The trial of eighteen young men in Nigeria charged with dressing in female clothing and attending a gay wedding may be part of a campaign to reintroduce legislation targeting lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
Cary Alan Johnson of the Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) was in Nigeria last week to meet the men and their lawyers. He has expressed serious doubts as to whether the men can get a fair trial. All aged between 18 and 21, they were detained by the Islamic "vice squad" at a hotel in Bauchi city, Nigeria in August 2007.
Bauchi is a Muslim state in the centre of Nigeria, with a population of 316,000. Sharia law is enforced in the state and if found guilty of sodomy the men could be executed.
They instead face charges of criminal conspiracy, membership of an unlawful society, indecent acts, and "vagabondage", which relates to the allegation they were dressed in female attire. They face to up to ten years imprisonment and more than 100 lashes and a charge of sodomy could be instituted at any time, according to IGLHRC. The man are on bail, having spent 19 days in jail, and are due to appear in court again on March 24th.
The men deny that they were dressed in female clothing or that they were organising or attending a gay wedding. They argue that the event was a combination birthday/graduation party for a local man (who was not present at the time of the raid and has not been arrested) and the celebration of the marriage of his sister.
"These men are being railroaded by the authorities," said Mr Johnson. "Contradicting their own statements, the police first said that the men were all dressed in women's clothing, then that articles of female clothing and cosmetics were found in their belongings, which somehow proves that they were engaging in same sex marriage and homosexuality."
The case has received considerable press attention in Nigeria. Bauchi state has already convicted three people to death by stoning for sexual offences and an agency who oversee the implementation of Sharia law is pressing for the sentences to be carried out. In Bauchi state alone there are 40 people awaiting amuputation of one or both hands for theft.
Posted by: ryuge ||
02/18/2008 09:17 ||
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#1
..Although I hope for the best for Mr. Johnson, I have a very bad feeling that he has NO idea whatsoever of what he's getting into.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/18/2008 16:19 Comments ||
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#2
this is ridiculous, I mean, how many of us here haven't dressed up in women's clothes, a nice pair of manolo's with a matching...handbag....um.....nevermind
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2008 17:53 Comments ||
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#3
Frank dear, the shoes and the bag needn't match, so long as the ensemble works as a whole. Feel free to finally get a bag in one of the bright colours that goes with all your Hawaiian shirts. ;-)
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Unpopular at home and in much of the world during the last year of his presidency, ...
... translates as 'unpopular with the moonbats, socialists and BDS sufferers' ...
... George W. Bush is basking in rare adulation on his African tour.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete poured praise on Bush in Dar es Salaam on Sunday, the second day of his five-nation African tour, each compliment applauded warmly by members of the east African country's cabinet.
Although around 2,000 Muslim demonstrators protested against Bush on the eve of his visit, many thousands more cheering, waving people lined his road from the airport on Saturday. Banners across the route, decorated with Bush's image against a backdrop of Tanzania's Mt. Kilimanjaro, read: "We cherish democracy. Karibu (welcome) to President and Mrs Bush."
Others read: "Thank you for helping fight malaria and HIV." Dancers at the airport and at Kikwete's state house to greet Bush on Sunday, wore skirts and shirts decorated with his face.
Beaming repeatedly during a press conference with Kikwete, he made a point of referring to his welcome on the streets, which he described as "very moving". Bush opened his remarks by saying "Vipi Mambo!" before turning to U.S. journalists and adding: "For the uneducated, that's Swahili for 'Howdy Y'all'" --a typical Texas greeting.
Kikwete told Bush: "The outpouring of warmth and affection from the people of Tanzania that you have witnessed since your arrival is a genuine reflection of what we feel towards you and towards the American people."
In a reference to Bush's domestic problems, Kikwete added: "Different people may have different views about you and your administration and your legacy.
"But we in Tanzania, if we are to speak for ourselves and for Africa, we know for sure that you, Mr. President, and your administration have been good friends of our country and have been good friends of Africa."
Although many Africans, especially Muslims, share negative perceptions of Bush's foreign policy with other parts of the world, there is widespread recognition of his successful humanitarian and health initiatives on the continent. Bush has spent more money on aid to Africa than his predecessor, Bill Clinton, and is popular for his personal programs to fight AIDS and malaria and to help hospitals and schools.
Bush has stressed new-style partnerships with Africa based on trade and investment and not purely on aid handouts. His Millennium Challenge Corp. rewards countries that continue to satisfy criteria for democratic governance, anti-corruption and free-market economic policies. Bush signed the largest such deal, for $698 million, with Kikwete on Sunday.
Bill Clinton talked but didn't do much. Bush said relatively little and got a lot done. I know who I respect ...
Because of the U.S. anti-malaria program, 5 percent of patients tested positive for the disease on the offshore islands of Zanzibar in 2007 compared to 40 percent three years earlier, the Tanzanian leader said.
Bush's legacy in Africa would be saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of mothers and children who would otherwise have died from malaria or AIDS and enabling millions of people to get an education, he said. "I know you leave office in about 12 months' time. Rest assured that you will be remembered for many generations to come for the good things you've done for Tanzania and the good things you have done for Africa," Kikwete said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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$ 698m is roughly 3 time their annual GNP. Certainly worthy of a hand clap in "W's" direction I'd say. Hope it isn't forgotten about by the time he gets back to D.C.
#4
Because of the U.S. anti-malaria program, 5 percent of patients tested positive for the disease on the offshore islands of Zanzibar in 2007 compared to 40 percent three years earlier, the Tanzanian leader said.
I thought malaria was a lifelong condition. If so, then where did the 35% of those with malaria go?
#6
Made me sick to my stomach, Super "W" flying into Africa to tell the Africans to 'buck up, suck it up, and take better care of themselves and the land' as he warn of the days coming where the weaning off the teats is approaching! If "W" is so concerned over the 'endless' dollars draining out of the American pie in this recession and to this continent, then just maybe he should land in central America and Mexico on the way back! African illegal aliens?? I would love to see the many senoritas with Bush ladened halter bosoms welcoming him down under. Bush won't get this kind of treatment in Mexico? Okay...I may be naive, but I still think he's doing it (the trip) to keep from twiddling his thumbs, following the election results and the downturn of the economy.
Because of the U.S. anti-malaria program, 5 percent of patients tested positive for the disease on the offshore islands of Zanzibar in 2007 compared to 40 percent three years earlier, the Tanzanian leader said.
Holy crap!
And yet the left considers Bush a monster...
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/18/2008 9:21 Comments ||
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#9
From No Pasaran, Wednesday, October 19, 2005:
Won't Bono ever learn? Again, he meets with an infamous character, sharing lunch at the doofus's home (a tip o' the hat to RV).
In his conversations with Michka Assayas, the rock star and champion of the poor speaks of previous meetings in the White House and Washington:
I was in a photo with President Bush because heâd put $10 billion over three years on the table in a breakthrough increase in foreign assistance called the Millennium Challenge. I had just got back from accompanying the president as he announced this at the Inter-American Development Bank.
I kept my face straight as we passed the press corps, but the peace sign was pretty funny. He thought so, too. Keeping his face straight, he whispered, âThere goes a front page somewhere: Irish rock star with the Toxic Texan.â
I think the swagger and the cowboy boots come with some humour. He is a funny guy. Even on the way to the bank he was taking the piss. The bulletproof motorcade is speeding through the streets of the capital with people waving at the leader of the free world, and him waving back.
I say: âYouâre pretty popular here!â
He goes: âIt wasnât always so . . .â â Oh really? â âYeah. When I first came to this town, people used to wave at me with one finger. Now, they found another three fingers and a thumb.â
So you liked this man?
Yes. As a man, I believed him when he said he was moved to also do something about the Aids pandemic. I believed him. Listen, I couldnât come from a more different place, politically, socially, geographically. I had to make a leap of faith to sit there. He didnât have to have me there at all. But you donât have to be harmonious on everything â just one thing â to get along with someone.
â¦What was your gut feeling the first time you came face to face with President Bush?
He was very funny and quick. Just quick-witted. With him, I got pretty quickly to the point, and the point was an unarguable one â that 6,500 people dying every day of a preventable and treatable disease [Aids] would not be acceptable anywhere else in the world other than Africa, and that before God and history this was a kind of racism that was unacceptable.
