The shoot-out earlier this month around a seafront villa in the Saudi Arabian city of Ad Dammam lasted almost 48 hours, and ended only when security forces brought in light artillery. They blasted the opulent home until the roof came down on the people inside. In the immediate aftermath police said they couldn't tell from the charred remains just how many members of "a deviant group" had died in the battle. Finally, with DNA tests, they counted five. Police also found enough weapons for a couple of platoons of guerrilla fighters. The inventory given out by the Saudi Interior Ministry included more than 60 hand grenades and pipe bombs, pistols, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, two barrels full of explosives, video equipment, a large amount of cash and forged documents.
It was the documents that really set off alarms. According to a Saudi Interior Ministry statement, they included forged passes to enter "important locations." The Saudi daily Okaz quoted the minister, Prince Nayef, saying the cellâwhich was linked directly to Al Qaedaâhad planned major attacks on some of Saudi Arabia's key oil and gas facilities. "There isn't a place that they could reach that they didn't think about," said Nayef. And their ultimate target was the global economy. Saudi Arabia is the greatest source of oil on earth, with a quarter of known reserves and a proven policy of trying to stabilize prices even in today's volatile markets.
If the incident made few headlines at the time, it's because it ended on Sept. 6, when the United Statesâand oil tradersâwere focused on the impact of Hurricane Katrina. Yet precisely because of the shortages brought on by that storm and the damage still being counted from Hurricane Rita, Saudi Arabia is more important than ever to world oil supplies. What's worse, according to several analysts, Al Qaeda knows it. "They're watching Katrina. They're watching Rita. They're watching what it's doing to the United States," says former CIA agent Robert Baer, who has written extensively on Saudi Arabia's vulnerabilities. A few ruptured pipes could be repaired quickly, says Baer, but a concerted attack at several points could bring on the kind of nightmare scenario that U.S. officials have been dreading since the Reagan years, pushing oil prices up from their current prices in the range of $60 to $70 a barrel to well over $100 for weeks or even months.
Since Al Qaeda's campaign of terror inside Saudi Arabia began in 2003, the Saudis have dramatically stepped up protection of their oil installations. Security forces have issued several lists of their most-wanted terrorists, and tracked down or killed most of them. (Four of the five in Ad Dammam were on the latest lists.) Officials have sought to reassure the world that the terrorists are on the run. Anthony Cordesman at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, among others, has backed up that basic analysis.
Yet the cells seem to be replaced almost as quickly as they're taken down. The brother of one of those killed in Ad Dammam, himself a wanted terrorist named Muhammad Abdelrahman Al-Suwailimi, put a voice message on the Web afterward claiming the incident was exaggerated by authorities. He also thanked the infamous terrorist Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, in neighboring Iraq, for his support. Saudi Arabia now is increasingly concerned about the potential blowback of disintegration in Iraq. "I don't see how the Arab countries are going to be left out of the conflict in one way or another," said Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal last week. "I think this is what is going to happen if things continue as they are."
Precisely what the Dammam cell intended to hit, if known, has not been revealed in any detail. But, as Baer points out, Saudi Arabia is a target-rich environment. Certain critical nodes in the general vicinity of Ad Dammam have worried American strategists for years. Past studies suggest a moderate-to-severe attack on the Abqaiq oil-processing facilities, for instance, could cut Saudi output (now about 9.6 million barrels a day) by more than 4 million barrels for two months or more.
Al Qaeda has used suicide boats before. A successful hit against a major offshore loading facility at either Ras Tanura or Juaymah would knock millions of barrels off the market. Baer wrote in 2003 that "a single jum-bo jet with a suicide bomber at the controls... crashed into the heart of Ras Tanura, would be enough to bring the world's oil-addicted economies to their knees." After the one-two punch from Katrina and Rita, it might not take that much.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/25/2005 00:39 ||
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"I don't see how the Arab countries are going to be left out of the conflict in one way or another," said Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal last week.
Wisdom would counsel the Arab countries to stay out of the conflict. Wisdom might remind Minister Saud al-Faisal how many sons of Arabia have already disappeared into Iraq without leaving a trace.
#4
Dan, besides these allegations that Al Qaeda was _planning_ to attack oilfield installations... has A-Q ever been known to actually attack oilfield installations in Saudi Arabia?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/25/2005 20:52 Comments ||
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DAVID Hicks has applied for British citizenship in a bid to get out of Guantanamo Bay and avoid a US military commission.
During a discussion about the Ashes cricket series with his Pentagon lawyer Michael Mori, Mr Hicks, 30, revealed his mother was British and had never taken out Australian citizenship.
A law change in 2002 - when Mr Hicks was in the Cuban prison camp - entitled him to register as a British national.
The British Government refused to allow any of its nine inmates at Guantanamo Bay to be tried by military commission because it said the trials failed to uphold basic standards of international justice.
It successfully demanded the repatriation of its citizens and all were set free. Major Mori, who has argued Mr Hicks was accused of nothing worse than the British, lodged an application on Mr Hicks' behalf at the British Embassy in Washington DC on September 16. He has yet to receive a response.
Mr Hicks' father, Terry, said yesterday that when Major Mori rang him and suggested the idea, he had no idea the rule had changed regarding citizenship.
"I said 'Go for it mate'," Terry Hicks said.
"If the Australian Government can't bloody help him, let's see if the English can."
Terry Hicks said he separated from David's mother "many, many years ago" and she did not want to be named or become involved. She still lives in Adelaide and Terry subsequently remarried Bev.
Until 2002, only children of British fathers could apply to register as British nationals.
Terry Hicks was unsure whether David would be allowed to return to Australia if he became a British national and was released from Guantanamo.
"The Australian Government will probably say 'You can have him, we don't want him'," he said.
"This will now bring a bit of pressure to bear on different factions."
A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said it was a private matter.
"The Attorney-General won't comment about any individual citizenship matter," she said.
Any other issues regarding Mr Hicks' citizenship case were hypothetical, she added.
Major Mori could not be contacted yesterday but told Britain's Observer newspaper the citizenship application began with a chance discussion at Guantanamo Bay when Major Mori told Mr Hicks Australia had lost the Ashes to England.
"He told me he never felt very partisan about the Ashes and wouldn't much mind if England took the series because his mum had never claimed Aussie nationality and still carried a UK passport," Major Mori said.
"My jaw hit the floor. I asked him: 'Do you realise that may mean you're legally a Brit?'."
Unfortunately, the Islamacists among them don't suffer from the same limitation.
Almost before it was born, the constitutional treaty for a new Europe was dead. The so-called âEuropean project' is stalled, the drive towards ever-closer union is in reverse and the leading economies of the European Union are stagnant. Euroland, in short, is in a state of chassis.
This autumn promises to bring tough budget negotiations, grandstanding at summits and continued uncertainty at the heart of the European project. Although speaking mostly on condition of anonymity, the gloomy admissions of Eurocrats in Brussels last week - some in a series of briefings for Irish journalists - were mostly statements of the obvious.
What was more striking was the sense of pessimism that appears to be overtaking the European Commission, headed by president Jose Manuel Barroso. For the first time in decades, the engine that drove forward the European project appears to be spluttering.
On the surface, life goes on as before. The food is still excellent and the wines are still fine in the many restaurants throughout the massive modernist buildings that house thousands of Brussels officials, diplomats, lobbyists and public representatives. The Belgian beer flows freely in the bars around the magnificent Berlaymont building. But the mountains of langoustines and rivers of vin de pays are being consumed by increasingly worried men and women.
Less than a year after he assumed power, Barroso's leadership is now being openly questioned. The Lisbon Agenda - a package of ambitious economic targets which the former Portuguese prime minister chose as the benchmark to judge him - looks ever more remote. In the press room, Portuguese journalists have begun to whisper to their European colleagues that they never really rated Barroso.
He's lost the press! Oh no!
Last week, Barroso outlined a number of facts to the Brussels press corps. âFact number two,â he said, âthe constitution is not going to be ratified in the near future.
The subject will come up for debate again when the time is right, but in the meanwhile we must not succumb to paralysis.â
The translation was carried simultaneously into the earphones of the polyglot press corps. The real translation was this: We are paralysed.
After the social Europe of Jacques Delors and the enlargement of Romano Prodi, Barroso chose to make the Lisbon Agenda his principal task. It was a bold decision which began to look foolhardy a long time ago and is now beginning to look suicidal. âFrom the moment the Lisbon strategy was announced, GDP growth took off on a downward curve, from 3 per cent to 1 per cent,â said one senior economic official in the Berlaymont last week. âInvestment growth turned negative.â
The dilemma for Barroso - and for the European Commission - is that shifting the European economy on its axis is not something that Brussels can do. The economic reforms that are needed to kick-start the German and French economies can only be implemented by national governments. âUnless Barroso can get the co-operation of key member states' leaders, we will not deliver the Lisbon Agenda,â said a senior official.
But Barroso's fate is out of his own hands and events in Germany, France and Italy indicate economic reforms are as far away as ever.
The current political and economic climate is the most difficult that Europe has ever faced, according to one source. Weak economies are crying out for structural reform. Politically, everyone is screaming for leadership. âThe commission is going through a collective heart attack,â blurted British MEP Caroline Jackson before correcting herself: âWell, er, it's more of a stumble, really.â
âPeople are asking, what is the purpose of Europe?â says a senior bureaucrat. But what has really changed in Brussels is that the high and mighty in the European Commission are now asking âWhat is the purpose of Europe?â
Start a new world war?
It's not the only stark reversal in recent years. Previously, national governments were accustomed to blaming Europe for all kinds of things that they had to do but didn't really want to - particularly in the areas of the environment and consumer protection. We're being forced to do this by Brussels, they said. Now it's the commission that's blaming national governments.
âWe are being called upon to provide leadership,â complained one senior bureaucrat, âat a time of such weak leadership in some key member states.â
Last week, the commissioners gathered in a country retreat outside Brussels to consider these and other pressing questions. While the corpse of the treaty and the need for Europe to communicate better were on the agenda, continuing economic stasis in many members states is still the great underlying problem.
The causes are structural, certainly, but there is a willingness among some - including commissioner Charlie McCreevy - to look at the problem from different perspectives, from cultural ones, for instance. âThere is a lack of dynamism, a lack of willingness to become entrepreneurs,â complained one longtime bureaucrat last week.
These are more than sociological questions. In the words of one commission official, âThe problem now is we are faced with the question of how to finance the European social model.â Others are thinking the unthinkable - what if the existence of the social model is now one of the factors inhibiting growth. Can Europe square that circle? As one senior official remarked ruefully, âIf this is true, there is no way out of this'â.
Couple this realization to the demographic bomb -- negative fertility rate for European women and high fertility rate for immigrant women -- and Eurabia is looking more likely all the time.
McCreevy's exhortations in favour of economic reform - which would once have been seen as almost vulgar - are now being listened to. Certainly, central and eastern European countries have heard and heeded the Irish example of low taxes and flexible labour. Turning around the French and German behemoths is another matter, and Brussels seems powerless.
But does any of this matter to us in Ireland. It all seems remote, opaque even.
If Europe was really in crisis, this would be a matter for the gravest of concern for Ireland. But it's not, really. There is - or shortly will be - a crisis of confidence in the leadership of the chief Eurocrat. There is a crisis among those for whom Europe is the commission, the institutions. But it's far from universally accepted that to be a good European, you must be dedicated to âever closer union'â - particularly to political union. This vision of Europe has previously been in the ascendant in Brussels but it has been shattered by events of the past few years, and by the French and Dutch votes. This is the Europe that is in crisis; these are the death throes of federalism.
There are other visions of Europe, such as the Irish one.
Despite having access to the grotesquely deformed British debate on Europe, the Irish remain committed to a European Union, but one of nation states. Some powers should be devolved to Brussels, while others - such as tax - should remain firmly at home. This appears to be the vision shared - if not by Brussels - by most of Europe.
Unlikely as it may seem, in the great debate about Europe's future, the Irish appear to be the winners.
