good luck in Iran, glad you met some nice people. Do you have any knowlede of the commom Iranian's view of America? What we are doing in the region? Keep up the good work.
I have noticed a few interesting things the news inadvertantly shows about Iran but does not comment on.
It appears that Iranians have the youngest population. Basically, there are some old people, very few middle-age people and a majority of the population is under 30.
Does the ruling generation (Old and Middle-aged) have the same principals, ideals and goals for the future as the majority of the population which is under 30?
I have no clue as to how things work in Iran but my experience in America tells me every generation has a different view on the world. I would suspect the same applies to Iran although I am not certain.
As the camera scans past the crowds burning American and Israeli flags, I see shops with signs advertising all sorts of Western Culture goods and almost no traditional Middle-Eastern goods. This may have been just a coincidence on that particular street in Tehran but I doubt it. The people in the streets were wearing Nike shirts and shoes, European style suits and other Western garb. I suspect there is far more to the story than one is led to beleive.
I also seriously doubt that after the war with Iraq took away the vast majority of the Middle-age generation, the young majority has little or no interest in another war. The exact same can be said about America after the Vietnam war.
I would venture to guess the majority of Iranian people are not the hard core zealots that hate America as the press would have us beleive. I suspect that ordinary Iranians would prefer to live life the way we in the West do. Having awesome technology in your pocket that enables you to take pictures, movies, connect to the internet, GPS and a vast array of other things all packaged in a cell phone. Being as young as Iran is, it would seem to me that the population would much prefer to party than to fight another war over Nuclear Weapons.
I would like to know how ordinary Iranian people really feel so this rhetoric can stop before war breaks out. War is not necessary when dialoge is still ongoing but when people stop talking they begin shooting and that is in no one's interest.
The Iranians have nothing against the Americans but against the US-GOV, just as the rest of the world.The Government of Lie and Invasion and maltreating of human-rights.
An Example:
Ex-Powell aide: Was U.S. fooled?
Source: AP
LONDON, England - A former senior U.S. State Department official says he has come to doubt whether President George W. Bush's administration presented an honest intelligence case for the war in Iraq.
"You begin to speculate, you begin to wonder -- Was this intelligence spun? Was it politicized? Was it cherry-picked? Did in fact the American people get fooled? I'm beginning to have my concerns," Lawrence
Wilkerson, chief of staff for former Secretary of State Colin Powell, said in an interview broadcast Tuesday.
In the interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., Wilkerson repeated his criticisms of Vice President Dick Cheney, holding him responsible for abuses of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq and for
shortcomings in post-war planning in Iraq.
Asked whether Cheney was guilty of war crime, Wilkerson said: "Well that's an interesting question. It is certainly a domestic crime to advocate terror, and I would suspect that it is, for whatever it's
worth, an international crime as well."
He did not explain in the interview why he believed Cheney advocated terror, though he also said that Cheney was "very publicly lobbying the Congress of the United States advocating the use of terror."
Wilkerson said he had believed that intelligence supported the view that Iraq had or was seeking to build weapons of mass destruction, and when none were found he accepted the argument that the
administration had simply been fooled.
Lately, however, he said he had been troubled by disclosures that an informant known as Curveball, who supplied information about alleged mobile biological laboratories, was not reliable, and new
information casting doubt on statements made by Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an al Qaeda military instructor, claiming support from Iraq.
Al-Libi's information, Wilkerson said, "led Colin Powell to say at the U.N. on 5 February 2003 that there were some pretty substantive contacts between al Qaeda and Baghdad."
It now appears, Wilkerson said, that al-Libi's statement "were obtained through interrogation techniques other than those authorized by Geneva (Conventions)."
"More important than that, we know that there was a Defense Intelligence Agency dissent on that testimony even before Colin Powell made his presentation," Wilkerson said. "We never heard about that."
Hey Anonymous,
Maybe if you were brave enough to leave your name and site, I'd give a hoot. BTW, did you know the ex-Powell has always been a Leftie?
Dear Sohrab,
I heard that Iran is beautiful. I know some Iranian people, and they are truly beautiful!
