Russian journalist foretold death : Newly released essay from controversial reporter describes situation before Oct. 7 slaying, IRA Linked To Bank Robbery, Iran Heats Up, Iraqi insurgents stage defiant parades!
Russia will not allow the U.N. Security Council to be used to punish Iran over its nuclear program, the foreign minister said. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia was ready to discuss ways to pressure Iran into accepting a broader international oversight of its nuclear program, but added that "any measures of influence should encourage creating conditions for talks."
"We won't be able to support and will oppose any attempts to use the Security Council to punish Iran or use Iran's program in order to promote the ideas of regime change there," Lavrov said Friday in an interview with the Kuwaiti News Agency KUNA which was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry Web site Saturday. http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2006/10/20/409130-russia-minister-no-punishment-for-iran
Iranian president said earlier there is no reason for Israel “the greatest insult to human dignity” to exist and it would soon disappear.
Halutz also warned Israel to prepare for possible war with Syria, whose missile to Israel population is similar to that of Hizballah.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threw cold water on reports that in talks with Chinese special envoy Tang Jiaxuan, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had regretted the first nuclear test carried out on Oct. 9 and promised not to test again. Reporting on her own Beijing talks on the way to Moscow, Rice said “Tang did not tell me that Kim Jong-il either apologized or said he would never test again” in his “fairly thorough briefing” to her on his Pyongyang mission. http://www.debka.com/index.php
by Jamie Tarabay
All Things Considered, October 20, 2006 · In Iraq, Shiite militiamen loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr seized control of the southern city of Amarah briefly Friday, after hours of fighting with local police.
The Iraqi government and Sadr's group rushed emergency delegations to the city, and a curfew was imposed. Sadr's militiamen have reportedly withdrawn -- and Amarah, north of Basra, is now described as calm but tense.
Television images showed men wearing black masks firing into the air in the streets of Amarah. Behind them local police stations smoldered and black smoke filled the sky. The fighting between Sadr's militia and local police was sparked by the killing earlier this week of the local intelligence chief, who was said to belong to a rival militia that has infiltrated the region's police.
After the killing, police in Amarah arrested the local head of the Sadr militia, prompting the Shiite gunmen to take to the streets.
Gardai uncover IRA link to £26.5m Northern Bank raid Notes seized during probe into Provisional money-laundering have identification marks which prove they were held in branch's vaults
By Tom Brady
Identification marks on cash seized by gardai when they smashed an IRA money-laundering operation have directly linked the notes to the Northern Bank in Belfast.
The Provisionals were blamed by police on both sides of the Border for the £26.5m heist in December 2004.
For more than a year and a half gardai and the PSNI have been working closely together to establish the connections between the recovered money and the bank robbery.
Within two months of the raid gardai uncovered a money-laundering racket, which they believed was being used by the IRA to 'cleanse' at least ?5m in sterling notes from the proceeds of the heist.
Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has now confirmed that a number of identification marks have been found on the seized cash, proving that it had been held in the vaults of the Donegall Square branch of the bank in Belfast.
Further tests are currently being completed to tie in the money with the stolen consignment.
A massive file on the money-laundering investigation has already been submitted by senior garda officers to the Director of Public Prosecutions, who will determine if criminal charges should be brought. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=710701
Al-Qaida-linked gunmen staged military-like parades Friday in a string of towns west of Baghdad, underlining the growing confidence of Sunni insurgents in a part of Iraq where U.S. and Iraqi forces maintain a heavy counterinsurgency presence. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061020/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_insurgent_parades_1
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is staking part in the Russia-EU summit in Finland on October 21, speaking to reporters touched upon the situation in the Georgian-Russian relations. The Russian leader particularly notes that the problem is not in relations between Russia and Georgia, but in relations between Georgia and South Ossetia, between Georgia and Abkhazia.
According to Putin, Tbilisi is trying to restore its territorial integrity through military way. The Russian-Georgian relations will improve, Putin believes, as soon as relations between Georgia and South Ossetia, Georgia and Abkhazia. According to the Russian president, the blame for deterioration of relations between Moscow and Tbilisi is on the Georgian leadership. According to him, “it is done to form a political and information background suitable for settling the problems with South Ossetia and Abkhazia by coercive way, by bloodshed.” http://www.regnum.ru/english/725800.html
Anna Politkovskaya imagined her own death long before it arrived. For years, she was Russia's most fearless journalist, reporting for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta from the killing fields of Chechnya and exposing the brutality of the Kremlin's war under President Vladimir Putin.
She received one death threat after another, and was detained and beaten by Russian troops who threw her into a pit, threatened to rape her and performed a mock execution. "If it were up to me," an officer told her, "I'd shoot you."
Someone finally decided it was up tohim. Politkovskaya's body was discovered in her Moscow apartment building Oct. 7 with bullets in her head and chest, a Makarov pistol tossed at her feet. Her killing at age 48 came two months after she wrote this previously unpublished essay for "Another Sky," an English PEN book coming from Profile Books in 2007. Here are her words: http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_4521414
MADONNA has copped a caning for trying to adopt a baby from the African nation of Malawi.
The pop star has been branded "egomaniacal and revolting" for adopting 13-month-old David Banda, whose mother died in childbirth, whose two brothers died of malaria and whose father left him in an orphanage.
Human rights groups are trying to stop the adoption.
But rather than criticise the 48-year-old mother of two, we should applaud her altruism. If only more people with resources, competence and parenting skills adopted a needy child.
Malawi, plagued by AIDS, drought and famine, has an average life expectancy for its people of 38, World Vision says. One in three children die before they reach five.
As Madonna said last week, she is just "trying to save a child's life".
Abdul Rahim insists he's an apolitical student who fled a strict father. But he's fallen into a black hole in the war on terror in which first the Taliban and then the United States imprisoned him as an enemy of the state.
Arrested by the Taliban in Afghanistan in January 2000, Rahim says Al Qaeda leaders burned him with cigarettes, smashed his right hand, deprived him of sleep, nearly drowned him and hanged him from the ceiling until he "confessed" to spying for the United States.
U.S. forces took the young Kurd from Syria into custody in January 2002 after the Taliban fled his prison. Accusing him of being an Al Qaeda terrorist, U.S. interrogators deprived him of sleep, threatened him with police dogs and kept him in stress positions for hours, he says. He's been held ever since as an enemy combatant.
Witnesses in Somalia say government troops seized control of a strategically located town Saturday after a firefight with pro-Islamic militias.
The fighting occurred in the town of Bur Hakaba, 60 kilometers southeast of Baidoa. The town lies between the capital, Mogadishu, and the provincial town of Baidoa, which is the Western-backed interim government's temporary seat and only area of control.
Earlier this month, government forces briefly took control of Bur Hakaba. Witnesses said government forces were backed by Ethiopian troops at that time. Both Ethiopia and Somalia deny any Ethiopian troops are in the country.
Islamists seized Mogadishu in June and have since taken control of other areas in southern Somalia. They have declared holy war against Ethiopia, accusing Addis Ababa of sending troops into Somalia to help the weak interim government.
