New Passport Requirements for Air Travelers

U.S. to require passports for nearly all
By BEVERLEY LUMPKIN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Nov 21, 6:35 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Nearly all air travelers entering the U.S. will be required to show passports beginning Jan. 23, including returning Americans and people from Canada and other nations in the Western Hemisphere.

The date was disclosed Tuesday by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in an interview with The Associated Press. The Homeland Security Department plans to announce the change on Wednesday.

Until now, the department had not set a specific date for instituting the passport requirement for air travelers, though the start had been expected to be around the beginning of the year. Setting the date on Jan. 23 pushes the start past the holiday season.

The requirement marks a change for Americans, Canadians, Bermudans and some Mexicans.

Currently, U.S. citizens returning from other countries in the hemisphere are not required to present passports but must show other proof of citizenship such as driver's licenses or birth certificates.

Visitors from most countries in the hemisphere are required to show passports. However, people from Canada, Bermuda — and those from Mexico who enter the U.S. frequently and have special border-crossing cards — have been allowed to use other forms of identification, including driver's licenses.

Lebanese politician assassinated

Key Lebanese politician assassinated
By ZEINA KARAM and SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writers
Tue Nov 21, 6:42 PM ET

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Pierre Gemayel, scion of Lebanon's most prominent Christian family and a leading opponent of Syria, was gunned down Tuesday in a brazen daytime hit. The assassination threatened to intensify Lebanon's power struggle between the U.S.-allied government and the Syrian-backed Hezbollah.


Gemayel, 34, was leaving church when he fell into a well-coordinated attack: One vehicle cut off his car from the front, another rammed him from behind, then gunmen burst out and sprayed a dozen bullets into his passenger-side window.

The killing sent tensions spiraling at a time when Lebanon was already facing a worsening political crisis. The Shiite Muslim guerrilla group Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies have threatened massive protests — as early as Thursday — aimed at bringing down Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government unless it gives them greater power.

President Bush condemned the assassination and accused Syria and Iran of seeking to undermine Saniora's government. Bush stopped short of specifically blaming them for Gemayel's death, though the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, raised the possibility.

Anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon, however, directly pointed the finger at Damascus, and some Gemayel supporters demanded revenge against Syria's Lebanese allies.

Bands of young Christians broke car windows and burned tires and garbage cans in their areas of Beirut and the Gemayel family's mountain hometown of Bikfaya to the northeast. But

Lebanese troops quickly stopped the unrest and set up checkpoints to prevent demonstrations in the coming days. A funeral was set for Thursday in downtown Beirut, with the anti-Syrian factions calling for mass participation.

Politicians from all sides scrambled to contain the fallout of the assassination, urging calm amid fears of an outbreak of the brutal violence between Lebanon's sharply divided communities that marked the 1975-90 civil war.

A stunned-looking former president Amin Gemayel — Pierre's father and leader of the Phalange Party — urged his supporters to observe a night of "prayer and reflection."

"We don't want an outburst of emotions and revenge," he said outside the hospital where his son died. "He was martyred for the cause of Lebanon, and we want this cause to triumph. ... To all those who love Pierre, we should not be driven by instinct."

Poisoned Former KGB Agent condition deteriorates

From Yahoo! News:

Condition of former KGB spy worsens
By TARIQ PANJA, Associated Press Writer
48 minutes ago

LONDON - A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who was poisoned three weeks ago was moved into intensive care Monday after his condition deteriorated, and his doctor said the toxin has attacked his bone marrow.


Col. Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and Federal Security Bureau agent, was under armed guard at a London hospital, as authorities investigated the poisoning that has all the hallmarks of a Cold War thriller.

Prominent Russian exiles claimed Litvinenko was poisoned at the behest of the Kremlin; Russian authorities denied any link to the attack. Police counterterrorism officials have taken charge of the inquiry.

Doctors said Litvinenko was seriously ill after being given the deadly poison thallium — a toxic metal found in some types of rat poison that can cause damage to the nervous system and organ failure. Such poison has been outlawed in Britain since the 1970s, making it highly unlikely any could have gotten into his food by accident.

Photographs released by the hospital showed a wan Litvinenko in a green hospital gown, his bald head propped up by pillows, his arm hooked to an IV drip. Thallium causes hair loss and interferes with the cardiovascular and nervous systems, attacking the vital organs.
Litvinenko's white cell count is down to nearly zero, said Dr. John Henry, a clinical toxicologist treating him. "It shows his bone marrow has been attacked and that he is susceptible to infection," Henry said.

Litvinenko, who has been a thorn in the Russian government's side since the late 1990s, fell ill after a meal with a contact who claimed to have details about the slaying of another Kremlin critic — Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative journalist who was gunned down Oct. 7 in her Moscow apartment building.

Litvinenko blamed her killing on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Somebody has asked me directly, who is guilty of Anna's death? And I can directly answer you: it is Mr. Putin, president of the Russian Federation," he said at a meeting at a media club in London in October.

NATO Is Failing

From The Telegraph:

Worse, the grand project of expanding Nato has stalled. This will be the first summit since the collapse of communism that will issue no new invitations to membership. That is a tragedy.

Nato's enlargement has bolstered freedom and entrenched democracy across the continent. The summit in the Latvian capital is a powerful reminder: without the Nato membership they gained in 2004, the defenceless Baltic states would have been a dangerous security no-mans-land. Now they contribute to Nato – with symbolic troops, and vital electronic and human intelligence – and are anchored in the West.

The success of enlargement has proved Russia's doom-laden warnings wrong. But the Kremlin has now gained something that had eluded it since the end of the Cold War: a veto on Nato's expansion. In Ukraine, the pro-Russian ruling party that displaced the pro-Western (but deeply corrupt and incompetent) parties of the 2004 "Orange Revolution" has bluntly said that it has no interest in joining the alliance.

That, arguably, is Ukraine's own affair, though public opinion was poisoned against Nato by propaganda that portrayed it as a warmongers' cabal, rather than an alliance of successful and prosperous democracies.

Much worse is the case of Georgia, fast-reforming, ardently pro-Western, and crucially located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. It is eager to join. But France, Greece and other pro-Russian countries say no. They swallow whole the Kremlin's bogus line that it feels its sphere of influence is being infringed. They never ask why the countries closest to Russia find its embrace so stifling.

Georgia has even been abandoned by its chief ally, America, which is desperate for Kremlin help against Iran and North Korea. It did not defend Georgia against a critical resolution at the United Nations and has dropped all objections to Russia's long-sought membership of the World Trade Organisation.

As America's power has receded, Russia's has grown. Russia does not just supply a quarter of Europe's gas. The Kremlin's monopoly of export pipelines has also created a stranglehold over supplies from Central Asia to eastern and central Europe. With oil, tanker deliveries can substitute for pipelines. With gas, a pipeline creates long-term dependency.

Russia's gas weapon is proving a far more potent means of subverting Europe than either communism or the Red Army. Murky intermediary companies spew out money for politicians, parties and officials that favour the Kremlin's line. Gerhard Schröder, who as German chancellor revelled in being Vladimir Putin's best friend in Europe, now heads – doubtless from the most honourable motives – the company building a pipeline on the Baltic seabed to link Germany and Russia.

Germany could try to get gas elsewhere – by building terminals for liquefied natural gas. Instead, it is deepening dependence on the authoritarian, kleptocratic regime in Russia. "We are the have-nots, and they are the haves," a defeatist top foreign-ministry official told bemused British visitors last week.

It is also making neighbouring countries like Poland even more vulnerable to Kremlin blackmail. When the Baltic pipeline is built, Russia will be able to supply its friends, while starving its foes. Poland, along with the Baltic states, is trying frantically to diversify sources of supply. But progress is painfully slow.

UK Terror Tidal Wave

UK faces 'wave' of terror plots

Britain faces a "wave" of terrorist plots, prepared strategically and directed from abroad by al-Qaeda, Home Secretary John Reid has told the BBC.

He agreed with MI5 head Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller's assessment that there were 30 major plots, and said an attack in the UK was "highly likely".

New counter-terrorism laws are expected to be among a raft of Home Office Bills at the heart of the Queen's Speech.

Counter-terrorism officials have said Britain is al-Qaeda's top target.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Reid said Dame Eliza had provided a "salutary warning".

