January 23, 2004

Campaign mode for Bush?

While visiting Roswell, NM to make a speech at the convention center there yesterday, President Bush popped into the Nuthin' Fancy Restaurant to get a to-go meal of ribs, cornbread, fried okra and buttermilk pie (All of which sound delicious! Except I thought that President Bush was giving up desserts as a New Year's resolution.) which he paid for out of his own wallet.
CNN thinks it's just the President in his reelection campaign mode, but I can tell he just knows where to find the good eats and good friends!
That same day, on his trip out West, the Commander in Chief took a few moments to kick back with some old baseball buddies at a Mexican restaurant in AZ (Again, I love his taste in food.)

President George W. Bush dines with Arizona Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly(L) and Jerry Colangelo, managing general partner of the Diamondbacks, at a Mexican restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, January 21, 2004.
Just about all Texans, like the President and I, hold our rib dinners and our Mexican food dear.

January 22, 2004

BIN LADEN'S IRAQ ATTACKS BACKFIRING

The large number of Muslim deaths caused by al Qaeda terrorist attacks in Iraq has created p.r. problems for Osama bin Laden, who now appears to be having second thoughts about his holy war against coalition forces there, The Post has learned.

New articles in al Qaeda's biweekly Internet magazine Sawt al-Jihad, or "Voice of Jihad," are urging al Qaeda supporters to stay out of Baghdad and concentrate on hitting U.S. military targets in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, according to terrorist expert Rita Katz, whose SITE Institute monitors al Qaeda propaganda on the Internet.

"My instructions to the people of the peninsula [Saudi Arabia], young as old, men as women, is to fight Americans in their homes and the people of Yemen should fight the Americans in their bases, battleships and their consulates," wrote an al Qaeda propagandist named Muhammad bin al-Salim in an article titled "Do Not Go To Iraq."

It appears to represent a shift in tactics by bin Laden, who last October reportedly cut back on the material support he gives Taliban renegades in Afghanistan in order to take the fight to coalition forces in post-Saddam Iraq.

Katz and government counter-terror experts believe al Qaeda's campaign inside Iraq has backfired politically on bin Laden and there is growing evidence that the fanatic legion of "foreign fighters" may no longer be welcome in most quarters of Iraq.
[Read all about it in this AP story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution which is typical of the widespread resentment against jihadis being expressed in Iraq:
Foreign Fighters Anger Baghdad Residents--Jen]

It's clear that the killing of a lot of Muslims in Iraq is something al Qaeda now wants to avoid," Katz said.

Of course, we (the Coalition) don't want to kill all Muslims, just the radical jihadi ones who have killed or are trying to kill us.
And it's clear that this reaction of OBL's--the second thoughts, the regrouping, the "change of tactics" which any good army general would call a tactical retreat-- is exactly what we want!
President Bush said it all when he stated in his SOTU address, "The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States, and war is what they got."
He was also correct (although the Left in this country derided him for saying it, as usual) when he asserted, "Bring them on."
Viva Bush and the Bush Doctrine!
And on to Victory for the Allied Coalition--we shall prevail!

Musharraf Vows to Prosecute Scientists Who Sold Nuke Secrets

Pakistan's president vowed Thursday to prosecute any scientists found to have sold atomic secrets amid growing suspicion that Pakistani experts aided the nuclear programs of Iran, North Korea and Libya.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said his government has never exported nuclear know-how, but he said it was possible individual scientists may have sold secrets.

"We are carrying out a thorough investigation of any proliferation that may have been done by any individual for their personal financial gain," Muer implicated in a scheme to sell high-tech centrifuge technology to Libya and have also been named in probes into North Korea's nuclear program.
[Unfortunately, the Islamist elements within Pakistan's nuclear community are thinking about more than "financial gain;" they are striving for an "Muslim Bomb" and a world subjugated to Islam by force and death.--J.T.]

Pakistan has acknowledged detaining "five to six" scientists and administrators for what it calls "debriefings." Most have not been released, relatives say, and no formal appearances or charges have been made in court.

"Let me assure this gathering that Pakistan is an extremely responsible state," Musharraf said. "All the nuclear and strategic assets are under total custodial control. The Pakistan government has never and will never proliferate."

[...]
Musharraf said his government is also trying to crack down on extremists. He survived two bombings last month believed to have been carried out by Islamic militants, who despise him for allying Pakistan with the United States in its war on terrorism. [They despise him even more for taking an "accomodating" view on the subject of Kashmiri indepence. See Musharraf quote below.--Jen]

"We are fighting the Al Qaeda and Taliban on the western borders [with Afghanistan], and we want to negotiate a peaceful settlement of the Kashmir dispute with the Indians on the eastern one," he said. "At the same time we are fighting sectarian and religious extremism within our country.

"So I'm treading on a lot of toes, and that has led to these extremist attacks on me, but I call them occupational hazards. And I also believe that I haven't outlived my nine lives as yet. I have a number of lives left still."

Musharraf said he believed his efforts to bring "sustainable democracy" to Pakistan had taken root and would survive.

"Islam is not in conflict with democracy, modernism or secularism. Islam is democratic in essence. It believes in human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of expression."

President Bush was so right when he said that Musharraf was a "stand-up guy."
He's that and a lot more.
Since 9/11, Musharraf has endeavored to bring the Muslim world, or at least his Pakistani part of it, into the secularism, democracy and rationality of the 21st Century, often with his fellow citizens and fellow Muslims screaming and kicking (and sometimes blowing up people and buildings.)
After President Bush, Pervez is one of my favorite world leaders and he is also one of its "great" leaders, great here meaning for the greater good for the planet in these seminal times and for Pakistan as an emerging nation-state.
Not only has he allowed our own FBI agents to detain and interrogate these suspect Islamist nuke scientists--once national heroes-- that were in charge of the Pakistani program (and who supported the Taliban in Afghanistan and very well may have sold nuke technology and secrets to the NorKs, Iran and Libya) in the time before Musharraf took power in 1998, but he has ended the 50-year-old call for a referendum on Kashmir, made peace with India with whom Pakistan has come close to nuclear war at least 3 times, upheld womens' rights in his country as well as other human rights compromised by sharia, as well as aiding us as much as possible in conducting Operation Enduring Freedom and the entire WOT by providing major assistance in rounding up, incarcerating and imprisoning IslamoNazi killers within Pakistan's borders.
May God (Allah) continue to bless him and give him a long and frutiful life, which we can only pray will be as productive and fruitful as it's already been!
Like President Bush here in the US, Musharraf has taken a bold and courageous stance on virtually all the big issues, at great risk to himself and to lots of other brave and good people.
And if Kashmir--which is mentioned by Osama and the other jihadi killers time after time as one of 3 or 4 key places to wage jihad--can be taken off the table as an Islamist battleground with the West and the rest of the non-Muslim world--then we'll all benefit and the world will be an infinitely safer and more peaceful place!
I just pray that nothing happens to Musharraf and that he is gathering around him other Pakistani men and women who share his vision for Pakistan as a Muslim, but secular and democratic nation-state.
Musharraf is leading Pakistan into the future by acting out the idea that Islam, capitalism, democracy and modernity can peacefully and happily co-exist.

PM lets 'evil' Brits into UK

TONY Blair is pressing ahead with bringing Brits held at Guantanamo Bay home despite warnings they pose a serious threat to national security.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and Home Secretary David Blunkett have told the PM that at least four of the detainees are “evil people”.

Mr Blair has decided to allow home some of the nine Brits held by America at Camp Delta in Cuba after the Afghanistan war. But their presence will pose a permanent security risk, according to official documents seen by The Sun.

Captive ... detainees at Guantanamo Bay camp

One Cabinet source said: “Nobody wants these people here, on any account.

“Three or four of them are really bad people, evil people. Cabinet ministers have made their views clear at the very highest level. But it appears others’ views have prevailed.”

MI6 and MI5 chiefs[For those of us in America, MI5 is like our FBI, dealing with domestic security, and MI6 is the British equivalent of the CIA, handling overseas intelligence.--Jen] have both added their weight to the warnings from the Cabinet protesters. But Mr Blair has already agreed with US officials all nine British detainees should be released from Camp Delta.

They will never face trial in Britain because they were arrested by US soldiers in Afghanistan and there is not enough evidence to try them here.

They will be freed immediately they land back in Britain despite the intelligence warnings.

