The Justice Department is investigating whether a Washington PR firm violated federal law on foreign-sponsored propaganda. The politically sensitive probe could embarrass the Saudi government and the White House.
The Justice Department has opened a politically sensitive investigation into allegations that the Saudi government, working through a prominent Washington public-relations firm, deceptively financed an advertising campaign promoting Crown Prince Abdullah's Middle East peace plan, NEWSWEEK has learned.
Federal prosecutors are seeking to determine whether the Saudi Embassy's PR firm, Qorvis Communications, made false statements to the Justice Department and violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)—a 1938 law requiring full disclosure of foreign-sponsored propaganda in the United States, according to sources familiar with grand-jury subpoenas issued in the case.
The probe into the 2002 radio ad campaign supposedly paid for by an obscure group called the Alliance for Peace and Justice [a hastily arranged and now dormant group consisting of well-established Washington organizations active in Middle East issues], explains last week's startling raid by the FBI on the downtown Washington offices of Qorvis, a well-connected PR group that began representing the Saudis in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks. snip The ad campaign "was done in the name of the Alliance, but it was done without the board's knowledge and approval," said Chris Johnson, a lawyer for John Duke Anthony, who served as the group's chairman. Johnson confirmed that Anthony, who is also the president of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, appeared before the grand jury last week and turned over subpoenaed documents relating to the Alliance. snip
The Justice Department focused on ... the interconnections between the Alliance, Qorvis and the Saudi government. Sources familiar with the campaign say the Alliance was put together in March 2002 and consisted of representatives of a number of Washington-based groups, including the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the American Task Force for Lebanon and the Middle East Policy Council. The board met a couple of times and endorsed the "concept" of a radio campaign that was proposed by Petruzzello, said one source familiar with the Alliance's activities. It was unclear why the other board members thought that Petruzzello was there, however, other than his role as head of the PR firm representing the Saudi government.
Qorvis then farmed out the job of developing the spots to Sandler-Innocenzi, a political advertising firm that has done extensive work for the Republican National Committee and House Majority Leader Tom Delay. The ads were initially financed by a "bridge loan" of about $640,000 from the Saudi Embassy, the Alliance source said. Within a few weeks, the loan was repaid by funds solicited by al-Jubeir in Saudi Arabia from businesses associated with the Chambers of Commerce in Saudi Arabia and believed to be close to the Saudi government, the source said. snip
Whatever the outcome, the Qorvis probe appears to underscore an increased level of seriousness within the Justice Department toward FARA—which has been rarely enforced. Justice spokesman Sierra said a growing number of FARA cases are arising out of terrorism-related investigations. The Patriot Act also enhanced criminal penalties (up to 10 years in prison) for FARA violations.snip
Hundreds of security forces made a show of force in two Saudi cities Thursday to ward off any protests against the royal family, chasing a few would-be demonstrators in the streets and arresting several others, after a dissident called for a day of marches. The London-based dissident Saad al-Fagih, head of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, had predicted "tens of thousands" of demonstrators would turn out in the capital, Riyadh, and the port city of Jiddah.
The reforms they're calling for are "Islamic," so my sympathy meter's not particularly stirring...
Such numbers did not show up, but the threatened show of defiance to the kingdom's ban on protests caused the government to deploy large numbers of security forces, checkpoints and helicopters. Several men and women were reported arrested in both cities, but officials wound not confirm or deny the reports. Several hours after the protests were supposed to begin, the assembly area for the Riyadh protest bristled with police and special forces — but no demonstrators. Helicopters circled overhead and police checkpoints stopped motorists. Policemen were seen frisking a man lying on the ground before placing him in a police car.
Interior Ministry spokesman Brig. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said two men were arrested in Jiddah after firing a pistol in the air, and a security official speaking on condition of anonymity said they might be connected to al-Fagih. During the day, al-Fagih's group told reporters the assembly point had changed to two other locations. But reporters who went to the locations found normal pedestrian traffic and no police. In Jiddah, at least six people were seen being arrested and dozens in small groups were seen running from police. At one point, a volley of gunshots could be heard in an area where protesters were trying to gather. It was not immediately clear what happened. Al-Fagih had called the protests via his satellite television and radio stations and Web site. In the group's boldest challenge to the monarchy, its Web site spelled out "immediate procedures to be taken after the demise of Al Saud" royal family.
My guess is that the protests were called either in response to or in coordination with Binny's audio tape. I hope somebody's keeping a close eye on these guys.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2004 3:15:08 PM ||
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Remember, al-Faqih is Binny's mouthpiece - his problem with Soddies is that they aren't Islamic enough ...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2004 16:00 Comments ||
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RIYADH — Dr Salih bin Abdalla bin Hameed, Chief of Saudi Shura Council, has received an invitation from Speaker of the US Congress, Denis Hestert. The message of the American Congress Head, being officialy circulated in Riyadh, stated that the kingdom is a friend of US "we are opting to have the opportunity to discuss many issues of mutual concern." The letter says.
That's interesting, I wonder what's on the agenda?
The head of American Congress expressed gratitute to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for co-operation in the wake of September 11 attacks. He said efforts of the kingdom for fighting terrorism are very clear. They make it difficult for terrorists to carry out their acts. "Recent terrorist attacks on some friendly countries indicate that terrorists are still capable of launching major acts. This requires us be careful and work to stop acts of terrorists," said the American Congress Head.
The invitation was delivered by an American delegation recently visiting Saudi Arabia. United States has, on Tuesday, expessed fear of further anti-American terrorist actions in the Saudi Arabia following the Al Qaeda claimed attacks, on Monday on the American Consulate in Jeddah.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/16/2004 12:22:58 PM ||
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I think they misinterpreted Hastert's Christmas card.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/16/2004 12:33 Comments ||
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This thing really wicks me off. Is Hestert on the payroll with them or what? Saudi is schectzophrenic. One side wants to cooperate, and the other side (Nayaf and Co) plays games with jihadis. Their money finances mosques and madarassas worldwide, creating unrest and turning out more terrorists and suicide bombers. This Dr Salih bin Abdalla bin Hameed needs to hear an earful of of this and needs to be asked is he for or against us. Saudi Arabia needs a fundamental change if it is to survive, and I do not see it happening peacefully, given the royal's love for the status quo.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/16/2004 14:22 Comments ||
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This js just more of the U.S. (Bush/GOP) suck up to the Saudis. They can almost do no wrong, can they?
Posted by: Seynour Paine ||
12/16/2004 14:22 Comments ||
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Dang that's a good nic! And a fine post too! Glad to have you at RantBurg Seynour.
#2
When they felt they had finished their work, they boarded a plane for home, knowing the "the film was no longer our little home movie," according to Mr. Butterworth.
"our little home movieâ How disingenuous.
Meeting the refugees, who keep low profiles to avoid attention from the Chinese police, was difficult for these first-time filmmakers from the other side of the world,
Desperate people keeping a low profile. I know, lets make an international movie out of them.
With Mr. Butterworth seeking distributors to open the film in South Korea, the film premiered in Seoul last month at the National Assembly. On the day of the screening, the Chinese government moved to repatriate 62 defectors.
I'm sure he was very proud (of his award).
I suppose some good came out of it, but, it seems to me that this guy did more to expose the railroad and close it down than he did to help them. As the applause for his work dies down, I would wonder how many died thanks to his expose the underground networks.
#3
Hmm... I dont know... After reading the article at least the guy is doing something other than reading and bitching about it on Rantburg like I am..... :^)
I dont know if the film exposed the 'railroad' more then the Chinese Govt already knew (whatever that is) but it does expose the plight of the North Korean people. And the Chinese government has alreays repartiated North Koreans back.
And he did manage to get a number of refugees to S. Korea.
State-owned Polish weapons producer Bumar has clinched a deal to deliver 236 million dollars worth of military equipment for Iraq, Bumar said today. Bumar and representatives of the Iraqi government on Wednesday signed a sale agreement for helicopters, grenades, pistols, automatic rifles, ambulances and fuel and water systems. ''Poland has helped us a great deal, so we're trying to build strong links between companies from our two countries. We are very happy with the agreements we've signed today,'' Iraqi Deputy Defence Minister Ziad Cattan said at the signing ceremony. Bumar won a $54 million Iraqi contract in September. snip
Reminiscences from Jeff Gedmin, Head of the Aspen Insititute and apparently the only American in Germany (incl our invisibile Foreign Service corps) to publicly advocate for the Bush admin's Iraq policy.
Gedmin considers that since 2002 it has been simultaneously the most interesting as well as the worst time to be an American in Berlin. He expressed public support for the war in Iraq in German newspaper columns and in television interviews. In a methodological approach to assessing today's confused situation, Gedmin believes that vignettes often illuminate it best. They put key issues more in focus than detailed analysis might do.
"As a Catholic I was struck by the amount of virulently anti-Semitic hate letters and email I received. There were many dozens of items. I was called a 'Jewish war criminal,' a 'Jewish pornographer.' Pardon my language, but more than once, these texts stated that I was a 'Jew fucker' or 'a son of a whore, who should be covered with napalm.'
"During the last two years in Berlin I was publicly insulted, heckled, and refused service in a restaurant because I supported the war to remove Saddam Hussein. Once I was sitting on a bench in Berlin, in front of the famous Adlon Hotel. Three young men recognized me as someone who supported this war, and heckled me from a distance. They were nicely dressed twenty-something youngsters in polo shirts, not skinheads. They said, 'You're not wanted here. You don't belong here. Why don't you get out of this country?' It made a deep impression on me.
"The debate about Iraq in Europe generally and in Germany specifically struck me. The German chancellor said that even if the United States acts multilaterally or with a UN mandate, Germany will not participate in the war. One socialist minister in his cabinet, Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, compared George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler. A leading Social Democratic parliamentarian compared the American ambassador in Berlin to a Soviet one. Two German ministers marched in the streets calling the Americans war criminals and chanting 'no blood for oil.'
"A senior Foreign Ministry official claimed that America was becoming a police state at home. Another accused us of imposing a Brezhnev doctrine on the European Union. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said that Germans were tired of being a satellite of the United States. All this before we had made any decision about what to do in Iraq.
"I remember passing the American embassy on Unter den Linden and seeing a sign hanging out there for weeks from protesters, which read: 'Mr. Bush, remember Nuremberg. Death by hanging.' It leaves me to believe that part of this debate about Iraq - and maybe much of it - had to do more with containing the United States than with whether Saddam Hussein should be removed."
#1
more with containing the United States than with whether Saddam Hussein should be removed
Bingo. The quest continues. The goal of the EU Dwarves' sham negotiations with Iran is to contain not Iran but the US warmonger. Clearly the EU soul takes greater comfort in the thought of averting strikes on Iran than in averting a nuclear-armed Iran with missiles that can reach Europe. One needs to be a psychologist to conduct foreign policy toward the Euros these days.
âMr. Bush, remember Nuremberg. Death by hanging.â
Good suggestion about what to do with Saddam and his genocidal cronies.
Mr. Bush, listen to the man! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/16/2004 15:31 Comments ||
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Another quote: "I do not think that German or European democracies are crumbling. Europe is not dying. Yet to some extent it is sick. This does not yet express itself in stark terms, such as the sky falling, NATO's closing, or the United States withdrawing from Europe.
"The characteristics of the sickness develop gradually. I cannot quantifiably prove that insidious phenomena such as anti-Americanism, anti-Israeli sentiment, and anti-Semitism have spread, compared to twenty-five years ago in the heart of the Cold War debate.
"Yet two observations spring to mind. [In the early 1980s] these were fringe phenomena while now they are more fashionable and mainstream. The second is that these sentiments are no longer the monopoly of any particular part of the political spectrum. They are there on the European Left, Right, and in the center...."
#5
I've been reminding the anti-American and antisemitic hate-mongers of Nuremberg for some time, specifically the fate of their fellow propagandist and role model, Julius Streicher.
The most important part - only took them 3-1/4 years to figure it out.
--SNIP--
..."The potential damage to the Canadian economy and other consequences that would come with allowing a terrorist to infiltrate the U.S. through Canada are massive," the report said.
Securing the 4,000-mile border is paramount, to prevent terrorist attacks and protect some $1.4 billion in trade each day between the North American neighbors.
