.
“And the implication is that the people who’ve been voting for
me or are involved in my campaign are somehow delusional”
– Barack Obama
me or are involved in my campaign are somehow delusional”
– Barack Obama
Big Texas debate concluded without a knock-out punch from either title candidate.
.
SAMSUN, Turkey (IHT) Feb 22, 2008 – Turkey’s military said it had sent ground troops into northern Iraq in an operation aimed at weakening Kurdish militants there, the first confirmed ground incursion since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
The Turkish General Staff announced the action on its website today. It gave no details of how many troops went or how long they would stay, and said only that they would return once goals had been achieved. Private NTV television reported 10,000 troops were involved and said they had pushed about six miles into Iraqi territory.
The military said on its website that troops would “return as soon as planned goals are achieved.” The reason for the operation, it said, was to “prevent the region from being a permanent and safe base for the terrorists.”
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in a statement that he had called Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, to tell him about the incursion, after it began last night.
US believes the operation is of “limited duration”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
In 1980, the Senate ratified the U.S. commitment to voluntarily accept safeguards to demonstrate a firm commitment to the IAEA and to the NPT. As a Nuclear Weapon State party to the NPT, the United States is not required to accept any safeguards. Our decision sent an important message to the world: the preeminent superpower, with a large civilian nuclear power industry, could accept IAEA safeguards. The Additional Protocol seeks to fill holes in the existing patchwork of declarations and inspections. It will require the declaration of many locations and activities to the IAEA not previously required, and allow, with less than 24 hours’ notice, inspections of such locations. The United States, as a declared Nuclear Weapon State party to the NPT, may exclude the application of IAEA safeguards on its activities.
Under the Additional Protocol, the United States also has the right to exclude activities and sites of direct national security significance in accordance with its National Security Exclusion contained in Article 1.b. This provision is crucial to U.S. acceptance of the Additional Protocol and provides the basis for the protection of U.S. nuclear weapons-related activities, sites, and materials as a declared nuclear power.
Executive Order – Feb. 4. 2008: Implementation of the Protocol Additional to the Agreement Between the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the Application of Safeguards in the United States of America
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
VIENNA (AFP) Feb. 22, 2008 – The UN atomic watchdog has made good but still insufficient progress in its investigation into Iran’s disputed nuclear drive, the agency’s chief Mohammed ElBaradei said.
“In the last four months, in particular, we have made quite good progress in clarifying the outstanding issues that had to do with Iran’s past nuclear activities,” ElBaradei said after the publication of his latest report on Iran.
Iran had offered to implement the inspections protocol but only if the issue of its disputed programme nuclear was removed from consideration by the UN Security Council.
The Security Council has already imposed sanctions against Iran and Western powers are pushing hard for a third set of sanctions because of Tehran’s continued defiance over the enrichment issue.
IRNA: Western powers concerned over ElBaradei’s Iran report
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Russia’s ambassador to Nato, Dmitry Rogozin, has warned that Russia could use military force if the Kosovo independence dispute escalates.
“If the EU develops a unified position or if Nato exceeds its mandate set by the UN, then these organisations will be in conflict with the UN,” he said. In that case Russia would “proceed on the basis that in order to be respected we need to use brute force.”
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
The KLA was renamed the Kosovo Protection Force and been given the task of maintaining peace and security in Kosovo. How well it has been able to carry out this task is summed up in a report dated Feb. 26, 2001, to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, which accuses the protection corps of widespread acts of murder, torture and extortion.
That condemnation should not have come as a surprise. As early as 1998, the U.S. State Department listed the KLA as a terrorist organization financing its operations with money from the international heroin trade and funds supplied from Islamic countries and individuals, including Osama bin Laden. This did not stop the United States from arming and training KLA members in Albania and in the summer of 1998 sending them back into Kosovo to assassinate Serbian mayors, ambush Serbian policemen and intimidate hesitant Kosovo Albanians. The aim was to destabilize Kosovo and overthrow Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Bin Laden and radical Muslim groups have been deeply involved in the Balkans since the civil wars in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. Despite a UN arms embargo and with the knowledge and support of the United States, arms, ammunition and thousands of Mujahideen fighters were smuggled into Bosnia to help the Muslims. Many remain in Bosnia today and are recognized as a serious threat to Western forces there. The Bosnian government is said to have presented bin Laden with a Bosnian passport in recognition of his contribution to their cause. He and his al-Qaeda network were also active in Kosovo, and KLA members trained in his camps in Afghanistan and Albania.
Ethnic 'cleansing' threat to Serbs in KosovoAlbania and CIA Rendition of Islamists
≈ Cross-posted from BooMan’s diary — U.S. Embassy Stormed in Belgrade ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
MOSCOW – A generation ago, Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin defined the no-go zone between East and West. If you listen to Russian officials these days, that geopolitical schism has now shifted to the Serbia-Kosovo border.
On one side, Russia defends its nationalist proxy, Orthodox Serbians, who say they will never accept a non-Serbian Kosovo; on the other side, Kosovars – more than 90 percent of whom are Albanian Muslims – are backed in their desire for independence by the United States and most of Western Europe.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
BAGHDAD (AP) — Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced that he will extend a cease-fire order to his Shiite Mahdi Army by another six months, giving Iraq a chance to continue its fragile recovery from brutal sectarian violence.
The decision was revealed in a message read by clerics during prayer services.
“According to an order by Sayyid Muqtada, activities of the Mahdi Army will be extended … for another six month period,” al-Sadr’s aide Hazim al-Aaraji said, using an honorific during his sermon at the Kazimiyah mosque in Baghdad.