#3
" Some powers should be devolved to Brussels, ..."
And which ones are those?
Note it doesn't say.
The EU is either going to die or to become a non-democratic tyrant. There is no middle when an unelected bureaucracy takes over. When they make the laws and then can't enforce or pay for them...they'll make laws to raise the money and create the army and judiciary and police force necessary.
If the individual nations say NO! Then the EU either dies or fights. I hope that THIS time we stay the hell out of the European Civil War V. 3.4
#4
âThe problem now is we are faced with the question of how to finance the European social model.â Others are thinking the unthinkable - what if the existence of the social model is now one of the factors inhibiting growth. Can Europe square that circle? As one senior official remarked ruefully, âIf this is true, there is no way out of this'.
Interesting quote. How to finance the European social model? Unsustainable. One must adapt or face the consequences of taxing oneself into oblivion.
The existing model is unsustainable. If Europe realizes this, then maybe they will do something about it. Recognizing the problem is the first step, so there is hope. 1 in a million, but still hope, heh.
I like the part about if it's true, then there is no way out of this. Great telling response of a unimaginative bureaucrat. We're doomed, I tell ya, doomed!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/25/2005 14:03 Comments ||
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#5
And which ones are those?
Maybe standard the signs on roadways or for the loo. Oh, wait, they've already done that. Just ignor [Brussels].
#6
"grotesquely deformed British debate on Europe"
They mean that the British have a well informed debate on the EU (not Europe is NOT the same as the EU!) (don't fall for this common journo trick).
The British would leave the EU is we had a referendum. The UK referendum was "cancelled" after the UK rgions massively rejected Prescotts local government "reforms".
We would reject the EU in even vastly higher numbers.
PARIS - Firebrand Islamist cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, banned from Britain since August, called on Muslims to leave Europe, in an interview with France 3 television to be broadcast Monday.
Good idea. Need any help packing? Can we call you a cab?
Bakri was interviewed in Beirut âThere must be two distinct camps and so all Muslims must leave Europe,â said Bakri, declaring that he was convinced âthe Islamic flag will fly one day over Downing Street.â
Time to make clear the Dar-al-Islam and the Dar-al-Harb, he's saying.
In the French TV interview, Bakri went further saying the backgrounds of the four suicide bombers responsible for the July 7 attacks prove that the message of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden âhas reached the moderate communities.â He also called on the converts to Islam to come join him in Beirut âto learn Arabic before returning to Europe.â
"Learn Arabic! Memorize the Koran! That's the ticket to success in a technology-oriented continent in the 21st Century!"
He also said he intended to stay in Lebanon and bring his family over, and called on all Islamist militants in exile to return to their countries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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"called on all Islamist militants in exile to return to their countries"
I'll donate something to their plane fare! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/25/2005 0:10 Comments ||
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All European Muzzys, hear and obey! Just remember that it's a one-way trip. Adios, MFs. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Posted by: mac ||
09/25/2005 1:13 Comments ||
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#3
Wow - the Europeans are going to be kicking themselves for not thinking of this sooner. Just pay off all the radical imams to issue similar strident calls and emigrate! Their brainwashed followers join them, and presto! Problem solved.
Of course, per all Euro welfare state policies, there would be a downsaide. Namely, manufactured demand for radical imams amongs Europe's Muslims, who know a winning lottery ticket when they see it.
However, given that appeasement is Europe's only operating mode, this 'solution' would at least have the virtue of generating some progress on the way to vividly illustrating the basic idiocies underlying Euro-socialism.
Posted by: Joe Katzman ||
09/25/2005 1:59 Comments ||
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#4
âto learn Arabic before returning to Europe.â
Huh? I thought he wanted them out.
Oh, I get it! Learn arabic now, then go back and take over!
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/25/2005 7:57 Comments ||
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#5
"learn Arabic" = PC for "get trained for violent jihad"
Joe is right: this is a threat to remove cheap labor from the Euro labor pool. Bet it works to intimidate the Euros, too.
Opponents of the war in Iraq have rallied by the thousands to demand the return of US troops, staging a day of protest, song and remembrance of the dead in marches through Washington and other cities in the US and Europe.
Did they sing about the 3000 dead Americans in the 9-11 attacks? Did they sing about 211 dead in Bali? Did they have a moment of silence for the 300,000 Iraqis Sammy bumped off? How about the thousands of Iraqis who've since been killed by the boomers and the hard boyz? Or don't they count?
More than 2000 people gathered on the Ellipse, the south end of the White House grounds, hours before the showcase demonstration past the White House, the first wave of what organisers said would be the largest Washington rally since the war began. President George Bush was out of town, with more important things on his mind monitoring hurricane recovery efforts from Colorado and Texas. "We have to get involved," said Erika McCroskey, 27, who came from Des Moines, Iowa, with her younger sister and mother for her first demonstration, travelling in one of the buses that poured into the capital from far-flung places. "Bush lied, thousands died," said one sign. "End the occupation," said another.
Boy, that's original...
... but they had puppets ...
While united against the war, political beliefs varied in the Washington crowd. Paul Rutherford, 60, said he is a Republican who supported Bush in the last election and still does - except for the war. "President Bush needs to admit he made a mistake in the war and bring the troops home, and let's move on," he said.
Somehow I doubt Paul's a Publican. They trot these guys out at every rally...
Arthur Pollock, 47, said he was against the war from the beginning. He wants the soldiers out, but not all at once.
How about when all the terrs are dead? Sound good?
"We believe we are at a tipping point whereby the anti-war sentiment has now become the majority sentiment," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for Answer, one of the main anti-war organisers.
Gerber makes baby food, Ford makes cars, International ANSWER makes antiwar protests...
Cindy Sheehan, the California mother who drew thousands of demonstrators to her 26-day vigil outside Bush's Texas ranch last month, joined the protest. Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in an ambush in Sadr City, Iraq, last year.
And she's been riding his death for her own notoriety ever since...
Rallies were planned in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Florence, Rome, Paris and Madrid. In London, thousands of protesters marched to demand that Britain pull its troops out of Iraq and to send a strong message to Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party as members headed to their annual conference. Clashes between fighters and British troops in the southern Iraq town of Basra this week highlighted the urgent need to withdraw, said the Stop The War Coalition, which organised the march. "Enough is enough. It is now time, once again, for the British people to step forward into the streets and insist that, this time, we will not be ignored," coalition official Lindsey German said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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Saturday even more demonstrations of solidarity were held at campuses across the nation as huge crowds numbering over 50k at many location gathered to recognize community identity and common spirit. Millions, unable to personally attend, viewed these assemblages broadcasted into their homes. Results can be viewed in the sports section of your favorite paper or blog. These demonstrations were a follow on to many smaller ones found at high school stadiums across the nation, with attendence often greater in size than an irrelevent political gathering by a group of malcontents parading in Washington. Today will see even greater gatherings in communities across the nation, filling stadiums with people in numbers multiple times greater than the sideshow which MSM wasted resources yesterday to promote. Tsk-tsk.
#2
"We believe we are at a tipping point whereby the anti-war sentiment has now become the majority sentiment," said Brian Becker, national coordinator for Answer, one of the main anti-war organisers.
They have been planing this for months, bussing and flying people in from across the country, and all they can muster is measly 2,000?
Sorry but that isn't a majority... It isn't even a minority... its... er.... nothing....
#3
Before this rally I opined that even if they got the lofty number of two million (that's what Cindy wanted) that still didn't speak for the majority of 270 million in this country. I saw part of this on CSPAN and if there were more than 10K there I would be surprised. There might have been a large crowd at the elipse but for some reason the cameras never panned that way or at least while I was watching. Whatever spin they (LLL) want to put n this it was even near the success they were hoping for and desperately needed. This was a failure by any measure and maybe it will send a message to the MSM that they do not represent America but fringe.
#5
Mr Hupairong, "huge crowds numbering over 50k" does not even rank up there with college football on many campuses -- not that I believe your numbers.
#12
As an actual police veteran of the 1969-1972 antiwar demonstrations in Washington D.C., I must say this is a really pathetic showing for the amount of coverage the MMM is giving it. Aside from professional political and shakedown types, and a few intellectually challenged hollywood twits, where are the real Americans in any significant number?
This kind of headline hectoring is aid and comfort to an enemy whose lifesblood is media to give it a platform and recruits. Americans who participate need to accept responsibility for the encouragement they give radical islamists worldwide and in our midst!
Posted by: Just About Enough! ||
09/25/2005 16:30 Comments ||
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#13
Geez, and Donahue hisownself (nope, not dead, yet) said this would be a huge deal, rivaling the bazillions who protested war stuff and did the free love thingy back upon a time. I blame HIV for the low turnout. Oh, and no medal-throwing events.
#14
I watched some of it on CSPAN and there is no way that crowd ever grew to 100k, maybe 50k tops. I loved the cutsie stories on the web news pages, nothing but ordinary folks attending thee rallies. Yes normal people burn the American flag, the President in effigy, and praise terrorists. I will make a blanket statement that EVERYONE attending these rallies is a card-carrying koolaid drinking lefty loon that has attended at east one other anti war or moveon gala before this big one. To attempt to portray them as something else is just blatantly dishonest.
#15
Surely you folks had something better to do with your time. Maybe cleaning the cat box or.....
Posted by: Dorf ||
09/25/2005 20:29 Comments ||
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I know some of you aren't keen on him, but the Blogfather has links to some pro- and anti-war protest photoblogging in D.C. For some reason lots of pictures of pretty pro-war women... I can't imagine why. ;-)
Border Security now, please -- we have a Euro nation to our north.
In a bid to counteract Canada's declining birthrate and aging population, the federal government is looking at a dramatic boost in immigration â up to 100,000 additional newcomers each year. The increase, part of a new immigration plan to be unveiled next month, means Canada would open its doors to 320,000 immigrants a year by the time the plan is fully implemented in five years.
Canada accepted 235,000 permanent residents last year, within its target range of 220,000 to 245,000 new residents per year. The new plan would implement a long-standing Liberal pledge to increase immigration to 1 per cent of population. It would also reflect the high priority placed on immigration by Prime Minister Paul Martin in a speech earlier this week. "Canada needs more immigrants, plain and simple, and we need them to succeed," Martin told civil servants. Immigration will be key to countering a low birth rate, an aging population and a growing shortage of skilled workers, he said.
The new policy is also expected to reflect the Prime Minister's emphasis on the need for more skilled immigrants. "As the numbers increase we also must be more active in recruiting immigrants who meet Canada's evolving needs â needs that are identified in consultation with provinces, communities and those in labour, business and academia."
At the core of the changes is a philosophical shift that will see the immigration department become a worldwide recruiter of newcomers to Canada, instead of simply processing applications.
The new plan, which Immigration Minister Joe Volpe first has to take to cabinet, is expected to be broadly based on these key themes:
Welcoming more immigrants and encouraging more of them to settle outside big cities like Toronto and Vancouver, where they have traditionally settled in the past. "A lot of people have said there are so many immigrants coming to Canada, how come they're all going to Toronto?" Volpe said. "Regionalization is absolutely crucial." For example, during a visit to Sault Ste. Marie a week ago, Volpe was told the city was ready to welcome 6,000 new immigrants.
Department officials say the government could dangle the promise of speedy entry for those immigrants willing to move to communities outside of the big centres.
Better matching the skills of immigrants with jobs. "We have a whole inventory of jobs that go unfilled," Volpe said. Sources say this has been an area where the department has traditionally fallen down. "We've never done a particularly good job of matching skills to the requirements of the Canadian economy," a department official said.
"We probably have 1,000 jobs open right now across the country in the electronic gaming industry. You can't throw these people into the queue because two years from now, when their application finally gets to the top of the pile, the job is gone," he said. The solution is to become more adept at responding to the changing needs of the labour market, he said.
Making it easier for temporary workers and foreign students â who already know the country and its languages â to remain here. "Not everybody is going to be a PhD in English or French but they have certain skills and they understand things about the country that a brand new person might not," Volpe said.