All it would take is a serious terrorist incident, caused by someone slipping through Canada,(or flying a plane into a reactor????) to shut down the border, and that would be an absolute disaster," said Robert Bothwell, a professor at the University of Toronto who specializes in U.S.-Canadian relations.
--SNIP--
And conservatives are supposed to be dumb.
Posted by: anonymous2U ||
12/16/2004 11:01:56 AM ||
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I can understand it - they've cut military expenditures to the bone. If they won't fund their tiny conventional force, they certainly won't fund missile defense. I think it would be interesting, as an experiment, to slash military expenditures to zero, cut taxes by an equivalent amount, and then see what happens. Maybe the UN will keep the peace around the world. Note that we already have a Coast Guard to patrol our coastal waters and the INS to patrol our borders. Why do we even need a military? (If Mexico ever invades, we can always rearm and use Mexican transgressions as a reason to reunify California).
#4
In another issue that could cause friction with Bush, Martin said Canada was prepared to accept U.S. citizens who do not want to serve in the war in Iraq.
Spread the word at the Democratic Underground!
Zhang Fe, I don't even like that as a thought experiment. You know what the result would be, and anyway, Mexico is already invading -- the invaders just aren't (mostly) armed.
#5
The real question is, can we get a permit for the parts of the missiles that will land there after we shoot them down? We better start working on that.
#6
Martin acknowledged for the first time that next year's budget will pump money into Canada's hard-pressed military, including funds to allow the Armed Forces to recruit 5,000 more troops over the next five years.
#13
I'm with B-a-R in #1. Hey, don't want it - no problemo and no bennies, either.
Now, if at the time the problem becomes a reality, and whatever take-down tech we're using allows for it, I'd also like to see us shoot down what's aimed at the US so that it falls into Canada - entirely likely to see Polar shots when we finally go toe to toe with the Golden Dragon down the road...
EFL - read the rest at the link.
Embattled U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will visit Washington tomorrow for discussions that likely will steer clear of a simmering oil-for-food scandal that has prompted congressional calls for his resignation. Agenda items for his talks with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice include preparations for elections in Iraq, violence in western Sudan, and peacekeeping in Haiti, according to U.S. and U.N. officials. The issue of calls for Mr. Annan's resignation "may just be noted," said a senior official at the State Department, which has defended Mr. Annan, "but we are not going to plot strategy against the U.S. Congress."
"As far as we know," the official added.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
12/16/2004 10:07:24 AM ||
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The UN always steers clear of what is relevant. No accountability, no real responsibility but plenty of bureaucratic hot air. The unbeatable immunity that is the hallmark of that living Lie.
Posted by: Wo ||
12/16/2004 10:36 Comments ||
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Anyone see FoxNews yesterday?
Someone slipped them some papers/expense accounts for Kojo - He had a UN expense card in 1998 for some conference.
A U.S. senator thinks Congress should wait for the U.N.- sponsored Iraq oil-for food investigation before passing judgment on the world body. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a member of the U.S. delegation to the U.N. General Assembly 59th session, met with reporters Wednesday after talking with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and voiced support for the independent inquiry led by Paul Volcker, former U.S. federal reserve chairman. Leahy was asked about calls for Annan's resignation coming from Capitol Hill. "He will give a tough and clear report," Leahy said, referring to Volcker. "Frankly I think all members of Congress -- Republican and Democrat -- would be wise to wait until that report comes about." Leahy also said the U.S. government supports Annan. "I talked not only with the Secretary of State (Colin Powell) but the incoming Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice) and know that they support the Secretary-General," he said. "I do too."
Copyright 2004 by United Press International. Independent (non-Leahy Staff) observers wondered aloud why anyone would care what Leahy said or thought, since he's an irrelevant socialist twit, represents barely .2% of the US population, and is known as such an asshole that Veep Cheney finally told him to fuck off in public for his disingenuous polticial assitude and shit-eating grin.
Posted by: .com ||
12/16/2004 1:28:48 AM ||
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Leahy gained some notoriety as a member of the Intelligence Committee. He was charged with revealing classified information during the Achille Lauro terrorist incident, outraging administration officials. And he leaked a draft report on the Iran-contra affair, leading to his resignation from the intelligence panel. Behavior like this earned for him the sobriquet "Leaky Leahy."
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2004 11:00 Comments ||
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A U.S. senator thinks Congress should wait for the U.N.- sponsored Iraq oil-for food investigation before passing judgment on the world body.
Sooo, Leahy thinks that a UN-sponsored investigation into its own dealings is something worth waiting for?????
#5
I wonder if Leahy will later call for a delay until the UN investigation of the Volker investigation has been completed. Of course, the conclusions of both can probably be summarized as: 1) There is no scandal, so there is no one to blame, and nothing bad ever happened, and 2) Fried grasshoppers are indeed nature's most perfect food.
#6
Who cares about making Kofi resign? The basic system of the UN is flawed, so what changes would that make? If the reports find massive fraud and deception, etc etc, then make a 25% cutback in US funding of the UN and see what the UN does to correct their problem. Hit them in their pocketbook and they will reform or fold. Whatever they do, they are irrelavant, anyway.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/16/2004 15:08 Comments ||
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What Paul said. It's enough to expose the lady as a whore. She can continue to walk the street but the US public won't pay for it any more.
The name of the game now is to start setting up parallel, regional security organizations that can actually address collective threats. Start with a CSCE-style grouping of Pacific and Asian democracies with US Australia Japan and India at its core.
From the Rantburg Diplomacy Desk:
France's Foreign Minister Michel Barnier was due [in Washington] Wednesday for the first visit by a senior Paris official since President George W. Bush was re-elected and pledged to repair US alliances bruised by Iraq war. Barnier, whose country spearheaded opposition to the war, was flying in for a lightning round of talks with outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell and his designated successor, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
With Bush due to visit Europe in February on a high-profile fence-mending tour,
Good fences make good neighbours. Or so they say.
the French press has been rife with speculation that Barnier might be carrying an invitation from President Jacques Chirac to come to Paris. But French foreign ministry officials said they had no knowledge of any such invitation, although they did not specifically rule out the possibility. Barnier, who has had ample occasion to see Powell at a flurry of international conferences in recent weeks, was making his first bilateral visit to the United States since becoming foreign minister on March 31. He was expected to fly back on Thursday to attend a European Union summit in Brussels.
"And boy, will my arms be tired!"
Armed with a new four-year mandate, Bush has made it clear that any rapprochement would have to be on US terms. He stood by his right to take unilateral, pre-emptive military action if American security interests were threatened. But Barnier said this week that while renewing trans-Atlantic links was of fundamental importance, the relationship between Washington and its oldest ally must be balanced. "Alliance does not mean allegiance," he said in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien. "We listen to each other, respect each other, agree sometimes and we can also have differing analyses."
Still, there has been some encouraging evidence of cooperation. France agreed to write off a substantial portion of the debt it was owed by Iraq while the United States kept its mouth shut and looked the other way backed Paris in the crisis over the Ivory Coast. Barnier could use his talks in Washington to promote his call for an early international summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an acceleration of efforts to reach a final solution. But Bush, who discussed the Middle East last month here with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, responded cautiously to prospects for holding an international conference anytime soon. "I'm all for conferences, just so long as the conferences produce something," he said.
Strawman argument which should generate a hail of jeers every time it's used. In France and Germany, Chirac and Schröder cravenly used anti-Americanism as their campaign hooks and demonized Bush & America well before there was an Iraq war. They did the bending and breaking of the "alliances" which, upon any serious reflection, must be viewed as diplo bullshit, a mere habitual reference devoid of substance for some time, now. As a test of any bidirectional alliance, let's figure out when the last time was that the US asked of either government any action (that was granted) which was not obviously in the best interests of the so-called ally? A hell of a long time ago, I'd wager. The war itself was just the symbol, the symptom, not the disease - the anti-Americanism, already a shop-worn time-honored well-polished fuckwit socialist theme, had been actively kept alive and thus already present - these assholes saw fit to employ the fears for crass political and personal gain and built a fire under it. They rendered the "alliances" null, void, and moot. Context. Bush checked all the boxes and they cut him off at the knees.
Regards any visits by representatives of either the Chirac or Schröder regimes, send 'em home... in a bag.
I don't have any strong feelings about it, of course, but... Fuck Chirac. Fuck Schröder. Fuck the Chocolate-Makers. And fuck the ditzy fact-challenged meme-ridden gullible / complicit / disingenuous press. Thank you. Thank you very much.
#4
Outstanding rant, .com, and totally on target. Barnier's comments were for a French audience, in a French paper. He probably just told them to cut 'n' paste the party line. Not that the story would be reported much differently in the NYT.
I'm just fascinated by the speed of his visit, especially with Kofi in town, where the stories all stress that he is NOT here to discuss the oil-for-weasels issue. Nope, definitely NOT on the agenda. Not at all. Not even a whisper.
I'll post something about that later today. It's late now.
#8
He can cool his heels in Powell's lobby for an hour or two and then watch the ambassador from Ivory Coast come waltzing in ahead of him.
Posted by: Tom ||
12/16/2004 7:56 Comments ||
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Barnier could use his talks in Washington to promote his call for an early international summit on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an acceleration of efforts to reach a final solution.
Ah, yes, the "final solution" is an unfortunate term for them to use. However, I would note that Arafish did pass away to his 72 raisins in a FRENCH hospital. Maybe the French should be thanked to at least open up a POSSIBILITY of a solution to Israel/Paleos.
Posted by: BA ||
12/16/2004 9:10 Comments ||
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the French press has been rife with speculation that Barnier might be carrying an invitation from President Jacques Chirac to come to Paris
#11
"Alliance does not mean allegiance," he said in an interview with the newspaper Le Parisien. "We listen to each other, respect each other, agree sometimes and we can also have differing analyses."
"And, sometimes, we may sell weapons to the enemy and attempt to dissuade cooperation among allied countries. Is this not how allies treat each other?"
#14
I'm halfway through reading "Our Oldest Enemy" right now. If anyone seriously believes that France is our oldest friend after reading that, they need their heads examined. No wonder the French hate that book.
#16
We can be polite and all that, but I would STRONGLY REJECT any possibility of a visit by the US President to France, except for a visit to Normandy or other Allied grave site. We have nothing to say. Chiraq will just use us to further his agenda. We do not have to put up with his crap. Period.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/16/2004 18:27 Comments ||
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No time to stop in France. Too busy in Poland.
If there's to be a stop in any of the weasel countries, it should be in Germany.
Hat tip: Drudge. Edited for brevity.
President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday. Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity. The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S. navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The military increasingly uses GPS technology to move troops across large areas and direct bombs and missiles. Any government-ordered shutdown or jamming of the GPS satellites would be done in ways to limit disruptions to navigation and related systems outside the affected area, the White House said. ``This is not something you would do lightly,'' said James A. Lewis, director of technology policy for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. ``It's clearly a big deal. You have to give them credit for being so open about what they're going to do.'' President Clinton abandoned the practice in May 2000 of deliberately degrading the accuracy of civilian navigation signals, a technique known as ``selective availability.'' The White House said it will not reinstate that practice, but said the president could decide to disable parts of the network for national security purposes. I assume this would be the public band shutdown and not the military band. Turning off SA was never a very practical option, IMHO, because terrorists looking for fat juicy populated targets like the WTC, Pentagon, White House, football stadium, etc., aren't going to be misled by a hundred yard offset.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/16/2004 12:06:48 PM ||
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"What does this mean, '10 East, San Bernardino, next right??' Oh no, we're lost!!! Totally, totally lost!!!!
#2
Selective availability was designed to degrade accuracy, not deny use, to civilians -- or to the missiles etc. of hostiles.
While Clinton took political credit w/ Euros for turning it off, the real issue is the prevalence now of earth-stationed pseudosatellites which allow a much more accurate position calculation (differential GPS) even if selective availabiility were turned on. That's made more true by advances in electronics and software techniques which are buried in GPS receivers, which use adaptive Kalman filtering to converge location estimates from varying satellite signals.
Bush is saying that if an attack happens, only the military bands of the GPS constellation will remain on -- and that pseudosatellites WILL be shut down.
The interesting phrase here is "simialr systems operated by others"....
#5
Oh, MAN don't even get me started on Selective Availiblity again. If Bill Clinton came up to me, I'd shake his hand for turning that off. That one act justified everything he ever did in office.
