Dr. Thomas G. Bonow
2200 West 39th Street
Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57105
605-339-7290
bonotbone@aol.com
June 18, 2005
President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President
Who has the father godhead in this country?
I dunno. Who?
Your investments have made you a millionaire.
I thought he was born rich? Make up your mind...
Are you being paid off?
Paying off millionaires can be expensive...
Texas always has the father godhead in this country. Did the Black Race and White Race join together to come against me and now can not handle the His-Spanic, Mexican's.
You think they might not like you? What'd you do to them?
Roman Catholic Police Female Godhead.
Lost me on that one, bub. I assume it's a reference to the Virgin Mary, but I haven't run across any flying squads of Knights of Columbus...
Is this the Mother goddess country?
Not that anybody would noice, except maybe you, and you don't sound too sure...
Will NATO stand for it?
Do they have a choice? If they notice, that is?
Will Laura and Dick Cheney run on a third Bush family ticket?
My guess at this point would be Bill Frist. Obviously you've been talking to the people who populate your head and they say different. Don't believe them.
Going to close Ellsworth?
Ellsworth Bunker? Ellsworth AFB? Daniel Ellsworth?
Are the Jews directing your Iran war with their money?
Yes. They're also after you. They put up the money for the guy who's been dropping dog turds on your lawn.
#1
Ahem. May I suggest, voluntary or no, that the street address and phone number be redacted?
I also suggest that a google search on "Thomas G. Bonow" is very entertaining. I particularly suggest this site. Do a "find" on "Virginia". So NSFW, or possibly home, if you think you might have a hemorrhage giggling.
#7
Hopefully Mucky won't be analyzing Angie's "find" line by line.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/18/2005 20:04 Comments ||
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#8
Angie, where on earth did you find that link?
Google is our friend. Google is God. It sees all, knows all, tells all.
If you mean, did I read through the entire thing, the answer is no. The "Virginia" bits just sort of jumped out at me. It's kind of like a kaleidoscope; everytime you look at it, you see something a little bit different.
The Senate has begun to examine legislation that could halt U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia. Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, has introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 into the Senate. The co-sponsors of the bill, designated Senate bill 1171, are Senators Evan Bayh, Susan Collins, Russ Feingold, Tim Johnson, Patty Murray and Ron Wyden.
The legislation, introduced on June 7, establishes sanctions for Saudi Arabia unless the kingdom complies with United Nations Security Council resolution 1373, which calls on states to deny haven to terrorist financiers and planners. The bill asserts that Riyad has failed to arrest Saudi nationals deemed to have funded terrorism. The proposed sanctions against Saudi Arabia include a ban on the export of advanced U.S. weaponry and technology to Riyad. Saudi Arabia has been the leading importer of U.S. weaponry although orders by the kingdom dropped significantly since 2001, when it bought $2.7 billion worth of air-to-air missiles missiles and aircraft systems. Riyad has been negotiating with the United States for the purchase of Black Hawk multi-role helicopters.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Obviously b4 KEEMOO
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/18/2005 2:15 Comments ||
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#2
Ore is it KEEMOOE
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/18/2005 2:16 Comments ||
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#3
"Congress Mulls U.S. Embargo On Saudis"
If they do embargo U.S. weaponry, the Saudis will just buy arms from some other supplier.
but.. if the jellyfish do manage to pull it off, would there be enough time for the gruesome
8 to grow spines, Before the Sand Tribes retaliated by lowering their own/OPEC production and exports?
/In his dreams, Arlen wishes he had that much hair.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/18/2005 2:19 Comments ||
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#4
gruesome 7
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/18/2005 2:25 Comments ||
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#5
I'm puzzled by the senate lately,on the one hand we have the filibuster and lack of Border control buls$%t,on the other we have them wanting to cut U.N. funds and putting an arms embargo on the Sauds.Are they schizophrentic or what?
#7
Just what is this supposed to achieve? The Saudis are a bunch of incompetents with a yen for buying gold-plated weaponry they can't use effectively because their manpower can't handle it. This is a grandstanding move by Specter and his liberal friends on the Democratic side of the aisle. All it will do is increase the trade deficit without affecting Saudi Arabia's military capability - which was probably degraded by their inability to figure out complicated American weapons systems. What is it with Specter and completely useless legislation?
#8
Yes gromgoru, and yes the $2.7 billion will even tempt some of our own allys to work around the embargo and sell US tech. (btw US tec rules)
I think raptor expressed my reaction to this legislation better than I did.
What are these gas bags trying to accomplish?
Since Saudi madrasses spreading Wahhabism are the greatest propagator of terrorism, this *legislation* is in an incredably inept tool to address the problem (WOT).
In fact I think it will have just the opposite effect, adding fuel to Muzzy terrorism while at the same time hurt our own tec industry.
It's a total foot shoot, because madrasses and hadji boombers don't need/use Black Hawk helicopters etc.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/18/2005 12:37 Comments ||
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#9
I think raptor and Zhang Fei expressed my reaction to this legislation better than I did.
Posted by: Red Dog ||
06/18/2005 12:39 Comments ||
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#10
#8,
But EU weaponry is even more TLC demanding than US.
#11
Even if the House does pass such legislation, the Senate won't. But it is a nice little shot across the Saudi bow, to remind them that America isn't nearly as fooled as they would like. The next step is to regulate the private schools -- are they meeting U.S. national standards for their American students, which requires examining curricula and textbooks. Unacceptabilities in either should be widely pubicized, inasmuch as the inspectors will be shocked that our friends the Saudis would teach such horrible, bigotted things to our children and theirs.
#13
TW: But it is a nice little shot across the Saudi bow, to remind them that America isn't nearly as fooled as they would like.
Actually, it isn't. They can buy gold-plated weapons systems that they can't use effectively from other countries. They know that Afghanistan and Iraq are our way of sticking it to Muslim supporters of terrorism for 9/11. It's one thing to warn them of future consequences - it's quite another to slap them in the face like this. How many Boeing civilian jet deals aren't being done because of stupid grandstand plays like this?
