January 16, 2004

Bush installs Pickering on appeals court, bypassing Democrats who had blocked him

President Bush bypassed Congress and installed Charles Pickering on the federal appeals court Friday, opening an election-year fight with Democrats who had stalled the nomination for more than two years.

Bush installed Pickering by a recess appointment, which avoids the confirmation process. Such appointments are valid until the next Congress takes office, in this case in January 2005.

YESSSSSSS!
Now, if only he would do the same with Miguel Estrada, Katherine Kuhl and Janice Rogers Brown!

Afghan TV U-turn on women singers

Afghan state television has gone back on a decision to show female singers, saying the country is not yet ready for such broadcasts.

A song by the popular artist, Salma, was shown on Monday, the first time such images were broadcast since 1992.

But the programming chief of state-run TV, Azizullah Aryanfar, told the AFP news agency: "Current circumstances are not suitable to air women singing."

The decision came after the supreme court complained to the government.
[...]
The supreme court, dominated by conservative former mujahideen fighters, has often accused media in the country of violating Islamic principles.

Monday night's broadcast was old footage of Salma singing a ballad about a refugee. She was wearing a headscarf instead of an all-enveloping burqa.
[...]
However, the supreme court reacted angrily, with Deputy Chief Justice Fazel Ahmed Manawi saying: "This has to be stopped. We are opposed to women singing and dancing as a whole."

That in turn sparked a protest by women's leaders.

Women's Affairs Minister Habiba Surabi said: "The supreme court interferes in issues which are not their business, they want to impose their views on people.

"I didn't see anything un-Islamic in Ms Salma's footage; she was just sitting politely and singing."
[...]
When the Taleban came to power in 1996, it banned all television.

Women have gradually been gaining a higher profile since the fall of the Taleban just over two years ago.

The recent loya jirga, or grand assembly, adopted a new constitution which gave women equal rights.

Here's a big Shout out to my "sisters" in Afghanistan--Keep working for your rights, ladies!
Looks like the Taliban won't give up without a fight; they hate women doing anything in public, especially without those head-to-toe coffee filters called burqas, they hate music and they hate TV.
What a bunch of anal-retentive killjoys!
Maybe the old Mujahadeen and Taliban need to be reminded that they lost their power to Coalition forces in Operation Enduring Freedom!
On the plus side, however, there's this news:
Afghan warlords hand over 100 guns and vehicles

The warlords of Afghanistan handed over more than 100 armoured vehicles and heavy artillery pieces to the Kabul government yesterday, the first major step towards demilitarising the capital.

A convoy of armoured troop carriers, ground-to-ground missile launchers, anti-tank guided missiles, and multiple rocket launchers, nicknamed "city killers" because of their ability to destroy an urban block with one salvo, lined up facing the shell-scarred Darlaman palace, a ruined royal palace.
[...]
The 100 vehicles and arms were handed to the central government and moved to a military camp 10 miles outside the city. Until yesterday they belonged to as many as 30 private military commanders loyal to the Northern Alliance, including the defence minister, Mohammad Fahim.

The warlords are expected to hand over another 300 pieces in the next month, which would completely remove heavy artillery from the capital.
[...]Yesterday's exercise is separate from the disarming of 100,000 militiamen across Afghanistan, which is taking place under the supervision of the United Nations.

This is very good news indeed.
Be wary of the Telegraph's "multilateral" praise of this U.N. disarmament measure: it would never have been possible at all if the United States and her friends and allies hadn't done the heavy lifting and liberated Afghanistan militarily from the Taliban.
It sounds as if Kabul is well on its way to being a free, functioning capital city and when you think about the rubble-piled hellhole it was as recently as October 2001 when we got there, that is no small feat for everyone involved (including both Western forces and native Afghans).
Now if only we could see similar progress and disarmament of the radical Islamist factions in the rest of the country and I pray for that to happen soon.
Afghanistan is a great country filled with marvelous people and especially with long-suffering, smart and irrepressible women!

IAEA Confirms Yellowcake Found in Rotterdam Likely From Iraq

The yellowcake was uncovered Dec. 16 by Rotterdam-based scrap metal company Jewometaal, which had received it in a shipment of scrap metal from a dealer in Jordan.

