Life in OUR America, Volume 5, the Livyjr Files Options

[jeffmoskin]

As I've said before, BushCo had no "exit strategy" because they never planned to leave. At least not until all the oil has been removed.

Which will be around 2050.

That is why they constructed 14 state-of-the-art airbases - to make sure that after the civil war (which they will watch from their executive skyboxes) and after martial law is firmly established) Exxon/Mobil and BP/Shell can proceed with the extraction.

[Livyjr]

As I've said before, BushCo had no "exit strategy" because they never planned to leave.

At least not until all the oil has been removed.

Which will be around 2050.

That is why they constructed 14 state-of-the-art airbases - to make sure that after the civil war (which they will watch from their executive skyboxes) and after martial law is firmly established) Exxon/Mobil and BP/Shell can proceed with the extraction.

Well, jeffmoskin .....

Only a fool would argue with your premise .....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

And as OUR America continues to degenerate into something that becomes more and more unrecognizable to this older American, a place where OUR Constitution and OUR laws are becoming little more than a joke, we have .....

"AP: Many Defendants' Cases Kept Secret"

By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers

2 hours, 7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years.

Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.

An Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains with the government.

Most of these defendants are involved in drug gangs, though lately a very small number come from terrorism cases.

Some of these cooperating witnesses are among the most unsavory characters in America's courts — multiple murderers and drug dealers — but the public cannot learn whether their testimony against confederates won them drastically reduced prison sentences or even freedom.

In the nation's capital, which has had a serious problem with drug gangs murdering government witnesses, the secrecy has reached another level — the use of secret dockets.

For hundreds of such defendants over the past few years in this city, should someone acquire the actual case number for them and enter it in the U.S. District Court's computerized record system, the computer will falsely reply, "no such case" — rather than acknowledging that it is a sealed case.

At the request of the AP, the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts conducted its first tally of secrecy in federal criminal cases.

The nationwide data it provided the AP showed 5,116 defendants whose cases were completed in 2003, 2004 and 2005, but the bulk of their records remain secret.

"The constitutional presumption is for openness in the courts, but we have to ask whether we are really honoring that," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

"What are the reasons for so many cases remaining under seal?"

"What makes the American criminal justice system different from so many others in the world is our willingness to cast some sunshine on the process, but if you can't see it, you can't really criticize it," Levenson said.

The courts' administrative office and the Justice Department declined to comment on the numbers.

The data show a sharp increase in secret case files over time as the Bush administration's well-documented reliance on secrecy in the executive branch has crept into the federal courts through the war on drugs, anti-terrorism efforts and other criminal matters.

"This follows the pattern of this administration," said John Wesley Hall, an Arkansas defense attorney and second vice president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

"I am astonished and shocked that this many criminal proceedings in federal court escape public scrutiny or become buried."

The percentage of defendants who have reached verdicts and been sentenced but still have most of their records sealed has more than doubled in the last three years, the court office's tally shows.

Of nearly 85,000 defendants whose cases were closed in 2003, the records of 952 or 1.1 percent remain mostly sealed.

Of more than 82,000 defendants with cases closed in 2004, records for 1,774 or 2.2 percent remain mostly secret.

And of more than 87,000 defendants closed out in 2005, court records for 2,390 or 2.7 percent remain mostly closed to the public.

The court office also found a sharp increase in defendants whose case records were partly sealed for a limited time.

Among newly charged defendants, the numbers in this category grew from 9,999 or 10.9 percent of all defendants charged in 2003 to 11,508 or 12.6 percent of those charged in 2005.

But the AP investigation found, and court observers agree, that the overwhelming number of these cases sealed for a limited time involve a use of secrecy that draws no criticism: the sealing of an indictment only until the defendant is arrested.

AP's investigation found a large concentration of both kinds of secrecy at the U.S. District Court here: limited sealing of records and extensive sealing that continues even after the courts are done with a defendant.

"When the sentences are sealed, that's a con on the community," said Lexi Christ, a Washington defense lawyer for a man acquitted in a crack cocaine case.

In that case, all the defendants' names became public when the indictment was unsealed.

But all other records for six defendants who pleaded guilty remained sealed more than two years after the public trial in which two of the drug dealers were convicted.

One of the cooperating witnesses admitted to seven murders and testified in open court against co-defendants who had committed fewer, Christ said.

But like the others who pleaded guilty and cooperated, that witness' plea deal and sentence were sealed.

"Cooperating witnesses are pleading guilty to six or seven murders, and the jury doesn't know they'll be sitting on the Metro (subway) next to them a year later."

"It's a really, really ugly system," Christ said.

Prosecutors argue that plea agreements must be sealed to protect witnesses and their families from violent retaliation.

But Christ said that makes no sense after the trial when the defendants know who testified.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press found the U.S. District Court here has 469 criminal cases, from 2001-2005, that are listed by this court's electronic docket as "no such case."

An AP survey over a shorter period found similar numbers here and got oral acknowledgment from the clerk's office that the missing electronic docket numbers corresponded to sealed cases.

However, these figures include an unknown number of sealed indictments that will be made public if arrests are made.

"That's horrifying," said Loyola's Levenson.

"When I was a prosecutor from 1981 to 1989, I never heard of secret dockets."

No matter how few turn out to be almost totally sealed after the defendant's case was completed, "it's still significant," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee and a pioneer in campaigning against court secrecy.

"The Supreme Court has said that criminal proceedings are public," Dalglish added.

"In this country, we don't prosecute and lock up convicts and have no public track record of how we got there."

"That violates the defendants' rights not to mention the public's right to know what it's court system is doing."

Although Justice Department does not keep comprehensive nationwide statistics on secrecy in federal prosecutions, it does track how often prosecutors ask permission from headquarters to hold a secret court proceeding, like an arraignment, hearing, trial or sentencing.

The department estimates it got 100 such requests from October 2000 though October 2004, Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said.

Another 100 arrived during the 12 months that ended October 2005, he said.

Sierra said the large recent increase occurred because the department sent a memo to all federal prosecutors in 2004 reminding them they need Washington's approval before requesting or agreeing to secret courtroom proceedings.

Filing of secret papers in cases doesn't require such permission.

___

On the Net:

Reporters Committee: http://www.rcfp.org/

[Livyjr]

And as OUR America continues to degenerate into something that becomes more and more unrecognizable to this older American, a place where OUR Constitution and OUR laws are becoming little more than a joke, we have .....

"Guantanamo papers paint profiles of detainees"

2 hours, 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A portrait of the Islamist ferment that attracted youths from across the Muslim world to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan five years ago emerges from the trove of documents on the "war on terror" detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But details about their role in the fighting in Afghanistan are often sparse in the reports, which were released Friday by the Pentagon after losing a court battle to keep the names and personal details of the detainees secret.

Abdallah Salah Ali Al Ajmi, who deserted the Kuwaiti military to become a Taliban fighter, is fairly typical of the more than 300 detainees whose trajectories are sketched out in thousands of pages of documents.

The Kuwaiti allegedly admitted he fought with the Taliban against the US-backed Northern Alliance near Bagram and "engaged in two or three fire fights with the Northern Alliance," the report said.

Al Ajmi "is regarded as a continued threat to the United States and its allies," the report said, noting that he had asserted that he considered himself a jihadist and "would kill as many Americans as he can."

The psychological ordeal that befell some at Guantanamo, where most have been held as "enemy combatants" for nearly four years without charges, is noted with clinical precision in some of the accounts prepared by the US military.

Mishal Awad Sayaf Alhabiri, who attempted suicide at the prison on January 16, 2003, is considered for release in one document because he suffered "significant brain injury due to oxygen loss."

"He will need to be in some assisted living situation, though he can follow simple concrete directions," the report to a panel reviewing his case said.

Sofiane Haderbache, an alleged Al-Qaeda member who traveled from France to Afghanistan, is described in another such document as a combative prisoner who defied guards by standing naked in his cell.

"Detainee's recorded behaviors, medication history, and utilization pattern of psychiatric services suggest this detainee is regressing," the report says.

How individual detainees wound up in Guantanamo is a recurring subject of the documents, reflecting the military's efforts to piece together a picture of an enemy it knew little about before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Taken together, they suggest that the movement of youths to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan before and after September 11 was a loosely organized affaire.

They took different paths -- some clandestinely with false passports but others openly on commercial airline flights to Pakistan.

Some came with connections to Islamist groups, while others seemingly acted on impulse.

They came from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Algeria, Britain, France, among other countries.

Some came in through Iran, according to the report.

They often were put up at guesthouses run by groups of different nationalities, before moving on to training camps run by Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Osama bin Laden pops up as well in the reports, which carefully note if a detainee heard him speak or saw him while in Afghanistan.

But in the accounts the Al-Qaeda leader appears as someone seen at a distance.

The reports note detainees' connections to Islamist groups or other alleged jihadists.

The Finsbury Park Mosque in London appears frequently in the reports as a stop for detainees who traveled to Afghanistan from Europe.

Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha, a detainee who trained in the Algerian army, for instance, is said to have traveled on a false French passport to London, where he went to the Finbury Park Mosque.

The report alleges he obtained another false passport there with which he traveled to Afghanistan.

The documents often raise more questions than they answer.

Abdallah al Rushaydan, who was captured on the Afghan-Pakistani border in December 2001, is described as having been employed by an Islamic aid organization linked in Asian media reports to Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist group in the Philippines.

He traveled to Damascus, Tehran and Afghan in November 2001, a report said.

In Damascus, he shared a hotel room with a Taliban official who was later arrested in connection with a March 2002 rocket attack directed at US forces in Afghanistan.

But the report does not spell out what he did to be considered an enemy combatant, and says he denied being a member of Al-Qaeda or other militant groups.

Under a heading titled "relevant data," the report quotes him as saying when asked about his reasons for traveling to Afghanistan, "I would tell you the truth, but you would get mad."

[jeffmoskin]

"Guantanamo papers paint profiles of detainees"

2 hours, 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A portrait of the Islamist ferment that attracted youths from across the Muslim world to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan five years ago emerges from the trove of documents on the "war on terror" detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But details about their role in the fighting in Afghanistan are often sparse in the reports, which were released Friday by the Pentagon after losing a court battle to keep the names and personal details of the detainees secret.

Abdallah Salah Ali Al Ajmi, who deserted the Kuwaiti military to become a Taliban fighter, is fairly typical of the more than 300 detainees whose trajectories are sketched out in thousands of pages of documents.

The Kuwaiti allegedly admitted he fought with the Taliban against the US-backed Northern Alliance near Bagram and "engaged in two or three fire fights with the Northern Alliance," the report said.

Al Ajmi "is regarded as a continued threat to the United States and its allies," the report said, noting that he had asserted that he considered himself a jihadist and "would kill as many Americans as he can."

The psychological ordeal that befell some at Guantanamo, where most have been held as "enemy combatants" for nearly four years without charges, is noted with clinical precision in some of the accounts prepared by the US military.

Mishal Awad Sayaf Alhabiri, who attempted suicide at the prison on January 16, 2003, is considered for release in one document because he suffered "significant brain injury due to oxygen loss."

"He will need to be in some assisted living situation, though he can follow simple concrete directions," the report to a panel reviewing his case said.

Sofiane Haderbache, an alleged Al-Qaeda member who traveled from France to Afghanistan, is described in another such document as a combative prisoner who defied guards by standing naked in his cell.

"Detainee's recorded behaviors, medication history, and utilization pattern of psychiatric services suggest this detainee is regressing," the report says.

How individual detainees wound up in Guantanamo is a recurring subject of the documents, reflecting the military's efforts to piece together a picture of an enemy it knew little about before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Taken together, they suggest that the movement of youths to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan before and after September 11 was a loosely organized affaire.

They took different paths -- some clandestinely with false passports but others openly on commercial airline flights to Pakistan.

Some came with connections to Islamist groups, while others seemingly acted on impulse.

They came from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Algeria, Britain, France, among other countries.

Some came in through Iran, according to the report.

They often were put up at guesthouses run by groups of different nationalities, before moving on to training camps run by Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

Osama bin Laden pops up as well in the reports, which carefully note if a detainee heard him speak or saw him while in Afghanistan.

But in the accounts the Al-Qaeda leader appears as someone seen at a distance.

The reports note detainees' connections to Islamist groups or other alleged jihadists.

The Finsbury Park Mosque in London appears frequently in the reports as a stop for detainees who traveled to Afghanistan from Europe.

Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha, a detainee who trained in the Algerian army, for instance, is said to have traveled on a false French passport to London, where he went to the Finbury Park Mosque.

The report alleges he obtained another false passport there with which he traveled to Afghanistan.

The documents often raise more questions than they answer.

Abdallah al Rushaydan, who was captured on the Afghan-Pakistani border in December 2001, is described as having been employed by an Islamic aid organization linked in Asian media reports to Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist group in the Philippines.

He traveled to Damascus, Tehran and Afghan in November 2001, a report said.

In Damascus, he shared a hotel room with a Taliban official who was later arrested in connection with a March 2002 rocket attack directed at US forces in Afghanistan.

But the report does not spell out what he did to be considered an enemy combatant, and says he denied being a member of Al-Qaeda or other militant groups.

Under a heading titled "relevant data," the report quotes him as saying when asked about his reasons for traveling to Afghanistan, "I would tell you the truth, but you would get mad."

read 'em and weep:

http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detain...csrt/index.html

[Livyjr]

And as George W. Bush continues to tout NU-Q-LAR energy as OUR salvation here in OUR America .....

"US nuclear plant leaks fuel health concerns"

By Andrew Stern

Sat Mar 4, 12:44 PM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Years of radioactive waste water spills from Illinois nuclear power plants have fueled suspicions the industry covers up safety problems and sparked debate about the risks from exposure to low-level radiation.

The recent, belated disclosures of leaks of the fission byproduct tritium from Exelon Corp.'s Braidwood, Dresden, and Byron twin-reactor nuclear plants -- one as long ago as 1996 -- triggered worries among neighbors about whether it was safe to drink their water, or even stay.

"How'd you like to live next to that plant and every time you turn on the tap to take a drink you have to think about whether it's safe?" asked Joe Cosgrove, the head of parks in Godley, Illinois, a town adjacent to Braidwood.

Cosgrove and some scientists and anti-nuclear activists who monitor health issues related to nuclear power say the delay in reporting the spills is indicative of industry and regulatory obfuscation bordering on cover-up.

"We don't know what else has been leaked from that site."

"When they close ranks, you can't believe them," Cosgrove said, referring to the plant owner and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees safety at the nation's 103 commercial reactors, including 11 in Illinois.

Cosgrove recalled a 2002 spill of diesel fuel that was initially mischaracterized by Braidwood's operators as run-off from a parking lot.

When information about the tritium spills arose as part of the town's since-dropped lawsuit over the fuel, Exelon asked the court to bar any questions about it.

A local doctor and his wife, Joseph and Cynthia Sauer, whose daughter contracted brain cancer when they lived near the Dresden plant, have collected data about heightened rates of cancer and birth defects near the Illinois plants in the period after the spills began.

They say they were brushed off by the NRC.

CONCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION

"I don't say that people don't have concerns, but any suggestion that we are in cahoots with the industry to suppress (information) is baseless," NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said.

The industry and the NRC say existing medical research shows people living near nuclear plants are safe and limits on discharges of radioactive liquids and gases are adequate.

But some scientists and at least one congressman want a conclusive investigation of the health risks.

They say that while tritium is like water, if ingested some of it may remain in the body where it can damage cells, leading to cancers, birth defects and miscarriages.

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey has been unable to secure government funding for a health study on people living near nuclear plants, and the Massachusetts Democrat says he opposes U.S. President George W. Bush's prescription to build a new generation of nuclear reactors to lessen reliance on fossil fuels until more is known.

"The president's plan is misguided."

"It presents health risks, creates additional nuclear waste that we have no long-term solution for, creates additional terrorist targets that we do not adequately defend, and costs an enormous amount of money."

" (Bush's) phrase 'clean, safe nuclear power' is oxymoronic," he said.

IS IT SAFE?

Exelon and the NRC say a 1998 spill of 3 million gallons of tritium -- a form of hydrogen that becomes radioactive water when it contacts air -- did contaminate ground water that breached the Braidwood plant boundary.

But the radioactivity had not risen above federal limits where people live or have their drinking water wells.

At Dresden, the 276,000-gallon (1 million-liter) tritium leak is still on-site, and the spill at Byron was found inside concrete vaults along an effluent pipe.

The plants are all within 100 miles of Chicago in northern Illinois, which has the largest nuclear capacity of any U.S. state, about equal to Great Britain's.

The spilled tritium was destined to be discharged as effluent in rivers anyway, authorities said, and they were not explicitly required to notify the public about it -- a reporting loophole Illinois congressmen want closed.

"It's not like people are going to start dropping like flies from this level of radiation," said Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.

"What I am alarmed by is the number of years it has taken, and how lax the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been, and how lax the corporation has been in informing the community fully" about the spills, he said.

[Livyjr]

"Reform is in the air - Tom Suozzi enters a gubernatorial primary that will put the Capitol's dysfunction in the spotlight" 

Albany, new York Times Union 

First published: Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Here's Mr. Suozzi's suggestion that Mr. Spitzer is beholden to various Albany lobbyists, trial lawyers and special interests on the basis of campaign contributions, or Wall Street executives on the basis of investigations that they never faced.

CORRUPT GOVERNMENT .....

Outside of Washington, D.C., which may or may not have the MOST CORRUPT GOVERNMENT IN OUR AMERICA, and there, I mean the federal government, New York State is in the TOP TEN ....

CORRUPT GOVERNMENTS in the United States that is ...

Or maybe even the world, for that matter .....

Since we are supposed to have some of the very best politicians in the world that money can buy ....

And so ....

