Thursday Bucket O’ News

15 Comments

1. 

   rba on August 10, 2006 at 9:37 am

   Well, too many to blockquote, so just go read this morning’s Christian Science Monitor.  And take the daily click to McClatchy/K-R.  Coupla places with no wire service bylines.

   • 

     CabinGirl on August 10, 2006 at 9:47 am

     Thanks, rba!

2. 

   CabinGirl on August 10, 2006 at 9:47 am

   Where’d you get that Israel policy of yours? NYT

   The strategy she outlined that night, the eve of the Group of 8 meeting, dispensed with traditional diplomatic flourishes. It included no call for an immediate cease-fire and expressly stated that Israel had a right to defend itself.

   The approach, which President Bush approved the next morning and has served as the basis for American strategy during the crisis, was more than a policy blueprint. It was also Ms. Rice’s answer to opposing camps within the Bush administration. Ms. Rice, one senior administration official said, “staked out a position that was sufficiently unlike the usual State Department” approach to satisfy conservatives in the government, including Vice President Dick Cheney, who were pushing for strong American support for Israel.

   Why am I hearing Steve Earle singing “skank for me, Condi” in my head?  BUt wait, there’s more:

   …Two weeks ago, Ms. Rice instructed Stephen A. Seche, the chargé d’affaires at the United States Embassy in Damascus, to approach Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem in Damascus. The two met, but Mr. Moallem “gave no indication that they would be moderately constructive,” a senior administration official said, and there have been no overtures since.

   The tensions in the region and within the administration have left Ms. Rice visibly weary and she has at times spoken in unusually personal, emotional terms. After the meeting in her suite, Ms. Rice, Mr. Abrams, Mr. Welch and Richard Jones, the United States ambassador to Israel, had dinner with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. There, Ms. Rice showed a rare flash of impatience with him. When Mr. Olmert responded to her request to suspend airstrikes for 48 hours by saying that Israel had warned residents to evacuate, Ms. Rice shook her head, according to two American officials.

   “Look, we’ve had this experience, with Katrina, and we thought we were doing it right,” she reportedly said. “But we learned that many people who want to leave can’t leave.”

   Though Ms. Rice was not directly involved in the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, she told colleagues last summer that she had been appalled at the slow reaction and had urged Mr. Bush to do more to alleviate the hardship of residents, many of them black, who were trapped in the flooded city.

   WTF? She was shoe-shopping in Manhattan, as I recall.

   • 

     Nag on August 10, 2006 at 10:33 am

     She’s emotionally drained? And this after talking with ‘friends’. Hey Condi, try engaging the Syrians and the Iranians, you twit. Ya know, being Sec of State is “hard work”. Well, she’s safe in Crawford now and doesn’t have to deal with all them furriners. Doesn’t it seem as if they’ve reigned in Condi and have Bolton doing the intimidat… I mean negotiation now?

     Yeah, she was shopping for shoes, alright… expensive Italian shoes if I remember correctly.

3. 

   Nag on August 10, 2006 at 10:11 am

   Link

   How the US fired Jack Straw
   The Foreign Secretary spoke his mind on the Middle East — and became a target in Washington

   WHEN JACK STRAW was replaced by Margaret Beckett as Foreign Secretary, it seemed an almost inexplicable event. Mr Straw had been very competent — experienced, serious, moderate and always well briefed. Margaret Beckett is embarrassingly inexperienced. I made inquiries in Washington and was told that Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, had taken exception to Mr Straw’s statement that it would be “nuts” to bomb Iran. The United States, it was said, had put pressure on Tony Blair to change his Foreign Secretary. Mr Straw had been fired at the request of the Bush Administration, particularly at the Pentagon.

   The alternative explanation was more recently given by Irwin Stelzer in The Spectator; he has remarkably good Washington contacts and is probably right. His account is that Mr Straw was indeed dismissed because of American anxieties, but that Dr Rice herself had become worried, on her visit to Blackburn, by Mr Straw’s dependence on Muslim votes. About 20 per cent of the voters in Blackburn are Islamic; Mr Straw was dismissed only four weeks after Dr Rice’s visit to his constituency. It may be that both explanations are correct. The first complaint may have been made by Mr Rumsfeld because of Iran; Dr Rice may have withdrawn her support after seeing the Islamic pressures in Blackburn. At any rate, Irwin Stelzer’s account confirms that Mr Straw was fired because of American pressure.

   I know that this is unsubstantiated gossip, but wanna make a bet that it’s close to the truth?

4. 

   Nag on August 10, 2006 at 10:25 am

   Link

   ‘Turkish Artillery Opens Fire on PKK Camp in N. Iraq’

   The Turkish military has opened fire on a Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) camp in northern Iraq, according to reports by the Peyamner News Agency (PNA).

   According to Arbil-based PNA, which is close to Massoud Barzani’s Iraqi Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Turkish artillery fire commenced on Monday evening, targeting a suspected PKK camp near the village of Beduhe, and continued on Tuesday morning.