EFLGriping among the troops is as old as armed conflict, illustrated most memorably by cartoonist Bill Mauldin's "Willie and Joe" characters during World War II. But something more than that is happening now in Iraq with what appears to be growing resistance from the troops.
Evidence includes numbers of deserters (reportedly in the thousands), resignations of reserve officers, lawsuits by those whose duty period has been involuntarily extended, and a refusal to go on dangerous missions without proper equipment. There's also been a willingness at grunt level to publicly challenge the Pentagon - as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld found out recently in a trip to the war zone, where he got an earful about unarmored humvees.
Reportedly in the thousands, huh? Sure, Knickerbocker...
One small logistics unit refuses to go on a mission due to vehicular isses, and 8 pansy reservists file a lawsuit, 7 of whom are anonymous, and you think you've got a rebellion on your hands? Please...
While some don't see much defiance - and, in fact, have been surprised by the depth of solidarity - others see an unusual amount of tension surfacing for an all-volunteer military force.
"What is driving the resistance is the same thing that drove it during Vietnam - a lack of trust in the civilian leadership and a sense that the uniformed leaders are not standing up for the forces," says retired Army Col. Dan Smith, a military analyst with the Friends Committee on National Legislation in Washington. Colonel Smith doesn't expect the kind of "fragging" incidents that occurred in Vietnam where soldiers attacked their own officers. "This force is too professional," he says. "But the lack of trust and the inequity of the tours will very likely be reflected in the numbers of Guard and reservists who vote no-confidence with their feet."
Posted by: gb506 ||
12/16/2004 11:26:57 AM ||
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It's interesting that the article doesn't actually give any hard evidence that the number of deserters is "...in the thousands..."; for all we know somebody just picked a number out of the air. Moreover, the retired Colonel quoted in the story works for the Quakers (or is a Quaker himself; "Friends" = "Quaker"). I've got a lot of respect for the Quakers' consistent policy of opposing any violence, no matter its nature, but they have a vested interest in depicting the Iraq war as another Vietnam and the reporter doesn't bother to point that out. All in all, this is simply tendentious reporting.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
12/16/2004 12:30 Comments ||
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In the Article they quote a number of 5500 deserters. I doubt very seriously that many troops deserted or the LLL MSM would be all over it. Col. Dan is right on one note: "This force is too professional." I am not sure how retention is going, but didn't the services just report that they made their goals for the last year?
#3
retired Army Col. Dan Smith, a military analyst with the Friends Committee on National Legislation
Right, a really objective source. Like an article on the Church that refers to an interview with a former nun who's now "an analyst with the National Wicca Coven"
#4
It's interesting that the article doesn't actually give any hard evidence that the number of deserters is "...in the thousands
From the article: "According to a report on 60 minutes the Defense Department acknowledges that more than 5,500 service personnel have deserted since the Iraq."
This figure can be verified by contacting the DOD directly thru the contact link @ http://www.defenselink.mil/
Btw, this 5000+ figure is in line with what has been published on the Stars and Stripes website for desertions in the year 2001 - 5060 deserters -and desertions go up at wartime.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=126&article=16708&archive=true
#7
60 Minutes, huh? Well if you can't trust them, who can you
Stars and Stripes is fairly credible unless you have problems with a military related website, too.
Desertions are not a new phenomenon just because of the Iraq War. Desertions happen all the time and go up somewhat during time of war. So 5060 in 2001 before the war and 5500 after the war is understandable. No big deal. Although to some people who have never served it may appear to be a big deal or unbelievable.
#8
Wow. Thousands are deserting! Guess what thousands were deserting in peacetime, too!
Can't vouch for the accuracy of the link below, but here are figures one blogger dug up on the US Navy.
Since the Navy alone has about 372,000 personnel, that means in a single year about 0.9% of the force could be expected to desert. As a sanity check, I ran this against the crew of my first ship, which had a complement of 1200 men. At any time we had about 10 missing (UA not officially deserters). Just under 1%.
A whole lot of BS military analysis from folks who know nothing about the military. No story here.
BTW if the MSM go a hold of a story that no one was deserting they would spin that as "Tyrannical Pentagon has Stranglehold on Suffering Troops"
#10
DOH! Thank you joeblow! I was in the service and I remmeber there were ALWAYS a number of UAs each year. I bet that doesn't count the number that actually come back, just that they went UA for a period of time. You are correct that this is NOT a large number given the ops tempo. You can be counted UA for missing your flight, even if you subsequently catch up to your unit.
#11
joeblow, I did go read the Stars & Stripes article, and you're right: it's no big deal. The KnickerBocker article tries to MAKE it a big deal...but even the simple chart in the Starts & Stripes article shows that the number is fairly constant in peacetime, and goes up a little during wartime. The S & S article also points out that what some call "desertion" is not the case. AWOL, Missing a Movement, etc...may wind up being so ultimately, but generally aren't.
And desertion IN THE FACE OF THE ENEMY is a totally different charge...and EXTREMELY RARE!
#13
Compare that tripe with the news out of Fort Carson last week about a reenlistment ceremony where 447 people from one batallion reenlisted simultaneously. The biggest reason most of them did was to make sure they'd be going back to Iraq with their friends next June. There's also a long article in today's Gazette, the local newspaper, about adding armor to the unit's 600 Hummvees. Most of the noise from Iraq is from Guard/Reserve unit whiners who found out that the contract they signed really meant what it said, and they didn't have an "opt-out" clause.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/16/2004 15:38 Comments ||
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#14
I said: "It's interesting that the article doesn't actually give any hard evidence that the number of deserters is "...in the thousands"
joeblow noted: "From the article: "According to a report on 60 minutes the Defense Department acknowledges that more than 5,500 service personnel have deserted since the Iraq."
This figure can be verified by contacting the DOD directly thru the contact link @ http://www.defenselink.mil/"
Me again: Sigh. One of these days I'll bother to read the article before making a smart-ass comment. Joeblow, thanks for the correction. Of course my point about the writer of the story not providing context stands, and civilian readers will walk away with the impression that US troops are fleeing in unprecedented numbers.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
12/16/2004 17:41 Comments ||
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President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday. "Shut down" as in turn off, or as in "kick into mil-only mode"?
Any shutdown of the network inside the United States would come under only the most remarkable circumstances, said a Bush administration official who spoke to a small group of reporters at the White House on condition of anonymity. "Psssst!..."
The GPS system is vital to commercial aviation and marine shipping. Sorry about that, you guys do remember your dead-reckoning, right?
The president also instructed the Defense Department to develop plans to disable, in certain areas, an enemy's access to the U.S. navigational satellites and to similar systems operated by others. The European Union is developing a $4.8 billion program, called Galileo. Euro-Jammers on "Full", Scotty!
The military increasingly uses GPS technology to move troops across large areas and direct bombs and missiles. Any government-ordered shutdown or jamming of the GPS satellites would be done in ways to limit disruptions to navigation and related systems outside the affected area, the White House said. We'll give the new key to the encrypted time signal to the Army, Navy and Air Force, don't worry...
``This is not something you would do lightly,'' said James A. Lewis, director of technology policy for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. ``It's clearly a big deal. You have to give them credit for being so open about what they're going to do.''
President Clinton abandoned the practice in May 2000 of deliberately degrading the accuracy of civilian navigation signals, a technique known as ``selective availability.'' or as "We built it, not you"
The White House said it will not reinstate that practice, but said the president could decide to disable parts of the network for national security purposes.
Posted by: mojo ||
12/16/2004 11:37:16 AM ||
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#1
Argh--how'd I miss this post half an hour earlier? Must have needed to refresh my browser.
Posted by: Dar ||
12/16/2004 12:08 Comments ||
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#2
Hate to have this happen while backpacking at Yellowstone or something.
#4
My last unit had an LT that managed to get lost with a plugger. Listening to him try(unsucessfully!) to read off his grid to the BN TOC is one of the funnier memories I'll keep to my last day. Of course, as the Signal Guy, I had to eventualy go out and find him. and give him a remedial class in Plugger and map using.
The next day he got lost again. Its a good thing none of us were combat arms, and did not have ammo.
Posted by: N Guard ||
12/16/2004 16:41 Comments ||
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#5
When I'm flying my plane cross country, I always plot my course on the map every 15 minutes, in case the GPS winks out. It did, once, over a cloud deck. The antenna went bad. No problem. Dead reckoned a course and did pilotage on the way home. Assume your box of miracles will go tango Uniform and plan for it, and you will live to a ripe, olde age, heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/16/2004 22:17 Comments ||
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#6
a question: What's "Tango Uniform?" I presume it's T U something, but what? Somebody please translate?
EFL
One all-too-realistic geopolitical nightmare was a weapon of mass destruction terrorist attack on the U.S. West Coast. A nuclear device detonates in a container ship about to enter Long Beach, Calif. News had just broken about pollution of the U.S. food supply, most analysts assumed by transnational terrorism. The U.S. can prevail conventionally anywhere but seems helpless in coping with asymmetrical warfare.
In quick succession:
⢠The dollar ceases to be the world's reserve currency.
⢠The shaky coalition governing Iraq collapses and civil war breaks out between Sunnis and Shi'ites.
⢠Fear of the unknown produces a new consensus in the U.S. that global civilization is no longer America's business.
⢠The U.S. debate shifts to adequate city perimeter defenses.
⢠With the U.S. no longer the global cop, the defense budget of almost half a trillion dollars can be drastically pruned and savings transferred to homeland security.
⢠U.S. client states are informed they are on their own. Congress abolishes global aid.
⢠Egypt loses its annual stipend of $2.5 billion; Taiwan and Israel are told they will must fend for themselves.
⢠Social trust becomes the new glue of society — bonding with like-minded neighbors with shared values.
⢠International coalitions dissolve and new ones emerge. China seizes new opportunities for its short- and long-range needs for raw materials in the developing world — from Brazil to sub-Saharan Africa's pockets of mineral wealth.
⢠The United States, Canada and Mexico form a new stand-alone alliance with Britain.
⢠Turkey, Israel and Iran become a new self-protection core against dysfunctional neighbors with no upward mobility.
⢠The European Union and Russia, in continuing decline, close ranks; EU inherits de facto responsibility for Africa south of the Sahara, plagued by genocidal wars and the AIDS epidemic.
⢠China and India, with one-third of the world's population, and competitive with Western countries in high-tech jobs and technology, form a de facto alliance.
⢠Pakistan's pro-American President Pervez Musharraf does not survive the ninth assassination plot; an Islamist general takes over and appoints A.Q. Khan, former chief executive of an international nuclear black market for the benefit of America's "axis of evil" enemies, as Pakistan's new president.
⢠The House of Saud is shaken to its foundations as a clutch of younger royal princes, who have served in the armed forces, arrest the plus 70-year-olds now in charge — known as the Sudairi seven — and call for the kingdom's first elections.
⢠Osama bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia and is welcomed as a national hero. Bin Laden scores an overwhelming plurality in the elections and is the country's most popular leader.
⢠A.Q. Khan sends bin Laden his congratulations and dispatches to Riyadh his new defense minister, Gen. Hamid Gul, a former intelligence chief and admirer of the world's most wanted terrorist, who hates America with a passion. His mission is to negotiate a caliphate merging Pakistan's nuclear weapons with Saudi oil resources and monetary reserves.
⢠Northern Nigeria petitions Islamabad and Riyadh to be considered as a member of the caliphate.
⢠Absent the long-time global cop, and traditional alliances in shambles, transnational criminal enterprises thrive with unfettered access the world over.
⢠U.S. multinational companies, unable to protect their plants and employees, return whence they came.
⢠International airlines morph back into interregional air links.
⢠Switzerland, a small defensive country with compulsory military service, is in vogue again; larger countries with several ethnic groups begin breaking apart a la Yugoslavia.
⢠Goods stamped "Made in China. Secured in Singapore" are back in business, smuggled into the United States.
⢠The EU can no longer cope with millions of North Africans and sub-Sahara Africans flooding into Spain, Italy, France, who roam freely and hungry in the rest of Europe. Islamist radicals sally out of their European slum tenements to besiege U.S. Embassies in protest of their jobless plight.
⢠Japan goes nuclear after U.S. troops withdraw from South Korea. Discuss.