Being from here, I shine a spotlight on government corruption here in New York State from time to time ....

And so ....

With OUR governor's office being up for grabs this November ...

It is never too early to get that spotlight turned on bright ...

And when it is ...

The picture that is revealed is not at all a pretty or welcome one to us common citizens who do not live or reside in the New York City METRO AREA ....

Where New York State Attorney General Eliot "BIG EL" Spitzer holds sway with all the big-money interests .....

"Big EL", or "Old Uncle Eliot" as he is sometimes known up here in the hinterlands, is soft, oh so very soft, on government corruption here in the State of New York ...

Which makes him the "enemy" of the PEOPLE of the State of New York who want corruption gone from OUR government ....

But because "Old Uncle Eliot" is soft on corruption in government, HE HAS THE SUPPORT OF THE "MACHINE" that helps to produce and promote and prolong that corruption ......

And so ...

"Suozzi draws the short straw - Spitzer easily wins Democratic Rural Conference poll, 148-7"

By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Sunday, March 5, 2006

ITHACA -- Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi made the case for his gubernatorial nomination to Democratic leaders from 41 upstate counties Saturday, but it didn't do him much good.

As expected, and even predicted by Suozzi himself, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer handily won the Democratic Rural Conference straw poll, trouncing his opponent 148-7.

By comparison, Jonathan Tasini, a long-shot candidate against U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., received nine votes and his name wasn't even printed on the ballot.

Suozzi also received one write-in vote during the balloting for lieutenant governor, which Spitzer's running mate, state Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, D-Harlem, won with 154 votes.

In the six-person Democratic race for attorney general, former U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, the front-runner in statewide polls and fundraising, received 79 votes and won by a wide margin.

Denise O'Donnell, a Buffalo native and former U.S. attorney for western New York, came in second with 30 votes.

Spitzer called the conference, held at Cornell University, "a homecoming."

He noted his career in elected office was launched by his straw poll win here in 1998, which propelled him to win both a primary and tight general election over Republican incumbent Dennis Vacco.

"It began here, it continues here and it will continue here in the future," Spitzer said.

"The promise that I make to you is that in September and in November we will win."

"This is not about individuals, it's not about egos."

"It's about principles."

Suozzi didn't stick around to see how the vote came out, departing early to attend an event in Manhattan.

Asked whether he thought the straw poll was a good predictor of the Democratic primary, Suozzi replied:

"Absolutely not."

"My campaign is going to be about going straight out to the people," said Suozzi, who has cast himself as a political outsider.

The DRC accounts for roughly 6 percent of the weighted state convention vote, of which a candidate must receive 25 percent to get on the ballot.

Numerous candidates who have won the spring straw poll failed to succeed in the fall elections.

Cuomo won an upset victory in the 2002 straw poll when he ran for governor against former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall.

Cuomo then dropped out of the race one week before primary day.

McCall later lost to Republican Gov. George Pataki.

Cuomo said his victory on Saturday should put to rest concerns among some Democrats that their ticket is shaping up to be too lopsided, with the potential of four men from New York City running for the four top statewide offices.

"The upstate Democrats today supported me," Cuomo said.

"Their selection is about merits and who's going to do the best job as attorney general."

Jack O'Donnell, who is running the campaign for Denise O'Donnell -- his mother and the only woman and upstate resident in the attorney general race -- rejected Cuomo's claim.

"Even though this is the rural caucus, I don't think they speak for all upstate Democrats," he said.

Merit and reform were hot topics Saturday.

Suozzi and Spitzer both focused on their respective track records on reform in their pre-poll remarks.

The attorney general highlighted his lawsuits against Wall Street firms and the insurance industry.

Suozzi noted he has experience running a government, while Spitzer, although he has run a sizable state agency, does not.

"The difference between the two of us is that Eliot's a prosecutor and I'm a chief executive," Suozzi said.

"We're all going to say we're reformers."

"He's obviously a reformer, but I'm a government reformer."

"I've reformed a complex government enterprise."

Suozzi said he "stood up to my own party" with his Fix Albany campaign two years ago that helped oust several incumbent state legislators.

But he refused say whether he thought Spitzer, who is being backed by most of the Democratic establishment, owes too much to the party.

Spitzer insisted he has "stood up to all I disagree with in principle," adding:

"Any group I disagree with I vocalize it."

"The objective is to vocalize it, to accomplish reform, and that is what we have done."

There had been questions about whether Suozzi would be allowed to address straw poll delegates.

DRC rules automatically place most candidates on the ballot, but only allow those who are formally nominated and seconded by two voting members to speak.

DRC Secretary Steve Jones, who nominated Suozzi, said he did so because "I do believe as Democrats we deserve the chance to hear all of our candidates."

Suozzi campaign manager Kim Devlin professed surprise her candidate received any votes, saying:

"That's seven more than we expected."

Asked why he bothered to attend a party event when he is trying to cast himself as an outsider, Suozzi replied:

"I want to make it very clear that I'm a Democrat."

"I respect the people in this room."

"They're not bad people just because I'm not going to get their votes."

State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who is running unopposed for re-election, won the straw poll by a voice vote Saturday.

Clinton defeated Tasini, a New York City labor activist who gave a rousing speech against the Iraq war that was well-received by the crowd.

Clinton received 126 votes.

Elizabeth Benjamin can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at ebenjamin@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

And from the CORRUPT State of New York ...

Which is located within the boundaries of the continental United States ...

We now wing our way across some open water ....

Over to the present target of George W. Bush's GLOBAL WAR OF TERROR against all of the peoples and religions of the world that George doesn't like .....

Where we have ...

What else?

Just more chaos ...

And did anyone expect anything different from George W. Bush?

"Violence Hinders Formation of Iraqi Gov't"

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 28 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over a recent surge of sectarian killings that has complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government.

The delay in forming a government has prevented parliament from meeting since it was elected Dec. 15.

But Kurdish and some Shiite officials said Sunday it should be ready to convene within days.

The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, denied involvement in fighting in a Sunni mosque in west Baghdad that killed three people Sunday.

Police had reported that commandos from the Shiite-led Interior Ministry stormed the mosque, leading to a 25 minute gunbattle.

"There is no indication in our records that Interior Ministry's police commandos carried out the raid."

"The claims are not true," said Interior Ministry Maj. Falah al-Mohamadawi.

Police initially reported the mosque's imam had been killed, but he was not hurt.

Seven people were injured.

U.S. officials say a unity government that includes all Iraq's ethnic and religious communities is essential for stabilizing the country and allowing U.S. and other coalition forces to start pulling out in the summer.

As the largest bloc in parliament, the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance gets the first chance to form a government, but it does not have sufficient seats to do so on its own.

Sunni, Kurdish and some secular parties are now pressing the Shiite Alliance to withdraw their nomination of al-Jaafari for a new term.

He has served as prime minister in the transitional government that took power in April.

The Sunni Arab minority blames the prime minister for failing to control Shiite militiamen who attacked Sunni mosques and clerics after the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra.

More than 500 people were killed in the violence that followed, according to police and hospital accounts.

Khalaf al-Olayan, a leader of the main Sunni bloc, said Iraq has gone from "bad to worse."

"Al-Jaafari's government failed to solve the chaos that followed the Samarra explosions and did not take any measures to solve the security crisis that could have pushed the country into civil war," he said in comments posted on the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front Web site.

Kurds are angry because they believe al-Jaafari is holding up a resolution to their claims to control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

"If al-Jaafari tries to form a government, he will not get any kind of cooperation," said Mahmoud Othman, a leading figure in parliament's Kurdish bloc.

President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, entered the fray Saturday, saying the Shiite Alliance should choose another candidate for the sake of consensus.

"I want to be clear, it is not against Dr. al-Jaafari as a person."

"He has been my friend for 25 years," Talabani told reporters.

The Shiite Alliance itself is divided about who should be prime minister: al-Jaafari won the nomination by a single vote at a Feb. 12 Shiite caucus.

Some members are troubled by al-Jaafari's ties to radical young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support was key in defeating Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the choice of powerful Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.

Al-Sadr and al-Hakim, who both have powerful militias behind them, are frequently at odds politically.

In a bid for support, two lawmakers from al-Jaafari's Dawa Party visited the Shiite holy city of Najaf Saturday to seek the endorsement of Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.

They hinted al-Sistani approved of their candidate.

But a senior al-Sistani aide, speaking on condition of anonymity Sunday because of the sensitivity of the dispute, said the spiritual leader had indirectly suggested al-Jaafari should step aside.

On Sunday, Kurdish leaders met al-Sistani, headed by Planning Minister Barham Saleh, a member of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Talabani said Saturday he hoped to announce soon a date for parliament to convene.

Othman, the Kurdish official, said he expected a presidential decree to be issued Sunday summoning parliament to meet Thursday or Saturday.

Haitham al-Husseini, an al-Hakim spokesman, also said lawmakers would likely convene in the next few days.

The political turmoil has created a dangerous leadership vacuum as security forces try to contain the violence unleashed by the destruction of the golden domed Askariya shrine in Samarra.

