Midwest Corn Boom Threatens Sea Life

By HENRY C. JACKSON
Associated Press

JEFFERSON, Iowa — Because of rising demand for ethanol, American farmers are growing more corn than at any time since World War II. And sea life in the Gulf of Mexico is paying the price.

The nation's corn crop is fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. And when that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt states, it makes its way to the Mississippi River and eventually pours into the Gulf, where it contributes to a growing "dead zone" — a 7,900-square-mile patch so depleted of oxygen that fish, crabs and shrimp suffocate. The dead zone was discovered in 1985 and has grown fairly steadily since then, forcing fishermen to venture farther and farther out to sea to find their catch. For decades, fertilizer has been considered the prime cause of the lifeless spot.

With demand for corn booming, some researchers fear the dead zone will expand rapidly, with devastating consequences.

"We might be coming close to a tipping point," said Matt Rota, director of the water resources program for the New Orleans-based Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental group. "The ecosystem might change or collapse as opposed to being just impacted."

Environmentalists had hoped to cut nitrogen runoff by encouraging farmers to apply less fertilizer and establish buffers along waterways. But the demand for the corn-based fuel additive ethanol has driven up the price for the crop, which is selling for about $4 a bushel, up from a little more than $2 in 2002.

That enticed American farmers — mostly in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota — to plant more than 93 million acres of corn in 2007, the most since 1944. They substituted corn for other crops, or made use of land not previously in cultivation.

On the heels of Beijing's stunning slap at U.S. ships turned away from Hong Kong, a Chinese general last week said U.S.-China military relations are lagging behind overall U.S.-China ties because of congressional restrictions that were passed in 1999 to prevent China from gaining valuable warfighting knowledge.

Maj. Gen. Qian Lihua from the Defense Ministry’s foreign affairs office made the comments after meetings in Washington between U.S. and Chinese defense officials.

Qian said that the 1999 congressional restrictions of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense “have imposed restrictions on the development of the relations between the two armed forces in 12 areas."

“From the legal point of view, they are obstacles to the development of the relations between the two armed forces,” he said.

The congressional restrictions were passed after U.S. intelligence revealed that China gain valuable warfighting knowledge from the visits, including learning about the vulnerability of U.S. aircraft carriers. A short time after the incident, Beijing was detected purchasing wake-homing torpedoes for its anti-aircraft carrier attack operation.

C'MON, this is actually funny. They are saying if we trusted them enough for them to gain knowledge about how to fight a war (presumably with us) that would prove we are really friends?

Russia warns of US missile shield retaliation

THE planned deployment of US interceptor missiles in Poland could trigger a missile strike by Russia if those missiles are ever used, the Russian army's chief of staff has warned.

 "We are talking about the possibility of a retaliatory strike being triggered by the mistaken classification of an interceptor missile," Yury Baluyevsky said at a press conference broadcast on state television.

Baluyevsky explained that an interceptor missile launched by the United States could be mistaken by Russia's automatic defence system for a ballistic missile aimed against Russia.

"Who is going to take responsibility for an automatic triggering of the system if an interceptor missile is launched from Polish territory through Russia to strike down an Iranian missile?"

"I don't mean to scare anyone but this isn't a scare story.... It's a technical detail that could affect the military stability of the world," Baluyevsky said.

The United States has outlined plans to site 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic by 2012 as part of a missile defence shield aimed at a possible missile threat from Iran, according to Washington.

Russia has said that there is no such threat and that the missile shield can therefore only be aimed at Russia. Russia has vowed to take measures to defend its security against the US plans.

Rosa Brooks:

Torture: the new abortion

The legality of torture takes over as the political litmus test in campaigns and confirmation hearings.

November 8, 2007

Remember that golden, innocent time -- the 1980s and '90s -- when the phrase "political litmus test" was associated with the debate about abortion rights, and torture was associated with the Spanish Inquisition?

Those days are gone. And, as usual in life, there's good news and bad news. The good news? Abortion isn't nearly as divisive an issue as it used to be. The bad news? For the GOP, torture is the new abortion.