The new plan is also expected to address the question of getting foreign credentials more speedily recognized in Canada.
The job of drawing up the new plan falls to Volpe. Since April, he's been criss-crossing the country to poll communities and employers about immigration policy. He said he heard a universal message during his travels. "Everywhere around the country, I think there's one four-letter (word) and it's `more.' Everybody wants more immigration," Volpe said in an interview. "It's a huge change and for some it's quite unexpected."
He said smaller communities in particular are crying out for immigrants to help fill critical labour shortages. "They want the advantages of immigration to be regionalized. Everyone sees immigration as a beneficial issue," he said.
Volpe would not talk specifics.
Spreading the increase out over several years will give the agencies and governments who help settle immigrants, including provinces, time to prepare for the influx. But that boost, while welcome news to employers, could be a mixed blessing for cities like Toronto, which have been pressing the federal government to pony up more cash to pay for language training and housing to help new immigrants settle. The GTA traditionally is the destination of about 40 per cent of Canada's immigrants. If that trend continues under the new plan, it would mean an additional 40,000 newcomers a year to the GTA.
Volpe said that in lockstep with the increase, assistance to cities and provinces would be increased to help immigrants integrate. But he also said there would be more efforts made to start the transition while immigrants are still in their native countries, waiting to make the move. "Why can't it start before they get here?" Volpe said. "Let's put in place a process that allows for the integration process to begin at the moment an application is deemed to be ready."
That could include language training and familiarization about life in Canada, Volpe said. "There's usually a two- to three-month lag period from the moment they are accepted and they land. The idea is to utilize that period."
Each year in late October, the department releases its immigration target for the following year. But this year, the department will use that annual event to unveil its multi-year plan to ramp up immigration levels.
#1
In a bid to counteract Canada's declining birthrate and aging population, the federal government is looking at a dramatic boost in immigration â up to 100,000 additional newcomers each year.
If they were really serious about this, all they have to do is advertise in U.S. Blue Counties. Free Medical Care! Socialism! Peace! Molson!
#2
In a nutshell, when the government provides cradle to grave programs and tries to plan and control every aspect of life, a sense of hopelessness, of ennui, sets in and people lose hope for the future. Without hope, people don't have children. What's the point? If Canadians wanted to fix the problem, disestablish the their government and apply, as provinces, for statehood in the US. American freedom would liberate their economy, provide their people with faith in the future, and encourage men to be men, women to be women, and the species to propagate.
Pretty sad. From the above list, of the developed nations, only Israel (2.44) and the US (2.08) are at replacement levels. As for Israel, I don't know the Jewish(80%)-Muslim breakdown, but the Jewish birthrate is at least at replacement levels.
Posted by: ed ||
09/25/2005 13:17 Comments ||
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RWV---distablish the govt and the provinces can apply for statehood...We'll take the Yukon, but who will take Quebec?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/25/2005 14:11 Comments ||
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but who will take Quebec?
When my darling Quebecois mother-in-law moved to the U.S., she thought the high school French course would be an easy A (100% for those of you on a different system). She was shocked when the teacher gave her a failing grade because her French was "funny." And France puts subtitles in the movies that come from Canada -- so I don't think France will want them.
#12
The interesting thing is that Ottawa is actually participating in immigration policy. I was grumbling to Canadian friends about Quebec setting its own immigration policy, with predictable results. The reply"theres nothing different about Quebec. All the Provinces control their own immigration policy. If you want to come to Canada, you dont talk to Ottawa, you target a Provincial Government and apply to them"
#13
But, but, who would they feel superior to, then, OO? They need "little people" to look down upon, instruct, abuse, to be complete. Oh, I get it - they could import a shitload of PakiWakis and become like the Sunni Gulf "states". Only without the oil 'n stuff.
National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley yesterday denied receiving a Defense Department chart that allegedly identified lead terrorist Mohamed Atta before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, dealing a blow to claims by a Republican congressman that have caused a political uproar in recent weeks.
Rep. Curt Weldon (Pa.) wrote in his book, "Countdown to Terror," earlier this year that he provided a chart to Hadley produced in 1999 by the Pentagon's "Able Danger" program, a secret effort to identify terrorists using publicly available data. Weldon said the chart identified Atta in connection with a Brooklyn, N.Y., terrorist cell.
That claim was the start of an expanding list of allegations related to Able Danger, that culminated Wednesday with a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee where angry lawmakers accused the Pentagon of a coverup for refusing to allow some witnesses to testify.
But a spokesman for Hadley, who has previously declined to comment on Weldon's claims, said yesterday that a search of National Security Council files produced no such documents identifying Atta and that Hadley was not given such a chart by Weldon.
"Mr. Hadley does not recall any chart bearing the name or photo of Mohamed Atta," said the spokesman, Frederick L. Jones II. "NSC staff reviewed the files of Mr. Hadley as well as of all NSC personnel" who might have received such a chart.
"That search has turned up no chart," he said.
Hadley does recall seeing a chart used as an example of "link analysis" -- the technique used by the Able Danger program -- as a counterterrorism tool, but is not sure whether it happened during a Sept. 25, 2001, meeting with Weldon or at another session, Jones said.
Weldon's chief of staff, Russ Caso, said that "the congressman sticks by his account" of the meeting, adding that it was understandable Hadley may have forgotten or misplaced the chart, given the demands of his job.
"This case is not closed," Caso said. "We are still aggressively trying to track down charts and/or documents. We haven't turned over every rock yet."
The NSC findings echo the results of earlier probes into the Able Danger claims by the Sept. 11 commission and the Defense Department, neither of which found documents or other evidence that Atta was identified by the program. Weldon and others who have made the charges have contradicted themselves or provided shifting explanations for important details at the heart of the case, according to interviews, news reports, transcripts and hearing testimony.
Investigators and counterterrorism experts also find it improbable -- if not impossible -- that an obscure Defense Department program that used open-source records could identify Atta by name and photograph in early 2000, when he was living in Germany under a different name and had yet to obtain a U.S. visa. Investigators have discovered other charts that include terrorists who are similar in name or appearance to Atta, bolstering the possibility that the entire affair is based on the false recollections of those involved.
Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, Navy Capt. Scott Philpott and three civilians affiliated with Able Danger have told Pentagon investigators that they recalled seeing either Atta's name or photograph before Sept. 11, 2001. But no other evidence has emerged to support the claims. Pentagon investigators say they interviewed about 75 others affiliated with Able Danger, none of whom recalled an identification of Atta or other hijackers.
Shaffer has conceded that he based his recollection on the memories of others, and the Pentagon says he had contact with the now defunct 18-month project for a total of 27 days. Shaffer's security clearance was formally revoked on Monday for a series of unrelated violations, including allegations that he exaggerated his past actions to obtain a service medal, according to his attorney, Mark S. Zaid.
Shaffer denies the allegations and was entitled to the medal, Zaid said yesterday.
The Bush administration has fueled the controversy through its responses to various allegations. For example, the Pentagon provided an on-the-record briefing about the issue to reporters earlier this month, but then refused to allow public testimony by Philpott and others at Wednesday's Senate committee hearing. The Pentagon has relented and will allow the witnesses to testify at a second hearing Oct. 5, the judiciary panel announced yesterday.
Weldon has alleged that documents proving his claims may have been lost as part of a record-destruction program motivated by concerns over keeping data on U.S. citizens, companies and legal residents. Yet large volumes of Able Danger documents did survive, presumably including the Atta charts that Weldon and others claim to have had in their possession as recently as last year. Weldon has also said he used original data from the Able Danger project to reconstruct charts that he has presented to reporters and to Congress.
In his unusual appearance before the judiciary panel Wednesday, Weldon criticized the Pentagon investigation and said Defense Department officials were stonewalling. "My goal now . . . is the same as it was then: the full and complete truth about the run-up to 9/11," Weldon said.
Weldon is a controversial figure who is vice chairman of the House homeland security and armed services committees and is known for carrying a replica of a suitcase nuclear bomb. His book, which devoted one paragraph to the claim about Atta, focused primarily on allegations by an Iranian intelligence source whom the CIA has dismissed as a fabricator.
The chart that Weldon said he gave to Hadley was one of the enduring mysteries of the controversy. Two others associated with Able Danger, Shaffer and defense contractor James D. Smith, also have said in interviews that they had copies of a pre-Sept. 11 chart that included Atta, but that they were destroyed in 2004 under unclear circumstances.
Zaid, who represents both Shaffer and Smith, said Smith's copy was thrown away after it was wrecked while it was being removed from an office wall. Shaffer has said that his copy was among papers destroyed by the Defense Intelligence Agency last year when his clearance was first suspended.
While Pentagon investigators never found such a chart, they did uncover two other interesting diagrams: One from 1999 included the name and photograph of Mohammed Atef -- not Atta -- a well-known al Qaeda lieutenant. Another included the photo of a convicted terrorist named Eyad Ismoil, an Egyptian who bears a resemblance to Atta -- and who, unlike Atta, was part of the Brooklyn cell tied to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Investigators and experts say those two charts could explain how a handful of military officers and civilians may have come to mistakenly believe they identified Atta. Atta's Florida driver's license photo from the summer of 2000 has become an icon of the attacks, and the lead hijacker has been the subject of many dubious claims and sightings.
"No evidence turns up to corroborate what people think they saw," former senator Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), a member of the Sept. 11 commission, wrote in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. ". . . Any investigator can tell you that memories, years after the fact, are faulty."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/25/2005 03:24 ||
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Data mining is not a conventional investigative technique. So pretty much all the objections in this article are irrelevant (and demonstrate the MSM's ignorance). I'll suggest precisely because Able Danger would have seemed 'magic', it was rejected.
#2
I'll suggest precisely because Able Danger would have seemed 'magic', it was rejected.
Sort of like the new fangle gear the Brits provided the US called radar. Guess that's why the OIC dismissed the reports of large incoming objects out of the 'North' as the B-17 flight coming in from the West Coast to Hawaii that December morning.
The American Legion, one of the largest veterans organizations in the country, is launching a campaign to counter what it sees as the growing anti-war movement in America and has designed a bookletThis is a PDF file that serves as a how-to guide for fighting it. The guide says the American Legion stands resolved in support of the president and the U.S. armed forces and urges all Americans to "stand united in their support of the global war on terrorism."
National Commander Thomas L. Block said he believes the morale of America's soldiers greatly affects how they perform in battle. He asks anti-war Americans to protest "responsibly, in ways that won't imperil the lives or shake the morale of American men and women now stationed in harm's way." But that's their goal.
One of the main goals of the guide is to raise awareness among Americans about the true threat that terrorists pose on America. It offers a comprehensive recounting of major terrorist attacks over the past several decades. The guide urges Americans, and especially American Legion members, who support the war to take action in the some of the following ways:
Be vigilant and seek equal time and opportunity when local anti-war demonstrations occur.
Establish a troop-support council in town.
Coordinate a community troop-support event using the main themes in this booklet.
Establish your posts as a news-media resource for interviews when protests arise.
Write letters to the editor of the local newspapers.
Write a guest editorial for the local newspaper.
Call into local talk-radio programs and tell them about the American Legion Resolution 169 initiative calling for responsible behavior by anti-war activists.
Seek out the local sponsors to co-host troop support activities.
Consider coordinating a pro-troop rally to counter any planned anti-war demonstrations in the area.
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - A judge has granted a delay for the trial of John Allen Muhammad in the six Maryland deaths linked to the 2002 Washington-area sniper spree. Defendants are usually entitled to a trial within 180 days of arrest in Maryland or within 120 days of transfer to the state, but attorneys can ask for delays in complicated cases.
Muhammad, already sentenced to die for a sniper shooting in Manassas, Va., is to go to trial in Maryland on May 1. Over the defendant's objections, Montgomery County Judge John W. Debelius III on Friday granted the delay requested by Muhammad's attorneys, citing "the very complicated logistics involved in the trial of this case and the length of trial."
Let the defense have their time; it's not like he's going anywhere. And he's going to be convicted.
