Nine terrorism suspects who were freed from prison under a new British anti-terrorism law are living under such harsh and confusing control orders that one has been readmitted to a mental hospital and several others are completely nutz being treated by psychiatrists, their lawyer said Friday.
Certainly they didn't need a psychiatrist's attention before. Did they?
Attorney Gareth Peirce announced plans to appeal Britain's new anti-terror law in the High Court, saying it violates basic civil liberties the way McCarthyism limited freedom of speech in the United States in the 1950s. "These men, who came to England as asylum seekers from repressive countries such as Algeria and Tunisia, were held in high-security prisons for three years, during which time they were never formally charged, or even told what they are accused of," Peirce said. "Now, each individual has had control orders imposed that brand him, forever, as an individual involved in terrorism-related activity. He can never disprove that label, or stop it being imposed by association on his family and friends," she said.
I ask myself, "What would Roger Bigod have done with them?"
Ten foreign suspects, including a radical preacher accused of links to al-Qaida, were released last week from high-security detention in Britain. The anti-terror law, recently approved after a bitter debate in Parliament, allows terrorist suspects to be electronically tagged and required to live under 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfews in private homes where they are denied the use of telephones or the Internet and must apply to the government to talk to outsiders. On Monday, Peirce, who represents nine of the suspects, and Natalia Garcia, who represents the other one, said the 10 men were released under such confusing conditions that one was left without food temporarily and another was afraid to take out the trash. On Friday, Peirce said one freed suspect was told that his elderly mother couldn't visit him in his new home because her name was not on the government's list of acceptable visitors. Peirce said another suspect was told his two children couldn't stop by his apartment.
Stop! Stop! You're breaking my heart!... No. Wait. That's the chili. Go on.
The lawyer said the 10 suspects' long imprisonment and confusion over the control orders had left three of them with serious mental illness.
..."that they never, ever had before! Really!"
One, a single man, was so afraid of unintentionally violating the control orders that he was readmitted to a mental hospital where he had been treated while imprisoned, Peirce said.
"Well, yeah. He's nutz. But this is a different kind of nutz!"
She said several other freed suspects were being treated for depression. "Some of them are completely confused and afraid of breaching their new control orders, especially the men who don't speak good English," said Peirce, who has been allowed to visit the suspects she represents in their new homes. Only two of the 10 suspects have been identified under a court order, and the government has not said where they are living. One of the two named suspects is Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric described by officials as Osama bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador in Europe" and an inspiration for Mohammed Atta, the lead Sept. 11 hijacker.
He's the guy who issued the fatwah saying it was okay to slit the throats of children if it's in the cause of jihad.
The other is Mahmoud Suliman Ahmed Abu Rideh, a Palestinian who came to Britain in 1995 and was granted refugee status. Claims against him include an allegation he publicly threatened to carry out a bombing and that he was involved with bin Laden associates in Britain and abroad. The rest are only identified by letters of the alphabet.
"But they're innocent! They din't do nothin'!"
This article starring:
ABU QATADA
al-Qaeda in Europe
MAHMUD SULIMAN AHMED ABU RIDEH
al-Qaeda in Europe
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 12:51:28 PM ||
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No Sympathy? Wot about a single sincere tear rolling down the cheek of Barbra Boxer?
Posted by: R ||
03/19/2005 14:22 Comments ||
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In Britain, Freed Terror Suspects Suffer
Not enough.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/19/2005 14:30 Comments ||
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How about beheading them in the noble Muslim tradition, and end their "misery".
From inside a mountainside bunker, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saw firsthand Saturday what a war with North Korea might look like. Rice became the most senior American official to tour a command center for U.S. and South Korean troops that would be the battle headquarters in the event of fighting with the communist North. "I know that you face a close-in threat every day," Rice told troops at Command Post Tango, or Theater Air Naval Ground Operations.
Rice's visit coincided with a twice-yearly war exercise involving thousands of American and South Korean soldiers. When Rice got a look at the command center, it also was the first time that reporters and cameras were allowed into the bunker south of Seoul. North Korea denounced the exercises as a rehearsal for a U.S.-led pre-emptive attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 11:43:58 AM ||
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I don't know how long Condi can keep this up, but she's certainly batting 1000 so far.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/19/2005 11:48 Comments ||
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Interesting that the Sec. State toured a DOD shop during wargames. Perhaps a signal to the Norks that the soft stance at State has come to an end?
LONDON - Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters demonstrated across Europe on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with 45,000 marching from London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy. In Istanbul, Turkey, about 15,000 people protested in the Kadikoy neighborhood against the U.S. presence in Iraq. But the rallies were nowhere near as big as those in February 2003, just before the war, when millions marched in cities around the world to urge President Bush and his allies not to attack Iraq.
With international forces still facing violent opposition in Iraq, protesters were divided about what to demand from leaders now. While some wanted a full troop withdrawal, others argued that would leave Iraqis in a worse position than before the invasion. "We got the Iraqis into this mess, we need to help them out of it," said Kit MacLean, 29, waiting near Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner before the London march began. Police estimated about 45,000 demonstrators marched from the park past the American Embassy and on to Trafalgar Square.
Some worried Bush might be planning another war in the Middle East or elsewhere. "After Iraq — Iran ? Syria? Cuba?" read one placard. "Stop This Man" said another, alongside a picture showing Bush with devil's horns. One man carried fake bombs with American flags painted on them and a dartboard map of the world showed a U.S. missile sticking out of Iraq. Security was heavy as the demonstrators moved past the U.S. Embassy. Cement barricades and metal fences blocked the building, as they have since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Two former British soldiers placed a cardboard coffin bearing the words "100,000 dead" outside the embassy. "George Bush, Uncle Sam, Iraq will be your Vietnam," marchers chanted.
At the demonstration in Istanbul, two marchers dressed like U.S. soldiers pretended to rough up another, who was dressed as a detainee with a sack on his head, in a mimed criticism of prisoner abuse cases. "Murderer Bush, get out," read one sign.
In the southern city of Adana, home to a Turkish military base used by American forces, protesters laid a black wreath in front of the U.S. Consulate to protest the war, the Anatolia news agency reported. In Athens, Greece, about 3,000 protesters brought the city center to a standstill for three hours and painted outlines of bodies outside the U.S. Embassy. Hundreds also turned out in Sweden and Norway. "I think it's important to show that we still care about this," said Linn Majuri, 15, a member of the environmental organization Green Youth in Stockholm, Sweden. "People have become apathetic about this, it's no longer something they walk around thinking about every day."
With music and banners, marchers in Rome demanded the withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq. "Iraq to the Iraqis!" read one banner. Demonstrations also were planned in nine Spanish cities including Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque seaside resort of San Sebastian. British elections expected in May added a charge to the London protest. Prime Minister Tony Blair has been Bush's staunchest ally in Iraq, despite strong domestic opposition to the war, especially among members of his Labour Party.
Some at the London protest said they could not support Blair but did not know whom else to vote for. The opposition Conservatives strongly backed the war while the third-largest party, the Liberal Democrats, opposed it. Several smaller parties are fielding anti-war candidates in hopes of loosening Blair's hold on power. "I think it's outrageous what Blair and Bush think they can get away with," said retiree John Salway, 59. "I'd like to think we can put a dent in their arrogance."
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/19/2005 12:47:24 PM ||
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Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters demonstrated across Europe on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with 45,000 marching from Londonâs Hyde Park past the American Embassy.
The only thing "demonstrated" here is that these anti-war types (hello? the war has been over for quite a while now) suffer from a reality disconnect.
90 years after publication, Hitler's "Mein Kampf" -- widely seen as the main source of Nazi ideology -- has been ruffling feathers all over Europe in recent months. In Turkey, it's even become a surprise best-seller.
Adolf Hitler's infamous -- and notoriously badly-written --autobiography has sold more than 50,000 copies in Turkey since January, and is currently number four on the best-seller list drawn up by the D&R bookstore chain.
"'Mein Kampf' has always been a sleeper, a secret best-seller," said Oguz Tektas of Mefisto editions, one of several publishing houses to re-release the book Hitler wrote while in jail in 1925. "We took it out of the closet for purely commercial reasons."
His company's sole aim, he stressed, was "to make money," which they did -- by slashing the cover price.
"Mein Kampf," published by about a dozen companies over the years, always sold at a fairly steady annual rate of about 20,000 at some 20 New Turkish Lira (11.3 euros or $15) a copy. The Mefisto edition retails at 3.3 euros ($4.5) and sold 23,000 copies in two months.
The readership? "Those who want to know about a man who wreaked death and destruction on the world," Tektas said.
"Mostly young people," said Sami Kilic, owner of the Emre publishing house, another company on the "Mein Kampf" bandwagon, which sold 26,000 copies from a run of 31,000 released in late January.
"The times we live in have a definite impact on sales," Kilic said. "It is an astonishing phenomenon."
He linked interest in the book to Turkey's bid to join the European Union, seen by the right-wing as a desertion of national values, presumably not the reason for is popularity in Turkey! and rising sentiment against the United States and its ally Israel over the treatment they are perceived here as meting out to the Iraqis and the Palestinians, respectively. and how did that perception get shaped, do you think???
"This book, which does not contain a single ounce of humanity, unfortunately appears to be taken seriously in this country," political scientist Dogu Ergil complained in a recent newspaper interview. He agreed that the unexpected popularity of "Mein Kampf" in the Muslim-majority country has its roots in a rise in anti-American sentiment sparked by the occupation of Iraq and anti-Semitism resulting from Israel's Palestinian policy.
"Nazism, buried in the dustbin of history in Europe, is beginning to re-emerge in Turkey," he warned.
Silvyo Ovadya, the head of Turkey's Jewish community, said he was "troubled" by the book's popularity, telling AFP he was "astonished a 500-page book that sows the seeds of racism and anti-Semitism can sell at such a low price." But, he said, his complaints to the publishers have gone unheeded.
Most of Turkey's 22,000 Jews -- out of a total population of 71 million -- live in Istanbul, where there are 18 synagogues. In November 2003, two of them were targeted by car bombs blamed on an Al-Qaeda linked organisation, killing 25 people and wounding hundreds of others.
Turkey isn't the only country where "Mein Kampf" is causing a stir. Just weeks after Polish publication of the book made headlines in Bavaria, which holds the rights, the Czech Supreme Court acquitted Michal Zitko, a publisher who had been convicted of supporting a movement aimed at suppressing human rights by publishing a Czech translation of "Mein Kampf."
Last January, Prague City Court gave him a three-year suspended sentence, which was then overturned by the higher court in Brno. Supreme Court chairman Eduard Teschler concluded there was no evidence that Zitko actively supported the movement, for example, by recruiting supporters.
Meanwhile, the general prosecutor's office of Azerbaijan last December investigated the publication of "Mein Kampf" by Avaz Zeynalli , the editor of an Azeri newspaper. ah yes, the Azeris. bastion of human rights, they are. just ask the armenians
According to Zeynalli, the investigation was prompted by a complaint by the Israeli embassy in Baku and the Azeri Jewish community. The editor was questioned by officials with the Azeri interior ministry's anti-organized crime department. Zeynalli said he had translated "Mein Kampf" into Azeri from the Turkish language and had placed an order with a printing house for the publication of 300 copies, 100 of which had already been printed.
He argued that the publication of "Mein Kampf," which openly advocates extermining the Jews, was not banned in Azerbaijan.
Posted by: anon ||
03/19/2005 9:30:49 AM ||
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Doesn't "kampf" translate from German to "jihad" in Arabic?
#3
It is hard to erase 2000 yrs of antisemitism from the hearts of the Euros. The idea of a Jew actually defending himself is anathema to Euros. They only Jews they can tolerate are those in "the Fiddler" or those that Hitler killed. Same goes for Turkeys and their Islamist Gov.
#4
That's a pretty broad brush you're using there, Glereper.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/19/2005 11:52 Comments ||
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You exaggerate, GC. It's only a little over 1700 years in Europe, after all. For the Turks, however, this kind of antisemitism is fairly new, an artifact of Islamicism, as far as I can tell, evidenced by the fact that so many are purchasing Mein Kampf to find out what it's all about.
