April 2004 Archives

The Prime Minister's proposed alternative is a new international body, the G-20 summit of world leaders, representative of North and South, developed and developing, rich and poor: a working group unfettered by the UN's bureaucracy and its anachronistic Security Council.

It is a bold, though perhaps unworkable plan. But however it is ultimately greeted by the world community, Mr. Martin's proposal at least recognizes and sets out to correct a fundamental flaw in Canadian foreign policy, one that has left us hostage to a dysfunctional world body whose interests are often irrelevant to Canada's...

The telephone survey of 3,588 people aged 15 or older in 13 cities was done by the French research company Ipsos-Stat in early April for the the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the independent federal agency that oversees all U.S. international nonmilitary broadcasting.

The results showed Alhurra -- in its first two months -- is being watched by an average 29 percent of the satellite-equipped households in seven countries, including a high of 44 percent in Kuwait and a low of 18 percent in Egypt.

The survey also found that an average 53 percent of the viewers consider the channel programming to be reliable or somewhat reliable. This includes a high of 70 percent reliability felt by Saudis and a low of 37 percent reliability among Syrians.

"I was very surprised by these numbers," considering all the negative press in the region saying no one is watching Alhurra and the fact that a religious "fatwa" edict was issued against the channel in Saudi Arabia, said Norman Pattiz of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

"Within the first two months of broadcasting Alhurra has quickly established itself as a player among satellite stations in the Middle East," he told a news conference...

The illusion that the aggressor can be soothed by good behavior reminds of 1936: Had the Allies not waited, negotiated, formed pacts and maneuvered back then and instead intervened, than millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, millions of soldiers, millions of people who thought differently could have been saved.

We are the ones who think differently. Maybe we need more toughness and vigilance to secure our democracy. Maybe it is wrong that Germany has refused to join the coalition of the willing. Maybe Israel is one of our most important allies. Maybe we should help this ally and not give them advice. Maybe America is doing more right than we think. Maybe more people in Iraq are better off today than they were one year ago. Maybe George Bush is not as stupid and evil, maybe one day, looking back on the developments that have just begun – we might even be thankful to him because he was one of the few who acted in accordance with the maxim: These things must be nipped in the bud. (A phrase often used in Germany to refer to stopping the re-emergence of Nazism.)...

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw asserted that "targeted killings of this kind are unlawful [and] unjustified." The French foreign ministry issued a statement saying that Israel's right to self-defense "should not be exercised against international law." The foreign minister of Ireland, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, declared that "extrajudicial killings are contrary to international laws." Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson called Israel's action "illegal and disgusting." Spokesmen for the governments of Germany, Italy, Austria, Portugal, and Russia made similar comments.

If the law is what these Europeans say it is, then, as Dickens's Mr. Bumble put it, "the law is a ass" because the moral case for Israel's counterattacks on Hamas is overwhelming. But even in strictly legal terms, Israel's actions have sound justification. Ironically and shamefully, it is not Israel but these very critics of Israel who are in flagrant dereliction of their legal obligations...

In his strongest comments to date on the burgeoning oil-for-food scandal, Annan said U.N. officials were blamed for Saddam's smuggling of oil and a variety of other misdeeds that they had no way of controlling.

"We had no mandate to stop oil smuggling," Annan told a news conference. "They were driving the trucks through northern Iraq to Turkey. The U.S. and the British had planes in the air. We were not there."

He called some of the comments he read "constructive and thoughtful." But he said: "Others have been outrageous and exaggerated. In fact, when you look at it, if you read their reports, it looks as if the Saddam regime had nothing to do with it. They did nothing wrong. It was all the U.N."

Frenchman Michael Soussan, a former program coordinator for the $100 billion fund, is expected to be the star witness of a House International Relations Committee hearing looking into Saddam's gigantic $10.1 billion rip-off.

Committee sources said Soussan, now a New York-area writer, is expected to give the first, under oath, public account from an insider about how top U.N. officials were aware of Saddam's oil smuggling and kickback schemes but chose to let him get away with it.

Allegations surfaced in a Baghdad newspaper earlier this year that Benon Sevan, the director of the program, was among 270 sympathetic international political and financial figures who received sweetheart oil deals from Saddam. -Niles Lathem

And although full information is hard to come by, partial lists leaked from the U.N. show that in 2000-2001 alone, Saddam's regime ordered up from Al Wasel and Babel more than $190 million in construction materials, trucks, cars and so on. Over Mr. Annan's and Mr. Sevan's protests, the U.S. and U.K. blocked some $45 million worth of those contracts; that still left the Saddam front company of Al Wasel & Babel with about $145 million of Oil-for-Food business for that two year period alone.

Basically, Oil-for-Food was Saddam--just slightly harder to spot, swaddled as he was in that blue U.N. flag.

Allah is the Greatest.
I bear witness that nothing deserves to be worshipped except Allah.
Come to prayer.
Come to success.
- The Muslim call to prayer, translated by Maulana Muhammad Ali

As the American military weighs the reduction of Fallujah, there come into focus the grand vulnerabilities both of the Americans and the Sunni resistance. The West cannot endure without faith that a loving Father dwells beyond the clouds that obscure His throne. Horror - the perception that cruelty has no purpose and no end - is lethal to the West. Europe is dying slowly from the horror of the 20th century's world wars, ending the way T S Eliot foresaw in the poem cited above, "not with a bang but a whimper". Despite its intrinsic optimism, America is vulnerable as well.

The Islamic world cannot endure without confidence in victory, that to "come to prayer" is the same thing as to "come to success". Humiliation - the perception that the Ummah cannot reward those who submit to it - is beyond its capacity to endure.

Radical Islam has risen against the West in response to its humiliation - intentional or not - at Western hands. The West can break the revolt by inflicting even worse humiliation upon the Islamists, poisoning the confidence of their supporters in the Muslim world...

But this shift in favor of the "realities on the ground" sent "moderate Arab opinion" into a tizzy. Returning from a visit to America, Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, dropped in on Jacques Chirac in Paris. "Today there is hatred of the Americans like never before," he told Le Monde. And, in what sounded suspiciously like a threat, Mubarak added: "American and Israeli interests will not be safe, not only in our region, but anywhere in the world." Did he mention that when he was back at the ranch with Bush?

And that's a guy American taxpayers give $2 billion a year to. In return for which, they get Mohammed Atta flying through the office window and vile state-funded Egyptian media that license anti-Americanism as a safety valve for disaffection that might otherwise be targeted more locally. Thanks a bunch, Hosni. The Guardian reported this as a "damaging rebuff to President George Bush's policies", though it's difficult to conceive of anything less "damaging" to Bush than being insulted by some third-rate Arab strongman dependent on US aid...

Why is he working for a "right wing Israeli newspaper?" Abu Toameh says he's always asked. Because he's a "real journalist." In the PA, there are no real journalists, just mouthpieces for the thugocracy (my word, not his).

As for the foreign press, Abu Toameh shrugs. They see no evil and hear no evil when it comes to the behavior of the PA. He describes an incredible scene back in 2002 when he was covering an event at the mukata, Arafat's compound in Ramallah. With a crowd of international reporters standing around, two palestinian policemen brought a man out, threw him up against a wall and shot him -- right under the window of Arafat's office. When the reporters converged, the policeman seemed bewildered. It was just a simple execution, nothing to get excited about, he said. And no one did. In fact, according to Abu Toameh, no one else even mentioned it. But he did (the Jerusalem Post has now changed all its old links to paid-access pages but you can read an excerpt from the article here if you scroll about halfway down the page).

In point of fact, he says, a simple denial will usually suffice to kill any story that reflects badly on the PA.

Abu Toameh isn't gentle with many favored palestinian myths, either. Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount did not ignite the "intifada." Rather, it was the coverage of the visit in the palestinian media, in which it was made to appear that Sharon arrived with guns and tanks to invade and destroy the mosque and rebuild . . .. He left that sentence hanging. As for the palestinian devotion to the "right of return" and the re-division of Jerusalem, he lays the blame squarely on the Israeli government, which by agreeing at Oslo to open those issues for resolution in "final status talks" invited that particular foot in the door. Now, he says, it's become an indelible part of the palestinian worldview and impossible to eradicate. For the most part, they realize it's not going to happen, but you won't hear them say that. Oslo gave them the hope, the incentive to keep handing down those keys, the notion that someday . . ..

"Bush -- the savior of the Arab masses." That's a quote, and it drew an audible gasp and a few chuckles from the crowd. Not something most of us were expecting to hear. But Abu Toameh seems to believe that Bush's hard-line attitude is exactly the wake-up call the Arabs need to get their act together. He believes that the vast majority of the "Arab street" is, contrary to what we hear, strongly supportive of democracy and of America's intervention in Iraq. It's the Arab regimes (and this is nothing new) that stand to lose everything if America succeeds in Iraq and it's the regimes that must continue to promote rabid anti-American sentiments if they have any hope of survival...

It will not be easy, as the American experience in Iraq has demonstrated. However, it is definitely possible, especially if the strongest power in the world considers it the only way that the free world can deal with terrorism. What a waste it is that, instead of supporting the United States’ lead, we are working in exactly the opposite direction. We will run away from the Gaza Strip and leave it in the terrorists’ control. You can be sure that they will not grow lettuce there.

As long as the government of the Gaza Strip does not work to move the refugees out of the camps and improve the life of their people; as long as the government there does not consider the industrial areas a means for growth, not a corridor for terror and murder; as long as the government of the Gaza Strip does not use the media and educational system for progress and enlightenment, not brainwashing and fostering hatred; as long at the Palestinian government doesn’t change, disengagement will not lead to any positive change...

Peltek, 41, said he attacked his 4-year-old daughter because she had been “sullied” by a gynecological exam.

”I was concerned that my family’s honor was taken,” he allegedly told investigators.

Peltek allegedly made the remarks 14 hours after the attack to Monroe County sheriff’s investigators at Strong Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for self-inflicted stab wounds to his abdomen and hammer wounds to his head.

His 39-year-old wife died after being stabbed repeatedly and bludgeoned on the head with a hammer.

His daughters suffered fractured skulls from hammer blows.

”If you had the opportunity to kill the family again, would you?” he was asked by Rochester police Officer Emre Arican, who was brought in to help investigators because he speaks Turkish.

”My female family, yes. My male family, no,” Peltek allegedly replied...