Muhammad and John Lee Malvo, who is already serving a life sentence for another shooting in Virginia, are charged with six counts of first-degree murder in the October 2002 deaths in Montgomery County. Maryland prosecutors say the trials are insurance in case the Virginia convictions are overturned. Malvo's trial is set for Oct. 10.
The two terrorists men are accused of murdering in cold blood killing 10 people and wounding three in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. They also have been linked to murders shootings in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Washington state.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/25/2005 00:35 ||
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Maryland prosecutors say the trials are insurance in case the Virginia convictions are overturned.
Nah! Who would overturn their conviction? ACLU?
Nevermind.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/25/2005 7:52 Comments ||
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I think we had a version of this a few days ago...
A panel reporting to the US State Department has warned that President George W Bush is seen in some Arab nations as a greater threat than Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden, a US newspaper reported on Saturday.
I'd call that a pretty accurate statement. Bush is much more of a threat to certain Arab states than Binny is. It's all connected with which side you're on...
The report by the congressionally mandated advisory panel, which found that âAmericaâs image and reputation abroad could hardly be worseâ, has been seen by senior officials but not yet released publicly, The Washington Post said. A fact-finding mission to the Middle East last year found that âthere is deep and abiding anger toward US policies and actions,â according to the paper.
Those U.S. actions include throwing Sammy out, killing Uday and Qusay, and trying to let the Iraqis have some personal freedoms. They've been resisted tooth and nail.
The Advisory Committee on Cultural Diplomacy cited polls that found that large majorities in Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia âview George W. Bush as a greater threat to the world order than Osama.â
Perhaps because he's looked upon the world order and found it riddled with brutality and corruption.
Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, a longtime presidential adviser, prepares to leave this weekend on a âlistening tourâ of the Middle East. The panelâs report warns that televised images of US policy choices â such as in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the invasion of Iraq â reverberate across the Arab media and will âlong haunt the image of the United States,â the paper said. The committee recommended a series of steps, including increased funding and staffing, to rebuild efforts to promote US culture and ideas â an essential task that it said has been eroded through bureaucratic shuffling and indifference.
I don't think the State Department has taken that particular aspect of the war as seriously as they could have. I've said, almost from day one, that we should be reminding our own people of the reasons we're at war. We should also be addressing the ridiculous statements periodically issued by the Learned Elders of Islam and the Sheikhs of Araby. We should also be pushing and explaining in excruciating detail the underlying idea of personal liberty. Instead, we've had periodic servings of warm milk. Ptui.
In much of the world, the report said, the United States is viewed as âless a beacon of hope than a dangerous force to be countered,â according to the paper.
I'm just not sure our enemies hating us is a bad thing...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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I'm thinkin' a real, hard-hitting historical examination of Big Mo; life and times, the founding of Islam, and the establishment of the Caliphate. Followed by the sack of Constantinople, the Siege if Vienna...
#2
Ditto to all your comments, Fred. These reports that decry the poor US image abroad kill me.
First, as you point out, there's the little problem that, in fact, there are irreconcilable differences between not just us and our literal enemies but between us and many regular people who prefer institutionalized misogyny, racism, dictatorship, and religious tyranny to western concepts of an open society.
Second, AFAIK these "analyses" never even mention the largest factor in creating hostile mindsets: media disinformation, distortion, and inaccuracy (separate but kindred issues). I don't think there are any global surveys that attempt to ascertain the informational base on which their respondents base their (usually bizarre) opinions.
When you pair that "Bush is a threat to world peace" response with the information that the respondent hasn't considered the liberation of Kuwait in 1991, is unaware of the Somalia or Kosovo or Bosnia operations, is unaware of the key role played by the US in all global humanitarian relief operations, and is completely misinformed about US and enemy activities in Afghanistan and Iraq, their negative attitudes aren't much of a mystery -- or a reason for us to do squat.
Heck, huge swathes of America and most of Europe have preposterous misconceptions about US foreign policy, thanks largely to the media being completely off the rails -- why should the comparatively ignorant and unworldly Egyptian rank-and-file be any better?
And finally, I can only echo your complaint about the warm milk offered up -- intermittently -- as the only communication about our policies and the situation we face. This administration has the worst -- and most invisible -- public affairs instincts and operations in modern history. Some of us are pushing, at different levels on diverse topics, for them to come to their senses and push back, hard, on disinformation, as well as get the real stories out and frame the issues from the outset.
#3
Well said Verlaine. Many of us non-Americans (those who who some grasp of what is going on) wholeheartedly support the USA. Part of the problem is that the MSM has lost the serious news consumers and is going after the market segment that considers Entertainment Tonight as news.
#4
Phil! I thought you lived on another continent! But you have correctly devined the new WaPo. They have created a small, free paper called 'Express', which I sometimes read (past tense)on the train. But you are exactly right. They have three or four pages of news (some of which is 'read the full story in the Post') and the rest is Entertainment Tonight. And sports.
I feel SO uninformed about J-Lo and so many other people who I can't even name!
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/25/2005 7:50 Comments ||
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We are sending a woman to the middle east to listen? To who? Evidently to diplomats and other learned scholars and not to the average tribal leader, huh? Good plan. She can borrow my balto when she hits Yemen.
#6
These folks go to nations that supports terrorism and asks the families of the terrorist who the bigger threat is? Is there any suprise as to the answer? Did they invite Jane Fonda to tag along and pose on a ZSU also? WTF?
Posted by: 49 pan ||
09/25/2005 10:53 Comments ||
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"This administration has the worst -- and most invisible -- public affairs instincts and operations in modern history."
[RANT]
This, more than anything else, is what vexes me about the administration's conduct of the war: despite our successes on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, Bush and his advisors are passively letting the war be gradually lost, bit by bit, on the home front.
And I cannot for the life of me figure out why.
Are they completely unaware that public support is absolutely vital to the success of a war which they themselves have warned will be a "long, hard slog"?
Do they simply assume that the American people are savvy enough to figure it all out for themselves and keep themselves focused and motivated, and therefore don't need any reminders from the administration of what this war is all about?
Do they assume that Fox News, along with a tiny handful of right-leaning blogs, are sufficient all by themselves to keep up support for the war-- without any help whatsoever from the White House?
Are they too meek and timid to get in the Democrats' faces and denounce their vicious lies about the war for exactly what they are-- defeatism, sedition and treason?
Does their reticence come from some antiquated, "old-school" notion of "gentlemanly conduct" that prohibits them from fighting back?
Is their passivity the result of some political calculation by the allegedly diabolical genius of Karl Rove, that the Democrats are digging their own grave with their hysterical anti-war rhetoric and that it's best to just leave them alone?
What the hell is their damned problem????
I just don't understand it. And it bothers the hell out of me. There are other aspects of our conduct of the war which bother me, too, mainly the lack of apparent action on Iran, Syria, North Korea and Saudi Arabia; but the Bush administration's utter cluelessness on the domestic front bothers me more than anything else.
ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!!!!!!
[/RANT]
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/25/2005 10:56 Comments ||
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Wow what a news flash!! this means that Dictators Dictator supporters, Islamic Radical Theocrat supporters, and thier general ilk dont like the idea of personal freedom democracy and the whole idea of allowing the ignorant/sinful peasants make decisions for themselves and of course the One Guy who whants to give them this power is consider a threat. Nawww Imagine That
SAFE inside Baghdad's Green Zone, the concrete-barricaded headquarters shared by the Iraqi government, foreign diplomats and contractors, the official line is still that the situation in Iraq is one of progress towards democracy and a gradual hand-over from US and allied troops to Iraqi control.
But just a few minutes walk away, in what US security jargon describes as the 'Red Zone', the daily reality involves death, random violence and routine deprivations for most people.
Meanwhile, across the country, chaos still reigns in most public services. Electricity cuts are common, and the water supply is sporadic. Chronic insecurity means that few new jobs are being created.
⢠THE SUNNI TRIANGLE
The focal point of Iraqi resistance to the allied occupation. Nearly two-thirds of insurgent attacks have taken place in this area, where Saddam Hussein's cronies still hold power. Although they make up only about 35% of Iraq's population of 24m, Sunni Arabs dominated Iraq under Saddam. Many bitterly resent their loss of dominance to the Shias and the Kurds.
Geographically the triangle extends from Baghdad in the south to Ramadi in the West and Tikrit, Saddam's birth place, in the north. Militarily, it falls partly in the area of the Multinational Division North Centre and Multi-National Force West, both US-led.
It includes Fallujah, a city of 300,000 said to have been the headquarters of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a £14m price on his head after his al-Qaeda-linked movement claimed responsibility for suicide bombings and beheadings of foreign hostages.
Al-Zarqawi was not captured in a US/Iraqi operation in Fallujah that killed some 1,500 Iraqis, and he is still issuing bloodthirsty communiques threatening the US and its allies. The insurgency was merely dispersed around the country.
When the fighting ended, US Marines attempted to kickstart the ruined city by handing out $6.4m to 32,219 heads of households. Iraqi ministries slowly began to reconnect electricity lines and water, while Iraqi officials handed out basic foodstuffs to the survivors. But today the insurgency still has support in Fallujah. At least four car bombs have exploded in recent months, one of them killing six American troops, including four women.
Thousands of American and Iraqi troops still live in crumbling buildings and patrol streets laced with concertina wire. Any Iraqi entering the city must show a badge and undergo a search at one of six checkpoints. There is a 10pm curfew.
⢠WESTERN IRAQ
A vast tract of desert that stretches to the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, where the US is engaged in a little-reported desert war against an invisible enemy.
The US accuses Syria of allowing insurgents to filter across its border with Iraq and providing weapons and aid to the insurgency.
US forces last week concluded a three-week operation against Sunni Arab insurgents in the northern town of Tal Afar, near the Syrian border. Predominantly Sunni, Tal Afar was thought to be a base for militants linked to al-Zarqawi; its neighbourhoods were in the grip of insurgents, with deserted streets and boarded-up shop fronts.
Iraqi General Abdul Aziz Mohammed has declared the operation a success, with 157 insurgents killed and 683 captured. However, after previous offensives insurgents have later sneaked back into towns and resumed their attacks.
Other insurgent groups in the area include the Islamic Army in Iraq, which
last week offered $100,000 for the killing of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, $50,000 for Interior Minister Bayan Jabr and $30,000 for Defence Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimial
⢠BASRA
Has been viewed, from afar at least, as a relatively safe and peaceful sector. Last week's images of crowds firebombing British armoured vehicles, and demands by local authorities to try two captured special forces soldiers, exposed that as a false view.
Britain has spent the past two and a half years trying to secure the city and its surrounding area, building up local security forces in the expectation that Iraqi forces could take over and allow British troops to withdraw.
£391m has been spent by the UK on reconstruction and humanitarian assistance in Iraq, most of it in the Basra region.
But today, electricity production is no higher than it was just before the 2003 invasion, according to the Department for International Development. People in Basra receive only five to eight hours electricity a day. Water is also an issue, with the completion of a reliable water supply still many months away.
Last week's incidents also revealed the extent to which power has shifted into the hands of extremist Shiite clerics, who have set about the Islamification of Basra.
The Shia mullahs work in close coordination with their counterparts in Iran, with British troops unable to prevent Islamic insurgents, supplies of weapons and other smuggling goods from entering Iraq.
⢠KURDISTAN
The only area of Iraq where the benefits of the post-Saddam Hussein era are clear - partly because the area was a safe haven for a decade before the invasion thanks to the Allied no-fly zone.
Not only do the Kurds have their own regional government, but their two main political parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, formed an alliance for this year's elections and emerged as the second biggest party in the new Iraqi parliament. Kurdistan also provides Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani.
The Kurdish language, banned under Saddam, now flourishes in schools and the arts - and the small Assyrian and Turkmen minorities are allowed use their own languages.
Kurdistan was devastated by Saddam's campaign to destroy the rural power bases of the Kurdish resistance and a principal aim of the Regional Ministry of Regional Construction and Development is to repopulate all 3,800 rural communities that were depopulated, starting with installing water supplies.
