And while we are on the subject of IRAQINAM .....
Here is a story which was probably just fabricated and planted in the LIBERAL NEWS MEDIA by the Democrats so as to embarass George W. Bush and the REPUBLICANS ahead of the 2006 congressional elections ...
Yeah, right ....
"Postwar Iraq chaos blamed on poor planning"
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press
Last updated: 10:06 p.m., Monday, February 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Poor prewar planning left the United States without enough skilled workers to efficiently rebuild Iraq's economy and public works, according to a report issued Monday.
The study by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction provided a new explanation for the lagging reconstruction effort.
Surveys by the Bush administration and congressional auditors have blamed insurgent attacks and the high cost of security.
Thanks to inadequate planning, the report said, early occupation officials lacked enough reconstruction staffers who knew what they were doing.
It recommended the government establish a "civilian reserve corps" to deploy around the world for postwar rebuilding.
While reconstruction has cost American taxpayers about $30 billion three years after the overthrown of Saddam Hussein, the country still lacks reliable electricity, water and other services.
Monday's report -- covering the time the country was under control of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority -- said early efforts were greatly affected by personnel problems.
"Pre-war reconstruction planning assumed that Iraq's bureaucracy would go back to work when the fighting stopped," it said.
"When it became clear that the Iraqi bureaucracy was in widespread disarray," occupation authorities "had to find coalition personnel to perform these tasks."
"The U.S. government workforce planning for Iraq's reconstruction suffered from a poorly structured, ad-hoc personnel management processes," the report said, calling hiring practices "haphazard."
At one point, officials asked civilian and military agencies for personnel "but did not prepare detailed job descriptions because of time constraints," the report said.
In late summer 2003, a new recruiting team was set up in the Pentagon's White House Liaison Office, based in part on the "transition team" model used to staff new presidential administrations.
The team quickly hired hundreds of new temporary employees, "but some possessed what proved to be inconsistent skill sets," the report said.
It also criticized the Bush administration for failing to get government employees from outside the State and Defense departments to work in Iraq.
And it said many people who were supposed to work there a year ran up so much overtime that they hit salary caps in six to eight months -- and left.
"You had these 90-day workers getting their tickets punched that indicated, 'I've been to Baghdad,'" said a former senior U.S. official in Iraq who is quoted in the report.
The episode "demonstrated the U.S. government's critical need for a reserve civilian corps of talented professionals, with the proper expertise, willing to work in a hostile environment during post-conflict stabilization and reconstruction periods," the report said.
Legislation to form such a corps was introduced last year but did not pass.
"The United States can deploy military people quite easily," said James P. Mitchell, spokesman for the inspector general's office.
"But when they need to deploy civilians, it's very difficult and complicated and there is no system to do it."
----
On the Net:
Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction: http://www.sigir.mil/
Full Version: Life in OUR America, Volume 5
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31
And yet more IRAQINAM .....
Where of course ....
Major combat operations have long since been over .....
Because we won ...
And so ....
"Analysis: Iraq crisis propels al-Sadr"
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press
Last updated: 8:55 p.m., Sunday, February 26, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The bombing and bloodshed that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war have propelled anti-American firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr to the forefront of Iraqi politics.
The young Shiite cleric who twice defied America in 2004 now has emerged as a major threat to U.S. plans for Iraq.
Al-Sadr had already managed to carve out a strong position in Iraqi politics.
His followers won 30 of the 275 parliament seats in the December elections, and his support enabled Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to win the nomination of the Shiite bloc for a second term as prime minister.
But the outbreak of Shiite-Sunni violence presented al-Sadr with an opportunity that he was quick the exploit.
An increase in al-Sadr's stature is an ominous development for the United States given his opposition to U.S. influence, his links to radical groups and regimes in the Middle East and his militia that undermines state authority.
Through skillful use of intimidation, first, and then concessions, al-Sadr, 31, has profited more than any other Iraqi figure from the unrest that swept the country after the Wednesday bombing of a Shiite shrine, which triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.
Many of those reprisal attacks were believed to be the work of al-Sadr's own Mahdi Army militia, which operates in the Shiite slum of Sadr City and in Shiite strongholds throughout the country.
But al-Sadr, who was in Lebanon when the bombing occurred, denied any role in the violence.
He quickly joined moderate Shiite clerics in public appeals to halt the attacks.
The fact that the worst of the violence ended after the clerics' appeal added to al-Sadr's prestige, especially since no major Shiite figure has openly challenged his denial of a role in the reprisal attacks.
The message was clear: al-Sadr controls the streets in much of the country, and no agreement to restore order has a chance of success unless he signs off on it.
No major Shiite figure, including the country's top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani himself, would at this point challenge al-Sadr openly.
In effect, al-Sadr's followers stirred up trouble, and then took credit for stopping it.
Even the Americans, who battled al-Sadr's militia in his two major uprisings, appeared unsure how to deal with the cleric.
During a press conference Saturday, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said sectarian unrest provided the government with "an opportunity to get rid of the militias."
Then Lynch suggested the time was not right for a showdown and that getting rid of the militias will take "a period of time."
Having showed its power in the streets, al-Sadr's movement moved quickly to solidify its political position and broaden its influence among Iraqis at large -- actions that pose a major challenge to both mainstream Shiite parties and to the United States.
Al-Sadr the menacing face of Shiite street power became al-Sadr the voice of religious brotherhood and Iraqi pride.
Returning home to Najaf on Sunday, al-Sadr told his followers that "there is no such thing as Sunni or Shiite mosques."
"The mosques are for all Iraqi people and for all Muslims."
He even offered his Mahdi Army fighters to protect Sunni mosques -- some of which were seized by his followers according to Sunni politicians.
Al-Sadr has also turned to hardline Sunni clerics who share his opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Even before he returned home, al-Sadr's movement then signed an agreement Saturday with the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars to prohibit killing members of the two sects and banning attacks on each other's mosques.
A joint statement blamed the presence of American and other coalition forces for the sectarian crisis and urged them to withdraw as soon as possible.
The association is believed to have links to at least some of the Sunni insurgent groups.
The agreement thus provides al-Sadr with an opportunity to broaden his influence among the disaffected minority to a greater extent than any other Shiite leader.
All this represents a major challenge both to mainstream Shiite parties and to the United States -- especially if al-Jaafari is confirmed as prime minister and grants al-Sadr's followers major posts in the new government.
That would put supporters of the avowedly anti-American al-Sadr in key decision-making positions in the ministries.
The youthful al-Sadr is likely to remain a powerful force in the Shiite community long after the elderly moderates like Ayatollah al-Sistani have left the stage.
In the short term, al-Sadr is likely to resist pressure to disband his militia, a major U.S. goal.
On Sunday, al-Sadr suggested instead that his militia should be given a formal role to work "in coordination with the Iraqi government, army, police and people."
Militias undercut the U.S. hope of creating a professional Iraqi army that will then secure the country, and allow American troops to begin going home.
Just as important, al-Sadr's vision for Iraq is markedly different from that of the United States or the Westernized politicians such as ex-Prime Minister Ayad Allawi that the United States has tacitly supported.
Areas under the control of al-Sadr's militia provide insights into what an Iraq run by the Sadrists may look like.
In Basra, al-Sadr's militiamen have reportedly bombed stores suspected of selling liquor or permissive entertainment material, according to residents.
They routinely berate women whose appearance they deem immodest.
More alarming are al-Sadr's links to some of the most radical elements in the Middle East, including the clerical regime in Iran and the hardline government in Syria, both of whom welcomed him on visits this month.
On his visit to Syria, al-Sadr praised Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections.
"I hope it is the beginning of an Islamic awakening and that it will be the start ... of Islam's triumph in other Islamic countries," he said.
------
Robert H. Reid is correspondent at large for The Associated Press and has frequently reported from Iraq since 2003.
Where of course ....
Major combat operations have long since been over .....
Because we won ...
And so ....
"Analysis: Iraq crisis propels al-Sadr"
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press
Last updated: 8:55 p.m., Sunday, February 26, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The bombing and bloodshed that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war have propelled anti-American firebrand Muqtada al-Sadr to the forefront of Iraqi politics.
The young Shiite cleric who twice defied America in 2004 now has emerged as a major threat to U.S. plans for Iraq.
Al-Sadr had already managed to carve out a strong position in Iraqi politics.
His followers won 30 of the 275 parliament seats in the December elections, and his support enabled Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to win the nomination of the Shiite bloc for a second term as prime minister.
But the outbreak of Shiite-Sunni violence presented al-Sadr with an opportunity that he was quick the exploit.
An increase in al-Sadr's stature is an ominous development for the United States given his opposition to U.S. influence, his links to radical groups and regimes in the Middle East and his militia that undermines state authority.
Through skillful use of intimidation, first, and then concessions, al-Sadr, 31, has profited more than any other Iraqi figure from the unrest that swept the country after the Wednesday bombing of a Shiite shrine, which triggered reprisal attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics.
Many of those reprisal attacks were believed to be the work of al-Sadr's own Mahdi Army militia, which operates in the Shiite slum of Sadr City and in Shiite strongholds throughout the country.
But al-Sadr, who was in Lebanon when the bombing occurred, denied any role in the violence.
He quickly joined moderate Shiite clerics in public appeals to halt the attacks.
The fact that the worst of the violence ended after the clerics' appeal added to al-Sadr's prestige, especially since no major Shiite figure has openly challenged his denial of a role in the reprisal attacks.
The message was clear: al-Sadr controls the streets in much of the country, and no agreement to restore order has a chance of success unless he signs off on it.
No major Shiite figure, including the country's top cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani himself, would at this point challenge al-Sadr openly.
In effect, al-Sadr's followers stirred up trouble, and then took credit for stopping it.
Even the Americans, who battled al-Sadr's militia in his two major uprisings, appeared unsure how to deal with the cleric.
During a press conference Saturday, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said sectarian unrest provided the government with "an opportunity to get rid of the militias."
Then Lynch suggested the time was not right for a showdown and that getting rid of the militias will take "a period of time."
Having showed its power in the streets, al-Sadr's movement moved quickly to solidify its political position and broaden its influence among Iraqis at large -- actions that pose a major challenge to both mainstream Shiite parties and to the United States.
Al-Sadr the menacing face of Shiite street power became al-Sadr the voice of religious brotherhood and Iraqi pride.
Returning home to Najaf on Sunday, al-Sadr told his followers that "there is no such thing as Sunni or Shiite mosques."
"The mosques are for all Iraqi people and for all Muslims."
He even offered his Mahdi Army fighters to protect Sunni mosques -- some of which were seized by his followers according to Sunni politicians.
Al-Sadr has also turned to hardline Sunni clerics who share his opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Even before he returned home, al-Sadr's movement then signed an agreement Saturday with the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars to prohibit killing members of the two sects and banning attacks on each other's mosques.
A joint statement blamed the presence of American and other coalition forces for the sectarian crisis and urged them to withdraw as soon as possible.
The association is believed to have links to at least some of the Sunni insurgent groups.
The agreement thus provides al-Sadr with an opportunity to broaden his influence among the disaffected minority to a greater extent than any other Shiite leader.
All this represents a major challenge both to mainstream Shiite parties and to the United States -- especially if al-Jaafari is confirmed as prime minister and grants al-Sadr's followers major posts in the new government.
That would put supporters of the avowedly anti-American al-Sadr in key decision-making positions in the ministries.
The youthful al-Sadr is likely to remain a powerful force in the Shiite community long after the elderly moderates like Ayatollah al-Sistani have left the stage.
In the short term, al-Sadr is likely to resist pressure to disband his militia, a major U.S. goal.
On Sunday, al-Sadr suggested instead that his militia should be given a formal role to work "in coordination with the Iraqi government, army, police and people."
Militias undercut the U.S. hope of creating a professional Iraqi army that will then secure the country, and allow American troops to begin going home.
Just as important, al-Sadr's vision for Iraq is markedly different from that of the United States or the Westernized politicians such as ex-Prime Minister Ayad Allawi that the United States has tacitly supported.
Areas under the control of al-Sadr's militia provide insights into what an Iraq run by the Sadrists may look like.
In Basra, al-Sadr's militiamen have reportedly bombed stores suspected of selling liquor or permissive entertainment material, according to residents.
They routinely berate women whose appearance they deem immodest.
More alarming are al-Sadr's links to some of the most radical elements in the Middle East, including the clerical regime in Iran and the hardline government in Syria, both of whom welcomed him on visits this month.
On his visit to Syria, al-Sadr praised Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections.
"I hope it is the beginning of an Islamic awakening and that it will be the start ... of Islam's triumph in other Islamic countries," he said.
------
Robert H. Reid is correspondent at large for The Associated Press and has frequently reported from Iraq since 2003.
And then ...
There is Dick Cheney's beloved Halliburton .....
Halliburton has to get paid ....
And so ...
It will be so .....
Because Dick wants it that way ....
It is his company, after all ....
And so ...
"Army to pay questioned Halliburton costs"
Associated Press
Last updated: 7:56 p.m., Monday, February 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary all but $9 million of $222 million in costs that Pentagon auditors questioned for oil industry work in Iraq, Army officials said Monday.
At issue is a $2.4 billion contract awarded to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root to deliver fuel to Iraqis and repair oil industry equipment.
The 2003 contract has come under criticism because it was awarded without competitive bidding and because of the company's links to Vice President Dick Cheney, once its chief executive officer.
The Army did a "lengthy, detailed" review of the $221.9 million in challenged costs and resolved the questions, said Rhonda James, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Dallas, where the contract is administered.
James said that on some contested costs, Halliburton provided additional documents that erased auditors' questions.
The Army refused to reimburse some of the costs, and Halliburton reduced others, she said.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Committee on Government Reform, called the Army's decision "an insult to taxpayers."
In a letter to Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the chairman of that committee, Waxman said that typically, the military withholds payment on 55 percent to 75 percent of the costs that Pentagon auditors challenge.
In this case, the Army will withhold payment on only 4 percent of the contested charges.
Waxman urged the committee to subpoena documents explaining compensation for the contract, saying the Army has refused for a year to provide them.
Halliburton is one of the biggest contractors in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq's economy and public works.
In 2003 and 2004 alone, the government has awarded more than $10 billion to Halliburton and its subsidiaries, some of it in no-bid contracts.
The Army decision to pay much of the disputed charges was first reported Monday in The New York Times.
There is Dick Cheney's beloved Halliburton .....
Halliburton has to get paid ....
And so ...
It will be so .....
Because Dick wants it that way ....
It is his company, after all ....
And so ...
"Army to pay questioned Halliburton costs"
Associated Press
Last updated: 7:56 p.m., Monday, February 27, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary all but $9 million of $222 million in costs that Pentagon auditors questioned for oil industry work in Iraq, Army officials said Monday.
At issue is a $2.4 billion contract awarded to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root to deliver fuel to Iraqis and repair oil industry equipment.
The 2003 contract has come under criticism because it was awarded without competitive bidding and because of the company's links to Vice President Dick Cheney, once its chief executive officer.
The Army did a "lengthy, detailed" review of the $221.9 million in challenged costs and resolved the questions, said Rhonda James, a spokeswoman for the Army Corps of Engineers in Dallas, where the contract is administered.
James said that on some contested costs, Halliburton provided additional documents that erased auditors' questions.
The Army refused to reimburse some of the costs, and Halliburton reduced others, she said.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the House Committee on Government Reform, called the Army's decision "an insult to taxpayers."
In a letter to Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the chairman of that committee, Waxman said that typically, the military withholds payment on 55 percent to 75 percent of the costs that Pentagon auditors challenge.
In this case, the Army will withhold payment on only 4 percent of the contested charges.
Waxman urged the committee to subpoena documents explaining compensation for the contract, saying the Army has refused for a year to provide them.
Halliburton is one of the biggest contractors in the massive effort to rebuild Iraq's economy and public works.
In 2003 and 2004 alone, the government has awarded more than $10 billion to Halliburton and its subsidiaries, some of it in no-bid contracts.
The Army decision to pay much of the disputed charges was first reported Monday in The New York Times.
And here is an interesting story from OUR times .....
"Political battles in cyberspace"
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, February 27, 2006
Any seasoned Web surfer takes what's online with a grain of salt.
But when it comes to political research, you might want to have a whole block of salt on hand.
Wiki-pedia -- a communal encyclopedia that allows users to add articles and edit them freely -- has turned into a political battleground in several New York races.
On a sometimes daily basis, opponents of politicians slip less-than-flattering information into their electronic bios, while politician's allies go back and fix things to their liking.
Case in point: U.S. Rep. John Sweeney's Wiki bio has been tinkered with nine times since December, as foes slipped in bits about his personal and family life before someone -- his office isn't saying who -- took them off.
An even more heated exchange is going on in the 19th Congressional District, where Rep. Sue Kelley's Wiki page is being edited daily.
On Thursday, for example, it underwent 16 revisions.
Her allies and foes were waging a virtual tug of war over issues such as her environmental record and whether she's a moderate Republican or allied with the far-right wing in Congress.
Friday's dustup included a back and forth over selective statistics on her League of Conservation Voters rating (her side put up a favorable rating from the 108th Congress; enemies replaced it with a less glowing record from the 109th).
Finally, both sides apparently gave up and moved on to the federal budget.
Kelly's office didn't call back to comment.
It doesn't look as if this has caught on much in major state races.
About the oddest change on Democrat Eliot Spitzer's extensive page was that someone took offense to calling him "The Spitz."
Someone slipped an allegation into Republican attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro's page about her sexual preference, but her bio has been mostly untouched otherwise.
Rare common ground
"Strange bedfellows" doesn't even begin to describe this one.
Ultra-conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage has railed against Sen. Chuck Schumer on numerous occasions, characterizing the New York Democrat as a racist and a religious bigot for questioning President Bush's Supreme Court nominees, including Miguel Estrada.
But that was all in the past a week ago Friday when there, on Savage's show, was Schumer, and there was Savage, gushing over Schumer's opposition to the deal to have an Arab firm take over operations at six U.S. ports.
Savage was so grateful for Schumer's stance that he said he was revising an upcoming book to "go easy" on the senator.
"I salute you," Savage said.
"Senator Schumer, thank you very, very much, and politics does make strange bedfellows indeed, but at the end of the day we're all concerned with our survival."
A Schumer aide acknowledged it was weird, but said Savage has invited the senator on numerous occasions and he happened to have a few minutes to spare this time.
Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@ timesunion.com. For more Capitol Confidential items on-line, visit blogs.timesunion. com/capitol/.
"Political battles in cyberspace"
Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, February 27, 2006
Any seasoned Web surfer takes what's online with a grain of salt.
But when it comes to political research, you might want to have a whole block of salt on hand.
Wiki-pedia -- a communal encyclopedia that allows users to add articles and edit them freely -- has turned into a political battleground in several New York races.
On a sometimes daily basis, opponents of politicians slip less-than-flattering information into their electronic bios, while politician's allies go back and fix things to their liking.
Case in point: U.S. Rep. John Sweeney's Wiki bio has been tinkered with nine times since December, as foes slipped in bits about his personal and family life before someone -- his office isn't saying who -- took them off.
An even more heated exchange is going on in the 19th Congressional District, where Rep. Sue Kelley's Wiki page is being edited daily.
On Thursday, for example, it underwent 16 revisions.
Her allies and foes were waging a virtual tug of war over issues such as her environmental record and whether she's a moderate Republican or allied with the far-right wing in Congress.
Friday's dustup included a back and forth over selective statistics on her League of Conservation Voters rating (her side put up a favorable rating from the 108th Congress; enemies replaced it with a less glowing record from the 109th).
Finally, both sides apparently gave up and moved on to the federal budget.
Kelly's office didn't call back to comment.
It doesn't look as if this has caught on much in major state races.
About the oddest change on Democrat Eliot Spitzer's extensive page was that someone took offense to calling him "The Spitz."
Someone slipped an allegation into Republican attorney general candidate Jeanine Pirro's page about her sexual preference, but her bio has been mostly untouched otherwise.
Rare common ground
"Strange bedfellows" doesn't even begin to describe this one.
Ultra-conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage has railed against Sen. Chuck Schumer on numerous occasions, characterizing the New York Democrat as a racist and a religious bigot for questioning President Bush's Supreme Court nominees, including Miguel Estrada.
But that was all in the past a week ago Friday when there, on Savage's show, was Schumer, and there was Savage, gushing over Schumer's opposition to the deal to have an Arab firm take over operations at six U.S. ports.
Savage was so grateful for Schumer's stance that he said he was revising an upcoming book to "go easy" on the senator.
"I salute you," Savage said.
"Senator Schumer, thank you very, very much, and politics does make strange bedfellows indeed, but at the end of the day we're all concerned with our survival."
A Schumer aide acknowledged it was weird, but said Savage has invited the senator on numerous occasions and he happened to have a few minutes to spare this time.
Got a tip? Call 454-5424 or e-mail jjochnowitz@ timesunion.com. For more Capitol Confidential items on-line, visit blogs.timesunion. com/capitol/.
And then ...
There is democracy .....
When will we get some?
"State seeking to avert lawsuit - Threat by U.S. to sue prompts elections board to consider temporary disabled-voter plan"
By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, February 28, 2006
ALBANY -- The state Monday was working feverishly to avert a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice over failure to comply with voting rights laws, spurring the Board of Elections to consider setting up temporary ways for disabled voters to cast ballots.
"Making sure everybody has the ability to vote is more important than technical compliance," said Douglas Kellner, the board's co-chairman.
One fourth of the board's staff, he said, has been tied up for a week trying to work out an agreement with the Justice Department, which has threatened to sue the state for being far behind in meeting Help America Vote Act deadlines.
A DOJ spokesman did not return a call Monday.
A spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer confirmed talks to resolve the matter are ongoing.
Kellner said the board doesn't know when the state will meet HAVA requirements to set up a statewide, computerized voter registration list and replace its old lever voting machines with new ones that disabled people can use.
An alternative under discussion, he said, includes expediting certification of machines that allow people with disabilities to fill out ballots, while having other voters use lever machines in 2006.
The systems include a telephone system that would fill in the votes called in by a disabled person.
The board would also set up an "interim" centralized voter registration list that would honor HAVA's terms while a final, more thorough system is devised.
Board commissioners are still working on regulations for machines that would replace the old lever equipment, and for the registration list.
Commissioner Robert Brehm and others said it is better to do it right than to have to redo everything just to meet an "arbitrary" federal deadline.
Counties and machine manufacturers are awaiting the board's decisions.
The state is receiving $220 million to set up new systems by September, the date of the primaries for federal elections.
"We're committed to doing it once and doing it correctly, going beyond the federal standards, so they're not outdated when they're certified," said Brehm, formerly a Democratic Schenectady County Board of Elections commissioner.
The federal government, he said, wasn't penalized when it missed its own deadlines for setting up HAVA requirements.
Kellner, a Democrat who worked as a New York City elections commissioner, added that some states moved too quickly and have certified equipment already out of date.
Also, several states, he said, are trying to adopt the New York standards, which go well beyond HAVA's requirements for a voter-verifiable paper trail.
In January, the Justice Department warned Spitzer that a lawsuit could be lodged against the state but said it would try to negotiate a consent decree.
Kellner said, "If we were to go to court, we would be arguing that the federal government itself delayed HAVA."
The Justice Department can't pull funding from the state because that is not within its jurisdiction, Brehm said.
Over the objections of a reporter, the commission met behind closed doors to discuss its proposed consent deal, arguing private sessions are allowed to discuss litigation and that the Justice Department specifically requested all negotiations be secret.
Kellner promised terms of any deal would be made public for a week before he would vote on a consent agreement.
There is democracy .....
When will we get some?
"State seeking to avert lawsuit - Threat by U.S. to sue prompts elections board to consider temporary disabled-voter plan"
By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, February 28, 2006
ALBANY -- The state Monday was working feverishly to avert a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Justice over failure to comply with voting rights laws, spurring the Board of Elections to consider setting up temporary ways for disabled voters to cast ballots.
"Making sure everybody has the ability to vote is more important than technical compliance," said Douglas Kellner, the board's co-chairman.
One fourth of the board's staff, he said, has been tied up for a week trying to work out an agreement with the Justice Department, which has threatened to sue the state for being far behind in meeting Help America Vote Act deadlines.
A DOJ spokesman did not return a call Monday.
A spokesman for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer confirmed talks to resolve the matter are ongoing.
Kellner said the board doesn't know when the state will meet HAVA requirements to set up a statewide, computerized voter registration list and replace its old lever voting machines with new ones that disabled people can use.
An alternative under discussion, he said, includes expediting certification of machines that allow people with disabilities to fill out ballots, while having other voters use lever machines in 2006.
The systems include a telephone system that would fill in the votes called in by a disabled person.
The board would also set up an "interim" centralized voter registration list that would honor HAVA's terms while a final, more thorough system is devised.
Board commissioners are still working on regulations for machines that would replace the old lever equipment, and for the registration list.
Commissioner Robert Brehm and others said it is better to do it right than to have to redo everything just to meet an "arbitrary" federal deadline.
Counties and machine manufacturers are awaiting the board's decisions.
The state is receiving $220 million to set up new systems by September, the date of the primaries for federal elections.
"We're committed to doing it once and doing it correctly, going beyond the federal standards, so they're not outdated when they're certified," said Brehm, formerly a Democratic Schenectady County Board of Elections commissioner.
The federal government, he said, wasn't penalized when it missed its own deadlines for setting up HAVA requirements.
Kellner, a Democrat who worked as a New York City elections commissioner, added that some states moved too quickly and have certified equipment already out of date.
Also, several states, he said, are trying to adopt the New York standards, which go well beyond HAVA's requirements for a voter-verifiable paper trail.
In January, the Justice Department warned Spitzer that a lawsuit could be lodged against the state but said it would try to negotiate a consent decree.
Kellner said, "If we were to go to court, we would be arguing that the federal government itself delayed HAVA."
The Justice Department can't pull funding from the state because that is not within its jurisdiction, Brehm said.
Over the objections of a reporter, the commission met behind closed doors to discuss its proposed consent deal, arguing private sessions are allowed to discuss litigation and that the Justice Department specifically requested all negotiations be secret.
Kellner promised terms of any deal would be made public for a week before he would vote on a consent agreement.
And politics .....
Along with the congressional seats up for grabs this November .....
So too is the office of governor of the State of New York ...
Where New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer right now is the man to beat .....
"Big EL", as he is lovingly known up here, has got all kinds of LOBBYISTS standing by him, to keep his pockets pumped up with money ...
Because "Big EL" is just a real nice guy ...
And so ...
"Big EL" is going to be tough to beat ...
BUT ...
"Big EL" is kind of weak when it comes to the subject of cleaning up government corruption in the State of New York ...
And in fact, based on a big win that "Big EL" scored in the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals a bit ago, "Big EL" is emerging as a real CHAMPION of corrupt government in the State of New York ...
And that has politicians and lobbyists alike flocking to his standard .....
And so ...
It is going to be up to the people of the state to decide ......
WHICH WAY WILL WE GO?
And so .....
"Suozzi in for primary challenge - County executive makes official a run against Spitzer in governor race"
By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, February 26, 2006
GLEN COVE -- Casting himself as a political outsider, a reformer and a risk taker, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi on Saturday formally launched a primary challenge to the Democratic front-runner for governor, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Suozzi emphasized his Italian-American roots and his experience as a government executive, something Spitzer, a prosecutor who has never run a municipality, lacks.
He focused on a familiar theme: using the savings from Medicaid reform to lower property taxes, invest in public education and economic development upstate, and build more affordable housing.
"The only way to solve the real problems that the residents here in Nassau face -- and New Yorkers across the state share -- is to stop playing it safe," Suozzi said.
"New York needs a governor who is going to shake things up."
Most Democratic leaders and unions support Spitzer.
Suozzi has tried to turn that to his advantage, saying he'll be better able to change state government because he's beholden to no one.
Suozzi didn't mention Spitzer by name, but he was clearly aiming at the attorney general when he said:
"Unlike my opponent, I don't owe anything to the establishment."
Spitzer's campaign manager Ryan Toohey returned the favor by not mentioning Suozzi in a statement released Saturday.
"Eliot Spitzer is running for governor to continue what he started seven years ago when he was elected to stand-up to powerful interests and fight for those who have no champion," Toohey said.
"His efforts speak for themselves."
The Spitzer camp dispatched a team of surrogates to bash Suozzi, including several Democratic Party county chairs and the heads of the Working Families Party and Citizen Action of New York -- both groups have endorsed Spitzer.
Citizen Action, a coalition of labor and community organizations, denounced Suozzi's reform record because he accepted campaign cash from people who do business with Nassau County and billionaire Republican Kenneth Langone.
Spitzer is suing Langone, a Nassau County resident and Home Depot co-founder, in a case relating to Langone's role as former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee.
Suozzi insisted contributions never influenced his policy decisions.
Although he has said Spitzer accepts too much money from lobbyists, Suozzi wouldn't promise not to do the same.
"I have to think about that because none of them are offering anything," Suozzi said.
Suozzi is considered a long shot at best.
He trails Spitzer 72 to 8 percent in statewide polls and in mid-January had $5 million on hand to Spitzer's $19 million.
But Suozzi's supporters cast him as the anti-Spitzer: energetic and likable where the attorney general can come off as reserved and stiff.
Suozzi embraced his underdog status Saturday.
He noted he has bucked the party before.
In 2001, he beat the Democratic favorite for county executive, state Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli.
Two years ago, Suozzi's Fix Albany campaign helped topple several incumbent state legislators.
"Few of the pundits are expecting me to win," Suozzi said.
"And you know what?"
"I like it that way."
Suozzi, 43, announced his campaign in his hometown of Glen Cove on Long Island where he began his political career 12 years ago as mayor, following in the footsteps of his father, a retired state Supreme Court justice and partner in a politically connected law firm.
The event was held in the parking lot of a Roman Catholic church next door to the modest house once owned by Suozzi's grandfather, an Italian immigrant.
Frank Sinatra played over the loudspeakers and free sausage-and-pepper sandwiches were provided to a crowd Suozzi's campaign said topped 1,000.
Suozzi was introduced by his father, Joseph, and his mother, Marguerite, who called the country executive "Tommy," asking crowd to "take good care of him."
Democratic leaders, recognizing Gov. George Pataki's decision not to seek a fourth term has provided them with an opportunity to take back the governor's mansion after 12 years, fear a contentious primary and tried without success to dissuade Suozzi from running.
Suozzi has positioned himself to the right of Spitzer on abortion and gay marriage in what observers see as an effort to appeal to voters like him: white Catholic suburbanites.
But strategists question the tactic, saying it would work better in a general election, but not in a Democratic primary, in which the more left-leaning candidates tend to prevail.
"The Democratic primary classically goes to the liberal, no matter who votes," said Quinnipiac University pollster Maurice Carroll.
"And sure it's a Catholic state, but does that mean Catholics are going to vote for Suozzi and Jews for Spitzer?"
"I don't think so."
Elizabeth Benjamin can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at ebenjamin@timesunion.com.
Along with the congressional seats up for grabs this November .....
So too is the office of governor of the State of New York ...
Where New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer right now is the man to beat .....
"Big EL", as he is lovingly known up here, has got all kinds of LOBBYISTS standing by him, to keep his pockets pumped up with money ...
Because "Big EL" is just a real nice guy ...
And so ...
"Big EL" is going to be tough to beat ...
BUT ...
"Big EL" is kind of weak when it comes to the subject of cleaning up government corruption in the State of New York ...
And in fact, based on a big win that "Big EL" scored in the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals a bit ago, "Big EL" is emerging as a real CHAMPION of corrupt government in the State of New York ...
And that has politicians and lobbyists alike flocking to his standard .....
And so ...
It is going to be up to the people of the state to decide ......
WHICH WAY WILL WE GO?
And so .....
"Suozzi in for primary challenge - County executive makes official a run against Spitzer in governor race"
By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, February 26, 2006
GLEN COVE -- Casting himself as a political outsider, a reformer and a risk taker, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi on Saturday formally launched a primary challenge to the Democratic front-runner for governor, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
Suozzi emphasized his Italian-American roots and his experience as a government executive, something Spitzer, a prosecutor who has never run a municipality, lacks.
He focused on a familiar theme: using the savings from Medicaid reform to lower property taxes, invest in public education and economic development upstate, and build more affordable housing.
"The only way to solve the real problems that the residents here in Nassau face -- and New Yorkers across the state share -- is to stop playing it safe," Suozzi said.
