May 31, 2007
Now, the genocidal Sudanese government has an entry in this category. Let's call him Khartoum Karl.Karl -- a.k.a. John Ukec Lueth Ukec, the Sudanese ambassador to Washington -- held a news conference at the National Press Club yesterday to respond to President Bush's new sanctions against his regime. In his hour-long presentation, he described a situation in his land that bore no relation to reality.
Genocide in the Darfur region? "The United States is the only country saying that what is happening in Darfur is a genocide," Ukec shouted, gesticulating wildly and perspiring from his bald crown. "I think this is a pretext."
Ah. So what about the more than 400,000 dead? "See how many people are dying in Darfur: None," he said.
And the 2 million displaced? "I am not a statistician."
Khartoum Karl went on to say that, all evidence to the contrary, his government does not support the murderous Janjaweed militia. "It cannot happen," he said, "so rule it out." As for the Sudanese regime itself: "We are the agents of peace, people like me, my colleagues who are in the central government of Sudan."
What's more, the good and peaceful leaders of Sudan were prepared to retaliate massively: They would cut off shipments of the emulsifier gum arabic, thereby depriving the world of cola.
"I want you to know that the gum arabic which runs all the soft drinks all over the world, including the United States, mainly 80 percent is imported from my country," the ambassador said after raising a bottle of Coca-Cola.
A reporter asked if Sudan was threatening to "stop the export of gum arabic and bring down the Western world."
"I can stop that gum arabic and all of us will have lost this," Khartoum Karl warned anew, beckoning to the Coke bottle. "But I don't want to go that way."
Personally, I'm willing to give up my soda fix -- it isn't particularly good for me. i wonder, though, how my Coca-Cola swilling spouse would respond to this development? I suspect she would be in the streets demanding massive retaliation.
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D, 
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(, May 29, 2007
When Estonian authorities began removing a bronze statue of a World War II-era Soviet soldier from a park in this bustling Baltic seaport last month, they expected violent street protests by Estonians of Russian descent.
Expected, yes -- but the decision to remove the statue would be no different than one to remove a statue of the conquering Japanese from the streets of Manila.
They also knew from experience that “if there are fights on the street, there are going to be fights on the Internet,” said Hillar Aarelaid, the director of Estonia’s Computer Emergency Response Team. After all, for people here the Internet is almost as vital as running water; it is used routinely to vote, file their taxes, and, with their cellphones, to shop or pay for parking.What followed was what some here describe as the first war in cyberspace, a monthlong campaign that has forced Estonian authorities to defend their pint-size Baltic nation from a data flood that they say was set off by orders from Russia or ethnic Russian sources in retaliation for the removal of the statue.
The Estonians assert that an Internet address involved in the attacks belonged to an official who works in the administration of RussiaÂ’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.
The Russian government has denied any involvement in the attacks, which came close to shutting down the countryÂ’s digital infrastructure, clogging the Web sites of the president, the prime minister, Parliament and other government agencies, staggering EstoniaÂ’s biggest bank and overwhelming the sites of several daily newspapers.
“It turned out to be a national security situation,” Estonia’s defense minister, Jaak Aaviksoo, said in an interview. “It can effectively be compared to when your ports are shut to the sea.”
Computer security experts from NATO, the European Union, the United States and Israel have since converged on Tallinn to offer help and to learn what they can about cyberwar in the digital age.
“This may well turn out to be a watershed in terms of widespread awareness of the vulnerability of modern society,” said Linton Wells II, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration at the Pentagon. “It has gotten the attention of a lot of people.”
The denial of a Putin connection is the most clear sign that there is one, given the byzantine workings of Russian government.
But more importantly, it raises the question of whether or not the US is ready for such an attack by our enemies -- and if we are ready to perpetrate one against our enemies. Given the freedom with which al-Qaeda and other Islamists prowl the internet, I fear that the answer may be no.
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May 28, 2007
President Bush has decided to implement a plan to pressure Sudan's government into cooperating with international efforts to halt the violence in its troubled Darfur region, where his administration said almost three years ago that genocide was taking place.Administration officials said yesterday that the Treasury Department will step up efforts to squeeze the Sudanese economy by targeting government-run ventures involved with its booming oil business, which does many of its transactions in U.S. dollars. Bush will sanction two senior Sudanese officials and a rebel leader, who are suspected of being involved in the violence in Darfur.
The United States will also seek new U.N. Security Council sanctions against Khartoum, as well as a provision preventing the Sudanese government from conducting military flights in Darfur. The United Nations has accused Sudan's government of bombing Darfur villages.
Bush has been considering such steps for months and was set to announce the plan last month at the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum. But he held off at the behest of U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who pleaded for more time to conduct diplomacy with Sudan's president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir, toward allowing international peacekeepers into the country.
International organizations have been silent too long in the face of this crisis. The time has come for that to end.
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May 27, 2007
That line bubbled to the surface this morning as i read about the upcoming Syrian election, which will almost certainly award another seven-year term to Bashir Assad.
But as he prepares for a so-called national referendum in which he is certain to be overwhelmingly re-elected for a second seven-year term, Mr. Assad seems very much in control, with his rivals isolated, his critics increasingly in prison or fearing retribution, and international pressure eased. He has consolidated power around his immediate family and rewarded loyalists. And he has continued to reap the benefits of Washington’s troubles in the region. In Lebanon, the anti-Syrian March 14 movement, which helped force Syria out, has seen its political fortunes plummet, mired in unrest.“Syria has a great deal of confidence now,” said Abdel Fattah al-Awad, editor in chief of the government-run newspaper Al Thawra. “The country is convinced that the major pressures that once faced us have disappeared. We want to offer security — that’s what we offer. The Americans, they offer Iraq, which is chaos.”
Mr. Assad came to power on a wave of optimism, promising to bring change and to rule differently from his iron-fisted father, Hafez. But as he prepares for another term, Mr. Assad has increasingly begun to emulate his father.
Political campaigners openly called for change several years ago; today many have landed in prison in a government crackdown on dissent. Others shrink from public life.
Few Syrians would even speak on the record for this article, fearing government reprisal.
The article goes on to note his support for terrorist organizations in th region.
Remember -- this is one of the folks the Democrats want to negotiate with to ensure security in Iraq, despite the fact that he is a supporter of the very terrorists that American troops are fighting. I guess that human rights and free, fair elections -- and defeating terrorism -- are not particularly a value to that party after all.
UPDATE 5/28/2007: Assad has been reelected as dictator. But then again, when a leader doesn't permit an opponent on the ballot, what do you expect?
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May 26, 2007
Venezuela's top court on Friday ordered the Defense Ministry to take control of installations of an opposition television station amid a show of military force before the station's controversial closure.President Hugo Chavez's decision to close the RCTV television channel, which he accuses of backing a 2002 coup against him, has prompted international condemnation and several demonstrations.
Venezuela's Supreme Court ordered the military to "guard, control and monitor" some of the station's installations and equipment including transmission equipment and antennas throughout the country.
An RCTV source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said staff at the station believed troops would take over the station's Caracas headquarters.
The court determined that the government must take RCTV's broadcast equipment to ensure a smooth handover to a state channel that will replace RCTV with broadcasts promoting the values of Chavez's socialist revolution.
I've yet to see the president order the closure of a single media outlet in the US, even treasonous ones like the Washington post, New York Times, and ABC News, all of which have illegally disclosed classified military information that aid the enemies of the United States and actively seek to undermine our nation's war effort. I've not seen the President appoint judges that would give him the sort of deference to do so -- and I've not seen the nation's military leaders corrupted to the point that they would carry out such a violation of fundamental liberties. Yet this is the model the nutroots would follow.
That should make it pretty clear -- they don't want liberty or democracy, but instead want a leftist authoritarian government.
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May 25, 2007
"If you think that by bombing and assassinating Palestinian leaders you are preparing ground for new attacks on Lebanon in the summer, I am telling you that you are seriously wrong," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a rally in the city of Isfahan."If this year you repeat the same mistake of the last year, the ocean of nations of the region will get angry and will uproot the Zionist regime."
Bomb, bomb, bomb
Bom, bomb Iran!
After all, the Stone Age would be an improvement.
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May 22, 2007
Swiss diplomats seeking to visit Haleh Esfandiari, a leading Iranian-American academic jailed in Iran, have not been given access to her, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars said yesterday.In addition, Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and lawyer who has taken on Ms. EsfandiariÂ’s defense, confirmed yesterday that two lawyers from her office had been denied permission to visit their client but she said that they would continue their efforts.
Iran announced Monday that Ms. Esfandiari was being accused of trying to foment a velvet revolution there. The Wilson Center and her family had avoided asking the United States or other governments to intervene until she was sent to Evin prison two weeks ago.
The Swiss government, which runs the American Interests Section in Tehran in the absence of diplomatic relations between the United States and Iran, requested that a consular official be allowed to visit Ms. Esfandiari but no such visit was granted, Lee H. Hamilton, the director of the Wilson Center in Washington, said at a news conference there.
He said other governments had intervened on Ms. EsfandiariÂ’s behalf since she was jailed on May 8, but declined to say which ones. The Swiss Embassy in Washington referred questions to the State DepartmentÂ’s Office of Iranian Affairs, which said the United States government has made repeated requests about Ms. Esfandiari.
This is just as egregious as the taking of hostages in 1979 by Iranian militants (including, it is believed, the current Iranian president). Will the US government have the guts to take a firm stand against this rogue regime, and demand freedom for this American citizen, backing that demand up with serious action if the proper response is not forthcoming? or will it simply be a replay of Jimmy Carter's weak-kneed response to an act of war by the Islamists n charge there?
I think Senator McCain unintentionally got it right recently
Bomb, bomb, bomb
Bomb, bomb Iran!
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May 14, 2007
Inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency have concluded that Iran appears to have solved most of its technological problems and is now beginning to enrich uranium on a far larger scale than before, according to the agencyÂ’s top officials.The findings may change the calculus of diplomacy in Europe and in Washington, which aimed to force a suspension of IranÂ’s enrichment activities in large part to prevent it from learning how to produce weapons-grade material.
In a short-notice inspection of IranÂ’s operations in the main nuclear facility at Natanz on Sunday, conducted in advance of a report to the United Nations Security Council due early next week, the inspectors found that Iranian engineers were already using roughly 1,300 centrifuges and were producing fuel suitable for nuclear reactors, according to diplomats and nuclear experts here.
Now this uranium is not weapons grade -- yet. But don't be surprised to hear that IAEA inspectors have been tossed out of Iran, which will be the signal that the Iranians are taking the next step towards acquiring nuclear weapons.
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May 07, 2007
IsraelÂ’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, survived three no-confidence votes against his government on Monday, part of the political fallout from a harsh report on the countryÂ’s leadership during last summerÂ’s war in Lebanon.Mr. OlmertÂ’s governing coalition affords him a large majority in the 120-seat Parliament, and the no-confidence motions were all rejected by comfortable margins. Nevertheless, the results revealed cracks in support from Parliament members belonging to the coalition: at least 16 of them were either absent, voted no confidence or abstained.
The motions were brought on the opening day of the ParliamentÂ’s summer session by rightist, leftist and religious opposition parties.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the rightist Likud Party, called for new elections and told the cabinet, which has pledged to carry out the recommendations of the war report: “You are not the solution. You are the problem.”
The leader of the leftist Meretz Party, Yossi Beilin, said the lack of confidence had penetrated the public, the Parliament and even Mr. Olmert’s party, Kadima. Mr. Beilin told the Parliament that a minister in Kadima, whom he did not identify, had told him that the prime minister “poses a national danger to Israel.”
Furthermore, the Labor Party, which sits in the coalition, is holding primaries for the party leadership in late May, and several contenders have already stated their intention to taking the party out of the coalition if Mr. Olmert remains in office.
The situation remains murky for the Kadima-led government. If Olmert leaves office, will his party be able to continue to lead a coalition that allows some member to hold the top spot? Or are new elections -- which might well return Netanyahu to power -- the likely outcome. The situation is quite murky at this point, but I doubt that the the current government will survive the month.