However, Al-Jazerah’s covering tactics in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be compared to what it did in Fallujah. The level of biases and lies propagated during the first two wars would pale in comparison with the coverage of the Fallujah war. I personally have not seen such hate and incitement as I have seen in its coverage of Fallujah. They dispatched their Muslim Brotherhood affiliated Ahmed Mansour who writes in one of Egypt’s top conspiracy theory tabloids. They were so smart; Taysir was busted in Spain, now they can send Mansour. The level of unconfirmed lies that Mansour spilled out forced the CPA to post a matrix where they countered his claims on a daily basis. Why was Fallujah different? Why did Al-Jazerah forsake any rules they might have learned in Journalism 101 when they were covering Al-Jazerah[sic]? The answer is quite simple: Iraqis are now watching...

This piece is not for you.

We published pictures Thursday of burnt American corpses hanging from an Iraqi bridge behind a mob of grinning Muslims.

Some readers didn’t like it.

Mothers said it frightened their children. A woman who works with Muslim physicians thought it might offend or endanger them.

Well, we sure don’t want to frighten, offend or endanger anybody, do we? That’s just too much diversity to handle. I mean, somebody might get hurt...

At Karbala, U.S. troops stumbled upon 55-gallon drums of pesticides at what appeared to be a very large "agricultural supply" area, Hanson says. Some of the drums were stored in a "camouflaged bunker complex" that was shown to reporters - with unpleasant results. "More than a dozen soldiers, a Knight-Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman, and two Iraqi POWs came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to a nerve agent," Hanson says. "But later ISG tests resulted in a proclamation of negative, end of story, nothing to see here, etc., and the earlier findings and injuries dissolved into nonexistence. Left unexplained is the small matter of the obvious pains taken to disguise the cache of ostensibly legitimate pesticides. One wonders about the advantage an agricultural-commodities business gains by securing drums of pesticide in camouflaged bunkers 6 feet underground. The 'agricultural site' was also colocated with a military ammunition dump - evidently nothing more than a coincidence in the eyes of the ISG."...

Higgins improved the design of the LCTs and produced hundreds of them; he helped design the patrol boats (PT boats) and built dozens of them; he had an important subcontractor role in the Manhattan Project; he made other contributions to the war effort as well.

"No, sir," I replied. "He died before I moved to the city."

"That's too bad," Eisenhower said. "He is the man who won the war for us."

My face must have shown the astonishment I felt at hearing such a strong statement from such a source. Eisenhower went on to explain, "If Higgins had not designed and built those LCVPs, we never could have landed over an open beach. The whole strategy of the war would have been different."

But he was the man who won the war for us, and it is a shame that he has been forgotten by the nation and by the City of New Orleans.

For example, it was Al-Ahram, a newspaper controlled by the Egyptian government, that claimed in October that US pilots flying over Afghanistan were dropping "genetically treated" food into areas booby-trapped with land mines, in the hope not only of making Afghans sick but of crippling or killing those who attempt to gather the food. It was Al-Akhbar, another regime-sponsored daily, that declared in August: "The Statue of Liberty . . . must be destroyed because of the idiotic American policy that goes from disgrace to disgrace in the swamp of bias and blind fanaticism. . . . The age of the American collapse has begun."

Examples of the anger engendered by the Iraq war? Hardly. Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar published those statements in October and August of 2001...

Butler and other officials also described the factors that are being used to assess how dangerous a detainee might be (joining Al Qaeda after Sept. 11, 2001, for example, might be worse than joining earlier); the interrogation booths at Guantanamo (Arabic posters on the wall encourage confession as a ticket home); and the difficult negotiations with more than 40 countries to take back some of the detainees (if the countries agree to US terms). The officials discussed for the first time the military's Criminal Investigation Task Force, which has interrogated detainees and followed leads around the globe to find evidence of guilt or innocence.

Butler expressed frustration that the United States has not gotten the word out about the investigations, that painstaking action is taken for inaction. ''One of the things that doesn't seem to come across is that there is this extensive process to try to figure out who these detainees are, what kind of intelligence they have, what threat they represent, and to treat them accordingly," Butler said in the interview Thursday in Rumsfeld's suite at the Pentagon. ''We're not in the business of just holding people for the sake of it. . . . We realize that we can't do that. We have to have justifiable reasons to hold on to people."...

''I've heard everything," Mallow said, ''from 'I just want to go back and be with my family' to 'I'd kill you today if I could get out of this chair.' "

Nevertheless, if any of them believed President Bush's fond promise to bring democracy, through Iraq, to the entire Middle East, they have already been betrayed. (I doubt, however, that many believed the rhetoric.) This is because the transition to "democracy" is now being brokered not by Paul Bremer and the U.S., but by Lakhdar Brahimi, an Algerian diplomat, and the United Nations.

As we know from Rwanda, Bosnia, and a dozen other political settlements it has brokered, the U.N. is incapable of facilitating anything except the odd vast massacre. It is an organization corrupt to its core, without power except for what its members agree to provide for it, and therefore under the direction of a kind of rotating conspiracy of the world's most cynical and posturing politicians...

In a TV interview, Mr Sharon said he had informed US President George W Bush about the change in his position when they met in Washington last week.

However, a US State Department spokesman said nothing had changed in US policy regarding Mr Arafat.

Israel accuses Mr Arafat of supporting Palestinian militants.

Mr Sharon told Israel's Channel Two that in his first meeting with President Bush three years ago "I accepted his request not to harm Arafat physically.

"But I am released from this commitment. I release myself from this commitment regarding Arafat," he said.

Rebuke

Israel has killed scores of militants in so-called targeted attacks. In the last month, it has killed both the spiritual and political leaders of Hamas in missile strikes...

This order to target al-Sadr for extra-judicial killing is perfectly legitimate and lawful under the laws of war. Al-Sadr is a combatant, and it is proper to kill a combatant during a war unless he surrenders first. It does not matter whether the combatant is a cook or bombmaker, a private or a general. Nor does it matter whether he wears an army uniform, a three-piece suit or a kaffiyeh. So long as he is in the chain of command, he is an appropriate target regardless of whether he is actually engaged in combat at the time that he is killed or is fast asleep. Of course, his killing would be extra-judicial. Military attacks against combatants are not preceded by jury trials or judicial warrants.

Al-Sadr fits squarely into any reasonable definition of combatant. He leads a militia that has declared war on American and coalition forces, as well as on civilians, both foreign and Iraqi. He is at the top of the chain of command, and it is he who presses the on-off button for the killings. Like Osama bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar, he is a proper military target, so long as he can be killed without disproportional injury to non-combatants. If American forces can capture him, they are permitted that option as well, but they are not required — under the laws of war — to endanger the lives of their soldiers in order to spare al Sadr's life. Indeed, unless he were to surrender, it is entirely lawful for American troops to kill him rather than to capture him — if it were decided that this was tactically advantageous. Although U.S. commanders mentioned capture along with killing as an option, it may well be preferable not to capture al-Sadr, for fear that his imprisonment would provoke even more hostage taking.

The world seems to understand and accept the American decision to target al-Sadr for killing, as it accepts our belated decision to try to kill bin Laden and Mullah Omar. There has been little international condemnation of America's policy of extra-judicial killing of terrorist leaders. Indeed the predominant criticism has been that we did not get bin Laden and Mullah Omar before September 11.

How then to explain the world's very different reaction to Israel's decision to target terrorist leaders, such as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz al Rantisi, the former leaders of Hamas? Surely there is no legal or moral difference between Yassin and al-Rantisi, on the one hand, and al-Sadr on the other. Yassin and al-Rantisi both ordered terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, and praised them when they succeeded. Each was responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths and was involved in ordering and planning more terrorist attacks at the time of his death. They were terrorist commanders, just as al-Sadr is. They were both killed, along with their military bodyguards, in a manner that minimized civilian casualties, even though they generally — and unlawfully — hid among civilians, using them as human shields. Israel waited until they and their guards were alone and then targeted them successfully. There was no realistic possibility of capturing them alive since they had sworn to die fighting, and any attempt to extirpate them from the civilians among whom they were hiding would have resulted in numerous civilian casualties.

Reasonable people can disagree about whether the decision to target Yassin, al-Rantisi, al-Sadr, bin Laden or any other terrorist is tactically wise or unwise, or whether it will reduce or increase the dangers to civilians. But no reasonable argument can be made that the decision to target these combatants — these terrorist commanders — is unlawful under the laws of war or under international law...

Complete details about Tillman's death were not immediately released but Pentagon officials said he was killed inside southeast Afghanistan while taking part in a special operations action. The military said there were other fatalities but it was not clear how many.

The area has been the site of sporadic firefights in recent days and is a location where U.S. forces have been hunting remnants of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime as well as Al Qaeda fighters.

The Arizona Cardinals (search), the team Tillman played for before making his decision to join the armed forces, had no immediate comment on the reports. The team may hold a news conference later Friday.

Tillman, 27, shocked fans when he turned down a $3.6 million contract with the Cardinals to be an Army ranger.

The Arizona State University graduate spent five seasons with the Cardinals, from 1998 to 2002, before joining the Army.

Stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., Tillman was deployed overseas in 2003. His brother, Kevin is also an Army Ranger serving in Afghanistan and also was a professional athlete — Kevin Tillman played baseball for the Cleveland Indians.

In an interview with a French radio station, Brahimi said that there is a clear connection between the situation in Iraq and Israel's policy.

Brahimi criticized US President George W. Bush's support of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his unilateral disengagement plan.

Fred Eckhard, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said that Brahimi's statements are his personal opinions and do not represent the opinion of Secretary-General Annan.

The coalition is loosing the hearts and minds simply because Al-Jazerah focuses upon how many civilians were killed and how many mosques were blown up. It totally ignores stories such as the new power station that employs hundreds of Iraqis or the new women rights group that the coalition helped to organize. In addition, Iraqis, just like everyone else in the region, are taught that no westerner will offer any help without sucking something back and no educated Iraqi dares to offer an alternative view lest he be shot at his house doorstep. The situation is very grim because if the US lost the hearts and minds of the shias, its game over. Al-Jazerah knows that very well, this is why they dispatched their most radical correspondent to Fallujah and gave Sadr more airtime than their ads...

U.S. forces are poised just outside Najaf and have vowed to kill or capture Sadr and destroy his Mehdi Army militia, which has clashed with foreign forces across south and central Iraq.

Speaking at Friday prayers in Kufa, next to Najaf, Sadr told thousands of Shi'ites Najaf would never fall to the occupiers.

"We will shed blood to keep our holy city," he said. "Lots of believers, men and women, came to me and asked permission to become martyrs and to execute martyrdom operations.

"I keep telling them to wait. But if there was an assault on our cities or on our religious authorities we will be time bombs and will not stop before destroying enemy forces."