Company spokesman Paul de Bruin said the Jordanian dealer didn't know that the scrap metal contained any radioactive material. He said the dealer was confident the yellowcake, which was contained in a small steel industrial container, came from Iraq.

Well, this can't be right.
Former ambassador and now current Saudi employee Joe Wilson (BTW, did you know that he was married to a Top Secret CIA spook named Valerie Plame? Well, now you do.) told us that President Bush "lied" about Iraq having yellowcake or anything else connected to a nuclear program and that if they did, it certainly wasn't from the musically named country of Niger!

Iran Quake Death Toll Exceeds 41,000
How incredibly tragic and sad.
May God (or "Allah") comfort the families who lost loved ones.
And yet the mullahs wouldn't allow Sen. Liddy Dole, the former director of the Red Cross, to accompany our massive aid shipments for the Bam quake, most probably because she's a powerful woman from the "Great Satan."

Yesterday, there was this:
Yassin denies involvement in Wednesday's suicide attack
Then, today there was this:
Yassin orders Hamas to escalate attacks
Along with this threat:
Hamas: Erez female bomber is just the beginning

"She is not going to be the last (attacker) because the march of resistance will continue until the Islamic flag is raised, not only on the minarets of Jerusalem, but over the whole universe," promised Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar.

Wednesday's attack was the first time that Hamas has dispatched a female suicide bomber to perpetrate an attack.

Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said the use of female suicide bombers marks a change in the movement's strategy. "For the first time, Hamas used a female fighter and not a male fighter," he told reporters. "It is a new development in resistance against the enemy.... Resistance will escalate against this enemy until they leave our land and homeland."

Their "land and homeland"...Uh-huh.
Even though they've lost this land several times since 1948 in various wars and when they gained it back through "land for peace" deals like Camp David and Oslo, they've refused to uphold their end of the bargain.
The fence is really working, in spite of the fact that this woman splodeydope made it through--she was only able to activate her bomb belt in the Gaza Strip, instead of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem and to do that, she had to pretend that she was on crutches.
IOW, it's getting harder and harder for them to pull off suicide attacks inside the fence.
Good.
Sad that this mother of 2 young children was so blinded by jihadi hatred, though.

U.N. sides with U.S. on voting in Iraq

U.N. officials said yesterday that direct elections could not be organized in Iraq before the July deadline, placing the international body on the side of the United States in a looming confrontation with Iraq's Shi'ite community led by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani.
    
An estimated 20,000 Shi'ites marched through Basra yesterday, chanting "No, no to America" and demanding direct elections instead of the caucus system for choosing a transitional government determined by the Iraqi Governing Council and approved by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.

How ironically funny that the UN is now siding with us.
Given their track record in "managing" a given country's problems and how we feel about them in general, I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
Probably good, because it will make for more acceptance for our future administration of Iraq in the minds of many all over the globe and will ease the return of UN agencies to help with the reconstruction.
No matter, because these radicalized Shi'ites must be stopped!
Their dream is to set up another Islamic theocracy just like Iran, with al-Sistani as the leader and Ayatollah of the country.
Note also that al-Sistani's a Hussein--these things do run in the family and the tribe in the Arab world.
Above and beyond that, Shi'ites and Sunnis are shall we say "hell-bent" on battling it out with each other.
There was a reason that Saddam kept the Shiites (as well as the Kurds) under lockdown in his country.
I'm not saying it was right, but I'm just saying that I understand.
I also understand the Shiites not liking the "caucus system;" who could after watching 5 minutes of American TV this week?!

Boston.com / News / World / Al Qaeda-run camps found in Saudi Arabia, official says

 Authorities have discovered Al Qaeda-run camps in the Saudi desert that trained militants to carry out terror attacks, an Interior Ministry official said yesterday.

The statement was the first confirmation the Al Qaeda terror network had infiltrated Saudi Arabia. The government previously acknowledged there could be Al Qaeda training facilities in the kingdom, but gave no details.