The Britons earmarked for release include:

Feroz Abbasi, 23, of Croydon, South London; Moazzam Begg, 36, of Sparkhill, Birmingham; Shafiq Rasool, 24, Asif Iqbal, 20 and Ruhal Ahmed, 23, all of Tipton, West Midlands; Martin Mubanga, 29, from North London; Jamal Udeen, 35, of Manchester; Richard Belmar, 23, of London; Tarek Dergoul, 24, of East London and Tariq Mahmood, 30, of Birmingham.

British officials are in talks with the US state department over the timing of their release.

In the meantime, on the subject of jihadi killers at large in Great Britain, the Sun is repeating its appeal of a year ago to its readers to have Captain Hook Abu Hamza deported from the UK.
Hamza is not only still preaching the violent overthrow of the government and death to non-Muslims, but he's doing so with costly police protection while he and his family live on substantial government funds.
Interestingly, some of the thousands in Britain who are the most outraged by Hamza's very visible presence and by events such as Kilroy's firing from the BBC are themselves Muslims, who feel that focus on the radical, murderous adherents of Islam is giving their religion a bad name.
Good for them.
And although Americans may not be aware of it, Britain has an illegal immigration problem as bad or worse than America's--people from everywhere seek asymlum in the UK and are quickly received and put on the "dole" (welfare) rolls, almost without qualification.
Check out this email about the Captain Hook problem from a Muslim Briton, which I think may speak for thousands of peaceful British Muslims:

Liton Ali wrote in an email: “I am a moderate Muslim.

“I don’t always pray five times a day. I do what I can. I certainly do NOT believe a word of Abu Hamza’s rantings and do NOT consider that all non-Muslims are infidels destined for hell.

“I am in no position to judge the afterlife.

“Abu Hamza has done untold damage to race relations and caused harm to Muslims in the West.

“No decent law-abiding Muslim wants him in the UK. Deport him, just put an end to his rantings.”

Liton went on to lay into the Government’s atrocious record on dealing with dangerous fanatics.

He said: “I am furious with New Labour for allowing such lunatics so many rights in the UK.

“I’m also furious that such people can claim £20,000 plus a year in benefits.

“He would be stupid to leave — which other country gives you a generous handout while you pour poison on them?

“This case shows how soft Britain is. No wonder would-be immigrants flee so-called persecution in France and risk life to cross the Channel.

“What confidence can we have in Labour’s handling of immigration if even Hamza cannot be deported?

“In fact he is not alone. Others, while more discreet, are also milking the system and quietly spouting poison.
[...]
“That means there are millions of illegals in the UK, all of whom will never leave.

“They are here to stay and to make a monkey of the system.

“And as if that was not enough — one’s blood boils at the incompetence of this Government.

“A million gypsies are coming straight into the already overstretched welfare system. It’s madness! I will never, ever vote Labour.”

Obviously, Tony Blair could learn some more from his friend George W. Bush.
Britain needs a Patriot Act and major immigration reform, akin to the plan Bush is proposing for us.
Poor, deluded Blair and his colleagues in the Labor Party have let their Liberal do-gooderism rob them of good sense and now Great Britain is at major risk of IslamoFascist terror attacks, because for the radical jihadis, Islam is not just a religion, but a political system (and economic one, too, of sorts).
Let's hope that we can make Blair see sense about these Gitmo prisoners before it's too late.
As for Hook/Hamza, the Sun has made it clear what to do with he and his "brethen" in jihad and fatwa.
Back in America, a few bleeding hearts are already whining about the "cruel" military tribunals about to take place for the rest of the Camp X-Ray criminals, so fasten your seatbelts.
I'll bet those doomed people that were murdered in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and in Shanksville on Flight 93 on 9/11/01 wish they'd gotten so much warning, fair treatment, consideration and respect for their human rights and civil liberties before their lives were so brutally taken.
I only hope that the British people don't have to suffer through a similar day of slaughter to take appropriate security measures.

State of the Union Address
[Note that it can be found in translations of Spanish and Arabic as well as Windows Media Player and Real Player video versions at the White House SOTU portal page here.]

Unions Examine Operations After Iowa Loss
Even between the industrial unions' support behind Gephardt and the public and civil service workers' unions behind Hollerin' Howard, Big Labor still couldn't come out with a winner in Iowa on Monday night.
It's my opinion that the Union "force" was pretty decimated by President Reagan when he stared down the air traffic controllers and then the Teamsters in the 1980's.
But the Dimocrats© (Copyright Me! Yes, and I'll keep calling them dim as long as they behave like Neanderthals and don't have any ideas!) along with their enablers in the Liberal Media just keep acting as if the "union vote" matters.
Perhaps this year they'll finally learn the reality of the situation the hard way.