South of the capital, a policeman was killed and his son injured in a drive-by shooting in the mainly Sunni town of Musayyib.

Police found two more bullet-riddled bodies, with hand and legs bound, in Kazimiyah, a northern Shiite suburb of Baghdad.
___

Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report from Baghdad.

[Snuffysmith]

The moron in Washington at work again.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 5, 2006
Iran's Best Friend
At the rate that President Bush is going, Iran will be a global superpower before too long. For all of the axis-of-evil rhetoric that has come out of the White House, the reality is that the Bush administration has done more to empower Iran than its most ambitious ayatollah could have dared to imagine. Tehran will be able to look back at the Bush years as a golden era full of boosts from America, its unlikely ally.

During the period before the Iraq invasion, the president gave lip service to the idea that Iran and Iraq were both threats to American security. But his advisers, intent on carrying out their long-deferred dream of toppling Saddam Hussein, gave scant thought to what might happen if their plans did not lead to the unified, peaceful, pro-Western democracy of their imaginings. The answer, though, is now rather apparent: a squabbling, divided country in which the Shiite majority in the oil-rich south finds much more in common with its fellow Shiites in Iran than with the Sunni Muslims with whom it needs to form an Iraqi government.

Washington has now become dangerously dependent on the good will and constructive behavior of Shiite fundamentalist parties that Iran sheltered, aided and armed during the years that Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. In recent weeks, neither good will nor constructive behavior has been particularly evident, and if Iran chooses to stir up further trouble to deflect diplomatic pressures on its nuclear program, it could easily do so.

There is now a real risk that Iraq, instead of being turned into an outpost of secular democracy challenging the fanatical rulers of the Islamic republic to its east, could become an Iranian-aligned fundamentalist theocracy, challenging the secular Arab regimes to its west.

Fast-forward to Thursday's nuclear deal with India, in which President Bush agreed to share civilian nuclear technology with India despite its nuclear weapons programs and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

This would be a bad idea at any time, rewarding India for flouting the basic international understanding that has successfully discouraged other countries from South Korea to Saudi Arabia from embarking on their own efforts to build nuclear weapons. But it also undermines attempts to rein in Iran, whose nuclear program is progressing fast and unnerving both its neighbors and the West.

The India deal is exactly the wrong message to send right now, just days before Washington and its European allies will be asking the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council for further action. Iran's hopes of preventing this depend on convincing the rest of the world that the West is guilty of a double standard on nuclear issues. Mr. Bush might as well have tied a pretty red bow around his India nuclear deal and mailed it as a gift to Tehran.



Copyright 2006The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map Back to Top

[Livyjr]

And while we are on the subject of America's George ....

Who really is, upon reflection, probably the GREATEST MAN THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN .....

Or maybe he is even greater than that ....

In his own mind, anyway ....

"Priests purify shrine after Bush visit"

Associated Press
Last updated: 6:35 a.m., Sunday, March 5, 2006

NEW DELHI -- Hindu priests who look after the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit from President Bush.

But it wasn't the president who offended them, it was the sniffer-dogs who scoured the area ahead of his visit.

After the dog visit, the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges river, which Hindus consider holy, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Sunday.

Bush visited the memorial on Thursday during his three day visit to India.

The site, where pacifist icon Gandhi was cremated, is considered sacred and all visitors, including Bush and his wife Laura, removed their shoes before going in.

The dogs, flown in from the U.S., were part of the intense security surrounding the president, but the Hindu priests believe they tainted the site.

Letting dogs into the memorial also drew sharp protest from Hindu politicians and Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, who called the incident a "national shame," the Press Trust of India news agency reported.

[Snuffysmith]

More from George:


http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...04-123418-3911r

U.S.-India pact may undermine effort to rein in Iran
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Published March 4, 2006


WASHINGTON -- The new U.S.-India nuclear cooperation pact is complicating the Bush administration's efforts to rally international pressure against Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons programs.

Critics of the India deal in Congress and among arms-control activists say the concessions President Bush granted to India in the nuclear deal signed Thursday in New Delhi make it harder to preserve a united front against Tehran's efforts to build atomic bombs.


Some lawmakers in Congress, which must approve parts of the India deal, say the bad precedent it sets for Iran and other rogue states seeking nuclear weapons is enough to kill the accord.

The India deal "empowers the hawks in every rogue nation to put their nuclear plans on steroids now that they can no longer be isolated," said Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat and co-chairman of the congressional task force on nonproliferation.

The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal collection of the top suppliers of nuclear technology, will also consider the India accord at an upcoming meeting, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.

The NSG would have to lift its own embargo on India to allow member countries to sell sensitive technology and equipment to New Delhi.

Negotiators from Iran and the European Union, meeting briefly yesterday in Vienna, Austria, announced they had once again failed to reach a deal on halting Iran's program to enrich uranium, a key step in the bomb-making process.

The impasse sets the stage for a Monday meeting of the board of the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, a meeting that could clear the way for U.N. Security Council action to sanction Tehran.

But Reuters news agency reported that Russia still is pushing a compromise that would allow Iran to pursue a more limited enrichment-research program over time.

The State Department confirmed yesterday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be in Washington early next week, with the Iran question a key topic on the agenda.

According to an unidentified diplomat at the Vienna talks yesterday, Mr. Lavrov will present to U.S. officials a compromise plan between the Europeans and Iran that would allow Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium-enrichment program.

For years, Europe and the United States have opposed allowing Iran any kind of enrichment capability.

Such a compromise could leave Washington facing near-isolation diplomatically after months of building a consensus that led the IAEA's 35-nation board to put the U.N. Security Council on alert about Iran's nuclear program.

In New Delhi on Wednesday, Mr. Bush agreed to end a long ban on U.S. nuclear cooperation with India, which never signed the international treaty on nonproliferation, in exchange for an Indian pledge to put its civilian nuclear facilities under international monitoring.

Mr. Bush hailed the potential of closer U.S.-India ties to transform the region and world in a speech at the end of his three-day visit yesterday.

The United States and India, which had cool relations throughout the Cold War years, "are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world," the president said.

Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, who hammered out the final details of the nuclear accord just hours before Mr. Bush arrived in India, said in an interview with the International Herald Tribune that comparisons with the Iranian nuclear program were "ludicrous."

Michael Green, who helped prepare much of the India agenda before leaving the National Security Council in December, said the New Delhi deal "gives Iran a good talking point."

But he added the spinoff effects of closer U.S.-India ties will be "profound," and will bring India firmly into the camp of nations seeking to contain the spread of nuclear weapons.

Iran's negotiators are already citing the India deal in a bid to divert the U.S.-led pressure campaign.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, said Iranians resented the fact that India and Israel have not been punished for their military nuclear programs, while Iran cannot pursue what he said were peaceful civilian nuclear efforts.

The India deal faces an uncertain future in Congress, with many lawmakers saying they still must see the fine print on what safeguards Mr. Bush was able to obtain over India's extensive nuclear facilities.

Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, said he would like to support the agreement as a path to a better U.S.-India relationship. The devil is in the details.

[Livyjr]

And as the infrastruture in IRAQINAM continues to crumble over there .....

Because of CORRUPTION in the BUSH ADMINISTRATION's handling of things in post-war IRAQINAM ....

Never fear ...

Because OURS is crumbling, too ....

ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT produces like results everywhere that ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT touches its hands to ....

And so ...

"Public urged to prepare for worst - Gilboa Dam failure would devastate Schenectady, county official warns"

By DAN HIGGINS, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Friday, March 3, 2006

SCOTIA -- Businesses in the path of floodwaters from a collapsed Gilboa Dam could face weeks of interruptions and millions of dollars in damages, so they best be prepared, panelists warned Thursday morning.

The Schenectady County Chamber hosted a discussion on what might happen to businesses in Schenectady County if the Gilboa Dam in Schoharie County were to collapse, sending 19 billion gallons from the Schoharie Reservoir traveling down the Schoharie Creek and Mohawk River in a 10-foot wall of water.

"Think about what's going to happen immediately," said Bill Van Hoesen, Schenectady County's director of emergency management.

"Roads are going to be closed."

"Bridges are going to be closed."

"There's going to be very little opportunity to move back and forth between areas," he said.

He said the most dangerous period is likely to be between late March and the end of April, when spring rains and melting snow and ice tend to cause the most flooding.

The importance of planning for disaster was emphasized by six other panelists, who represented state government and local businesses.

Plans should include ways to keep businesses running when roads and suppliers are out of commission.

They should also take into account that some employees just won't be available, especially those whose homes are in jeopardy.

The Gilboa Dam, which is owned by New York City and supplies drinking water to its metro area, is in danger of collapse if heavy rains overfill the reservoir by more than eight feet.

Engineers from the city's Department of Environmental Protection said the bedrock underneath is no longer sturdy enough to hold the dam under the most severe weather conditions.

Crews have installed a notch and siphon pipes that will be able to drain hundreds of millions of gallons from the reservoir if water levels get too high this spring.