More than 250 foreign companies, many too scared to do business elsewhere in Iraq, are operating in Kurdistan. The new airport at Irbid has just received its first flights from Dubai, Beirut and Amman.
But it is the Kurdish, not the Iraqi, flag that flies at Irbid International Airport, and the greatest hope of many Kurds is eventually to secede from Iraq.
That prospect is profoundly disturbing for Iraq's immediate neighbours - Turkey, Iran, Russia and Syria - who all have Kurdish minorities who harbour similar aspirations.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
09/25/2005 00:46 ||
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A vast tract of desert that stretches to the borders with Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, where the US is engaged in a little-reported desert war against an invisible enemy.
It is "little-reported" in the MSM, but well covered at billroggio.com and a few others. So who's fault is it that MSM coverage is so poor?
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The leader of Iraqâs largest Shiite political organization joined the countryâs most revered and powerful Shiite cleric in a strong public push for voter support of a new constitution, three weeks ahead of a national referendum.
The major political development surrounded Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shiite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. His appeal to voters added a key voice of support two days after Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani also directed followers to back the charter. âIt is our religious duty to say âyesâ to the constitution and to go to the ballot boxes,â al-Hakim told more than 2,000 supporters gathered in Baghdad to mark a 1991 Shiite uprising brutally crushed by Saddam Hussein.
Al-Hakim said militants and former regime supporters were trying to undermine Iraqisâ hopes for security - but they would fail. His SCIRI organization has strong ties to Shiite Iran and controls a powerful bloc in parliament. Al-Hakim took refuge in Iran during Saddamâs rule.
Al-Sistani, meeting with aides Thursday in the holy city of Najaf, was the first major Shiite religious figure to urge voters to back the new basic law, according to two top officials in his entourage. The reclusive cleric issues statements only through his office and makes no public appearances.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright issued a stern warning Saturday about the continuing U.S. role in Iraq, saying "there are no good options at this point and the worst days may be ahead of us." Albright, secretary of state under President Clinton, said the March 2003 invasion of Iraq has led to a series of misfortunes that should have been anticipated. "Instead of winning friends for America, it has poisoned our relations with many countries in the Mideast and the Muslim world," Albright told a conference on the role of citizens in shaping the nation's image abroad. Damn! And I thought "winning friends" is what it's all about.
"I think that if it were put to a vote, the Iraqi people might want the U.S. to stay for some period of time," Albright said. "What they don't want is a sense that we might be there forever." Many Iraqis are suspicious that the United States is occupying the country to assure itself access to Mideastern oil, she said.
The Mad Hatter is just picking up the major talking point of the liberal Dems these days -- that our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan inspires terrorism, rather than freedom. She's right in one sense: al-Q and the other islamofascist groups have been sending their snuffies and stoops to Iraq, rather than to Europe and the USA. But the Dems are under the delusion, and a powerful delusion it is, that if we reduced our presence in Iraq this minute that the Iraqi people would settle down and run their country. We know differently: it would be the single event that would precipitate a civil war. The Sunnis would lose badly, the Shi'a would be bloodied badly, and the Kurds would try to break away, causing the Turks to try and whomp them. Lots of bloodshed and instability would result.
This would suit the ANSWER and UPJ types just fine, because it would poison the message we've brought to the Middle East. No one would ever trust us again, and that's exactly what the left-liberals want, since they (like the Egyptians in the other article Fred is citing today) see us as the biggest danger to world peace. They want the US brought down a few pegs, and if it takes a few hundred thousand good people who used to trust, fine -- they did it in 1975 to the Vietnamese, and they can do it to the Iraqis.
Make no mistake: the Mad Hatter and the people on the hard left who think like her want our country brought down. They can't say that so they resort to these sorts of sallies and coded phrases. They know what it means, and we have to make sure that we do too.
Posted by: Captain America ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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I think ihe left is far worse than you describe.
These attacks have intensified in recent days because of the upcoming elections and because the left know just how much is at stake for their socialist agenda when the US wins the war in Iraq.
For 20 years the left have been relying on the good will of the right after second presidential terms by getting the right to cave in to some of their agenda. Once they get it, they attack the right and the right loses. It's all not cashing in your winnings after a second term.
Fortunately so far Bush has failed to walk into this trap, unlike his father did.
Now with the left putting everything on the line, playing this one card (a US defeat in Iraq either by actual military actiin (unlikely ) or by cutting out ebfore the job is done ). They hope for America's defeat because they know their political agenda will be marginalized and made irrelevent by a US military victory in Iraq. It scares them to death, so much so, it makes little difference to them if we all point out they are being defeatists and seditionists by failing to fully support the war. The only path to their political victory is trhough a US military defeat.
The left have placed their bets, and it is up to the president to see this thing through to victory.
#2
If a few of Halfbrights Stalinist pals and their fellow travelers were to start to get knocked around a bit it wouldn't bother me to see it. They don't know when to STFU. The media has no fear of pushing their lies. They need to fear distorting the truth, they need to fear false reporting.
#3
Good points. These people want the US to fail and think we are unworthy of our power and influence.
Interesting that she is basically saying that we pissed off the Arab dicatators and Euros as though it's a) a bad thing and b)a surprise. The truth is that we want to pressure the Arab dictators since playing footsie with them led to 9/11 and the cost of alienating the French/Germans/Russians a bit more was calculated in up front.
As for oil: The situation pre-invasion was that Sammy sold or smuggled oil below market price to bribe his neighbors and the UN/Eurocracy and stole the proceeds. Now Iraq is getting market price and gets to keep the proceeds. If we were the evil oil grubbers she claims the Iraqis fear we are, be we would have siezed the Soddy and Iraqi oil fields, established a perimeter and sold it to the world. We'd have far fewer casualties and lower costs. Even Halfbright is not this stupid. She knows this but her hatred of her own country has her spewing this illogical canard rather than contradicting it.
#4
You got it, JAB. One of the more intelligent and amazing things I've heard from GWB is his statement that a half-century of American foreign policy in the Middle East, propping up dictators who guaranteed us access to oil, was a failure and helped lead to 9/11.
Not that anyone on the Left gave him any credit for his perception of the real 'root cause'.
So one might think that the Mad Hatter is just cheezed off because GWB peed all over her splendiferous, failed foreign policy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/25/2005 0:43 Comments ||
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#5
The Left also can't allow us to have a military success, because it goes against the leftist dogma that "war never solved anything". Only transnational institutions, diplomacy, and the forming of committees to study the matter are the allowable methods of foreign policy. Except of course, if the entity waging war is one of your socialist/soviet/maoist utopias.
Posted by: jolly roger ||
09/25/2005 8:23 Comments ||
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#6
Sshweetheart. It's been dark days in Iraq since the Moslem invasion.
#8
Great points here. I hadn't really considered how distasteful a record the Democrats have since 1975, abandoning our Vietnamese allies, mismanaging the Shah's transition, opening the floodgates of islamofiscism, botching the opportunity to whack the Norks in 1994, selling national security technology to the Chinese, and ignoring the growth of al-Q. Quite a track record! They're behind just about every problem we've got today. I bet Maddie would even put in a good word for Chavez. But at least they have lots of friends when they go to Cambridge and Paris. What is really disturbing is that they retain a hold on 1/3 of the electorate with this track record. But they do have public educators as their allies, so I guess we should be thankful it's not more.
Thank goodness we don't know what Presidents Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry would have wrought.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
09/25/2005 11:02 Comments ||
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#9
"Dark Days Ahead In Iraq"
You know some Democrats said about the same thing about the 'South' when the Blacks were liberated by o'Abe Lincoln and them damn yankees. Glad to know that they haven't changed much in over a hundred years.
Clerics and tribal leaders from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority have expressed optimism that they can mobilise their communities to reject the draft constitution in next month's referendum. The three-day meeting organised to scuttle the charter concluded with a communique on Saturday urging a no vote "if the constitution's main points on Iraq's unity and Arab identity are not rectified, as well as articles related to political and racial segregation".
Meeting organiser and prominent cleric Shaikh Abdul-Latif Himayem said he expected at least 51% of Iraq's electorate to vote against the charter in the 15 October referendum. "We are calling on all leaders, clergymen, tribal chiefs and university professors to mobilise their constituents to go to the polls and to vote no to the constitution," Himayem said. "We have also prepared a petition and we expect to gather support from about 5 million people from all over Iraq to say no to the constitution."
The conference was held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, for security reasons. Iraq's Sunni Arabs have strongly opposed the draft constitution, largely because they say it would give Shia in the south the right to form a mini-state that Sunnis fear will deprive them of the area's oil wealth and lead to Iraq's fragmentation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Waitaminute! Won't they have to VOTE to scuttle it?
And if they do, what then?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/25/2005 9:09 Comments ||
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Hamas said it would remain defiant after several deadly Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza Strip that killed at least two Hamas resistance personnel. Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip on Saturday condemned the aerial rocketing, saying it demonstrated that the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip was not really over. "These criminal attacks are a clear proof that the Israeli occupation of Gaza is not really over," said Hamas spokesman Mahmoud al-Zahar. He told reporters in Gaza that Hamas would not give up the resistance as long as the occupation of the Palestinian homeland didn't end. "The resistance is the 'effect' and the occupation is the 'cause' and everybody knows that we can't remove the effect until and unless the cause is removed first."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Should we start a pool on Mahmoud's life expectancy?
Hamas leaders in Hebron promised that the "winds of freedom will blow on the West Bank sooner or later".
Or maybe anarchy and slaughter. I guess we'll eventually find out...
"The Zionist evacuation from Gaza was a victory for the Palestinian resistance fighter, not the Palestinian negotiator," said Nayef Rajoub, a prominent Islamic leader in the southern West Bank, at a Hamas rally. "We all know that the Palestinian negotiator couldn't even dismantle a single screw in those defunct settlements," he said.
Rajoub strongly denounced American, European and Israeli pressure on the PA to disarm Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups. Rajoub, a brother of PA official Jebril Rajoub, castigated "the harrowing by Arab and Muslim regimes to normalise relations with and terminate economic boycott of Israel". "In the past we used to condemn these regimes for doing nothing for the cause of Palestine save issuing denunciations and condemnation. Now we are becoming nostalgic to these days as the official Arab regimes no longer issue condemnations and denunciations." The Hamas political leader denounced the Kingdom of Bahrain and Pakistan for "betraying the al-Aqsa Mosque and succumbing to American pressure to normalise with the enemy of the Islamic Umma (community) at a time when the blood of Muslim children in Palestine is spilled in front of all these so-called Muslim leaders."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#2
It seems that Nayef will have to start developing a taste for the smell of NAPALM early in the morning.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
09/25/2005 2:57 Comments ||
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#3
I think it is the "winds of freedom" taking place sooner that has Hamas worried. People willing to live in peace and freedom, side by side, have no need of an arsenal. Democracy is slowly taking hold in the ME, and the Arab nations recognizing Israel are putting pressure on the few hold-outs. The Euro/Lefties are nervous because this would give incentive for all the colonizers to return to their home countries, leaving their socialist agenda in the dust. There is no room for them in W's vision of a world comprised of free people with self-determination.
#4
"The Zionist evacuation from Gaza was a victory for the Palestinian resistance fighter, not the Palestinian negotiator,"
Does Maddy Halfbright know about this?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/25/2005 9:07 Comments ||
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#5
The only wind they will feel is after the rockets hit their targets in Gaza. How long do we think Isreal will hold back watching Hammas build and arm for an inevidable strike at Isreal.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
09/25/2005 10:57 Comments ||
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#6
I'll take "Palestinians" for fifty, Alex.
The "winds of freedom will blow on the West Bank sooner or later".
Okay, I'll give it a try:
What are "exploding Hamas militants"?
Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas stressed Saturday on the importance of ending the state of insecurity engulfing Palestinian territories that led to the tragic events during a celebration organized by the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement of Hamas in Gaza yesterday. In a speech delivered before a political festival celebrating the Israeli pull out from Gaza, Abbas said that yesterday's tragedy requires Palestinians to stop the state of disorder caused by unorganized spread of arms and military rallies in residential civilian sites. Abbas, however, said that the pull out is still incomplete without withdrawing from Jerusalem and all of Palestinian territories.
