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Friday, December 01, 2006
All Hell Breaks Out: Kosovo, Ethiopia!
CLINTON'S FOLLY: Kosovo Albanians attack UN; police fire teargas
U.N. police in Kosovo fired teargas on Tuesday to disperse ethnic Albanians who smashed the windows of parliament and stoned U.N. headquarters, angry at a delay to their demand for independence from Serbia.
Thousands of protesters converged on the main symbols of authority in the capital, Pristina, throwing red paint on the buildings of the U.N. mission and Kosovo's interim government.
They dispersed after U.N. police fired teargas from inside the U.N. compound, a fortified square on the site of a former Serb military headquarters.
It was the first sign of a violent backlash since Western powers and Russia this month decided to delay a U.N. decision on the Albanian majority's demand for independence until next year. http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L28197557.htm Hey, someone ask Clinton what the exit strategy was......the sad thing is because liberal don't understand military strategy, they don't know that all Bush has done by taking the running of the war away from Rumsfeld and turning it over to the State Department, we are now following the Clinton doctrine! They will tell you the Serbian leaders were bad men, but wasn't Saddam too?
al-Qaida Said to Be Operating in Somalia
Al-Qaida militants are operating with "great comfort" in Somalia, providing training and assistance to a radical military element loyal to the Islamic group that controls most of southern Somalia, a senior State Department official said Wednesday. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/11/29/national/w142348S51.DTL
U.S. CALLS FOR U.N. TO SOMALIA!
U.S. officials are expected to submit a resolution to the United Nations this week calling for the deployment of international peacekeepers to war-torn Somalia, a move that has divided experts on its effectiveness in creating peace and stability in the country and greater region.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/africa/article_1228031.php/U.S._wants_Somalia_peacekeepers
Ethiopia authorizes action against Somali Islamists
Ethiopia's parliament has authorized "any legal action" against "the clear and present danger" posed by powerful Islamists in neighboring Somalia, ratcheting up fears for war.
Lawmakers adopted a resolution Thursday that calls the Islamists, now on the brink of war with the weak Somali government, a "clear and present danger" to Ethiopia, which is supporting Somalia's transitional administration.
The vote came just hours after the Islamists claimed a new attack on Ethiopian troops outside the seat of the government and a day after the Islamists accused Ethiopia of shelling a Muslim-held town near the border.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061130/ts_afp/somaliaunrestethiopia_061130105022
An Ethiopian military convoy in Somalia has been ambushed by fighters loyal to the powerful Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), witnesses said on Thursday.
It happened on Tuesday 35km south-west of Baidoa, seat of the weak interim government, who deny it took place.
Eyewitness said a truck was blown up and there was an exchange of fire. The UIC claim about 20 Ethiopians died.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6159059.stm
A car bomb has exploded in Baidoa, where Somalia's fragile interim government is based, leaving at least six people dead.
A policeman told the BBC that a female suicide bomber wearing a veil blew herself up at a check-point.
The explosion also destroyed two other cars. "There were flames everywhere," an eye-witness said.
President Abdullahi Yusuf survived a suicide car bomb attack in Baidoa two months ago, which killed his brother.
He blamed that attack on his Islamist rivals, who denied responsibility.
There are fears of widespread conflict breaking out in Somalia between the government and the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controls most of the south of the country, including the capital, Mogadishu. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6160603.stm
Angola, the largest sub-Saharan oil producer in Africa after Nigeria, said it will apply to join OPEC next month, while the oil cartel's secretary general said Sudan also was poised to join.
OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo, speaking to Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday on the sidelines of a producers' meeting in Egypt, gave no timetable for Angola or Sudan to join the group, which has not welcomed a new member since 1975. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15965843/ Posted at 02:52 pm by Psychomike
Rumsfeld: Threat, Menace Or.....
RUMSFELD: WAS HE A THREAT, MENACE OR VISIONARY?
Some folks have asked me to prove that Rumsfeld, the single man in the White House who wanted us to leave Iraq within 1 year of the invasion, had been bumped by the State Department long ago. Sent out as a sacrificial lamb to the left and libs, he was the only person arguing for us not staying in Iraq, and someday I believe history will beat the rhetoric. Here Juiceman provides me with ammo:
10/6/2003
Rice will manage Iraq's 'new phase'
By Judy Keen, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — President Bush is giving his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, the authority to manage postwar Iraq and the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
Look at this- this is from the first entry and is dated from December 2005:
President George W. Bush on Wednesday announced that the State Department would lead all US post-conflict reconstruction, a move that supersedes the controversial decision to give that task to the Pentagon in Iraq following the 2003 invasion.
...but look at the other entries here, they're all dated from 2003 and say the same thing:
She already had authority, Bush waited 2 years to make it official.
Bush shafted Rumsfeld. Thanks Juiceman!
Rumsfeld found out he was replaced by the State Department, when he read it in a newspaper!
Liberals never understood what he was saying, and preferred to paint him as a Goebbels to Bush's Hitler. They lied. Or are fools. You don't force out the one guy who agrees with you- unless your hatred is so strong you really have no idea what is going on.
I also get asked if I really believe Rangel wanted to waste hundreds of thousands on a study of the military makeup, millions to reman draft boards, hundreds of millions to clothe, arm new troops and billions to send overseas more men. Read the next article, and weep: (By the way, Bush has made a terrible error, one of many, by saying he would send 20,000 new troops in. He should have let the Dems continue to argue for more troops so that over these two years people understood the Dems would want to escalate the crisis by throwing money and troops into the region. Now the issue is grey. I have had so many liberals write me and tell me a few hundred thousand troops more would end the civil war that I fear Bush is now re-inforcing this rubbish in people's minds. Rumsfeld wanted troops on ships to guard the area and off the ground, a smaller and sleeker military force to respond to terror, more reliance on corporations than government in National Security and if a civil war happened, at least it would keep the various factions away from us. I believe history will prove he was right.)
Rangel Adopts the Logic of Kerry's 'Joke'
Rep. Charles Rangel has adopted Senator Kerry's "botched joke" about unsuccessful young people ending up in the military — only Mr. Rangel is not joking.