The camps were set up to train militants to use weapons and prepare for terror operations, the official said on condition of anonymity. He did not specify the number of camps or say when they were found. Weapons seized from the camps will be turned over to the military, he said.
[...]
"It no longer works to say these ideas and people are imported. This is an internal problem, and we have to admit that," he said.

Whadda surprise. Not.
I suppose their first clue wasn't that 15 of the 19 9/11 killers were from SA.
Oh, no.
Or that Riyahd has been Ground Zero for the support, funding and instigation of Waahab jihadi terrorism against the Judeo-Christian West and other assorted "infidels" including the "decadent" Royal House of Saud, the very guys who lead and pay for the jihad.
When can we say that the Civil War in Saudi started? (2001? 1921? 734?)

January 13, 2004

Palestinian Authority Faces Money Woes

Hit by waning support from fatigued donor nations, the Palestinian Authority has been forced to borrow from banks to pay salaries to its 125,000 employees and may be unable to meet its February payroll, the economy minister said Tuesday.
[...]
With unemployment rampant outside the public payroll, Palestinians could be facing unprecedented economic collapse after three years of conflict with Israel.
[Nice to see the Intifada has cost the Paleos as much or more as it has the nation of Israel!--Jen]
[...]
Palestinians say Israeli travel restrictions and frequent military operations have ruined their economy. Israel says the restrictions are necessary to prevent terror attacks, pointing to frequent charges of corruption in the Palestinian leadership as a reason for the malaise.

World Bank figures show about 40 percent of the Palestinian work force is unemployed and 60 percent of the population live on less than $2 per person per day.

Masri said the Palestinian Authority has a monthly income of about $20 million and expenditures of at least $85 million.
[$85 mill on what, pray tell? Dynamite?--ed.]

The World Bank says donors have grown weary at the lack of progress toward peace, while the Palestinians are facing a $400 million shortfall.

"They are facing a crisis and it's getting worse," Norwegian Mideast envoy Jakken Biorn Lian said by phone from Oslo. "They need extra contributions."

Masri said that Arab declarations of support for the Palestinians were not being matched by remittances, with only Saudi Arabia and Libya agreeing to send money. "The Palestinian cause is not the world's highest priority these days," he said.

Dee-lighted to hear that news!
These Islamist killers have been blackmailing the planet for long enough!
I'd loved to see the US never give the PA another thin dime and I look, hope and pray for that to happen very, very soon.
We can hope that the EU and Japan will follow our lead.
Please recall that all of us have given the PA plenty, so if they're really wondering about that $400 million "shortfall," look no further than a short guy's personal bank accounts named Yasser Arafat, who also happens to be a billionaire, as documented by Fortune Magazine in their world's richest people lists.
Obviously, there also has to be a reckoning with the Sauds.
It wouldn't surprise me if we weren't talking with Quaddafi of Libya already on this subject.
But can you believe that the Arab world as a whole and entities like Arafat and the Sauds would let these poor ignorant Palestinians live like stray cats on $2 a day, with no sign of viable employment or industry in the "Palestinian" areas in sight?
And it's been that way for over a decade, but more likely since 1948.
They've long taken the attitude that they didn't have to *do* anything to make "Palestine" a viable state, because their plan was always (and stilll is!) to kill all the Israelis and just "take over" Israel, which has been toiling and thriving economically and culturally and making the desert bloom lo these 56 years.
If only the "Palestinian" people would hold Yasser and his pals accountable for the money and stop the whining to the world community that they need more, as they've traditionally done in the past with great success.
Cue the Cuba Gooding, Jr.: "Show me the money!"

Iranian government threatens to dissolve

Iran's reformist government has threatened to resign amid denunciations Tuesday of a hard-line panel's disqualification of candidates for next month's elections who are allied with the reformist president.

In a deepening of the nation's political crisis, the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Vice President Mohammad Sattarifar as saying late Monday, "if the government feels that it cannot fulfill its responsibilities in protecting legitimate freedoms, such as defending the rights of the nation for a free and fair elections, then it does not believe that there is any reason to stay in power."

The statement is the strongest yet indicating President Mohammad Khatami's government may be willing to resign if it cannot ensure free elections. However, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has promised to intervene if the crisis is not resolved soon.

The Guardian Council, an un-elected hard-line constitutional watchdog, has barred over 3,000 of the 8,200 people - including more than 80 sitting lawmakers - who filed papers to run for a seat in the 290-member parliament. Lawmakers have said all of those who where disqualified were reformists.
Iran's largest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, meanwhile said in a statement that disqualifying the reform candidates amounted to treason because it damages Iran's international credibility and will result in "sham elections."

"We consider the disqualifications national treason and an attempt to transform the Islamic Republic into a despotic establishment," the party said in its statement. "Disqualifications deny the people their constitutional right to choose and be chosen. ... Hard-liners seek to set up a sham parliament through sham elections."

Bless their hearts!
The Iranian people know all there is to know now about "sham elections" and "despotic establishments" after more than 20 years of living under an Islamist mullah-ocracy.
Now that they've had a taste of a little reform, watched their neighbors Iraq and Afghanistan be liberated and begin to implement democratic reforms under our tender care and since they've seen that the "Great Satan America" can be Iran's friend, too, when they suffer adversity like the Bam earthquake, they don't want to go back to a hermetic, repressive theocratic police state.
And who can blame them?
Sounds as if the 2nd, real Revolution is about to go down in Iran--may the people win in a bloodless coup, the mullahs and the Ayatollah lose (as they should have in '79) and let's let Freedom Ring in Persia!
God be with you, liberty-loving Iranians!

January 12, 2004

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today
"Democrats Flood Iowa With Ground Troops"
James Taranto just kills me!
Bwahahahaha!

Court Nixes Appeal Over 9-11 Detentions

The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether the government properly withheld names and other details about hundreds of foreigners detained in the weeks and months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The high court turned down a request to review the secrecy surrounding detainees, nearly all Arabs or Muslims[Uh huh. The killers who attacked us on 9/11 weren't white Swedish Baptists!--Jen], who were picked up in the United States following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Most of the more than 700 detainees at issue in the case have since been deported. Some picked up after Sept. 11 were charged with crimes [And in the case of the "Buffalo/Lackawanna Six," the case has been expanded!--Jen], and others were held as material witnesses. Only Zacarias Moussaoui, who was detained before the Sept. 11 attacks, is being prosecuted in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

A Washington study center[WTF is a "study center?"--ed.] critical of the Bush administration responses after Sept. 11 sued to learn names and other basic information about the detainees. The appeal raises constitutional questions under the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press, and legal questions under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
[...]
Twenty-three news organizations and media groups, including The Associated Press, [Who wrote and published this very story!--J.T.] joined in asking the high court to hear the case.

The government grabbed people on thin suspicion, then moved to deport detainees who had no demonstrated link to terrorism but who had violated civil immigration laws, lawyers for Martin's Washington-based group argued to the court.
[Gee, there's nothing like a straight reporting of the "news" with no bias in sight, huh?--Jen]

The high court's decision not to review the case represents a victory for the Bush administration. [You can tell that the AP is just sick about this!--Jen] Last week, the high court disappointed the administration by taking on a higher-profile terrorism case involving the rights of an American citizen captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan. The Bush administration had argued strongly that it has authority to hold the man, Yaser Esam Hamdi, indefinitely and without charges in a military prison.
[...]

The justices had earlier rejected several cases that raised more oblique questions about the government response to the terror threat. One rejected case involved a similar issue to Monday's secrecy case. It asked whether the government could keep reporters and the public away from closed-door deportation hearings.

The Bush administration has argued that releasing names and details of the arrests would give terrorists a window on the U.S. post-Sept. 11 terror investigation.
[That's exactly right and I'm thrilled that that's what our government is doing, too. If the Enemy knew who we had in custody, then they'd have a pretty good idea of what we'd found out about planned future attacks.--Jennie]

"In any ongoing law enforcement investigation, requiring the police to open their investigative files and provide a comprehensive list of the persons interviewed and detained — and by the same token to reveal which persons they have not interviewed and detained — would necessarily interfere with the investigation by providing a roadmap of law enforcement's activities, strategies and methods," Solicitor General Theodore Olson argued in the latest detainee secrecy case.

God bless Ted Olson. I'm sure you remember that his dear and lovely wife Barbara was killed on the plane that smashed into the Pentagon on 9/11.

The Liberal Media can go pound sand.
As long as they continue to obfuscate the issues be confusing the legal status of illegal aliens, enemy combatants and American citizens and trying their damnedest to make the Bush Administration look evil when all it's doing is to make America as secure as possible from Islamist terror attacks, while preserving our cherished civil liberties, they can moan, bitch and cry all they want to...and they will, as we know only too well by now.
Thank God the Supreme Court passed this one over, as they should have.
They've only agreed to hear the Hamdi case because he was an American citizen and I hope it's because they want to settle the prosecution of POWs and enemy combatants, even if they were at one time Americans who turned against our country in a war, once and for all for the duration of this war.

Fox seeks to open U.S. borders

Mexican President Vicente Fox yesterday said he favors open borders across North America, not amnesty for his countrymen illegally residing in the United States.
    
The alien work program announced last week by President Bush would not encourage aliens to remain in the United States, because they love their home country, the Mexican president told the "Fox News Sunday" program.
    
"We are not looking for an amnesty [for] Mexico. It's not that we're looking for these Mexicans working productively in the United States to become U.S. citizens. They like tacos, they like their families, they like their community, they like Mexico. Unfortunately, they don't have the opportunities that they would like to have as persons, so that's why they move," Mr. Fox said.

Mr. Fox said all immigration barriers should be removed to allow people to live and work in the country of their choosing, whether it be Mexico, the United States or Canada.
   
 "On the long term, this North American bloc can be the leading bloc on the world and be the most competitive bloc on the world by working together and, through that, be able to keep increasing the quality and the level of life of our citizens," Mr. Fox said.
    
Mr. Bush heads to northern Mexico today to participate in the Summit of the Americas talks in Monterrey. A key subject will be his proposal allowing millions of Mexicans in this country illegally to remain for three years if they have jobs that citizens don't want.
[...]
Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans said there will be no guarantees for alien workers in this program.
    
"No guarantee they'll be able to stay permanently, and no guarantee they won't be able to stay permanently," Mr. Evans told CNN's "Late Edition."
    
"And what the president has said is that we've got to get a system in place that only allows legal immigrants to take jobs that may otherwise go to an American. It also will make our borders a lot safer."
[...]
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said the program will give Mexican workers "dignity."
[...]
The Mexican government also will be expected to do a better job policing its border to protect its citizens, she said.
[...]
Mr. Bush meets today with Mr. Fox, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
    
Tomorrow, Mr. Bush will have his first private meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, and later meet with President Nestor Kirchner of Argentina and Bolivian President Carlos Mesa.

I told you Fox would hate Bush's plan!
Vicente wants the border to be more, not less, open in a wartime, post 9/11 world--can you believe it?!
And he unashamedly doesn't make any kind of comment about or show any intention of fixing the broken Mexican economy, not even for the benefit of a soundbyte to the media to comfort his own electorate!
I hope the contrast with President Bush and the vibrant American economy strikes you as dramatic.
And yet the Liberals scream at the president almost every day because there are 5 Americans "out of work!"
There have often been days when I don't envy President Bush at all and today is one of those days.
It's clear he'll have to turn the Bush Charm Offensive up to "high" for this lazy and indolent pendejo Fox!

Iranian leader shuns intervention

Iran's supreme leader has said the controversy over next month's parliamentary elections must be resolved through "legal channels."[Sneer quotes mine. When shari'a is your law. This could only mean prison, maiming or execution for the dissenters.--Jen]

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he would only intervene after legal procedures had been exhausted.

The row began after the Guardian Council - a hardline body made up of clerics and Islamic lawyers - barred 2,000-plus reformists from standing.

The decision provoked a storm of protests from reformers.

The provincial governors in charge of administering the elections say they will resign unless the ban is reversed, and 80 reformist deputies are continuing a sit-in inside the Iranian parliament.

Reformist President Mohammad Khatami has appealed for calm.
[...]
The 12-member Council of Guardians is empowered to ensure parliament's actions comply with Islamic principles.

Council spokesman Mohammad Jahromi said 2,033 of the 8,200 candidates had been barred but MPs said the figure was higher.

MP Reza Yousefian said more than 80 of 290 MPs had been banned from re-election.

Iran's parliament is dominated by the reformists, who have won all major national elections since 1997.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who is currently visiting Tehran, has said that a clear and transparent electoral process was very important to the EU.

"It's very difficult for me to explain [to the European Parliament] how MPs who are representatives of the people could not participate again in the election," he said.

Javier Solana, you moron.
Does anything but BS and politico gobbledygoop ever come out of your mouth or Kofi Annan's?
Javier's got some 'splaining to do while untold thousands, if not millions, of Iranians struggle for the basic human liberty to lead happy lives!
It's good, but painful, to see the fiction that Iran is being run by "reformists" exposed as the lie it has always been so that all the world can see.
I pray for the day of Iran's liberation from the clerics!
But as Michael Ledeen always says about that, "Faster, please."

Saudis warn US against supporting Israel

The Sudi (sic) ambassador to Britain Turky el-Faisal published Sunday a statement that continued US support for Israel may lead to Arab animosity towards the US administration.

US policies in the Middle East, he said, especially towards the Palestinian affair is the main subject for Arab contention towards the USA.

Or they'll do what?
Wasn't 9/11 an expression of "Arab animosity?"
The Sauds are about 56 years too late on our support of the nation-state of Israel.
Anti-Israel and consequent anti-U.S. "animosity" already led to things like the oil embargo of 1973.
Who knows where, if anywhere, this latest show of Saudi bellicosity will lead?
George W. Bush knows...!
The House of Saud must fall.
"Allah" knows they've been asking for it for a long time.

January 11, 2004

N. Korea Says It Showed 'Nuclear Deterrent'

North Korea said Saturday that it showed its "nuclear deterrent" to an unofficial U.S. delegation that visited the disputed Yongbyon nuclear complex, which had been closed to outsiders since the North expelled U.N. inspectors more than a year ago.

A member of the delegation, which included experts and former government officials, said the five Americans were allowed to see everything they requested but it was not clear if the "nuclear deterrent" was a bomb. Delegates said they could give no further details until they reported to Washington.

I'm scared, but intrigued already!
Can't wait to hear what they were shown and to hear their stories of what life (and probably a lot of death, too, sadly) is like in Kim's Land of the Lost.

China Wants U.S. to Stay Out of Hong Kong's Affairs

Stung by U.S. calls for more democracy in Hong Kong, China has demanded that the American government "stop interfering" in the territory's internal affairs, the official news agency said Sunday.
[...]
Pro-democracy protests, some of them quite large, have taken place in Hong Kong since July 1, when 500,000 people marched on the streets against a Beijing-backed national security bill. Activists accuse the territory's Beijing-appointed leader, Tung Chee-hwa, of undermining efforts at self-government.

[...]
Hong Kong, a former British colony, reverted to Chinese rule in 1997. It is now a special administrative region governed under a doctrine known as "one country, two systems," under which the Chinese government has allowed it to operate semi-independently.

The ChiComs were clazy to think that they could take over HK from the British after almost 100 years of freedom and make them toe the Maoist line!
(I also think that the Brits were nuts to just turn it over and not fight to keep it, but that was the old accomadating world of the 1990's.)
Hong Kong--which I've had the pleasure of visiting twice and where my schoolfriend Yolanda has been raising her family (Hi, Yolanda!)--is leading China to Liberty.
It couldn't be any other way.
HK was and is one of the most vibrant port cities of international shopping, trade and capitalist excitement on the planet and you can't rein that in and smart rulers shouldn't even want to!
Shrieking at America won't make this grass roots freedom fight go away and many other Chinese outside of HK are getting the fever!

Turkey OKs Use of Base for Troop Changes

The American military has begun using an air base in southern Turkey for a massive rotation of troops in and out of Iraq, a U.S. official told The Associated Press on Sunday in a sign of improved U.S.-Turkish relations.

Turkey's granting permission to use its Incirlik air base marks a sharp contrast to last year, when the country--opposed to the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein--refused to allow U.S. troops on its territory for the war against its southern neighbor.

It also comes as NATO-ally Turkey is increasingly eager to win favor with the United States amid concerns over Iraqi Kurdish demands for greater autonomy in oil-rich northern Iraq. Turkey, and neighbors Syria and Iran, fear Iraqi Kurds might eventually push for independence and bring instability to their borders.
[...]
The use of Incirlik helps the United States as it deals with the largest movement of troops in decades. [Since WWII, actually--Jen] The military is preparing to send some 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq home over the coming months, replacing them with a more mobile, less heavily armed force of about 110,000.

Nice to see our old ally in the region come around!
Turkey probably regretted not backing the US and the Coalition to the hilt the moment Saddam's statue fell in Baghdad.
And thus far, I don't think the Iraqi Kurds have given any indication that they're unhappy with the evolving new Iraqi state and their role in it, such that they're ready to launch a new freedom fight to get their own state, either within Iraq's borders or over into Turkey's.
In fact, the Kurds seem to have been ready and willing to be a part of the solution for the liberation of Iraq and its reconstruction, not another part of the problem, like the Baathists or even the Shi'ites.
Of course, Istanbul has been the scene of 2 terrible Islamist terror bombing events (involving 2 targets each) and that had to have shifted PM Erdogan and the Turks in their position on our Global War on Islamofascist Terror.
And the events of recent months have also shown them how the EU, led by the weasel powers, treats its friends and allies, not to mention its fellow member countries and it could very well be that Turkey isn't so eager to join that basically Franco-German Axis of Weasel after all.
I'm delighted to see them coming to their senses!
Turkey has been a great ally of the US strategically, as well as culturally, and as one of the few functioning secular democracies with a Muslim majority in the Middle East, we need their example.

U.S. Says It Has Proof of Sales to Iraq

U.S. officials have found evidence corroborating the Bush administration's allegations that Russian companies sold Saddam Hussein high-tech military equipment that threatened U.S. forces during the invasion of Iraq last March, a senior State Department official said Friday.

The United States has found proof that Russian firms exported night-vision goggles and radar-jamming equipment to Iraq, the official said. The evidence includes the equipment itself and proof that it was used during the war, said the official.
[...]...the gear had been sold relatively recently, and with an understanding that it could be used in such a war.

High-tech military equipment is a top export for Russia. Though the country's military budget has shrunk dramatically, its military industry exports about $5 billion annually in tanks, planes, small arms and other equipment — directly or through transshipment — to dozens of countries.

During the war, U.S. military sources gave differing accounts of how much the Russian-made equipment affected American-led coalition forces. Some military officials were quoted as blaming jamming gear for sending missiles off course and into Iran and Saudi Arabia, and claiming that Russian-made Kornet antitank missiles destroyed at least two American M1A1 tanks during the war, the first time such tanks had been destroyed in battle.

But other officials said the equipment had little effect during the rapid sweep to Baghdad.
[...]
Leonid B. Roshal, deputy director of KBP Tula, said in an interview late last year that his company sold about 1,000 Kornets to Syria three or four years ago, but insisted that the transaction was "absolutely legitimate." "As of today, there is no evidence that Kornet antitank missiles have ever been discovered in Iraq," he said.

Looks like some things never change about the Russians, that being their tendency to lie about arming America's enemies coupled with their actually doing it.
I suppose losing that Kremlin mindset is tough!
What else *did* and do they make in the old USSR, now the Russian Federation, but weapons?
Vodka from potatoes and jars for caviar?
Certainly it's easiest to fall back on what you know, particularly when until about 14 years ago, 1/3 of the Russian workforce was employed as neighborhood snoops in the KGB.
And I'm sure you've noticed that everywhere Islamist terrorist thugs turn up in the world, they're always equipped with Russian guns and armaments.
And I can't help remembering that one of the last caravans out of Baghdad before we hit Saddam with "Shock and Awe" was one full of Russians, heading for the Syrian border.
I'm sure we haven't heard the end of this!
Pass the lemon Stoli, caviar, creme fraiche and blini and make yourself comfortable!