'Great threat'

"It is a very great threat. It means that a terrorist attack in the United Kingdom is highly likely," he said.

The government had no information to suggest an imminent attack, he said, but were aware of 30 plots which were "ongoing" and had potential, he said.

"Whereas we thought this was probably haphazard some time ago, they do look as though they are being directed from abroad, specifically by elements of al-Qaeda," he said.

"They look as though they are being prepared strategically and that is that they fit into a pattern... it looks as though there's a wave of such things".

Al Jazeera America Launches

Al Jazeera, wide angle

The Arab network's English-language project is set to launch today, promising high-tech 24-hour coverage. But who will watch?
By Johanna Neuman, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Al Jazeera, praised for confronting the Middle East's oft-coddled ruling regimes and criticized for bringing viewers regular updates from Osama bin Laden's cave, says it is launching its new English-language international network today.

A lot of people don't believe it.

"This is getting a little boring," said one droll industry insider who asked not to be named. "Call me back when they actually get on the air."

But after more than a year of delays, a reported $1-billion price tag and lingering questions about whether any U.S. station will carry its programming, Al Jazeera says it is, honest, ready for prime time.

"We are really, really launching," said Will Stebbins, a Boston native and former Associated Press Television News journalist who is Al Jazeera International's Washington bureau chief. "It's going to be a very dramatic launch. We're going to be live from some interesting locations."

AJI promises to outshine its competitors — such as CNN International and BBC World Service — with a mix of high-definition bells and whistles and an unusual 24-hour news rotation — four hours anchored from Washington, four from London, four from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and 12 from company headquarters in Doha, Qatar. In fact, one of the glitches that slowed the opening-day broadcast date is that AJI has gone digital, doing away with all tape and video, giving journalists desktop access to everything.

"There's been a learning curve with the new technology," said Stebbins. "It's a paradigm shift."
A paradigm shift would suggest a new technology, one so glorious to watch that viewers will soon abandon commercial television. An irony, to say the least, if AJI paves the way for a rejuvenated CBS or NBC.

"This is unprecedented; it's the most complex project of its kind ever attempted," said British journalist Nigel Parsons, AJI's managing director. "With our high-tech backbone, involving all new software, firmly linked by fiber, we'll be able to move pictures around the world."

Sen. John Kerry To Lead Small Business Committee

From Breit Bart:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) was named Chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship for the 110th Congress. Kerry has served on the Committee for 21 years proving to be a tireless advocate for small businesses by working to increase access to capital, ensure small firms get their fair share of federal contracts, improve business development opportunities, and enact common sense tax proposals and small-business-friendly regulations.

Following is a statement from Senator Kerry:

"Small businesses are the heart of the American economy and the place where American dreams rise and fall every day. I can't wait to lead the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship so we can focus on really fighting for small businesses to have a fair shot, to increase competition, to foster innovation, and to drive our economy.

"There are countless challenges small businesses face today. Twenty seven million Americans without health insurance work for small businesses that can't afford to cover them. Minority and women entrepreneurs are growing in numbers, but the dollars they receive in small business loans has remained stagnant under the Bush Administration. Service disabled veteran owned businesses only received a mere 0.6 percent of federal contracts in 2005. And, while 80 percent of America's businesses are small firms, they aren't even getting the 23 percent of federal contracts they're entitled to under the law - but somehow Washington has been so upside down that big businesses have obtained nearly $2 billion in federal contracts that should have gone to small firms.

"Next year, we will change that and we will make Washington a friend of small business once again. We need to focus on making health care affordable for small businesses. We need to reduce the burden of paperwork and bureaucracy for small businesses. We need to remove the obstacles that minority, women and veteran entrepreneurs encounter. We need to promote tax incentives to encourage investment in small businesses and restore fairness in the tax code for small firms.

"Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma revealed a need for serious reform of the SBA's Disaster Loan Program, so I will continue to push legislation that provides short-term relief for struggling businesses after a disaster and to cut through the red tape so that disaster victims get much-needed assistance quickly.

"As Chairman, I will look beyond the SBA for ways to foster the entrepreneurial spirit and assist small businesses across America. And, as I have in the past, I will continue to work across party lines to create sensible legislation that eases the burden on our entrepreneurs and helps them succeed."

Democrats Troop Pull Out Plan

From al-Reuters:

Democrats who rode Americans' anger about the war into control of the House of Representatives and the Senate showed they were eager to flex their newfound muscle.

Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who will become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in January, said Democrats would seek a bipartisan agreement to persuade Bush to start pulling troops out of Iraq in four to six months.

"We've got to put greater responsibility on the Iraqis and the way to do that -- probably the only way to do that -- is to let the Iraqis know that within four to six months of the president notifying them, that we're going to begin a phased redeployment of our troops out of Iraq," Levin said.
This is an option Bush adamantly opposed during the congressional campaign season and there was no early indication he would agree to such a plan now.

Demcrats Economic Plan Revealed

From the Opinion Journal:

Mr. Rubin's "fiscal problems" riff is really a rhetorical sleight-of-hand, using future entitlement problems to justify a tax increase today. He knows all too well that not a dime of new revenue raised today would be "saved" or otherwise devoted to paying for future Social Security or Medicare benefits. They would be spent on other things by the current Congress, just as today's surplus payroll tax revenues are spent, and just as they were spent when Mr. Rubin was at Treasury in the 1990s.

If Mr. Rubin wants to help reduce the future entitlement benefits he frets so much about, he could always support reforming those programs. Yet when President Bush invited him to participate in a bipartisan entitlement commission last year, Mr. Rubin refused.

Which is why we suspect that Mr. Rubin's real game here is politics. The Citigroup Inc. executive is part of Hillary Rodham Clinton's braintrust, and he and she would like nothing better than to coax Mr. Bush into raising taxes in the next two years. That would take the tax issue off the table in 2008, while splintering Republicans the way President George H.W. Bush's tax-hike deal with George Mitchell did going into 1992.

And if a tax increase did contribute to a severe slowdown or recession, Republicans as the incumbent party in the White House would get the political blame. Recall how Bill Clinton pinned the recession of 1990-1991 on Mr. Bush and Reaganomics, even though the Gipper had left office long before and the economy was growing at a 4% annual rate by late 1992. Readers may recall who won that election.

By the way, how does Mr. Rubin continue to dodge any historical accountability for the dot-com bust of 2000 and the recession that followed? In the liberal economic narrative, we are supposed to believe that the Clinton Administration somehow ended in 1999, and that Mr. Bush is to blame for everything that followed. Yet the Nasdaq peak came in the spring of 2000 and the third quarter of that year recorded negative growth. The shallow recession began in March 2001, with slower-than-average growth continuing until the tax cuts on dividends and the top marginal income rate passed in 2003 and the expansion moved into high gear.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

What an end to the Iraq War will look like from Chaotic Synaptic Acitivty:

Recently, the discussion was about the Tet Offensive and how the events of February, 1968 related to current day situations was posted on this blog here and here.

Possibly now, it is the moment to get ahead of the power curve and discuss the big picture that happened 30 years ago, and see if it may relate to what happens next….

So, Richard Nixon was President. The Democrats had control of the Congress. The President, as he promised in his election campaign was pulling our troops out of ground combat positions, yet left the promise of support for the South Vietnamese Army, using the strategy of “Vietnamization,” a process of turning the war over to the ARVNs, as they were able to handle it.

Effectively, in 1972, our ground combat forces were out, safe advisers left the ARVNs. While the president is the Commander-in-Chief, Congress controls the money (you’d think people would quit accusing the presidents, of any time, of what goes on with the budget, but, once more, I digress). So Congress cut off the funding for the supporting arms and the supplies from America going to South Vietnam. Now, the study of history over the ages shows the winner of wars is the country who has the best logistics and can out-produce the adversary in the fight. When “we” (the Democratic Congress) pulled appropriations from the war support effort for our allies, they sentenced them to loss of the war, and, in many cases, death in a very literal sense.

So in 1975, the NVA rolled into Saigon and raised the North Vietnamese flag in that city. It was over. What next? The Communist rebels in Cambodia, led by Pol Pot now had nothing to fear and a totalitarian government came into power and the killing fields became a part of life, as about 1/2 of the population of Cambodia was killed it’s own.