It is sad and outrageous the weight their government is putting on them. I'm afraid it may crush them. Please pray for them. Thank you.
Venezuela's Chavez calls Bush government 'assassin' over alleged secret terror prisons
Source: AP
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez claimed the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush was guilty of genocide, terrorism and human rights violations on Tuesday for allegedly maintaining clandestine prisons for terror suspects in Europe.
"Every day (U.S.) imperialism is surpassed by its own immorality," Chavez said during a televised speech.
Allegations that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency hid and interrogated major al-Qaida suspects at Soviet-era compounds in eastern Europe first were reported Nov. 2 in The Washington Post.
A day later, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it had evidence indicating the CIA flew suspected terrorists captured in Afghanistan to Poland and Romania, which have vehemently denied the allegations.
Chavez, a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy, said he was not surprised by the charges.
Likening the U.S. government to a "genocidist, assassin, terrorist, violator of human rights, kidnapper," Chavez claimed that the threat posed by "Mister Danger" _ his oft-used nickname for Bush _ was more evident every day.
Chavez regularly clashes with Washington, which he accuses of attempts to overthrow him _ charges U.S. officials deny.
The United States has not confirmed the allegations but admits the reports have raised an outcry among European allies.
Misgivings about alleged CIA activities in Europe have led to investigations in a half-dozen countries. The Council of Europe, the continent's main human rights watchdog, also is looking into the reports.
BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Germany has a list of more than 400 overflights and landings by planes suspected of being used by the CIA that it plans to ask U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about when she visits Berlin, a government spokesman said Monday.
Ulrich Wilhelm confirmed a weekend report in Der Spiegel magazine that the list -- drawn up by air traffic control -- showed at least 437 flights passed over or through Germany.
The issue would be addressed with Rice when she meets with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, Wilhelm told reporters.
Wilhelm said Germany had several "concrete questions" to ask about the list, but would not elaborate.
Allegations that the CIA ran prisons for al Qaeda captives in Eastern Europe and operated clandestine flights for prisoners -- using airports in Germany and elsewhere -- have cast a new shadow over relations between Europe and the United States.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier raised the issue with Rice during a visit to Washington on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Merkel told parliament she was confident "that the American government is taking European concerns seriously and in the near future will clear up the recent reports on apparent CIA prisons and illegal flights."
You are terribly boring, Anonymous.
Two CH-47 Chinooks Make Emergency Landings, shot by insurgents in Southern Afghanistan; Six Injured
Two US CH-47 Chinook helicopters made emergency landings yesterday in separate locations in southern Afghanistan resulting in the injury of five US soldiers and one Afghan National Army soldier.
In the first incident, in which five US soldiers were injured, occurred north of Kandahar and resulted in severe damage to the aircraft. The injured were evacuted to a nearby US medical facility for treatment, and all are reported in stable condition. None of the injures were reported as serious.
Uranium Deposits Not yet Exploited
**********************************
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**********
The Minister for Mines and Industries, engineer Mir Mohammad Sediq rejected the rumors as if the Khanshin uranium deposits are being exploited by unidentified people and smuggled abroad.
Researches on the Khanshin uranium deposits in Helmand might have been carried out by concerned authorities in the past, he said.
At present exploitation and use of uranium is in need of large budgets and nuclear experts. This possibility is not yet in our reach, the minister added.
Uranium is a very rare and expensive substance. Afghanistan will earn millions of dollar through the exploitation and its uranium deposits in future.
The substance could become a good source for the production of electricity needed in this country, he ended.
A look at the soldiers accused in Afghanistan abuse investigation
Source: AP, USA
A look at the cases against 15 soldiers accused of abusing Afghan detainees, including two who later died. The trials have been held at Fort Bliss, Texas.
_ Sgt. James P. Boland, of the reserve 377th Military Police Company in Cincinnati, was initially charged with maltreatment, dereliction of duty and assault. All charges were dropped and he was given a letter of reprimand for dereliction of duty. He has since left the Army.
_ Spc. Brian Cammack, of the 377th MP, pleaded guilty to assault and two counts of making a false official statement. He was sentenced to three months in prison, reduced in rank to private, and given a bad-conduct discharge.
