Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

And somehow, these two articles just seem somehow connected, here, this thing about "growing up slow" .......

And speaking about "growing up slow" .....

"Breach at Harry's School Investigated"

16 June 2005

LONDON - Britain's defense minister ordered an investigation Thursday into security at the military school where Prince Harry is training, after a newspaper said one of its journalists, with a fake bomb and camera, gained access and videotaped the prince.

The Sun tabloid said one of its reporters posed as a student to get permission to use the library at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Surrey, where Prince Charles' younger son is an officer cadet.

The journalist spent some eight hours wandering the grounds and took video footage of Prince Harry, stills from which were published in the newspaper.

He also built what The Sun called a fake bomb, with wires, plasticine, a battery and clock in his car while at the academy, the newspaper said.

A Ministry of Defense spokesman confirmed that The Sun's report was accurate.

Defense Secretary John Reid said he had ordered "an immediate investigation into this serious security breach."

"I have instructed Sandhurst to change their procedures to prevent a recurrence," Reid said in a statement.

Reid didn't specify what the changes would be.

Prince Harry, 20, began his training at Sandhurst last month.

The Sun's stunt follows several recent lapses in royal security.

In September, a protester disguised as Batman climbed onto a ledge on the front of Buckingham Palace and remained there for several hours.

A comedian dressed as Osama bin Laden gatecrashed Prince William's 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle in 2003.

Later that year, a reporter from the Daily Mirror got a job as a servant at Buckingham Palace and took pictures of the royals' living quarters.

end quotes

Harry?

He's the one that was all tricked out in his Nazi regalia a bit ago, wasn't he?

Snockered too, he was, wasn't he?

(Voice from offstage, sounding something like Fergie: "Ahhh, cor, blimey, sod off the lot of ya!")

[Livyjr]

"Memos Show British Concern Over Iraq Plans"

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - When Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser dined with Condoleezza Rice six months after Sept. 11, the then-U.S. national security adviser didn't want to discuss Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida.

She wanted to talk about "regime change" in Iraq, setting the stage for the U.S.-led invasion more than a year later.

President Bush wanted Blair's support, but British officials worried the White House was rushing to war, according to a series of leaked secret Downing Street memos that have renewed questions and debate about Washington's motives for ousting  Saddam Hussein.

In one of the memos, British Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts openly asks whether the Bush administration had a clear and compelling military reason for war.

"U.S. scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaida is so far frankly unconvincing," Ricketts says in the memo.

"For Iraq, 'regime change' does not stack up."

"It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam."

Nation / World

"Leaked files show Bush rushed war - Concern was expressed in Britain"

June 18, 2005

BY WARREN P. STROBEL
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- Highly classified documents leaked in Britain suggest President George W. Bush and his national security team decided to invade Iraq much earlier than they have acknowledged and marched to war without dwelling on the potential perils.

The half-dozen memos and option papers, written in 2002 by top aides to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, buttress previous on-the-record accounts that portray Bush and his advisers as predisposed to oust Saddam Hussein when they took office -- and determined to do it at all costs after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Copies of the documents have rocketed around the Internet and been seized on by opponents of the Iraq war as evidence that the president and his administration were not leveling with the American people about their war preparations.

The documents indicate that by mid-March 2002, a year before the invasion of Iraq, top British officials already were so resigned to a war that they seemed preoccupied mostly with building international support and finding a legal justification.

That was just six weeks after Bush declared Iraq a member of the "axis of evil."

But Blair's advisers repeatedly expressed concern that the case against Hussein was weak and that the White House wasn't giving nearly enough attention to what would happen after he was toppled.

"The U.S. government's military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace."

"But as yet, it lacks a political framework."

"In particular, little thought has been given to creating the political conditions for military action, or the aftermath and how to shape it," stated a July 21, 2002, briefing paper prepared for a meeting of Blair's advisers two days later.

"A postwar occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise," it stated.

Bush and Blair forcefully denied in a news conference this month that they had been fixated on war.

Neither the U.S. government nor the British government has disputed the memos' authenticity.

Time frame unclear

Precisely when Bush made the decision to invade Iraq remains murky.

The White House maintains it tried to avert war almost until the last minute.

Despite the outcry over the British documents, which have come to be known as the Downing Street memos, much of what they say was known -- or knowable -- at the time, said journalist James Mann, author of "Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet."

It's well documented that Bush began looking at military options for overthrowing Hussein's regime as early as November 2001, with formal military planning beginning early in 2002.

Knight Ridder Newspapers, for example, reported on Feb. 13, 2002, that the president had decided in principle on overthrowing the Iraqi leader and ordered "a combination of military, diplomatic and covert steps" to achieve that goal.

Six days later, then-Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., visited U.S. Central Command headquarters and, Graham said in a memoir, was told by Gen. Tommy Franks that despite ongoing operations in Afghanistan, "military and intelligence personnel are being redeployed to prepare for an action in Iraq."

Franks denied making the comment.

Richard Haass, the State Department's director of policy planning, told an interviewer that in an early July 2002 chat with then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, he questioned putting Iraq at the center of the U.S. war against terrorism.

He said Rice advised him "essentially, that that decision's been made, don't waste your breath."

Contact WARREN STROBEL at wstrobel@krwashington.com

[Livyjr]

Nation / World

"Leaked files show Bush rushed war - Concern was expressed in Britain"

June 18, 2005

BY WARREN P. STROBEL
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- Highly classified documents leaked in Britain suggest President George W. Bush and his national security team decided to invade Iraq much earlier than they have acknowledged and marched to war without dwelling on the potential perils.

The half-dozen memos and option papers, written in 2002 by top aides to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, buttress previous on-the-record accounts that portray Bush and his advisers as predisposed to oust Saddam Hussein when they took office -- and determined to do it at all costs after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Copies of the documents have rocketed around the Internet and been seized on by opponents of the Iraq war as evidence that the president and his administration were not leveling with the American people about their war preparations.

Richard Haass, the State Department's director of policy planning, told an interviewer that in an early July 2002 chat with then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, he questioned putting Iraq at the center of the U.S. war against terrorism.

He said Rice advised him "essentially, that that decision's been made, don't waste your breath."

"Bush: Pulling Out of Iraq Not an Option"

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jun 18, 3:42 PM ET

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday that pulling out of Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and many people asked in polls to start bringing U.S. troops home.

"The terrorists and insurgents are trying to get us to retreat."

"Their goal is to get us to leave before Iraqis have had a chance to show the region what a government that is elected and truly accountable to its citizens can do for its people," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"We will settle for nothing less than victory" over terrorists there, he said later.

Bush's radio address is part of a series of appearances and speeches in the coming weeks aimed at countering poll ratings that are near their lowest levels on both the Iraq war and the economy.

Bush said his administration is committed to success in both areas of concern for Americans.