#10
SOunds like deep down he believes the Euros are waiting for someone to conquer them all and make them into the USA of Eurasia, or Federal Union of Eurasia, and are severely lamenting why Caesar,Charlemagne, William, Henry, Otto, Churchill,Bonaparte,................Attila, Ghengis, and Vlad Dracuil, even Adolf, didn't do it!? Ala Bill Clinton and Clintonism, "just because we said we don't want to be America or like America doesn't mean we meant it, you b******"!
#11
Joe? Have you met Aris? "EU plans for the future - discuss"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2005 18:19 Comments ||
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Ok, Hitler is popular again and Bush == Hitler. So why isn't George W a Euro-Hero? Does he need to conquer a few more countries first? Or invade France?
#14
He linked interest in the book to Turkey's bid to join the European Union, seen by the right-wing as a desertion of national values, and rising sentiment against the United States and its ally Israel over the treatment they are perceived here as meting out to the Iraqis and the Palestinians, respectively.
"This book, which does not contain a single ounce of humanity, unfortunately appears to be taken seriously in this country," political scientist Dogu Ergil complained in a recent newspaper interview. He agreed that the unexpected popularity of "Mein Kampf" in the Muslim-majority country has its roots in a rise in anti-American sentiment sparked by the occupation of Iraq and anti-Semitism resulting from Israel's Palestinian policy.
So, is there a correlation between Anti-americanism and facination with Nazis? Seems obvious when it comes to Anti-semitism.
Or have they fallen victim to the leftist "Bush===Hitler", and they got the book to figure out what Bush is going to do next? Will their brains explode when they try to reconcile what they read in it with Bush's stated intention (and action) to SPREAD democracy.
The U.S. ambassador to Turkey has submitted his resignation after less than two years on the job, the State Department confirmed Friday, a decision that comes amid tensions between the two countries over the war in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman plans to resign from the Foreign Service this summer for personal reasons, said Adam Ereli, a spokesman for the State Department. Ereli said the ambassador "is leaving Turkey on positive, friendly, cooperative terms," and the spokesman declined to comment on Turkish reports that the ambassador would take a position in the Pentagon. Wolfie's job???
During a trip to the country earlier this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly instructed Edelman to do more to calm anti-Americanism in the Turkish media. Many Turks are deeply suspicious over U.S. intentions in northern Iraq, where Kurds control an autonomous area. Turkey fears that Iraqi Kurds could push for independence, which could inspire Kurds in Turkey. Kurdish rebels have been battling the Turkish army since 1984, a fight that has left some 37,000 dead. Yeah - I've heard normally mild, westernized Turks get pretty hot about the rise of the Kurds. Chickens about to come home, guys, no matter how much you've been trying to stop it.
Edelman has drawn criticism from some Turkish newspapers, and one Turkish web site claims to have collected 5,000 signatures calling for him to be expelled from the country. He arrived in Turkey in August 2003, when relations were also tense. In March 2003, Turkey snubbed a U.S.-request to host troops in the country to invade neighboring Iraq. Relations were further strained when the U.S. military detained a team of Turkish special forces in northern Iraq in July 2003 that were reportedly plotting to assassinate a Kurdish official in the ethnically divided city of Kirkuk. yup - that's the sort of thing that will strain 'em all right. And note we didn't kill them - we returned them publicly. A warning.
Posted by: too true ||
03/19/2005 8:45:44 AM ||
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These Turks are no friend to anyone except Islamists & jihadis.
This appears to be an urban warfare vehicle and note the 100s of tanks lost in Grozny. The Russia army is taking a new military vehicle in the arsenal - the Terminator. Such a strange name has been given to the new tank support vehicle. At the end of 2004, when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was talking about new generations of the Russian arms that were planned to be added to the arsenal in 2005, he was talking about the Terminator too.
Specialists of the Ural Transport Machine-Building Design Bureau developed the new machine - the enterprise is a division of Uralvagonzavod, which is Russia's largest tank-maker.
Military specialists say that the capacity of the new tank support vehicle doubles the efficiency of six armored vehicles and 40 soldiers. Testing procedures for the latest development of the Russian defense industry are about to be over, a spokesman for the defense ministry's administration for armored vehicles, Nikolai Kovalev said.
"The use of the new machine in a tank battalion will add up to 30 percent of efficiency to the detachment. The tank support vehicle is capable of firing at three targets on a battlefield simultaneously," General Kovalev said.
The concept to develop the new tank support machine for the Russian army appeared from life experience itself. The storming of the Chechen capital of Grozny on January 1, 1995 resulted in a tragedy for the Russian federal forces. Chechen gunmen destroyed hundreds of Russian tanks and other armored vehicles in narrow streets and quarters of the city.
Russian military specialists were originally going to solve the tank support problem with the help of self-propelled antiaircraft systems known as Shilka. Four 23-millimeter guns could provide appropriate defense and fire efficiency. However, Shilka systems are not armored because they were not developed for offensive actions. In addition, Shilka does not have the most important quality at this point - it cannot destroy tanks.
The new vehicle is capable of overcoming three-meter ditches and breaching 1.5-meter walls.
Specialists of the US Armed Forces are also working on the question to develop a new armored vehicle to replace a not very successful M-2 Bradly machine.
Ummm, right. The Bradley that is the US Army's standard armored personnel carrier, which continues to be updated with things like FBCB2. THAT 'not very successful' machine. Got it.
Spokesmen for the Israeli Defense Ministry evinced interest in the new Russian tank support machine during a military technological show in the city of Nizhni Tagil. Israeli officials said that they would like to conclude a contract with Russia to acquire new machines for their Merkava tanks that were used for scouring procedures in Palestinian settlements. They later said, however, that Israeli specialists would be able to develop a similar machine themselves.
The new Russian machine as the latest military technological development is not regulated with the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). The Terminator is a vehicle of a new class. The CFE Treaty stipulates certain restrictions for the number of units of weaponry in Europe.
Russia has a right to have 6,350 tanks and 11,280 armored vehicles on its territory. These terms are acceptable for Russia - they provide the necessary numeral parity with the armed forces of European NATO members. In connection with the conflict situation in the Caucasus, Russian diplomats were going to ask European authorities for certain concessions. The appearance of the Terminator makes such an intention useless, because the class of the new machine is not mentioned in legal documents of the CFE Treaty. Terminator is neither a tank, nor an armored vehicle. These peculiarities will inevitably lead to numerous discussions as far as the Terminator's class is concerned. Russia has a right to use as many Terminators as needed in the Caucasus until European authorities introduce certain amendments to the CFE Treaty. It is noteworthy, though, that the Russian treasury might not be able to handle this issue.
The last para is the real issue here - loss of Russian pre-eminence in the region, the desire of the generals to move harder and faster than Putin and a great sensitivity to the presence of the US in the former Soviet states.
Posted by: phil_b ||
03/19/2005 3:53:08 AM ||
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Russian military specialists were originally going to solve the tank support problem with the help of self-propelled antiaircraft systems known as Shilka. Four 23-millimeter guns
I've always thought that sucker with a little armour would be a terrific street fighter. Similar US AA vehicles in Korea did good work in the anti-infantry role.
Posted by: Jimmy Hoffa ||
03/19/2005 8:03 Comments ||
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Ummm, right. The Bradley that is the US Army's standard armored personnel carrier, which continues to be updated with things like FBCB2. THAT 'not very successful' machine. Got it.
Agreed. After having worked with M1A1s and M1A2s, I was really impressed with the Bradleys. The 25mm chain gun packs a punch, which is why I was really disappointed the new Strykers for the Cav guys only got a fifty cal.
#3
nada, it comes down to this: Do you want your Strykers disembarking a C-130 shooting or not?
(That is to say, the Marine Corps' LAV III - originally the Canadian military Coyote Reconnaissance Vehicle - has a 25mm autocannon, possibly the Bradley's, but it's too tall to enter/exit a C-130's rear doorway, and the M2 was the only solution that gave "super" punch - .50 BMG is already nasty enough as is - and allowed the Stryker to drive off a C-130 right into combat, and come out shooting too.)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
03/19/2005 11:12 Comments ||
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Except, Ed, I've heard the Stryker isn't that C-130-capable (it only fits if you start removing stuff), and that the LAV-25 (which is used by the Marine Corps) is.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
03/19/2005 14:52 Comments ||
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nada >>> I was on the M2 and M2A1 (in PGWI) The Bradley is a great machine and the Bushmaster 25 mike mike is one of the best weapon systems I've ever seen. I too was disappointed with the .50 cal on the Stryker as well.
#6
B-b-b-but. I can remember "60 minutes" in the early 80s(?) saying that the Bradley was a costly fiasco. CBS wouldn't lie or make an error, would they?
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski warned Council of Europe member states on Friday against paralysing democracy in the fight against organised crime and terrorism. "We must be careful to avoid that the fight against terrorism and organised crime do not paralyse the smooth functioning of a normal democratic society. We must not lose what constitutes the basis of a democratic society," said Kwasniewski, whose country has chaired the Council's Committee of Ministers since November. "Given that criminal activity transcends national borders, we must reinforce cooperation among our intelligence services and better control the flow of people and merchandise," Kwasniewski told the meeting in Warsaw. But he stressed that any moves to clamp down on organised crime and terrorism must be taken with respect for individual freedoms.
Interior ministers and other high-ranking government officials from the 46-member Council of Europe have been meeting, together with members of international organisations such as Interpol and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, in Warsaw since Thursday. Ministerial-level meetings at the conference are being held behind closed doors and are focussing on special investigative techniques, the protection of witnesses, money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The officials are also debating two draft conventions aimed at nipping in the bud terrorism and other forms of serious crime in the early, preparative stages. The draft convention on the prevention of terrorism proposes criminalising acts deemed as laying the groundwork for a terrorist attack, such as provocation of terrorism, recruitment and training. On Thursday, the Council's Secretary General Terry Davis urged delegates to move quickly and decisively against terrorism. "We can't wait for another Madrid or Beslan," he said, calling on delegates "to provide a message of support for the new instruments" being debated at the two-day meeting.
There's the rub, isn't it? You have to balance individual liberty against collective security, and that's a balance delicate enough to make King Solomon blanch. Nobody wants to have his door kicked in by Interpol, and nobody wants to be blown up raving Islamists. So how do you produce a workable system that avoids both?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Perhaps the EU is moving to replace democracy with something Europeans are more comfortable with, a noble class. Not really a return to monarchy, but a heriditary nobility similar to what ruled much of Europe for 1500 or more years. A lot of Europeans are just uncomfortable with the idea of democracy. It is too chaotic, too unpredicatable and prone to radicalism for their tastes. They think it's just better for someone like Chirac to be a prince, rather than for him to be distracted by elections and the dirt of politics. Chirac would most certainly think so.
#2
I read a book, probably 30 years ago, when I was working on my bachelor's degree, that went in detail into the distinction between the "nobility" and the overlapping "aristocracy." As I recall, the gist of it was that the nobility were the guys with the swords and horses who started the great houses of Europe, and the aristocracy were the guys with the perfumed hankies and periwigs that their descendants eventually became.
I think I'd call the present EUrocrats an aristocracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 12:36 Comments ||
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Do you think Aris may have a perfumed hankie (I doubt the wig part). Maybe he has a big future as Aristocrat Aris, even without a hankie.
#4
lol, pretentions only. Fred - good analogy as the EUcrats are not the creators of wealth and technology, just the choke knot that will strangle it. IMHO, of course
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2005 14:02 Comments ||
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The reason Europeans fear democracy can be seen in the post "More on the Rising Popularity of Hitler in Europe". The people at the top believe in top down. The people at the bottom believe in top down. Everybody else came to America.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/19/2005 18:02 Comments ||
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The people at the top believe in top down. The people at the bottom believe in top down.
Another cliche not in evidence about the difference between Europe and America. It's Americans that I've seen arguing that little details like going to war should not be decided by the people but by their leaders.
Example: People here knew far before 3/11 that most of Spain's people opposed the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq. Yet you still objected to the election of a leadership that'd actually obey the people's will on the issue.
I on the other felt that only countries whose people supported the war should send troops there -- such countries were only United States and UK AFAIK. So, among the two of us, who's the believer in top down and who's the one in bottom-up?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2005 21:47 Comments ||
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Aris,just a pre-emptory summary in the case you would get ideas and start wondering...
My posessions are truly minimalistic. I moved from one place to another a lot, often with just a shirt on my back. I don't even have a hankie, perfumed or not. Box of kleenex, yes.