"New York needs a governor who is going to shake things up."
Most Democratic leaders and unions support Spitzer.
Suozzi has tried to turn that to his advantage, saying he'll be better able to change state government because he's beholden to no one.
Suozzi didn't mention Spitzer by name, but he was clearly aiming at the attorney general when he said:
"Unlike my opponent, I don't owe anything to the establishment."
Spitzer's campaign manager Ryan Toohey returned the favor by not mentioning Suozzi in a statement released Saturday.
"Eliot Spitzer is running for governor to continue what he started seven years ago when he was elected to stand-up to powerful interests and fight for those who have no champion," Toohey said.
"His efforts speak for themselves."
The Spitzer camp dispatched a team of surrogates to bash Suozzi, including several Democratic Party county chairs and the heads of the Working Families Party and Citizen Action of New York -- both groups have endorsed Spitzer.
Citizen Action, a coalition of labor and community organizations, denounced Suozzi's reform record because he accepted campaign cash from people who do business with Nassau County and billionaire Republican Kenneth Langone.
Spitzer is suing Langone, a Nassau County resident and Home Depot co-founder, in a case relating to Langone's role as former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee.
Suozzi insisted contributions never influenced his policy decisions.
Although he has said Spitzer accepts too much money from lobbyists, Suozzi wouldn't promise not to do the same.
"I have to think about that because none of them are offering anything," Suozzi said.
Suozzi is considered a long shot at best.
He trails Spitzer 72 to 8 percent in statewide polls and in mid-January had $5 million on hand to Spitzer's $19 million.
But Suozzi's supporters cast him as the anti-Spitzer: energetic and likable where the attorney general can come off as reserved and stiff.
Suozzi embraced his underdog status Saturday.
He noted he has bucked the party before.
In 2001, he beat the Democratic favorite for county executive, state Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli.
Two years ago, Suozzi's Fix Albany campaign helped topple several incumbent state legislators.
"Few of the pundits are expecting me to win," Suozzi said.
"And you know what?"
"I like it that way."
Suozzi, 43, announced his campaign in his hometown of Glen Cove on Long Island where he began his political career 12 years ago as mayor, following in the footsteps of his father, a retired state Supreme Court justice and partner in a politically connected law firm.
The event was held in the parking lot of a Roman Catholic church next door to the modest house once owned by Suozzi's grandfather, an Italian immigrant.
Frank Sinatra played over the loudspeakers and free sausage-and-pepper sandwiches were provided to a crowd Suozzi's campaign said topped 1,000.
Suozzi was introduced by his father, Joseph, and his mother, Marguerite, who called the country executive "Tommy," asking crowd to "take good care of him."
Democratic leaders, recognizing Gov. George Pataki's decision not to seek a fourth term has provided them with an opportunity to take back the governor's mansion after 12 years, fear a contentious primary and tried without success to dissuade Suozzi from running.
Suozzi has positioned himself to the right of Spitzer on abortion and gay marriage in what observers see as an effort to appeal to voters like him: white Catholic suburbanites.
But strategists question the tactic, saying it would work better in a general election, but not in a Democratic primary, in which the more left-leaning candidates tend to prevail.
"The Democratic primary classically goes to the liberal, no matter who votes," said Quinnipiac University pollster Maurice Carroll.
"And sure it's a Catholic state, but does that mean Catholics are going to vote for Suozzi and Jews for Spitzer?"
"I don't think so."
Elizabeth Benjamin can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at ebenjamin@timesunion.com.
And yet, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 60BC, against Pompei's orders, he transformed the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.
And it lasted nearly 400 years before it collapsed.
Would that we should be so fortunate.
And it lasted nearly 400 years before it collapsed.
Would that we should be so fortunate.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Feb 28 2006, 06:50 PM)
And politics .....
Along with the congressional seats up for grabs this November .....
So too is the office of governor of the State of New York ...
Where New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer right now is the man to beat .....
"Big EL", as he is lovingly known up here, has got all kinds of LOBBYISTS standing by him, to keep his pockets pumped up with money ...
Because "Big EL" is just a real nice guy ...
And so ...
"Big EL" is going to be tough to beat ...
BUT ...
"Big EL" is kind of weak when it comes to the subject of cleaning up government corruption in the State of New York ...
And in fact, based on a big win that "Big EL" scored in the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals a bit ago, "Big EL" is emerging as a real CHAMPION of corrupt government in the State of New York ...
And that has politicians and lobbyists alike flocking to his standard .....
And so ...
It is going to be up to the people of the state to decide ......
WHICH WAY WILL WE GO?
And so .....
Along with the congressional seats up for grabs this November .....
So too is the office of governor of the State of New York ...
Where New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer right now is the man to beat .....
"Big EL", as he is lovingly known up here, has got all kinds of LOBBYISTS standing by him, to keep his pockets pumped up with money ...
Because "Big EL" is just a real nice guy ...
And so ...
"Big EL" is going to be tough to beat ...
BUT ...
"Big EL" is kind of weak when it comes to the subject of cleaning up government corruption in the State of New York ...
And in fact, based on a big win that "Big EL" scored in the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals a bit ago, "Big EL" is emerging as a real CHAMPION of corrupt government in the State of New York ...
And that has politicians and lobbyists alike flocking to his standard .....
And so ...
It is going to be up to the people of the state to decide ......
WHICH WAY WILL WE GO?
And so .....
"Reform is in the air - Tom Suozzi enters a gubernatorial primary that will put the Capitol's dysfunction in the spotlight"
Albany, new York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Reform is a word that's almost gone out of fashion in Albany, and just a year after the Legislature was shamed and pressured into taking the first steps toward making state government more open and more representative.
No one thinks those changes, however welcome, went nearly far enough, do they?
It's in places like the Long Island town of Glen Cove where there's still so little tolerance for the Albany political culture.
That's still the essence of Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi's campaign for governor.
His formal announcement of his candidacy made that much clear.
He wants to get the cost of Medicaid under control as well as bring long overdue equity -- which is to say more money for New York City and certain other districts -- to how state school aid funds are distributed.
The demand for change doesn't stop in Mr. Suozzi's hometown or with his quest to be governor, no matter how indifferent the legislative leadership might be.
No sooner was Mr. Suozzi officially in the race than Eliot Spitzer, the state attorney general and his rival for the Democratic nomination, vowed to visit every county and every town in New York in his own campaign to change state government.
Hear, hear -- to both of them.
The Democratic primary for governor has the potential to be an especially constructive affair.
Both Mr. Suozzi and Mr. Spitzer have formidable credentials as reformers.
Mr. Suozzi had the idea, as refreshing as it was radical, a few years ago of subjecting state legislators, who generally enjoy a de facto form of lifetime tenure, to competitive elections.
And Mr. Spitzer?
Anyone who's taken on the corruption of Wall Street, we'd think, is a safe bet to deal with the dysfunction of Albany accordingly.
His running mate, Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, has an impressive record as a reformer.
But there's also this risk in a Suozzi-Spitzer contest, the temptation of one candidate to smear the other.
Here's Mr. Suozzi's suggestion that Mr. Spitzer is beholden to various Albany lobbyists, trial lawyers and special interests on the basis of campaign contributions, or Wall Street executives on the basis of investigations that they never faced.
That raises the question of the source of some of Mr. Suozzi's own campaign money, and even part of his motivation for running.
Here's a candidate for governor who has more than half a million dollars that's been collected by Kenneth Langone, a Nassau County resident and Home Depot co-founder, who just happens to be the defendant in a lawsuit brought by Mr. Spitzer relating to Mr. Langone's role as former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange compensation committee.
To that, Mr. Suozzi insists that Mr. Langone isn't looking for him to do anything except to run the state government the way he's run government in Nassau County.
Let's hope so.
And let's let the campaign begin, cautiously but earnestly.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Feb 28 2006, 05:31 PM)
And IRAQINAM .....
Where true to form ....
George W. Bush is going to "STAY THE COURSE" .....
Even though he hasn't the slightest idea of where that course is taking anyone at all ....
Except further and further from the stability that existed in this world of OURS before George W. Bush came on the scene ...
And pulled the lanyard that fired the salvo .....
That may just set OUR world on fire yet .....
And so ...
Where true to form ....
George W. Bush is going to "STAY THE COURSE" .....
Even though he hasn't the slightest idea of where that course is taking anyone at all ....
Except further and further from the stability that existed in this world of OURS before George W. Bush came on the scene ...
And pulled the lanyard that fired the salvo .....
That may just set OUR world on fire yet .....
And so ...
And once again ....
It looks like a busy "news day" in here ...
And so ....
Jumping right into the fray ...
We zoom over to India ...
Where the folks in that country, one of George W. Bush's ALLIES in his WAR OF TERROR, are turning out in droves to express not only their adulation of George W. Bush, but their eternal love and devotion as well to the one man in the history of the world who finally has the power in him to unite the world in common cause .....
"Tens of Thousands Protest Bush India Visit"
By NIRMALA GEORGE, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 16 minutes ago
NEW DELHI - Tens of thousands of Indians waving black and white flags and chanting "Death to Bush!" rallied Wednesday in New Delhi to protest a visit by President Bush.
Surindra Singh Yadav, a senior police officer in charge of crowd control, said as many as 100,000 people, most of them Muslim, had gathered in a fairground in central New Delhi ordinarily used for political rallies.
"Whether Hindu or Muslim, the people of India have gathered here to show our anger."
"We have only one message — killer Bush go home," one of the speakers, Hindu politician Raj Babbar, told the crowd.
Bush arrives in India later Wednesday for a three-day visit focused on strengthening the emerging strategic partnership between India and the United States.
Dozens of protests have been planned by Islamic leaders and communist politicians.
While Bush remains more popular in India than he is in many other countries, some here object to U.S. policies, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.
India, an overwhelmingly Hindu nation of more than 1 billion people, has the world's second-largest population of Muslims.
Wednesday's protesters carried placards that read: "Bully Bush, Go Home," and "Death to America, Death to Bush."
Police, some of them armed with rifles, were heavily deployed around the fairground.
As the rally grew, protesters charged a stage where about 200 Muslim leaders were waiting to speak, knocking over television cameras.
On Tuesday, about 1,000 Muslims demonstrated in Bombay, some waving placards reading "Devil Bush Go Back," with caricatures of Bush as a cross between Superman and Satan — dressed in the superhero's red-and-blue costume with devil's horns and clutching a missile.
Some mosques in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, where Bush will visit Friday, have already unfurled banners protesting his arrival and plan to chant verses from the Quran in hopes that it will drive him away.
Muslim groups also have called for a daylong strike to protest Bush's visit to Hyderabad, a key center of India's booming information technology industry.
Muslims account for nearly 40 percent of the city's 7 million people.
Members of the leftist Students Federation of India and the Communist Party of India burned effigies of Bush at three intersections in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
The communists, who are key allies of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government, also plan to protest Thursday at India's Parliament in New Delhi, a few miles from where Bush and Singh will meet.
"Up to 50,000 people will take part in the march, and we have the police permission to express our feelings," said Pushpender Grewal, secretary of the Communist Party of India.
"We will protest against the U.S. policies, especially the inhuman atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq, a likely invasion of Iran and its continuing support to Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine."
Communists and Muslim groups have criticized New Delhi for backing a U.S. move to report longtime ally Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency over allegations Tehran is developing nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
They also oppose a deal that the two countries are working out under which India would buy nuclear fuel from the United States in return for opening its civilian nuclear facilities to international inspectors.
It was not clear whether the deal would be sealed during Bush's visit.
"We want the government not to sign the nuclear deal as it undermines our sovereignty and integrity," said Mohammed Saeeduddin, a spokesman of the Students' Islamic Organization.
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Feb 28 2006, 06:57 PM)
And yet, when Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 60BC, against Pompei's orders, he transformed the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.
And it lasted nearly 400 years before it collapsed.
Would that we should be so fortunate.
And it lasted nearly 400 years before it collapsed.
Would that we should be so fortunate.
Well ...
Good morning, jeffmoskin .....
And it seems that in the noise, haste and confusion and what-not of yesterday evening ...
I completely missed your post above here ....
SO ...
Shame on me ...
And your point is an interesting one, jeffmoskin ....
Interesting indeed ...
For a lot of reasons .....
And I guess those are all context dependent ...
Depending on your standpoint in the matter ....
Which for me, is from the point of view of a common, ordinary human being down here on this earth of ours .....
I read a lot about that period of time, and right now, in fact, I am reading a book entitled The Last Generation of the Roman Republic by Gruen .....
And I have to say ...
In my mind, there remains a lot of uncertainty about exactly what did happen to the world, when Caesar did come south that day .....
Suffice to say ...
From the standpoint of the common citizen ...
Or me, anyway ...
Not much good came out of that for the rights of the citizens of Rome ...
But then, had Caesar not come south ...
SO ...
Whoever does really know?
And as to what came after, it is true that the EMPIRE of Rome was perhaps solidified for a period of time, especially under Octavianus, or Augustus, the first real EMPORER ......
But then ...
The EMPIRE bifurcated into EAST and WEST .....
And then ...
IT DIED ...
And whether that process of decay took four weeks, four months or four years or four centuries is to me not the relevancy here ...
To me, the relevancy is that it died .....
At the hands of those whom the high and mighty Romans considered to be BARBARIANS ......
There is the lesson to me, as a combat veteran in a war against alleged barbarians in Viet Nam ......
Or one of them, anyway ..
And another point has to do with this "concept", and it is only a concept, of being "civilized" .....
Whatever that is to mean to any of us down here on this earth of OURS .....
If I travel to someplace else, be it to your home to visit, or to some other place here in the United States, or out there in the world, especially, I always consider myself to be a guest in another place ...
Which implies to me that I ought to be polite, and I ought to pay some attention to what this new place is like, and what its people are like, and what its customs might be, and its history, as well ...
BEFORE I start running off at the mouth about how much I have "back home" ...
And how much better my stuff is than the stuff is in that place where I am visiting ...
And on and on and on .....
And whether that is called "having class", or "being cultured", or "sauveness", or whatever .....
As a human being ...
That is what I would want and expect from anyone who proposed to me that they would be "my leader", and that I would then allow them to speak for me out there on the world stage .....
Where we now appear to have a pack of rank barbarians in charge of the whole show .....
Whatever may be said for Julius Caesar and Pompeii, they certainly were no George W. Bush's ......
And so ....
And speaking of George ....
As he rapidly fades to being little more than a footnote in a history book ...
Like Crassus before him .....
"Oh, yeah ....."
"That guy ...."
We have from America's George as follows .....
YADA, YADA, YADA .....
"Bush Confident Bin Laden Will Be Captured"
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
1 hour, 14 minutes ago
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, said Wednesday he remains confident Osama bin Laden "will be brought to justice" despite a so-far futile five-year hunt.
Bush also suggested that the United States and India, where he was headed next, have still not reached a deal over U.S. help for India's civilian nuclear program.
"People all over the world are watching the experience here in Afghanistan," Bush said as he stood side-by-side with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Amid extremely tight security, Bush made the surprise visit in Afghanistan at the onset of a scheduled visit to India and Pakistan.
"It's a thrill to come to a country which is dedicating itself to the dignity of every person who lives here," said Bush said, making his first visit to Afghanistan.
For his part, Karzai greeted Bush as "our great friend, our great supporter, a man who helped us liberate."
Asked about the search for bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, and of the president's call for getting him "dead or alive," Bush said the search for bin Laden and his associates continues.
"It's not a matter of if they're captured and brought to justice, it's when they're brought to justice," Bush said.
Bush flew here secretly to support the fledging Afghan government in the face of rising violence from al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
Bush's entourage flew into the city from Bagram Air Base in a flotilla of heavily armed helicopters.
Two door gunners on a press helicopter fired off a short burst of machine gun fire at unknown targets as the aircraft flew low and fast over barren countryside.
Bush arrived safely at the presidential palace where he was greeted by Karzai.
The two leaders spoke with reporters during a brief news conference after their meeting.
Afterward, Bush presided over a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new U.S. embassy in Kabul.
He told embassy workers they were "on the front line of freedom's march."
Before leaving Afghanistan, Bush was to give a pep talk to U.S. troops at the air base where he landed and departed.
Asked twice at his news conference about bin Laden, Bush said, "I am confident he will be brought to justice."
"What's happening is that we've got U.S. forces on the hunt."
"... There are Afghan forces on the hunt, not only for bin Laden but also those who plot and plan with him."
"We've got Pakistan forces on the hunt."
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The suspected presence of Taliban militants in Pakistan has become a source of tension in relations with Afghanistan.
More than two dozen suicide attacks in recent months have fueled Afghan suspicions that militants are operating out of Pakistan.
Bush said that, when he is in Pakistan later this week, he will raise the issue of cross border infiltrations with Pakistan's president.
Of hopes to be able to announce a nuclear agreement with India, Bush said that, "This is a difficult issue."
"This is a difficult issue for the Indian government."
"This is a difficult issue for the American government."
He said officials of both governments were continuing talks, even as he headed to India.
Bush has promised to sell India nuclear technology and materials to help it with its civilian nuclear energy program, but the deal is hung up on reaching accord on how to ensure that the assistance isn't diverted into weapons programs.
"Our relationship with India is broader than our discussions about energy," Bush said.
"Ours is a strategic relationship."
U.S. restrictions on providing nuclear assistance to India, slapped on after India's nuclear weapons testing, remain in place.
Bush was accompanied by his wife, Laura, who visited Afghanistan in April 2005.
Vice President Dick Cheney visited there in December 2005.
"We're impressed by the progress that your country is making," Bush told Karzai.
"I come as a friend and an ally."
end quotes
All the federales say ......
They could have had him any day .....
They only let him slip away ...
Because of those big bucks that he had to pay ....
For them to turn their backs and look the other way .....
And I am surprised that George W. Bush does not have a NATURAL-BORN KILLER like Dick Cheney out there ON THE HUNT for Osama bin Laden .....
Of course, it just might be that the BIG GRIZ is afraid of something that might actually shoot back .....
And so ....
Safer hunting for OUR Dick, then ...
Things like real small and helpless birds .....
And scrawny old Texas lawyers .....
And so ...
As he rapidly fades to being little more than a footnote in a history book ...
Like Crassus before him .....
"Oh, yeah ....."
"That guy ...."
We have from America's George as follows .....
YADA, YADA, YADA .....
"Bush Confident Bin Laden Will Be Captured"
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
1 hour, 14 minutes ago
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, said Wednesday he remains confident Osama bin Laden "will be brought to justice" despite a so-far futile five-year hunt.
Bush also suggested that the United States and India, where he was headed next, have still not reached a deal over U.S. help for India's civilian nuclear program.
"People all over the world are watching the experience here in Afghanistan," Bush said as he stood side-by-side with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Amid extremely tight security, Bush made the surprise visit in Afghanistan at the onset of a scheduled visit to India and Pakistan.
"It's a thrill to come to a country which is dedicating itself to the dignity of every person who lives here," said Bush said, making his first visit to Afghanistan.
For his part, Karzai greeted Bush as "our great friend, our great supporter, a man who helped us liberate."
Asked about the search for bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, and of the president's call for getting him "dead or alive," Bush said the search for bin Laden and his associates continues.
"It's not a matter of if they're captured and brought to justice, it's when they're brought to justice," Bush said.
Bush flew here secretly to support the fledging Afghan government in the face of rising violence from al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
Bush's entourage flew into the city from Bagram Air Base in a flotilla of heavily armed helicopters.
Two door gunners on a press helicopter fired off a short burst of machine gun fire at unknown targets as the aircraft flew low and fast over barren countryside.
Bush arrived safely at the presidential palace where he was greeted by Karzai.
The two leaders spoke with reporters during a brief news conference after their meeting.
Afterward, Bush presided over a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new U.S. embassy in Kabul.
He told embassy workers they were "on the front line of freedom's march."
Before leaving Afghanistan, Bush was to give a pep talk to U.S. troops at the air base where he landed and departed.
Asked twice at his news conference about bin Laden, Bush said, "I am confident he will be brought to justice."
"What's happening is that we've got U.S. forces on the hunt."
"... There are Afghan forces on the hunt, not only for bin Laden but also those who plot and plan with him."
"We've got Pakistan forces on the hunt."
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The suspected presence of Taliban militants in Pakistan has become a source of tension in relations with Afghanistan.
More than two dozen suicide attacks in recent months have fueled Afghan suspicions that militants are operating out of Pakistan.
Bush said that, when he is in Pakistan later this week, he will raise the issue of cross border infiltrations with Pakistan's president.
Of hopes to be able to announce a nuclear agreement with India, Bush said that, "This is a difficult issue."
"This is a difficult issue for the Indian government."
"This is a difficult issue for the American government."
He said officials of both governments were continuing talks, even as he headed to India.
Bush has promised to sell India nuclear technology and materials to help it with its civilian nuclear energy program, but the deal is hung up on reaching accord on how to ensure that the assistance isn't diverted into weapons programs.
"Our relationship with India is broader than our discussions about energy," Bush said.
"Ours is a strategic relationship."
U.S. restrictions on providing nuclear assistance to India, slapped on after India's nuclear weapons testing, remain in place.
Bush was accompanied by his wife, Laura, who visited Afghanistan in April 2005.
Vice President Dick Cheney visited there in December 2005.
"We're impressed by the progress that your country is making," Bush told Karzai.
"I come as a friend and an ally."
end quotes
All the federales say ......
They could have had him any day .....
They only let him slip away ...
Because of those big bucks that he had to pay ....
For them to turn their backs and look the other way .....
And I am surprised that George W. Bush does not have a NATURAL-BORN KILLER like Dick Cheney out there ON THE HUNT for Osama bin Laden .....
Of course, it just might be that the BIG GRIZ is afraid of something that might actually shoot back .....
And so ....
Safer hunting for OUR Dick, then ...
Things like real small and helpless birds .....
And scrawny old Texas lawyers .....
And so ...
Thinking of you, Livyjr:
(March 01, 2006 -- 12:22 AM EST // link)
This is a post to let you know that I exercised some self-control and didn't do the post about how Gateway Computers has made a covert pact with Satan to sell substandard computer hardware and back it up with service so bad it is guaranteed to push even a relatively well-balanced individual to the brink of insanity. Just wanted to let you know that.
-- Josh Marshall
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
(March 01, 2006 -- 12:22 AM EST // link)
This is a post to let you know that I exercised some self-control and didn't do the post about how Gateway Computers has made a covert pact with Satan to sell substandard computer hardware and back it up with service so bad it is guaranteed to push even a relatively well-balanced individual to the brink of insanity. Just wanted to let you know that.
-- Josh Marshall
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
And while we are on the subject of "reality" in here ...
Where everything is virtual ....
Including us ..
We have from that "other dimension" out there as follows .....
News of the FREIGHT TRAIN WINDS which rolled through here so many days ago ....
Wrecking havoc and destruction in their wake ....
Kind of like George W. Bush in his passage through this world of OURS ......
When you think on it ...
"Clues confirm wind's power - Some meteorological sleuthing shows recent storm was a whopper"
By DAN HIGGINS, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Wednesday, March 1, 2006
The wind that tore through Saratoga County on Feb. 17 was one of the fiercest ever recorded in the Capital Region.
But it took some after-the-fact detective work to confirm the data were really caused by wicked winds and not just malfunctioning machines.
The detective in this case was Steve Pertgen, who has worked for the National Weather Service in Albany for 26 years.
He is the one who must weigh the data against all other evidence and decide if a reading appears to be accurate or a glitch.
For instance, a weather service thermometer in Albany will occasionally insist the outdoor temperature is over 200.
The morning of the wind storm saw gusts in the Capital Region of 66 mph in Columbia County and 60 mph in Fulton County.
But a reading from the Saratoga County Airport at 9:52 a.m. caught Pertgen and his co-workers' attention.
For six minutes, the wind gauge recorded gusts of 85 knots, roughly 98 mph.
"I was questioning it."
"We were all questioning it."
"No one else saw any damage in that area, and with (winds) so high you would expect some."
Emergency management officials in Saratoga County had seen no damage that might that corresponded with hurricane-force winds: 98 mph winds would have ripped roofs off buildings or moved vehicles.
Several days later, Pertgen paid a visit to Saratoga County.
As he drove up Middle Line Road in Milton, he saw downed fences and signposts, as well as serious damage to some homes in a trailer park near the airport.
At the airport, he saw a single-engine plane with wings designed to give the vehicle lift at wind speeds over 80 mph.
It seemed to have bounced.
Though the plane was tied down during the storm, Pertgen said, he saw dents in the asphalt where it had broken one of its moorings and lifted several feet in the wind.
And just along the airport's perimeter, a portion of a chain-link fence had apparently blown down.
Pertgen thought leaves had collected against the fence, creating a solid surface for the wind to push.
"As you could imagine, it would take quite a bit to push down a chain-link fence with leaves."
"You don't think of what wind can do," he said.
That clinched it for him.
Pertgen determined the wind gauge recorded huge gusts resulting from a downburst, a passing thunderstorm at the edge of the moving weather front.
But he still hesitates to call the reading a record.
No official wind records are kept for Saratoga County, so it's possible that gusts have been higher.
It's certainly higher than any gust recorded at the Albany Airport in the last 56 years.
In May 1998 wind gusted to 82 mph, in a storm that touched off a tornado in Mechanicville and cut power to 60,000 homes.
In November 1950, wind speeds rose to 70 mph in Albany and reached 90 mph in New York City.
The most recent windstorm was a front that stretched across New York and raced east.
Steven DiRienzo, another meteorologist at the Albany weather service office, said the winds lined up with each other, traveling in unison at different altitudes, making one massive and very rapid front.
"I've never seen the models forecast a front to move from Rochester to Boston in six hours, but that's exactly what happened," he said.
The storm brought sustained winds of 60 mph or more.
Trees buckled and power lines snapped, cutting electricity to tens of thousands of National Grid customers in the region.
In Saratoga Springs, state Department of Transportation worker George Green was killed when wind toppled a pine tree onto his pickup truck as he drove through Saratoga Spa State Park.
Thousands of people remained without heat or electricity through the weekend, and authorities opened emergency shelters to give people a break from plunging temperatures.
And that happened with plenty of warning.
The weather service first began to alert the public of high wind dangers on the previous Tuesday.
DiRienzo said advances in meteorology have given forecasters the ability to warn people of dangerous weather further in advance, but it's still not perfect.
The 98 mph gust was almost 30 mph higher than the highest winds forecast.
"We generally can give people 72 hours' warning that something serious is going on, but even right up to an event things can change."
"(Storms) can make a sharp turn, or not turn when you expect them to."
Dan Higgins can be reached at 454-5523, or by e-mail at dhiggins@timesunion.com.
AIR POWER
One of the highest wind speeds ever recorded in the Capital Region measured 98 mph on Feb. 17 at the Saratoga County Airport. Here are the three highest readings from a weather station at Albany International Airport:
May 31, 1998 82 mph
July 15, 1995 77 mph
Nov. 25, 1950 70 mph
Source: National Weather Service
end quotes
By way of example, I live between Rochester and Boston .....
And driving west on the New York State Thruway at the legal speed limit .....
It is about four hours to Rochester ......
While Boston is three and a half hours to the east .....
SO ...
If the wind did it in just six hours .....
It had to be speeding ...
In which case ...
It should have gotten a ticket ...
And paid a fine ...
Like we would have had to do if we were going that fast ...
And so ..
I think we need some new laws up here, and a lot tougher enforcement program, which would probably have to be from the federal government ...
Since these murderous winds are seemingly hiding out in mountainous areas of some states west of where I am ...
And then ...
They are crossing state boundaries as they come out to maraud around out here ....
SAY .....
You don't think ...
Could it be ...
al-Quaida?
They used to call the wind MARIAH ...
But now, that has changed ....
Oh, woe is us ...
And where oh where is George W. Bush, the NEW SHERIFF in town when you need him ...
And that answer is that he is never around ...
EXCEPT WHEN THERE IS CREDIT TO BE GRABBED FOR SOMETHING THAT HE DID NOT HIMSELF REALLY DO ....
And then he will be there ...
So long as it is a good photo-op ...
And the SECURITY is really tight ....
For OUR George gets scared easily ...
And so ...
Where everything is virtual ....
Including us ..
We have from that "other dimension" out there as follows .....
News of the FREIGHT TRAIN WINDS which rolled through here so many days ago ....
Wrecking havoc and destruction in their wake ....
Kind of like George W. Bush in his passage through this world of OURS ......
When you think on it ...
"Clues confirm wind's power - Some meteorological sleuthing shows recent storm was a whopper"
By DAN HIGGINS, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Wednesday, March 1, 2006
The wind that tore through Saratoga County on Feb. 17 was one of the fiercest ever recorded in the Capital Region.
But it took some after-the-fact detective work to confirm the data were really caused by wicked winds and not just malfunctioning machines.
The detective in this case was Steve Pertgen, who has worked for the National Weather Service in Albany for 26 years.
He is the one who must weigh the data against all other evidence and decide if a reading appears to be accurate or a glitch.
For instance, a weather service thermometer in Albany will occasionally insist the outdoor temperature is over 200.
The morning of the wind storm saw gusts in the Capital Region of 66 mph in Columbia County and 60 mph in Fulton County.
But a reading from the Saratoga County Airport at 9:52 a.m. caught Pertgen and his co-workers' attention.
For six minutes, the wind gauge recorded gusts of 85 knots, roughly 98 mph.
"I was questioning it."
"We were all questioning it."
"No one else saw any damage in that area, and with (winds) so high you would expect some."
Emergency management officials in Saratoga County had seen no damage that might that corresponded with hurricane-force winds: 98 mph winds would have ripped roofs off buildings or moved vehicles.
Several days later, Pertgen paid a visit to Saratoga County.
As he drove up Middle Line Road in Milton, he saw downed fences and signposts, as well as serious damage to some homes in a trailer park near the airport.
At the airport, he saw a single-engine plane with wings designed to give the vehicle lift at wind speeds over 80 mph.
It seemed to have bounced.
Though the plane was tied down during the storm, Pertgen said, he saw dents in the asphalt where it had broken one of its moorings and lifted several feet in the wind.
And just along the airport's perimeter, a portion of a chain-link fence had apparently blown down.
Pertgen thought leaves had collected against the fence, creating a solid surface for the wind to push.
"As you could imagine, it would take quite a bit to push down a chain-link fence with leaves."
"You don't think of what wind can do," he said.
That clinched it for him.
Pertgen determined the wind gauge recorded huge gusts resulting from a downburst, a passing thunderstorm at the edge of the moving weather front.
But he still hesitates to call the reading a record.
No official wind records are kept for Saratoga County, so it's possible that gusts have been higher.
It's certainly higher than any gust recorded at the Albany Airport in the last 56 years.
In May 1998 wind gusted to 82 mph, in a storm that touched off a tornado in Mechanicville and cut power to 60,000 homes.
In November 1950, wind speeds rose to 70 mph in Albany and reached 90 mph in New York City.
The most recent windstorm was a front that stretched across New York and raced east.
Steven DiRienzo, another meteorologist at the Albany weather service office, said the winds lined up with each other, traveling in unison at different altitudes, making one massive and very rapid front.
"I've never seen the models forecast a front to move from Rochester to Boston in six hours, but that's exactly what happened," he said.
The storm brought sustained winds of 60 mph or more.
Trees buckled and power lines snapped, cutting electricity to tens of thousands of National Grid customers in the region.
In Saratoga Springs, state Department of Transportation worker George Green was killed when wind toppled a pine tree onto his pickup truck as he drove through Saratoga Spa State Park.
Thousands of people remained without heat or electricity through the weekend, and authorities opened emergency shelters to give people a break from plunging temperatures.
And that happened with plenty of warning.
The weather service first began to alert the public of high wind dangers on the previous Tuesday.
DiRienzo said advances in meteorology have given forecasters the ability to warn people of dangerous weather further in advance, but it's still not perfect.
The 98 mph gust was almost 30 mph higher than the highest winds forecast.
"We generally can give people 72 hours' warning that something serious is going on, but even right up to an event things can change."
"(Storms) can make a sharp turn, or not turn when you expect them to."
Dan Higgins can be reached at 454-5523, or by e-mail at dhiggins@timesunion.com.
AIR POWER
One of the highest wind speeds ever recorded in the Capital Region measured 98 mph on Feb. 17 at the Saratoga County Airport. Here are the three highest readings from a weather station at Albany International Airport:
May 31, 1998 82 mph
July 15, 1995 77 mph
Nov. 25, 1950 70 mph
Source: National Weather Service
end quotes
By way of example, I live between Rochester and Boston .....