About six in 10 in a Gallup poll taken in early June said the United States should withdraw some or all of its troops — the highest level of support for withdrawing U.S. troops since the war began.

On the economy, the president said he needs help from Congress to keep the nation on the right track.

With some of his signature domestic priorities experiencing difficulties on Capitol Hill, he urged support for his request for a free-trade agreement with Central American and Caribbean nations, an overhaul of Social Security and wide-ranging energy legislation.

And even as Bush just this week delayed another domestic priority — a massive rewriting of the tax code to simplify it — by two months, he said it must be done.

"We need to work together to ensure that opportunity reaches every corner of our great country," Bush said.

But it is the president's Iraq policy that has taken the biggest slide in the polls.

Once a mainstay of his public support, his handling of the Iraq war was backed by only 41 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll this month — his lowest level of support yet on Iraq.

Bush acknowledged discontent over his decisions but signaled no shift in policy or timing for the American presence in Iraq.

"Some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world's terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror," he said.

"This mission isn't easy, and it will not be accomplished overnight."

Amid continuing attacks and suicide bombings in Iraq, a few Republicans and Democrats — including one GOP lawmaker who voted for war in Iraq — introduced a resolution this week calling for Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by Oct. 1, 2006.

There have been nearly 1,100 violent deaths in Iraq linked to the insurgency since a transitional government took office seven weeks ago.

The administration insists no timetable can be set for bringing U.S. forces home from Iraq until enough Iraqi forces have been sufficiently trained to take over the fight against the insurgency.

Anything else, the administration argues, would only embolden the insurgency.

Bush also paid tribute to progress seen in Iraq this week.

Iraq's Shiite-led parliament and leaders of the disaffected Sunni Arab minority, which is believed to be the backbone of the insurgency, agreed on a process for drafting Iraq's constitution.

"Time and again, the Iraqi people have defied the skeptics who claim they are not up to the job of building a free society," he said.

"I am confident that Iraqis will continue to defy the skeptics as they build a new Iraq that represents the diversity of their nation and assumes greater responsibility for their own security."

"And when they do, our troops can come home with the honor they have earned."

After elections in January, writing a constitution is Iraq's next milestone in its fits-and-starts transition to democracy.

Later this year, the document is to put up for a vote in a public referendum and then a new government is to be elected.

[Livyjr]

"Bush: Pulling Out of Iraq Not an Option"

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

Sat Jun 18, 3:42 PM ET

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Saturday that pulling out of    Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and many people asked in polls to start bringing U.S. troops home.

"The terrorists and insurgents are trying to get us to retreat."

"Their goal is to get us to leave before Iraqis have had a chance to show the region what a government that is elected and truly accountable to its citizens can do for its people," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

"We will settle for nothing less than victory" over terrorists there, he said later.

"Some may disagree with my decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but all of us can agree that the world's terrorists have now made Iraq a central front in the war on terror," he said.

end quotes

The world's terrorists have made Iraq a central front in the war on terror?

Are you kidding me here, George?

You are the one who made Iraq the central front on your war on terror!

SO?

Are you finally admitting then that you and Blair are really "the world's terrorists"?

You can, you know, because everybody else already thinks that, anyway, and so, it comes as no surprise, whatsoever, especially at this late stage of the game, where, hopefully, impeachment for you is waiting in the wings, and it cannot come to soon, for OUR America's sake, and the world's, as well!

"2002 Memos Undercut British WMD Claims"

Sat Jun 18,12:04 PM ET

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has been sharply criticized for publishing an intelligence dossier before the Iraq war claiming that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and could deploy some within 45 minutes.

No WMD were found after the war, and the official Butler inquiry said the intelligence used was drawn in part from "seriously flawed" or "unreliable" sources.

It also said the dossier, which helped Blair win the support of Parliament to join the U.S. in the conflict, had pushed the government's case to the limits of available intelligence and left out vital caveats.

Several of the eight leaked secret Downing Street documents from 2002 indicate concerns about weak intelligence and the difficulty of winning British public support for the war.

A March 8 memo from the overseas and defense secretary to the Cabinet office sketching out the options for dealing with Iraq says:

"Despite sanctions, Iraq continues to develop WMD, although our intelligence is poor."

"Saddam has used WMD in the past and could do so again if his regime were threatened, though there is no greater threat now than in recent years that Saddam will use WMD."

A July 21 briefing paper given to British officials preparing for a July 23 meeting with Blair says:

"Time will be required to prepare public opinion in the UK that it is necessary to take military action against Saddam Hussein."

It says "an information campaign" will be needed that gives "full coverage to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein, including his WMD, and the legal justification for action."

No one thought that would be easy.

A March 22 memo from Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says: "But we are still left with a problem of bringing public opinion to accept the imminence of a threat from Iraq."

[Livyjr]

"2002 Memos Undercut British WMD Claims"

Sat Jun 18,12:04 PM ET

A March 22 memo from Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw says: "But we are still left with a problem of bringing public opinion to accept the imminence of a threat from Iraq."

After the battle on Little Bighorn in 1876, Sitting Bull fled to Canada, where he was allowed to live in peace.

The "circumstance" of a "renegade" American Indian being treated well in Canada was a constant source of embarassment to the American government (which has not been a government "of the people" for a long time now, if it ever was, at all).

Finally, an American commission led by General Alfred Terry came to Canada to "entreat" (woo with lies) Sitting Bull and his small band of Souix to return to the United States, and "agency" (prisons not necessarily having actual walls) life.

Sitting Bull replied to General Terry's request by first reviewing all his tribe's experiences with the "Great White Father" (a term of respect given by Indians, but never earned by the one receiving the respect, in the case of Washington, D.C.), reminding him of the innumerable broken treaties and promises, and then, he continued:

"For 64 years, you have persecuted my people."

"I ask you what we have done to cause us to depart from our own country?"

"I will tell you!"

"We had no place to go, so we took refuge here."

"It was on this side of the boundary I first learned to shoot, and be a man."

"For that reason, I have come back."

"I was kept ever on the move until I was compelled to foresake my own lands and come here."

"I was raised close to, and today, shake hands with, these people."

[Here, Sitting Bull strides towards Canadian Commissioner Macleod and Superintendant Walsh, shakes hands with them, then turns to the American commissioners.]

"That is the way I came to know these people, and that is the way I propose to live."

"We did not give you our country, you took it from us!"

"Look how I stand with these people" [pointing to the Canadian North West Mounted Police].

"LOOK AT ME!"

"YOU THINK I AM A FOOL, BUT YOU ARE A GREATER FOOL THAN I AM!"

"This house, the home of the English, is a medicine house [the abode of truth] AND YOU COME HERE TO TELL US LIES!"

"WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR THEM!"

"Now, I have said enough!"

"You can go back!"

"Say no more!"