Posted by: Dragon Fly ||
12/16/2004 11:08:14 AM ||
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#1
Bring back the Evil Empire. At least the Soviets were a rational enemy who's end game was total planetary annihilation.
#10
Ok....right.
Look, I still remember when everyone was saying it was just a matter of time before America and Russia literally went nuclear on each other, the mighty Japanese economy was going to swamp ours, and we were gonna run out of oil before I was legally old enough to drink.
Then, of course, Armageddon was going to hit at the turn of the new millenium (it cracked me up that they always said the new millenium was starting in 2000, not 2001), or at least the computers were all going to go down and we would be back to the stone age overnight.
Can't forget the tens of thousands of body bags we were going to need because the Iraqi army was going to kick our asses, or the impossibility of successfully invading Afghanistan because Britain and Russia couldn't do it.
The only difference between these predictions and what you get out of the Weekly World News is that they are printed on better paper.
#13
You have to remember that this is "Arnaud" "de Borchgrave", a man whose predictions pan out just about never, which doesn't prevent him from coming out with a whole new set of predictions that probably won't pan out either. I could waste a bunch of time showing how many of his assumptions are garbage, but that would be a waste of my time, since he gets paid to put out his garbage, and I don't.
#15
I think I'll just hide under my bed today! Yikes!
Seriously though, the potential for massive geopolitical swings over the next decade is VERY real. America needs to continue to build its OWN momentum in conjunction with REAL allies, or risk being tossed about by each swing! Thatâs why Kerryâs RE-active policies would have been so dangerous (and even then, REacting only if the U.N. said âokâ).
#16
One prominent China-US war scenario is that China will attempt to neutralize the US pacific fleet by detonating nuclear devices at Bremerton and San Diego. The US has no other major repair/refuel/rearmament/resupply ports available to it in the Pacific. Pearl, Subic and Guam do not have all the needed support available. N.B.: the US Navy has long been aware of this possibility, and I doubt they have been idle in trying to counter it.
#17
Massive? Bullfeathers. The only major transformation that will occur is the same one that's been unfolding inexorably for the last two decades: the rise of China to global power status. Russia will continue to decline into a Europe-based oil kleptocracy whose eastern regions will fall under China's orbit; the Euro-chihuahuas will continue to yap, and no one will listen. Israel and Palestine will continue their war. Africa will continue to burn. Latin America will continue to muddle along in its usual chaotic way.
The only really interesting and unknown interactions are between the China and its neighbors, and China and the US. Everything else is secondary.
#19
lex, don't forget China and China. They're liable to have a national nervous breakdown as they often have in the past. Also, you left out the Frankenteich-Arabia-China axis that is coalescing.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/16/2004 12:25 Comments ||
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#20
Anonymoose: One prominent China-US war scenario is that China will attempt to neutralize the US pacific fleet by detonating nuclear devices at Bremerton and San Diego.
I don't see China doing this for fear of nuclear annihilation.
#21
"Frankenteich-Arabia-China axis"?? The French can't even reconcile themselves to secular Turkey, let alone Arabia, let alone China. The only game in town is China. Europe will sink into Canada status in this century.
#22
No wonder the 9/11 Commissioners said a lack of imagination was a big reason why 9/11 could happen. That something is not probable does not mean it isn't possible. Each of these points should be addressed, rather than discounted as a whole.
When did rantburgers get so close-minded and blase as to not at least consider whether any of these things could happen?
#23
Dhimmitude is submission, not reconciliation. The French will be telling themselves they're calling the shots, but they'll be doing Beijing's bidding.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/16/2004 12:31 Comments ||
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#24
J187: No wonder the 9/11 Commissioners said a lack of imagination was a big reason why 9/11 could happen.
The 9/11 generated horse puckeys and was a waste of public money. The problem was not a failure of imagination - it was a failure of will. Zacarias Moussaoui - an Arab man whose only declared interest during his flight training was in learning how to fly jumbo jets, not take-offs and landings - was in American custody for a month before 9/11. Instead of rigorously interrogating him for information, the American justice system let his laptop go unexamined because of some technicality. When faced with a similar situation in the early 90's, the Filipinos practically killed their Muslim prisoner and finally pulled what they needed out of him.
De Borchgrave is a Frenchman who is convinced that America is doomed. I trust his judgment about as much as I trust that of the Democratic Underground. Reading his material is a complete waste of time.
#26
OK, Jules, here's my 45-second handicapping of the probability of each occurrence (from 0.0 to 1.0, <=0.3 means very unlikely, >=0.6 means very likely):
⢠The dollar ceases to be the worldâs reserve currency. 0.4. Political stability and strength also matter. Euro interest rates are based on completely bogus Euro budget data.
⢠The shaky coalition governing Iraq collapses and civil war breaks out between Sunnis and Shiâites. 0.4 The sunni problem is a ba'athist one primarily. Will diminish as new govt continues apace. Solution to disenfranchisement is to apportion seats geographically as well as by vote, thus give weight to sunni triangle.
⢠Fear of the unknown produces a new consensus in the U.S. that global civilization is no longer Americaâs business. 0.0 Even small US businessmen today (midwest small manufacturers, TX and southwestern truckers and farmers and other producers) are tied into global trade.
⢠The U.S. debate shifts to adequate city perimeter defenses. 0.0 no comment (do you think Lockheed would permit it?
⢠With the U.S. no longer the global cop, the defense budget of almost half a trillion dollars can be drastically pruned and savings transferred to homeland security. 0.0 see above
⢠U.S. client states are informed they are on their own. Congress abolishes global aid. 0.0 this aid comes back to us in the form of purchases of aircraft, weapons etc
⢠Egypt loses its annual stipend of $2.5 billion; Taiwan and Israel are told they will must fend for themselves. 0.0
⢠Social trust becomes the new glue of society â bonding with like-minded neighbors with shared values. moron. Trust is the glue of society, always has been
⢠International coalitions dissolve and new ones emerge. Which coalitions? China seizes new opportunities for its short- and long-range needs for raw materials in the developing world â from Brazil to sub-Saharan Africaâs pockets of mineral wealth. This has been happening for some time already.
⢠The United States, Canada and Mexico form a new stand-alone alliance with Britain. 0.1 Canada's useless. mexico's worse than useless. If there's to be any new US alliance it will be Asia-centric and will include Japan, Australia and maybe India
⢠Turkey, Israel and Iran become a new self-protection core against dysfunctional neighbors with no upward mobility. Hilarious. Israel and Iran, united in a "self-protection core"
⢠The European Union and Russia, in continuing decline, close ranks what, and jointly invade... Chechnya? Ukraine? Moldova? Kaliningrad?; EU inherits de facto responsibility what does this mean? for Africa south of the Sahara, plagued by genocidal wars and the AIDS epidemic.
⢠China and India, with one-third of the worldâs population, and competitive with Western countries in high-tech jobs and technology, form a de facto alliance. more of that de facto magic dust. When de man don't know de shit, reach fo de facto
⢠Pakistanâs pro-American President Pervez Musharraf does not survive the ninth assassination plot; an Islamist general takes over and appoints A.Q. Khan, former chief executive of an international nuclear black market for the benefit of Americaâs "axis of evil" enemies, as Pakistanâs new president. 0.6 The only intelligent and remotely possible thought he's had. Worth considering.
⢠The House of Saud is shaken to its foundations as a clutch of younger royal princes, who have served in the armed forces, arrest the plus 70-year-olds now in charge â known as the Sudairi seven â and call for the kingdomâs first elections. less than 0.0 Hereditary princes call for elections. What's wrong with this picture?⢠Osama bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia and is welcomed as a national hero. Bin Laden scores an overwhelming plurality in the elections and is the countryâs most popular leader. Elections won't happen but an armed uprising might succeed in overthrowing House o Cards, er Saud.
⢠A.Q. Khan sends bin Laden his congratulations and dispatches to Riyadh his new defense minister, Gen. Hamid Gul, a former intelligence chief and admirer of the worldâs most wanted terrorist, who hates America with a passion. His mission is to negotiate a caliphate merging Pakistanâs nuclear weapons with Saudi oil resources and monetary reserves. 0.1
⢠Northern Nigeria petitions Islamabad and Riyadh to be considered as a member of the caliphate. 0.1
⢠Absent the long-time global cop, and traditional alliances in shambles, transnational criminal enterprises thrive with unfettered access the world over. Score one for de Borchgrave: 0.8 These groups are thriving already and are integrated into the global economy. Russia's corporations are transnational semi-criminal enterprises. Much of Latin America's economic activity is interspersed with organized crime, as is Japan's. Even western multinationals such as the Big Pharma companies, reinsurance companies and others routinely fix prices and engage in other forms of criminal collusion.
⢠U.S. multinational companies, unable to protect their plants and employees, return whence they came.
⢠International airlines morph back into interregional air links. 0.1 Trans-pacific and UK-US transatlantic routes are the most profitable.
⢠Switzerland, a small defensive country with compulsory military service, is in vogue again; At least he didn't say "de facto in vogue"...but what does this mean? Swiss banking secrecy is already on its way out. What will sustain the Swiss economy? larger countries with several ethnic groups begin breaking apart a la Yugoslavia. Really? With thousands slaughtered in decade-long civil wars?
⢠Goods stamped "Made in China. Secured in Singapore" are back in business, smuggled into the United States. ???
⢠The EU can no longer cope with millions of North Africans and sub-Sahara Africans flooding into Spain, Italy, France, who roam freely and hungry or free and hungrily? in the rest of Europe. Islamist radicals sally out of their European slum tenements to besiege U.S. Embassies in protest of their jobless plight. 0.5
⢠Japan goes nuclear after U.S. troops withdraw from South Korea. duh. 0.7
#27
I share your suspicion of De Borchgrave, but not to the extent that I close my mind to thinking about what our world could look like in a few years or what forces are building now (voices within the US that we no longer allow ourselves to be "the global cop", that we transfer defense budgets to "handle homeland security", that current "trust"worthiness becomes as or more important than allied history, that we bond "with like-minded neighbors with shared values", that "international coalitions dissolve and new ones emerge...").
This does not discount what you say about Moussaoui, nor does it mean that imagination is more important than willpower or a change in border security, immigration, IDs, etc.
#28
Isolationism is always the natural and most poerful tug on Americans' sensibilities. However, the economic and political and other interest-group elites in this country won't let it happen. We have far too many interests at stake. If De Borchgrave's view were correct we would have undone NAFTA by now.
#29
The "economic and political and other interest-group elites" in this country won't have a choice if enough Americans get agitated enough about it. (Yeah RBers, I see your "agitation" jokes coming, but try to keep in mind, we wouldn't be talking about crowds of lefties crying in the public square about slaughtered minks-we'd be talking about pissed off Americans who've had it with playing Atlas for the world, and rightly so.)
It's difficult now to see how such a reaction on a large majority of American's part could happen, but what if 2, 3, 4 major WTC-type attacks happened in this country? Do you imagine the meter read would stay static on international trade, border control, continually putting up with treachery from cowardly allies and robber partners?
#31
Jules 187 - Well, yeah, it's a possibility there could be another WTC type attack on the US, but that does not mean that it is likely.
There are a lot of countries that would love to see us take another hit like that, but after Afghanistan and Iraq, they're not going to give substantial support to anyone willing to pull that off. The last thing their leaders want to do is go on the run and leave their extravagant lifestyles behind. They're pissed off, but not suicidal or stupid.
Look at Qadaffi (or however the hell you spell that Libyan leader's name). It wasn't a moment of moral clarity that caused him to act the way he did earlier this year. He's in power and wants to stay there. He was afraid he was next.
That kind of thing is more likely to hit Europe than us. Why? #1 - Outside of Britain, none of those countries can mount a large, retaliatory attack, #2 - They are easier to attack, since they are closer and there are far more Arabs they can hide among until the time comes to strike, and #3 - if they are attacked, they're not going to do much about it (Spain, 3/11/03). The only question they have is if we are going to retaliate for an attack on, say, France.
Considering how popular the Europeans are here in the States, and how far our forces are stretched, I wouldn't bet on it. But if the Islamic terrorists ever think seriously that we wouldn't retaliate on their behalf, it could get ugly over there.