Dr Kelly film haunts Beeb

SUICIDE scientist Dr David Kelly last night gave evidence from beyond the grave to support Tony Blair on Iraq.

His testimony, seen for the first time in a Panorama special, will haunt the BBC and destroy the credibility of Today reporter Andrew Gilligan.

The documentary also accused Beeb bosses of “betting the farm” on Gilligan’s flawed evidence.

The Dr Kelly interview, taped in October 2002, showed respected reporter Jane Corbyn asking him if Iraq posed an “immediate threat”.

The former UN weapons inspector replied: “Yes.

“Even if they’re not actually filled and deployed today, the capability exists to get them filled and deployed within a matter of days and weeks.”

Dr Kelly also said Saddam Hussein’s biological weapons programme posed a “real threat” to states in the region.

He added: “We’re talking about Iran and Israel and certainly he can use those weapons against them and you don’t need a vast stockpile to have a tremendous military effect.”

This scuppers claims by critics of the war — and the BBC itself — that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

The video has been given to Lord Hutton, whose report on events leading to Dr Kelly’s death last July comes out on Wednesday.

The MoD scientist, 59, was found with his wrists slashed near his Cotswolds home after giving misleading evidence to MPs.

The video has been given to Lord Hutton, whose report on events leading to Dr Kelly’s death last July comes out on Wednesday.

The MoD scientist, 59, was found with his wrists slashed near his Cotswolds home after giving misleading evidence to MPs.

He left in his wake a bitter wrangle between Downing Street, the MoD and the BBC which exploded last summer.

Weeks earlier in May, Gilligan accused the PM of conspiring with MI6 to distort evidence on WMDs during a live, unscripted radio report.

The journalist, who was said to report in “primary colours”, claimed Mr Blair knew a dossier warning Saddam could deploy missiles in 45 minutes was wrong.

Panorama blamed senior BBC figures for failing to check his facts before tackling No 10.

As the row escalated, Director General Greg Dyke is quoted as saying: “Have we “f***ing got this right?” John Ware, the Beeb veteran behind the special, said: “The original broadcast on Today was wrong.”

He added the decision not to apologise was a “failure that proved costly”.

But a BBC spokesman said: “When the governors met on 6 July, Dr Kelly had not been identified as the source.

“Therefore his interview would not have been identified as being of relevance. The only people who knew who Andrew Gilligan’s source was were Andrew Gilligan and Today editor Richard Sambrook.”

Others likely to face criticism next week are Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and John Scarlett, chairman of the joint intelligence committee.

But Hutton may also rap the doctor himself for breaking MoD rules, blabbing to Gilligan, lying to his superiors and failing to tell the truth to MPs.

WOW. What a bombshell!
But I think we all knew this was coming.
Let this be a cautionary tale for the American Media and the Democrats: the BBC let its Liberal, anti-war and "get Blair" agenda get in the way of the truth and the facts.
They tried, with the help of Leftist MPs like Claire Short and Robin Cook to bring down Tony Blair's government and to keep Britain from joining our Coalition.
Thank the Lord they failed!
And as President Bush affirmed last night in his SOTU, which Kelly stresses here also, Saddam most definitely did have WMDs and if we can't find them yet in Iraq, it's either because they're still hidden there and we haven't found them, they've been taken apart and/or are they were rolled into Syria.
Tony Blair has refused to back away from this intel also on more than one occasion.
(Poor David Kelly was used and abused by the Beeb and really shouldn't have been giving classified info to reporters and I think that when he realized this, he felt that suicide was his only way out.)
This will rock the BBC to its foundations, as well it should and the Kelly-Gilligan "sexed-up" story affair is far from their only transgression.
Only in the last week, they fired the fine telejournalist Robert Kilroy-Silk for making "anti-Arab" remarks and have hired the head of Al-Jazeera to work for them, thus making their latest nickname "Baghdad Broadcasting System" virtually a reality:

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is engulfed in a new controversy after signing up the editor-in-chief of the Arab television channel Al-Jazeera.