"TAKE YOUR LIES WITH YOU!"

"I will stay with these people."

"The country we came from belonged to us; you took it from us; we will live here."

end quotes

What more could he have said?

Liars lie, as the eagle flies, and the fish swims!

It is the nature of all to be what they are, and when one sees the "eagle" who walks everywhere he goes, one might know something about that "eagle" .......

[Livyjr]

"LOOK AT ME!"

"YOU THINK I AM A FOOL, BUT YOU ARE A GREATER FOOL THAN I AM!"

"This house is a medicine house [the abode of truth] AND YOU COME HERE TO TELL US LIES!"

"WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR THEM!"

"Now, I have said enough!"

"You can go back!"

"Say no more!"

"TAKE YOUR LIES WITH YOU!"

end quotes

It is the nature of all to be what they are, and when one sees the "eagle" who walks everywhere he goes, one might know something about that "eagle" .......

"Memos Show British Fretting Over Iraq War"

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

40 minutes ago

LONDON - When Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser dined with Condoleezza Rice six months after Sept. 11, the then-U.S. national security adviser didn't want to discuss Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida. She wanted to talk about "regime change" in Iraq, setting the stage for the U.S.-led invasion more than a year later.

President Bush wanted Blair's support, but British officials worried the White House was rushing to war, according to a series of leaked secret Downing Street memos that have renewed questions and debate about Washington's motives for ousting Saddam Hussein.

In one of the memos, British Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts openly asks whether the Bush administration had a clear and compelling military reason for war.

"U.S. scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaida is so far frankly unconvincing," Ricketts says in the memo.

"For Iraq, 'regime change' does not stack up."

"It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam."

The documents confirm Blair was genuinely concerned about Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction, but also indicate he was determined to go to war as America's top ally, even though his government thought a pre-emptive attack may be illegal under international law.

The Sunday Times this week reported that lawyers told the British government that U.S. and British bombing of Iraq in the months before the war was illegal under international law.

That report, also by Smith, noted that almost a year before the war started, they began to strike more frequently.

The newspaper quoted Lord Goodhart, vice president of the International Commission of Jurists, as backing the Foreign Office lawyers' view that aircraft could only patrol the no-fly zones to deter attacks by Saddam's forces.

Goodhart said that if "the purpose was to soften up Iraq for a future invasion or even to intimidate Iraq, the coalition forces were acting without lawful authority," the Sunday Times reported.

__

On the Net:

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/fcolegal020308.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/manning020314.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/meyer020318.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/ods020308.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/ricketts020322.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/straw020325.pdf

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1648758,00.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

[jeffmoskin]

"For 64 years, you have persecuted my people."

"I ask you what we have done to cause us to depart from our own country?"

"I will tell you!"

"We had no place to go, so we took refuge here."

"It was on this side of the boundary I first learned to shoot, and be a man."

"For that reason, I have come back."

"I was kept ever on the move until I was compelled to foresake my own lands and come here."

"I was raised close to, and today, shake hands with, these people."

[Here, Sitting Bull strides towards Canadian Commissioner Macleod and Superintendant Walsh, shakes hands with them, then turns to the American commissioners.]

"That is the way I came to know these people, and that is the way I propose to live."

"We did not give you our country, you took it from us!"

"Look how I stand with these people" [pointing to the Canadian North West Mounted Police].

"LOOK AT ME!"

"YOU THINK I AM A FOOL, BUT YOU ARE A GREATER FOOL THAN I AM!"

"This house, the home of the English, is a medicine house [the abode of truth] AND YOU COME HERE TO TELL US LIES!"

"WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR THEM!"

"Now, I have said enough!"

"You can go back!"

"Say no more!"

"TAKE YOUR LIES WITH YOU!"

"I will stay with these people."

"Unless we can talk about CASINOS," he continued.

[Livyjr]

"Unless we can talk about CASINOS," he continued.

Well, yes, jeffmoskin, now, there is that, especially up here in George Pataki's EMPIRE State of New York!

Can't have enough casinos, the REPUBLICANS all say, and you know, if they are saying it, it must be so!

[Livyjr]

Well, yes, jeffmoskin, now, there is that, especially up here in George Pataki's EMPIRE State of New York!

Can't have enough casinos, the REPUBLICANS all say, and you know, if they are saying it, it must be so!

It is said that because of his nobility and bearing, the Native Americans call George W. Bush, "Walking Eagle"!

His sidekick, his "bosom boy" Pataki, well, it is said that the Native Americans call him, "He Walks, Too"!

Probably for the same reason, eh?

[Livyjr]

"Memos Show British Fretting Over Iraq War"

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

"It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam."

It is said that because of his nobility and bearing, the Native Americans call George W. Bush, "Walking Eagle"!

Me?

Ah, Custer will do, as far as I am concerned!

And speaking of "WALKING EAGLE" himself, or "Custer", if you like, who has made Iraq the centerpiece of his war of terror ....

"Foreign fighters join hit list - Offensive near Syrian border kills 50 militants as Bush vows to stay course despite polls"

By JACOB SILBERBERG, Associated Press

First published: Sunday, June 19, 2005

KARABILAH, Iraq -- American and Iraqi forces battled insurgents near the Syrian border Saturday, killing at least 50 militants in two massive offensives to stanch the flow of foreign fighters from Iraq's western neighbor.

The U.S. military reported the deaths of two American soldiers, killed north of Baghdad during an attack as they were taking a captive to jail.

In Washington, President Bush said that pulling out of Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and polls indicating many Americans are growing weary of the war.

In his weekly radio address, Bush said, "We will settle for nothing less than victory" over terrorists there.

Intelligence officials believe Iraq's western Anbar province is the main entry point used by extremist groups, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, to smuggle in foreign fighters.

Syria is under intense pressure from Washington and Baghdad to tighten control of its porous 380-mile border with Iraq.

Friday, about 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi forces backed by battle tanks launched Operation Spear in the desert wastes around Karabilah and Qaim.

The offensive entered its second day Saturday in Karabilah, a dusty, blistering hot town about 200 miles west of Baghdad.

It is considered an insurgent hub.

About 50 insurgents have been killed since the operation began, Marine Capt. Jeffrey Pool said from Ramadi, the provincial capital.

Three U.S. troops have been wounded and about 100 insurgents have been captured, the military said.

Dozens of buildings in Karabilah were destroyed after airstrikes and shelling, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

"The goal is not to seize territory," said Marine Col. Stephen Davis, of New Rochelle.

"This is about going in and finding the insurgents."

Karabilah's streets were empty, and the military said about 100 people fled the town.

Troops searching the town found four Iraqi hostages beaten, handcuffed and chained to a wall in a bunker, Davis said.

Some of the men were believed to be Iraqi border guards.

Troops searching the bunker found nooses, electrical wire and a bathtub filled with water for electric shocks and mock drownings, Davis said.