"If a young fellow has an option of having a decent career, or joining the Army to fight in Iraq, you can bet your life that he would not be in Iraq," Mr. Rangel, a Democrat representing Manhattan and Queens, said on "Fox News Sunday."
"If there's anyone who believes these youngsters want to fight, as the Pentagon and some generals have said, you can just forget about it. No bright young individual wants to fight just because of a bonus and just because of educational benefits. And most all of them come from communities of very, very high unemployment," the congressman said.
Mr. Rangel was responding to a question about a study by a conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, which found that those enlisting in the military tend to be better educated than the general public and that military recruiting seems to be more successful in middle-class and wealthy neighborhoods than in poor ones.
"He's really, indirectly, insulting the troops," the study's author, Timothy Kane, told The New York Sun. "He doesn't want to admit the fact that thousands and tens of thousands of young men and women are willing to make these sacrifices. More and more troops are saying duty and honor are motivating them, not college money."
Mr. Kane, a former Air Force intelligence officer, said his study found that 97% of military enlistees were high school graduates, as compared with about 80% of Americans in general, and that the average reading level of military personnel is a full grade level higher than that of the general populace.
Mr. Kane acknowledged that in 2005 the Army, which was falling short of recruitment goals, began accepting more high school dropouts and more recruits with lower scores on intelligence tests. "It's not a huge surge," he said, noting that the increase amounted to a few percent at most.
Mr. Rangel is a long-standing advocate of reinstating the draft, but Mr. Kane said conscription would wreak havoc by drawing more undereducated and unintelligent people into the force. "A draft would almost certainly be a disaster," the analyst said.
Mr. Rangel has said that his draft proposal has little chance of becoming law. However, he rejected the Heritage findings and insisted yesterday that a formal Congressional examination of the military's demographics will prove him right.
"Once we are able to get hearings on this, everyone will see what they already know, and that is that those who have the least opportunities at this age find themselves in the military, as I did when I was 18 years old," the congressman said. http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=44138
People have asked why I am so concerned about the spy poisining case - I have a feeling we should start checking Russian planes that arrive here as the UK is. My fear? They have been using the planes to transport and sell nuclear materials! FOR YEARS NOW.
Posted at 04:55 am by Psychomike
Thursday, November 30, 2006
33,000 Under Radiation Alert!
Thousands of British Airways passengers were caught in a radiation scare last night after traces of a substance, thought to be the same that killed the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, were found on two planes.
Around 33,000 passengers are believed to have flown on 221 flights across Europe since the traces were found earlier in the month.
The Government grounded one plane on Tuesday and another yesterday. A third is in Moscow awaiting tests.
Police are focusing on flights from Moscow to Heathrow Airport on Oct 25 and 31 and in the other direction on Oct 28 and Nov 3. Since then, the planes, all Boeing 767s, have flown to Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Athens, Larnaka, Madrid, Vienna, Istanbul, Frankfurt and Stockholm.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=WV43222W314OLQFIQMFCFGGAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2006/11/30/npoison30.xml Posted at 02:17 am by Psychomike
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Iraq Panel Calls For "Fallback"
GERRY ADAMS THREATENED, UN TROOPS ENGAGING IN CHILD PROSTITUTION, CHAVEZ PREPARES FOR CIVIL WAR!
Passengers have been asked to come forward for possible testing, after radiation traces were found on two BA planes linked to the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
The BA 767 planes operate on routes within Europe and up to 800 passengers on four flights may have been affected.
A statement from the airline said: "BA has been advised that three of its Boeing 767 short haul aircraft have been identified by the UK Government as part of the investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko.
"The airline was contacted last night by the Government. It has taken the three B767s out of service to enable forensic examination to be carried out.
"The initial results of the forensic tests, which was confirmed late this afternoon, has shown very low traces of a radioactive substance onboard two of the three aircraft.
"British Airways has been advised that this investigation is confined solely to these three B767 aircraft, which will remain out of service until further notice.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=419497&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
Iraq Panel to Recommend Pullback of Combat Troops
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29 — The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday on a final report that will call for a gradual pullback of the 15 American combat brigades now in Iraq but stop short of setting a firm timetable for their withdrawal, according to people familiar with the panel’s deliberations.
The report, unanimously approved by the 10-member panel, led by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, is to be delivered to President Bush next week. It is a compromise between distinct paths that the group has debated since March, avoiding a specific timetable, which has been opposed by Mr. Bush, but making it clear that the American troop commitment should not be open-ended. The recommendations of the group, formed at the request of members of Congress, are nonbinding.
A person who participated in the commission’s debate said that unless the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki believed that Mr. Bush was under pressure to pull back troops in the near future, “there will be zero sense of urgency to reach the political settlement that needs to be reached.”
The report recommends that Mr. Bush make it clear that he intends to start the withdrawal relatively soon, and people familiar with the debate over the final language said the implicit message was that the process should begin sometime next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/world/middleeast/30policy.html?ei=5094&en=1b8f934bb873891b&hp=&ex=1164862800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Thousands of armed Venezuelans are preparing to ensure that President Hugo Chavez is re-elected on Sunday and will "shed their blood" for the cause if necessary.
Paranoid about the prospect of a coup or losing the presidential election fair and square, the firebrand leader of anti-American sentiment in Latin America has spent his eight years in office filling government jobs with acting and retired army officers.
With Mr Chavez hoping to win another six years in power, the opposition fears that even if it wins at the ballot box it will never be able to take power.
After purging the armed forces of elements opposed to his populist Left-wing rule, Mr Chavez has ensured that a new reserve force is outside the normal military command chain, answering only to him.
The former paratrooper colonel, who led a failed coup in 1992, has military men in most ministries, in politics, and even on the Supreme Court.
"What we have now is a form of Praetorian government," said Domingo Irwin, a defence analyst at the Pedagogical University in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital.
One proud member of Venezuela's new military reserve is Edgar Fajardo. He does not know much about handling guns, but he does know who he will vote for in the election: Hugo Chavez.
