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| Live Webcast: Iraq Election Coverage ! (Click Here) |
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Watch on Sunday, January 30th, 2pm to 4pm (EST)
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This unique conference from Washington DC will provide a consolidated picture of Iraq's elections featuring prominent Iraqis, selected guests (Cliff May from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Christopher Hitchens), live call ins from the Friends of Democracy correspondents and bloggers, photos, video and stories.
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posted by J.R. @ 8:20:00 AM   |
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| Liberal Bias at Newsweek |
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By Cliff Kincaid | January 27, 2005 If this is the standard for judging compassion, then Newsweek should have criticized U.N. chief Kofi Annan for waiting even longer to publicly respond.  Evan Thomas of Newsweek was one of the few journalists who admitted that the mainstream media wanted John Kerry to win. He said media bias was worth as many as 20 million votes for Kerry. But that doesn't mean that Newsweek is free of liberal bias. We picked up a copy of the January 10 issue and were astounded by the examples of bias contained therein. Page 5 featured a "Conventional Wisdom" segment that criticized the President for vacationing and then "taking three days" to address the Tsunami disaster. That's a lie. The President addressed the problem on the day it happened, when the White House announced emergency aid for the victims. Newsweek may be referring to the President's public statements on the disaster, but racing to get in front of TV cameras is a curious definition of compassion in a crisis. If this is the standard for judging compassion, then Newsweek should have criticized U.N. chief Kofi Annan for waiting even longer to publicly respond. Newsweek also attacked the U.S. Government for having "opened with a miserly pledge," when the initial offer of $15 million was made when the full extent of the damage had not been known. "Waves of Disease," a page 10 story on the tsunami, referred to the problem of malaria being spread by mosquitoes and killing even more people. Reporter Claudia Kalb reported that health officials were "taking no chances" and shipping "the most potent antimalarial treatment" to the affected areas. That's false. The most potent treatment, as Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times now admits, is DDT. But that has been banned by the U.N. and the radical environmentalists. A page 7 item by David Gates lamented the passing of Susan Sontag for infuriating "knee-jerk patriots in 2001 with her unassailably logical, implacably impolitic statement that whatever might be said of the 9/11 hijackers, 'they were not cowards.'" This description of what Sontag said is a lie. Her full statement claimed not only that the hijackers were not cowards, but that the 9/11 attack was "undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions…" So she was blaming America for Islamic terrorists murdering Americans. And yet David Gates of Newsweek says this statement is logical and that only "knee-jerk patriots" should be offended. Srdja Trifkovic of Chronicles magazine pointed out that Sontag had a strange definition of courage. She was paying tribute to those willing to sacrifice their lives in order to kill others. But real courage, he points out, means doing the right thing in the face of fear. Sontag didn't know right from wrong. That's the real logic that escapes David Gates of Newsweek, and that's what he should have said about Sontag's statement. Evan Thomas deserves credit for noting the liberal bias that infects the media. We only wish that he would excise it from his own magazine. It's not too late to start.
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| posted by J.R. @ 3:16:00 AM |
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| Billboard Blitz to Blast Hollywood |
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Posted Jan 28, 2005 HUMAN EVENTS has learned that a billboard blitz "thanking" Hollywood for the reelection of President Bush will be unveiled early next week.
The advertisements feature the faces of liberal Hollywood icons Michael Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Affleck, Martin Sheen, Chevy Chase, Barbara Streisand, and Sean Penn, and offer thanks to Hollywood their help getting President Bush reelected.
Two versions of the billboard were created, both "thanking" Hollywood -- the first for "4 more years" and the second for "W. Still President."
Billboard creator Citizens United, a group that advocates a return to traditional American values, has purchased the use of three billboards near the Kodak Theatre (home of the Academy Awards) for the month of February, which includes Oscar Night, Sunday, February 27.
Asked about the campaign, Citizens United President David Bossie said, "We're taking on Hollywood. We've done it in the past." Of the organization's many actions, one of its most famous challenges to Hollywood was Celsius 41.11, a documentary exposing "the truth behind the lies of Fahrenheit 9/11," the Michael Moore anti-Bush mock-umentary.