Later, Marines and Iraqi soldiers took fire outside a mosque and a small band of insurgents fled inside, Pool said.

Three militants were killed.

The U.S. military also reported incidents of insurgents breaking into homes and using families as human shields, resulting in injuries to 10 civilians.

U.S. and Iraqi forces also found a bomb-making factory in the town, Pool said.

It contained blasting caps, cellphones and other materials to make roadside and car bombs, he said.

Troops also found sniper rifles, ammunition and a mortar system.

A nearby schoolhouse believed to be used for training terrorists had instructions for making roadside bombs written on a chalkboard, Davis said.

A second offensive of similar size, Operation Dagger, was launched Saturday, targeting the marshy shores of a lake north of Baghdad.

About 1,000 Marines and Iraqi troops, backed by fighter jets and tanks, took part.

Operation Dagger seeks insurgent training camps and weapons caches in the Lake Tharthar area, 53 miles northwest of Baghdad.

On March 23, U.S. and Iraqi forces killed about 85 militants at a suspected training camp along Lake Tharthar and discovered booby-trapped cars, suicide-bomber vests, weapons and training documents.

The insurgents captured then included Iraqis, Filipinos, Algerians, Moroccans, Afghans and Arabs from neighboring countries, officials said.

The western region has been flush with insurgents in recent weeks.

Marines carried out June 11 airstrikes that killed about 40 of them after a nearly five-hour gunfight on the outskirts of Karabilah.

Insurgents in the area also killed 21 people believed to be missing Iraqi soldiers.

The bodies, including three that were beheaded, were found June 10.

Marines carried out two major operations near Qaim last month, killing 125 insurgents in Operation Matador and 14 in Operation New Market.

Eleven Marines were killed in those actions, which targeted insurgents using the road from Damascus, Syria, to Baghdad.

Iraqi troops did not participate in the earlier offensives.

This time, they fought alongside the Americans and used their language skills and local knowledge to spot foreign fighters, said Col. Bob Chase, chief of operations for the Second Marine Division.

Separately, the U.S. military said Saturday that two soldiers were killed and one was wounded after fighting with insurgents late Friday while transporting a detainee near Buhriz, about 35 miles north of Baghdad.

A civilian and the detainee also were killed, and five Iraqi police officers were wounded.

At least 1,719 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

In other violence Saturday, insurgents killed at least four people in Baghdad, including two Iraqi soldiers and a 10-year-old girl, hospital and police officials said.

Twenty-one people -- including an Iraqi journalist -- were wounded in the suicide bombings and shootings.

The girl was killed and two people were wounded when a roadside bomb missed a passing American military convoy, said Dr. Muhand Jawad of Baghdad's Al-Yarmouk hospital.

Bush's radio address Saturday is part of a series of appearances and speeches in the coming weeks aimed at countering poll ratings that are near their lowest levels on both the Iraq war and the economy.

Bush said his administration is committed to success in both areas of concern for Americans.

About six in 10 in a Gallup poll taken in early June said the United States should withdraw some or all of its troops -- the highest level of support for withdrawing U.S. troops since the war began.

Once a mainstay of his public support, his handling of the Iraq war was backed by only 41 percent in an Associated Press-Ipsos poll this month -- his lowest level of support yet.

A New York Times/CBS News Poll released Friday showed only 37 percent said they approved of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, down from 45 percent in February.

Also last week, there was a bipartisan call in the House to set a deadline for troop withdrawals.

The administration insists no timetable can be set for bringing U.S. forces home from Iraq until enough Iraqi forces have been sufficiently trained to take over the fight against the insurgency.

Anything else, the administration argues, would only embolden the insurgency.

end quotes

In Washington, President Bush said that pulling out of Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and polls indicating many Americans are growing weary of the war?

I don't know about anyone else, but as for me, I'm growing weary of this damned incompetent fool down there in that White House telling us a passel of lies all the time, in a vain attempt to try and cover up his previous lies, the ones that got us into Iraq in the first place!

And you can be damned sure that getting out of Iraq right now is not an option for George W. Bush, because he has no way to do that, to get out, not right now, anyway!

Or looked at another way, he has all the chance right now of getting out of Iraq that Custer had of getting out of the valley of the Little Bighorn, once he made his now-famous "catstrophically successful" cavalry charge down in there, or them boys had down there at the Alamo in George W. Bush's "birth state" of Texas!

"Yahoo, ride-um cowboy", right, George?

[Livyjr]

And speaking of "WALKING EAGLE" himself, or "Custer", if you like, who has made Iraq the centerpiece of his war of terror ....

"Foreign fighters join hit list - Offensive near Syrian border kills 50 militants as Bush vows to stay course despite polls" 
 
By JACOB SILBERBERG, Associated Press

First published: Sunday, June 19, 2005

KARABILAH, Iraq -- American and Iraqi forces battled insurgents near the Syrian border Saturday, killing at least 50 militants in two massive offensives to stanch the flow of foreign fighters from Iraq's western neighbor.

The U.S. military reported the deaths of two American soldiers, killed north of Baghdad during an attack as they were taking a captive to jail.

In Washington, President Bush said that pulling out of Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and polls indicating many Americans are growing weary of the war.

end quotes

In Washington, President Bush said that pulling out of Iraq now is not an option, rejecting calls by some lawmakers and polls indicating many Americans are growing weary of the war?

I don't know about anyone else, but as for me, I'm growing weary of this damned incompetent fool down there in that White House telling us a passel of lies all the time, in a vain attempt to try and cover up his previous lies, the ones that got us into Iraq in the first place!

And you can be damned sure that getting out of Iraq right now is not an option for George W. Bush, because he has no way to do that, to get out, not right now, anyway!

Or looked at another way, he has all the chance right now of getting out of Iraq that Custer had of getting out of the valley of the Little Bighorn, once he made his now-famous "catstrophically successful" cavalry charge down in there, or them boys had down there at the Alamo in George W. Bush's "birth state" of Texas!

"Yahoo, ride-um cowboy", right, George?

"3 memos reveal U.S. unprepared for Iraq"

Associated Press

First published: Sunday, June 19, 2005

LONDON -- Long before the Iraq war began, Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers concluded that the Bush administration and the U.S. military weren't adequately prepared for rebuilding Iraq once Saddam Hussein was driven from power.

Today, as U.S. forces fight a deadly insurgency in Iraq, the concerns expressed about a postwar Iraq in three leaked secret Downing Street memos seem prescient.

A July 21, 2002, paper written for top government officials preparing to meet with Blair said:

"The U.S. government's military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace."

"But, as yet, it lacks a political framework."

"In particular, little thought has been given to creating the political conditions for military action, or the aftermath and how to shape it."