Mr Ibrahim Helal had personally authorised the broadcasting of controversial messages by Al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

We can only hope that the British people decide that their tax dollars don't need to support this kind of megaphone for anti-Western, anti-British, anti-American and anti-Semetic hate and murder speech anymore!

January 21, 2004

S. Korea Cautiously Welcomes Bush Speech

South Korea cautiously welcomed President Bush's warning to "the world's most dangerous regimes" Wednesday, calling it a signal for North Korea to resume talks on its nuclear weapons programs.

Other nations applauded the president's pledge to confront "the regimes that harbor and support terrorists."

Bush singled out North Korea and Iran on the nuclear issue during his State of the Union address Tuesday, pledging "America is committed to keeping the world's most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the world's most dangerous regimes."

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said the wording underlined Washington's consistent hard-line stand against weapons of mass destruction, and Bush has not dramatically changed his stance since he branded those countries, along with Iraq, two years ago as forming an "axis of evil."

In Japan, parts of Bush's speech were carried live on television. News reports led with his defense of the war in Iraq and support for Libya's cooperation on nuclear programs.
[...]
South Korea applauded Bush for contrasting their case with that of Iraq, toppled by a U.S.-led invasion. Bush underlined that "different threats require different strategies."

"The U.S. president clearly sent a message that North Korea should come out to negotiate and not ignore the nuclear issue," ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil said.
[...]
On the war on terror, the Foreign Ministry's Shin agreed with Bush's assessment it was wrong to believe the danger of terrorism had passed even though it has been more than two years since America was attacked.

Shin also welcomed Bush's salute to allies helping rebuild Iraq, noting Seoul's plans to send 3,000 troops in a mission making South Korea the second biggest coalition partner after the United States and Britain.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, a group of Indonesians were invited to view Bush's address at the U.S. Embassy and engage U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce in a question-and-answer session afterward.

"I think (the speech) was very good and very good for a second term for Bush," said Putu Antara, a 64-year-old banker from Bali, where Oct. 12, 2002, nightclub bombings killed 202 people. "As a Balinese man, I was happy to hear about what he (Bush) said about terrorism."

What can I add to this?
We forget sitting in our living rooms that people around the world are watching and listening to our President speak and never more so than after 9/11, as the WOT really is a global war and has tragically reached many nations.
I could care less about whether the speech made Nancy Pelosi or Tom Daschle unhappy, but I do care at how our friends and allies, as well as our enemies perceived it.
This article gives us a good idea and it's the right one to give--"You're either with us or you're with the terrorists."--and President Bush let our Coalition allies, like Indonesia, South Korea and Japan, know that we will share democracy, trade, protection, appreciation for their help and our friendship and that we're definitely not throwing our weight around as the world's lone superpower in order to create a dictatorial empire.
Bravo, President Bush!
Another home run SOTU address!

U.S. Stalls U.N. Plan to Fight Obesity

If our people think that being living large is part of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," that should be good enough for the U.N.!
They should butt out and we've got just the butts to make them do it, too!

January 20, 2004

wnbc.com - News - MSNBC News Chief Jerry Nachman Dead At 57
Poor man--he had not been looking well for months.
He was remarkably "fair and balanced," particularly for MSDNC.
I will miss his gentle, reasoned manner and intelligent commentary.

Iran Said to Renege on Nuclear Promises

Western diplomats and nuclear experts voiced growing concern Tuesday that Iran has reneged on its promise to fully suspend uranium enrichment - a process that can be used to make nuclear weapons.

Worries over Tehran's nuclear intentions coincided with decreased concern among nuclear watchdogs about Libya's nuclear ambitions. Tripoli volunteered last month to give up chemical, biological and nuclear weapons or weapons programs.

Disarmament teams are in Libya to start dismantling the country's weapons of mass destruction, and diplomats say the North African country apparently was sincere in its vow to disarm.

The most recent developments threaten, therefore, to put Iran at center stage at the next top-level meeting of the International Atomic Energy agency in March.

Tehran announced it had suspended uranium enrichment late last year as it sought to blunt international concern it was running a secret weapons program and to defang U.S. attempts to gain U.N. Security Council involvement.

Now, diplomats told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, even key European nations who negotiated the deal with Tehran[Betcha $5 this was Britain.--Jen] have started to question Iran's commitment because it appears to be using semantics - the meaning of the word suspend - to keep some of its nuclear enrichment program operational.

