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

[Livyjr]

And as it is a "slow news" day right now ....

And since I find it directly relevant to the various discussions and "currents" that are swirling around in here ....

Vis-a-vis the WAR IN IRAQINAM .....

Which we are bound to hear much more about ...

In these months leading up to the November 2006 CONGRESSIONAL elections ...

Where the Republican strategy is to make us think the Democrats are "weak" when it comes to "national security" ....

Whatever on earth that term might actually mean ....

I want to once again return to Rick Atkinson's book CRUSADE .....

Which was about BIG BUSH'S WAR against Saddam Hussein back in 1991 .....

Where we find at page 488 .....

Some relevant AMERICAN HISTORY, as follows .....

In the three months since the war had ended (March of 1991), peace had taken an ugly turn.

George Bush (BIG BUSH, father of George W.), in mid-February (1991) had urged the Iraqis "to take matters into their own hands to force Saddam Hussein, the dictator, to step aside."

But the anticipated coup by Saddam's vanquished army failed to materialize.

Instead, bloody rebellions erupted in the Kurdish north and Shi'ite south, where the people were FOOLISH ENOUGH to take Bush's counsel.

THE STRENGTH OF THE INSURRECTIONS IMPERILED NOT ONLY SADDAM BUT ALSO THE IRAQI OFFICER CORPS - PREDOMINATELY SUNNI MUSLIMS ALIGNED WITH THE RULING BA'ATHIST PARTY - WHO RALLIED TO SADDAM, THOUGH MORE FOR SELF-PRESERVATION THAN THROUGH LOYALTY.

Here the Americans and their allies made several miscalculations more significant than the question of whether the cease-fire should have been delayed another day or two.

Fearful of a Shi'ite victory that would strengthen pro-Iranian Muslim fundamentalists in the Persian Gulf, WASHINGTON FAILED TO RECOGNIZE that most Iraqi Shi'ites were a different faction from those in Tehran.

NEITHER BEHOLDEN TO AN IRANIAN AYATOLLAH NOR INCLINED TO POLITICAL SEPARATISM, THEY ASPIRED CHIEFLY TO RIGHTFUL REPRESENTATION IN BAGHDAD, WHICH HAD LONG FAVORED THE COUNTRY'S SUNNI MINORITY.

Saudi moderates like Prince Bandar, the ambassador in Washington, recognized this distinction but failed to convince the White House (BIG BUSH) that the Shi'ites were worthy of support.

Bandar soon regretted not passing a sharper warning to Tehran - through the Syrians - to keep a discrete distance as the insurrection unfolded; consequently, Iran's overt support further galvanized the Iraqi army to unite around Saddam and reinforced the impression that Shi'ite rebels were Iranian stooges fighting to create another Islamic republic.

THE SIMPLEST COURSE FOR WASHINGTON WAS TO DO NOTHING.

To be continued .....

To be continued, indeed .....

"Confidence In GOP Is At New Low in Poll -Democrats Favored To Address Issues"

By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page A01

Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP's fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections.

Dissatisfaction with the administration's policies in Iraq has overwhelmed other issues as the source of problems for President Bush and the Republicans.

The survey suggests that pessimism about the direction of the country -- 69 percent said the nation is now off track -- and disaffection with Republicans have dramatically improved Democrats' chances to make gains in November.

Democrats are now favored to handle all 10 issues measured in the Post-ABC News poll.

The survey shows a majority of the public, 56 percent, saying they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress after the elections.

The poll offers two cautions for the Democrats, however.

One is a growing disaffection with incumbents generally.

When asked whether they were inclined to reelect their current representative to Congress or look around for someone new, 55 percent said they were open to someone else, the highest since just before Republicans captured control of Congress in 1994.

That suggests that some Democratic incumbents could feel the voters' wrath, although as the party in power Republicans have more at risk.

The second warning for Democrats is that their improved prospects for November appear driven primarily by dissatisfaction with Republicans rather than by positive impressions of their own party.

Congressional Democrats are rating only slightly more favorably than congressional Republicans, and 52 percent of those surveyed said the Democrats have not offered a sharp contrast to Bush and the Republicans.

Only a third wants the GOP to remain in the majority in Congress.

Nearly three times as many Americans say they will use the elections to express opposition to the president (30 percent) than to show support for him (12 percent).

The public mood indicates that the midterm elections are likely to be a referendum on the president and his party.

The poll suggests that, if Republicans can turn the election into a choice between the two parties, as they are attempting to do, they could frustrate Democratic hopes of capturing control of one or both houses of Congress.

Some Democratic leaders already are warning against overconfidence, given how quickly conditions could change by November.

Bush's job approval rating now stands at 33 percent, down five percentage points in barely a month and a new low for him in Post-ABC polls.

His current standing with the public is identical to President George H.W. Bush's worst showing in the Post-ABC poll before he lost his reelection bid to Bill Clinton in 1992.

Bush's father fell below 30 percent in some other independent polls that year.

The current president's decline has been particularly steep among Republicans, who until last month had remained generally loyal while independents and Democrats grew increasingly critical.

According to the survey, Bush's disapproval rating among Republicans has nearly doubled in the past month, from 16 percent to 30 percent, while his approval rating dipped below 70 percent for the first time.

Nearly nine in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 independents do not like the job Bush is doing as president.

Public dissatisfaction with Bush has grown in lock step with opposition to the conflict in Iraq.

Not quite a third -- 32 percent -- said they approve of the way Bush is handling Iraq, down five points in the past month and a new low in Post-ABC polling.

Fewer than four in 10 -- 37 percent -- say Iraq has been worth the cost, the lowest level of support recorded in Post-ABC polls.

Nearly two in three Americans believe the war has not been worth it -- a view shared by eight in 10 Democrats, seven in 10 independents and a third of all Republicans.

The clearest sign of how Iraq dominates the public mood came in answer to another question, which asked those who disapprove of Bush's performance to cite a reason.

Nearly half, 46 percent, said Iraq -- easily the most frequently mentioned reason.

In equal proportions, Republicans as well as Democrats who disapprove of Bush cite his performance in Iraq as the principal reason.

The findings buttress comments Monday by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, who said Iraq "looms over everything," although he said he remains confident about Republican prospects in November.

Bush's fading popularity is matched by waning popular support for the Republican-held Congress.

A third of the country approves of the job Congress is doing -- identical to the president's poor job performance rating -- and a 10-year low.

Even Republicans are divided over the performance of the Republican-controlled Congress: 49 percent approved while 47 disapproved, a view shared by seven in 10 Democrats and political independents.

The survey suggests that dissatisfaction with Congress extends to members of both parties.

Only 39 percent approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing, while 58 percent disapprove -- slightly higher than the level of disapproval registered before the 1994 midterm elections, when Republicans evicted Democrats from power on Capitol Hill.

On one other measure, incumbents look slightly less threatened.

More than three in five, 62 percent, said they approve of the way their own representative is doing his or her job, up from 59 percent last month.

At this point in 1994, an equal percentage gave good ratings to their representatives, but by October that number had plunged to 49 percent.

A total of 1,103 randomly selected adults were interviewed by telephone May 11-15.

Margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Democrats hold an advantage of 52 percent to 40 percent when voters are asked whether they plan to vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate in their House district, a margin that didn't narrow when the preferences of only those most likely to cast ballots were analyzed.

That 12-point Democratic margin is slightly smaller than in several previous polls.

The survey also found Democrats had a double-digit lead over Republicans on nine of the 10 issues when respondents were asked which party they favored to deal with the problem and a smaller lead on the 10th.

By 2 to 1 or better, the public preferred Democrats to handle gas prices and health care.

And by double-digit margins, they preferred Democrats to deal with education (23 percentage points), the budget (20 points), the economy (18 points) and protecting privacy (15 points).

Democrats also had a 14-point edge on handling Iraq, immigration and taxes.

Only on terrorism did Republicans come close -- though, by 46 to 41 percent, the public still preferred the Democrats.

The economy, followed by Iraq and immigration, leads a long and wide-ranging list of issues that voters say are most important to them at the ballot box this year.

Among those who say the economy is their top issue -- about 17 percent of the public -- 56 percent say they will vote for the Democratic candidate in House races.

Eleven percent named Iraq as their priority, and 79 percent of these plan to vote Democratic.

On one issue, Americans were less pessimistic than a month ago.

In April, 70 percent said higher gasoline prices were causing financial hardship.

In the latest poll, 57 percent said that was the case.

Assistant polling director Claudia Deane contributed to this report.

end quotes

I am a political independent, me ....

For whatever that is worth ...

And to me ....

The Democrats are just about worthless ...

UNTIL YOU COMPARE THEM TO THE REPUBLICANS ....

Who are looming large somewhere down below REALLY EXECRABLE ....

And so ......

[Livyjr]

"Power vacuum in Iraq already exists" 
 
By H.D.S. GREENWAY
First published: Thursday, May 18, 2006

It has become clear that the Bush administration is looking for a way out of what has become the worst U.S. foreign policy mistake in living memory.

Biden and Gelb are probably right when they say Bush has no clear strategy, and hopes only to hang on until he can pass the whole mess off to the next president.

The FABULOUS FLIP-FLOPPING BUSHCOS don't need to know how to read any stinking history books .....

Because in their own minds ...

The BUSHCOS are the ones who are going to write history .....

And is that ever the fact of the matter .....

And as to that history that they are writing ....

Well, here is some of it now ....

And so ....

"New Afghan violence kills more than 100"

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press
Last updated: 4:57 p.m., Thursday, May 18, 2006

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Islamic militants, some armed with machine guns, battled Afghan, U.S. and Canadian forces and exploded two suicide car bombs Thursday, some of the deadliest violence in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.

More than 100 people were killed in the string of attacks that started late Wednesday: dozens of insurgents, at least 15 Afghan police, an American civilian training Afghan forces, and the first female Canadian soldier to die in combat.