In a March 14, 2002, memo, Blair's chief foreign policy adviser, David Manning, told the prime minister that President Bush "had yet to find the answers to the big questions" about an Iraq war, including: "what happens on the morning after."

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw questioned the stability of a post-Saddam Iraq.

"We have also to answer the big question -- what will this action achieve?"

"There seems to be a larger hole in this than on anything," he said in a March 25, 2002, memo to Blair.

"Most of the assessments from the U.S. have assumed regime change as a means of eliminating Iraq's WMD threat," he said.

"But none has satisfactorily answered how that regime change is to be secured, and how there can be any certainty that the replacement regime will be better."

"Iraq has had no history of democracy, so no one has this habit or experience."

end quotes

George W. Bush and that crowd of his have no history of democracy, either, and so, not a single one of them has this habit, or experience, either!

And as to this: In a March 14, 2002, memo, Blair's chief foreign policy adviser, David Manning, told the prime minister that President Bush "had yet to find the answers to the big questions" about an Iraq war, including: "what happens on the morning after?"

The morning after?

Isn't there a pill for that?

I thought I heard George W. Bush say he had a pill for the morning after?

SO?

What was that all about, then?

What was the pill for?

[Livyjr]

"3 memos reveal U.S. unprepared for Iraq" 
 
Associated Press

First published: Sunday, June 19, 2005

LONDON -- Long before the Iraq war began, Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers concluded that the Bush administration and the U.S. military weren't adequately prepared for rebuilding Iraq once Saddam Hussein was driven from power.

Today, as U.S. forces fight a deadly insurgency in Iraq, the concerns expressed about a postwar Iraq in three leaked secret Downing Street memos seem prescient.

"Most of the assessments from the U.S. have assumed regime change as a means of eliminating Iraq's WMD threat," he said.

"But none has satisfactorily answered how that regime change is to be secured, and how there can be any certainty that the replacement regime will be better."

"Iraq has had no history of democracy, so no one has this habit or experience."

end quotes

George W. Bush and that crowd of his have no history of democracy, either, and so, not a single one of them has this habit, or experience, either!

"Iraqi Security Tactics Evoke the Hussein Era"

By Jeffrey Fleishman and Asmaa Waguih Special to The Times

Sun Jun 19, 7:55 AM ET

BAGHDAD — The public war on the Iraqi insurgency has led to an atmosphere of hidden brutalities, including abuse and torture, carried out against detainees by the nation's special security forces, according to defense lawyers, international organizations and Iraq's Ministry of Human Rights.

Up to 60% of the estimated 12,000 detainees in the country's prisons and military compounds face intimidation, beatings or torture that leads to broken bones and sometimes death, said Saad Sultan, head of a board overseeing the treatment of prisoners at the Human Rights Ministry.

He added that police and security forces attached to the Interior Ministry are responsible for most abuses.

The units have used tactics reminiscent of Saddam Hussein's secret intelligence squads, according to the ministry and independent human rights groups and lawyers, who have cataloged abuses.

"We've documented a lot of torture cases," said Sultan, whose committee is pushing for wider access to Iraqi-run prisons across the nation.

"There are beatings, punching, electric shocks to the body, including sensitive areas, hanging prisoners upside down and beating them and dragging them on the ground…."

"Many police officers come from a culture of torture from their experiences over the last 35 years."

"Most of them worked during Saddam's regime."

The ordeal described by Hussam Guheithi is similar to many cases.

When Iraqi national guardsmen raided his home last month, the 35-year-old Sunni Muslim imam said they lashed him with cables, broke his nose and promised to soak their uniforms with his blood.

He was blindfolded and driven to a military base, where he was interrogated and beaten until the soldiers were satisfied that he wasn't an extremist.

At the end of nine days, Guheithi said, the guardsmen told him, "You have to bear with us."

"You know the situation now."

"We're trying to find terrorists."

The Interior Ministry, responsible for the nation's internal security, acknowledges cases of mistreatment but denies that torture is common.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr is a Shiite Muslim, and some Sunni Muslim tribal leaders and politicians have accused the ministry of unfairly targeting Sunnis, who make up the bulk of the insurgency.

"There are no official accusations that the ministry's forces are carrying out widespread abuse and torture of detainees," said Col. Adnan Joubouri, a ministry spokesman.

"There was some abuse of authority, and those officials responsible are being punished."

U.S. officials, whose image on detainment issues has already been tarnished by the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, say they are troubled by the allegations of torture.

They worry that mistreatment by Iraqi police and national guardsmen, thousands of whom were trained by American instructors who sought to steer the departments away from Hussein's corrupt legacy, may be viewed as an extension of Abu Ghraib.

"We understand and we hear that [torture] is potentially happening, and this is an issue we are constantly talking about," said a senior U.S. military official in Baghdad.

"I think this is an issue no one can afford to ignore."

Stories of torture and abuse against suspected Shiite and Sunni criminals and rebels are unfolding in the midst of the campaign against a relentless insurgency.

Iraqi forces are frustrated by their inability to stop car bombings and ambushes that have killed more than 1,000 people in recent weeks.

Rising crime, a shaky court system, the lack of a constitution to define civil rights and an Interior Ministry underequipped to pursue well-armed rebel networks have made human rights less of an immediate concern for Iraqis than bringing order to the nation, Iraqi and U.S. officials say.

Having endured more than two years of violence since the U.S.-led invasion, many Iraqis favor tough measures to end the unrest.

The death penalty was recently reinstated, and for much of the country there is an unspoken acceptance — often rooted in harsh tribal justice — that intimidation and torture serve a purpose.

Such attitudes are complicated by sectarian strains between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Under Hussein, the minority Sunnis were the core of the ruling Baath Party and controlled the country.

The new Iraqi government is dominated by Shiites, who make up the majority of Iraq's population.

Each side blames the other for the bloodshed.

This dynamic poses an incendiary possibility: Accounts of torture in detention given by Sunni extremists might have been fabricated or embellished to help instigate a civil war against Shiites and the government.

The Human Rights Ministry says it has encountered made-up allegations of abuse.

"Ninety percent of detainees say that they confessed under torture," said Judge Luqman Thabit Samiraii, head of the 1st Iraqi Central Criminal Court.

"Yet 80% of them have no torture marks."

"But torture does exist during interrogations, I admit that."

The courts aren't always willing to explore abuse claims.

In a trial last month, Samiraii denied a defense lawyer's request to have four suspects medically examined to determine whether their confessions to the murder of an Interior Ministry official had been induced by torture.

The defendants, three of whom were sentenced to death, said they had been repeatedly beaten.

One of them said police had sodomized him with a metal rod.

Before the four men appeared in the courtroom, their confessions had been aired on the popular Iraqi television program "Terrorism in the Hands of Justice."

The show is the government's attempt to demystify the insurgency by portraying suspected rebels as brutish killers rather than revolutionaries.

