MONTGOMERY, Ala.(AP) - A Marine sergeant based in North Carolina who served in Afghanistan earlier this year shot and killed a would-be carjacker. Sgt. James C. Lowery, 22, returned fire after being shot in the face in the drive-thru lane of a fast-food restaurant. He was listed in fair condition Thursday at a Montgomery hospital. His father, James Eugene Lowery, said the bullet hit his son in the top left cheek and stopped near his voice box. Ow...
"He comes back from Afghanistan safe and whole. Then he comes home on leave to have rest and peace and this happens," the father said. Police said Lowery got out of his Chevrolet Suburban when approached by a gunman in the drive-thru lane of a McDonald's restaurant Tuesday night. The gunman shot Lowery, who was then able to get his .45-caliber pistol from the car and shoot his assailant multiple times. Dead at the scene was Thaddeus Antone, 19, of Montgomery. I doubt if the flags in Montgomery will be flying at half mast for him...
The fatal shooting is viewed as self-defense and no charges were filed, police spokesman Lt. Huey Thornton said. Lowery, who was on leave until Sunday, serves with Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 252, based at the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point, N.C. Just the Marines, trying to make our streets at least as safe as they are in Afghanistan...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 04:04 pm ||
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OOh! Mil.spec.45 at close range. Bet that left a nice splotch on the driveway.
Posted by: Jack ||
12/20/2002 4:46 Comments ||
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A Venango County elementary school performance was canceled after parents objected to scenes in which third- through fifth-grade students re-enacted human sacrifices in the Aztec civilization. The performance, titled "Bizarre Bazaar," was supposed to be the culmination of a monthlong social studies program to teach students about world cultures, including the Chinese, ancient Egyptians and Aztec Indians. Always complaining. They bitched about the guilletine in last year's show...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 04:16 pm ||
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#1
Do they have a problem with that cross thing at Easter?
#4
But if you sing one Christmas carol, a SWAT team will come through the windows.Multiculturalism....it's a good thing. Just how many Aztec-Americans attend Pleasantville Elementary?
#5
There are no Aztecs. The Spaniards were so disgusted by them thet they wiped them out completely, with the enthusiastic help of the other tribes in the area.
American Samoan Attorney General Fiti Sunia announced a policy over the summer that bans anyone of Middle Eastern decent from the island, which is an unincorporated U.S. territory. The ban, which cites the U.S. State Department as its basis, orders officials to âtake special note of arriving passengers and all other individuals seeking entry to the territory for persons with Middle Eastern surnames and features.â And for some reason, nothing's exploded since. Somebody's gotta teach those daggone Samoans how to be politically correct, so they can take their casualties along with the rest of us. So join with the Arab American Institute:
Write to to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Ralph Boyd, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton and let them know that this policy is UNACCEPTABLE.
Include the following information points:
· The ban on people based solely on their Middle Eastern heritage, amounts to the most broad and worst form of racial and ethnic profiling.
· American Samoa is a U.S. territory and their policy is a violation of United States laws, which prohibit discrimination based on race and ancestry.
· American Samoan Attorney General Fiti Sunia should apologize and should immediately terminate the use of this discriminatory policy.
Like millions of other Americans, I've got this on my "to do" list... ummm... somewhere. (WaPO has the whole sordid story here... Now where's that "to do" list...?)
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 10:07 pm ||
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I'll be sure and get right on it as soon as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Riyadh opens for business. Until that happens, that's going to stay at the bottom of my pile.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
12/19/2002 22:30 Comments ||
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So, your sitting in the cold, damp environs of - lets say London or Manchester - and you're thinking Bali - na, not whats been going on there. Then you think Thailand, around Phuket is pretty neat but then you realise they have warnings out for even there. Then one day you're log on to Rantburg and you read this story - move over Bali and here I come Samoa. Not a bad way to attract the Aussies, Kiwis and Brits who like their beaches unspoiled and their women, well, plump!!
Posted by: Jack ||
12/20/2002 4:43 Comments ||
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Have fun, Jack - but whatever you do, DON"T TALK ABOUT THEIR MOTHERS.
Samoa is a matriarchy, and the men tend to be on the large side.
Mr Mbeki gave at best a muted criticism of Zimbabwe, saying South Africa agreed with the concept of land reform but "disagreed with the manner in which it is being addressed".
He said: "We are convinced it is necessary to bring to a close the controversial issues relating to our important neighbour, Zimbabwe.
"In this regard, we are ready to engage both our ally and fellow liberation movement, Zanu-PF, and all others concerned, to help resolve the various issues in a constructive manner."
South Africa is not an improverished, totalitarian hellhole like Zimbabwe. But I fear for its future.
The sad part is that Rhodesia wasn't an impoverished, totalitarian hellhole like Zimbabwe.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 10:21 pm ||
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Unemployed Potentate Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has exhorted Muslims to prepare for Jihad against the United States if it unleashes a military offensive against Iraq. In a statement published in the Pakistani Mashraq newspaper, Mullah Omar stressed it was time for the Islamic nation to stand in the face of world atheism and to attack American interests worldwide. In his statement, which the paper said was authenticated by close sources to Taliban, Mullah Omar underlined that Muslims must united in Jihad against their enemies and should never accept eternal humiliation. The Taliban leader regretted what he termed as an atheist assault on Islam and Muslims, stressing that his followers were reuniting and planning attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan. Yep. Be there any time now. Boy, they never get tired of this stuff, do they?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:58 am ||
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#1
First it was Catholic Crusaders, now it's world atheism. Make up yer mind, Omar!
#2
Let me know when they get close to Albany (NY), I have great lines of fire plotted, and thanks to Ammo Day, lots of the wherewithal. Until then, I'm going back to watching "Lilo and Stitch" with mt niece and nephew.
#5
Omar, do yourself a favor. Make the phone call, tell them where you are, and they'll come and get you. Gitmo's beautiful this time of year and they can probably really help you out with the Messiah complex thing. Sound like you could use a vacation in a nice Caribbean cage.
#6
Leave the guy alone.. after all he's still in shock after losing his country. A man without a country to rule (pillage) is like a dog without a bone. Atleast I have a measly 700 square foot castle to call my own... he lost everything!!
#7
This was Mullah Omar's traditional Christmas message to the world. Waiting now for Saddam's, Osama's, Kim's, ... did I miss anyone? Who's that dude in Iran?
One man was killed and two were wounded when one or two grenades were thrown at the entrance of a base of the 22-nation peacekeeping force in Kabul on Thursday, the second attack on foreign troops in the Afghan capital this week. The attack happened at the gate of Camp Warehouse, one of the main bases of the International Security Assistance Force and the headquarters of ISAF's German-commanded Kabul Multinational Brigade. Paul Weber, a spokesman for the German ISAF contingent, told Reuters the three casualties all appeared to be Afghans. "Maybe two handgrenades; two injured Afghans -- maybe local; and one guy dead -- probably the attacker," he said, adding that the dead man appeared to have been killed by his own grenade. Clueless in Kabul. It's hard to get good help these days, and that seems to include spokesmans
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 10:48 am ||
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Step One: Pull pin
Step Two: Throw
Warning: Omitting any of these steps may lead to serious errors in product use.
Iraqi forces moved a mobile radar unit into the country's southern no-fly zone and American aircraft bombed it Wednesday, defense officials said. U.S. aircraft used precision-guided weapons to target the radar system near Al Kut, about 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, officials said. An unidentified Iraqi military spokesman told the official Iraqi News Agency that the "aggressive U.S.-British warplanes attacked our civil and service installations in Wasit province ... at 11:55 (a.m.) Baghdad time. "Our courageous anti-aircraft units confronted the warplanes and forced them to leave our skies for their bases in Kuwait." "Bob?"