ELECTION CRISIS 2006 PART 1: STEALING ELECTIONS- How It Can Happen, Signs It Is Being Done Already!, BUILDING RED AMERICA
Some time ago I wrote here that the next Presidential election was the best chance for a third party since Strom Thurmond actually got electoral votes in his campaign. Part of the reason I say that is I expect massive problems with the upcoming elections. I actually don't think we should use the computer system at all. Worldwide, low level politicians and party hacks, angry leftists who feel stealing an election would be payback for Florida, not to mention world dictators and terrorists, are already learning words like "computer virus" and how there are already viruses that would have no problem altering the course of elections. Without leaving a paper trail. And neither party seems to be doing anything about it. Partly I say the time has never been as ripe in my lifetime for a third party as it is now, is that if you look at the two parties as brand names in the world of business there would have been take- overs of the brands and competitors would be springing up. Call it voodoo economics, but that's how markets work.
To my surprise I discovered the "brand names" metaphor in the book BUILDING RED AMERICA, which no matter which party you belong to is a fascinating overview of the two parties- and their failure to adapt to the 21st century. This is followed by disturbing articles you should read about the new voting system. Scroll down for our first ELECTION CRISIS section.
Last November one of our contributors, Elce Redmond returned from Iraq after meeting with everyone from U.S. generals to travelling to meet the leaders of the insurgency. Here at this site, it was first said Iraq was in the midst of a civil war. Soon he may be going to the West Bank so we may get an up close look at what's happening there. Which could be a war!
There are many people who contribute articles they find and information to this site. And they come from all political beliefs. Elce works with a Christian peace keeping group, Juice Man (aka Drew) is a libertarian, Mojo is a pagan computer wizard. I am of course, to the right of Attila the Hun. Or so I've been told!
Thanks to you all!
Building Red America: The New Conservative Coalition and the Drive for Permanent Power
A book by Thomas B. Edsall
Everyone has advice for the Democrats these days. If you're ever stranded on a desert island, the quickest way to get attention may not be to launch a signal flare but to declare your candidacy as a Democrat. Someone will be with you shortly to explain what you should do.
The minority party attracts so many caring advisers because it has lost five of the last seven presidential elections and is constitutionally prone to deep bouts of soul-searching. It is going through such an identity crisis now, as liberal activists debate with those in the center-left over how to win back the majority. Making the situation especially urgent is the tantalizing disarray in the GOP ranks: Neoconservatives have been discredited by the Iraq quagmire, Northeastern moderates dislike Southern social conservatives, and small-government-loving fiscal worriers are outraged at the GOP-led government's lack of budgetary restraint. As the midterm elections loom, Democrats have an opportunity; they just need the right plan to embrace their moment.
Thomas B. Edsall and Thomas F. Schaller have both contributed well-documented and thoughtful arguments that might help direct Democrats out of their wilderness. Edsall's accessible "Building Red America" is not presented as a guidebook but as a tour of the political landscape. Republicans have learned how to manage that landscape and adapt more quickly to changes on it. Democrats, on the other hand, keep losing for a reason: Their party is no longer a populist coalition, but it keeps trying to run as one, and its leaders fail to understand the connection between middle-class voters' economic self-interest and their concerns about cultural values.
These days, both parties have abandoned the middle ground. Republicans don't care about it, and Democrats aren't talented enough to find it. But in this dim world, Republicans keep coming out on top. "The Republican Party holds a set of advantages, some substantial and some marginal," Edsall writes, and unless Democrats find a way to solve their problems, "the odds are that the Republican Party will continue to maintain, over the long run, a thin but durable margin of victory."
If Edsall portrays Republicans as cynical and manipulative, he paints the Democratic Party as hapless and structurally flawed. The party has not come to terms with eroding public support for the liberal agenda, he argues; it is held captive by special interests such as unions and trial lawyers but hasn't found a way to manipulate its core constituency groups over long stretches of time the way the GOP has. The occasional bursts of populist sentiment from Democratic candidates -- Al Gore's "people against the powerful" theme, or Howard Dean's claim to represent the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" -- will continue to fail because the affluent college-educated voters who make up much of the party's base are more interested in socially liberal issues. "At the top, the ascendant wing of the party is not populist," Edsall writes. "It is elitist."
If that zinger doesn't get him an inbox full of angry letters, Edsall's view of the Democratic Party's cultural failings will. He disagrees with those on the left who argue that Republicans have won voters through trickery -- by emphasizing values issues like abortion or prayer in school and then doing nothing to help those voters economically. Instead, he argues that Democrats should forge a link with voters who feel that rapid cultural change undermines the sense of family and community that they believe are preconditions for economic success. "Traditional values of family, neighborhood, church, school, and the workplace are, to millions of voters, `money in the bank' -- they are what holds people together, providing security against a rainy day." http://www.arcamax.com/bookreviews/s-120963-556967
Michiko Kakutani - The New York Times
Many of the observations made in this book have been made before by journalists and political strategists, but Mr. Edsall does a nimble job of pulling them together to form a coherent picture, buttressing his assessments with lots of demographic and polling data and situating them in a historical context.
John Dickerson - The Washington Post
Some of the ground covered by Edsall, a veteran Washington Post political reporter now writing for the New Republic, will feel familiar (the rise of conservatives in the South, white flight from the Democratic Party and so on), but unless you're the kind of political junkie who is so intense that people move away from you at cocktail parties, you won't get bored. Building Red America nicely weaves together the strands of contemporary politics, moving from descriptions of tactical electoral strategy to broader cultural currents to demographic shifts.