_ Pfc. Willie V. Brand, of the 377th MP, was convicted of assault, maiming, maltreatment and making a false official statement. He was reduced in rank to private.
_ Sgt. Anthony Morden, of the 377th MP, pleaded guilty to one count of assault and two counts of dereliction of duty. He was sentenced to 75 days in prison, reduced in rank to private, and given a bad-conduct discharge.
_ Sgt. Christopher W. Greatorex, of the 377th MP, was acquitted of charges of assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement.
_ Sgt. Darin M. Broady, of the 377th MP, was acquitted of charges of assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement.
_ Capt. Christopher M. Beiring, commander of the 377th MP, has been charged with dereliction of duty and making a false official statement. A trial date has not been set.
_ Staff Sgt. Brian L. Doyle, of the 377th MP, has been charged with dereliction of duty and maltreatment. He is scheduled to stand trial Dec. 14.
_ Sgt. Duane M. Grubb, of the 377th MP, was acquitted of charges of assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement.
_ Sgt. Alan J. Driver, of the 377th MP, has been charged with assault and maltreatment. He is scheduled to stand trial Feb. 6.
_ Spc. Nathan Adam Jones, of the 377th MP, was charged with assault, maltreatment and making a false official statement. All charges have been dropped, though he is likely to receive a letter of reprimand.
_ Spc. Glendale C. Walls, of the 519th Military Intelligence Battalion from Fort Bragg, North Caroline, pleaded guilty to charges of dereliction of duty and assault. He was sentenced to two months in prison, reduced in rank to private and given a bad-conduct discharge.
_ Sgt. Selena M. Salcedo, of the 519th MI Battalion, pleaded guilty to dereliction of duty and assault. She was reduced in rank to specialist or corporal, fined US$250 (
€214) a month for four months and given a letter of reprimand.
_ Sgt. Joshua Claus, of the 519th MI Battalion, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of maltreatment and assault and was sentenced to five months in prison.
_ Pfc. Damien M. Corsetti, of the 519th MI Battalion, was charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, assault, wr
Man sues CIA over torture claims
Source: BBC, UK
A man who says he was a victim of the CIA's alleged secret prisons is suing its former chief over torture claims.
Khaled al-Masri says he was kidnapped in 2003 while on holiday in Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan and mistreated.
A US rights group has filed a lawsuit against ex-CIA head George Tenet and other officials on behalf of Mr Masri, a Lebanese-born German citizen.
It is the first legal challenge to the US policy of "extraordinary rendition" - flying suspects to third countries.
The US maintains that all such operations are conducted within the law.
Our government has acted as if it is above the law
Anthony D Romero
ACLU executive director
The landmark lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a district court in Alexandria, Virginia.
It claims that Mr Tenet and other CIA officials violated US and universal human rights laws when they authorised agents to kidnap Mr Masri.
The lawsuit says Mr Masri suffered "prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment".
Mr Masri, 42, spoke at an ACLU news conference in Washington via a satellite video link from Stuttgart, Germany.
He claims he was beaten and injected with drugs before being taken to Afghanistan and held for five months.
Mr Masri says that once there, he was subjected to "coercive" interrogation under inhumane conditions.
Mr Masri is now seeking damages of at least $75,000 (£43,000) and an apology.
'American values'
The civil rights group says the government has to be held to account over "extraordinary rendition".
"Kidnapping a foreign national for the purpose of detaining and interrogating him outside the law is contrary to American values," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU.
"Our government has acted as if it is above the law. We go to court today to reaffirm that the rule of law is central to our identity as a nation."
The case was discussed earlier in Berlin by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
'Mistakes'
Mrs Merkel said the United States acknowledged making a mistake in detaining Mr Masri.
While refusing to comment on the case directly, Ms Rice said the US sought to rectify any mistakes made.
Both told reporters that intelligence work was an essential part of the war on terror, but should not break international law.
Before she left the US, Ms Rice admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation but denied they were tortured.
She said suspects were moved by plane under a process known as rendition, and that this was "a lawful weapon". But these tactics have been heavily criticised by human rights groups.