And he agreed: âYeah, itâs unacceptable.â He said: âIn fact, itâs a kind of genocide.â
He used the word âgenocideâ, which I took to imply our complicity in this, which I absolutely agree with. Later, his staff tried to take the edge off the word. But in the Rose Garden there was press, and I already had used the word.
He really helped us in using that word. He knew it was hyperbole, but it was effective. We get on very well. I couldnât come from a more different place. We disagree on so many things. But he was moved by my account of what was happening in Africa. He was engaged.
I think, when Iâm sitting two feet from someone, I could tell if this was just politics. This was personal. I think, for all the swagger, this Texan thing, he has a religious instinct that keeps him humble.
You mean that right-wing fundamentalist neocon scary stuff?
Actually, heâs a Methodist. It has to be said that most of the people in the cabinet are not religious extremists.
But you must have disagreed with him at some point.
He banged the table at me once, when I was ranting at him about the ARVs [Aids drugs] not getting out quick enough. Iâm Irish. When we get excited we donât pause for breath, no full stops or commas. He banged the table to ask me to let him reply. He smilingly reminded me he was the president. It was a heated debate. I was very impressed that he could get so passionate. And, letâs face it, tolerating an Irish rock star is not a necessity of his office.
Could you imagine Her Inevitableness in this situation?
When Ali started blogging that he was Sudanese and gay, he did not realize he was joining a band of African and Middle Eastern gays and lesbians who, in the face of hostility and repression, have come out online. "Mr. Ahmadinejad, this man Ali claims to be gay!"
"Execute anyone named Ali, just in case he lives here in Iran!"
But within days the messages started coming in to black-gay-arab.blogspot.com. "Keep up the good work," wrote Dubai-based Weblogger 'Gay by nature'. "Be proud and blog the way you like," wrote Kuwait's gayboyweekly. Close behind ?! came comments, posts and links purporting to be from almost half the countries in the Arab League, including Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco. Whew! We must have killed the last gay in Iran. Who was an immigrant, by the way!
Ali, who lists his home town as Khartoum but lives in Qatar, had plugged into a small, self-supporting network of people who have launched Web sites about their sexuality, while keeping their full identity secret. Caution is crucial - homosexual acts are illegal in most countries in Africa and the Middle East, with penalties ranging from long-term imprisonment followed by execution to execution.
"The whole idea started as a diary. I wanted to write what's on my mind and mainly about homosexuality," he told Reuters in an e-mail. "To tell you the truth, I didn't expect this much response."
In the current climate, bloggers say they are achieving a lot just by stating their nationality and sexual orientation. "If you haven't heard or seen any gays in Sudan then allow me to tell you 'You Don't live In The Real World then,"' Ali wrote in a message to other Sudanese bloggers. "I'm Sudanese and Proud Gay Also."
His feelings were echoed in a mini-manifesto at the start of the blog "Rants and raves of a Kenyan gay man" that stated: "The Kenyan gay man is a myth and you may never meet one in your lifetime. However, I and many others like me do exist; just not openly. This blog was created to allow access to the pysche of me, who represents the thousands of us who are unrepresented."
That limited form of coming out has earned the bloggers abuse or criticism via their blogs' comment pages or e-mails. "Faggot queen," wrote a commentator called 'blake' on Kenya's 'Rants and raves'. "I will put my loathing for you faggots aside momentarily, due to the suffering caused by the political situation," referring to the country's post-election violence. I wonder what he'd think if he found out this guy was his brother.
Some are more measured: "The fact that you are a gay Sudanese and proudly posting about it in itself is just not natural," a reader called 'sudani' posted on Ali's blog. Only because you're not gay yourself, sudani.
Some of the bloggers use the diary-style format to share the ups and downs of gay life -- the dilemma of whether to come out to friends and relatives, the risks of meeting in known gay bars, or, according to blogger "...and then God created Men!" the joys of the Egyptian resort town . Must be an after-effect of having been occupied by the Joooos!
Others have turned their blogs into news outlets, focusing on reports of persecution in their region and beyond. The blog GayUganda reported on the arrests of gay men in Senegal in February. A month earlier, Blackgayarab posted video footage of alleged police harassment in Iraq.
Kenya's "Rants and Raves" reported that gay people were targets in the country's election violence, while blogger Gukira focused on claims that boys had been raped during riots. Afriboy organized an auction of his erotic art to raise funds "to help my community in Kenya."
There was also widespread debate on the comments made by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last September about homosexuals in his country.
The total number of gay bloggers in the region is still relatively small, say the few Web sites that monitor the scene. "It is the rare soul who is willing to go up against such blind and violent ignorance and advocate for gay rights and respect," said Richard Ammon of GlobalGayz.com which tracks gay news and Web sites throughout the world.
"There are a number of people from the community who are blogging both from Africa and the diaspora but it is still quite sporadic," said Nigerian blogger Sokari Ekine who keeps a directory of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender blogs on her own Web site Black Looks.
The overall coverage may be erratic, but pockets of gay blogging activity are starting to emerge. There are blogs bridging the Arabic-speaking world from Morocco in the west to the United Arab Emirates in the east. There is a self-sustaining circle of gay bloggers in Kenya and Uganda together with a handful of sites put up by gay Nigerians.
And then there is South Africa, where the constitutional recognition of gay rights has encouraged many bloggers to come wholly into the open. "I don't preserve my anonymity at all. I am embracing our constitution which gives us the right to freedom of speech ... There is nothing wrong that I am doing," said Matuba Mahlatjie of the blog My Haven.
Beyond the blogging scene, the Internet's chat rooms and community sites have also become one of the safest ways for gay Africans and Arabs to meet, away from the gaze of a hostile society. "That is what I did at first, I mean, I looked around for others until I found others," said Gug, the writer behind the blog GayUganda. "Oh yes, I do love the Internet, and I guess it is a tool that has made us gay Ugandans and Africans get out of our villages and realize that the parish priest's homophobia is not universal opinion. Surprise, surprise!" Better hope that the next generation of internet preserves your anonymity or that "2% with the guns" faction will come looking for you real quick.
#1
just like in the Latino community, only the catchers are gay, not the pitchers
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2008 7:38 Comments ||
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#2
Yet if the US (or any Western power) ever feels the need to use pressure or force to confront these same oppressive, fascistic governments, the left (even most Democrats now, sadly) will reflexively portray us as the bullies. In the war against Islamism, the left will always throw women and minorities under the bus. BDS, transnational delusions, and other afflictions seem to have totally severed the historic links between the words "liberty" and "liberal".
#3
While I disagree with the gay lifestyle in general, and the gay political agenda in america in particular, I realize that the only way the umbrella of protection against Islam is going to adequately shelter me and my family is for it to be big enough to shelter these human beings as well.
#4
After finding that Animals are also Gay, I realised this kind of behaviour is "Hard Wired" into men, to stick it into any available hole and hope for the best.
(No, I'm not gay, but I have no hatred of them, they have it tough enough already.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2008 12:20 Comments ||
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Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who threatened to cut off oil sales to the U.S. a week ago, said the government won't do so unless the South American nation is attacked. ``We don't have plans to stop sending oil to the U.S.,'' Chavez said today in comments broadcast by Venezuelan state television. ``All I've said is that, if the U.S. attacks us, we'll have to decide not to send one drop of oil to the U.S.''
Finally figuring out that he has few other takers for his oil, has he ...
Venezuelan Oil and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez said Feb. 13 that the country is in an ``economic war'' with the U.S. The world's largest economy is seeking to destabilize Venezuela by backing a lawsuit filed by Exxon Mobil Corp. to freeze assets of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, Ramirez said.
The conflict stems from a dispute between Exxon and PDVSA, as the state oil company is known, over Exxon's compensation for its stake in a heavy crude oil joint venture that was nationalized last year. Chavez, who has accused the U.S. of trying to undermine his efforts to implement ``21st-century socialism,'' has seized on the Exxon conflict to sharpen his criticism of President George W. Bush. Exxon has won court orders freezing $12.3 billion in PDVSA's assets as part of the legal battle.
Chavez, speaking today from the oil installation that Exxon abandoned last year when the Venezuelan government took control of four joint ventures in the country's Faja del Orinoco region, called the U.S. oil company a ``thief.'' He said the country's petroleum reserves will never be controlled by the U.S. again.
Sure, you guys go right ahead and develop those oil fields yourselves ...