"I was unemployed until 'El Comandante' [Mr Chavez] gave me this chance to serve my country," said Mr Fajardo 54, who irons his uniform every morning before acting as a sentry at government installations in the capital's poor neighbourhood of Catia.
He said: "Now I am ready to shed my blood for him and the Bolivarian Revolution."
That socio-economic "revolution", as Mr Chavez likes to call it, is inspired by his hero Simón Bolívar, the 19th century Venezuelan and Latin American revolutionary leader. For it to continue, Mr Chavez, 52, will have to defeat the veteran politician Manuel Rosales to secure another term.
By distributing his oil-rich country's wealth, Mr Chavez has made many friends who should help him to achieve his goal. He has doubled the number of state sector jobs to more than two million in a population of 26 million.
The United States and alarmed neighbours have accused Mr Chavez of using his oil windfall to spark an arms race in the region.
He has acquired 100,000 Russian Kalashnikov rifles, SU30 fighter jets and more than 50 helicopters.
But it is more about political control than national defence.
For Alberto Garrido, a leading political analyst in Caracas, the president is building up and arming his support base, should he lose elections or be removed from power by other means.
"He believes in the revolutionary principle of a people in arms, and he believes that he can never be beaten should his people be armed," said Mr Garrido.
Disembowelled, then torn apart: The price of daring to teach girls
The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.
The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls.
Mr Halim was one of four teachers killed in rapid succession by the Islamists at Ghazni, a strategic point on the routes from Kabul to the south and east which has become the scene of fierce clashes between the Taliban and US and Afghan forces.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has revealed he was warned by police of another threat to his life.
The party said members would "take precautions to minimise risks" but would continue to do the work they "were elected to do".
Earlier this month, Mr Adams said dissident republicans were behind threats to him and other party members.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6195510.stm
UN Troops Face Child Abuse, Prostitution Charges
(RTTNews) - An investigation by a leading news organization has revealed that children have been subjected to rape and prostitution for food or money by United Nations troops in Haiti and Liberia. Girls have told of regular encounters with soldiers where sex is demanded in return for food or money, a BBC investigation has found.
The UN has faced several scandals involving its troops in recent years, including a DR Congo pedophile ring and prostitute trafficking in Kosovo.
Meanwhile the assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations acknowledges that sexual abuse is widespread.
"We've had a problem probably since the inception of peacekeeping - problems of this kind of exploitation of vulnerable populations," Jane Holl Lute told the BBC.
"My operating presumption is that this is either a problem or a potential problem in every single one of our missions." (RTTNews)
Posted at 11:15 pm by Psychomike
Litvinenko Smuggled Nuclear Materials!
Alexander Litvinenko, the poisoned former Russian agent, told the Italian academic he met on the day he fell ill that he had organised the smuggling of nuclear material out of Russia for his security service employers.
Mario Scaramella, who flew into London yesterday to be interviewed by Scotland Yard officers investigating Mr Litvinenko's death, said Mr Litvinenko told him about the operation for the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB.
Police said that Mr Scaramella, who met Mr Litvinenko at a sushi bar in London on 1 November to discuss a death threat aimed at both of them, was a potential witness. He was being interviewed at a "secure location" in London but was not in custody.
In an interview with The Independent shortly after the poisoning became public, Mr Scaramella said that Mr Litvinenko, a friend and professional contact since 2001, told him he had masterminded the smuggling of radioactive material to Zurich in 2000. There have long been concerns that turmoil in Russia and other former Soviet states after the fall of Communism created an international black market in radioactive substances.
The operation would have been one of the last carried out by Mr Litvinenko while still an FSB officer, in a unit tackling organised crime and smuggling. He fled Russia for London that year after the FSB began investigating him for corruption - charges which he claimed were invented as revenge for his decision to expose an FSB plot to assassinate the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2023856.ece
An Italian academic who met former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko the day he became ill from radiation poisoning is under police protection in London and undergoing medical tests, a legal source said on Tuesday.
Mario Scaramella, who has advised an Italian parliamentary commission on Soviet-era
espionage, is being checked to find out if he too has been contaminated. Litvinenko
died on Thursday.
"He went to London and is under British protection. He is undergoing medical tests to
determine his possible contamination," said the Rome-based source, who asked
Posted at 12:44 pm by Psychomike
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
New Poisoning Rocks Russia!
Yegor Gaidar, Russia’s former prime minister and the architect of the country’s market reforms, last week suffered a sudden, unexplained and violent illness on a visit to Ireland, a day after Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB spy, died in London from an apparent radiation poisoning.
Mr Gaidar is now in a stable condition at an undisclosed Moscow hospital, undergoing tests. In a telephone interview with the FT, Mr Gaidar said the doctors had so far been unable to identify the cause of the violent vomiting and bleeding that he suffered during a conference in Ireland.
Anatoly Chubais, his former associate and the head of Russia’s electricity monopoly, said he suspected Mr Gaidar may have been poisoned.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1bc23f9c-7f21-11db-b193-0000779e2340.html
The Kremlin mounted a concerted campaign yesterday to point the finger of suspicion at the billionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky over the death of his friend, Alexander Litvinenko, after traces of radioactive polonium-210 were found at the London offices of the exiled Russian oligarch.
Senior figures in the Russian establishment lined up to implicate Mr Berezovsky, who employed and funded the former KGB spy.
The billionaire, who has been granted asylum in Britain, last night issued a statement mourning Mr Litvinenko’s death and saying that he had “complete faith” that Scotland Yard would conduct a “thorough and professional investigation”.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2477277,00.html#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=World
The poisoning of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko would have required considerable scientific know-how, according to experts.
Mr Litvinenko's death on 23 November was linked to a "major dose" of radioactive polonium-210 found in his body.
Traces of radiation have since been found at five locations around London, including a sushi restaurant and hotel visited by the deceased.
But the radioactive substance implicated is as difficult to obtain as it can be to detect.