*B*O*R*I*N*G* Anonymous.
I once briefly dated an Iranian who was in the US going to school when I was in high school in Denver. He was a very nice young man, very hopeful for his future and very respectful and a lot of fun.
At times I wonder if he is okay. I hope that he hasn't been hurt. Iran under the Mad Mullahs is not so great I have heard. (understatement)
Besides all of the propaganda I hear every day on my news here in America - I also get a glimpse of information that runs completely counter to the propaganda.
I wish the people of Iran to be safe, to be strong and to be treated like human beings should be treated. (no stoning, or whipping etc..)
"Anonymous" has an empty head and an empty inseam.
Sohrab, have a good time, and get back home safely!!
'Bandits killed' in Taleban clash
Source: BBC, UK
At least 15 people have died in a clash between suspected Taleban militants and bandits in Pakistan's tribal area of North Waziristan, eyewitnesses say.
The fighting near the town of Miranshah left 11 bandits and four Taleban fighters dead, reports said.
The news came as four troops went missing, presumed kidnapped, in South Waziristan. Pakistan has sent thousands to the area to try to curb militancy.
A Pakistani journalist is also feared kidnapped in North Waziristan.
Officials say security in the region is deteriorating fast.
'Roaming freely'
Taleban militants hung up three bodies of the bandits from electricity poles and chanted slogans on Wednesday, eyewitnesses said.
One local journalist, who wished to remain unnamed, told the BBC's Imtiaz Ali that suspected Taleban had taken over Miranshah and were roaming freely in the streets with their guns.
"Shops are closed because of fear," one shop keeper told the Associated Press. "The administration has done nothing."
The fighting is reported to have taken place on Tuesday. The militants are said to have attacked the bandits who were extorting money on a road.
In South Waziristan, eyewitnesses say they saw two paramilitary soldiers being forced into a vehicle. Two others are missing, security officials say.
The soldiers had been told not to leave their camp as a security measure but the four went out to a market, one official told the AFP news agency.
'Act swiftly'
Journalist Hayatullah Khan went missing on Monday after he reported on the alleged killing of an al-Qaeda commander.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said that five armed men kidnapped Mr Khan in North Waziristan.
We call on the Pakistani government to do everything in its power to find Hayatullah Khan
Committee to Protect Journalists
CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper demanded that Pakistani officials act swiftly to save his life.
Pakistani authorities said at the weekend that an al-Qaeda commander, Abu Hamza Rabia, and four others were killed when bomb-making material stored at their hideout was detonated accidentally.
Mr Khan, who had reported that Rabia was killed by a US missile, was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen.
Hundreds of militants and more than 250 Pakistani soldiers have died in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan in the past two years.
Many al-Qaeda and Taleban militants are believed to have slipped into Pakistan after the US forces entered Afghanistan in 2001.
Disobedient Americans
Source: Rah-e Nejat, Kabul - BBC
Not long ago, the United States attacked Afghanistan and Iraq on the pretext of fighting terrorism and promoting democracy. The unrestrained and unruly behaviour of the US military became evident over this short period. Evidence of this includes the building of private jails in Afghanistan and Iraq, abusing prisoners, disrespecting religious sanctities, degrading behaviour, uncoordinated operations and house searches. The fresh news of the house searches in Badakhshan Province is a new case that has greatly angered the province's people.
Based on their religious beliefs and traditions, the Afghan Muslim people consider such behaviour as insulting and an infringement on their private lives. It may provoke their anger.
Mr Karzai announced a while ago that such operations would in future be coordinated with and supervised by the [Afghan] government. But the voice of the president was not heard and they [the US forces] continued their unrestrained behaviour and disobedience.
We hope the peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan, particularly the US military, will pay serious attention to the fact that Afghans are very sensitive about the violation of their private lives and that the issue can lead to a new security crisis.
As is typical of them in dealing with other cultures, the US military seem to consider the culture of the Afghan people to be inferior to their own.
Senior Afghan officials should raise the issue again with the Americans and warn them of the negative consequences of such a situation.