Venezuela sells more than half its oil output to the U.S. It can't quickly shift to new customers because its thick, sulfur- rich oil can only be handled by refineries designed specifically for its characteristics. Most of those are on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Ramirez said today during the television program that there is a global shortage of oil, and that Venezuela won't have problems finding new buyers. Chavez, who says the Faja has reserves of more than a trillion barrels, said reports that PDVSA is in financial trouble are false. "Supposedly Venezuela is going to go under, PDVSA is going to go under, because only the U.S. has refineries to process our oil,'' Chavez said. "Don't believe these lies.''
Okay. Exactly who else can handle the oil?
The president said he's considering the creation of an ``unexpected gains'' tax on the oil industry. The levy would be charged progressively as oil prices rise above average levels, Chavez said.
Sounds like Hillary's tax plan ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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A few more years and it won't matter. US policy is to ramp Canadian tar sands production to completely replace Venezuelan imports.
Posted by: ed ||
02/18/2008 1:27 Comments ||
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#2
the way this has panned out over the last few days i don't think that it matters now. Gas didn't go up no one really said anything about it on the news no one really noticed his remarks at all
#3
Chavez may be doing us a big favor. The science and natural resources are there to substantially reduce the flow of his oil into the market. Tar sands, untapped oil fields, coal, biofuels from agricultural wastes, nuclear, super high capacity lithium/silicon batteries, lower-cost solar cells, fuel cell technology are just a few of the things that can reduce the money flowing from our coffers into our enemy's pockets. Please, mister Chavez, help motivate us to eliminate our dependence on you!
#4
I think Sinse is on to it. #1 - Hugo's threat was his usual temper tantrum over Exxon's freezing of $12B of "his" money. #2 - Making the threats and causing ripples in the world oil market would show that he is a big man on the world stage (almost as ego-gratifying as another big sprocket on the sash). #3 - the failure of anybody to react or raise oil prices over his threats musta been a big blow to the blowhard's ego, and his advisors, no doubt, reminded him that nobody else's refineries could crack that shitty oil he's selling
all in all, a satisfying week, no?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2008 9:30 Comments ||
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#5
What's these things in my hand here?
Why they appear to be Hugo Chavez's balls...
Posted by: G. W. Bush ||
02/18/2008 9:36 Comments ||
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#7
While expected, Hugo will snap his neck making those whiplash reverses.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2008 12:07 Comments ||
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#8
Fer crissakes, Hugo. ya can't even fool the Washington Post...
Mr. Chavez's Bluff
If Venezuela's strongman cut off oil exports to the United States, the first victim would be his regime.
ONE OF the more regrettable ironies of international relations is that the United States, through its voracious consumption of oil, underwrites President Hugo Chávez's regime in Venezuela. In November alone, the United States bought more than 41 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, roughly 10 percent of all U.S. oil imports that month. If the Bush administration were really as committed to overthrowing Mr. Chávez as Mr. Chávez claims, the administration might be tempted to declare a boycott of Venezuelan oil. That would make a small but easily repaired dent in the U.S. economy, but it would devastate Venezuela, since it produces high-sulfur oil that, for the most part, can be refined only in special U.S.-based refineries.
So imagine our astonishment when Mr. Chávez himself threatened this week to cut off exports of crude oil to America. Perpetually angry at the United States, Mr. Chávez made this particular outburst because of his conflict with Exxon Mobil, the American oil multinational whose operations in Venezuela he nationalized last year. While other oil companies accepted Mr. Chávez's compensation terms and went quietly, Exxon Mobil fought the takeover through international arbitration and courts around the world. Last week, the company successfully moved to freeze $12 billion of Venezuelan assets, pending the outcome of the dispute. Enraged, Mr. Chávez announced: "If you end up freezing [Venezuelan assets] and it harms us, we're going to harm you. Do you know how? We aren't going to send oil to the United States." In an interview published Tuesday in the Venezuelan newspaper Ultimas Noticias, Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez declared the country "ready" to make good on the threat.
But someone apparently explained to Mr. Chávez that Venezuela's oil industry, already in decline because of Mr. Chávez's mismanagement, might collapse if he actually carried out his threat. And without oil money, Mr. Chávez, who lost a referendum on extending his rule two months ago, cannot finance the subsidies and social spending that buy what's left of his popular support in Venezuela. Mr. Chávez has now announced a modified, limited boycott: Henceforth, his state oil company will no longer sell crude directly to Exxon Mobil. This gesture will eventually prove meaningless as third parties come forward to buy the oil and then resell it to Exxon Mobil for refining. Also, Mr. Chávez's government declared that the boycott does not apply to high-sulfur oil from the Cerro Negro field, which can be refined only at a facility that Venezuela and Exxon Mobil jointly operate in Chalmette, La. Two cheers for Exxon Mobil. In standing up to Mr. Chávez through peaceful, legal means, it has once again exposed the hollowness of the anti-imperialism with which he justifies his rule.
I wonder when the last time was that The Washington Post led the cheers for Exxon/Mobil?
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez Sunday said his government may file a suit against ExxonMobil (XOM) for allegedly taking as much as 500,000 barrels of crude from oil fields without paying for them. "They took 500,000 barrels of crude from here without reporting them, before they began developing" the fields, Chavez said during his radio and television show. "Let's sue ExxonMobil and demand that they pay for what they stole. They're the aggressors, they're the thieves," he said.
The president's comments came minutes after a worker for Petroleos de Venezuela, or PdVSA, said on live television that Exxon had managed to steal hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil years ago unbeknownst to the government.
The accusation is the latest in a legal spat that pits one of the world's most powerful oil companies against a country that holds some of the largest oil reserves on the planet. Early this year ExxonMobil, pending a arbitration with PdVSA, secured court orders to freeze as much as $12 billion in PdVSA's worldwide assets. PdVSA has appealed, but the freeze remains in effect. Last year, ExxonMobil filed for arbitration against PdVSA to resolve a dispute over how much the state-oil company should compensate ExxonMobil for the nationalization of a heavy-crude oil venture last summer.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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The life of a Repo Man is never easy.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
02/18/2008 1:43 Comments ||
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Let's see Venezuelan asphalt production in 5 years when the $billions in heavy oil technology invested by Exxon and Chevron is worn out. I predict Venezuelan selling their teenage daughters in Columbia for a bag of rice.
Posted by: ed ||
02/18/2008 1:55 Comments ||
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#3
Watch for Chavez to mount a raid on the platform, pursuant the outcome of the judicial wrangling ongoing. Exxon is in a secret logistics/Intel loop with the US military, and I wouldn't be surprised to hear of a Somali type offshore patrol established in the area soon!
China is concerned by U.S. plans to shoot down an ailing spy satellite and is considering what "preventative measures" to take, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday. Prevent this, People's A-holes!
"The Chinese government is paying close attention to how a real nation shoots down a satellite the situation develops and demands the U.S. side fulfill its international obligations and avoids causing damage to security in outer space and of other countries," spokesman Liu Jianchao said. You first, China. Oh, I forgot. You already shot down a satellite with your People's ASat Missile and left debris strewn all over the place in orbit. Well, pay attention and see how this is supposed to be done.
President George W. Bush has decided to have the Navy shoot the 5,000-pound (2,270 kg) satellite with a modified tactical missile after security advisers suggested its re-entry could lead to a loss of life, U.S. officials said on Thursday. And Dems are howling about how hopeless the technical challenge is and how the world will hate us for even attempting it just like they did a few years ago. No really, they are. You just can't hear them.
"Relevant departments in China are closely watching the situation and studying the system's limitations and how they may be taken advantage of for the good of the world preventive measures," Liu said in a brief statement posted on the (Foreign Ministry's Web site).
On Saturday, Russia's Defense Ministry said the U.S. plan could be used as a cover to test a new space weapon. Ya think?
It will be the first time the United States has conducted an anti-satellite operation since the 1980s. Russia also has not conducted anti-satellite activities in 20 years.
Because they can't.
China launched a ground-based missile into an obsolete weather satellite in January 2007, drawing international criticism and worries inside the Pentagon that Beijing has the ability to target critical military assets in space. Pay no attention to the elephant behind the curtain.
We've discussed the situation with China's and in general Asian, currencies in the past. Here's a piece from Bloomberg that provides some background and thoughts on how the fall in the dollar has played out in the East.
Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Like it or not, China has no choice other than to let the yuan appreciate against the dollar. The combination of the world's fastest economic growth, the highest inflation rate in 11 years and the rising cost of intervention will force gains in the yuan to accelerate, even as policy makers in Beijing resist calls from the West to let the currency appreciate at a faster pace, say Pacific Investment Management Co. and Pictet & Cie., Switzerland's largest closely held private bank.
Central bankers in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines are in the same situation, making their currencies attractive, according to money managers at the firms and Merrill Lynch & Co. Nine of the 10 best-performing currencies against the dollar in 2008 will come from Asia, surveys of foreign exchange strategists by Bloomberg show.
``You're likely to see less intervention,'' said Ramin Toloui, who helps oversee more than $60 billion in emerging- market bonds and currencies at Newport Beach, California-based Pimco. ``Several Asian central banks see more rapid exchange- rate appreciation as an important tool to fight inflation.''
After rising 7 percent last year, the yuan has appreciated 1.9 percent to 7.1679 per dollar so far in 2008. New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by market value, predicts a further 14 percent increase, while Citigroup Inc. in New York, the second largest, forecasts a 6 percent advance.
Thailand's baht has climbed 3.7 percent to 32.51 this year, while the Taiwan dollar is up 2.4 percent to NT$31.71. Malaysia's ringgit and Singapore dollar are close to their highest levels in a decade.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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STRATEGYPAGE > BACK TO BLACK. China's desire of TECH INNOVATION = making it FDI profitable for foreign entrpeneurs and companies, while flooding Western schools with Chinese students, plus the old-fahioned, Cold War dirty stuff.
North Korea celebrated the 66th birthday of its leader Kim Jong Il as the regime called on the population to unite behind him. Kim received congratulatory messages from leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported today. The nation's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper ran an editorial praising Kim for expanding North Korea's military.
``Our dear leader went through agony and difficult times on the road to the nation's prosperity,'' KCNA cited the newspaper as saying in the editorial. ``Let's fight harder to safeguard the revolutionary leadership led by the respected comrade Kim Jong Il with our lives.''
Kim, known for his bouffant hairdo and zip-front olive- green jackets, has led the nation of 23 million people since his father Kim Il Sung died in 1994. The little that is known of Kim outside of North Korea tends to come through the filter of the state-run media. Rallies, gala events and flower shows were held across the country to celebrate his birthday, KCNA said.
Synchronized swimmers saluted Kim with performances titled ``Our General is Best'' and ``Veneration for General,'' the official agency said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
``Our dear leader went through agony and difficult times on the road to the nation's prosperity'' Yup drinking and whoring in almost every commie nation is hard when your dad is a honest to god dictorial leader.
Longish summary of analyst discussions. Bottom line up front: things get a LOT less predictable in SE Asia for all concerned. Lots of disagreement on exactly what that would look like tho.
#2
Aagh! Link to PDF! Please warn me before linking to a PDF, they slow down my computer.
And most South Koreans would like nothing more than this, even though it's not in their best interest. Lots of it is attributable to simple racism, even though you'll never hear a peep about this in the Western media.
#4
Aagh! Link to PDF! Please warn me before linking to a PDF, they slow down my computer.
Aagh! Aagh! User, help thyself! Turn on your status bar. Then, hover your mouse pointer over the link. Behold the status bar...for it will reveal the link leads to a PDF file.
Or, right click on the link and select Properties, that will inform you that the link goes to a PDF file.
#5
Coulda, shoulda, woulda. FUD - fear, uncertainty, and dread. We should have been out of Korea over a decade ago and Europe after the wall fell. Military Assistance Groups and joint training could continue but enough with the military welfare for the economically established societies out there.
#7
g: And I kind of like keeping troops in SKor, just to keep the Chinese guessing.
It's also useful for spreading out our supply dumps. Not to mention the fact that if we dissolve the alliance, North Korea automatically becomes a Chinese province. I don't think we need to have China become bigger than it already is.
#8
NKorea can not take over the South nowdays. The south is too well defended, the ROKs are too good and wouldn't even need American help to drive the Norks back to the Yalu. However, with 20 million pissed off and horny young men and the Chinese disposal, they would be handy to have over running the South rather than causing problems at home. Maybe even bring back Korean woman too keep them even more occupied.
#9
We don't need this alliance. The Sorks do, but they treat our troops like crap and act as if they're doing us a big favor by allowing them the great privilege of living in Sorkland. We would definitely be better off if we abrogated the alliance and pulled our troops out.
They've been saying for years (at least a large segment of their political classes) that they resent our "American hegemony." It's long past time that we admitted that resentment and honored those wishes for us to leave. The Sorks need to learn that you should be careful what you ask for--you just might get it. Us pulling out might teach them that lesson. It did wonders for the Philippines.
#10
I agree, plus it sends a message to our other "partners" that the US umbrella goodtimes are over some day, and that day can come a lot quicker if you treat us poorly
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2008 18:34 Comments ||
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#11
Agree with P2K. It makes sense to have basing with truly reliable allies like UK, Australia or possessions like Guam with the ability to Lily pad as necessary. Whose idea was that, anyway?
#12
The Sorks need to learn that you should be careful what you ask for--you just might get it. Us pulling out might teach them that lesson. It did wonders for the Philippines.
I wouldn't include the UK in this category, their reliability is severely diminished. At least as far as the Political Class is concerned. And it seems as if the people themselves have lost their fight. They're a cowed lot the Brits.
#4
Got my first Nigerian Scam letter yesterday (I changed from AOL to People pc last year)
had a file of around 400 or so before this one (Lost my file when changing servers)
I usualy send them back around 100 or so of the previous sendings, I understand internet is really expensive over there. This time I just E-Mailed a short "Fuck you Idiot" note, no more yet.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2008 13:53 Comments ||
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#5
R J, if you get creative with a reply it really confuses the heck out of them. It's also a lot of fun.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
02/18/2008 19:05 Comments ||
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Ribs showing clearly through their tattered flanks, the starving horses corralled on the edge of the eastern Romanian city of Galati are just a few days away from death. Once, they would have pulled wooden carts along the city's streets or worked in the fields, as horses have done in Romania for centuries. But now they have been abandoned by their owners, victims of a disastrous attempt to bring the country into line with European Union law by banning horse-drawn carts from main roads.
Over the past month, hundreds of stray horses have been found roaming the streets and parks of Romania's major cities. Many are half-starved and barely able to walk; some have died where they were discovered, unable to get back to their feet. Pitifully thin and bearing the scars of frequent beatings, the horses rounded up in Galati will be sent to the slaughterhouse within days unless someone comes forward to claim them, or to offer them new homes. But there is little demand for an ailing animal in a country where an estimated one million working horses have been officially labelled an anachronism.
Some owners have decided it is cheaper to dump the animals than to keep them, since the cost of feeding a horse is now about £80 a month. Many people living in the countryside earn just £50 a month.
"People only care about exploiting the animal," said Corina Daniela Grigore, who runs the Help Labus animal welfare group in Galati, home to Romania's giant Mittal steel plant. "They think that if it is no use to them any more they can just set it loose."
She said the authorities were struggling to cope with the scale of the problem and were turning to private groups for help. "We had a call to say there was a sick horse next to the steel plant," she said. "We had to rent a truck to pick him up and we looked after him for four days, but his legs were injured and he could not get up off the ground. We had to watch him die."
Similar stories have emerged across Romania after police started to enforce laws banning carts from the roads in order to bring Romania into line with European road safety legislation. Romanian police, who say they were under pressure from the EU to cut accident figures, blame horse-drawn carts for 10 per cent of the country's 8,400 serious road accidents last year.
Chief Commissioner Carol Varna, head of the Romanian police traffic safety department, said that more than 1,000 carts had been seized since officers started to enforce the law. "There are some owners who just let their horses go when they cannot afford them any more," he said.
In the past month, at least 15 horses have been found abandoned in the centre of the capital, Bucharest. Elsewhere in the country, campaigners have been told of animals pushed into ditches and beaten to death with sticks. Television news reports showing abandoned horses dying in the snow prompted 200,000 people to sign a petition calling for a new government body to look after animals. Calin Alexandru, a vet who is co-ordinating Bucharest's attempts to deal with the problem, said it was a struggle to find homes for the horses. "We are seeing more and more abandoned," she said. "We cannot find their owners."