The fighting concentrated in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar raised new concerns for the future of Afghanistan's fragile democracy.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks in recent months, with roadside bombs and suicide assaults, but this week's fighting marked an escalation in a region where the U.S.-led coalition is to cede control of security operations to NATO by July.

President Hamid Karzai said the violence emanated from the mountainous border trial regions of neighboring Pakistan, populated by the ethnic Pashtuns who make up the majority of the Taliban militants and are believed to be hiding Osama bin Laden.

"We have credible reports that inside Pakistan, in the madrassas, the mullahs and teachers are saying to their students: 'Go to Afghanistan for jihad.'"

"'Burn the schools and clinics,'" Karzai said.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Tasnim Aslam, called the allegations "baseless."

The violence started in the small remote town of Musa Qala in Helmand, when an estimated 300-400 militants with assault rifles and machine guns attacked a police and government headquarters.

Also in Kandahar, Canadian soldiers were supporting Afghan forces on a mission to oust Taliban fighters outside Kandahar city late Wednesday when militants attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, Canadian military spokesman Maj. Scott Lundy said.

Those killed included 18 militants and Capt. Nichola Goddard.

Although Canadian women died in action in both world wars, Goddard, from Calgary, Alberta, was the first killed in a combat role, Lundy said.

About 35 militants were detained.

In June 2005, 178 people were killed in an offensive between Afghan forces and militants in the Miana Shien district of Kandahar province.

As many as 87 Taliban fighters were killed in the fighting Wednesday and Thursday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

Commanders of the U.S.-led coalition were still studying whether the attacks across the south were coordinated, Lundy said.

Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Zahir Azimi said the impending handover of power in the south to NATO troops could be fanning the southern violence.

"Maybe the Taliban is trying to show NATO that they are active there, but coalition and NATO forces are both strong," he said.

NATO plans to deploy thousands of extra troops to take control of security operations from the U.S.-led coalition, which has been hunting for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the south since late 2001.

Also in Kandahar, the U.S.-led coalition said up to 27 Taliban militants were killed in an airstrike Thursday near the village of Azizi.

The deadliest fighting since the ouster of the Taliban was in June 2005, when 178 people were killed in an offensive between Afghan forces and militants in the Miana Shien district of Kandahar province.

As many as 87 Taliban fighters were killed in the fighting Wednesday and Thursday, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

NATO plans to deploy thousands of extra troops from nations including Canada, Britain and the Netherlands to take control of security operations from the U.S.-led coalition, which has been hunting for Taliban and al-Qaida militants in the south since late 2001.

By the end of this year, NATO will also assume command in the volatile eastern region of Afghanistan, where U.S. forces will continue to operate but under the military alliance.

But recent violence has been escalating beyond the south and the east, as militants expand their campaigns outside their bases along the Pakistan border.

One of Thursday's suicide bombers attacked in Herat, a city near the Iranian border not under Taliban control and until now spared much of this year's violence.

The bomb killed Ron Zimmerman, 37, of Connersville, Ind., who was working on a U.S. project to train Afghan police, his family said.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Chris Harris said two other Americans were wounded.

The blast incinerated the vehicle, which was flipped on its side.

Heavily armed foreign security guards protected the scene, where a severed limb lay in the road.

Later at the site, American investigators and military personnel, fearing another suicide attack, shot and killed an Afghan driver who ran a checkpoint, the embassy said.

A second suicide car bomber attacked near the gates of an Afghan army base in Ghazni province, 70 miles south of Kabul, said Sher Alam, a government spokesman.

The blast killed a civilian on a motorbike and wounded a pedestrian.

Also in Ghazni, militants ambushed two police patrols, killing two officers and wounding five, Alam said.

------

Associated Press writer Jason Straziuso in Kabul contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

And looking at the GOP in New York State for a moment .....

Where the GOP (GOD'S OWN PARTY) is in a state of disarray ....

To which I say, HOORAY ....

"GOP leader pushes against Faso and `extreme' voting record"

By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:56 p.m., Thursday, May 18, 2006

ALBANY -- The same day some Republican leaders urged colleagues to drop support for governor candidate John Faso over an "embarrassing" voting record against women's issues, candidate Bill Weld announced a "Women for Weld" initiative.

The co-chairwomen of "Women for Weld" are Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, who some GOP leaders have said would make a strong lieutenant governor, and Weld's wife, the novelist and editor Leslie Marshall.

Weld was recently honored by a Republican women's group, and he has secured the Libertarian Party endorsement that could be used by Democrats to choose the Republican.

Faso has the support of the state Conservative Party chairman and scheduled a Friday press conference with Suffolk County Republican leaders after working hard to get that large county's endorsement.

A Faso supporter, Westchester County Republican Chairwoman RoseMarie Panio, called the letter criticizing Faso "disturbing," discounted its assertions, and said the effort is bad for the party.

Orange County Republican Chairman Bill DeProspo, who supports Weld, sent a letter to Republican leaders statewide calling for the party to rally behind Weld before the state nominating convention begins May 31.

"John Faso is a good man that has been a loyal Republican his whole life," DeProspo wrote to every county leader.

"However, it takes more than being a good `party man' to be a good candidate for governor ..."

"John's legislative record is extreme."

"It is out of step with the direction of our party."

DeProspo said the Democrats will paint Faso as the "absentee Assemblyman" for missing 1,696 votes when he served in the Assembly from 1986 to 2002, later as the minority leader for the Republicans.

DeProspo also said Faso was the only member of the Assembly to vote against a bill requiring equal pay for equal work, against a bill fighting discrimination of women in the workplace, against improving screening for breast and cervical cancer, and against improving the diagnosis for osteoporosis, a bone deficiency that afflicts women.

DeProspo also wrote that Faso voted against improving education for homeless children, against building youth centers, "even voted against lunch periods for kids in schools."

DeProspo also listed Faso votes against requiring that the Irish Potato Famine be taught in schools and against some environmental and education bills.

He also said Democrats will use Faso's couple of years as a lobbyist against him, questioning his ties to special interests and the ability to clean up Albany's pay-for-play practices.

Panio, the Westchester County Republican chairwoman, said the letter violated President Ronald Reagan's rule of never speaking ill of another Republican.

"I'm also concerned with them writing letters across their jurisdiction without being in touch with the chair," she said.

"It doesn't create an atmosphere where we can work together."

She defended Faso, saying he could best navigate and improve Albany.

She said she would have to see the specifics of the bills mentioned in the letter, noting that often summaries of bills are misleading.

DeProspo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Weld and Faso are 50 percentage points behind Democratic candidate Eliot Spitzer in the polls.

"We've heard from a lot of supporters and they think this was a ridiculous and desperate effort," said Faso spokeswoman Susan Del Percio.

"It's a desperate attempt to distort a very strong and good record" on women's, health and education issues.

She said "all indications" are that the attack in the letter came from Weld's campaign.

She said, for example, that Faso didn't oppose equal pay for equal work, but opposed having government setting wage levels for comparable jobs.

He also felt lawmakers shouldn't dictate what is taught is schools, "that's why we have professional educators," Del Percio said.

Some of the health issues would have required religious-based hospitals and clinics to provide services that violate their beliefs.

"That's a church and state issue," she said.

"Bill Weld is trying desperately to stay in this race any way he can, whether it's distorting John Faso's record or asking his wife to create a group to support him," Del Percio said.

Faso has recently passed Weld in independent polls, while Weld has the personal endorsement of the state Republican chairman.

As a conservative leader in the Legislature, Faso often voted against increasing state spending and to remove regulations that he said could inhibit business and job growth.

"I would say the votes are unfortunate," said Andrea Tantaros, spokeswoman for Weld, the former two-term governor of Massachusetts.

[Livyjr]

"Power vacuum in Iraq already exists" 
 
By H.D.S. GREENWAY
First published: Thursday, May 18, 2006

It has become clear .....

That the Bush administration is looking for a way out ....

Of what has become ....

The worst U.S. foreign policy mistake in living memory.

And since it is now today ...

And therefore ...

No longer yesterday ...

And as it is clear .....

That this COB-JOB over in IRAQINAM .....

Is now one great big MESS .....

THE MOTHER OF ALL BOTCH-JOBS .....

Thanks in some large part to the INCOMPETENCE of "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice ....

Who is chock full of beans ...

When it comes to plain, old common sense .....

Which she is lacking, being nothing more than an IVORY TOWER INTELLECTUAL .....

Whose only real claim to fame here in OUR America .....

Is having served as the chief fiscal officer of a yuppie school out in California .....

Which somehow apparently qualified her to become the NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR to BUSH THE LESSER .....

Let's see what "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice is up to these days ....

"Protests to greet Condoleezza Rice at Boston school"

By Monica M. Clark

Thu May 18, 7:36 PM ET

BOSTON (Reuters) - Plans by a prominent Boston Jesuit school to award U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice an honorary degree are stirring protests by some students and faculty who say her support for the Iraq war contradicts Catholic teaching.

Boston College theology professor David Hollenbach and Kenneth Himes, the department's chair, issued a petition to the school's president objecting to a planned commencement address by Rice on Monday when she will receive the honorary degree -- a custom for commencement speakers.

One faculty member, Steven Almond, resigned in protest.

"We'll be turning our backs during the honorary degree ceremony," said Sasha Westerman, a graduating student at the college who plans to distribute 1,000 protest armbands along with placards reading: "not in our name."

"No one asked me if I wanted (Rice) to speak and no one asked me if I wanted (the country) to go to Iraq," she said.

Support for Rice was also strong.

Some students said a recent rally organized to protest Rice's visit drew only a few hundred of the school's 9,000 students.

Boston College said it had no plan to change its commencement schedule.

"There is much about her life that is admirable and worthy of emulation and we expect that she will be respectfully received," said spokesman Jack Dunn.