UNICEF expresses concern about child labour
Source: IRIN, NY, USA
Child labourers are a common site at thousands of carpet looms across Afghanistan
KABUL - An estimated 1 million child labourers under 14 are deprived of education, health care and other necessary facilities for human development across Afghanistan, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.
“[Some] 25 percent of all children aged between seven and 14 years are involved in various forms of work across the country,” Edward Carwardine, an information officer for UNICEF, said in the Afghan capital Kabul, adding the majority of child labourers were involved in domestic work.
UNICEF has expressed its concern that a considerable number of children were involved in heavy and dangerous works, such as construction.
“Children should not be involved in dangerous employment. They need to have time to play and access to recreation, physical exercises and playing games, which is a part of human development,” Carwardine explained.
Among the children who do paid work, many of them are involved in light agricultural work, mechanical workshops, restaurants, carpet weaving and labouring on building sites.
According to officials at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the government is working to tackle the problem of child labour in Afghanistan.
“We have provided vocational training and literacy programmes to around 38,000 child labourers across the country,” Mohammad Ghaus Bashiri, the deputy minister, said.
Bush and Blair slated by Pinter
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Harold Pinter's vide message being played at the Swedish Royal Academy in Stockholm.
Pinter is an outspoken critic of the UK and US governments
(Watch the lecture on BBC.uk)
George W Bush and Tony Blair must be held to account for feeding the public "a vast tapestry of lies" about the Iraq war, writer Harold Pinter said.
The playwright launched a scathing attack on US and UK politicians in his lecture as winner of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature.
Most politicians "are interested not in truth but in power and the maintenance of that power", the 75-year-old said.
His speech was pre-recorded as Pinter was admitted to hospital this week.
'Live in ignorance'
Pinter, whose plays include The Birthday Party and Betrayal, was announced the winner of the $1.3m (£740,000) cash prize in October.
On Wednesday his lecture, entitled Art, Truth and Politics, studied the importance of truth in art before decrying its perceived absence in politics.
He said politicians feel it is "essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives".
Pinter said the US justification for invading Iraq - that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction - "was not true".
(America) has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good
Harold Pinter
"The truth is something entirely different," Pinter added. "The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it."
Pinter said that since World War II the US government "supported and in many cases engendered every right-wing military dictatorship in the world".
"I refer to Indonesia, Greece, Uruguay, Brazil, Paraguay, Haiti, Turkey, the Philippines, Guatemala, El Salvador and, of course, Chile."
'Bleating lamb'
He added: "You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good."
Referring to Blair's support for the US-led war on Iraq, Pinter described the "pathetic and supine" Great Britain as "a bleating little lamb tagging behind (the US) on a lead".
********************************
He called for President Bush and Prime Minister Blair to be "arraigned before the International Criminal Court of Justice".
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"But Bush has been clever," Pinter said. "He has not ratified the International Criminal Court of Justice."
Nevertheless he added that "thousands, if not millions" of people in the US were "sickened, shamed and angered" by their government's actions.
"As things stand they are not a coherent political force - yet."
Publisher Stephen Page will accept the Nobel Prize for Literature on Pinter's behalf on Saturday.
*****
I hope you have a nice visit in Iran. I enjoy reading your posts. And I hope 'anonymous' stays anonymous; I'd hate to think he might claim to be an American.
I have come to the conclusion that Iran will become a nuclear power despite efforts to keep this region free of nuclear weapons.
In as much as the US military has sucessfully tested anti-missle system which can knock down ICBM's relatively easily virtually giving the US military ONLY STRIKE CAPABILITY the US is safe from attack.
In addition, the new generation armed drones are able to go supersonic, that is faster than any ICBM in production to date.
Since Russia is hell bent on arming Iran, it seems the only way to eliminate the threat of attack is to use technology to make the weapons systems obsolete.
Arming all American Allies with drones, missle interdiction systems and nuclear weapons of their own will stop this madness.
It has long been the US intention of eliminating these horrible weapons but one can not stop technology. The alternative is to make it useless. I do not wish to see the Middle-East become nuclear capable as Europe once was but it seems inevitable. Mutual destruction worked in the Cold War because both sides very much valued life. One can not say the same for certain sectors of the Middle-East as many there have absolutely nothing to live for.