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May 06, 2007
Nicolas Sarkozy, the combative son of a Hungarian immigrant, was elected president of France on Sunday, promising a new generation of leadership to transform the country, restore its self-respect and reinvigorate ties with the United States and Europe.Sarkozy, a member of the ruling party and France's former top law enforcement officer, defeated Socialist Segolene Royal, who waged a determined battle to become France's first elected female head of state, by a 53 percent to 47 percent vote, according to final results. Voter turnout was a near-record 84 percent.
Now that seems to me to be a pretty significant mandate for Sarkozy to set about his plans to reform France.
Sarkozy is a rather interesting character, coming as he does from an unusual background.
Mr. Sarkozy is also a bit of an outsider, the first son of an immigrant to rise to the French presidency in a country struggling to integrate second-generation immigrants, the grandson of a Sephardic Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism in a country still riddled with anti-Semitism and a graduate of France’s creaky state university system in a country long governed by technocrats trained at a handful of small, elite “great schools.”
France, it would appear, is open to the rise of immigrants who are willing to take on French culture and fully participate in the French system.
Some folks object violently to Sarkozy's election.
CLASHES between police and protestors have been reported in central Paris and the southeastern city of Lyon after conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy was elected French President overnight.In the Place de la Bastille in Paris riot police fired tear gas and at least one burst of water cannon after hundreds of rioters – some wearing masks – began throwing bottles, stones and other missiles.
Earlier, a small crowd brandishing black and red anarchist flags set fire to an effigy of Mr Sarkozy before tearing it limb from limb and then stamping on it. Demonstrators chanted "police everywhere, justice nowhere".
Reports are that there is tension in immigrant neighborhoods as well -- particularly Muslim neighborhoods, where violent riots occurred two years ago. And there are predictions of more possible violence in the weeks to come, despite Sarkozy's decisive victory.
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May 04, 2007
France risks violence and brutality if right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy wins Sunday's presidential election, Socialist opponent Segolene Royal said on Friday.On the last day of official campaigning, opinion polls showed Sarkozy enjoyed a commanding lead over Royal, who accused the former interior minister of lying and polarizing France.
"Choosing Nicolas Sarkozy would be a dangerous choice," Royal told RTL radio.
"It is my responsibility today to alert people to the risk of (his) candidature with regards to the violence and brutality that would be unleashed in the country (if he won)," she said.Pressed on whether there would be actual violence, Royal said: "I think so, I think so," referring specifically to France's volatile suburbs hit by widespread rioting in 2005.
Maybe the time has come for the people of France to turn recognize that socialism is a psychopathology that needs to be cured – and the violence that it inspires is crime that needs to be suppressed.
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May 03, 2007
Iraqis, for all our determination and courage, cannot succeed alone. We need a healthy and supportive regional environment. We will not allow our country to be a battleground for settling scores in regional and international conflicts that adversely affect stability inside our borders. Only with continued international commitment and deeper engagement from our neighbors can we establish a stable democratic, federal and united Iraq. The world should not abandon us.
No, it shouldn't -- but the Democrats learned the lessons of Vietnam well, and so are less interested in doing what's right than in doing what is politically expedient. Even if it means selling out an ally.
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Fer cryin' out loud. Will she pull a Pelosi and put on a hijab, too?
Just a reminder of what Vice President Cheney said a few weeks ago about Pelosi's meeting with Syrian president Assad:
This is an evil man. He's a prime state sponsor of terror...So for the speaker to go to Damascus and meet with this guy and treat him with the respect and dignity ordinarily accorded the head of a foreign state -- we think it is just directly contrary to our national interest."
Talk about sending "mixed messages." Cripes.
***
Background: State Dept reports on patterns of global terrorism
Oh, and about that scarf Pelosi wore in the infamous picture from Syria – please remember that she was visiting a mosque at the time, and showing proper deference to the religious protocol in doing so. It is no different than me wearing a yarmulke when visiting a synagogue – it is called good manners.
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