#33
DB: There are a lot of countries that would love to see us take another hit like that, but after Afghanistan and Iraq, they're not going to give substantial support to anyone willing to pull that off.
I disagree. That is why Iran is so keen on The Bomb and a way to deliver it. They will continue their terror work by proxy, no doubt, but any response from the US would have to be especially measured. Once Iran tests a nuke, it's a whole new ballgame.
Posted by: Rafael ||
12/16/2004 14:56 Comments ||
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#34
The U.S. debate shifts to adequate city perimeter defenses.
Cincinnati withdraws to the I-275 loop/wall; Dayton is abandoned.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/16/2004 15:02 Comments ||
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#35
"Blue state" cities fort up...and "red state" Americans begin work on their siege engines...
#36
There's lots to ponder here, all right, but not necessarily what the idiot-stick that devised this list thought. The problem is, this guy represents the thinking in Europe about the United States. Half of what he projects is wishful thinking, not intelligent estimation of probability. Another WTC attack may equally result in a number of glass-encrusted cities throughout the Middle East. I have no doubt that Japan is considering the requirements of building a nuclear deterrent to North Korea, possibly even the development of everything but the nuclear fuel itself. I also feel that Taiwan, seeing the rapaciousness of China in Hong Kong, has decided that it will go out in a suicidal bang, rather than be overrun. CHINA needs to understand that, as well.
There are two major considerations missing from this bunch of bs: the US is the leader in technological innovation, and the US produces a third of the world's wealth. The US also produces a huge percentage of the world's food, and food handling technology. The rest of the world can get along without us, but only if they wish to take a huge step backwards economically, socially, culturally, and medically. The islamofruitcakes are willing to make that choice, since that lifestyle represents their "ideal". I don't think the rest of the world, even China, is that crazy.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/16/2004 16:07 Comments ||
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#37
This is so much fatuous crap. If there are several more WTC events then the size of the US military is going to double through voluntary enlistment. Arnaud doesn't know anything about this country it seems. He forgets what the response was like to the first WTC event. Americans rallied together and then went to do some ass kicking. If it happens again, we sure as hell won't run and hide. That is a FRENCH reaction Ar-node, not an American one. Putz.
I don't know where Jules 187 went-she just started screaming, "oh my God, high school science has come back to get me, it's attacking me, help!" and ran for the bathroom. I don't know what's going on, but I can hear sobbing...
#40
"Sol was not the Main Sequence star it was thought to be" explained:
This is one of our most basic assumptions. The (historically well founded) belief that The Sun rises in the east relies on it. It might not be true.
"Main Sequence" refers to a class of stars with a certain lifetime behavior. It is believed that Main Sequence stars are predictable over their 5-10 billion year lifetime, with fairly minimal deviation from continuous, smooth behavior. We further believe that Sol is a member of this class.
We believe this to be true because our models fit the observed data fairly well. It might not be true because the data set is very small. We've got vague historical (ice cores etc) records going back hundreds of thousands of millions of years. We're not entirely sure how to interpret that data. Our detailed observations of the surface of Sol only go back to Galileo. Our first (and to date only) observations of the internals of Sol are through Solar Neutrinos, which have singularly poor resolution. Even Total Solar Output has only recently (SolarMax, ACRIMSat) been measured with accuracy greater than its impact on climate.
In short, it could be wrong. It doesn't seem likely or of immediate concern, but we can't really be sure.
More broadly, this is one potential catastrophic (annihilating?) event that we can't properly forsee and currently lack the ability to do anything about. That doesn't mean it won't happen. In fact, such events have happened... every 50-100 million years. Another will happen eventually. Kinda like an earthquake. The question is whether it looks like Bam (or worse) or Loma Prieta/Northridge.
#47
B-a-R - I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do, myself. Plus, since it's practically a fellow Islamic country (give or take 20 yrs), they're pretty safe from attack. ;) But I'm sure if some tool like Kerry was president and bought all that "we're your oldest ally" bullshit, they might get some help.
Rafael - Somehow, I think they have other targets in mind before America. Israel's probably #1 on their hit parade....it's closer, and they would get lots of support for taking out the "Zionist oppressors" from the UN.
#48
Should we be worried? I wouldn't say so right now. Ask me again in a thousand years. My intent with that statement was only to demonstrate the scope. Immediacy is another matter.
It is, however, relevant to discussions of things like "Global Warming", particularly when we're talking about century-plus time frames.
People generally assume Sol is constant. It is definitely not, and in ways that do affect our daily life, like the weather. One item that I left out of my summary of data is the use of tree rings and other weather related data to analyze historical sunspot activity.
I seem to have lost my copy of "The Sun in Time", or I'd include some tasty quotes that demonstrate just how significant the deviations are.
#49
De Bortchgrave is totally wrong as usual. When the alien mothership fires the death ray at America, we will see the end of the evil capitalist animal torturing patriarchal imperialism.
#1
Already in use for years in Ohio. This will reduce the number of forged driver's licences out there, but not those issued based on forged documents or false information.
#2
The use of social security numbers made the DL a national ID card some time ago. This is just ironing out bureaucratic details.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/16/2004 11:43 Comments ||
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#3
Acceptance of social security numbers and/or forged documents to get a DL make the DL a useless National ID card long ago.
The same goes for Birth Certificates. Do *you* know what a certified birth certificate from bumflock county Minnesota looks like? Do you know if there even is (or isn't) a bumflock county Minnesota?
I think the only real solution (and I am donning my fireproof underware before saying this) is a newly issued National ID card based on good solid evidence much like the current Green Cards. :((
#4
The American Civil Liberties Union says that such licenses could give the government a way to have citizens carry cards that eventually could be used to reveal a range of private information, including where people go and what they do.
I don't see what their beef is. I can't remember the last time I swiped my DL on some reader, so I don't see how data about my whereabouts and doings is going to be accumulated in real time.
She notes that the bill would not have prevented the 9/11 terrorists from getting driver's licenses. The terrorists obtained licenses legally, using valid documents, Phillips says. She says Congress hopes the bill will deter terrorists from making fake IDs or using aliases.
#5
Mrs. Davis
Here in Idaho we are not required to have the SSN on our DL's.
Posted by: Don ||
12/16/2004 17:08 Comments ||
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LOL I have my original SS id in my wallet. I really piss the identiy NAZIs off. It's throught the wash and swiming repeatedly. You expect people to look at it and use that to "verify" who I am? It's $%^&ing joke.
EFL: Critics of the United Nations who hold Secretary-General Kofi Annan responsible for failing to identify and halt corruption in the U.N. Oil for Food Program, say he also showed poor judgment in selecting former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to investigate the allegations of fraud and bribery. Volcker's previous and extensive relationships with the United Nations and its affiliated agencies could appear to be conflicts of interest, sources told CNSNews.com, and they said Annan should have chosen someone else.
Political figures and career civil servants in and out of the U.S. government said Volcker is a man "above reproach." Nevertheless, those sources wondered why Annan did not choose someone less involved with the U.N. and the international finance community to chair the "Independent Inquiry Committee into the United Nations Oil for Food Program."
"It appears, based on [those relationships], he probably should have," said U.S. Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, is one of 59 House members to co-sponsor a resolution calling on Annan to resign. But Coble was quick to point out that he does not question Volcker's integrity - just the decision by Annan to appoint the former Federal Reserve Board chairman.
"I hold Volcker in very high regard. Unfortunately, I do not have the same sterling endorsement for the United Nations," Coble said. "I'm not that high on the U.N., but I am that high on Volcker." The Oil for Food scandal, Coble said "is as bad as it has been portrayed."I'm very disappointed," he added, "and I think some heads should roll at the U.N."
-----snip----
CNSNews.com has learned that Volcker has various relationships with at least one Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that lobbies the U.N., another independent agency of the U.N., and an indirect connection to at least one energy corporation that has billions of dollars worth of oil development contracts pending in Iraq.
Volcker is:
Chairman of the board of trustees of the Group of 30, "a private, nonprofit, international body" that studies and attempts to influence decision makers in the areas of international economics and finance. The Group of 30 is a registered United Nations NGO. The Department of Public Information at the U.N. credits NGOs with "giving the U.N. invaluable links to people around the world."
A member and former co-chairman of the Bretton Woods Committee. The BWC was founded, "to increase public understanding of international financial and development issues and the role of the Bretton Woods institutions." One of those institutions is The World Bank Group, which is "an independent specialized agency of the U.N. as well as a member and observer in many UN bodies." According to the World Bank Group website, "In addition to a shared agenda, the Bank and the U.N. have almost the same membership."
Former chairman and CEO of Wolfensohn & Co., Inc., an international investment firm previously headed by James D. Wolfensohn. Wolfensohn is now president of the World Bank Group, which, as previously reported, is a U.N.-affiliated agency.
A member of the international advisory council of Montreal-based Power Corporation of Canada. Power Corporation Chairman and Co-CEO Paul Desmarais, Jr., serves on the board of directors for French oil conglomerate TotalFinaElf. The company holds $4 billion worth of contracts to develop the Majnoon oil field in Iraq.
Richard Lessner, executive director of the American Conservative Union, told CNSNews.com that despite the appearance of a number of potential conflicts of interest, he is giving Volcker the benefit of the doubt. "I think he's sincere in wanting to get to the bottom of the scandal," Lessner said. "I'm sure that he feels as though he's committed his personal integrity to the outcome of this investigation." But Lessner echoed other critics of the limitations under which Volcker must operate.
"Without subpoena powers, he will never know if he's gotten to the bottom of the investigation," Lessner continued. "No matter how far he follows this, he'll never know for certain that he's run down every lead, followed every trail and dug out every mole that's burrowed into the bureaucracy of the United Nations." Lessner said he believes the limitations placed on Volcker were purposely designed to handicap the investigation.
"I don't think this is a matter of mismanagement. I don't think Kofi Annan's problem is one of incompetence," Lessner concluded. "This [investigation] is all for show. This is to give Kofi Annan cover. I think this was all intentional."
More details at the link.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/16/2004 9:38:47 AM ||
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Paul Volcker, a member of the Establishment. Whoda thunk it?
I have a hard time believeing that after a career that has few equals, only Marshall and Eisenhower come to mind, Volcker is going to take a dive for the likes of Kofi and the UN. I'll wait till the report comes out and if that's not satisfactory, I''ll wonder why; but it'll be tough to get me to believe Volcker did something that was not in the nation's interest.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/16/2004 10:12 Comments ||
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Conflicts of Interest and Institutional Corruption
The moment I saw this in the headline list, it wasn't necessary to read the article to figure out what it was all about. It practically screamed, "UN!! Kofi Annan!!"
#3
Mrs. D, Volcker is not representing the US in this matter. He is an observer of the International Community (TM). His office for the investigation is at UN HQ. His business cards have the UN logo on them.
Posted by: James E. Carter ||
12/16/2004 10:55 Comments ||
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Volcker will issue a report. Not indictments or arrest warrants or recommendations for same. And that report, like the 9/11 report, will largely contain vague references to the obvious, concluding in a set of "war-is-bad-for-living-things" banalities. Which will allow hte MSM to declare the matter finished and urge everyone to MoveOn
[snip] Kojo Annan, the son of the U.N. secretary general, claims he has never been involved directly or indirectly with any business related to the United Nations. And Cotecna Inspection S.A., the company Kojo worked for, also maintains that the younger Annan was never asked to deal with the United Nations and that there was never any conflict of interest.
[snip]
The Aug. 28, 1998, fax [from Cotecna] praises Kojo's work at a meeting of world leaders in South Africa and adds: "Your work and the contacts established at this meeting should ideally be followed up at the September 98 UN General Assembly in New York." Also, congressional investigators want Kojo to explain a hotel bill for the Holiday Inn Garden Court in Durban, South Africa, in September 1998. His registration card reads: "K Annan, United Nations." That hotel charge was billed to Cotecna as a business expense.
Investigators are also probing Kojo Annan's phone records. His AT&T calling card was billed to Cotecna as a business expense and shows a series of calls to a number that begins 212-963-XXXX. Nearly all U.N. offices in New York have that same area code and prefix, a coincidence investigators are now studying closely. But, in his first public comment on the subject, Kojo told CNN in a written statement this week: "I have never participated directly or indirectly in any business related to the United Nations." Gonna be hard to 'splain those away.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/16/2004 8:25:19 AM ||
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Mike Sylwester didn't post this, huh? Where's the Surprise Meterâ¢
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2004 9:19 Comments ||
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Mike's next post will be the one in which Kojo declares the papers to be "Lies! All lies!" Either that or a rant against Fox.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/16/2004 9:24 Comments ||
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Your Document are all ours.