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| posted by J.R. @ 2:54:00 AM |
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| The FRENCH want to TAX YOU, America! |
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World leaders mull French call for $10 billion AIDS tax
By Jeffrey Sparshott
January 28, 2005
A French proposal for a $10 billion international tax to help fight AIDS
should be "on the table" when wealthy nations meet this year to discuss
improving health and fighting poverty in Africa, British Prime Minister Tony
Blair said yesterday.
But the idea, floated by French President Jacques Chirac on Wednesday, faces
an uphill international climb and deep skepticism from the Bush
administration.
"The United States is not inclined to support international taxation
schemes," said Tony Fratto, a Treasury Department spokesman.
Finance ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized nations are
scheduled to meet next week in London, and Mr. Blair has made health and
poverty issues in Africa a focus of G-8 meetings this year.
Mr. Blair, who assumed the presidency of the G-8 this month, said details on
specific proposals can be examined after leaders receive recommendations
from the Commission for Africa he set up to determine the continent's needs.
The commission's report is due before a G-8 leaders summit in July.
World business and political leaders, as well as celebrities, have been
meeting this week in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum.
"Today, I propose to forge ahead by creating an experimental levy to finance
the fight against AIDS," Mr. Chirac said Wednesday.
Mr. Blair yesterday said he had not studied Mr. Chirac's proposal but "it's
important to leave everything on the table."
Mr. Chirac said $10 billion could be raised through one or several sources,
including small taxes on international financial transactions, a special
levy on flows of foreign capital in and out of countries with bank secrecy
laws, taxes on fuel used in air or sea transport, and a tax on airline
tickets. He did not detail how the funds would be administered.
Others were skeptical that the French president's proposal could gain
international support.
"It seems to me, we don't want to get diverted into debating that," former
President Bill Clinton said at the conference. He indicated that the plan
could distract from efforts to keep people alive now and, in any event, is
unlikely to attract widespread international support.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said he was concerned the proposal would
get bogged down in lengthy discussions.
"The resources are required today," Mr. Mbeki said in Davos.
Others were harsher in their assessment.
"I think it's a reckless proposal. International organizations already have
a problem with accountability, and giving them a constant stream of revenue
would make them less accountable than they already are," said Ian Vasquez,
director of the Cato Institute's project on global economic liberty. Cato is
a libertarian think tank.
Mr. Vasquez, speaking from Washington, echoed concerns that the plan stood
little chance of being successfully implemented, and questioned how serious
the proposal really was.
"It seems like [Mr. Chirac] is just creating headlines for himself," Mr.
Vasquez said.
G-8 leaders are expected to consider several proposals to help Africa,
including trade measures, debt relief, funding to treat AIDS and curb its
spread, and other health and development projects.
Africa received more than $26 billion in net aid in 2003, according to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). It is the
largest sum for any region, though aid spending per person lags aid in
Europe and in poor countries surrounding Australia.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the world's poorest region, with 70 percent of its
population living on less than $2 per day, 1 million deaths expected from
malaria this year and 2 million deaths from AIDS, according to DATA, a
Washington-based nonprofit.
Aid to poor nations is a politically charged topic internationally,
especially since a Dec. 26 tsunami that devastated coastal areas along the
Indian Ocean prompted a charge that rich nations are "stingy."
The United States gives far more than any other nation -- $16.25 billion
total in net official development assistance in 2003, according to OECD
figures. Japan follows with $8.8 billion, France with $7.25 billion and
Germany with $6.78 billion.
But as a percentage of the nation's income, the United States is last,
giving 0.15 percent in 2003, compared with a United Nations target of 0.7
percent and actual assistance that ranges from 0.8 percent to 0.9 percent in
Scandinavian countries.
Aid agencies have implored the United States, Japan, France and others to
increase spending, especially funds directed toward Africa.
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| posted by J.R. @ 2:50:00 AM |
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| Dirty rat, not bomb - Mexican man admits terror tip was hoax |
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By Tom Farmer
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
A Mexican man who reported Boston was targeted for a terrorist nuclear attack confessed he fabricated the story to take revenge on a man who stiffed him in a deal to smuggle illegal aliens, a source said.
``He's admitted it's all a hoax,'' said a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation of Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones, who was taken into custody Monday along with his son in Mexicali by Mexican police and interviewed by the FBI. ``He admitted he was trying to get back at his employer, who is a human smuggler,'' said the source.