Meanwhile, officials plan on installing up to 90 anchors that would hold the concrete dam to the bedrock below.

That work should be complete by September.

But until then some residents and local business people said the serious nature of the county's planning is a sobering reminder of what could happen, even if the chances of dam failure are remote.

"It's hard to think of it as something that could really happen."

"It comforts me they say it's a really low probability, but I would hate to see it," said Mary Moore Wallinger, 31, who works for a Saratoga Springs-based planning and design firm.

She lives in Schenectady and her firm has clients in the city, as well.

"I feel like Schenectady is doing so well, all these good things are coming together."

"I would hate to see a setback like this," she said.

Dan Higgins can be reached at 454-5523 or by e-mail at dhiggins@timesunion.com.

[Livyjr]

More from George:

http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...04-123418-3911r

"U.S.-India pact may undermine effort to rein in Iran"

By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Published March 4, 2006

WASHINGTON -- The new U.S.-India nuclear cooperation pact is complicating the Bush administration's efforts to rally international pressure against Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons programs.

The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal collection of the top suppliers of nuclear technology, will also consider the India accord at an upcoming meeting, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.

The NSG would have to lift its own embargo on India to allow member countries to sell sensitive technology and equipment to New Delhi.

Mr. Bush hailed the potential of closer U.S.-India ties to transform the region and world in a speech at the end of his three-day visit yesterday.

The United States and India, which had cool relations throughout the Cold War years, "are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world," the president said.

When George W. Bush opens his mouth to speak, generally just the sound of his voice alone is enough to make me cringe, just as the sound of fingernails being scraped across a blackboard does .....

It's like having to listen to a dog on steroids barking and barking and barking incessently .....

And that is just the sound of George W. Bush's voice .....

It is afterwards, when those "dog-barking" sounds have been run through some kind of apparent computer translating system that converts those sounds into words that I really begin to wonder ...

ESPECIALLY WHEN AMERICA's GEORGE TALKS OF "TRANSFORMING THE WORLD" ....

Because I am now old enough to remember what that world was like for a lot of years before America's George came on the scene to "TRANSFORM IT" ....

And I was sober for a lot of those years ...

While America's George was not ...

And so .....

WHAT IS GEORGE W. BUSH TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD INTO?

And from whence does he derive this apparent power that he has to do so?

By all indications to date, and this is after following the "career" of America's George these last so many years, it is questionable whether George W. Bush has any real ideas at all of where earth is located in the solar system ....

And it is likely that America's George knows absolutely nothing of America ...

Or its own history ....

Let alone that of the world ...

BECAUSE America's George is in thrall to the ARCHITECT, Karl Rove .....

And Karl apparently believes fervently that the earth is only some 5,000 or 6,000 years old ...

Which, of necessity, must negate most of the history of civilization on this earth of OURS ......

Which is why America's George apparently believes that it is up to him, and him alone, to create a HISTORY for OUR world ...

Which reflects him as its FOUNDER ...

And SAVIOR ....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

WHAT IS GEORGE W. BUSH TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD INTO?

Slowly ....

And inexorably ....

The past catches up with George W. Bush .....

And his crowd, of course ...

That amorphous mass that I collectively call the BUSHCOS, or BUSH CORPORATE ......

What the BUSHCOS fail to appreciate is that since they collectively denounced General Eric Shinseki because he would not SPEW BUSHCO LIES, ALL OTHER GENERALS WHO SERVE THE BUSHCOS ARE NOW SUSPECT ...

AS LIARS ......

And so ....

"General's Assessment of Iraq Questioned"

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 58 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's top general acknowledged Sunday that "anything can happen" in Iraq, but he said things aren't as bad as some say.

"I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at."

The comments drew criticism that Gen. Peter Pace is glossing over problems in the three-year-old U.S. campaign.

"Why would I believe him?" asked Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a major critic of the Bush administration's handling of the war.

"This administration, including the president, (has) mischaracterized this war for the last two years."

Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited political progress such as holding elections and writing a constitution as well as military progress like training Iraqi security forces.

"No matter where you look — at their military, their police, their society — things are much better this year than they were last," Pace said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Murtha, responding to Pace in an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," said that Iraq has 60 percent unemployment, oil production below prewar levels, and water service to only 30 percent of the population.

American troops are doing everything they can militarily but "are caught in a civil war," said Murtha, a former Marine who has called on the administration to bring U.S. troops home.

"There's two participants fighting for survival and fighting for supremacy inside that country," he said of ethnic divisions.

"And that's my definition of a civil war."

Murtha added:

"The rhetoric is so frustrating — when they keep making statements which are very optimistic, and then it turns out to be the opposite."

"... And the public has caught on to that, and they're very pessimistic about the outcome."

Pace and Murtha spoke as Iraqis continued a stalemate over forming a new government, a delay that has prevented parliament from meeting since it was elected Dec. 15.

Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over the recent surge in sectarian killings that has complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government.

Pace said the violent firestorm that followed the bombing of a revered Shiite mosque two weeks ago had forced Iraqis to look into "that abyss" and realize "that's not where they want to go."

"Anything can happen, I agree," Pace said, then added: "I believe the Iraqi people have shown in the last week to 10 days that they do not want civil war."

Ending the insurgency depends not only on military efforts but also on whether the Iraqi government can give the people what they want, Pace said.

He said the number of people in the insurgency will drop if people see that the new government can come through with jobs and services.

"If you have an opportunity to get a job and feed your family, you're much less likely to accept $100 to go plant a bomb inside a road," Pace said.

Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. must stick with the Iraqis.

"They're talking about putting their act together," Lugar, R-Ind., said on CBS.

"Now, the fact is that they may or may not be successful, but we better hope that they are, because the consequences for our country and the war against terror are very fateful if they are not."

end quotes

Well, Richard, we're down to HOPE now, eh?

Well, that is how it goes, isn't it?

George W. Bush's WAR OF TERROR has all you REPUBLICANS in a real fix, doesn't it, Richard?

You wanted us to all believe that you folks knew what you were doing out there in the world ...

When the truth was and remains that none of you had a clue ...

Just a lot of bluff and bravado .....

And so .....

TIME FOR REGIME CHANGE ...

Right here in OUR own America .....

Come election day ....

Get the REPUBLICANS gone from government in OUR America ....

[Livyjr]

BOOM ....BOOM ......BOOM ....BOOM .....

WAR DRUMS BEATING ...

A big fire burning ....

Dick Cheney, the BIG GRIZ from Wyoming, half-naked, dressed only in a designer breech-clout and a special pair of leggings that he got in a Jackson Hole boutique for $3500, mouth drawn back in a rictus, teeth showing like a real big Wyoming GRIZ, wildly firing an A-4 automatic assault rifle anywhere and everywhere, whirls and capers and cavorts around the fire like an imp released from the bowels of hell itself, gibbering and alternately grunting in some tongue intelligible to only himself, if even that ....

While Donald Rumsfeld, painted up to beat the band in rouge and vermillion and whatever that brown stuff on him is, dressed in the skin of an IRAQINAMI, head still attached, with fetishes festooned all over his otherwise naked body, stands up on a stump and shouts exhortations to the assembled crowd .....

WAR ..... WAR .... WAR .... WAR

And here we go again ..

Except this time, since they are using the same script that was used for the IRAQINAM DEBACLE, we are supposed to be saving some money ....

On the front-end load, anyway ....

"Rumsfeld: Iran Regime Sponsors Terrorism"

By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer

MUNICH, Germany - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged America's allies to increase their military spending to prevent the rise of a "global extremist Islamic empire."

"The Iranian regime is today the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," he said in prepared remarks.

Rumsfeld said terrorists hope to use Iraq as the "central front" in their war, turning it into a training and recruitment area like they had done in    Afghanistan under the Taliban.

He warned "a war has been declared on all of our nations" and said their "futures depend on determination and unity in the face of the terrorist threat."

"We could choose to pretend, as some suggest, that the enemy is not at our doorstep."

"We could choose to believe, as some contend, that the threat is exaggerated."

"But those who would follow such a course must ask: what if they are wrong?"

"What if at this moment, the enemy is counting on being underestimated, counting on being dismissed, and counting on our preoccupation," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld said violent extremism is a danger faced as much in Europe as in the United States.

"The struggle ahead promises to be a long war that will cause us all to recalibrate our strategies, perhaps further adjust our institutions, and certainly work closely together," he said.

He said Islamic militants are on the move and have to be checked.

"They seek to take over governments from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to re-establish a caliphate they hope, one day, will include every continent," he said.

"They have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire."

Likening the war on terror to the Cold War, Rumsfeld said the battle could be won if nations persevered.

Get ready, America ...

For BLITZKREIG II .....

As George W. Bush prepares his PANZER DIVISIONS for a lightning strike right into the very heart of IRAN ......

Where George W. Bush will open up another front of his WAR OF TERROR against anyone and anything that George W. Bush does not like at that moment in time .....

It is how worlds are transformed, after all ...

At the point of a bayonet .....