At nearby Harvard University, the assistant professor of Christian history, Patrick Provost-Smith, said the Roman Catholic Church issued a statement specifically citing pre-emptive strikes as acts that are not part of the Catholic catechism.

"Of course, Catholics can and do differ from such statements," Provost-Smith said.

"But it was indicative at the time of what concerns that the church did in fact have."

Hollenbach said 223 of 1,000 faculty had signed his petition, which he began circulating on May 2.

Two student online protest petitions had 961 and 1,643 signatures respectively.

[Livyjr]

And for an UPDATE on GEORGE AND JEB BUSH'S WAR AGAINST NATURE .....

"Fla. officials capture killer alligator"

Associated Press
Last updated: 11:25 p.m., Thursday, May 18, 2006

OCALA NATIONAL FOREST, Fla. -- Wildlife officers captured an alligator Thursday that they believe fatally attacked a Tennessee woman while she snorkeled in a secluded recreation area.

Trappers caught the 11-foot-4-inch, 407-pound alligator on a baited hook in Juniper Creek, near Lake George, where Annemarie Campbell was attacked, state wildlife officials said.

"I think it's a great relief because my experience of alligators is that, once they kill, they kill again, and I don't want someone else to go through what I went through," the woman's mother, Dawn Marie Yankeelov of Louisville, Ky., told the Ocala Star-Banner for Friday's editions.

A forensic tooth expert has to confirm that the bite marks on Campbell match the gator's teeth, said Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokeswoman Kat Kelley.

People with Campbell beat the animal until it released her body.

The captured alligator bore scratch marks on its snout and a stab wound in its right eyelid, officials said.

Campell, 23, of Paris, Tenn., died from drowning and multiple blunt-force injuries, according to an autopsy.

Her death was the third fatal alligator attack in Florida this month.

The state had 17 confirmed fatal attacks by the animals in the previous 58 years.

[Livyjr]

And since it is now today ...

And therefore ...

No longer yesterday ...

And as it is clear .....

That this COB-JOB over in IRAQINAM .....

Is now one great big MESS .....

THE MOTHER OF ALL BOTCH-JOBS .....

Thanks in some large part to the INCOMPETENCE of "CON-JOB CONNIE" Rice ....

Who is chock full of beans ...

When it comes to plain, old common sense .....

Which she is lacking, being nothing more than an IVORY TOWER INTELLECTUAL .....

Whose only real claim to fame here in OUR America .....

Is having served as the chief fiscal officer of a yuppie school out in California .....

Which somehow apparently qualified her to become the NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR to BUSH THE LESSER .....

And speaking of Connie's BOTCH JOB over there in America's CLIENT STATE of IRAQINAM ......

WHERE THE NEW WORLD ORDER OF GEORGE W. BUSH AND THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTE IS TAKING SHAPE ...

For all the candid world to see .....

"Iraqi hopes die amid slayings - Dread grips Baghdad neighborhoods as residents witness daily bombings, executions"

By ANNA BADKHEN, San Francisco Chronicle
First published: Friday, May 19, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Dread and hopelessness have taken hold in this city.

In the once-prosperous, predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Amariya, in the northwest part of the capital city, shop owners have shuttered and abandoned their stores.

In Ghazaliya, one neighborhood over, residents have erected barricades made from mangled carcasses of burned-out cars, chopped-up palm trunks, garbage cans and concertina wire in hopes of preventing would-be murderers from driving into their streets.

As in other parts of the city, daytime slayings here are routine.

Families across Baghdad's mixed Sunni-Shiite and Sunni neighborhoods are fleeing the uncontrolled violence in droves, seeking refuge with relatives in other parts of the country or abroad.

An Iraqi journalist who lives in a mixed Sunni-Shiite district that borders Amariya said unknown assailants shot a neighbor dead Sunday and left his body outside his gate.

"I heard his little children cry over his body," she said.

"I don't have any hope left."

The journalist, like every Iraqi civilian The Chronicle interviewed for this story, did not want her name used because she feared she would be targeted for murder.

Since the bombing Feb. 22 of the Shiite Askariya Shrine in Samarra, Baghdad has descended into a maelstrom of killing that shows little sign of abating.

Most of the victims have been taken from their homes and executed, their bodies dumped in residential streets and alleys.

"I am afraid to go outside, to send my children to play in the street," said a high school Arabic teacher in Amariya, where bougainvillea vines crawl up stucco walls that surround manicured gardens.

At least 3,500 Iraqis have been killed this year, according to official statistics.

In April alone, according to the Health Ministry, 762 people -- primarily civilians -- were killed in Baghdad.

The previous month, the Baghdad morgue received 1,294 bodies, more than double the 596 received in March 2005, according to the New York Times.

Most of the victims were shot to death.

As many as 100,000 people have fled their homes in Baghdad.

Last week, President Jalal Talabani said Iraqis "feel shock, dismay and anger over the daily reports of the discovery of unidentified corpses and those of others killed" around the capital.

"If we add this to the number of corpses that are not discovered, or to similar crimes in other provinces, then the total number ... reflects that we are confronting a situation no less dangerous than the results of terrorist acts," he said.

Nobody knows for sure who is killing civilians.

Sunni leaders accuse the Shiite-run Interior Ministry, which controls the police, of operating death squads in a campaign of sectarian cleansing.

Shiite officials angrily deny the charge.

They say the killers buy police uniforms and badges -- sold for as little as $15 -- in Baghdad's markets.

U.S. military officials say the killers are trying to destabilize the political process in Iraq as the Shiite-led coalition seeks to form a national unity government.

"Whether it's the terrorists who want to incite sectarian violence, whether it's militias operating in government uniform, who knows?" said Lt. Col. Bill Burleson, 40, commander of the 1-87 Infantry Battalion, 1st "Warrior" Brigade, 10th Mountain Division.

Burleson's troops patrol Amariya and other parts of northwest Baghdad.

Last month, residents in Amariya discovered the bodies of 16 Sunni men, all shot in the head, in a garbage-strewn street, the individual corpses spread 40 feet apart.

"I knew their names."

"It's very frightening," said the teacher.

"There was brain matter -- it looked like they had brought some already dead and executed others on the road," said Sgt. Wayne Trimble, 28, with the 1-87, who saw the bodies.

"They brought them over in a cattle truck."

But U.S. soldiers who patrol this part of northwest Baghdad appear able to do little to stem the violence.

On Wednesday, while a Chronicle reporter and photographer accompanied the 1-87 on patrol in Ghazaliya, two short bursts from AK-47 assault rifles rang out from a reed-choked wasteland as the soldiers questioned a suspected insurgent in a house nearby.

Iraqis whose homes overlook the wasteland said they saw two men kill a third, load his body into the trunk of a car and drive off.

No one seemed to know the identity of the victim or his killers.

"We'll know when the body turns up."

"They usually dump them in some street the next day," said 1st Sgt. Michael Contreras, 36, from Los Angeles.

Daily attacks against American and Iraqi troops in Baghdad are also on the rise.

On Wednesday, three roadside bombs and a drive-by shooting targeted Iraqi forces in Baghdad, killing one police officer and wounding eight others.

On the same day, another roadside bomb blew up next to a 1-87 convoy on a stretch of road American soldiers have christened "the G-spot." (On satellite pictures of Baghdad, the road looks like an upside-down "G.")

The bomb detonated 5 feet away from the unit's humvees as they maneuvered the potholed road.

The blast spewed shards of shrapnel and chunks of asphalt into the air.

Pieces of metal, rock and dust rained through the turrets.

"Mother --, mother --," Contreras repeated as his Humvee drove past the epicenter and rolled to a halt.

A dozen yards away, an Iraqi man in a white sedan stared at the billowing black smoke, his hands frozen on the wheel.

A woman peeked out from the metal gate of her compound, her face contorted with fear.

Then she shut the gate with a loud bang, hoping to seal off her house from the violence outside, at least for a while.

Despairing that neither U.S. nor Iraqi troops can defend them, increasing numbers of residents are setting up their own militias and checkpoints, adding to the number of guns and gunmen spreading throughout the city.

"Everybody has a pistol, they all have AK-47s," shrugged Iraqi Army Lt. Col. Mohammed al-Samari, whose battalion operates in northwestern Baghdad and conducts joint operations with the 1-87.

Others simply huddle inside their walled compounds.

"The majority of the time, we just sit inside our houses," said a man in a brown dishdasha shirt standing just inside his gate on a normally quiet Amariya street.

"We don't really go outside."

In the absence of security, rumors spread through the hushed streets like the smell of decomposing garbage that saturates the city, even in the once-fashionable residential neighborhoods where enormous, greenish-black pools of raw sewage flood the mansion-lined streets.

With only six hours of electricity a day and shortages of essentials such as gasoline, Iraqis exchange horror stories of unspeakable violence, which cannot be independently confirmed and might or might not be true.

Someone said a Sunni woman was shot in Amariya this week because she was driving.

Someone else said a neighbor who had disappeared last month died of a heart attack in captivity.

Women share these stories during short, rare trips to the few grocery shops that are still open.

"Everybody is scared," said one woman in Amariya.

"No one can protect us."

[Livyjr]

"Rove blames Iraq war for low Bush numbers" 
 
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:16 p.m., Monday, May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON -- Presidential adviser Karl Rove blamed the war in Iraq on Monday for dragging down President Bush's job approval ratings in public opinion polls.

"People like this president," Rove said.

"They're just sour right now on the war."

On the economy, Rove credited the president's fiscal policies, particularly a series of first-term tax cuts, for a recovery that has gone on since late 2001.

"The reality is, the tax cuts have helped make the U.S. economy the strongest in the world," Rove said.

"Iraqi hopes die amid slayings - Dread grips Baghdad neighborhoods as residents witness daily bombings, executions" 
 
By ANNA BADKHEN, San Francisco Chronicle
First published: Friday, May 19, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Dread and hopelessness have taken hold in this city.

"Everybody is scared," said one woman in Amariya.