In response to the outcry, the government is introducing tough fines and jail sentences for anyone found to have beaten or abandoned a horse. But horse owners, who face fines of up to £100 and the confiscation of both their cart and their animal if they are caught on main roads, believe that it is the end of a way of life. Vasile Adresana, 25, said he had no choice but to get rid of his horse when the police started cracking down on the roads around his home town of Roman, in the north-east of the country. "I used to work gathering wood which I would sell, but the government introduced these laws under EU pressure. Everyone ignored them for a while, but when the police started enforcing the laws there were many roads that I was no longer allowed to travel on with my cart. "There was not enough thought given to the consequences."
His wife Miheala, 23, said one of their neighbours had kept his horse, but only because he could no longer get rid of it legally. "The animal is all skin and bone and he beats it all the time - he can't use it for anything and he gets frustrated, but it's not the horse's fault."
John Ross, a British equestrian who arranges riding holidays in Transylvania, said that the police were too quick to blame animals for the high accident statistics. "The ban was slipped in stealthily," he said. "There are some villages where farmers cannot legally get to their fields any more."
#2
And these beasts are Carbon Neutral and could help out with Global Warming or Climate Change or whatever scam you would like to stick on the people.
The other consideration is that this is wrong to treat animals this way. Is there no mechanism to get this changed at the top quickly, or is it just a bureaucracy thing and we have to let the animals starve to death? Multiply situations like this by the thousands and you will see how European Law works.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/18/2008 20:26 Comments ||
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#3
I did a double take on that headline, because I initially read it as,
'EU regs causing abandonment, starvation of whores in Romania'.
#4
Gee, Phil, if your initial interpretation had been correct, I'm sure that here at the 'Burg we'd be discussing how to mobilize some emergency foreign aid pronto!
I spent a couple of weeks running around that place, with a couple of Kosovar families and with some U.S. paratroopers. It was parachute journalism, in and out job. Part of that time was spent in the city of Urosevac. Thats what the Serbs call it. One of the Serb soldiers who had occupied my hosts house painted on its side as they departed the wistful graffiti, Bye Bye Ferizai. In English. There was apparently a sophisticated, maybe even poetic conscript in the bunch. Ferizai is what the Albs call that city. That is where I learned quick ethnic conflict lesson No. 1: When you have people living in the same place who have two different names for it, sooner or later youre going to have trouble. In Kosovo/Kosovas case, thats been just about once a decade for most of the past century, and probably about the same for most of the prior ten centuries. . . .
Go read it all. He has a lot to say about Kosova Moslems, the Serbs, and Yugoslavia in general.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/18/2008 08:26 ||
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Rioting erupted in the Serbian capital Belgrade last night as 2,000 protesters hurled stones at the U.S. embassy, which was guarded by 500 police.
In Belgrade, Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica branded the southern region "a false state". In a televised address, he said Kosovo was propped up unlawfully by Washington, which was "ready to violate the international order for its own military interests".
In Kosovo itself, hand renades were thrown at EU and United Nations buildings in the flashpoint city of Mitrovica where 60,000 Serbs live - half the Serb population of the world's newest country. Nato-led peacekeepers in Mitrovica put up concrete and wire barriers to close off the bridges dividing the Albanians and Serbs.
"We'll see what happens during the night," said one Serb man. "There will be a lot of armed people here." He pulled a hand grenade from his pocket.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Lets just hope the Russians don't roll down there with a "peace keeping" force.
#2
Quite frankly, I hope the Russians roll in, in force, and reverse the mischief provided by Slick Willie and the Brussels geniuses. The Serbs were fundamentally correct, even tho brutish, in regaining territory that Muzz infiltration had robbed them of. Dealing with Islamos with force is all that ever works. Of course, once they start getting stomped on, they start producing big sympathy tears. Complete annihilation is the only solution for these human cockroaches.
It's easier for Zappie to go after the ETA than the Islamicists, though the latter is the mortal threat to Spain. Then again, Zappie's a socialist, so he has sympathies for the Islamicists.
But pay attention: if we end up with President Barack Obama, he too will see the value of going after terrorists starting in, oh, late 2011 ...
Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Pablo Gorostiaga was cleaning out his cowshed near Orozco, in northern Spain, when 25 masked police officers with sub-machine guns and black body armor burst into the farmyard and dragged him off, cuffed and hooded. He was charged with collaborating with the Basque terror group ETA.
The December arrest of Gorostiaga, 66, a former mayor, is part of a crackdown on separatists that is fueling tensions in Spain's Basque region. It's also helping Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero maintain a lead in opinion polls over People's Party leader Mariano Rajoy before general elections March 9. ``This is the politics of revenge,'' said Gorostiaga's son Xabier, 40. ``They just do it to show they are in charge.'' Gorostiaga was already being prosecuted; the arrest after 18 months of trial was to ensure he wouldn't flee, police said.
No country on Europe's continent has suffered more terrorism violence, homegrown and international, than Spain. Zapatero came to power in 2004 after Islamic militants killed 191 in an attack on Madrid trains that tipped the vote against the ruling People's Party. In 2006, he tried to negotiate an end to 40 years of Basque violence that has cost more than 800 lives.
Those talks, which Rajoy told Zapatero consisted of ``so many errors they are burying you,'' ended when ETA bombed Madrid's Barajas airport in December 2006, killing two. Since then, Zapatero has switched from peacemaker to crusader, ramping up police pressure on the separatists.
Spanish police have arrested 98 suspected ETA operatives since the Barajas bombing, as well as at least 34 people accused of links to terrorists. Ten days after his arrest, Gorostiaga was sentenced to nine years in prison. ``Zapatero needed to show that he was tough,'' said Javier Elzo, professor of sociology at Deusto University in Bilbao. ``The PP always used terrorism as part of its bid to win elections and when Zapatero's attempt at negotiations failed, he did the same.''
The month following ETA's attack on the Madrid airport was the last time Zapatero, 47, trailed Rajoy, 52, in opinion polls. The prime minister now trails Rajoy by less than 2 percentage points on anti-terror policy while leading on almost every other issue. Zapatero led the People's Party by 5.5 percentage points, compared with 6.4 points a week earlier, according to an opinion poll of 4,008 Spaniards published on Feb. 11 in Publico newspaper.
Zapatero's terrorism initiative has also been aided by Spain's independent judiciary. National Court Magistrate Baltasar Garzon last week suspended two separatist parties over alleged links to ETA, provoking a Feb. 10 protest in Bilbao in which police clashed with demonstrators. ``There is much more pressure on us since the cease-fire ended,'' said Arantza Urkaregi, a spokeswoman for suspended party Basque Nationalist Action.
ETA has been using violence for more than 40 years in a bid to create a Basque region independent from France and Spain. The effort has left thousands of relatives of victims and survivors of their attacks in its wake. The country's largest such group, the Association of Terrorism Victims, has become a political force, organizing large-scale protests to oppose Zapatero's talks with ETA. About 1,000 politicians, business executives and journalists live with bodyguards, according to the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee.
``Business people, judges, politicians and some journalists have to live with this danger day in, day out,'' said Antonio Basagoiti, head of the PP in Bilbao, who has had bodyguards for 10 years. ``The tension has increased; we all realize that one day we might be dealt a bad hand.''
The end of the truce and signs that Islamic militants may also be planning new violence are stoking concerns about an electoral attack. In January, Spanish authorities arrested 14 people in Barcelona whom they said were linked to an Islamic terror cell planning an attack on the city. It was a group inspired by al-Qaeda that carried out the Madrid train bombing three days ahead of the 2004 election to punish the PP government for backing the U.S.-led war in Iraq, prosecutors in the case said. Zapatero had trailed Rajoy in polls before the attack.
``Al-Qaeda has already boasted of its ability to intervene in Spanish political life,'' while ``ETA will try for a spectacular attack with the elections approaching,'' said Fernando Reinares, head of research in international terrorism at the Elcano Institute in Madrid.
They won't do it this time: Zappie is their man, and al-Qaeda doesn't want the PP back in power.