Why did the conquest of South Vietnam and the mass murders happen across the border? There was no nation with the power to let them know this wasn’t acceptable.

What does this mean today?

We already know there is simmering hate in Iraq between the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds. We have not yet been able to help them understand there’s a better way to solve issues than to murder 75 people a day, using very brutal means.

Add to this, there is at least one neighboring country, Iran, already stirring the pot, for for us to have an ally, let alone a foothold in the region, keeps them in check, unable to carry out their desires to control much of the region. Syria is a player, too, but seem to at least be keeping their head down and themselves out of the media coverage.

So, the time may come, if the Democrats can strong arm their agenda to withdraw, whether by getting the President to acquiesce to this via the “bi-partisan” Iraq Working Committee, or by the pulling of appropriations for any support of our troops. The Department of Defense will end up with no choice to bring the troops hone, or at least out of the battle zone of Iraq.

My prediction: The Sunnis, having been in power for so many years, used to being able to, even as a minority, rape the other cultural groups of the country, literally and figuratively, feeling they have some right to murder and torture as they feel. So, the Sunnis will come back with a vengance at the Kurds and Shiites. Bloodshed…and much of it.

Add to this the military power to the East, the Iranians. They, with their affinity for the Shiites, the majority culture, will now roll across the border and become directly engaged with the Sunnis. Bloodshed.

The Kurds, who have rebuilt much of the infrastructure to the north, and are already prospering from the oil flowing, will most likely get attacked by the Sunnis and Shiites, and the Iranians, as they have valuable resources and are using them.

If we thought we stepped into a hornet’s nest in 2003, we haven’t seen anything that will be like this. The locals of the area will feel empowered to kill and plunder in even more horrific manners and scales than they have, for they now see “we” (and I substantially contribute this to the Democrats and the Liberals) don’t have the stomach for it. Much like asking someone to be an EMT and all they can do at any car accident is to stand by, while people bleed to death, throwing up. Those people, politically, are the Democrats and they, in this scenario, would decide it’s better to legislate against people having car accidents, rather than finding those who can take care of such messy conditions, and wait until things are safe to toss their cookies.

More and more, I am coming to see the Democrats in modern times are the party of death and destruction, with pools of blood running from their hands. They do this, not because it’s the best course of action for the rest of the world, or the country, but so they can ascend to positions of power, where they can rent the Lincoln bedroom out to friends to raise money, so they can buy their way back into power.

I can only figure their deep dissatisfaction with the War on Terror, is they see the revenues of President Bush’s tax cuts flowing towards Iraq, and not into their hands, to bribe the voters of the next election with their largess.

The Democrats and Liberals have never acknowledged they had a part in approximately 3M deaths in SE Asia after 1972. They cannot, for they would have to face their part in mass murder.

They stand on the edge of history and are prepared, with a complete disregard for history, their own, and that of world events, ready to loose the executioners in the Middle East, first, and later in Africa and Europe. They will then turn their face from the horror and go back to their fund raisers, not even consciously aware of their shameful part in the deaths.

My gallows humor would be to think maybe they are thinking of this outcome as a help for the environment, for after all, it’s people and the demands they place on industry, that cause greenhouse gasses and causes desertification and the now, the acidification of the oceans. If we have a few less million of us to cause pollution, let alone perpetuate the species, then we’ll not have to worry about running the air conditioners quite so long at the homes and offices of liberals.

The price they paid

This from The Orange County Register by way of Chaotic Synaptic Acitivty:

This month will mark the 30th anniversary of a shameful chapter in our nation's history. Thirty years ago we abandoned a longtime ally, the Republic of (South) Vietnam.

And with it, along with millions of others, we abandoned Quang X. Pham's dad.

Quang is an old friend of mine, a 40-year-old Mission Viejo businessman who came to the U.S. as a boy refugee from Vietnam and later served as a U.S. Marine helicopter pilot in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. His father, Pham Van Hoa, now deceased, was a U.S.-trained South
Vietnamese Air Force pilot who spent 12 years in a communist "re-education" camp because he refused to leave his country when the North Vietnamese army swept through South Vietnam in April 1975 - this while America, after investing 58,000 of its own sons' lives, stood by and washed its hands of the entire bloody and tragic affair.

And even though he became an American who loved his country and served it courageously in uniform, for many years that abandonment rankled Quang's heart. It rankled mine, too.

Quang has written a new book about his father, and about his own experiences as a refugee who became an American Marine. It's called "A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey," published by Ballantine Books (you can get more information at www.asenseofduty.com), and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to understand what the Vietnam War meant to some of the people who suffered the most because of it - that is, the people of South Vietnam.

It's powerful, and moving, and in it Quang tries to dispel a myth about Vietnam that still persists.

The myth is that guys like his dad didn't fight for their country.

"I just want to see South Vietnamese (military men) like my father acknowledged," Quang told me. "Not made into heroes or anything, but just acknowledged for what they did. I wanted to set the record straight."

Certainly the casualty numbers tell a story that's far different from the myth. The South Vietnamese armed forces lost a total of about 250,000 men killed in the war - a number that, as a percentage of national population, was about 50 times greater than American deaths.

And the numbers of the maimed were even greater. Ten years ago, as a reporter for the Register, I went back to Vietnam to cover the 20th anniversary of the end of the war, and everywhere I went I would meet aging former ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) soldiers who were missing arms or legs or eyes, many of them reduced to beggary because the communist government offered no pensions or even menial jobs for former ARVNs. When they found out I'd been an American soldier in the war they would often break out yellowed, crumbling, long-hidden South Vietnamese military ID cards and tell me, "I was with you, I was with you."
And they were.

Now, I know some of my fellow American Vietnam veterans will disagree with me on this subject. They'll call me up and tell me bitter tales about "Marvin the ARVN," about South Vietnamese M-16s that were in perfect condition because "they'd never been fired, and were only dropped once," about South Vietnamese corruption and incompetence and cowardice.

Certainly there was no shortage of such things, particularly in the ARVN's politicized upper ranks.

But don't tell me - or Quang X. Pham - that 250,000 guys died with no brave men among them. Don't try to tell guys who got their arms or legs blown off that they didn't fight hard enough. Don't think that a lot of guys like Quang's father didn't have a sense of duty and honor, even as they lost their war, and their country, and languished in brutal communist prison camps for years and years and years.

Liberal sends a love letter to Little Green Footballs

They love us not.

From the Little Green Footballs Mailbag:

Little Green F-ckballs,

America has woken up. They have pulled back the curtain and turned a spotlight on the wretched creatures who are engineering the hate. They see the real provocateurs who are intentionally inciting more Middle Easterners and Muslims to hate America. They know Israel is not a blameless victim and see what the neocon journalist F-ckballs and politicians are doing.

They know that the invasion of Iraq was not for altruistic reasons, and they see the billions being extracted from their Treasury and lining the pockets of corrupt Halliburton and Bechtel profiteers. They see how the “war on terror” has been corrupted by the Executive branch to seize unconstitutional powers and to justify torture. Torture? Are you kidding me? Did you really believe good, Christian Americans would agree to use their tax money to torture people—some of whom were innocent of any crime? They’re finding out their tax dollars paid for the extradition and torture of an innocent Canadian citizen for several months, and very likely others. How twisted and vile do you think this country is, that they would allow this horrific act to be justified in the name of their national security?

They also see they need to repair the damage their government and the Little Green F-ckball cheerleaders have wrought. They have booted the Party of Fearmongers from both houses of Congress and elected the first Muslim-American in history. Your obsessed F-ckball rants and baseless accusations about Ellison are backfiring, just as they backfired for his opponent Fine.

They know this small gesture is a step in the right direction to repair the shattered relations with the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims. They know these relations are critical to fighting the REAL war on terror.

A good percentage of Republicans see these things as well. They see how their party of small government and conservative values has been twisted into an ideological ghoul. A possessed specter of fear more terrifying than the terrorists they claim to be fighting given the immense power they wield. They want their party back. The one hijacked by the Little Green F-ckball deviants who have defiled it with their depraved, ideological schemes.

God bless this great Republic,

J. Bailey

Hostage Grab In Iraq

Mass kidnap at Baghdad ministry
By Aseel Kami and Alastair Macdonald
2 hours, 29 minutes ago

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Gunmen in Iraqi police uniforms snatched up to 100 staff and visitors from a ministry building in Baghdad on Tuesday, sparking a huge manhunt by a government struggling to control increasingly audacious sectarian militias.

Amid new suspicions of police complicity in the latest and biggest mass kidnapping, the interior minister hauled in police chiefs to explain how dozens of gunmen swept into the Higher Education Ministry annex, rounded up those inside, and drove them off in broad daylight toward a Shi'ite militia stronghold.

Women were left behind after having their mobile phones confiscated. One witness said police guards stood by as the gunmen separated minority Sunnis from Shi'ites by checking names on identity documents, although officials and other witnesses said it appeared men from both sects were taken away.

"Some of the men put up a struggle and begged the militants to leave them alone but one of them said 'Don't worry, if you've done nothing wrong we'll let you go'," a local shopkeeper said after the men were put into 40 vehicles in under half an hour.

Some were later freed but up to 50 hostages were still unaccounted for, the government said, renewing assurances that its new, U.S.-trained security forces can bring order.

Harry Reid elected Senate Majority Leader

Reid elected leader of Senate Democratic majority
By Thomas Ferraro
Tue Nov 14, 1:45 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats elected Sen. Harry Reid as Senate majority leader on Tuesday and renewed their call for change in Iraq as they prepared to take control of Congress from President George W. Bush's Republicans.

"From Iraq to the economy, Americans want change, and the Senate majority ... is going to fight for change," Reid of Nevada declared after his colleagues elected him by acclamation for the new 110th Congress set to convene in January.

Democrats campaigned on an agenda that includes raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, reducing the cost of college and expanding health care.

The party favors a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, a major issue in last week's elections that saw the American voters give Democrats control of both chambers of Congress for the first time in 12 years.

While Democrats cannot force Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq, they intend to beat the drums on Capitol Hill for a new strategy.

"This is not a time for threatening the president with anything. We're going to see how we can work with him to change course in Iraq," said Reid, Senate Democratic minority leader the past two years.

Democrats also elected Dick Durbin of Illinois as assistant Senate majority leader. He has been Senate assistant minority leader since January 2005.

Senate Republicans are to elect their leaders for the new Congress on Wednesday; Democrats and Republicans elect their House of Representatives leaders on Thursday and Friday, respectively.

Reminder of Who Are We Fighting

From the HNN archives:

Is Terrorism New?

By David Greenberg
Mr. Greenberg is a columnist for Slate.com and teaches history at Columbia University.

With last Tuesday's horrific assault, "terrorism" has become the new American watchword and scourge. Yet as George Bush declares a war on terrorism," neither he nor anyone else has defined what terrorism is or where it comes from. Doing so may help us to face a frightening reality: the catastrophe of September 11 represents terrorism of a new, more challenging kind.

Not all political violence, it should be specified, amounts to terrorism. Committed by stateless organizations against established powers, terrorism doesn't attack military centers to seize power, like guerrilla warfare. It specifically targets random, unsuspecting victims to publicize a grievance and sow panic among the strong.

The word comes from the French Revolution's "Reign of Terror" (1793-94), when Robespierre's Jacobins executed 12,000 people deemed enemies of the Revolution, often for flimsy reasons.

Since the Jacobins ran the state, we wouldn't call them terrorists today. Still, their vision of a violent purge in the name of Utopia provided a model for later insurgents.

Over the next century the Jacobin spirit infected Russia, Europe and the United States. Radical anarchists - Leon Czolgosz, who killed William McKinley in 1901; Alexander Berkman, who shot steel magnate Henry Frick in 1892; the Russians who assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881 - targeted powerful leaders to foment popular revolution. Alongside bombings such as the one at Chicago's Haymarket in 1886, these killings created publicity and popular panic. Yet the anarchist revolution never came.

In the mid-20th century, native peoples from Egypt to Vietnam rebelled against colonial regimes. They too used dramatic acts of destruction - called terrorism by some - to win attention. But it was Algeria's Front de Libération Nationale, seeking liberation from France, that defined modern terrorism, deliberately spilling the blood of random French civilians.

After France executed two Algerian rebels in 1956, the FLN slaughtered 49 Frenchmen in three days. FLN terrorists bombed beachside cafés where they knew families would perish. They wanted to raise the price of colonialism to intolerable levels. They did.

Their success inspired others: Basque and Quebecois separatists, Palestinian and Irish nationalists, Marxist cabals in Africa and Latin America. By the 1960s, the killing of civilians to sow fear and secure political gains was rampant, even in developed nations - from the Weather Underground in the U.S. to the Marxist Baader-Meinhoff Gang in West Germany to the Red Brigades in Italy.

But Western terrorism of the '60s and '70s (like recent right-wing variant of Timothy McVeigh) paled next to the violence in the Middle East. It need not diminish Yasser Arafat's recent peacemaking moves to recall that for years his Palestinian Liberation Organization unabashedly murdered civilians amid some of the world's most shocking deeds.

The constituent groups of Arafat's PLO pioneered hijacking and hostage-taking to win global recognition for their statehood demands. The 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the 1985 killing of the wheelchair-bound American Leon Klinghoffer during the commandeering of the Achille Lauro remained etched in public memory. Nonetheless, they helped highlight Palestinian grievances.

Like such contemporaneous groups as South Africa's African National Congress, the PLO's goals were political, not religious. Courting world opinion, they realized that if you live by the car bomb, you die by the car bomb; terrorism could alienate the very people whose respect its perpetrators sought. Indeed, Arafat, Nelson Mandela and others had to distance themselves from terror to prove they could lead new governments. As the PLO's terrorism abated, Islamic fundamentalism swept the Middle East. Starting in 1979--the year of the Israel-Egypt peace agreement, the Iranian revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan--Mideast terrorists began hailing from overtly religious groups: Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Algeria's Islamic Armed Group.

Espousing a warped vision most Muslims emphatically reject, many believed the United States to be the symbol and stronghold of satanic Western values. Inevitably, some, such as the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, made the U.S. their actual target.

Unlike the violence of the 1960s and '70s, the attacks on the U.S. are not secular or Marxist.

Unlike the nationalist terror of the IRA or the FLN, they aren't aimed to achieve a negotiated political settlement. They are neither part of a war of rebellion, nor a form of left-wing anarchism, nor a barbarous exercise of state power.

This new terrorism springs from an unswerving conviction that to destroy America is to do God's work. Since it doesn't play to world opinion, world opinion cannot act as a brake upon it. And since it failed to destroy America, we should expect it will strike again.

The Winter Of Our Discontent

Post at the Little Green Football Comments section
by Ayatollah Ghilmeini:

The Winter of Our Discontent

What If:

In 1944, exhausted after 3 years of war, the US had elected Pat Buchanan’s America Firsters to Congress to “support our troops and brought them home?” FDR bows to the public appointing Charles Lindbergh and the Joseph Kennedy to the Germany-Japan Study Group to review the current mess in Europe and the South Pacific.

In 1940, Chamberlain had cut a dirty deal to form a broadbased coalition “national emergency government” that refused to confront Hitler?

Welcome to my nightmares. While these examples are mutually exclusive, they are illustrative of the current politics of the US and Israel.

With one huge difference: unlike the historical fiction above, Iran really is about to get the bomb. Iran hangs gay men from cranes and forces women to marry their rapists, they shelter al Qaeda and own and operate the most malignant subsidiary in human history, Hezbollah. Half the 9-11 hijackers traipsed through Iran on their way to attack the US. Iran is easily responsible for half the casualties in post war Iraq.

The mini-wars in Gaza and Lebanon were meant to protect Iran's nukes, neutralize Israel and drive a wedge between Israel and the West. They massively succeeded.

Iran is on the verge of founding a Khomeinist New Persian Empire to drive the world to its knees. If you think the Saudis are bad, imagine Ayatollah Khameini in charge of global Islamic education as “custodian of the two Mosques.” Imagine arch-terrorist Imad Mugniyeh free to unleash his murderous skills on the world protected by a nuclear umbrella. Iran sent hundreds of thousands of children to clear minefields, what moral compunctions can anyone think they have regarding using a nuclear weapon? Five people have positively identified Ahmadinejad as at the US Embassy in 1979, so you know what this snake thinks of diplomacy, treaties and human decency.

Iran has the missiles; they are just waiting for the warheads. So there is time; but not much time.

President Bush, US leadership, Jews worldwide and Israel’s leadership must act now. Better active today than radioactive tomorrow. There is no tomorrow the day after Iran has the bomb. European diplomacy, the indifferent snobs that appeased millions of people to death in WWII have set the stage for another global bloodbath.

Make no mistake, unless Iran is stopped right now, millions of people are going to die and millions more will be exiles. The moment you read these words, you can never say later that you were not warned. In many ways, Europe has still not recovered from WWII, Russia and Germany still bear the scars. Iran’s war of global aggression will see parts of the world NEVER recover. If Iran succeeds in destroying Israel, the story of the Jewish people will come to an end; this is a very important (to them) part of their plans.

Edmund Burke was wrong; all that Evil needs to triumph is political correctness, then good men will do nothing.

PC turns a blind eye to open holocaust denial and philofascism and PC blames the democracies, most especially the US and Israel, for opposing these nice folks in Iran who believe the 12th Imam is going to pop out of the well any day now and see a weird green glow, that no one else sees, in the General Assembly of the UN.

Right now, PC thinks everything is great, Bush is at bay and UNSC 1701 has FINALLY brought peace to Lebanon.

In 1939, if the allies had moved their armies to the German border, Hitler might(only might) not have been able to invade Poland. But that would have taken leadership and courage.

The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of two politically tanked leaders.

The irony is if they don’t act, the very voices raised against them now will become Nagasaki shadows, ashen profiles of the dead combusted to dust and memory in a flash.

The issue of who has the bomb and when it might be used was the one unsettled issue of WWII.

The gates to the nuclear club must be slammed shut now or the winter of our discontent will last forever.

U.S. exit may embolden terrorists

From Yahoo! News:

SYDNEY, Australia - If the United States and its allies leave Iraq without a clear victory, it will embolden terrorists from the Middle East to Indonesia, and damage international efforts to contain North Korea's nuclear ambitions, Australia's leader said Tuesday.

Weighing into the debate on new strategies for ending the chaos in Iraq, Prime Minister John Howard said the allies should not expect much help from Iran and Syria and that efforts to find a lasting solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict must be revitalized.

Howard ruled out an early withdrawal of Australian troops from Iraq, warning that pulling out too soon would severely damage America's influence and standing in the world.

"A strong and engaged America is essential to dealing with all our regional security challenges, not least the nuclear brinkmanship of North Korea," he said in excerpts of a speech to the Australian American Association released by his office.

Iran Plans Building 25 Nukes A Year

From JTA News:

Iran is planning to develop 25 nuclear weapons per year, ultimately with a range to reach the United States, Benjamin Netanyahu told the North American federation system’s annual gathering.

“It’s 1938 — and Iran is Germany,” the Likud Party leader said repeatedly in an address Monday to some 5,000 delegates at the United Jewish Communities’ General Assembly in Los Angeles.
“When someone tells you he is going to exterminate you, believe him and stop him.”

Plutonium found in Iran waste facility

Found Via Little Green Footballs:

Plutonium found in Iran waste facility By
GEORGE JAHN, Associated Press Writer
46 minutes ago

VIENNA, Austria - International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

The report, prepared for next week's meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency's attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program that have lead to fears it might be interested in developing nuclear arms.
And it said it could not confirm Iranian claims that its nuclear activities were exclusively nonmilitary unless Tehran increased its openness.

"The agency will remain unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran," without additional cooperation by Tehran, said the report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

Such cooperation is a "prerequisite for the agency to be able to confirm the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," it added.

As expected, the four-page report made available to The Associated Press confirmed that Iran continues uranium enrichment experiments in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.
Both highly enriched uranium and plutonium can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, and Iran is under intense international pressure to freeze activities that can produce such substances.

But Tehran has shrugged off both Security Council demands that it stop developing its enrichment programs and urgings that it cease construction of a heavy water research reactor that produces plutonium waste. It insists it wants enrichment only to generate nuclear power and says it needs the Arak research reactor to produce isotopes for medical research and cancer treatment.

Earlier Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Iran would soon celebrate completion of its nuclear fuel program and claimed the international community was ready to accept it as a nuclear state.
Iran has been locked in a standoff with the West over its nuclear program. The United States and its European allies have been seeking a U.N. Security Council resolution imposing sanctions on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
"Initially, they (the U.S. and its allies) were very angry. The reason was clear: They basically wanted to monopolize nuclear power in order to rule the world and impose their will on nations," Ahmadinejad told a news conference.
"Today, they have finally agreed to live with a nuclear Iran, with an Iran possessing the whole nuclear fuel cycle," he said. He did not elaborate.

Al-Qaeda wants nukes for attacks

Al Qaeda seeking nuclear kit for attacks: UK official
By Sophie Walker
Mon Nov 13, 2:38 PM ET

LONDON (al-Reuters) - Al Qaeda is trying to acquire the technology that would enable it to use a nuclear device to attack Western targets including Britain, a senior British official said on Monday.


"We know the aspiration is there. We know attempts to gather materials are there, we know that attempts to gather technology are there," the senior Foreign Office official told reporters.

The comments at a briefing came days after the head of Britain's domestic spy agency said Muslim extremists were plotting at least 30 major terrorist attacks in Britain which could involve chemical and nuclear devices.

The Foreign Office official, asked whether there was any doubt that Al Qaeda wants to gather nuclear material for use against Western targets, said: "No doubt at all."

Eliza Manningham-Buller, head of intelligence agency MI5, said last week young British Muslims were being groomed to become suicide bombers and her agents were tracking some 1,600 suspects, most of whom were British-born and linked to al Qaeda in Pakistan.

Britain suffered its worst peacetime attack in July 2005 when four British Islamists blew themselves up on London's transport network, killing 52 commuters and wounding hundreds.

Leaders ask Syria and Iran to curb violence

Iraq allies urge Bush to turn to Iran, Syria
By Steve Holland
35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, searching for a new approach in Iraq, expressed little enthusiasm on Monday for seeking Syrian and Iranian help to calm Iraq as he also cautioned Democrats against quick U.S. troop reductions.


Bush, who has stated a need for "fresh perspectives" on Iraq after his Republican Party received a drubbing in last week's midterm congressional elections, met at the White House on Monday with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, whose report in a month could offer him a change of course in Iraq.

Unrelenting violence in Iraq has added to the pressure on Bush. Through Monday night, Baghdad reported one of the highest tolls of suspected sectarian deaths in recent weeks, with the bodies of 46 people recovered, an Interior Ministry source said. A suicide bomb killed 11 Iraqis on a minibus and at least nine U.S. and British troops were reported killed in the previous two days.

Monday's violence, which also underlined Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's problems trying to curb the bloodshed, followed attacks which killed more than 100 people Sunday including a suicide attack on police recruits which killed 35 in Baghdad.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to call on Monday for Syria and Iran to be engaged in efforts to stem violence in Iraq and to secure a broader Middle East peace settlement.

Blair will argue the need for a Middle East strategy that includes making clear to Damascus and Tehran how they can help in the region while warning them of the consequences of hindering peace, a spokeswoman said.

Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, another of Bush's loyal backers in Iraq, also said Monday talks should be held with Syria and Iran on ending the violence in Iraq.
It is not clear how willing Tehran and Damascus are to step into the turmoil of Iraq to aid Washington.

No Reason To Celebrate

The Stein Report has a post from CNN's Lou Dobbs that says the Mid-Terms were a victory for middle America.

However, someone in the comments section has a different take on the matter:



I think it is very naive to believe this is a victory. Just go to NumbersUSA.com and look at the Democrats grades for their immigration votes. We have a nightmare on our hands. Like the re-elected governor of Arizona has already said, she pledged to pressure Congress until it accomplished a real immigration reform bill. She means amnesty and so do people such as Hillary "La Raza" Clinton and Pelosi, who takes pictures with the man who started the "Man/Boy" organization.

How in the hell are these 3 crazy women going to provide a checks and balance when they are so out of balance themselves? Fractured fairy tales will abound in the next 2 years. People voted for Democrats because they didn't like GWB. However, he wasn't the opposition--the other candidates were.