There are fears a U.S. attack on Najaf could spark a wider and bloodier uprising. Sadr likened Iraq's situation to that of the Palestinians, saying Iraqis faced the same enemies and must unite to defeat them.

"We should be united for one ultimate goal, to liberate our country and remove the filth from Iraq," he said.

The congregation chanted "Long live Sadr" and denounced not only the occupation forces but the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, saying "America and the Council are infidels."...

Kaddoumi's remarks were made in an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al-Arab. He admitted that the PLO charter, which denies Israel's right to exist, was never changed.

In response to a question what does Arafat mean when he talks about the continuation of the struggle, Kaddoumi, who is one of the few PLO leaders still living in Tunisia, said: "Yes, the national struggle must continue. I mean the armed struggle. In the past we abandoned our political parties in favor of the armed struggle.

"Fatah was established on the basis of the armed struggle and that this was the only way to leading to political negotiations that would force the enemy to accept our national aspirations. Therefore there is no struggle other than the armed military struggle."

Commenting on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, Kaddoumi said: "If Israel wants to leave the Gaza Strip, then it should do so. This means that the Palestinian resistance has forced it to leave. But the resistance will continue. Let the Gaza Strip be South Vietnam. We will use all available methods to liberate North Vietnam."

Kaddoumi revealed that the PLO leadership has entrusted him with being responsible for the "portfolio" of supporting the Iraqi resistance against the US-led coalition forces in Iraq. "There is no doubt that the Palestinian revolution supports the Iraqi resistance and we have seen demonstrations in the occupied Palestinian territories in backing the intifada and resistance in Iraq," he said. "I'm in charge of this issue and I condemn the American position."

Kaddoumi welcomed the establishment of an armed group in Iraq named after slain Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin, saying this would increase pressure on the US. He described the new anti-American group as an "excellent phenomenon."

Kaddoumi said that, contrary to what many people believe, the PLO charter was never changed so as to recognize Israel's right to exist. "The Palestinian national charter has not been amended until now," he explained. "It was said that some articles are no longer effective, but they were not changed. I'm one of those who didn't agree to any changes."

Asked about US and Israeli demands to halt terror attacks as a condition for resuming the peace process, Kaddoumi replied: "They can go to hell!"[...]

The fugitives, all members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, have been hiding in the compound these past three months. Israel has repeatedly demanded they be kicked out.

A fugitive, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that last week, Israeli security officials summoned Ismail Jabber, commander of the Palestinian national forces, and told him if the fugitives were not forced out they would invade, and if necessary, pull them out of "Arafat's desk drawer." [...]

The 25-year-old woman, whom authorities refused to identify, was killed Tuesday by her brother, who slit her throat and inflicted 15 stabs to various parts of her body, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The case marked the latest incident of "honor killings" - a practice not uncommon in traditional, male-dominated Arab societies where women have been killed, mostly by brothers and fathers for having sex outside marriage, dating, simply talking to men or even for being raped.

The initial investigation showed the woman had married an Egyptian against her family's wishes almost a year ago and had left for Egypt.

"When she returned to Jordan a few days ago to give birth to her child, her brother learned she was in town. He went to her home on Tuesday and killed her," the official said.

The stabbing occurred in the kitchen of the woman's house. After the slaying, the brother called police and waited for them to arrest him, saying he had stabbed his sister with a kitchen knife.

She was already dead when police arrived, and doctors could not save the baby.

The official told The Associated Press that a post-mortem showed the woman was eight months pregnant with a baby boy.

The killing was the fifth reported "honor killing" since the beginning of the year. Seventeen cases were reported in 2003, and 22 in 2002. Many more are believed to go unreported.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch issued a report Tuesday accusing the Jordanian government of failing to protect women from male relatives who threaten and kill them in "honor" crimes.

Last September, Jordanian lawmakers rejected legislative amendments aiming to set harsher punishments for honor crime offenders. Under the country's existing penal code, people found guilty of committing honor crimes can receive sentences as light as six months in jail.

In a meeting that took just two minutes, the council passed resolution 1538, which emphasizes the "importance of full cooperation with the independent high-level inquiry by all United Nations officials and personnel, the Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq, and all other Member States."

"Obviously, these are serious allegations, which we take seriously," Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters when he arrived at U.N. Headquarters. "And this is why we've put together a very serious group to investigate it."

Paul Volcker, the former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman who will lead the investigation, said he expected cooperation from all the countries involved and said the panel's report would be "as complete as we can make it."

"I didn't agree to do this lightly, but I think there are very important accusations made about the U.N., accusations about the administration of the program, accusations about activities outside the U.N., which need to be resolved," Volcker said at a press briefing at U.N. Headquarters.

In addition to Volcker, the panel will include Justice Richard Goldstone, former head of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a former chief war crimes prosecutor for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, and Mark Pieth, a Swiss law professor who is an expert in the issue of money laundering.

The panel will have access to all U.N. records and personnel and "is authorized to obtain records and interviews from persons unaffiliated with the U.N. who may have knowledge relevant to the inquiry, including allegations of impropriety."...

...One of our friend was angry when he saw the former slaves burn the flag of their liberators (and he has all the right to feel so), but I saw my country being destroyed for 35 years and I’m not desperate because I have faith that it will be rebuild one day. Still, why am I supposed to be the 'superman' who is never allowed to feel angry, sad or frustrated?

Others ask me to demonstrate and show my support to the coalition. Ok I’m with the coalition but I can’t do it my friends. I’m surrounded by armed criminals who wouldn’t hesitate for a minute before shooting me for just speaking out, yet I do speak, and not only on this page.

You, there in the free world, cannot witness against criminals without witness protection programs. We have nothing of this. Just under trained and half corrupted policemen and few newly graduated army soldiers and the law system, we inherited from Saddam and haven’t really changed it yet, is far from being efficient.
Why do others get discouraged easily? Don’t mistake me. I’m upset but will NEVER run away like some people did.

I wasn’t like this before. I was afraid most of the time. I have always looked for safety above all. I lost faith in the whole world and I wasn’t ready at all to make the slightest sacrifice for the sake of others. I was trying to leave my country and find a better job in a safe place, BUT, The brave solders (who don’t hold shares at Halliburton or Bechtel) who crossed seas and oceans and came to my country to fight for our freedom -and don’t anyone dare say the opposite, as I met so many of these soldiers and had hundreds of letters from them and there families and I know their motives; they fight for their country’s safety and for our freedom and they are proud of what they are doing- gave me the faith and showed me that man should not care only about himself, his family or his country, these are not enough to make a human being. These guys are MUCH better than me because I have to fight for my issue and they fight for me. They deserve the respect of the world and so do the people who support them. They always give me hope to go on no matter how difficult it seems.

I think I’ll have to skip celebrating my birthday this year, but that will not make me less determined than before, and I know that even if other countries pull out of Iraq, we will always have the strongest and greatest nation on our side, the wonderful people of the USA, together with the UK, Italy, Japan and the rest of the coalition forces. We owe you a lot and I pray, and I’m sure, that one day we will be able to return some of your favors and I’m talking about the people not the politicians although I don’t deny those the credit they deserve for doing their job as good as they can. When that day finally comes, you will know for sure that the great efforts and sacrifices you’ve made were not in vain.

The officials also said Jordanian investigators have reported that chemicals discovered in a foiled Al Qaeda plot in Jordan had been smuggled in from Syria.

The White House has told members of Congress that as early as this week the president will implement the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act, passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress and signed into law in December...

The agreement between US occupation officials, Marines, and Fallujah leaders marks the first time that the military has openly negotiated to end a battle with guerrilla fighters in Iraq, but it is not clear whether the Fallujah officials have direct control over the insurgents using the city as a base.

The terms of the tentative agreement call for Iraqi fighters to turn in their weapons and for the return of US patrols to the city center, where they have rarely set foot in the last year.

The United States made many concessions in the proposed settlement, which was announced by US officials yesterday and detailed by negotiators from the Iraqi Islamic Party. Shuttle diplomacy for more than a week brought senior US negotiators and Fallujah leaders to the table for direct discussions.

The Yamato Wind Village restaurant in Kunming city attempted to launch its "body sushi" dinner earlier this month, provoking lively local debate.

But health authorities banned it before the dinner could even take place.

Now the restaurant has also been fined 2,000 Yuan (US$240), according to the Beijing Daily Messenger newspaper.

The management of the restaurant told China's official Xinhua news agency that the "body sushi" service was launched to introduce a special Japanese food culture to Chinese people.

The practise of eating sushi off naked or nearly-naked women has long been popular with a certain clientele in Japan.

But the authorities in China said the restaurant's actions violated women's rights, as well as laws on advertising [!?] and food sanitation.

They also said the women used to display the sushi were not suitably dressed for restaurant employees.

When confronted with advertisements for the sushi dinner, the people of Kunming seemed equally undecided.

Some "were indignant, claiming it is humiliating to women," the official China Daily newspaper reported at the time.

"But others were curious and tempted to have a try," it added.

Passed after the 1967 Six Day War, 242 required the withdrawal of Israel "from territories occupied in the recent conflict." Not from "the territories." Israel insisted on deletion of the "the" because it implied, as Arab and other powers acknowledged by vehement opposition to the deletion -- withdrawal from all territories.

This was strategic ambiguity. On Wednesday ambiguity was abandoned. In his letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Bush said:

"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of the final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion."

It is fine to talk about "new realities," such as patterns of settlement, but this new U.S. policy also, and primarily, comes to terms at long last with an old reality. It is that 242 also recognized the right of every state in the region to "secure and recognized boundaries," which Israel's 1967 borders were not.

But wait. Palestinian spokesmen, denouncing the new U.S. position, speak not of the 1949 armistice lines but "the 1967 borders." It is not in the interest of the Palestinian Authority to have the world reminded -- being willfully forgetful, it needs much reminding -- that Israel's 1967 borders were accidents of the military facts on the ground 18 years before that.

Bush, by emphasizing 1949 rather than 1967, reminds those who forever say "Israel is being provocative" that for 56 years -- since Israel's founding in May 1948 -- the problem has been that, to Israel's enemies, Israel's being is provocative. Hostility to Israel predated 1967 and would not be cured by a return to 1967 realities...

This distaste for subtleties is probably part of what many Americans like about Bush -- he's not some fancy-pants diplomat talking all the time about "nuances." But the public should understand that however satisfying Bush's plain talk may be, it can be harmful to the nation's security.

Sources tell me the administration was prodded into accepting Iranian help by the British, who have centuries of experience in supping with devils of one sort or another.

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush? You closed down a friggin' weekly newspaper, you great giver of freedom and democracy! Then all hell broke loose. The paper only had 10,000 readers! Why are you smirking?...