And driving west on the New York State Thruway at the legal speed limit .....
It is about four hours to Rochester ......
While Boston is three and a half hours to the east .....
SO ...
If the wind did it in just six hours .....
It had to be speeding ...
In which case ...
It should have gotten a ticket ...
And paid a fine ...
Like we would have had to do if we were going that fast ...
And so ..
I think we need some new laws up here, and a lot tougher enforcement program, which would probably have to be from the federal government ...
Since these murderous winds are seemingly hiding out in mountainous areas of some states west of where I am ...
And then ...
They are crossing state boundaries as they come out to maraud around out here ....
SAY .....
You don't think ...
Could it be ...
al-Quaida?
They used to call the wind MARIAH ...
But now, that has changed ....
Oh, woe is us ...
And where oh where is George W. Bush, the NEW SHERIFF in town when you need him ...
And that answer is that he is never around ...
EXCEPT WHEN THERE IS CREDIT TO BE GRABBED FOR SOMETHING THAT HE DID NOT HIMSELF REALLY DO ....
And then he will be there ...
So long as it is a good photo-op ...
And the SECURITY is really tight ....
For OUR George gets scared easily ...
And so ...
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Mar 1 2006, 08:26 AM)
Thinking of you, Livyjr:
(March 01, 2006 -- 12:22 AM EST // link)
This is a post to let you know that I exercised some self-control and didn't do the post about how Gateway Computers has made a covert pact with Satan to sell substandard computer hardware and back it up with service so bad it is guaranteed to push even a relatively well-balanced individual to the brink of insanity.
Just wanted to let you know that.
-- Josh Marshall
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
(March 01, 2006 -- 12:22 AM EST // link)
This is a post to let you know that I exercised some self-control and didn't do the post about how Gateway Computers has made a covert pact with Satan to sell substandard computer hardware and back it up with service so bad it is guaranteed to push even a relatively well-balanced individual to the brink of insanity.
Just wanted to let you know that.
-- Josh Marshall
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
Well, jeffmoskin .....
The GATEWAY SAGA .....
I finally did get my computer fixed ...
After calling the office of GATEWAY CEO Wayne Inouye and telling his answering machine that I was one real ***ed-off old man out here with a lot of time on my hands and a BLOG-Site out here in the endless uncharted realms of CYBERSPACE where I was going to scream and scream and scream about being screwed by GATEWAY and its incompetence, and perhaps worse .....
Then I got a call from CORPORATE ESCALATIONS, as it was called ...
And I got some "personal service" ....
And after an interminable period of time, it seemed ...
Finally, I got my own computer back to me, and in working order .....
BUT NEVER AGAIN .....
And talking to a computer tech up here, it is not only GATEWAY that might be pushing out inferior crap at inflated prices, but DELL as well ....
Catch the suckers on the front end ...
When they pay too much for what is not going to work when they get it ...
And then ...
Have the suckers (US) pay for maintenance agreements ...
And then ..
When the computers don't work ...
We are told it is OUR fault ...
Or that the companies are not responsible ...
Because the crap was really made by some other corporation such as Intel ..
And so ..
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 1 2006, 08:06 AM)
"Bush Confident Bin Laden Will Be Captured"
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
"People all over the world are watching the experience here in Afghanistan," Bush said as he stood side-by-side with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"It's a thrill to come to a country which is dedicating itself to the dignity of every person who lives here," said Bush said, making his first visit to Afghanistan.
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
"People all over the world are watching the experience here in Afghanistan," Bush said as he stood side-by-side with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"It's a thrill to come to a country which is dedicating itself to the dignity of every person who lives here," said Bush said, making his first visit to Afghanistan.
Yeah, George ...
The world is watching alright .....
And some are calculating PROFITS .....
"Report: Afghan Opium Stymies U.S. Efforts"
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 54 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Opium production and trafficking account for one-third of Afghanistan's economy and is complicating U.S. efforts to rebuild the country and its government, a State Department report said Wednesday.
The number of acres under opium cultivation dropped 48 percent last year, but output declined by only 10 percent because of good weather, the report said.
Opium is the main ingredient of heroin.
"Afghanistan's huge drug trade severely impacts efforts to rebuild the economy, develop a strong democratic government based on rule of law, and threatens regional stability," the report said.
It said dangerous security conditions and corruption are hindering government and international efforts to combat the drug trade and provide alternative incomes.
The reduction in planting, the report said, may be credited to several factors, including a surplus crop from 2004 and public information efforts against poppy cultivation.
The annual report, mandated by Congress, was released shortly after President Bush made an unannounced four-hour visit to Afghanistan while en route to India.
The 900-page study, titled "International Narcotics Control Strategy Report," examines production, trafficking, money laundering and financial crimes in all countries.
The report offered a generally upbeat assessment of the situation in Colombia, the world's leading producer of cocaine.
Colombia had a record year in 2005 for drug eradication and interdiction, and in the extradition of suspected traffickers to the United States, the report said.
Even so, the report said the Colombian government detected "massive replanting and reconstitution efforts" by traffickers in some areas.
Cocaine is derived from coca, which is cultivated largely in areas under the control of illegal armed groups that earn substantial sums from trafficking in cocaine and heroin.
In some other countries, the report said:
_Coca cultivation has increased in Peru and Bolivia.
_Opium poppy production in Pakistan decreased by 58 percent last year. But Pakistan "is on the frontline of the war against drugs as a major transit country for opiates and hashish from neighboring Afghanistan."
_There was no change in Mexico's role as the principal transit country for cocaine entering the United States. Mexico also served as the main foreign source of marijuana consumed in the U.S. as well as a major supplier of heroin.
_Venezuela is a key transit point for drugs leaving Colombia, a situation aggravated by "rampant corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement and a weak judicial system."
"As a result, organized crime flourishes, with seizures and arrests of underlings more an annoyance than a threat," the report stated.
The Bush administration has clashed repeatedly in recent months with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
___
On the Net:
State Department: http://www.state.gov/
Where Are the Good Americans?
By JEREMY BRECHER & BRENDAN SMITH
Anyone who sees the photographs of the victims of the Nazi concentration camps must wonder how human beings could ever have allowed such things to happen. They must wonder how people of good will could have stood by while their government committed atrocities in their name. In the wake of that nightmarish era, people often asked, "Where were the good Germans?"
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12123.htm
By JEREMY BRECHER & BRENDAN SMITH
Anyone who sees the photographs of the victims of the Nazi concentration camps must wonder how human beings could ever have allowed such things to happen. They must wonder how people of good will could have stood by while their government committed atrocities in their name. In the wake of that nightmarish era, people often asked, "Where were the good Germans?"
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12123.htm
QUOTE(Snuffysmith @ Mar 1 2006, 10:15 PM)
Where Are the Good Americans?
By JEREMY BRECHER & BRENDAN SMITH
By JEREMY BRECHER & BRENDAN SMITH
An old friend of mine was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in WWII .....
So he got a full-paid tour of the battlefields of Europe during WWII ....
Courtesy of OUR government ...
And being on the ground, as an infantryman .....
He had a lot of contact with the German people as our army made its way across Germany .....
And that is something that we always pondered when we would speak of those times ...
Where were the good Germans ....
And when I was young and being educated, that was a subject of conversation in the classroom as well ....
HOW WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DIFFERENT .....
How that could not happen over here ..
Because of OUR form of government, supposedly ...
And because of how we were educated, supposedly ....
And because we were supposedly free and independent as individuals .....
So that, SUPPOSEDLY, it would be very difficult or impossible to convert us over into being herd animals as the Germans allegedly were during WWII .....
All I can say, all these years later, is how mistaken all those teachers really were ......
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Feb 28 2006, 04:54 PM)
Roman Disaster at Carrhae (cont'd)
By Brian Dent
Then the horrifying drumming began again, and Crassus finally learned his son's fate.
The Parthians rode forward with Publius' head on the point of a spear, and, Plutarch wrote, "scoffingly inquired where his parents were, and what family he was of, because it was impossible that so brave and gallant a warrior should be the son of so pitiful a coward as Crassus."
By Brian Dent
Then the horrifying drumming began again, and Crassus finally learned his son's fate.
The Parthians rode forward with Publius' head on the point of a spear, and, Plutarch wrote, "scoffingly inquired where his parents were, and what family he was of, because it was impossible that so brave and gallant a warrior should be the son of so pitiful a coward as Crassus."
And that talk of how whole populations of people can seemingly turn real stupid in a short amount of time is a good segue back to Crassus .....
Crassus the PIG-HEADED Roman fool who lost his head in the desert, like George W. Bush, over wild and grandiose schemes intended to HEAP GLORY upon the perpetrator of those GLORIOUS DEEDS .........
Roman Disaster at Carrhae (cont'd)
By Brian Dent
Crassus for once kept himself together, and made no outward show of dismay.
He even tried to exhort his men with a patriotic speech, but Plutarch claimed that "he saw but few who gave much heed to him."
When he ordered a cheer, the army only "made a faint and unsteady noise."
Whether Crassus knew it or not, the battle of Carrhae was lost, but his legions, seeing no better option, fought on, suffering heavy losses, until nightfall.
At that point, Plutarch wrote, Crassus "wrapped his cloak around him, and hid himself."
That night, Cassius and some other officers who saw that he had suffered a complete breakdown, took upon themselves the decision to withdraw all the able-bodied troops they could to the town of Carrhae, leaving their wounded behind.
When the retirement began, however, and the wounded realized they were being abandoned, Plutarch noted that a "strange confusion and disorder, with an outcry and lamentation," seized the camp.
This dreadful wailing of the wounded seems to have horrified the escaping legionaries, so that instead of slipping away quietly they simply ran, "as if the enemy were at their heels."
In the confusion and the dark the fleeing columns became separated, with the result that some groups never made it to Carrhae, and those that did wandered in throughout the long night.
The Parthians, though aware of the Romans' escape that night, made no effort to pursue them.
The next morning they entered the abandoned camp and slaughtered the surviving wounded, to the number of 4,000.
They also picked off a number of stragglers who got lost on the night march to Carrhae.
Four companies were surrounded on a nearby hill and all but 20 killed - the survivors escaping with their lives only because the Parthians let them go, out of admiration for their bravery.
While that slaughter went on, the main Parthian force was laying siege to Crassus and the surviving Romans in Carrhae.
Surena himself rode to the city gate and demanded the delivery of Crassus in chains as a precondition of any negotiations.
Incredibly, Crassus at first entertained the fantastic hope that the Armenians would come to his rescue, until his officers brought him to his senses.
The Romans ultimately decided to split divide their army into small groups and go their separate ways under different commanders, again under cover of darkness.
The final pathetic phase of Crassus' campaign began when he opted once again to hire a local guide to lead him and his 1,500-man contingent in their breakout.
Not surprisingly, that guide also turned out to be a spy.
That night, Plutarch wrote, he led Crassus out of Carrhae and "into the midst of morasses and places full of ditches," so that the Romans were hopelessly lost as morning broke, then disappeared.
Crassus' band did find their way to a road, but were immediately forced to retreat back into the thickets when the Parthians discovered them.
The Parthians attacked, but Crassus was momentarily saved when another band of wandering Romans, also misled, spotted his position and came to his rescue.
By then the spy had informed Surena of Crassus' position and the Parthian general treacherously offered the Romans a truce, claiming that he intended to let them go home under honorable terms.
Crassus reluctantly went to Surena's camp to discuss the terms and was promptly murdered.
The rest of the Romans in Crassus' contingent either surrendered or were hunted down and killed.
A number of Romans did manage to escape from Carrhae that night, including the group led by Cassius.
Plutarch estimated the final count of Roman casualties to be 20,000 killed and 10,000 captured.
In the aftermath of Carrhae, Surena led his army back to Seleucia in a procession he mockingly called a "triumph."
A captured Roman soldier who physically resembled his late commander was placed at the head of the army, forced forced to wear women's clothes and to answer to the name of Crassus.
Surena's soldiers marched behind, each carrying a Roman head.
Behind them came Parthian singing women, chanting what Plutarch described as "abusive songs on the cowardice and effeminacy of Crassus."
Surena delivered Crassus' head and one of his dismembered hands to King Orodes at a feast, which was held to celebrate the marriage of Orodes' son to the sister of the Armenian king.
Surena's reward for his great victory, according to Plutarch, was to be executed, "out of mere envy."
But Orodes would join the general he betrayed in 38 BC, at the hands of his own son, Phraactes.
The young man at first tried to poison his father, but when Orodes began to recover, Phraactes "was forced to take the shortest course, and strangled him."
As for Rome, the immediate effect of Carrhae, apart from the disgrace, was the upsetting of the political situation caused by the death of a triumvir.
With Crassus dead, the rule of three became a rule of two.
But even that proved to be one ruler too many.
The way was now clear for civil war, as Pompey and Caesar squared off to fight for supremacy in Rome.
Parthian Sequel: Mark Antony in the East
Seventeen years after the Battle of Carrhae, Marcus Antonius, aka Mark Antony, tried to redeem Roman honor by re-invading Parthia.
But his campaign fared little better than that of Marcus Licinius Crassus, with the notable exception that Antony came back alive.
Antony's official pretext for the campaign was to recover the standards and prisoners lost by Crassus, but his true motives were remarkably similar to Crassus'.
a member of the Second Triumvirate, Antony sought military glory to counter-balance the power of his co-ruler, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, the future Emperor Augustus.
Indeed, only the threat of losing his political prestige could bestir Antony from the bed of his paramour, the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII.
Antony's first move upon entering Parthian territory in 36 BC was to lay siege to the city of Phraata.
But Antony was in such haste to depart for Phraata (according to Plutarch, to conquer it quickly and return to Cleopatra) that he failed to bring along any siege equipment, including his 80-foot ram.
As a result his army was routed and he decided to suspend the campaign.
Antony's troubles were only beginning.
As he tried to march his army back to the safety of Armenia, he was abandoned by his disgusted ally, King Artavasdes - the same Artavasdes who so preoccupied Crassus' thoughts in 53 BC.
Food supplies ran out, and many of the soldiers became sick.
Meanwhile, the Parthians, led by King Phraates IV - the regicidal son of the late Orodes II - harassed the column throughout its march.
At least Antony did not repeat the most glaring mistakes of Crassus' venture.
He did not trust Phraates' offer of safe passage in return for surrender, and refused the services of a guide in a journey across the desert, instead following a course over hilly terrain that was unfavorable to Parthian cavalry.
He also made better use of his own cavalry, actually driving the Parthians from the field in several skirmishes.
Hunger and disease continued to wrack the army, however, and at one point some of Antony's troops actually mutinied.
Plutarch reported that rioting legionaries stormed into his tent, and "broke all his rich tables and cups, dividing the fragments among them."
Antony thought that the Parthians were attacking the camp, and ordered his armor-bearer to run him through with his sword if the base should be overrun.
Order was finally restored the next morning.
At last, 27 days after the retreat from Phraata, Antony's ragged troops reached safety, where Plutarch said they "kissed the ground for joy, shedding tears and embracing each other in their delight."
Twenty-four thousand Romans perished in this ill-starred campaign, half from disease.
Antony next went into winter quarters, where Plutarch wrote that he anxiously awaited Cleopatra's arrival and passed his time "in wine and drunkenness."
Blaming Artavasdes for his failure, Antony kidnapped the Armenian king, had him bound and displayed him in Egypt, where the Roman commander awarded himself a triumph for this great victory.
But triumph or not, it would be many years before Rome dared venture again into a war with the Parthians or their successors, the Sassanids.
B.D.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This article was written by Belleville, Illinois-based contributor Bryan Dent. For further reading, he recommends: Plutarch's Lives and Warfare in the Classical World by John Warry.
This article was originally published on TheHistoryNet.com in June 2005 issue for Military History magazine.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 2 2006, 07:53 AM)
And that talk of how whole populations of people can seemingly turn real stupid in a short amount of time is a good segue back to Crassus .....
Crassus the PIG-HEADED Roman fool who lost his head in the desert, like George W. Bush, over wild and grandiose schemes intended to HEAP GLORY upon the perpetrator of those GLORIOUS DEEDS .........
Roman Disaster at Carrhae (cont'd)
By Brian Dent
Crassus for once kept himself together, and made no outward show of dismay.
He even tried to exhort his men with a patriotic speech, but Plutarch claimed that "he saw but few who gave much heed to him."
When he ordered a cheer, the army only "made a faint and unsteady noise."
Crassus the PIG-HEADED Roman fool who lost his head in the desert, like George W. Bush, over wild and grandiose schemes intended to HEAP GLORY upon the perpetrator of those GLORIOUS DEEDS .........
Roman Disaster at Carrhae (cont'd)
By Brian Dent
Crassus for once kept himself together, and made no outward show of dismay.
He even tried to exhort his men with a patriotic speech, but Plutarch claimed that "he saw but few who gave much heed to him."
When he ordered a cheer, the army only "made a faint and unsteady noise."
And while we are on the subject of PIG-HEADED FOOLS and the GLORIOUS DEEDS that they perpetrate in their passings on this earth of OURS ....
We have George ...
And his ....
And I'll tell you what ...
If that boy comes around to your country offering you some "DEMOCRACY" ......
Watch out ....
He's not out there to change anything ..
He just don't like competition ..
That's all ....
"Pace: Torture, Killings Widespread in Iraq"
By ED JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 48 minutes ago
SYDNEY, Australia - Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein, as lawlessness and sectarian violence sweep the country, the former U.N. human rights chief in Iraq said Thursday.
John Pace, who last month left his post as director of the human rights office at the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, said the level of extra-judicial executions and torture is soaring, and morgue workers are being threatened by both government-backed militia and insurgents not to properly investigate deaths.
"Under Saddam, if you agreed to forgo your basic right to freedom of expression and thought, you were physically more or less OK," Pace said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"But now, no."
"Here, you have a primitive, chaotic situation where anybody can do anything they want to anyone."
Pace, who was born in Malta but now resides in Australia, said that while the scale of atrocity under Saddam was "daunting," now nobody is safe from abuse.
"It is certainly as bad," he said.
"It extends over a much wider section of the population than it did under Saddam."
Pace, currently a visiting fellow at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, spoke as sectarian tensions in Iraq push the country to the brink of civil war.
There has been a surge in religious violence in Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in the mainly Sunni city of Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, and a spate of reprisal attacks against Sunnis.
The situation has been made worse by extremist Shiite militia operating within the ranks of the Interior Ministry, said Pace, who singled out the Badr Brigade, which makes up a large chunk of the Iraqi security services and military.
He said militia and insurgents are responsible for threatening morgue staff in Baghdad not to perform autopsies on bodies of apparent victims of torture and killings.
"They are told it is not necessary, and not in their interests," he said, adding that both militia and insurgents were "trying to minimize any chances" that their activities could be investigated and prosecuted.
Pace, who spent much of his two years in the post in Iraq, said he visited the morgue in Baghdad once a week when he was in the city and regarded it as a "barometer" of the level of violence in the country.
He declined to provide more specific details about the threats, citing fears for the safety of morgue workers.
He said that around three-quarters of the several hundred bodies brought to the morgue each month were categorized with "gunshot wound" as the cause of death — a phrase Pace says is a euphemism.
"Nearly all were executed and tortured," he added.
Iraq's interior minister, Bayan Jabr, is a member of Iraq's biggest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, which ran the Badr Brigade.
Badr claims it is no longer an armed militia.
But former Badr commanders hold key posts in Interior Ministry commando units, which are regarded by Sunnis as nothing more than death squads.
In November, the U.S. Army raided an Interior Ministry bunker in Baghdad and found 158 tortured and starved Sunni prisoners.
"They have caused havoc," said Pace, referring to the Badr Brigade.
"They do basically as they please."
"They arrest people, they torture people, they execute people, they detain people, they negotiate ransom and they do that with impunity."
end quotes
REPUBLICAN-style politics on the march through this world of OURS .....
With George W. Bush as their IMPERATOR ....
Like Crassus before him ....
And a whole host of other tyrants as well ....
In whose footsteps America's George treds ....
And where, oh where are the "good poeple"?
Besides huddling in fear, or dead, as the REPUBLICANS take full control of this world of OURS ...
Through their SURROGATES, of course, such as this BADR BRIGADE ....
And so ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 2 2006, 05:25 AM)
An old friend of mine was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne in WWII .....
So he got a full-paid tour of the battlefields of Europe during WWII ....
Courtesy of OUR government ...
And being on the ground, as an infantryman .....
He had a lot of contact with the German people as our army made its way across Germany .....
And that is something that we always pondered when we would speak of those times ...
Where were the good Germans ....
And when I was young and being educated, that was a subject of conversation in the classroom as well ....
HOW WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DIFFERENT .....
How that could not happen over here ..
Because of OUR form of government, supposedly ...
And because of how we were educated, supposedly ....
And because we were supposedly free and independent as individuals .....
So that, SUPPOSEDLY, it would be very difficult or impossible to convert us over into being herd animals as the Germans allegedly were during WWII .....
All I can say, all these years later, is how mistaken all those teachers really were ......
So he got a full-paid tour of the battlefields of Europe during WWII ....
Courtesy of OUR government ...
And being on the ground, as an infantryman .....
He had a lot of contact with the German people as our army made its way across Germany .....
And that is something that we always pondered when we would speak of those times ...
Where were the good Germans ....
And when I was young and being educated, that was a subject of conversation in the classroom as well ....
HOW WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DIFFERENT .....
How that could not happen over here ..
Because of OUR form of government, supposedly ...
And because of how we were educated, supposedly ....
And because we were supposedly free and independent as individuals .....
So that, SUPPOSEDLY, it would be very difficult or impossible to convert us over into being herd animals as the Germans allegedly were during WWII .....
All I can say, all these years later, is how mistaken all those teachers really were ......
Having a few years on you, Livyjr, I always wondered, growing up, the same thing - - WHERE WERE THE GOOD GERMANS?
And later, in college, I wondered, 'how could the same people who produced Beethoven, Goethe, Kant, as well as modern science and mathematics, have been taken over IN SUCH A SHORT TIME by fanatics?
I don't ask myself those questions anymore.
ADMINISTRATION
What Bush Was Told About Iraq
By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, March 2, 2006
Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources.
The president received highly classified intelligence reports containing information at odds with his justifications for going to war.
Position papers, expert contacts and other resources from Policy Council members are available below.
The first report, delivered to Bush in early October 2002, was a one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate that discussed whether Saddam's procurement of high-strength aluminum tubes was for the purpose of developing a nuclear weapon.
Among other things, the report stated that the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that the tubes were "intended for conventional weapons," a view disagreeing with that of other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which believed that the tubes were intended for a nuclear bomb.
The disclosure that Bush was informed of the DOE and State dissents is the first evidence that the president himself knew of the sharp debate within the government over the aluminum tubes during the time that he, Cheney, and other members of the Cabinet were citing the tubes as clear evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program. Neither the president nor the vice president told the public about the disagreement among the agencies.
When U.S. inspectors entered Iraq after the fall of Saddam's regime, they determined that Iraq's nuclear program had been dormant for more than a decade and that the aluminum tubes had been used only for artillery shells.
The second classified report, delivered to Bush in early January 2003, was also a summary of a National Intelligence Estimate, this one focusing on whether Saddam would launch an unprovoked attack on the United States, either directly, or indirectly by working with terrorists.
The report stated that U.S. intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that it was unlikely that Saddam would try to attack the United States -- except if "ongoing military operations risked the imminent demise of his regime" or if he intended to "extract revenge" for such an assault, according to records and sources.
The single dissent in the report again came from State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, known as INR, which believed that the Iraqi leader was "unlikely to conduct clandestine attacks against the U.S. homeland even if [his] regime's demise is imminent" as the result of a U.S. invasion.
On at least four earlier occasions, beginning in the spring of 2002, according to the same records and sources, the president was informed during his morning intelligence briefing that U.S. intelligence agencies believed it was unlikely that Saddam was an imminent threat to the United States.
However, in the months leading up to the war, Bush, Cheney, and Cabinet members repeatedly asserted that Saddam was likely to use chemical or biological weapons against the United States or to provide such weapons to Al Qaeda or another terrorist group.
The Bush administration used the potential threat from Saddam as a major rationale in making the case to go to war. The president cited the threat in an address to the United Nations on September 12, 2002, in an October 7, 2002, speech to the American people, and in his State of the Union address on January 28, 2003.
The one-page documents prepared for Bush are known as the "President's Summary" of the much longer and more detailed National Intelligence Estimates that combine the analysis and judgments of agencies throughout the intelligence community.
An NIE, according to the Web site of the National Intelligence Council -- the interagency group that coordinates the documents' production -- represents "the coordinated judgments of the Intelligence Community regarding the likely course of future events" and is written with the goal of providing "policy makers with the best, unvarnished, and unbiased information -- regardless of whether analytic judgments conform to U.S. policy." (The January 2003 NIE, for example, was titled "Nontraditional Threats to the U.S. Homeland Through 2007.")
As many as six to eight agencies, foremost among them the CIA, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the INR, contribute to the drafting of an NIE. If any one of those intelligence agencies disagrees with the majority view on major conclusions, the NIE includes the dissenting view.
The one-page summary for the president allows intelligence agencies to emphasize what they believe to be the conclusions from the broader NIE that are the most important to communicate to the commander-in-chief.
The President's Summary is among the most highly classified papers in the government. References to the summaries are contained in footnotes in the so-called Robb-Silberman report -- officially, the report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction -- that was issued in March 2005 on the use of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. The White House has refused to declassify the summaries or to give them to congressional committees.
The summaries stated that both the Energy and State departments dissented on the aluminum tubes question. This is the first evidence that Bush was aware of the intense debate within the government during the time that he, Cheney, and members of the Cabinet were citing the procurement of the tubes as evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program.
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly on September 12, 2002, the president asserted, "Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon."
On October 7, 2002, less than a week after Bush was given the summary, he said in a speech in Cincinnati: "Evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his 'nuclear mujahedeen' -- his nuclear holy warriors.... Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."
On numerous other occasions, Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and then-U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte cited Iraq's procurement of aluminum tubes without disclosing that the intelligence community was split as to their end use. The fact that the president was informed of the dissents by Energy and State is also significant because Rice and other administration officials have said that Bush did not know about those dissenting views when he made claims about the purported uses for the tubes.
On July 11, 2003, aboard Air Force One during a presidential trip to Africa, Rice was asked about the National Intelligence Estimate and whether the president knew of the dissenting views among intelligence agencies regarding Iraq's procurement of the aluminum tubes.
Months earlier, disagreement existed within the administration over how to characterize the aluminum tubes in a speech that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell gave to the U.N. on February 5, 2003. Breaking ranks with others in the administration, Powell decided to refer to the internal debate among government agencies over Iraq's intended use of the tubes.
Asked about this by a reporter on Air Force One, Rice said: "I'm saying that when we put [Powell's speech] together... the secretary decided that he would caveat the aluminum tubes, which he did.... The secretary also has an intelligence arm that happened to hold that view."
Rice added, "Now, if there were any doubts about the underlying intelligence to that NIE, those doubts were not communicated to the president, to the vice president, or to me."
The one-page October 2002 President's Summary specifically told Bush that although "most agencies judge" that the use of the aluminum tubes was "related to a uranium enrichment effort... INR and DOE believe that the tubes more likely are intended for conventional weapons uses."
The lengthier NIE -- more than 90 pages -- contained significantly more detail describing the disagreement between the CIA and the Pentagon's DIA on one hand, which believed that the tubes were meant for centrifuges, and State's INR and the Energy Department, which believed that they were meant for artillery shells. Administration officials had said that the president would not have read the full-length paper. They also had said that many of the details of INR's dissent were contained in a special text box that was positioned far away from the main text of the report.
But the one-page summary, several senior government officials said in interviews, was written specifically for Bush, was handed to the president by then-CIA Director George Tenet, and was read in Tenet's presence.
In addition, Rice, Cheney, and dozens of other high-level Bush administration policy makers received a highly classified intelligence assessment, known as a Senior Executive Memorandum, on the aluminum tubes issue. Circulated on January 10, 2003, the memo was titled "Questions on Why Iraq Is Procuring Aluminum Tubes and What the IAEA Has Found to Date."
The paper included discussion regarding the fact that the INR, Energy, and the United Nations atomic energy watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, all believed that Iraq was using the aluminum tubes for conventional weapons programs.
The lengthier NIE also contained a note regarding the aluminum tubes disagreement:
"In INR's view, Iraq's efforts to acquire aluminum tubes is central to the argument that Baghdad is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, but INR is not persuaded that the tubes in question are intended for use as centrifuge rotors. INR accepts the judgment of technical experts at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) who have concluded that the tubes Iraq seeks to acquire are poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges to be used for uranium enrichment and finds unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to make the case that they are intended for that purpose.
"INR considers it far more likely that the tubes are intended for another purpose, most likely the production of artillery rockets."
One week after Rice's comments aboard Air Force One, on July 18, 2003, the Bush administration declassified some portions of the NIE, including the passage quoted above, regarding INR's dissent regarding the aluminum tubes.
But the Bush administration steadfastly continued to refuse to declassify the President's Summary of the NIE, which in the words of one senior official, is the "one document which illustrates what the president knew and when he knew it." The administration also refused to furnish copies of the paper to congressional intelligence committees.
That a summary was also prepared for Bush on the question of Saddam's intentions regarding an unprovoked attack on the United States is significant because the administration has claimed that the president was unaware of intelligence information that conflicted with his public statements and those of the vice president and members of his Cabinet on the justifications for attacking Iraq.
According to interviews and records, Bush personally read the one-page summary in Tenet's presence during the morning intelligence briefing, and the two spoke about it at some length. Sources familiar with the summary said it was highly significant that the president was informed that it was the unanimous conclusion of the intelligence agencies participating in the production of the January 2003 NIE that Saddam was unlikely to consider attacking the U.S. unless Iraq was attacked first.
Cheney received virtually the same intelligence information, according to the same records and interviews. The president's summaries have been shared with the vice president as a matter of course during the Bush presidency.
The conclusion among intelligence agencies that Saddam was unlikely to consider attacking the United States unless attacked first was also outlined in Senior Executive Intelligence Briefs, highly classified daily intelligence papers distributed to several hundred executive branch officials and to the congressional intelligence oversight committees.
During the second half of 2002, the president and vice president repeatedly cited the threat from Saddam in their public statements. "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us," Cheney declared on August 26, 2002, to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
In his September 12 address to the U.N. General Assembly, Bush said: "With every step the Iraqi regime takes toward gaining and deploying the most terrible weapons, our own options to confront that regime will narrow. And if an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of September the 11th would be a prelude to far greater horrors."
In an October 7 address to the nation, Bush cited intelligence showing that Iraq had a fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons. "We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States," the president declared.
"We know that Iraq and the Al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy -- the United States of America," he added. "Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists. Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints."
In his January 28, 2003, State of the Union address, the president once again warned the nation: "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."
In March 2003, as American, British, and other military forces prepared to invade Iraq, the president repeated the warnings during a summit in the Azores islands of Portugal and in a March 17 speech to the nation on the eve of the war. "The danger is clear: Using chemical, biological, or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country," Bush said in the March 17 speech. "The United States and other nations did nothing to deserve or invite this threat. But we will do everything to defeat it."
Senior Bush administration officials say they had good reason to disbelieve the intelligence that was provided to them by the CIA, noting that the intelligence the agency had provided earlier regarding Iraq was flawed.
And more recently, a 511-page bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee on prewar intelligence regarding Iraq concluded: "Despite four decades of intelligence reporting on Iraq, there was little useful intelligence collected that helped analysis determine the Iraqi regime's possible links with Al Qaeda."
The White House declined to comment for this story. In a statement, Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Council said, "The president of the United States has talked about this matter directly, as have a myriad of other administration officials. At this juncture, we have nothing to add to that body of information."
The 9/11 commission concluded in its final report that no evidence existed of a "collaborative operational relationship" between Saddam and Al Qaeda, adding, "Nor have we seen evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with Al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States."
What Bush Was Told About Iraq
By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, March 2, 2006
Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources.
The president received highly classified intelligence reports containing information at odds with his justifications for going to war.
Position papers, expert contacts and other resources from Policy Council members are available below.
The first report, delivered to Bush in early October 2002, was a one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate that discussed whether Saddam's procurement of high-strength aluminum tubes was for the purpose of developing a nuclear weapon.
Among other things, the report stated that the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that the tubes were "intended for conventional weapons," a view disagreeing with that of other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which believed that the tubes were intended for a nuclear bomb.
The disclosure that Bush was informed of the DOE and State dissents is the first evidence that the president himself knew of the sharp debate within the government over the aluminum tubes during the time that he, Cheney, and other members of the Cabinet were citing the tubes as clear evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program. Neither the president nor the vice president told the public about the disagreement among the agencies.
When U.S. inspectors entered Iraq after the fall of Saddam's regime, they determined that Iraq's nuclear program had been dormant for more than a decade and that the aluminum tubes had been used only for artillery shells.
The second classified report, delivered to Bush in early January 2003, was also a summary of a National Intelligence Estimate, this one focusing on whether Saddam would launch an unprovoked attack on the United States, either directly, or indirectly by working with terrorists.
The report stated that U.S. intelligence agencies unanimously agreed that it was unlikely that Saddam would try to attack the United States -- except if "ongoing military operations risked the imminent demise of his regime" or if he intended to "extract revenge" for such an assault, according to records and sources.
The single dissent in the report again came from State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, known as INR, which believed that the Iraqi leader was "unlikely to conduct clandestine attacks against the U.S. homeland even if [his] regime's demise is imminent" as the result of a U.S. invasion.
On at least four earlier occasions, beginning in the spring of 2002, according to the same records and sources, the president was informed during his morning intelligence briefing that U.S. intelligence agencies believed it was unlikely that Saddam was an imminent threat to the United States.
However, in the months leading up to the war, Bush, Cheney, and Cabinet members repeatedly asserted that Saddam was likely to use chemical or biological weapons against the United States or to provide such weapons to Al Qaeda or another terrorist group.
The Bush administration used the potential threat from Saddam as a major rationale in making the case to go to war. The president cited the threat in an address to the United Nations on September 12, 2002, in an October 7, 2002, speech to the American people, and in his State of the Union address on January 28, 2003.
The one-page documents prepared for Bush are known as the "President's Summary" of the much longer and more detailed National Intelligence Estimates that combine the analysis and judgments of agencies throughout the intelligence community.
An NIE, according to the Web site of the National Intelligence Council -- the interagency group that coordinates the documents' production -- represents "the coordinated judgments of the Intelligence Community regarding the likely course of future events" and is written with the goal of providing "policy makers with the best, unvarnished, and unbiased information -- regardless of whether analytic judgments conform to U.S. policy." (The January 2003 NIE, for example, was titled "Nontraditional Threats to the U.S. Homeland Through 2007.")
As many as six to eight agencies, foremost among them the CIA, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the INR, contribute to the drafting of an NIE. If any one of those intelligence agencies disagrees with the majority view on major conclusions, the NIE includes the dissenting view.
The one-page summary for the president allows intelligence agencies to emphasize what they believe to be the conclusions from the broader NIE that are the most important to communicate to the commander-in-chief.
The President's Summary is among the most highly classified papers in the government. References to the summaries are contained in footnotes in the so-called Robb-Silberman report -- officially, the report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction -- that was issued in March 2005 on the use of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. The White House has refused to declassify the summaries or to give them to congressional committees.
The summaries stated that both the Energy and State departments dissented on the aluminum tubes question. This is the first evidence that Bush was aware of the intense debate within the government during the time that he, Cheney, and members of the Cabinet were citing the procurement of the tubes as evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program.
In his address to the U.N. General Assembly on September 12, 2002, the president asserted, "Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon."
On October 7, 2002, less than a week after Bush was given the summary, he said in a speech in Cincinnati: "Evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his 'nuclear mujahedeen' -- his nuclear holy warriors.... Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."
On numerous other occasions, Cheney, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and then-U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte cited Iraq's procurement of aluminum tubes without disclosing that the intelligence community was split as to their end use. The fact that the president was informed of the dissents by Energy and State is also significant because Rice and other administration officials have said that Bush did not know about those dissenting views when he made claims about the purported uses for the tubes.
On July 11, 2003, aboard Air Force One during a presidential trip to Africa, Rice was asked about the National Intelligence Estimate and whether the president knew of the dissenting views among intelligence agencies regarding Iraq's procurement of the aluminum tubes.
Months earlier, disagreement existed within the administration over how to characterize the aluminum tubes in a speech that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell gave to the U.N. on February 5, 2003. Breaking ranks with others in the administration, Powell decided to refer to the internal debate among government agencies over Iraq's intended use of the tubes.
Asked about this by a reporter on Air Force One, Rice said: "I'm saying that when we put [Powell's speech] together... the secretary decided that he would caveat the aluminum tubes, which he did.... The secretary also has an intelligence arm that happened to hold that view."
Rice added, "Now, if there were any doubts about the underlying intelligence to that NIE, those doubts were not communicated to the president, to the vice president, or to me."
The one-page October 2002 President's Summary specifically told Bush that although "most agencies judge" that the use of the aluminum tubes was "related to a uranium enrichment effort... INR and DOE believe that the tubes more likely are intended for conventional weapons uses."
The lengthier NIE -- more than 90 pages -- contained significantly more detail describing the disagreement between the CIA and the Pentagon's DIA on one hand, which believed that the tubes were meant for centrifuges, and State's INR and the Energy Department, which believed that they were meant for artillery shells. Administration officials had said that the president would not have read the full-length paper. They also had said that many of the details of INR's dissent were contained in a special text box that was positioned far away from the main text of the report.
But the one-page summary, several senior government officials said in interviews, was written specifically for Bush, was handed to the president by then-CIA Director George Tenet, and was read in Tenet's presence.
In addition, Rice, Cheney, and dozens of other high-level Bush administration policy makers received a highly classified intelligence assessment, known as a Senior Executive Memorandum, on the aluminum tubes issue. Circulated on January 10, 2003, the memo was titled "Questions on Why Iraq Is Procuring Aluminum Tubes and What the IAEA Has Found to Date."
The paper included discussion regarding the fact that the INR, Energy, and the United Nations atomic energy watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, all believed that Iraq was using the aluminum tubes for conventional weapons programs.
The lengthier NIE also contained a note regarding the aluminum tubes disagreement:
"In INR's view, Iraq's efforts to acquire aluminum tubes is central to the argument that Baghdad is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, but INR is not persuaded that the tubes in question are intended for use as centrifuge rotors. INR accepts the judgment of technical experts at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) who have concluded that the tubes Iraq seeks to acquire are poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges to be used for uranium enrichment and finds unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to make the case that they are intended for that purpose.
"INR considers it far more likely that the tubes are intended for another purpose, most likely the production of artillery rockets."
One week after Rice's comments aboard Air Force One, on July 18, 2003, the Bush administration declassified some portions of the NIE, including the passage quoted above, regarding INR's dissent regarding the aluminum tubes.
But the Bush administration steadfastly continued to refuse to declassify the President's Summary of the NIE, which in the words of one senior official, is the "one document which illustrates what the president knew and when he knew it." The administration also refused to furnish copies of the paper to congressional intelligence committees.
That a summary was also prepared for Bush on the question of Saddam's intentions regarding an unprovoked attack on the United States is significant because the administration has claimed that the president was unaware of intelligence information that conflicted with his public statements and those of the vice president and members of his Cabinet on the justifications for attacking Iraq.
According to interviews and records, Bush personally read the one-page summary in Tenet's presence during the morning intelligence briefing, and the two spoke about it at some length. Sources familiar with the summary said it was highly significant that the president was informed that it was the unanimous conclusion of the intelligence agencies participating in the production of the January 2003 NIE that Saddam was unlikely to consider attacking the U.S. unless Iraq was attacked first.
Cheney received virtually the same intelligence information, according to the same records and interviews. The president's summaries have been shared with the vice president as a matter of course during the Bush presidency.
The conclusion among intelligence agencies that Saddam was unlikely to consider attacking the United States unless attacked first was also outlined in Senior Executive Intelligence Briefs, highly classified daily intelligence papers distributed to several hundred executive branch officials and to the congressional intelligence oversight committees.
During the second half of 2002, the president and vice president repeatedly cited the threat from Saddam in their public statements. "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us," Cheney declared on August 26, 2002, to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
In his September 12 address to the U.N. General Assembly, Bush said: "With every step the Iraqi regime takes toward gaining and deploying the most terrible weapons, our own options to confront that regime will narrow. And if an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of September the 11th would be a prelude to far greater horrors."
In an October 7 address to the nation, Bush cited intelligence showing that Iraq had a fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons. "We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVs for missions targeting the United States," the president declared.
"We know that Iraq and the Al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy -- the United States of America," he added. "Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists. Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints."
In his January 28, 2003, State of the Union address, the president once again warned the nation: "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."
In March 2003, as American, British, and other military forces prepared to invade Iraq, the president repeated the warnings during a summit in the Azores islands of Portugal and in a March 17 speech to the nation on the eve of the war. "The danger is clear: Using chemical, biological, or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country," Bush said in the March 17 speech. "The United States and other nations did nothing to deserve or invite this threat. But we will do everything to defeat it."
Senior Bush administration officials say they had good reason to disbelieve the intelligence that was provided to them by the CIA, noting that the intelligence the agency had provided earlier regarding Iraq was flawed.
And more recently, a 511-page bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee on prewar intelligence regarding Iraq concluded: "Despite four decades of intelligence reporting on Iraq, there was little useful intelligence collected that helped analysis determine the Iraqi regime's possible links with Al Qaeda."
The White House declined to comment for this story. In a statement, Frederick Jones, a spokesman for the National Security Council said, "The president of the United States has talked about this matter directly, as have a myriad of other administration officials. At this juncture, we have nothing to add to that body of information."
The 9/11 commission concluded in its final report that no evidence existed of a "collaborative operational relationship" between Saddam and Al Qaeda, adding, "Nor have we seen evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with Al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States."
I also posted this in the Book Corner:
Save the planet-- one guillontine at a time.
In the future, people will look back at this era and wonder that we Americans spent our lives and our fortunes battling fascism in Italy, Germany and Japan in World War Two, only to watch our own country slide into a new kind of fascism "Neo-Conservatism" It's easy to see how our country is transforming itself into an Italian-style form of fascism.
Here are some books to enlighten and give hope:
'Strategic Ignorance : Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress'
'Prelude to Terror : The Rogue CIA and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network'
'Kiss My--Left Behind'
'Towel Snapping the Press : Bush's Journey from Locker-Room Antics to Message Control (Communication, Media, and Politics)'
'Veering Right : How the Bush Administration Subverts the Law for Conservative Causes'
'The Bush Doctrine and the War on Terrorism: Global Reactions, Global Consequences'
'Fascists in Christian Clothing : The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy'
'It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics (Paperback))'
'Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to The White House'
'The Jolly President : Or Letters George W. Bush Never Read'
'What We've Lost : How the Bush Administration Has Curtailed Our Freedoms, Mortgaged Our Economy, Ravaged Our Environment, and Damaged Our Standing in the World'
'Jaded Tasks : Brass Plates, Black Ops & Big Oil-The Blood Politics of George Bush & Co.'
'The Raw Deal : How the Bush Republicans Plan to Destroy Social Security and the Legacy of the New Deal'
'Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco'
'State of War : The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration'
'How America Lost Iraq'
'Voyage to a Stricken Land : Reporting from Iraq - A Woman's Inside Story'
'In the Belly of the Green Bird : The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq'
'Gulliver Unbound : America's Imperial Temptation and the War in Iraq'
'Imperial Grand Strategy: The Conquest of Iraq And the Assault on Democracy (Ak Video)'
'Neo-Conned! : Just War Principles: A Condemnation of War in Iraq'
'Dreams of Freedom : A Ricardo Flores Magon Reader'
'Squandered Victory : The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq'
'Banking on Baghdad : Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict'
'Globalization and Empire : The U.S. Invasion of Iraq, Free Markets, and the Twilight of Democracy (Albma Rhetoric Cult & Soc Crit)'
'Why War"" : The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez'
'Eyes of the Storm : The Story in Pictures of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita'
'Overthrow : America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq'
'Neo-Conned! Again : Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq'
'Not One More Mother's Child'
'Crimes of War : Iraq'
'Tell Them I Didn't Cry : A Young Journalist's Story of Joy, Loss, and Survival in Iraq'
'The War on Terrorism and the American 'Empire' after the Cold War'
'New World Empire : Civil Islam, Terrorism, and the Making of Neoglobalism'
'The Bush Doctrine and the War on Terrorism: Global Reactions, Global Consequences'
'Death Etc.'
'Humanitarian Intervention and Safety Zones : Iraq, Bosnia and Rwanda (Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies)'
'In Conflict : Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss, and the Fight to Stay Alive'
'The Death of Media : And the Fight to Save Democracy (Melville Manifestos)'
'Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America'
'The Jungle : The Uncensored Original Edition'
'I Am Not a Man, I Am Dynamite! Friedrich Nietzsche and the Anarchist Tradition'
'Graham Greene: The Enemy Within'
'The Baptizing of America : The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us'
'10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military'
Save the planet-- one guillontine at a time.
In the future, people will look back at this era and wonder that we Americans spent our lives and our fortunes battling fascism in Italy, Germany and Japan in World War Two, only to watch our own country slide into a new kind of fascism "Neo-Conservatism" It's easy to see how our country is transforming itself into an Italian-style form of fascism.
Here are some books to enlighten and give hope:
'Strategic Ignorance : Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress'
'Prelude to Terror : The Rogue CIA and the Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network'
'Kiss My--Left Behind'
'Towel Snapping the Press : Bush's Journey from Locker-Room Antics to Message Control (Communication, Media, and Politics)'
'Veering Right : How the Bush Administration Subverts the Law for Conservative Causes'
'The Bush Doctrine and the War on Terrorism: Global Reactions, Global Consequences'
'Fascists in Christian Clothing : The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy'
'It Can't Happen Here (Signet Classics (Paperback))'
'Conned: How Millions Went to Prison, Lost the Vote, and Helped Send George W. Bush to The White House'
'The Jolly President : Or Letters George W. Bush Never Read'
'What We've Lost : How the Bush Administration Has Curtailed Our Freedoms, Mortgaged Our Economy, Ravaged Our Environment, and Damaged Our Standing in the World'
'Jaded Tasks : Brass Plates, Black Ops & Big Oil-The Blood Politics of George Bush & Co.'
'The Raw Deal : How the Bush Republicans Plan to Destroy Social Security and the Legacy of the New Deal'
'Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco'
'State of War : The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration'
'How America Lost Iraq'
'Voyage to a Stricken Land : Reporting from Iraq - A Woman's Inside Story'
'In the Belly of the Green Bird : The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq'
'Gulliver Unbound : America's Imperial Temptation and the War in Iraq'
'Imperial Grand Strategy: The Conquest of Iraq And the Assault on Democracy (Ak Video)'
'Neo-Conned! : Just War Principles: A Condemnation of War in Iraq'
'Dreams of Freedom : A Ricardo Flores Magon Reader'
'Squandered Victory : The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq'
'Banking on Baghdad : Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict'
'Globalization and Empire : The U.S. Invasion of Iraq, Free Markets, and the Twilight of Democracy (Albma Rhetoric Cult & Soc Crit)'
'Why War"" : The Cultural Logic of Iraq, the Gulf War, and Suez'
'Eyes of the Storm : The Story in Pictures of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita'
'Overthrow : America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq'
'Neo-Conned! Again : Hypocrisy, Lawlessness, and the Rape of Iraq'
'Not One More Mother's Child'
'Crimes of War : Iraq'
'Tell Them I Didn't Cry : A Young Journalist's Story of Joy, Loss, and Survival in Iraq'
'The War on Terrorism and the American 'Empire' after the Cold War'
'New World Empire : Civil Islam, Terrorism, and the Making of Neoglobalism'
'The Bush Doctrine and the War on Terrorism: Global Reactions, Global Consequences'
'Death Etc.'
'Humanitarian Intervention and Safety Zones : Iraq, Bosnia and Rwanda (Rethinking Peace and Conflict Studies)'
'In Conflict : Iraq War Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss, and the Fight to Stay Alive'
'The Death of Media : And the Fight to Save Democracy (Melville Manifestos)'
'Don't Eat This Book: Fast Food and the Supersizing of America'
'The Jungle : The Uncensored Original Edition'
'I Am Not a Man, I Am Dynamite! Friedrich Nietzsche and the Anarchist Tradition'
'Graham Greene: The Enemy Within'
'The Baptizing of America : The Religious Right's Plans for the Rest of Us'
'10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military'
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Mar 2 2006, 08:49 AM)
I don't ask myself those questions anymore.
And there is a real sad thought, jeffmoskin ......
Way out here they have a name for wind and rain and fire ....
The rain is Tess , the fire's Joe, and they call the wind al-Qaida ....
al-Qaida blows the stars around, sets the clouds a'flyin ....
In George W. Bush's head, anyway ....
Out here they have a name for rain wind and fire only ......
When you're lost and all alone, like poor Dick Cheney .....
There ain't no name for lonely .....
I'm a lost and lonely man without a star to guide me, says George W. Bush .....
al-Qaida, blow my love to me, I need my Saudi "friend" beside me .....
al-Qaida, al-Qaida, they call the wind al-Qaida .....
al-Qaida, al-Qaida .....
George W. Bush thinks even the wind is al-Qaida .....
"Riots Bring Concern of al-Qaida 'Schools'"
By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 2, 2:09 PM ET
AMMAN, Jordan - Radicals riot in jails in Jordan and Afghanistan.
Al-Qaida convicts break out of a Yemen cell block.
In the struggle to contain extremists, holding such prisoners together may lead to more unrest — or turn jails into "schools" where al-Qaida passes on its violent ideology.
"It is a huge problem."
"The spread of jihadism has increased significantly as has the number of people being arrested," Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terrorism expert, said Thursday.
A top Jordanian judicial official said Wednesday's riots at three prisons showed that detained militants were likely using the Internet, mobile phones or visitors to pass messages.
"What happened in the prisons was very dangerous and we have to find out how the detainees coordinated with each other," said Judge Ali al-Dhmour, secretary-general of the Justice Ministry.
Some people ask whether it might be better to hold militants in prisons in the West, or perhaps to devote more effort to rehabilitation.
But Washington has shown a clear interest in having Mideast governments hold such prisoners so those governments can interrogate them — often with little human rights oversight — and pass information to the U.S. government.
Rehabilitation efforts, meanwhile, have been spotty.
Egypt had success in dampening Islamic extremism in a previous generation, and Saudi Arabia claims to have converted some al-Qaida sympathizers to less radical views.
But Yemen's rehabilitation effort is criticized by Western officials who say it just returns dangerous people to the streets.
Experts say a key problem in Jordan is the lumping together inside jails of common criminals and Islamic extremists, including members of the al-Qaida in Iraq network headed by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"These jails are like schools or universities for Islamic extremists, where they influence other prisoners and spread their 'takfiri' views," said Sameeh Khreis, a Jordanian lawyer who represents militants.
The extremist takfiri ideology urges Sunni Muslims to kill anyone they consider an infidel, even fellow Muslims.
Among Khreis' clients is Azmi al-Jayousi, a Jordanian sentenced to death with al-Zarqawi for a 2004 plot to stage chemical attacks on targets inside Jordan, including the U.S. Embassy.
Jordanian officials said Wednesday's riots broke out when prisoners at one jail demanded that al-Jayousi and another al-Qaida-linked militant, Salem bin Suweid of Libya, be transferred to another prison.
Suweid is on death row for fatally shooting U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley in 2002.
Unlike al-Jayousi and Suweid, many suspected militants across the Middle East and North Africa are jailed indefinitely with no charges filed.
"Indefinite detention has a special way of driving people a little crazy and provides a greater incentive to riot," said John Sifton, a counterterrorism expert for the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
Jordan's riots came less than a month after 23 al-Qaida inmates, including one convicted in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, tunneled out of a high-security jail in Yemen.
Yemeni officials said they thwarted escape attempts by al-Qaida suspects at two other prisons this week.
In Afghanistan, a four-day rebellion that left six inmates dead and exposed security flaws at the Central Asian nation's main prison ended Wednesday when more than 1,000 inmates surrendered.
Officials said the last to give up were al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
Al-Qaida and Taliban members have also escaped from high-security prisons in Afghanistan, including a U.S. military facility.
Seven Taliban rebels fled a Kabul prison Jan. 22, some six months after four al-Qaida militants broke out of jail at Bagram, the U.S. military's headquarters north of Kabul.
It was unclear if there was any direct coordination among the various events, but Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi said there "is a (common) sense of injustice and anger on the part of the Islamist prisoners."
Yemen says it is trying to turn detained Islamic extremists away from radicalism and reintegrate them into the community through a reconciliation program.
But Western officials are critical of the effort, saying Yemen may just be trying to discourage attacks at home, rather than truly convert people from extremism.
One judge said last year the program doesn't focus on trying to keep Yemenis from going to Iraq, for example.
Yossi Melman, a respected Israeli intelligence writer, thinks it is possible to rehabilitate only a few extremists, leaving governments in "a no-win situation."
"If you release them, they will go back to the arenas of their crimes," Melman said.
"But if they stay in jail there are negative ramifications for Western governments and societies, because prisons are their best schools where they strengthen themselves and reaffirm their beliefs."
The rain is Tess , the fire's Joe, and they call the wind al-Qaida ....
al-Qaida blows the stars around, sets the clouds a'flyin ....
In George W. Bush's head, anyway ....
Out here they have a name for rain wind and fire only ......
When you're lost and all alone, like poor Dick Cheney .....
There ain't no name for lonely .....
I'm a lost and lonely man without a star to guide me, says George W. Bush .....
al-Qaida, blow my love to me, I need my Saudi "friend" beside me .....
al-Qaida, al-Qaida, they call the wind al-Qaida .....
al-Qaida, al-Qaida .....
George W. Bush thinks even the wind is al-Qaida .....
"Riots Bring Concern of al-Qaida 'Schools'"
By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 2, 2:09 PM ET
AMMAN, Jordan - Radicals riot in jails in Jordan and Afghanistan.
Al-Qaida convicts break out of a Yemen cell block.
In the struggle to contain extremists, holding such prisoners together may lead to more unrest — or turn jails into "schools" where al-Qaida passes on its violent ideology.
"It is a huge problem."
"The spread of jihadism has increased significantly as has the number of people being arrested," Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based terrorism expert, said Thursday.
A top Jordanian judicial official said Wednesday's riots at three prisons showed that detained militants were likely using the Internet, mobile phones or visitors to pass messages.
"What happened in the prisons was very dangerous and we have to find out how the detainees coordinated with each other," said Judge Ali al-Dhmour, secretary-general of the Justice Ministry.
Some people ask whether it might be better to hold militants in prisons in the West, or perhaps to devote more effort to rehabilitation.
But Washington has shown a clear interest in having Mideast governments hold such prisoners so those governments can interrogate them — often with little human rights oversight — and pass information to the U.S. government.
Rehabilitation efforts, meanwhile, have been spotty.
Egypt had success in dampening Islamic extremism in a previous generation, and Saudi Arabia claims to have converted some al-Qaida sympathizers to less radical views.
But Yemen's rehabilitation effort is criticized by Western officials who say it just returns dangerous people to the streets.
Experts say a key problem in Jordan is the lumping together inside jails of common criminals and Islamic extremists, including members of the al-Qaida in Iraq network headed by Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"These jails are like schools or universities for Islamic extremists, where they influence other prisoners and spread their 'takfiri' views," said Sameeh Khreis, a Jordanian lawyer who represents militants.
The extremist takfiri ideology urges Sunni Muslims to kill anyone they consider an infidel, even fellow Muslims.
Among Khreis' clients is Azmi al-Jayousi, a Jordanian sentenced to death with al-Zarqawi for a 2004 plot to stage chemical attacks on targets inside Jordan, including the U.S. Embassy.
Jordanian officials said Wednesday's riots broke out when prisoners at one jail demanded that al-Jayousi and another al-Qaida-linked militant, Salem bin Suweid of Libya, be transferred to another prison.
Suweid is on death row for fatally shooting U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley in 2002.
Unlike al-Jayousi and Suweid, many suspected militants across the Middle East and North Africa are jailed indefinitely with no charges filed.
"Indefinite detention has a special way of driving people a little crazy and provides a greater incentive to riot," said John Sifton, a counterterrorism expert for the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
Jordan's riots came less than a month after 23 al-Qaida inmates, including one convicted in the 2000 attack on the USS Cole, tunneled out of a high-security jail in Yemen.
Yemeni officials said they thwarted escape attempts by al-Qaida suspects at two other prisons this week.
In Afghanistan, a four-day rebellion that left six inmates dead and exposed security flaws at the Central Asian nation's main prison ended Wednesday when more than 1,000 inmates surrendered.
Officials said the last to give up were al-Qaida and Taliban militants.
Al-Qaida and Taliban members have also escaped from high-security prisons in Afghanistan, including a U.S. military facility.
Seven Taliban rebels fled a Kabul prison Jan. 22, some six months after four al-Qaida militants broke out of jail at Bagram, the U.S. military's headquarters north of Kabul.
It was unclear if there was any direct coordination among the various events, but Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi said there "is a (common) sense of injustice and anger on the part of the Islamist prisoners."
Yemen says it is trying to turn detained Islamic extremists away from radicalism and reintegrate them into the community through a reconciliation program.
But Western officials are critical of the effort, saying Yemen may just be trying to discourage attacks at home, rather than truly convert people from extremism.
One judge said last year the program doesn't focus on trying to keep Yemenis from going to Iraq, for example.
Yossi Melman, a respected Israeli intelligence writer, thinks it is possible to rehabilitate only a few extremists, leaving governments in "a no-win situation."
"If you release them, they will go back to the arenas of their crimes," Melman said.
"But if they stay in jail there are negative ramifications for Western governments and societies, because prisons are their best schools where they strengthen themselves and reaffirm their beliefs."
Never ever thought one of my most favorite John Stewart songs "They Call the Wind Maria" would be bastardized by the likes of George Bush and Al Qaeda. And I have been a John Stewart groopie since the Kingston Trio era. Now I'm dating myself. Bullets in the HourGlass.
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Feb 23 2006, 07:35 PM)
As George W. Bush and his latest "BOY TOY" stop at the posh digs of RADIO SUPERSTAR RUSH LIMBAUGH to pick up Rush and Karl Rove and WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN Scottie "BOY" McClellan and Rick Santorum and Reverend Lusk, before heading off to Dick Cheney's posh Wyoming ranch to discuss STRATEGY for the up-coming congressional elections and to, well, you know, do some "GUY THINGS" .....
Like hang out by Dick's pool in their Speedo's and ......
Like hang out by Dick's pool in their Speedo's and ......
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 2 2006, 07:03 PM)
Way out here they have a name for wind and rain and fire ....
The rain is Tess , the fire's Joe, and they call the wind al-Qaida ....
al-Qaida blows the stars around, sets the clouds a'flyin ....
In George W. Bush's head, anyway ....
Out here they have a name for rain wind and fire only ......
When you're lost and all alone, like poor Dick Cheney .....
There ain't no name for lonely .....
I'm a lost and lonely man without a star to guide me, says George W. Bush .....
al-Qaida, blow my love to me, I need my Saudi "friend" beside me .....
al-Qaida, al-Qaida, they call the wind al-Qaida .....
al-Qaida, al-Qaida .....
George W. Bush thinks even the wind is al-Qaida .....
The rain is Tess , the fire's Joe, and they call the wind al-Qaida ....
al-Qaida blows the stars around, sets the clouds a'flyin ....
In George W. Bush's head, anyway ....
Out here they have a name for rain wind and fire only ......
When you're lost and all alone, like poor Dick Cheney .....
There ain't no name for lonely .....
I'm a lost and lonely man without a star to guide me, says George W. Bush .....
al-Qaida, blow my love to me, I need my Saudi "friend" beside me .....
al-Qaida, al-Qaida, they call the wind al-Qaida .....
al-Qaida, al-Qaida .....
George W. Bush thinks even the wind is al-Qaida .....
QUOTE(Snuffysmith @ Mar 2 2006, 11:14 PM)
Never ever thought one of my most favorite John Stewart songs "They Call the Wind Maria" would be bastardized by the likes of George Bush and Al Qaeda.
And I have been a John Stewart groopie since the Kingston Trio era.
Now I'm dating myself.
Bullets in the HourGlass.
And I have been a John Stewart groopie since the Kingston Trio era.
Now I'm dating myself.
Bullets in the HourGlass.
Hope I have caused no undue stress, here, Snuf .....
It's just one of those things that popped into my head ...
And so ....
And maybe it is just the shock at the sheer audacity of Karl Rove re-constituting George W. Bush as the world's first openly gay WORLD LEADER .....
Talk about CHUTZPAH, will you ....
They say that that Karl Rove never sleeps ...
And that he has at least sixty ideas a minute for defeating the Democrats at every turn ...
And this clearly demonstrates that level of mental superiority that Karl Rove has over the Democrats ...
Who thought they were stealing a "wedge issue" from the REPUBLICANS with this port take-over deal that George W. Bush's GOVERNMENT has worked out with the UAE .....
While all the time ...
Karl Rove was planning to take a major swing to the LIBERAL side here, and he has stolen the show, in my estimation anyway .....
Karl Rove, the ARCHITECT, has succeeded in transforming George W. Bush into a man that men love to love ....
And so .....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 3 2006, 06:52 AM)
And maybe it is just the shock at the sheer audacity of Karl Rove re-constituting George W. Bush as the world's first openly gay WORLD LEADER .....
And I have nothing against George W. Bush if he is in fact openly gay ...
I mean ...
Well, let's face it ...
IN ALL LIKELIHOOD ......
I am probably a LIBERAL in that regard .....
Which is to say, I don't discriminate .....
Although with George ...
And Karl Rove, especially ...
There is always that HYPOCRISY FACTOR ...
As well as outright FALSENESS ....
So that George might only be feigning being gay .....
For the sake of REPUBLICAN politics ...
Oh, well ....
Whatever ...
From that crowd, anyway ....
BUT THEY ARE CONSERVATIVES ...
So what can you expect from them?
Looking at a more LIBERAL story in here this morning ....
We have from antiquity .....
What is perhaps some proof that before these CONSERVATIVES came over here and overran the place with their "MANLINESS" .......
Their OVERT HUNK-I-NESS .....
Especially George and Dick Cheney in their Speedos .....
Proof that perhaps women had more rights here in OUR America than they do now under these CONSERVATIVE TALIBANS here in OUR America ....
"Peru, Mexico Finds Hint at Women's Roles"
By CARL HARTMAN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Mar 2, 4:33 PM ET
WASHINGTON - Archaeological finds from Mexico and Peru show that, long before Europeans arrived, women served as warriors, governors and priestesses.
An exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery includes little pottery jugs and massive stone images portraying women in a variety of roles in addition to traditional homemakers and care givers.
"Women were not only daughters, wives, mothers and grandmothers, but also healers, midwives, scribes, artists, poets, priestesses, warriors, governors and even goddesses in pre-Columbian society," said Judy L. Larson, director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in announcing the exhibit.
There's Xochiquetzal, a Mexican goddess of love and beauty, modeled in clay with an elaborate headdress and flowers in both hands.
She may not look seductive by western standards, but she's more endearing than a stone image, half life-size, of another Mexican goddess — Cihuateteo — with staring eyes and ferocious teeth.
Cihuateteo lurked at crossroads by night and caused illness.
The Moche people of northern Peru, whose tombs are among the most recently excavated, had an ugly goddess of their own, a moon goddess with a face like a skull who presided over the capture and sacrifice of human prisoners.
From Peru also comes a ceramic pitcher in the form of a central figure with a scepter, surrounded by seven women, and another of a long-haired young woman holding a baby.
Organized by the wives of the presidents of the two Latin American countries, the exhibition was promoted in Washington by first lady Laura Bush, who wrote in a foreword to the catalog that the objects in the show would inform Americans and visitors about women in the ancient Americas.
Of almost 400 objects in the exhibit, some go back as far as 4,000 years, comparable in age with civilizations in Egypt or Iraq.
When Spanish conquerors followed Columbus in the 1500s, those in Mexico met mostly Aztec people, and the conquerors of Peru met the Incas.
But there had been other peoples before them, who had been absorbed by the ruling groups of the time or had disappeared entirely.
Descendants of some, like the Mayas of Mexico, can still be identified by languages and customs today.
The exhibit will be on view at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, its final stop and the only one in the United States, until May 22.