Publishers Weekly
In this comprehensive and insightful book, Edsall shows just how much angrier Democrats could be-not least of all at themselves-if only they knew the half of what was going on. A senior political reporter for the Washington Post, he knows the capitol's ins and outs as well as anyone, without the bedfellowism of some other Washington journalists. The book goes a long way to explain why Bush, who ran in 2000 as a "uniter, not a divider," proceeded with an aggressively right-wing strategy once in power. Beginning with the revelation to conservative thinkers in 2000 that the "center of the electorate had collapsed," Edsall assiduously details every aspect of their successful push to galvanize their base and emasculate their opponents. "Without pressure to accommodate the center," he adds, "Republicans in the majority have been, with little cost, relatively unresponsive to criticism." Hence, the administration managed to draw both working-class evangelicals (using classic "wedge issues" like race and outrage over gay rights and abortion) and wealthy K Street lobbyists with little consequence. But he also shows that the Democrats lack salable strategies and have lost "a decisive majority of white voters." With depth and journalistic clarity, Edsall illustrates exactly why, more than ever, Democrats need their own Karl Rove. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
These two books look at the recent consolidation of power by the Republican party. "I am not a member of an organized political party," said Will Rogers. "I am a Democrat." And that disorganization is why Republicans keep winning elections, say Los Angeles Times reporters Hamburger and Wallsten. Democrats formerly excelled in coalition building and retail politics, but over the past 20 years, the Republicans have constructed a well-oiled machine to deliver the vote. The GOP has also worked the issues, winning votes from Democrats whose concerns are ignored by the elites running the party. Even Ronald Reagan was once a convert, explaining "I didn't leave the Democratic Party; the Democratic Party left me." Free of the rants and invective typical of recent political books, One Party Country is solidly reported, lucid, and fascinating in explaining the origins of today's power structure. Highly recommended for all libraries. The similar Building Red America, by Washington Post reporter Edsall, has a bigger canvas: the rise of postwar conservativism and how the Right has won with cultural issues. But the story needs touching up, for in a rush to produce the book before the mid-term elections, editing seems to have been minimal, which results in a cut-and-paste narrative that flows and jerks in fits and starts. The endnotes rely extensively on web pages, and this greatly reduces the scholarly value, as Edsall often cites secondary electronic sources that will not long be accessible when there are printed primary sources available. Even larger collections should consider Building a marginal purchase.-Michael O. Eshleman, Kings Mills, OH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A penetrating examination of the Republicans' permanent campaign-and the Democrats' still-formidable disadvantages-from Washington Post senior political reporter Edsall. Globalization and the civil-, women's- and sexual-rights movements have polarized the electorate. Residential enclaves reinforce cultural values, consumer choices and religious convictions, leaving only a sliver of undecided voters. (One consequence: Republicans have come to rely more heavily on religious traditionalists, while secularists comprise a larger proportion of Democratic voters.) This means that since 2000, Republican strategy has switched from reaching out toward centrists to mobilizing the base. Judging from the massive evidence presented here, Karl Rove & Co. excel at politics as narrowcasting, with advertising targeted with a sophistication that has rattled Democrats. Unfortunately, the Democrats' well-educated, affluent, tech-savvy elite emphasize culturally libertarian norms at the expense of their "disadvantaged and disproportionately minority" rank-and-file, who, Edsall observes, are badly served by Republican economic policies that stress individual risk-management. The author predicts that victories resulting from disgust with the Jack Abramoff scandal or even the Iraq war will prove ephemeral unless the Democrats improve their organizational infrastructure and neutralize "wedge" issues such as gay marriage that have helped the GOP achieve slim but decisive electoral victories for 40 years. Though not without ideological bias (e.g., are GOP loyalists really more likely to be driven by "anger points" than Democratic diehards?), Edsall presents a compelling analysis detailing the enormous institutionaladvantages enjoyed by the party in power. In contrast, Democratic special-interest groups have forced John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and Dennis Kucinich to back off positions on affirmative action and abortion that clash with liberal orthodoxy. An intra-party insurgency, a la Goldwater and Reagan in the GOP, might be the only way to disrupt the Democrats' ossification, Edsall speculates. Impressive political analysis, anchoring electoral trends in the larger demographic, social, business and moral environment.
ELECTION CRISIS PART 1: How It Can Happen, Signs It Is Being Done Already!
Dr. Douglas Jones seems, at first glance, an unlikely expert for the subject of voting.
Jones is an associate professor in the University of Iowa’s computer sciences department. It’s not the department you usually find people to speak on elections. But the rapid changes in technology over the course of the past several years put people like Jones squarely in the debate. That trend will likely continue as more locations shift to electronic voting machines.
Officials hailed the machines as a solution to the hanging chad questions and questions surrounding the Florida vote of 2000. But the machines themselves raised questions. Many do not supply a paper trail. The electronic record is the only one available in a recount. The machines’ security is also questioned.
The doubts are unsettling. Can a hacker really sway an election? Could a computer virus wipe out an election? The stakes are extraordinarily high.
DIEBOLD TOUCHSCREEN SOURCE CODE DISCOVERED STOLEN IN MARYLAND
The FBI is investigating the possible theft of software developed by the nation's leading maker of electronic voting equipment, said a former Maryland legislator who this week received three computer disks that apparently contain key portions of programs created by Diebold Election Systems.
Cheryl C. Kagan, a former Democratic delegate who has long questioned the security of electronic voting systems, said the disks were delivered anonymously to her office in Olney on Tuesday and that the FBI contacted her yesterday. The package contained an unsigned letter critical of Maryland State Board of Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone that said the disks were "right from SBE" and had been "accidentally picked up."
Computer virus delays possible recount for Jardine, Yost
A computer virus in the Dane County Clerk's office has delayed a possible recount of the results in the 47th Assembly District race. The district includes parts of Dane, Sauk and Columbia counties, and in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary, Meagan Yost earned a mere eight more votes than Dan Jardine for the chance to face Eugene Hahn, R-Cambria, in the November general election. The official results were 2,057 to 2,049.
ISRAEL PREPARES FOR WAR IN GAZA STRIP, NORTH KOREA DEFIANT, MULLAH OMAR HIDING IN PAKISTAN VILLAGE, AL QAEDA NUKE ATTACK LEADER IN UK
Israel has ratcheted up threats of a massive ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, amid an ongoing war of words with the ruling Hamas movement which has vowed to teach the army a harsh lesson.
"Gaza should not become a second Lebanon," said Immigrant Absorption Minister Zeev Boim on Tuesday, reiterating a phrase used by Israeli leaders recently to mean the territory should not become a bastion of militant resistance.
"Apparently we will not have any other choice but to launch an expanded operation, like Defensive Shield, in order to destroy the stockpiles of weapons and to hit the terrorist organizations," said Boim, a close ally of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused the Hamas-led government of being "defiant," accusing the governing Islamic group of refusing "to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization ... and past signed agreements." He said the group's refusal to open negotiations with Israel has worsened the situation in the Palestinian territories. (Ali Waked)
Doctors in Gaza have reported previously unseen injuries from Israeli weapons that cause severe burning and deep internal wounds often resulting in amputations or death.
The injuries were first seen in July, when the Israeli military launched a series of operations in Gaza following the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants.
Doctors said that, unlike traditional combat injuries from shells or bullets, there were no large shrapnel pieces found in the patients' bodies and there appeared to be a "dusting" on severely damaged internal organs. http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1924524,00.html
Blackhawk helicopters and interceptor jets have begun patrolling Montana airspace along the U.S.-Canada border, and American officials say unmanned drones could be deployed as early as next year.
But the U.S. is playing down the new security measure, claiming it has little to do with Canadians but more to do with the threat of terrorists using Canada as a staging point for attacks in America.
And they say that as long as the terrorist threat exists, border security will continue to be a high priority.
Russian music download site allofmp3.com insisted it was a legitimate business and said US accusations of piracy were merely an excuse to keep Russia out of the World Trade Organisation.
"The US government is conveniently using allofmp3 as an issue to gain further concessions from Russia," said company boss Vadim Mamotin and other executives.
"We operate under Russian law, we pay taxes in Russia and we pay royalties," they said in response to journalists' questions in an online news conference.
Russia has campaigned for 12 years to join the WTO but the United States is still witholding its endorsement of Moscow's candidacy -- it is the only major economy that has not yet backed Russia's bid -- citing shortcomings in several key trade sectors.
Moscow wants to join the organisation both for the prestige of membership and as a means to spur diversification in its own economy, still focused heavily on raw materials export.
But US negotiators have repeatedly returned to the issue of the worldwide music sales of allofmp3.com -- protection of intellectual property being a major stumbling block in Russia's negotiations to join the club.
US Trade Representative Susan Schwab has placed allofmp3.com on a "notorious markets" list and in a speech last month she accused Russian authorities of allowing the website to operate with impunity.
North Korea on Tuesday denounced UN sanctions over its nuclear test as a declaration of war and the United States and others suspected it may try a second bomb test despite international condemnation.
Defiant in the face of sanctions backed by even its closest ally, China, Pyongyang said it had withstood international pressure before and so was hardly likely to yield now that it had become "a nuclear weapons state."