… There is a lot of talk amongst Bush's opponents that we should turn this war over to the United Nations. Why should the other countries of this world, countries who tried to talk us out of this folly, now have to clean up our mess? I oppose the U.N. or anyone else risking the lives of their citizens to extract us from our debacle. I'm sorry, but the the majority of Americans supported this war once it began and, sadly, that majority must now sacrifice their children until enough blood has been let that maybe -- just maybe -- God and the Iraqi people will forgive us in the end"

That’s not a random DU commenter or an Indymedia brownshirt making this spittle-flecked diatribe. It’s Michael Moore, filmmaker and Oscar winner, praying for the deaths of American soldiers while praising the ‘minutemen’ who deliberately murdered 82 Iraqis and a Shiite cleric last August, who murdered more than a 140 Shiite Muslims on the holiest day of the Shiite calendar.

I should think most of them do.

But I have to be candid: many of them don't. We can't just rely on tired old relativism when we look at all this. Nobody who loves his or her child will send that little being out as a suicide bomber. Nobody who loves their children will line them up in front of tanks.

The natural instinct of a loving parent is to hide the children. Armed struggle and resistance I can understand, even if I do not approve. This, though, is something different. I've seen it myself. Mothers screaming for their tiny offspring to come out of the house, stand in front of Israeli patrols and throw stones at soldiers.

I take here no position on the causes of Israelis or Palestinians, but I do on the moral substance of a parent who would send children to fight the battles of adults.

Do not, please, tell me they have no option. There are legions of young Palestinian men willing to kill Israelis. It's just that children can sometimes be undetected. And are easily convinced of the delights of paradise in the world to come when, I quote, "Zionist skulls, blood and limbs fly against the walls."...

A burned, destroyed car was left on the road near Rantisi's house and one badly burned body was removed from the car by paramedics. Witnesses said there were three people in the car at the time.

The dead included Akram Nassar, 35, Rantisi's personal bodyguard and his son Mohammed, 27, hospital officials said.

Rantisi's wife was in the car, but her condition and location was not known, hospital sources and Hamas said.

Rantisi was taken to Gaza's Shifa Hospital in critical condition, his body pocked with bloody wounds, and rushed into emergency surgery, but he died five minutes after arriving at the hospital.

The explosion occurred a block from Rantisi's house in the Sheik Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, about 100 meters from where Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was buried after Israel assassinated him last month.

Palestinians ran into the street following the strike and called for revenge.

The attack comes hours after a Border Policeman was killed and three other Israelis were wounded in a suicide bombing at the Erez Crossing in Gaza, which Hamas jointly claimed with Fatah.

Rantisi was the newly-appointed head of the militant group in Gaza, following Yassin's assassination.

He one of the most hard-line members of the militant movement, which rejects all compromise with Israel and calls for the destruction of the state.

Israel had previously tried to kill Rantisi June 10 when hree Apache helicopters fired at least seven missiles toward Rantisi's car in a crowded Gaza thoroughfare, reducing his vehicle to a scorched heap of metal.

Rantisi escaped with a wound to the right leg. Two Palestinian bystanders were killed.

During the mourning period for Yassin, Rantisi was defiant about Israel's threats against him.

"We will all die one day. Nothing will change. If by Apache or by cardiac arrest, I prefer Apache," he said.

Another report said Jordanian police were involved in the shooting, which broke out at a prison in the U.N. compound in the northern Kosovo town.

"This afternoon at the Mitrovica detention center there was a shooting incident involving international policemen," U.N. police spokesman Neeraj Singh told Reuters.

"Some international police officers were injured...there may be fatalities," he added.

The deputy director at the health center in Mitrovica, Milan Ivanovic, told reporters a female American officer, critically injured in the shootout, had died. He said he was treating several other prison officers for gunshot wounds.

Singh declined to give the number of injured, or of any dead or to disclose the nationalities involved. Asked about the cause of the incident, Singh said: "That is a matter of investigation ...and the situation now is stable and under control."

Media reports citing a variety of sources said up to four U.N. police officers may have been killed. One report said two lay covered by white sheets inside the U.N. compound.

A Reuters witness close to the scene saw a female U.S. police officer lying motionless on the ground, covered by a coat.

(Additional reporting by Branislav Krstic)

Here, I translated three of the posts made by Iraqis and for those who can read Arabic or have a way to translate web pages, here's the link.

This is an illusion. But that shouldn't surprise us. All wars begin with such illusions.

During the entire era of the Crusades, Western Europe lived with the illusion that it was seeking Prester John, a mythical Christian emperor on the other side of Araby who was waiting to link up with the Crusading armies. When we started the Spanish-American War, it was in part to rescue Evangelina Cisneros, a young woman who -- according to the Hearst newspapers, at least -- was being raped and tortured in a Havana jail. Napoleon thought he was liberating Russia when he arrived in Moscow. Some wars are worth pursuing, some not. We obviously shouldn't have quit in the middle of World War II or the American Civil War, but that doesn't mean every war is worth expanding. If we are really involved in a 100-year War on Terror -- which we probably are -- the question becomes: Do we want to expend everything we have right here and now?

The notion that we should get rid of Saddam Hussein was not a romantic illusion. Everyone except a few die-hard Baathists are happy to see him gone and the world is safer as a result.

The question now is whether we can seriously hope to create a democratic society in Iraq? Everything -- absolutely everything -- tells us that this is a romantic illusion...

What is "reproductive equality"? It revolves around that core value of Western culture -- monogamy -- as opposed to that old "heathen" custom, polygamy.

Islam is the only major world religion that sanctions polygamy. Mohammad allowed his followers to have four wives (the same number he had). About 12 percent of marriages in Moslem countries are polygamous. This is not as bad as East and West Africa, where successful men often take more than a hundred wives and where almost 30 percent of marriages can be polygamous. But the solid core of polygamy at the heart of Islamic culture is enough to produce its menacing social effects.

What are those effects? Do the math. Into every society is born approximately the same number of boys and girls. If they pair off in monogamous fashion, then each one will have a mate -- "a girl for every boy and a boy for every girl." In polygamous societies this does not occur. When successful men can accumulate more than one wife, that means some other man gets none. As a result, the unavoidable outcome is a hard-core residue of unattached men who have little or no prospect of achieving a family life.

The inevitable outcome is that competition among males becomes much more fierce and intense. Mating is an all-or-nothing proposition. Women become a scarce resource that must be hoarded and veiled and banned from public places so they cannot drift away through spontaneous romances. Men who are denied access to these hoarded women have only one option -- they can band together and try to fight their way into the seats of power.

AND THAT IS WHAT happens, endlessly. The entire history of Islam is a story of superfluous males going off into the desert (literally or figuratively) and deciding that the religion being practiced by the well-furnished elites of the cities is "not the true Islam." They then burst back upon the cities, violently attempting to overthrow the established authority. The Shi'ites, the Wahabis, the Assassins (yes, that's the origin of the word), the Muslim Brotherhood -- all are the fruit of this eternal warfare in Moslem societies between the "ins" and the "outs."

The only defense Islam has been able to construct for itself is to recruit these unattached males, inculcate them into the religion, and convince them that if they turn their violence and sexual frustrations outward¸ they will be rewarded with "70 virgins in heaven." This is how the ranks of martyrs and suicide bombers are created.

Martyrs and suicide bombers are men who have internalized the fundamental axiom of polygamous society -- that some men are expendable. When Muslim warriors proclaim, "We love death," they are not kidding. Golda Meir said famously that the Palestinian conflict would end when Arabs loved their own children more than they hated Israelis. That moment is not likely to arrive any time soon. In a polygamous Islamic society, some men's lives have very little intrinsic value. They are literally better off seeking death.

Monogamy, on the other hand, fulfills the proclamation that "All Men Are Created Equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Monogamy is the social contract -- albeit poorly understood and little appreciated -- that lies at the heart of the relatively peaceful societies of Europe and the Orient.

It is no accident that Islam has "bloody borders" with both these civilizations. We practice different social customs that give human life very different values. If the UN wanted to something really useful, it would declare reproductive equality a "human right" and ban polygamy throughout the world. Don't hold your breath.

In the meantime, do we really want to get in a spitting fight with these people? The military used to warn about "land war in Asia" -- getting into a war of attrition with overpopulated countries that didn't mind sacrificing millions and "had no respect for human life." Well Islamic societies are worse. They are constantly throwing up "suicide brigades" of young martyrs and fanatics who literally welcome death...

Some people argue that anti-totalitarian revolutions can never be brought about from outside. The history of World War II says otherwise. Some people respond with the observation that Germany, Italy and Japan are nothing like the Muslim world. In Afghanistan, the American-led invasion has nonetheless brought about an anti-totalitarian revolution. A pretty feeble revolution, true — but even feeble progress suggests large possibilities.

The whole point in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, from my perspective, was to achieve those large possibilities right in the center of the Muslim world, where the ripples might lead in every direction. Iraq was a logical place to begin because, for a dozen years, the Baathists had been shooting at American and British planes, and inciting paranoia and hatred against the United States, and encouraging the idea that attacks can successfully be launched against American targets, and giving that idea some extra oomph with the bluff about fearsome weapons. The Baathists, in short, contributed their bit to the atmosphere that led to Sept. 11. Yet Iraq could also boast of liberal democrats and some admirable achievements in the Kurdish north, which meant there were people to support, and not just to oppose. Such were the hopes...

Arafat called the conference following Wednesday night's press conference in the White House in which US President George W. Bush expressed his full support of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's unilateral withdrawal plan from the Gaza Strip and four other West Bank settlements.

The Palestinians have a right to return to their homeland, Arafat said, thus countering Bush's statement that the refugees would be resettled only in the areas of a future Palestinian State and not within the boundaries of Israel.

"Israeli crimes will be faced with more resistance to force Israeli occupiers and herds of settlers to leave Palestinian land," Arafat said.

Arafat threatened that Palestinian "resistance" will continue, and said that Israel will not achieve security as long as it continues the occupation of Palestinian territories and the assassination of Palestinian leaders, referring to the assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last month.

Prior to Arafat's press conference, the Palestinian leadership held an emergency meeting in the Mukata headquarters in Ramallah to discuss the outcome of the meeting between Bush and Sharon.

The Organization of Islamic Conference plan to hold an emergency meeting in the near future to discuss the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following the meeting in Washington between Sharon and Bush.

Arafat requested the OIC to hold the special meeting prior to the organization's planned meeting schedueled for next month.

The Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights called on Cuba to guarantee freedom of expression and religion and to begin a dialogue with Cuban political groups and thinkers to develop democratic institutions and civil liberties.