The IAEA last fall asked Iran to stop "enrichment-related activities." But while Tehran has stopped introducing uranium into enrichment equipment, it continues to make and assemble that equipment - centrifuges used to spin uranium into low grade fuel for peaceful use or high-grade material, for weapons.

If the Iranian program becomes central at the March IAEA meeting, the issue could pit Washington against France, Germany and Britain, which secured Iran's suspension pledge last summer in exchange for a promise to ease restrictions on technology exports to Tehran.
[IOW, the Iranian mullahs got a deal from the weasels that was almost identical to the one Kim Jung-Il did from the Leftist Clintoon Administration in 1994: We "promise" to stop making nukes in exchange for you selling us the tech and the equipment to do so. Pathetic on the part of the EU, as usual.--Jen]
[...]
"Right from the beginning, everybody asked, 'what is suspension,' but the Europeans and Iranians never defined it," he said.

Typical EU do-nothing, appeasement diplomacy.
They're trying to head off GWB at the pass, but it's not going to work.
We're going to end up at the UNSC confronting Iran (if we're lucky and they don't nuke someone first), exactly the way we did Saddam Hussein and as we're doing now with the NorKs.
A nuclear Iran is a big problem and until they prove themselves innocent, I'm assuming that they're guilty of proliferation.
And France and Russia helped them get there, too, which is why they're so "anxious" to negotiate a Chamberlain-like "agreement" with the mullahs before they can be called to account by a U.S. and President Bush-led UN.
Contrary to what the Dem candidates for president say or don't say about the "war," which they confine to Iraq, the GWOIT [Global War on Islamist Terror] is far from over and wouldn't be over be a long shot even if the US-led Coalition cravenly and wrongly pulled out of the Iraq theatre.
In fact, pulling out of Iraq would be a Black Hawk down writ large.
It would be the worst thing the U.S. could ever do!
Not only would the terrorists come back at us with everything they've got, but once a President Dean or Clark (God forbid) refused to continue the WOT and we lost all of our intell, Special Forces operations and military-backed operations in the problem areas, we'd become helpless to fight Islamofascist terrorism as a whole new group of jihadi killers will arise in the Middle East in the power vaccuum we leave behind us there.

Israel Hits Back for Hizbollah Border Attack

Israel said its warplanes struck two Hizbollah bases in Lebanon Tuesday in retaliation for a border attack by the Lebanese guerrilla group that killed an Israeli soldier a day earlier.

Israel held Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, responsible for Monday's incident, but an Israeli security source said the military response was limited to Hizbollah targets to avoid stoking tensions with Damascus.
[...]
Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized Monday's Hizbollah attack and pointed a finger at Syria, which both Washington and Israel accuse of supporting the guerrillas.
[Ah, Rooters...calling them "guerillas" now, instead of "militants." Anything but what they are, which is terrorists.]

"I think it's unfortunate that Hizbollah once again has caused this need for a response," Powell told reporters.

"I would hope the Syrians should once again understand that any support -- whether it is vocal support or allowing their leadership to stay in Damascus or whether it is serving as a trans-shipment point for weapons to Hizbollah -- is destabilizing in the region and is not in the interests of peace," he added.
[...]
Feingold [spokesman for the Israeli military] said Israel "considers Syria directly responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from Lebanon, and will not tolerate the current situation whereby the terror organizations attempt to escalate the situation in the north."
[...]
Syria denies it controls Hizbollah, whose guerrillas do not accept the United Nations' determination that Israel's troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000 was complete.

Israel last mounted air strikes against Hizbollah on Oct. 27 after the group attacked Israeli posts in the Shebaa Farms area. Hizbollah says the area is Lebanese territory, but the United Nations says it is Israeli-occupied Syrian land.

OK, I'm confused about the UN (like they aren't themselves!): did or didn't they deem Israel to have evacuated "Lebanese/Syrian" real estate?
Doesn't matter.
We all know by now that Israel is telling the truth and is in the right and that Assad of Syria (and de facto ruler of Lebanon) is lying and is deeply in bed with the Islamist terrorists, including but not limited to Hizbullah.
I just wish that Israel would just duke it out with them and get it over with.
Given Assad's intransigence, bellicosity and just plain cussedness, it could very well happen.
He's gotten on Powell's excrement list--that's clear--which is pretty hard to do.