Not too long ago, judicial nominees and political candidates could expect to be grilled on abortion. As the Republican leadership became dominated by right-wing evangelicals, staunch opposition to abortion became a precondition for those seeking support from GOP insiders. Soon, abortion was a litmus test for both parties. Just as Republicans would oppose any candidate or nominee who supported abortion rights, Democrats would oppose anyone who wanted Roe vs. Wade overturned.

Seoul - High oil prices have forced energy-strapped North Korea to ground its fleet of ageing Antonov AN-2 biplanes for training flights, it was reported Sunday.

'We understand North Korea has stopped flying AN-2s for a considerable time to funnel the oil for AN-2s to other planes,' South Korean state news agency Yonhap quoted a military source as saying.

The impoverished but heavily-armed Stalinist nation maintains a fleet of almost 300 AN-2 biplanes, developed in the Soviet Union after the Second World War as a multi-function aircraft.

The planes are capable of infiltrating deep into South Korea in case of war, Yonhap quoted the source as saying, with their capability for slow and low-altitude flight enabling them to evade radar detection.

North and South Korea remain technically in a state of conflict since the 1950-1953 Korean War, which ended without an official peace agreement.

GERTZ: An Al Qaida website last week provided new information on Osama Bin Laden’s intention to use nuclear weapons.

The Global Islamic Media Front, an Islamist organization that posts online messages and is associated with Al Qaida, published a profile of Bin Laden’s personal habits and statements.

The report stated that when a “brother” would ask him what if the United States “hits us with nuclear weapons,” bin Laden would answer: “If they hit us with them, we will hit them with the same.”

The report said an Egyptian nuclear scientist was commissioned to prepare nuclear weapons and to buy equipment for them prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

“Sheikh Osama drew up an implementation program and spent a lot of money on it,” the report said.

“The Egyptian scientist tested exploding a miniature nuclear bomb and caused a huge, tremendous explosion, which made the leaders of the mujahidin very happy. Sheikh Osama personally was following the project through its various phases.”

The report said the an Iraqi nuclear scientist named al-Mashhadani and several assistances were sought by the United States and rewards were offered for his capture. He “allegiance to Sheikh Osama Bin Laden and began working with him to aid God's religion,” the report said. “Their supervisor was the aforementioned extraordinary Egyptian scientist.”

Nuclear weapons research was discovered by U.S. military forces in Afghanistan in 2001 after the ouster of the Taliban. Bin Laden has called obtaining nuclear weapons a religious duty for Muslims.

Human race will 'split into two different species
By NIALL FIRTH - More by this author » Last updated at 16:18pm on 26th October 2007
The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures, according to a top scientist.

100,000 years into the future, sexual selection could mean that two distinct breeds of human will have developed.

The alarming prediction comes from evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics, who says that the human race will have reached its physical peak by the year 3000.

No doubt they are the Eloi and the Morlocks

And we then degenerate into TRUE stupidity for this "Bravo Evolution Report" from the London School of Economics (RU KIDDING ME?)

These humans will be between 6ft and 7ft tall and they will live up to 120 years.

"Physical features will be driven by indicators of health, youth and fertility that men and women have evolved to look for in potential mates," says the report, which suggests that advances in cosmetic surgery and other body modifying techniques will effectively homogenise our appearance.

Men will have symmetrical facial features, deeper voices and bigger penises, according to Curry in a report commissioned for men's satellite TV channel Bravo.

Women will all have glossy hair, smooth hairless skin, large eyes and pert breasts, according to Curry.

I sincerely hope that this study did not cost more than $3.95

Iran has signed a deal with China to purchase 24 J-10 fighter jets between 2008 and 2010, Russian news agency Novosti reported. The jets were developed based on the technology of Israel's Lavi fighter jet, whose technology was sold to China against the wishes of the US.

Novosti stated that the J-10 has a range of 2,940 kilometers, bringing it within range of Israel. Iran's current MiG-29 jets have a range of 2,100 kilometers.

A Russian military expert, quoted by the agency, said that Iran plans to use the new aircraft as part of its defense of the Bushehr nuclear facility in the face of a possible attack.

The Israeli Lavi fighter jet was developed in the 1980s but the project was canceled following pressure from America, which feared that the new jet would compete with its F-16 in international markets. The US subsequently sold F-16s to Israel at reduced costs.

China began developing the J-10 in 2004 and currently has 89 aircraft in active service.

Novosti added that no response was given by the Prime Minister's office.

US might delay missile defense sites

PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The United States might delay activating its proposed missile defense sites in EuropeDefense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday, until it has "definitive proof" of a missile threat from Iran,

At a news conference after meeting Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, Gates said this was a proposal to the Russians — who strongly oppose U.S. missile defense — that has yet to be worked out in detail.
"We would consider tying together activation of the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic with definitive proof of the threat — in other words, Iranian missile testing and so on," Gates said with Topolanek at his side.

LIKE THIS?




or maybe ....

Iran warned on Saturday it would fire off 11,000 rockets at enemy bases within the space of a minute if the United States launched military action against the Islamic republic.

"In the first minute of an invasion by the enemy, 11,000 rockets and cannons would be fired at enemy bases," said a brigadier general in the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mahmoud Chaharbaghi.

"This volume and speed of firing would continue," added Chaharbaghi, who is commander of artillery and missiles of the Guards' ground forces, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

The United States has never ruled out attacking Iran to end its defiance over the controversial Iranian nuclear programme, which the US alleges is aimed at making nuclear weapons but Iran insists is entirely peaceful.

Iran has for its part vowed never to initiate an attack but has also warned of a crushing response to any act of aggression against its soil.

"If a war breaks out in the future, it will not last long because we will rub their noses in the dirt," said Chaharbaghi.

"Now the enemy should ask themselves how many of their people they are ready to have sacrificed for their stupidity in attacking Iran," he said.

Or maybe ......

Call it the anti-Guantánamo. Young Saudis are captured in Iraq waging jihad against the American infidels. But instead of being shipped off to a bleak detention camp in Cuba, they are dispatched to a cozy chalet an hour outside the Saudi capital of Riyadh. Technically it's a detention center, but no one is forced to wear an orange jumpsuit or a blindfold. And far from being condemned to solitary confinement, its occupants are free to roam the landscaped courtyard and play Ping-Pong, volleyball and video games.

Welcome to the Care Rehabilitation Center, part of a three-year-old experiment to reform malleable minds who have fallen under the sway of Osama bin Laden's radical brand of Islam. To get here, jihadis have to demonstrate during a prison interview a readiness to rethink their extremist views. (About 20% of the 1,875 holy warriors invited to participate have refused.) The program, developed by a team of Islamic scholars, psychiatrists and sociologists, tries to convince these men of their mistakes and make them productive members of Saudi society, which has been rocked by terrorism: al-Qaeda attacks have killed 144 people there over the past four years. By not treating the detainees as criminals, the center seeks to avoid reinforcing their radicalism and turning them into role models for more jihadis.

Hey, maybe it's a 12 step program ..and they have to ask forgiveness from Deborah Burlingame

Although the perimeter is guarded by police, the facility feels like a country club or college campus. Detainees have lots of downtime and soda pop. They spend their days in vocational training, psychological counseling and classroom lectures, most of which are given by religious scholars from the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, including the center's director, Sheik Ahmed Hamid Jelan. He walks the detainees through religious texts on jihad--a theological minefield, considering that while the Saudi government forbids fighting in Iraq, it once recruited young Saudis like bin Laden to fight the Russians in Afghanistan. The basic difference, Jelan explains to his charges, is that fighting the Soviets served the interests of Saudi Arabia and the Muslim world, while struggling against the U.S. in Iraq does not. "We answer all the questions about al-Qaeda concepts by referring to the Koran and the message of Islam," says Jelan. "We have dialogue. They become convinced."

Lobbying for an enhanced U.S. defense relationship with Israel keeps getting tougher.

Conservatives and national security advocates understand the need for a reliable and democratic ally in the Middle East. But the Israel of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which has been promoting a unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank, is becoming more difficult to promote in the Bush administration and Congress because of the weakness of and divisions within the Jewish state.

"You have leading Israelis tied to the Olmert government actually sabotaging efforts to promote a strong Israel in Washington," a pro-Israel Christian activist said. "It's clear that Olmert has a different agenda than previous Israeli leaders."

Indeed, Olmert has been more comfortable with the anti-Israeli Jewish lobby than with the traditional groups such as the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

Akiva Eldar, a confidante of the Olmert government and political commentator for Israel's Haaretz daily, was invited by the anti-Israel Americans for Peace Now to attack the Bush administration policy in the Middle East. In an address last week, Eldar sounded like the most vicious of anti-Semites who peddle the canard that Jews own America.

Eldar????

Haaretz Editor Says "The Settlers" Control Israel Lobby

 
by Ezra HaLevi

(IsraelNN.com) For the second time in the course of four weeks, a senior editor of ultra-leftist Haaretz has openly given voice to his radical agenda.

This time it was Akiva Eldar, the paper's senior political editor, who endorsed the recently published book "The Israel Lobby," which alleges that a powerful network of lobby groups and Jewish organizations induce the US to pursue policies that are against its best interests.

The Oxford Research Group said that any U.S.-British war with Iran would plunge the Middle East into violence. A report by the think tank concluded any U.S. air strike would invite Islamic retaliation against Western interests throughout the region.

"Going to war with Iran will make matters far worse, playing directly into the hands of extreme elements and adding greatly to the violence across the region," the report, released on Monday, said. "Whatever the problems with Iran, war should be avoided at all costs."

The report was released as the British government was said to be discussing war options against Teheran with the United States. British media reports said Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged that the British military would help Washington in any attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program.

The Oxford Research Group urged a reassessment of the Western military strategy against Islamic adversaries. The report said the war against Al Qaida and its allies was failing and called for a Western withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq.

"If the Al Qaida movement is to be countered, then the roots of its support must be understood and

systematically undercut," said Paul Rogers, the report's author and professor of global peace studies at Bradford University in northern England. "Combined with conventional policing and security measures, Al Qaida can be contained and minimised but this will require a change in policy at every level."

Entitled "Alternatives to the War on Terror," the think tank said Iran and its ally Syria must be wooed by the West through diplomacy. Rogers said Islamic insurgency groups in Afganistan should be granted aid in an attempt to turn them into political partners.

"Failure to make the necessary changes could result in the war on terror lasting decades," the report said.

.

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets
Firm Says Administration's Handling of Video Ruined Its Spying Efforts

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 9, 2007; A01

A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden

video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release.

Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company's Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide.

The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group's communications network.

If a democratic administration was responsible for this kind of leak, or Dick Durbin's office (for instance), cries of TREASON would fill the air.

"Techniques that took years to develop are now ineffective and worthless," said Rita Katz, the firm's 44-year-old founder, who has garnered wide attention by publicizing statements and videos from extremist chat rooms and Web sites, while attracting controversy over the secrecy of SITE's methodology. Her firm provides intelligence about terrorist groups to a wide range of paying clients, including private firms and military and intelligence agencies from the United States and several other countries.

The precise source of the leak remains unknown. Government officials declined to be interviewed about the circumstances on the record, but they did not challenge Katz's version of events. They also said the incident had no effect on U.S. intelligence-gathering efforts and did not diminish the government's ability to anticipate attacks.

While acknowledging that SITE had achieved success, the officials said U.S. agencies have their own sophisticated means of watching al-Qaeda on the Web. "We have individuals in the right places dealing with all these issues, across all 16 intelligence agencies," said Ross Feinstein, spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

You just have VERY LIMITED CREDIBILITY on this, don't you get it, admin? Hasn't the experience over the 'immigration' issue demonstrated this to you?

But privately, some intelligence officials called the incident regrettable, and one official said SITE had been "tremendously helpful" in ferreting out al-Qaeda secrets over time.

The al-Qaeda video aired on Sept. 7 attracted international attention as the first new video message from the group's leader in three years. In it, a dark-bearded bin Laden urges Americans to convert to Islam and predicts failure for the Bush administration in Iraq and Afghanistan. The video was aired on hundreds of Western news Web sites nearly a full day before its release by a distribution company linked to al-Qaeda.

Computer logs and records reviewed by The Washington Post support SITE's claim that it snatched the video from al-Qaeda days beforehand. Katz requested that the precise date and details of the acquisition not be made public, saying such disclosures could reveal sensitive details about the company's methods.

SITE -- an acronym for the Search for International Terrorist Entities -- was established in 2002 with the stated goal of tracking and exposing terrorist groups, according to the company's Web site. Katz, an Iraqi-born Israeli citizen whose father was executed by Saddam Hussein in the 1960s, has made the investigation of terrorist groups a passionate quest.

"We were able to establish sources that provided us with unique and important information into al-Qaeda's hidden world," Katz said. Her company's income is drawn from subscriber fees and contracts.

Katz said she decided to offer an advance copy of the bin Laden video to the White House without charge so officials there could prepare for its eventual release.

She spoke first with White House counsel Fred F. Fielding, whom she had previously met, and then with Joel Bagnal, deputy assistant to the president for homeland security. Both expressed interest in obtaining a copy, and Bagnal suggested that she send a copy to Michael Leiter, who holds the No. 2 job at the National Counterterrorism Center.

Administration and intelligence officials would not comment on whether they had obtained the video separately. Katz said Fielding and Bagnal made it clear to her that the White House did not possess a copy at the time she offered hers.

Around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, Katz sent both Leiter and Fielding an e-mail with a link to a private SITE Web page containing the video and an English transcript. "Please understand the necessity for secrecy," Katz wrote in her e-mail. "We ask you not to distribute . . . [as] it could harm our investigations."

Fielding replied with an e-mail expressing gratitude to Katz. "It is you who deserves the thanks," he wrote, according to a copy of the message. There was no record of a response from Leiter or the national intelligence director's office.

Exactly what happened next is unclear. But within minutes of Katz's e-mail to the White House, government-registered computers began downloading the video from SITE's server, according to a log of file transfers. The records show dozens of downloads over the next three hours from computers with addresses registered to defense and intelligence agencies.

By midafternoon, several television news networks reported obtaining copies of the transcript. A copy posted around 3 p.m. on Fox News's Web site referred to SITE and included page markers identical to those used by the group. "This confirms that the U.S. government was responsible for the leak of this document," Katz wrote in an e-mail to Leiter at 5 p.m.

Al-Qaeda supporters, now alerted to the intrusion into their secret network, put up new obstacles that prevented SITE from gaining the kind of access it had obtained in the past, according to Katz.

A small number of private intelligence companies compete with SITE in scouring terrorists' networks for information and messages, and some have questioned the company's motives and methods, including the claim that its access to al-Qaeda's network was unique. One competitor, Ben Venzke, founder of IntelCenter, said he questions SITE's decision -- as described by Katz -- to offer the video to White House policymakers rather than quietly share it with intelligence analysts.

"It is not just about getting the video first," Venzke said. "It is about having the proper methods and procedures in place to make sure that the appropriate intelligence gets to where it needs to go in the intelligence community and elsewhere in order to support ongoing counterterrorism operations."

Carter: Iran No Threat to Israel Now
ATLANTA (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday that it was almost inconceivable that Iran would "commit suicide" by launching missiles at Israel.

Speaking at Emory University, Carter, who brokered the 1979 Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, said Israel's superior military power and distance from Iran likely are enough to discourage an actual attack.

"Iran is quite distant from Israel," said Carter, 83. "I think it would be almost inconceivable that Iran would commit suicide by launching one or two missiles of any kind against the nation of Israel."

To the left is the range of the Shihab-3 operational for years, from inside Iran.
Iran claims to have 600 ready to fire.


Carter said unease between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is a far greater threat to Israel's security than Iran. He criticized the Bush administration for not doing enough to broker peace in the region.

Jimmah, it's ALL ONE THING, that' exactly why Iran and the IRGC fund HAMAS, and why Iran and the IRGC and Hizballah and HAMAS act as one. Go back to rabbit hunting and house building. You're good at it.

U.N. rights chief sees bigotry in Europe on Islam

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said on Monday that bigotry and prejudice, especially in regard to Muslims, were common in Europe and called on governments to tackle the issue.

The remarks from the former Canadian Supreme Court judge, which came in the wake of similar charges issued last week by a U.N. rights investigator, were quickly challenged by a leading global non-religious grouping.

The report by investigator Doudou Diene of Senegal

documented what he called an alarming rise in intolerance, and in particular Islamophobia, in European

countries, and Arbour said, "I have no reason not to share his concerns."

Europeans "are shocked at times when it is pointed out that bigotry, prejudice and stereotyping is still sometimes very present in their attitude to others," she said.

How about the rights inherent in freedom of expression, and therefore of religion, such as those concering Lars Vilks?

What in the world are these people thinking of?

I have no doubt that there are bigots in Europe as there are everywhere, the the threat to European nations states today does not come primarily from such a direction.

SAMPSON COUNTY, N.C. – On the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, students at one high school were not allowed to wear clothes with an American Flag. UPDATE BELOW EVEN MORE STUPID THAN THIS STORY !

Under a new school rule, students at Hobbton High School are not allowed to wear items with flags, from any country, including the United States.

The new rule stems from a controversy over students wearing shirts bearing flags of other countries. Gayle Langston said her daughter, Jessica, was told to remove her stars and stripes t-shirt.

“Today she wanted to wear her shirt, and I had to tell her no,” said Langston. “She didn't like it at all because I knew it would get her in trouble. Of all days, 9/11, she could not wear her American Flag shirt.”

The superintendent of schools in Sampson County calls the situation unfortunate, but says educators didn’t want to be forced to pick and choose which flags should be permissible.

How about ours, you horses asses?

SAMPSON COUNTY, N.C. – Officials at Hobbton High School have lifted their previous ban on flags.

After the numerous reactions recieved Superintendent Dr. L. Stewart Hobbs, Jr. tells NBC17 they have lifted the ban on all flags and “from this point on, all dress code chages will be made at the school board level.”

Now, you can wear your Al Qaeda black flag t shirt on 9-11.

WHO ARE THESE COMPLETE MORONS? 

Not naive, not stupid, what?

NEW YORK (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is proposing an international organization to fight terrorism through shared intelligence - cooperation that he says will combat the dangers facing the United States where President Bush has failed.

"We need a counterterrorism policy that will actually counter terrorism," Edwards said in remarks prepared for delivery at Pace University. "We've got to throw away the failed George Bush policies of the past, and move in a bold new direction."

The 2004 vice presidential nominee was delivering his speech four days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, not far from Ground Zero.

"You're an idiot, babe, it's a wonder that you still know how to breathe" 

US Democratic hopeful Kucinich meets Assad, blasts Bush

US Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, on a Mideast visit that included a stop in Syria, said the country lambasted by the Bush administration deserves credit for taking in more than a million Iraqi refugees

Kucinich, a strong anti-war opponent who trails far in the US presidential polls, also said he won't visit Iraq on his trip to the region because he considers the US military deployment there illegal.

I feel the United States is engaging in an illegal occupation ... I don't want to bless that occupation with my presence," he said in an interview in Lebanon, after visiting Syria. "I will not do it."

Kucinich, who accused the Bush administration of policies that have destabilized the Mideast, met with Syrian President Bashar Assad during his visit to Damascus. He said Assad was receptive to his ideas of "strength through peace."

He also praised Syria for taking in Iraqi refugees.

"What most people are not aware of is that Syria has taken in more than 1.5 million Iraqi refugees," Kucinich said. "The Syrian government has actually shown a lot of compassion in keeping its doors open, and being a host for so many refugees."

Kucinich said he would ask UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to follow up on the "dire conditions" in southern Lebanon, especially Israeli cluster bombs leftover from the war that have killed more than 30 and injured at least 200 since the fighting's end.

"There has to be a commitment to cleaning up these cluster bombs," Kucinich said.