___
On the Net:
National Museum of Women in the Arts: http://www.nmwa.org/
IS THERE ANYONE IN OUR GOVERNMENT WHO IS NOT CORRUPT?
"Former Congressman Gets Eight-Plus Years"
By SETH HETTENA, Associated Press Writer
25 minutes ago
SAN DIEGO - Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who collected $2.4 million in homes, yachts, antique furnishings and other bribes on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress, was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in prison, the longest term ever meted out to a congressman.
Cunningham, who resigned from Congress in disgrace last year, was spared the 10-year maximum by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns.
Cunningham, a Republican who resigned last year in disgrace, accepted money from defense contractors and others in exchange for steering government contracts their way and other favors.
Federal prosecutors sought the maximum and his attorneys asked for mercy, but Cunningham, choking up as he addressed the judge, focused on accepting blame.
"Your honor I have ripped my life to shreds due to my actions, my actions that I did to myself," he said.
"I made a very wrong turn."
"I rationalized decisions I knew were wrong."
"I did that, sir," Cunningham said.
"Former Congressman Gets Eight-Plus Years"
By SETH HETTENA, Associated Press Writer
25 minutes ago
SAN DIEGO - Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who collected $2.4 million in homes, yachts, antique furnishings and other bribes on a scale unparalleled in the history of Congress, was sentenced Friday to eight years and four months in prison, the longest term ever meted out to a congressman.
Cunningham, who resigned from Congress in disgrace last year, was spared the 10-year maximum by U.S. District Judge Larry Burns.
Cunningham, a Republican who resigned last year in disgrace, accepted money from defense contractors and others in exchange for steering government contracts their way and other favors.
Federal prosecutors sought the maximum and his attorneys asked for mercy, but Cunningham, choking up as he addressed the judge, focused on accepting blame.
"Your honor I have ripped my life to shreds due to my actions, my actions that I did to myself," he said.
"I made a very wrong turn."
"I rationalized decisions I knew were wrong."
"I did that, sir," Cunningham said.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 1 2006, 08:06 AM)
"Bush Confident Bin Laden Will Be Captured"
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, said Wednesday he remains confident Osama bin Laden "will be brought to justice" despite a so-far futile five-year hunt.
Asked about the search for bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, and of the president's call for getting him "dead or alive," Bush said the search for bin Laden and his associates continues.
"It's not a matter of if they're captured and brought to justice, it's when they're brought to justice," Bush said.
Asked twice at his news conference about bin Laden, Bush said, "I am confident he will be brought to justice."
"What's happening is that we've got U.S. forces on the hunt."
"... There are Afghan forces on the hunt, not only for bin Laden but also those who plot and plan with him."
"We've got Pakistan forces on the hunt."
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
end quotes
All the federales say ......
They could have had him any day .....
They only let him slip away ...
Because of those big bucks that he had to pay ....
For them to turn their backs and look the other way .....
And I am surprised that George W. Bush does not have a NATURAL-BORN KILLER like Dick Cheney out there ON THE HUNT for Osama bin Laden .....
Of course, it just might be that the BIG GRIZ is afraid of something that might actually shoot back .....
And so ....
Safer hunting for OUR Dick, then ...
Things like real small and helpless birds .....
And scrawny old Texas lawyers .....
And so ...
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Bush, on an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, said Wednesday he remains confident Osama bin Laden "will be brought to justice" despite a so-far futile five-year hunt.
Asked about the search for bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, and of the president's call for getting him "dead or alive," Bush said the search for bin Laden and his associates continues.
"It's not a matter of if they're captured and brought to justice, it's when they're brought to justice," Bush said.
Asked twice at his news conference about bin Laden, Bush said, "I am confident he will be brought to justice."
"What's happening is that we've got U.S. forces on the hunt."
"... There are Afghan forces on the hunt, not only for bin Laden but also those who plot and plan with him."
"We've got Pakistan forces on the hunt."
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding somewhere along the mountainous border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
end quotes
All the federales say ......
They could have had him any day .....
They only let him slip away ...
Because of those big bucks that he had to pay ....
For them to turn their backs and look the other way .....
And I am surprised that George W. Bush does not have a NATURAL-BORN KILLER like Dick Cheney out there ON THE HUNT for Osama bin Laden .....
Of course, it just might be that the BIG GRIZ is afraid of something that might actually shoot back .....
And so ....
Safer hunting for OUR Dick, then ...
Things like real small and helpless birds .....
And scrawny old Texas lawyers .....
And so ...
And winging our way over there to Pakistan ...
One of George W. Bush's STAUNCH ALLIES in George's GLOBAL WAR OF TERROR .....
Where they love America's George ...
Well ....
Probably about as much as anyone else does ....
Although this softer, more LIBERAL image that Karl Rove has George portraying these days may change that ....
SO ....
Whoever does know ....
And so ....
We have .....
"Bush Visits Pakistan Amid Protests"
By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent
1 hour, 2 minutes ago
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Traveling under heavy security, President Bush showed solidarity with Pakistan in the global war on terror Friday as anti-American protests flared across this Islamic nation.
The visit probably put Bush closer than he's ever been to Osama bin Laden.
Air Force One flew through the night without lights to conceal the plane's profile as it delivered Bush and his wife, Laura, from India.
Two helicopters and a motorcade waited for the president at the airport, but it was impossible to tell whether he used a car or a chopper to get to the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy compound, where he was spending the night.
Anti-American sentiment runs deep in this Islamic nation and the threat of terrorist attacks is ever present.
A day before Bush's visit, an American diplomat was killed in a suicide car-bombing at a U.S. consulate in the southern city of Karachi, a hotbed of Islamic militancy.
Bush is to spend all day Saturday in Islamabad, conferring with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, meeting with business leaders, attending a state dinner and even watching a cricket match — a passion of Pakistanis.
Hoping to boost the U.S. image among Muslims, Bush planned to call attention to American contributions to Pakistan after a devastating earthquake in October.
Bush said he would talk with Musharraf about Pakistan's "vital cooperation in the war on terror and our efforts to foster economic and political development so we can reduce the appeal of radical Islam."
In a farewell speech in New Delhi, Bush ran into trouble when he praised Pakistan as "a force for freedom and moderation in the Arab world."
The White House hastened to correct Bush's reference to Pakistan as an Arab nation, and said he meant to say Muslim.
Bush's trip brought renewed attention on the frustrating manhunt for bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America.
Bin Laden and his followers are believed to be in hiding in the porous border area of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Earlier this week, Bush said it was simply a matter of when — not if — bin Laden was brought to justice.
There were anti-U.S. protests in cities and towns across Pakistan, with crowds burning American flags and chanting "Death to Bush."
About 1,000 stone-throwing people tried to march on the U.S. consulate in Karachi; police used tear gas and batons to stop them.
While many people here view the United States with mistrust, Pakistan has been an important U.S. ally in the Muslim world.
The Pakistani government says it has arrested about 700 al-Qaida suspects in the past four years, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Even so, key terror leaders are still thought to be at large within its borders.
Musharraf seized power seven years ago in a bloodless coup and has reneged on a promise to relinquish his military post.
But Musharraf endeared himself to Bush after the 9/11 attacks when he switched Pakistan's allegiance from the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and supported Washington in the U.S.-led war against its rulers.
Bush has promised to talk with Musharraf about the need for more democratic reforms.
In his speech in New Delhi, Bush extolled India's embrace of democracy and said it was the path all nations should follow.
"If justice is the goal, then democracy is the way," Bush said.
Pakistan has been roiled by anti-Western protests against Prophet Muhammad cartoons, which have left at least five people dead.
Bush has called on governments to stop violent demonstrations, and at the same time has urged the media to use restraint with material that might be considered offensive.
Pakistanis also were enraged by a U.S. missile strike in January targeting al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, who was believed to be attending a dinner party at a village in a northwestern region near the Afghan border.
Al-Zawahri apparently wasn't there, and the missile killed 13 residents, including women and children.
Bush was expected to face demands here for equal treatment with India, which signed a landmark nuclear deal with the United States this week providing nuclear reactors, technology and other material to New Delhi in exchange for its acceptance of international safeguards.
U.S. officials said Pakistan will not get the same reward, considering that just two years ago Pakistan's leading nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan, was exposed as the chief of a lucrative black market in weapons technology that had supplied Iran, Libya and North Korea.
The government denied any knowledge of his proliferation activities.
___
Associated Press writer Munir Ahmad contributed to this report.
And IRAQINAM ......
How many more decades will we be talking about George W. Bush's IRAQINAM fiasco?
And how many more BILLIONS will George W. Bush and HIS REPUBLICANS in Congress be BLEEDING AND LOOTING from OUR treasury to finance George's GLOBAL WAR OF TERROR?
No answers to either question are available, says Scott McClellan, the VOICE OF GOVERNMENT, here in OUR America .....
"Iraqi Leader Assured of Continued U.S. Aid"
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writer
43 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - President Jalal Talabani on Saturday underscored the need for a unity government in Iraq after a spasm of sectarian killing and said he had been assured U.S. forces would remain in the country as long as needed — "no matter what the period."
Talabani spoke to reporters after a meeting with Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, who met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad on Saturday.
Abizaid said he was "very, very pleased with the reaction of the Iraqi armed forces" during the violence that broke out after the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra and reprisal attacks against Sunni Muslims that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
"We should understand that the terrorists are trying to create problems among the Iraqi people that can lead to difficulties between various groups," he said after a separate meeting with Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
"We should not fall into their trap."
"We are stronger than they are."
"We will ultimately prevail."
The surge of violence, which killed at least 500 people since last week, has tangled negotiations to form a new government after December parliamentary elections and threatened American hopes of starting a troop pullout this summer.
Iraqi soldiers and police — backed in one neighborhood by a Shiite militia the United States wants disbanded — enforced a driving ban that brought relative peace to Baghdad streets Friday.
But as normal traffic resumed Saturday, a bomb exploded at a minibus terminal in a southeastern suburb, killing at least seven people and injuring 25, police said.
Talabani said Abizaid assured him Saturday that U.S. forces "are ready to stay as long as we ask them, no matter what the period is."
"He added that forming a strong national unity government made up of all blocs in parliament will help in stabilizing Iraq and bringing peace," Talabani quoted Abizaid as saying.
However, Talabani said his Kurdish followers and their allies will fight for a second term for al-Jaafari.
Sunni, Kurdish and some secular politicians have asked the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament, to nominate another candidate.
They accuse al-Jaafari of failing to rein in attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics in the aftermath of the bombing of the Shiite Askariya shrine.
"With all our respect to Dr. al-Jaafari, we asked them to chose a candidate who is unanimously agreed on by Iraqis," Talabani said.
"I want to be clear, it is not against Dr. al-Jaafari as a person."
"He has been my friend for 25 years."
"What we want is unanimity."
Al-Jaafari's supporters in the United Iraqi Alliance have vowed to resist moves to replace him.
But other Shiite leaders are troubled by his close ties to radical young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support was key to al-Jaafari's nomination by a single vote in a Feb. caucus of Shiite lawmakers.
Hundreds demonstrated Saturday in Amarah and Najaf, in Iraq's southern Shiite heartland, in support of al-Jaafari's bid for another term.
Meanwhile, a string of explosions rocked Baghdad and areas in the volatile, religiously mixed region to the south.
The bus terminal blast occurred at the height of the morning rush, setting three minibuses on fire and damaging nearby market stands, police Capt. Ali Mahdi said.
The attack struck in a region where 19 people were killed when gunmen stormed an electricity substation and brick factory Thursday night.
Another bombing targeted an Interior Ministry special forces patrol in the Salman Pak area, 10 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing two members of the patrol and wounding two others, police Maj. Falah al-Mohamadawi said.
A Shiite lawmaker, meanwhile, was seriously wounded when gunmen in two speeding cars fired on his vehicle near Basra, Iraq's second city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.
An aide for Qasim Attiyah al-Jbouri was killed and two bodyguards injured, police Capt. Mushtaq Kadhim said.
The attack against al-Jbouri, the former head of Basra's provincial council who ran for parliament on the United Iraqi Alliance slate, was the second in 10 days.
Gunmen on Feb. 24 kidnapped three of his children but freed them unharmed hours later.
Police also found at least four more handcuffed, shot-up bodies dumped in Baghdad and south of the capital.
The violence shattered the relative calm brought by Fridays' driving ban, which helped avert major attacks on the day Muslims congregate for the most important prayer service of the week.
Thousands of Shiites — frisked by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen in yellow button-down collar shirts and armed with Kalashnikov rifles and metal detector wands — knelt in prayer Friday at a huge outdoor service in Baghdad's Sadr City slum.
The militia that kept order was the same force accused of going on a rampage of reprisal attacks against Sunni Muslim mosques and clerics after the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra.
Police and aides to al-Sadr agreed Thursday night the anti-American cleric's militiamen would help government security forces patrol the poor Shiite neighborhood after it was hit by a deadly bomb attack.
The government decision to legitimize patrols by the Mahdi Army — which had been going on anyway — appeared to have tacit U.S. military approval, even though American forces have fought protracted battles with the Shiite fighters for control of southern holy cities and the Sadr City Shiite stronghold.
Acceptance of the higher profile for the Mahdi Army, if only for a time, signaled the extreme importance U.S. authorities have put on quelling deadly sectarian violence after the Samarra bombing.
___
Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Bassem Mroue and Bushra Juhi contributed to this report from Baghdad.
How many more decades will we be talking about George W. Bush's IRAQINAM fiasco?
And how many more BILLIONS will George W. Bush and HIS REPUBLICANS in Congress be BLEEDING AND LOOTING from OUR treasury to finance George's GLOBAL WAR OF TERROR?
No answers to either question are available, says Scott McClellan, the VOICE OF GOVERNMENT, here in OUR America .....
"Iraqi Leader Assured of Continued U.S. Aid"
By ALEXANDRA ZAVIS, Associated Press Writer
43 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - President Jalal Talabani on Saturday underscored the need for a unity government in Iraq after a spasm of sectarian killing and said he had been assured U.S. forces would remain in the country as long as needed — "no matter what the period."
Talabani spoke to reporters after a meeting with Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, who met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad on Saturday.
Abizaid said he was "very, very pleased with the reaction of the Iraqi armed forces" during the violence that broke out after the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra and reprisal attacks against Sunni Muslims that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
"We should understand that the terrorists are trying to create problems among the Iraqi people that can lead to difficulties between various groups," he said after a separate meeting with Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
"We should not fall into their trap."
"We are stronger than they are."
"We will ultimately prevail."
The surge of violence, which killed at least 500 people since last week, has tangled negotiations to form a new government after December parliamentary elections and threatened American hopes of starting a troop pullout this summer.
Iraqi soldiers and police — backed in one neighborhood by a Shiite militia the United States wants disbanded — enforced a driving ban that brought relative peace to Baghdad streets Friday.
But as normal traffic resumed Saturday, a bomb exploded at a minibus terminal in a southeastern suburb, killing at least seven people and injuring 25, police said.
Talabani said Abizaid assured him Saturday that U.S. forces "are ready to stay as long as we ask them, no matter what the period is."
"He added that forming a strong national unity government made up of all blocs in parliament will help in stabilizing Iraq and bringing peace," Talabani quoted Abizaid as saying.
However, Talabani said his Kurdish followers and their allies will fight for a second term for al-Jaafari.
Sunni, Kurdish and some secular politicians have asked the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, the largest bloc in parliament, to nominate another candidate.
They accuse al-Jaafari of failing to rein in attacks against Sunni mosques and clerics in the aftermath of the bombing of the Shiite Askariya shrine.
"With all our respect to Dr. al-Jaafari, we asked them to chose a candidate who is unanimously agreed on by Iraqis," Talabani said.
"I want to be clear, it is not against Dr. al-Jaafari as a person."
"He has been my friend for 25 years."
"What we want is unanimity."
Al-Jaafari's supporters in the United Iraqi Alliance have vowed to resist moves to replace him.
But other Shiite leaders are troubled by his close ties to radical young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support was key to al-Jaafari's nomination by a single vote in a Feb. caucus of Shiite lawmakers.
Hundreds demonstrated Saturday in Amarah and Najaf, in Iraq's southern Shiite heartland, in support of al-Jaafari's bid for another term.
Meanwhile, a string of explosions rocked Baghdad and areas in the volatile, religiously mixed region to the south.
The bus terminal blast occurred at the height of the morning rush, setting three minibuses on fire and damaging nearby market stands, police Capt. Ali Mahdi said.
The attack struck in a region where 19 people were killed when gunmen stormed an electricity substation and brick factory Thursday night.
Another bombing targeted an Interior Ministry special forces patrol in the Salman Pak area, 10 miles southeast of Baghdad, killing two members of the patrol and wounding two others, police Maj. Falah al-Mohamadawi said.
A Shiite lawmaker, meanwhile, was seriously wounded when gunmen in two speeding cars fired on his vehicle near Basra, Iraq's second city, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad.
An aide for Qasim Attiyah al-Jbouri was killed and two bodyguards injured, police Capt. Mushtaq Kadhim said.
The attack against al-Jbouri, the former head of Basra's provincial council who ran for parliament on the United Iraqi Alliance slate, was the second in 10 days.
Gunmen on Feb. 24 kidnapped three of his children but freed them unharmed hours later.
Police also found at least four more handcuffed, shot-up bodies dumped in Baghdad and south of the capital.
The violence shattered the relative calm brought by Fridays' driving ban, which helped avert major attacks on the day Muslims congregate for the most important prayer service of the week.
Thousands of Shiites — frisked by al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militiamen in yellow button-down collar shirts and armed with Kalashnikov rifles and metal detector wands — knelt in prayer Friday at a huge outdoor service in Baghdad's Sadr City slum.
The militia that kept order was the same force accused of going on a rampage of reprisal attacks against Sunni Muslim mosques and clerics after the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra.
Police and aides to al-Sadr agreed Thursday night the anti-American cleric's militiamen would help government security forces patrol the poor Shiite neighborhood after it was hit by a deadly bomb attack.
The government decision to legitimize patrols by the Mahdi Army — which had been going on anyway — appeared to have tacit U.S. military approval, even though American forces have fought protracted battles with the Shiite fighters for control of southern holy cities and the Sadr City Shiite stronghold.
Acceptance of the higher profile for the Mahdi Army, if only for a time, signaled the extreme importance U.S. authorities have put on quelling deadly sectarian violence after the Samarra bombing.
___
Associated Press writers Sameer N. Yacoub, Bassem Mroue and Bushra Juhi contributed to this report from Baghdad.
As I've said before, BushCo had no "exit strategy" because they never planned to leave. At least not until all the oil has been removed.
Which will be around 2050.
That is why they constructed 14 state-of-the-art airbases - to make sure that after the civil war (which they will watch from their executive skyboxes) and after martial law is firmly established) Exxon/Mobil and BP/Shell can proceed with the extraction.
Which will be around 2050.
That is why they constructed 14 state-of-the-art airbases - to make sure that after the civil war (which they will watch from their executive skyboxes) and after martial law is firmly established) Exxon/Mobil and BP/Shell can proceed with the extraction.
QUOTE(jeffmoskin @ Mar 4 2006, 09:08 AM)
As I've said before, BushCo had no "exit strategy" because they never planned to leave.
At least not until all the oil has been removed.
Which will be around 2050.
That is why they constructed 14 state-of-the-art airbases - to make sure that after the civil war (which they will watch from their executive skyboxes) and after martial law is firmly established) Exxon/Mobil and BP/Shell can proceed with the extraction.
At least not until all the oil has been removed.
Which will be around 2050.
That is why they constructed 14 state-of-the-art airbases - to make sure that after the civil war (which they will watch from their executive skyboxes) and after martial law is firmly established) Exxon/Mobil and BP/Shell can proceed with the extraction.
Well, jeffmoskin .....
Only a fool would argue with your premise .....
And so ....
And as OUR America continues to degenerate into something that becomes more and more unrecognizable to this older American, a place where OUR Constitution and OUR laws are becoming little more than a joke, we have .....
"AP: Many Defendants' Cases Kept Secret"
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers
2 hours, 7 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years.
Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.
An Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains with the government.
Most of these defendants are involved in drug gangs, though lately a very small number come from terrorism cases.
Some of these cooperating witnesses are among the most unsavory characters in America's courts — multiple murderers and drug dealers — but the public cannot learn whether their testimony against confederates won them drastically reduced prison sentences or even freedom.
In the nation's capital, which has had a serious problem with drug gangs murdering government witnesses, the secrecy has reached another level — the use of secret dockets.
For hundreds of such defendants over the past few years in this city, should someone acquire the actual case number for them and enter it in the U.S. District Court's computerized record system, the computer will falsely reply, "no such case" — rather than acknowledging that it is a sealed case.
At the request of the AP, the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts conducted its first tally of secrecy in federal criminal cases.
The nationwide data it provided the AP showed 5,116 defendants whose cases were completed in 2003, 2004 and 2005, but the bulk of their records remain secret.
"The constitutional presumption is for openness in the courts, but we have to ask whether we are really honoring that," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
"What are the reasons for so many cases remaining under seal?"
"What makes the American criminal justice system different from so many others in the world is our willingness to cast some sunshine on the process, but if you can't see it, you can't really criticize it," Levenson said.
The courts' administrative office and the Justice Department declined to comment on the numbers.
The data show a sharp increase in secret case files over time as the Bush administration's well-documented reliance on secrecy in the executive branch has crept into the federal courts through the war on drugs, anti-terrorism efforts and other criminal matters.
"This follows the pattern of this administration," said John Wesley Hall, an Arkansas defense attorney and second vice president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
"I am astonished and shocked that this many criminal proceedings in federal court escape public scrutiny or become buried."
The percentage of defendants who have reached verdicts and been sentenced but still have most of their records sealed has more than doubled in the last three years, the court office's tally shows.
Of nearly 85,000 defendants whose cases were closed in 2003, the records of 952 or 1.1 percent remain mostly sealed.
Of more than 82,000 defendants with cases closed in 2004, records for 1,774 or 2.2 percent remain mostly secret.
And of more than 87,000 defendants closed out in 2005, court records for 2,390 or 2.7 percent remain mostly closed to the public.
The court office also found a sharp increase in defendants whose case records were partly sealed for a limited time.
Among newly charged defendants, the numbers in this category grew from 9,999 or 10.9 percent of all defendants charged in 2003 to 11,508 or 12.6 percent of those charged in 2005.
But the AP investigation found, and court observers agree, that the overwhelming number of these cases sealed for a limited time involve a use of secrecy that draws no criticism: the sealing of an indictment only until the defendant is arrested.
AP's investigation found a large concentration of both kinds of secrecy at the U.S. District Court here: limited sealing of records and extensive sealing that continues even after the courts are done with a defendant.
"When the sentences are sealed, that's a con on the community," said Lexi Christ, a Washington defense lawyer for a man acquitted in a crack cocaine case.
In that case, all the defendants' names became public when the indictment was unsealed.
But all other records for six defendants who pleaded guilty remained sealed more than two years after the public trial in which two of the drug dealers were convicted.
One of the cooperating witnesses admitted to seven murders and testified in open court against co-defendants who had committed fewer, Christ said.
But like the others who pleaded guilty and cooperated, that witness' plea deal and sentence were sealed.
"Cooperating witnesses are pleading guilty to six or seven murders, and the jury doesn't know they'll be sitting on the Metro (subway) next to them a year later."
"It's a really, really ugly system," Christ said.
Prosecutors argue that plea agreements must be sealed to protect witnesses and their families from violent retaliation.
But Christ said that makes no sense after the trial when the defendants know who testified.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press found the U.S. District Court here has 469 criminal cases, from 2001-2005, that are listed by this court's electronic docket as "no such case."
An AP survey over a shorter period found similar numbers here and got oral acknowledgment from the clerk's office that the missing electronic docket numbers corresponded to sealed cases.
However, these figures include an unknown number of sealed indictments that will be made public if arrests are made.
"That's horrifying," said Loyola's Levenson.
"When I was a prosecutor from 1981 to 1989, I never heard of secret dockets."
No matter how few turn out to be almost totally sealed after the defendant's case was completed, "it's still significant," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee and a pioneer in campaigning against court secrecy.
"The Supreme Court has said that criminal proceedings are public," Dalglish added.
"In this country, we don't prosecute and lock up convicts and have no public track record of how we got there."
"That violates the defendants' rights not to mention the public's right to know what it's court system is doing."
Although Justice Department does not keep comprehensive nationwide statistics on secrecy in federal prosecutions, it does track how often prosecutors ask permission from headquarters to hold a secret court proceeding, like an arraignment, hearing, trial or sentencing.
The department estimates it got 100 such requests from October 2000 though October 2004, Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said.
Another 100 arrived during the 12 months that ended October 2005, he said.
Sierra said the large recent increase occurred because the department sent a memo to all federal prosecutors in 2004 reminding them they need Washington's approval before requesting or agreeing to secret courtroom proceedings.
Filing of secret papers in cases doesn't require such permission.
___
On the Net:
Reporters Committee: http://www.rcfp.org/
"AP: Many Defendants' Cases Kept Secret"
By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers
2 hours, 7 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years.
Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.
An Associated Press investigation found, and court observers agree, that most of these defendants are cooperating government witnesses, but the secrecy surrounding their records prevents the public from knowing details of their plea bargains with the government.
Most of these defendants are involved in drug gangs, though lately a very small number come from terrorism cases.
Some of these cooperating witnesses are among the most unsavory characters in America's courts — multiple murderers and drug dealers — but the public cannot learn whether their testimony against confederates won them drastically reduced prison sentences or even freedom.
In the nation's capital, which has had a serious problem with drug gangs murdering government witnesses, the secrecy has reached another level — the use of secret dockets.
For hundreds of such defendants over the past few years in this city, should someone acquire the actual case number for them and enter it in the U.S. District Court's computerized record system, the computer will falsely reply, "no such case" — rather than acknowledging that it is a sealed case.
At the request of the AP, the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts conducted its first tally of secrecy in federal criminal cases.
The nationwide data it provided the AP showed 5,116 defendants whose cases were completed in 2003, 2004 and 2005, but the bulk of their records remain secret.
"The constitutional presumption is for openness in the courts, but we have to ask whether we are really honoring that," said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
"What are the reasons for so many cases remaining under seal?"
"What makes the American criminal justice system different from so many others in the world is our willingness to cast some sunshine on the process, but if you can't see it, you can't really criticize it," Levenson said.
The courts' administrative office and the Justice Department declined to comment on the numbers.
The data show a sharp increase in secret case files over time as the Bush administration's well-documented reliance on secrecy in the executive branch has crept into the federal courts through the war on drugs, anti-terrorism efforts and other criminal matters.
"This follows the pattern of this administration," said John Wesley Hall, an Arkansas defense attorney and second vice president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
"I am astonished and shocked that this many criminal proceedings in federal court escape public scrutiny or become buried."
The percentage of defendants who have reached verdicts and been sentenced but still have most of their records sealed has more than doubled in the last three years, the court office's tally shows.
Of nearly 85,000 defendants whose cases were closed in 2003, the records of 952 or 1.1 percent remain mostly sealed.
Of more than 82,000 defendants with cases closed in 2004, records for 1,774 or 2.2 percent remain mostly secret.
And of more than 87,000 defendants closed out in 2005, court records for 2,390 or 2.7 percent remain mostly closed to the public.
The court office also found a sharp increase in defendants whose case records were partly sealed for a limited time.
Among newly charged defendants, the numbers in this category grew from 9,999 or 10.9 percent of all defendants charged in 2003 to 11,508 or 12.6 percent of those charged in 2005.
But the AP investigation found, and court observers agree, that the overwhelming number of these cases sealed for a limited time involve a use of secrecy that draws no criticism: the sealing of an indictment only until the defendant is arrested.
AP's investigation found a large concentration of both kinds of secrecy at the U.S. District Court here: limited sealing of records and extensive sealing that continues even after the courts are done with a defendant.
"When the sentences are sealed, that's a con on the community," said Lexi Christ, a Washington defense lawyer for a man acquitted in a crack cocaine case.
In that case, all the defendants' names became public when the indictment was unsealed.
But all other records for six defendants who pleaded guilty remained sealed more than two years after the public trial in which two of the drug dealers were convicted.
One of the cooperating witnesses admitted to seven murders and testified in open court against co-defendants who had committed fewer, Christ said.
But like the others who pleaded guilty and cooperated, that witness' plea deal and sentence were sealed.
"Cooperating witnesses are pleading guilty to six or seven murders, and the jury doesn't know they'll be sitting on the Metro (subway) next to them a year later."
"It's a really, really ugly system," Christ said.
Prosecutors argue that plea agreements must be sealed to protect witnesses and their families from violent retaliation.
But Christ said that makes no sense after the trial when the defendants know who testified.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press found the U.S. District Court here has 469 criminal cases, from 2001-2005, that are listed by this court's electronic docket as "no such case."
An AP survey over a shorter period found similar numbers here and got oral acknowledgment from the clerk's office that the missing electronic docket numbers corresponded to sealed cases.
However, these figures include an unknown number of sealed indictments that will be made public if arrests are made.
"That's horrifying," said Loyola's Levenson.
"When I was a prosecutor from 1981 to 1989, I never heard of secret dockets."
No matter how few turn out to be almost totally sealed after the defendant's case was completed, "it's still significant," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee and a pioneer in campaigning against court secrecy.
"The Supreme Court has said that criminal proceedings are public," Dalglish added.
"In this country, we don't prosecute and lock up convicts and have no public track record of how we got there."
"That violates the defendants' rights not to mention the public's right to know what it's court system is doing."
Although Justice Department does not keep comprehensive nationwide statistics on secrecy in federal prosecutions, it does track how often prosecutors ask permission from headquarters to hold a secret court proceeding, like an arraignment, hearing, trial or sentencing.
The department estimates it got 100 such requests from October 2000 though October 2004, Justice Department spokesman Bryan Sierra said.
Another 100 arrived during the 12 months that ended October 2005, he said.
Sierra said the large recent increase occurred because the department sent a memo to all federal prosecutors in 2004 reminding them they need Washington's approval before requesting or agreeing to secret courtroom proceedings.
Filing of secret papers in cases doesn't require such permission.
___
On the Net:
Reporters Committee: http://www.rcfp.org/
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 4 2006, 06:31 PM)
And as OUR America continues to degenerate into something that becomes more and more unrecognizable to this older American, a place where OUR Constitution and OUR laws are becoming little more than a joke, we have .....
"Guantanamo papers paint profiles of detainees"
2 hours, 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A portrait of the Islamist ferment that attracted youths from across the Muslim world to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan five years ago emerges from the trove of documents on the "war on terror" detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But details about their role in the fighting in Afghanistan are often sparse in the reports, which were released Friday by the Pentagon after losing a court battle to keep the names and personal details of the detainees secret.
Abdallah Salah Ali Al Ajmi, who deserted the Kuwaiti military to become a Taliban fighter, is fairly typical of the more than 300 detainees whose trajectories are sketched out in thousands of pages of documents.
The Kuwaiti allegedly admitted he fought with the Taliban against the US-backed Northern Alliance near Bagram and "engaged in two or three fire fights with the Northern Alliance," the report said.
Al Ajmi "is regarded as a continued threat to the United States and its allies," the report said, noting that he had asserted that he considered himself a jihadist and "would kill as many Americans as he can."
The psychological ordeal that befell some at Guantanamo, where most have been held as "enemy combatants" for nearly four years without charges, is noted with clinical precision in some of the accounts prepared by the US military.
Mishal Awad Sayaf Alhabiri, who attempted suicide at the prison on January 16, 2003, is considered for release in one document because he suffered "significant brain injury due to oxygen loss."
"He will need to be in some assisted living situation, though he can follow simple concrete directions," the report to a panel reviewing his case said.
Sofiane Haderbache, an alleged Al-Qaeda member who traveled from France to Afghanistan, is described in another such document as a combative prisoner who defied guards by standing naked in his cell.
"Detainee's recorded behaviors, medication history, and utilization pattern of psychiatric services suggest this detainee is regressing," the report says.
How individual detainees wound up in Guantanamo is a recurring subject of the documents, reflecting the military's efforts to piece together a picture of an enemy it knew little about before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Taken together, they suggest that the movement of youths to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan before and after September 11 was a loosely organized affaire.
They took different paths -- some clandestinely with false passports but others openly on commercial airline flights to Pakistan.
Some came with connections to Islamist groups, while others seemingly acted on impulse.
They came from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Algeria, Britain, France, among other countries.
Some came in through Iran, according to the report.