"Yes, Albert?"
"Those courageous antiaircraft units are confronting me."
"What're they doing, Albert?"
"Ummm... Making faces, I think."
"Perhaps we should return to our bases in Kuwait."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:58 am ||
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Inspectors: We'd like to go here.
Iraq: I suggest not.
Inspectors: Why not? *threatens* this could be a material breach!
Iraq: Aggressive U.S.-British Warplanes (TM) attack there all the time. You're free to go there, but we cannot guarantee your safety.
Inspectors: On second thought...
#4
äl kt) (KEY) , town, SE Iraq, on the Tigris River. It is a port and a market center for grains, dates, fruit, and vegetables. Much of the town was destroyed during World War I. It is also called Kut-al-Amara or Kut-el-Amara.
Kut [variants: Kut al Imara, Kut al `Amarah, Kut-al-Almarah, Kut-al-Imarah] is in southern Iraq, on the banks of the river Tigris. It is a port and a market center for grains, dates, fruit, and vegetables. Kut (an Arabic word for fort, which rhymes with foot) is located 170 km (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad, inside a southern "no-fly'' zone set up by the United States and is patrolled by U.S. and British jets. The Kut barrage (completed 1939) diverts water into irrigation channels. Upon completion in early 1943 of a rail spur from Kut al Imara to Ba'quba, the Khanaqin Lift consisted of barge from Basra to Kut al Imara, rail from there to Khanaqin, and road to Tabriz. In 1996 Russia and China signed deals to tap Iraqi oil fields, with few objections by the United States, presumably because both said they would respect the UN embargo. Russia will develop the West Qurna oil field, Iraq's largest oil pool. China will concentrate on the Ahdab field near Kut, also in oil-rich southern Iraq.
On 03 September 1996 a US missile attack hit surface-to-air missile sites and radar installations near the Tallil air base in southwestern Iraq, the Euphrates River city of Nasiriyah, al-Iskandariyah and al-Kut.
In July 1997, the Iranian armed opposition Mujahedin-e-Khalq [MEK] announced that Iranian agents attacked their military training camp in Kut, Iraq, with ten mini-katyusha rockets.
On 29 September 1997 eight Iranian warplanes raided targets inside Iraqi territory in Daiyla and Kut provinces. Several buildings at a base near Kut, 100 miles southeast of Baghdad, sustained some damage. Iranian attacks were believed to be directed at bases in Iraq that belong to an Iranian opposition group, The Mujahedeen Khalq, or People's Warriors. the attacks were simultaneous, with five Phantom fighter-bombers striking a base near the city of Kut, 105 miles southeast of Baghdad, and four jets hitting a base near the town of Jalula (130 km northeast of Baghdad)
#5
During WWI, Kut was the site of the largest mass surrender of british troops in history (and remained until he fall of singapore) The seige of Kut goes in history as one of the black spots in british military history.
You think the limeys might want to even the score?
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/19/2002 12:19 Comments ||
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Britain's Ministry of Defense Thursday ordered four more large merchant ships to haul armor in preparation for a possible military assault on Iraq, shipping sources said. "They've come in again today for four roll-on roll-off ships to carry tracked vehicles, and containers, probably used to store ammunition," an industry source familiar with the ministry's operations told Reuters. There was no immediate comment from the ministry.
The tender request follows an order for three ships Wednesday,
one to haul 900 containers and a semi-submersible vessel used to move landing craft. The source said the four fresh orders were for delivery by Jan. 15 and were exactly the same size as the one requested Wednesday. Each can carry up to 10,000 metric tons of equipment. The merchant ships are due for delivery to Britain's south coast to sail between northern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean according to a summary of the tender document. The source said the ministry could be hiring the vessels to shuttle equipment between military ports, although the ships could easily be diverted to the Gulf should the need arise. He said they were initially on hire for three months with an option for a further three. That must be one heck of a exercise they got planned
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 10:54 am ||
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So, there like a place you can go to hire a roll-on roll-off? Cool! What other uses are there for these vessels?
#5
You would just have to space them farther apart, being careful to avoid overstressing the deck. I believe some of these ships are built with military cargo in mind. There are some ro/ro's that are built just for car carriers that might not take the load.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 14:47 Comments ||
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Guess nobody want the Roll-on/roll-off that is sitting at the bottom of the Channel. Full of BMWs and Volvos.
Posted by: john ||
12/19/2002 19:02 Comments ||
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If I go fetch one of 'em Volvos, can I keep it?
Five Japanese kidnapped by North Korea decades ago removed pins with pictures of North Korea's leader they have worn since their homecoming in October and announced Thursday they want to stay in Japan. Anybody who's surprised at this, raise your hand... Thought so.
The five, who returned to Japan in October, previously avoided giving clear answers about their future plans. They left behind seven children and a husband in North Korea. But on Thursday, former abductee Yasushi Chimura said he and the others have decided to remain in Japan, at least for now. "Five of us have reaffirmed our decision to stay in Japan and wait for our families," Chimura said, reading from a letter addressed to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. "We ask to be reunited with our families as soon as possible." "Those people are all crazy. And we don't even like kimchi..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 11:33 am ||
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President-elect Roh Moo-hyun came from a poor farming family, studied alone to pass the bar exam and built a reputation as a human rights lawyer during South Korea's past military rule. "I will try to become a president, not just for the people who supported me, but also for the people who opposed me in the election," the 55-year-old Roh said Thursday after election returns were announced. "I will try to open a new era for dialogue and reconciliation. Let's strive together to serve the people." Roh says he will be aggressive in reconciling with communist North Korea and striving for an "equal" relationship with South Korea's closest ally, the United States. "I don't have any anti-American sentiment, but I won't kowtow to the Americans, either," he said in a recent television debate. Tell ya what: you don't kowtow, and we won't pay any attention to you. Oh, and by the way: we need those troops you don't like for something more important...
Roh, who has never traveled to the United States, accused South Korea's past presidents of "groveling" before U.S. leaders. His attitude toward America helped make him popular among young voters, who want to reduce South Korea's reliance on the United States, which fought with the South in the 1950-1953 Korean War. But that's all in the past, so it's time to move on...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 11:37 am ||
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The phrase 'fight with the South; is ambiguous in an amusing way. An ignorant person or institution(or Reuters, Al Jazera, CNN, NPR or the faculty lounge at UC Berkeley) could infer that the US and South Korea were on opposite sides.
#2
I have a feeling the tough talk is partly nationalistic electioneering, and that he'll be less confrontational when he gets into office. Good relations with US is important, and the Bush team won't appreciate a regular dose of middle-digit salutes.
However, I didn't think the Filipinos would kick us out, either, so I could be proved wrong.
Posted by: Mark Byron ||
12/19/2002 12:33 Comments ||
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We're getting back into the Phillipines, slowly but surely.
The S Kor Army will tolerate this sort of talk only for so long.
Apparently World Cup success got into the SK's heads, generating the current wave of nationalist fever (which makes their obvious & necessary dependence on us intolerable to contemplate). Totally bizarre. But we may all have to pay for it in the end.
#5
An early christmas present, Rumsfeld just found 35,000 new well trained troops to deploy somewhere else more deserving of their attention.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/19/2002 15:14 Comments ||
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Forty years is enough time for people to forget why we went there in the first place and why we're still there. Biting the hand that feeds you is a pretty popular global activity.
Posted by: john ||
12/19/2002 18:52 Comments ||
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look its not like sk is irreplaceable.. we've got taiwan, japan, singapore, ...
dead anti-american koreans is no skin off my back.. bring the boys home and let the koreans die..
ps can we do this to france? could we ferry the dprk to cannes??