This isn't how adults vote when one party so clearly is for allowing all illegals to get a free ride into and in our country. The rest of us get to help pay so these corrupt politicians can get their votes by any manipulative means possible. I didn't hear any of them talk about what the platform was going to be. OBL is in some cave somewhere doing the "Funky Chicken" or the "Electric Slide" or some other crazy dance. The terrorists suggested people vote for Democrats and vote for them you did. It sounds like a lot of Americans have just given aid and comfort to our enemies--the terrorists and Mexico.

How is this restoring sanity to the Middle Class, the very people who will be forced to pay for this crap? Sorry, Lou, I love you; but you are so very wrong on this one. Hide and watch because it is going to get very, very ugly.

Posted by: jaded on November 9, 2006 09:43 PM


Indeed.

China Sub Follows Navy Carriers

China sub stalked US Navy carrier group

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Chinese submarine stalked a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle group in the Pacific last month and was undetected until it surfaced within firing range, The Washington Times reported on Monday.

The Chinese Song-class diesel-powered attack submarine was seen within five miles of the carrier Kitty Hawk and its accompanying warships on October 26, the newspaper said, citing defense officials.

The surfaced submarine was spotted by a routine surveillance flight by one of the U.S. carrier group's planes, the report said.

A Navy spokeswoman in Washington had no comment on the report.

Disclosure of the surprise encounter comes as the commander of the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet, Adm. Gary Roughead, was making his first visit to China which began over the weekend, The Washington Times said.

Al-Qaeda Targets Euro Transit

Europe transit possible Al Qaeda target

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Al Qaeda may be planning to attack rail and air travel in Europe -- possibly targeting the busy holiday travel season -- according to intelligence findings, the "CBS Evening News" reported on Friday.

The report, citing Arab and other intelligence sources, said interrogations of al Qaeda suspects who recently left Afghanistan and Pakistan raised the concerns.

Arsonist set French Jewish School Ablaze

Nov. 9, 2006 17:45 | Updated Nov. 10, 2006 1:39

Arsonists attack French Jewish school
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Arsonists set fire Thursday to a Jewish school north of Paris that had been badly damaged in another arson attack in 2003, police said. No one was injured.

Officers detected the smell of fire on an overnight patrol near the Merkaz Hatorah school in suburban Gagny, then discovered flames jumping from a ground-floor room. Two school offices were destroyed. Police believe the arsonist threw an explosive device through a window.

Two other small fires were set nearby as well. One targeted an abandoned car and another was set in a a garbage storage room. Firefighters contained the fires in less than a half hour.

Police opened an investigation. CRIF, an umbrella group of France's Jewish organizations, asked investigators to shed all possible light on the case.

A November 2003 fire at Merkaz Hatorah destroyed around 3,000 square meters (32,300 square feet) of the school. At the time, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the arson attack had "an anti-Semitic and obviously racist connotation."

The attack galvanized French leaders' response to anti-Semitic attacks. Days afterward, President Jacques Chirac announced a tougher policy to combat anti-Semitism, saying that an attack on a Jew is an attack on the entire nation.

Christian high school girls beheaded as a Ramadan "trophy"

Beheaded girls 'Ramadan trophies', court hears
From Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta correspondent
November 09, 2006 07:00am

THREE Christian high school girls were beheaded as a Ramadan "trophy" by Indonesian militants who conceived the idea after a visit to Philippines jihadists, a court heard yesterday.

The girls' severed heads were dumped in plastic bags in their village in Indonesia's strife-torn Central Sulawesi province, along with a handwritten note threatening more such attacks.
The note read: "Wanted: 100 more Christian heads, teenaged or adult, male or female; blood shall be answered with blood, soul with soul, head with head."

Javanese trader Hasanuddin appeared in Jakarta Central Court yesterday charged with planning and directing the murders in October last year. He faces a death sentence if found guilty under anti-terrorism legislation.

Hasanuddin allegedly returned from a visit to members of Philippines Islamist group the Moro Islamic Liberation Front with tales of how that organisation regularly staged bombings to coincide with Lebaran, the festival that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He later spoke with a preacher in Poso, Central Sulawesi, about whether such a plan could work in Indonesia, but expressed doubt about whether it was appropriate.

However, after further discussion with friends, he decided that beheading Christians could qualify as an act of Muslim charity.

Conscripting several accomplices at a local pesantren, or Islamic school, he directed one of them, Lilik Purnomo, to seek out "the head of a Christian", prosecutors alleged.

"It would be a great Lebaran trophy if we got a Christian. Go search for the best place for us to find one," Hasanuddin allegedly ordered his companion.

Lilik returned to say he had found an "excellent" target - a group of schoolgirls who travelled to and from class by foot in the Central Sulawesi village of Gebong Rejo. The village is in the district of Poso, where hundreds of people have died in sectarian violence in recent years.

British Intelligence Chief Fears Nuclear Attack

UK spy chief fears nuclear attack
POSTED: 1705 GMT (0105 HKT), November 10, 2006


LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain's spy chief has said authorities are tracking almost 30 terrorist plots to "kill people and damage our economy" and expressed concern over future terrorist attacks using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

MI5 Director Eliza Manningham-Buller said in a speech released Friday the secretive agency had exposed five major plots since last July's London bombings and has witnessed a steady increase in threats since the terror attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001.

"Today we see the use of homemade improvised explosive devices," she said, "but I suggest tomorrow's threat will include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials and even nuclear technology."

Manningham-Buller said officials were "aware of numerous plots to kill people and to damage our economy."

"What do I mean by numerous? Five? 10?" she said. "No, nearer 30 that we currently know of."

"What we see at the extreme end of the spectrum are resilient networks, some directed from al Qaeda in Pakistan, planning attacks including mass casualty suicide attacks in the UK," she said.
Of great concern is that many of the attacks have and will be carried out by terrorists who have grown up in Britain.

Currently, authorities are monitoring 1,600 suspects "actively engaged in plotting or facilitating terrorist acts here and overseas." Many have gained training through links to al Qaeda in Pakistan. One task MI5 has been charged with is to figure out what motivates potential terrorists.

"Al Qaeda has developed an ideology which claims that Islam is under attack and needs to be defended," she said. "The extremists are motivated by a sense of grievance and injustice driven by their interpretation of the history between the West and the Muslim world."

Manningham-Buller cited the results of opinion polls that have been conducted since the suicide bombing attacks on London's transportation system July 7, 2005, which killed 52 people and wounded more than 700. The results showed more than 100,000 British citizens considered the attacks justified.

Foiled plots

This August, police said they foiled a plot by a British terrorist cell to attack trans-Atlantic airliners. More than a dozen people, all British, are currently awaiting trial.

And on Tuesday, British Muslim convert Dhiren Barot was jailed for life for plotting to attack key U.S. and UK targets with limousines packed with explosives.

MI5, she said, is looking at past attacks and foiled plots to prevent the continued increase in attacks that may in the future be more advanced and even deadlier.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair backed his spy chief's warning and said the terrorist threat facing Britain "will last a generation."

"We need to combat the poisonous propaganda of those people that warps and perverts the minds of younger people," Blair added.

Get Rummy Part III

and in the continuing saga of "Get Rummy":

Impact of Rumsfeld's Departure in Iraq
Posted Friday, Nov. 10, 2006

Just days after his resignation, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is about to face more repercussions for his involvement in the troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New legal documents, to be filed next week with Germany's top prosecutor, will seek a criminal investigation and prosecution of Rumsfeld, along with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA director George Tenet and other senior U.S. civilian and military officers, for their alleged roles in abuses committed at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The plaintiffs in the case include 11 Iraqis who were prisoners at Abu Ghraib, as well as Mohammad al-Qahtani, a Saudi held at Guantanamo, whom the U.S. has identified as the so-called "20th hijacker" and a would-be participant in the 9/11 hijackings. As TIME first reported in June 2005, Qahtani underwent a "special interrogation plan," personally approved by Rumsfeld, which the U.S. says produced valuable intelligence. But to obtain it, according to the log of his interrogation and government reports, Qahtani was subjected to forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation and other controversial interrogation techniques.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say that one of the witnesses who will testify on their behalf is former Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the one-time commander of all U.S. military prisons in Iraq. Karpinski — who the lawyers say will be in Germany next week to publicly address her accusations in the case — has issued a written statement to accompany the legal filing, which says, in part:

"It was clear the knowledge and responsibility [for what happened at Abu Ghraib] goes all the way to the top of the chain of command to the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ."