Defense lawyers argue that some of the accused are coerced into giving confessions and that the program violates defendants' right to a fair trial.

"The Americans are occupying the country, but the Iraqi national guard and Iraqi police are violating the human rights of detainees," said Sattar Raouf, director of the Popular Committee for Culture and Arts, who has followed allegations of abuse.

"Intelligence and security forces are torturing people for confessions."

"You can go to the sixth and seventh floors of the Interior Ministry and find case after case like this."

The Interior and Justice ministries have been struggling over control of prisons and detention centers.

Interior operates in a secret realm of intelligence networks in which suspects can be jailed or vanish for weeks.

Sultan said his committee has found less abuse in centers under the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry.

He added that Justice has stricter oversight on inmate conditions and is less involved than Interior in interrogating suspects, including alleged insurgents.

A report this year by the international organization Human Rights Watch found that abuse had become "routine and commonplace" and that detainees were often beaten and held in violation of judicial process, including not receiving court hearings within 24 hours of their arrests.

The group stated that some detainees — many of whom are arrested based on tips by paid informants — waited months before a court appearance.

"One of the most common complaints made by detainees," said Human Rights Watch, which interviewed 90 current and former detainees in 2004, "was of police officials threatening them with indefinite detention if they failed to pay them sums of money."

The abuses reported by former detainees and human rights organizations echo some of the Hussein regime's tactics: poor legal protection, crowded cells, electric shock, threats of sexual abuse and hanging and beating prisoners for prolonged periods.

Abbas Jibouri said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that about 25 national guard members raided his house on the morning of May 8.

A 41-year-old farmer from the Maden area near Baghdad, Jibouri, whose account could not be verified, said he had been taken to a detainee center and later transferred to the national guard base at Rustumiya.

"There was always one man interrogating me and four or five others who punched me in different parts of my body," said Jibouri, a Sunni.

"They accused me of providing terrorists with weapons and money…."

"They gave me a list of 10 names and told me to give information about their being terrorists."

"One of the names belonged to my brother and another was a neighbor of mine who actually died a year or so ago."

Jibouri said he was beaten with pipes and given electrical shocks.

"I didn't know when it would end," he said.

At one point, Jibouri said, interrogators told him: "You [Sunnis] ruled the country for 35 years."

"We're going to retaliate now."

Jibouri was released after 10 days in custody.

He was not charged with a crime.

Guheithi, the Sunni imam, has been detained by American as well as Iraqi forces.

He said U.S. troops had arrested him in January 2004 and accused him of preaching holy war at his mosque.

He said he was held in solitary confinement for seven days and released.

American soldiers, he said, "didn't torture me, but an Iraqi man with them punched me hard several times."

Last month, Iraqi national guardsmen handcuffed Guheithi at the home of his brother in the Rasafa neighborhood of Baghdad.

"They were beating me and my brothers in front of our children," he said.

"They told me that I was helping the insurgents by sending trucks to Fallouja during the first [anti-insurgent] offensive in April 2004."

"They had piles of reports about me."

"I was actually only sending humanitarian aid to the people there, which I gathered from our mosque."

He said he was held for nine days in the Taji camp, which is used by U.S. and Iraqi forces.

"I stayed there with 19 other people in a very small room with no windows," said Guheithi, who added that he was often blindfolded and beaten.

"When they found that we had no information, they set us free…."

"I and other detainees about to be released had to swear that we were not terrorists and that we are going to participate in building a democratic country."

Times staff writer Carol J. Williams contributed to this report.

end quotes

BUILD A DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY?

What a laugh!

What a hoot!

THAT IS DEMOCRACY?

OR IS IT BUSH-ISM, ON THE RISE?

[Livyjr]

OR IS IT BUSH-ISM, ON THE RISE?

"We want to develop defenses that are capable of defending ourselves, and defenses capable of defending others!"

- George W. Bush, telling America not to worry, he is here, he recognizes how weak FDR left OUR America, and George W. Bush has the solution for that, right up there in his head, somewhere, anyway, Washington, D.C.; March 29, 2001

"These people don't have tanks!"

"They don't have ships!"

"They hide in caves!"

"They send suiciders out!"

- George W. Bush talking "trash", mocking his enemies and telling all the candid world that it'll take him about two hours, and just one six-gun, along with a trusty Winchester repeating rifle, to mop up all these TAY-RISTS, "by hisself, single-handedly", and then, he'll be back in time to put old Silver back in his stall down in the barn, and have a good round of drinks in the salon, before setting down to dinnner in the formal dining room; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; November 1, 2002

How about Osama been gone, long time now, and if you think George W. Bush will ever catch him, well, .........

"All the federales say, could have had him any day; they only let him get away, out of kindness, I suppose, although many say it is just gross incompetence and sheer stupidity, instead"!

"CIA has 'excellent' idea where bin Laden is -Time"

2 hours, 41 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA Director Porter Goss said he has an "excellent" idea where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but the al Qaeda leader will not be brought to justice until weak links in counterterrorism efforts are strengthened, Time magazine reported on Sunday.

In his first interview since becoming head of the CIA last year, Goss also told the magazine the insurgency in Iraq was not quite in its last throes, but close to it.

Goss did not say where he believed bin Laden was hiding, but intelligence experts have said the al Qaeda leader who has evaded an extensive U.S.-led manhunt is probably in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"I have an excellent idea of where he is."

"What's the next question?" Goss said in the interview.

"In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links."

"And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we're probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice," Goss said.

"We are making very good progress on it."

He cited some of the difficulties as "dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play."

Goss added, "We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community."

Al Qaeda could strike the United States again, he said.

"Certainly the intent is very high."

"And we are trying to stay ahead of their capability."

"And so far, I think we have done pretty well carrying the war to them, as it were," Goss said.

Bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, sporadically release taped messages that have been broadcast on Arab television or on the Internet since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Intelligence experts say the messages are partly to reassure followers that the leaders are still alive.

In the most recent message, a videotape broadcast by Arabic television Al Jazeera on Friday, Zawahri said reform in Muslim countries and "expelling the invaders" could not be accomplished except by fighting.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a key figure behind the insurgency in Iraq, is aligned with al Qaeda.

Vice President Dick Cheney has said the insurgency was in the "last throes."

President Bush says it would be wrong to set a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and that they will stay until local security forces are trained to take over.

Goss said, "I think they're not quite in the last throes, but I think they are very close to it."

"And I think that every day that goes by in Iraq where they have their own government and it's moving forward reinforces just how radical (the insurgents) are and how unwanted they are."

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on Sunday that he did not believe that the insurgency was in the last throes.

"I don't think Americans believe that we should cut and run out of Iraq by any stretch of the imagination."

"But I think they also would like to be told, in reality, what's going on," McCain said on NBC's "Meet The Press."

"I think part of that is it's going to be at least a couple more years," he said.