"It is quite nonsensical to expect the DPRK to yield to the pressure and threat of someone at this time when it has become a nuclear weapons state," official media quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
"The DPRK wants peace but is not afraid of war," he said, referring to the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/861608
Afghan President Hamid Karzai told The Associated Press that Mullah Omar, the supreme Taliban leader who headed the repressive Islamist regime ousted by U.S.-led forces five years ago, is hiding in the southeastern Pakistani city of Quetta.
The Taleban's War On Women, Which Nations Will Go Nuclear Next?, What Is Up With North Korea?, The Korean Nightmare Scenario: WHEN KOREA FALLS, Ireland Sets Date- Again
Despite winning key concessions, Russia and China raised new objections that could delay a vote Saturday on a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing punishing sanctions on North Korea for its claimed nuclear test.
North Korea announced its first test of a nuclear device last week, setting off hand-wringing around the world that a newly armed Pyongyang might sell nuclear weapons to rogue states or terrorists.
But another threat, more likely and more dangerous, may emerge. Pyongyang's test could encourage "near-nuclear" proliferation -- a world in which states master key technologies that are ostensibly for harmless energy-related purposes but can be quickly adapted for deadly, offensive ends.
My own feeling is that the North Korean nuclear program is being done to make sure the current leaders family remains in control of the nation after his demise. This is not lost on the world's dictators. The following article is a must read: THE NIGHTMARE AFTER IRAQ
Kim Jong Il’s succession was aided by the link that his father had established in the North Korean mind between the Kim Family Regime and the Choson Dynasty, which ruled the Korean peninsula for 500 years, starting in the late fourteenth century. Expertly tutored by his father, Kim consolidated power and manipulated the Chinese, the Americans, and the South Koreans into subsidizing him throughout the 1990s. And Kim is hardly impulsive: he has the equivalent of think tanks studying how best to respond to potential attacks from the United States and South Korea—attacks that themselves would be reactions to crises cleverly instigated by the North Korean government in Pyongyang. “The regime constitutes an extremely rational bunch of killers,” Lankov says.
Yet for all Kim’s canniness, there is evidence that he may be losing his edge. And that may be reason to worry: totalitarian regimes close to demise are apt to get panicky and do rash things. The weaker North Korea gets, the more dangerous it becomes. The question that should be of greatest concern to the U.S. military in the Pacific—and the question that will likely determine the global balance of power in Asia for generations—is, What happens when North Korea collapses?
Fariba Ahmedi, a member of Afghanistan's parliament, says the murder of women's rights activist Safia Amajan "will not derail women from the path we are on." Ms. Amajan, a former teacher and school administrator and the head of Kandahar province's women's affairs department, was shot to death on her way to work. She was an outspoken critic of the Taleban. A Taleban commander claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened death to other Afghan women. http://www.voanews.com/uspolicy/2006-10-13-voa4.cfm
Sen. Hillary Clinton isn't exactly cash-starved as she heads into the closing days of her race against her GOP rival, former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer.
New York's junior senator had about $15.8 million on hand at the end of September, according to campaign finance filings released yesterday, and early this month she donated more than $1 million to other Democratic campaign groups. Spencer spokesman Rob Ryan said, "It's obvious: Sen. Clinton is using this money to fund her run for President." http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story/461566p-388379c.html
A TIMETABLE that would lead to power sharing in Northern Ireland has been put in place following talks at St Andrews.
A target date for devolution of March 26 next year has been put in place by the British and Irish governments.
Parties from both sides of the divide, including the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein, now have until November 10 to respond to the proposals.
Iraq is already in a state of "limited civil war" and progress towards making its army viable is "faltering," a leading U.S. expert says. "Iraq is already in a state of limited civil war," wrote Anthony H. Cordesman, who holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a prominent Washington think tank, in an executive summary of his new report published last week and entitled "Iraqi Force Development and the Challenge of Civil War: Can Iraqi Forces do the Job?"
Cordesman wrote: "What began as a small resistance movement centered around loyalists to the Baath and Saddam Hussein has expanded to include neo-Salafi Sunni terrorism, become a broadly based Sunni insurgency, and now a broader sectarian and ethnic conflict."
Although the Bush administration remains publicly upbeat about the rapid development of Iraq's 300,000-man strong security forces, including an envisaged 10-division army, Cordesman wrote that the development of these security forces remains "slow or faltering."
PLANS previously drafted by the Pentagon predict 52,000 US military casualties and one million civilian dead in the first 90 days of conflict if America attacked Pyongyang.
The US leadership is looking at international economic and diplomatic sanctions against North Korea as its primary response to Monday's nuclear test.
But military contingencies are considered as a matter of course and analysts paint a horrific picture for even the most targeted of US strikes.
A report this week by US-based security and military analyst Stratfor predicts North Korea could return fire on Seoul with "several hundred thousand high-explosive rounds per hour" -- with up to 25 per cent of shells filled with nerve gas.
Other estimates say the US would need at least 500,000 ground troops to secure against a North invasion of the South.
"When US military planners have nightmares, they have nightmares about war with North Korea," the Stratfor analysis says.
Despite the risks, Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations expert Michael Levi, along with several Australian analysts, believe a North Korean nuclear test would increase the likelihood of a US military response.
Pentagon strategists continue to work on military contingencies but all scenarios forecast massive casualties and a high likelihood of escalating war.
When confronted with Pentagon drafts in 2004, US President George W. Bush was reported to have been horrified at the human cost. Updated Pentagon plans outlining bombing of North Korean nuclear sites, border artillery and troop emplacements call for:
US Air Force General reveals details of possible US aerial offensive against Iran should diplomacy fail to solve dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambition; says 'doing it alone' is not an option for Israel
Yitzhak Benhorin
Published:
10.12.06, 14:27
WASHINGTON - Is it possible to halt Iran's nuclear program by military means? For years, this question has been asked by Israeli and US military officials.
Israel prefers Washington to act on its behalf but academics, left-wing politicians and experts say a military option is not on the cards for the Bush administration because of the situation in Iraq.
But retired US Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney thinks otherwise. There is a good military solution to Iran's nukes but it requires courage and determination to act Mcinerney told Ynet in an interview.
McInerney served as a pilot and a strategic commander in the US Air Force for 35 years. Following his retirement in 1994 he served as a commentator for Fox News.
McInerney said Iran should be attacked by fall 2007 if diplomacy fails.
He added that an aerial attack should be backed by a secret land operation aimed at deposing the Ayatollahs.
McInerney said a military operation against Iran should aim at destroying 1,500 targets within 24 to 36 hours, which would delay Iran's nuclear ambitions by at least five years.
He added that paralyzing the Iranian air force and the Shihab 3 missiles aimed at Israel would be among the goals of a US military offensive against Iran.
He said the Iranian Navy should also be destroyed to prevent Tehran from blocking the Persian Gulf.
Overthrowing the Ayatollahs
The retired general estimates that such offensive would significantly destabilize the Ayatollah's regime.
Asked whether the exiled Iranian opposition is capable of governing Iran once the Ayatollahs are ousted, McInerney said the Iranian nation is divided and many citizens opposed to the Ayatollahs would attempt to take power.
Over 4,300 protests took place in Iran last year, he said.
He also noted that only 51 percent of Iranians are Persians while 49 percent belong to different ethnic groups.