 

What do you think Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt are thinking right now?

This man who goes to Syria to sympathize with genocidal murderers, who also help kill americans, is there to criticize the USA for selfish partisan reasons.

Dennis Kucinich is running for president of the United States.

He has no dignity, and less honor.

Wanted for fifteen years or so, turns up after ginormous Hillary $$ makes it's labyrinthine way to her, and then after turning himself in amid publicity, somehow, hangs on to his passport, and now, we can't find him.

What a shock?

How's the Chow Sum Gup Dai in Chunking?

Mercutio

What more....

is there to say.... ???

Maybe a finish with Mencken .... 

BBC: 

Iran has resolved questions posed by the UN's nuclear watchdog about its plutonium experiments, Tehran says.

The claim was made in a text outlining a timetable for co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was agreed at talks last week.

It would be the first serious issue closed by the IAEA during its four-year inquiry into Iran's nuclear activities.

Western powers suspect Iran of building a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.

The UN Security Council has already imposed two rounds of sanctions against Iran for defying its calls to halt uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, and answer IAEA questions.

'Real limitations'

The five-page text of the Iran-IAEA accord was released in Vienna on Monday.

It said the IAEA accepted that "earlier statements made by Iran [on the issue of plutonium] are consistent with the agency's findings, and thus this matter is resolved."

Iran also said it would co-operate on resolving concerns over documents that allegedly show Iran has a secret military project for developing nuclear arms.

However, it dismissed the claims as "politically motivated" and "baseless allegations".

Last week, Iran and the IAEA announced that they had agreed a timeline for implementing a plan to clarify Tehran's nuclear programme, first announced in July.

And right after that they agreed to appoint a commission to plan to decide when the discussion over the shape of the table the timeline discussion will eventually take place at, would be discussed, pending the General Assembly meeting later this fall.

However, US envoy to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, said the plan had "real limitations" and accused Iran of manipulating the IAEA as a way to avoid harsher sanctions.

He said Iran was still defying the UN's key demand for it to halt its uranium enrichment activities and said the US would continue to push for a third round of sanctions.

Iran Prepared to Fill Iraq Power Vacuum

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Tuesday that a power vacuum is imminent in Iraq and said that Iran was ready to help fill the gap.

"The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly," -

Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran, referring to U.S. troops in Iraq. "Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."

U.S. missile shield is provocation: Austrian minister

VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos has called U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe a "provocation" reviving Cold War debates.

"That the United States are installing a defense shield in eastern Europe is a provocation in my view," Darabos was quoted as saying in an interview with daily Die Presse on Thursday.

"The U.S. has chosen the wrong path in my opinion. There is no point in building up a missile defense shield in Europe.

Now just imagine the first man to wish to avoid being stabbed by another, who dreamed up the idea of something to block that stabbing motion by the attacker....little did he realize that he was the agressor, and provoking others to come and stab him !

U.S. still selling banner F-14 parts sought by Iran

GERTZ : WASHINGTON — The Defense Department sold 1,400 F-14 spare parts in 2007 despite a ban on such transactions, according to a GAO report.

The Pentagon sold the parts in February in wake of its announcement of a suspension of any transfer of F-14 components.

"One country with operational F-14s, Iran, is known to be seeking these parts," Greg Kutz, managing director of special investigations for the Government Accountability Office, said. "If such parts were publicly available, it could jeopardize national security."

On Aug. 1, GAO released a report that disclosed continuing Pentagon sales of F-14 components. The Pentagon decision in January 2007 to block F-14 spare parts sales took place amid intelligence information that Iran was seeking to overhaul its F-14 fleet. The Iranian fleet was procured from the United States more than 30 years ago.

The report cited the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service, the Pentagon's surplus sales division, as responsible for the sale of F-14 spare parts. DRMS was said to have failed to update an automated control list and remove F-14 aircraft parts listed on the agency's Internet sales site.

The disclosure of the F-14 spare parts sale has alarmed members of Congress. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, has won House approval for legislation that would suspend sales of all F-14 parts. The bill has been pending in the Senate.

I only hope we charged as much as THESE GUYS