Goss expressed relief the new director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, was taking over what previously had been some of the key functions of the CIA director.

"I would almost equate it to getting rid of a 60-pound back sack, climbing up a big, steep trail," Goss said.

He said he planned to stay as CIA chief for a while.

"We've got a lot to do."

"We're in the process of rebuilding here."

"I think this is our moment."

"I'm going to be here as long as the moment lasts."

"And I think it is going to last a while because we have the opportunity to build," he said.

end quotes

SO?

Is the insurgency in the PENULTIMATE LAST THROES, then?

Or maybe the last throes just before the PENULTIMATE LAST THROES are reached?

Is that it, Porter?

Is that where we are?

Or isn't it the right moment, yet?

And as to Osama bin Laden, we all have an excellent idea of where he is, ourselves, the whole nation of us!

He's free!

That's where we all think he is!

SO?

Porter, how 'bout you?

What do you think?

[Abu Beacon]

Syria is under intense pressure from Washington and Baghdad to tighten control of its porous 380-mile border with Iraq.

Note from President Assad of Syria to President Bush of the USA

No problem, fellow Prez.

We just need to be shown how to do it.

As soon as you tighten your border with Mexico. Then we'll know how it's done.

As always,

President Assad

[shawneedaughter]

"All the federales say, could have had him any day; they only let him get away, out of kindness, I suppose, although many say it is just gross incompetence and sheer stupidity, instead"!

....

And as to Osama bin Laden, we all have an excellent idea of where he is, ourselves, the whole nation of us!

He's free!

That's where we all think he is!

SO?

Porter, how 'bout you?

What do you think?

Porter gets paid to suppose....not think. 

Can't 'fight' an enemy who is already caught.... .... the tin horn GW will ride off in a cloud of dust, instead of a rail  lol


just waitin for the next worm  LOL

[jeffmoskin]

Note from President Assad of Syria to President Bush of the USA

No problem, fellow Prez.

We just need to be shown how to do it.

As soon as you tighten your border with Mexico. Then we'll know how it's done.

As always,

President Assad

Right on, Mr. A.B.

Don't forget, the Mexicans only want to WORK!!!

Can you imagine if they wanted to BLOW US UP???

[Livyjr]

Porter gets paid to suppose .... not think!

Well, I wonder what he will "suppose" about this, then ....

As for me, I think it stinks, but why should I be surprised?

"More Abu Ghraib photos coming - Pentagon readies as many as 144 images after recent court order"

By ERIC ROSENBERG, Washington bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, June 19, 2005

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is preparing to release another batch of photos showing prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, a step that is likely to renew criticism of U.S. handling of detainees there.

As many as 144 photos and still images from four videotapes could be made public in coming weeks as soon as the Pentagon finishes editing them to conceal the identify of the victims.

The digital photos are from the same batch amassed by Army Spc. Joseph Darby, who was based at Abu Ghraib.

Darby turned the photos over to military investigators last year.

Later, some photos showing naked Iraqi prisoners being forced to simulate sex acts were published.

The ensuing controversy triggered wide criticism of U.S. policies at the prison.

To date, eight soldiers have pleaded guilty or been convicted at court martial in the scandal.

A federal judge in New York on June 2 ordered the government to prepare to release the rest of the Darby photos in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act.

In issuing his order, U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein of New York City gave the government until June 30 to get the photos ready by removing information in the pictures that might identify the victims.

David Kelley, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has asked Hellerstein for an extension -- until July 22 -- to get all the images, both video and pictures, ready for release.

The Bush administration is likely to pay a public relations penalty for failing to release all of the Abu Ghraib images sooner.

"There would have been short-term discomfort and pain but then it would have been over with," Nikolas Gvosdev, a senior fellow in strategic studies at The Nixon Center here and an analyst of the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal.

"These pictures may all be of the same event but they might convey the impression that the abuse is ongoing."

end quotes

The Bush administration is likely to pay a public relations penalty for failing to release all of the Abu Ghraib images sooner?

How is that?

I already think that this administration is the sickest, most perverted thing that I have ever heard of, and this latest news isn't going to change that impression one whit!

Compassionate Christianity my ***

These guys are just weirdos!

Real sick twists, and that is quite a statement about OUR America, that this is who we have given power over OUR collective lives to, here in OUR America!

The damage to this nation that this administration has done in such a short time will be a stain on this nation for years and years to come, and that will not be to OUR benefit, not at all!

[Livyjr]

Right on, Mr. A.B.

Now, now, jeffmoskin, Mr. A.B.!

Don't you know that we are the safest that we have ever been, in the history of this nation, thanks to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and of course, "Con Job" Connie Rice, and well, yes, there's Scottie "BOY" McClellan, and yes, Frannie Frago Townsend, and Donnie Rumsfeld, ..... and, oh yeah, Porter Goss, who really does know where Osama bin Laden is, but lets him get away, just like a cat lets a mouse get away ....

[Livyjr]

And winging OUR way back to Lebanon, where the long "march of history" in that country continues ....

"Opposition Wins Majority in Lebanon Vote"

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer

21 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The anti-Syrian opposition secured a majority in the Lebanese parliament Monday, breaking Damascus' long political hold on its tiny neighbor after opposition candidates swept all seats in the last round of elections, according to unofficial results.

A campaign official for anti-Syrian opposition leader Saad Hariri said the slate had won all seats in the north, guaranteeing the parliamentary majority.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Hariri was expected to announce the victory himself later Monday at a news conference.

As news of the win spread, women and children waved flags and danced on the streets of the northern port city of Tripoli.

Motorcades of cheering, honking supporters drove through Beirut, the capital, in celebration.

A pro-Syrian leader had earlier acknowledged the outcome from Sunday's final round of elections in northern Lebanon.

Final official results that were supposed to be announced by the Interior Ministry were delayed for several hours as officials counted the ballots.

The latest developments capped months of political upheaval since the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Saad Hariri's father.

Mass anti-Syrian protests sparked by his murder led to the Syrian army withdrawing from Lebanon in April after a 29 year presence.

The opposition has blamed Syria and Lebanese security elements loyal to Damascus for blowing up Hariri's motorcade, killing him and 20 others on a Beirut street.

Syria has denied involvement.

Saad Hariri needed to win at least 21 of the 28 seats at stake in the north Lebanon balloting after Christian leader Michel Aoun and his allies made a strong showing in a previous round in central Lebanon last week, denying the opposition a majority.

The new 128-member parliament will face the challenge of healing the divisions and new sectarian tensions that resulted from the campaign.

"What happened is a hurricane that aims at destroying Lebanese unity, and this is the danger facing us all and we must avoid," said Mikhail Daher, a former opposition legislator who was defeated.