I do not see any other way to prevent the use of these weapons unless they become useless which only ratchets up the tensions further. There has to be a better way. Any suggestions?
MAD only worked because both nations knew that the other would never unleash the bombs.
It won't work with Iran (among other Aisan nations) because the Mad Mullahs are just that....mad!
We're going to have to strike those nuclear facilities. We're going to have to take them out. It matters little what Russia's and the Euroweenie's designs are.
It mattered little with Iraq and it matters little now.
monica, nothing mattered with Iraq, neither Saddam, nor WMD.
but oil & co.
you say "we're going to have to strike those nuclear facilities ..."
do you?
anything related to change from dollar to euro in oil transactions?
nothing personal, of course, I'm always glad to meet you 
sohrab, we're waiting for your report from Iran.
see you soon.
...^^v^^
MONTREAL, Quebec (AP) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton told a global audience of diplomats, environmentalists and others on Friday that the Bush administration is
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"flat wrong" in claiming that reducing
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greenhouse-gas emissions to fight global warming would damage the U.S. economy.
With a "serious disciplined effort" to develop energy-saving technology, he said, "we could meet and surpass the Kyoto targets in a way that would strengthen and not weaken our economies."
Clinton, a champion of the Kyoto Protocol, the existing emissions-controls agreement opposed by the Bush administration, spoke in the final hours of a two-week U.N. climate conference at which Washington has come under heavy criticism for its stand.
Most delegations appeared ready Friday to leave an unwilling United States behind and open a new round of negotiations on future cutbacks in the emissions blamed for global warming.
"There's no longer any serious doubt that climate change is real, acclerating and caused by human activities," said Clinton, whose address was interrupted repeatedly by enthusiastic applause.
"We are uncertain about how deep and the time of arrival of the consequences, but we are quite clear they will not be good."
Canadian officials said the U.S. delegation was displeased with the last-minute scheduling of the Clinton speech.
In the real work of the conference, delegates from more than 180 countries bargained behind closed doors until 6:30 a.m. Friday, making final adjustments to an agreement to negotiate additional reductions in carbon dioxide and other gases after 2012, when the Kyoto accord expires.
Efforts by host-country Canada and others to draw the United States into the process were failing. The Bush administration says it favors a voluntary approach, not global negotiations, to deal with climate issues.
"It's such a pity the United States is still very much unwilling to join the international community, to have a multilateral effort to deal with climate change," said Kenya's Emily Ojoo Massawa, chair of the African group of nations at the conference.
Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, was instrumental in final negotiations on the 1997 treaty protocol that was initialed in the Japanese city of Kyoto and mandates cutbacks in 35 industrialized nations of emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases by 2012.
A broad scientific consensus agrees
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that these gases accumulating in the atmosphere, byproducts of automobile engines, power plants and other fossil fuel-burning industries, contributed significantly to the past century's global temperature rise of 1 degree
Fahrenheit (0.7 degree Celsius). Continued warming is expected to disrupt the global climate.
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In the late 1990s the U.S. Senate balked at ratifying Kyoto, and the incoming President Bush in 2001 formally renounced the accord, say
Pipistro - I have one word for you:
HALLIBURTON!
LOL!
Seriously - you sound like the lefty moonbats in my country squawking like demented parrots!
With the U.S. military fatalities in Iraq, numerous political analysts and most of the Americans themselves have become more doubtful about winning the war.
According to an article by James Klurfeld published on Newsday.com, the U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH has lost his credibility on IRAQ war. Nothing, the article continues, could have damaged the president's political viability more than this illegal, unjustified and bloody war.
Karl Rove and his associates have embarked on a mission aimed at reversing the downward trend of opinion polls on the war. It started with the President Bush’s speech at the Naval Academy last week, in which he tried to soothe the worries of the angry American nation, and continued this week at the Council on Foreign Relations. The significance of those two speeches by the White House is that they’re made shortly before the Iraqi parliamentary elections scheduled to be held on the 15th of this month.