He added that the Ayatollahs can be ousted if the US clandestinely supports opposition groups within Iran.
A US aerial attack against Iran would involve the following stages, says Mcinerney:
Even as people were trying to get over the shock after the killing of prominent journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a top Russian banker was shot dead here in a suspected case of contract killing.
Alexander Plokhin, a director of the Moscow branch of Russia's state-owned Foreign Trade Bank, Vneshtorgbank, was shot in the head on the staircase of an apartment building yesterday. Police, who found a pistol cartridge at the scene, said the attack bore the hallmarks of a contract killing, Interfax reported.
To many of us Anna Politkovskaya will remain the epitome of what a journalist should be.
She represented the best traditions of the Russian intelligentsia - highly cultured, courageous and fiercely honest.
A softly-spoken and serious woman who always talked in measured terms, she was deeply concerned about what was happening in her country.
She was also deeply disturbed by the direction the Putin administration was taking it, and despite the huge pressures put on Russia's media to submit and conform, she regularly investigated and reported the many abuses she believed were ruining the country's progress towards a normal state of democracy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6034701.stm
Anna Politkovskaya made her name reporting from Chechnya for Russia's liberal newspaper, Novaya Gazeta.
She was also the author of two books in English, A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya (2001), and Putin's Russia (2004).
Her writing was often polemical, as bitter in its condemnation of the Russian army and the Russian government as it was fervent in support of human rights and the rule of law.
In the House of Farewell, an austere, cavernous funeral hall at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery, the body of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya lay in an open casket Tuesday afternoon as thousands of mourners -- ambassadors, journalists, civil activists, politicians and ordinary Russians -- filed past and paid their final respects.
A well-placed insider said today that some within the intelligence community are taking an alternative view in confirming Pyongyang’s claims that it has a nuclear program.Other than loud words, a few seismic wiggles, acquisition of nuclear technology and materials, and an active missile program, there is little hard evidence of a nuclear program.Some analysts believe North Korea may now be perpetrating a ruse.Those analysts believe Pyongyang may be replacing a failing nuclear program with an active deception program.
Some analysts believe North Korea may now be playing a high-stakes political gambit modeling its strategy after Libya.Gadhafi, once considered one of the more evil leaders on earth, acquired nuclear components and apparently set out to make atomic weapons, yet after apparently failing, agreed to give up his WMD program if sanctions were dropped. http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MWNjMzgyZDAzMTc4YWFiYjgzNDdjZTk3ZGRmODkyNTE=
At least 11 000 children in Congo are still in the hands of armed groups or unaccounted for three years after the end of a war in which they were captured and forced to fight, Amnesty International said today.
Democratic Republic of Congo is trying to haul itself back to lasting peace after a 1998-2003 conflict dubbed Africa's first world war, which triggered a humanitarian crisis estimated to have killed nearly four million people. But as the vast country prepares for an October 29 presidential run-off vote meant to open a new era in its history, thousands of children are still being kept as fighters by armed groups ready to return to war if peace fails, Amnesty said in a report.
Congo's government launched a programme across the country - roughly the size of western Europe - two years ago to release child soldiers and reintegrate them into civilian life, but Amnesty said the scheme was failing. http://www.sabcnews.com/africa/central_africa/0,2172,136449,00.html
Women in Ethiopia are most likely to suffer violence at the hands of their partners, says the United Nations.
Nearly 60% of Ethiopian women were subjected to sexual violence, including marital rape, according to the Ending Violence Against Women report.
HOLY WAR IN SOMALIA DECLARED, CALL FOR IRAQ PARTITION GROWS, BUSH CONTINUES CLINTON TERROR STRATEGY, N. IRELAND PAISLEY MEETS WITH CATHOLIC BISHOP AND WORLD SURVIVES, TALIBAN PREPARES FOR NEW PHASE OF WAR!
Here at Civil Defense blogdrive I've advocated splitting Iraq up into at least three different states for years. Well, here's an article from antiwar.com which advocates the same. Clearly this idea is spreading.
The civil war will intensify if these regions are not allowed to govern themselves. Given Iraq's recent history, these groups are fighting each other because they fear that the new central government will be used to oppress whatever group or groups are not in power. The only way to ease their fears is to make the central government weak or nonexistent. As for multiple ethnic/religious groups living in the cities, it is a fallacy that each of the autonomous regions in Iraq would have to be composed of contiguous territories. There could also be more than three regions created. In addition, if, for example, the regional lines had to be drawn so that some members of the Sunni group were a minority in the territory of the Shi'ite group, the Shia might be deterred from violence against them because they had a minority in the Sunni areas, and vice versa.
Many opponents of decentralization or partition use the example of the civil war during the breakup of Yugoslavia. Yet that is not the only model. Czechoslovakia and most of the Soviet Union broke up peacefully. Even in the case of Yugoslavia, when Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia separated from Yugoslavia, if the Serbs in those states had been allowed to affiliate with Serbia, a civil war might have been avoided.
The president and those giving him advice should admit the truth to themselves and to the American people: A unified, democratic Iraq is unattainable. Only then can they adopt and sell the radical solution of recognizing the existing de facto partition in Iraq and drastically shrinking or even eliminating the potentially oppressive central government.
An Islamic militia that has seized much of southern Somalia declared a holy war Monday against Ethiopia, accusing its neighbor of deploying thousands of troops to prop up the country's weak, U.N.-backed government.
"I urge all the Somali people to wage holy war against the Ethiopians," said top Islamic leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, wearing combat fatigues and holding aloft an AK-47 assault rifle.
"Ethiopian troops have intentionally invaded our land," he said. "We will counter them soon."
His comments came hours after residents said hundreds of Ethiopian and government troops forced Islamic fighters to abandon Bur Haqaba, a strategic hilltop town. Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde, the national security chairman for the Islamic group, claimed that 35,000 Ethiopian troops were on Somali soil. Foreign observers, however, have put the number in the hundreds.
North Korea may be a starving, friendless, authoritarian nation of
23 million people, but its apparently successful explosion of a small nuclear device in the mountains above the town of Kilju on Monday marks a de
fiant bid for survival and respect. For Washington and its allies, it marks a failure of nearly two decades of atomic diplomacy.
North Korea is more than just another nation joining the nuclear club. It has never developed a weapons system it did not ultimately sell on the world market, and it has periodically threatened to sell its nuclear technology. So the end of ambiguity about its nuclear capacity foreshadows a different era, in which the concern may not be where a nation's warheads are aimed, but in whose hands its weapons and know-how end up.
Democrats were quick to claim Monday, four weeks before a critical national election, that President Bush and hisaides never gave as much priority to countering a new era of proliferation as they did to overthrowing Saddam Hussein.
Bush and his aides contend that Iraq was the more urgent threat, in a volatile neighborhood. But the North's apparent nuclear test raises the question of whether it is too late for the president to make good on his promise that he would never let the world's "worst dictators" obtain the world's most dangerous weapons.
"What it tells you is that we started at the wrong end of the 'axis of evil,'" former Sen. Sam Nunn, the Georgia Democrat
The most alarming thing about Kim Jong-il's new weapons, to many knowledgeable observers, is not the nuclear threat itself. It is the way the world's major powers might respond to them.