FBI officials in Washington, D.C., released a statement saying Beltran's telephone report last week that two Iraqis and four Chinese nationals planned to detonate a nuclear device in Boston ``had no credibility.'' The FBI had no comment on whether Beltran will face criminal charges. An official in Mexico told the Associated Press that Beltran and his son Jose were released because they had obtained a court injunction preventing their arrest.
``While the threat information proceeded from criminal activity (an alien smuggling operation) there were in fact no terrorist plans or activity under way,'' the FBI said in a statement. Federal officials also said there is no link between 14 Chinese nationals named by Quinones and a group of illegal Chinese immigrants forced to land in a private plane yesterday in San Antonio, Texas.
According to a statement released last night by the Mexican Attorney General's Office, Beltran denied being a smuggler but admitted making the bogus 911 call to the California Highway Patrol Jan. 17. He said he was drunk and under the influence of drugs at the time but the call ``was only a joke.''
The incident sparked a nationwide manhunt and resulted in Gov. Mitt Romney [related, bio] returning to Massachusetts from the presidential inauguration.
``We must take all information we receive about potential terrorist threats seriously until we can prove that they are not credible,'' said Romney's spokeswoman, Shawn Feddeman. ``We are relieved that this has turned out to be unfounded.''
Also relieved was Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who had been skeptical of the threat from the start. ``The mayor is happy the city is safe, and that there's no threat to Boston.'' said mayoral spokesman Seth Gitell.
Listen to The TALK SHOW AMERICA ShowMon-Fri 4-6 PM EST LIVE ! & 24/7(Recorded)
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| posted by J.R. @ 2:28:00 AM |
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| Another CBS Controversy |
| Friday, January 28, 2005 |
By Sherrie Gossett | January 28, 2005
The evidence shows that one news organization, CNN, did reject Idema as a source, after an analyst did a simple Google and LexisNexis search turning up Idema's criminal record.
While the media were abuzz over the release of the independent review panel report on CBS's "memogate" scandal, another CBS scandal was emerging.
Coinciding with the release of the CBS report was the release of the January cover story, "Tin Soldier," in the Columbia Journalism Review, strongly suggesting that 60 Minutes Wednesday used phony Al Qaeda videotapes in its 2002 segment "Heart of Darkness." Dan Rather narrated the segment.
The powerful Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) story was written by Mariah Blake. It follows and credits another expos�, "Operation Desert Fraud, by Stacy Sullivan in the New Yorker. Both stories say that a key CBS source was a criminal and a fraud.
The source was former U.S. Special Forces soldier Jonathan Keith Idema, who has an extensive criminal background. His latest conviction was in 2004 on counts of operating an illegal prison in Afghanistan and torture. In January 2002 Idema sold the famous "VideoX" tapes to CBS. The tapes purport to show Al-Qaeda camps in action and included 7 hours of footage. Dan Rather went to Afghanistan to report on site and the tapes became the foundation of a "bombshell" 60 Minutes II segment.
But Tracy-Paul Warrington, former deputy commander of a Special Forces counter-terrorism team and a civilian intelligence analyst for the Defense Department, told CJR, "In a nutshell, the videotapes are forgeries." Warrington said the tactics shown had been abandoned by Al Qaeda, and that the area where the footage was supposedly filmed was under coalition control.
CJR notes that a 1995 60 Minutes piece based on information from the same controversial source, Idema, and a companion story in U.S. News & World Report, won an award from Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The segment was on nuclear smuggling and was called "The Worst Nightmare." CJR said CBS cut any reference to Idema from the 1995 story because he was imprisoned for fraud by the time the story aired. But that didn't prevent CBS and Dan Rather from continuing to use Idema as a source over the years. He has now become a nightmare for CBS, after CBS has already been through one harrowing experience.
The evidence shows that one news organization, CNN, did reject Idema as a source, after an analyst did a simple Google and LexisNexis search turning up Idema's criminal record.
However, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, FOX and the BBC all used Idema in some fashion. Either they used Idema's phony footage or they used him as a source or commentator. But it's CBS's misconduct, coming in the wake of the CBS report on the "Rathergate" scandal, that should receive the most attention. There is a pattern of misbehavior here.
Perhaps we should call it "Rathergate II." But it looks like any number of scandals will not get Rather fired from CBS. He will be permitted to remain in his anchor chair until March and then he will continue pulling down millions of dollars from CBS, doing more stories on 60 Minutes. He is the teflon anchorman.