John Howard, YOUR NEXT!!

And next on the list is Aussie PM John Howard:

Iraq policy could also sink Australia's PM

By Michael Perry
Fri Nov 10, 1:07 AM ET

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch supporter of President George Bush's Iraq policy, should take heed of U.S. voter backlash as he prepares for a 2007 election, local media and critics said on Friday.

Anger at the war in Iraq contributed to this week's crushing defeat of Bush's Republican party in mid-term elections for the House of Representatives and Congress.

Australia has about 1,500 troops in and around Iraq and, according to recent opinion polls, almost two in three Australians want these forces brought home.

"George W. Bush is captain of a sinking political ship. The message for Australia is to beware being caught supporting policies that will sink with Bush," wrote national affairs commentator Paul Kelly in the daily Australian newspaper.

Greens Senator Bob Brown described the Democrats' victory as an anti-war rebuke to Bush and warned Howard he could be next.

"Australian voters oppose the war in increasing droves. The 2006 U.S. voter backlash will become the 2007 Aussie voter backlash on Iraq," he said.

Australia was one of the first nations to commit troops to the 2003 U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein. Howard wants the troops to stay until Iraq can handle its own security, but the Labor opposition says it will bring them home if elected.

Legislative elections are due to be held by the end of 2007.

Labor leader Kim Beazley said the anti-Iraq sentiments of American voters were shared by many Australians.

"There is a real hunger in the American community for a change in strategy on Iraq and for effective action from the President to bring this conflict to a conclusion," Beazley told Australian television.

"I don't think the Australian people are any different from that. They think this (Iraq war) is a profound mistake which has not made them more secure and they want to see their political leaders working to conclude it."

Opinion polls show Labor is making inroads on Howard, whose 10-year grip on power has been loosened by rising interest rates and fuel prices which have hurt the middle-class voters the conservative prime minister calls his "battlers."

But Howard has an uncanny knack of sensing the public mood, an ability that has helped him win four straight elections.

Al-Qaeda Threatens to Destroy White House

and the news just keeps getting better...

New Al Qaeda Tape: "We Won't Rest Until We Blow Up the White House"

New al-Qaida Iraq Leader Mocks President Bush

*Sigh* And it just keeps on comming...

Leader of al-Qaida in Iraq mocks
Bush By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
8 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A new recording Friday attributed to the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq mocked President Bush as a coward whose conduct of the war was rejected at the polls, challenging him to keep U.S. troops in the country to face more bloodshed.


"We haven't had enough of your blood yet," taunted terror chieftain Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, identified as the speaker on the tape.

He gloated over Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation, claimed to have 12,000 fighters under his command who "have vowed to die for God's sake," and said his fighters will not rest until they blow up the White House and occupy Jerusalem.

It was impossible to verify the authenticity of the 20-minute recording, posted on a Web site used by Islamic militants. The CIA said technical analysis was being conducted on the tape.

Mad Mullahs Happy Democrats Won

They're circling the wagons...

Khamenei calls elections a victory for Iran
Fri Nov 10, 2006 9:03am ET
By Jon Hemming

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called U.S. President George W. Bush's defeat in congressional elections a victory for Iran.

Bush has accused Iran of trying to make a nuclear bomb, being a state sponsor of terrorism and stoking sectarian conflict in Iraq, all charges Tehran denies.

"This issue (the elections) is not a purely domestic issue for America, but it is the defeat of Bush's hawkish policies in the world," Khamenei said in remarks reported by Iran's student news agency ISNA on Friday.

"Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation."

The Democrats wrested control of both houses of Congress from the Republicans in this week's mid-term elections, partly because of voter concern over the war in Iraq.

Khamenei, a senior cleric in power since 1989, has the last word on matters of state in Iran's complex system of Islamic rule, while the government, under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is in charge of day-to-day decision making.

"The result of this election indicates that the majority of American people are dissatisfied and are fed up with the policies of the American administration," the IRNA state news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

Khamenei said military maneuvers in the Gulf this week in which Iranian forces tested new missile systems showed Iran was ready to face any threat.

But, he said: "With the scandalous defeat of America's policies in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon and Afghanistan, America's threats are empty threats on an international scale."

Is it over for Europe?

The Brussels Journal on the "morning after" election day:

Paul Belien on Fri, 2006-11-10 06:45

I have not been posting much this week since I was attending the general meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in Guatemala City. Today (it is still 9 November here) is the 17th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. We just heard a speech by former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who brought homage to Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul the Great, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and others and asked us never to forget the millions of victims of communism. Aznar also said that “today’s threat is no longer Soviet missiles. The threat is terrorism.” He added that “Islamic terrorists consider our democracy and freedom to be unbearable” and that policies of appeasement do not work: “Appeasement will not work against Islamic terrorism. We must not forget this lesson,” he said.

I wonder what the position of the Spanish government would be today if Aznar were still Prime Minister of Spain. He did not refer to last Tuesday’s American elections in his speech, but would he be worried? I have expressed concern that a victory of the Democrats in the U.S. might have very serious consequences, especially in Europe, if this leads to a withdrawal of the US Army from Iraq. Most Europeans are satisfied that the Pelosi band won, but if Iraq ends in a debacle for the U.S. this will seal the fate of Europe.

The reason why so many Europeans are pleased with the Democratic victory is because they see it as a vindication of their own anti-Americanism. Some Europeans will deny this, and say that they are not at all anti-American – just anti-Bush or anti-neocon. It this were true one might just as well argue that the reason why the regimes in Iran and Syria are pleased with the outcome of the American elections has nothing to do with anti-Americanism but only with feelings of antipathy towards the Bush administration. I do not buy that argument. Anti-American feelings are growing in Europe. I think these feelings will exacerbate in the coming years for three reasons, all of which have to do with the current crisis in Europe:

(1) Its welfare states are on the brink of implosion;

(2) Its moral and legal order is collapsing, while the influence of radical Islam is growing;

(3) Its nation-states are falling apart.

Before coming to Guatemala I spent over two weeks in the U.S., where I could feel the exasperation with Europe – and the growing anti-Europeanism. One university professor told me that the Americans made a mistake when they dropped two atomic bombs on Japan during WWII, because they should have dropped them on Europe. He was only half joking and made it quite clear that America would never again come to the rescue of Europe. He is closely involved with one of the think tanks related to the White House. He told me (and I believe him because I heard a similar observation from someone working for the administration) that America’s leading politicians, despite words to the opposite, have also given up on Europe. To be honest, I find this quite understandable. It would, however, help if they were to concede this publicly, because only the shock of realizing that they are on their own and will have to rely on themselves instead of on America will persuade the Europeans to pull their act together.

So much for bipartisanship

Pelosi Says She Would Drain GOP 'Swamp'
By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent
WASHINGTON Oct 6, 2006 (AP)—

Franklin Roosevelt had his first hundred days.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi is thinking 100 hours, time enough, she says, to begin to "drain the swamp" after more than a decade of Republican rule.

As in the first 100 hours the House meets after Democrats in her fondest wish win control in the Nov. 7 midterm elections and Pelosi takes the gavel as the first Madam Speaker in history.

Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation."

Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.

Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds "I hope with a veto-proof majority," she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday.

All the days after that: "Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority.

To do that, she said, Bush-era tax cuts would have to be rolled back for those above "a certain level." She mentioned annual incomes of $250,000 or $300,000 a year and higher, and said tax rates for those individuals might revert to those of the Clinton era. Details will have to be worked out, she emphasized.

"We believe in the marketplace," Pelosi said of Democrats, then drew a contrast with Republicans. "They have only rewarded wealth, not work."

"We must share the benefits of our wealth" beyond the privileged few, she added.
Pelosi, 66, has been a leader of the House Democrats since 2002. But her political apprenticeship dates to childhood, when her father was mayor of Baltimore.

Rep John Murtha to run of Majority Leader

Rep. John Murtha commenting on NPR All Things Distored. [via Little Green Footballs]

Murtha on Iraq:

Winning is not a strategy, victory is not a strategy.