Both speeches were another attempt by the American President to save his image tarnished by the disclosure of a series of scandals involving his administration’s policy in IRAQ.
Yesterday's Council on Foreign Relations speech “was aimed at the foreign policy elites who have a powerful role in shaping public opinion on these complex matters,” the article adds. However the speech failed to deliver the aimed message, and that due to its realistic admission of what has worked and what has not worked so far in trying to rebuild post-war IRAQ.
Its admission of false starts and dead ends is “especially noteworthy for a president whose vocabulary seemed to be missing the word mistake”.
But for a President to regain credibility, he must himself be credible, something BUSH can’t afford.
A recent analysis on the Knight Ridder Newspapers, says that the Bush administration’s statistics prove that the Iraqi resistance is getting tougher than ever. It’s become increasingly difficult for the U.S. army to beat those fighters, the Detroit Free Press, owned by Knight Ridder, reported Saturday.
Among factors mentioned in the analysis is; the fact that the U.S. military casualties rose from an average of about 17 per month in May 2003 to a current average of 82 per month, also the average number of U.S. soldiers harmed by hostile acts per month has jumped from 142 to 808 during the same period.
Moreover, the number of attacks targeting the American invaders since November 2003 rose from 735 a month to 2,400 in October, and the number of mass-casualty bombings grew from zero in the first few months of the war to an average of 13 per month.
"All the trend lines we can identify are all in the wrong direction," said Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy research organization.
The American President will never be able to regain credibility if it turns out that the actual situation in IRAQ is far from the picture he paints.
Monica, still waiting for WMD ... (We got some white phosphorus but it was not Saddam's).
Er ...I don't care so much about Halliburton.
Always a pleasure, see you
U.S. Secret Jails: A Flashback to Stalins Soviet Union
12/12/2005
Some describe the Bush administration’s policies as a flashback to Stalin's Soviet Union.
In the wake of the outbreak of the recent U.S. scandal of sending suspects to Europe where they face torture; Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice claimed that the United States acts within the law, arguing that Europeans are safer because of tough U.S. tactics, and refusing to discuss intelligence operations or answer questions regarding the clandestine CIA detention centers.
Recently released documents and news reports revealed that America holds what it calls “terror suspect” in more than two dozen detention centers in various countries all over the world, at least half of which operate in total secrecy, according to a human rights group.
"Ending Secret Detentions," a report compiled by the Human Rights First said that secrecy surrounding the detention centres makes "inappropriate detention and abuse not only likely, but inevitable".
The BUSH administration holds "prisoners in a secret system of off-shore prisons beyond the reach of adequate supervision, accountability, or law," said the rights group director.
International criticism stirred by Washington's covert operations and the seizures of suspects has swept Europe, challenging the Bush administration's credibility and harming the already tarnished image of the nation that claims to be the foremost defender of human rights; with the recent CIA scandal of holding suspects in secret jails in Eastern Europe, illegal detentions, grabbing suspects from the streets and transferring them without extradition to other countries where they face torture, humiliation and other abusive interrogation tactics.
Some critics of PRESIDENT BUSH described his administration’s policies as a flashback to Stalin's Soviet Union.
That’s how the practices of the world's most powerful and open democracy country are described nowadays.
In Congress, allegations of abusing and torturing suspects held in U.S. custody in Iraq, Guantanamo or elsewhere, where the U.S. runs secret jails, set off a fierce debate.
"You don't want serious people to believe that the American government does things that decent people don't do," said Michael Mandelbaum, professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and author of the forthcoming book, "The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the 21st Century."
"I don't know if it's true or not, but obviously the suspicions are out there," he added.
Trying to fix the tarnished image, and rebuild the U.S. diplomatic ties with its allies, Rice had to make visits to Europe, meeting leaders of several states, who seemed to accept her reassurances that the U.S. was never involved in such inhuman tactics and would never permit such abusive methods.
Some European experts have already described the detentions c
....
Some European experts have already described the detentions centers and jails, the U.S. secretly runs all over the world, as "gulags", network of forced labor camps in the former Soviet Union, where people faced great sufferings.