It also deplored the heavy sentences handed down to 75 dissidents rounded up a year ago, but stopped short of demanding their immediate release.

The motion, one of the most politically charged of the commission's six-week annual session, was proposed by Honduras and supported by the United States and the European Union (news - web sites)...

It could lead to a "peaceful, democratic, viable Palestinian state," he added.

But he seemed to discard the principles that the borders of a new state should be negotiated between the two sides, and should be based on the 1967 borders, before Israel claimed Palestinian land.

He said the "realities on the ground and in the region have changed greatly" and should be reflected in any final peace deal.

In another concession to Mr Sharon, the president said the solution to the Palestinian refugee problem should take place "in a Palestinian state - and the settlement of refugees there - not in Israel"...

The success of free government in Iraq is vital for many reasons:

A free Iraq is vital because 25 million Iraqis have as much right to live in freedom as we do.

A free Iraq will stand as an example to reformers across the Middle East.

A free Iraq will show that America is on the side of Muslims who wish to live in peace, as we've already shown in Kuwait and Kosovo, Bosnia and Afghanistan.

A free Iraq will confirm to a watching world that America's word, once given, can be relied upon, even in the toughest times.

Above all, the defeat of violence and terror in Iraq is vital to the defeat of violence and terror elsewhere and vital, therefore, to the safety of the American people.

Now is the time, and Iraq is the place, in which the enemies of the civilized world are testing the will of the civilized world. We must not waver.

The president also faced questions about whether he ignored warning signs about the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and botched opportunities to eliminate the al Qaeda network. A memo given to Bush a month before the attacks said Osama bin Laden's supporters were in the United States planning attacks with explosives...

Middle East Newsline said Tuesday it was told by "U.S. diplomatic sources" a U.S. investigation into the attack on the convoy in October revealed a clear role by the Palestinian Authority chairman.

The sources told MENL Arafat had approved a plan to hit U.S. interests in Palestinian areas. They said Arafat did not draft or approve any details for an attack, but agreed to a proposal to "pass a message" to the United States.

The sources said a senior Arafat aide and a member of the Fatah Central Committee had sought approval for a Palestinian attack.

The Fatah official had complained about U.S. policy toward Palestinians.

If Dr. Khan's report is true, it would be the first time that any foreigner has reported inspecting an actual North Korean nuclear weapon. Past C.I.A. assessments of North Korea's nuclear capacity have been based on estimates of how much plutonium it could produce and assessments of its technical capability to turn that plutonium into weapons.

Dr. Khan, known as the father of the Pakistani bomb, said he was allowed to inspect the weapons briefly, according to the account that Pakistan has begun to provide in classified briefings to nations within reach of North Korea's missiles. American intelligence officials caution that they cannot say whether Dr. Khan had the time, expertise or equipment to verify the claims. But they note that the number of plutonium weapons roughly accords with previous C.I.A. estimates that North Korea had one or two weapons and the ability to produce more...

Mr. Bush's aides say that they are making progress, and that there is no use publicly denouncing North Korea while diplomacy continues. If the country already has a few nuclear weapons, they say, a few more would not make a strategic difference.

"It's an untenable argument," said Samuel R. Berger, President Bill Clinton's national security adviser. "There's a difference between two or three and eight and it's called the market in weapons for global terrorists."

In 1995, Aqar was one of a group of Iraqi men who had their right hands amputated by Saddam Hussein's government for alleged trading in foreign currency.

Nearly 10 years later, Aqar sat in a Houston hospital bed Monday after doctors had operated on his right arm to prepare it for a technologically advanced prosthetic he will soon receive.

"The first time was hard. We were crying because we knew we were going to lose our hands," Aqar, 42, said through an interpreter. "It's a big difference from then.

"The first surgery was from criminal people. Now it's from people wanting to help us," said the jeweler turned shop owner.

Aqar and six other men from Baghdad are spending several weeks in Houston to receive robotic arms and learn to use them. The prosthetics will fit over their existing arms, and they must train existing muscles to manipulate the new hands. Then the men should be able to curl their fingers, make a fist and perform other tasks.

During operations that lasted from 11/2 hours to 21/2 hours, Aqar and the others had small portions of bone removed around where their hands were amputated. The surgeries, done at Methodist Hospital, were needed so that nothing protrudes or rubs against the robotic arms, said Dr. Joseph Agris, one of the surgeons.

Agris also removed untreated bundles of nerve endings.

"I can understand now why they had so much pain," he said.

Agris also removed from two men cross-like tattoos placed on their foreheads as punishment for allegedly dealing in foreign currency, which was against Iraqi law in 1995. The others are expected to have their tattoos removed later in the week.

The arms, each valued at $50,000, as well as all services, are being donated.

Officials in Brazil's main city are pushing the idea after a drug-related turf war at the weekend left two policemen and six others dead.

"We need to build it immediately," said state Deputy Governor Luiz Paulo Conde.

Amnesty International said the wall would penalise innocent people and was unlikely to be effective.

Another group, Global Justice, said the barrier would create social apartheid when what was needed was investment in poor communities.

However, the authorities in Rio state say the wall will help the security forces control the Rocinha and Vigidal favelas. or slums, where 1,200 officers have been on patrol since Friday.

Drug traffickers from Vigidal are believed to have tried to seize control of drug and arms trade.

"The wall isn't to stop the violence, it is to mark off territory," said Mr Conde on Monday.

Shakir Khafaji, who had close contacts with Saddam Hussein's regime, made $400,000 available for Mr Ritter to make In Shifting Sands, a film in which the ex-inspector claimed Iraq had been "defanged" after a decade of UN weapons inspections.

The disclosure is likely to raise further questions about the operation of the oil-for-food programme, which is already the subject of Congressional investigations and a separate high-level UN inquiry.

Congressional critics claim the Iraqi government manipulated the UN scheme in order to enrich members of the regime and buy influence abroad.

Mr Khafaji financed Mr Ritter's film in the same period as he received "allocations" for Iraqi oil, handed out by Baghdad on a discretionary basis as part of the UN oil-for-food programme between 1995 and 2002...

Speaking to reporters in Washington via video-link from Baghdad, Abizaid said there were signs that Iran's involvement is not designed to assist US efforts in Iraq.

Abizaid made the same claim against Syrian involvement in Iraq.

"We know the Iranians have been meddling, and it's unhelpful to have neighboring countries meddling in the affairs of Iraq," US Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said last Wednesday.

But Punjabi Sikhs also arrange marriages: they do not, however, force consanguineous marriages of the kind that take place from Madras to Morocco. Moreover—and not, I believe, coincidentally—Sikh immigrants from the Punjab, of no higher original social status than their Muslim confrères from the same provinces, integrate far better into the local society once they have immigrated. Precisely because their religion is a more modest one, with fewer universalist pretensions, they find the duality of their new identity more easily navigable. On the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, for example, the Sikh temples were festooned with perfectly genuine protestations of congratulations and loyalty. No such protestations on the part of Muslims would be thinkable.

But the anger of Muslims, their demand that their sensibilities should be accorded a more than normal respect, is a sign not of the strength but of the weakness—or rather, the brittleness—of Islam in the modern world, the desperation its adherents feel that it could so easily fall to pieces. The control that Islam has over its populations in an era of globalization reminds me of the hold that the Ceausescus appeared to have over the Rumanians: an absolute hold, until Ceausescu appeared one day on the balcony and was jeered by the crowd that had lost its fear. The game was over, as far as Ceausescu was concerned, even if there had been no preexisting conspiracy to oust him...

The question before the 9/11 Commission is why our political leadership declared war back on al Qaeda only after Sept. 11, 2001. Osama bin Laden had been indicted years before for blowing up American soldiers and embassies and was known as a clear and present danger to the U.S. So what would have happened had the U.S. declared war on al Qaeda before Sept. 11? Endless and ultimately useless speculation about "various threads and pieces of information," which are certainly "relevant and significant," at least in retrospect, will not take us very far in answering this central question.

On Jan. 26, 2001, at 8:45 a.m., I had my first meeting with President Bush and Vice President Cheney. They had been in office four days. We discussed terrorism, and in particular al Qaeda, the African embassy bombings, the Cole attack and the June 1996 Khobar bombing in Saudi Arabia. When I advised the president that Hezbollah and Iran were responsible for Khobar, he directed me to follow-up with Condoleezza Rice. I did so at 2:30 p.m. that day and she told me to pursue our investigation with the attorney general and to bring whatever charges possible. Within weeks, a new prosecutor was put in charge of the case and on June 21 an indictment was returned against 13 Hezbollah men who had been directed to bomb Khobar by senior officials of the Iranian government. I know that the families of the 19 murdered airmen were deeply grateful to President Bush and Ms. Rice for their prompt response and focus on terrorism.

I believe that any president and Congress faced with the reality of Sept. 11 would have acted swiftly and overwhelmingly as did President Bush and the 107th Congress. They are to be commended. However, those who came before President Bush can only be faulted if they had had the political means and the will of the nation to declare a war back then, but failed to do so. The fact that terrorism and the war being waged by al Qaeda was not even an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign strongly suggests that the political will to declare and fight this war didn't exist before Sept. 11...

Sharon doesn’t want to withdraw from Gaza defeated in the eyes of his people, and therefore he will use every available instrument to project heroism ahead of the withdrawal of his defeated troops. This validates the assassination of the sheikh. Sharon will not hesitate to carry out other such “heroic” actions.

The goal is Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, not revenge for the killing of the sheikh or his predecessors. They where fighters, and in wars there are always casualties. The best way of avenging them is to achieve what they fought for — the liberation of the Occupied Territories.

Comments made by some of Hamas’ leadership confirm the clarity of their vision. As Abdelaziz Al-Rantissi said, if the Israelis cease their war and occupation we too will stop. Another, Khaled Mishal, said that the organization would not target foreigners despite their support of Israel.

“An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”, and wars are not won by the blind.

We now know that the secret to curing hunger and poverty is capitalism and free trade. We have seen that demonstrated irrefutably in East Asia, which has experienced the greatest alleviation of poverty in history. In half a century, places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea have gone from subsistence living to First World status. And now free markets and free trade are lifting tens of millions of people out of poverty in India and China.

And what has been the Democratic reaction to the prospect of fulfilling Humphrey's (and their party's) great dream? Fear and loathing. Democrats today thunder against the scourge of "outsourcing" -- American firms giving (what would otherwise be American) jobs to Indians and Chinese and other menacing foreigners.