Iraq: Violence is down?
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Row over Ahmadinejad Imam beliefs
This is horrifying; 7 kids before she is 17!
Triplets born to teenager – again
JUST IN
BREAKING MSNBC:cop die in crash while escorting Clinton Motorcade local TVKXAS says.
That sucks.
.
HOUSTON, Texas (The Guardian UK) Feb. 22, 2008 – A trio of disgraced British bankers known as the NatWest Three will be sentenced to lengthy jail stretches by a US judge today for stealing $7.3m in a complex Enron-related fraud that sparked a row over Britain’s extradition policy.
The NatWest Three’s dealings with Enron went far deeper than a single transaction – and the men have used their wealth to invest in ventures ranging from engineering to movie production, pubs and Scottish property.
At a hearing in Houston’s federal courthouse, David Bermingham, Gary Mulgrew and Giles Darby are each expected to be sent to prison for 37 months, in line with the terms of a plea agreement. Their sentencing will close the book on a prosecution that sparked cries of injustice and complaints of judicial overreach by the US.
The Texan court’s no-nonsense judge, Ewing Werlein, will offer them the opportunity to speak – and experts say they would be wise to eat humble pie.
“I think it’s important for each of the three to express remorse for what they’ve done,” says Douglas McNabb, a US lawyer specialising in white-collar federal crime. “They’ve got to be particularly careful they don’t start backtracking.”
The trio became something of a cause célèbre when they were extradited to the US two years ago. Their crime was to recommend that their employer, NatWest, sold a stake in an Enron venture, LJM Cayman (pdf), for $1m – far less than its true value. Unbeknown to NatWest, they had a personal interest in the buyer of the stake, which sold it on at a huge profit.
Cayman transaction
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Still a nice article from Rolling Stones.
Everything you need to know about Lanny Davis!
“Three letters explain how former Clinton attack dog Lanny Davis scored an Air Force One ride to Washington after President Bush’s recent Yale University commencement speech: DKE (Delta Kappa Epsilon), the fraternity Davis and Bush joined as Yale undergrads. The duo chatted for a long time on the ride home, mostly about the old days, like the time Bush hazed DKE recruit Davis. The lawyer tells us that he faced the normal five-hour hazing, ending with him standing beside a DKE brand shoved in a vat of hot coals. At this point, Bush and the others blindfolded Davis and asked him to lift his shirt. He did. Then Davis felt it: the hot sizzle of skin. But it was only a cigarette. “They really psyched me out,” he says.”
≈ Cross-posted from BooMan’s diary — The People You Surround Yourself With ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."British troops executed 20 captives in southern Iraq, say lawyers
.
[Tamara Cofman Wittes] I’m in Doha for the 5th Annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum–my fourth year at this annual confab (organized by my fine colleagues in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution) that brings together Americans with Muslims from Nigeria to Malaysia and everywhere in between.
…
The most powerful explanation for the change is evident in the overwhelming fact that all anyone at this conference really wants to talk about is Barack Obama.
A friend from the Gulf tells me her young relative was so excited about the Democratic candidate that he tried to donate money over the Internet, as he’d heard so many young Americans were doing. Then he found out he had to be a U.S. citizen to do so. Another young woman, visiting from next-door Saudi Arabia, said that all her friends in Riyadh are “for Obama.” The symbolism of a major American presidential candidate with the middle name of Hussein, who went to elementary school in Indonesia, certainly speaks to Muslims abroad.
But more important is just the prospect of a refreshing shift in the the breeze off the Potomac. More than the changes in the region, it seems to be anticipated changes in Washington that are drawing the eyes of my Arab counterparts and giving the conference its unusually forward-looking tone.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."That’s so inspiring. Thanks for that one!
Here’s something in return:
that’s an subtle endorsement from Feingold. Great news.
catch these Latinos
something is happening here.
.
The European commission today rebuked Poland and Romania for their late responses to requests to clarify their role in the US extraordinary rendition programme.
The EU justice and home affairs commissioner, Franco Frattini, wrote to Warsaw and Bucharest last July urging them to conduct in-depth inquiries into the findings by the European parliament indicating their complicity in extraordinary rendition – the controversial practice of transporting terror suspects to secret locations where they risk being tortured.
…
The European parliament and the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, have accused at least 14 European states of colluding with US intelligence on the Bush administration’s extraordinary rendition programme.
Britain yesterday admitted that US rendition flights carrying terror suspects twice landed on British soil. David Miliband, the foreign secretary, was forced to apologise to MPs that contrary to previous US assurances, two flights did in fact land at Diego Garcia, the British Indian Ocean territory where the US has a large air base.
Diego Garcia – ‘CIA Island Jail’
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
HAGATNA, Guam – A B-2 stealth bomber plunged to the ground shortly after taking off from Andersen AFB on Guam, the first time one crashed, but both pilots ejected safely.
The aircraft was taking off with three others on their last flight out of Guam after a four-month deployment, part of a continuous U.S. bomber presence in the western Pacific. After the crash, the other three bombers were being kept on Guam, said Maj. Eric Hilliard at Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii.
The bombers on Guam were scheduled to return to Missouri now that six B-52s from the 96th Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., have arrived to replace them.
The distinctive B-2 is described as a “multi-role bomber” that blends stealth technology with a highly efficient aerodynamic design. It is able to deliver large payloads at great range and has been used in combat over Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The accident occurred 11 days after a Navy plane crashed into the ocean about 20 miles northeast of Guam’s Ritidian Point. Four aircrew members ejected from the EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft and were rescued by helicopter.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."