Daher, a Christian, blamed his loss in the mainly Muslim Akkar region on vote-buying and incitement of sectarian tensions by the Future Movement of Hariri, a Sunni Muslim.

And, while the victory shakes off Syria's long hold on the country, the opposition still has to deal with President Emile Lahoud, a staunch pro-Syrian who has rejected calls to step down.

The parliament also must elect a new speaker, nominate a new prime minister and approve a Cabinet that must tackle a high debt, deal with a U.N. investigation into the Hariri assassination and a divisive U.N. demand for disarming militias — a reference to the anti-Israeli Hezbollah guerrilla group.

The new government also will have to shape a new relationship with Syria, Lebanon's big neighbor to the east.

Prime Minister Najib Mikati's government was to move into a caretaker capacity late Monday when the outgoing parliament's mandate ends.

The pro-Syrian Suleiman Franjieh, a Christian former interior minister, admitted late Sunday that the battle was all but lost.

Franjieh, a close friend of the family of Syrian President Bashar Assad and one of his greatest defenders in Lebanon, said late Sunday on Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television: "We bow to the will of the people."

The anti-Syrian faction also will have to work with other blocs in parliament.

Out of 100 seats decided in previous rounds of voting since May 29, Aoun and his allies had 21 seats.

The pro-Syrian Shiite Muslim groups Amal and Hezbollah, along with their allies, had clinched 35 seats.

Aoun, Hariri's rival who returned from 14 years' exile in May, thwarted the opposition's bid to quickly rack up a majority in earlier rounds of voting.

The former military commander was previously allied with the opposition but then broke away to link up with both anti- and pro-Syrian figures.

One apparent victim of the elections was the Christian-Muslim solidarity that emerged after Hariri's assassination.

The final round of the balloting was marred by sectarian divisions as both sides sought to rally their supporters in the battle for seats.

The election was bitterly fought, with rival candidates accusing each other of vote-buying and incitement.

Hariri's opponents accused him of trying to appeal to the north's slight Sunni majority against his top rival, the Christian Aoun, and of stirring up religious differences with tactics such as having clerics in mosques urge voters to back his ticket.

end quotes

HOW IS THAT DIFFERENT FROM GEORGE W. BUSH AND KARL ROVE HAVING MINISTERS IN CHURCHES, UP IN THEIR PULPITS, URGING THEIR PARISHIONERS TO VOTE REPUBLICAN?"

Because they're Christians?

Then it is alright?

[Livyjr]

And in addition to being very much in favor of impeaching George W. Bush for trying to cover up the fact that he intended to wage aggressive war against Iraq by lying to Congress about some non-existent weapons of mass destruction, I'd also like to see these corporate crooks up on a scaffold, like they used to do over there in England .....

Corporate Scandals

"Ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski found guilty - Former finance chief Mark Swartz also convicted of looting firm"

BREAKING NEWS

The Associated Press

Updated: 4:11 p.m. ET June 17, 2005

NEW YORK - Former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski and a second executive were convicted Friday of looting their company of more than $600 million to fund extravagant lifestyles featuring expensive jewelry, an opulent Manhattan apartment and a gaudy Mediterranean birthday party.

A major difference in the second trial was four days of testimony by Kozlowski, who did not testify in the first.

He told the jury that he never abused Tyco loan programs or received a bonus to which he was not entitled, and that he never stole anything.

Asked by one of his lawyers, Stephen Kaufman, why a $25 million bonus that he received as a loan forgiveness from the company did not appear on his 1999 tax return, Kozlowski said he could not explain why.

“I just was not thinking when I signed my tax return that I had a $25 million loan forgiveness,” Kozlowski said.

“Year in and year out at Tyco, my tax returns for the most part had been correct."

"I didn’t pick up on it.”

Prosecutors called Kozlowski’s explanation for this omission and for other actions by him and Swartz “ludicrous,” and “despicable.”

"Adelphia Founder Sentenced to 15 Years"

By ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writer

8 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Adelphia Communications Corp. founder John Rigas was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison by a judge who blamed him for defrauding investors of his bankrupted cable company in one of the largest frauds in corporate history.

"Were it not for your age and health, I would impose a sentence far greater than I do today," U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand told the 80-year-old Rigas after the one-time high flying cable empire patriarch insisted he meant to do no wrong.

Rigas' son, Timothy, the company's former chief financial officer, was awaiting sentencing on Monday afternoon.

The pair had faced up to 30 years in prison each on their bank fraud convictions alone.

They were also convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy.

"Long ago, he set Adelphia on a track of lying, of cheating, of defrauding," Sand said of the elder Rigas.

"Regrettably for everyone, this was not stopped over 10 years ago."

"It got more urgent and culminated in one of the largest frauds in corporate history."

Before the sentence was handed down, Rigas acknowledged that "mistakes were made" in the way he ran the company.

"I may be convicted and sentenced," said Rigas, "but in my heart and conscience, I'll go to my grave believing truly that I did nothing but try to improve conditions" for the company and his family.

The judge said that if Rigas serves at least two years and is judged by prisons officials to have less than three months to live, prisons officials can ask the court to cut the sentence short.

The Rigases are among a slew of former corporate executives who have faced charges since the fall of Enron in 2001 touched off a parade of white-collar scandals.

The sentencing came just three days after another major white-collar conviction: A state court jury found former Tyco International Ltd. CEO L. Dennis Kozlowski and former Tyco CFO Mark Swartz guilty of looting that company of $600 million.

Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers faces sentencing next month after he was convicted of presiding over that company's record $11 billion accounting fraud.

Rigas founded Adelphia with a $300 license in 1952, took it public in 1986 and built it into a cable titan by acquiring other systems in the 1990s.

The company, which was then based in tiny Coudersport, Pa., collapsed into bankruptcy in 2002 after it disclosed a staggering $2.3 billion in off-balance-sheet debt.

It now operates under bankruptcy protection in Greenwood Village, Colo.

At the trial, prosecutors said the Rigases used complicated cash-management systems to spread money around to various family-owned entities and as a cover for stealing about $100 million for themselves.

Prosecutors also described a lengthy list of personal luxuries that they said the Rigases financed with money stolen from the company.

One prosecutor said John Rigas had ordered two Christmas trees flown to New York for his daughter at a cost of $6,000.

Prosecutors also said he ordered up 17 company cars and had the company buy 3,600 acres of timberland at a cost of $26 million to preserve the view outside his Coudersport home.

Rigas' lawyer told jurors those charges were ludicrous and that "if you saw this on 'Seinfeld,' you'd double up."

A second Rigas son, Michael, former executive vice president for operations, was acquitted of conspiracy and wire fraud.

However, jurors were deadlocked on 15 counts of securities fraud and two counts of bank fraud.

He is scheduled for a second trial in October.

Former Adelphia assistant treasurer Michael Mulcahey was tried with the Rigases but was acquitted of all charges.