, but indicated the March 14 coalition, of which he is a member, has much to say to Hezbollah, after the violence ends. From a humanitarian point of view we are completely sympathetic to the plight of civilians and we also feel sad at whats happening. But from a strategic point of view, the Lebanese government has to make detailed calculations, in order to understand which measures need to be taken, starting from the facts that have emerged in the last few days, in order to solve the crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
You're only six year late, Geagea.
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/21/2006 0:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
The West has been saying similar for decades, to which the Lebanese govt. responds only after the terror orgs retreat post-Israeli invasion.
#5
With Resolution 1559, wasn't Leb supposed to do something about Hez? Something like disband them?
And, how do these relatively tame comments comport with news that the Leb army will fight along side Hez should the Israelis come knocking?
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/21/2006 1:48 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Sung to
"I Am The Walrus"
by Lennon & McCartney
You are Terr'ists, and we are not,
so you and me - we're not together.
See how you run from bombs - our good work done,
see Jehadis fly.
I'm tired.
Sitting on a humvee,
waiting for air strikes to come.
IDF tee-shirt,
stupid bloody Persians.
Mahmood*, you been a naughty boy,
you let your nukes grow fast.
We're the Israleis,
You are Hezbo'llah,
You are in deep shit,
coo coo coochoo
Excerpt:
Finally, we have one of the scariest terrorist strategy manuals out there; "The Management of Savagery." This document, which is written is slightly grander Arabic, is meant for jihadi leaders. It basically points out what has worked in places like Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan and Algeria (places where Islamic radicals have taken over, or come close to doing so.) The basic strategy is to find Islamic countries with weak governments, go in there and kill lots of people, make lots of terror, and weaken the government as much as possible. Then, when there is chaos all about, the jihadis move in, restore order and take over. How's that for truth in packaging. "The Management of Savagery" is also meant to make it clear to jihadis why they have to be so savage, and to reassure them that God approves.
Posted by: ed ||
07/21/2006 15:58 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Washington - The Israel Project (TIP) today released a poll of American voters which shows growing support for Israel and an overwhelming feeling that Hamas and Hezbollah have gone too far.
Support for Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians has reached an overwhelmingly high 60 percent, while support for the Palestinians is at only 7 percent. A similar poll of likely voters conducted on behalf of TIP in January of this year, before the election of Hamas, found support for Israel at 45 percent and the Palestinians at 7 percent.
On the question of what is happening currently in the Middle East, Americans are following the situation closely and overwhelmingly believe Hamas and Hezbollah are going too far. When asked if Hezbollah is acting properly or going too far, the survey shows that by a margin of 68 percent to 7 percent, voters believe it is going too far. When the same question was asked about Hamas, the response was virtually the same, 66 percent say Hamas is going too far and 9 percent say it is acting properly.
"Americans clearly understand that in both the case of Hamas and Hezbollah, Israeli soldiers were killed and kidnapped. In both cases, rockets have been fired into Israel and Israel is responding in a way that it hopes will reduce the future threat. In both cases, American voters clearly believe that Hezbollah and Hamas have gone too far," said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, founder and president of TIP.
In both instances, voters believe that Israel's response is justified by more than a two to one ratio. When asked if Israel is justified in what it is doing to Hezbollah in Lebanon, 59 percent believe it is justified and 20 percent say it is unjustified. In the situation in Gaza with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, 56 percent believe Israel's actions are justified, while 24 percent believe its actions are unjustified.
Voters were asked separately, in an open-ended response (where they supply the answer and multiple answers were allowed), who are the main providers of support for Hezbollah and Hamas. In the case of Hezbollah, 38 percent named Iran and 36 percent named Syria. In the case of Hamas, 38 percent said Iran and 32 percent said Syria.
"Americans understand exactly what is happening here and who is behind it. Over 70 percent of Americans name Iran and Syria as the primary supports of groups they label as terror organizations," Mizrahi said.