Posted by: Kojo the Dog Faced Boy ||
12/16/2004 9:59 Comments ||
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Has anyone tried to Google up that Kojo's mugshot? Seems strangely unavailable. Also Kofi Assnan's middle name of 'Atta' seems unavailable in those official UN webpages.
Posted by: Wo ||
12/16/2004 10:41 Comments ||
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Nice find, Robert. I'll be very interested in Mike S's comments after he's digested the information contained therein. After all, this is exactly what he's been asking for -- for weeks!
#14
#9 Thanks Captain.
#10 Yep, LOL, he looks so...seen enough US TV series. Kofi's son by first marriage.
Posted by: Wo ||
12/16/2004 15:01 Comments ||
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actually, I like the Corleone parallels. Kojo as Freddo. Gallaway as Sonny. Villepin as Tom Hagen. Sevan as Jimmy Pentangeli (sp). Marc Rich as Meyer Lansky.
#17
I don't know whether Cotecna likes to play hardball, but it would add an interesting dimension to this case if Kojo accidentally slipped from the 29th floor balcony of his Manhattan hotel room next time he was in town to cut some shady deals with crooked UN officials visit his dear old dad.
Two lawyers for UN whistle-blowers urged the United Nations on Wednesday to protect staffers who want to disclose corruption at the world body, including the oil-for-food program for Iraq. One of the lawyers said "five or six" UN employees including a high-level employee had contacted him for advice on how to reveal evidence of wrongdoing in the now-defunct oil-for-food program without jeopardizing their careers. The lawyer, Andre Sirois—himself a UN staff member and former whistle-blower—said he advised all six against going public with their information because they would lose their jobs due to a lack of protection in the staff rules. "In one case it was something big, that definitely would make the front page," he told a news conference at UN headquarters. He declined to disclose any names or details. But based on his advice, none of those who approached him have subsequently gone public, he said. "I know them. They won't. They are very quiet and under a lot of stress."
"Please don't kill ruin us!"
UN officials had no immediate comment on the statements.
"We will say no more!"
Sirois and Tom Devine, legal director of the Washington-based Government Accountability Project, came to UN headquarters to plead the case of Dr. Andrew Thomson, one of three UN staffers who wrote "Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures: A True Story from Hell on Earth." The book, published in June, describes sex, drugs, failed leadership, incompetence and corruption in UN missions in Rwanda, Bosnia and elsewhere a decade ago. Co-author Heidi Postlewait still works at the United Nations while the third, Kenneth Cain, has left. Thomson and Postlewait were reprimanded after publishing the book without UN clearance, violating staff rules.
After a television production firm optioned the book, Thomson learned his contract would not be renewed when it runs out at the end of the year. Postlewait said her contract still has 18 months to run. While UN rules call for wrongdoers to be punished, they do nothing to shield staff members from reprisals when they come forward with evidence, Devine and Sirois said. "There is irreparable harm when freedom of speech is canceled, irreparable harm to the institution," Devine said. "The message is, 'Do not say anything to investigators.'"
Freedom of speech is not a UN concept.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2004 12:13:20 AM ||
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If they've got docs, dump 'em on Fleet Street. They'll print anything juicy, anonymous sources in false moustaches no problem...
DEBKA-Net-Weekly reveals: US agents foil Iran's import of smuggled "laser guns" for uranium enrichment. They blew up components crated for shipment in source country. Operation is still ongoing. Unfortunately, by subscription, and coming out this Friday. No other mention I can find. I wonder who the lucky country is?
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
12/16/2004 10:00:21 AM ||
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But did they wait till after the check cleared?
The 300 men filling out forms in the offices of an Iranian aid group were offered three choices: Train for suicide attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq, for suicide attacks against Israelis or to assassinate British author Salman Rushdie.
It looked at first glance like a gathering on the fringes of a society divided between moderates, who want better relations with the world, and hard-line Muslim militants hostile toward the United States and Israel.
But the presence of two key figures — a prominent Iranian lawmaker and a member of the country's elite Revolutionary Guards — lent the meeting more legitimacy and was a clear indication of at least tacit support from some within Iran's government.
Since that inaugural June meeting in a room decorated with photos of Israeli soldiers' funerals, the registration forms for volunteer suicide commandos have appeared on Tehran's streets and university campuses, and there is no sign that Iran's government is trying to stop the shadowy movement.
On Nov. 12, the day that Iranians traditionally hold pro-Palestinian protests, a spokesman for the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement said the movement signed up at least 4,000 new volunteers.
Spokesman Mohammad Ali Samadi told the Associated Press that the group had no ties to the government.
And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters recently that the group's campaign to sign up volunteers for suicide attacks had "nothing to do with the ruling Islamic establishment."
"That some people do such a thing is the result of their sentiments. It has nothing to do with the government and the system," Mr. Asefi said.
Despite the government's disavowal of the group and some of its programs, there are indications that the suicide attack campaign has some legitimacy within the government.
The first meeting was held in the offices of the Martyrs Foundation, a semiofficial organization that helps the families of those killed in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war or those killed fighting for the government on other fronts. It drew hard-line lawmaker Mahdi Kouchakzadeh and Gen. Hossein Salami of the elite Revolutionary Guards.
"This group spreads valuable ideas," Mr. Kouchakzadeh said.
"At a time when the U.S. is committing the crimes we see now, deprived nations have no weapon other than martyrdom. It's evident that Iran's foreign policy-makers have to take the dignified opinions of this group into consideration," said Mr. Kouchakzadeh, who also is a former member of the Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian security officials did not return calls seeking comment about whether they had tried to crack down on the group's training programs or whether they thought any of Mr. Samadi's volunteers had crossed into Iraq or into Israel.
Mr. Samadi described the movement as independent, with no ties to groups such as al Qaeda.
Despite its very public canvassing for volunteers, the group can be secretive. Mr. Samadi agreed only reluctantly to an interview and insisted that it be held in the basement of an unmarked building in central Tehran — not the Martyrs Foundation offices.
Mr. Samadi refused to identify any of his volunteers or the wealthy sympathizers who he says underwrote their efforts. Asked to describe the training programs, he would say only that classes were sometimes held in open spaces outside cities but more often inside, away from prying eyes.
Mr. Samadi said that 30,000 volunteers have signed up and that 20,000 of them have been chosen for training. Volunteers already had carried out suicide operations against military targets inside Israel, he said.
But he said discussing attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq "will cause problems for the country's foreign policy. It will have grave consequences for our country and our group. It's confidential."
As devoted Muslims, members of his group were simply fulfilling their religious obligations as laid out by Ayatollah Khomeini, he said.
In his widely published book of religious directives, the ayatollah said, "If an enemy invades Muslim countries and borders, it's an obligation for all Muslims to defend through any possible means: sacrificing life and properties."
Mr. Samadi said: "With this religious verdict, we don't need anybody's permission to fight an enemy that has occupied Muslim lands."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/16/2004 3:48:52 AM ||
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The latest news: The Iranians are now terrified because George Bush has announced the creating of an American Suicide Bomber Corps. Already, as many as one hundred thousand despondent John Kerry supporters have volunteered to blow themselves up in the event of a war with Iran. It is unclear whether they will need the assistance of explosives to accomplish their mission.
#2
The Euro-peons should take a look at this and consider who they're negotiating with. These bomb boyz and their manipulative masters don't want peace or even detente. They want the annihilation of Israel and the capitulation of American power in the ME. Then the black turbans can use their more than willing bomb boyz to exert a ton of destabilizing force on the entire region. Go Europe, go, keep talking and they'll keep building.
#3
They never needed to recruit suiciders before -- there'd always been more volunteers than vests. I wonder if this really means that the locals have concluded that the risk:reward ratio has drastically altered recently toward the risk side of the equation.
#4
Where is this particular location? One single, solitary cruise missile right through the front door would probably solve the problem in short order.
The queries he receives from Iranian Muslims about converting to Judaism say less about the lure of the Jewish faith, Menashe Amir believes, than about the abysmal situation in the land of the ayatollahs. "The main reason they ask about conversion is that they want to get out of Iran, and it has become more difficult to obtain visas to Europe and elsewhere," said Mr. Amir, longtime director of the Iran desk of the Israel Broadcasting Authority. "They believe that if they convert to Judaism, they can receive refuge in Israel."
Rest at link.
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2004 12:21:08 AM ||
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Call me a cynic if you like, but I am thinking Trojan Horse here. More like ka-boom pals?
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/16/2004 7:16 Comments ||
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I'm not so sure. Iran has both an odd blend of oppresed religious minorities, who hate Islam and the Mullahs, but it also has a large number of young people who are so utterly appalled with Islam that they really want a way out--permanently. For the more educated, this might mean either atheism or Judaism, Christians in that region not looked at as particularly modern, either. Of course, proclaiming identity as an atheist is an absolute death sentence, and while becoming a Jew might not instantly get them killed, they might figure that Israel would accept them as converts and give them safe haven. Somewhat convoluted logic, but I cannot condemn them for clutching at straws, especially now.
#3
I recall reading something on FFI about a very high interest in Zoroastorism among the people who are fed up with Islam. Apparently, it is considered a 'native' religion so it appeals to Nationalism.
New Delhi will again ask Islamabad to hand over 25 fugitives, including underworld don Dawood Ibrahim at an upcoming meeting of the two foreign ministers. Replying to questions in the Rajya Sabha, the Indian minister of state for External Affairs, E Ahamed, said 15 of those named in the list of fugitives had Interpol Red Corner notices against them. He said New Delhi has asked Islamabad to arrest and hand over Dawood Ibrahim.
Ahamed said the list of 25 fugitives included the names of 20 given by India soon after the December 13, 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. He said Pakistan maintains that it will not handover any Pakistani citizen to India and has also rejected the Indian claim that it has provided asylum to non-Pakistanis wanted in India. He said national security prevented him from making the list public. He said despite several requests, Pakistan had not responded positively to its suggestion for an extradition treaty. He said New Delhi had made the request for fugitives to be handed over several times after the Mumbai blasts, the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane to Kandahar and the terrorist attack on Parliament, but there had been no response from Islamabad.
Nor do I expect there will be one. Too many fingers to be pointed, too many secrets to be unsecreted...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2004 10:36:32 PM ||
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President Pervez Musharraf said on Thursday that the government would stamp out all anti-Pakistan movements in the country in general and in Balochistan in particular. "We are gathering information through intelligence about who is doing what in the area and I warn them that they will not be spared," the president said. "No extremists and anti-state elements will be tolerated in the country and we will use all resources to eliminate them," the president told reporters during the inspection of the Rs 5.8 billion Mirani dam. He said a public awareness campaign would be launched in Sindh and the NWFP soon to evolve a consensus for big projects such as the Kalabagh dam. He said there some people were politicising the Kalabagh dam issue for their vested interests but the majority did not have any idea about the benefits of these projects.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2004 10:27:23 PM ||
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The Pentagon is seeking emergency authority to resume administering the anthrax vaccine, saying troops in South Korea and the Middle East are at risk.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made the request in a Dec. 10 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. The No. 2 official at the Pentagon cited "a significant potential for a military emergency involving a heightened risk to United States military forces of attack with anthrax."
Wolfowitz did not describe any specific threat, but pointed to a classified intelligence assessment from November 2004 regarding anthrax. He did not detail the assessment.
HHS is considering the request, a department spokesman said...
A YEAR AFTER Saddam Hussein was captured, how goes the liberation of Iraq?snip
Last spring, three enterprising Americans -- filmmakers Eric Manes and Martin Kunert, both former producers for MTV, and Gulf War veteran Archie Drury, a former Marine -- decided to find out [what Iraqis think about their liberation.] They distributed 150 digital video recorders to ordinary Iraqis and asked them to film anyone or anything they thought worthwhile -- and then pass the camera on to someone else.