#8
Ain't never going to happen. Next to the Israeli lobby in the States, comes, you guessed it, the Korean lobby especially if you are a SoCal congressman and conservative leaning. Next to the Cubans they are Repubs biggest ethnic supporters.
Posted by: Jack ||
12/20/2002 5:24 Comments ||
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North Korea demanded Thursday that the United States compensate it for last week's seizure of a ship carrying Scud missiles to Yemen, criticizing the act as "reckless state-sponsored terrorism." North Korea also claimed that a Spanish warship fired at its ship and American sailors looted it, according to the North's foreign news outlet, KCNA, which was monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "Hey, Rodrigo! Lookit this! Kimchi!"
"Wow, Diego! Let's loot that!"
"Yeah! And here's some pictures of Dear Leader!"
"Oooh! Gimme them, too!"
"The U.S. imperialists should apologize for their serious piracy committed against the ship and compensate for all the mental and material damage done to the ship and its crew," said North Korea's official newspaper Rodong Sinmun, carried by KCNA in a separate dispatch. "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute." That's American for, "Piss off!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 11:53 am ||
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To: Govt of North Korea
From: US Navy
Subject: The big grey things out at sea with the big guns on their decks, those are ours.
Sirs:
Next time we see one of your rat infested garbage scows masquerading as a ship of the high seas, we'll board her, take her grateful crew in custody and open the seacocks. Since you dont have anything like a Navy ,whattaya gonna do about it?
If your import/export business takes a sudden drop, you'll know why.
Yours truly,
USN
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/19/2002 16:14 Comments ||
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Look, you N.Korean assweasel, that was an UNFLAGGED VESSEL. Unflagged vessels have NO RIGHTS. We could have SUNK the damn thing if we wanted to. And you complain that we kept it waiting for a few hours?
You've just shown to the world that you supply arms to anyone in a way that dry 'experts' could never have done. Your dick is in the grinder... STOP TURNING THE CRANK, YOU FOOL.
Posted by: Ryan Waxx ||
12/19/2002 17:45 Comments ||
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Jeez, kinda sounds like.....the Pueblo??? Have they sent us the check yet for that?
Armored units of the Republican Guard have moved from their garrisons near Baghdad to an area about 40 miles west of the capital in the most significant deployment by President Saddam Hussein in two years, Pentagon intelligence officials said Wednesday. The movement of what appears to be several hundred soldiers, along with tanks and artillery, to the new location appears to be an effort by the Iraqi leader to flex his military muscles in response to increased U.S. preparations for war. "When you move this size of force, it's a great strain to the military, it's a great signal of resolve," a U.S. official said. "This is the largest defensive preparation that we've seen since 9/11." It also plays right into our hands. Keep moving those troops out of the population centers into open country where we can hit them without a lot of civilian casulaties. Also, any time they move them, we see them and watch where they dig in.
Iraqi military forces have also begun placing obstacles on the runways of key air bases, U.S. defense and intelligence officials said. The barriers, detected recently by American spy satellites, could delay or stop an attack that relied on fixed-wing aircraft bringing in troops to seize the bases. Iraqis fear that U.S. forces will try to occupy the remote bases as staging areas for an attack on Baghdad and other parts of central Iraq, the officials said. Defense officials also said the Pentagon increasingly believes Hussein will pursue a "scorched earth" campaign if there is war with the United States, targeting his own oil fields, food supplies and power plants and blaming America for the devastation. But other U.S. intelligence officials disagreed, saying there is little evidence he will pursue such a policy. And how many Iraqi troops will fire chemical and biological weapons on their own country? They have to live there afterward.
Iraq's forces have been preparing for a war with the United States and its British allies since the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, defense officials said. U.S. surveillance craft have periodically spied Iraqi troops digging trenches and transferring ammunition from large central warehouses to smaller depots where it can be more easily distributed to troops. Large central warehouses make too good a target as well.
But deploying hundreds of troops and the arms, artillery, vehicles, support equipment and supplies they need is seen as a major political signal by Hussein that his army is capable of meeting the logistical challenge of moving its forces from one place to another. "This takes a great deal of effort. It takes money; it takes resources to support a group of soldiers operating away from home base," the U.S. official said. "This is their way to say to us, 'Hey if you think you have intentions of coming after us, we're going to defend Iraq.' " It also may mean he hasn't figured out what kind of attack is coming and is just moving troops around as a guess.
The official said there is no evidence that the troops were actively engaged in military exercises in the western desert. And he stressed that the deployment did not pose a threat to any of Iraq's neighbors. "This is an operational deployment for them," the official said. "It's ... defensive in nature rather than offensive." The troop movements and the placing of obstacles on airstrips appear to contradict what U.S. intelligence officials say is the serious decline of the morale and training of the Iraqi military since the Gulf War. The Iraqi military is considerably smaller than the force that opposed coalition troops in the war. The Iraqi army had 70 divisions in 1991 but has only 23 today, and its Republican Guard is half its 12-division strength of 11 years ago, said a defense intelligence official who is an expert in Iraq's military capabilities. The Iraqi forces suffer from chronic personnel and equipment shortages, and its air force has been in seeming disarray for years, the official said. The air force also knows as soon as they go wheels up, the U.S. and Brit fighter pilots will be racing each other to see who can make ace first.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 11:40 am ||
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In GW I, the mighty Iraqi airforce up and flew to Iran. They sent the pilots back but kept the planes.
Yeah, moving a few hundred troops sends a message all right.
#2
To make such a public and ineffective move, in broad daylight, with us watching, may mean something different. How loyal is this unit, which was moved from Baghdad to far outside of it, to Hussein? Germans used to threaten poor officers with assignments to the Russian Front. Maybe this is kind of along those lines.
Posted by: Ben ||
12/20/2002 7:11 Comments ||
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Bah. "several hundred" is just chicken-feed. If a movement like this puts "great strain on the Military", then I'll be believing those estimates of a one-week battle.
More posturing.
BTW, if the airstrips are blocked from American planes landing, it only makes it more difficult for his planes to land also.
The New Communist Party of Great Britain issued a statement titled "U.S., Hands Off the Korean Peninsula" on Nov. 25. A hair-trigger situation is now prevailing in the Korean Peninsula due to the U.S. unilateral and arrogant nuclear racket, the statement said, branding the racket as a vicious act of harassing peace and stability in Asia and the rest of the world. Golly. I agree with Communists on something. And who has their finger on the Pulse of the West like the New Communist Party of Great Britain, which is chock full of brand New Communists?
The statement blathered on continued:
Concluding a non-aggression treaty between the DPRK and the U.S. as proposed by the DPRK is the most reasonable and realistic way of ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and settling the DPRK-U.S. relations. No it's not...
The army-based policy of Kim Jong Il, the great leader of the Korean people, is the only treasured sword for defending world peace and security and saving the Korean nation as well as all humankind from nuclear holocaust by the U.S. imperialists. Yep. That's all that's holding our aggression at bay...
The statement called upon the world peace-loving people to more vigorously come out in the drive to build an independent and peaceful new world by resolutely condemning the U.S. nuclear racket and positively solidarizing with the grand march of the Korean nation for independent reunification and the anti-U.S. struggle of the South Korean people for independence. All you Peace Lovers⢠out there, line up behind the Dear Leader...
The statement urged the U.S. to halt its reckless nuclear racket at once, accede to concluding a non-aggression treaty between the DPRK and the U.S. without delay and immediately withdraw all its aggression troops and nuclear weapons from South Korea. Well, I'm for dumping SKor. I kinda like our nuclear racket â makes me feel powerful, y'know? And as for a non-aggression pact between the U.S. and NKor â why? If they don't adhere to their agreements, why would another agreement be necessary?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 12:09 pm ||
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WTF is a nuclear racket? Sounds like something Andre Agassi could endorse.