When did they move Jerusalem to Gaza?
Gaza is not the first, nor the last, but it is a beginning for an independent Palestinian state, said Abbas. A comprehensive solution comes through negotiations, not by ripping of the land and ruining the opportunity for peace, he noted.
What came before Gaza? I forget...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Good luck pushin' that plan, Daddy Mazen. Don't forget to ask for that pony, too.
#2
Talk like that will get Palestinians expelled from Jerusalem entirely. Once again, these people don't realize that you can't pander to one audience without everyone else hearing what you said. Build the wall tall and thick. Anyone tries to cross, shoot them.
Today's Mehr News Agency headslines, as they appear on the page...
Iran threatens to halt snap nuclear inspections
TEHRAN, Sept. 25 (MNA) - After returning from New York on Saturday, Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki called the IAEA resolution against Iran illegal and said Tehran may halt spot checks of its nuclear facilities...
Iran at nuclear crossroads
TEHRAN, Sept. 25 (MNA) â Finally, after a whole week of controversial disputes and frequent threats by the United States and the European Union troika, the resolution draft, proposed by Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. against Iran was ratified at the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting in Vienna.
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. atomic watchdog agency Saturday put Iran just one step away from referral to the Security Council unless Tehran eases suspicions about its nuclear activities in coming months - a move the United States has been pushing for years. The chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency hailed the decision, describing it as a wake-up call for Tehran ``to come clean'' or face the consequences.
But his Iranian counterpart blasted the approval of the resolution and warned of retaliation. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is for generating electricity.
Well then, a thorough inspection regimen shouldn't be a problem.
The decision by the 35-nation board represented a victory for Washington, which asserts Iran has nuclear weapons ambitions. For more than two years, it has failed to enlist board support to haul Iran before the council for allegedly violating commitments under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. ``The international community is ... not satisfied with the level of confidence-building measures Iran has so far taken,'' IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said.
He's just got to be taking the gas pipe on this one.
Saturday's decision was far from unanimous, though. Only 22 of the 35 board nations voted for the U.S.-backed European Union motion. Twelve nations abstained, including Russia and China, which are veto-wielding members of the Security Council, diplomats said. The others were developing nations. Those supporting the resolution included the United States, European countries, Canada, Australia and Japan. They were joined by India, Peru, Singapore and Ecuador, reflecting some support in the developing nations' camp.
Notice how India voted.
Venezuela cast the only vote against.
The resolution called on the board to consider reporting Iran at a future meeting. As grounds, it mentioned noncompliance with the nuclear arms control treaty and suspicions that Iran's nuclear activities could threaten international peace and security. Diplomats from countries backing the resolution said it set Iran up for referral as early as November, when the board next meets in regular session, unless it dispels international concerns.
Outlining what Iran must do to avoid such action, the draft called on it to give IAEA experts access to nuclear-related documents and sites, suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and ratify an inspection agreement with the IAEA. In opting for referral, the board is ``concerned that Iran's activities pose an increasing threat to international peace and security,'' Schulte said. ``The IAEA has called on Iran to ... come clean.''
But Iran's delegation head, Javad Vaeidi, said the vote was evidence ``there is no consensus on the way forward.'' He also warned, ``Threat invokes threat.'' Tehran already warned Friday that if the resolution was approved, it could respond by starting uranium enrichment - a possible path to nuclear arms - and by reducing IAEA powers to inspect its activities under the additional agreement it signed but had not yet ratified.
Both threats were contained in unsigned letters and shown by a member of the Iranian delegation to ElBaradei, diplomats accredited to the agency said on condition of anonymity because their information was confidential.
Typical MSM reporting.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/25/2005 00:50 ||
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#3
After scandal, corruption, and thievery on a scale that makes Enron and Worldcom look like the work of amatuers, and at least a decade and a half of blatant anti-US behavior its disturbing that anyone with a brain in their head in the US would give a rats ass what the UN or the IAEA has to say about anything.
Why in the world being threatened with referal to the security council is hailed as a positive step toward anything is completely beyond me.
On the other hand - looking down the barrel of a couple of carrier groups is something that is much more persuasive.
#4
Hey, JerseyMike, this IAEA-UNSC thing is a source of innocent merriment and mirth. They take themselves soooooooooooo seriously that it is hard to keep a straight face. But then, you open your wallet, moths fly out, and you say, "WTF? These guys are scam artists and thieves!"
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/25/2005 14:29 Comments ||
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Brace yourselves - the agitprop is hitting movie theaters everywhere this month and next.
A fine crop of politicised films reflecting the post-9/11 world will reach our screens this autumn. We haven't seen their like since the Seventies
After a summer of superheroes, spin-offs and sequels that failed to connect with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, this autumn will usher in a host of more serious movies. Hollywood's inability to portray the real world has been alienating audiences, which partly explains why the US box office has been so disappointing this year. Escapism is one thing, but faced with daily news about war, floods, corruption and terrorism, cinemagoers want more intelligent movies.
There's a parallel to be drawn here with the early Seventies, when America, rocked by Watergate, entrenched in a controversial war waged by an increasingly unpopular right-wing President, produced a number of provocative movies by leading film-makers. They included a number of conspiracy thrillers and anti-Vietnam dramas that had a sense of unease about contemporary society. Now, Bush and Iraq have replaced Nixon and Vietnam to provide the kind of issues that Hollywood can no longer ignore. 'The reticence to take on America, post-11 September, seems to be fading,' wrote New York Times's film critic Manohla Dargis earlier this month.
The surprise box-office success of Crash, the brilliant, Los Angeles-set film that highlights racism and social problems in urban America, proves that there is an audience for serious films. Hollywood appears to be following in the footsteps of international art-house directors.
But strangely, they're not making films to appeal to middle America.
There was a global unease among films in the selection at Cannes in May. Austrian film-maker Michael Haneke's superb Hidden, starring Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche, dealt in some part with France's festering colonial guilt. Canadian David Cronenberg's A History of Violence concerned a legacy of brutality resurfacing in a small American town. Rather less subtly, Dane Lars von Trier's Manderlay attacked America's history of slavery which ended over a century ago.
The trend of disquiet continued at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. The Constant Gardener, by Fernando Meirelles, gripped a few of us with a pharmaceutical scandal that seeped through African soil all the way to Whitehall. George Clooney's drama about Fifties television journalists, Good Night and Good Luck, recreated the political bullying and paranoia of the McCarthy era. Although its critique is veiled in black and white, it doesn't take much to read into it parallels with current concerns about the corporate ownership of US media (Hollywood studios included).
Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, the winner of the Golden Lion, perverted subverted the great American genre of the western to make a gay cowboy love story at a time when Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is fighting to restrict gay rights.
New films dealing with the Middle East include Jarhead by Sam Mendes, which is about an American soldier's experiences during Desert Storm; Steven Spielberg is re-examining terrorism from the Arab point of view with Munich, about the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics; American politics, after the satirical drubbing it took from Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidatewhich few people saw last year, is put under the microscope again in the All the King's Men, about a corrupt Louisiana politician for which George Bush will be blamed .
Critics and audiences alike are eager to find meaning in the most unlikely places. Horror director George A Romero's return to film last week, with Land of the Dead, has brought allegorical readings as his zombies wade through flood waters to haunt the living who would rather block out their existence. The most ferocious bidding war at the recent Toronto Film Festival was for distribution rights to an indie drama about the tobacco industry, Thank You for Smoking.
Fingers are being pointed and brains, it seems, are back on the big screen, quite literally in the case of Lord of War, a new film about international arms dealing by Andrew Niccol, which opens with a startling sequence tracing the journey of a bullet from its manufacture in a Russian factory to its ultimate discharge via the barrel of an AK-47 into the head of an African child.
Hollywood recognizing third world brutality with Russian arms? That twitched the surprise meter.
Starring Nicolas Cage as a monstrous arms trader, the film is a ferocious and funny satire on a diabolical subject. Unusually for a big budget film with an A-list Hollywood star, it blatantly attacks American foreign policy, concluding that 'the President of the USA is the biggest arms dealer in the world'.
Oh. Back to form.
These films are concerned with the actions of individuals when faced with global-scale issues, calling into question collective responsibilities and forcing audiences to deal with their complicity in the chaotic political and social situations wrought by Western governments. Not your usual blockbuster material, then, but healthy early box-office receipts in America suggest audiences are ready to think again.
It's significant, however, that while both films aren't exactly pure Hollywood products, they can certainly be labelled 'leftist' 'mainstream'. So incongruously thoughtful are they that it strikes me that perhaps they slipped under the studios' safety radars. Some critics in America seemed disappointed that Lord of War, contrary to the image conveyed by its trailer, wasn't a typical Nic Cage action movie. The Constant Gardener, on the outside, might have looked like another English Patient, a handsome love story, starring Ralph Fiennes, a nice English girl (Rachel Weisz) and gorgeous scenery.
Speaking from his home in Los Angeles, Niccol said: 'No conventional Hollywood studio would touch the script, especially as I sent it in a week before the war on Iraq began. But somehow, they seem to have come around a bit and, although the financing had to come from various sources around the world, the film is being distributed on studio-owned screens.
'Hollywood's only allegiance these days is to money. If they think there's cash to be made by making films with a conscience, then you might see a revival of that kind of film-making. Otherwise, forget it.' In the film, Niccol, who wrote The Truman Show, satirises the profiteering to be had out of provoking war, subtly raising questions about firms such as Halliburton who actually do something for a living.
He added: 'America is certainly starting to look outward at last. The impact of its actions and the world's attitude towards them is being thrown in its face. My film is only based on what I've torn from the newspaper headlines. It's just that maybe I read more closely or widely than most.'
He pointed to the situation whereby it was cheaper for him to buy 3,000 real guns for his film than to get a props department to make them. A line of tanks stretching to the horizon is also real, belonging to a Czech arms dealer. 'We had to warn Nato when we shot the scene,' he said, 'otherwise their satellite photos would make it look like someone was mobilising an army to start a war.'
Lord of War and The Constant Gardener both feature the United Nations in the sidelines, picturing the organisation as involved, yet powerless to pick a way through the insanity of globalisation.
They got the powerless part right at least.
As the poignant footnote at the end of Lord of War says: 'The world's biggest arms suppliers are the US, UK, Russia, France and China. They are also the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.'
It's interesting that when the UN finally allowed a film to be made in its hallowed building earlier this year - The Interpreter, starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn - the director was Sydney Pollack who made one of those key Seventies conspiracy movies, Three Days of the Condor. Our Your paranoia has shifted over the last 30 years. Conspiracy movies used to be mainly American concerns, focusing on giant, shadowy bodies (corporations, commissions etc) joining forces against the wrong man.
Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 North by Northwest, which again featured the UN, lead to Alan Pakula's 1974 The Parallax View. But now such films have a global reach. In The Constant Gardener, Fernando Meirelles, the Brazilian who made City of God, brings a scathingly satirical eye to the layers of society in Nairobi, from the shanty town of Kibera to the ex-pat mansions and golf courses. One brilliant scene zooms in on the kitchens at the British ambassador's pile, where black hands work furiously preparing food. The camera hovers over the action like a fly, then follows a waiter carrying a tray of drinks through swing doors to where white politicians laugh and strike deals with big business.
The enemy in movies was often the classic Cold War battle between capitalism and communism. Corporate greed is now the enemy, with the 'good guy' being a form of social humanism. And the new generation of film-makers even act on their conscience. Lord of War has struck up an alliance with Amnesty International. 'See the film, sign our petition,' claims its website.
It's clearly no longer a lonely planet and this is reflected in the new breed of global cynicism in the cinema. Cynicism is the dramatic meat of films now, with socially conscious messages offering food for thought and providing rays of hope. Directors such as Meirelles and Niccol, a New Zealander, can bring an outsider's view to Hollywood films, a view borne of their experience of travelling from continent to continent. Audiences are more geographically sophisticated, too, and readily accept films that encompass a downbeat global view. This new generation of films can mine a cynical seam because there's no need to be preachy; that's the domain of documentarists such as Michael Moore and anti-corporate writers like Naomi Klein.