A survey of 2,472 people by the Center for Sociological Research in December showed that 19.5 percent of respondents said terrorism was their biggest concern, compared with 11.8 percent in November. ``The government has the advantage at the moment, and if it doesn't make any mistakes, it's enough for them to win,'' said Francisco Llera, professor of political science at the University of the Basque Country in Leioa.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
It si all show. The truth is that he has been negotiating with ETA all along and mking concessions all along. After coming to power, after it was obvious it was just a hudna and were rearming, after they killed two SouthAmericans in Madrid airport and it only ended officially (I insist in the officially since the socialists have refused to votre a law banning future negotiations) after they killed two Spanish cops a few months ago.
He was also negotiting with ETA before the Madrid bombings despite a pact with Aznar &about forming a common front against terrorism.
"From today onwards, Kosovo is proud, independent and free," says Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Where have all the UN peacekeepers gone? When will they ever learn? Long time passing. Long time ago... The Left seems determined to continue to use failed resources to get failed results. When has the UN brought anything but corruption and failure to a land of discontent - anywhere?
#2
1980's GORBACHEVISM > Soviet-led PAN-SLAVICISM agenda > The then USSR per contingency options made plans to foster local anarchy(s)including ETHNIC, in the BALKANS AS A WAY OF TYING UP NATO POLITICS AND DIVERTING NATO MILFORS AWAY FROM CENTRAL EUROPE/FULDA GAP.
UNFORTUNATELY, POST-GORBY/USSR > the breakup of YUGOSLAVIA, etc, and now the KOSOVO Crisis = REGIONAL SECTARIANISM still serves Russ anti-US/NATO ambitions.
#2
Hillary sampled a spicy Mexican sauce at a Milwaukee grocery store in a heavily Latino neighborhood and purchased hot peppers, which she eats in large quantities to try to ward off colds
OMG Thank God the rapporteur stopped at that end of the digestive tract.
#3
if hot peppers warded off colds, I wouldn't have one (a cold) right now. Still, I doubt she personally sampled them, likely some poor unlikely waspy New York staffer had to down em with hilarious results: "alright, then, Chad will simply have to catch up with us in Texas, where I'll do a media event buying some of those hotter ones. Tell him I hope he's feeling better"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2008 18:31 Comments ||
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#4
An Obama-Edwards ticket would be the culmination of the style-over-substance movement.
#5
TOPIX > THE PENINSULA [QATAR] - THREE REASONS TO VOTE FOR OBAMA. Its called "diplomacy", i.e. Barack will talk to Moud, Kimmie, etc.; + WORLD IS NO BETTER WITH THE WAR ON THE TERROR, + WAITING FOR A WORLD OF CHANGE. World and many AMers are anticipating a HUGE/SIGNIFICANT SHIFT in US FOREIGN POLICIES OVER NEXT 4-8 YEARS IFF A US DEM WINS THE WHITE HOUSE in 2008, i.e. MORE MULTILATER/POLAR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION-PARTNERSHIPS, NOT DUBYA-STYLE US-ONLY
"UNILATERALISM", to include the closure of Guantanamo Bay holding facility???
Speaking of GITMO, TOPIX/FREEREPUBLIC > CUBA DEMANDS THE RETURN OF GUANTANAMO BAY. The Base and land areas, NOT only the detention center.
I got curious about what I really remember of that Democrat convention held in Chicago in 1968 since it is again being mentioned by some. So, Goggle gave me answers.
This is a date time line -- starting in 1967 leading up to the convention, and on through the destruction that occured, up to the leaving of VietNam. Good read -- for those of us with some memory, and for those with no memory (too young).
August 5: On the day that the Republican National Convention opens in Miami Beach, Florida, Ronald Reagan declares he is a candidate for the Republican nomination. I didn't know this, but then, I wasn't 21 yet
Republican John McCain says there will be no new taxes during his administration if he is elected president. "No new taxes," the likely GOP presidential nominee said during a taped interview broadcast Sunday.
McCain told ABC's "This Week" that under no circumstances would he increase taxes, and added that he could "see an argument, if our economy continues to deteriorate, for lower interest rates, lower tax rates, and certainly decreasing corporate tax rates," as well as giving people the ability to write off depreciation and eliminating the alternative minimum tax.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Unfortunately excessively low interest rates are partly to blame for the economic fix we're in now.
#2
I hope he doesn't have to eat his words, ala George Herbert Walker Bush's: ("...Read My Lips...No New Taxes!"), that killed his 2nd run chances after Billy Boy ate him alive because of it. But McCain can get away with it if he only plans to run one term anyway!!
Barack Obama's primary-night results were strikingly underrecorded in several districts around the city - in some cases leaving him with zero votes when, in fact, he had pulled in hundreds, the Board of Elections said yesterday.
Unofficial primary results gave Obama no votes in nearly 80 districts, including Harlem's 94th and other historically black areas - but many of those initial tallies proved to be wildly off the mark, the board said.
In some districts getting a recount, the senator from Illinois is even closer to defeating Hillary Clinton.
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Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
No problem...Barak Obama as usual, keeping a cool head, send in the election supervising lawyers like Huckabee did in Washington state, and stay above the fray!! Second counting under a 1% difference, make Obama pay for it; over 1%...the State election folks pick up the tab!
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has scaled back her Wisconsin campaign schedule by a full day, and is now planning to leave the state after Monday morning instead of Tuesday morning.
The move suggests the campaign does not think it can overtake rival Barack Obama here. Obama has already campaigned in the state Tuesday night, Wednesday, Friday, and today. He also has single events planned for Sunday (Kaukauna) and Monday (Beloit).
While the two have exchanged hard-hitting TV ads here, Obama began airing ads a week earlier and has spent much more on TV.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/18/2008 00:00 ||
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The Bush administration has been posting hundreds of highly confidential U.N. audits and investigation reports on a U.S. government Web site, opening the United Nations inner workings and some of its more colorful scandals to unusual public scrutiny. Together, the nearly 500 documents and thousands of pages constitute a trove of U.N. secrets stretching over five years, including allegations of bribes paid for tsunami relief projects in Indonesia, of sexual harassment in Gaza and a revelation that a U.N. anti-drug official ran a presidential campaign while receiving a U.N. paycheck. The pages also document a spree of alleged criminal activities, including a bribery scheme at the airport in Pristina, Kosovo; gold trading by U.N. peacekeepers in Congo; and the theft and resale of food rations by Ukrainian pilots serving the United Nations in Liberia.
Mark Wallace, the U.S. representative for U.N. management and reform, has posted 477 documents, following the lead of his former boss, John Bolton, who as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations began releasing documents as early as 2006. I didnt see any reason why U.N. audit documents shouldnt be made public, recalled Bolton, comparing the situation to the Government Accountability Offices publication of reports on U.S. government activities. I didnt think my job was to cover up for the United Nations.
The documents disclosure has shed light on some major U.N. mysteries, including the abrupt retirement of Jacques Paul Klein, a former American diplomat who served as the U.N. special representative in Liberia until April 2005. A two-page document labeled strictly confidential accuses Klein of an improper relationship with a local woman suspected of passing on secrets to Charles Taylor, the former Liberian president now on trial for war crimes.
Klein was one of the most visible U.S. nationals at the United Nations, where he served as special representative in Eastern Slavonia in 1996, and later as the U.N.s high representative in Bosnia. In 2003, Klein was chosen to lead the U.N. mission in Liberia, the organizations largest peacekeeping operation at the time, where he oversaw the transition from Charles Taylors rule to the election of President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a former World Bank economist. Klein developed a reputation for bullying Bosnian or Liberian power brokers into yielding to U.N. demands, and he presided over missions in Bosnia and Liberia that faced sexual misconduct scandals involving U.N. personnel.
Klein met Linda Fawaz, a 30-year-old Liberian-American woman whose uncle headed a major timber company. According to the report, Fawaz (identified as Local Woman) accompanied Klein (described as Senior Official) to diplomatic functions and regularly traveled on U.N. aircraft in violation of organizational rules. Senior Official has invited Local Woman to functions both with UNMIL staff and persons outside the UN, some of which have been of an official nature, the report said. A number of staff interviewed by (U.N. investigators) expressed concern that the Local Woman was passing information which she had gathered from Senior Official to Mr. Taylor and others.
Efforts to reach Fawaz through a former employer were unsuccessful. Klein declined to discuss the investigation, saying, I think Ive put my family through enough misery. But he defended his tenure in Liberia, saying that he had helped to bring a crippled nation back to its feet and paved the way for democratic elections. Im just trying to put all this behind me and get on with my life, Klein said.