Posted by: Larry ||
12/19/2002 12:52 Comments ||
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"the only treasured sword for defending world peace "???
Reminds me of the Sandra Bullock character's answer to the question "What do you want most for the world?" (in Ms. Congeniality). Imagine if she had been part of this crowd...
"Stiffer sentences and no parole for convicted felons...and the treasured People's Army of the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea!"
Despite its highly publicized reluctance to align itself with U.S. and British war cries against Baghdad, the French government has concluded that the Iraqi declaration about its weaponry is badly inadequate and falls so far short of Security Council demands that France may soon have to support and join UN-mandated military action against Iraq, according to French government sources. Although France has said nothing publicly before the UN inspectors' report to the Security Council on Thursday, the sources said privately Wednesday that the Iraqi declaration's shortcomings amount to patent deception and have sharply increased the likelihood of French participation in a U.S.-led invasion. A French source with direct knowledge of government experts' conclusions about the Iraqi declaration said, "It is not accurate, not full, not comprehensive" - deliberately choosing adjectives specified in Security Council Resolution 1441 demanding complete, up-to-date disclosure of Iraq's armaments program. It is not clear whether the council's other adjective, "final," will be enforced. But in Paris, it seemed increasingly probable that the Iraqis have mishandled the declaration, a key element offered by the Security Council to Baghdad as "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations." The Iraqis did such a bad job of lying even the French can't swallow it, and that says a lot!
Without wanting to publicly prejudge the UN inspectors' conclusions, a French official said that "we have the same verdict as the Americans" on the contents of the Iraqi response. Another source in Paris concurred that this view summed up the French conclusions after experts and officials had combed through the thousands of pages of documentation about Iraq's missiles and warheads handed over 10 days ago.
Already, officials in Paris acknowledged privately Wednesday that the extent of Iraqi omissions in the declaration shows that Iraq has sought to mislead the Security Council, thus opening the way to accusations of a "material breach" of Iraqi obligations.
"The Iraqi accounting was supposed to allay international suspicions, but instead it seems to provide more evidence that Baghdad may actually have been pursuing weapons programs all along," according to a diplomat from a European country with which Paris is seeking policy coordination. Well-informed French sources said Wednesday that Iraqi disclosures were riddled with contradictions, omissions on outstanding issues, and crucial ambiguities and apparent falsehoods about armaments being developed in Iraq. Publicly, officials in Paris decline to disclose anything about the conclusions reached by French government experts, insisting that it is up to the UN inspectors and not individual Security Council member states to offer an initial evaluation of the Iraqi declaration. That situation will be clarified Thursday at the Security Council meeting in New York that will bring out the views of the chief inspectors, Hans Blix and Mohammed ElBaradei. Council members, including the United States and France, will also formally present their positions on the declaration and what should happen next. The French view will be influential with other nations, including the 15 members of the Security Council, because Paris has in the past battled against hard-line U.S. calls for action against the government of Saddam Hussein. Now France seems bound to assert that Baghdad is failing to cooperate with the Security Council. The bottom line, according to someone familiar with policymakers' thinking, is that the declaration "doesn't answer the question that the Security Council put forward in its resolution" demanding proof of Iraqi disarmament.
If the Iraqi noncompliance proves to be as blatant as the French sources suggested, Paris may be willing to forgo a second Security Council resolution and join the United States in saying that the existing resolution is sufficient to provide a basis for UN-mandated military action against Iraq. The current resolution stipulates that Iraq has to commit a double fault - deception and obstruction - before it will be declared in material breach. But the two conditions could quickly coalesce if UN inspectors are denied a prompt reckoning by the Iraqis of the discrepancies in their declaration. A European diplomat said, "When the Bush administration decided to run the risk of seeking a Security Council resolution that met French requirements, it got the advantage of effectively locking France into war against Iraq if the resolution encountered Iraqi defiance." OK, France, you asked for us to play the game by your rules. Now what?
So far, officials said, Paris has had mixed signals from Washington about how fast the Bush administration expects to proceed toward an attack. "But we don't think that they are going to wait around for weeks or more," a French source said, explaining that the case against Iraq now seemed so strong that the Bush administration's hard-liners can "go on the war path."
Conceivably, Baghdad could still perform a last-minute turnaround, admitting to extensive official deception in the past and vowing major immediate concessions to end its secret arms programs to UN satisfaction. But French officials seemed Wednesday to agree with Washington that Baghdad seemed to signal defiance by its glaring failure to make a credible case in its declaration. The French experts' conclusion was that the 13,000-page Iraqi text raised alarming signals in almost every domain where it was supposed to provide explanations. The explanation is right in front of your eyes, Saddam wants his toys and he doesn't care about your precious little U.N. resolution. Now, it's clobbering time!
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 06:12 pm ||
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This is one part of why we insisted on getting original documents rather than the Blix edition: now let's see if "Give a day's notice before inspections" Blix comes to the same conclusions.
And Russia is on board, too, since Iraq cancelled the contracts they were trying to save.
Posted by: John Anderson ||
12/19/2002 14:21 Comments ||
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#2
Well, happy to see that the frogs are getting religion here, but I doubt that the bad guys are in their caves saying " oh my god, the french are after us! run for the hills!"
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/19/2002 15:12 Comments ||
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Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2002 18:13 Comments ||
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#5
Why do I get the feeling that nobody wants to take this back to the UN for another resolution? 'fraid of getting their ass whumped again by GW? Diplomacy game appears to be over.
Posted by: john ||
12/19/2002 18:58 Comments ||
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#6
Since the possibility now exists that the French go head to head with the Iraqis, could this lead to a situation where 2 armies try to surrender to each other simultaneously? Is there a precedent for this in the history of warfare?
#7
Interesting that they would come to this conclusion after their unilateral escalation of interfering in the Cote d'Ivoire rebellion. Also, you can bet your beret that some French companies will show up (and recently) as supplying materiel to Sammy's programs.
Posted by: Jack ||
12/20/2002 5:19 Comments ||
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#8
This is absolutely classic French behavior. After being complete obstructionist jerks, they jump on the train late (watch what they offer for the actual campaign in Iraq, it'll be crap) so that they can some say in the post-war period. We'll take some "help" from them, but when push comes to shove, Bush isn't going to forget how they behaved six months ago.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
12/20/2002 5:22 Comments ||
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#9
The Iraqi accounting was supposed to allay international suspicions, but instead it seems to provide more evidence that Baghdad may actually have been pursuing weapons programs all along," according to a diplomat from a European country with which Paris is seeking policy coordination.
Whatcha bet that other "European country" is Germany, and that one of the "deceptions" in the report just happens to be list of foreign suppliers?
"ZUT ALORS! It is patently a lie to say French and German companies sold weapons materials to the Iraquis!"
Turkey has plans to send tens of thousands of soldiers into northern Iraq if the United States attacks through the north, senior intelligence and military sources said yesterday. The troops would aim to prevent the formation of a Kurdish state and a possible flood into Turkey of Kurdish refugees, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. About 4,000 Turkish troops, including engineers, have been sent to the mountainous border region so that they could quickly be rushed into northern Iraq if there is a conflict, said the sources, who have been part of the Turkish planning. U.S. officials reportedly have asked Turkey to let tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers pass into Iraq if there is a war. Turkish military officials have said that if there is an attack through the north, Turkey plans on sending its own soldiers into the region. A leading daily newspaper, Hurriyet, reported yesterday that Turkey would send 65,000 to 70,000 troops into northern Iraq if there is a massive U.S. assault from the north. Hammer + Anvil
A senior Turkish intelligence official confirmed the report, saying Turkey is especially concerned that if Iraq disintegrates, Iraqi Kurds could seize the key northern city of Mosul and the oil center of Kirkuk. Control of those cities would make the Kurds a significant regional power. And Turkey ain't gonna let that happen
If sent to Iraq, Turkish soldiers likely would secure northern areas, while avoiding combat against Iraqi troops. I think the Iraqis would much rather surrender to the Turks than be captured by the Kurds.