Polonium-210 occurs naturally in the environment and in people at low concentrations. But acquiring enough of it to kill would require individuals with expertise and powerful connections. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6190144.stm Posted at 09:39 pm by Psychomike
Catholics To Return To Latin Mass
RICE TO MEET WITH PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT, BRUSSELS TALKS BACK FULL UK/ ULSTER COLLABORATION INVESTIGATION, POPE CALLS FOR TOLERANCE, INSIDE TERROR FUNDING!
US President George W. Bush accused Iran and Syria of undermining the government in Lebanon on Tuesday. "That government is being undermined, in my opinion, by extremist forces encouraged out of Syria and Iran," Bush said during a stopover in Estonia before heading to a NATO summit in neighboring Latvia.
He added that a democratic Lebanon "will be a major defeat for those who articulate extremist point of views."
Meanwhile, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem accused the US and France Tuesday of interference over Lebanon and rejected similar accusations leveled by Paris on Damascus.
Moallem branded as "nonsense" US and French allegations surrounding Syria's role in the killings of Lebanese political figures.
"We know who's interfering, the Americans and the French," he said, speaking on the sidelines of a Euromed summit of EU and Mediterranean foreign ministers held in Tampere, Finland. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=77244
TEHRAN: Iran said on Tuesday it would let the UN nuclear watchdog take further environmental sampling of materials related to an academic centre, where Washington fears work to make atomic bombs was conducted.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said it has questions about Iran's nuclear programme before it can declare that Tehran's aims are peaceful. The West accuses Iran of trying to make atomic bombs, a charge Tehran denies. http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3882568a12,00.html
Tony Blair vowed today that "no diplomatic or political barrier" would be allowed to hamper the police investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who died of radiation poisoning last week.
Speaking in Copenhagen, before he travelled to Riga, Latvia, for a NATO summit, the Prime Minister described the case as "very serious". If necessary, he said that he would take up the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I have not spoken to President Putin but I will do so at any time that is appropriate," said Blair."There is no diplomatic or political barrier in the way of (the) investigation going wherever it needs to go." http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=9426
U.N.-backed government forces battled renegade troops loyal to a local warlord in a fourth day of fighting Tuesday in eastern Congo, where a U.N. helicopter strafed hills as hundreds of people fled the area.
Ending such violence in the country's lawless east is a major challenge for President Joseph Kabila, who was declared official winner of Congo's landmark presidential ballot a day earlier by the Supreme Court. http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/11/28/congo.ap/index.html
Relatives of six men murdered when loyalists sprayed a Northern Ireland bar with bullets have told MEPs that British security forces colluded in the atrocity.
Ulster Volunteer Force killers carried out the massacre at Loughinisland’s Heights Bar and the families have claimed they were aided by British State agents.
They were in Brussels today meeting leaders of all the major parties, many of whom pledged support.
Patrick McCreanor, whose family lost two generations in the attack, said he was delighted by the all-party support.
“If things were right at home we should not have to do this. If the police had tried to investigate this properly we would not be here,” he said.
“Although I have no reason to believe the Police Ombudsman will not do her job properly, we want to make sure there’s no slippage and no stone left unturned.
“There’s not a day goes by that you don’t think of your loved ones at all but it is important to remember that there were also survivors and we are fighting for them as well.”
Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan is holding an inquiry into the police investigation.
http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=86680040&p=8668x34z&n=86680420
Responding to rumors that Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) will soon issue a motu proprio encouraging broader use of the pre-conciliar liturgy, the Archdiocese of Genoa, Italy, has posted a detailed notice assuring the faithful that the traditional liturgy was not abolished by the Second Vatican Council.
The notice, published on the web site of the Genoa archdiocese on November 27, does not specifically confirm the widespread reports that a motu proprio is imminent. However, after saying that "misleading comments that are in circulation" call for a response, the statement emphasizes that the Pope has the authority to issue new liturgical norms. In order to preserve full communion within the Church, all Catholics should follow those norms, the statement adds.
Regarding the traditional liturgy, the Genoa archdiocese states: "The Second Vatican Council did not abolish or ask for the abolition of the Mass of Pius V." Rather, the Council sought a reform of that liturgy. http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=47887
Senior U.S. and North Korean officials plan to meet in Beijing on Wednesday as they try to prepare for fresh multilateral talks on ending Pyongyang’s pursuit of nuclear arms, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday.
The meeting between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean senior envoy Kim Kye-gwan would be their second in two days following a round of talks in Beijing on Tuesday.
Those discussions largely focused on what the United States wants North Korea to do to demonstrate its commitment to giving up its nuclear weapons programs, said a senior State Department official who spoke on condition that he not be identified. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15938614/
Many college students go through a spiritual crisis but rarely does it turn out as it did for Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Jew who converted to Islam and went to work in a small town in Oregon for a charity that has since been linked to Al Qaeda.
Gartenstein-Ross, 30, has now changed tacks again, converting to Christianity and using his background as a former Islamist insider to help the Federal Bureau of Investigation crack down on Islamist terror networks in the United States.
A rising star in the counterterrorism community, he testified before Congress in September about the dangers of radical Islamist indoctrination in U.S. prisons and the recruitment of potential terrorists among inmates. Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut praised him as a key player in the government's efforts against the U.S. arm of the Haramain Islamic Foundation, a large Saudi charity, that was shut down in 2004 by the U.S. authorities after the U.S. Treasury Department designated it a terrorist-supporting entity with ties to Al Qaeda.
Gartenstein-Ross describes his unusual journey in "My Year Inside Radical Islam," a memoir of the nine months he spent with Al Haramain to be published in February.
Adopting Wahhabism, the Saudi rigorist interpretation of Islam, he stopped shaking hands with women, listening to music, wearing shorts, and playing computer games. He grew a full beard, endorsed the gay-bashing and conspiracy theories of his mentors, and found himself praying for the victory of mujahedeen, or Muslim holy warriors, around the world. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/27/news/memoir.php
| Pope, in Turkey, Appeals for Religious Tolerance |
By Sabina Castelfranco
Istanbul
28 November 2006
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| Castelfranco report (Real Audio) - Download 235K 
Listen to Castelfranco report (Real Audio)
Pope Benedict XVI ended the first day of his visit to Turkey urging all religious leaders to "utterly refuse" to support any form of violence in the name of faith. He also spoke of his concern for increasing conflict and acts of terrorism in the Middle East. Sabina Castelfranco reports for VOA from Istanbul.