The TEXICAN STOMP .....

And so ...

"US warns Iran of consequences of nuclear ambitions"

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent

2 hours, 43 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Sunday warned that Iran faced "painful consequences" if it continued sensitive nuclear activities and said the problem would become increasingly difficult to resolve if the international community did not confront it.

Ahead of what could be a crucial international meeting on Iran on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton reaffirmed that the United States will use "all tools at our disposal" to thwart Iran's nuclear program and is already "beefing up defensive measures" to do so.

"The Iran regime must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," he told 4,500 delegates to the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group.

Monday's meeting of the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency governing board is expected to take stock of Iran's continued defiance of U.S. and European demands to end sensitive weapons-related uranium enrichment activity and then hand the case over to the UN Security Council.

The United States is discussing a 30- to 60-day deadline for Tehran to halt its nuclear program and cooperate with international inspectors or face intensified pressure in the security council, a U.S. official told Reuters.

Iran on Sunday again threatened to begin large-scale nuclear enrichment if the case is taken up by the security council.

Bolton said Iran poses a "comprehensive threat" as a state-sponsor of terrorism and a nuclear aspirant, and so "we must be prepared to ... use all the tools at our disposal to stop the threat."

'LONGER WE WAIT ... HARDER IT WILL BECOME TO SOLVE'

"The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses, the harder and more intractable it will become to solve," he warned.

Bolton reaffirmed that Washington does not see the security council moving quickly to impose sanctions on Iran.

Veto-wielding members Russia and China have made clear their reluctance.

But he said many other governments have begun to speak publicly of sanctions, implying they may take action outside the security council.

The United States has had sweeping sanctions on Iran since after the 1979 Iranian revolution, but it is looking at ways to further use its Proliferation Security Initiative to deny Iran materials it needs for its nuclear program, Bolton said.

The United States and key allies, led by the European Union trio of Britain, France and Germany, are convinced Iran is trying to produce a nuclear weapon, but Tehran insists it is only interested in civilian nuclear energy.

Former chief UN weapons inspector David Kay, who also spoke at the AIPAC conference, discussed the limits of weapons inspections and said a conclusive judgment about Iran's program may only come too late, after it conducts a weapons test.

The IAEA is expected to weigh a report on Monday by the IAEA chief saying Iran has ignored a February 4 resolution urging it to shelve uranium-enrichment work to ease the crisis.

Instead, Iran is vacuum-testing 20 centrifuges, which convert uranium into fuel for power plants or, if highly purified, bombs, the report said.

Iran also plans to install 3,000 centrifuges later this year in a push to "industrial scale" enrichment, according to the IAEA report.

The IAEA board voted on February 4 to report Iran to the security council, but on the condition the world body would not flex its muscle at least until after Monday's session.

If the security council did not act in a timely manner, Bolton said, the council's credibility would be damaged.

[Livyjr]

"US warns Iran of consequences of nuclear ambitions"

By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Sunday warned that Iran faced "painful consequences" if it continued sensitive nuclear activities and said the problem would become increasingly difficult to resolve if the international community did not confront it.

"The Iran regime must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," he told 4,500 delegates to the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group.

And while the BUSHCO WARMONGERS AND TUB-THUMPERS continue to POSTURE before lobbying groups while pushing vigorously for yet another war that the BOY KING George W. Bush will again be hopelessly out of his depth in .....

We have ....

"IAEA Optimistic on Iran Nuke Program Deal"

By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 43 minutes ago

VIENNA, Austria - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency expressed cautious optimism Monday on the chances of reaching an international agreement to defuse concerns about Iran's nuclear activities and make U.N. Security Council action unnecessary.

The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board was not likely to discuss the Iran issue until Tuesday or Wednesday.

But delegates said that whatever step the council might take would stop far short of sanctions.

But as the board meeting opened, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei suggested the council might not need to get involved.

"I am still very much hopeful that in the next week an agreement could be reached," ElBaradei told reporters, alluding to talks between Moscow and Tehran aimed at moving Iran's enrichment program to Russia and possible further contacts between Iran and Europe.

He did not elaborate.

But diplomats told the AP that recent talks have touched on the possibility of allowing Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium enrichment program, despite its potential for misuse in building atomic weapons.

That point was significant because the Europeans and the United States have for years opposed allowing Iran any kind of enrichment capability — a stance that Russia, China and other influential nations have embraced.

Tehran has insisted on its right to conduct enrichment, saying it wants only to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity.

But enrichment also can create fissile material for warheads, and a growing number of nations share U.S. fears that is Iran's true goal.

Russia recently has sought to persuade Iran to move its enrichment program to Russian territory, which would allow closer international monitoring.

But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations suggested Security Council action was necessary, saying there was an urgent need to confront Iran's "clear and unrelenting drive" for nuclear weapons.

Iran "must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," John Bolton told a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Sunday.

Also Sunday, Iran's government warned that putting the issue before the Security Council would hurt efforts to resolve the dispute diplomatically.

"If Iran's nuclear dossier is referred to the U.N. Security Council, (large-scale) uranium enrichment will be resumed," Iran's top negotiator, Ali Larijani, told reporters in Tehran.

"If they want to use force, we will pursue our own path."

He said Iran had exhausted "all peaceful ways," and that if demands were made contrary to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the nation "will resist."

Larijani said Iran would not abandon nuclear research or back down from pursuing an atomic program that Tehran insists is only for peaceful purposes.

IAEA delegates suggested the U.N. agency's board would not push for confrontation with Iran, and said any initial decisions by the Security Council based on this week's meeting would be mild.

The council's most likely action, they said, would be a statement urging Iran to increase cooperation with IAEA inspectors and to resume its freeze on uranium enrichment.

Even such a mild step could be weeks down the road, but it would formally begin council involvement with Iran's nuclear file, starting a process that could culminate with political and economic sanctions.

Bolton said a failure by the Security Council to address Iran would damage the council's credibility.

"The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses, the harder and more intractable it will become to solve."

Russia and China, which can veto Security Council actions, are for now opposed to imposing sanctions against Iran, though they share the concerns of the U.S., France and Britain — the other permanent council members with veto power — that Iran could misuse enrichment for an arms program.

Though Russia and China, which both have economic and strategic ties with Tehran, voted with the majority of IAEA board members at a Feb. 4 meeting to report the issue to the Security Council, they insisted the council do nothing until after this week's IAEA meeting in Vienna.

Russia is unlikely to agree to strong action while it negotiates with Iran on the proposal to move Tehran's enrichment program to Russian territory.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was due this week in Washington and New York to discuss the status of those talks with Bush administration officials and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Both Tehran and Moscow have said new talks are planned, though no dates have been announced.

Iran rejected an EU proposal last year to end enrichment in return for the West providing reactor fuel and economic aid.

Past IAEA board meetings have ended with resolutions taking Iran to task for hindering investigations into a nuclear program that was kept secret for nearly 18 years and more recently urging it to reimpose a freeze on enrichment.
___

Associated Press Writer Palma Benczenleitner contributed to this report.
___

On the Net:

International Atomic Energy Agency: http://www.iaea.org

It sure does sound to me like this Bolton dude that BUSHCO has down there at the UN is getting kind of PARANOID ....

And weak-kneed at the same time .....

Which has him running around down there like a CHICKEN-HEART .....

"OH, THE SKY IS GOING TO FALL ..."

"Oh, THE SKY IS GOING TO FALL ....."

How absolutely embarassing this BUSHCO crowd really is to OUR America ....

[Livyjr]

And while the BUSHCO WARMONGERS AND TUB-THUMPERS continue to POSTURE before lobbying groups while pushing vigorously for yet another war that the BOY KING George W. Bush will again be hopelessly out of his depth in .....

We have ....

Well ...

What we have up here in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York, thanks in large part to that PERSISTENT GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, is one of the more polluted and contaminated states in the United States ...

Or maybe the world ...

And while the BUSHCO CHICKEN-HEARTS are out there looking under rocks and behind bushes growing in the far deserts of the world for TAY-RISTS that they think will come over here and take over the whole of the United States and its 294 MILLIONS of people in an hour or two at the outside, unless stopped cold in IRAQINAM, which was George W. Bush's BATTLEFIELD OF CHOICE in his WAR OF TERROR AGAINST THE WORLD ......

I am really more concerned myself with what I am drinking when I drink a glass of water from my own well .....

And I am concerned about that because I know that the Rensselaer County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer will all do their damndest to PROTECT the polluters who threaten my water supply ...

While at the same time doing their damndest to ensure to the POLLUTER that I will not be able to lay a glove on them in court ...

So as to be able to protect and safeguard my own water supply, as well as my own health and well-being as a human being on this earth of OURS ....

"Planned rules set cleanup guidelines - Proposed regulations that would set standards for developers building on polluted sites called inadequate by critics"

By COLIN McDONALD, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, March 6, 2006

ALBANY -- In a state polluted with toxins, carcinogens and heavy metals since colonists began tanning animal hides in the 1600s, the question now is: how clean is clean?