"No one can protect us."

There's a whole lot of truth in that statement .....

And the worst ...

Is yet to come .....

"Data suggest slower growth - Indicators reinforce Fed's prediction that economy will cool"

By JEANNINE AVERSA, Associated Press
First published: Friday, May 19, 2006

WASHINGTON -- An important gauge of the country's future economic activity dipped in April, suggesting slower growth in the months ahead.

The Conference Board, a private research group, reported Thursday that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators, fell 0.1 percent to 138.9 last month.

Economists were predicting a small rise.

In March the index climbed 0.4 percent to 139.

The index is closely watched because it predicts economic activity three to six months in the future.

Economists said the slide in the index reinforces the Federal Reserve's forecast that economic growth, which has been brisk, will likely moderate to a more sustainable pace in the coming months.

The economy in the first quarter of this year grew at a 4.8 percent pace, the fastest in 2 years.

Analysts expect growth will slow to a pace of around 3 percent to 3.5 percent in the second and third quarters, which would still be healthy.

"The index is flashing not a recession but a slowing in growth, which is a welcome sign."

"Unfortunately, we are not seeing an accompanying moderation in inflation yet," said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America's Investment Strategies Group.

The decline in the index comes as the housing market is slowing, energy prices are rising and consumer confidence is sagging.

April's index reading was weighed down by, among other things, a drop in building permits, a dip in consumer expectations and a rise in filings for jobless benefits.

In a separate report, the Labor Department said the number of people signing up for jobless benefits rose sharply last week mainly due to the lingering effects of a partial government shutdown in Puerto Rico.

New applications filed for unemployment insurance shot up by a seasonally adjusted 42,000 to 367,000 for the week ending May 13.

That was the highest level of claims since early October.

Last week's number, however, was inflated by layoffs related to the shutdown, which has now been resolved, a department analyst said.

If not for the flood of jobless claims filings from the shutdown, last week's claims would have stood at a seasonally adjusted level around 312,000 last week, the department analyst estimated.

That would have been considerably closer to economists' forecasts for claims to have come in at around 318,000.

Although it was difficult to divine any fresh clues about the health of the overall labor market in Thursday's jobless claims report, another important barometer, released in early May, showed job growth slowed in April.

Employers expanded payrolls by just 138,000 in April, the smallest growth since October.

The unemployment rate held steady at 4.7 percent last month.

The Federal Reserve boosted interest rates last week for the 16th time in two years, an effort to keep inflation from getting out of control.

Fed policymakers left future rate decisions wide open, though, as they grapple with whether the economy is more likely to slow or if high energy prices are more likely to ignite worrisome inflation.

If policymakers think slower growth is the more probable course, then a pause could be favored.

If inflation is more likely, then another rate increase could be in store.

After a government report released Wednesday showed consumer prices bolting ahead in April, many economists said the odds are now increasing that the Fed will bump up rates again at its next meeting, June 28-29.

Some, however, still believe the Fed will take a pause in its two-year-old rate-raising campaign in June and leave rates alone.

Those analysts predict slower economic growth will eventually ease inflation pressures.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, speaking Thursday in Chicago, didn't talk about the future course of interest rates, but he did suggest the once high flying housing market, appears headed for a safe landing.

"It seems pretty clear now that the U.S. housing market is cooling," he said.

"Our assessment at this point ... is that this looks to be a very orderly and moderate kind of cooling."

[Livyjr]

And for an UPDATE on GEORGE BUSH'S WAR AGAINST NATURE .....

"University Warns Students of Deer Attacks"

By JIM SUHR, Associated Press Writer

Fri May 19, 4:22 PM ET

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Tammy Emery used to think of deer as sweet and adorable, like Bambi.

An encounter with a hard-charging doe changed that.

The 31-year-old secretary was among at least seven people threatened or injured by female deer last year on Southern Illinois University's campus — attacks that have prompted the school to wage a safety campaign during this spring's fawning season.

The attacks in the woods at the 20,000-student university have been attributed to a combination of protective motherly instinct, squeezed habitat and, in some cases, a little too much human curiosity.

The message now: Keep your eyes peeled for deer, don't approach them, and if a wild-eyed deer starts bounding your way, run.

"Before last year, no one really had heard of this sort of thing," says Clay Nielsen, a wildlife ecologist at the university.

Nielsen believes different deer were responsible for the three attacks that sent Emery and at least three others to the hospital, mostly with minor injuries.

"It wasn't like it was one crazy animal," Nielsen says.

But some of the attacks may have been avoided, he thinks, if the victims hadn't committed an absolute no-no: moving in on a fawn to pet it.

Now, with fawning season soon to peak — last year's attacks happened June 7-15 — Nielsen and other campus officials are using signs, radio spots, e-mails and fliers about the deer in Thompson Woods.

Later this month, Nielsen will lead a seminar titled "Avoiding Deer-Human Encounters of the Third Kind on Campus."

The effort also includes a two-year study by Nielsen and other researchers to count the deer, pinpoint how the animals affect the campus' ecosystem and gauge what locals think of them.

Nielsen says the study will offer no recommendations on what to do about the deer, leaving that difficult issue for administrators.

All of this comes too late for Emery, a secretary in the political science department who still winces when she recounts what happened to her on the June afternoon she took a shortcut through Thompson Woods.

Emery heard a rustling and saw "this deer was headed right toward me, full charge."

"I could tell it was angry, but I wasn't sure what about," she says.

"I know by the time I was in the area she was really mad and going to take it all out on me."

"I couldn't have run if I tried."

In an instant, the deer knocked the woman to the ground and delivered a flurry of kicks.

Emery, screaming, curled defensively into a ball as the snorting animal rained blows on her, slicing open one of her ears and leaving her with huge bruises and a hoofprint on her hand.

"I thought, 'This is crazy, this can't be real.'"

"'I'm being attacked by a deer,'" she recalls.

The deer was scared off by passers-by.

Emery has not been back in that stretch of the woods since.

While taking a shortcut through the woods this week, Stephanie Eastwood, a biochemistry major, wondered what all the fuss was about, saying deer were the least of her worries.

"Deer are docile creatures — they don't just attack," said Eastwood, 26.

"I find it amusing to see the animals in the park, but all I've seen here is squirrels and snakes, and snakes bother me more."

Nielsen suspects various factors conspired in last year's attacks, including an increase in the deer population and the clearing of trees and windbreaks around the campus' edge.

That shrinking habitat has forced the animals into Thompson Woods, which is 20 or so acres with hundreds of yards of paved trails.

"It's the result of having a beautiful campus that we have to deal with wildlife," Nielsen says.

Emery says she thinks differently deer these days:

"When they're mad, they're vicious."

"They're not the pretty creatures they were to me before."

[Livyjr]

And perhaps that should really be .....

AND NOW .....

FOR AN UPDATE ......

ON THE EARTH'S WAR ......

AGAINST THE WORLD OF GEORGE W. BUSH AND HIS .....

We have .....

"Our turn to face storm? - Weather experts say the Northeast may be due for a hurricane like Katrina"

By MATT CRENSON, Associated Press
First published: Saturday, May 20, 2006

NEW YORK -- As the 2006 hurricane season approaches, meteorologists are concerned that the Northeast is ripe for a storm that could rival Hurricane Katrina, at least in terms of property damage.

"I'll be surprised if over the next five years a major hurricane doesn't hit the northeastern United States," said Joe Bastardi, an expert senior meteorologist for AccuWeather, a commercial forecaster based in State College, Pa.

Why?

First, the Atlantic Ocean cycles through periods of high and low hurricane activity every few decades.

And right now that cycle is near its peak.

On top of that, surface water temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean have been extraordinarily high for more than a year.

Hurricanes rev themselves up with heat from the ocean; the higher the water temperature, the more power the storm can generate.

Most forecasters put the odds of a major Northeastern hurricane somewhat lower than Bastardi, but still well worth considering.

There is a 7 percent chance of a hurricane making landfall somewhere between New York City and the southern suburbs of Boston this year, according to meteorologists at Colorado State University.

Records suggest that a Category 3 or stronger hurricane strikes the Northeast about once a century.

The last period of intense hurricane activity ran from about 1930 to 1960.

Three powerful hurricanes reached the Northeast during those decades -- in 1938, 1944 and 1954.

The most destructive one, the 1938 storm, killed 700 people and destroyed 63,000 homes on Long Island and throughout New England.

Storms like Hurricane Gloria, which hit Long Island and Connecticut in 1985, and Hurricane Bob, which went through Rhode Island and Massachusetts in 1991, were both moderate compared to the 1938 hurricane.

In the Northeast, a big hurricane's destructive power comes less from its winds than the magnitude of the storm surge it delivers.

The phenomenon has its origins at sea, where a hurricane's winds and low atmospheric pressure conspire to create a dome of water on the ocean's surface beneath the storm.

When the hurricane makes landfall, that pile of water washes ashore like a tsunami.

"After New Orleans, the worst area with respect to storm surge is Long Island and New York and the Northeast," said Karen M. Clark, president and CEO of AIR Worldwide, an insurance industry consulting firm.

Survivors called the 1938 storm "The Long Island Express," because it flooded coastal communities so suddenly and furiously.

On the morning of Sept. 21, the storm was stalled off the coast of North Carolina and appeared to be breaking up.

But suddenly the hurricane defied expectations, tripling its rate of forward motion from 20 mph to 60 mph and speeding across 425 miles of open ocean in seven hours.

It made landfall at about 3 p.m. on Long Island, after brushing by the Jersey Shore and splintering the boardwalks of Atlantic City and other beach resorts.

Within an hour the ocean was surging over the dunes of Westhampton Beach, washing houses off their pilings and sweeping them inland.

On Main Street in the village of Westhampton, a mile inland, the floodwaters reached a depth of 7 feet.

The hurricane quickly jumped across Long Island Sound to wreak destruction on yet another coast.