The worst-case scenario goes something like this: Terrified by the nuclear threat next door, the Japanese decide to build their own nuclear arsenal, to the deep alarm of China. The United States beefs up its Pacific bases and begins threatening attacks on North Korean missile sites. In response to this new U.S. presence near its shores, China drastically increases its military strength and begins making overt threats, setting off a chain of military escalation. And North Korea, isolated and desperate after losing its last sources of economic support, sells its nuclear devices to al-Qaeda.
“It's more realistic today than it was yesterday,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, who was the U.S. State Department's chief official on nuclear proliferation issues until last year.
I'm still wondering where all the damn outrage is, and I'm not talking about the Foley scandal. On September 29, the Senate voted 100-0 in favor of the pork-swollen Pentagon Budget, which earmarked $70 billion for our ongoing military ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no debate over the appropriations and not one Democrat voted against the egregious spending. On the same day, the Senate also overwhelmingly approved the dismantling of habeas corpus for "enemy combatants". Twelve Democrats sided with the Republicans to allow the US government to detain people arbitrarily and indefinitely.
We shouldn't be all that surprised the Democrats didn't filibuster the awful bill, which also expanded the definition of "enemy combatant" to include anybody who "has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States." Whatever that's supposed to mean. No, the Democrats have long been on the frontlines of the federal government's assault on our civil liberties.
In fact, what we are seeing today is just a logical continuation of a foundation laid during the Clinton era. Before the now well-known Patriot Act there was The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which was signed into law following the Oklahoma City bombing. "The act was wide-ranging, dealing with everything from the making of plastic explosives to trading in nuclear materials," writes Georgetown law professor David Cole and James X. Dempsey in Terrorism and the Constitution.
"Members of Congress immediately felt tremendous pressure to pass antiterrorism legislation," Cole and Dempsey recall. "It did not matter that the proposals in the President's initial bill were directed largely against international terrorism, while the Oklahoma bombing was the work of homegrown discontents Eager to get the bill on the President's desk by the April 19 anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, the Senate adopted the conference report on April 17 in a 91-8 vote. The next day, the House also adopted the report by a vote of 293-133. On April 24, President Clinton signed The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996."
"To make the death penalty effective," explains civil liberties expert Elaine Cassel in The War on Civil Liberties, "meant making it harder to appeal convictions of capital offenses." Clinton's law, says Cassel, also "[made] it a crime to support even the lawful activities of an organization labeled as terrorist [authorized] the FBI to investigate the crime of 'material support' for terrorism based solely on activities protected under the First Amendment [freezes] assets of any US citizen or domestic organization believed to be an agent of a terrorist group, without specifying an 'agent' [expanded] the powers of the secret court [repealed] the law that barred the FBI from opening investigations based solely on activities protected under the First Amendment [and allowed] the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now called the US Citizenship and Immigration Services) to deport citizens (mostly Muslims) upon the order of INS officials."
Of course, these are but a few of the ways in which the Clinton administration infringed upon civil liberties.
A Taliban commander in Afghanistan says hundreds of Taliban fighters are ready to launch suicide attacks to drive U-S and NATO troops out of his country.
A CLOSE friend of murdered teenager Kriss Donald told a court yesterday how he fought to save his friend's life as they were attacked by a gang of Asian men.
Unemployed Jamie Wallace, now 22, described how he and the 15-year-old schoolboy were attacked as they walked down a Glasgow street in daylight, in March 2004.
Edinburgh High Court heard Kriss was repeatedly punched and desperately resisted attempts to bundle him into a Mercedes.
Wallace told jurors: "I was trying to fight back. We were surrounded."
He also alleged one attacker shouted "white bastard" as Kriss yelled "I'm only 15".
The trial has heard the partially clothed body of Kriss, from Pollokshields, Glasgow, was found on the Clyde Walkway the day after the alleged abduction.
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Imran Shahid, 29, his brother Zeeshan, 29, and Mohammed Mushtaq, 27, deny abducting Kriss, murdering him and setting him on fire.
Some people think Bin Laden's network has been devastated by the war on terrorism, but Bruce Hoffman disagrees: The RAND Corporation expert talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about al-Qaida's structure since September 11, Hezbollah's ambitions in Lebanon, and the chances of American success in Iraq.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Hoffman, five years have passed since 9/11. US officials claim that two-thirds of the al-Qaida leadership have either been captured or killed. Yet you are saying that al-Qaida is on the march. What leads you to that conclusion?
Hoffman: Whatever the percentage of the leadership killed or captured, that was the leadership that existed on 9/11. I find that a tremendous success. I don't want to minimize it. But it is also a dangerously anachronistic view because al-Qaida has been capable of filling that void in five years. The constant succession of "Number Threes" -- people in the post of operations chief, from Mohamed Atef to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to Hambali to Hamza al-Rabi, for instance -- proves that. Al-Qaida has a much deeper bench than we thought. They have shown themselves to be more formidable and perhaps more determined than we imagined.
ABOUT BRUCE HOFFMAN
SPIEGEL ONLINE
Dr. Bruce Hoffman is one of the most prolific terror experts in the world, and one of the few who began studying al-Qaida long before September 11, 2001. Now a professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., he worked for years on counterterrorism for the RAND Corporation think tank, and advised the US provisional authority in Baghdad on counterterrorism in 2004. A new edition of his seminal book, "Inside Terrorism" was published in German this year.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Yet we haven't seen another 9/11, only attacks on a smaller scale. Has the threat deminished?
Hoffman: You must look at terror as a constant phenomenon. It changes continuously. Even before 9/11 al-Qaida was not a monolithic organisation. Certainly today it is not the same as it was on 9/11. It doesn't have a state within a state anymore, as it had in Afghanistan. It doesn't have a network of training camps and operational bases and a very solid command-and-control nexus. But now a lot of those training capabilities have migrated from physical space to virtual space, because the terrorists are using the Internet much more. Possession of Afghanistan should not be equated with being capable of a 9/11-type attack. Much of the 9/11 attacks were not planned in Afghanistan but in Germany, Spain and the US as well. I think that al-Qaida still exercises command-and-control. The attacks on the London Underground in July 2005 show that. And there are indications that the recently unmasked London airliner plot from this summer will, too. Al-Qaida is still alive and kicking and, as the airliner plot may yet show, still thinking in the same grandiose, ambitious terms as before 9/11.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But are Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri still the ones ordering attacks?
Hoffman: That's unclear. But there surely is some command structure that functions out of Waziristan. The pattern of the bombings in London in July 2005 for example was almost identical with older plans by al-Qaida. It was carried out by a cell of British Muslim terrorists enlisted by al-Qaida and directed or assisted by al-Qaida cells in Pakistan just as a foiled plan the previous year to attack targets in the US was. In the wishful thinking mode that we are in, we chose not to believe al-Qaida was behind the London attack, and instead believe it was a case of "homegrown terrorism." But that is a myth. The London bombers were no self-radicalized, self-selected individuals acting spontaneously. The ring leader had visited jihadi camps in Pakistan on at least two occasions, and we believe he met with al-Qaida leaders there. By the same token, it wouldn't suprise me if the foiled airliner plot this summer could also be traced back to the al-Qaida leadership. It was also straight out of their textbook and not something self-radicalized, self-selected terrorists could easily devise, organize and coordinate on their own.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: At the same time you write about several new al-Qaidas that exist today...