Newly proposed regulations are designed to help the state catch up on a 400-year backlog of cleanup work.

Developers seeking tax credits and certification under New York's Environmental Remediation Program would work from a matrix of standards based on the contamination of their property, the uses of the surrounding land and the site's intended purpose.

The highest standards are based on a survey of rural property across New York.

But critics say the whole state is so polluted that even those standards are inadequate.

"The issue is difficult for all of us because of how we have impacted our environment," said Linda Shaw, a Rochester environmental attorney who supports the new regulations.

"The rural background numbers came out higher than everyone expected because our environment is unfortunately more contaminated than anyone thought."

Some of the worst locations are now classified as brownfields, where contamination is hindering development, and Superfund sites, land so polluted the state takes over the cleanup.

Each year the state adds an average of 45 Superfund sites to its list, and thousands of spills and accidents increase the number of brownfields, Shaw said.

Of the tens of thousands of contaminated properties, 1,788 are being dealt with under the current remediation programs.

A 2003 state law was designed to deal with the worst properties and encourage developers to clean up sites for redevelopment.

It came after 10 years of wrangling over how clean sites should be and was supposed to expedite the work.

The law required the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Health to come up with new regulations to protect the public while providing developers clear standards so they could estimate cleanup costs.

The regulations were released in November and are open to public comment through March 27.

Bobbi Chase Wilding of the Citizens Environmental Coalition cited the proposed brownfield development in downtown Albany at Quackenbush Square as an example of a place where an inadequate cleanup under the new standards would leave future generations at risk.

The property at the intersection of Broadway and Spencer Street is zoned for industry, and investors want to clean it up and build an apartment and office complex.

The DEC suspects the soil on the property -- which has been home to industry for centuries -- contains petroleum, metals, pesticides and semivolatile and volatile organic compounds, which continue to spread through the ground and groundwater.

But under the proposed standards, not all the contaminated soil would be removed, because DEC assumes there would be limited exposure to people living and working around Quackenbush Square.

Such an assumption, she said, ignores studies that suggest the risk of exposure to lingering pollutants is higher than previously thought.

Exposure, for example, could be through vapor intrusion -- the seeping of chemicals through the soil and groundwater into nearby basements and buildings.

Gabrielle DeMarco, a DEC spokeswoman, said the standards are based on the best science available and will be changed as science advances the understanding of the movement and threats of toxic materials.

The state could even require further work on a site previously certified as clean and is further studying the risks from vapor intrusion.

"Remediation measures may differ for each project depending on the nature and extent of contamination and the site's end use, but the main priority of the state has and will always be to ensure that these projects safeguard public health and the environment" she said.

Once the draft standards are approved and developers can make a reasonable estimate of cleanup costs, the number of cleanups will likely grow substantially, Shaw said.

Environmental groups counter that if the cleanup is insufficient the first time, the work will have to be done again and the state will have failed to protect the public.

"It means we will have a toxic legacy for years to come," said John Stouffer of the Sierra Club.

McDonald can be reached at 454-5441 or by e-mail at cmcdonald@timesunion.com.

CONTACT DATA

The draft regulations for the Environmental Remediation Program can be viewed on line at http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/der/sup...nd/fact375.html or in person at Department of Environmental Conservation regional offices. To contact the Region 4 office, which includes Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties, call 357-2234. The Region 5 office, which includes Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties, can be reached at 897-1200.The DEC will conduct three public hearings to gather comments on the proposed standards. The Capital Region hearing will be at 1 p.m. March 15 at the DEC Building, Room 129, 625 Broadway, Albany.

[Livyjr]

Well ...

What we have up here in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York, thanks in large part to that PERSISTENT GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, is one of the more polluted and contaminated states in the United States ...

Or maybe the world ...

And while the BUSHCO CHICKEN-HEARTS are out there looking under rocks and behind bushes growing in the far deserts of the world for TAY-RISTS that they think will come over here and take over the whole of the United States and its 294 MILLIONS of people in an hour or two at the outside, unless stopped cold in IRAQINAM, which was George W. Bush's BATTLEFIELD OF CHOICE in his WAR OF TERROR AGAINST THE WORLD ......

I am really more concerned myself with what I am drinking when I drink a glass of water from my own well .....

And I am concerned about that because I know that the Rensselaer County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer will all do their damndest to PROTECT the polluters who threaten my water supply ...

While at the same time doing their damndest to ensure to the POLLUTER that I will not be able to lay a glove on them in court ...

So as to be able to protect and safeguard my own water supply, as well as my own health and well-being as a human being on this earth of OURS ....

High taxes .....

Corrupt government ...

A complete and total lack of REPRESENTATION in OUR government ....

UNLESS you can afford to buy up some legislators yourself ....

Corrupt judges ....

Closed courts .....

No redress of grievance ....

Pollution ...

Contamination ....

These are the issues that concern me as a human being .....

And many others as well ...

Which is why citizens up here are taking matters into their own hands ....

TAKING BACK CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT from the special interests who have bought up OUR corrupt politicians ...

Lock, stock and barrel .....

Or at least these citizens are making the attempt ...

WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF THE LAW .....

An area that you will never find OUR government, from top to bottom, operating in, up here in the corrupt EMPIRE ....

And down there in Washington, D.C., as well ...

"Showdown over Dunham Hollow - Amid efforts to mine rock, residents vote today on creating municipality"

By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union

First published: Monday, March 6, 2006

NASSAU -- A public vote on whether to form a village of Dunham Hollow to fight proposed rock mines will take place tonight, a week after a third miner filed an application within town boundaries.

Town officials set up the vote last month after an appellate court knocked down objections to formation of a 4.93-square-mile village in the northeast corner of town and ordered the measure be decided by residents.

Dunham Hollow is now a hamlet in the mostly rural town.

Last May, village organizers, upset with town officials over two proposals by two different mining companies to extract graywacke rock from locations in the Dunham Hollow/Hoags Corners areas, submitted village incorporation petitions.

Supporters want to wrest zoning from the town and ban the mines.

In December 2003, Troy Sand & Gravel filed an application with the state and town to mine graywacke rock from 95 acres of a 214-acre plot south of the intersection of Route 66 and Radley Road, just north of Hoags Corners.

About a year later, Callanan Industries filed an application to mine the same rock from 76 acres of a 111-acre parcel near the intersection of Dunham Hollow and Greenman Hill roads, about two miles southeast of Troy Sand and Gravel's proposed site.

Then last Monday, Callanan made another application to mine a site on the east side of Route 66 and north of Gardner Hill Road, the northeast quadrant of the intersection.

The company is proposing a 39-acre mine site on a 45-acre vacant parcel the company recently bought.

The proposed site is about halfway between the other two along the Route 66 corridor.

All of the applications are pending before the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

When supporters first filed petitions to form the village, former Supervisor Carol Sanford was opposed and rejected the documents based on errors.

She argued the number of signatures did not represent 20 percent of the voting age residents in the affected area.

However, on Aug. 8, state Supreme Court Justice Christian Hummel reversed Sanford and ordered the measure to a public vote, but four private residents appealed, and the court issued a stay on the vote.

The residents argued that some properties would be bisected by a new village boundary, that a group of people who sought to have their petition signatures withdrawn should be allowed to do so, and they claimed irregularities with voter registration lists.

They also argued that some of the signatures were invalid.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in a Jan. 19 ruling rejected the arguments advanced by Sanford and the residents and ordered the matter to go to the voters.

Last week, village opponents were denied permission to have the matter reviewed by the Court of Appeals.

Bob Gardinier can be reached at 454-5696 or by e-mail at bgardinier@timesunion.com.

DECIDE

What: A public vote on whether to form a village of Dunham Hollow

When: Noon to 9 p.m. today

Where: Hoags Corners Volunteer Fire Company, 7237 Route 66

[Snuffysmith]

http://cgi.wn.com/?action=display&article=...xt&index=recent

Criminal Acts In Politics
WorldNews.com,Sun 5 Mar 2006
Criminal Acts In Politics

Letters to the Editor René Delavy.
Remember Pinochet and the torturing to death of thousands of young people in Chile? Remember the generals of Argentine and other nations in South America, killing ten thousands of students, teachers, intellectuals and journalists? Remember: The democrat Allende and all other decent men and women could not have been killed without the consent of the Government of the USA and his secret army, the CIA. Remember Vietnam: Three million people ( and this happened AFTER a World War II ) killed for nothing at all, in the name of an ideology of capitalism, without the Chinese, Soviets and other being able to prevent it? McNamara, Henry Kissinger, Kennedy, Nixon and the rest just killed whole populations without any reasons. And this was done, after Hitler dared many years earlier - under the same principles and idea of hegemony - to kill six million Jews, many millions of Russians, Americans, French and English people. Where is the fundamental difference between Nazi-Germany and USA in the years 1960 to 2005, in the light of the future development, which risks getting out of any control?