Attributes... I am so thoroughly average that it is not even funny. Being a minimalist, I probably don't have any attributes, whatsoever.
Back to topic. I am believer in bottom-up. Na zdorovye!
The Bush administration made plans for war and for Iraq's oil before the 9/11 attacks, sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.
Iraqi-born Falah Aljibury says US Neo-Conservatives planned to force a coup d'etat in Iraq. Two years ago today - when President George Bush announced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad - protesters claimed the US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered.
In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists".
"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learned, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.
Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th attack on the US.
We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities and pipelines [in Iraq] built on the premise that privatisation is coming
An Iraqi-born oil industry consultant, Falah Aljibury, says he took part in the secret meetings in California, Washington and the Middle East. He described a State Department plan for a forced coup d'etat.
Mr Aljibury himself told Newsnight that he interviewed potential successors to Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Bush administration.
The industry-favoured plan was pushed aside by a secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's oil fields. The new plan was crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using Iraq's oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in production above Opec quotas.
Former Shell Oil USA chief stalled plans to privatise Iraq's oil industry
The sell-off was given the green light in a secret meeting in London headed by Ahmed Chalabi shortly after the US entered Baghdad, according to Robert Ebel.
Mr Ebel, a former Energy and CIA oil analyst, now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told Newsnight he flew to the London meeting at the request of the State Department.
Mr Aljibury, once Ronald Reagan's "back-channel" to Saddam, claims that plans to sell off Iraq's oil, pushed by the US-installed Governing Council in 2003, helped instigate the insurgency and attacks on US and British occupying forces.
"Insurgents used this, saying, 'Look, you're losing your country, you're losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take you over and make your life miserable,'" said Mr Aljibury from his home near San Francisco.
"We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, built on the premise that privatisation is coming."
Philip Carroll, the former CEO of Shell Oil USA who took control of Iraq's oil production for the US Government a month after the invasion, stalled the sell-off scheme.
Mr Carroll told us he made it clear to Paul Bremer, the US occupation chief who arrived in Iraq in May 2003, that: "There was to be no privatisation of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved."
Amy Jaffee says oil companies fear a privatisation would exclude foreign firms
Ariel Cohen, of the neo-conservative Heritage Foundation, told Newsnight that an opportunity had been missed to privatise Iraq's oil fields.
He advocated the plan as a means to help the US defeat Opec, and said America should have gone ahead with what he called a "no-brainer" decision.
Mr Carroll hit back, telling Newsnight, "I would agree with that statement. To privatize would be a no-brainer. It would only be thought about by someone with no brain."
New plans, obtained from the State Department by Newsnight and Harper's Magazine under the US Freedom of Information Act, called for creation of a state-owned oil company favoured by the US oil industry. It was completed in January 2004 under the guidance of Amy Jaffe of the James Baker Institute in Texas.
Formerly US Secretary of State, Baker is now an attorney representing Exxon-Mobil and the Saudi Arabian government.
View segments of Iraq oil plans at www.GregPalast.com
Questioned by Newsnight, Ms Jaffe said the oil industry prefers state control of Iraq's oil over a sell-off because it fears a repeat of Russia's energy privatisation. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, US oil companies were barred from bidding for the reserves.
Ms Jaffe says US oil companies are not warm to any plan that would undermine Opec and the current high oil price: "I'm not sure that if I'm the chair of an American company, and you put me on a lie detector test, I would say high oil prices are bad for me or my company."
The former Shell oil boss agrees. In Houston, he told Newsnight: "Many neo conservatives are people who have certain ideological beliefs about markets, about democracy, about this, that and the other. International oil companies, without exception, are very pragmatic commercial organizations. They don't have a theology."
sure they do. it's called 'greed'
A State Department spokesman told Newsnight they intended "to provide all possibilities to the Oil Ministry of Iraq and advocate none".
#1
Anybody else notice that Iraqi-born oil industry consultant, Falah Aljibury, looks like Mike Wallace. There are always plans for every contingency and many competing plans for any contingency. The US should be judged on what it does, not for what it might have done or might do. This is the sort of thing I expect from the BBC, but I had thought better of Harpers.
#3
Yes! That proves the oil company conspiracy! Wait a minute ... if they are conspiring, and are so evil, why can't they keep the price steadily rising?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/19/2005 15:40 Comments ||
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#4
Greg Palast? Barking moonbat extraordinaire. See for example THIS.
Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters demonstrated across Europe on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with 45,000 marching from London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy. In Istanbul, Turkey, about 15,000 people protested in the Kadikoy neighborhood against the U.S. presence in Iraq. But the rallies were nowhere near as big as those in February 2003, just before the war, when millions marched in cities around the world to urge President Bush and his allies not to attack Iraq.
With international forces still facing violent opposition in Iraq, protesters were divided about what to demand from leaders now. While some wanted a full troop withdrawal, others argued that would leave Iraqis in a worse position than before the invasion. "We got the Iraqis into this mess, we need to help them out of it," said Kit MacLean, 29, waiting near Hyde Park's Speakers' Corner before the London march began. Police estimated about 45,000 demonstrators marched from the park past the American Embassy and on to Trafalgar Square. Some worried Bush might be planning another war in the Middle East or elsewhere. "After Iraq — Iran? Syria? Cuba?" read one placard. "Stop This Man" said another, alongside a picture showing Bush with devil's horns.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 11:52:51 AM ||
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#1
45,000 marching from London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy
The British publication Lancet will report it as somewhere between 100,000 and a million, using the statistical methodology employed in a previous report on civilian causalties in Iraq.
#2
Curse those evil Americans and Bushitler for overthrowing the rat-bastard dictator Sadam and his vile, murderous offspring. How dare they bring democracy to oppressed people! Is there no lower bound to their villainy?
#3
The irony is that the headline could have been for "thousands protesting" any sort of nonsense. In a continent with, what? 350 million people, you could probably get a "protest of thousands" against alien blancmanges turning people into Scotsmen.
#4
Anyone got the numbers of people showing up for the college basketball playoffs this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. I suspect more people are attending those than 'marching'.
#5
Thank heavens the uncivilized Americans will never again force western Europe to go through the humiliation of forced liberation and democracy. BTW, how are sales of the twin markers of civilization, Mein Kampf and the Koran doing over there?
Posted by: ed ||
03/19/2005 13:19 Comments ||
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#6
Moose - Lol! And trying to win Wimbledon... you have a long memory, lol!
OCEAN CITY, N.J. -- Speaking out against the war in Iraq doesn't mean you're against the troops fighting it.
It's a small distinction, but an important one _ especially to Jim Talib.
The 31-year-old Philadelphia man, a medic in the U.S. Naval Reserve, has been deployed to Iraq once and is scheduled to return in June. In the meantime, he speaks to church groups and clubs, using the voice of experience to stir up opposition. would you want him working on you? I suppose this is one way to try to get out of serving again.
"I love my country, and I don't think we should rule the world," he said, speaking to a group of 40 people at a meeting of the Ocean City Democratic Club on Wednesday night. "I don't think it's un-American to say that."
A native of New Brunswick and graduate of Rutgers University, Talib is an 11-year Navy veteran.
When he's on duty, he's Petty Officer Third Class James Talib, a medical corpsman. When he's on the anti-war stump, he dresses in casual civilian clothes and urges people who oppose U.S. involvement in Iraq to get involved and to lobby congressmen to withdraw troops.
Talib spent 10 months in Iraq last year, assigned to a U.S. Marine Corps infantry unit in Fallujah and tending to wounded troops.
After returning last November, he joined up with Iraq Veterans Against the War, ah yes, the old Vietnam Vets Against the War has risen from the dead a small Philadelphia group formed last year to raise public awareness about opposition among those who have served.
The group sends speakers out to college campuses, community groups and clubs who are interested in hearing the anti-war message.
"Basically, we formed in response to the fact that you've got the Department of Defense and the government and the military putting out these pro-war troops, saying `This war's good,' but there's no opposing voice," said Michael Hoffman, national coordinator for IVAW. "That's where we came in."
Some of the group's 150 members are active-duty military, some have left the service and some _ like Talib _ are in the reserves.
Talib, the only IVAW public speaker who's still in the military, has some restrictions on what he can say.
He cannot reveal military secrets, or appear in uniform speaking against the war, according to Hoffman; U.S. Navy officials did not respond to requests for comment made with the Navy's press office at the Pentagon.
On Wednesday, he drove about an hour from his Philadelphia home to this New Jersey shore town to speak to the Democratic Club, showing up untucked and unshaved, wearing an unbuttoned shirt, blue jeans and sneakers. gettin down wi the homies
His audience, a sympathetic crowd of teachers, tradesmen, Vietnam veterans, senior citizens and curious teenagers, sat quietly on folding chairs as he talked about the war.
He began his 55-minute presentation with a plug for Iraq Veterans Against the War before telling the group he believes it was oil and American imperialism that drove the decision to invade, not weapons of mass destruction or links to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
"We ought to be honest about why we went there, admit we made a mistake and get out," he said. "We have to develop a culture that doesn't encourage rampant wars and militarism."
Many returning GIs are unhappy with U.S. involvement in Iraq, said Talib, who withheld the gory details of his own experience, saying only that he was against the war before he went and saw nothing to change his mind.
It's an occupation, not a war, he told the group.
"It's not a war against a military force. The only reason there's so much bloodshed is that we're making ourselves such a huge target," he said. hey - maybe we should cower in dhimmitude - that would lower our profile a lot, no?
After a question-and-answer session, the organizers of the event passed a baseball cap around the room to raise money to cover Talib's expenses, which he pays out of his own pocket, and contribute to the group.
Those who heard Talib were impressed.
"It's powerful," said Vietnam veteran Steve Cole, 65. "He's been there. He's got firsthand knowledge."
Posted by: disgusted ||
03/19/2005 9:26:36 AM ||
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#1
I think this young man is going about things the right way, even if I do not agree with him. His opposition is philosophical, much like if he was a c.o. on religious grounds. He does not attack the military, or military leaders. In a way, he is like the old American argument for isolationism. "Why should we be caught up in yet another European war?" Pat Buchanan would understand completely, making similar arguments himself.
In the final analysis, his argument goes beyond this war, to ask the question "Why does America want anything to do with foreign nations?", which is not a totally ridiculous question. It goes hand-in-hand with stopping illegal immigration, taking a laissez-faire approach to international economics as long as they don't step on our toes, and ignoring those places filled with strife and lacking the will to change their own lives for the better. Isolationists want no international authority over anything American, no reduction in our rights by treaty, and look distrustfully at those who do. And they certainly don't want to shed American blood unless we are attacked.
#2
Not runnin' for office, izzhe? And I didn't see any "war criminal" charges, or sensationalism. My son got back to the US yesterday from Al Qaim, in the "Wild West," of Anbar and is less sure about staying in the Marines than when he left. I hope he'll talk about it when we get to see him.....
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/19/2005 10:55 Comments ||
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#3
I love the logic leapo the left makes, from destroying Islamofacism to U.S. World domination. If the George Bush Truely wanted 'World Domination' then he would have started closer to home (like Canada or Mexico). Given that he is an 11 year Navy vet and still a P03 I have to wonder about his service record. I know promotions are slow sometimes but shouldn't he be at least a P02 and probably a P01? You Navy vets let me know.
#4
I wonder if America has the fortitude, discipline and foresight to win through the next 20 years.
I personally doubt it, to my great sorrow. It will be bad before I die, but much worse for my daughter, who is 28.
Those unwilling to fight for their culture and civilization when it is under attack, and those who think we can roll up our borders and be fine inside them, will get what they ask for - even if it's not what they think they are choosing.
Posted by: too true ||
03/19/2005 11:23 Comments ||
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#5
too true - Spot on. The isolationists were born in the wrong century - and their inability to grasp the current reality threatens us all. Same can be said for the socialists, communists, fascists, Maoists - the lot of obviously failed wanker ideologies and their intellectually-challenged tools. You might even say the same for the Islamists, if you change century to millennium.
#8
"Basically, we formed in response to the fact that youâve got the Department of Defense and the government and the military putting out these pro-war troops, saying `This warâs good,â but thereâs no opposing voice," said Michael Hoffman, national coordinator for IVAW. "Thatâs where we came in."