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Pope Benedict XVI adresses diplomats gathered at the Vatican Embassy in Ankara, 28 Nov. 2006
BREAKING NEWS:
The U.S. State Department has confirmed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank Thursday to try to build momentum in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. U.S. officials are encouraged by this week's Gaza cease-fire and conciliatory speech by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
Rice will be meeting Thursday at a Jordanian Dead Sea resort with foreign ministers from moderate Arab states and the G-8 industrialized countries.
Thus, she'll only have a few kilometers to travel for the session with Mr. Abbas, to be held in the West Bank town of Jericho near the Jordanian border.
That meeting comes against a background of hopeful news for the first time in months on the Israeli-Palestinian front.
That includes a largely effective cease-fire in Gaza, and an address by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Monday offering peace talks and concessions if a Palestinian government is formed that accepts Israel and renounces violence. http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-28-voa65.cfm |
Pope Benedict's last public meeting on his first day in Turkey was an address to diplomats at the apostolic mission in Ankara.
The pope expressed concern that conflict and acts of terrorism are growing in the Middle East.
"I am particularly thinking of the conflict in the Middle East," the pope said, "which continues in a disturbing way to weigh heavily on the whole of international life."
The pope spoke of his concern about the risk of peripheral conflicts multiplying and terrorist actions spreading.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-11-28-voa63.cfm Posted at 03:50 pm by Psychomike
Monday, November 27, 2006
Israel To Free Prisoners!
U.S. REVERSES POLICY ON ISRAEL!, UDA TRIED TO KILL STONE BEFORE GERRY ADAMS ATTACK, MIDDLE EAST HEADED TOWARDS THREE CIVIL WARS- IN 1 YEAR!, TRUTH ABOUT RANGEL'S DRAFT BILL REVEALED!
The Middle East is on the verge of three civil wars -- in Iraq, Palestinian territories and Lebanon -- unless strong action is taken urgently by the international community, Jordan's King Abdullah warned on Sunday.
With President Bush heading to Amman this week to talk with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Abdullah said "something dramatic" must come from that meeting to stop violence spinning out of control in Iraq.
"I don't think we're in a position where we can come back and revisit the problem in early 2007," he said on ABC's "This Week."
But the United States must also look at the "big picture" and seek comprehensive Middle Eastern solutions involving all regional players, he said -- indicating this should include Syria and Iran.
"We're juggling with the strong potential of three civil wars in the region, whether it's the Palestinians, that of Lebanon or of Iraq," the Jordanian king said.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/11/26/213744.shtml?s=lh
Israel is ready to release many jailed Palestinians in return for a soldier seized by militants in June, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Monday, saying he was reaching out for peace.
In a major policy speech, Olmert offered to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians and free up frozen funds if violence against Israel ended. He repeated his readiness to give up some occupied land for an eventual peace agreement.
"We are ready and willing to pursue this path, and persevere until we reach the sought-after solution," Olmert said. http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=newsOne&storyID=2006-11-27T230557Z_01_L23458912_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C2-TopNews-newsOne-2
The Ulster Defence Association dispatched four hit squads to hunt down convicted killer Michael Stone as he made his way to his aborted alleged attack on Stormont.
Senior UDA sources told the units to 'arrest or shoot' Stone because they feared he was planning to destabilise Northern Ireland's peace process.
Stone, 51, appeared at Belfast magistrates' court on Saturday in connection with the attempted attack at the city's Parliament Buildings on Friday morning. He was charged with the attempted murder of five people Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, two security staff and an unnamed person possession of articles for terrorist purposes, including nail bombs, an axe and a garrotte, and possession of explosives with intent to endanger life and of an imitation firearm.
The loyalist, who has arthritis, hobbled into the dock on a crutch. He was remanded in custody until December 22. He will face a non-jury trial, and if found guilty could be sent back to prison for the rest of his life.
Before being led from the dock, Stone shouted: "No sell-out. No power-sharing with the sinners, they are war criminals. Ulster is not for sale, no surrender."
UDA leaders only learnt that Stone was allegedly about to carry out an attack somewhere in Belfast early on Friday morning. They were so concerned about his mental state that they sent out four terrorist units to find him. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200611/28/eng20061128_325820.html
The Bush administration is facing a foreign policy crisis in Lebanon where the Iran-backed Hizbullah and Syria threaten to topple the weakened democratic government in Beirut.
"The future of the Middle East, certainly the future of Lebanon may well be decided in the next several days," U.S. envoy to the United Nations John Bolton told BBC radio. "A successful re-emergence of democracy there is being directly challenged by the terrorist Hizbullah and those who support them, Syria, Iran and others."
The U.S. dilemma is whether or not to provide up to $200 million in military aid to Lebanon over the next year.
Officials said the State Department intends to determine the stability of the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora before the aid is sent to Beirut, Middle East Newsline reported. They said the assassination of Trade Minister Pierre Gemayel and the resulting unrest could lead to a delay in U.S. weapons to Lebanon.
"The nightmare is that we help build a military that is taken over by Hizbullah or Syria," an official said. http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2454067.046527778.html
Hamas was quick to pick up the new tune emanating from Washington. Its leaders and Mahmoud Abbas declared a hurried ceasefire Sunday to take advantage of the US president’s willingness to broaden his Amman talks from his planned meetings with Iraqi prime minister Nouri Maliki to an effort to convene an international conference on the Palestinian issue. Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert accepted the ceasefire against military advice to capture high ground. Abdullah chipped in by saying that Palestine “is the core” of all Middle East violence.
No seasoned observer expects the truce to outlast Bush’s departure. http://www.debka.com/index.php
You'll recall I said that Rangel would spend a fortune to draft the young into service- but hidden in his bill is even more spending- and the most gigantic government spending and bureaucracy increasing ploy since the LBJ war on poverty. Which we are still dismantling! Don't believe me- read this (thanks to Juiceman):
If Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel gets his way, everyone in America will be the government's slave for two years. He doesn't call it "slavery." He calls it a "draft." But if you look closely at what he's demanding, it's not just military service. It's all-purpose involuntary servitude:
WASHINGTON - Americans would have to sign up for a new military draft after turning 18 under a bill the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says he will introduce next year.