Among the documents posted on the Web are 32 reports, completed in 2004 and 2005, by a U.N. investigative task force into misconduct at the internationally operated airport in Pristina, including bribery, bid rigging and sexual harassment. The reports document allegations that airport staff members received payment to forge documents from Kosovars seeking entry into European capitals and demanded kickbacks from companies seeking contracts.
To honor the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, the Bayuni family spent days preparing for the annual anti-American effigy contest. First prize: a gold coin stamped with an image of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. How - capitalistic.
So as tens of thousands of Iranians rallied in central Tehran on Monday, the family added entries to the competition: one showed Iran choking America and Israel; another showed the United States capturing all the globe except Iran, which was protected by barbed wire.
Many effigies and countless homemade US and Israeli flags went up in flames, but not theirs: "We are keeping them," says wife Sara, "to see what the US will do with the world."
Heated anti-US rhetoric has been a constant in Iranian political theater for a generation. But despite the fanfare Monday, this widespread show of nationalist support is mixed with disappointment that the revolution has not lived up to its original promises of freedom, justice, and prosperity.
"I work very hard all year just to earn enough for the next rent rise, and still I do not have a weekend free to be with my wife," says Reza, a government employee who says he is religious. "I don't have peace of mind. With all our natural resources, I have nothing. I feel disappointed." Tried another religion?
He says one perennial problem is mismanagement, taken to new levels by the conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose ministerial picks have often been rejected by parliament due to lack of experience. "They choose you for a job based only on your loyalty to the revolution," says Reza. "Not because of your expertise."
In his speech Monday to honor the revolution, Mr. Ahmadinejad spoke defiantly, proclaiming that Iran would not back down "one iota" from its nuclear program and would launch two rockets and a space satellite in coming months. But he ended by saying that he was trying to cope with searing social and economic problems of high unemployment and soaring prices campaign promises for "justice" he first made in 2005.
On the streets during the anniversary celebration, a kaleidoscope of color with balloons and banners created a festive air to mark what is officially called the "Glorious Victory of the Islamic Revolution" 29 years ago. Back then, the return from exile of Ayatollah Khomeini led to the overthrow of the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi; this day in 1979 marked when the Shah's military stopped fighting.
A broad sampling of voices found that people from across Iran's divided social spectrum had come to "revitalize the ideas of the revolution," to support Iran's current supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, or because they saw it as a national or religious duty.
"Many people have sacrificed a lot for this revolution, so we have come to give it a rebirth," says high school student Mohammad Parvin, who came with several Western-looking boys from his class. Among the crewcuts favored by religious militiamen were spike-haired young men who are at times targeted by the morality police.
"We have come to defend our revolution, to show that we are always backing it," says Alireza Dadpour, a fellow student with an Iranian flag draped over his back. "A lot of blood was spilled. We want to honor that."
State television showed large turnouts in cities across Iran, with chants of "Death to America" and Israel overshadowing those in support of the Islamic system or current leadership. The official IRNA news agency, which has overstated turnouts in past demonstrations, said Ahmadinejad spoke to a "million-strong gathering." Perhaps hundreds of thousands across the country took to the streets.
Clad in black and carrying a portrait of the supreme leader, Akram Azari Khameneh says she never missed one anniversary rally in 29 years and supports "my country, my religion, and my leader." Her son was "martyred" during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s; she says that she helped out in Ahvaz, a city near the front that was regularly struck with Iraqi rockets. "People have become more aware, and they feel the US is more of an enemy."
Parliamentary elections next month will test the conservative grip on power, but she says the disqualification already of more than 2,000 reformist candidates is irrelevant.
"What matters to us is our leader. Whoever Khamenei accepts, we will accept," says Mrs. Khameneh. "You can see this with your own eyes; 90 percent of people believe this way. This march proves it." Those who believe otherwise "are also living in this country. I hope God will help them."
"There is no system that will have 100 percent people's backing [but] Iran is one of the only independent countries against the US," says Reza, the government worker. A large rally turnout "is going to scare our enemies and reassure our friends."
Another woman, also named Akram, sits with her family on grass near the monument to 2,500 years of Persian history. "We are the followers of Khomeini's path [but] we've had a lot of hardships since the revolution," she says.
While her daughter, Maryam, says the rally will "show our might to the enemy," she has her own concerns. "As a girl I have no future. I am a student but do not know about a job."
Politicians of all stripes reformists and conservatives alike have let them down, says the family. The reform-leaning former President Mohammad Khatami caused Iranians to lose their faith in Islam, they charge, which they see as a continuing problem.
"When Ahmadinejad was a candidate we had hopes, but neither he nor the revolution fulfilled expectations," says Akram. "Hope is with God. We have no hope in these guys anymore."
When the shah ruled Iran, the Westernized elite enjoyed Hollywood movies at a small theater in the center of the city. Today, that theater is an Islamic cultural center and a meeting place for fundamentalists. So it was a bit of a surprise that in the gift shop, where almost everything was infused with a religious theme, the best-selling items last week were American childrens movies: Rugrats Go Wild, Meet the Robinsons and The Incredibles. All bootlegged, of course, and each for $1.50. Hey! I paid $19.99 for that!
Yes, we sell a lot of these, said the soon to disappear Amin Gorbani, a young bearded clerk at the cash register. Then he stood up, extended his hand and said, When it comes to disputes between Iran and America, that is between governments. But when it comes to people, I dont see any problem between the people.
Americas image in the Middle East is as low as it has ever been. With the occupation of Iraq; the Israeli bombing of Lebanon; and Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay, the United States has been cited in polls as the gravest threat to peace in the region. But Iran is different, even the Iran of someone like Mr. Gorbani, who works in a fundamentalist gift shop.
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#1
I can't help but think that they don't actually like Americans, they like the people that they see in movies. How many actual Americans do they know (that aren't card-carrying journalists)?
#2
they likely know several Iranian-American family members. There was quite a bit of movement back and forth in the Shah's days
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/18/2008 9:22 Comments ||
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#3
Ordinary Iranians like Americans so much that they'd like to get a nuke that they can then hand over to terrorists so they can nuke an American city. I think it's more accurate to say that they - like many societies in the Orient - are too polite to say how they really feel to New York times reporters.
#4
I think the problem we have with the Americans is the way Americans perceive Iran as a threat, as a rogue state, said Masoumeh Ebtekar, a Tehran city council member who served as spokeswoman for the students who seized the United States Embassy and 66 hostages in 1979. This perception has to change. I believe if they understand who we really are, the basis for reconciliation will be based on respect and equality.
A "rogue state"? Geez, Ms. American Hostage Taker Spokesperson Elected to the Tehran City Council, why ever would we think that.
Thanks for the lecture though. I'll bet the Times guy ate it up...
#5
The Iranian father of trailing daughter #2's best friend, who's Baha'i, went back to visit only two years ago, with no problems. He'd wanted to take his two daughters, too, but their American mother somehow wasn't able to get new passports in time...
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Sunday that God would punish Iranians if they do not support the country's disputed nuclear program, state radio reported. Gee, does the Holy Crayon address behavior related to nuclear programs? Does it apply to all nuclear programs, or only an Iranian nuclear program?
"The Iranian people openly announce that they will defend their rights... God will reprimand them if they do not do so," state radio quoted Khamenei as saying. Pick one, Khamenei.
The 68-year-old ayatollah, who has final say on all state matters, said Washington's claim that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon is false. The Iranian government has long insisted its nuclear activities are only for peaceful generation of fuel. And that my friends is why we are developing a nuclear capable ICBM.
"They know that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon, and they are just trying to block the Iranian nation from achieving advanced technology," Khamenei was quoted as saying in Tehran. Yeah, W has nothing better to do these days than to mess with you idiots.
The U.S. has led the push for a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or material for an atomic bomb. As long as it doesn't interfere with their ability to pay Russia on time, it may stand a chance of getting ratified.
Last month, the five permanent Security Council members the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France agreed on a watered-down draft resolution for new sanctions. It probably boils down to "And no high-ranking governmental officials will be allowed to receive iPods or copies of Playboy."
Iran insisted it would continue enriching uranium because it needed to provide fuel to a 300-megawatt light-water reactor it was building in the southwestern town of Darkhovin. That the Russians were supplying fuel for. Check.
Iranian officials have said they plan to generate 20,000 megawatts of electricity through nuclear energy in the next two decades. Given how hot it might become in the next few years you might need it to run the air conditioners there.