When asked if Hezbollah and Hamas are terror organizations or legitimate nationalist movements, Americans overwhelmingly believe they are terror organizations. In the case of Hezbollah, 60 percent believe it is a terrorist organization while 7 percent say it is a legitimate nationalist movement. In the case of Hamas, 54 percent believe it is a terrorist organization while 11 percent say it is a legitimate nationalist movement.
Voters are following the issue closely with 29 percent responding that they are following it very closely, 41 percent following it fairly closely while 21 percent are following it not too closely and 8 percent not at all closely.
The poll of 1,000 likely voters was conducted by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research from July 16-18. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent. The January 10-12 poll was conducted by the firm Public Opinion Strategies among 800 likely voters. The margin of error was +/- 3.46 percent. Go to the link to read the questions and a breakdown of the responses. I think you'll be favourably impressed, especially if you've been frustrated by Zogby's polling techniques, and those sponsored by the Democratic Party.
#2
[span class=BrerRabbit]
Now is the time for the antiwar movement to ramp up its rhetoric and change people's minds. Let's see Pat Buchanan and Cindy Sheehan and Ned Lamont and Mersham & Walt and Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry get up and tell the truth about the evil Jooooos and their control over the US government and their world domination plans and the 4,000 Jews who didn't go to the WTC and the controlled demolitions and the black helicopters and flouride in the water and everything. Support Hamas, vote Democrat!
[/span]
Posted by: Mike ||
07/21/2006 9:30 Comments ||
Top||
#3
I was watching Madeline Halfbright on Greta's show yesterday. Halfbright started with her usual complaints, then Greta blasted one right out the park with this question. Ok, Madame Secretary, "How would you resolve the situation?" Her answer was essentially: Well...well...well...well...well...diplomacy, of course. The two sides must come to an agreement.
Excellent!!Bravo!! The same answer my 6 year old daughter would've given. Good to know that PhD didn't go to waste. Whataputz!
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.
July 21, 2006: The May 5 Darfur peace agreement is not working. Violence, in fact, appears to be increasing once again. A tribal leader (Masalit tribe, South Darfur) said the peace agreement has proved to be "just paperwork." South Darfur is reportedly experiencing a new wave of attacks by the Sudan-government backed Janajaweed militia. Many of these reports and claims are fragmentary, but UN humanitarian services have been interrupted by the fighting and ambushes. Despite the fragmentary and often unconfirmed reports, it is clear that the Sudan government has not disarmed the Janjaweed militia. Likewise, African Union (AU) peacekeepers have proved to be very ineffective. The AU peacekeepers complain that they were sent to Darfur to observe a ceasefire. The AU forces lack trained troops. Their firepower has proved to be insufficient firepower and the troops they do have lack mobility.
The top security official of the 
A coalition of liberal groups this week launched a nationwide campaign to educate Americans on impeachment and encourage them to support impeaching President Bush.
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush is considering renominating John Bolton as the US ambassador to the United Nations, a year after appointing him to the job over Senate objections, aides said on Thursday.
As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I have had the rare opportunity to witness firsthand how the diplomatic process works and, in some cases, how it fails. Recently, despite our nation's best efforts, the world -- and particularly the Middle East -- has become a more dangerous and volatile place.
We are often very critical of the New York Times, but when its reporters and editors get something right we like to be the first to point it out. 
While the world's attention shifts toward the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Baghdad, as one popular Iraqi blogger puts it, is 
Iraq's most prominent Shia cleric, 
LEBANESE Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said there was no apparent political settlement to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, and has accused the United States of encouraging Israel's offensive on Lebanon. "The United States is allowing Israel to pursue its aggression," he said. 
HONG KONG - Asian governments struggled on Thursday toevacuate nationals from war-torn Lebanon, with some coming in for criticism, as the Philippine president asked for 30,000 Filipinos trapped by the conflict to be spared.