Rep. Charles Rangel D-N.Y., said Sunday he sees his idea as a way to deter politicians from launching wars. . . . .
He said having a draft would not necessarily mean everyone called to duty would have to serve. Instead, "young people (would) commit themselves to a couple of years in service to this great republic, whether it's our seaports, our airports, in schools, in hospitals," with a promise of educational benefits at the end of service.
So Charles Rangel's position is:
1. Everyone in America should be forced by law to work for the government (or for someone approved by the government) for two years -- either for no pay or for minimal pay.
2. The two years of work should be demanded, not due to any national emergency of any kind, but as a political stunt to influence national policy.
3. In service of this political stunt, people should be forced to do whatever the government dictates -- even work that could be done by private employers like hospitals, seaports and airports.
In other words, Democrat Charles Rangel advocates two years of involuntary servitude -- also known as slavery -- for every adult in America.
Serve two years of your adult life in slavery, and then you'll be freed to do what you want with your own life. (Maybe -- until Rangel comes up with his next political stunt that demands that your freedom be sacrificed!)
Democrat Charles Rangel thinks he owns you. It's not enough that he rakes off your tax money from every paycheck. He feels perfectly entitled to demand that you drop whatever you are doing anywhere in America -- studying for college, learning a trade, launching a small business, starting a family -- so you can instead devote two full years of your life to promote Charles Rangel's political agenda.
Rangel doesn't care what plans anyone may have made for their own life as an adult in the land of the free. His message is: "Welcome to adulthood. Now do whatever the government tells you to."
Of course he's trying to make it sound positive. You'll be "serving" this "great republic!"
Mind you, the government telling grown men and women what kind of work they will or will not be permitted to do -- and for what compensation, if any -- is exactly the opposite of what made this republic great.
But you'll be "serving" in "hospitals!" or maybe "seaports!" or maybe "airports!"
Hey, America's farmers could use a little help! We always have a shortage of farm workers, remember? Rangel will have the perfect solution.
Under Charles Rangel's plan, America's youth will happily
sing songs while toiling on behalf of the "great republic."
Who knows? Maybe you'll even be allowed to "serve" the Congress of this great republic and polish Charlie Rangel's shoes!
See, central planners in the government know better than you do what are good uses of your time.
It's communism lite. It's the two-years-of-your-life plan. Big Brother will tell you what types of work are worthy and unworthy.
Want to work in a hospital for little or no pay? O.K.! Want to work at your uncle's hardware store for a fair wage instead? Or at your dad's veterinary clinic? Not O.K.
Want to work at an airport doing whatever the government says? O.K. Want to get married and start your family? Nope. Want to start your career as an auto mechanic, or hair stylist, or librarian? Not O.K. What do you think this is -- a free country?
Want to help discover a cure for cancer? What are you, a wise guy?
Want to be a teacher's aide? Big Brother says O.K. Want to just stay in college and work toward your degree? No way, buster. Put those plans on hold.
And if you won't cooperate with our plan for the first two years of your adult life, we could always send you to "camp."
Welcome to Charles Rangel's Great Republic Re-Education Camp
And the beauty of it is -- we don't even have a good reason to threaten your freedoms! We just want to pull off a political stunt! (And some of us want cheap labor for our "seaports" and "hospitals" and "schools" and maybe our "fields." Talk about pork! If we control that much free labor and can steer it toward our political pals . . . . The mind boggles!) As far as we're concerned, any excuse -- no matter how thin -- will do!
Does Charles Rangel actually want all of America's youth serving in the military in order to save the country from a hostile enemy? No! He wants out of Iraq; not deeper in. He calls the whole battle in Iraq "fraudulent." He doesn't even believe there is such a thing as terrorism -- he says it's "discriminatory" to call anyone a terrorist!
Yet Rangel says he's very "serious" about reinstating the "draft." Rangel's idea is not to draft soldiers to fight the war on terror or any other war, but instead to take all of America's young adults hostage and occupy them with whatever busywork the government can concoct (schools! seaports! airports! hospitals!) simply to achieve a political objective.
Why, Roosevelt thought he needed a national emergency to take away the freedom of Japanese Americans during World War II. But with Charles Rangel -- emergency-shmergency! We, the mighty Democratic Leaders of the Great Republic, aren't even sure where we would put all of you! Nonetheless, if we say so, you will report and you will cooperate.
You didn't know it, but you are the government's all-purpose, any-excuse-will-do slaves.
Now stand by and await Charlie Rangel's orders.
Update: Leading Democrats are already backpedaling fast on Rangel's call for compulsory national service -- this week anyway. Do you trust your liberties to these people?
Update 2: A recurring theme from the left seems to be glee in the idea that people who oppose Rangel's compulsory national service plan must be "afraid" of the military draft. The argument is ridiculous because the vast majority of those "drafted" would be working in places like hospitals, schools, airports, and wherever else Charles Rangel and his ilk owe someone a political favor. My objection to Rangel's plan is that it is heavy-handed, totalitarian, arrogant, presumptuous, and completely at odds with the freedom that made this country great.
Update 3: Another recurring theme from the left seems to be that, if we accept that we currently face a national emergency due to Islamic terrorism, we have to bring back the draft. This assumes that a large drafted army is better suited to modern warfare than the well-trained, self-selected all-volunteer army we currently have. Many military experts agree that we are far better off with our highly-motivated all-volunteer army. Besides, it is obvious that Rangel's proposal is not well-tailored to address the needs of the war that Islamic terrorists are waging against us. Rangel would assign millions of adults to two years of government-mandated busywork in places like schools and hospitals. That is not how we will win this war, and it values our freedoms far too lightly.
http://ginacobb.typepad.com/gina_cobb/2006/11/charles_rangel_.html
SDE BOKER, Israel (Reuters) - Israel is ready to release many jailed Palestinians in return for a soldier seized by militants in June, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Monday, saying he was reaching out for peace.
In a major policy speech, Olmert offered to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians and free up frozen funds if violence against Israel ended. He repeated his readiness to give up some occupied land for an eventual peace agreement.
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert opens the weekly cabinet meeting in Israeli Kibbutz of Sde Boker November 27, 2006. Israel will be prepared to release many Palestinian prisoners, including long-serving inmates, in return for a soldier militants seized last June, Olmert said on Monday. (REUTERS/David Silverman/Pool) | "We are ready and willing to pursue this path, and persevere until we reach the sought-after solution," Olmert said.
Within hours of Olmert's address, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets into the Israeli border town of Sderot, despite a ceasefire declared on Sunday. Nobody was hurt.
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, claimed responsibility for the attack, which followed the killing of two Palestinians in an Israeli raid in the West Bank, where a truce is not in effect.
"In response to the prime minister extending his hand in peace, we see what some Palestinian factions are giving in return," Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.
Both Olmert and Abbas are under growing U.S. pressure to show progress on ending decades of conflict.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Olmert to welcome his speech, said a State Department official.
"I think this, combined with the announcement of a ceasefire, are certainly welcome developments, certainly potentially promising," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack of Olmert's speech.
McCormack said Rice may meet both Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas separately while she is in the region accompanying President George W. Bush to Jordan this week.
The European Union also hailed the "rays of hope" for Middle East peace and EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana said the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers could help by setting up a mechanism to monitor the truce.
http://thestar.com.my/services/printerfriendly.asp?file=/2006/11/28/worldupdates/2006-11-28T061932Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-277965-5.asp&sec=worldupdates Posted at 07:59 pm by Psychomike
Sunday, November 26, 2006
1.4 Million Protest Chavez!
WORLD WIDE LEFT IN HORROR SHOCK! 1.4 MILLION MARCH AGAINST CHAVEZ, SOLDIERS STOP HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS! POLL FRAUD CHARGED!
It was the largest protest in Venezuelan history!
V-Crisis has the story and more photos from the demonstration today in Caracas.
(Hat Tip Instapundit)
Venezuela News and Views has video!
Wow! Daniel now has photos from the massive march estimated at 1.4 million!
That would mean, since Chavez blocked the roads going into the city, that 1 of every 3 or 4 in Caracas made it to the protest!
Supporters of Venezuela's opposition leader Manuel Rosales wave the national flag during a campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006. (AP)
Chavez blocked the roads into the city but it did not affect the turnout!
Supporters of the Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales march through the capital during a campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday. (Yahoo)
Meanwhile, it looks like Zogby International has released another very bogus poll on the presidential election.
Zogby admits to using the "face to face" methodology for their interviews like they did in October. V-Crisis explains why this does not work in Venezuela:
Zogby admits that the poll was conducted with "face to face interviews in home" where, of course, Venezuelans know they are identified by name and can be punished if they say the wrong thing about Chavez, who is handing out about Bs 1 million per person per month as the election nears. This explains why Zogby's poll found only 8% who voted against Chavez in the 2002 election, when in fact 38% did – a 30% error. If that error were balanced against the presidential vote question, the Zogby poll would show Rosales defeating Chavez -- but Zogby conveniently decided to ignore it. Posted at 12:19 pm by Psychomike
Saturday, November 25, 2006
MURDER ATTEMPT ON SINN FEIN LEADER, CHILE'S PINOCHET: I AM RESPONSIBLE, WOMEN FLOCKING TO HUNTING, WHY ISLAM WON'T ASSIMILATE, A VELVET REVOLUTION IN IRAN?, RUMSFELD ORDERED TORTURE: ABU GHRAIN COMMANDER!
Both Israel and the Palestinians have agreed on a halt to hostilities in the Gaza Strip, senior officials say.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has won a commitment from all militant groups to halt rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip, his office said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has in return agreed to halt hostilities, his spokeswoman said. The ceasefire will begin at 0600 (0400GMT) on Sunday.
BBC correspondents say the announcement is unexpected and a major development.
Israel had said its Gaza operation was to prevent cross-border rocket attacks. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6184664.stm
Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison's former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday.
Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.
Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods.
"The handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: "Make sure this is accomplished"," she told Saturday's El Pais. http://snipurl.com/13bov
Rwandan President Paul Kagame on Saturday repeated accusations that France was implicated in his country's 1994 genocide in a television interview one day after Rwanda broke off diplomatic ties with its former ally.
The comments are the latest demonstration of the souring relations between the two countries, who have been at loggerheads over machinations that resulted in 100 days of killing during which extremist Hutus murdered 800,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
"France is implicated in the genocide, there is no doubt about that, no one can have doubts," Kagame told French TV channel i-Tele in an interview broadcast on Saturday. http://snipurl.com/13bos
Customers at a restaurant and an hotel visited by a poisoned ex-KGB officer will be tested for the radioactive substance that killed him, said health chiefs.
The Health Protection Agency called for people who had been to the Itsu sushi restaurant or Millennium Hotel in central London on November 1 to come forward.
Its appeal came as the Conservatives indicated that they would ask the Government to make a Commons statement over the affair.
The HPA is taking "extremely seriously" concerns that other people may have been contaminated by the Polonium-210 that led to the death of Alexander Litvinenko in hospital although it made clear the risk was low. http://uk.news.yahoo.com/25112006/344/customers-face-radioactivity-tests.html
Russia has found the Achilles' heel of the US colossus. In concert with its oil-producing partners and the rising powerhouse economies of the East, Russia is altering the foundations of the current US-led liberal global oil-market order, insidiously working to undermine its US-centric nature and slanting it toward serving first and foremost the energy-security needs and the geopolitical
aspirations of the rising East.
All this is at the impending incalculable expense of the West. What is increasingly at stake is secure US access to global energy resources - strategic US energy security - because the West's traditional control respecting those global resources is seriously faltering in the face of the compelling strategies undertaken by Russia and its global partners.