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| posted by J.R. @ 1:37:00 PM |
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| Topless Sunbathing in California? |
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By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Morning Editor
January 28, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - "A bill encouraging women and girls to go topless at California beaches and parks could be introduced this week in the California Legislature," a conservative group is warning.
The Campaign for Children and Families is lobbying against the "drop your top" proposal -- even before the legislation is introduced.
As the Los Angeles Times recently reported, a lawyer's group is pressing for a "topless sunbathing" bill at the request of a female attorney who insists that it is sex discrimination to allow men, but not women, to go topless in public.
"At some point, men's breasts became liberated and women's didn't," the Los Angeles Times quoted Liana Johnsson as saying. "This is the only thing left that men are legally allowed to do and, for women, they have to register as a sex offender. The real issue is there should be equal protection under the law," Johnsson told the newspaper.
Johnsson and other proponents of the "drop your top" measure say unless topless sunbathing is legalized, women convicted of doing so would fall into the same "sex offender" category as rapists and child molesters under a December court ruling that expanded the scope of Megan's Law.
But the California-based Campaign for Children and Families says that's ridiculous. "The California Attorney General's office has said that topless sunbathing is not considered to be of a lewd nature," and therefore it would not be labeled a sex offense, CCF said.
"This 'drop your top' proposal is so wrong-headed it's embarrassing," said Randy Thomasson, CCF president, in a press release.
"We already have too many sexual assaults in society. If the state encourages women to show their breasts to men and boys at public beaches and parks, inappropriate treatment of women and girls will only worsen."
There are good reasons for modesty laws, Thomasson said -- "to protect the innocence of women and girls and to promote a decent society supportive of children and families."
Thomasson said he would not be surprised to "see this crazy bill introduced by a Democrat politician and supported by many Democrat colleagues" -- and he is urging Californians to "call your state legislators right away to flood them with opposition."
Allowing nude sunbathing at public parks and beaches will ruin family outings and promote a terrible role model for children," he concluded.
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| posted by J.R. @ 11:19:00 AM |
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| Natural Mercury Emissions Dwarf Factory Pollutants, Studies Assert |
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By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
January 28, 2005
(CNSNews.com) - According to several new studies on mercury levels in the United States, any reduction of such emissions at American power plants would have minimal impact since the factories currently produce less than 1 percent of the total mercury that ends up in our air, land and water.
The studies by the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP) also reveal that the mercury emissions from Yellowstone National Park and other natural sources dwarf the amount coming from the 1,100 coal-fired power plants in the U.S.
In the Jan. 21 study entitled "Fish, Mercury and Cardiac Health: A Review of the Current Literature," the CSPP reported the latest scientific data show curbing power plant mercury emissions would have no significant impact on atmospheric levels of mercury.
"This hypothesis appears supported by the presence of higher levels of mercury in 550-year-old Alaskan mummies than levels in a recent sample of pregnant native Alaskan women," said Robert Ferguson, executive director of the CSPP, a public policy research group based in Washington, D.C.
The CSPP findings come as the Bush administration prepares to implement a component of the Clear Skies initiative which calls for reducing mercury emissions from U.S. power plants by 70 percent by 2018.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states the agency is "committed to regulating and reducing power plant mercury emissions for the first time ever" beginning March 15, while some environmentalists and members of Congress have called for even greater reductions in mercury emissions -- up to 90 percent.
But according to the CSPP, the scale of these reductions wouldn't have any practical effect on the environment. "Current levels of methyl mercury production ... could simply continue unchanged even if all U.S. coal-powered plants were shut down, resulting in zero emissions," Ferguson told the Cybercast News Service.
Aside from airborne mercury emissions, a companion study released by CSPP also noted: "Strong scientific evidence does suggest that most, if not all, of the trace amounts of methyl mercury contained in ocean fish are not connected to the inorganic form of mercury emitted by power plants."
The CSPP reports also observe that, "mercury is ubiquitous in our environment, the oceans alone containing tens of million of tons of mercury."
One major source of natural mercury emissions noted in the studies is Yellowstone National Park; the CSPP cited an Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Lab report showing that Yellowstone "could emit or exceed as much mercury as all of Wyoming's eight coal-fired power plants combined."