Northern Iraq is controlled by ethnic Kurds, many of whom have for decades sought an independent state. Turkey is concerned that if Saddam Hussein is ousted, the Kurds might declare independence and inspire greater nationalism among Kurds in southern Turkey. In 1991, at the end of the Persian Gulf War, about 500,000 Kurds fled to Turkey after Hussein crushed a Kurdish uprising. The million dollar question is what are the Kurds going to do?
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 01:42 pm ||
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I have to confess I'm not sure the Turks are being entirely rational. If Kurds set up an independant Kurdistan in (present day) Northern Iraq, wouldn't the flow of Kurdish refugees be from Turkey, TO the new Kurdistan??
I mean, if I were a Kurd I'd rather head to start a new life in the newfound homeland than remain under the heel of Turkey!
#2
The problem there is that they're afraid "Kurdistan" might include not only northern Iraq, but also a chunk of Turkish territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2002 15:04 Comments ||
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#3
Also, they are concerned that a Kurd state could be used to funnel weapons to Krdish rebels in Turkey... they have had a lot of problems with Kurdish murderers.
Posted by: Ryan Waxx ||
12/19/2002 17:17 Comments ||
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#4
You know what they say, the grass is always greener on the other side of the border...
#5
Gotta go with the Greener grass one here.The Turks
should get together with the Kurd opposition and make a deal:
Northen Iraq in exchange for not causeing trouble in Turkey's back yard.
#7
I see that none of you have any idea about the Kurds in Turkey, maybe it would help to remind you that president Ozal, you'll probably remember the president of Turkey from gulfwar 1 was Kurd himself. If you ever have been in Turkey you could understand that no single Kurd will even think about going to north Iraq from Turkey, to do what to starve themselves in a place without industry and jobs?
POLICE across Europe have launched a round-up of Islamic militants amid fears of a terrorist attack over Christmas and the new year. Groups linked to al-Qaeda have been thwarted for three successive years from staging attacks in Europe, and security chiefs believe that they will try again. That implies they're going to try again, I'd guess, and every year until they're all dead or we're all bowing down toward Mecca...
The latest arrests came in Britain after a joint operation yesterday between Scotland Yard anti-terrorist officers and police in Edinburgh who seized seven men. The suspects, all said to be in their thirties, were still being questioned at a police station in Scotland last night. Somehow I just can't picture a Scots policeman hitting somebody with a truncheon...
Four of the men were arrested in a dawn raid in West London, while the others were seized in the Meadowbank area of Edinburgh. These arrests come after French police seized four men said to have links to militants in Britain on suspicion of plotting a chemical attack on a European target. Shucks, almost a week to go until Christmas, too. Wonder what else is out there?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:58 am ||
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Everyone knows Scottish police use cudgels.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 10:24 Comments ||
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Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 14:01 Comments ||
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#7
Tis the only background music suitable for whacking 'em with cabers, laddy!
Posted by: Fred ||
12/19/2002 15:07 Comments ||
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#8
Well, if you've ever been pub crawling in Aberdeen with a bunch of oil-field rowdies you'd have seen the truncheons. They know how to weild them.
Posted by: Bob ||
12/19/2002 17:01 Comments ||
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#9
Not only do they drive them nuts playing bagpipe music all day - then they feed the the Hagis for dinner. After 3 days of this you'll convert to Calvinism.
Posted by: Jack ||
12/20/2002 5:34 Comments ||
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AL-QAEDA terrorists are living in the United Kingdom and operating in âclassicâ small cell structures, a senior Whitehall source said yesterday. The official said: âAn attack is not inevitable, but the probability is that sooner or later one of these groups, who are extremely determined, will get through. We can protect many obvious high-value targets but then, as we have seen in Bali, they can go for the very soft target.â The only movement on my surprise meter was when he said an attack wasn't inevitable...
Speaking at the Cabinet Office at a rare briefing for senior members of the media, the official distinguished between what he called âthe small numberâ of al-Qaeda terrorists who all âknew each otherâ and the larger group of sympathisers who shared the same ideology. âWeâre not talking about hundreds of trained Mujahidin, and those who are giving support to the small number of al-Qaeda in this country may not even know that they are engaging in terrorism when they are asked to provide a safe house or a car,â the official said. He thinks very wishfully, doesn't he?
His up-to-date analysis of the threat that Britain is facing from international terrorism came as seven men of North African origin were arrested yesterday in London and Edinburgh. They were being interviewed under the Terrorism Act in Glasgow. He's probably this placid about the whole thing because they've got al-Muhajiroun and the Finsbury Mosque wired so many different ways. Sure hope they're not missing anything...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:58 am ||
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French counterterrorism agents found suspected detonator components and a chemical that can be used to make explosives in an apartment used by four suspected Islamic militants, an official said Thursday. Agents from the counterintelligence service DST found the components hidden in a washing machine in the apartment in the Paris suburb of La Courneuve, the official said. The official, who is close to the investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity. Three Algerians and a Moroccan were arrested Monday in a raid on the apartment. The raid also turned up a protective suit against biological, chemical and nuclear attacks, false identity papers, $5,000 in cash, a computer and extremist Islamic documents, French officials have said. Sounds like standard Islamic household furnishings to me
A vial of unidentified liquid also was found in the apartment. The official said it did not appear to be a chemical or biological agent - as news reports at first suggested. Results of tests on the liquid have not been made public. Tests on a second substance found at the apartment showed it to be iron perchlorate, judicial officials said. The chemical can be used to make explosives, they said. The official said the other liquid appeared to be similar, "that's to say some sort of potential explosive rather than anything else." "We are more in the explosives field than in the chemical or biological," he said. Agents also found two empty gas bottles, the official said. Such bottles packed with explosives have been used in attacks in France. Right out of the training manual
Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that the suspects were thought to have spent time in training camps in Afghanistan and Chechnya and had been in contact with Rabah Kadre, who was arrested last month in Britain on terrorism-related charges. Kadre, 35, is accused of possessing materials for the "preparation, instigation or commission" of terrorism. According to French news reports, he has links to the al-Qaida network. Sarkozy indicated the suspects arrested in France were planning an attack, saying that "with these four individuals, it was better to arrest them before rather than after." France has always had the right attitude towards these things when they happen on French soil
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 11:00 am ||
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My mom lived in france for years, and made quite a few friends there. She eventually moved back to the states. One of her friends, the wife of a French Supreme Court Justice, called to try to cajole her to return to France. When my mom cited the terrorism, her friend laughed it off, saying it was just a minor hazard, akin to the threat of drunk driving.
#2
Sarko is different. He's like the Bill Bratton of France. He is a zero tolerance kind of guy and in my opinion the only really "young" star showing up on French political radar to replace the old guard like Chirac and Jospin. Lets hope so.
Posted by: Jack ||
12/20/2002 5:30 Comments ||
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Jane Fonda visited Israelis wounded in suicide bomb attacks and met with Israeli peace activists Thursday. The 64-year-old actress and activist is on a weeklong trip to the region and plans to attend meetings of Israeli and Palestinian women organized by a global movement to stop violence against women. The movement, called V-Day, was inspired by the off-Broadway hit "The Vagina Monologues" and its playwright, Eve Ensler, who is also in Israel. It's been shown over and over again throughout history that vaginal monologues are the key to peace...