The US giant is increasingly at risk as it faces what is gradually but now more widely being recognized as Russia's clever exploitation of US foreign energy dependency and the hemorrhaging of its all-important economic-geopolitical capital: its traditional global energy leadership and dominance via its onetime virtually all-pervasive oil majors.
US Senator Richard Lugar, who recently labeled Russia an "adversarial regime" that increasingly uses its growing energy dominance as a powerful geopolitical weapon, has warned of economic "catastrophe" for the United States, notwithstanding its status as a superpower. Consequently, informed and reasoned leaders such as Lugar increasingly see the US in energy-based jeopardy. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HK22Ag01.html
Pinochet 'takes responsibility' Chile's former military ruler Augusto Pinochet has said he takes political responsibility for everything that happened during his 18 years in power.
In the statement read by Gen Pinochet's wife on his 91st birthday, he defended his bloody 1973 coup, saying he had acted in Chile's best interests.
More than 3,000 people were killed or "disappeared" while Gen Pinochet was in power from 1973 to 1990.
He is facing indictments in two cases of human rights abuses and tax evasion.
"Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbour no rancour against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all," the statement read by his wife Lucia Hiriart said.
"I take political responsibility for everything that was done." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6184696.stm
Northern Irish paramilitary Michael Stone was charged on Saturday with the attempted murder of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams after he stormed into Belfast's parliament building with a bag of homemade explosives.
Stone, a supporter of British rule, lobbed a smoking and fizzing package into the entrance of Belfast's Stormont parliament buildings on Friday as pro-Irish and pro-British political parties were debating self-rule for the province.
Stormont was evacuated and Stone arrested. The army later defused between six and eight devices, which police Chief Constable Hugh Orde described as "amateurish in design". Stone, who gained notoriety after an attack on an Irish Republican Army (IRA) funeral nearly 20 years ago, was charged on Saturday with a total of five counts of attempted murder, including that of Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein chief negotiator http://snipurl.com/13boz
Russia sells Iran sophisticated missile systems capable of repelling US or Israeli air or missile assaults
The first of 29 Tor-M1 systems in the $700m deal have been delivered to Iran by Moscow despite US opposition to their sale of a weapon widely regarded as the most advanced of its kind in the world. Some Iranian and Russian air defense experts say its full deployment at Iran’s nuclear installations will make them virtually invulnerable to American or Israeli attack in the foreseeable future. Therefore, no more than six months remain, until the Russian Tor-M1 systems are in place, for any attempt to knock out Iran’s nuclear weapons industry. http://www.debka.com/index.php
In a motion put forth to parliament Thursday, Ethiopia's prime minister indicated that his country could use force to defend Ethiopia against Somali Islamists if negotiations with them are unsuccessful. Officials of the Islamic Courts Union had earlier declared a jihad, or Holy War, against Ethiopia over the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia. Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told the lawmakers that the Islamists who declared Holy War against Ethiopia are a "clear and present danger" to Ethiopia, and that Ethiopians need to be defended against such a threat.
Minister of Information Berhane Hailu insists that Meles' comments were not a declaration of war.
"I'm hearing that the prime minister's message is going to be misinterpreted, that the country of Ethiopia has declared war against Somalia," said Hailu. "That is completely wrong. What the prime minister said is that we are trying to solve the problem peacefully. If this option is not successful, the parliament should allow the government to use its legal right to defend the country."
But officials of the Islamic Courts Union, who reportedly met in the capital Mogadishu to discuss the issue shortly after the motion was put forward, say otherwise. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2006/11/mil-061123-voa03.htm
It's deer season in Maine and although the hunting department of outdoor retail specialist L.L. Bean is packed, this is no old-boy's club.
Among the aisles of aerosol deer urine and digital duck calls, there are racks of women's clothing in mossy-oak camouflage, as well as plenty of fluorescent hunter orange.
Lined up behind the counter are dozens of guns, many available with a "short-stock" designed to fit more comfortably into women's shorter arms. That's because an increasing number of women are heading into the woods, becoming one of the most enthusiastic segments of the hunting world.
http://snipurl.com/13bpd
THE polonium-210 that killed Alexander Litvinenko probably came from a nuclear reactor, experts said last night.
It is produced when uranium — used to generate power — decays. A concentrated dose, suspended in gas, could easily have been sprayed on food. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/1,,2006540900,00.html
The West has found Islam problematic because recent inflows of Muslim immigrants have failed to assimilate into Western culture. But Muslims watch the economic deterioration of the West and see no reason to assimilate; on the contrary, they believe they should be the guides, not the guided. That is why this book, as the West slowly recognizes the inevitable, is valuable. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HK23Ak01.html
Not unlike the Czech philosopher-dissident Patoèka, the Iranian philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo is an intellectual in deep trouble with the ruling regime. And just like Havel in pre-1989 Czechoslovakia, Jahanbegloo has become part of a democratic, nonviolent movement of the Iranian powerless. On April 27, 2006, the Iranian philosopher was detained at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, and shortly after was accused of actively preparing to take part in a “velvet revolution” in Iran. This polyglot thinker did his Ph.D. at the Sorbonne while Western Marxism was demanding the impossible, but elected to write his doctoral dissertation on Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent change, Satyagraha. Jahanbegloo continued to espouse nonviolence after returning from the West to his homeland. The question of violence looms large in Iran, whose regime was born of the convulsions of 1979. The Iranian Revolution contained several currents of thought—it included Marxist anti-imperialists and Third-Worldists as well as liberal-democratic nationalists and feminists. Yet in the end it was overtaken by the anti-modernist Islamists, and so became a conservative-clerical revolution rather than a democratic one. On one of his many trips to India, Jahanbegloo met with the Dalai Lama, who in turn has made frequent visits to Prague to meet with Havel since 1989. All such links reinforce suspicion among Iran’s clerical rulers that “the velvet revolution” is at hand.
Rasool Nafisi has suggested that the main reason for Jahanbegloo’s arrest was his research project for the German Marshall Fund in which he compared the Iran’s democratic dissidents with their East-Central European predecessors. http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_5.3/matustik.htm
Posted at 10:22 pm by Psychomike
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