Washington had neither confirmed nor denied the secret CIA operations and that its runs prisons in former Soviet-bloc nations. However, speaking to reporters in Belgium, the U.S. Secretary of State claimed that the administration "is quite clear and quite determined to carry out the president's policy ... that the United States does not engage in torture, doesn't condone it, and doesn’t expect its employees to engage in it."
Moreover, officials at the BUSH administration accused some European leaders of cooperating with such clandestine programs carried out in their countries.
In June, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. compared the U.S. treatment of detainees it holds in Guantanamo Bay to conduct "by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags" or other totalitarian regimes, drawing harsh criticism from the White House and its allies in Congress. He later apologized in the Senate.
Last week, two secret U.S. prisons in Poland and Romania were closed just ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Europe, ABC News reported.
After Rice left to Germany Monday, she admitted that the U.S. had flown suspects abroad for interrogation, but she refused to assert that the U.S. was holding them in secret prisons without recourse to the law.
On the other hand, the Human Rights Watch identified Poland and Romania as the countries that housed suspects at secret prisons.
“The U.S. scrambled to get all the suspects off European soil before Rice arrived,” ABC News said, citing current and former CIA officers.
But the CIA declined to comment and the Polish Defence Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told ABC News that "My president has said there is no truth in these reports."
Also Romanian prime minister told the news agency that there is no evidence of a CIA site, adding that he will investigate the matter.
CIA's secret prisons have existed since 2002, one was established in Thailand to detain the first top Al Qaeda capture, ABC News said, adding that the approval for another secret prison was approved last year by a North African nation.
Blast Kills Three US- Soldiers In Afghanistan
Source: RFE/RL
The U.S. military says a roadside bomb hit a vehicle of U.S.- troops in southern Afghanistan today. Three soldiers were killed and Four soldiers were wounded.
However, the U.S. army refused to give the exact location of the incident.
A man claiming to be a Taliban spokesman told AFP the group had detonated the bomb in Spin Boldak, a town in the Kandahar province, which lies near Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan.
The attack came one day after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a convoy of U.S.- troops in the city of Kandahar, wounding five soldiers-by.
Pipistro - I realize by now that the yellowcake that was found means nothing to you leftists. I also realize that the tons of precursor chemicals means nothing to you. I also realize that the ricin that was found means nothing to you.
None of it matters to you Pipistro. The truth does not matter.
*yawn* I really tire of your Noam Chomsky talking points.
Monica, first: thank you for comparing my points with Chomski's. Second: first it was a nuclear threat, then WMD anyway, or links to 911, or Saddam's behaviour, now chemicals. Next? Justifying this war and some 35.000 casualties is getting a hard task, I know. Anyway the finding of chemicals does not justify the use of it. Please don't talk about politics ("leftists"), talk about facts.
Sorry for boring and always glad to meet you ...^^v^^
hehehe...that's pretty funny! (out of mind actually)
hey! i am so happy that i found your blog, first i saw the Dari one!
anyway, nice to meet you!
Pipistro I am bored of this because I am tired of pointing to facts - and yes I WILL say to the leftists - just to have them ignored.
Keep your fingers in your ears and continue to hum very loudly, Pipistro! It's proving to be very effective for you.
Monica, thank you. You're pointing to the lies they're telling the world to justify this war. Now we're waiting for the next step toward Iran or Syria (no matter why, fake WMD or anything will fit). But you can't see it. Keep well.
Dear Pipistro! Please do not bother our dear Monica Lewinsky with the facts. She can't do anything with the fact. She has learned something else during her practics. You naugthy Lefti!!!
Afghanistan and the Legacy of Srebrenica: In 1995 Serbian special forces under General Mladic massacred an estimated eight thousand Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. In 1998 Taliban forces massacred an estimated two thousand Hazaras in Mazar-i Sharif. Three days ago, the Serbian government announced it will donate scores of old weapons and ammunition to the new government of Afghanistan. Read more on this irony of history in 'Safrang' Weblog
Here's a fact that will make you two squirm!
Iran is next on the list!!!
WOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOO!
Come on honney Monica Lewinsky!
calm down!!!
relax!!!! A cigar????
your Bill!!!!!
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