Fonda and Ensler were to speak later Thursday to Jewish and Arab doctors and patients at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital after a performance of selected passages from "Monologues" put on by a group of Israeli women. Oh, how thrilling! Oh, Ethel! Hold me!
Earlier, Fonda, a two-time Oscar winner and fitness guru and antiaircraft gunner, visited Israelis recovering from chronic injuries at the hospital's rehabilitation center. She appeared emotionally moved when she met 23-year-old Sharon Maman, who suffered brain damage after two suicide bombers blew up simultaneously in downtown Jerusalem on Dec. 1, 2001. The young man, who lay flat on his stomach on a hospital bed, only began speaking again three months ago. On Saturday, Fonda is to visit the West Bank town of Ramallah to see a physical rehabilitation center, a Palestinian refugee camp and Yasser Arafat's headquarters complex, most of which Israeli troops have destroyed. Somehow this drool ended up on a news page.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:56 pm ||
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Did anyone note the Fox News clip of Fonda, being heckled by Israelis? Not everyone loves dear Jane, nor has forgiven her for her past attacks on the US. Nor is clueless to where her heart lies between Israel and Arafat.
Posted by: Ben ||
12/20/2002 7:26 Comments ||
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The movement, called V-Day, was inspired by the off-Broadway hit "The Vagina Monologues" and its playwright, Eve Ensler, who is also in Israel.
Reminds me of Aristophanes' comedy LYSISTRATA. Well the heroine of the same name, an Athenian, decided she had had enough of the Peloponnesian War and so assembled women from all over Greece to protest- withold sex from their husbands till they agree to end the wars.
outrageous and hilarious.
Pakistani police said a leading Islamic militant suspected of involvement in the murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl may have blown himself up while making bombs in the southern port city of Karachi on Thursday. Four people, including a woman, died when an explosion caused a three-story building to collapse in Karachi's eastern Korangi district. Police said they suspected the building was being used for making bombs. Another "Work Accident"?
Deputy Inspector General of Police Fayyaz Leghari said they found a motorcycle whose fuel tank was packed with about 10 lbs of explosives. They also found an identity card bearing a photo resembling leading terror suspect Asif Ramzi. "We have found an identity card bearing a picture which resembles Asif Ramzi," he said. "We are trying to confirm whether he was really Ramzi." Be nice if true
Ramzi is a member of the outlawed extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. He was wanted in connection with the kidnap and murder of the Wall Street Journal reporter earlier this year as well as a series of bomb attacks in Karachi, Leghari said. Unulations on hold
Posted by: Steve ||
12/19/2002 10:43 am ||
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Red wire? Black wire?
Did the picture resemble the "Before Asif" or the "After Asif"?
Police arrested nine suspected al-Qaeda operatives including two Americans and a Canadian in a joint raid with FBI agents in this eastern Pakistani city Thursday. All nine were of Pakistani origin and belong to the same family. Guess we can put the "American" and "Canadian" in "quotes," huh?
Pakistan Television reported an exchange of gunfire during the raid on the family's home, after the family's guards apparently opened fire on police. "You'll never take 'em alive, coppers!"
Relatives said FBI officials searched the home for at least two hours and seized four computers and CDs. "We got information about these people, and today the police went there and made these arrests. We can say they are suspected al-Qaeda," Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. No injuries were reported in the raid in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's eastern Punjab province. Rashid said some of the nine men arrested are suspected of possibly having smuggled weapons to be used in terrorist attacks. And used some of them on the cops...
Those arrested were Dr. Javed Ahmad, his two sons, two brothers, three nephews and one uncle. Two of the men were naturalized Americans and one a naturalized Canadian, but there was no immediate information on their names or hometowns. Sounds like Lahore was home...
"Pakistani security agencies accompanied by foreigners (FBI agents) arrested our family members like they were criminals," Marghoob Ahmad Mir, Ahmad's brother-in-law, told a news conference in Lahore. "Ahmad's two goonsgunnies private security guards exchanged fire with the raiding party, but neither side suffered any injuries." "So no harm done, eh? They can let them all go with no hard feelings, right?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 11:25 am ||
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Gotta think shooting at the Pakland coppers might have some consequences...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/19/2002 12:00 Comments ||
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Gasoline supplies in oil-rich Venezuela were almost dry as a nationwide strike entered its 18th day on Thursday, threatening to paralyze transportation and the delivery of goods and throw the country into deeper chaos. The strike is aimed at forcing President Hugo Chavez to resign or agree to early elections. Chavez, who vows to stay in office, branded striking oil workers as traitors sabotaging Venezuela's oil-based economy and issued a decree allowing the temporary seizure of private vehicles to ensure deliveries of food and gas. "We must always be alert, ready to defend our revolution," Chavez told thousands of supporters late Wednesday at a Caracas arena. He said the strikers "have aligned themselves with treason." "Damn them all! Who're these citizens to stand in the way of Armed Struggle™?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 11:40 am ||
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"Be Alert, Bolivarians! We need more lerts."
"Hail Cesaer Chavez 1.0!"
Posted by: Mark Byron ||
12/19/2002 12:37 Comments ||
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Source: Palestine Information Centre
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance group has vehemently denied the existence of any connections with the Al-Qa'eda group of Osama bin Laden. Muhammed al-Hindi, a political leader of the group in Gaza, described statements made in Washington Tuesday by Zionist Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz as "concocted allegations." "Lies! All lies!"
Mofaz alleged that al-Qaeda "elements" were operating in the Gaza Strip, but gave no detail to corroborate his claims. "We are a Palestinian resistance group fighting the Zionist occupation and colonization of our homeland. We have no other agenda. Hence, I assure you that the allegations made by Mofaz have no iota of truth," the Palestinian daily newspaper, AL Quds, Wednesday quoted him as saying. "Whether al-Qaeda says they're involved or not..."
Al Hindi pointed out that the Zionist regime was making rabid and frantic efforts to find a linkage between the Palestinian resistance groups and the al-Qaeda group in order to justify further massacres and repression against the Palestinian people. PA Preventive police last week arrested a number of Israeli agents in Gaza who confessed to having been instructed to establish a "resistance cell" under the name of al-Qaeda. "Hey! I ain't no â Ow! Stop hitting me there! Ow! I confess! I dunnit! I kilt Kennedy, too! I shot Martin Luther King! I'm an al-Qaeda! I shot J.R.!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:58 am ||
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UNITED NATIONS â Iraq is in "material breach" of the U.N.'s order that it destroy its weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday.
Ambassador John Negroponte told the U.N. Security Council that serious gaps in Iraq's 12,000-page arms declaration left it in "material breach," diplomats attending the meeting said, according to Reuters.
The term "material breach" can be used as justification to go to war, although U.S. officials said that using the term at this stage does not signify that an attack is imminent.
Nevertheless, the use of the term signifies that America is preparing to go to war if Saddam Hussein does not immediately prove that Iraq has complied with the demands laid out in the U.N.'s Nov. 8 resolution.
Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix emerged from the morning meeting saying there were "inconsistencies" in Iraq's declaration.
"There is a good bit of information about non-arms related activities, [but] "not much information about the weapons," he said earlier, as he prepared to deliver a preliminary report on Iraq's declaration to the 15-members of the U.N. Security Council.
"The absence of supporting evidence is what we are talking about mainly. That continues," he said.
But Saddam Hussein's science adviser, speaking in Baghdad, said Iraq had nothing to fear from the presentations at the U.N.
"We're not worried," Amir al-Saadi said at a Baghdad news conference. "It's the other party that's worried, because there's nothing to pin on us."
Al-Saadi said it was natural that the inspectors would see little new in the declaration, because it covered ground on which the Iraqis already had extensively reported to U.N. agencies.
"The new part, which is written in Arabic, requires translation, not just translation, but technical translation" that will take time, al-Saadi said.