Red dog: If they do embargo U.S. weaponry, the Saudis will just buy arms from some other supplier.
gromguru: Like who? Euros?
That's right - Euros. Russians. Chinese. Et al. Arms salesmen are lining up around the block. All of whom will have fewer qualms than Uncle Sam about the kinds of conflicts during which they will resupply the Saudis. I am sure that the area's rulers remember that Carter embargoed the Shah during the Iranian Revolution in 1979 (that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power). They don't need another reason to avoid buying US weaponry. A reason that Specter just supplied to them on a plate.
The big red flag here is the fact that Patty Murray supports it. This is the same senator that believes that bin Laden is popular in the Muslim world because of his exploits as a social worker. The fact is that Christian organizations do a lot more than bin Laden - or Muslim charities - in the Muslim world. But they're not particularly popular for one simple reason - unlike bin Laden, they're non-Muslims and they haven't killed Americans in large numbers.
#14
gromguru: But EU weaponry is even more TLC demanding than US.
You're not getting the point. These weapons systems are trophies. In just about every weapons system they possessed, the Saudis had a serious qualitative edge over the Iraqi military. But if Uncle Sam hadn't inserted into Saudi Arabia a Desert Shield force involving two infantry divisions after the Iraqis conquered Kuwait in 1990, the Saudis would have folded like a cheap suit under an Iraqi onslaught.
Security forces in Jizan conducted a major cleanup operation in an area along the country's border with Yemen and arrested 2,500 infiltrators as well as nine people involved in drug and human trafficking, press reports said yesterday. Al-Watan newspaper reported that police had arrested the leader of the smuggling racket. The paper said the man, known as "Ghazanfar" (the lion), was wanted by police in connection with a number of crimes, including the sale of alcohol. As many as 35 units from the patrol police, border guards and special security forces took part in the largest such operation ever in the region, according to Maj. Gen. Ahmed Gazzaz, director of Jizan police. "We have arrested all criminals and illegal residents in the area and destroyed their hideouts," he said.
Col. Abdullah Aseery, director of administrative affairs at Jizan police, led the campaign. Gazzaz said his officers carried out the operation after weeks of thorough planning. He thanked tribal leaders and citizens for providing safe passage for security forces. He promised another major campaign soon to clear the remaining hideouts in the area. The detainees included 227 women and 471 children who were to be deployed in various parts of the Kingdom for begging — which has become a lucrative trade for the human traffickers lately. During the 10-hour operation in a shantytown known as "Chinese" hideout, south of Samita, police seized live ammunition and a large quantity of locally manufactured liquor and a number of motorcycles which the gang used.
Continued on Page 49
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06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said on Friday the communist country was willing to return to nuclear disarmament talks in July if the United States "recognises and respects" his country. North Korea "could rejoin six-party talks as early as July if the US recognizes and respects the country as a (dialogue) partner," Kim was quoted as saying by South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young.
Respect? Heh. Guess we won't be talking.
Kim, however, said his country needs "further consultations with the United States," Chung said after returning from talks with the North Korean leader in Pyongyang. Chung quoted Kim as denying North Korea had ever said it would abandon the six-party disarmament forum, which has been stalled for a year. The North Korean leader also reaffirmed that an inter-Korean agreement on denuclearising the Korean peninsula was "still valid," calling it "last will" of his father, Kim Il-Sung, who founded the communist country and died in 1994, Chung said.
The South Korean minister said he had "in-depth" discussions with Kim on politics, economy and humanitarian aid. He also delivered a verbal message from South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun on the disarmament talks and North Korea's nuclear weapons drive. South Korean officials said earlier that they would make the best use of Chung's visit to Pyongyang to urge the Stalinist country to return to six-party talks.
Continued on Page 49
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06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2005 11:55 ||
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#1
This is a slightly different version of another post; I skipped to the conclusion to the editorial.
AI was useful to the author, at one time, he still holds out hope for it!
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2005 15:48 Comments ||
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#2
Despite the risks posed by terrorism, the United States cannot indefinitely detain people considered dangerous without appropriate safeguards for their conditions of detention and periodic review of their status.
Who, of those in Gitmo, are legal American residents/citizens/visitors that are being detained indefinitely? Those twats being fed and clothed over there are illegal enemy combatants, meaning, they haven't bothered to abide by accepted rules in warfare. Play by the rules with us, and we'll do the same. If not, well, tough.
#3
In the absence of a truly impartial authority (a self-selected judge and jury, which is what AI and the Red Thingy are, cannot prove that they are imparital) and with no objective measure agreed to by all, we are forced to use relative comparisons between nations rather than absolute ones. Even then, we should use hard numbers, with nations refusing to provide information or allow inspections or prisoner visits (the equivalent of not showing up for the final exam) being scored ZERO.
Here's my point: demanding that we, the United States, be held to a higher standard than everyone else, is simply the definition of discrimination and hypocrisy. Applying one set of rules to one person, and a different set of rules to someone else, IS INTOLERABLE AND SHOULD BE CONDEMNED.
A patent reluctance to grade the United States on the same scale as everyone else is an admission that one does not want to issue an impartial, defendable, and COMPARABLE, judgement. Asserting that the United States is worse than Cuba is possible only by applying a different standard to the United States, while the use of the word "worse" falsely implies that the SAME standard was used.
The (true gulag) victim tries to be honest, but he's still a hypocrite because his demands define him as one.
#4
I still think they would be great bait on my line for the fish roundup at Port Aransas TX.
I think a Marlin or Shark would just love them. Of course it would need to be a "live bait" situation. Doe's AI have problems with Fishing? They don't beleive in God so bait being muslim or animal shouldn't make a bit of difference to AI.
Of course I don't know how the captians at Dolphin Docks would feel about it. (They likely belive in a God so see a differences....)...
#6
At best these are prisoners of war who we should set free when the war is over in 10, 20, or 100 years. At worst, they should face military tribunals and be executed. Since they are not going free anytime soon, there's no rush on the tribunals.
Posted by: Tom ||
06/18/2005 20:13 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - The Defense Department, under subpoena from a Senate committee, has provided enough information on the military base closing process to satisfy Senate leaders, so no further legal action will be taken, senators said Friday.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., in a letter to acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, said that while they haven't gotten all the data requested, the thousands of pages they received helped them better understand how the department made its decisions to close or realign military bases.
The letter comes just weeks before a July 6 public hearing in Boston of the independent base closing commission to review decisions to close bases in the senators' home states, Maine and Connecticut.
In recent weeks the Pentagon has released a massive amount of information on the proposed shutdown of about 180 military installations across the country, including 33 major bases. Federal and state officials demanded more information backing up the decisions, but some of it was initially classified. Under pressure from the subpoena issued by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Pentagon worked to declassify much of the information and release additional data.
Under the agreement disclosed in the senators' letter to England, the Pentagon agreed to continue releasing information and to make Defense Department analysts available for meetings with congressional staff.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Where have I seen this tactic used before...I got it, Bolton
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/18/2005 2:19 Comments ||
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#2
The Bolton nomination is about territorial behavior and positioning in the baboon pack. The 'Bases' are about $$$$.
#3
..said that while they haven't gotten all the data requested, the thousands of pages they received helped them better understand how the department made its decisions to close or realign military bases.
So, in other words, the DoD knew what it was doing all along, right?
Several days ago I received a telephone call from an old friend who is a longtime Amnesty International staffer. He asked me whether I, as a former Soviet "prisoner of conscience" adopted by Amnesty, would support the statement by Amnesty's executive director, Irene Khan, that the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba is the "gulag of our time."
"Don't you think that there's an enormous difference?" I asked him.
"Sure," he said, "but after all, it attracts attention to the problem of Guantanamo detainees." Not even "fake but accurate," just "fake but useful. It is also called "hyperbole" "propaganda" and "bullshit." In short, it is a classic Big Lie, a technique made famous by a chap whose bosses ran some serious concentration camps.
The word "gulag" was a bureaucratic acronym for the main prison administration in Stalin's Soviet Union. After publication of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago," it became a symbol for the system of forced-labor camps that have been an integral feature of communist countries. Millions of prisoners confined in the gulag had not been involved in violence or committed any crime -- they were there because they belonged to a "wrong" social, national or political group or expressed a "wrong" opinion.
The cruelty and scale of the gulag system are described in numerous books, so there is no need to recount them here. By any standard, Guantanamo and similar American-run prisons elsewhere do not resemble, in their conditions of detention or their scale, the concentration camp system that was at the core of a totalitarian communist system. In a notable flying pig moment, even Al Guardian has run a piece denouncing Amnesty's loathesome analogy. AI remains oblivious to this, proving once again that it is simply a media-cult corporate fund raising operation with no real concern at all for human rights.
We round up the paid AI staffers, put half of them in a camp simulating conditions at Gitmo, the other half go in a re-created Gulag camp.
After a month they switch places.
After another month, the survivors can vote on which they think was worse and select the camp in which they would prefer to spend another year of incarceration.
They can also select from a 1-10 scale what they believe to be the most accurate degree of difference; with 1 being "identical in every respect" and 10, "Are you fucking crazy? I'm lucky to be alive."
#3
"it is simply a media-cult corporate fund raising operation with no real concern at all for human rights"
That's the most concise description of AI I've ever read. Applies to almost all of the so-called "human rights" orgs and NGO's, as well.
My first realization, the death of my naivete, was when I found out that The March of Dimes (founded by FDR) went looking for another cause to "champion" when the Salk vaccine proved successful and was massively distributed in 1954-55. Now, allied with the Easter Seals folks, they've gone for the blanket category of "birth defects". Charity Navigator gives them only 1 "star" - out of 4 - which means they suck, in terms of efficiently serving the cause they pretend to espouse. Park Paradise for the management.
#4
BTW, to my surprise, AI-USA was also "reviewed" by Charity Navigator and given 2 "stars" of 4. The International org isn't rated - prolly cuz they aren't forced to open their books - they're UK-based, as charities based in the US are.
Note that Charity Navigator ratings must be taken with a cowlick (that's a big-assed block of salt for you city folk) - they rated the Carter Center 4 of 4 "stars", lol. The rating is for how much money actually makes it to fund the stated purpose -- it doesn't address the question of if they're crazy or socialist tools, lol.
#5
Cuz the still mostly LeftMedia is, for the time being, the "Democratic Party", while the Dems themselves, i.e. Clintonian Dems-for-Repubs/Rightists-for Dems, aka Repubs-for-Socialism, etal. are trying to focii on destroying, disrupting and subverting the GOP-Right from within. The Failed Left wants War, it wants America to be attacked, cuz it believes that America's Federalist, Three-Branches, Constitutional Repub form/system of Govt. and DemoCapitalist economy and society will NOT survive the rigors of expansion unto new Global Empire. Contemporay Leftism is about POLITICS, etc. i..e getting someone to do or submit to your will or desires [ Islam???]. WHEN AMERICA IS DONE MAKING EMPIRE INDIRECTLY FOR THE REDS, eg RUS [Russia] = USR [United States Socialist Republic], OUR HEAD WILL BE CUT OFF LIKE NICK BERG!
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Efforts to toughen security along the troubled U.S.-Mexican border advanced in Congress on Thursday as a Senate panel authorized $322.9 million for an additional 1,000 border patrol agents and 500 support personnel.
"We can't allow our borders to be a weakness," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, after the Senate Appropriations Committee endorsed her proposal for beefing up the border patrol. Hutchison, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas; and other Southwestern lawmakers are calling for tougher enforcement along the border following a rash of violence and continued reports that terrorists may be planning to sneak into the United States from Mexico.