   Local villages quoted by PNA described the artillery fire coming from the Turkish side of the border as “heavy.”

   Turkey threatened to carry out cross-border operations against PKK terrorists hiding in northern Iraq if the US forces in Iraq and the central Iraqi government fail to remove the PKK from Iraq.

   Turkey has repeatedly called on the Iraqi government and the US to take swift action against the PKK terrorists hiding in Iraq, who frequently cross into Turkey to carry out terror attacks.

   Turkey ‘building up forces on Iraqi border’
   “Ankara – Turkey is building up military forces near the border with Iraq, signalling that it plans to increase its anti- Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) operations in the area, CNN-Turk television reported Wednesday.“

   US to Appoint Special Envoy in Fight Against PKK
   “Persistent pressure and threats from Turkey against the PKK presence in northern Iraq forced the US to take a concrete step. “

   This situation has been simmering for a while. I’ve read that the US may push Turkey to offer a large contingent of soldiers to any force in Lebanon in exchange for the PKK being dealt with. This pot is about to boil over and is being totally ignored in the western media.

   • 

     CabinGirl on August 10, 2006 at 10:41 am

     We knew that was going to happen sooner or later, didn’t we?

     Iraq is such a stunning ‘success’.

5. 

   Shalimar on August 10, 2006 at 11:12 am

   According to a Washington Post poll:
   http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060809/ts_alt_afp/usattackspolloffbeat_060809150242

   • 

     Kidspeak on August 10, 2006 at 11:57 am

     This is one of the worst examples of a survey that depends on memory. The phone rings, and the voice at the other end asks you to produce a date, quickly. Asking for “disembodied” disconnected facts is not how most of us ever use our memory.

     Want another example? Ask parents – no, fathers of two or more children their kids’ birthdates, on the spot, out of the blue. They’ll not be terribly accurate. Does this mean parents don’t know how old their kids are? Not really.

     I’d bet that the vast majority of these people will become much more accurate if given a little while to think of what else was going on in their lives at the same time. The year attached to 9/11 isn’t something we used a lot – if at all. It is silly to expect instant recall in those circumstances.

     • 

       Shalimar on August 10, 2006 at 12:23 pm

       If I’m reading correctly, 95% of those who didn’t know were 55 and over, which means you’re probably right.  My quick-access memory isn’t quite as sharp at 37 as it was a decade ago, though it will many more decades of decline before I miss a question this easy.

6. 

   Nag on August 10, 2006 at 11:55 am

   Here’s the link, but here’s the money quote:

   A Quinnipiac University poll released in July showed that 51 percent of likely voters would support Lieberman in a three-way race, versus 27 percent for Lamont and 9 percent for Schlesinger, a lawyer who was formerly a legislator and mayor. However, a CBS News/New York Times exit poll of nearly 2,700 voters on Tuesday found that 61 percent said Lieberman should not run as an independent.

   So does this mean that Ct Democrats who voted for Joe the Democrat in the primary could turn on Joe the Independent?

   • 

     Kidspeak on August 10, 2006 at 12:03 pm

     Well, we know the July totals for Lamont certainly changed by the time the primary rolled around. I think some of those pro-Lieberman responses in July weren’t really thinking about him turning his back on the party because they didn’t actually expect him to do that.

     Now they know. And just as some of the “big guns” who supported Lieberman are now supporting Lamont, I expect many Connecticut dems who voted for Lieberman will be irritated at his decision, and they won’t vote for him.

7. 

   rba on August 10, 2006 at 12:02 pm

   GAO:  Transportation Security Administration’s Office of Intelligence: Responses to Posthearing Questions Regarding Secure Flight, GAO-06-1051R, August 4, 2006 [text abstract]:

   This letter responds to Congress’s request for additional information related to Congress’s June 14, 2006, hearing on the progress and challenges of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Office of Intelligence. As discussed in the statement at the hearing, for over 3 years, TSA has faced numerous challenges in developing a federal passenger prescreening program, known currently as Secure Flight, because TSA did not follow a disciplined life cycle development approach.

8. 

   Oui on August 10, 2006 at 7:39 pm

   .

   Aliyu and the drones

   The row over a $260 million contract won by Israel’s Aeronautics Ventures to supply aerial drones for use in the Niger Delta coincides with last week’s sacking of National Security Advisor General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau by President Olusegun Obasanjo.  

   Israel attempted to sell UAVs or Harpy Killer drones to China

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY

9. 

   Oui on August 10, 2006 at 7:51 pm

   .

   Russia Circulates Cease-Fire Resolution

   UNITED NATIONS (AP) Aug 10, 2006 — Russia circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday calling for a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, Russia’s U.N. ambassador said.

   Vitaly Churkin said the crisis in Lebanon was too urgent to wait for negotiations on a separate U.S.-French Securty Council resolution seeking a permanent cease-fire.

   Russia Sends Humanitarian Aid to War-Ravaged Lebanon

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   ▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY