February 15, 2003

Arafat agrees to share power

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has agreed to appoint a prime minister - a key demand by the US and international mediators for progress on a political settlement.

However, Mr Arafat did not name a prime minister, set a date for the appointment or say how much power he would share.

The BBC's Barbara Plett says the US, Israel and the European Union, have been insisting that Yasser Arafat hand most of his powers over to another leader.

His announcement came after talks with envoys from the European Union, the UN and Russia at his headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

Mr Arafat said he would convene the Palestinian legislature and central council "to get their consent to take the necessary steps" to name a prime minister.

He did not say when the two institutions would meet.
In June US President George W Bush called for a new Palestinian leadership that was "not compromised by terror".

However one of Mr Arafat's senior negotiators, Saeb Erekat, denied that Mr Bush's views influenced the Palestinian leader.

"Arafat did not make concessions to the United States," he told AFP news agency.

"His decision is consistent with our reform program."

Mr Arafat has been the undisputed leader of the Palestinian movement since the early 1960s.

But there have been allegations of corruption and incompetence within his Palestinian Authority - as well as infighting apparently encouraged by Mr Arafat as a way of preventing any of his deputies from becoming too powerful.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has refused to deal with him, calling him both a leader of Palestinian terrorism and "irrelevant".

On Sunday, he again accused Mr Arafat of being behind attacks on Israeli targets and called for his removal as leader.

I love President Bush for his policy towards Arafat alone!
No more stayovers in the Lincoln bedroom like we endured with Klinton, as if Arafat were America's favorite friend and ally...
I'm sure that Yasser fought this move (to put someone else in besides himself) like a wildcat and I'm still not sure he'll actually allow anyone else to be appointed to "his" position as leader of the "Palestinians" but it's clear that he and Saeb are getting desperate, baby!
If he does do this, it will be some puppet.
There will never be a "Palestine," but if the Muslims in Israel ever get their own democratic state, it will definitely be over Arafat's dead body and that would be a good thing, too.

EU cancels Africa summit

The European Union has postponed indefinitely a summit with African leaders planned for Portugal in April as a result of EU sanctions over Zimbabwe.

Most European countries had said they would boycott the summit if Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was invited.

African nations indicated they would stay away unless Zimbabwe was included.

However France and Portugal had said that the summit should go ahead, arguing that it would be an opportunity to press the Zimbabwean leader on human rights matters.
[...]On Wednesday, EU nations agreed in principle that their sanctions against Zimbabwe should be renewed for another year.

The EU had imposed travel restrictions on the country's leaders and an arms sale ban on Zimbabwe and frozen Zimbabwean assets in Europe after failing to ensure Mr Mugabe improved human rights and reversed controversial agricultural food policies.

But this will not take effect before Mr Mugabe has attended a separate Franco-African summit in Paris next week.

The French threatened to veto the renewal of sanctions without this special exemption.

Yep! More laughs brought to you by Happy Fun Leader Jacques Chirac, acting like his unilateral, petulant self.
Not only is Jacque the biggest (and indeed the only) friend in EUrope that Bobby Mugabe ever had, there's also the little matter of that French invasion of Ivory Coast that the BBC is conveniently leaving out of this report...
Ah, the French.
What noone can figure out is if Chirac it trying to elevate France's position in world affairs or if he just loves to PO Tony Blair (I must admit the look is kinda sexy!).
Stay tuned.

The Country Store/CBP was cruising through Manhattan today and caught this shot:


Just in time for the ANSWER crew to pick up some real bargains tomorrow, too, after their riot for "peace."

February 14, 2003

May this day be filled with roses, chocolates and romantic love for you (hopefully either made in America or in the countries of our allies and true friends).
Say "Yes," to "Will you be my Valentine?"!
Say "No," to Godiva Chocolates, made in mini-me Weasel-land!

Here's a salute to James Taranto and Best of the Web Today and the NYPost, of course!

February 13, 2003

CNN.com - Democrats begin filibuster against Estrada

Senate Democrats used a filibuster into the early hours of Thursday against the nomination of judicial appointee Miguel Estrada, in a move President Bush called "shameful politics."

It is shameful, President Bush!
There's only one problem: Dimocrats don't have any sense of shame.
I hope this leaves the Donks bloody and completely broken.
This kind of ideological war is unconscionable and the American people should remember come the next elections in 2004.
In the meantime, email your Senators and ask them to confirm Estrada.
Then pray for the Liberal Dim half of the Senate that would do a thing like this to such a good man who's only "fault" was to choose Republican values and the GOP.
When I think of all the dreadful judges the GOP Senators confirmed that Clintoon put up, because our people are civil and know that it's right to give deference to the sitting President's choices...

FRANCO-VILE SENTIMENT SPREADS IN CONGRESS

A wave of anti-France anger swept the nation's capital yesterday as lawmakers vowed to get the French fried and talked of cracking down on their wine and bottled water in response to that country's stand against getting tough with Iraq.

"The feeling is that we've been a public punching bag for too long by a third-rate nation like France and the only question is what we should do about it,"said Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.), who's been getting thumbs-up from colleagues after lambasting the French.

The anger grew yesterday after France - joined by Germany and Belgium - shot down a compromise and again blocked the NATO alliance's 16 other members from planning to help defend Turkey, which would serve as a base for U.S. forces in an Iraq attack.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is mulling plans to target French mineral waters like Evian and stamp bright orange warning labels on any
French wines clarified with bovine blood [Ewww. What's up with that?--J.T.].

"There's been some concern about bottled Evian water and whether they meet the same standards as U.S. firms," said Hastert spokesman John Feehery. Hastert wants to retaliate for a French crackdown against genetically modified U.S. farm imports.

A growing number of lawmakers are also talking about moving U.S. troops from Germany - which is siding with France - to Poland, which backs the U.S. stance on Iraq.

My esteemed fellow blogger Tacitus doesn't think this will hurt the French, but I'm not so sure.
The French economy is more dependent than you would think on their exports to us and our tourism.
Boycotting the wine and water is a very good start and knowing my fellow Americans and how mad we are at this Franco-German betrayal, I think that a complete moratorium on things French and German will surely follow once we get it started with the little things like their wine.
Thank God that we now make some excellent wine here in America and then there's Australian wine and even Spanish (I had a glass of a pretty good Spanish Cabernet/Merlot just the other night.)
While I buy Ozarka Water, which is from springs right here in Texas, the bloody company is owned by Perrier! Drat!
That EU ban on GM foods is crazy and not based on anything substantive (I think it's a ruse to protect their insane EU Common Agricultural Policy) and they've influenced the African countries to follow their "lead," so that countries there stricken by famine, like Zimbabwe, will turn down our food aid for no good reason other than that it's GM.
As for moving our troops to Poland from Deutschland, it's an excellent idea: they'd be more welcome, it would be way cheaper to do and Poland is in a more strategic place.
So, I think that the (Republican) Congress is definitely headed in the right direction all the way around.

Outraged Belgian Jews threaten suit against Arafat

Belgium's Jewish community is "extremely angered" by a Supreme Court ruling that Ariel Sharon can be tried for war crimes in Belgium, according to Betty Dan, head of the Brussels-based Radio Judaica.

Dan said her radio station has been flooded with calls from angry members of the Jewish community, who see anti-Israel, if not anti-Semitic sentiment behind it.

"There is a unanimous feeling that this is move has everything to do with politics, and nothing with justice."

With federal elections set for May 18, and Belgium's 35,000 Jews outnumbered by Muslims by a factor of 10 to one, the decision to allow the trial to go ahead is seen as an attempt to curry favor with the immigrant community.

At least the prejudices of the Left are being exposed for what they are by this decision against Sharon and the lines for battle are being drawn more clearly all over the world: Believers in Freedom vs. Islamofascists (and often their Socialist/Marxist/Communist apologists).

Sea lions guard U.S. ships in Gulf

Despite having cutting-edge technology and weaponry, the United States Navy has turned to two California sea lions named Alex and Zachary to help protect its ships in Gulf waters off the coast of Bahrain. AVAL OFFICIALS SAID Tuesday the sea lions would be used to locate and mark divers or swimmers that could pose a threat to U.S. warships off Bahrain, headquarters of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
       The sea lions have been trained to carry a special clamp in their mouths which they can attach to a suspicious person, Commander John Wood, Special Operations Officer Naval Forces Central Command, told Reuters.
       The clamp is attached by a line to a flotation device which marks the swimmer for security personnel to apprehend him. Wood would not explain in detail how the clamp worked or what would stop a swimmer removing it.
“They (the sea lions) are very valuable in terms of capability and they are saving lives,” he said. “They can operate wherever we ask them to and are not limited to Bahrain."

Indulge me: I'm an animal lover and I thought this story was precious!
(Is America a great country or what?!?)

Would you share your currency with this lot?

If I were Blair, I would be feeling really rather grateful to the French. Until this week, he has faced a British press that has been exceedingly liverish about the war in Iraq.

The Daily Mirror is against; the Independent faint-hearted; The Times uncertain; the BBC riddled with doubt. General after general has stood up to warn against the rashness of the enterprise. The bishops are leery in the extreme.
[...]
Just as everyone was laying into the Number 10 spin machine, the French did something so disgusting, so selfish, and so French, that the British media have had no choice. The press has dropped Alastair Campbell's dodgy dossier, in favour of that time-honoured staple of the British journalist - the orgy of frog-bashing.

Confronted by French treachery, previously fence-sitting newspapers such as the Daily Mail have suddenly seen the merit of the war, and the downmarket tabloids have gone gallistic. You know the kind of articles: they involve references to Vichy, tanks with reverse gears, garlic-guzzling peasants, women of loose morals cosying up to the Boche, and they traditionally end with the cry: "And they eat our children's ponies!"
[...]
For the first time in the build-up to action against Iraq, the newspapers of the Anglosphere are united in a blizzard of abuse against the French. In Paris, Le Monde has finally been obliged to translate Bart Simpson's phrase that is now on everyone's lips.

The French, say the mass-circulation papers in Britain and America, are nothing but "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" (les primates capitulards toujours en quete de fromage), and, you know what, I couldn't agree more.
[...]
It [French, German and Belgian obstructionism] does not mean the end of Nato. It does not even mean the end of the attempts to construct a Heath Robinson-style European "Common Foreign and Security Policy". But are we really going to share a single constitution with France and Germany, of a kind now being drawn up by Giscard in Brussels? And will Blair really try to push that through without holding a referendum?

I am told that the Prime Minister is so keen on the euro that he was considering sacking the Chancellor in 2004, and holding it then. Has that ambition survived this week? Is Blair really still asking us to share a currency with this lot? Mangez mes culottes, as they are by now saying in Paris.

Hilarious.
Whoo-hoo, Britain!
I've lived in England twice and I can assure you that the British have hated the French forever, God bless them!

North Korea defiant after UN decision

North Korea has responded defiantly to the decision by the United Nations nuclear watchdog to refer it to the UN Security Council for breaching nuclear non-proliferation agreements.

A senior official in Pyongyang, Ri Kawng-Hyok, told the French news agency AFP that North Korea had a right to self-defence and, if provoked, had the ability to strike American targets anywhere in the world.
He also called on the Security Council to investigate the United States' own nuclear programme.

North Korea's comments are a typically bellicose response from the secretive communist state, says the BBC's correspondent in Seoul Caroline Gluck.

They come just a day after the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, warned that North Korea possessed a long range missile capable of reaching the West Coast of America.
It raises the possibility of economic and political sanctions against Pyongyang - a move North Korea says it would regard as a declaration of war.

Are they going to declare war against everybody?
Wouldn't surprise me actually.

[...]Under its charter, the IAEA must report any violations of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to the Security Council, and Pyongyang had been in "chronic non-compliance since 1993", he said.

Well, that pretty much makes Bill Clinton and Madame Albright look like (bigger) chumps, doesn't it?

He said North Korea was only a "month or two" from producing "a significant amount of plutonium" that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
[...]China, while backing the decision by the IAEA's 35-country board, warned the Security Council against getting involved.

"The UN Security Council's involvement at this stage might not necessarily contribute to the settlement of the issue," China's ambassador to the UN, Zhang Yan, said on Thursday.

"The only correct and effective approach... is through constructive dialogue and consultations on the basis of equality," he said.

Was it with these Chinese?...they always sound like they're saying absolutely nothing.
Must be the language barrier.

[...]The EU has also voiced its concerns, especially regarding possible sanctions - and Russia and Cuba refused to vote through the IAEA referral, saying the decision would detract from diplomatic efforts.

No wonder President Bush's hair is gray!
After being attacked on 9/11 and launched into WWIV [the experts are now saying that the Cold War was WWIII--ed.], the U.S. doesn't need to have all the other major powers lose their collective minds, but that's our lot, it seems.
I'm not sure what referring this NorK nuke problem to the UNSC will accomplish, given their debacle of handling the Iraq problem so far, but unless and until the UN has definitely proved itself to be irrelevant, we should go through channels with rogue nations like North Korea.
And it makes it officially a world problem and not solely a U.S.-NorK problem.
After all, we are kinda busy right now.
Developing story:

Amid mounting tension Japan warned that it would "use military force as a self-defence measure" if North Korea started to "resort to arms against Japan".

Japanese Defence Minister Shigeru Ishiba added that such a defensive move would not amount to a pre-emptive strike.

Now perhaps Kim Jung-Il will realize just what all that saber rattling will get him and it's not full kim chee bowls for everyone.

Sofia Sideshow: READ MY LIPS
jrank of Sofia Sideshow offers a compelling (and very funny) case that the "anti-U.S. war" protesters are the best argument for backing those of us who are pro-war and on the Right.
Here's some of it to savor:

We are winning. Massively. We haven't fired a shot and yet we are routing them!
"But Madonna has a new anti-war video coming," a friend warns.
"Revel in it!" I say.
In an ideology that regards humor as suspicious at best, offensive at worst, the Left's attempts at satirizing will fail, due to their poorly-concealed malice and mental indolence.
Even when they try to be funny, the smile looks more like the baring of teeth than pleasure.
This has already happened, with George Michael’s "Shoot the Dog." An object lesson in 'not funny,' it merely was mean in an incoherent, ankle-biting way.
Madonna will blow it. It will be malevolent and sanctimonious. The only people who will enjoy it are those who admire Ted Rall's scribblings.
Noisy protestors who claim George W. Bush is Hitler are the best thing for the Right in decades. Decades! Huge golden calves, yellow Stars, masks of George W., swastikas…you couldn’t ask for a better self-immolation.
The vast majority on the Left have inadvertently revealed that they can only be relevant when the issue at hand is trivial: flag types over courthouses, McDonald's wrapper composition, number of owls per acre, hazards of untested lipsticks on cats, proper ergonomics for office chairs, use of "he", "his," or "him" in oral presentations, possible coded dangers in children's drawings, SUV's gas mileage.

Nuclear annihilation? Biological plagues? Waaaaay out of their league.

Reality is again punishing the Left. When countless protesters exclaim that the UN is our only moral choice, and the UN shows its colors by appointing Libya to head the Human Rights Commission…how can it get worse for them?
Well, it will. Once Iraq’s prisons open, the people cheer, documents are aired out, millions fail to die…and we turn our eyes to Iran.
I hope this grand mental breakdown eventually leads to a more coherent, thoughtful Left. It is possible. They weren't always this way.
So cheer up!

Great stuff, jkrank--thanks!
[But I disagree about the Left: they've always been this way.
They've just never been this way in America...until Carter and the Crintons.]

February 12, 2003

Thanks to Mike Silverman over at Red Letter Day, we've got up-to-the minute maps of Europe for ya....(Wonder if National Geographic's heard yet?).
Mike also has some great tips for what to stock in the event of an attack.
FEMA needs to get with him.

FOXNews.com
France, Germany and Belgium rejected a scaled-down U.S. proposal Wednesday for NATO preparations in case of war in Iraq, prolonging the alliance's worst internal crisis since the end of the Cold War.

NATO diplomats said the third day of emergency talks ended after about an hour and would resume Thursday.

For the past month, the holdouts have blocked the start of military planning to help defend Turkey -- the only NATO member bordering Iraq. France, Germany and Belgium say such a step could undercut U.N. efforts to resolve the Iraq crisis peacefully.

Washington and the 15 other NATO nations have reacted with increasingly harsh language, arguing the division weakens NATO's solemn bond of mutual defense and sends a dangerous message of disunity to Saddam Hussein.

Diplomats had said the three holdouts still wanted to link any decision at NATO to Friday's report to the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors.
[...]
Alliance officials said the excluded issues were being dealt with bilaterally. Germany, for example, deployed hundreds of soldiers at U.S. bases last month.

Illustrating deep anger over the issue in the United States, Democratic Rep. Tom Lantos of California said he was "particularly disgusted by the blind intransigence and utter ingratitude" of France, Germany and Belgium.

"The failure of these three states to honor their commitments is beneath contempt," he said in remarks prepared for a hearing by the House International Relations Committee, in Washington.

Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Congress may consider reducing financial support for NATO.
Scary stuff, isn't it, to see our supposed allies behaving like this?
If the year were 1939 and this were the League of Nations, you could see France, Germany and Belgium refusing to put defenses in Poland (well, Germany's refusal would go without saying, wouldn't it?) against Hitler's aggression...
Tom Lantos is a rare bird: a Dimocrat with some sense and eloquence.
It seems that Old Europe won't be happy until they've completely destroyed NATO.
It doesn't occur to them that it might be their country someday that was being denied help when under a direct threat, hence the whole reason for NATO.
Their convoluted logic that they can't bolster Turkey until the UN makes a formal resolution to make war on Iraq is ludicrous; it doesn't make the threat of an attack or an actual attack itself any less probable.
You can be sure that Saddam wouldn't wait for any such resolution and in the past, hasn't--both when he waged the Iran-Iraq war and when he invaded Kuwait.
Pound cheese, you weasels!
NATO needed an overhaul anyway.
And if we don't disband it and reconfigure it without Old Europe, then let's at least change the procedural rules so that we don't have to have a unanimous vote to get something done!

Belgium rules Sharon can be tried

Belgium's highest appeals court has ruled that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon could face war crimes charges, but only after he leaves office.

The court was responding to an appeal by a group of 23 Palestinian survivors of a massacre in Lebanon more than 20 years ago, when Mr Sharon was Israel's defence chief.

The killings in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps were carried out by Lebanese Christian militia allied to Israel, which then occupied southern Lebanon.

Israel withdrew its ambassador to Belgium "for consultations" in response to the court ruling.

I don't think Ariel Sharon had any visits planned to Chocolate Land anyway...
and if any of the rest of us did, that's all history after their obstructionism in NATO this week.
The world's at war and nations are taking sides.
Unfortunately, Belgium has picked the side of the evildoers.
Let the chips (and chocolates) fall where they may now.
It's outrageously overreaching and ideologically-motivated "legal" cases like this one that guarantee that the U.S. and Israel will never, ever endorse or be subject to anything like the ICC.

February 11, 2003

Athens gives discreet backing to Turkey over NATO row

ATHENS (AFP) Feb 11, 2003
Greece on Tuesday voiced support for its old foe and NATO ally Turkey in a row splitting the transatlantic alliance, but stopped short of blaming the three NATO members which sparked the crisis.
[...]
You understand perfectly well that, for reasons of one's own national interest, if a NATO member state invokes Article Four we cannot oppose it," government spokesman Christos Protopapas said.

He was referring to Ankara's decison on Monday to activate an article in NATO's 1949 founding charter, which calls on the allies to consult whenever a member feels its territory is threatened.

Greece is now helping Turkey beef up her military defenses?
Ladies and gentlemen, this IS the nation-state equivalent of cats and dogs living together.
We appreciate it, Greece!
This is the way an honorable nation is supposed to behave!
And somewhere in the Elysian Fields, the Hellenic gods are smiling...

Link from my friend Fred over at *the* divine blog Rantburg.

Terror Attack Steps Urged (washingtonpost.com)

Top federal officials yesterday issued their most pointed advice since Sept. 11, 2001, on precautions the public should take against terrorist attacks, warning that every home should be stocked with three days' worth of water and food in case of a strike with chemical, biological or radiological weapons.

They also recommended that families consider designating a room where they will gather in the event of such an attack, and have on hand duct tape and heavy plastic sheeting to seal it, as well as scissors, a manual can opener, blankets, flashlights, radios and spare batteries. The officials said they believe the al Qaeda terrorist network is particularly targeting New York and Washington.

OK, America: I know this bulletin is grim [To tell you the truth, I'm kind of in shock blogging it.] and sounds kind of survivalist-freak crazy, but it's time to deal with the threat that is really facing us which is a large attack from a nuclear, biological or chemical weapon, probably on a large city (which applies to me and very well may apply to you).
And remember that the Israelis do this and more and have done so for years.
We can and will win this War on IslamoFascism and we have the ability to be ready for the worst and weather it, so let's not let our pre-9/11 complacency hold us back from using our "can do" spirit and Yankee ingenuity to stay alive.

Terrorism Trial Ends with a Whimper

In a bittersweet victory for the Justice Department, the head of an Islamic charity tied to al Qaeda pled guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy.

In federal court, Enaam Arnaout admitted to using the proceeds of his charity, Benevolence International Foundation, to supply fighters in Bosnia and Chechnya with "boots, tents and uniforms." However, in order to reach the deal, prosecutors were forced to drop the charge that Arnaout aided Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda.

Immediately following the guilty plea, Arnaout's attorney told reporters that the government's decision to drop the charge of material support to al Qaeda cleared his client of links to terrorism.

U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald countered, "Benevolence International Foundation, we were prepared to prove and still are prepared to prove, was working with al Qaeda.''

Fitzgerald's comments are consistent with the government's twenty five page indictment filed in October of last year alleging that BIF and Mr. Arnaout "raised funds and provided support to" al Qaeda. Attorney General John Ashcroft dramatically announced the indictment with a pledge to "find the sources of terrorist blood money.''

In a three-page ruling last week, Judge Suzanne Conlon rejected the Justice Department's request to submit hundreds of pages of documents as evidence in the upcoming trial.

The 101-page "Proffer" by the government contained clear and convincing evidence linking BIF and Arnaout to al Qaeda. The filing was accompanied by over 240 exhibits, including documents acquired in a March 2002 search of BIF's offices in Sarajevo. According to the government, the raid yielded a "treasure trove of electronically scanned documents and photographs, including many with defendant Arnaout" that were stored on CD-ROMs and computer hard drives.

The evidence submitted by the government included communications between Arnaout and Osama bin Laden showing Arnaout to be a senior al Qaeda lieutenant, involved in coordinating weapons purchases, financial transactions, and training camps.

Judge Conlon barred the proffered evidence, invoking a legal technicality — hearsay. The federal rules of evidence provide that statements made out of court (including the evidence recovered in Bosnia) are usually considered to be "hearsay" and are not admitted into evidence; they would be allowed, however, if the government could prove that the defendant took part in a conspiracy. Judge Conlon denied the government's argument that the evidence qualified for this hearsay exception, known as a "Santiago proffer".

Without the admission of the Bosnian intelligence documents, the Justice Department was hard-pressed to prove its case against Arnaout.

In a pattern followed by Islamic militants, Mr. Arnaout's counsel repudiated the admission of guilt stating, "One has to question whether a fair and impartial jury could be found anywhere in America today that could sit in judgment of an Arab American in a case involving allegations of terrorism."

Under the plea deal, Arnaout faces up to 20 years in prison. However, he may serve substantially less time should he cooperate with the government in other terrorism investigations, as stipulated in the plea agreement.

Something is clearly wrong with the way this case was handled: either the judge is a Liberal hack, legislating from the bench (which would not surprise me in the least), or the Government's lawyer argued this poorly or the Terrorism Law(s)
needs to be rewritten and/or clarified.
Why aren't Al Queda operatives like this guy being tried by a military tribunal, if not for the criminal conspiracy he participated in here in America with this "charity" or for deaths he and his Islamist cohorts caused in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Chechnya?
He should have gotten either the death penalty or life in prison; instead, he's gotten off with the sentence for a numbers runner.

Iraq Won't Accept French and German Plan for UN Peacekeepers

Iraq won't accept the presence of United Nations peacekeepers under a plan by Germany and France to disarm the country of its weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told Al Hayat.
"No Iraqi would accept the deployment of such a force,'' Sabri told the newspaper. "We haven't been informed of that proposal. Such a presentation would increase the logic of war and aggression.''

Isn't that what people like Rumsfeld have been saying?
I find this naysaying on the part of Iraq to be not only funny, but wise also.
You would have thought that someone on Team Weasel would have run this by Saddam before they PO'd Rumsfeld and Bush and trashed the Froggie-Kraut presence in the UN, NATO and the EU with their unilateral anti-U.S. policy statements and obstructionism...
For once, I am grateful to Baghdad: they may have saved us all from some pointless arguing in the UN, that Mecca of pointless arguing.

Army deployed to guard London

The army has been drafted in to increase security in London amid concern about al-Qaeda attacks on the capital.

A total of 450 troops have joined 1,000 extra police officers in patrolling Heathrow Airport as part of a tightening of security at sites across the capital.

The precautionary measure has been sparked by concern the Muslim religious festival of Eid - which runs from Wednesday to Saturday - may be used as an excuse to mount attacks, said Scotland Yard.
[...]Muslim groups have criticised the police for making a link between the religious festival and a potential terror threat.
Doesn't their disingenuousness just "slay" you?
As if there were no connection at all between the two and that every terrorist attack we've seen in the last 18 months hasn't been by Islamists?

The "strengthened security" does relate to a "potential threat to the capital", police confirmed.
[...] BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford.

...said an operation on this level was "absolutely unprecedented at Heathrow".

He added there must be a "reasonably specific threat", although the UK was not on the highest state of alert.

Best of British, Britain, but stay alert and aware just the same.
Hope it's a false alarm.

Inspections Are
A Total Waste of Time:
Saddam's "acceptance" of U-2 surveillance only shows his confidence in his deception.--by Khirdir Hamza

My 20 years of work in Iraq's nuclear-weapons program and military industry were partly a training course in methods of deception and camouflage to keep the program secret. Given what I know about Saddam Hussein's commitment to developing and using weapons of mass destruction, the following two points are abundantly clear to me: First, the U.N. weapons inspectors will not find anything Saddam does not want them to find. Second, France, Germany, and to a degree, Russia, are opposed to U.S. military action in Iraq mainly because they maintain lucrative trade deals with Baghdad, many of which are arms-related.
[...]
What has become obvious is that the U.N. inspection process was designed to delay any possible U.S. military action to disarm Iraq. Germany, France, and Russia, states we called "friendly" when I was in Baghdad, are also engaged in a strategy of delay and obstruction.

In the two decades before the Gulf War, I played a role in Iraq's efforts to acquire major technologies from friendly states. In 1974, I headed an Iraqi delegation to France to purchase a nuclear reactor. It was a 40-megawatt research reactor that our sources in the IAEA told us should cost no more than $50 million. But the French deal ended up costing Baghdad more than $200 million. The French-controlled Habbania Resort project cost Baghdad a whopping $750 million, and with the same huge profit margin. With these kinds of deals coming their way, is it any surprise that the French are so desperate to save Saddam's regime?

Germany was the hub of Iraq's military purchases in the 1980s. Our commercial attache, Ali Abdul Mutalib, was allocated billions of dollars to spend each year on German military industry imports. These imports included many proscribed technologies with the German government looking the other way. In 1989, German engineer Karl Schaab sold us classified technology to build and operate the centrifuges we needed for our uranium-enrichment program. German authorities have since found Mr. Schaab guilty of selling nuclear secrets, but because the technology was considered "dual use" he was fined only $32,000 and given five years probation.

Meanwhile, other German firms have provided Iraq with the technology it needs to make missile parts. Mr. Blix's recent finding that Iraq is trying to enlarge the diameter of its missiles to a size capable of delivering nuclear weapons would not be feasible without this technology transfer.

Russia has long been a major supplier of conventional armaments to Iraq--yet again at exorbitant prices. Even the Kalashnikov rifles used by the Iraqi forces are sold to Iraq at several times the price of comparable guns sold by other suppliers.

Saddam's policy of squandering Iraq's resources by paying outrageous prices to friendly states seems to be paying off. The irresponsibility and lack of morality these states are displaying in trying to keep the world's worst butcher in power is perhaps indicative of a new world order. It is a world of winks and nods to emerging rogue states--for a price. It remains for the U.S. and its allies to institute an opposing order in which no price is high enough for dictators like Saddam to thrive.

Mr. Hamza, a former director of Iraq's nuclear-weapons program, is the co-author of "Saddam's Bombmaker: The Terrifying Inside Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Biological Weapons Agenda" (Scribner, 2000).

I can heartily recommend Dr. Hamza's great book: I read it about a year ago and couldn't put it down.
Hamza indeed knows where "all the bodies are buried" when it comes to Saddam's nuclear program, that is until he defected to the West in 1995.
Who knows how far along Saddam has gotten now in the 7 years since Hamza was there?
Note how he cautions us all that the UNSCOM weapons inspection program is a fool's errand.
Check out Steven Den Beste's piece also The Players and the Game on why France and Germany (and Russia) have been such obstructionists to our U.S.-led war on Iraq.
Brace yourself, though.
He and I, and I think Dr. Hamza, too, all think Saddam may have nukes or at the very least, some kind of WMD that is very terrible that France and Germany have sold Iraq and for the express purpose of using Iraq to oppose U.S.-U.K. geopolitical power...which would make them our enemies as much as Saddam.
Funny how that works, but perhaps it's too soon to join Richard Perle in this pronouncement about France...
Only time will tell and I hope these Cassandras are wrong, for the record, but I'll bet they're not.

Supreme Court: Moving On, Moving In, Moving Up

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

It?s been nine years since the last vacancy opened up on the U.S. Supreme Court. That historically long drought could end this year with at least one resignation. Eager White House aides are stepping up preparation efforts, vetting candidates and contemplating a special media operation to deal with a potential confirmation battle.

With the White House and the Senate both in Republican hands, GOP-nominated Justices William Rehnquist, 78, and Sandra Day O?Connor, 72, are considered most likely to depart. Some reports suggested that Rehnquist has already given President George W. Bush a heads up on his departure. But a senior administration official dismisses the idea, saying the White House has no ?inside information.?
[...]
Other observers think Bush could take another approach, appointing California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown instead. Brown is a conservative African-American who?s ruled against affirmative action and abortion rights. Her nomination would let Bush add the court?s third woman and second African-American in one swoop. And White House lawyers have already interviewed her. Tom Goldstein, a Washington lawyer who argues cases before the court, believes Brown could even get the nod for chief justice. "An African-American female nominee is not going to be filibustered," he says. "She doesn't have a record that will stop Democrats in their tracks." And after months of bitter Senate fights over nominations to lower courts, that could have an appeal all its own.

It's nominations (and hopefully appointments to follow) like Justice Brown's that make me proud to have voted for Bush.
This lady will make a terrific member of the Supreme Court, if not its Chief Justice.
And I'd like to see those Dims "Bork" her!
Speaking of which, be sure and contact your Senators to confirm the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the D.C. Court of Appeals--the Dims will be whining and complaining about this fine Hispanic and Republican jurist today in the Senate and they threaten to do so for weeks to come.
Dimocrats Delenda Est!
Confirm the Bush Judges!
Vote "yes" on Estrada!

Here are 2 big clues that our war with Iraq is imminent from our ally and friend Israel:
IDF clamps rare full closure on Palestinians

The IDF, citing a spate of warnings of planned terror attacks, clamped a rare full closure over Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip overnight, effectively cancelling plans to ease restrictions for a major Muslim holiday beginning Tuesday.
[...]
As of late Monday, the Shin Bet had received 48 active alerts of potential attacks. Security sources said most of the cells were working on attacks inside Israel in the immediate future. In addition, there is evidence that they are working on "mega-attacks," high-profile strikes designed to exact unusually large numbers of casualties and damage sensitive, often symbolic targets. Most of the alerts refer to Islamic Jihad or Hamas cells, but there are also alerts referring to the Popular Front and Fatah.

In a cabinet meeting Sunday, Mofaz recommended a series of measures that would have eased restrictions on Palestinians prior to Id al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, which begins Tuesday.

But late Monday, amid the dozens of warnings, Mofaz ordered the complete closure on all Palestinian areas in the territories. The closure is expected to remain in place through Friday, with the Palestinians prohibited from entering Israeli territory until further notice. Under the closure order, entry to Israel will only be allowed in special humanitarian cases. People with permanent permits to enter Israel will not be allowed in.
[...]Army officials have suggested that the rise in planned attacks is due in part to an attempt by Islamic groups to move quickly to disrupt reported high-level contacts between the Palestinian Authority and Israeli officials.

Another factor may be the growing tension in the Gulf, and the impending U.S. attack on Iraq. A senior defense source said late Monday that in recent weeks Iraq and Iran have taken leading roles in pressing militants in the territories to initiate major attacks.
[...]
Perhaps the most potentially serious attack of those foiled recently was the one thwarted in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where the IDF arrested a Hamas suicide bomber and discovered a suitcase containing a 20-kilogram bomb that was ready to be detonated, apparently in a terror attack in Jerusalem. Sappers detonated the device safely.

Ramallah, huh? Fancy that. Arafat's neighborhood....
And then there's this other story out of Israel, too:
U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to start evacuating
non-essential staff

The U.S. embassy in Israel said on Monday it would start evacuating non-essential personnel and diplomats' families later in the week, with a U.S.-led war against Iraq looming.

A senior embassy source in Tel Aviv told Haaretz that the non-essential staff and diplomats' families have been on "authorized departure status" since Friday, when the State Department advised all but essential diplomats, along with family members, to leave Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
[...]
But it [the U.S. State Dept.] said the move did not mean that war with Iraq was imminent or inevitable. However, the United States took similar steps before the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq.

On January 30, the State Department announced an authorized departure for U.S. diplomats and dependants in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

It's good to know that Israel is securing itself as best it can.
They know only too well that if Saddam lashes out at his enemies, Israel will be the first to know about it.
Am Yisrael Chai...and Baghdad Delenda Est!
Let's roll.

Kurdish Political Leader Killed in Iraq

Gunmen posing as defectors from an Islamic extremist group killed a political leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and two other Kurdish officials, a party commander said Sunday.

The commander blamed the Ansar al-Islam organization for the Saturday night attack on Gen. Shawkat Haji Mushir, a member of the political leadership of the party, which controls the eastern section of the Kurdish autonomous region of northeast Iraq.

Sheik Jaffar Mustafa, party military commander of the town of Halabja, said the three attackers also killed Hekmat Osman, security chief of the Sirwan district, and Sardar Qafoor, military commander of Sirwan district. Three civilians--a man, a woman and a child were also killed.

[...]
Ansar al-Islam, which the PUK says has ties to the al-Qaida network, was singled out by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell as a terrorist-linked organization during his appearance before the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

Ansar al-Islam opposes the secular government of the Patriotic Union, which has been fighting for two years to drive the extremists from their mountain stronghold on the eastern edge of the Kurdish autonomous zone.

It would seem that this slaying is hauntingly like the murder of Akmed Shah Masood, the leader of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, by Al Queda/Taliban forces only a day or two before 9/11.
IOW, Al Queda's planning for something to "go down" and it won't be very nice: these Kurdish leaders that were killed were the best hope for democratic government and organized resistance to the Islamists and Al Queda members of Ansar al-Islam in northern Iraq, which thanks to our "no fly zone" enforcement has managed to stay semi-independent of Saddam.
Al Queda-linked Islamists always seem keen to dispatch the leadership of any internal resistance who they think will be a threat when they're faced with a fight on their own turf, so all in all, I'd say that we're right to think Al Queda and Saddam are linked (and worse) and they know that we're coming for a fact.
Be afraid. Be very afraid, jihadi boys.
The U.S. military when they're riled are awesome!

Hat tip to the very fine warblog of Chip Joyce's About the War, which is also the newest addition to my blogroll!
Welcome aboard, soldier!

A leaflet of the type that U.S. Navy warplanes may drop over Iraqi shipping in the event of a US-led attack is released in Bahrain, February 10, 2003. The wording in Arabic translates as, 'Do not help the Iraqi military or leaders of the regime to flee.'

February 10, 2003

PM holds the line against UN force - smh.com.au

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has positioned Australia firmly alongside the United States in rejecting a European peace plan for Iraq, as the world divides into camps supporting options for war and peace.

Mr Howard, speaking in Washington where he met the hawkish US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, questioned the credibility of the Franco-German plan, saying it was "not a given" that it would reach the United Nations.

The proposal would send several thousand UN peacekeepers into Iraq to help enforce the weapons inspections.

Mr Howard's support came as France late yesterday increased the pressure on Washington by vetoeing NATO plans for measures to defend Turkey in the event of a US-led war.

As Mr Howard prepared for his meeting with the US President, George Bush (at 9am today, Sydney time) he said the only way of avoiding conflict was for the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, to get "fair dinkum" and accept his obligations.

He had no reaction to comments by the UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, that Iraq had shown a "change of heart" in its efforts to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction.

"For something serious to happen to turn around the direction of this whole thing, there would have to be a total change of attitude by Iraq. It's not good enough to give a little bit. This has happened before. We're not going to play that game again."

I think Australians are absolutely precious!
And Aussies, you should be proud that you elected such a fine man as John Howard to be PM--he is marvelous and is certainly keeping his focus on what's best for Australia!
Now that America's fallen out with France, it's time for us to boycott the frogs and buy more of that very fine Australian wine: those vintages from Down Under just keep getting better and better!
I recommend the Coonawara Shiraz!
And have we also thanked you for Mel Gibson, Tim Blair and even wildman Russell Crowe lately?!

Which Art Movement are you?

this quiz was made by Caitlin

Tip of the tophat to Sasha's and Andrew's Roundtable.

Sharon issues stark warning

Ariel Sharon says the new Israeli Government that he has been asked to form will end "Palestinian terrorism"and remove its "leader", Yasser Arafat.

Mr Sharon was formally invited on Sunday by the Israeli President, Moshe Katsav, to begin putting together a new administration after winning last months election.

The new government will face difficult tasks - the war against terrorism and against its leader, the head of the Palestinian Authority," Mr Sharon said.

Go with my blessing, Mr. Sharon!
I can't wait to see Arafat draw his last breath!
I do fear that when you end "Palestinian terrorism," you end "Palestine."
Which would also be a very good thing indeed.
Toppling Saddam's regime in Iraq is going to get you more than halfway there, too.
Once that source of terrorist training, funding and support are gone, Israel's future is going to look a lot brighter.
How marvelous to hear the PM of Israel talk about a real end to the problem and a solution for securing the promises of the Promised Land, rather than more vacuous inanities about that old and empty "peace process."
An older, but wiser Israel speaks at last.

Bali attack 'targeted Australians'

Australians were deliberately targeted in last year's Bali bombings, according to transcripts of suspects to be aired on Australian television.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) Four Corners current affairs programme said it had obtained records of confessions made to police by several of the alleged bombers, which it would air on Monday.

The programme said it had a transcript of suspect Imam Samudra telling police that Australia was punished for its close relationship with the US, and for its involvement in East Timor's transition to independence from Indonesia in 1999.

Eighty-eight of the 190 or more victims in the 12 October bombing were Australian, but it has previously been reported that the bombers' target was simply Westerners.

Imam Samudra listed 13 reasons for the attack, including revenge for what he called "the barbarity of the US army of the cross and its allies England, Australia and so on", and their role in the war in Afghanistan, Four Corners said.

He added that: "Australia has taken part in efforts to separate East Timor from Indonesia which was an international conspiracy by followers of the (Christian) Cross," according to the ABC transcript.

There was a confession by one of the Bali bomber suspects a few months ago wherein he said that they were really targeting "Americans" and hit Aussies by mistake, which was implausible.
Everyone who knew Bali well enough to bomb these targets knew that most of the clients in these nightclubs were Australians.
I think the reference to Christians is telling, too.
They're still waging jihad on "infidels," only they've expanded that term to encompass Christians as well as Jews and if you're from an English-speaking country, even better.
The Islamists mainly want to kill us because we're not Muslims and we have free, open and tolerant societies and it has very little to do with our support of each other or East Timor (although both are things that we do, because we support Liberty).
Australia, I like being lumped together again with you guys.
Hope you don't mind, even though I regret it meant the deaths of 88 of your citizens.
You've been a faithful ally and a true nation friend for a very long time and I hope and pray that never changes!
Good on you.

France and Belgium, among Europe's staunchest opponents of a rush to war in Iraq, infuriated Washington on Monday by blocking a NATO plan to boost Turkish defenses in case of a war.

Their opposition revealed deep splits across the globe over attacking Iraq because of Baghdad's alleged weapons of mass destruction. NATO responded by calling a special meeting at 4:30 a.m. EST to discuss the deadlock.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld denounced the move by France and Belgium as "a disgrace" and said countries blocking the plan to reinforce Turkey's defenses would be condemned by their own people.

Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member country, could be one of the staging points for an attack on Iraq, which it borders. France and Belgium say boosting NATO's defenses would send the signal that war with Iraq had already started.

Rummy's right, as usual, and I do believe this move and this moment will be condemned by the French and Belgian peoples someday...but probably not soon.
Yes, I think the French, Germans and the Belgians and any other of their "Old European" sympathizers will look back on these days and the leaders who took them to this place with great regret and sorrow, because we are seeing something epic, but awful happening here.
Awful for them, that is.
Not satisfied with thwarting our aim of waging a justifiable disarmament of Saddam by force of arms in the UN, Old Europe stabs us again in the back by blocking us in NATO, another peace-preserving entity we created.
Apparently, the evil empire of the Soviet Union didn't really die, it just moved west a bit and changed component parts.
Right now, I think that "Old Europe" is heady with their success in being seen to push around the U.S. (or to attempt to, anyway) and with the recent rise of the EUro and the decline of the U.S. dollar on international currency markets over the past year, they think they have it made as the world's next "superpower..."
But these temporary gains will not last, I promise you, and their perceived power in the world will prove to be fleeting.
The EU is founded on illusions and delusions of the worst kind.
It's too difficult to see the big picture here or down the road very far, but we live in a brave, new world.
This is not the 20th Century, but the 21st and change feels scary, but things do change constantly.
And now it's NATO that's changing and dying, because it was really conceived with a post WWII-Western Europe in mind.
Time to move on.
And Turkey should nurture her friendship with us and the New Europe and count out the Old Europe of France, Belgium and Germany.
They must remember that it was Giscard d'Estaing (another Froggie), speaking on behalf of the EU's policy makers, who stated only a few months ago that "Turkey will never be a part of Europe" or the EU.
In these post 9/11 days, we're all finding out who are real friends and allies are and the revelations are too often not very pretty or even comprehensible.
Betrayal is never easy to take with and these latest examples of fecklessness from Old Europe are no exception to that rule.

Pope to Send Envoy to Baghdad

Pope John Paul II's special envoy to Iraq set off from Rome on Monday, saying the pontiff had decided to explore "the last limits of hope." Separately, Franciscan monks announced Iraq's deputy prime minister would join them in a prayer for peace next weekend in the hillside town of Assisi.

The Pope does err and is fallible because this is an example of it, among many such missteps that he's made of late.
I'm glad I'm was born and chose to continue to be a Protestant.
Thank God for Martin Luther, for no other reason than beginning the Protestant Reformation (and for writing hymns like "A Mighty Fortress is our God.")

February 09, 2003

U.S. Demands Iraq Show Cooperation by This Weekend

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell warned today that if Saddam Hussein was still not cooperating with United Nations inspectors at the end of this week, President Bush would press immediately for consideration of a Security Council resolution authorizing possible use of force against Iraq.

Mr. Powell's comments laid out what appeared to be an accelerating timetable in the confrontation with Iraq, even as France, Germany and other members of the Security Council continued to call for more time before considering the use of force.

Mr. Bush and his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, also said time was running short, as the administration seemed to be setting in motion a swift showdown with France and Germany, traditionally two of the United States' closest allies. Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, said today that Moscow, too, was aligning itself with Paris and Bonn. He spoke after talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany.

American officials say the next important day in the quickening pace of events on Iraq is this Friday, when Hans Blix and Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief United Nations weapons inspectors, are to deliver an updated report on whether Iraq is cooperating with the inspections ordered by the Council in November.

f Mr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei report next Friday that Mr. Hussein is still not cooperating, "then the Security Council will have to sit in session immediately and determine what should happen next," Mr. Powell said on NBC News program "Meet the Press."

The Security Council, he added, would then have to "start considering a resolution that says Iraq is in material breach and it is time for serious consequences to follow." The phrase "serious consequences" is used by American officials to refer to military force.

Mr. Powell dismissed reports that France and Germany, and perhaps Russia, would recommend deploying United Nations peacekeepers in Iraq along with inspectors, saying that would be pointless. The reports, first raised in the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, were played down by French and German officials as well, although they said discussions were under way to seek some alternative to quick military action.
[...]

But while the main pressure exerted today was on the United Nations, Mr. Powell and others in the administration were also seeking to put pressure on France and Germany over a growing dispute within NATO on Iraq. The dispute centers on a refusal by France, Germany and Belgium to agree to Turkey's request for military equipment to prepare for a possible war.

Echoing Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's comments in Germany over the weekend, Mr. Powell said on "Fox News Sunday" that it was "inexcusable" for France, Germany and Belgium to block the request, coming as it did from a fellow NATO member.

The NATO Charter requires the alliance to come to the defense of any member attacked, as Turkey fears it will be in the event of a war.

The NATO alliance is to decide the issue on Monday, but there was no sign today that France, Germany and Belgium were wavering. The three nations say that without a Security Council resolution authorizing war, it is premature to start supplying Turkey with the equipment requested, including Patriot missiles and Awacs surveillance aircraft.

"For three NATO nations to say, with respect to a fourth NATO nation, `We won't even consider that at this time because of a dispute, really, we're having within the United Nations Security Council about what follows next,' I think is inexcusable on the part of those countries," Mr. Powell said.

A potentially divisive new element arose, meanwhile, as the commander of American forces in Europe, Gen. James L. Jones, told members of Congress of a plan under study to scale back American forces in Germany. During a briefing to a visiting Congressional delegation last week, General Jones, who also is supreme commander of NATO forces, said the plan envisioned scattering the forces to bases in several countries, those closer to the Persian Gulf.

According to a Senate aide familiar with the briefing, the plan is still preliminary, but in the context of the United Nations deliberations, it is sure to be contentious.

The French and German position is said to be especially infuriating at the Pentagon, where planners say the Patriot missiles and other equipment need to start moving right now in order to reach Turkey on time. Mr. Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz have spent considerable effort in the last several months to line up Turkish help for a war with Iraq, and their efforts have borne fruit recently.

But French and German diplomats say that Turkey does not need the equipment now, and that the United States is pressing for it now only to give the shaky government led by Prime Minister Abdullah Gul in Turkey a show of political support that he can cite in his efforts to supply troops for an Iraq war.

American officials have tried to play down their anger over the NATO dispute, in part out of a desire not to aggravate tensions. But one American official called it a problem that could affect the unity of the entire Atlantic alliance forged after World War II.

Some say the relationship between the United States on one hand and France and Germany on the other is becoming increasingly poisonous. President Jacques Chirac of France was described by knowledgeable officials as furious over American efforts to gather support from other European nations for a war with Iraq. "Chirac is not amused that the United States seems to be trying to isolate him and suggest that France is not the real leader of Europe," a European diplomat said.

The diplomat was referring to recently successful efforts to line up eight other nations in Europe to sign a declaration favoring disarmament of Iraq, which was interpreted as a rebuff to France. French officials complained that France had not been asked to sign the declaration, which they noted did not actually call for a war and therefore might have been acceptable to Mr. Chirac.

A second letter was released by 10 other European nations, mostly from Eastern Europe. Mr. Powell said today that those letters of support indicated that many Europeans supported the United States' view, even if France and Germany did not.

There was some confusion, meanwhile, over whether there would be a French and German counterproposal this coming week — possibly backed by Russia — to avoid a confrontation with Iraq by instead demanding that Mr. Blix and Dr. ElBaradei be given more inspectors and be backed by possible use of United Nations troops while they do their inspections.

France and Germany denied a report in Der Spiegel that they were talking secretly about such a proposal. Mr. Powell said he had not seen it, but that if it was an offshoot of a similar proposal by France last week for more inspectors, and more time for them to do their work, the idea was a nonstarter.

"I do not know what that accomplishes," Mr. Powell said on the ABC News program "This Week," referring to the proposal to add inspectors. "The issue is not more inspectors or more robust inspections. The issue is: Will Iraq comply? Will it give up its weapons of mass destruction?"

He said more inspectors would accomplish nothing without a change of approach by Mr. Hussein. Similarly, adding United Nations troops would also not help, he said.

"What are these blue-helmeted U.N. forces going to do?" he asked. "Shoot their way into Iraqi compounds?"

Precisely, Secretary Powell. Thank you for your firm response.
And, of course, any UN force would end up being largely made up of American military, too, I'm sure, as we made up so many such forces....
The Frogs and the Krauts want to turn Iraq into Somalia 1993: great plan. Thud.
Well, folks, what can you say about all this...mess? (And what else could we call it that doesn't involved 4-letter curse words?)
The French haven't come up with this cockamamie a plan since the Vichy Government.
I am so horrified by all this, I can barely blog about it.
And for all of my readers who are Jacksonian Democrats--the only type of "Democrat" I'll ever be--and who live and die by the concept of Honor in the conduct of a nation's affairs and especially our nation's affairs, I hope you are as outraged as I.
France and Germany have covered themselves with dishonor in just the past few days, succeeding in virtually nuking both the UN and NATO, as well as any diplomatic goodwill and national good feeling that has existed between their countries and ours.*
Bravo. Nice work, you perfidious bastards.
I can't put into words how shocking their behaviour has been to me.
Joschka Fischer openly insulted Donald Rumsfeld.
Rummy found out about this secret French/German plan to militarily occupy Iraq from the German press, not through the proper diplomatic channels...
Although I've no doubt that SecState Powell will be hearing about it at the UN this week, as well.
If no good deed goes unpunished, that must goes double for the U.S. and her salvation of Western Europe from the tyranny of Hitler in '45 and the ambitions of the Kaiser in 1918.
And we won't even talk about keeping the Soviets at bay from France and Western Germany for 45 years from the end of WWII to the collapse of the Soviet system...(Not just one, but 2 Berlin Airlifts!
You're welcome!)
Now Chirac and Schroeder are supposedly miffed about the pro-US statements of the New Europe 8 in the WSJ and the Vilnius Group and they want to blame the Bush Administration because there are other countries in Europe beside France and Germany who want to be part of the solution of the world's problems and not parties to their causation?
New Europe has learned from their own histories and know only too well which side is right and which is wrong, while France and Germany choose to feed the alligator hoping that it will eat them last or just won't get around to it.
Well, America is superior to them (and they know it!).
We can get beyond this.
As the motto I adopted for this blog says, We can do it!
Once the Bush Administration goes to the UNSC for a resolution to go to war on Iraq and doesn't get it--which I don't think we will--then we must move ahead without it.
We'll figure out what to do about the degenerate, irrelevant UN later.
France, Germany and their little Belgian poodle's actions will destroy NATO, such as it is.
We can form another alliance with New Europe.
And we should, to reflect more accurately the 21st Century realities.
Further, we should move all those troops out of Germany and into Poland, where we're not only wanted, but where strategically we would be equipoised between Central Europe and the steppes of Russia more advantageously.
If France and Germany and their satellites Belgium and Luxembourg want to join common cause with America's Islamist-led enemies, they're "free" to do that.
In the meantime, we don't have to go to those countries as tourists and spend money.
Nor do we have to buy German cars or Hermes ties or anything else made in those countries.
The U.S.A. is not going to be dictated to by bloviating, corrupt and megalomaniacal petty despots like Chirac and Schroeder, neither of whom received a mandate from their own citizens to govern in the last elections[Both were narrowly elected by slim margins.].
We are also not going to sign that bogus Kyoto Treaty, which is nothing but an attempt to curb our roaring capitalist economy based on junk science.
And don't even think about us joining the ICC, which threatens to be the Big Brother watchdog agency all of us have long feared, promising to prosecute anyone who speaks out against their Socialist government as guilty of "hate crimes."
Since the Revolutionary War, many thousands, perhaps now millions, of Americans have died for our rights and liberties as guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and probably, in this War with Iraq and in the larger War on Islamist Terrorism, more will give their lives to protect and preserve the Right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.
But some things are worth dying for...things like the principles upon which this country was founded.
And fight for them we will, especially when a madman like Saddam Hussein has WMD which threaten the very lives who enjoy these rights-- human lives here, in Iraq, and anywhere on the planet where a motivated Islamist can take one and murder others for jihad.
If the French and Germans think that such rights to defend ourselves and to protect our inalienable freedoms can be negotiated away or even given up willingly as they did in Vichy France and Hitler's Reich, that is their problem.
*Actually, the French and Germans hit the trifecta: this past week, they've succeeded in destroying the UN, NATO and the EU.
The biggest omission from this new German/French disarmament plan for Iraq, which they appropriately have called "Mirage," is the entire nation of Great Britain. Nowhere in their machinations is the UK's name mentioned that I have read, which is as good as saying that for the 2 "leading" nations of Western Europe, Britain doesn't exist and is not important enough to rate a place at the table.
This is a pretty significant omission for a country that is not only supplying the second largest contigent of troops and materiel for our Iraq attack [which would be used along with ours in the Franco-German plan, BTW], but which has one of the more robust economies in Europe.
Britain was going to vote on full membership in the EU this year, voting mainly on full economic participation and the adoption of the EUro.
That vote was postponed even before the calamitous actions of the Frogs and the Krauts this week.
Do not look for this vote--should it ever take place--to succeed in overthrowing the British pound.
And Thank God for that in advance!