It's interesting to note that George Clooney's film closes the forthcoming London Film Festival; two weeks earlier, The Constant Gardener opens proceedings. Hollywood may not quite be prepared to bite the corporate hand that feeds it, but more film-makers are thinking beyond the next merchandising opportunity. It has been many years since two such overtly political films were available to bookend a major festival; it's some sort of miracle that they're also coming to a multiplex near you soon.
#1
Escapism is one thing, but faced with daily news about war, floods, corruption and terrorism, cinemagoers want more intelligent movies.
They want something that is not crap. They want to view it under conditions that don't involve several hours of earned income just to sit in a room with unruly children, cell phones ringing, and munching on simple popcorn and a drink that don't cost more than several gallons of gas. Not only don't we believe the MSM on the war, we don't believe their reviews on the movies. We wait till someone we know comes and tells us whether it is a waste of time, a 'catch it when its released on DVD in a couple months', or a have to see experience. And the latter experience is far and in between based upon the fecal material you promote out of Hollyweird. If all we want to hear is a bunch of overpaid, under developed minds tell us how terrible the world is without having a couple of bootlicking assistances to do our routine daily chores, then we can tune into any bubblehead talking head show on television. To steal a phrase from the 'golden age' - if you want to send a message, use Western Union.
#3
The surprise box-office success of Crash, the brilliant, Los Angeles-set film that highlights racism and social problems in urban America
Never heard of it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/25/2005 11:53 Comments ||
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#4
In the film, Niccol, who wrote The Truman Show, satirises the profiteering to be had out of provoking war, subtly raising questions about firms such as Halliburton.
Isn't Halliburton in the oil services business?
Are these people this incredibly stupid? Or is this intentional?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/25/2005 11:55 Comments ||
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#5
Fingers are being pointed and brains, it seems, are back on the big screen, quite literally in the case of Lord of War, a new film about international arms dealing by Andrew Niccol, which opens with a startling sequence tracing the journey of a bullet from its manufacture in a Russian factory to its ultimate discharge via the barrel of an AK-47 into the head of an African child.
Starring Nicolas Cage as a monstrous arms trader, the film is a ferocious and funny satire on a diabolical subject. Unusually for a big budget film with an A-list Hollywood star, it blatantly attacks American foreign policy, concluding that 'the President of the USA is the biggest arms dealer in the world'.
Since when has the US been making and selling AKs?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/25/2005 11:57 Comments ||
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#6
Blah blah, watch for the hollywood hype this winter and then the follow up story on why it didn't make any money this year. Rinse, repeat.
#7
Isn't Halliburton in the oil services business?
Well, the Hollywood People think it's evil for anyone in the US to get oil in any other way than buying it from the Arabs, and that it's wrong for anyone in the US to be selling the Arabs oilfield services in return (it's something we should leave to the French).
Of course, another branch Halliburton also provides logistical support, which is needed now because of the cuts in support units over the last decade.
Contracting out the logistical support and then turning around and complaining about all the Nasty Profiteers is an interesting way of further cutting military capability.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/25/2005 12:10 Comments ||
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#8
"Are these people this incredibly stupid? Or is this intentional?"
Yes.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/25/2005 12:16 Comments ||
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#9
Lord of War has struck up an alliance with Amnesty International. 'See the film, sign our petition,' claims its website.
I'm confused, is that too support the arms dealer's defense or to support the stop of arms dealing?
Posted by: Charles ||
09/25/2005 12:18 Comments ||
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#10
I'm still laughing over the fact that art imitates art. That is, Cartman was right for saying that film festival movies are about "gay cowboys eating pudding".
#11
Waddaya mean "about to"? They've been doing this shit for years - they're just not bothering to hide/deny it anymore.
RC asks: "Are these people this incredibly stupid? Or is this intentional?"
That would be a "yes," RC. But you knew that.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/25/2005 12:26 Comments ||
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#12
Re: Halliburton, the firm started as a shipbuilding company, then expanded into ship terminal construction - esp. in the oil industry areas of TX and LA.
They developed expertise in emergency response services, beginning with oil well fires and then expanding into other major emergencies such as chemical factory fires.
As a result of their experience in those areas, they developed the corporate world's premier skills for security management in hostile regions. The State Dept. contracted them, under Clinton, to upgrade security at embassies around the world, for instance.
Also under Clinton the military began issuing a 5 year contract for logistical support services throughout the services. They won the first one, lost the second and won the 3rd award, which is currently in progress.
The logistical support contract is Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity - i.e. it is legally structured to have the govt ask for this or that task and negotiate the number of hours and other costs per task, with the financial basics fixed (how much per hour for, say, a petroleum engineer with 15 yrs experience, how much overhead and the maximum profit % allowable). Congress set up the IDIQ contract
structure back in the 80s to make contracting more cost efficient and take less time to get critical tasks done.
Put these all together: oil, security, emergency reponse capabilities (including a bunch of people holding security clearances from the State Dept. work) plus an existing contracting vehicle and you can see why DOD awarded the "non competed" initial contract to Halliburton for oil field / pipeline-related work on the eve of the invasion of Iraq.
#13
"Crash" was actually a good film. I hadn't heard of it either until my daughter rented the DVD, but I really don't pay much attention to movies anymore.
I suspect that "brains" in movies will become even more popular as revenues drop. Movies with lesser known talent and fewer special effects will be much cheaper to make. A cheaper movie can make money off of a smaller audience, and Hollywood, like the MSM and the Democratic party are increasingly targeting a core base that shares their values.
#15
There's a parallel to be drawn here with the early Seventies, when America, rocked by Watergate, entrenched in a controversial war waged by an increasingly unpopular right-wing President,
I thought Kennedy started the Vietnam war, and Nixon ended it?
#17
Grom! Whadda you ? Some kinda history nut? Don't be confusing the lefties and simpletons! Or am I redundant? Kennedy = good; Nixon = bad. Johnson = good; Reagan = Bad.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/25/2005 14:08 Comments ||
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#18
Hollywood isn't all bad. Nobody saw "Tears of the Sun"? "We Were Soldiers"? Honorable warriors doing their best portrayed honestly...
of course one was Mel Gibson and the other was Bruce Willis, neither of whom marches to the left
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/25/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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#19
"Tears of the Sun" is one of the best war movies I have ever seen. I rate it right up there with "The Blue Max" and "Pork Chop Hill" in its portryal of war.
#20
Yeah, Frank, and there was that three-part "Ring" thingy. Oh, wait - Hollywood couldn't make that one, it hadda come from New Zealand.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/25/2005 14:24 Comments ||
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#21
The movies are crap these days, but there are still a couple interesting "guilty pleasures" available on TV, in spite of my local cable company's incompetent channel shuffling: the two "Stargate" series and the remake of Battlestar Galactica.
The sad thing is I missed a fair bit of the new episodes this year because I thought from the stunt casting in the former series that a lot of it was going downhill. But it's been fun watching Rainbow Sun Frederick's character lose his mind and the original series go back to its roots of fighting technologically advanced aliens pretending to be gods...
(And regarding BSG, I ran across this interesting bit at Ron Moore's infrequently-updated blog:
It's up to you to decide who you like and who you don't. Personally, I like all of them. I like their flaws and I like their virtues, and for me, it's not a matter of finding redemption for anyone as much as it is a matter of allowing each character to be true to who and what they are and finding the most emotionally truthful storyline for them each week.
Sure, Tigh's made bad decisions and he'll likely make more, but isn't it interesting how all the good he did last season, all the good decisions he made, are suddenly overshadowed by the few bad choices he made this season? Tigh saved the entire ship during the miniseries, held the crew together through the nightmare of "33", located the lost fleet in "Scattered" and knew how to defeat the Centurion boarding party in "Valley of Darkness," but now that he's made a few bad calls (and some were really bad) he's called a worthless loser. What does that say about the nature of heroism? Does it mean that bestowing the title of Hero is less about discerning the intrinsic nature of a man than it is simply another example of the old game of "Yeah, but what have you done for me lately?" We love you today, but if you screw up tomorrow, you're history. Maybe that's only fair. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to work. Maybe. Again, it's up to you to decide, you're the audience. Me, I love Tigh and Starbuck and all of'em. Warts and all.
Interesting food for thought, at least for me... whether that's applicable to any recent events is something I'm still trying to figure out.)
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/25/2005 15:51 Comments ||
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#22
Who would have ever thought that Hollywood would become less cool and less capable of raising cash than those used-salesmen turned preachers that ask for money every 30 seconds on Sunday morning TV.
If you just believe, and send us your last dollar, God will pay for your health insurance!! {adjusts toupee, cries, and bursts into tounges} Cast away thee George Bush
Satan
#23
The whole US media scene is pretty bad. From what's called music to movies. I have been watching Japanese animation, there is nothing much worth watching made here. Screw Hollyweird and their lawyers.
#24
Wait, how's anime NOT afflicted by the same??? (If anything, I hate it for much the same.)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
09/25/2005 21:57 Comments ||
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#25
I feel the problem with hollywood is that its too 'professional' and its no longer about making movies people can enjoy - but making money and/or advancing a political cause.
Same sort of shait what brings is bubblegum music which is cranked out by a factory somewhere.
Hurricane Rita smacked a key region for oil-refining with less force than feared on Saturday, an encouraging sign to industry officials and analysts who cautioned it was still too early to assess the full extent of the damage. Before Rita hit, 16 of the 26 refineries in Texas shut down and evacuated crews as a precautionary measure.
But pump prices for gasoline and diesel fuel still could rise if pipelines and oil refineries â especially those near Lake Charles, La., and Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas â are slow in resuming production. "There will be some modest disruption of supplies of gasoline and other products," said William Veno, an analyst at Cambridge Energy Research Associates "But I don't think it's going to be as severe a situation as Hurricane Katrina."
Power outages were reported across wide swaths of Texas and Louisiana, leaving more than a million customers without electricity and one utility spokeswoman said it could be weeks before service is fully restored. Valero Energy Corp. said it received reports that the lights were on at its refineries in Houston and Texas City, Texas â facilities that refine almost 300,000 barrels of oil per day. And BP PLC spokesman Scott Dean said that was encouraging since "they're right next door to us there." BP's Texas City refinery processes 437,000 barrels per day.
Marathon Petroleum Co. said its Texas City refinery, which processes 72,000 barrels of crude oil per day, has power and sustained only minimal damage.
Based on computer modeling and initial reports, the Energy Department said it was cautiously optimistic about the nine refineries in the Houston area. "But we really need to look at the Port Arthur region and other areas directly impacted," spokesman Craig Stevens said. "It may still be two or three days before we get a sense of the actual picture."
Before Rita hit, 16 refineries in Texas accounting for 2.3 million barrels per day of capacity shut down and evacuated crews. Four refineries in Louisiana and Mississippi whose output had been more than 800,000 barrels per day remain closed almost a month after Hurricane Katrina, and a significant amount of oil and natural gas output has not returned.
Late Saturday, a natural gas pipeline near the Louisiana coast was leaking in a flooded area, and workers planned to try to fix it Sunday. Crews also needed to check for leaks in a petroleum storage facility after observing an oil sheen in floodwaters, said Jim Porter, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association.
Crude oil prices fell Friday as traders welcomed news that Rita had weakened. Traders will get their first chance to react to the Rita news when trading resumes on the International Petroleum Exchange in London at 11:15 p.m. GMT. The New York Mercantile Exchange will open electronic trading for crude oil futures and other energy futures at 10 a.m. Eastern Sunday, rather than the usual 7 p.m.
Analysts said they were eager to find out about the impact on refinery operations near the Texas-Louisiana border. "Lake Charles looks like it's the closest in terms of any kind of real impact. That's where we've got to focus our attention," said John Felmy, chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute in Washington, D.C. "Remember, the power outages are what bedeviled recovery efforts after Katrina," said oil analyst John Kilduff of Fimat USA in New York.