The Idaho study stressed that emissions from Yellowstone National Park, with its network of geothermal features, do not pose a health threat to visitors or park employees but added, "since Yellowstone is the headwaters of important tributaries to the Missouri (Yellowstone River) and Columbia (Snake River), no one knows how far the natural contamination carries through the Earth's air and water systems."
In addition, the CSPP reports state that forests and peat lands in the U.S. also produce more mercury than U.S. power plants.
'Highly skeptical'
While most scientists agree that mercury emissions from power plants constitute a very small percentage of total mercury pollution, some say the risks still demand attention.
Gina Solomon, a senior scientist from the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), told the Cybercast News Service she was "highly skeptical" of the new CSPP studies, accusing the group of "treating the world like [mercury] is put in a blender.
"Mercury does not behave that way, it's not spread in an even layer across the earth," Solomon said. "Instead, there are hot spots that are downwind from major mercury sources."
According to Solomon, "U.S. power plant emissions are a huge source (of mercury) for communities that are downwind from them," adding that "mercury pollution can be a serious health threat, especially for children and pregnant women."
The NRDC's website claims that "industrial mercury pollution becomes a serious threat when it is released into the air, primarily by power plants and certain chemical facilities, and then settles into oceans and waterways, where it builds up in fish that we eat."
Solomon also said curbs on mercury power plant emissions are symbolically important. "The U.S.'s failure to deal with its power plant problem sends a horrible signal to the rest of the world," said Solomon. "How will we get China to reduce its mercury emissions if we can't even deal with our own?"
The CSPP reports come at a time when the EPA is looking to restrict power plant mercury emissions, and the CSPP has called on the EPA to "answer confidently whether the proposed CAMR (Clean Air Mercury Rule) to control mercury emissions from U.S. power plants can assure any consequential 'reduction' of mercury deposition in U.S. soils, leading to any reputed public health 'benefits.'"
The CSPP called the EPA's position "not scientifically convincing or correct, and hence the effort is almost certainly wrong-headed, wasteful of the limited resources and potentially harmful to public health generally, and women and children specifically.
"Real world data trumps modeling or alarmist assertions," according to the CSPP.
Ferguson explained that "environmental regulation is a very good thing, however if the regulations are excessive or wrong and based on bad science, they can be dangerous."
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| posted by J.R. @ 11:11:00 AM |
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| Poll shows Bush support on Social Security |
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By Donald Lambro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 28, 2005
A majority of Americans, including nearly one-third of Democrats, support President Bush's proposal to let workers voluntarily invest part of their Social Security payroll taxes in stocks and bonds, a nationwide poll shows.
Despite a blistering national newspaper ad campaign against Mr. Bush's plan by the AARP and a growing chorus of daily attacks by Democrats, a survey of 1,004 likely voters slated to be released today finds strong public support for the idea, particularly among workers younger than 50.
The survey, conducted by independent pollster John Zogby for the Cato Institute, shows 51 percent like the idea of owning individual Social Security investment accounts, while 39 percent oppose them. Support increases to 58 percent among workers younger than 50 -- the target group for Mr. Bush's plan -- and rises to 61 percent among workers younger than 30.
As with Mr. Zogby's past surveys on the Social Security reform proposal, support drops among people 65 or older, with 55 percent saying they oppose the idea, although opposition declines to 45 percent when seniors are assured that their benefits will not be touched.
Americans are largely split along party lines, with Republicans overwhelmingly backing the proposed change by 74 percent to 14 percent. Democrats, however, are more divided over the issue: 61 percent oppose individual accounts, while 30 percent favor them -- opening up a major constituency when Mr. Bush begins lobbying for his proposal after next week's State of the Union address.
Independent voters are more evenly split, 45 percent backing the accounts to 40 percent opposing them, with the rest undecided.
Voters do not appear to agree with Democratic leaders who are arguing that the venerable New Deal-era program does not face any serious problems that need to be fixed in the immediate future or even the distant future.
Although 14 percent agreed with Mr. Bush that the retirement program is in a "crisis," 61 percent said it faces "serious problems" and needs "major changes," the poll showed.
This view seems to undermine Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's contention at a press conference this week that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with Social Security. "For more than 50 years we're going to be just fine," said Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat. But a scant 5 percent of voters agreed that the program's finances are fine and just 19 percent agreed that it needs only "minor, incremental changes."