The anti-outsourcing vogue is part of a larger assault on free trade, which until recently -- meaning the Clinton administration -- Democrats had supported. Remember Al Gore's televised debate with Ross Perot, in which Gore demolished Perot's anti-free-trade arguments? Which makes the recent Democratic assault on free trade so jarring, never more so than when John Edwards and John Kerry competed with each other before Super Tuesday to see who was against more trade agreements with more Third World countries.

Edwards boasted about his opposition to trade agreements with Caribbean nations, African states and Chile. Who would have thought we'd hear a Democrat attacking his opponent for supporting a measure that would help millions of Africans to emerge from poverty?[...]

Instead the administration left U.S. policy on Iran in a steadily deepening limbo: Once a member of the "axis of evil," Iran became the embarrassing, unaddressed missing link in the Bush administration's bold ambitions to transform Iraq and to becalm the world's most volatile and treacherous region. Iran slipped into the "too hard" file.

That is understandable, if unforgivable. No one has a sure-fire policy for dealing with the theocratic state founded on the ruins of the Persian empire. France, Germany and Britain have proved this in trying to talk the ayatollahs out of developing nuclear weapons. Despite clear and repeated Iranian lying to them, the Europeans persevere.

"In the end, we may wind up only slowing them down -- hopefully significantly -- in what they intended to do all along," a European participant in this effort told me recently. "But given the lack of any other workable option, this is worth doing."

U.S.-Iranian discussions on cooperating (or at least on not crossing wires) in Iraq would have been difficult to arrange and carry out. It would not have been as simple as the indirect but useful dialogue American diplomats had with the Iranians on post-Taliban Afghanistan, where Iranian interests and opportunities are substantially less than in Iraq.

But any serious effort in that direction was smothered in its crib by familiar hardliner vs. softliner debates within the administration -- and the less-remarked-on but equally crucial absence of a clear U.S. diplomatic strategy for consolidating and converting American battlefield prowess into sustainable political gains abroad. It is difficult to fit Iran into a strategy if there is no strategy to begin with.

Instead, policy has consisted of occasional growls from senior Pentagon officials warning Iran (and its quasi-surrogate Syria) to halt infiltration into Iraq, followed quickly by public assurances from the State Department that the growls do not represent threats of military action. Even Freud could not explain the Rumsfeldian-Powellian Syndrome that afflicts Bush foreign policy...

U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials said last night there is evidence that Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the security services loyal to Iran's hard-line religious leader Ayatollah al Khameini, have funneled as much as $80 million into Shiite charities established by al-Sadr's influential family that have been diverted to fund his fanatic al-Mahdi militia.

Intelligence sources also said operatives from the Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shiite terror group created by Iran, have trained 800 to 1,200 al-Mahdi fighters in guerrilla warfare and terrorist techniques at three camps in Iran near the Iraq border.

Al-Sadr's group is also believed to have been recently provided with 800 satellite phones and new radio broadcasting equipment by diplomats at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, sources told The Post.

Al-Sadr's fanatics, drawn from poor Shiite urban slums in Iraq, have been battling U.S. forces throughout the week and took control of the cities of Kufa, Kut and most of Najaf.

Bush administration officials said the strength of al-Sadr's rag-tag al-Mahdi militia took U.S. military commanders by surprise and that intelligence detailing active support from Iran and Hezbollah for his violent uprising has been a simmering issue within the administration.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with WNIS-AM Tuesday that al-Sadr "is reputed to have connections with Iran."

Hezbollah audits the cells, rewarding those that kill large numbers of Israelis with more money for the next attack, militants said. Hezbollah only pays the militants, not the families of suicide bombers as deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) once did.

Recently, Fatah has tried to regain control of Al Aqsa. Former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas began paying militants a few hundred shekels a month not to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians, said Abdel Fattah Hamayel, a Fatah lawmaker who acts as a liaison to Al Aqsa. About 4.5 shekels make a dollar.

While many Al Aqsa members have taken up the offer, some of the most militant cells rejected the deal and turned to Hezbollah instead, Hamayel said.

"They take funds from abroad and they are still carrying out attacks, and we are in contact with them, trying to get them to stop this outside funding and outside orders," he said.

Many Al Aqsa militants are furious with Fatah and feel let down by its leaders. Abu Mujahed called them "a disgrace."

"Fatah is not supporting the Al Aqsa Brigades," he said. "Without other support, we would not have survived so far."

According to the letter, the determination of borders in a final status accord will take into consideration "demographic realities" on the ground.

Sharon leaves on Monday night for a crucial meeting with Bush at the White House on Wednesday. The main item on the agenda is Sharon's disengagement plan.

The two leaders will exchange letters that detail both Sharon's plan, and what America will provide in exchange for the Israeli pullout. After the meeting, Sharon and Bush will make statements from the White House Rose Garden...

...Sharon's letter to Bush will state that the prime minister intends to bring the separation plan to his cabinet and to the Knesset for approval. The letter says the plan includes the withdrawal of all Jewish settlements and Israel Defense Forces from the entire Gaza Strip, apart from the Philadelphi Road on the Egyptian border, and that it also calls for the evacuation of four Jewish settlements in the northern Samaria section of the West Bank.

Sharon's letter will reiterate Israel's commitment to the road map peace plan and to Bush's two-states vision, and it will emphasize that Israel's planned steps under the separation plan are consistent with the road map.

Bush's letter to Sharon will also contain the following:

* Reiteration of America's commitment to Israel's security and to the preservation of its strategic qualitative edge.

* A statement of commitment to the road map, and to the prevention of other diplomatic initiatives.

* Recognition of Israel's right to self defense and its right, as need arises, to carry out anti-terror operations in areas from which its forces are to be withdrawn.

* A declaration that Palestinian refugees can be absorbed in the future in the Palestinian state, just as Jewish refugees from Arab states were absorbed in Israel.

Israeli officials believe the section of this letter from Bush referring to final status borders is highly significant. They believe it constitutes U.S. recognition of Israel's future annexation of West Bank settlement blocs and the negation of a right of Palestinian refugee return to Israel.

Israel has been pushing for a clearer wording to the letter, but the Americans have made it clear that it is difficult for them to include an outward statement against the right of return due to their relations with Europe and the Arab states.

Israel also expects that the Bush administration will support the planned route of the separation fence. In exchange for such support, Israel has promised that no "enclaves" will be created that trap hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and that the West Bank town of Ariel will not be connected to the main separation fence...

That was the opening line in a recent story in the official Syrian newspaper al-Thawra that detailed the handling of a health crisis over contaminated water in the far northeastern town of al-Hassaka.

In other times, in other countries, such an exposé of local malfeasance would hardly raise a storm. But the harsh and open critique was so unusual in authoritarian Syria that it set off a tumultuous chain of events. A central government representative tried to get Yunis Khalef, the reporter who wrote the story, fired. Police visited his house after midnight. He fled to Damascus. Another newspaper rushed to defend the journalist, who was fired from al-Thawra, then reinstated.

The incident was one sign that Syrians are openly challenging the tight restrictions that have ruled public life. While the government seems conflicted over how to respond, President Bashar Assad's Baath Party, which has a monopoly on power here, is starting to talk about reforming itself...

A month later, on March 28, Bremer ordered the weekly paper shut down. According to U.S. officials, Bremer believed that after months of waiting, the moment was right to pressure Sadr to capitulate to American demands to disband his growing militia, which had attacked American troops in the past.

But instead of relenting, Sadr and his supporters responded with protests, the seizure of government buildings and a spate of violent attacks. He unleashed a major revolt in Shiite-dominated parts of Baghdad and southern Iraq that has become the gravest challenge to the U.S. occupation...

Australian TV showed an injured American civilian, who identified himself as Thomas Hamill, surrounded by other masked Iraqi captors -- who threatened to kill and mutilate him unless the same demand was met within 12 hours.

A masked spokesman for the Yasin group appeared on Al-Arabiya TV holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle. He said the group's hostages included "Israelis, Japanese, Bulgarians, Americans, Spaniards and Koreans," adding that four soldiers had already been killed and theie bodies were being held by the "brigades." Footage was shown of an unidentified, decomposing body lying in sand...

..."In the wake of what is happening globally - global events - we feel a new emphasis is needed.

"We want to instil a sense of Britishness. The project has to have an element of integration and an indication that it will lead to community cohesion.

"We are not funding any organisation which reinforces separatism. We will not encourage the emergence of isolationist groups."

Last week, Trevor Phillips said the term "multiculturalism" was of another era as the term suggested "separateness" and was no longer useful in present-day Britain.

Mr Ahmed agreed the comments marked a significant shift of emphasis for the CRE.

The reason, Israeli military officials say, is the nearly completed security fence separating this sector of the West Bank from Israel. A 50-mile stretch — from the Jordan River to just north of Netanya — is three months from completion. Already the barrier has virtually eliminated terrorist incidents, as well as car thefts and illegal infiltration, inside nearby parts of Israel. In response, the army has sharply curtailed the hated roadblocks and closures that had disrupted life for local Palestinians. Workers can now reach their jobs. Farmers can bring their crops to market, reviving Jenin's business district...

...From the outbreak of the Intifada in September 2000, Jenin was the de-facto capital of terrorist activity. Its proximity to the border, particularly to major Israeli-Arab towns such as Umm El Fahm, made it easy for suicide bombers to slip into Israel and blend in quickly, then continue on to nearby Hadera, Netanya or Haifa. This caused the army and the Shin Bet security service to put the town under constant, strict closure, surrounding it with roadblocks.

As a result, Jenin could no longer serve as the provincial capital for close to 250,000 Palestinians in Northern Samaria. The economic results were devastating. That led to frustration and anger, which in turn created fertile ground for the recruitment of more would-be suicide bombers.

Last January 1, when the first stretch of fence was completed, Avman met with the mayor of Jenin at brigade headquarters. "On the way back home," he promised the disbelieving mayor, "you will not see a single Israeli tank."

The town has not been closed off for more than four months. This had major effects on both sides of the fence. In Jenin, life is closer to normal — which, as Avman is quick to point out, creates an incentive to avoid terrorism, as people have more to lose. On the Israeli side, people seem to feel much safer. Three weeks ago, more than 30,000 Israelis turned out for a hike along the Gilboa ridge near here organized annually by local authorities. A year ago, the number of hikers was less than 6,000, and security expenses were five times higher...

The memo, written to Sen. Edward Kennedy (search) in April of 2002, recommends delaying the non-controversial nomination of Julia Scott Gibbons (search) to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Officials with the NAACP didn't want an additional conservative judge to weigh in on the then-pending University of Michigan affirmative action case (search).