Murtha on the Demonrats strategy:

We’re gonna say, here’s a plan that we have, and Speaker Pelosi has signed on to the plan I have, stability in the Middle East, stability in Iraq comes from redeployment of our troops, and that’s gonna be what we’ll work for.

About the President of The United States:

Listen, this is not a dictatorship. The President can say all he wants to. The President has, has no power. The President is a, a perception of power. And he’s lost that power in this election.

and a comment from a reader at LGF:

#37 SteveC 11/9/2006 06:33PM PST
Plan your work, and work your plan. If you don't have a plan, you don't have to work. So I'm taking the day off to celebrate our victory. Speaker Pelosi is gonna be there, drop by and have a cold one with us!

/Sacasm Grande!

Welcome to Pelosi's America

A Recipe for Defeat: Europe is Pelosi’s America

From the desk of Paul Belien on Thu, 2006-11-02 19:45

I am in Los Angeles at the moment, and do not have the opportunity to write about events in Europe as much as I would like to. I will not be back in Brussels until 12 November. Over here in the U.S. all attention is focused on the upcoming elections. There is a possibility that the Democrats will become the majority in the House of Representatives and that Nancy Pelosi, the California Liberal, will become the next Speaker of the House. I was in West Hollywood on Halloween. A friend described this area as one third retiree, one third Russian and one third gay. Sounds a bit like Europe to me.

The gays take every opportunity to dress up. Consequently Halloween has become a gay festival in LA. The first people I met when leaving the hotel were a group of men dressed up as ballerinas. This is Pelosi Land.

Americans can already see what their country’s future will be if they vote for Pelosi and her band. They only need to watch Europe. That is what America will be like 20 years from now if the Liberals succeed in turning the U.S. into a European-style welfare state. The latter is the cause of all Europe’s problems. It has led to secularization, because people who are catered for from the cradle to the grave no longer need God. It has led to the immigration debacle, because Europe has attracted welfare immigrants who only come for the benefits and not to contribute to the host country’s wealth creation. It has led to the loss of the citizens’ ability to care for themselves, because they expect everything from the state.

However, the current American elections are relevant for Europe, too. If they lead to the American withdrawal from Iraq, Europe will face a widespread intifada. The withdrawal will be perceived as a defeat of the West and the Muslim “youths” in Europe’s cities will become even more arrogant. They utterly despise the Europeans, whom they perceive (not entirely without reason) to be men dressed up as ballerinas, and they hate America because it fights back. In a world ruled by men who only understand the language of power it is better to be hated than despised. If America withdraws the Islamist fanatics will despise America for it. They will take this as a sign that the West has been defeated and that the world is theirs.

In this scenario Europe has more to lose than America. That makes it all the more surprising that Europe’s politicians refuse to support America. They seem to be hoping that the Muslims, although they despise the Europeans, will leave them alone so they can carry on paying the taxes that the immigrants live off. I fear it will not turn out this way. Moreover, the funds are running dry because the welfare state hampers wealth creation.

I have ambivalent feelings about the war in Iraq, but once a country has decided to go to war it has got to make sure it wins. Europe no longer knows this, which also goes to explain why it does not want to help America win the war and why, on a micro level, the situation in France is deteriorating day by day. Last year the French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy decided to reestablish law and order in the French immigrant suburbs which have become territorial pockets ruled by thugs and Islamists. Instead of fighting this battle with all available means the French authorities are waging a half-hearted war which has led to the current debacle in France’s no-go areas. Last year “youths” developed a habit of setting parked (and empty) cars on fire, but this year policemen and firefighters are being attacked in paramilitary raids and crowded buses are being hijacked and arsoned. Still the French Republic refuses to crack down on the Islamic hooligans.

Europe Happy Dems Won

Europe Cheers
by Ulf Gartzke
11/08/2006 9:45:00 AM

TODAY, Europeans are sighing in relief. Americans, they believe, have finally come to their senses and are beginning to put the Democrats back in charge. Back in 2000--and even more so in 2004--Europeans were shocked and disappointed that America had elected George W. Bush. Two years ago, in the wake of serious transatlantic tensions over Iraq, 80 percent of all Germans said would have voted for Senator Kerry. In France, "Jean-Francois" Kerry's appeal was even bigger, with only five percent supporting President Bush.

In other words, Europe was longing for what Germany's prestigious conservative daily FAZ called the "good and Democratic America." The European laundry list of objections to America's use of power--Iraq, Guantanamo, the Kyoto protocols, torture interrogations, CIA "black sites," the International Criminal Court, etc.--goes on and on.

Michael Naumann, the former culture minister under left-wing German chancellor Gerhard Schröder and now the publisher of the centrist weekly Die Zeit, argues that over the last six years President Bush and Vice President Cheney have created a "clash of civilizations" between their administration and the majority of Europeans. Polls show that the number of Europeans in favor of a strong U.S. role in international affairs tumbled from 64 percent to 37 percent between 2002 and 2006. At the same time, the share of those opposed to American leadership in the world nearly doubled, from 37 percent to 57 percent.

Democrats, by contrast, are seen as the good guys--the Canadians of American politics, so to say. Therefore, many Europeans hope that the election will begin to narrow the political and social gulf separating them from the United States by creating a Democratic counterweight to Bush. How happy were the Europeans? The Guardian noted that "The cheering [for the Democrats' victory] can be heard not just in America itself but around the planet."

The irony is that transatlantic relations at the inter-governmental level have already improved significantly since the beginning of Bush's second term, as documented by the joint U.S.-E.U. diplomatic approach to Iran, as well as the arrival of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has become President Bush's most important partner in Europe. Public perceptions, however, are lagging way and most Europeans seem to be immune to Condi Rice's ongoing charm offensive.

With the midterm elections over, Europeans are now looking to the 2008 elections. Hillary Clinton is their top choice to replace Bush in the Oval Office, mainly because she is the wife of Bill Clinton, who had, among Europeans, approval ratings in the 85-percent range while in power.

UN ecstatic over Democrats victories

U.N. Celebrates Republican Loss?

From the desk of Kofi Annan's spokesman:

From: Stephane Dujarric
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 8:59 AM
Subject: Spokesman's Morning Headlines -- Wednesday

US-ELECTIONS: Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives and defeated at least four Republican senators yesterday, riding a wave of voter discontent with President Bush and the war in Iraq. But the fate of the Senate remained in doubt this morning, as races for Republican-held seats in Montana and Virginia remained too close to call as Election Day turned into the day after. (NYT online) Virginia is facing a likely recount. (BBC)

Democratic gains in Congress were seen around the world Wednesday as a rejection of the U.S. war in Iraq that led some observers to expect a reassessment of the American course there. The shift in power also was seen as a signal in some capitals that the United States would put a greater emphasis on trade policy and human rights. (AP) ...

Apart from controlling the purse strings, it is unlikely, given the nature of the U.S. presidential system, that a Democratic majority in Congress would influence the direction of the current administration's foreign policy in the last two years of its tenure. (Washington Times)

Everything is different now for President Bush. The era of one-party Republican rule in Washington ended with a crash in yesterday's midterm elections, putting a proudly unyielding president on notice that the voters want change, especially on the war in Iraq. (NYT analysis)

Whatever this election accomplished, it did nothing to end the rancor and distrust that define current American politics. Yet, as the campaign went on (and on) there was one issue on which people from both parties appeared to be finding common ground: Donald Rumsfeld has to go. (NYT ed)

Rumsfeld Resigns

Bush Says Rumsfeld Is Stepping Down
Nov 8, 1:51 PM (ET)
By DAVID ESPO and LIZ SIDOTI

WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as defense secretary on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses.

President Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.

Asked whether his announcement signaled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops, Bush said, "Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon."

Bush lavished praise on Rumsfeld, who has spent six stormy years at his post. The president disclosed he met with Gates last Sunday, two days before the elections in which Democrats swept to control of the House and possibly the Senate.

Last week, as he campaigned to save the Republican majority, Bush declared that Rumsfeld would remain at the Pentagon through the end of his term.

Rumsfeld, 74, was in his second tour of duty as defense chief. He first held the job a generation ago, when he was appointed by President Ford.