From Old Saybrook, Conn., to Cape Cod, the sea rose up and swallowed everything along the coast.

Thirteen people died in New Hampshire, including four women who were standing on a bridge gaping at the torrent below when the span suddenly collapsed.

Things have changed a lot since 1938.

Weather forecasting and communications have improved, so more people on Long Island and the New England coast will have a chance to prepare for and get out of the path of the next big hurricane.

But at the same time, there are many more people and buildings in harm's way.

If a hurricane similar to the 1938 storm were to hit today the cost could reach $100 billion, according to a study by AIR Worldwide.

And that's not even the worst case.

Long Island's population, not including the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, has more than quintupled since 1938, from about 550,000 to almost 3 million.

Oceanfront homes in places like East Hampton and Amagansett can sell for more than $10 million.

"Everyone wants to live by the water," said Nicholas Coch, a professor at the Queens College branch of the City University of New York.

Many coastal communities will be extremely hard to evacuate quickly.

Fire Island, a resort community with 50,000 residents on summer weekends, is connected to the mainland only by ferry.

Long Beach, which lies on a barrier island just east of New York City, is connected to the mainland by just three bridges.

And then there's New York City.

The 1938 hurricane delivered only a glancing blow to the Big Apple, buffeting the Empire State Building with gusts up to 120 mph but barely dimming the lights on Broadway, where shows went on as scheduled.

But in 1893 a hurricane came ashore in Jamaica Bay, near where JFK airport sits today.

A cluster of saloons, casinos and resort hotels on a sandy spit of land called Hog Island was completely washed away.

Even the island disappeared.

A few miles west of the hurricane's eye, almost every building on Coney Island was destroyed.

Meteorologists estimate that the 1893 storm was only a category 2 hurricane.

"A 2 in New York City is bad news," Coch said.

"A 3 is a disaster and a 4 is a catastrophe."

Coch earned the nickname "Dr. Doom" more than a decade ago for his insistent warnings about New York City's vulnerability to hurricanes.

He envisions hurricane-force winds sending debris crashing into the streets.

People trying to escape the bombardment by retreating into the subway would soon find the tunnels flooded.

City officials say they expect nothing so apocalyptic.

Having witnessed the fate of New Orleans, they are rewriting the city's already comprehensive hurricane plan and expect to have it ready by Aug. 1, the first day of hurricane season in the Northeast.

"We're not evacuating New York City in any way," said Joseph Bruno, commissioner of the city's department of emergency management.

In a worst-case scenario, emergency managers expect 2 million of New York City's 8 million residents will have to leave their homes.

City officials plan to suggest that people in low-lying areas leave their homes 96 hours ahead of a potentially dangerous hurricane.

But because New Yorkers have a tendency to look out for No. 1, emergency planners expect a million people who don't really need to go anywhere will make for the bridges and tunnels just because they can.

"It could get very ugly," said Frank Lepore, a spokesman for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

end quotes

And of course ...

Because it now is BUSHWORLD .....

It is already getting quite ugly ...

And so ...

[Livyjr]

And perhaps that should really be .....

AND NOW .....

FOR AN UPDATE ......

ON THE EARTH'S WAR ......

AGAINST THE WORLD OF GEORGE W. BUSH AND HIS .....

We have .....

And in more ways than just one ....

"Mubarak chides U.S. over double standards"

By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press
Last updated: 1:26 p.m., Saturday, May 20, 2006

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt -- President Hosni Mubarak opened a World Economic Forum meeting Saturday with jabs at the United States and warnings that the world must overcome the widening gap between rich and poor and block escalating threats of terrorism.

With U.S.-Egyptian relations as strained as they have been at any time in Mubarak's 25-year rule, the 78-year-old Egyptian leader implicitly accused America of having double standards on nuclear policy -- Washington's resolute silence on the nuclear arsenal Israel is believed to possess while leading a drive to deprive Iran of a nuclear program.

He further challenged Washington to work toward a world "that fosters multilateralism, abides by international legitimacy and steers away from unilateral actions" -- a clear reference to his and other Arab leaders' distaste for the American invasion of Iraq.

In a speech opening the annual World Economic Forum on the Middle East in this south Sinai resort, Mubarak also hammered on the need for more equal economic and trade treatment for developing countries.

He also said democratic reforms in the Middle East should "emanate from within the region," a rejection of U.S. attempts to promote Western-style democracy.

Mubarak and other Arab leaders view the U.S. policy as interference in their internal affairs.

Mubarak, whose nation is the United States' closest ally in the Arab world and was the first to sign a peace treaty with Israel, vowed to work ceaselessly for a broader peace in the Middle East.

"We shall never relax our efforts with either the Palestinians or Israelis in pushing them back toward the path of negotiations," Mubarak told the 1,300 assembled delegates to the first WEF in Egypt.

"We will continue to push the peace process on all its tracks, in order to reach a peace which is just, lasting and comprehensive -- one that brings to an end the Arab-Israeli conflict forever."

Mubarak made no direct reference, however, to the political and terrorist turmoil that has shaken his regime over the past few years, such as the deadly bombings at Sinai resorts, including one last summer at Sharm el-Sheik that killed 64 people.

Mubarak referred only obliquely to recent violence in the streets of Cairo, where his security forces beat pro-democracy demonstrators twice in the past two weeks.

The United States openly criticized Mubarak's handling of the protests.

Instead, he said, he was confident his government was "on the right path" in its reform efforts, but he cautioned that the process should be gradual and prudent to avoid "chaos and setbacks."

"I know that the road will not be blanketed with flowers in front of us, and I understand that we will be faced with challenges and difficulties."

"But I am fully confident that we are able to achieve this vision," he said of his promised reforms, which the United States and many Egyptians have viewed as empty promises.

The WEF is taking place under the shadow of terrorist attacks that have killed at least 119 people since October 2004.

The most recent attack was just a month ago, a few miles up the Red Sea coast at the scuba-diving center of Dahab, where 21 died in a triple bombing.

Many of those killed have been tourists supporting one of Egypt's most important industries.

Tourism earned the country $6.4 billion in 2005.

All the attacks were claimed by a group calling itself "Monotheism and Holy War," which is believed to be linked to or inspired by al-Qaida.

Egyptian authorities have been at pains to claim the attacks were the work of local Bedouin tribesmen, apparently fearing the specter of al-Qaida would frighten tourists away.

Security was overwhelming in the city and at the conference center as delegates from around the world assembled for the three-day meeting, the first conference of its kind in this resort city known for its splendid beaches and vibrant coral reefs.

In a sign of how tense security officials have become, Central Security officers and agents on Friday arrested three Associated Press journalists with badges permitting them to cover the forum after one photographed workers raising flags near the convention center.

They were released after two hours.

Klaus Schwab, World Economic Forum founder and executive chairman, said the fact that the conference was being held only a month after the Dahab attacks was "a great demonstration of the confidence of the international community has in this region in the long term and particularly into Egypt."

end quotes

Old Hosni better watch out what he says .....

Or "Con-Job Connie" Rice will have one of her State Department goons .....

Kick his teeth down his throat for him .....

In yet another BUSCHCO act of unilateralism .....

And so .....

[Livyjr]

Friday, December 12, 2003

"Fund-raiser nets Spitzer $2 million - luncheon for likely gubernatorial candidate attracts hedge fund managers, lawyers"

by Matthew Cox, Bloomberg News:

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer collected more than $2 million at a political fund-raiser, with hedge fund managers and lawyers among the big donors, and said HE COULD ACCEPT CAMPAIGN FUNDS FROM THE INVESTMENT COMMUNITY WITHOUT COMPROMISING HIS ENFORCEMENT ROLE.

Spitzer, the leader of investigations into Wall Street conflicts of interest and mutual fund trading, has said he is interested in running for governor in 2006.

Though he hasn't officially declared his candidacy, Thursday's fund-raiser was Spitzer's biggest ever.

His investigations of "certain aspects of the securities market doesn't mean there can't be or shouldn't be contributions from anybody within that sector, any more than it would mean because we bring consumer-type cases, no consumer manufacturer could contribute," Spitzer told reporters.

He said his campaign committee has "a very careful vetting process" to avoid accepting gifts from donors under scrutiny by his office.

A Spitzer campaign aide who declined to be identified said HEDGE FUNDS, LAWYERS AND THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY were among his LEADING SOURCES of campaign MONEY.

The luncheon at the Sheraton New York Hotel drew hedge fund manager Daniel Nir of Gracie Capital LP, who with his wife, Jill Braufman, donated $50,000 in June; Cablevision President James Dolan; Miramax Film Corp. co-chairman Harvey Weinstein, and Melvyn Weiss, one of several lawyer donors who has sued securities firms for investors based on Spitzer's investigations.

"There are a lot of hedge funds that have not been trading the way the naughty ones have," said Roy Smith, a professor of finance at New York University.

"THEY WOULD LOVE TO HAVE MR. SPITZER INVESTIGATE ALL THEIR COMPETITION that's been too aggressive."

Spitzer's investigative work "gives investors a sense that someone's keeping an eye on what's in their best interest," said donor George Fox, founder of Titan Advisors, a hedge fund consultant.

Cynthia Darrison, managing director of the Spitzer campaign committee, said that the event attended by nearly 700 people generated more than $2 million.

"This is meant as a preemptive strike" with 35 months to go until the election, said Douglas Muzzio, professor of public affairs at Baruch College in New York.

"He's saying 'I can raise huge amounts of money.'"

"GOP: ELIOT'S $$ TAINTED"

By KENNETH LOVETT New York Post Correspondent

February 23, 2006

ALBANY — The head of the state Republican Party yesterday called on Eliot Spitzer to return nearly $84,000 in donations to his gubernatorial campaign from a prominent law firm reportedly under investigation for kickbacks tied to securities-fraud cases.

State GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik told The Post that Spitzer accepting donations from class-action law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman is "Albany politics at its worst and the latest example of Eliot Spitzer's questionable ethics."

"Spitzer is taking campaign contributions and turning a blind eye to the people he should be investigating," Minarik said.

"That's wrong, and Spitzer should give back the money."

The federal investigation into Milberg Weiss originally centered on whether lawyer Melvyn Weiss and former partner William Lerach paid kickbacks to witnesses in securities-fraud cases.

According to media reports yesterday, the two were informed by federal prosecutors that they would not be indicted.

But the same reports said that two partners at Milberg Weiss — David Bershad and Steven Schulman — as well as the firm itself are facing possible indictment as a result of a five-year federal investigation.

Milberg Weiss' problems first surfaced in a June indictment in California of Seymour Lazar, a retired Palm Beach lawyer.

The indictment charged that Lazar received $2.4 million from a New York law firm, later identified as Milberg Weiss, to serve as the lead plaintiff in dozens of class-action shareholder lawsuits, with the firm eventually benefiting from substantial fees.

Lazar and Milberg Weiss denied any wrongdoing.

According to state financial-disclosure filings, Spitzer's gubernatorial campaign has received a total of $83,800 from Milberg Weiss and its attorneys, including $35,000 from the firm, $10,000 from Bershad and $1,000 from Schulman.

The campaign also received $35,000 from Weiss and $11,000 from Lerach.

In addition, Spitzer's 2002 attorney-general campaign received more than $30,000 from Milberg Weiss and its lawyers.

A Post review of campaign filings also showed that the firm and its lawyers gave to a number of Republicans in 2002, including Gov. Pataki, the state Senate Republican Campaign Committee, and then-Assembly Minority Leader John Faso, who is seeking the GOP nod for governor this year.

Spitzer campaign manager Ryan Toohey said the campaign would have no comment on the GOP call for the donations to be returned.

Campaign aides have said in the past they don't accept donations from companies with business before the AG's Office or from individuals or firms that are actually under indictment or have been convicted.

kenneth.lovett@nypost.com

[Livyjr]

"GOP: ELIOT'S $$ TAINTED"

By KENNETH LOVETT New York Post Correspondent

February 23, 2006

ALBANY — The head of the state Republican Party yesterday called on Eliot Spitzer to return nearly $84,000 in donations to his gubernatorial campaign from a prominent law firm reportedly under investigation for kickbacks tied to securities-fraud cases.

State GOP Chairman Stephen Minarik told The Post that Spitzer accepting donations from class-action law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman is "Albany politics at its worst and the latest example of Eliot Spitzer's questionable ethics."

"Spitzer is taking campaign contributions and turning a blind eye to the people he should be investigating," Minarik said.

"That's wrong, and Spitzer should give back the money."

"Experts: Indictment may cripple law firm"

By ERIC BERKOWITZ, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:36 p.m., Friday, May 19, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- The indictment of a leading class-action law firm and two of its partners on charges of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to clients will affect its large portfolio of ongoing lawsuits and its future prospects, experts said Friday.

With more than 500 active shareholder suits pending against public companies, and more than $637 million in settlements last year, New York-based Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman is one of the toughest players in the bare-knuckles world of shareholder litigation.

Over the years, Milberg Weiss has gone against a virtual roster of household-name companies, including Standard Oil, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Krispy Kreme.

In the 10-year period ending in 2005, the firm was either lead counsel or co-lead counsel in almost half the nation's securities class-action settlements, said Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform.

Those cases netted $1.7 billion in legal fees and costs, she added.

"They have the reputation of being the Tiffany in this field," said Leslie D. Corwin, a lawyer at Greenberg Traurig who specializes in representing accounting and law firms.

But with charges of conspiracy, money laundering and other crimes pending against the firm and partners David J. Bershad and Steven G. Schulman, it will have a lot more to contend with than its usual corporate opponents.

Thursday's indictment doesn't stop the firm from practicing law, but it may scare off the best clients, which could threaten its existence, said John C. Coffee, a professor of securities law at Columbia University Law School.

"It's Arthur Andersen deja vu all over again," Coffee said, referring to the giant accounting firm that fell apart in the wake of the Enron scandal, even though the obstruction of justice conviction against it was overturned last year.

"Basically, professional firms are quite fragile," he said.

Many of the biggest shareholder cases are brought by public pension funds, which may choose to avoid a law firm with a "somewhat checkered reputation," he said.

One indicator of how the indictment may affect pending Milberg Weiss cases occurred Wednesday, before the indictment was handed up, when a Delaware judge said the firm's legal problems made him reluctant to keep the firm as co-lead counsel for plaintiffs in a suit challenging a large Russian oil producer's takeover of a subsidiary.

Milberg Weiss denies any wrongdoing or that the indictment will harm its business or reputation.

[Livyjr]

"Experts: Indictment may cripple law firm" 
 
By ERIC BERKOWITZ, Associated Press
Last updated: 7:36 p.m., Friday, May 19, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- The indictment of a leading class-action law firm and two of its partners on charges of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to clients will affect its large portfolio of ongoing lawsuits and its future prospects, experts said Friday.

With more than 500 active shareholder suits pending against public companies, and more than $637 million in settlements last year, New York-based Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman is one of the toughest players in the bare-knuckles world of shareholder litigation.

In the 10-year period ending in 2005, the firm was either lead counsel or co-lead counsel in almost half the nation's securities class-action settlements, said Lisa Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform.

Those cases netted $1.7 billion in legal fees and costs, she added.

"Their trust betrayed, investors are joining class-action suits"

Source: Newsweek December 8, 2003, U.S. Edition

12/08/03

http://www.milbergweiss.com/newsevents/......e=5282&pubid=62

When Peter Kugi decided to set up a college fund for his young son six years ago, he chose a local Milwaukee firm, Strong Capital Management.

The founder, Dick Strong, had "the reputation of the guy next door who would look out for you," says Kugi.

And even though Kugi's $6,000 investment dwindled by half, he stayed put.

But he was stunned when the mutual-fund scandal led to the office of Dick Strong himself.

So Kugi signed on as a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the firm.

"I feel very let down," Kugi says.

"Somebody needs to stand up and do something."

The wave of fund scandals has provoked many investors like Kugi to fight back.

Lawyers have already filed dozens of class-action suits against mutual-fund companies.

Though it's often difficult to pry information from company ledgers, trial lawyers have found a new ally: New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer's detailed legal complaint against the fund companies became a virtual road map for investor lawsuits.

"Until he broke the story, this wasn't even a glimmer in anybody's eye," says Melvyn Weiss, a partner at Milberg Weiss, one of the dozens of law firms that have filed suit.

Judges will likely consolidate the cases, choosing a handful of plaintiffs to lead the fight.

Often judges select the plaintiffs with the largest losses.

That could be someone like Jeff Werner, a Miami Beach businessman who says the fund abuses cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"It's not about the money," says Werner, who's signed on with Milberg Weiss.

"I put my trust in others."

Calculating just how much investors lost--and proving that their losses resulted from shady trades rather than poor investments--could be tricky.

And if fund companies cut restitution deals with regulators, investors won't be able to collect twice.

Assuming the lawsuits do pay off eventually, lawyers' fees may eat up much of the cash, leaving clients only marginally better off.

Some fund companies may settle the suits quickly to start rebuilding their reps.

For disillusioned investors like Kugi, that kind of apology would go a long way.

[Livyjr]

"Their trust betrayed, investors are joining class-action suits"

Source: Newsweek December 8, 2003, U.S. Edition

12/08/03

Though it's often difficult to pry information from company ledgers, trial lawyers have found a new ally: New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer's detailed legal complaint against the fund companies became a virtual road map for investor lawsuits.

"Until he broke the story, this wasn't even a glimmer in anybody's eye," says Melvyn Weiss, a partner at Milberg Weiss, one of the dozens of law firms that have filed suit.

"U.S. readies case against tort lawyers"

Josh Gerstein, The New York Sun

February 24, 2006

Federal prosecutors have told two partners at a leading New York class-action law firm to prepare to be indicted on charges stemming from an investigation into alleged illegal payments to plaintiffs in securities lawsuits, a lawyer involved in the case said yesterday.

Facing indictment are David Bershad and Steven Schulman of Milberg Weiss Bershad Schulman LLP, according to an attorney for Mr. Schulman, Edward Hayes.

He said he was informed that criminal charges could also be brought against the firm itself.

"They're talking about a Rico case against the firm," Mr. Hayes said, referring to the federal Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act.

A spokeswoman for Milberg Weiss declined to comment yesterday, but an attorney for the firm told the Wall Street Journal this week that the firm had not been advised that an indictment was forthcoming.

The expected prosecution is also causing political sparks, with some charging the Bush administration with a political vendetta and others claiming that Democratic officials shirked their duties while collecting campaign contributions from the attorneys caught up in the probe.

Mr. Hayes said he believes that one factor fueling the investigation may be the business community's deep-seated enmity toward Milberg Weiss, which is one of the best-known and most feared class-action firms in America.

"What makes me uncomfortable is the fact that all of the big corporations hate these guys."

"Sometimes their lawsuits are meritless but a lot of the time, they're not," Mr. Hayes said.

"It appears they're stretching to make a case where the politicians who appoint these U.S. attorneys want to lock these guys up."

"The case is a stretch."

However, Mr. Hayes acknowledged that the political pressures might also have influenced other prosecutors not to look into the allegations.

"It may be that their political allies turned their faces away at a certain point in time and it may be that their political enemies are now taking a different point of view," he said.

A spokesman for prosecutors on the case, Thom Mrozek, declined to comment yesterday, leaving unclear the details of the charges being sought against Messrs. Bershad and Schulman.

However, two California attorneys with ties to Milberg Weiss, Seymour Lazar and Paul Selzer, were indicted in Los Angeles last year on money laundering and fraud charges.

Mr. Lazar and his family members served as plaintiffs in dozens of securities lawsuits filed by Milberg Weiss.