From April to September, the cameras traveled from hand to hand through every region of the country. What eventually came back to the three Americans was 450 hours of raw video recorded by more than 2,000 Iraqis from all walks of life -- and not one frame of it influenced by an outside director or crew. Edited down to a taut 80 minutes, the result -- "Voices of Iraq" -- is a gripping documentary that for the first time shows Iraq as even the most skillful American journalist will never be able to show it: through the eyes and ears of Iraq's people.
"Voices of Iraq" is by turns heartbreaking, exhilarating, and inspiring. The war and its destruction is never far from the surface. One of the opening scenes is of a car bombing in Sadr City, and when a little girl is asked, "What do you want to tell the world about Iraq?" her answer is poignant: "These explosions are hurting everyone." snip There is even footage -- supplied, Drury told NPR, by a sheik from Fallujah -- of insurgents preparing a bomb.
But bad as the war is, the horror it ended -- Saddam's 24-year reign -- was worse.
In the film, a young Kurdish mother tells her daughter, who is wielding the camcorder, how she would burn herself with cigarettes to prepare for the torture she knew was coming. snip One man explains that Saddam's son Uday "used to come often to Ravad Street -- every Thursday for the market -- to choose a girl to rape."
A few brief clips are shown from a captured Fedayeen Saddam videotape: A blindfolded victim thrown to his death from a rooftop, a man's hand getting severed, someone's tongue being cut out.
It isn't hard to understand the emotions of the man who answers, when asked how he reacted to the news of Saddam's capture, "I danced like this! I kept dancing. Then I cried."
Yet for all they have been through, Iraqis come across as incredibly optimistic, hopeful, and enthusiastic. And above all, normal. In "Voices of Iraq" they film themselves flying on rides in an amusement park, dancing the night away at a graduation party, taking their kids to a playground, shopping for cellphones. A police officer mugs for the camera. Shoppers throng the streets of Suleimaniyah. A scrawny kid pumps iron with a makeshift barbell -- and gives a shout out to Arnold Schwarzenegger. ("I like your movies. You're a good actor. Can you please send me some real weights?")
Iraqis haven't had much experience with democracy, but we see the delight they take in the new opportunities Saddam's defeat is making possible. Two women celebrate the freedom to get a passport. An artist talks proudly about work for which he went to prison. A young woman says her dream is to be a lawyer. One rough-looking fellow says simply, "I wish for a government elected by the Iraqi people."
Yes, it's a liberation. And the men and women we liberated, it turns out, are people just like us. The headlines dwell on the bad news, and the bad news is certainly real. But things are looking up in Iraq, as the Iraqis themselves will be happy to tell you. All someone had to do was ask.
#3
Apparently the distribution was screwed up: poor PR efforts, only a handful of cities screened it, and release was drowned out by the election and the World Series. The distribution company's owned by Mark Cuban.
I'd like to be able to see all of the footage. Wonder how much they'd sell the rights for?
In what Israeli officials are calling a first, Israel is sending some $20,000 in aid to Sudan to help alleviate the humanitarian crisis there.
On Wednesday, Israel joined with several US Jewish groups in sending $100,000 to support the International Rescue Committee and aid children in Sudan and Chad orphaned by the civil war in Sudan's Darfur region. snip
Muhammad Yahya, a native of Darfur and founder of a group called Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile, said his countrymen are grateful for the assistance and astonished by its source.
"We have been taught for all our lives, from the primary school to the university, that you are the top enemy for Muslims and Arabs all over the world," Yahya said of the Jews and Israelis behind the $100,000 effort. Now, he said, "we realized that what we have been taught all our lives is a kind of a rumor. When we have been killed, you are protecting us; when we are displaced, you are trying to save us; when our people are murdered and raped, you are there trying to help us."
Yahya said he is grateful for the American Jewish support and the aid from Israel, which Arye Mekel, Israel's consul-general in New York, called Israel's first humanitarian support to residents of an Arab country with which it has no diplomatic ties.
"You are the voice of the voiceless," Yahya said. "We need to support each other and stand by you and support you forever."
"I tell my people in Sudan and in Darfur: Please forget about the rumors that the Israeli people are our enemy," he said. "They are not enemies anymore."
Jewish groups collectively have sent more than $1 million in aid to humanitarian causes in Sudan since the violence in Darfur took a turn for the worse in early 2003, according to the American Jewish World Service, which supports humanitarian and economic projects in the developing world.
Earlier this year, the organization helped create the Jewish Coalition for Sudan Relief, a collection of some 15 groups. The groups involved in the new $100,000 aid package are the Union for Reform Judaism, the New Jersey MetroWest Federation and UJA-Federation of New York, in addition to the 15-member coalition, AJWS and Israel.
Mekel said Israel decided to send the aid along with American Jewish groups to stress that Israel and the Jews work together when it comes to Jewish values issues.
"The State of Israel is following the developments in Darfur carefully, and as a people who has gone through persecution, we could not sit idly on the sidelines through such a devastating humanitarian disaster," he said. "This is according to the Jewish values." snip
Almost half of Afghanistan's 8,000 child soldiers have been demobilized and are receiving educational and vocational programs aimed at preparing them to rejoin their community, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday. Edward Carwardine, UNICEF spokesman said that a total of 3,998 children- all boys aged between 14-17 — have been demobilized in 15 provinces in north, northeast and central Afghanistan since the program started in February. The UNICEF also said that it is hoping to carry out its activities in the south and southeast Afghanistan, the most dangerous parts of the country.
It estimates that there are about 8,000 child soldiers in Afghanistan and says that most of them forcibly joined the fighting in the recent years of the conflict. One of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's top priorities is converting fighters into productive citizens, especially children who have missed on years of education. "These young people- despite denied the chances that most children have in their formative years- have demonstrated that they want to make a positive contribution to the development of their communities," reported the UNICEF project office, in charge of the child soldiers in the war-torn country.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2004 3:05:34 PM ||
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A weapons' deal between Israel and China has sparked tensions between Israel and its key ally the U.S., a senior Israeli defence official said. 'There are tensions... hidden from the public, which have appeared over the last one or two years concerning Israeli weapons sales, particularly to China', Youval Steinitz, head of the Israeli parliament's defence committee, told Israeli radio. Steinitz's remarks came after yesterday's report, on Israel's Channel 2 TV, saying that Washington is demanding Israel to fire defence minister director general, Amos Yaron, over an Israel-China arms deal.
It has been reported that the U.S. officials are angry at Israel for returning a 'sensitive weapons system' from China to Israel for to be upgraded, the channel said. The weapons deal became very sensitive, after Israel cancelled a contract to sell China a Russian Ilyushin-76 plane equipped with its own Phalcon Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) in July 2000.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/16/2004 3:03:40 PM ||
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I had thought that Clinton permitted the Phalcon sale as a backdoor means to getting AWACS technology in Chinese hands. It now appears, from Israeli sources, that Israel initiated this transaction without American knowledge. Once Clinton found out, he rejected the deal. I think the Israeli government needs to rethink its stance on exports to China. Otherwise, we need to yank technology transfers and weapons aid to Israel.
#3
Otherwise, we need to yank technology transfers and weapons aid to Israel.
I'll ditto that.
Not only has Israel back-stabbed its best ally and benefactor, but Israel is screwing its own citizens long term by selling weaponry to China.
China is no "partner" of Israel. China has been making nice with Saudi Arabia and Syria in recent years. What is Israel thinking?
http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2004/june/06_23_2.html
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/9/6/132729.shtml
#4
What is Israel thinking? Dealing with China might be in Israel's national interest. Here's a customer with cold hard cash to help absorb our fixed costs. Perhaps we should cover our bets. We aren't the 51 st state.
Our response? Hardball. Weapons cutoff, to be sure. Co-operate with the Euros on the roadmap to the peace process also. Green cards for Israelis with college degres. Make it clear that we think Israel's survival is important but not a national interest, expecially at the cost of aiding those who are an active threat.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
12/16/2004 16:32 Comments ||
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Mrs. D is right. We must let everyone, friend and foe alike, know that we are taking things seriously. In the words of the infamous Sonny Barger, "treat me good and I treat you better, treat me bad and I'll treat you worse." No bullshit.
#9
I'm forced to assume that FranceEurope Russia isn't the only one capable of really idiotic dealings.
Let's do the math. Israel helps to upgrade the military readiness of China, who is working hard to export guided missile technology to Iran, who is vowing to launch their first nuclear bomb at Israel.
Hellooooooooo ... big red truck!!!!
This represents a disconnect on the level of Russia, vis the Beslan atrocity and Islamist terrorism.
America has an incredibly simple trump card to play.
If Israel continues to maintain such a mercenary stance, all future foreign aid and roadmap status suddenly becomes dependent upon the ENTIRE Middle East undergoing nuclear disarmament. Not only will Iran have to be stripped of its nuclear power bomb development program but Israel, too, will have to foresake its atomic weapons.
If Israel wishes to have its cake and eat it too, they will do so without another drop microlitre of milk from America's foremost teat. Should they choose to blatantly compromise global security by selling to the communists, we shall no longer be concerned with their own territorial integrity.
ISLAMABAD: The government has sought return of official (blue) passports of those KRL employees who were investigated or are still being probed. A senior KRL official telephoned members of the scientists' families to ensure compliance with instructions earlier sent in writing in this regard. Copies of the passports of some of these scientists have already been submitted. It is also learnt that members of such officials' families have also been asked to make their passports handy as well because the government might need them.
The News has learnt that the passports would be used to track down foreign movement of these officials. Earlier, an SBP directive had sought bank account details of Dr AQ Khan, 16 members of his family and 12 other nuclear scientists and members of their families. The SBP had also directed commercial banks to forward details of accounts of the scientists such as account number and type, account opening form, latest balance and statement of accounts. An official said the government "simply wants to corroborate the statements made by the officials in custody or during the investigation with the situation on ground as it exists in the documents".
Somebody's checking to see if the statements are the same as the facts. Gee, you'd think they were running a real investigation.
The computerised National Identity Card numbers and residential addresses of all these officials have already been provided to banks and other related institutions to check any loophole in their financial statements or foreign travel.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/16/2004 8:55:55 AM ||
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#1
So are they collecting the government issue passports, or the bought-in-the-bazaar passports?
via http://www.jihadwatch.org/
A top PA official has reiterated the end-goal of the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel: a Palestinian state instead of Israel. In a seeming re-affirmation of the PLO's 1974 "destroy Israel" program, commonly known as the Phased Plan, Fatah co-founder Farouk Kadumi termed the struggle for a two-state solution just a stage on the road to only one [state].
Kadumi spoke on Nov. 29th with Iran's Al-Aram television station. When the interviewer asked Kadumi, "What is the future of Palestine?" the PLO leader answered: "At this stage there will be two states. Many years from now there will be only one."
Asked why he has not softened his stance against Israel"s existence, Kadumi
replied, "Our enemy always says, "This is Judea and Samaria" ... They haven"t changed their discourse. If they change theirs, we will change ours, and if not, we will keep saying that armed resistance is the way to Palestine." He expressed confidence in the Arabs ultimate victory, saying, "[There are] 300 million Arabs, while Israel has only the sea behind it."
The entire clip, translated by MEMRI, can be viewed by clicking here.
The basic principle of the 1974 Phased Plan is that the PLO would struggle to initially establish an "independent combatant national authority" over any territory "liberated" from Israeli rule. That "national authority" would then be used as a base for continued terror attacks. The final phase of the plan is all-out war against Israel by all her Arab neighbors with the hope of destroying the Jewish State entirely.
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2004 3:10:03 AM ||
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Arabs ultimate victory? Tell me a victory these losers have had in the last couple centuries. *spit*
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/16/2004 9:13 Comments ||
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#2
He may be half right. The creation of two states may just be a preface to the creation of THREE states, that being Israel, the West Bank, managed by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip, managed by Egypt.
#3
Tell me a victory these losers have had in the last couple centuries.
Well, they haven't been fully genocided despite the fact that they richly deserve it and constantly ask for it. That takes a unique blend of threats and wheedling.
#5
The basic principle of the 1974 Phased Plan is that the PLO would struggle to initially establish an "independent combatant national authority" over any territory "liberated" from Israeli rule. That "national authority" would then be used as a base for continued terror attacks. The final phase of the plan is all-out war against Israel by all her Arab neighbors with the hope of destroying the Jewish State entirely.
This is precisely why we will never give up our nukes.
If the arab shmucks will try to make use of the 300 million morons and halfwits, they will discover that indeed Israel has behind it the sea but to their surprise it will also suddenly have in front of it the "great melted glass lakes plateau".
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
12/16/2004 13:24 Comments ||
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United Nations is expanding its presence in Iraq outside Baghdad to the cities of Basra and Irbil but is planning to have only about 25 electoral experts in the entire country ahead of elections next month, a U.N. spokesman said Wednesday.
The announcement came on the eve of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's meeting in Washington with outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell and his successor, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
The two U.S. officials and the Iraqi government have been pressing the United Nations to expand its electoral team and its presence in the country for the scheduled Jan. 30 vote.
There are about 20 U.N. electoral staff in Iraq and U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said "the number of electoral personnel that we hope to get up to remains something like 25."
While deploying just 25 U.N. election experts is unlikely to satisfy the Iraqis or Americans, U.S. Ambassador John Danforth said Wednesday the expansion was positive. He expressed hope the United Nations would put personnel in northern and southern Iraq.
"The more the better is basically our position, so I don't know when there would ever be a number when we would say 'that's enough,'" he told reporters after a private meeting with Annan. "But we certainly think this is moving in the right direction."
Eckhard said that Annan "intends to proceed with further expansion" of the U.N. mission in Iraq and that a first step was sending security experts to the Shiite-dominated southern city of Basra and the mainly Kurdish northern city of Irbil. They will assess security conditions in order to establish U.N. offices "as soon as practicable," he said.
...
Posted by: .com ||
12/16/2004 1:44:15 AM ||
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Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has expressed strong misgivings about Iraqi elections next month and said there was not enough security in the country for a free and safe vote.
"Nope. Nope. Can't do it. Put Sammy back in, then start over. And get it right this time!"
Carter, whose nonpartisan Carter Centre has monitored more than 50 elections around the world, told Reuters on Wednesday he would not be involved in observing the January 30 vote and was not optimistic about the situation in Iraq. "I think the whole Iraqi situation has been a debacle, a very costly one.
"Not as much of a debacle as having our embassy in Teheran occupied, and the staff taken hostage, but still a debacle..."
I don't see how all the rudimentary requirements for a free and safe election can be achieved in another month. How can anyone campaign? How can anyone go and vote without fear?," he said in an interview.
"Best to just forget the whole idea. Maybe you can find a holy man to rule the country for a few years, until the natives are ready?"
"They might contrive some substitute for an orthodox election by having the vote take place over several weeks or in certain little spots scattered about Iraq and not in the troubled areas. But there is not enough security there in my opinion to have a legitimate election. I hope I am wrong and that they have some success," he added. ...
I take a certain amount of comfort in the fact that Jimmy's usually wrong.
Posted by: .com ||
12/16/2004 1:40:13 AM ||
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I'm sure ex-president (God I love that word) Carter can do for the Iraqi elections what he did for Venezuela. Send him and his hammer to observe in Ramadi. And when is Jimmah going to Tehran to bless the Mullah's elections. After all he gave them their start (and much of the subsequent Middle East lunacy).
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2004 1:55 Comments ||
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#2
The State department should pull his passport. Ex presidents are supposed to be quiet. Maybe the current administration should start leaking information that will remind him of that.
#3
I saw that Carter was on television last night (Tonight Show and PBS's Charlie Rose among others) pimping his latest book (#19, supposedly a best seller). My husband argues that because the man means well, therefore he cannot be evil. My husband should concentrate on his job, and stop worrying his pretty head about such things ;-)
#4
My husband argues that because the man means well, therefore he cannot be evil. As my mother used to say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
#5
Carter, showing the world how much lasting damage can ocurr from 4 years of poor leadership. He, an ex-president, shared a box with Michael Moore at the Dim Convention. I think that summs him up nicely.
#6
Trailing
How does your husband know that Carter means well? It seems to me that, at least on some level, Carter really, really despises America at least in part because America rejected him.
#12
Now Venezuela, There's a country that knows how to provide security for an election.
Posted by: James E. Carter ||
12/16/2004 10:19 Comments ||
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#13
Phil B : Dementia makes the person immune to judgements of good and evil, though his actions are clearly evil. Jimmuh nees to be medicated. Then he will realize how much he looks like a fool for supporting all these evil nitwads (buddy Hugo Chavez of Venezuela), and keep his mouth shut, and leave the diplomacy to those who still have a full complement of functioning brain cells.
#14
Guys, look, he's obviously even more demented than usual. November was a hard month for him (the election, his good buddy Yassir taking a dirt nap).
I'm happy that he won't be mucking things up in Iraq, though. Last thing they need is a visit from ol' Attack Bunny Bait......
#15
If he's so concerned about the elections, tell him to get his peanut picking ass over there and observe them. If we're lucky, maybe he'll get blown up.
Carter to be monitor for Palestinian vote Former President Jimmy Carter, who received a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in the Middle East, said yesterday he would head an observer mission to monitor the Palestinian presidential elections next month.Carter, who helped broker the 1979 Camp David accord between Egypt and Israel, said his Carter Center had been invited by Palestinian leaders to monitor the Jan. 9 poll.
Carter said he was optimistic the elections to replace the late Yasser Arafat would be ''honest, fair, free, and safe."
''Ever since then the Palestinian leaders -- Arafat and his successors -- have told me that when and if they have another election they want the Carter Center to be observing it," Carter said. ''I will be going out there two or three days in advance and we will have a total of 80 or 90 observers all over the place." More than 600 foreign observers, including delegations from the European Union and Russia, are expected to monitor the vote.
With Jimmy as the hand-picked election counter, the Paleos will welcome him with open arms.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/16/2004 12:01 Comments ||
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#17
My husband argues that because the man means well, therefore he cannot be evil. My husband should concentrate on his job, and stop worrying his pretty head about such things ;-)
#21
BigEd, my mother was right about 'good intentions' as she was about many other things. Failure to understand this truth about people takes you straight down the road of explaining the world thru wacky conspiracies, evil capitalists, and the whole Leftist nine yards.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush has warned Iran and Syria not to meddle in Iraq ahead of elections scheduled for January 30 and voiced new hopes of forging peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
At a White House meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday, Bush urged Iraq's neighbours to help the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi by enforcing border security restrictions in an effort to keep money and arms out of the hands of insurgents.
"We will continue to make it clear to both Syria and Iran that ... meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interests," Bush told reporters.
He spoke after Iraq's interim defence minister earlier Wednesday accused the two countries of aiding al Qaeda Islamist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and former agents of Saddam Hussein to promote an insurgency that has intensified in recent weeks.
Iran and Syria deny any links to the Iraqi insurgents battling Iraqi security and U.S.-led international forces.
"We expect there to be help in establishing a society in which people are able to elect their leaders," the president said. "We expect people to work with the Iraqi interim government to enforce borders to stop the flow of people and money that aim to help these terrorists."
...
Posted by: .com ||
12/16/2004 1:37:44 AM ||
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Words mean nothing. Bombing their leadership's homes in the middle of the night is a message that will be heard and understood.
Posted by: ed ||
12/16/2004 2:01 Comments ||
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Too many warnings make Bushie a lame president. Some SFA with choice laser painted targets and bomblets might put the exclamation point on that sentence.
Posted by: Capt America ||
12/16/2004 7:35 Comments ||
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Debka reports a shipment bound for Iran had laser devices for uranium enrichment that was destroyed in the host country by US Agents. Bet the tip off came from European Intel, the Frenchies hate the US put privately fear a nuclear armed Islamofacist Regime. May be time to glass over Busheyr.
HENDALA, Sri Lanka - Day after day, locked in a cement room somewhere in Iraq, the hooded men beat him. They told him he would be beheaded. "Ameriqi!" they shouted, even though he comes from this poor Sri Lankan fishing village. The virulently anti-American militants were convinced truck driver Denesh Dharmendra Rajaratnam was something he isn't: an American...His kidnappers called themselves the Islamic Army In Iraq and are among militants waging a brutal campaign of hostage-takings, beheadings and bombings trying to force American troops from Iraq and frighten others from supporting the U.S. effort... One by one, Rajaratnam said, [the other] captives were taken away and killed: the Egyptians beheaded, the Iraqis shot.
One day, four hooded men dragged Rajaratnam and his Bangladeshi colleague, Abul Kashem, from their makeshift cell. A banner was hung above them, and armed men stood beside them. "I was terrified, I knew this was what happened before a beheading," Rajaratnam said. "The Bangladeshi started crying. I begged them not to harm us, that we were only doing our job." ... After a few weeks, an English-speaking woman — Rajaratnam thinks she was Iraqi — questioned him. She was kinder than the others, and she realized he wasn't American, he said. Suddenly things changed. He and Kashem were given bread and tomatoes. They got Miami brand cigarettes — he saved a pack as a souvenir...Toward the end, the drivers were allowed to walk around inside and the militants grew increasingly friendly, he said. Their captors showed them video of ambushes on American forces and together they watched the Chuck Norris movie "The Hitman," which includes violent scenes of prisoner interrogations, and played computer games... Rajaratnam is happy to be back, but resents not having heard from American officials. He wasn't even interviewed by U.S. forces after his release, he said.
A look at the "holy warriors"...smoking "Miami" cigs, playing computer games and getting their inspiration from Chuck Norris movies. Way to go, Lions of Islam (TM).
#1
see...if you aren't one of those mean Americans, life is rosy. Be afraid, Americans. Be very afraid.
Posted by: Mr. Journalist ||
12/16/2004 0:54 Comments ||
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Oh, we are. Yawn. Honest. I'm pretty sure the shaking will commence. Pretty soon, now. What was it? 1500? 3000? Who knows for sure, but there were a buncha dead Fallujahn jihadis who hung around thinkin' to kill 'Merikans. Woohoo! Killin' 'Merikans! W00t! Then it began. Then it ended. In between those, the jihadis got really really dead. Blown to bits. Extra dead. Melted dead. I'll betcha there was some Jarine shakin' goin' on. It was accompanied by music, sure, and lotsa hootin' and hollerin' and lettin' off steam cuz there weren't any more jihadis who would come out and play, but it was shakin', all the same. Skeery jihadis.
JERUSALEM — Israel's foreign minister yesterday embraced the US-backed "roadkillmap" leading to a Palestinian state in an apparent policy reversal and conditionally warmed up to recent Syrian peace overtures — more signs of movement on Mideast peace in the post-Yasser Arafat era.
Looks like the Labor Party got what they wanted.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom called for reconvening the 2003 summit that launched the "roadmap," pledging negotiations with the new Palestinian leadership and with Syria if they fight militant violence against Israel. Shalom's speech at the annual "Herzliya Conference," sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Centre based in the city north of Tel Aviv, marked the first time an Israeli official actively endorsed the "road map" in the year since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon put forward his plan to pull Israeli settlements out of the Gaza Strip and a small part of the West Bank.
Sharon called his plan "unilateral disengagement," refusing to coordinate it with the Palestinian administration led by Arafat, shunned by Israel because of its charge that he was involved in terrorism. After Arafat's death on November 11, Israel has noticeably softened its attitude, hinting at coordination and cooperation after a Jan. 9 election to replace Arafat.
Shalom took that a step further yesterday. He called for reconvening the summit held in June 2003 at the Jordanian resort of Aqaba, where US President George W. Bush launched the "road map," which leads through stages to creation of a Palestinian state. But officials in Sharon's office said he rejected the idea of reconvening the Aqaba summit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/16/2004 12:26:09 AM ||
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Well, given that the paleos are about 2 years behind in doing the first section assigned to them, there is a slight disconnect. In fact, have they ever successfully done anything assigned to them in any of the myriad Camp David / Rose Garden / Niagara Falls / Dayton / Oslo / Tierra Del fuego / Far Flung Isles of Langerhans agreements they've signed?
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.
ISLAMABAD: The government has sought return of official (blue) passports of those KRL employees who were investigated or are still being probed. A senior KRL official telephoned members of the scientists' families to ensure compliance with instructions earlier sent in writing in this regard. Copies of the passports of some of these scientists have already been submitted. It is also learnt that members of such officials' families have also been asked to make their passports handy as well because the government might need them. 
JERUSALEM — Israel's foreign minister yesterday embraced the US-backed "road