They often were put up at guesthouses run by groups of different nationalities, before moving on to training camps run by Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Osama bin Laden pops up as well in the reports, which carefully note if a detainee heard him speak or saw him while in Afghanistan.
But in the accounts the Al-Qaeda leader appears as someone seen at a distance.
The reports note detainees' connections to Islamist groups or other alleged jihadists.
The Finsbury Park Mosque in London appears frequently in the reports as a stop for detainees who traveled to Afghanistan from Europe.
Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha, a detainee who trained in the Algerian army, for instance, is said to have traveled on a false French passport to London, where he went to the Finbury Park Mosque.
The report alleges he obtained another false passport there with which he traveled to Afghanistan.
The documents often raise more questions than they answer.
Abdallah al Rushaydan, who was captured on the Afghan-Pakistani border in December 2001, is described as having been employed by an Islamic aid organization linked in Asian media reports to Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist group in the Philippines.
He traveled to Damascus, Tehran and Afghan in November 2001, a report said.
In Damascus, he shared a hotel room with a Taliban official who was later arrested in connection with a March 2002 rocket attack directed at US forces in Afghanistan.
But the report does not spell out what he did to be considered an enemy combatant, and says he denied being a member of Al-Qaeda or other militant groups.
Under a heading titled "relevant data," the report quotes him as saying when asked about his reasons for traveling to Afghanistan, "I would tell you the truth, but you would get mad."
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 4 2006, 04:38 PM)
"Guantanamo papers paint profiles of detainees"
2 hours, 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A portrait of the Islamist ferment that attracted youths from across the Muslim world to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan five years ago emerges from the trove of documents on the "war on terror" detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But details about their role in the fighting in Afghanistan are often sparse in the reports, which were released Friday by the Pentagon after losing a court battle to keep the names and personal details of the detainees secret.
Abdallah Salah Ali Al Ajmi, who deserted the Kuwaiti military to become a Taliban fighter, is fairly typical of the more than 300 detainees whose trajectories are sketched out in thousands of pages of documents.
The Kuwaiti allegedly admitted he fought with the Taliban against the US-backed Northern Alliance near Bagram and "engaged in two or three fire fights with the Northern Alliance," the report said.
Al Ajmi "is regarded as a continued threat to the United States and its allies," the report said, noting that he had asserted that he considered himself a jihadist and "would kill as many Americans as he can."
The psychological ordeal that befell some at Guantanamo, where most have been held as "enemy combatants" for nearly four years without charges, is noted with clinical precision in some of the accounts prepared by the US military.
Mishal Awad Sayaf Alhabiri, who attempted suicide at the prison on January 16, 2003, is considered for release in one document because he suffered "significant brain injury due to oxygen loss."
"He will need to be in some assisted living situation, though he can follow simple concrete directions," the report to a panel reviewing his case said.
Sofiane Haderbache, an alleged Al-Qaeda member who traveled from France to Afghanistan, is described in another such document as a combative prisoner who defied guards by standing naked in his cell.
"Detainee's recorded behaviors, medication history, and utilization pattern of psychiatric services suggest this detainee is regressing," the report says.
How individual detainees wound up in Guantanamo is a recurring subject of the documents, reflecting the military's efforts to piece together a picture of an enemy it knew little about before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Taken together, they suggest that the movement of youths to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan before and after September 11 was a loosely organized affaire.
They took different paths -- some clandestinely with false passports but others openly on commercial airline flights to Pakistan.
Some came with connections to Islamist groups, while others seemingly acted on impulse.
They came from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Algeria, Britain, France, among other countries.
Some came in through Iran, according to the report.
They often were put up at guesthouses run by groups of different nationalities, before moving on to training camps run by Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Osama bin Laden pops up as well in the reports, which carefully note if a detainee heard him speak or saw him while in Afghanistan.
But in the accounts the Al-Qaeda leader appears as someone seen at a distance.
The reports note detainees' connections to Islamist groups or other alleged jihadists.
The Finsbury Park Mosque in London appears frequently in the reports as a stop for detainees who traveled to Afghanistan from Europe.
Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha, a detainee who trained in the Algerian army, for instance, is said to have traveled on a false French passport to London, where he went to the Finbury Park Mosque.
The report alleges he obtained another false passport there with which he traveled to Afghanistan.
The documents often raise more questions than they answer.
Abdallah al Rushaydan, who was captured on the Afghan-Pakistani border in December 2001, is described as having been employed by an Islamic aid organization linked in Asian media reports to Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist group in the Philippines.
He traveled to Damascus, Tehran and Afghan in November 2001, a report said.
In Damascus, he shared a hotel room with a Taliban official who was later arrested in connection with a March 2002 rocket attack directed at US forces in Afghanistan.
But the report does not spell out what he did to be considered an enemy combatant, and says he denied being a member of Al-Qaeda or other militant groups.
Under a heading titled "relevant data," the report quotes him as saying when asked about his reasons for traveling to Afghanistan, "I would tell you the truth, but you would get mad."
2 hours, 1 minute ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A portrait of the Islamist ferment that attracted youths from across the Muslim world to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan five years ago emerges from the trove of documents on the "war on terror" detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
But details about their role in the fighting in Afghanistan are often sparse in the reports, which were released Friday by the Pentagon after losing a court battle to keep the names and personal details of the detainees secret.
Abdallah Salah Ali Al Ajmi, who deserted the Kuwaiti military to become a Taliban fighter, is fairly typical of the more than 300 detainees whose trajectories are sketched out in thousands of pages of documents.
The Kuwaiti allegedly admitted he fought with the Taliban against the US-backed Northern Alliance near Bagram and "engaged in two or three fire fights with the Northern Alliance," the report said.
Al Ajmi "is regarded as a continued threat to the United States and its allies," the report said, noting that he had asserted that he considered himself a jihadist and "would kill as many Americans as he can."
The psychological ordeal that befell some at Guantanamo, where most have been held as "enemy combatants" for nearly four years without charges, is noted with clinical precision in some of the accounts prepared by the US military.
Mishal Awad Sayaf Alhabiri, who attempted suicide at the prison on January 16, 2003, is considered for release in one document because he suffered "significant brain injury due to oxygen loss."
"He will need to be in some assisted living situation, though he can follow simple concrete directions," the report to a panel reviewing his case said.
Sofiane Haderbache, an alleged Al-Qaeda member who traveled from France to Afghanistan, is described in another such document as a combative prisoner who defied guards by standing naked in his cell.
"Detainee's recorded behaviors, medication history, and utilization pattern of psychiatric services suggest this detainee is regressing," the report says.
How individual detainees wound up in Guantanamo is a recurring subject of the documents, reflecting the military's efforts to piece together a picture of an enemy it knew little about before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Taken together, they suggest that the movement of youths to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan before and after September 11 was a loosely organized affaire.
They took different paths -- some clandestinely with false passports but others openly on commercial airline flights to Pakistan.
Some came with connections to Islamist groups, while others seemingly acted on impulse.
They came from Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Algeria, Britain, France, among other countries.
Some came in through Iran, according to the report.
They often were put up at guesthouses run by groups of different nationalities, before moving on to training camps run by Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Osama bin Laden pops up as well in the reports, which carefully note if a detainee heard him speak or saw him while in Afghanistan.
But in the accounts the Al-Qaeda leader appears as someone seen at a distance.
The reports note detainees' connections to Islamist groups or other alleged jihadists.
The Finsbury Park Mosque in London appears frequently in the reports as a stop for detainees who traveled to Afghanistan from Europe.
Ahmed Bin Saleh Bel Bacha, a detainee who trained in the Algerian army, for instance, is said to have traveled on a false French passport to London, where he went to the Finbury Park Mosque.
The report alleges he obtained another false passport there with which he traveled to Afghanistan.
The documents often raise more questions than they answer.
Abdallah al Rushaydan, who was captured on the Afghan-Pakistani border in December 2001, is described as having been employed by an Islamic aid organization linked in Asian media reports to Abu Sayyaf, an Islamist group in the Philippines.
He traveled to Damascus, Tehran and Afghan in November 2001, a report said.
In Damascus, he shared a hotel room with a Taliban official who was later arrested in connection with a March 2002 rocket attack directed at US forces in Afghanistan.
But the report does not spell out what he did to be considered an enemy combatant, and says he denied being a member of Al-Qaeda or other militant groups.
Under a heading titled "relevant data," the report quotes him as saying when asked about his reasons for traveling to Afghanistan, "I would tell you the truth, but you would get mad."
read 'em and weep:
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/detain...csrt/index.html
And as George W. Bush continues to tout NU-Q-LAR energy as OUR salvation here in OUR America .....
"US nuclear plant leaks fuel health concerns"
By Andrew Stern
Sat Mar 4, 12:44 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Years of radioactive waste water spills from Illinois nuclear power plants have fueled suspicions the industry covers up safety problems and sparked debate about the risks from exposure to low-level radiation.
The recent, belated disclosures of leaks of the fission byproduct tritium from Exelon Corp.'s Braidwood, Dresden, and Byron twin-reactor nuclear plants -- one as long ago as 1996 -- triggered worries among neighbors about whether it was safe to drink their water, or even stay.
"How'd you like to live next to that plant and every time you turn on the tap to take a drink you have to think about whether it's safe?" asked Joe Cosgrove, the head of parks in Godley, Illinois, a town adjacent to Braidwood.
Cosgrove and some scientists and anti-nuclear activists who monitor health issues related to nuclear power say the delay in reporting the spills is indicative of industry and regulatory obfuscation bordering on cover-up.
"We don't know what else has been leaked from that site."
"When they close ranks, you can't believe them," Cosgrove said, referring to the plant owner and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees safety at the nation's 103 commercial reactors, including 11 in Illinois.
Cosgrove recalled a 2002 spill of diesel fuel that was initially mischaracterized by Braidwood's operators as run-off from a parking lot.
When information about the tritium spills arose as part of the town's since-dropped lawsuit over the fuel, Exelon asked the court to bar any questions about it.
A local doctor and his wife, Joseph and Cynthia Sauer, whose daughter contracted brain cancer when they lived near the Dresden plant, have collected data about heightened rates of cancer and birth defects near the Illinois plants in the period after the spills began.
They say they were brushed off by the NRC.
CONCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION
"I don't say that people don't have concerns, but any suggestion that we are in cahoots with the industry to suppress (information) is baseless," NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said.
The industry and the NRC say existing medical research shows people living near nuclear plants are safe and limits on discharges of radioactive liquids and gases are adequate.
But some scientists and at least one congressman want a conclusive investigation of the health risks.
They say that while tritium is like water, if ingested some of it may remain in the body where it can damage cells, leading to cancers, birth defects and miscarriages.
U.S. Rep. Edward Markey has been unable to secure government funding for a health study on people living near nuclear plants, and the Massachusetts Democrat says he opposes U.S. President George W. Bush's prescription to build a new generation of nuclear reactors to lessen reliance on fossil fuels until more is known.
"The president's plan is misguided."
"It presents health risks, creates additional nuclear waste that we have no long-term solution for, creates additional terrorist targets that we do not adequately defend, and costs an enormous amount of money."
" (Bush's) phrase 'clean, safe nuclear power' is oxymoronic," he said.
IS IT SAFE?
Exelon and the NRC say a 1998 spill of 3 million gallons of tritium -- a form of hydrogen that becomes radioactive water when it contacts air -- did contaminate ground water that breached the Braidwood plant boundary.
But the radioactivity had not risen above federal limits where people live or have their drinking water wells.
At Dresden, the 276,000-gallon (1 million-liter) tritium leak is still on-site, and the spill at Byron was found inside concrete vaults along an effluent pipe.
The plants are all within 100 miles of Chicago in northern Illinois, which has the largest nuclear capacity of any U.S. state, about equal to Great Britain's.
The spilled tritium was destined to be discharged as effluent in rivers anyway, authorities said, and they were not explicitly required to notify the public about it -- a reporting loophole Illinois congressmen want closed.
"It's not like people are going to start dropping like flies from this level of radiation," said Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.
"What I am alarmed by is the number of years it has taken, and how lax the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been, and how lax the corporation has been in informing the community fully" about the spills, he said.
"US nuclear plant leaks fuel health concerns"
By Andrew Stern
Sat Mar 4, 12:44 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Years of radioactive waste water spills from Illinois nuclear power plants have fueled suspicions the industry covers up safety problems and sparked debate about the risks from exposure to low-level radiation.
The recent, belated disclosures of leaks of the fission byproduct tritium from Exelon Corp.'s Braidwood, Dresden, and Byron twin-reactor nuclear plants -- one as long ago as 1996 -- triggered worries among neighbors about whether it was safe to drink their water, or even stay.
"How'd you like to live next to that plant and every time you turn on the tap to take a drink you have to think about whether it's safe?" asked Joe Cosgrove, the head of parks in Godley, Illinois, a town adjacent to Braidwood.
Cosgrove and some scientists and anti-nuclear activists who monitor health issues related to nuclear power say the delay in reporting the spills is indicative of industry and regulatory obfuscation bordering on cover-up.
"We don't know what else has been leaked from that site."
"When they close ranks, you can't believe them," Cosgrove said, referring to the plant owner and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees safety at the nation's 103 commercial reactors, including 11 in Illinois.
Cosgrove recalled a 2002 spill of diesel fuel that was initially mischaracterized by Braidwood's operators as run-off from a parking lot.
When information about the tritium spills arose as part of the town's since-dropped lawsuit over the fuel, Exelon asked the court to bar any questions about it.
A local doctor and his wife, Joseph and Cynthia Sauer, whose daughter contracted brain cancer when they lived near the Dresden plant, have collected data about heightened rates of cancer and birth defects near the Illinois plants in the period after the spills began.
They say they were brushed off by the NRC.
CONCLUSIVE INVESTIGATION
"I don't say that people don't have concerns, but any suggestion that we are in cahoots with the industry to suppress (information) is baseless," NRC spokesman Jan Strasma said.
The industry and the NRC say existing medical research shows people living near nuclear plants are safe and limits on discharges of radioactive liquids and gases are adequate.
But some scientists and at least one congressman want a conclusive investigation of the health risks.
They say that while tritium is like water, if ingested some of it may remain in the body where it can damage cells, leading to cancers, birth defects and miscarriages.
U.S. Rep. Edward Markey has been unable to secure government funding for a health study on people living near nuclear plants, and the Massachusetts Democrat says he opposes U.S. President George W. Bush's prescription to build a new generation of nuclear reactors to lessen reliance on fossil fuels until more is known.
"The president's plan is misguided."
"It presents health risks, creates additional nuclear waste that we have no long-term solution for, creates additional terrorist targets that we do not adequately defend, and costs an enormous amount of money."
" (Bush's) phrase 'clean, safe nuclear power' is oxymoronic," he said.
IS IT SAFE?
Exelon and the NRC say a 1998 spill of 3 million gallons of tritium -- a form of hydrogen that becomes radioactive water when it contacts air -- did contaminate ground water that breached the Braidwood plant boundary.
But the radioactivity had not risen above federal limits where people live or have their drinking water wells.
At Dresden, the 276,000-gallon (1 million-liter) tritium leak is still on-site, and the spill at Byron was found inside concrete vaults along an effluent pipe.
The plants are all within 100 miles of Chicago in northern Illinois, which has the largest nuclear capacity of any U.S. state, about equal to Great Britain's.
The spilled tritium was destined to be discharged as effluent in rivers anyway, authorities said, and they were not explicitly required to notify the public about it -- a reporting loophole Illinois congressmen want closed.
"It's not like people are going to start dropping like flies from this level of radiation," said Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research.
"What I am alarmed by is the number of years it has taken, and how lax the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been, and how lax the corporation has been in informing the community fully" about the spills, he said.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Feb 28 2006, 06:57 PM)
"Reform is in the air - Tom Suozzi enters a gubernatorial primary that will put the Capitol's dysfunction in the spotlight"
Albany, new York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Here's Mr. Suozzi's suggestion that Mr. Spitzer is beholden to various Albany lobbyists, trial lawyers and special interests on the basis of campaign contributions, or Wall Street executives on the basis of investigations that they never faced.
Albany, new York Times Union
First published: Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Here's Mr. Suozzi's suggestion that Mr. Spitzer is beholden to various Albany lobbyists, trial lawyers and special interests on the basis of campaign contributions, or Wall Street executives on the basis of investigations that they never faced.
CORRUPT GOVERNMENT .....
Outside of Washington, D.C., which may or may not have the MOST CORRUPT GOVERNMENT IN OUR AMERICA, and there, I mean the federal government, New York State is in the TOP TEN ....
CORRUPT GOVERNMENTS in the United States that is ...
Or maybe even the world, for that matter .....
Since we are supposed to have some of the very best politicians in the world that money can buy ....
And so ....
Being from here, I shine a spotlight on government corruption here in New York State from time to time ....
And so ....
With OUR governor's office being up for grabs this November ...
It is never too early to get that spotlight turned on bright ...
And when it is ...
The picture that is revealed is not at all a pretty or welcome one to us common citizens who do not live or reside in the New York City METRO AREA ....
Where New York State Attorney General Eliot "BIG EL" Spitzer holds sway with all the big-money interests .....
"Big EL", or "Old Uncle Eliot" as he is sometimes known up here in the hinterlands, is soft, oh so very soft, on government corruption here in the State of New York ...
Which makes him the "enemy" of the PEOPLE of the State of New York who want corruption gone from OUR government ....
But because "Old Uncle Eliot" is soft on corruption in government, HE HAS THE SUPPORT OF THE "MACHINE" that helps to produce and promote and prolong that corruption ......
And so ...
"Suozzi draws the short straw - Spitzer easily wins Democratic Rural Conference poll, 148-7"
By ELIZABETH BENJAMIN, Capitol bureau, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Sunday, March 5, 2006
ITHACA -- Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi made the case for his gubernatorial nomination to Democratic leaders from 41 upstate counties Saturday, but it didn't do him much good.
As expected, and even predicted by Suozzi himself, state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer handily won the Democratic Rural Conference straw poll, trouncing his opponent 148-7.
By comparison, Jonathan Tasini, a long-shot candidate against U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., received nine votes and his name wasn't even printed on the ballot.
Suozzi also received one write-in vote during the balloting for lieutenant governor, which Spitzer's running mate, state Senate Minority Leader David Paterson, D-Harlem, won with 154 votes.
In the six-person Democratic race for attorney general, former U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, the front-runner in statewide polls and fundraising, received 79 votes and won by a wide margin.
Denise O'Donnell, a Buffalo native and former U.S. attorney for western New York, came in second with 30 votes.
Spitzer called the conference, held at Cornell University, "a homecoming."
He noted his career in elected office was launched by his straw poll win here in 1998, which propelled him to win both a primary and tight general election over Republican incumbent Dennis Vacco.
"It began here, it continues here and it will continue here in the future," Spitzer said.
"The promise that I make to you is that in September and in November we will win."
"This is not about individuals, it's not about egos."
"It's about principles."
Suozzi didn't stick around to see how the vote came out, departing early to attend an event in Manhattan.
Asked whether he thought the straw poll was a good predictor of the Democratic primary, Suozzi replied:
"Absolutely not."
"My campaign is going to be about going straight out to the people," said Suozzi, who has cast himself as a political outsider.
The DRC accounts for roughly 6 percent of the weighted state convention vote, of which a candidate must receive 25 percent to get on the ballot.
Numerous candidates who have won the spring straw poll failed to succeed in the fall elections.
Cuomo won an upset victory in the 2002 straw poll when he ran for governor against former state Comptroller H. Carl McCall.
Cuomo then dropped out of the race one week before primary day.
McCall later lost to Republican Gov. George Pataki.
Cuomo said his victory on Saturday should put to rest concerns among some Democrats that their ticket is shaping up to be too lopsided, with the potential of four men from New York City running for the four top statewide offices.
"The upstate Democrats today supported me," Cuomo said.
"Their selection is about merits and who's going to do the best job as attorney general."
Jack O'Donnell, who is running the campaign for Denise O'Donnell -- his mother and the only woman and upstate resident in the attorney general race -- rejected Cuomo's claim.
"Even though this is the rural caucus, I don't think they speak for all upstate Democrats," he said.
Merit and reform were hot topics Saturday.
Suozzi and Spitzer both focused on their respective track records on reform in their pre-poll remarks.
The attorney general highlighted his lawsuits against Wall Street firms and the insurance industry.
Suozzi noted he has experience running a government, while Spitzer, although he has run a sizable state agency, does not.
"The difference between the two of us is that Eliot's a prosecutor and I'm a chief executive," Suozzi said.
"We're all going to say we're reformers."
"He's obviously a reformer, but I'm a government reformer."
"I've reformed a complex government enterprise."
Suozzi said he "stood up to my own party" with his Fix Albany campaign two years ago that helped oust several incumbent state legislators.
But he refused say whether he thought Spitzer, who is being backed by most of the Democratic establishment, owes too much to the party.
Spitzer insisted he has "stood up to all I disagree with in principle," adding:
"Any group I disagree with I vocalize it."
"The objective is to vocalize it, to accomplish reform, and that is what we have done."
There had been questions about whether Suozzi would be allowed to address straw poll delegates.
DRC rules automatically place most candidates on the ballot, but only allow those who are formally nominated and seconded by two voting members to speak.
DRC Secretary Steve Jones, who nominated Suozzi, said he did so because "I do believe as Democrats we deserve the chance to hear all of our candidates."
Suozzi campaign manager Kim Devlin professed surprise her candidate received any votes, saying:
"That's seven more than we expected."
Asked why he bothered to attend a party event when he is trying to cast himself as an outsider, Suozzi replied:
"I want to make it very clear that I'm a Democrat."
"I respect the people in this room."
"They're not bad people just because I'm not going to get their votes."
State Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who is running unopposed for re-election, won the straw poll by a voice vote Saturday.
Clinton defeated Tasini, a New York City labor activist who gave a rousing speech against the Iraq war that was well-received by the crowd.
Clinton received 126 votes.
Elizabeth Benjamin can be reached at 454-5081 or by e-mail at ebenjamin@timesunion.com.
And from the CORRUPT State of New York ...
Which is located within the boundaries of the continental United States ...
We now wing our way across some open water ....
Over to the present target of George W. Bush's GLOBAL WAR OF TERROR against all of the peoples and religions of the world that George doesn't like .....
Where we have ...
What else?
Just more chaos ...
And did anyone expect anything different from George W. Bush?
"Violence Hinders Formation of Iraqi Gov't"
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 28 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over a recent surge of sectarian killings that has complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government.
The delay in forming a government has prevented parliament from meeting since it was elected Dec. 15.
But Kurdish and some Shiite officials said Sunday it should be ready to convene within days.
The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, denied involvement in fighting in a Sunni mosque in west Baghdad that killed three people Sunday.
Police had reported that commandos from the Shiite-led Interior Ministry stormed the mosque, leading to a 25 minute gunbattle.
"There is no indication in our records that Interior Ministry's police commandos carried out the raid."
"The claims are not true," said Interior Ministry Maj. Falah al-Mohamadawi.
Police initially reported the mosque's imam had been killed, but he was not hurt.
Seven people were injured.
U.S. officials say a unity government that includes all Iraq's ethnic and religious communities is essential for stabilizing the country and allowing U.S. and other coalition forces to start pulling out in the summer.
As the largest bloc in parliament, the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance gets the first chance to form a government, but it does not have sufficient seats to do so on its own.
Sunni, Kurdish and some secular parties are now pressing the Shiite Alliance to withdraw their nomination of al-Jaafari for a new term.
He has served as prime minister in the transitional government that took power in April.
The Sunni Arab minority blames the prime minister for failing to control Shiite militiamen who attacked Sunni mosques and clerics after the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra.
More than 500 people were killed in the violence that followed, according to police and hospital accounts.
Khalaf al-Olayan, a leader of the main Sunni bloc, said Iraq has gone from "bad to worse."
"Al-Jaafari's government failed to solve the chaos that followed the Samarra explosions and did not take any measures to solve the security crisis that could have pushed the country into civil war," he said in comments posted on the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front Web site.
Kurds are angry because they believe al-Jaafari is holding up a resolution to their claims to control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
"If al-Jaafari tries to form a government, he will not get any kind of cooperation," said Mahmoud Othman, a leading figure in parliament's Kurdish bloc.
President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, entered the fray Saturday, saying the Shiite Alliance should choose another candidate for the sake of consensus.
"I want to be clear, it is not against Dr. al-Jaafari as a person."
"He has been my friend for 25 years," Talabani told reporters.
The Shiite Alliance itself is divided about who should be prime minister: al-Jaafari won the nomination by a single vote at a Feb. 12 Shiite caucus.
Some members are troubled by al-Jaafari's ties to radical young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support was key in defeating Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the choice of powerful Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.
Al-Sadr and al-Hakim, who both have powerful militias behind them, are frequently at odds politically.
In a bid for support, two lawmakers from al-Jaafari's Dawa Party visited the Shiite holy city of Najaf Saturday to seek the endorsement of Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
They hinted al-Sistani approved of their candidate.
But a senior al-Sistani aide, speaking on condition of anonymity Sunday because of the sensitivity of the dispute, said the spiritual leader had indirectly suggested al-Jaafari should step aside.
On Sunday, Kurdish leaders met al-Sistani, headed by Planning Minister Barham Saleh, a member of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Talabani said Saturday he hoped to announce soon a date for parliament to convene.
Othman, the Kurdish official, said he expected a presidential decree to be issued Sunday summoning parliament to meet Thursday or Saturday.
Haitham al-Husseini, an al-Hakim spokesman, also said lawmakers would likely convene in the next few days.
The political turmoil has created a dangerous leadership vacuum as security forces try to contain the violence unleashed by the destruction of the golden domed Askariya shrine in Samarra.
South of the capital, a policeman was killed and his son injured in a drive-by shooting in the mainly Sunni town of Musayyib.
Police found two more bullet-riddled bodies, with hand and legs bound, in Kazimiyah, a northern Shiite suburb of Baghdad.
___
Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report from Baghdad.
Which is located within the boundaries of the continental United States ...
We now wing our way across some open water ....
Over to the present target of George W. Bush's GLOBAL WAR OF TERROR against all of the peoples and religions of the world that George doesn't like .....
Where we have ...
What else?
Just more chaos ...
And did anyone expect anything different from George W. Bush?
"Violence Hinders Formation of Iraqi Gov't"
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 28 minutes ago
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over a recent surge of sectarian killings that has complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government.
The delay in forming a government has prevented parliament from meeting since it was elected Dec. 15.
But Kurdish and some Shiite officials said Sunday it should be ready to convene within days.
The Interior Ministry, meanwhile, denied involvement in fighting in a Sunni mosque in west Baghdad that killed three people Sunday.
Police had reported that commandos from the Shiite-led Interior Ministry stormed the mosque, leading to a 25 minute gunbattle.
"There is no indication in our records that Interior Ministry's police commandos carried out the raid."
"The claims are not true," said Interior Ministry Maj. Falah al-Mohamadawi.
Police initially reported the mosque's imam had been killed, but he was not hurt.
Seven people were injured.
U.S. officials say a unity government that includes all Iraq's ethnic and religious communities is essential for stabilizing the country and allowing U.S. and other coalition forces to start pulling out in the summer.
As the largest bloc in parliament, the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance gets the first chance to form a government, but it does not have sufficient seats to do so on its own.
Sunni, Kurdish and some secular parties are now pressing the Shiite Alliance to withdraw their nomination of al-Jaafari for a new term.
He has served as prime minister in the transitional government that took power in April.
The Sunni Arab minority blames the prime minister for failing to control Shiite militiamen who attacked Sunni mosques and clerics after the Feb. 22 bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra.
More than 500 people were killed in the violence that followed, according to police and hospital accounts.
Khalaf al-Olayan, a leader of the main Sunni bloc, said Iraq has gone from "bad to worse."
"Al-Jaafari's government failed to solve the chaos that followed the Samarra explosions and did not take any measures to solve the security crisis that could have pushed the country into civil war," he said in comments posted on the Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front Web site.
Kurds are angry because they believe al-Jaafari is holding up a resolution to their claims to control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
"If al-Jaafari tries to form a government, he will not get any kind of cooperation," said Mahmoud Othman, a leading figure in parliament's Kurdish bloc.
President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, entered the fray Saturday, saying the Shiite Alliance should choose another candidate for the sake of consensus.
"I want to be clear, it is not against Dr. al-Jaafari as a person."
"He has been my friend for 25 years," Talabani told reporters.
The Shiite Alliance itself is divided about who should be prime minister: al-Jaafari won the nomination by a single vote at a Feb. 12 Shiite caucus.
Some members are troubled by al-Jaafari's ties to radical young cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose support was key in defeating Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi, the choice of powerful Shiite leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim.
Al-Sadr and al-Hakim, who both have powerful militias behind them, are frequently at odds politically.
In a bid for support, two lawmakers from al-Jaafari's Dawa Party visited the Shiite holy city of Najaf Saturday to seek the endorsement of Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
They hinted al-Sistani approved of their candidate.
But a senior al-Sistani aide, speaking on condition of anonymity Sunday because of the sensitivity of the dispute, said the spiritual leader had indirectly suggested al-Jaafari should step aside.
On Sunday, Kurdish leaders met al-Sistani, headed by Planning Minister Barham Saleh, a member of Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Talabani said Saturday he hoped to announce soon a date for parliament to convene.
Othman, the Kurdish official, said he expected a presidential decree to be issued Sunday summoning parliament to meet Thursday or Saturday.
Haitham al-Husseini, an al-Hakim spokesman, also said lawmakers would likely convene in the next few days.
The political turmoil has created a dangerous leadership vacuum as security forces try to contain the violence unleashed by the destruction of the golden domed Askariya shrine in Samarra.
South of the capital, a policeman was killed and his son injured in a drive-by shooting in the mainly Sunni town of Musayyib.
Police found two more bullet-riddled bodies, with hand and legs bound, in Kazimiyah, a northern Shiite suburb of Baghdad.
___
Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report from Baghdad.
The moron in Washington at work again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 5, 2006
Iran's Best Friend
At the rate that President Bush is going, Iran will be a global superpower before too long. For all of the axis-of-evil rhetoric that has come out of the White House, the reality is that the Bush administration has done more to empower Iran than its most ambitious ayatollah could have dared to imagine. Tehran will be able to look back at the Bush years as a golden era full of boosts from America, its unlikely ally.
During the period before the Iraq invasion, the president gave lip service to the idea that Iran and Iraq were both threats to American security. But his advisers, intent on carrying out their long-deferred dream of toppling Saddam Hussein, gave scant thought to what might happen if their plans did not lead to the unified, peaceful, pro-Western democracy of their imaginings. The answer, though, is now rather apparent: a squabbling, divided country in which the Shiite majority in the oil-rich south finds much more in common with its fellow Shiites in Iran than with the Sunni Muslims with whom it needs to form an Iraqi government.
Washington has now become dangerously dependent on the good will and constructive behavior of Shiite fundamentalist parties that Iran sheltered, aided and armed during the years that Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. In recent weeks, neither good will nor constructive behavior has been particularly evident, and if Iran chooses to stir up further trouble to deflect diplomatic pressures on its nuclear program, it could easily do so.
There is now a real risk that Iraq, instead of being turned into an outpost of secular democracy challenging the fanatical rulers of the Islamic republic to its east, could become an Iranian-aligned fundamentalist theocracy, challenging the secular Arab regimes to its west.
Fast-forward to Thursday's nuclear deal with India, in which President Bush agreed to share civilian nuclear technology with India despite its nuclear weapons programs and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
This would be a bad idea at any time, rewarding India for flouting the basic international understanding that has successfully discouraged other countries from South Korea to Saudi Arabia from embarking on their own efforts to build nuclear weapons. But it also undermines attempts to rein in Iran, whose nuclear program is progressing fast and unnerving both its neighbors and the West.
The India deal is exactly the wrong message to send right now, just days before Washington and its European allies will be asking the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council for further action. Iran's hopes of preventing this depend on convincing the rest of the world that the West is guilty of a double standard on nuclear issues. Mr. Bush might as well have tied a pretty red bow around his India nuclear deal and mailed it as a gift to Tehran.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map Back to Top
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 5, 2006
Iran's Best Friend
At the rate that President Bush is going, Iran will be a global superpower before too long. For all of the axis-of-evil rhetoric that has come out of the White House, the reality is that the Bush administration has done more to empower Iran than its most ambitious ayatollah could have dared to imagine. Tehran will be able to look back at the Bush years as a golden era full of boosts from America, its unlikely ally.