The Los Angeles indictment, which did not charge Milberg Weiss, alleged that millions of dollars in illegal payments flowed to Mr. Lazar with the help of Mr. Selzer, who served as his personal attorney.

Both men have pleaded not guilty and are free pending trial.

Even as prosecutors have signaled that they plan to seek more indictments, they have advised two of the biggest figures in the class-action bar, Melvyn Weiss and William Lerach, that they will not be indicted at this point, according to lawyers involved in the case.

Mr. Weiss is the lead partner at Milberg Weiss.

In 2004, Mr. Lerach and dozens of other lawyers split from the firm to start a new San Diego-based practice, now known as Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP.

An indictment of the Milberg Weiss firm could jeopardize its viability, regardless of whether the government ultimately wins a plea or conviction.

"They do so much work that requires them to be appointed as lead counsel acting in the public interest by a court."

"It would be a mess," a lawyer for Mr. Selzer, David Weichert, said.

Papers filed in connection with the criminal case pending in Los Angeles suggest that payments from Milberg Weiss did end up benefiting Mr. Lazar.

One question key to the prosecution is who, if anyone, at Milberg Weiss, knew that Mr. Lazar was getting some of the legal fees paid to Mr. Selzer.

"My clients say what went on, if it went on, was not their business," Mr. Hayes said.

"To what extent are our people obligated to supervise people on the other side of the table?"

"That's a debatable issue."

Over the past decade, Milberg Weiss and its attorneys have been among the most loyal financial supporters of the Democratic Party and Democratic candidates.

Shortly before such donations were banned in 2002, the firm gave more than $1 million to national Democratic Party committees.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has received more than $100,000 from the firm and its attorneys, including $20,000 from the firm just last month for his gubernatorial campaign.

A spokesman for the New York Republican Party, Ryan Moses, said Mr. Spitzer should refund the donations and focus on the alleged wrongdoing by the firm.

"Kickbacks and securities fraud are exactly the stuff Spitzer should be investigating but why didn't he, in this case, follow the money?" Mr. Moses asked.

"He should give the money back."

A spokesman for Mr. Spitzer's campaign did not return a call seeking comment for this story.

Milberg Weiss and its lawyers have also, on occasion, supported Republican candidates, such as Governor Pataki.

In 2002, the firm gave $2500 to the New York Senate Republican Campaign Committee.

Also that year, the firm made a $100,000 contribution to Alan Hevesi a week before Mr. Hevesi, a Democrat, won the election for state comptroller.

A law professor critical of class-action suits, Lester Brickman of Yeshiva University, said the claim that the prosecution is politically motivated was to be expected.

"It's not surprising that they raise that argument."

"Anyone in their position would do so," he said.

Mr. Brickman also said the prosecutors' apparent decision not to charge Messrs. Weiss or Lerach was no guarantee they would escape prosecution altogether.

"As the matter plays out, it is not implausible that other indictments might ensue," the professor said.

The indictment filed last year says repeatedly that the payments that allegedly flowed to Mr. Lazar were illegal.

However, several lawyers with no ties to the prosecution said yesterday that they were not confident in the truth of that assertion, which is central to the prosecution.

A Philadelphia attorney who has written treatises on legal ethics, Lawrence Fox, said that sharing a referral fee with a client violates legal canons but is not, per se, a violation of the law.

"That rule is simply a rule of discipline."

"It does not have any criminal implications," he said.

The indictment argues that Mr. Lazar committed fraud and obstructed justice by failing to disclose to courts hearing the securities lawsuits the fact that he was to be paid money out of the legal fees in the cases.

Mr. Fox said if that took place lawyers involved in the cases may have violated ethical precepts.

"I'd again say it's more of a disciplinary problem," he said.

"I don't get anywhere criminal there."

[jeffmoskin]

Three powerful hurricanes reached the Northeast during those decades -- in 1938, 1944 and 1954

The most destructive one, the 1938 storm, killed 700 people and destroyed 63,000 homes on Long Island and throughout New England.

I remember Hurricane Carol. I was only 12, but my family was staying on Nantucket Island at the time. I woke up, looked out the window, and saw a man rowing a boat down Main Street. The water was about 3 feet deep.

The 1938 Hurricane was so lethal because it came without warning (they had hardly anything like what we have today). Thus, people were unprepared, even ignorant, for what was coming their way.

[Livyjr]

And this next story is one that just has me shaking my head ....

Since the impoundment behind this dam ....

Is going to be the size of Lake Superior .....

A "great" lake here in OUR America .....

That can get some pretty ferocious storms on it ....

In a place where there was never a lake of that size before ....

Only a river ....

And so ....

And that is not to mention the sheer weight of all that water ...

That will end up being behind this dam ....

A weight ...

Which did not formally bear down on the strata that is in that huge basin .....

Strata that will subside ...

As the weight of this water continues to build above it ....

And so ...

And then there is the climate change that will be caused by this new great lake on the face of the earth .....

May we live in interesting times, indeed ...

And if there once was an "AGE OF GIANTS" .....

It seems that we are firmly entrenched in an "AGE OF GIANT FOOLS" .....

And so ....

"China builds dam for hydroelectric project"

Associated Press
Last updated: 3:01 a.m., Saturday, May 20, 2006

BEIJING -- Construction crews finished the dam of the world's largest hydroelectric project on Saturday, state media reported.

The construction of the 607-foot high, 1.4-mile long dam across the Yangtze River does not fully complete the hugely controversial Three Gorges Dam project.

The last 12 of the dam's 26 generators are to be installed over the next two years, said the China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corp.

The project is set to be completed in 2008, a year ahead of schedule.

Begun in 1993, the project has steamed ahead with the backing of the communist leadership despite objections to its $22 billion cost and environmental and social impact.

More than 1.3 million people have been relocated to make way for the dam and its reservoir.

Environmentalists and engineers have warned that the reservoir risks becoming polluted with waste from cities and towns upriver, many of which lack adequate sewage treatment plants.

[Livyjr]

I remember Hurricane Carol.

I was only 12, but my family was  staying on Nantucket Island at the time.

I woke up, looked out the window, and saw a man rowing a boat down Main Street.

The water was about 3 feet deep.

The 1938 Hurricane was so lethal because it came without warning (they had hardly anything like what we have today).

Thus, people were unprepared, even ignorant, for what was coming their way.

Well, there is indeed that aspect of it, jeffmoskin ...

The "communications" part of it, and that is a fact .....

But the biggest difference these days, especially on Long Island .....

Is the density of houses .....

All the way out to the tip ....

Along the Atlantic shoreline ....

Whether or not the human population itself would be threatened .....

If a big hurricane did come up this way ...

And one did, in 1954 .....

All the way up to where I am ...

Which is about 120 miles north of New York City .....

Where it tore things up pretty good ....

And caused a lot of flooding .....

A big hurricane hitting this area today ...

Would have a lot more property to damage this time ...

Than it did back then ...

And so .....

[Livyjr]

And this next story is one that just has me shaking my head ....

Since the impoundment behind this dam ....

Is going to be the size of Lake Superior .....

A "great" lake here in OUR America .....

That can get some pretty ferocious storms on it ....

In a place where there was never a lake of that size before ....

Only a river ....

And so ....

And that is not to mention the sheer weight of all that water ...

That will end up being behind this dam ....

A weight ...

Which did not formally bear down on the strata that is in that huge basin .....

Strata that will subside ...

As the weight of this water continues to build above it ....

And so ...

And then there is the climate change that will be caused by this new great lake on the face of the earth .....

May we live in interesting times, indeed ...

And if there once was an "AGE OF GIANTS" .....

It seems that we are firmly entrenched in an "AGE OF GIANT FOOLS" .....

And so ....

"China builds dam for hydroelectric project" 
 
Associated Press
Last updated: 3:01 a.m., Saturday, May 20, 2006

BEIJING -- Construction crews finished the dam of the world's largest hydroelectric project on Saturday, state media reported.

The construction of the 607-foot high, 1.4-mile long dam across the Yangtze River does not fully complete the hugely controversial Three Gorges Dam project.

Three Gorges Campaign

If completed, the $24 billion Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.

It would span nearly a mile across and tower 575 feet above the world’s third longest river.

Its reservoir would stretch over 350 miles upstream and force the displacement of close to 1.9 million people.

Construction began in 1994 and is scheduled for completion by 2009.

The project is currently facing massive corruption problems, spiraling costs, technological problems and resettlement difficulties.

One million people have been displaced by the dam as of early 2005; many are living under poor conditions with no recourse to address outstanding problems with compensation or resettlement.

Said one peasant from Kai county, "We have been to the county government many times demanding officials to solve our problems, but they said this was almost impossible."

"They have threatened us with arrest if we appeal for help from higher government offices."

Despite protests by Chinese citizens and media scrutiny of the project’s impacts, private banks and export credit agencies have provided considerable financial support for the Three Gorges Dam.

IRN has worked to call attention to the project’s enormous environmental and social impacts and to lobby financial institutions to refrain from supporting the project.

http://www.irn.org/programs/threeg

[Livyjr]

Three Gorges Campaign

The project is currently facing massive corruption problems, spiraling costs, technological problems and resettlement difficulties.

Massive corruption problems ...

Sounds just like the United States Congress to me .....

"Congress Faces Multiple Criminal Probes"

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer

51 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - For the first time since the Abscam scandal a quarter-century ago, multiple lawmakers face criminal and ethics investigations that are tarnishing Congress, already low on public approval.

Three separate bribery investigations by the Justice Department were bad enough news for lawmakers.

But the woes only increased last week when the House ethics committee broke a 16-month partisan gridlock and announced investigations into the same matters.

"We have an entire generation who imagines their member of Congress in an orange jumpsuit," said Paul Light, a New York University professor of public service, referring to the common prison uniform.

"It's like members of Congress don't have any shame."

Six House members and a senator were convicted in Abscam, the bribery scandal that became public in early 1980 and ended a golden, post-Watergate era of congressional reforms.