At the closed Security Council meeting Thursday, Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, were to give their initial views on the declaration. Secretary-General Kofi Annan joined the council at the meeting, which began shortly after 10:30 a.m.
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Mikhail Wehbe said he would attend the meeting but not take part in the discussion, to protest against the 10 non-permanent council members being given a shorter, sanitized version of the Iraqi declaration. Inspectors removed all information that could lead to the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
"As a member of the Arab group, if anything happens to Iraq, we'll be influenced -- all the area including Syria as the closest country," Wehbe said. "I will not share in this judgment. Since we did not receive the whole text, so how do we judge the report, if it is not complete?"
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was to speak in the afternoon, at which time he was expected to deliver a harsh criticism of the Iraqi weapons declaration, although he was not expected to declare Iraq in "material breach" of the U.N. demand to disarm.
Blix said he planned to tell the council that U.N. inspectors who returned to Baghdad last month after nearly four years have been given "prompt access to sites all over and there has been a good deal of help on the logistical side."
ElBaradei was telling the Security Council that Iraq's weapons dossier contains "no substantive differences" from past declarations, according to a copy of his remarks.
The text, made available as ElBaradei was briefing the council, lays out a case for continued inspections as the only way to verify Iraq's weapons arsenal.
ElBaradei's message was likely to be that "there's nothing new" on Iraqi weapons programs in the nuclear declaration and further inspections are needed, an IAEA official told AP in Vienna, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Iraq denies having weapons of mass destruction, but the United States and Britain contend Iraq does have banned arms and have called the Iraqi declaration incomplete.
The White House said Saddam Hussein missed his "last chance" to come clean with the world and President Bush was debating whether to formally declare Iraq in violation of a U.N. resolution that threatens war unless Saddam disarms.
Assistant Secretary of State John Wolf and U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte met Blix on Tuesday to discuss gaps in the declaration, and Negroponte had another meeting with the chief inspector on Wednesday, U.N. diplomats said.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Wednesday called Baghdad's dossier an "obvious falsehood." But he said Thursday that gaps in Iraq's weapons declaration are not in themselves grounds for war.
ElBaradei was likely to resist U.S. pressure to declare that Iraq has violated Resolution 1441, which required it to make a full and complete disclosure of its weapons programs, the official said. U.N. diplomats said Blix was expected to take a similar position.
Several U.N. diplomats said Blix was expected to report that he didn't find all the answers he was seeking about Iraq's chemical, biological and long-range missile programs in the declaration.
The IAEA official said Thursday: "There is new information, but it is related to Iraq's peaceful research into and use of nuclear radioisotopes for medicine, agriculture and industry, something they are permitted to engage in."
He said the IAEA had not concluded that Baghdad was withholding key information on its weapons programs.
In preparing its declaration, Iraq had a list of outstanding questions prepared by the former U.N. inspection agency and by an international panel of experts. Inspectors left Baghdad in December 1998 and Iraq barred them from returning until last month.
The unanswered questions included: How much anthrax did Iraq actually produce, and was it all destroyed as Baghdad claims? Where are 550 artillery shells that it filled with mustard gas? Why were no remnants found of warheads for 50 long-range missiles that Iraq said it destroyed? What happened to all the deadly VX nerve agent that Iraq produced.
The report by former chief inspector Richard Butler listed biological agents Iraq produced including deadly botulinum toxin, anthrax and ricin; gangrene gas, which rots flesh; and aflatoxin, which causes liver cancer. Baghdad also said it did research on rotavirus, which causes diarrhea; and hemorrhagic conjunctivitis virus, which affects the eyes.
Butler's report cited Iraq's failures to account for all stocks of biological agents and the material used to grow the agents. Inspectors said, for example, that they believe Iraq produced three times the amount of anthrax and 16 times more gangrene gas than Baghdad declared.
Straw's statement Wednesday said Iraq's declaration failed to account for "large quantities of nerve agent, chemical precursors and munitions."
U.N. diplomats said the declaration does not give an accounting for mustard gas, artillery shells, and material used to grow biological agents.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
D'oh!
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/19/2002 12:08 pm ||
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#2
The IAEA also cleared North Korea during their inspections there, despite only having access to one of three reactors.
Blix first gave one-day warnings of inspections, then did not insist on opening locked doors (it was Islam sabbath, owners were away - nut the inspection calls for such doors to be opened by master keys or broken down) until a day later.
And Syria "to protest against the 10 non-permanent council members being given a shorter, sanitized version" - tough, we ain't bonna tell you how to build atomic weapons and where to buy parts. See non-proliferation treaties. Especially the copy you signed.
Posted by: John Anderson ||
12/19/2002 14:55 Comments ||
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#3
You know, the thought occurs to me...
We have two (at least) operations currently destroying our stockpiles of chemical weapons, one in CONUS and one on Johnson Island in the Pacific. Big places, hard to miss. If Iraq has been making any attempt to destroy WMD, where?
#4
I think they mean phosgene gas. Kinda reminds me of the "blessed are the cheesemakers" sketch from monty python.
Very good point about the johnson island thing. I hadnt consdered that before, sort of the "dog that didnt bark" situation.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/19/2002 15:10 Comments ||
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#5
Blix and the boys will be home for Christmas. Do not be surprised if they don't return in the new year. The UNMOVIC charade has served its purpose. They might create a premature crisis by actually discovering something.
Posted by: john ||
12/19/2002 19:19 Comments ||
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#6
The Johnston Island facility has completed work and has shut down - only cleanup operations are ongoing. A site is operational in Utah, and three others (Alabama, Maryland, and Oregon) will start work within the next year. Remember that Americans are paranoid about safety, and these sites are overengineered to absurd lengths - hence their size. Somehow, I can't see Saddam putting all that money into something he can just blow up in the desert. No nonbarking dog here. Not that anyone believes that he actually got rid of the stuff...
The Australian government acted Thursday to bolster the ranks of special forces units responsible for counter-terrorism with more than 300 additional troops, in a move sure to fire speculation the country is gearing up to join a campaign against Iraq. Prime Minister John Howard also announced a new special operations command centre he said would improve Australia's capacity to use "non-conventional warfighting means" to respond to terrorist threats. In Perth to welcome home a contingent of Australian Special Air Services (SAS) troops fighting in the US-led coalition in Afghanistan, Howard said the plan would involve raising a new commando company, complete with logistics, weapons and communications support. The government will also accelerate the purchase of extra troop lift helicopters, most likely Black Hawks, to be based in Sydney. "It will send a very potent signal to the Australian community and will in a very practical sense massively improve our capacity to deal with potential terrorist threats," Howard said. He also hinted that recent increased funding to intelligence services would continue, telling troops at the SAS barracks "you haven't probably heard the last word on that". He's on board, and Australia will continue carrying its share of the load. Good men. And true. Australian lefts, appeasers, pacifists and Islamists are probably taking the gas pipe about now...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:58 am ||
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based in Sydney
Oddly near Indonesia. Curiouser and curiouser. Looks like the perfect setup for quick in and outs, that sort of thing.
#2
The latest news is that Australia is putting together its contingent for the Iraqi operation. The core will be 150 SAS troopers who'll be assigned to smoking out Scuds and other such nasty things, backed up by at least three or four frigates and destroyers along with some F-18's and other aircraft.
Posted by: Joe ||
12/19/2002 19:34 Comments ||
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#3
yeah.. sydney is soo close to indonesia...
chuck, grab a map... sydney is on south east coast, indon is off north west... that's rather farther than a blackhawk is comfortable for (rather slow)
Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama expressed his gratitude to India for his peoples' cause by awarding it a symbolic "Light of Truth" award and said compassion was the key to solving the problems of today's violent world. "Many of the mistakes happen because of lack of understanding of the reality. Now, I will give you one example - violence," the Dalai Lama said, delivering an address titled "Compassion: An antidote to terrorism", at a glittering function also attended by Hollywood star and pro-Tibet activist Richard Gere. Another of the Great Minds of the Twentieth Century...