Hoffman: Yes, because new structures have emerged. It is not an "either/or"-phenomenon: There are both new cells inspired by al-Qaida and actual al-Qaida terrorists active today. That is why I think al-Qaida is more dangerous than it was on 9/11. Because you have now a vast sea of self-radicalized Muslims in many places in the Muslim world that aren't necessarily connected with al-Qaida but willing to act. So you still have an al-Qaida organization that is operating on its own but is also seeking to tap into that pool of unhappiness and disaffection.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: There have been rumors recently about Osama bin Laden being dead or seriously ill. What consequences would his death have?
Hoffman: Bin Laden may be even more powerful dead than alive -- by inspiring people to follow his example of martyrdom. But also alive he is a very influential person, even if he is cut off from communication with his followers. Killing or capturing him straight after 9/11 would have had more impact. The fact that the biggest manhunt in history hasn't led to his arrest until now has already greatly enhanced his standing.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: In your book "Inside Terrorism" you cite Bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri as saying that al-Qaida has the US where they wanted it: if it leaves Iraq, it would be bad, if it stays in Iraq, it wouldn't be any better. Is he right?
Hoffman: Unfortunately I think al-Zawahiri's analysis is probably among the most astute and insightful. I think what he underestimates though is the capacity of the United States to have a positive impact in Iraq or indeed produce the staying power to see through what it has begun. Al-Zawahiri sees Iraq as a flat line that will continue to get worse and descend into total anarchy. Iraq is not a lost cause. We have to realize though that countering complex insurgencies has generally taken at least a decade. So it is still early days, even three years into the conflict there. Therefore, the accuracy of al-Zawahiri's predicition will have to stand the test of time.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: A couple of months ago, the US had to admit that Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorism.
Hoffman: One of our problems is that we don't take seriously what jihadis say. Even before the invasion, Saif al-Adel, the then military chief of al-Qaida, openly incited foreign fighters to come fight there. Why we didn't believe an insurgency would occur still baffles me. The battle cry had already been sounded. Now we even have Iraqi jihadis, something that formerly didn't exist. In this situation it doesn't matter anymore if invading Iraq was right or not. Now the highest priority must be to succeed in Iraq. But that is going to take time. We have to adjust and adapt to our highly innovative and determined adversaries.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The UNIFIL peacekeeping force is concentrating in Lebanon to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. You have studied Hezbollah for a long time. Can you picture Hezbollah changing into a political party? Or will it stay a terrorist threat?
Hoffman: This also is not an "either/or"-question. Hezbollah, on the one hand, has become a major regional political force. But at the same time I don't see them giving up their military potential, since they style themselves a resistance force protecting Lebanon. Hezbollah can thus take tremendous satisfaction in having acquitted itself well against the Israelis this summer and having gained as much as they can for now: international attention, an improved standing with Shiites and even Sunnis across the Muslim world. They are likely to see the time right now as best used to consolidate these gains. The ceasefire will therefore perhaps hold for the time being -- at least as long as it is in Hezbollah's interest.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: For the first time Germany is sending soldiers to the Middle East. The navy is supposed to make sure no arms are being smuggled to Hezbollah via the Mediterranean. Is that a purely symbolic mission?
When the Reverend Ian Paisley, leader of Northern Ireland's largest Protestant political party, held his first formal talks with the local Roman Catholic archbishop in Belfast, perhaps even more unusual than the fact of the talks themselves was that afterward, each side seemed cheerful, almost optimistic.
"It was a very helpful and constructive meeting," the archbishop, Sean Baptist Brady, said in a statement. The talks, he added, "confirmed to me that all of us have a part to play in creating a more stable and prosperous future for Northern Ireland." He called on all sides to "find the courage to take account of the needs of the other and not just those of our own community."
Paisley, the hard-line preacher who leads the Democratic Unionist Party, said in a statement after the meeting that "we had a very good and useful exchange of views across a range of issues." He said he and members of his party discussed poverty, the economy and the benefits of stable self-government in the province with the archbishop and a delegation from the Northern Ireland Catholic Council on Social Affairs. "It is in the interests of everyone to develop the foundations for stability and prosperity for all the people of Northern Ireland," Paisley said.
It would be difficult to overstate the depth of Paisley's dislike of Roman Catholicism. In 1988, as a member of the European Parliament, he interrupted a speech by Pope John Paul II by shouting, "I renounce you as the Antichrist!" He also held up a red poster that read, "Pope John Paul II - Antichrist."
After the fall of the Taliban five years ago, some experts warned of a nightmare scenario in which the Taliban and Al Qaeda would escape from Afghanistan into neighboring Pakistan and set up new command centers far out of America's reach.
That nightmare scenario has now come true. The Taliban controls large parts of the lawless tribal areas along the border. In a video obtained by FRONTLINE, the Taliban demonstrate their brutal brand of justice. After executing 17 people, said to be thieves, in front of a crowd of hundreds, they hung the bodies on poles for three days. "We have killed these people and sent them to God," a Taliban gunman says to the camera. "God will bring them to justice."
"The United States is beginning to recognize that its project in Afghanistan will fail unless it addresses the sanctuary and support that the Taliban enjoys in Pakistan," says Steve Coll. "But the United States has not yet reached the point where it knows what kind of ... policy it is prepared to carry out." WATCH THE ENTIRE FRONTLINE SPECIAL HERE:
Science and religion. Two distinct philosophical choices we are faced with to understand our world. One encourages questioning, discussion and arguments. One encourages no questioning and a general belief that going along is a sign of faith. Even folks who break from religion might catch themselves working for a world of peace and justice, in other words, heaven. Religious thought sees an order and a reason. Scientific thought sees asteroids flying by the planets and wonders when we'll get hit, and uses reason.
Right now across America cities are passing laws against obesity. Here is how the argument goes: our political system is to blame for encouraging a consumerist, fast food culture (guilt) that has caused our kids to get fatter than ever. So we must ban types of cooking oil used by chains and it will all get better then (heaven). Healthier humans, skinny kids. Angels.
Now. What does science show us? It's genetic folks. We have body types that when we try to change them always go back to the original shape. GENETIC:
With the identification of leptin and its receptors by our laboratory, two of the molecular components of a system that maintains constant weight have been identified. Leptin is a hormone secreted by the adipose (fat) tissue that modulates food intake relative to energy expenditure. Leptin also plays a general role in regulating many of the physiologic responses that are seen with changes in nutritional state. Our current research is focused on the genes and regulatory mechanisms that control body weight, leptin's mechanism of action, and its relevance to the pathogenesis of obesity. Other studies seek to elucidate the mechanism by which a single molecule, leptin, can modulate a complex behavior, feeding. Finally, efforts to establish the genetic basis of human obesity on the Pacific Island of Kosrae are also under way.
It isn't McDonald's fault if some people can't stop eating.
Yet in city after city we pass laws based on nothing but a faith that "everyone knows". After you read this link you'll know what 90% of the population doesn't know.
Who has saved more human lives than anyone else in history? Who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970? Who still teaches at Texas A&M at the age of 86? The answer is Norman Borlaug.
Who? Norman Borlaug, the father of the "Green Revolution," the dramatic improvement in agricultural productivity that swept the globe in the 1960s.