But a recent report that contains the uncensored version of the document shows that the Kennedy staffer who penned the advice was once an attorney for the NAACP (search) who worked on the University of Michigan case.

Kennedy refuses to discuss the matter and it is unknown whether he ever saw it, but the memo was sent to two Kennedy aides, including Mary Beth Cahill (search), who is now running Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign.

The only thing that is new is that such opportunistic and boilerplate invective no longer has much effect on most here, who, yes indeed, realize that by and large societies are ultimately responsible for the governments they get. I'd prefer to listen to the thousands of brave people in the Middle East who are risking their lives to change the status quo, along with thousands of Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan-rather than academics in the United States who from the faculty lounge demand perfection on the cheap.

If he believes Israel is not a democracy, he should try engaging in this dialogue in Tel Aviv and then repeat it in Ramallah or Damascus, and then tell us what he has found out-I expect his "Jewish" hosts will honor his human rights far better than his Arab brethren. And yes most of us do not stay awake at night over Israel WMD since it is democratic and subject to public audit and majority votes involving weapons usage--a concept lost on Dr. AbuKhalil the supposed student and advocate of consensual government.

Anyone who has read what I wrote in the past, realizes that I have argued for US distance from Saudi Arabia and other corrupt Middle East regimes as part of a larger policy to promote democracy-but without the cheap and easy blanket criticism of past administrations who were a little worried about Soviet totalitarianism. One's options are limited sometimes to realpolitik when 7,000 nukes are pointed at you by a succession of Stalinist regimes. In the same regard, I think it was a mistake to ever have anything to do with rogues in Syria, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Iraq; but in history's cauldron sometimes nations have little opportunity for moral perfection in the allies they choose. When a theocracy storms your embassy, promises death to your country, and then engages in mass murder of its citizens, few are upset that another rogue regime invades it-amoral calculus to be sure, but tragically something akin to the US support for the Soviets against the Nazis...

Al-Anbari: Imagine: I encountered a boy who was not even 15 years old who was carrying a weapon, but without ammunition (…). When I saw this heroic impetuousness, I pulled my magazine out and gave it to him.

Kamal: Oh God! God is great!

Al-Anbari: I also saw a young guy who bravely stood up to the Americans and threw things at them, and they just couldn’t react to it, even though they were so many.

Kamal: Such news strengthen ones pride. (our translation)

People who attended Saturday's performance at Glassport's memorial stadium quoted performers as saying, "There is no Easter bunny," and described the show as being a demonstration of how Jesus was crucified.

Melissa Salzmann, who brought her 4-year-old son J.T., said the program was inappropriate for young children.

"He was crying and asking me why the bunny was being whipped," Salzmann said.

Patty Bickerton, the youth minister at Glassport Assembly of God (search), said the performance wasn't meant to be offensive. Bickerton portrayed the Easter rabbit and said she tried to act with a tone of irreverence.

"The program was for all ages, not just the kids. We wanted to convey that Easter is not just about the Easter bunny, it is about Jesus Christ," Bickerton said.

Performers broke eggs meant for an Easter egg hunt and also portrayed a drunken man and a self-mutilating woman, said Jennifer Norelli-Burke, another parent who saw the show in Glassport, a community about 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

"It was very disturbing," Norelli-Burke said. "I could not believe what I saw. It wasn't anything I was expecting."

The document, which summarizes the outcome of meetings between Abdel Aziz Rantisi of Hamas, Ahmed Halas of Fatah, and representatives from the Islamic Jihad and other, smaller armed political factions, is regarded as a basis for negotiations between the PA and all the armed factions for a mutually agreed leadership to control Gaza after Israel withdraws...

..."The forces support acceptance of security and administrative responsibility by the PA in evacuated territories in the context of `an agreed national plan,' but they vehemently oppose, and warn against, any attempt to pay Israel for the withdrawal or to turn [the withdrawal] into an alternative to the fulfillment of Israel's international obligations, or granting false legitimacy to the separation fence, or to the annexation or expansion of Israel's presence in the West Bank, or avoiding full withdrawal from all the territories occupied in 1967."

According to the document, the Palestinians won't cease their armed struggle after the withdrawal. "Any unilateral withdrawal won't bring about stability so long as it is not part of an overall process of ending the occupation and evacuating the settlements," says the paper...

"Hamas will not participate in the current Palestinian Authority," said Said Siam, a Hamas leader from the Gaza Strip. "Discussion of this possibility is misplaced. Hamas does not intend to abandon the armed struggle so long as the conquest remains intact."...

"But at the moment, we don't have any plans to dock them over the route of the fence," he added.

Sources close to talks between Israel and the United States had said last November that deductions for the fence were likely, though they would be small in size and come from loan guarantee installments in future years.

Under U.S. law, the State Department must deduct from the guarantees, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, sums that are spent "for activities which the president determines are inconsistent with the objectives and understandings reached between the United States and the government of Israel.

That's his argument. I think he's wrong, but I don't think he is being duplicitous. He is wrong because most if not all of the terrorism since 9/11 has occurred because al Qaeda and other radical Islamists have an even dimmer view of a free and independent Iraq than they do a free and independent United States. A democracy in Iraq that embraces modernism, pluralism, tolerance and the plebiscite is a greater sacrilege than anything we are doing here at home...

...Mr. Clarke's views on Iraq notwithstanding, after 9/11 we could not afford either to run the risk that Saddam Hussein would be deterred by our military efforts to contain him or that these military deployments would become attractive targets for further acts of terrorism. I supported President Bush's efforts to persuade the United Nations Security Council to change a 10-year-old resolution that authorized force to contain Saddam Hussein to one that authorized force to replace his dictatorship. And I believe the president did the right thing to press ahead even without the Security Council's support. Remember, the June 25, 1996, attack on Khobar Towers that left 19 American airmen dead happened because of our containment efforts. Sailors had also died enforcing the Security Council's embargo and our pilots were risking their lives every day flying missions over northern and southern Iraq to protect Iraqi Kurds and Shiites...

Curiously, however, while the religion has a hell (America), and a devil (George W Bush), it lacks both a heaven (the collectivist pipe dream having been found wanting) and a god (since the anti-Americans consider themselves as having evolved beyond the need for a deity - save their Islamist faction, which wants to impose its religion forcibly on everyone else). Still, the anti-American cult provides its legions of drooling adherents with the crucial element of any faith: the illusion of meaning in an otherwise meaningless existence. That priceless psychological salve, in this case, is the comforting delusion that, no matter how hypocritical, backward, bigoted, ignorant, corrupt or cowardly the cult's followers might otherwise be, at least they are better than those awful Americans...

I was hoping for better, because Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of the excellent "Nickeled And Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America," has actually done a lot of worthwhile reporting about the daily struggles of America's working class.

But let's take a closer look at the article.

Headline: Bush's Odd Warfare State.

Here's one way our President proposes to "support our troops": According to his 2005 budget, the extra pay our soldiers receive for serving in combat zones--about $150 a month--will no longer count against their food stamp eligibility.

It's never good to blow a fact in the very first sentence of a piece...

In an interview with the Financial Times published Tuesday, Moratinos said he believes that "al-Qaida will not be defeated until there is a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

Such a statement is "sheer nonsense," responded a source in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office. He accused Moratinos, a former European Union special envoy to the Middle East, of "using the same propaganda that al-Qaida is using."

"This is a world campaign against the West that is taking place everywhere that terrorists can strike. It has nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict, that has been proven over and over again," said the source.

"The Palestinian Liberation Organization and other terror organizations are trying to disassociate themselves from al-Qaida because they know it's a liability," he continued.

He said statements like Moratinos's "are an example of a strain of thought that is very dangerous to the very survival of Western democracy in Europe."...

The PA daily Al-Ayyam said Arafat is willing to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad in a united national leadership that would be established soon. The paper did not specify what the new organization's function would be.

The United States, however, has warned the Palestinian administration against inviting the Hamas to join its ranks, reported IBA news Wednesday morning.

The Hamas is a terror organization, the message said, and must be boycotted.

A source in the Prime Minister's Office dismissed the move as a desperate bid by Arafat to stay in power.

"Arafat will do anything to stay in power, to get away from the isolation that he finds himself in," said the source. "Instead of issuing statements as to whether he will accept reforms, he is moving further to the extreme and wants to join forces with an organization that very clearly does not want any negotiations with Israel or compromises. It shows the man has learned nothing."[...]

Article Eleven: The Strategy of Hamas: Palestine is an Islamic Waqf
The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it...

Article Thirteen: Peaceful Solutions, [Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences
[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement. For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion; the nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its faith, the movement educates its members to adhere to its principles and to raise the banner of Allah over their homeland as they fight their Jihad: “Allah is the all-powerful, but most people are not aware.”...

Article Thirty-Two: ...For Zionist scheming has no end, and after Palestine they will covet expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates. Only when they have completed digesting the area on which they will have laid their hand, they will look forward to more expansion, etc. Their scheme has been laid out in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and their present [conduct] is the best proof of what is said there. Leaving the circle of conflict with Israel is a major act of treason and it will bring curse on its perpetrators...

Five Marines had been shot from the mosque before commanders authorized the use of air power and laser-guided missiles against it. They had rejected the air attack several times, according to Marine officers and radio communications monitored from a command post by a Washington Post reporter.

"We've got to be careful," said one officer receiving a request for air support from the Marines around the mosque.

"We have some bad folks dug in," came the response. "They're creating a problem for us. What should we do? We need backup."

"We need regimental approval," came the reply.

Not long afterwards, a spokesman at the command post said the air support was authorized. A spokesman said the missiles were fired from a helicopter and a jet.

Neither the number of people inside at the time nor the number injured in the air strike could be determined.

The mosque was one of two that insurgents had used during fighting Wednesday in Fallujah, where four American contractors were killed and mutilated a week ago. The Marines managed to clear the second mosque without air power...

It is worth noting the wide scope of the commission's competency, because its responsibilities range from providing recommendations to the relevant authorities for the protection of human rights to examining complaints made on this subject and cooperating with national and international nongovernmental organizations. In addition, the advantages of such a system may be increased by the new concept of human rights in relation to democracy and peace; the U.N. structure has been oriented toward this concept since the Global Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, which I chaired in 1993.

I am fully aware of the gap that exists between concept and action, and there is still much work to be done to consolidate the Egyptian human rights movement. But I also acknowledge that, in light of the fundamentalist terrorism that we are all now familiar with, security problems at times take precedence over the protection of civil liberties...

While Egypt has been a partner for Middle East peace and in the global war on terrorism, cooperation with the United States has come at high price to the American taxpayer. Since 1948 Egypt has received more than $59 billion in U.S. foreign assistance. For fiscal 2005, the foreign aid budget request for Egypt alone tops $1.8 billion.