"Some unhappy things happen, we pick up one cause and we think all these things happen because of this one thing and then accordingly react. Sometimes, we try to eliminate them through force but reality is not that alone, there are many other factors." Is that the sound of one lip flapping?
"Compassion is something important. Not as a religion but as an important mental factor for happiness irrespective of whether believer or non-believer, Buddhist or non-Buddhist." All that has nothing to do with terrorism and the reaction to it. We feel compassion for the innocents forced to live in terror-loving regimes. We feel hatred for gunnies, snuffies, tin-hat dictators and bloodthirsty holy men, but after we kill them we feel great compassion for their wives and kiddies. Y'see, courage isn't sitting around and receiving the fourth or fifth slap on the cheek after you've turned it. Courage is the willingness to confront evil and fight against it, to try and make the world better than it was. If Tibet is ever liberated from China, it won't be because of the Dalai Lama's "compassion;" it'll be because the Tibetan people and/or the Indian army will throw the Chinese out. If that doesn't happen it will be because the Tibetans are too busy feeling compassion for their new population and ultimately they'll be sinicized to the point where there is no Tibet, and it really is just a province of China.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:58 am ||
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Yeah, they used to try to sell this bullshit to David Carradine on Kung Fu, but he still ended up kicking everybody's ass before the end of the show. P.S.: "...big hitter, the Dalai Lama"
The police today said they had arrested six women and a man for allegedly sending e-mails to the Australian High Commission and other Internet addresses warning of bomb attacks on major shopping centres here. Ahmad Bahrin Idrus, Kuala Lumpur deputy police chief, said the suspects had been picked up under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial, but had been released on police bail. That's an indication the Malays regard them as jerkoffs, not as terrorists...
"We will continue to arrest those who spread the e-mail rumour. We are investigating the motive of their action and the source of the e-mail," he told reporters. "Huh huh! This is so-o-o-o-o neat!... Uh. Hullo, officer!"
The e-mails claimed that terrorists were planning to bomb major shopping complexes patronised by both locals and foreigners. "It's so funny, the way they run around when I cry 'wolf!' Huh huh!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
12/19/2002 09:58 am ||
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SEATTLE - A federal grand jury in Seattle has indicted 12 people in an alleged international money-laundering scheme to funnel more than $12 million to Iraq.
The indictment, handed up Wednesday and unsealed Thursday, alleges that between April 2000 and January 2002, a ring of agents throughout the United States collected money domestically and sent it to a company called Alshafei Family Connect in suburban Edmonds. Edmonds is a sleepy suburb of seattle, unique only in that it is a terminous of a ferry route, train stop and has a oil storage facility. Six people named in the indictment have been arrested, the government said.
The company's owner, Hussein Alshafei, has acknowledged in unrelated court papers that he sent money from Iraqi refugees in the United States to their friends and relatives in the Middle East, including Iraq.
But federal authorities claim those transfers broke the U.S. embargo of Iraq. They say some of the $12.1 million apparently didn't go to poverty-stricken relatives, but to foreign banks and companies before winding up with Al-Nour Trading, an Iraqi entity they know little about.
According to the indictment, the money was collected by Alshafei Family Connect's agents in Dallas; Phoenix; Nashville, Tenn.; St. Louis; and Roanoke, Va. What is it that all these cities have in common? they are all transportation and communication hubs!
coincidence?, notice they arent based in out of the way places like ely nevada, bakersfield california, star idaho, comstock texas, pigsnuckle arkansas and so on...Those agents, all arrested Thursday, are accused of forwarding the money to Alshafei, who sent it to Iraq via England, India, Canada, Brazil, Taiwan, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. What? Nigeria didnt make the cut?
The U.S. Customs Service investigation was handled by a task force designed to root out financial backers of terrorism, but authorities said they have found no links to terrorism thus far. Were expecting more results after "jughead" spends a week in gen-pop.
However, Leigh H. Winchell, special agent in charge of the Customs office in Seattle, added: "It is not humanitarian aid."
He declined to say what investigators believe the money was used for. Two guesses and first one doesnt count.
The indictment includes one count of conspiracy to launder money and 34 counts of money laundering, the latter supported by a list of 34 transactions from Seattle-area banks to companies in London and other cities totaling just over $1 million. That $1 million eventually reached Al-Nour Trading, run by a man whose last name is Fakher Faker?is someone putting us on?and whose alias is Abu Haider, prosecutors say.
It isn't clear how the rest of the $12 million allegedly got to Iraq.
The indictment charges people in London, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, in addition to the six people arrested in the United States. Each count carries up to 20 years in prison.
Federal officials said they would try to have those living abroad arrested and extradited to the United States. The United States has extradition treaties with Jordan and the United Kingdom, but not with the UAE. As for those suspects living in Iraq, "I believe Saddam Hussein is preoccupied," Winchell said.
Alshafei, an Iraqi refugee who protested Saddam Hussein's rule, prompted the investigation himself. Customs officials began looking into him in January 2002 shortly after he filed a civil lawsuit against Bank of America, saying it had improperly closed his account.
Bank of America officials said they closed the account because of concerns over a series of money transfers overseas in amounts just under $10,000 - the threshold that requires banks to report the transaction to the federal government. Well, what this says is that the old limit of transfers below 10,00 and no one will notice is pretty much over. (mrs soprano, watch your wallet)
But Alshafei said the bank was practicing racial-profiling after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and he sued in King County Superior Court. In that lawsuit, Alshafei openly acknowledged transferring funds to Iraq through Jordan to evade the embargo, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Ok, so the guys not only a possible enemy agent, he's a complete moron as well. Look like weve got the "A" team working here.
When deciding which transactions to charge him with, prosecutors considered the amount and the apparent purpose.
"These transactions where the funds went to corporate entities seemed inconsistent with what Mr. Alshafei was saying publicly about his intentions," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis J. Diskin. "We have not chosen to charge him for each of the $500 or $1,000 transactions."
Customs agents executed search warrants at Alshafei's business and home in January, seizing 71 boxes of documents and five computers. No arrests were made at the time.
Also, in late February, customs agents served 29 federal search warrants on people in 14 states who were suspected of conspiring with the company. Diskin said Thursday authorities believe Alshafei continued to operate illegally even after the search warrants were served.
Alshafei was taken into custody Thursday and was due to appear before a U.S. magistrate in Seattle later in the day.
In addition to Alshafei, Fakher and Alshafei Family Connect, the indictment names: Ali Mohammud Ali Abbas of Jordan; Haider Amer Fakher of Iraq; Hashim Mohsin Almosawi of Everett, Wash.; Abdulilah Hamid Daoud of London; Ahmed Fayadh Kathe of Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Salam Said Alkhursan of Dallas; Khalid Amen of St. Louis; Ali Noor Alsutani of Nashville, Tenn.; Ali Almarhoun of Phoenix; and Malik Almaliki of Roanoke, Va.
This is the third such organization in the seattle area that has been shut down siince 9/11. I have to say however that this guy is the dumbest one I've seen in a long time.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
12/19/2002 11:56 pm ||
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Notice that it's Customs doing all this. Got tired of waiting for the FBI.
All of these cases, nationwide, illustrate how much money is sent out of the country. And illustrative of how many people avoid and evade the regulations on reporting money transfers.
We're seeing a lot of Mid East cases, but if they keep digging, we'll see Columbia, Peru, etc., as the drug money shows up.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