Iran on Sunday said a probe it sent into space on the back of rocket whose launch caused international concern was sending data back to earth from an altitude of up to 250 kilometres (155 miles).
Kavoshgar (Explorer) was launched earlier this month on what Iran touted as its first rocket to be sent into space on a mission to prepare for the launch of its first home-produced Iranian satellite later this year. "Kavoshgar has reached an altitude of 200 to 250 kilometres (125-155 miles)," Mohsen Mir Shams, the deputy head of Iran's space organisation, told the government newspaper Iran. "Since its launch Kavoshgar has been sending real-time data back to base which we are analysing to see if its systems are working perfectly or not," he added.
He said the satellite, which Iranian officials have predicted will be launched this summer, will be put into orbit at a "altitude of 650 kilometres (400 miles) above the earth and can pass over Iran six times every 24 hours." The Kavoshgar probe would be returning to earth, he added, without giving further details.
The United States condemned the rocket launch as unfortunate and said it risked further isolating Iran from the international community at a time of growing tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has also said Moscow "does not approve of Iran's permanent demonstration of its intentions to develop its rocket sector." We do not approve! And make sure your next payment arrives by the due date so as not to interrupt the next shipment of nuclear fuel for your peaceful nuclear reactor.
But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lauded the launch as a national success and said Iran would launch two more rockets before the satellite is sent into space. Iran has pursued a space programme for several years, and in October 2005 a Russian-made Iranian satellite named Sina-1 was put into orbit by a Russian rocket.
In a separate development, Iran on Sunday said it had successfully tested an "upgraded" version of its Russian-made surface-to-air S-200 missile defence system. Did the Grand Ayatollah bless it or something?
I think the upgrade is in response to the Israeli raid on Syria ...
"This missile system has been upgraded and optimised by Iranian specialists," the state-run IRNA agency said. Is it halal now?
Here for now ... having a string of these sorts of things aren't we.
An explosion rocked an oil refinery Monday in a violent blast that shook buildings miles away, authorities and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of injuries. "All I know is that it blew up," a Howard County dispatcher said.
The 8:30 a.m. blast sent black smoke billowing into the sky, shut down a major interstate and left residents rattled.
"It was extremely scary. You shook you were so scared," said Laura McEwen, the wife of Mayor Russ McEwen who lives about two miles from the refinery. "Our walls shook. It jolted your bed. It was like an earthquake."
John Moseley, managing editor of the Big Spring Herald whose downtown office is also about two miles from the refinery, said, "I thought it would knock the walls down."
The refinery, owned by Dallas-based Alon USA, employs about 170 people and produces about 70,000 barrels a day. Company spokesman Blake Lewis said he didn't know how many people might be at the plant at the time. Lewis said the company had an unconfirmed report of an incident but did not know any details. A plant manager was on the way to the site, he said.
Interstate 20 was shut down near the plant, Big Spring police spokesman Roger Sweatt said. His department didn't know of injuries. "There's some fire and a whole bunch of smoke," Sweatt said.
Big Spring is about halfway between Dallas and El Paso.
#1
"blasts" of one sort or another are fairly common at refineries. Just because there was a blast doesn't mean there was any serious damage. They can happen when production is being shut down or started up.
The shutting down of the freeway is probably an automatic "incident" response any time there is an unusual event at the plant. It is designed to minimize any exposure should anything toxic be released. I would imagine the freeway was reopened once air samples were taken.
You are going to see a lot of these stories because a lot of lazy journos how have their Lexis Nexis filters set for "refinery explosion". Once there is one, they set their filters to get follow on information and they end up getting informed about every such event in the world so it will appear to the reader as if there is a rash of them when there really aren't any more than normal.
It is like shark attacks in Florida a few years back. There weren't any more than usual but you heard about every single one for a while after a child got attacked.
#6
When the hell are we going to build 4 more INLAND refineies, one near each coast but off the flood plains for hurricanes and eathquake zones (W E and Gulf), and one in the central US (pipelines from Alaska, elsewhere).
#8
A HUGE Oil well fire errupted right on the Texas side of the Texas - Mexican border. Boots and Coots, Red Adaire, all the famous oil well firefighters worked all day to put it out and were having no luck.
On the other side of the mountain across the border in a little Mexican village, a Mexican ran from cantina to cantina telling all the men in the bar about the big Oil Well fire on the other side of the mountain the gringos were fighting.
All the Mexicans ran out of the cantinas and piled on top of the village's old fire truck and raced up the mountain to get to the other side where the oil well fire was. A few minutes later the Texas oil well fire fighters heard "YIIPPPIIII!! YIPPPII!!! EEEEEEEHHH!!!" up above and watched an old fire truck covered in Mexicans race down the mountain towards the huge oil well fire. The Mexican fire truck crashed into the Oil Well with hoses spraying water at full blast and many Mexicans beating the well with toe sacks until the fire was out.
The Oil Company executive could not believe his eyes, so he whips out his check book, walks over the the Mexicans and writes them a $500 check. He hands it to a Mexican who could speak English and says, "That was AWESOME amigos!! Here's $500 dollars! What are you going to do with that."
The Mexican replied, "The FIRST thing we are going to do senore, is buy some DAMN BREAKS!!!"
#11
No TW, they build refineries near ports because of shipping costs, every mile further inland the refinery is from a convenient point (Port, pipeline, wellhead, etc.) is a higher cost to the refiners, which usualy cannot be recovered as the refiners don't really set the prices, market demand sets price.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/18/2008 21:01 Comments ||
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#12
Not really. It depends on the layout of the land.
I'd say it depends more on the inverse square law.
But then I've experienced a fair number of explosions at various distances including an explosion 150 yards from the house in which I lived. 30 pounds of explosives at 150 yards rattles the windows big time but thats it.
#13
Big Spring is about 15 miles north of Midland, which just MIGHT be "about halfway between Dallas and El Paso". Lazy journalist doesn't realize that it's over 600 miles from Dallas to El Paso. My road atlas says it's 295 miles from Dallas to Big Spring. To put it in perspective, it's about 600 miles from New York City to Cleveland, Ohio.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/18/2008 22:30 Comments ||
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#14
2008 Monday Texas Oil Refinery.
A company spokesman says the fire was extinguished this afternoon.
One company worker suffered burns and has been transported to a hospital in Lubbock. He is in satisfactory condition.
Spokesman Blake Lewis says three injured contractors were treated at the scene -- one for a concussion, and two for possible hearing problems.
A fifth person was injured when her car was struck by debris. She was treated and released from a hospital.
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.
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Unpopular at home and in much of the world during the last year of his presidency, ...
When Ali started blogging that he was Sudanese and gay, he did not realize he was joining a band of African and Middle Eastern gays and lesbians who, in the face of hostility and repression, have come out online. 
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who threatened to cut off oil sales to the U.S. a week ago, said the government won't do so unless the South American nation is attacked. ``We don't have plans to stop sending oil to the U.S.,'' Chavez said today in comments broadcast by Venezuelan state television. ``All I've said is that, if the U.S. attacks us, we'll have to decide not to send one drop of oil to the U.S.''
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez Sunday said his government may file a suit against ExxonMobil (XOM) for allegedly taking as much as 500,000 barrels of crude from oil fields without paying for them. "They took 500,000 barrels of crude from here without reporting them, before they began developing" the fields, Chavez said during his radio and television show. "Let's sue ExxonMobil and demand that they pay for what they stole. They're the aggressors, they're the thieves," he said.
China is concerned by U.S. plans to shoot down an ailing spy satellite and is considering what "preventative measures" to take, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
North Korea celebrated the 66th birthday of its leader Kim Jong Il as the regime called on the population to unite behind him. Kim received congratulatory messages from leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin, the state-run Korea Central News Agency reported today. The nation's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper ran an editorial praising Kim for expanding North Korea's military. 
Republican John McCain says there will be no new taxes during his administration if he is elected president. "No new taxes," the likely GOP presidential nominee said during a taped interview broadcast Sunday.
Barack Obama's primary-night results were strikingly underrecorded in several districts around the city - in some cases leaving him with zero votes when, in fact, he had pulled in hundreds, the Board of Elections said yesterday. 
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has scaled back her Wisconsin campaign schedule by a full day, and is now planning to leave the state after Monday morning instead of Tuesday morning. 