During the period before the Iraq invasion, the president gave lip service to the idea that Iran and Iraq were both threats to American security. But his advisers, intent on carrying out their long-deferred dream of toppling Saddam Hussein, gave scant thought to what might happen if their plans did not lead to the unified, peaceful, pro-Western democracy of their imaginings. The answer, though, is now rather apparent: a squabbling, divided country in which the Shiite majority in the oil-rich south finds much more in common with its fellow Shiites in Iran than with the Sunni Muslims with whom it needs to form an Iraqi government.
Washington has now become dangerously dependent on the good will and constructive behavior of Shiite fundamentalist parties that Iran sheltered, aided and armed during the years that Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq. In recent weeks, neither good will nor constructive behavior has been particularly evident, and if Iran chooses to stir up further trouble to deflect diplomatic pressures on its nuclear program, it could easily do so.
There is now a real risk that Iraq, instead of being turned into an outpost of secular democracy challenging the fanatical rulers of the Islamic republic to its east, could become an Iranian-aligned fundamentalist theocracy, challenging the secular Arab regimes to its west.
Fast-forward to Thursday's nuclear deal with India, in which President Bush agreed to share civilian nuclear technology with India despite its nuclear weapons programs and its refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
This would be a bad idea at any time, rewarding India for flouting the basic international understanding that has successfully discouraged other countries from South Korea to Saudi Arabia from embarking on their own efforts to build nuclear weapons. But it also undermines attempts to rein in Iran, whose nuclear program is progressing fast and unnerving both its neighbors and the West.
The India deal is exactly the wrong message to send right now, just days before Washington and its European allies will be asking the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council for further action. Iran's hopes of preventing this depend on convincing the rest of the world that the West is guilty of a double standard on nuclear issues. Mr. Bush might as well have tied a pretty red bow around his India nuclear deal and mailed it as a gift to Tehran.
Copyright 2006The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections XML Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map Back to Top
And while we are on the subject of America's George ....
Who really is, upon reflection, probably the GREATEST MAN THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN .....
Or maybe he is even greater than that ....
In his own mind, anyway ....
"Priests purify shrine after Bush visit"
Associated Press
Last updated: 6:35 a.m., Sunday, March 5, 2006
NEW DELHI -- Hindu priests who look after the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit from President Bush.
But it wasn't the president who offended them, it was the sniffer-dogs who scoured the area ahead of his visit.
After the dog visit, the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges river, which Hindus consider holy, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Sunday.
Bush visited the memorial on Thursday during his three day visit to India.
The site, where pacifist icon Gandhi was cremated, is considered sacred and all visitors, including Bush and his wife Laura, removed their shoes before going in.
The dogs, flown in from the U.S., were part of the intense security surrounding the president, but the Hindu priests believe they tainted the site.
Letting dogs into the memorial also drew sharp protest from Hindu politicians and Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, who called the incident a "national shame," the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Who really is, upon reflection, probably the GREATEST MAN THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN .....
Or maybe he is even greater than that ....
In his own mind, anyway ....
"Priests purify shrine after Bush visit"
Associated Press
Last updated: 6:35 a.m., Sunday, March 5, 2006
NEW DELHI -- Hindu priests who look after the memorial of Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi conducted a purification ceremony at the shrine after a visit from President Bush.
But it wasn't the president who offended them, it was the sniffer-dogs who scoured the area ahead of his visit.
After the dog visit, the memorial was cleansed with water brought from the Ganges river, which Hindus consider holy, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Sunday.
Bush visited the memorial on Thursday during his three day visit to India.
The site, where pacifist icon Gandhi was cremated, is considered sacred and all visitors, including Bush and his wife Laura, removed their shoes before going in.
The dogs, flown in from the U.S., were part of the intense security surrounding the president, but the Hindu priests believe they tainted the site.
Letting dogs into the memorial also drew sharp protest from Hindu politicians and Gandhi's great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, who called the incident a "national shame," the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
More from George:
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...04-123418-3911r
U.S.-India pact may undermine effort to rein in Iran
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Published March 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The new U.S.-India nuclear cooperation pact is complicating the Bush administration's efforts to rally international pressure against Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons programs.
Critics of the India deal in Congress and among arms-control activists say the concessions President Bush granted to India in the nuclear deal signed Thursday in New Delhi make it harder to preserve a united front against Tehran's efforts to build atomic bombs.
Some lawmakers in Congress, which must approve parts of the India deal, say the bad precedent it sets for Iran and other rogue states seeking nuclear weapons is enough to kill the accord.
The India deal "empowers the hawks in every rogue nation to put their nuclear plans on steroids now that they can no longer be isolated," said Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat and co-chairman of the congressional task force on nonproliferation.
The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal collection of the top suppliers of nuclear technology, will also consider the India accord at an upcoming meeting, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
The NSG would have to lift its own embargo on India to allow member countries to sell sensitive technology and equipment to New Delhi.
Negotiators from Iran and the European Union, meeting briefly yesterday in Vienna, Austria, announced they had once again failed to reach a deal on halting Iran's program to enrich uranium, a key step in the bomb-making process.
The impasse sets the stage for a Monday meeting of the board of the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, a meeting that could clear the way for U.N. Security Council action to sanction Tehran.
But Reuters news agency reported that Russia still is pushing a compromise that would allow Iran to pursue a more limited enrichment-research program over time.
The State Department confirmed yesterday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be in Washington early next week, with the Iran question a key topic on the agenda.
According to an unidentified diplomat at the Vienna talks yesterday, Mr. Lavrov will present to U.S. officials a compromise plan between the Europeans and Iran that would allow Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium-enrichment program.
For years, Europe and the United States have opposed allowing Iran any kind of enrichment capability.
Such a compromise could leave Washington facing near-isolation diplomatically after months of building a consensus that led the IAEA's 35-nation board to put the U.N. Security Council on alert about Iran's nuclear program.
In New Delhi on Wednesday, Mr. Bush agreed to end a long ban on U.S. nuclear cooperation with India, which never signed the international treaty on nonproliferation, in exchange for an Indian pledge to put its civilian nuclear facilities under international monitoring.
Mr. Bush hailed the potential of closer U.S.-India ties to transform the region and world in a speech at the end of his three-day visit yesterday.
The United States and India, which had cool relations throughout the Cold War years, "are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world," the president said.
Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, who hammered out the final details of the nuclear accord just hours before Mr. Bush arrived in India, said in an interview with the International Herald Tribune that comparisons with the Iranian nuclear program were "ludicrous."
Michael Green, who helped prepare much of the India agenda before leaving the National Security Council in December, said the New Delhi deal "gives Iran a good talking point."
But he added the spinoff effects of closer U.S.-India ties will be "profound," and will bring India firmly into the camp of nations seeking to contain the spread of nuclear weapons.
Iran's negotiators are already citing the India deal in a bid to divert the U.S.-led pressure campaign.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, said Iranians resented the fact that India and Israel have not been punished for their military nuclear programs, while Iran cannot pursue what he said were peaceful civilian nuclear efforts.
The India deal faces an uncertain future in Congress, with many lawmakers saying they still must see the fine print on what safeguards Mr. Bush was able to obtain over India's extensive nuclear facilities.
Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, said he would like to support the agreement as a path to a better U.S.-India relationship. The devil is in the details.
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...04-123418-3911r
U.S.-India pact may undermine effort to rein in Iran
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Published March 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The new U.S.-India nuclear cooperation pact is complicating the Bush administration's efforts to rally international pressure against Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons programs.
Critics of the India deal in Congress and among arms-control activists say the concessions President Bush granted to India in the nuclear deal signed Thursday in New Delhi make it harder to preserve a united front against Tehran's efforts to build atomic bombs.
Some lawmakers in Congress, which must approve parts of the India deal, say the bad precedent it sets for Iran and other rogue states seeking nuclear weapons is enough to kill the accord.
The India deal "empowers the hawks in every rogue nation to put their nuclear plans on steroids now that they can no longer be isolated," said Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat and co-chairman of the congressional task force on nonproliferation.
The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal collection of the top suppliers of nuclear technology, will also consider the India accord at an upcoming meeting, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
The NSG would have to lift its own embargo on India to allow member countries to sell sensitive technology and equipment to New Delhi.
Negotiators from Iran and the European Union, meeting briefly yesterday in Vienna, Austria, announced they had once again failed to reach a deal on halting Iran's program to enrich uranium, a key step in the bomb-making process.
The impasse sets the stage for a Monday meeting of the board of the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, a meeting that could clear the way for U.N. Security Council action to sanction Tehran.
But Reuters news agency reported that Russia still is pushing a compromise that would allow Iran to pursue a more limited enrichment-research program over time.
The State Department confirmed yesterday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will be in Washington early next week, with the Iran question a key topic on the agenda.
According to an unidentified diplomat at the Vienna talks yesterday, Mr. Lavrov will present to U.S. officials a compromise plan between the Europeans and Iran that would allow Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium-enrichment program.
For years, Europe and the United States have opposed allowing Iran any kind of enrichment capability.
Such a compromise could leave Washington facing near-isolation diplomatically after months of building a consensus that led the IAEA's 35-nation board to put the U.N. Security Council on alert about Iran's nuclear program.
In New Delhi on Wednesday, Mr. Bush agreed to end a long ban on U.S. nuclear cooperation with India, which never signed the international treaty on nonproliferation, in exchange for an Indian pledge to put its civilian nuclear facilities under international monitoring.
Mr. Bush hailed the potential of closer U.S.-India ties to transform the region and world in a speech at the end of his three-day visit yesterday.
The United States and India, which had cool relations throughout the Cold War years, "are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world," the president said.
Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, who hammered out the final details of the nuclear accord just hours before Mr. Bush arrived in India, said in an interview with the International Herald Tribune that comparisons with the Iranian nuclear program were "ludicrous."
Michael Green, who helped prepare much of the India agenda before leaving the National Security Council in December, said the New Delhi deal "gives Iran a good talking point."
But he added the spinoff effects of closer U.S.-India ties will be "profound," and will bring India firmly into the camp of nations seeking to contain the spread of nuclear weapons.
Iran's negotiators are already citing the India deal in a bid to divert the U.S.-led pressure campaign.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, said Iranians resented the fact that India and Israel have not been punished for their military nuclear programs, while Iran cannot pursue what he said were peaceful civilian nuclear efforts.
The India deal faces an uncertain future in Congress, with many lawmakers saying they still must see the fine print on what safeguards Mr. Bush was able to obtain over India's extensive nuclear facilities.
Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, said he would like to support the agreement as a path to a better U.S.-India relationship. The devil is in the details.
And as the infrastruture in IRAQINAM continues to crumble over there .....
Because of CORRUPTION in the BUSH ADMINISTRATION's handling of things in post-war IRAQINAM ....
Never fear ...
Because OURS is crumbling, too ....
ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT produces like results everywhere that ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT touches its hands to ....
And so ...
"Public urged to prepare for worst - Gilboa Dam failure would devastate Schenectady, county official warns"
By DAN HIGGINS, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, March 3, 2006
SCOTIA -- Businesses in the path of floodwaters from a collapsed Gilboa Dam could face weeks of interruptions and millions of dollars in damages, so they best be prepared, panelists warned Thursday morning.
The Schenectady County Chamber hosted a discussion on what might happen to businesses in Schenectady County if the Gilboa Dam in Schoharie County were to collapse, sending 19 billion gallons from the Schoharie Reservoir traveling down the Schoharie Creek and Mohawk River in a 10-foot wall of water.
"Think about what's going to happen immediately," said Bill Van Hoesen, Schenectady County's director of emergency management.
"Roads are going to be closed."
"Bridges are going to be closed."
"There's going to be very little opportunity to move back and forth between areas," he said.
He said the most dangerous period is likely to be between late March and the end of April, when spring rains and melting snow and ice tend to cause the most flooding.
The importance of planning for disaster was emphasized by six other panelists, who represented state government and local businesses.
Plans should include ways to keep businesses running when roads and suppliers are out of commission.
They should also take into account that some employees just won't be available, especially those whose homes are in jeopardy.
The Gilboa Dam, which is owned by New York City and supplies drinking water to its metro area, is in danger of collapse if heavy rains overfill the reservoir by more than eight feet.
Engineers from the city's Department of Environmental Protection said the bedrock underneath is no longer sturdy enough to hold the dam under the most severe weather conditions.
Crews have installed a notch and siphon pipes that will be able to drain hundreds of millions of gallons from the reservoir if water levels get too high this spring.
Meanwhile, officials plan on installing up to 90 anchors that would hold the concrete dam to the bedrock below.
That work should be complete by September.
But until then some residents and local business people said the serious nature of the county's planning is a sobering reminder of what could happen, even if the chances of dam failure are remote.
"It's hard to think of it as something that could really happen."
"It comforts me they say it's a really low probability, but I would hate to see it," said Mary Moore Wallinger, 31, who works for a Saratoga Springs-based planning and design firm.
She lives in Schenectady and her firm has clients in the city, as well.
"I feel like Schenectady is doing so well, all these good things are coming together."
"I would hate to see a setback like this," she said.
Dan Higgins can be reached at 454-5523 or by e-mail at dhiggins@timesunion.com.
Because of CORRUPTION in the BUSH ADMINISTRATION's handling of things in post-war IRAQINAM ....
Never fear ...
Because OURS is crumbling, too ....
ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT produces like results everywhere that ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT touches its hands to ....
And so ...
"Public urged to prepare for worst - Gilboa Dam failure would devastate Schenectady, county official warns"
By DAN HIGGINS, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, March 3, 2006
SCOTIA -- Businesses in the path of floodwaters from a collapsed Gilboa Dam could face weeks of interruptions and millions of dollars in damages, so they best be prepared, panelists warned Thursday morning.
The Schenectady County Chamber hosted a discussion on what might happen to businesses in Schenectady County if the Gilboa Dam in Schoharie County were to collapse, sending 19 billion gallons from the Schoharie Reservoir traveling down the Schoharie Creek and Mohawk River in a 10-foot wall of water.
"Think about what's going to happen immediately," said Bill Van Hoesen, Schenectady County's director of emergency management.
"Roads are going to be closed."
"Bridges are going to be closed."
"There's going to be very little opportunity to move back and forth between areas," he said.
He said the most dangerous period is likely to be between late March and the end of April, when spring rains and melting snow and ice tend to cause the most flooding.
The importance of planning for disaster was emphasized by six other panelists, who represented state government and local businesses.
Plans should include ways to keep businesses running when roads and suppliers are out of commission.
They should also take into account that some employees just won't be available, especially those whose homes are in jeopardy.
The Gilboa Dam, which is owned by New York City and supplies drinking water to its metro area, is in danger of collapse if heavy rains overfill the reservoir by more than eight feet.
Engineers from the city's Department of Environmental Protection said the bedrock underneath is no longer sturdy enough to hold the dam under the most severe weather conditions.
Crews have installed a notch and siphon pipes that will be able to drain hundreds of millions of gallons from the reservoir if water levels get too high this spring.
Meanwhile, officials plan on installing up to 90 anchors that would hold the concrete dam to the bedrock below.
That work should be complete by September.
But until then some residents and local business people said the serious nature of the county's planning is a sobering reminder of what could happen, even if the chances of dam failure are remote.
"It's hard to think of it as something that could really happen."
"It comforts me they say it's a really low probability, but I would hate to see it," said Mary Moore Wallinger, 31, who works for a Saratoga Springs-based planning and design firm.
She lives in Schenectady and her firm has clients in the city, as well.
"I feel like Schenectady is doing so well, all these good things are coming together."
"I would hate to see a setback like this," she said.
Dan Higgins can be reached at 454-5523 or by e-mail at dhiggins@timesunion.com.
QUOTE(Snuffysmith @ Mar 5 2006, 08:12 AM)
More from George:
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...04-123418-3911r
"U.S.-India pact may undermine effort to rein in Iran"
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Published March 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The new U.S.-India nuclear cooperation pact is complicating the Bush administration's efforts to rally international pressure against Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons programs.
The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal collection of the top suppliers of nuclear technology, will also consider the India accord at an upcoming meeting, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
The NSG would have to lift its own embargo on India to allow member countries to sell sensitive technology and equipment to New Delhi.
Mr. Bush hailed the potential of closer U.S.-India ties to transform the region and world in a speech at the end of his three-day visit yesterday.
The United States and India, which had cool relations throughout the Cold War years, "are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world," the president said.
http://www.wpherald.com/storyview.php?Stor...04-123418-3911r
"U.S.-India pact may undermine effort to rein in Iran"
By David R. Sands
The Washington Times
Published March 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The new U.S.-India nuclear cooperation pact is complicating the Bush administration's efforts to rally international pressure against Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons programs.
The 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal collection of the top suppliers of nuclear technology, will also consider the India accord at an upcoming meeting, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday.
The NSG would have to lift its own embargo on India to allow member countries to sell sensitive technology and equipment to New Delhi.
Mr. Bush hailed the potential of closer U.S.-India ties to transform the region and world in a speech at the end of his three-day visit yesterday.
The United States and India, which had cool relations throughout the Cold War years, "are closer than ever before, and the partnership between our free nations has the power to transform the world," the president said.
When George W. Bush opens his mouth to speak, generally just the sound of his voice alone is enough to make me cringe, just as the sound of fingernails being scraped across a blackboard does .....
It's like having to listen to a dog on steroids barking and barking and barking incessently .....
And that is just the sound of George W. Bush's voice .....
It is afterwards, when those "dog-barking" sounds have been run through some kind of apparent computer translating system that converts those sounds into words that I really begin to wonder ...
ESPECIALLY WHEN AMERICA's GEORGE TALKS OF "TRANSFORMING THE WORLD" ....
Because I am now old enough to remember what that world was like for a lot of years before America's George came on the scene to "TRANSFORM IT" ....
And I was sober for a lot of those years ...
While America's George was not ...
And so .....
WHAT IS GEORGE W. BUSH TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD INTO?
And from whence does he derive this apparent power that he has to do so?
By all indications to date, and this is after following the "career" of America's George these last so many years, it is questionable whether George W. Bush has any real ideas at all of where earth is located in the solar system ....
And it is likely that America's George knows absolutely nothing of America ...
Or its own history ....
Let alone that of the world ...
BECAUSE America's George is in thrall to the ARCHITECT, Karl Rove .....
And Karl apparently believes fervently that the earth is only some 5,000 or 6,000 years old ...
Which, of necessity, must negate most of the history of civilization on this earth of OURS ......
Which is why America's George apparently believes that it is up to him, and him alone, to create a HISTORY for OUR world ...
Which reflects him as its FOUNDER ...
And SAVIOR ....
And so ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 5 2006, 08:38 AM)
WHAT IS GEORGE W. BUSH TRANSFORMING OUR WORLD INTO?
Slowly ....
And inexorably ....
The past catches up with George W. Bush .....
And his crowd, of course ...
That amorphous mass that I collectively call the BUSHCOS, or BUSH CORPORATE ......
What the BUSHCOS fail to appreciate is that since they collectively denounced General Eric Shinseki because he would not SPEW BUSHCO LIES, ALL OTHER GENERALS WHO SERVE THE BUSHCOS ARE NOW SUSPECT ...
AS LIARS ......
And so ....
"General's Assessment of Iraq Questioned"
By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 58 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon's top general acknowledged Sunday that "anything can happen" in Iraq, but he said things aren't as bad as some say.
"I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at."
The comments drew criticism that Gen. Peter Pace is glossing over problems in the three-year-old U.S. campaign.
"Why would I believe him?" asked Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a major critic of the Bush administration's handling of the war.
"This administration, including the president, (has) mischaracterized this war for the last two years."
Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cited political progress such as holding elections and writing a constitution as well as military progress like training Iraqi security forces.
"No matter where you look — at their military, their police, their society — things are much better this year than they were last," Pace said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Murtha, responding to Pace in an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," said that Iraq has 60 percent unemployment, oil production below prewar levels, and water service to only 30 percent of the population.
American troops are doing everything they can militarily but "are caught in a civil war," said Murtha, a former Marine who has called on the administration to bring U.S. troops home.
"There's two participants fighting for survival and fighting for supremacy inside that country," he said of ethnic divisions.
"And that's my definition of a civil war."
Murtha added:
"The rhetoric is so frustrating — when they keep making statements which are very optimistic, and then it turns out to be the opposite."
"... And the public has caught on to that, and they're very pessimistic about the outcome."
Pace and Murtha spoke as Iraqis continued a stalemate over forming a new government, a delay that has prevented parliament from meeting since it was elected Dec. 15.
Pressure mounted Sunday on Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to give up his bid for a new term amid anger over the recent surge in sectarian killings that has complicated already snarled negotiations on a new Iraqi government.
Pace said the violent firestorm that followed the bombing of a revered Shiite mosque two weeks ago had forced Iraqis to look into "that abyss" and realize "that's not where they want to go."
"Anything can happen, I agree," Pace said, then added: "I believe the Iraqi people have shown in the last week to 10 days that they do not want civil war."
Ending the insurgency depends not only on military efforts but also on whether the Iraqi government can give the people what they want, Pace said.
He said the number of people in the insurgency will drop if people see that the new government can come through with jobs and services.
"If you have an opportunity to get a job and feed your family, you're much less likely to accept $100 to go plant a bomb inside a road," Pace said.
Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the U.S. must stick with the Iraqis.
"They're talking about putting their act together," Lugar, R-Ind., said on CBS.
"Now, the fact is that they may or may not be successful, but we better hope that they are, because the consequences for our country and the war against terror are very fateful if they are not."
end quotes
Well, Richard, we're down to HOPE now, eh?
Well, that is how it goes, isn't it?
George W. Bush's WAR OF TERROR has all you REPUBLICANS in a real fix, doesn't it, Richard?
You wanted us to all believe that you folks knew what you were doing out there in the world ...
When the truth was and remains that none of you had a clue ...
Just a lot of bluff and bravado .....
And so .....
TIME FOR REGIME CHANGE ...
Right here in OUR own America .....
Come election day ....
Get the REPUBLICANS gone from government in OUR America ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Feb 4 2006, 07:25 AM)
BOOM ....BOOM ......BOOM ....BOOM .....
WAR DRUMS BEATING ...
A big fire burning ....
Dick Cheney, the BIG GRIZ from Wyoming, half-naked, dressed only in a designer breech-clout and a special pair of leggings that he got in a Jackson Hole boutique for $3500, mouth drawn back in a rictus, teeth showing like a real big Wyoming GRIZ, wildly firing an A-4 automatic assault rifle anywhere and everywhere, whirls and capers and cavorts around the fire like an imp released from the bowels of hell itself, gibbering and alternately grunting in some tongue intelligible to only himself, if even that ....
While Donald Rumsfeld, painted up to beat the band in rouge and vermillion and whatever that brown stuff on him is, dressed in the skin of an IRAQINAMI, head still attached, with fetishes festooned all over his otherwise naked body, stands up on a stump and shouts exhortations to the assembled crowd .....
WAR ..... WAR .... WAR .... WAR
And here we go again ..
Except this time, since they are using the same script that was used for the IRAQINAM DEBACLE, we are supposed to be saving some money ....
On the front-end load, anyway ....
"Rumsfeld: Iran Regime Sponsors Terrorism"
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
MUNICH, Germany - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged America's allies to increase their military spending to prevent the rise of a "global extremist Islamic empire."
"The Iranian regime is today the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," he said in prepared remarks.
Rumsfeld said terrorists hope to use Iraq as the "central front" in their war, turning it into a training and recruitment area like they had done in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
He warned "a war has been declared on all of our nations" and said their "futures depend on determination and unity in the face of the terrorist threat."
"We could choose to pretend, as some suggest, that the enemy is not at our doorstep."
"We could choose to believe, as some contend, that the threat is exaggerated."
"But those who would follow such a course must ask: what if they are wrong?"
"What if at this moment, the enemy is counting on being underestimated, counting on being dismissed, and counting on our preoccupation," Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld said violent extremism is a danger faced as much in Europe as in the United States.
"The struggle ahead promises to be a long war that will cause us all to recalibrate our strategies, perhaps further adjust our institutions, and certainly work closely together," he said.
He said Islamic militants are on the move and have to be checked.
"They seek to take over governments from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to re-establish a caliphate they hope, one day, will include every continent," he said.
"They have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire."
Likening the war on terror to the Cold War, Rumsfeld said the battle could be won if nations persevered.
WAR DRUMS BEATING ...
A big fire burning ....
Dick Cheney, the BIG GRIZ from Wyoming, half-naked, dressed only in a designer breech-clout and a special pair of leggings that he got in a Jackson Hole boutique for $3500, mouth drawn back in a rictus, teeth showing like a real big Wyoming GRIZ, wildly firing an A-4 automatic assault rifle anywhere and everywhere, whirls and capers and cavorts around the fire like an imp released from the bowels of hell itself, gibbering and alternately grunting in some tongue intelligible to only himself, if even that ....
While Donald Rumsfeld, painted up to beat the band in rouge and vermillion and whatever that brown stuff on him is, dressed in the skin of an IRAQINAMI, head still attached, with fetishes festooned all over his otherwise naked body, stands up on a stump and shouts exhortations to the assembled crowd .....
WAR ..... WAR .... WAR .... WAR
And here we go again ..
Except this time, since they are using the same script that was used for the IRAQINAM DEBACLE, we are supposed to be saving some money ....
On the front-end load, anyway ....
"Rumsfeld: Iran Regime Sponsors Terrorism"
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer
MUNICH, Germany - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged America's allies to increase their military spending to prevent the rise of a "global extremist Islamic empire."
"The Iranian regime is today the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," he said in prepared remarks.
Rumsfeld said terrorists hope to use Iraq as the "central front" in their war, turning it into a training and recruitment area like they had done in Afghanistan under the Taliban.
He warned "a war has been declared on all of our nations" and said their "futures depend on determination and unity in the face of the terrorist threat."
"We could choose to pretend, as some suggest, that the enemy is not at our doorstep."
"We could choose to believe, as some contend, that the threat is exaggerated."
"But those who would follow such a course must ask: what if they are wrong?"
"What if at this moment, the enemy is counting on being underestimated, counting on being dismissed, and counting on our preoccupation," Rumsfeld said.
Rumsfeld said violent extremism is a danger faced as much in Europe as in the United States.
"The struggle ahead promises to be a long war that will cause us all to recalibrate our strategies, perhaps further adjust our institutions, and certainly work closely together," he said.
He said Islamic militants are on the move and have to be checked.
"They seek to take over governments from North Africa to Southeast Asia and to re-establish a caliphate they hope, one day, will include every continent," he said.
"They have designed and distributed a map where national borders are erased and replaced by a global extremist Islamic empire."
Likening the war on terror to the Cold War, Rumsfeld said the battle could be won if nations persevered.
Get ready, America ...
For BLITZKREIG II .....
As George W. Bush prepares his PANZER DIVISIONS for a lightning strike right into the very heart of IRAN ......
Where George W. Bush will open up another front of his WAR OF TERROR against anyone and anything that George W. Bush does not like at that moment in time .....
It is how worlds are transformed, after all ...
At the point of a bayonet .....
The TEXICAN STOMP .....
And so ...
"US warns Iran of consequences of nuclear ambitions"
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
2 hours, 43 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Sunday warned that Iran faced "painful consequences" if it continued sensitive nuclear activities and said the problem would become increasingly difficult to resolve if the international community did not confront it.
Ahead of what could be a crucial international meeting on Iran on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton reaffirmed that the United States will use "all tools at our disposal" to thwart Iran's nuclear program and is already "beefing up defensive measures" to do so.
"The Iran regime must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," he told 4,500 delegates to the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group.
Monday's meeting of the 35-nation International Atomic Energy Agency governing board is expected to take stock of Iran's continued defiance of U.S. and European demands to end sensitive weapons-related uranium enrichment activity and then hand the case over to the UN Security Council.
The United States is discussing a 30- to 60-day deadline for Tehran to halt its nuclear program and cooperate with international inspectors or face intensified pressure in the security council, a U.S. official told Reuters.
Iran on Sunday again threatened to begin large-scale nuclear enrichment if the case is taken up by the security council.
Bolton said Iran poses a "comprehensive threat" as a state-sponsor of terrorism and a nuclear aspirant, and so "we must be prepared to ... use all the tools at our disposal to stop the threat."
'LONGER WE WAIT ... HARDER IT WILL BECOME TO SOLVE'
"The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses, the harder and more intractable it will become to solve," he warned.
Bolton reaffirmed that Washington does not see the security council moving quickly to impose sanctions on Iran.
Veto-wielding members Russia and China have made clear their reluctance.
But he said many other governments have begun to speak publicly of sanctions, implying they may take action outside the security council.
The United States has had sweeping sanctions on Iran since after the 1979 Iranian revolution, but it is looking at ways to further use its Proliferation Security Initiative to deny Iran materials it needs for its nuclear program, Bolton said.
The United States and key allies, led by the European Union trio of Britain, France and Germany, are convinced Iran is trying to produce a nuclear weapon, but Tehran insists it is only interested in civilian nuclear energy.
Former chief UN weapons inspector David Kay, who also spoke at the AIPAC conference, discussed the limits of weapons inspections and said a conclusive judgment about Iran's program may only come too late, after it conducts a weapons test.
The IAEA is expected to weigh a report on Monday by the IAEA chief saying Iran has ignored a February 4 resolution urging it to shelve uranium-enrichment work to ease the crisis.
Instead, Iran is vacuum-testing 20 centrifuges, which convert uranium into fuel for power plants or, if highly purified, bombs, the report said.
Iran also plans to install 3,000 centrifuges later this year in a push to "industrial scale" enrichment, according to the IAEA report.
The IAEA board voted on February 4 to report Iran to the security council, but on the condition the world body would not flex its muscle at least until after Monday's session.
If the security council did not act in a timely manner, Bolton said, the council's credibility would be damaged.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 5 2006, 06:58 PM)
"US warns Iran of consequences of nuclear ambitions"
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Sunday warned that Iran faced "painful consequences" if it continued sensitive nuclear activities and said the problem would become increasingly difficult to resolve if the international community did not confront it.
"The Iran regime must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," he told 4,500 delegates to the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group.
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Sunday warned that Iran faced "painful consequences" if it continued sensitive nuclear activities and said the problem would become increasingly difficult to resolve if the international community did not confront it.
"The Iran regime must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," he told 4,500 delegates to the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel U.S. lobbying group.
And while the BUSHCO WARMONGERS AND TUB-THUMPERS continue to POSTURE before lobbying groups while pushing vigorously for yet another war that the BOY KING George W. Bush will again be hopelessly out of his depth in .....
We have ....
"IAEA Optimistic on Iran Nuke Program Deal"
By GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 43 minutes ago
VIENNA, Austria - The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency expressed cautious optimism Monday on the chances of reaching an international agreement to defuse concerns about Iran's nuclear activities and make U.N. Security Council action unnecessary.
The International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board was not likely to discuss the Iran issue until Tuesday or Wednesday.
But delegates said that whatever step the council might take would stop far short of sanctions.
But as the board meeting opened, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei suggested the council might not need to get involved.
"I am still very much hopeful that in the next week an agreement could be reached," ElBaradei told reporters, alluding to talks between Moscow and Tehran aimed at moving Iran's enrichment program to Russia and possible further contacts between Iran and Europe.
He did not elaborate.
But diplomats told the AP that recent talks have touched on the possibility of allowing Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium enrichment program, despite its potential for misuse in building atomic weapons.
That point was significant because the Europeans and the United States have for years opposed allowing Iran any kind of enrichment capability — a stance that Russia, China and other influential nations have embraced.
Tehran has insisted on its right to conduct enrichment, saying it wants only to produce fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity.
But enrichment also can create fissile material for warheads, and a growing number of nations share U.S. fears that is Iran's true goal.
Russia recently has sought to persuade Iran to move its enrichment program to Russian territory, which would allow closer international monitoring.
But the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations suggested Security Council action was necessary, saying there was an urgent need to confront Iran's "clear and unrelenting drive" for nuclear weapons.
Iran "must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences," John Bolton told a conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Sunday.
Also Sunday, Iran's government warned that putting the issue before the Security Council would hurt efforts to resolve the dispute diplomatically.
"If Iran's nuclear dossier is referred to the U.N. Security Council, (large-scale) uranium enrichment will be resumed," Iran's top negotiator, Ali Larijani, told reporters in Tehran.
"If they want to use force, we will pursue our own path."
He said Iran had exhausted "all peaceful ways," and that if demands were made contrary to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the nation "will resist."