The concerns gained new urgency after the killing of a police chief in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, which has been virtually paralyzed by drug wars. U.S. authorities fear the violence may be spreading across the Rio Grande into Laredo and elsewhere in Texas.
Now for the obligatory "True, but Smarmy Backhand-Written Paragraph":
Hutchison, in a rare break with the Republican White House, has sharply attacked President Bush's 2006 budget request that called for only 210 additional border patrol agents, a 10-fold reduction from the 2,000 agents Congress requested last year when it overhauled the nation's intelligence system.
#1
U.S. authorities fear the violence may be spreading across the Rio Grande into Laredo and elsewhere in Texas.
Err...you mean the murders, rapes, robberies and other mayhem already committed by the illegals throughout the United States which both party's administrations have let across, don't qualify as violence?
#2
...Sadly, until a bunch of Americans are dead from someone who can be proven to have come across the border (and the MSM will hold it to a courtroom level of proof), nothing serious will be done. The United States Army or the relevant National Guards. On the border.
NOW.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/18/2005 11:09 Comments ||
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#3
These guys can recruit all the BP agents they want, but until the government decides to get tough on illegal immigration and immigration law enforcement, not much is going to change.
GENEVA - The international Red Thingy Cross said on Friday that the US government was cooperating to improve its treatment of terror suspects in Guantanamo and elsewhere, even if some American critics were hostile to the organization. Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross, said a critical paper by the Republican Policy Committee in the US Senate reflected the views of only one organization, not the US government.
The paper titled "Are American Interests Being Disserved by the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross?" was published Monday by the Republican panel, accusing the committee of departing from its neutral traditions to criticize the United States. "The US government and the ICRTC have good and trustful relations," Kellenberger said, noting that he had "quite a long meeting" in February with US President George W. Bush and two meetings this year with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "The quality of the dialogue up the highest level enables both sides to discuss openly all issues, including those where there are differences of view, and there are," Kellenberger told reporters. As is the case with other countries, "some of our recommendations are being taken into account, and some are not," he said. "We have to check what is not taken into account ... and then we have to insist again."
The international Red Thingy Cross is the only independent group that been allowed to visit terror suspects detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It also is the only independent international organization able to visit detainees in Iraq. Kellenberger rejected the Republican paper, which said that "when it comes to non-emergency relief operations, the ICRTC is no longer an impartial and trustworthy guardian: it has become yet another clamoring interest group like Amnesty International."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Considering they have an office right there, they will be damned if the place will be compared with a Gulag, a Nazi concentration camp or Pol Pot's Killing Fields. After all, all that would be happening right under their noses.
#2
As is the case with other countries, âsome of our recommendations are being taken into account, and some are not,â he said. âWe have to check what is not taken into account ... and then we have to insist again.â
Ever stop to think that you aren't the masters of countries you have "dialogue" with??
Kellenberger said the ICRTC was open to criticism and âconstructive dialogue with those who have different opinions. However, dialogue does not appear to be the primary objectiveâ in the Republican senatorsâ report.
Probably because they don't give a hoot about "dialogue". What's wanted is for the Amnesty International mimicking to STOP.
#3
Eight former U.S. ambassadors to the United Nations, including Madeleine Albright and Jeane Kirkpatrick, also weighed in, telling lawmakers in a letter that withholding of dues would "create resentment, build animosity and actually strengthen opponents of reform."
OOOOOOOHHH! Horrors! Create animosity. Heavens, we would not like that to happen to us in the UN.
I like what the House did. Hit the UN thugs, bureaucrats, and ne'er do wells where it hurts---in their pocketbooks. If these unelected, unaccountable do-nothing bureaucrats want to play their games, bash the US, and beg for help when they need it, then they can do it on their own nickel or Euro. I hope the Senate grows an exoskeleton and passes it. Congress controls the purse, not the President, though I do not know if this bill would survive a presidental veto. But it is a start. Hats off to the House. Ball is in the Senate's Court.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/18/2005 17:44 Comments ||
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#4
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm - FOXNEWS reported that the USA gives US$440.0M per annum to the UNO, yet officially the USA pays for 2/5 of the UNO budget of approx US$2.0B, not counting certain Programs. Do the Math.
Iran's presidential election will go to a second round for the first time ever, with former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani facing former Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who opposes detente with the U.S. Rafsanjani gained 21.01 percent of the vote held yesterday, Ahmadinejad 19.48 percent and former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi 17.28 percent, according to the nation's interior ministry today. The two highest vote-getters in the seven-candidate field advanced to the second round, to be held June 24 or July 1. Karroubi said today that the vote had been ``rigged'' by supporters of Ahmadinejad and called for an investigation.
Rafsanjani, 70, and Ahmadinejad, 49, have different approaches towards relations with the U.S., which were severed in 1979 after radical students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding 52 people hostage for 444 days. Rafsanjani has called for a ``new chapter,'' while Ahmadinejad rejects any deal with the ``Great Satan.'' ``We are going to have friendly relations with all the countries that show no hostility to us,'' Ahmadinejad told reporters at a press briefing in Tehran today. He put the U.S. in the hostile camp.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2005 15:44 ||
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#1
May the best man win. Win what, I do not know. We will just have to get edumicated when Sean Penn writes this one up with his inciteful insightful rhetoric anal-ysis analysis from the scene of the crime location.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/18/2005 17:27 Comments ||
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#2
Rafsanjani, 70, and Ahmadinejad, 49, have different approaches towards relations with the U.S.
#3
Iran's presidential election will go to a second round for the first time ever, with former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani facing former Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who opposes detente with the U.S.
TEHERAN - Iran's reformist opposition expressed confidence on Friday that its candidate Mostafa Moin was well placed to spring a stunning upset in the presidential election. "Moin is in a very good position. He will make it into the second round even if he does not succeed (outright) in the first round," said Mohammad Reza Khatami, brother of the outgoing president and leader of the main reformist party.
The reform candidate had been written off initially but many observers believe he has made a late charge and could well benefit if turnout is higher than expected. Moin, for his part, dismissed predictions that the race would go to a second round, saying "it is probable that it will finish in the first round, but one or two rounds is always good for Iranian society."
He said he hoped that turnout would reach 60-70 percent, while most analysts have predicted a figure of just over 50 percent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Moin is the supposed dark-horse candidate.
Consider: Any campaign pitting the 'unknown reformer' versus a 'conservative' candidate, had to be vetted by the mullahs first. If the 'reformer' wins, it's because mullahs pretended to count the ballots and let him 'win'.
Of course, when the Moin 'wins', Europe will fall all over itself rushing forward to say, "We've gotta give the Reformers a chance now."
#2
Khatami was supposed to be a "reform" cnadidate too. He did squat because the Pres position in Iran is impotent. Who cares if a "reformer" gets it? Nothing would change. The EUros would only celebrate because they're fools who want to sell restricted technolgy to them.
Voters snubbed a dissident-led boycott and filled polling sites yesterday in a tight presidential race to decide who will inherit Iran's many challenges — including reform pressures at home and crucial nuclear talks with the West. But the count — expected today — also could end without a clear winner. If no candidate clears the 50 percent mark, the contest shrinks to a two-man showdown on June 24 and reopens the Western-style campaigns that have reshaped Iranian politics. A run-off scenario is almost certain to include political veteran Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a leader of the 1979 revolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran headed toward the first runoff presidential election in its history as a key government official predicted Saturday that none of the seven candidates - including the favorite contender Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani - would win enough votes for outright victory.
Turnout in Friday's vote appeared stronger than expected and polls stayed open an extra four hours, with voting booths even set up at Tehran's main cemetery for those paying weekly visits to family graves.
An Interior Ministry official involved in the counting told The Associated Press that a second round of voting would take place on June 24, the first time since the 1979 Iranian Revolution that a second round of voting has been required. He said the vote count he had seen makes it impossible for any one candidate to collect the required 50 plus 1 percent to win.
Some credited U.S. denunciations of the election for goading more Iranians to cast ballots after a Western-style campaign that has reshaped Iranian politics. A runoff would almost certainly include Rafsanjani, a political veteran and leader of the Islamic Revolution who now portrays himself as a steady hand for uneasy times.
With 90 percent of the votes tallied in his home province of Kerman in southern Iran, Rafsanjani took only 45 percent of the votes, Rasoul Moazemi, provincial election official told The Associated Press. Rafsanjani's son Mahdi, who has been working on the campaign, told The AP that he did not expect his father to get the 50 percent of the popular vote he would need to avoid a run-off on June 24.
Final results were expected Saturday.
More fluff at the link.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
...with voting booths even set up at Tehran's main cemetery...
More articles form globalpolitician on the communists/islamists nexus.
This article traces the roots of Islamic terrorism, with special focus on Afghanistan. Notes are added on practical and philosophical problems of world media in finding the right track. From systematic errors in revealing little details, to serious misconceptions about basic facts and principles, we can relatively easily learn how much of "common knowledge" rests actually on superficial research and popular myths. Instead of becoming critical and aware of the traps laid around the issue, both Islamists and Islamophobes fail to recognize how they are manipulated. Long, rest at link
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2005 15:55 Comments ||
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Yes, yes. Muhammad massacared the Jews of Medina---after they surrendered on promise of life and limb, and later repeated the same with his Quariesh relatives because a KGB opperative was wispering in his ear.
A few months old, but still interesting, if a bit paranoid in his estimation of Russia (which seems pretty worm-ridden to my uneducated eyes), perhaps?. Long, needs to be p.49-ed.
Another article on the communist involvement in terrorism; old, but interesting, if only as backround material.
Ryan Mauro - 12/30/2004
There is no doubt that the Soviet Union played a tremendous role in the expansion and evolution of Islamic terrorism. Many of the people responsible for the policy of promoting fundamentalist miliancy still hold key positions in Russia. People can accept the fact that there are "anti-Bush" cliques inside the CIA and State Department, and the fact that there are "pro-Bin Laden" cliques in the Pakistani military ISI. Yet, for some strange reason, they cannot accept the fact that there are still "pro-Marxist" cliques inside Russia. I believe that the Russian Mafia operates in unison with these "rogue" elements, almost as a separate intelligence directorate.
#1
Both are more significant given that vv 9-11 the Left, for now until 2020, prefers America to be suborned without resort to global nuke war, by any means necessary. Regradless of what happens in CHechyna, Russia > America IS the world's premier global terror state.
#1
You know why the media doesn't report on stuff like this? They can't read that many words in one article! (I got bored, too, with all the news of stability).
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/18/2005 15:46 Comments ||
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Severely EFL. All you technical types go read the article ;-)
As part of an effort to anticipate -- and thwart -- the plans of potential terrorists, the Federal Aviation Administration is supporting the development of a new search engine by University at Buffalo researchers that is designed to detect "hidden" information that can be gleaned from public Web sites. The UB team recently completed an initial prototype system, designed explicitly to enable searches for "hidden" information within the 9/11 Commission Report. The system permits users to find the best trail of evidence through many documents that connects two or more apparently unrelated concepts.
Funded by the FAA, as well as by the National Science Foundation specifically for anti-terrorism applications, the UB project is based on Unintended Information Revelation, or UIR, a search technique designed to uncover hidden information. The premise of UIR is that pieces of information that by themselves appear to be innocent may be linked together to reveal inadvertently highly sensitive data. A more robust prototype is expected to be delivered to FAA for evaluation by the end of the year.
#1
This is Data Mining on the internet. Data Mining is widely used in business. In a nutshell DM helps you find patterns of interest in people of interest and then identify more people who fit the patterns you have found. In business this would be to sell them a car loan or whatever. In the WOT this would be to find potential terrorists. For example, you could search for patterns about the 9/11 hijackers and then search for others who fit the patterns in order to find people planning similar attacks.
My description makes it sound more precise than it is. Its like a high tech form of profiling that increases the odds of success. Otherwise the article overdoes the GeeWhiz hightech magic bit. The technique has been around for years on large databses, although I don't underestimate the difficulties of doing it over the internet.
(Roooters) NEW YORK - The US military must improve security checkpoints in Iraq that endanger civilians and soldiers, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday.
The Committee being comprised of eminent military experts, ya know.
In a letter to US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the organization called for the implementation of measures recommended in March after an Italian intelligence agent was killed by US forces at a checkpoint.
While death tolls at US checkpoints are hard to establish, such incidents have come under international scrutiny by disgruntled, angry leftist journalists looking for a cause since the 2003 occupation by US forces in Iraq.
The death of Nicola Calipari, an Italian intelligence agent killed by US fire at a checkpoint while escorting a freed hostage, drew outrage from the usual nutty left-wing communist Italians, some of whom called for the immediate pullout of 3,000 Italian troops from Iraq. Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena, who had just been freed from kidnappers, and another Italian agent were seriously injured in the shooting.
"Checkpoint shootings have sparked outrage among Iraqi citizens, undermining public confidence in the US military," Ann Cooper of the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote to Rumsfeld.
And you would know this from your perch at the hotel bar exactly how?
In the letter, which was co-signed by Human Rights Watch, Cooper called for the immediate implementation of checkpoint recommendations made after a US military investigation into the Calipari shooting. The recommendations include installing spiked strips and temporary speed bumps to disable approaching vehicles and using signs with Arabic, English and international symbols to warn drivers of upcoming checkpoints.
We'd be forced to pay for the tires, of course.
An Italian report on Calipari's death blamed the United States for failing to set up "the most elementary precautions" to warn drivers of approaching checkpoints. A US inquiry into Calipari's death blamed the driver for approaching too fast and on the lack of communication from Italian authorities on the hostage rescue mission.
I think I'll trust the US Army to know how to set up a checkpoint.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Oh, yeah, to satisfy our good friends the MSM Meme Committee to Undermine American Interests, we'll get right on that.
#2
"The US military must improve security checkpoints in Iraq that endanger civilians and =soldiers=, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said on Friday."
Soldiers !!!! they mean assorted leftist journalist.
Security checkpoints are there for a reason, and if some idiots like that italian commie try to run them...well how unlucky she was not the one to get really hurt.
#3
These mobile checkpoints serve to interdict terrorists on the move. If journalists manage to prevent terrorists from carrying out attacks, I'm sure the US military will be glad to stop setting up these checkpoints - they would then be unnecessary. Until then, these checkpoints will probably remain in place.
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/18/2005 2:23 Comments ||
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Yeah, the checkpoints endanger terrorists' lives.
That's what the "journalists" object to. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/18/2005 9:41 Comments ||
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"Committee to Protect Journalists" The gave me a chuckle. Do they have a commmittee to protect Iraqi civilians from suicide bombers? Oh yeah thats what the checkpoints are for!
#7
I thought the "Committee to Protect Journalists" was based in Gitmo...cell-block 12?? Oughta be.
Sorry about the long cut & paste...but here goes:
***********From the April 1989 MediaWatch*****
In a future war involving U.S. soldiers what would a TV reporter do if he learned the enemy troops with which he was traveling were about to launch a surprise attack on an American unit? That's just the question Harvard University professor Charles Ogletree Jr, as moderator of PBS' Ethics in America series, posed to ABC anchor Peter Jennings and 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace. Both agreed getting ambush footage for the evening news would come before warning the U.S. troops.
For the March 7 installment on battlefield ethics Ogletree set up a theoretical war between the North Kosanese and the U.S.-supported South Kosanese. At first Jennings responded: "If I was with a North Kosanese unit that came upon Americans, I think I personally would do what I could to warn the Americans."
Wallace countered that other reporters, including himself, "would regard it simply as another story that they are there to cover." Jennings' position bewildered Wallace: "I'm a little bit of a loss to understand why, because you are an American, you would not have covered that story."
"Don't you have a higher duty as an American citizen to do all you can to save the lives of soldiers rather than this journalistic ethic of reporting fact?" Ogletree asked. Without hesitating Wallace responded: "No, you don't have higher duty... you're a reporter." This convinces Jennings, who concedes, "I think he's right too, I chickened out."
Ogletree turns to Brent Scrowcroft, now the National Security Adviser, who argues "you're Americans first, and you're journalists second." Wallace is mystified by the concept, wondering "what in the world is wrong with photographing this attack by North Kosanese on American soldiers?" Retired General William Westmoreland then points out that "it would be repugnant to the American listening public to see on film an ambush of an American platoon by our national enemy."
A few minutes later Ogletree notes the "venomous reaction" from George Connell, a Marine Corps Colonel. "I feel utter contempt. Two days later they're both walking off my hilltop, they're two hundred yards away and they get ambushed. And they're lying there wounded. And they're going to expect I'm going to send Marines up there to get them. They're just journalists, they're not Americans."
Wallace and Jennings agree, "it's a fair reaction." The discussion concludes as Connell says: "But I'll do it. And that's what makes me so contemptuous of them. And Marines will die, going to get a couple of journalists."
"Few miles later we were stopped by an American checkpoint and they didn't stop us for an inspection procedure, after greeting us they were glad to see that some of us speak English well, one of them said that a coalition point was attacked with mortars and so he was asking us for any information or observations about this attack.
I told them that we're only passers by and we don't know the area very well and I asked if there were any casualties but gladly the answer was "no but we want to gather information about the attackers".
And I also noticed that Iraqi soldiers on other checkpoints started friendly conversations with the people and this is a good indication; searching isn't enough alone, bridging the gaps is what really matters.
Security will not be achieved if the people do not cooperate with the authorities and I think now it's due the time for the people to take bigger role in a nation-wide action against terror."
JERUSALEM - Israel plans to build a barrier that will extend out to sea from its border with Gaza to deter Palestinian infiltrators once it withdraws from the coastal strip in August, military officials said on Friday. Details were reported in the Jerusalem Post, which said the barrier, part concrete and part floating fence, would stretch 950 metres (yards) into the Mediterranean from Israel's boundary with the northern Gaza Strip.
The aim is to stop Gaza militants from launching attacks into Israel by sea after the Israeli army implements a plan to remove all 21 Jewish settlements from the occupied territory, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A thousand meters out to sea should be enough, even if the Paleos manage to call upon the Charles DeGaulle.
The Palestinian Authority reacted angrily to the barrier plan. "I hope the Israeli government will stop the mentality of barriers," chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters. "There is a barrier on the ground, now a barrier on the water and tomorrow we will end up with barrier in the sky. It will not bring peace and security," he added.
It will, however, stop Paleo homicide bombers.
Israel has surrounded Gaza, home to 1.3 million Palestinians, with an electronic fence that it says keeps out attackers but which Palestinians condemn for restricting their movements.
Nope, no demonstrated understanding of cause-and-effect yet.
The Jerusalem Post said the first 150 metres (yards) of the sea barrier would consist of concrete pilings burrowed into the seabed while the remaining 800 metres (yards) would be a submerged 1.8 metre (six-foot) deep "floating fence". A military official said the barrier was being built in part to compensate for Israel's future loss of surveillance posts and would involve a system of electronic sensors and radar. "It is (a system) to ... prevent infiltrations of terrorists via the sea," a security source said. Israeli forces have foiled attempted seaborne attacks on the Israeli coast and Gaza settlements during a 4-1/2-year-old Palestinian uprising.
Israel has demarcated its tense northern border with Lebanon with a buoys that stretch 4.2 km (2.6 miles) out to sea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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build it high build it wide
really barriers are the great answer here. Hope that other "apharteid wall" is coming along well. It had great success in stopping the murderers. Haven't heard much about that wall lately, what's going on? Is there a holdup? Finish it, electrify it!
UNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council on Friday authorized a UN observer force to remain another six months in the Golan Heights, where it has served as a buffer between the Syrian and Israeli armies for 31 years. The 15-nation council unanimously adopted a resolution prolonging the mandate of the force of 1,028 soldiers through Dec. 31 after both Israel and Syria gave their consent.
The UN Disengagement Observer Force, known as UNDOF, was created in May 1974 to monitor a cease-fire and troop disengagement agreement that followed the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. In that war, Israel repulsed an attempt by Arab states to take back land, including the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state had captured in the six-day 1967 Middle East war. UNDOF's mandate would have expired at the end of June without the Security Council's approval.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported to the Security Council earlier this month that the area remained "generally quiet" in the past six months except in the disputed Shebaa Farms border enclave. But he said he considered the force's continued presence to be essential. "The situation in the Middle East is very tense and is likely to remain so, unless and until a comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the Middle East problem can be reached," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Ah, coalmine canaries, capital idea. And "buffer" - that would make a spiffy epitaph. Tense. Yes.
Significant, if true and he's serious. This being Pakland and Perv we're discussing, it's probably not true, and if it was he wouldn't be serious.
Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Friday he has proposed nuclear disarmament with India to ensure peace and stability between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Gen Musharraf said Pakistan had gone "much further" than proposing a no first-strike nuclear policy in order to build confidence between the South Asian rivals. "We have suggested (nuclear) disarmament and reduction of forces," he said. Pakistan also opposes nuclear proliferation and was "against any other country acquiring nuclear weapons," he told reporters after talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in the northern city of Auckland.
Clark said she hoped recent confidence-building measures between the two neighbours "might extend into the nuclear arena". Musharraf said he was committed to a "rapprochement" with India, and was working with its Prime Minister Manmohan Singh toward that goal. Progress toward ending the decades-old fight over Kashmir was being made, he said. "We see light at the end of the tunnel in our efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute once and for all," he said, adding that the "opportunity must be grasped". "I have no doubt it can be resolved," he later told the Auckland Foreign Correspondents' Club. Musharraf and Clark discussed terrorism, trade and human rights in their talks on Friday. The Pakistani president spoke about the situation in Afghanistan. New Zealand officials have described relations between the two countries as "friendly but slight" and Musharraf said the relationship needed to be strengthened. "We need to expand our relations beyond a shared passion for cricket," Musharraf said after the talks. Clark appreciated Pakistan's role in the fight against terrorism. She said New Zealand would assist Pakistan in the fields of education and primary healthcare.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Is The Daily Times working the same sort of MSM scam on Pervy that our MSM tries to work on Bush?
#2
Y'know, never really noticed it before, but Pervy must have at least a dozen medals - just in that row, there. One for each time he's survived an assassination attempt? Sprockets for the times he's sent the PakiWaki Army to their doom in the mountains? The choker, hmmm, dunno what that one's for... How many Khaaaaaaans have died in captivity, mebbe?
Then Pak dictator Zia Ul Haq ordered the slaughter of pesky Shia muslims in Gilgit (part of Pak Kashmir). A Pak officer organized an Arab 'Lashkar' (comprised of jihadis from the Afghan war) to kill the Shia residents.
Zia later paid for this with his life. A Shia airman in the PAF is reputed to have brought down his C-130.
Several Pak commentators have alleged that the Pak commander was Pervez Musharraf and that the leader of the Lashkar was Osama bin Laden.
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2005 6:17 Comments ||
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Pak leaders have suggested this before. It won't be acceptable to India because China isn't included in the disarmament.
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2005 6:27 Comments ||
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#5
These Pak soldiers sure are experts at surrender.
To Maoris as well?
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2005 7:05 Comments ||
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Musharraf offers N-disarmament
An offer from His Trustworthiness is always to be taken seriously.