This killing goes on today. With the consent of all mass media of the USA, George W. Bush did not want to get rid of Saddam Hussein. No, this monster is still alive, whereas the oil of Iraq seemed already to be firm in the hands of the US Industry - that paid for George W. Bush to be president of the most cynical state of the Earth and then to act in their interest. And therefore, many Iraqis and people of Afghanistan had to die for no good reasons, but for the lies, that Powell was spreading in the face of all the nations of the UN - just before the decided battle started. As a result, the whole Arab area is now preparing a war in spirit against the western ideology of hegemonial thinking, result of an attempt to influence these states in a way that the USA government would have the power on the oil of the whole Arab region. This has been the original plan of Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and all the rest.

Eight years of Bush regency will have destabilized the world in a way, the blinded media in the USA did not see, when they followed an idiot in his adventure; Fox-TV, Murdoch, New York Times, USA Today and all other newspapers followed his leader, as German media did when Hitler came to power. Where is the fundamental difference? The US-media did not understand that 9/11 was a reaction and not an action. The slap in the faces of all people of Islam faith had to react, sooner or later. But the journalism of the World is not of a nature to illustrate the change of thinking in the heads of deprivated people, confronted with a western Hollywood mentality of action, fun, killing and porno; an ideology which declares the criminal, powerful and stupid heroes as Masters of the Universe whereas the rest of people in the world obviously are nothing but a bunch of idiots to be ignored, sent in poverty or even worse. So remember who first has made steps forward into terrorism in this world, long before 9/11.

B. Criminal acts in ecology

Is the protocol of Kyoto of any importance? No, it will not change one percent of the criminal influence of the World, headed by the US population and ideology of capitalism. But the NO of George W. Bush is a sign, that he could not care less about the future generations on the Earth, betting for a survival after all energy stuff of the world will have been transformed in a gas of destruction, with the crazy idea of cars, planes and all the rest, deployed by a mass population of more than seven billion people, of which the US population pollutes more of the air than any other nation in the world. Now, even China tries to copy this model of self destruction. Our children will have to pay the price. It is not George W. Bush alone who is responsible for this misery. But he is the living sign that most people of the world will not be able to understand the state of affairs, before the whole civilization will go down the drain, slowly first - and than - all of a sudden - so fast that no counter action can be taken, by nobody, no nation, no government, NGO, United Nations Organisation or any other power in the world. We have destroyed the future of our own children, and at the same time we laugh our heads off, sitting in a comfortable rapid train that will explode very soon at the wall called "End of the vanities of human mankind".

The cynicism of George and his bunch of criminals could have been noticed during the drowning of New Orleans: "Just let them go down the drain, those criminal black people with their poverty, far away from us, down in the south." This was the stupid attitude and the intention of George, before he realized that race-hatred in his own country is not modern thinking. Today, he and his crew try to do everything to make forget this fauxpas of bad taste. But the black people in New Orleans will not forget that the US government did not undertake anything to prevent the loss of a beautiful town, because the killing of Iraqis (instead of killing Saddam Hussein alone) was much more important to them - and so the billions of dollars had to go into that area, for an ideology of apes, for a useless struggle, just for nothing. What has this to do with ecology? You will see it, twenty years from now.

C. Criminal acts in the name of religion

What have the "New born Christians", also known as the fundamental Evangelists of the United States, what have these conservative bunches to do with Israel? Dear George, quite a lot. In fact the understanding of the US government with all acts of Sharon and other Jewish people in Israel is at the source of the hatred of the Arabs and of Islam people on the Western world and its standards of cynicism. And in fact this is the source of 9/11, nothing else. George W. Bush himself would have planned such a reaction of revenge, would he have been a proud member of the great Islam Society. But this is too difficult to be understood - even for the Chief Editor of the NEW YORK TIMES.

Remember the elicts of faith (Hexenbulle) of the Catholic church that were at the source of hundred thousands of women and men, tortured and thrown in the fire, alive and in a painfulness that cannot be imagined by anybody, a burning of people that lasted for centuries? What is the difference in spirit to the Evangelicans in the USA and their acting outside their borders? The hatred of the Arab nations will grow and grow, also based on the acting of the Israelis against the interests of the Palestinian folks. And sooner or later, the Israelis will be thrown in the Mediterranean Sea. When? At the date, when the influence of the USA will weaken, probably just after the collapse of this hegemonial nation (see next point: Criminal acts in US-economy).

D. Criminal acts in economy

I have written in some books of my oeuvre: "Each US-American owes to the world one million of dollars." How come? Count and add: The indebtedness (not prevented by Alan Greenspan) of the USA, as a nation, is about 20 trillions or 20´000 billions (deutsch: 20 Billionen) dollars. Add the debts of the 50 States, the towns, the counties and add the credits for credit cards (starting at the age of 16!!), the open leasing rates, hypo-debts only covered by a bubble of fantasy in the house market, plus all other indebtedness in the USA. And now you can count. Result: around 200 trillions of dollars or about one million dollars for each child, each clochard or Bill Gates of the USA!! Very funny, isn´t it?

Who was financing this craziness, born first in the stupid head of Ronald Reagan and than in the one of George W. Bush? It is and was: The Europeans, the Chinese, Japanese, Southcoreans, the Arabs and the Russians. They bought trillions of dollars of Treasury Bonds offered by George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan, who wanted enrich the USA by lowering the tax charges for the richest people of their folks, voting for George W. and his crazy government. The value of these Bonds is shrinking from day to day, reaching already today a "value" of nearly ZERO. Yes, dear NZZ, dear SPIEGEL, dear DIE ZEIT, dear Herald Tribune, dear CNN and FOX-TV and dear New York Times; listen who are personally responsible for a criminal journalistic boulevard in the world media: Murdoch, Berlusconi, Springer, Disney, Bertelsmann, Ringier, Schawinski, and wake up, all stupid mass media of the world: THIS, IN FACT, IS THE FINAL COLLAPSE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Remember Swissair? This company died under the burden of 15000 millions of Swiss Francs - but this fact was only understood by NZZ and the rest of the press when all planes were "grounded" in the year 2002. In all years before, these "genius" were blind and without any brain. Read and learn the lesson now: The USA are already broken down - and with this criminal nation will all stock exchanges, banks, insurance companies and old age funds of the whole world break down, in cascades, but without recall.

Is it actually so - or is here a liar at work? Wait and see. The future will give all the answers.

Now folks, this is all I have to tell you for the moment. Its great fun, isn´t its? You will learn the lesson in the near future, the heavy way so, dear George W. Bush, you will, before your death, see the effect of your stupid treatment of (what you understand in your primitive brain) the "rest of the world". You will have to learn the philosophical maxim: The lived reality in this world is one thing - but your hollywoodesk fantasies, in the face of a declining power, is something else.

[Snuffysmith]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/05/...tape/index.html

Muslims urged to make West 'bleed for years'
Audio attributed to al Qaeda No. 2 may be from recent video

Sunday, March 5, 2006; Posted: 10:15 p.m. EST (03:15 GMT)
(CNN) -- A taped message attributed to Osama bin Laden's deputy calls on Muslims to attack the "economic infrastructure" of the West and stop Western countries from "stealing" Mideast oil, according to recordings posted on Islamist Web sites Sunday.

The statement calls on al Qaeda's followers to launch attacks that will make Western powers "bleed for years."

"We have to prevent the crusaders from stealing the Muslims' oil, which is being drained in the biggest robbery in history," the statement, attributed to No. 2 al Qaeda figure Ayman al-Zawahiri, said.

The statement came out a week after Saudi authorities thwarted a suicide car-bomb attack on the Abqaiq oil-processing facility in eastern Saudi Arabia.

The February 24 incident did not affect the facility's operations, Oil Minister Ali bin Ibrahim al-Naimi said, and five suspected Islamic militants that Saudi authorities linked to the attack died in a gunbattle near Riyadh three days later. (Full story)

The audio appears to have been taken from a recent videotaped message, portions of which were broadcast Saturday on the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera.

In those excerpts, al-Zawahiri complimented the Islamic militant group Hamas on its Palestinian election victory, spoke against the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed and condemned the latest images of prisoners being mistreated by U.S. troops at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. (Full story)

In the video, al-Zawahiri appeared standing in front of a panel of white lace curtains and wearing a black turban. Although he referred to recent events, it is unknown when the tape was made.

"All this in the West is allowed so they can steal and occupy our land, and stealing our wealth and insulting us and our religion and Quran and our prophet. And after that, they gave us lessons on freedom and human rights," he said.

Al-Zawahiri was last heard from publicly January 30, when he appeared in a video to announce he was alive and well after a U.S. missile strike targeted him January 13 in Pakistan. (Full story)

U.S. officials have said that between four and eight al Qaeda members were killed in the CIA attack in Damadola, near the Afghanistan border.

Pakistani officials said 18 people were killed in the airstrike, including five women and five children, which prompted protests across the country. (Full story)

There was no independent confirmation that the voice on the tape was that of al-Zawahiri, an Egypt-born physician who has remained at large since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The U.S. government has put a $25 million price on his head.