A quick slight of hand there boy. The MSM has been burying the good news for over a year and have sought to display every insignificant event into another disaster. The good news isn't being effectively broadcast by the administration or the pentagon. It's been getting through by far more of your comrades coming back from Iraq and by Iraqi citizens now free to communicate. Like the troops returning from Vietnam who said the government wasn't telling the straight story, this generation of servicemembers are by far saying the MSM is the one not telling the straight story. If your media of communication is the old MSM, then your message is going to suffer with their loss in credibility.
Watch the usual suspects>> CNN,networks,etc. giving ass-heavy coverage to this, their favorite type/mascot.
too true>>"I wonder if America has the fortitude, discipline and foresight to win through the next 20 years. I personally doubt it, to my great sorrow. "
30 years ago I would agree..but now we have measurably more staying power. Not only has our power increased (aggregate) but we're able to force/multiply that power with focus IE:
On the morale front alone, on any given day the best of us lead with insight, or inspire, or share direct experience and knowledge so that if I for instance, grow weary of battling the AssHats, someone better will join the fray and rip 'em a new one.
The late 60s and most of the 70s were pretty sad in allot of ways (not all).And because I lived thru that period it's self-evident to me anyway that "America's fortitude,discipline,and foresight" is way stronger than 30 years ago.
Does national morale translate into action? Kids joining up and serving? Support from the home front? I'll leave those questions to the thread.
BTW, if the guy really served as a medic in combat..you have to give him some credit for that service.(Can't stand what he's doing now though).
Posted by: R ||
03/19/2005 13:43 Comments ||
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#11
Cyber Sarge #3: I used to be USN and USNR-R (weekend warrior) at various times in my life. There are a number of possible legitimate, non-disciplinary reasons why this guy's still a PO3 with 11 years' service.
(1) He might have "broken service." Maybe he did several years' USN &/or USNR, got out for awhile, then came back in to the USNR. After a certain amount of time out, I think you start losing paygrades when you come back. In the early 1980's, I drilled on a tin can in Long Beach, CA. There was a Radioman 3rd Class (RM3) in our reserve detachment who had campaign ribbons from Korea. He'd been in and out several times, IIRC.
(2) Possibly complementing (1) above, he may have come back in and switched specialties. Not unusual for recruiters to tell guys they could come back w/same paygrade for same specialty, or lose a paygrade (or sometimes more) if they wanted to switch. Example: there was an ex-Army guy at the USN Fire Control Tech school in 1974. Former SSG communications tech, offered PO1 to go in USN in similar specialty. He wanted to do something different, so they made him go all the way back to E-3.
(3) It's been a long time since I've been USNR, but I can tell you that in some enlisted specialties, it's hard as hell for reservists to get promoted. They compete only against other reservists for what might be an EXTREMELY limited batch of vacancies at the next paygrade. Example: in my own rating of Fire Controlman (FC) it was-at least in the mid to late '80's-almost impossible to for a Reservist to get beyond E-5. This had to do with the fact that a lot of guys decided to leave active duty and go USNR after having already made E-5 or E-6. This happened in many of the specialties that happened to have quick promotion opportunities on the Regular Navy side. I don't know if Hospital Corpsman is one of them, but it's one more possibility.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
03/19/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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Talib: "I originally enlisted in the Army National Guard back around 1993. A lot of the people in my family had been in, and I knew it was the only way for me to get money for college. The reserve GI Bill as well as the tuition waiver for state schools that is offered through the National Guard in New Jersey was an offer that was hard to refuse. When I joined I don't think I, or anybody at the time, would have imagined that we would be involved in an occupation where nearly half of the deployed force was reservists and national guard (OIF3 rotation will be 43%). So I figured, for one weekend a month, it's not a bad deal. I also wanted to get out of my neighborhood, and make a little money, so the chance to go away for training and travel while getting paid was a plus. In the winter of 2002, I transferred from the Army National Guard into the Navy Reserves, where I am still serving as a Corpsman. I switched over to get out of my former position as an 'Infantryman' because I could not do that job anymore. I had grown too much personally and politically in the time since I had first enlisted, I could not see myself carrying a rifle and being an occupier. I did not want to guard checkpoints, search homes and shoot at people. My plan did not work out. Since I was an EMT and had been through the Army's Medic course as well, I was able to come into the Navy as a Hospital Corpsman. But, perhaps because of my Infantry background and other training, I was immediately assigned to work with the Marines. In the end, I found myself not in a hospital somewhere, but on the frontlines of an occupation doing exactly what I had tried to avoid."
RTWT - He's an asshat
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2005 14:25 Comments ||
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#13
Good research, Frank - there's why he's still at E-4 over 10. He's not just an asshat, he's a not-very-KEEN asshat. ALL male USN Hospital Corpsmen are sent to USMC combat training & carry the secondary NEC (USN version of MOS) for combat field medic. With > 10 years' service, he should have known this, switched to ANG or USCGR and (1) spared his tender widdle "conscience" and (2) denied the MSM another fucking "Peace Now" poster child.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
03/19/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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#14
Frank.. "He's an asshat"
Lucidity counts the most!!! Thanks.
Posted by: R ||
03/19/2005 14:44 Comments ||
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#15
#1 Anonymoose:
"Why does America want anything to do with foreign nations?"
We don't.
But they keep bothering us anyway.
So it's best to take the fight overseas, rather than wait until is comes to our shores. (See, e.g., 9/11)
Since there are always going to be wars anyway, whether we want them or not, we might as well fight them on somebody else's land.
Or do you want the jihadis and other assorted violent assholes knocking on your front door?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/19/2005 16:11 Comments ||
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#16
I agree, Barbara. In games of war, it's best to play "away" games!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/19/2005 22:27 Comments ||
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#17
Way to go, Frank. I couldn't finish the whole "More on Jim Talib, 'cuz it seems he really didn't have any interest in serving his country, he just wanted a free ride to college - he wanted to BE served.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/19/2005 22:33 Comments ||
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A flickering dawn lights Islam's hills
A faint emerging light.
Can the torch of Lady Liberty
Flare away Medieval night?
How fitting our bold symbol
Of all that's good and right
Eyewitness to the Jihad's wrath,
Stands forefront in this fight.
Her torch is not mere sculpted bronze,
To those in Mullahs' chains;
But a lamp held high against the sky
Showing them that hope remains.
Their feudal sheiks view us with scorn,
So obsessed with earthly pleasure;
But one thing they fear that we hold dear,
Is that Bill of Rights we treasure.
We drove a tyrant from his throne,
Brought his people free election.
Think it concerns them overmuch,
WMD's escaped detection?
Just behold those blue-stained fingers,
Like the Lady's torch, held high,
So proud of their brave turnout,
Putting Liberals to the lie.
How say you now nay Sayers?
What of your dire predictions?
Like fools you swore naught's solved by war,
Another of your Liberal fictions.
But now you face a hard clear truth:
A truth that you forswore:
This aborning Bush Democracy
Was midwifed by his war.
Within the womb of Islam,
Freedom's heart so feebly beats.
Is it up us to make it thrive,
To birth it their streets?
What say you disbelieving Libs,
How now shall this thing go?
Shall we execute your exit plan,
Or stay and help it grow?
#2
Who had the John Stuart Mill quote from a few days ago? (Basically, if you think nothing is worth fighting for, you're living a pretty low life). I shoulda saved it.....
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/19/2005 22:49 Comments ||
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by Patrick J. Buchanan
As Herr Schroeder was babbling on in Mainz, during his joint press conference with President Bush, about a need for carrots to coax Tehran off its nuclear program, Bush interrupted the chancellor to issue yet another demand—that "the Iranian government listen to the hopes and aspirations of the Iranian people."
Actually, I think he waited his turn to speak...
"We believe," said Bush, "that the voice of the people ought to be determining policy, because we believe in democracyâŠ"
And here's where Buchanan's going to riff...
Who, one wonders, is feeding the president his talking points?
Perhaps he writes them himself?
Is he unaware that the Iranian people, even opponents of the regime, believe Iran has a right to nuclear power and should retain the capacity to build nuclear weapons?
That has nothing to do with an aspirations they may have toward democracy and individual liberty...
While 70 percent of Iranians may have voted to dump the mullahs, just as Pakistanis were delirious with joy when they exploded their first nuclear device, we should expect Iranians to react the same way. What people have not celebrated their nation joining the exclusive nuclear club?
They do that because it gives them the illusion of being an important nation. Once the euphoria's worn off, they're back to being another cultural backwater. The technology's not their own -- they've stolen it or bought it on the black market run by inhabitants of other cultural backwaters, and the only thing that's changed is that now they're a dangerous cultural backwater.
"We believe ⊠that the voice of the people ought to be determining policy," said Bush, "because we believe in democracy." Does Bush really believe this?
I'm convinced he does. How about you, Pat?
How does he think the Arab peoples would vote on the following questions: (1) Should the United States get out of Iraq? (2) Is it fair to compare Israel's treatment of Palestinians to Nazi treatment of the Jews? (3) Do Arab nations have the same right to an atom bomb as Ariel Sharon? (4) Is Osama bin Laden a terrorist or hero?
There's no guarantee that democracies in the Arab world will agree with us on anything, anymore than Europe's democracies agree with us on everything. The important part isn't what they'd vote for, but the fact that they're free to vote.
If Bush believes he and we are popular in the Islamic world, why has he not scheduled a grand tour of Rabat, Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Riyadh, and Islamabad to rally the masses to America's side, rather than preaching democracy at them from the White House? If one-man, one-vote democracy came suddenly to the Arab world, every pro-American ruler in the region would be at risk of being swept away.
Bingo. That's the ultimate idea, Pat. Only it's not just the pro-American rulers.
Yet there is a larger issue here than misreading the Arab mind. Whence comes this democracy-worship, this belief by President Bush that "the voice of the people ought to be determining policy"?
As I've mentioned a time or two before, we use "democracy" as shorthand for "liberty" and "freedom." The real difference between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim worlds is liberty, not the form of government. Participatory democracy is a symptom of liberty, not the ends to it. Probably Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE have more of a chance at achieving free societies than Iraq does — Iraq's got a religious establishment that's prepared to regulate every aspect of life, while the constitutional monarchies, with a slower, more measured tread, are coming to the position that people should be left alone to make their own mistakes. They're all still at the point of being confused by the contradictions that are raised between a global world and the wonderful world of Shariah. They realize that eventually Shariah's going to lose the fight with modernity, even though they don't want to admit it. Their eventual destination will look something like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which despite being globally oriented — and prosperous consumer societies — still somehow manage to remain Japanese, Korean, and Chinese in their culture. Malaysia's trying to follow the same path already, despite the continual efforts of the turban and automatic weapons set to derail it.
Would Bush himself let a poll of Americans decide how long we keep troops in Iraq? Would he submit his immigration policy to popular vote?
No. We voted to let him make the detailed decisions. We elected senators and representatives to consult with.
"We often hear the claim that our nation is a democracy," writes columnist Dr. Walter Williams. But, "That wasn't the vision of the founders. They saw democracy as another form of tyranny. ⊠The founders intended, and laid out the ground rules for, our nation to be a republic. ⊠The word democracy appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution."
And we've now hit the point of quibbling over words. The Declaration of Independence is rooted in the concept of liberty. And the Democrats, the elder of the two major parties, started life very soon after the ratification of the Constitution as the Democratic Republicans. So the idea of participatory democracy isn't something somebody imported last week.
Indeed, the Constitution guarantees "to every State in this Union a republican form of government." Asks Williams: "Does our pledge of allegiance to the flag say to 'the democracy for which it stands,' or does it say to 'the republic for which it stands'? Or do we sing 'The Battle Hymn of the Democracy' or 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic'?"
Quibble, quibble, quibble. The Declaration speaks of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and then follows with "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Democracy is a method by which the governed give their consent to the actions of their government. The Romans, Florence, Venice, lots of other places, had republics that didn't include the concept of participatory democracy. Elections were for consuls and praetors and tribunes and quaestors and that sort of thing, not for the members of the senate.
There is a critical difference between a republic and a democracy, Williams notes, citing our second president: "John Adams captured the essence of that difference when he said: 'You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.' Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Instead, government is a protector of rights."
I certainly agree with that statement, and I'm sure most Rantburgers do, too. Perhaps intentionally being obtuse, Buchanan implies that democracy doesn't.
The Founders deeply distrusted democracy. Williams cites Adams again: "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." Chief Justice John Marshall seconded Adams's motion: "Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos."
Also agreed. The ghost of Socrates agrees, too. But a non-democratic republic is another name for oligarchy. In theory an oligarchy can be benign, in practice I don't think it's happened yet. The governed have to give their consent, which is why we have elections, regardless of how much certain elements might try to turn them into mob actions.
"When the Constitution was framed," wrote historian Charles Beard, "no respectable person called himself or herself a democrat."
Beard is suspect in this statement. Jefferson was elected as a Democrat. Jefferson was "respectable," whether all his supporters were or not.
Democracy-worship suggests a childlike belief in the wisdom and goodness of "the people." But the people supported the guillotine in the French Revolution and Napoleon. The people were wild with joy as the British, French, and German boys marched off in August 1914 to the Great War. The people supported Hitler and the Nuremburg Laws.
I'd hardly call Napoleon and Hitler models of democracy. The French Revolution started with similar principles to our own and then veered in an entirely different direction. Just ask the ghost of Danton. Demagogues do, in fact, remain a danger, even in a Republic...
Our Founding Fathers no more trusted in the people always to do the right thing than they trusted in kings. In the republic they created, the House of Representatives, the people's house, was severely restricted in its powers by a Bill of Rights and checked by a Senate whose members were to be chosen by the states, by a president with veto power, and by a Supreme Court. "What kind of government do we have?" the lady asked Benjamin Franklin, as he emerged from the Constitutional Convention. Said Franklin, "A republic—if you can keep it."
That's a popular quote lately. To this point, we've kept our Republic, just as we've managed to keep the bulk of our liberties. We've kept them, not through the benign gifting of the Senate and the House, but because we've elected men and women to the Senate and the House who've fought to keep them — fought in the name of the people who elected them.
Let us restore that republic. As Jefferson said, "Hear no more of trust in men, but rather bind them down from mischief with the chains of the Constitution."
And let us not lapse into hysteria at the thought of an informed citizenry — in this country or others — participating in the governance of itself.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 1:58:03 PM ||
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O.K. I think Fred is smarter than Pat, and I kinda like our form of government, whatever it's called. We elected Bush to represent us, not to follow our polls. While I wasn't there, I believe FDR represented our long-term needs when he started supporting Britian in a war no one in America supported at the time. The Germans sunk the USS Reuben James while defending a convoy near Iceland months before Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt coulda been impeached, no?
I am a bit confused by the distinction he's trying to make between a republic and a democracy - maybe we have a representative democracy? I just be a dumb engineer...
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/19/2005 15:13 Comments ||
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#2
Pitchfork Pat - why does MSNBC et al continue to push him fwd as a "face of the Republican Party" when he ran on any other ticket that would take him (and finished terribly). Might as well have Ross Perot and Jesse Ventura do a trifecta
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2005 15:19 Comments ||
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#3
Put 12 people on an empty island and sooner or later they'll decide on a leader. If they are smart, they will usually elect the smartest guy to run things, but only if this guy does fulfil the expectations. If not, they'll choose another. That's a rather universal thing.
Now if one guy who doesn't have to be the smartest, has a gun and the others have not, the election thing might not work. The guy with the gun might either influence the election, coerce people, bully them into electing him or just skip the whole election thing and tell people that he's da man because he has da gun.
But he better hold on tight to his gun and have a light sleep.
Democracy doesn't mean that the majority makes all the decisions but that it holds the ultimate control over the guys it chooses to run things. Democracy is more than "50,01% decide how things are done". Democracy is a complex system of liberties and rights which are not granted by a sovereign but by the people themselves and cannot be restricted by people whose powers are bestowed unto them by the people for a limited time period.
Now to Iran: It is rather meaningless what polls would show about the opinions of Iranians re nuclear energy, as long as opinions cannot be voiced free of fear or concern AND without the free flow of information.
A point many do miss: Yes Iran has the right to develop nuclear energy if it so choses, but it is under the obligation to let the international community to verify that this program doesn't develop into a weapon's program. Iran has failed in that respect and if it continues to fail in that respect the international community has the right to make sure that no nuclear threat comes from Iran. If this can only be achieved by terminating the WHOLE nuclear program, Iran can only blame itself.
The right is on our side because Iran has signed the non proliferation treaty in order to get nuclear technology from the West. Break the treaty and we'll take the technology away.
#4
Well-said, TGA. Can you e-mail it to someone in Mullah-land?
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/19/2005 15:44 Comments ||
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#5
Frank G wrote: Pitchfork Pat - why does MSNBC et al continue to push him fwd as a "face of the Republican Party"
Probably because they think he makes the Republican Party look bad. In much the same way we'd like to push forward, say, Cynthia McKinney as a face of what the Democrat Party has become.
#8
Pat's idea of a "republic" is a form of government in which people who look and think like him run things. He's a fascist, or at least, the closest an actual American can come to the fascistic mind-set - zenophobic, past-worshiping, anti-capitalist, racist, anti-rationalist. He's rather under-cut by the lack of a true blood-and-soil tradition in American politics and thought, which keeps him from true, traditional fascism, but lord knows the man works overtime to make that "Judean-Christian tradition" cover over the ideological gaps.
A republic can be any of a lot of things. I like making the distinction between republics and democracies, because I like precision in my political science, and any jackass with a bullhorn and a crowd can make pretense at being a voice of democracy, or turn an electoral opportunity into "one man, one vote, one time" tyranny. Pat Buchanan *is* one of those jackasses, except that he's latched onto "republic" as his totem, instead.
In the early modern, a republic was any form of sovereignty which wasn't a monarchy or a theocracy. That is, rule by something other than an aristocratic or clerical head-of-state. Venice was a republic, but only a damned fool would look to the Republic of Venice as a model of liberty or virtue.
In short, democracy is an ideal, not a proper form of government.
As for Socrates... I'm tired of conservatives and would-be philosopher-kings whining about Socrates. Fucker was so goddamned virtuous and smart, why the hell didn't he ever do jack for his city-state other than survive Delium? Instead, he nursed a clutch of vipers who attacked the city from within at a moment of weakness in time of war. Fuck Socrates, they should have hanged him, instead of letting him take the easy way out with poison.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
03/19/2005 17:07 Comments ||
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#9
Pat's idea of a "republic" is a form of government in which people who look and think like him run things
CAIRO, Egypt - Muslims in the Middle East on Saturday angrily denounced a mixed-gender Islamic prayer service led by a woman in New York as a violation of their religion.
Amina Wadud, a professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, led the service on Friday before a congregation of 80 to 100 men and women at Synod House at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, an Episcopal church. pretty brave thing to do, considering the ROP's penchant for blowing stuff up.
Three mosques had refused to hold the service, and an art gallery backed out after receiving a bomb threat. see? Organizers said the service was intended to draw attention to the inequality faced by Muslim women. only one of a long list of problems with the ROP.
The Egyptian newspaper, Al-Messa, reported the service on its front page, with the emphatic headline: "They are tarnishing Islam in America!" It referred to Wadud as "the deranged woman." "deranged." heh. do they have mirrors in that part of the world?
A female Islamic law professor condemned the act as apostasy, explaining that a woman's body "stirs desire" in men. and, as everyone knows, desire detracts from one's ability to seethe. Some suggested the event was a U.S. conspiracy to mold traditional Islam into a secular American religion. Jewish conspiracy, no doubt.
Muslims are required to pray five times a day. On Friday, the Muslim holy day, many try to perform their midday prayers at a mosque. A male imam leads the prayer, followed by lines of men and, behind them, women. Most mosques have different halls, or different floors for the women, as well as separate entrances.
Sheik Sayed Tantawi, head of Egypt's Al-Azhar mosque, the leading Sunni Muslim institution, said Islam permits women to lead other women in prayer but not a congregation that includes men.
Many of the women who attended the service in New York were modestly dressed and, in accordance with Islamic tradition, covered their hair with the hijab, or head scarf. Wadud conducted the service primarily in English with verses of the Quran read in Arabic.
"Women were not allowed to (have) input in the basic paradigms of what it means to be a Muslim," Wadud said after the service. She added that while the Islamic holy book, the Quran, puts men and women on equal footing, men have distorted its teachings to leave women with no role other than "as sexual partners." yep. women are simply sexual partners. well, women and goats.
But in the conservative Middle East, Wadud's prayer service was frowned upon. oh? do tell.
In Saudi Arabia, Grand Mufti Abdul-Aziz al-Sheik spoke out against it in Friday prayers at a Riyadh mosque.
"Those who defended this issue are violating God's law," he said. "Enemies of Islam are using women's issues to corrupt the community." heck. that community wuz corrupted waaaaaay long before she decided to preach, bud.
Soad Saleh, who heads the Islamic department of the women's college at Al-Azhar University, considered the act an apostasy, which is punishable by death in Islam. as is virtually every other act of independent thought.
"It is categorically forbidden for women to lead prayers (if they include men worshippers) and intentionally violates the basics of Islam," she said.
She said women should not lead prayers because "the woman's body, even if veiled, stirs desire." I've seen some of these women. trust me. it doesn't. have you seen what this preacher chick looks like? let me put it this way: if she's one of the 72 virgins, don't bother killing yourself, ok?
Saleh also suggested the prayer service was a ploy to weaken Islam. yup. freedom of thought IS a ploy to weaken Islam.
"It's a foreign conspiracy, through secular (Muslim) organizations, to sow seeds of division between Muslims," she said. "But God will protect his religion." by killing the apostates. by the hand of his servant, no doubt. it's in the planning stages now.
Abdul-Moti Bayoumi, of the Islamic Research Center at Al-Azhar, said Wadud had carried out "a bad and deviant innovation" that contradicted the Prophet Mohammed's sayings and deeds.
Not allowing women to lead mixed gender prayers "is not discrimination between women and men but is to safeguard men from being conflicted and torn by human desire while they are standing behind a woman while she's bowing and kneeling," Bayoumi said.
The prayer service and reactions of those who attended were covered by the two major Arab satellite networks, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya.
One Web site known for postings by Islamic militants carried photos of women at the service who had failed to cover their heads. and they're planning on separating those heads as we speak.
#1
The way that Muslims are always going on about how women's bodies stir uncontrollable desire in men is both pathetic and ridiculous. The testosterone level is so low in that part of the world that they can't fight like men, they can only gather the courage to attack women, children, and people who can't fight back. They skulk around and blow up people. The only reason that their birth rate is so high is that their women are forced to submit to their "men" whenever the men want. Even so, the Arabs just can't get it up without some of the highest rates of viagra use in the world.
Posted by: Random thoughts ||
03/19/2005 18:43 Comments ||
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#2
I heard a Moslem woman rant about a lot of these "opinions" that have no, zero, foundation in the Koran. And, she said, whenever you point this out you are told to "shut up, women don't know these things, only men know this." Kind of a neat catch-22 there.
#4
The Islamic prayer requires prostration in which the forehead is on the ground. Most people can't do this without putting their behind up.
If you assume that this prostration is required and you assume that you want the worship to be free of carnal thoughts, you have a fairly strong case against mixed gender worship.
#5
Many of the women who attended the service in New York were modestly dressed and, in accordance with Islamic tradition, covered their hair with the hijab, or head scarf.
If I remember correctly, isn't this a "tradition" that dates back to the Iranian revolution of the 1970s, and has no other antecendent?
Posted by: Scott ||
03/19/2005 19:45 Comments ||
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#6
mhw - except that doesn't Arabs have one of the highest occurances of homosexuality around? (In spite of the Koran...).
This is an excerpt from an interview with Keith W. Meurlin, who became manager of Dulles International Airport (just outside DC) in 1989, and will retire at the end of this month. He has worked at the airport for 28 years. I liked his candor in discussing security issues, and you can get a sense of his frustration with the politics of it all, and a sense that airport security would be MUCH different if airport managers ran it rather than TSA.
What's your biggest complaint about airports when you travel?
Well, the romance of airports is sort of gone. You know, the security lines, the taking the shoes off -- it's just really a shame when you see somebody 70 or 80 years old trying to get their shoes off and on. And the ability to figure out how long that line is going to be when you're trying to plan your travel schedule [has diminished]. There are more unknowns now than there were before.
How did 9/11 change your life at Dulles?
Well, one of those airplanes took off out of here. And I knew very personally two people on that plane. You know, it hit pretty darn hard. These [terrorists] knew what they were doing and had a well-thought-out plan, knew us better than we knew ourselves.
How so?
They knew exactly what the rules were. They knew exactly what they could do and what they couldn't do. They flew the route multiple times before. . . . They knew the box cutters were legal and what they could get through security. They also knew that in those days, [flight crews] had been told that in a hijacking you should just be quiet and passive and follow instructions, and in a day or two you'll get home. On 9/11, by the time the fourth aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania, that whole paradigm -- that whole understanding -- had completely changed. No longer were people going to sit passively and follow their instructions and the rest. And I think that's the biggest change since 9/11, the fact that passengers now on airplanes understand their role and responsibility.
Should airport managers have taken action earlier to get items such as box cutters banned?
If we had taken box cutters away and made them illegal, they would have used a Bic pen. I mean, you can kill someone with a Bic pen. . . . [Banning] different things, like box cutters or knives or screwdrivers or golf clubs or canes or whatever, that's not it. There's always another implement that somebody can use.
How do you stay ahead of the terrorists?
Through good intelligence, good cooperation between the government agencies and the airports. We sit there and try to look at what the next threat is. We read Rantburg every day. I think securing the cockpit doors was probably the finest move we made.
What were you doing the morning of 9/11?
We were up in Montreal at the Airports Council International annual meeting. And we were sitting in a huge auditorium with the minister of Transport Canada talking, and his speech was on threats to aviation. And he was talking about [the possibility of] a major terrorist act. . . . Then all of a sudden you heard people whispering and talking. . . . Then they flipped up CNN on the big screen, and we saw the Twin Towers.
What did you do?
We grabbed up everybody that was there from National and Dulles, ran down and rented cars and called down here to the customs people in Dulles to help us get through the border in New York. We jumped in cars and raced back here as fast as we could, and we were back here by about 10:30 at night. I went right straight to the airport and stayed here for the next five days.
How secure is Dulles Airport now?
It's as good as anything can be. . . . We're a lot safer than what we were, that's for sure, because people have a far better understanding of who the enemy is.
What are your plans after retirement?
I'm also in the Air Force Reserve, and I've got a very large group of reservists that I'm responsible for in Dayton, Ohio. That has taken up just about all of my annual leave and free time right now. So I'll be able to spend more time on that. And I'm hoping someone out there will find some use for a retired airport manager in some capacity. I'm still going to be working, that's for sure.
Lebanon's pro-Syria president said Saturday that he will not attend an Arab summit due to political turmoil in his country as investigators searched for clues to a car bomb that rocked a largely Christian neighborhood in Beirut, injuring nine people. President Emile Lahoud did not elaborate on his decision not to participate in Monday's summit in Algeria, but it came as Syria withdraws troops from Lebanon after facing heavy pressure from the United States and fellow Arab countries to end a three decade presence. The attack devastated an eight-story apartment building in the largely Christian New Jdeideh neighborhood shortly after midnight on Saturday and sent panicked residents in their pajamas into the street.
Lahoud, a close Syrian ally, made no mention of the attack, saying only in a statement that Lebanon was experiencing "exceptional circumstances" that required "immediate and direct dialogue" between opposition and pro-government groups. He also offered to host immediate talks between Lebanon's various political factions amid negotiations over the formation of a new government. Opposition legislator Fares Soeid dismissed the invite, saying: "It's too late. This subject is closed."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 11:45:15 AM ||
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A British newspaper claimed on Friday to have found "clear evidence" that Syria assassinated former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri in an attack that has plunged Lebanon into political chaos. Two days before the popular politician was killed in a huge bomb blast on February 14, Hariri invited Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader, to his mansion in west Beirut where he had a warning for his old friend, The Times reported. "He told me that in the next two weeks it was either going to be me or him," Jumblatt told the newspaper. "Clearly he thought something was going to happen," he said.
Hariri did not have to wait long. But the explosion that killed him and 18 other people has continued to shake Lebanon over the past month and left Syria increasingly squeezed by the United States and its European allies. Damascus has repeatedly denied any involvement in the attack, but The Times said it had unearthed "clear evidence that Syria assassinated Rafiq Hariri" after interviewing at least a dozen Western, Lebanese and Syrian officials. Hariri had angered the Syrian government by inspiring a UN resolution demanding that Syria stop interfering in Lebanon, the newspaper said, noting that US and UN officials had warned Damascus not to harm him. The Lebanese government withdrew Hariri's 70-strong security detail under pressure from Syria and immediately after his death the scene of the bombing was swept to remove any evidence of Syrian complicity, The Times claimed. "There does seem to be no other scenario," it quoted an anonymous, senior Western diplomat as saying.
Just four days before Hariri's murder, UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, where he tried to persuade him to meet Hariri in a bid to resolve their differences, according to The Times. "Larsen knew if there was no dialogue, it would end badly," an unnamed UN source told the newspaper. That same night, Larsen met Hariri for dinner in Beirut and was told that the Lebanese politician was ready to talk to the Syrian leader. "Two days later Mr Hariri met Mr Jumblatt at his home, and correctly predicted his own death," The Times said. The daily added that it had interviewed three Syrian ministers, all of whom denied that Damascus had any part in the killing.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
"But none put forward a convincing alternative theory, even though Syria has a vast intelligence network in Lebanon that should by now have been able to trace the origin of the assassination team," it concluded.
All investigations seem to lead back to Damascus. If so, it was an act of incredible stoopidity. Assad deserves to lose his throne.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Businessman Osama Mohammed is so insulted by the anti-Syrian curses Lebanese protesters are chanting and by reports of Syrians being murdered in Lebanon he has stopped going to Beirut to shop, dine and watch movies. "I'm boycotting everything Lebanese until my dignity is restored," said Mohammed.
Hotel executive Imad Mansour has withdrawn his life's savings from a Lebanese bank because he has lost trust in Lebanon's economy - which has been a boost to Syria's economy for years - and worries he will have no access to his money if that country becomes too dangerous for Syrians. And Ali Serhan, who has been driving his cab to Lebanon for 10 years, barely finds customers for the three-hour trip across the border. Many Syrians suddenly feel embittered and insecure in a country where they had always felt at an advantage. During 29 years of control in their tiny neighbor, Syrians have come to see Lebanon as an engine of wealth, a place to play and a source of jobs for Syria's many unemployed. And they have always been told by the government that their troops - deployed in 1976 initially as peacekeepers in Lebanon's civil war and reaching up to 40,000 at one point - were benefiting the Lebanese by helping preserve stability.
But that control has started to erode after Syria completed the pullback of its forces and intelligence agents from western Lebanon to the eastern Bekaa Valley a few days ago. Now Syrians are seeing the sneering banners, jibes and chants - sometimes outright obscene - that Lebanese protesters have directed at the Syrians during street rallies, and they have heard the anti-Syrian jokes, some of them racist and cruel, spread by e-mail and phone text messages in Lebanon. And they're hearing reports of attacks on Syrians. One Syrian has been confirmed killed and several injured in stabbings and limited clashes following the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, blamed by many Lebanese on Syria or the Damascus-allied government. Reports in the Syrian media say 35 Syrians have been killed, but there has been no official Syrian or Lebanese confirmation of that figure. Lebanese opposition leaders have urged protesters not to attack Syrians.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Well, we know they're not buying Iraqi either. No sellers.
The leaders of France, Russia, Germany and Spain jointly demanded Friday for action on UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and called on Syria to immediately withdraw its troops and security services from Lebanon.French President Jacques Chirac said: "We have adopted a joint statement on Lebanon, a communique that, like the whole international community, insists on the compelling necessity to implement Resolution 1559." Following a meeting in Paris, Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero issued the statement, calling for "the total withdrawal of Syrian armed forces and security services ... that must quickly leave Lebanese territory." They agreed it was "necessary ... that a government capable of acting in the interests of all Lebanese people is formed quickly," and free and transparent elections take place in the country according to agreed timetables. "We will be attentive to make sure the electoral process runs smoothly," the statement said, adding the leaders hoped independent electoral observers will monitor the elections.
The four leaders' call comes at a time when a leading religious Lebanese figure visits the United States to get similar backing for the resolution. Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, who is currently visiting Washington upon an invitation by U.S. President George W. Bush, was to meet on Friday with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen to discuss the implementation of 1559. Sfeir believes the 1989 Lebanese Taif Accord and Resolution 1559 do not differ and lead to the same conclusion. Sfeir said that Bush assured him that his country supports Lebanon's democracy and independence and insists on a full Syrian pullout before the elections that must run without any outside influence.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
1559 would be about an 800 year advance over where they are now.
The United States House of Representatives has passed a strongly worded resolution condemning the "continuing gross violations of human rights and civil liberties of the Syrian and Lebanese people by the government of Syria." House Resolution 32, among other points, calls on U.S. President George W. Bush to seek "a United Nations Security Council Resolution classifying Lebanon as a captive country and calling for the immediate release of all Lebanese detainees in Syria and Lebanon." It also seeks sanctions against those the U.S. blames for propping up what it calls Syria's "proxy government and president." Resolution 32 states: "The President should freeze all assets in the United States belonging to Lebanese government officials who are found to support and aid the occupation of Lebanon by the Syrian Arab Republic." Although the resolution does not use the term, it is clear it ultimately seeks a regime change in both Beirut and Damascus. It states: "The occupation of Lebanon represents a long-term threat to the security of the Middle East and U.S. efforts to liberalize the economy and policy in the region."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Opposition member MP Butros Harb spoke for the first time about the inclusion of opposition members in a "national unity government," a surprising position which comes after the opposition's insistence that it will only participate in a "neutral government." Harb, a of the Christian opposition Qornet Shehwan Gathering, also warned that the United Nations could impose sanctions on Lebanon if it continues to reject an international committee to investigate former Premier Rafik Hariri's murder. Speaking during a news conference he called for at his office in Beirut, Harb said: "We are willing to participate in a national unity government and even name opposition members for ministerial posts if Prime Minister-designate Omar Karami is replaced." But Harb added that the opposition would maintain its policy of not participating in the parliamentary consultations required to name a candidate for the premiership. He said it was the responsibility of President Emile Lahoud to choose an "honest" prime minister capable of adopting the opposition's demands and securing fair parliamentary elections.
Commenting on the ongoing investigation in Hariri's murder, Harb said: "If the UN decides to hire an international committee to investigate Hariri's assassination then it will leave Lebanon with two choices: accepting the decision or facing economic and diplomatic sanctions." Harb added: "I advise the Lebanese government to accept an international investigation under Article 6 of the UN Charter which stipulates that disputes be solved peacefully, avoiding enforceable measures against Lebanon." Harb, a lawyer, corrected Karami that an international committee must not include "Lebanese judges." Karami had agreed that the government allow an international committee to investigate Hariri's assassination as demanded by the opposition, but that it be presided over by a "Lebanese judge." Harb said: "According to the UN Charter, the investigating team should not include non-UN members who can affect the course of investigation."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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The Somali parliament affirmed its rejection of peacekeepers from neighboring countries on Friday, despite a vote that ended with lawmakers-in-exile exchanging blows and drew condemnation from the country's prime minister. Television footage on Thursday showed Kenyan police intervening to stop the turmoil in the Nairobi hotel where the lawmakers voted and fought using clubs, chairs and walking sticks. Some legislators were later seen with blood oozing from their heads.
Nevertheless, the vote was legal and binding, and only troops from countries that do not share borders with Somalia can participate in the force planned to secure its transitional government, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden, parliament's speaker, told The Associated Press on Friday. As he spoke, two dozen Somalis marched in Nairobi to protest the parliamentary decision. Somali ministers, Islamic clerics, and the U.S. State Department have all said sending troops from neighboring countries would derail fragile efforts to end a 14-year civil war in the Horn of Africa nation.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 1:13:58 PM ||
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King Abdullah II of Jordan has proposed a new peace strategy that drops traditional Arab demands that Israel give up all land seized in the 1967 war and offers the Jewish state normalized relations with Arab countries, according to a text of the proposal seen Friday by The Associated Press. The proposal did not appear to have enough support to be adopted at an Arab League summit starting Monday in the Algerian capital. But even placing such a far-reaching change in strategy on the agenda would have been unthinkable in past league gatherings, suggesting new thinking in the peace process with Israel.
The Jordanian proposal does not mention specific U.N. resolutions and usual Arab demands for an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 borders and for the right of return of refugees, according to a text of about a dozen lines seen by the AP. The omission suggests Abdullah, whose country signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994, wants the Arabs to accept geographical changes Israel has made in the territories and to start normalization even before a full peace is reached. The text of Abdullah's proposal calls on Arab states to declare their "preparedness to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and establish normal relations between the Arab countries and Israel through just, comprehensive and lasting peace." The proposal calls for any settlement to be based on "international resolutions, the principal of land for peace and the (1991) Madrid peace conference."
Arab leaders have always demanded full peace with Israel — meaning a return of all occupied lands — in return for normalization. The Jordanian proposal is meant to amend a Saudi peace initiative adopted at the 2002 Arab summit held in Beirut. The Saudi initiative offered Israel peace with all Arab nations on condition that Israel returns all land seized in the six-day war of 1967 in line with the Arab interpretation of U.N. resolution 242. The initiative also calls for the creation of a Palestinian state and a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue. Resolution 242, passed after the 1967 war, calls on Israel to withdraw "from territories occupied in the recent conflict" but does not say explicitly that the pullback should be from all such territories. However, Arabs view the resolution as just that — calling for Israeli withdrawal from East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syria's Golan Heights. Arab League officials said the Jordanian proposal had little support among Arab nations. Syria has always staunchly opposed any normalization.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 12:39:14 PM ||
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#1
The text of Abdullah's proposal calls on Arab states to declare their "preparedness to end the Arab-Israeli conflict..
These are the words that are always lacking in any Paleo statements. There's always the temporary terms "truce", and "cease-fire", but NEVER any explicit reference to any sort of permanent halt to Armed Struggleâ¢.
#2
This is encouraging. Egypt and Jordan are the Arab states that are ultimately responsible for dealing with the consequences of any Palestinian State. The current regime in Syria won't last the year and the others are too far away. King Abdullah seems destined for bigger things.
#4
IMO Abdullah is destined to be Sadat II (hopefully without the same ending) in making a peace with Israel that can stand...smart and pragmatic enough
just make sure that "right of return" never makes it in, Abdullah.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2005 14:55 Comments ||
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Hindu nationalists set fire to a PepsiCo warehouse in western India on Saturday to protest the U.S. denial of a visa for a top state official due to his role in religious riots in 2002. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the U.S. government to urgently reconsider its decision. The State Department said Friday it had denied a diplomatic visa to the Hindu nationalist chief minister of Gujarat state, Narendra Modi, and revoked his existing tourist/business visa under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act that bars people responsible for violations of religious freedom from getting a visa. Nearly 150 activists barged into the warehouse of U.S.-based PepsiCo in the western city of Surat, smashed bottles and set fire to the place, said Dharmesh Joshi, a witness. Police confirmed the attack. The warehouse was partially burned. The demonstrators were from the Bajrang Dal, a group affiliated with Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which governs Gujarat state.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 11:41:16 AM ||
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Not a particularly deep or insightful piece, but the question is interesting. I would rephrase it as - Is the world economy inherently unstable?
One of the big questions of our time is whether the global economy is stable. The gains from "globalization" -- more cross-border trade, investment and technology transfers -- are indisputable. Countless millions have escaped poverty in Asia and Europe. A recent study by the Institute for International Economics concluded that American living standards are roughly 10 percent higher as a result of globalization's benefits (cheap imports, greater competition, new technologies). Globalization's winners vastly outnumber its losers.
Unfortunately, that could change if the world economy turns out to be unstable -- incapable of sustaining adequate growth or vulnerable to severe crises. For the moment the dangers are abstract. In 2004 the global economy grew 4.7 percent, economists at Goldman Sachs report. Asia (excluding Japan) grew 8.2 percent; Latin America, 5.6 percent; the United States, 4.4 percent. Global economic growth should average about 4 percent in 2005 and 2006, the Goldman economists predict. Still, the specter of instability lingers.
Global economic integration -- the merging of markets, the mutual dependencies of countries -- has raced well ahead of either political integration or intellectual mastery. We simply don't understand well how the global economy operates. Nor is it clear how countries with diverging interests and shared suspicions will cooperate in a crisis. And there's the rub.
One obvious problem is oil. Even if the United States could end dependence on imports for 64 percent of its oil demand (a practical impossibility anytime soon), Europe would still import 80 percent of its needs and Japan 100 percent. Any major shutdown of Persian Gulf exports -- from war, terrorism or a political act -- could devastate the world economy. Global terrorism or a world pandemic would also pose threats beyond the initial tragedies. Countries might try to protect themselves from outsiders -- imposing restrictions on trade, travel and immigration -- in ways that would destroy global commerce. And that is the risk. An economy that is dependent on factors beyond your political control.
This is a completely different issue. At present the greatest peril may lie in huge global trade imbalances -- and the financial pressures they create. The basic dilemma is that the world needs American trade deficits as an "engine" of growth, compensating for weak growth in Europe and Japan. But the same trade deficits may now be destabilizing because they send large amounts of dollars abroad. The danger: a dollar "crash" on foreign exchange markets that spills over into the U.S. stock and bond markets, driving down those markets and triggering a global recession. Its moot whether a dollar crash would drive down US stock markets, its more likely to send them higher cos better export prospects and cheaper for foreigners to buy.
Look at the numbers. In 2004 the U.S. current account deficit reached an estimated $650 billion, or a record 5.6 percent of gross domestic product. (The current account includes all trade, plus other international payments such as those generated by travel and tourism.) The mirror images of U.S. deficits are other countries' surpluses. In 2004 Japan's current account surplus was 3.7 percent of GDP, Germany's was 2.9 percent and China's was 2.3 percent, Economy.com estimates. But even with the stimulus of selling to the United States, economic growth in Europe and Japan has averaged only 2 percent and 1.5 percent annually since 1994.
What's the problem? Foreign exporters receive dollars for what they ship to the United States. If those dollars aren't reinvested in American assets -- say, U.S. stocks, bonds or Treasury securities -- they'll be sold on foreign exchange markets for other currencies: the euro, the yen, the pound. As dollar sales drive down its value, foreigners note that their existing U.S. stocks and bonds are worth less in their own currencies. So they may sell U.S. securities to limit losses. At the end of 2003, foreigners owned $1.5 trillion in U.S. stocks; widespread sales could trigger steep market declines. The problem is compounding and will not go away. As foriegners accumulate US assets US dollars drain away not only from the trade imbalance but increasingly from interest and dividends. It has to break sometime. This is unavoidable.
The risk is an economic implosion. A sinking stock market could damage American consumer confidence and spending. Higher currencies for Europe and Japan could weaken their export competitiveness. (A higher currency tends to make a country's exports more expensive and its imports cheaper.) Together, the United States, Europe and Japan are half the global economy. If they went into recession, other countries might follow.
Economists are divided. Some fear the worst, because the world is flooded with dollars. Relax, say others. Asian central banks (their versions of the Federal Reserve) will buy surplus dollars, because they want to export to the United States and don't want their currencies to rise against the dollar. Still other economists (including Alan Greenspan) believe that we'll muddle through -- that shifts in exchange rates and economic growth will slowly narrow today's trade imbalances. So far the evidence supports everyone. Since mid-2001 the dollar has dropped against many currencies, especially the euro. Asian central banks have bought lots of dollars. And we have muddled through.
Every economic system requires a political framework, but the framework for the global economy is creaky. Twenty years ago, the "world economy" consisted mainly of the United States and its Cold War allies. Economic, military and foreign policy objectives overlapped. Now the world economy includes China, India and the former Soviet Union. Global interdependence has inspired some cooperation -- the SARS outbreak and Asia's 1997-98 financial crisis being examples. But the political foundation for cooperation has weakened. Our relations with old Cold War allies are strained, while relations with new trading partners -- China especially -- are ambiguous. Could we someday be at war with China over Taiwan? Or will trade defuse conflict?
The well-being of advanced nations presumes a smoothly operating global economy. We take this for granted without knowing whether it will always be true. We don't ask hard questions because we don't know the answers and fear what they might be. The article touches on it, but you can add into the mix dependence on unreliable or hostile states. The world may be reliant on oil from the ME but it is even more reliant on chips from East Asia.
Posted by: phil_b ||
03/19/2005 3:34:55 AM ||
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Well, and if it is unstable, there isn't much that can be done about it, is there?
The system involved is only the aggregate of the entire human species, covering an area of just about the whole planet we occupy. The only option other than letting things happen is to go the controlled prices and production route, and small scale experience, ie on a national level, has shown that this leads to disaster fairly quickly. The best bet for responsible leadership to protect its people in such a situation is to educate the populace to the highest possible level, accustom them to acting within a situation of freedom and individual responsiblity, and encourage local companies to take advantage of the skills and attitude of their employees to innovate maximally developing improved products and processes, resulting in increased worldwide sales and profits.
At least I think so... this rant is rapidly sliding into the realm of economics, a subject on which I am notoriously weak,
A Palestinian group rejected yesterday the deal reached in Cairo to extend a cessation of attacks against Israel. The Popular Resistance Committee of the Intifada, an umbrella group that consists of several militant groups, said that as far as it was concerned the informal cease-fire with Israel expired starting today. Its spokesman, Abu Abeer, warned Israelis to prepare for a resumption of attacks against them, particularly rocket fire at the town of Sderot northeast of the Gaza Strip. "Let the residents of Sderot return to their shelters. They can expect things that they haven't seen yet," he told Israeli media. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas played down the militant faction's decision saying "this is an internal issue between us that we can deal with."
"Don't worry about it. There are only 11 of them. We'll send Big Mahmoud to talk to them..."
This article starring:
ABU ABIR
Popular Resistance Committee of the Intifada
Popular Resistance Committee of the Intifada
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 12:23:31 AM ||
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas played down the militant factionâs decision saying âthis is an internal issue between us that we can deal with.â
Yeah, I'll bet. I wonder what the cost will end up being, since it sure as hell ain't going to be settled by exercising any authority...
Iraqi groups wooed outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and Sunnis to join a coalition yesterday as they predicted that Iraq's next government could be formed within a week. Six weeks after the release of results from the landmark Jan. 30 elections, Iraq still had no new government, but talk of a breakthrough was afoot. "We have set next Thursday (March 24) as a preliminary date for the National Assembly to reconvene," Jawad Al-Maliky, a member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), told reporters. "We have agreed on the principles of the government, but we do not have yet a final deal on the make-up of the government. We hope that will happen before the assembly meets." Fawzi Hariri, an aide to foreign minister and Kurdish negotiator Hoshyar Zebari, suggested: "Within a week to 10 days the whole thing should be done." The new Parliament held its first session Wednesday. Zebari told AFP the Kurdistan Alliance, with 77 seats in the 275-member Parliament, had finally agreed on the terms of forming a coalition government with the UIA, the biggest victor with 146 seats.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Looks like there may be a grand coalition government, not a bad idea IMHO.
The United States needs to focus on severing terror mastermind Osama bin laden's links with his Al Qaeda network, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. "The point here is that as much as we continue to focus on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the territory in which he can operate, the ability to communicate with his field generals, with his organization, has been severely diminished," she said. "And I think we need to focus on that," Rice said in an interview with US broadcasting network ABC during her Asian tour.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 ||
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It doesn't look like a network she's calling for cutting off.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
03/19/2005 18:50 Comments ||
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Actually, she does, and she implies the means to do it. ;-)
Well, it'sa figure of speach, obviously, them are tiny.
A senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader said on Friday that the Sharif family had performed Umra, which they claimed was their final visit to the Holy Kaaba before their departure from Saudi Arabia. He said there was a strong possibility that Nawaz Sharif would leave for London in the next few days along with other members of the Sharif family. He said they might travel with special Saudi passports. Nawaz Sharif had asked the Pakistani authorities - through the Saudi government - to give him a new passport. His old passport had expired. Siddiqul Farooq, the PML-N information secretary, said the Pakistani authorities were reluctant to issue the new passport to the former prime minister.
Wonder if the special Soddy passport has a religion column?
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The United States has reposed confidence in the Pakistani government, saying the US believed that the leadership was not involved in the AQ Khan network, and the network was brought to light by the Pakistanis. "We have a good understanding about how that network came about, how it operated and we certainly don't see any connection with the leadership of Pakistan," a State Department spokesman told reporters on Thursday.
He said the Pakistanis were the first to expose the Khan network and the US had no idea of the full scope of its activities. "We had information or we had indications that there was proliferation activity," the spokesman said, adding, "we certainly didn't have an idea of the full scope or nature of this activity until the Pakistanis revealed what was going on." The spokesman said that the US would continue "to follow up and work with the Pakistanis to dismantle completely that network and come to a full understanding of its scope and activities." The spokesman refused to divulge details on how the US was going to accomplish the goal of seeing the network totally dismantled. He expressed concern over Iran's alleged nuclear programme, saying that there were indications on Iran's connections to Dr Khan. "Obviously we all want to get to the bottom of that."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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âWe have a good understanding about how that network came about, how it operated and we certainly donât see any connection with the leadership of Pakistan,â a State Department spokesman told reporters on Thursday.
State will have to excuse me if I say that I think they're full of Al Qaqaa....
#2
I think Pakistan is one of the big successes in the WoT. They are slowly getting on top of their lawlessness problems and I see nothing overtly hostile out of Islamabad. Given the India/China/Islam dynamic I think this is substantial achievement.
Sui rape victim Dr Shazia Khalid arrived in the UK on Friday along with her husband and appealed to Baloch nationalists not to politicise her ordeal and let her start a new life abroad. Talking to Online prior to her departure to London at the Islamabad International Airport on Thursday night, Dr Shazia said that she had gone through a horrific incident and that did not want to repeat the gory details. She regretted that some people were politicising her ordeal and asked them to refrain from tormenting her by throwing dirt at her. She also appealed to Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti not to make things worse. She said her ordeal should be treated as a criminal case and not as a political issue. "I have left my case to God and even if the rapist escapes justice in this world, I believe that he cannot escape the court of God," she said. Dr Shazia said," I do not know who Captain Hammad is as I have never heard his name before the incident. I cannot recognise the rapist me but I can identify his voice".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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President General Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that extremism and terrorism were the only threats to Pakistan's sustained development and urged the people to launch a movement to root out the two evils. "At this bright stage of economic turnaround, we need to keep up the momentum of socio-economic progress by effectively countering the extremist forces and by extending support to enlightened and moderate leadership," he told a public meeting. Musharraf stressed bringing enlightened and moderate leaders to the fore in the upcoming local bodies elections and the 2007 general elections. "We need to remove hurdles to our continued economic growth by discarding the extremists and promote moderation, unity and peace for taking Pakistan forward on the path of socio-economic development," he said. People must act against those who misuse mosques hatred, discord and intolerance, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Terrorists in Pakistan remain committed to attacking US targets and it is a matter of time before Al Qaeda or another group uses chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, said CIA Director Porter J Goss on Friday. Talking to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in his first public appearance as CIA director, Goss said that defeating terrorism must remain one of the core objectives of the US intelligence community. "Al Qaeda is intent on finding ways to circumvent US security enhancements to strike Americans and the country," he said while elaborating the worldwide threat to the US. He added that Al Qaeda was one facet of the threat from a broader Sunni jihadi movement, "Our pursuit of Al Qaeda and its most senior leaders, including Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahri is intense."
Ah, good. That part of it's starting to publicly crystalize. As we've noticed here, it's not just al-Qaeda now, but an international Sunni phenomenon, almost a fad. It's made up of one part professional terrorists, one part princely money, one part lunatic holy men, and probably three parts idiot boys who are enamoured of wearing masks, waving guns, and being menacing. Jihad has become the Islamic world's version of hip-hop.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Agreed, Fred. The public's consciousness needs to be wrapped around the fact that it is Wahhabism that is fueling this terrorism. Here at RB we see this day in and day out. In the MSM, and with PC govt, it is glossed over. The sooner we confront the religious extremists, and that includes Saudi sponsored mosques, the faster we will destroy this sickness.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/19/2005 11:52 Comments ||
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ahhhh.... Wahhabis, Mad Mullahs (strictly using religion for power) and atheist bastards with poofy hair....oh, and Chavez keeps wanting to join the party
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/19/2005 12:23 Comments ||
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HANGU: Police ransacked a Ufone dealer's shop on Friday for displaying a billboard with a woman's image.
A woman's image? Oh, horrors! Oh, hold me, Ethel!
Police destroyed the billboard at Insaf Mobile Centre, an authorised dealer of U-Fone, to implement the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal's policy, district police officer Zebullah Khan told Daily Times. DPO Khan said the shopkeeper had been warned against displaying a board with a woman's image but he ignored the warning. He said, "Action against anyone violating the government's stated policy banning the display of women's images on commercial billboards can be taken at any time." Sharifullah, the shop owner, claimed that he had already covered the image on the billboard but the police still damaged his shop. "They broke the board with hammers and then ransacked my shop," he alleged.
I think that was the important part.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 11:00:47 PM ||
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Good primer on Bangla politix from The Friday Times. Paid subscription required, hence the length.
Eliza Griswold wrote in The New York Times (23 January 2005):
'(Radical Islam) was not supposed to be the fate of Bangladesh, which fought its way to independence 34 years ago. While its population of 141 million is 83 percent Muslim, the nation was founded on the principle of secularism, which in Bangladesh essentially means religious tolerance. After the guiding figure of independence, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, was assassinated in 1975, military leaders, seeking legitimacy, allowed a return of Islam to politics.
With the return of fair elections in 1991, power became precariously divided among four parties: the right-leaning Bangladesh National Party (BNP), the mildly leftist Awami League, the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami and the conservative Jatiya. The two leading parties are led by women: the BNP by the current prime minister, Khaleda Zia, widow of the party's murdered founder; the Awami League by Zia's predecessor as prime minister, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, herself the daughter of the assassinated founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.'
Harkatul Jihad al Islami in Bangladesh: The two main parties hate each other somewhat like the PPP and the PMLN in Pakistan. The Jamaat-e-Islami, which agitated against independence in 1971 and remains close to Pakistan - and was banned after independence for its role in the war - has slowly worked its way back to political legitimacy thanks to the BNP. Since 2001, Jamaat-e-Islami has been a crucial part of a governing coalition dominated by the BNP. In 2001, as Pakistan started outlawing the militant jihadi organisations, Bangladesh began its tilt into tough Islam. It is obvious that it was the returning jihadis from Karachi in 2001 who added the latest edge to the Islamic sweep in Bangladesh.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Remember, although you may have heard differently:
Islam means Politics.
Posted by: Jimmy Hoffa ||
03/19/2005 7:59 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Nine terrorism suspects who were freed from prison under a new British anti-terrorism law are living under such harsh and confusing control orders that one has been readmitted to a mental hospital and several others are 
From inside a mountainside bunker, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saw firsthand Saturday what a war with North Korea might look like. Rice became the most senior American official to tour a command center for U.S. and South Korean troops that would be the battle headquarters in the event of fighting with the communist North. "I know that you face a close-in threat every day," Rice told troops at Command Post Tango, or Theater Air Naval Ground Operations.
Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters demonstrated across Europe on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with 45,000 marching from London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy. In Istanbul, Turkey, about 15,000 people protested in the Kadikoy neighborhood against the U.S. presence in Iraq. But the rallies were nowhere near as big as those in February 2003, just before the war, when millions marched in cities around the world to urge President Bush and his allies not to attack Iraq.
Lebanon's pro-Syria president said Saturday that he will not attend an Arab summit due to political turmoil in his country as investigators searched for clues to a car bomb that rocked a largely Christian neighborhood in Beirut, injuring nine people. President 
A British newspaper claimed on Friday to have found "clear evidence" that Syria assassinated former Lebanese prime minister 
Businessman Osama Mohammed is so insulted by the anti-Syrian curses Lebanese protesters are chanting and by reports of Syrians being murdered in Lebanon he has stopped going to Beirut to shop, dine and watch movies. "I'm boycotting everything Lebanese until my dignity is restored," said Mohammed.
The leaders of France, Russia, Germany and Spain jointly demanded Friday for action on UN Security Council 
The United States House of Representatives has passed a strongly worded resolution condemning the "continuing gross violations of human rights and civil liberties of the Syrian and Lebanese people by the government of Syria." House Resolution 32, among other points, calls on U.S. President George W. Bush to seek "a United Nations Security Council Resolution classifying Lebanon as a captive country and calling for the immediate release of all Lebanese detainees in Syria and Lebanon." It also seeks sanctions against those the U.S. blames for propping up what it calls Syria's "proxy government and president." Resolution 32 states: "The President should freeze all assets in the United States belonging to Lebanese government officials who are found to support and aid the occupation of Lebanon by the Syrian Arab Republic." Although the resolution does not use the term, it is clear it ultimately seeks a regime change in both Beirut and Damascus. It states: "The occupation of Lebanon represents a long-term threat to the security of the Middle East and U.S. efforts to liberalize the economy and policy in the region."
Opposition member MP 
The Somali parliament affirmed its rejection of peacekeepers from neighboring countries on Friday, despite a vote that ended with lawmakers-in-exile exchanging blows and drew condemnation from the country's prime minister. Television footage on Thursday showed Kenyan police intervening to stop the turmoil in the Nairobi hotel where the lawmakers voted and fought using clubs, chairs and walking sticks. Some legislators were later seen with blood oozing from their heads.
Hindu nationalists set fire to a PepsiCo warehouse in western India on Saturday to protest the U.S. denial of a visa for a top state official due to his role in religious riots in 2002. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked the U.S. government to urgently reconsider its decision. The State Department said Friday it had denied a diplomatic visa to the Hindu nationalist chief minister of Gujarat state, 
A Palestinian group rejected yesterday the deal reached in Cairo to extend a cessation of attacks against Israel. The 
Iraqi groups wooed outgoing Prime Minister 
The United States needs to focus on severing terror mastermind Osama bin laden's links with his Al Qaeda network, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday. "The point here is that as much as we continue to focus on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the territory in which he can operate, the ability to communicate with his field generals, with his organization, has been severely diminished," she said. "And I think we need to focus on that," Rice said in an interview with US broadcasting network ABC during her Asian tour.
senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader said on Friday that the Sharif family had performed Umra, which they claimed was their final visit to the Holy Kaaba before their departure from Saudi Arabia. He said there was a strong possibility that Nawaz Sharif would leave for London in the next few days along with other members of the Sharif family. He said they might travel with special Saudi passports. Nawaz Sharif had asked the Pakistani authorities - through the Saudi government - to give him a new passport. His old passport had expired. Siddiqul Farooq, the PML-N information secretary, said the Pakistani authorities were reluctant to issue the new passport to the former prime minister. 
The United States has reposed confidence in the Pakistani government, saying the US believed that the leadership was not involved in the AQ Khan network, and the network was brought to light by the Pakistanis. "We have a good understanding about how that network came about, how it operated and we certainly don't see any connection with the leadership of Pakistan," a State Department spokesman told reporters on Thursday.
Sui rape victim Dr 
President General Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that extremism and terrorism were the only threats to Pakistan's sustained development and urged the people to launch a movement to root out the two evils. "At this bright stage of economic turnaround, we need to keep up the momentum of socio-economic progress by effectively countering the extremist forces and by extending support to enlightened and moderate leadership," he told a public meeting. Musharraf stressed bringing enlightened and moderate leaders to the fore in the upcoming local bodies elections and the 2007 general elections. "We need to remove hurdles to our continued economic growth by discarding the extremists and promote moderation, unity and peace for taking Pakistan forward on the path of socio-economic development," he said. People must act against those who misuse mosques hatred, discord and intolerance, he added.
Terrorists in Pakistan remain committed to attacking US targets and it is a matter of time before Al Qaeda or another group uses chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons, said CIA Director Porter J Goss on Friday. Talking to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in his first public appearance as CIA director, Goss said that defeating terrorism must remain one of the core objectives of the US intelligence community. "Al Qaeda is intent on finding ways to circumvent US security enhancements to strike Americans and the country," he said while elaborating the worldwide threat to the US. He added that Al Qaeda was one facet of the threat from a broader Sunni jihadi movement, "Our pursuit of Al Qaeda and its most senior leaders, including Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al Zawahri is intense."
HANGU: Police ransacked a Ufone dealer's shop on Friday for displaying a billboard with a woman's image. 