In the late 1960s, most experts were speaking of imminent global famines in which billions would perish. "The battle to feed all of humanity is over," biologist Paul Ehrlich famously wrote in his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb. "In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now." Ehrlich also said, "I have yet to meet anyone familiar with the situation who thinks India will be self-sufficient in food by 1971." He insisted that "India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980."
But Borlaug and his team were already engaged in the kind of crash program that Ehrlich declared wouldn't work. Their dwarf wheat varieties resisted a wide spectrum of plant pests and diseases and produced two to three times more grain than the traditional varieties.
Over a billion lives saved because of one man. Yet how often do you hear his name? The argument against, that he created "Frankenfood" that needs far more bureaucracy and by the way we should all only eat organic - is again a utopian faith based idea. There is every reason to suspect that untreated "natural" fertilizer sitting in piles on a field can be a breeding ground for e coli. Science- over a billion saved. Religion? More government control, an unhealthy "healthy" food doctrine and who knows how many dead? http://reason.com/0004/fe.rb.billions.shtml The next post shows religious based belief, even if cloaked in political speak, can bring forth misery and mass death on a scale unimaginable. Just to create, a better world. (Heaven again).
In April 1972, after seven months of testimony, EPA Administrative Law Judge Edmund Sweeney stated that “DDT is not a carcinogenic hazard to man. ... The uses of DDT under the regulations involved here do not have a deleterious effect on freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds, or other wildlife. ... The evidence in this proceeding supports the conclusion that there is a present need for the essential uses of DDT.”*
Two months later, EPA head [and Environmental Defense Fund member/fundraiser] William Ruckelshaus - who had never attended a single day’s session in the seven months of EPA hearings, and who admittedly had not even read the transcript of the hearings - overturned Judge Sweeney’s decision. Ruckelshaus declared that DDT was a “potential human carcinogen” and banned it for virtually all uses.**
Since Ruckelshaus arbitrarily and capriciously banned DDT, an estimated cases of malaria have caused immense suffering and poverty in the developing world.***
Of these largely avoidable cases, people died.****
That exceeds one needless premature death every 12 seconds for more than three decades. Click on the link to watch the malaria clock move:
good intentions sometimes go awry. Clever appeals often mask a hidden agenda that actually makes life infinitely worse for people on the ultimate "receiving end" of our kind-hearted donations.
Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth importune us for funds to help them battle proposed hydroelectric, coal, gas and nuclear power plants in India and Africa. Put solar panels on huts instead, preserve indigenous lifestyles, they plead. And the money rolls in -- from people, companies and foundations -- to the tune of over $4 billion a year to U.S. eco-groups alone.
The donors get warm fuzzies. The activist groups ramp up another campaign. And 2 billion people in Africa, Asia and Latin America continue to live without electricity -- and without lights, refrigeration, hospitals, water purification or better jobs.
Mothers and girls spend hours each day gathering wood or cow dung -- and more hours breathing acrid, polluted smoke from their cooking and heating fires. Four million infants, children and mothers die every year from readily preventable lung infections -- millions more from dysentery and other diseases caused by unsafe water and spoiled food. A huge brown cloud of pollution hangs over much of southern Asia, as a result of all these fires. http://www.techcentralstation.com/010704F.html
03 May 2006 A key Senate Democrat is defending his proposal to divide Iraq into three autonomous regions with a central government in Baghdad. Senator Joe Biden denies Bush administration assertions that the plan represents a partition of the country, saying it is aimed at keeping the country unified.
When Senator Biden argued in an article in the New York Times earlier this week that Iraq should be divided into Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish autonomous regions, with a central government in Baghdad, the idea was immediately rejected by the Bush administration, which said it amounted to a partitioning of the country.
An influential Republican senator, Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner, has called the proposal constructive.
Senator John Warner (R-Virginia), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, fresh from a trip to Iraq, on the war:
“I assure you, in two or three months, if this thing hasn’t come to fruition and if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function, I think it’s a responsibility of our government internally to determine: Is there a change of course that we should take? And I wouldn’t take off the table any option at this time.”
If Senator Warner is now saying that he won’t rule out withdrawal — even as, nationwide, Republican congressional candidates are saying “stay the course” — this is a huge crack in the dike of Republican intransigence.
Ms. Collins, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, echoed Mr. Warner’s calls for a shift in strategy in Iraq. “When Chairman Warner, who has been a steadfast ally of this administration, calls for a new strategy,” she said, “that is clearly significant.”
She said the current approach, which she attributed to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, had not led to an overall reduction in violence or any prospect that American troop levels would come down soon.
“We’ve heard over and over that as Iraqis stand up, our troops will stand down,” Ms. Collins said. “Well, there are now hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops and security forces, and yet we have not seen any reduction in violence.”
Democrats, who have been using their fall election campaigns to tap into intense voter dissatisfaction with the way that Mr. Bush has handled Iraq, quickly seized on the Warner remarks, circulating them in e-mail messages to reporters. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, convened a conference call on Friday afternoon to hammer home the theme that even Republicans believed that the administration must change course. “Warner’s statement is an important, important statement and, I hope, a turning point,” Mr. Biden told reporters.
He that at least two Republican colleagues other than Mr. Warner had told him that once the election is over, they would join with Democrats in working on a bipartisan plan for bringing stability to Iraq. Echoing Mr. Warner’s language, he said, “I wouldn’t take any option off the table at this time. We are at the point of no return.”
Third, entirely outside the constitution, there is the possibility of a military coup d’etat. Rumors of a coup have swirled in Baghdad for at least a year. Over the weekend, when Maliki announced a sudden, and unprecedented, curfew banning vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the entire capital, there were reports that an army coup d’etat had been thwarted. One Iraq expert I talked to told me that perhaps some of the Iraqi army units being moved into Baghdad as part of the current crackdown might be candidates to seize power in the Green Zone. Of course, such an action would have to be encouraged and sponsored by the U.S. command in Iraq and the CIA, which—according to Iraqi sources—has a firm hand on Iraq’s own intelligence service. But a military coup would be a very brutal and bloody affair, instantly pitting the more Sunni-friendly army against the Shiite establishment and its paramilitary forces. On the other hand, Iraq’s military, unlike the police and Interior Ministry forces, has earned the grudging respect of many Iraqis, who see it as more neutral and even nationalist force.
Fourth, there is an option somewhere in between the second and third options I’ve just outlined, namely, the imposition of a strongman—perhaps someone like former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi—by the military, but with the military acting behind the scenes. It would depend on getting at least passive support from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who has despaired of Iraqi politics of late and withdrawn. This option would have an exceedingly high degree of difficulty, however, and this week Allawi, in London, denied rumors that he is involved in plotting a coup d’etat.
But options like these are being actively bruited about inside and outside the Bush administration. All of them are high-risk strategies—and because U.S. involvement in such schemes would likely be revealed in short order, it would mean that any Iraqi government created in such circumstances would suffer enormously from being seen as a U.S. puppet.
Two months later, EPA head [and Environmental Defense Fund member/fundraiser] William Ruckelshaus - who had never attended a single day’s session in the seven months of EPA hearings, and who admittedly had not even read the transcript of the hearings - overturned Judge Sweeney’s decision. Ruckelshaus declared that DDT was a “potential human carcinogen” and banned it for virtually all uses.**