LAHORE: Former Pakistan cricket captain Javed Miandad's son and the daughter of India's most wanted man, Dawood Ibrahim, are expected to tie the knot in Dubai shortly, IANS reported on Friday. The cricketer's son, who is studying in England, had been engaged to Ibrahim's daughter in January this year, an event that was kept a quiet affair.
Gosh. I'll have to at least send them a card...
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2005 00:01 ||
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Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) gave military training to Kashmiri rebels battling security forces in Indian-held Kashmir, a separatist leader has said. While India has long accused Pakistan of training and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies, this is the first confirmation by a separatist leader in the state. The revelation comes in a new book by Amanullah Khan, chief of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). "We had a gentleman's agreement, an oral sort of agreement. I was given the idea that the ISI was all for the independence of Kashmir," Khan told Reuters on Friday, referring to the beginning of ISI help for his group.
He said he was given the impression that Pakistan's then military ruler, General Ziaul Haq, also supported the notion of independence for Kashmir. Khan said the JKLF began bringing young men into Azad Kashmir from the Indian side in 1988, where they received training from the ISI. "The agreement was that we will bring boys from across and indoctrinate our ideology by ourselves. ISI trains them and they are sent back," he said.
This article starring:
AMANULLAH KHAN
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front
General Ziaul Haq
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan has been declared healthy after a heart scare, the government said on Friday. Khan, 69, suffered minor chest pains on Tuesday and was taken to hospital earlier Friday to undergo an angioplasty, which checks arteries for blockages, before returning home. "Khan is absolutely fine and stable. He is healthy," President General Pervez Musharraf's press secretary and the country's military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said.
Sultan denied press reports that Khan had suffered a cardiac arrest. "He did not have any heart attack. He is back at his home," he added. The scientist's angioplasty took place at Pakistan's Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology and he was under observation by doctors from the clinic and from his own Khan Research Laboratories Hospital, Sultan said. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP late on Thursday that "Qadeer Khan felt pain in his chest two days ago."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Woops! Broccoli overdone, was it? Limp and rubbery? Khaaan's fine, eh?
Dead men and vegetables tell no tales Ex-Ambassador Reveals Dr AQ Khan is Already Mentally Dead
The man behind Pakistan's "prestigious" nuclear program was rushed to a military hospital Thursday (June 16) with a heart problem. Dr AQ Khan, who lives in ignominy and incarceration since he was singled out by Musharraf for export of nuclear technology, is learnt to have been rendered into a vegetable.
Rendered? Is pureed a choice?
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2005 00:00 ||
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Lol - love the pic!
Ah, what can I say? Read the story, loved it. 3 thumbs up. It fills a much-needed gap in my understanding of the quite peculiar mindset of PakiWakiIsm. I am sated.
Posted by: john ||
06/18/2005 6:50 Comments ||
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There's no way the US ever gets Khan. The ISI would never allow it. "Rendered" is probably the right word cuz the ISI likely turned his brain to jello.
#4
...Had him pictured as more of a brussels sprout, actually.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/18/2005 9:22 Comments ||
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"It just so happens that your leading nuclear scientist here is only MOSTLY dead. There's a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. With all dead, well, with all dead there's usually only one thing you can do."
"What's that?"
"Go through his clothes and look for loose change."
Posted by: Mike ||
06/18/2005 9:22 Comments ||
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Mike -
How about, "Not only simply merely dead, but truly most SINCERELY dead?"
And not to forget Blackadder Dead: "As dead as...a great big dead thing."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
06/18/2005 11:07 Comments ||
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#7
he would never be allowed into our hands in a manner where he could speak... wonder if it was the pillow over the face or the craftsman drill-bit with whisk attachment
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/18/2005 11:28 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Senate has begun to examine legislation that could halt U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia. Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, has introduced the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 into the Senate. The co-sponsors of the bill, designated Senate bill 1171, are Senators Evan Bayh, Susan Collins, Russ Feingold, Tim Johnson, Patty Murray and Ron Wyden.
Security forces in Jizan conducted a major cleanup operation in an area along the country's border with Yemen and arrested 2,500 infiltrators as well as nine people involved in drug and human trafficking, press reports said yesterday. Al-Watan newspaper reported that police had arrested the leader of the smuggling racket. The paper said the man, known as "Ghazanfar" (the lion), was wanted by police in connection with a number of crimes, including the sale of alcohol. As many as 35 units from the patrol police, border guards and special security forces took part in the largest such operation ever in the region, according to Maj. Gen. Ahmed Gazzaz, director of Jizan police. "We have arrested all criminals and illegal residents in the area and destroyed their hideouts," he said.
SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said on Friday the communist country was willing to return to nuclear disarmament talks in July if the United States "recognises and respects" his country. North Korea "could rejoin six-party talks as early as July if the US recognizes and respects the country as a (dialogue) partner," Kim was quoted as saying by South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-Young.
Iran's presidential election will go to a second round for the first time ever, with former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani facing former Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who opposes detente with the U.S. Rafsanjani gained 21.01 percent of the vote held yesterday, Ahmadinejad 19.48 percent and former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karroubi 17.28 percent, according to the nation's interior ministry today. The two highest vote-getters in the seven-candidate field advanced to the second round, to be held June 24 or July 1. Karroubi said today that the vote had been ``rigged'' by supporters of Ahmadinejad and called for an investigation. 
t will screw up the nameplate, but Ima working on it.
Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Friday he has proposed nuclear disarmament with India to ensure peace and stability between the nuclear-armed neighbours. Gen Musharraf said Pakistan had gone "much further" than proposing a no first-strike nuclear policy in order to build confidence between the South Asian rivals. "We have suggested (nuclear) disarmament and reduction of forces," he said. Pakistan also opposes nuclear proliferation and was "against any other country acquiring nuclear weapons," he told reporters after talks with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark in the northern city of Auckland.
Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) gave military training to Kashmiri rebels battling security forces in Indian-held Kashmir, a separatist leader has said. While India has long accused Pakistan of training and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies, this is the first confirmation by a separatist leader in the state. The revelation comes in a new book by 
Dr 