Instead of dwelling on new laws to regulate campaign donations, provide greater access to government records and protect privacy, the public thought about Abscam.

The name came from Abdul-scam, after the FBI established a phony business — Abdul Enterprises — and had "representatives" offer bribes to lawmakers.

In a forewarning of what could happen now, Congress also extracted its own punishments in Abscam.

One lawmaker was expelled and two resigned as they faced expulsion.

The voters defeated the others.

Polls conducted recently and at the time of Abscam scandal show similar results, indicating that corruption plays a major role in the public's loss of confidence in Congress.

An AP-Ipsos poll conducted at the beginning of this month showed a 71 percent disapproved of the way Congress is handling its job, while only 25 percent of those surveyed approved.

A Gallup Poll in June 1980 showed a 56 percent disapproval and 25 percent approval.

A CBS News/New York Times poll a month later had the disapproval rate of 51 percent and approval at 32 percent.

Last Wednesday, leaders of the House ethics committee announced full-blown investigations of Reps. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, and William Jefferson, D-La.

Ney's former chief of staff has pleaded guilty to conspiring to corrupt the congressman on behalf of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of the influence-peddling probe that has gripped Capitol Hill for months.

Separately, a technology company executive has pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson and a former Jefferson aide has pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting bribery of the congressman.

Both lawmakers deny wrongdoing.

The committee leaders also announced a preliminary inquiry into whether other House members were bribed by the defense contractors who corrupted former Republican Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of California.

He pleaded guilty and is serving an eight-year sentence.

By investigating Ney, the ethics committee can learn more about Abramoff's favors for lawmakers and what help those lawmakers gave the lobbyist's clients.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal investigators.

In addition, in a guilty plea, Ney's former chief of staff enumerated 16 actions he said his old boss took on behalf of Abramoff clients.

Neil Volz acknowledged he conspired to corrupt Ney, his staff and other members of Congress with trips, free tickets, meals, jobs for relatives and fundraising events.

Light, the NYU professor, said he doubts the ethics investigations will lower the poll numbers because those numbers cannot go down much more.

But he said the committee's decision will have an affect.

"It confirms to the American public their worst fears about what motivates members of Congress," he said.

Light said there is no indication that the current Congress will follow the latest bribery scandal with reforms.

"We haven't seen, in response to this scandal, any major legislation coming forward that would prevent this type of scandal in the future," he said.

end quotes

The United States Congress .....

It sure isn't anything to be proud of ....

That is for sure .....

Unless you are proud of having the biggest whore house in the world ....

Down there in the Potomac River ....

And so ...

[Livyjr]

And this corrupt pack of gibbering monkeys down there in Washington, D.C. want us to believe ........

That OUR lives are safe ...

In their hands .....

And what a crock that is .....

"U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia"

By Emily Wax and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page A01

More than a decade after U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, officials of Somalia's interim government and some U.S. analysts of Africa policy say the United States has returned to the African country, secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu.

The latest clashes, last week and over the weekend, were some of the most violent in Mogadishu since the end of the American intervention in 1994, and left 150 dead and hundreds more wounded.

Leaders of the interim government blamed U.S. support of the militias for provoking the clashes.

U.S. officials have declined to directly address on the record the question of backing Somali warlords, who have styled themselves as a counterterrorism coalition in an open bid for American support.

Speaking to reporters recently, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States would "work with responsible individuals . . . in fighting terror."

"It's a real concern of ours -- terror taking root in the Horn of Africa."

"We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created."

"Our interest is purely in seeing Somalia achieve a better day."

U.S. officials have long feared that Somalia, which has had no effective government since 1991, is a desirable place for al-Qaeda members to hide and plan attacks.

The country is strategically located on the Horn of Africa, which is only a boat ride away from Yemen and a longtime gateway to Africa from the Middle East.

No visas are needed to enter Somalia, there is no police force and no effective central authority.

The country has a weak transitional government operating largely out of neighboring Kenya and the southern city of Baidoa.

Most of Somalia is in anarchy, ruled by a patchwork of competing warlords; the capital is too unsafe for even Somalia's acting prime minister to visit.

Leaders of the transitional government said they have warned U.S. officials that working with the warlords is shortsighted and dangerous.

"We would prefer that the U.S. work with the transitional government and not with criminals," the prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, said in an interview.

"This is a dangerous game."

"Somalia is not a stable place and we want the U.S. in Somalia."

"But in a more constructive way."

"Clearly we have a common objective to stabilize Somalia, but the U.S. is using the wrong channels."

Many of the warlords have their own agendas, Somali officials said, and some reportedly fought against the United States in 1993 during street battles that culminated in an attack that downed two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and left 18 Army Rangers dead.

"The U.S. government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told journalists by telephone from Baidoa.

"This cooperation . . . only fuels further civil war."

U.S. officials have refused repeated requests to provide details about the nature and extent of their support for the coalition of warlords, which calls itself the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism in what some Somalis say is a marketing ploy to get U.S. support.

But some U.S. officials, who declined to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the issue, have said they are generally talking to these leaders to prevent people with suspected ties to al-Qaeda from being given safe haven in the lawless country.

"There are complicated issues in Somalia in that the government does not control Mogadishu and it has the potential for becoming a safe haven for al-Qaeda and like-minded terrorists," said one senior administration official in Washington.

"We've got very clear interests in trying to ensure that al-Qaeda members are not using it to hide and to plan attacks."

He said it was "a very difficult issue" trying to show support for the fledgling interim government while also working to prevent Somalia from becoming an al-Qaeda base.

A senior U.S. intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was a "Hobbesian" situation -- that the transitional government operating from Kenya was in its "fifteenth iteration" and that it, too, was a "collection of warlords" that played both sides of the fence.

The official said that it presented a classic "enemy of our enemy" situation.

The source said Somalia was "not an al-Qaeda safe haven" yet, adding, "There are some there, but it's so dysfunctional."

U.S. officials specifically believe that a small number of al-Qaeda operatives who were involved in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania are now residing in Somalia.

Analysts said they were convinced the Bush administration was backing the warlords as part of its global war against terrorism.

"The U.S. relies on buying intelligence from warlords and other participants in the Somali conflict, and hoping that the strongest of the warlords can snatch a live suspect or two if the intelligence identifies their whereabouts," said John Prendergast, the director for African affairs in the Clinton administration and now a senior adviser at the nongovernmental International Crisis Group.

"This strategy might reduce the short-term threat of another terrorist attack in East Africa, but in the long term the conditions which allow terrorist cells to take hold along the Indian Ocean coastline go unaddressed."

"We ignore these conditions at our peril."

"Are we talking to them and doing some of that?"

"Yes," said Ted Dagne, the leading Africa analyst for the Congressional Research Service.

"We fought some of these warlords in 1993 and now we are dealing with some of them again, perhaps supporting some of them against other groups."

"Somalia is still considered by some as an attractive location for terrorist groups."

The issue of U.S. backing came to the forefront this winter when warlords formed the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism after a fundamentalist Islamic group began asserting itself in the capital, setting up courts of Islamic law and building schools and hospitals.

Soon after, the coalition of warlords were well-equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and antiaircraft guns, which were used in heavy fighting in the capital last week.

It was the second round of fighting this year, following clashes in March that killed more than 90 people, mostly civilians, and emptied neighborhoods around the capital.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council this month, the world body's monitoring group on Somalia said it was investigating an unnamed country's secret support for an anti-terrorism alliance in apparent violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

The experts said they were told in January and February of this year that "financial support was being provided to help organize and structure a militia force created to counter the threat posed by the growing militant fundamentalist movement in central and southern Somalia."

In March, the State Department said in its terrorism report that the U.S. government was concerned about al-Qaeda fugitives "responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam and the November 2002 bombing of a tourist hotel and attack on a civilian airliner in Kenya, who are believed to be operating in and around Somalia."

The United States relies on Ethiopia and Kenya for information about Somalia.

Both countries have complex interests and long-standing ties and animosities in the country.

In December 2002, the United States also established an anti-terrorism task force in neighboring Djibouti, with up to 1,600 U.S. troops stationed in the country.

Africa researchers said they were concerned that while the Bush administration was focused on the potential terrorist threat, little was being done to support economic development initiatives that could provide alternative livelihoods to picking up a gun or following extremist ideologies in Somalia.

Somalia watchers and Somalis themselves said there has not been enough substantial backing for building a new government after 15 years of collapsed statehood.

"If the real problem is Somalia, then what have we done to change the situation inside Somalia?"

"Are we funding schools, health care or helping establish an effective government?" Dagne said.

"We have a generation of Somali kids growing up without education and only knowing violence and poverty."

"Unless there is a change, these could become the next warlords out of necessity for survival."

"That's perhaps the greatest threat we have yet to address."

Somalis far from the factional fighting in Mogadishu said they were waiting for anyone to help ease their destitute lives during the worst drought in a decade.

In Waajid, a dusty town about 200 miles northwest of the capital, thousands of villagers have left their farms for squalid camps, searching for water and living in open, rocky fields under low-lying, fragile shelters of sticks and rags that look like bird's nests.

Many people here say they feel that the United States has ignored Somalia since the failed 1993 military intervention.

Today many Somalis said they regret that chapter in their history and thank the United States, the largest donor of food and funding for water trucks during this season's drought.

However, they said that news that the U.S. government was talking with warlords has awakened feelings of resentment.

"George W. Bush, we welcome the Americans."

"But not to back warlords."

"We need the U.S.A. to help the young government," said Isak Nur Isak, the district commissioner in Waajid.

"We won't drag any Americans through the street like in 1993."

"We want to be clear: We don't want only food aid, but we do want political support for the new government, which is all we have right now to put our hopes in."

"We can't eat if everyone is dead."

Wax reported from Waajid, Somalia, and Nairobi. DeYoung reported from Washington.