Larijani said Iran would not abandon nuclear research or back down from pursuing an atomic program that Tehran insists is only for peaceful purposes.
IAEA delegates suggested the U.N. agency's board would not push for confrontation with Iran, and said any initial decisions by the Security Council based on this week's meeting would be mild.
The council's most likely action, they said, would be a statement urging Iran to increase cooperation with IAEA inspectors and to resume its freeze on uranium enrichment.
Even such a mild step could be weeks down the road, but it would formally begin council involvement with Iran's nuclear file, starting a process that could culminate with political and economic sanctions.
Bolton said a failure by the Security Council to address Iran would damage the council's credibility.
"The longer we wait to confront the threat Iran poses, the harder and more intractable it will become to solve."
Russia and China, which can veto Security Council actions, are for now opposed to imposing sanctions against Iran, though they share the concerns of the U.S., France and Britain — the other permanent council members with veto power — that Iran could misuse enrichment for an arms program.
Though Russia and China, which both have economic and strategic ties with Tehran, voted with the majority of IAEA board members at a Feb. 4 meeting to report the issue to the Security Council, they insisted the council do nothing until after this week's IAEA meeting in Vienna.
Russia is unlikely to agree to strong action while it negotiates with Iran on the proposal to move Tehran's enrichment program to Russian territory.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was due this week in Washington and New York to discuss the status of those talks with Bush administration officials and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Both Tehran and Moscow have said new talks are planned, though no dates have been announced.
Iran rejected an EU proposal last year to end enrichment in return for the West providing reactor fuel and economic aid.
Past IAEA board meetings have ended with resolutions taking Iran to task for hindering investigations into a nuclear program that was kept secret for nearly 18 years and more recently urging it to reimpose a freeze on enrichment.
___
Associated Press Writer Palma Benczenleitner contributed to this report.
___
On the Net:
International Atomic Energy Agency: http://www.iaea.org
It sure does sound to me like this Bolton dude that BUSHCO has down there at the UN is getting kind of PARANOID ....
And weak-kneed at the same time .....
Which has him running around down there like a CHICKEN-HEART .....
"OH, THE SKY IS GOING TO FALL ..."
"Oh, THE SKY IS GOING TO FALL ....."
How absolutely embarassing this BUSHCO crowd really is to OUR America ....
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 6 2006, 07:37 AM)
And while the BUSHCO WARMONGERS AND TUB-THUMPERS continue to POSTURE before lobbying groups while pushing vigorously for yet another war that the BOY KING George W. Bush will again be hopelessly out of his depth in .....
We have ....
We have ....
Well ...
What we have up here in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York, thanks in large part to that PERSISTENT GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, is one of the more polluted and contaminated states in the United States ...
Or maybe the world ...
And while the BUSHCO CHICKEN-HEARTS are out there looking under rocks and behind bushes growing in the far deserts of the world for TAY-RISTS that they think will come over here and take over the whole of the United States and its 294 MILLIONS of people in an hour or two at the outside, unless stopped cold in IRAQINAM, which was George W. Bush's BATTLEFIELD OF CHOICE in his WAR OF TERROR AGAINST THE WORLD ......
I am really more concerned myself with what I am drinking when I drink a glass of water from my own well .....
And I am concerned about that because I know that the Rensselaer County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer will all do their damndest to PROTECT the polluters who threaten my water supply ...
While at the same time doing their damndest to ensure to the POLLUTER that I will not be able to lay a glove on them in court ...
So as to be able to protect and safeguard my own water supply, as well as my own health and well-being as a human being on this earth of OURS ....
"Planned rules set cleanup guidelines - Proposed regulations that would set standards for developers building on polluted sites called inadequate by critics"
By COLIN McDONALD, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, March 6, 2006
ALBANY -- In a state polluted with toxins, carcinogens and heavy metals since colonists began tanning animal hides in the 1600s, the question now is: how clean is clean?
Newly proposed regulations are designed to help the state catch up on a 400-year backlog of cleanup work.
Developers seeking tax credits and certification under New York's Environmental Remediation Program would work from a matrix of standards based on the contamination of their property, the uses of the surrounding land and the site's intended purpose.
The highest standards are based on a survey of rural property across New York.
But critics say the whole state is so polluted that even those standards are inadequate.
"The issue is difficult for all of us because of how we have impacted our environment," said Linda Shaw, a Rochester environmental attorney who supports the new regulations.
"The rural background numbers came out higher than everyone expected because our environment is unfortunately more contaminated than anyone thought."
Some of the worst locations are now classified as brownfields, where contamination is hindering development, and Superfund sites, land so polluted the state takes over the cleanup.
Each year the state adds an average of 45 Superfund sites to its list, and thousands of spills and accidents increase the number of brownfields, Shaw said.
Of the tens of thousands of contaminated properties, 1,788 are being dealt with under the current remediation programs.
A 2003 state law was designed to deal with the worst properties and encourage developers to clean up sites for redevelopment.
It came after 10 years of wrangling over how clean sites should be and was supposed to expedite the work.
The law required the state departments of Environmental Conservation and Health to come up with new regulations to protect the public while providing developers clear standards so they could estimate cleanup costs.
The regulations were released in November and are open to public comment through March 27.
Bobbi Chase Wilding of the Citizens Environmental Coalition cited the proposed brownfield development in downtown Albany at Quackenbush Square as an example of a place where an inadequate cleanup under the new standards would leave future generations at risk.
The property at the intersection of Broadway and Spencer Street is zoned for industry, and investors want to clean it up and build an apartment and office complex.
The DEC suspects the soil on the property -- which has been home to industry for centuries -- contains petroleum, metals, pesticides and semivolatile and volatile organic compounds, which continue to spread through the ground and groundwater.
But under the proposed standards, not all the contaminated soil would be removed, because DEC assumes there would be limited exposure to people living and working around Quackenbush Square.
Such an assumption, she said, ignores studies that suggest the risk of exposure to lingering pollutants is higher than previously thought.
Exposure, for example, could be through vapor intrusion -- the seeping of chemicals through the soil and groundwater into nearby basements and buildings.
Gabrielle DeMarco, a DEC spokeswoman, said the standards are based on the best science available and will be changed as science advances the understanding of the movement and threats of toxic materials.
The state could even require further work on a site previously certified as clean and is further studying the risks from vapor intrusion.
"Remediation measures may differ for each project depending on the nature and extent of contamination and the site's end use, but the main priority of the state has and will always be to ensure that these projects safeguard public health and the environment" she said.
Once the draft standards are approved and developers can make a reasonable estimate of cleanup costs, the number of cleanups will likely grow substantially, Shaw said.
Environmental groups counter that if the cleanup is insufficient the first time, the work will have to be done again and the state will have failed to protect the public.
"It means we will have a toxic legacy for years to come," said John Stouffer of the Sierra Club.
McDonald can be reached at 454-5441 or by e-mail at cmcdonald@timesunion.com.
CONTACT DATA
The draft regulations for the Environmental Remediation Program can be viewed on line at http://www.dec.state.ny.us/website/der/sup...nd/fact375.html or in person at Department of Environmental Conservation regional offices. To contact the Region 4 office, which includes Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer and Schenectady counties, call 357-2234. The Region 5 office, which includes Saratoga, Warren and Washington counties, can be reached at 897-1200.The DEC will conduct three public hearings to gather comments on the proposed standards. The Capital Region hearing will be at 1 p.m. March 15 at the DEC Building, Room 129, 625 Broadway, Albany.
QUOTE(Livyjr @ Mar 6 2006, 07:56 AM)
Well ...
What we have up here in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York, thanks in large part to that PERSISTENT GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, is one of the more polluted and contaminated states in the United States ...
Or maybe the world ...
And while the BUSHCO CHICKEN-HEARTS are out there looking under rocks and behind bushes growing in the far deserts of the world for TAY-RISTS that they think will come over here and take over the whole of the United States and its 294 MILLIONS of people in an hour or two at the outside, unless stopped cold in IRAQINAM, which was George W. Bush's BATTLEFIELD OF CHOICE in his WAR OF TERROR AGAINST THE WORLD ......
I am really more concerned myself with what I am drinking when I drink a glass of water from my own well .....
And I am concerned about that because I know that the Rensselaer County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer will all do their damndest to PROTECT the polluters who threaten my water supply ...
While at the same time doing their damndest to ensure to the POLLUTER that I will not be able to lay a glove on them in court ...
So as to be able to protect and safeguard my own water supply, as well as my own health and well-being as a human being on this earth of OURS ....
What we have up here in the CORRUPT EMPIRE of New York, thanks in large part to that PERSISTENT GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION, is one of the more polluted and contaminated states in the United States ...
Or maybe the world ...
And while the BUSHCO CHICKEN-HEARTS are out there looking under rocks and behind bushes growing in the far deserts of the world for TAY-RISTS that they think will come over here and take over the whole of the United States and its 294 MILLIONS of people in an hour or two at the outside, unless stopped cold in IRAQINAM, which was George W. Bush's BATTLEFIELD OF CHOICE in his WAR OF TERROR AGAINST THE WORLD ......
I am really more concerned myself with what I am drinking when I drink a glass of water from my own well .....
And I am concerned about that because I know that the Rensselaer County Department of Health and the New York State Department of Health and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Attorney General Eliot "Big EL" Spitzer will all do their damndest to PROTECT the polluters who threaten my water supply ...
While at the same time doing their damndest to ensure to the POLLUTER that I will not be able to lay a glove on them in court ...
So as to be able to protect and safeguard my own water supply, as well as my own health and well-being as a human being on this earth of OURS ....
High taxes .....
Corrupt government ...
A complete and total lack of REPRESENTATION in OUR government ....
UNLESS you can afford to buy up some legislators yourself ....
Corrupt judges ....
Closed courts .....
No redress of grievance ....
Pollution ...
Contamination ....
These are the issues that concern me as a human being .....
And many others as well ...
Which is why citizens up here are taking matters into their own hands ....
TAKING BACK CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT from the special interests who have bought up OUR corrupt politicians ...
Lock, stock and barrel .....
Or at least these citizens are making the attempt ...
WITHIN THE BOUNDS OF THE LAW .....
An area that you will never find OUR government, from top to bottom, operating in, up here in the corrupt EMPIRE ....
And down there in Washington, D.C., as well ...
"Showdown over Dunham Hollow - Amid efforts to mine rock, residents vote today on creating municipality"
By BOB GARDINIER, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Monday, March 6, 2006
NASSAU -- A public vote on whether to form a village of Dunham Hollow to fight proposed rock mines will take place tonight, a week after a third miner filed an application within town boundaries.
Town officials set up the vote last month after an appellate court knocked down objections to formation of a 4.93-square-mile village in the northeast corner of town and ordered the measure be decided by residents.
Dunham Hollow is now a hamlet in the mostly rural town.
Last May, village organizers, upset with town officials over two proposals by two different mining companies to extract graywacke rock from locations in the Dunham Hollow/Hoags Corners areas, submitted village incorporation petitions.
Supporters want to wrest zoning from the town and ban the mines.
In December 2003, Troy Sand & Gravel filed an application with the state and town to mine graywacke rock from 95 acres of a 214-acre plot south of the intersection of Route 66 and Radley Road, just north of Hoags Corners.
About a year later, Callanan Industries filed an application to mine the same rock from 76 acres of a 111-acre parcel near the intersection of Dunham Hollow and Greenman Hill roads, about two miles southeast of Troy Sand and Gravel's proposed site.
Then last Monday, Callanan made another application to mine a site on the east side of Route 66 and north of Gardner Hill Road, the northeast quadrant of the intersection.
The company is proposing a 39-acre mine site on a 45-acre vacant parcel the company recently bought.
The proposed site is about halfway between the other two along the Route 66 corridor.
All of the applications are pending before the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
When supporters first filed petitions to form the village, former Supervisor Carol Sanford was opposed and rejected the documents based on errors.
She argued the number of signatures did not represent 20 percent of the voting age residents in the affected area.
However, on Aug. 8, state Supreme Court Justice Christian Hummel reversed Sanford and ordered the measure to a public vote, but four private residents appealed, and the court issued a stay on the vote.
The residents argued that some properties would be bisected by a new village boundary, that a group of people who sought to have their petition signatures withdrawn should be allowed to do so, and they claimed irregularities with voter registration lists.
They also argued that some of the signatures were invalid.
The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in a Jan. 19 ruling rejected the arguments advanced by Sanford and the residents and ordered the matter to go to the voters.
Last week, village opponents were denied permission to have the matter reviewed by the Court of Appeals.
Bob Gardinier can be reached at 454-5696 or by e-mail at bgardinier@timesunion.com.
DECIDE
What: A public vote on whether to form a village of Dunham Hollow
When: Noon to 9 p.m. today
Where: Hoags Corners Volunteer Fire Company, 7237 Route 66
http://cgi.wn.com/?action=display&article=...xt&index=recent
Criminal Acts In Politics
WorldNews.com,Sun 5 Mar 2006
Criminal Acts In Politics
Letters to the Editor René Delavy.
Remember Pinochet and the torturing to death of thousands of young people in Chile? Remember the generals of Argentine and other nations in South America, killing ten thousands of students, teachers, intellectuals and journalists? Remember: The democrat Allende and all other decent men and women could not have been killed without the consent of the Government of the USA and his secret army, the CIA. Remember Vietnam: Three million people ( and this happened AFTER a World War II ) killed for nothing at all, in the name of an ideology of capitalism, without the Chinese, Soviets and other being able to prevent it? McNamara, Henry Kissinger, Kennedy, Nixon and the rest just killed whole populations without any reasons. And this was done, after Hitler dared many years earlier - under the same principles and idea of hegemony - to kill six million Jews, many millions of Russians, Americans, French and English people. Where is the fundamental difference between Nazi-Germany and USA in the years 1960 to 2005, in the light of the future development, which risks getting out of any control?
This killing goes on today. With the consent of all mass media of the USA, George W. Bush did not want to get rid of Saddam Hussein. No, this monster is still alive, whereas the oil of Iraq seemed already to be firm in the hands of the US Industry - that paid for George W. Bush to be president of the most cynical state of the Earth and then to act in their interest. And therefore, many Iraqis and people of Afghanistan had to die for no good reasons, but for the lies, that Powell was spreading in the face of all the nations of the UN - just before the decided battle started. As a result, the whole Arab area is now preparing a war in spirit against the western ideology of hegemonial thinking, result of an attempt to influence these states in a way that the USA government would have the power on the oil of the whole Arab region. This has been the original plan of Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and all the rest.
Eight years of Bush regency will have destabilized the world in a way, the blinded media in the USA did not see, when they followed an idiot in his adventure; Fox-TV, Murdoch, New York Times, USA Today and all other newspapers followed his leader, as German media did when Hitler came to power. Where is the fundamental difference? The US-media did not understand that 9/11 was a reaction and not an action. The slap in the faces of all people of Islam faith had to react, sooner or later. But the journalism of the World is not of a nature to illustrate the change of thinking in the heads of deprivated people, confronted with a western Hollywood mentality of action, fun, killing and porno; an ideology which declares the criminal, powerful and stupid heroes as Masters of the Universe whereas the rest of people in the world obviously are nothing but a bunch of idiots to be ignored, sent in poverty or even worse. So remember who first has made steps forward into terrorism in this world, long before 9/11.
B. Criminal acts in ecology
Is the protocol of Kyoto of any importance? No, it will not change one percent of the criminal influence of the World, headed by the US population and ideology of capitalism. But the NO of George W. Bush is a sign, that he could not care less about the future generations on the Earth, betting for a survival after all energy stuff of the world will have been transformed in a gas of destruction, with the crazy idea of cars, planes and all the rest, deployed by a mass population of more than seven billion people, of which the US population pollutes more of the air than any other nation in the world. Now, even China tries to copy this model of self destruction. Our children will have to pay the price. It is not George W. Bush alone who is responsible for this misery. But he is the living sign that most people of the world will not be able to understand the state of affairs, before the whole civilization will go down the drain, slowly first - and than - all of a sudden - so fast that no counter action can be taken, by nobody, no nation, no government, NGO, United Nations Organisation or any other power in the world. We have destroyed the future of our own children, and at the same time we laugh our heads off, sitting in a comfortable rapid train that will explode very soon at the wall called "End of the vanities of human mankind".
The cynicism of George and his bunch of criminals could have been noticed during the drowning of New Orleans: "Just let them go down the drain, those criminal black people with their poverty, far away from us, down in the south." This was the stupid attitude and the intention of George, before he realized that race-hatred in his own country is not modern thinking. Today, he and his crew try to do everything to make forget this fauxpas of bad taste. But the black people in New Orleans will not forget that the US government did not undertake anything to prevent the loss of a beautiful town, because the killing of Iraqis (instead of killing Saddam Hussein alone) was much more important to them - and so the billions of dollars had to go into that area, for an ideology of apes, for a useless struggle, just for nothing. What has this to do with ecology? You will see it, twenty years from now.
C. Criminal acts in the name of religion
What have the "New born Christians", also known as the fundamental Evangelists of the United States, what have these conservative bunches to do with Israel? Dear George, quite a lot. In fact the understanding of the US government with all acts of Sharon and other Jewish people in Israel is at the source of the hatred of the Arabs and of Islam people on the Western world and its standards of cynicism. And in fact this is the source of 9/11, nothing else. George W. Bush himself would have planned such a reaction of revenge, would he have been a proud member of the great Islam Society. But this is too difficult to be understood - even for the Chief Editor of the NEW YORK TIMES.
Remember the elicts of faith (Hexenbulle) of the Catholic church that were at the source of hundred thousands of women and men, tortured and thrown in the fire, alive and in a painfulness that cannot be imagined by anybody, a burning of people that lasted for centuries? What is the difference in spirit to the Evangelicans in the USA and their acting outside their borders? The hatred of the Arab nations will grow and grow, also based on the acting of the Israelis against the interests of the Palestinian folks. And sooner or later, the Israelis will be thrown in the Mediterranean Sea. When? At the date, when the influence of the USA will weaken, probably just after the collapse of this hegemonial nation (see next point: Criminal acts in US-economy).
D. Criminal acts in economy
I have written in some books of my oeuvre: "Each US-American owes to the world one million of dollars." How come? Count and add: The indebtedness (not prevented by Alan Greenspan) of the USA, as a nation, is about 20 trillions or 20´000 billions (deutsch: 20 Billionen) dollars. Add the debts of the 50 States, the towns, the counties and add the credits for credit cards (starting at the age of 16!!), the open leasing rates, hypo-debts only covered by a bubble of fantasy in the house market, plus all other indebtedness in the USA. And now you can count. Result: around 200 trillions of dollars or about one million dollars for each child, each clochard or Bill Gates of the USA!! Very funny, isn´t it?
Who was financing this craziness, born first in the stupid head of Ronald Reagan and than in the one of George W. Bush? It is and was: The Europeans, the Chinese, Japanese, Southcoreans, the Arabs and the Russians. They bought trillions of dollars of Treasury Bonds offered by George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan, who wanted enrich the USA by lowering the tax charges for the richest people of their folks, voting for George W. and his crazy government. The value of these Bonds is shrinking from day to day, reaching already today a "value" of nearly ZERO. Yes, dear NZZ, dear SPIEGEL, dear DIE ZEIT, dear Herald Tribune, dear CNN and FOX-TV and dear New York Times; listen who are personally responsible for a criminal journalistic boulevard in the world media: Murdoch, Berlusconi, Springer, Disney, Bertelsmann, Ringier, Schawinski, and wake up, all stupid mass media of the world: THIS, IN FACT, IS THE FINAL COLLAPSE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Remember Swissair? This company died under the burden of 15000 millions of Swiss Francs - but this fact was only understood by NZZ and the rest of the press when all planes were "grounded" in the year 2002. In all years before, these "genius" were blind and without any brain. Read and learn the lesson now: The USA are already broken down - and with this criminal nation will all stock exchanges, banks, insurance companies and old age funds of the whole world break down, in cascades, but without recall.
Is it actually so - or is here a liar at work? Wait and see. The future will give all the answers.
Now folks, this is all I have to tell you for the moment. Its great fun, isn´t its? You will learn the lesson in the near future, the heavy way so, dear George W. Bush, you will, before your death, see the effect of your stupid treatment of (what you understand in your primitive brain) the "rest of the world". You will have to learn the philosophical maxim: The lived reality in this world is one thing - but your hollywoodesk fantasies, in the face of a declining power, is something else.
Criminal Acts In Politics
WorldNews.com,Sun 5 Mar 2006
Criminal Acts In Politics
Letters to the Editor René Delavy.
Remember Pinochet and the torturing to death of thousands of young people in Chile? Remember the generals of Argentine and other nations in South America, killing ten thousands of students, teachers, intellectuals and journalists? Remember: The democrat Allende and all other decent men and women could not have been killed without the consent of the Government of the USA and his secret army, the CIA. Remember Vietnam: Three million people ( and this happened AFTER a World War II ) killed for nothing at all, in the name of an ideology of capitalism, without the Chinese, Soviets and other being able to prevent it? McNamara, Henry Kissinger, Kennedy, Nixon and the rest just killed whole populations without any reasons. And this was done, after Hitler dared many years earlier - under the same principles and idea of hegemony - to kill six million Jews, many millions of Russians, Americans, French and English people. Where is the fundamental difference between Nazi-Germany and USA in the years 1960 to 2005, in the light of the future development, which risks getting out of any control?
This killing goes on today. With the consent of all mass media of the USA, George W. Bush did not want to get rid of Saddam Hussein. No, this monster is still alive, whereas the oil of Iraq seemed already to be firm in the hands of the US Industry - that paid for George W. Bush to be president of the most cynical state of the Earth and then to act in their interest. And therefore, many Iraqis and people of Afghanistan had to die for no good reasons, but for the lies, that Powell was spreading in the face of all the nations of the UN - just before the decided battle started. As a result, the whole Arab area is now preparing a war in spirit against the western ideology of hegemonial thinking, result of an attempt to influence these states in a way that the USA government would have the power on the oil of the whole Arab region. This has been the original plan of Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove and all the rest.
Eight years of Bush regency will have destabilized the world in a way, the blinded media in the USA did not see, when they followed an idiot in his adventure; Fox-TV, Murdoch, New York Times, USA Today and all other newspapers followed his leader, as German media did when Hitler came to power. Where is the fundamental difference? The US-media did not understand that 9/11 was a reaction and not an action. The slap in the faces of all people of Islam faith had to react, sooner or later. But the journalism of the World is not of a nature to illustrate the change of thinking in the heads of deprivated people, confronted with a western Hollywood mentality of action, fun, killing and porno; an ideology which declares the criminal, powerful and stupid heroes as Masters of the Universe whereas the rest of people in the world obviously are nothing but a bunch of idiots to be ignored, sent in poverty or even worse. So remember who first has made steps forward into terrorism in this world, long before 9/11.
B. Criminal acts in ecology
Is the protocol of Kyoto of any importance? No, it will not change one percent of the criminal influence of the World, headed by the US population and ideology of capitalism. But the NO of George W. Bush is a sign, that he could not care less about the future generations on the Earth, betting for a survival after all energy stuff of the world will have been transformed in a gas of destruction, with the crazy idea of cars, planes and all the rest, deployed by a mass population of more than seven billion people, of which the US population pollutes more of the air than any other nation in the world. Now, even China tries to copy this model of self destruction. Our children will have to pay the price. It is not George W. Bush alone who is responsible for this misery. But he is the living sign that most people of the world will not be able to understand the state of affairs, before the whole civilization will go down the drain, slowly first - and than - all of a sudden - so fast that no counter action can be taken, by nobody, no nation, no government, NGO, United Nations Organisation or any other power in the world. We have destroyed the future of our own children, and at the same time we laugh our heads off, sitting in a comfortable rapid train that will explode very soon at the wall called "End of the vanities of human mankind".
The cynicism of George and his bunch of criminals could have been noticed during the drowning of New Orleans: "Just let them go down the drain, those criminal black people with their poverty, far away from us, down in the south." This was the stupid attitude and the intention of George, before he realized that race-hatred in his own country is not modern thinking. Today, he and his crew try to do everything to make forget this fauxpas of bad taste. But the black people in New Orleans will not forget that the US government did not undertake anything to prevent the loss of a beautiful town, because the killing of Iraqis (instead of killing Saddam Hussein alone) was much more important to them - and so the billions of dollars had to go into that area, for an ideology of apes, for a useless struggle, just for nothing. What has this to do with ecology? You will see it, twenty years from now.
C. Criminal acts in the name of religion
What have the "New born Christians", also known as the fundamental Evangelists of the United States, what have these conservative bunches to do with Israel? Dear George, quite a lot. In fact the understanding of the US government with all acts of Sharon and other Jewish people in Israel is at the source of the hatred of the Arabs and of Islam people on the Western world and its standards of cynicism. And in fact this is the source of 9/11, nothing else. George W. Bush himself would have planned such a reaction of revenge, would he have been a proud member of the great Islam Society. But this is too difficult to be understood - even for the Chief Editor of the NEW YORK TIMES.
Remember the elicts of faith (Hexenbulle) of the Catholic church that were at the source of hundred thousands of women and men, tortured and thrown in the fire, alive and in a painfulness that cannot be imagined by anybody, a burning of people that lasted for centuries? What is the difference in spirit to the Evangelicans in the USA and their acting outside their borders? The hatred of the Arab nations will grow and grow, also based on the acting of the Israelis against the interests of the Palestinian folks. And sooner or later, the Israelis will be thrown in the Mediterranean Sea. When? At the date, when the influence of the USA will weaken, probably just after the collapse of this hegemonial nation (see next point: Criminal acts in US-economy).
D. Criminal acts in economy
I have written in some books of my oeuvre: "Each US-American owes to the world one million of dollars." How come? Count and add: The indebtedness (not prevented by Alan Greenspan) of the USA, as a nation, is about 20 trillions or 20´000 billions (deutsch: 20 Billionen) dollars. Add the debts of the 50 States, the towns, the counties and add the credits for credit cards (starting at the age of 16!!), the open leasing rates, hypo-debts only covered by a bubble of fantasy in the house market, plus all other indebtedness in the USA. And now you can count. Result: around 200 trillions of dollars or about one million dollars for each child, each clochard or Bill Gates of the USA!! Very funny, isn´t it?
Who was financing this craziness, born first in the stupid head of Ronald Reagan and than in the one of George W. Bush? It is and was: The Europeans, the Chinese, Japanese, Southcoreans, the Arabs and the Russians. They bought trillions of dollars of Treasury Bonds offered by George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan, who wanted enrich the USA by lowering the tax charges for the richest people of their folks, voting for George W. and his crazy government. The value of these Bonds is shrinking from day to day, reaching already today a "value" of nearly ZERO. Yes, dear NZZ, dear SPIEGEL, dear DIE ZEIT, dear Herald Tribune, dear CNN and FOX-TV and dear New York Times; listen who are personally responsible for a criminal journalistic boulevard in the world media: Murdoch, Berlusconi, Springer, Disney, Bertelsmann, Ringier, Schawinski, and wake up, all stupid mass media of the world: THIS, IN FACT, IS THE FINAL COLLAPSE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Remember Swissair? This company died under the burden of 15000 millions of Swiss Francs - but this fact was only understood by NZZ and the rest of the press when all planes were "grounded" in the year 2002. In all years before, these "genius" were blind and without any brain. Read and learn the lesson now: The USA are already broken down - and with this criminal nation will all stock exchanges, banks, insurance companies and old age funds of the whole world break down, in cascades, but without recall.
Is it actually so - or is here a liar at work? Wait and see. The future will give all the answers.
Now folks, this is all I have to tell you for the moment. Its great fun, isn´t its? You will learn the lesson in the near future, the heavy way so, dear George W. Bush, you will, before your death, see the effect of your stupid treatment of (what you understand in your primitive brain) the "rest of the world". You will have to learn the philosophical maxim: The lived reality in this world is one thing - but your hollywoodesk fantasies, in the face of a declining power, is something else.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/03/05/...tape/index.html
Muslims urged to make West 'bleed for years'
Audio attributed to al Qaeda No. 2 may be from recent video
Sunday, March 5, 2006; Posted: 10:15 p.m. EST (03:15 GMT)
(CNN) -- A taped message attributed to Osama bin Laden's deputy calls on Muslims to attack the "economic infrastructure" of the West and stop Western countries from "stealing" Mideast oil, according to recordings posted on Islamist Web sites Sunday.
The statement calls on al Qaeda's followers to launch attacks that will make Western powers "bleed for years."
"We have to prevent the crusaders from stealing the Muslims' oil, which is being drained in the biggest robbery in history," the statement, attributed to No. 2 al Qaeda figure Ayman al-Zawahiri, said.
The statement came out a week after Saudi authorities thwarted a suicide car-bomb attack on the Abqaiq oil-processing facility in eastern Saudi Arabia.
The February 24 incident did not affect the facility's operations, Oil Minister Ali bin Ibrahim al-Naimi said, and five suspected Islamic militants that Saudi authorities linked to the attack died in a gunbattle near Riyadh three days later. (Full story)
The audio appears to have been taken from a recent videotaped message, portions of which were broadcast Saturday on the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera.
In those excerpts, al-Zawahiri complimented the Islamic militant group Hamas on its Palestinian election victory, spoke against the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed and condemned the latest images of prisoners being mistreated by U.S. troops at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. (Full story)
In the video, al-Zawahiri appeared standing in front of a panel of white lace curtains and wearing a black turban. Although he referred to recent events, it is unknown when the tape was made.
"All this in the West is allowed so they can steal and occupy our land, and stealing our wealth and insulting us and our religion and Quran and our prophet. And after that, they gave us lessons on freedom and human rights," he said.
Al-Zawahiri was last heard from publicly January 30, when he appeared in a video to announce he was alive and well after a U.S. missile strike targeted him January 13 in Pakistan. (Full story)
U.S. officials have said that between four and eight al Qaeda members were killed in the CIA attack in Damadola, near the Afghanistan border.
Pakistani officials said 18 people were killed in the airstrike, including five women and five children, which prompted protests across the country. (Full story)
There was no independent confirmation that the voice on the tape was that of al-Zawahiri, an Egypt-born physician who has remained at large since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The U.S. government has put a $25 million price on his head.
Muslims urged to make West 'bleed for years'
Audio attributed to al Qaeda No. 2 may be from recent video
Sunday, March 5, 2006; Posted: 10:15 p.m. EST (03:15 GMT)
(CNN) -- A taped message attributed to Osama bin Laden's deputy calls on Muslims to attack the "economic infrastructure" of the West and stop Western countries from "stealing" Mideast oil, according to recordings posted on Islamist Web sites Sunday.
The statement calls on al Qaeda's followers to launch attacks that will make Western powers "bleed for years."
"We have to prevent the crusaders from stealing the Muslims' oil, which is being drained in the biggest robbery in history," the statement, attributed to No. 2 al Qaeda figure Ayman al-Zawahiri, said.
The statement came out a week after Saudi authorities thwarted a suicide car-bomb attack on the Abqaiq oil-processing facility in eastern Saudi Arabia.
The February 24 incident did not affect the facility's operations, Oil Minister Ali bin Ibrahim al-Naimi said, and five suspected Islamic militants that Saudi authorities linked to the attack died in a gunbattle near Riyadh three days later. (Full story)
The audio appears to have been taken from a recent videotaped message, portions of which were broadcast Saturday on the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera.
In those excerpts, al-Zawahiri complimented the Islamic militant group Hamas on its Palestinian election victory, spoke against the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed and condemned the latest images of prisoners being mistreated by U.S. troops at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. (Full story)
In the video, al-Zawahiri appeared standing in front of a panel of white lace curtains and wearing a black turban. Although he referred to recent events, it is unknown when the tape was made.
"All this in the West is allowed so they can steal and occupy our land, and stealing our wealth and insulting us and our religion and Quran and our prophet. And after that, they gave us lessons on freedom and human rights," he said.
Al-Zawahiri was last heard from publicly January 30, when he appeared in a video to announce he was alive and well after a U.S. missile strike targeted him January 13 in Pakistan. (Full story)
U.S. officials have said that between four and eight al Qaeda members were killed in the CIA attack in Damadola, near the Afghanistan border.
Pakistani officials said 18 people were killed in the airstrike, including five women and five children, which prompted protests across the country. (Full story)
There was no independent confirmation that the voice on the tape was that of al-Zawahiri, an Egypt-born physician who has remained at large since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The U.S. government has put a $25 million price on his head.
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