ConocoPhillips, Calcasieu Refining Co. and Citgo Petroleum Corp., a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., have refineries in Lake Charles. In Port Arthur, refineries are owned by Valero, Total S.A. and Motiva Enterprises Inc., a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Saudi Refining Inc.; ExxonMobil Corp. has a refinery in Beaumont. Shell said in a statement that there was wind damage to power lines and a cooling water-tower at its Port Arthur refinery, but no flooding. The company said it had no restart date yet for the plant.
Valero spokeswoman Mary Rose Brown described as "good news" the fact that storm surges in Port Arthur, where Valero has a 255,000-barrel-a-day refinery, were smaller than expected.
Motorists are already paying the price for the hurricane-related disruptions. The average retail cost of gasoline nationwide was $2.75 a gallon on Friday, up from $1.87 a year earlier, according to the Oil Price Information Service of Wall, N.J.
Several oil and fuel pipelines that carry product from the Gulf Coast to markets in the East and Midwest were also shuttered prior to Rita's arrival, but there was no word yet Saturday about any potential damage.
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, through which 10% of all U.S. oil imports flow, stopped offloading tankers earlier in the week, but by midday Saturday the LOOP had resumed delivering oil from storage to customers. Scheduling manager Mark Bugg said rough seas will prevent the resumption of oil tanker deliveries until Sunday or Monday.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service said Saturday that 634 platforms in the Gulf remained unstaffed, unchanged from Friday. Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was totally shut down, and more than 74% of natural gas output was off. Since Katrina, more than 31 million barrels of oil and 147 billion cubic feet of natural gas have been lost.
More than 675,000 CenterPoint Energy Inc. customers in Texas were without power and company spokeswoman Patricia Frank said it may be weeks before service is fully restored. Entergy Corp. spokesman Chanel Lagarde said there were 504,000 homes and businesses without power in Louisiana. About 212,000 of those were in the New Orleans area, where Hurricane Katrina knocked out electrical service, while the rest were caused by Rita and were concentrated in southwestern and south-central Louisiana. Entergy also reported 251,000 outages in east Texas, all of them caused by Rita.
It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts some goof the Guardian reporter happened to find who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns.
Sure they could, if the Navy didn't 'safe' the dolphins. We all know that the US armed forces just leaves arms, ammo and stuff lying around, and that all our guys are trained, sociopathic killers, so it stands to Guardian-style reason that the dolphins would be armed with toxic dart guns 24/7.
Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.
Since they're not trained to attack surfers, there shouldn't be a problem, but this is the Guardian.
Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.
Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected and since the Guardian calls him that he's probably got a shaky lefty past accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped. 'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'
"I dunno, Flipper, is that a terrorist or a surfer dude?"
Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.
The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them. Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.
The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea. The project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/25/2005 00:12 ||
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#1
I'll be impressed once they put friggin' laser beams on their heads.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/25/2005 15:10 Comments ||
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#7
Well, I couldn't identify the species, but your comment brings back extremely fond memories of a Japanese girlfriend... Oh, wait, you were being snarky? But even the, um, er, nevermind. ;-)
#8
Uh, guys... I just checked the net, which confirmed my earlier belief that the only naval facility in the state is the Naval Air Station at Belle Chase, which is on the West Bank. I don't know of any naval bases in the sounds close to Lake Ponchatrain (which sound like they mean Chandaleur Sound, Lake St. Catherine, and Lake Bourne...) There's a naval base in Pascagoula, which is further to the east, and a construction unit of some sort based in Gulfport. (There's also a NAS up in the Meridian/Laurel area, but it's not on the water).
You can find out more about the base at Pascagoula at wikipedia, or at the base's website. It was started in 1985 as part of a dispersed basing plan, and is scheduled to close under the 2005 base closure/target consolidation plan.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
09/25/2005 20:46 Comments ||
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A statement by Gul Naseeb, the provincial general secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), has fuelled differences between the two major component parties of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Maulana Gul Naseeb, in his speech at a convention of the Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz (MQM) councillors, said that joining hands against the JIâs âtyrannyâ in the Upper Dir district was a âjihadâ as the JI-backed former district nazim had subjected the people of the district to the worst kind of tyranny.
The JI is furious over JUI-Fâs support for the MQM candidate because it is now in a weak position for the third phase of local body elections in the district. Maulana Gul Naseeb further angered JI local leaders because he also flayed the JI candidate and praised Najmuddin Khan, an MQM candidate, for his âbroad-mindednessâ and âaccommodating attitudeâ. The JI local leaders alleged that JUI-F leaders had âsold their councillorsâ to the MQM, adding that it was Naseebâs incompetence and greed to form an alliance with the Awam Dost group as jihad, which clearly showed his deviation from principles and ideology.
More significantly and surprisingly, Naseeb was accused of doing all this on the behest of the federal government, to create fissures in the MMA, which has irked JUI-F leaders. Ahmad Yousafzai, the JUI-F spokesman, humiliated the JI by saying that its chief, Qazi Hussain, could not win his NA seat without the JUI-Fâs support. He said the JUI-F joined hands with MQM on the basis of principles and could not even consider selling its councillors. He said JUI had vowed to eliminate the âpolitics of victimizationâ.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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A 12-year-old Pakistani boy says he killed a 10-year-old fellow pupil to close a religious school in order to stop sexual abuse by a teacher. "I had no bad feelings against this boy. I was obsessed with getting this school closed," he said. "I wanted to give a bad name to the school so that the abuse of children could stop."
Posted by: john ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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Hrmh.. was Mohammed Atta sexually abused as a child? For that matter, was Binny?
#2
Marc Sageman's "Understanding Terror Networks" talks a bit about this, and no, there are no reports of this kind of abuse to OBL and Atta...I don't think that sexual abuse it a precurser/ first step to being a terrorist...
#3
This is only the tip of the mujahadeen & jihaadist iceberg of child predator behavior. Their creed " boys are for fun and girls are for breeding " is not proclaimed or advertised in their hate propaganda mediums or carried by their pals in the MSM. It is however lived out as a natural part of their unnatural self-made and unGodly world. It doesn't cause terrorism any more than napalming a village full of bearded moon-worshipping perverts claiming God is on their side. people have choices and these terrorists choose little boys without a care in the world to the consequences... after all, man-boy love must be OK since it happens, and if it happens, and Allah knows all and sees all then it must be OK. Sex abuse doesn't cause terrorism... it is a part of terrorism of the innocent, the weak and defenseless, and goes against everything God intended with his creations. Shame on their filth and shame on their sin against God. Shame upon their misguided religious teachers who condone the preying upon the innocent and weak and shame upon their families who bred them to become these monsters in the servitude of Satan. Shame on them and may God carry out his justice and not mine for I am nobody in the eyes of God but his creation.
"Kobrin, and her Israeli co-author, counter-terrorism expert Yoram Schweitzer, describe barbarous family and clan dynamics in which children, both boys and girls, are routinely orally and anally raped by male relatives; infant males are sometimes sadistically over-stimulated by being masturbated; boys between the ages of 7-12 are publicly and traumatically circumcised; many girls are clitoridectomized; and women are seen as the source of all shame and dishonor and treated accordingly: very, very badly."
Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, the former prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), on Saturday said that jihad in Kashmir was terrorism and that the mujahideen were saboteurs of peace in the region. âThere is no jihad in Kashmir. The terrorists are being employed by those with vested interests. Jihad is waged to protect the destitute and downtrodden, not to kill women and children,â Sardar Qayyum said during a reception hosted by the Kashmiri community, according to a UNI news report.
The former AJK prime minister said that militants were maligning Islam in the name of jihad. âThe ongoing peace process between Pakistan and India could be derailed if these militants acquire weapons of mass destruction,â he said.
Bet his life insurance company's taking the gaspipe right about now...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2005 00:00 ||
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He's dead.
Posted by: john ||
09/25/2005 7:22 Comments ||
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Jim.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/25/2005 13:55 Comments ||
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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.
More than 2000 people gathered on the Ellipse, the south end of the White House grounds, hours before the showcase demonstration past the White House, the first wave of what organisers said would be the largest Washington rally since the war began. President George Bush was out of town, 
While united against the war, political beliefs varied in the Washington crowd. Paul Rutherford, 60, said he is a Republican who supported Bush in the last election and still does - except for the war. "President Bush needs to admit he made a mistake in the war and bring the troops home, and let's move on," he said. 
A panel reporting to the US State Department has warned that President George W Bush is seen in some Arab nations as a greater threat than Al-Qaeda founder Osama Bin Laden, a US newspaper reported on Saturday. 
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright issued a stern warning Saturday about the continuing U.S. role in Iraq, saying "there are no good options at this point and the worst days may be ahead of us." Albright, secretary of state under President Clinton, said the March 2003 invasion of Iraq has led to a series of misfortunes that should have been anticipated. "Instead of winning friends for America, it has poisoned our relations with many countries in the Mideast and the Muslim world," Albright told a conference on the role of citizens in shaping the nation's image abroad. 
Clerics and tribal leaders from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority have expressed optimism that they can mobilise their communities to reject the draft constitution in next month's referendum. The three-day meeting organised to scuttle the charter concluded with a communique on Saturday urging a no vote "if the constitution's main points on Iraq's unity and Arab identity are not rectified, as well as articles related to political and racial segregation". 
Hamas said it would remain defiant after several deadly Israeli attacks on Palestinian targets in Gaza Strip that killed at least two Hamas resistance personnel. Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip on Saturday condemned the aerial rocketing, saying it demonstrated that the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip was not really over. "These criminal attacks are a clear proof that the Israeli occupation of Gaza is not really over," said Hamas spokesman Mahmoud al-Zahar. He told reporters in Gaza that Hamas would not give up the resistance as long as the occupation of the Palestinian homeland didn't end. "The resistance is the 'effect' and the occupation is the 'cause' and everybody knows that we can't remove the effect until and unless the cause is removed first."
Hamas leaders in Hebron promised that the "winds of freedom will blow on the West Bank sooner or later". 
Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas stressed Saturday on the importance of ending the state of insecurity engulfing Palestinian territories that led to the tragic events during a celebration organized by the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement of Hamas in Gaza yesterday. In a speech delivered before a political festival celebrating the Israeli pull out from Gaza, Abbas said that yesterday's tragedy requires Palestinians to stop the state of disorder caused by unorganized spread of arms and military rallies in residential civilian sites. Abbas, however, said that the pull out is still incomplete without withdrawing from Jerusalem and all of Palestinian territories.
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - The U.N. atomic watchdog agency Saturday put Iran just one step away from referral to the Security Council unless Tehran eases suspicions about its nuclear activities in coming months - a move the United States has been pushing for years. The chief U.S. delegate to the International Atomic Energy Agency hailed the decision, describing it as a wake-up call for Tehran ``to come clean'' or face the consequences.
A statement by Gul Naseeb, the provincial general secretary of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), has fuelled differences between the two major component parties of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Maulana Gul Naseeb, in his speech at a convention of the Muttahida Qaumi Mahaz (MQM) councillors, said that joining hands against the JIâs âtyrannyâ in the Upper Dir district was a âjihadâ as the JI-backed former district nazim had subjected the people of the district to the worst kind of tyranny.
A 12-year-old Pakistani boy says he killed a 10-year-old fellow pupil to close a religious school in order to stop sexual abuse by a teacher. "I had no bad feelings against this boy. I was obsessed with getting this school closed," he said. "I wanted to give a bad name to the school so that the abuse of children could stop."
Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, the former prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), on Saturday said that jihad in Kashmir was terrorism and that the mujahideen were saboteurs of peace in the region. âThere is no jihad in Kashmir. The terrorists are being employed by those with vested interests. Jihad is waged to protect the destitute and downtrodden, not to kill women and children,â Sardar Qayyum said during a reception hosted by the Kashmiri community, according to a UNI news report.