Apart from cooperation on certain mutual security interests -- but not the liberation of Iraq -- what has U.S. foreign assistance secured in Egypt?[...]

On Monday, residents of Adhamiya, a largely Sunni section of northern Baghdad, marched with followers of Moqtada Sadr, the militant Shiite cleric whose call for armed resistance was answered by local Sunnis the same afternoon, residents said...

Sheik al-Sadr's bid to spark a widespread uprising in Iraq comes at a particularly pivotal time. The United States is conducting a massive troop rotation that leaves inexperienced troops in some locations, including Fallujah, which is west of Baghdad and where Sunnis have mounted another series of rebellions...

No one knows what is happening in the capital right now. Power has been cut off in my neighbourhood since the afternoon, and I can only hear helicopters, massive explosions, and continuous shooting nearby. The streets are empty, someone told us half an hour ago that Al-Mahdi are trying to take over our neighbourhood and are being met by resistance from Sunni hardliners. Doors are locked, and AK-47's are being loaded and put close by in case they are needed. The phone keeps ringing frantically. Baghdadis are horrified and everyone seems to have made up their mind to stay home tomorrow until the situation is clear.

Where is Shitstani? And why is he keeping silent about this?

I have to admit that until now I have never longed for the days of Saddam, but now I'm not so sure. If we need a person like Saddam to keep those rabid dogs at bay then be it. Put Saddam back in power and after he fills a couple hundred more mass graves with those criminals they can start wailing and crying again for liberation. What a laugh we will have then. Then they can shove their filthy Hawza and marji'iya up somewhere else. I am so dissapointed in Iraqis and I hate myself for thinking this way. We are not worth your trouble, take back your billions of dollars and give us Saddam again. We truly 'deserve' leaders like Saddam.

Although the vast majority of Europeans today are not Antisemitic or anti-Israeli, they are immersed in a culture of demonization of Israel, fomented by a European political entity in which nearly everything that is written and said on the Middle East conveys this anti-Israeli mentality. We can recognize in this contemporary phenomenon some aspects of the system of political, cultural, and moral conditioning that led to the Shoah. Reactivated during the past four decades, this Judeophobic conditioning, indirectly, and almost subliminally, is being implemented by the willing heirs of the genocidal fathers. They transmit and spread this Antisemitism in a new political and ideological construction, different from Nazism: the Euro-Arab war for the delegitimization and destruction of Israel.

Herein, I will give a brief outline of the Euro-Arab anti-Israeli policy: 1) the Project, 2) its institutional structure, 3) its modes of operation, and 4) its themes. The new forms of global Judeophobia that grow and develop within this system, also have anti-Christian, anti-European, and anti-Western ramifications...

Yet I fear that we have not seen anything new. Flip through the newspaper and the stories are as depressing as they are monotonous: bombs in Spain; fiery clerics promising death in England, even as explosive devices are uncovered in France. In-between accounts of bombings in Iraq, we get the normal murdering in Israel, and daily assassination in Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco, and Chechnya. Murder, dismemberment, torture—these all seem to be the acceptable tools of Islamic fundamentalism and condoned as part of justifiable Middle East rage. Sheik Yassin is called a poor crippled “holy man” who ordered the deaths of hundreds, as revered in the Arab World for his mass murder as Jerry Falwell is condemned in the West for his occasional slipshod slur about Muslims...

But the broad outline of Clarke's criticism has been corroborated by a number of other former officials, congressional and commission investigators, and by Bush's admission in the 2003 Bob Woodward book "Bush at War" that he "didn't feel that sense of urgency" about Osama bin Laden before the attacks occurred.

In addition, a review of dozens of declassified citations from Clarke's 2002 testimony provides no evidence of contradiction, and White House officials familiar with the testimony agree that any differences are matters of emphasis, not fact. Indeed, the declassified 838-page report of the 2002 congressional inquiry includes many passages that appear to bolster the arguments Clarke has made...

One policeman was killed and 15 others were injured in the blast, which tore the walls off a building that police had surrounded in the southern Madrid suburb of Leganes, Interior Minister Angel Acebes told reporters. He said that police had identified the apartment as being occupied by suspects in the March 11 rush-hour attacks on four commuter trains that killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.

Spanish authorities have arrested 15 suspects in an ongoing investigation of the rail attacks. Six have been charged with mass murder and nine with collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist organization. Eleven of those in custody are Moroccan.

Acebes said that while the investigation into the blast on Saturday night was still at an early stage, it was likely the men who killed themselves were among additional suspects identified in international arrest warrants issued in connection with the attacks...

A Spanish diplomat confirmed last night that a letter signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, warning of further attacks on Spanish interests in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean, was sent to the country's embassy in Cairo.

The warning was revealed as the Spanish interior minister, Angel Acebes, confirmed that the explosives used to make a bomb planted under a train track 40 miles south of Madrid on Friday were the same type used in last month's train bombings, which killed 191 people.

"The explosives are the same as those used on March 11, but the investigation is continuing to try to determine who is behind it," Mr Acebes said. Yesterday, as trains began to run again on the country's rail network, hundreds of police officers guarded main lines while dozens of helicopters patrolled the skies overhead. The network was earlier closed after a rail worker discovered the 26lb bomb next to the high-speed line from Madrid to Seville during a routine inspection.

Mr Acebes said that the bomb - made of Goma 2 Eco dynamite - failed to detonate because it had no trigger, suggesting that those responsible for planting it may have been scared off by security guards. He said that investigators were still unsure whether the detonator attached to the unexploded bomb was similar to those used in the Madrid explosions. In both cases, however, the detonators were similar to ones commonly used in the mining industry.

Spain's incoming prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, has promised to pull 1,300 Spanish troops out of Iraq if the United Nations does not take charge there by the end of June, undoing the policy of outgoing pro-American Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. Last week, however, Mr Zapatero announced that Spain would double its presence in Afghanistan, sending in another 250 troops in defiance of the militants' warning...

Suspicions rose anew after da Silva's science and technology minister, Roberto Amaral, said Brazil would not renounce its knowledge of nuclear fission, the principle behind the atomic bomb. Brazilian officials quickly said Amaral was out of line, and he later resigned.

The da Silva government announced it will expand its uranium enrichment capability not only for its own power plants but also to sell low-enriched uranium for use in energy production in other countries. The program is to begin this year. Only a half-dozen countries now have such a capability...

An Interior Ministry source earlier on Saturday confirmed an operation was under way in the suburb of Leganes linked to the investigation into the train bombings that killed 191 people, but declined to provide further details.

Kuwait maintained an alien resident file on Karim. That file appears to have been altered to create a false identity or "legend" for the terrorist Yousef. Above all, the file contains a fingerprint card bearing Yousef's prints. But Yousef is not Karim--as Judge Duffy implied--for many reasons, including the fact that Yousef is 6 feet tall, while Karim was significantly shorter, according to his teachers at Swansea. They do not believe their student is the terrorist mastermind. Indeed, according to Britain's Guardian newspaper, latent fingerprints lifted from material Mr. Karim left at Swansea bear "no resemblance" to Yousef's prints. They are two different people...

If this assessment contains a kernel of truth, it is because, as Christopher Gelpi and Peter Feaver detail in their recent book, "Choosing Your Battles: American Civil-Military Relations and the Use of Force," the public takes its cues from above. Hence, when leaders telegraph the message that America's sons and daughters are dying for nothing -- as presidents Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and Clinton did -- there follows an understandable reluctance to place those sons and daughters in harm's way. This is why it is so important that President Bush broadcast his determination in Iraq...

Officials said the requirements of the U.S. VISIT program will be expanded this fall to cover about 13 million travelers each year from 27 countries, including Australia, Britain and Japan, whose citizens are allowed to travel within the United States for as many as 90 days without a visa. The program -- an effort to track down criminals, suspected terrorists and travelers who overstay visas -- began Jan. 5 and now applies mainly to about 19 million visitors each year from Central and South America, Africa and Asia...

"I and my followers of the believers have come under attack from the occupiers, imperialism and the appointees," Moqtada Sadr said in a sermon in the southern town of Kufa, outside the holy city of Najaf. "Be on the utmost readiness, and strike them where you meet them."

On Friday evening, clashes erupted in Kufa. Residents said that rocket-propelled grenades and mortars were fired but that it was unclear who was involved. At some point in the fighting, gunmen killed Kufa's police chief, Col. Saeed Tiryak, and a colleague, according to Iraqi police sources quoted by the Reuters news agency...

"Stop supporting the occupation and the West," he said. "There will be a day when you'll be killed by their hands."

Sadr also threw his support behind two militant organizations: Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, and Hamas, based in the Palestinian territories. "From here, I declare my solidarity with the solidarity between Hezbollah and Hamas," Sadr said. "May they consider me their striking hand in Iraq, whenever necessity requires it."

However, I believe that this is an exclusive Iraqi trait, and we have examples from our own recent history to prove it. For Iraqis who deny that, go here and here (warning: gruesome images), I got these historical pictures from my late grandfather. In the 1958 coup which overthrew the monarchy, the bodies of members of the royal Hashemite family together along with Noori Al-Saeed, prime minister under King Faisal II, were mutilated, dragged around the streets of Baghdad, and then hung to rot for days. Communists committed similar atrocities in Mosul and Kirkuk in 1959, ironically against Pan-Arabs, Ba'athists, and their supporters. Some Ba'athists did the same to Communists during their short lived coup in 1963. And again the Ba'athists after 1968, when they assumed power in Iraq for good, with a long list of atrocities against political adversaries, 'enemies of the people', 'traitors', 'Zionist spies', etc. Now they have resurfaced again it seems.

All the images of a long history of violence above have become deeply ingrained in Iraqi society, and I'm afraid we have become desensitized to such scenes a long time ago. As disgusting and horrible the Fallujah images were, you could see bystanders children there watching casually, if not cheering, without blinking an eye. I would not call those children evil, because sadly they do not realise what they have become. The people that defiled the dead bodies were not technically terrorists, Ba'athists, or insurgents, they were common folk which makes it even more depressing. All respect for humanity has long been lost in a large section of Iraqis. I admit this concept is difficult, if not impossible, to explain to a western audience...

Now your small rodent(s) can always be by your side when using the computer! The PC HabiCase allows your gerbil, hamster or mouse to live INSIDE your computer. Ample room is provided for climbing, or your pet can hang out in one of the two "play pods" located at the front and top of the case. Heat from your CPU ensures your rodent will be warm and comfortable in a climate controlled environment...