As for the short-term risks inherent in the stock market, voters are evenly split between which is riskier, putting their money into Social Security's pay-as-you-go financing system or investing in broadly diversified stock funds approved by the government.
Although 41 percent see private investment as riskier because "benefits could go down depending on how investments perform," 44 percent say the existing Social Security system is more of a gamble "because it cannot pay all the benefits promised."
"Americans clearly understand the need for fundamental Social Security reform," said Michael Tanner, director of Cato's Project on Social Security Choice. "They are open to the message that individual accounts give workers greater ownership and control over their retirement."
The poll was conducted in mid-January and has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:57:00 AM |
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| N.Korea Has Bought Complete Nuclear Bomb - Report |
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January 27, 2005
SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea appears to have bought a complete nuclear weapon from either Pakistan or a former Soviet Union state, a South Korean newspaper said on Thursday quoting a source in Washington.
Seoul Shinmun quoted the source as saying the United States was checking the intelligence.
The purchase was apparently intended to avoid nuclear weapons testing that could be detected from the outside, the source was quoted as saying.
North Korea is believed to have one or two nuclear weapons and possibly more than eight.
U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon said after a visit to the North this month that its second-ranked leader had told his delegation that it possessed nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang has declared that a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, sealed under a 1994 agreement with the United States, had been restarted. Spent nuclear fuel from that reactor could be converted to weapons-grade material.
North Korea has never officially declared that it possessed atomic weapons, speaking instead of its "nuclear deterrent."
U.S. experts who visited the Yongbyon facility said spent plutonium previously stored there had been removed.
North Korea is suspected of running a separate program based on uranium enrichment technology, assisted by a former top Pakistani nuclear scientist.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:49:00 AM |
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| Iraqi Expatriates Begin Voting in U.S. |
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NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Jan. 28, 2005
SOUTHGATE, Mich. -- Joyful tears and frequent applause marked the start of U.S. voting Friday in Iraq's first independent elections in more than 50 years.
Iraqi expatriates began casting votes at 7 a.m. inside an abandoned store in this Detroit suburb. Periodically, cheers would erupt from one of the 15 polling stations. "We feel happy now. This is like America, this voting," said Zoha Yess, 64, who moved to Inkster nine years ago. "We want fair, good government."
Overseas voting continues through Sunday, which is election day in Iraq itself.
Nearly 26,000 Iraqi expatriates in the United States registered to vote during the Jan. 17-25 sign-up period. Registrations in the Detroit area totaled 9,714, while smaller numbers of people registered in Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles and Washington. They must return to the same site between Friday and Sunday in order to cast their vote.
An oversized, homemade Iraqi flag hung from the ceiling of the voting site in Southgate. One poll worker could be seen weeping. Security was tight, when guards checking IDs as people pulled into the parking lot and metal detectors at the doors.
Voters are choosing the 275-member assembly that will draft Iraq's new constitution.
Election organizers didn't really know how many Iraqis in the United States were qualified to vote, but they put the figure at roughly 240,000. Using that number, the total who registered represent slightly more than 10 percent of those eligible - people who turned 18 by Dec. 31 and were born in Iraq, are present or former citizens of Iraq or have an Iraqi father.
"We recognize that the Iraqi voting population is spread out, and we never fooled ourselves into thinking we'd reach 100 percent of the population," said Jeremy Copeland of the International Organization for Migration, or IOM, which organized the vote in the United States and 13 other countries.
For other Iraqis, it wasn't time or place that kept them from registering, Copeland said. It was not having documentation, such as an Iraqi passport or a driver's license with a photo, to prove their eligibility or fearing their relatives in Iraq could face reprisal, even though all of the information collected was kept confidential.
Still, Copeland said officials were heartened by stories of intrepid Iraqis, such as a busload of more than 100 who drove from Washington state to Los Angeles last weekend to register.
Ali Almoumineen, a lawyer who left Iraq in 1992 and settled in Nashville, Tenn., is one of those who registered to vote. He remembers Iraq's elections before Saddam Hussein fell.
"The ballot before had Saddam Hussein - yes or no - and if you put no, the bodyguard took you to the jail," said Almoumineen, who now teaches Arabic to U.S. troops.
Edina Lekovic, a spokeswoman for the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, said most Iraqi-Americans didn't believe they would significantly alter the outcome, but felt the symbolic importance of casting a ballot.
"The sense is more often about having the right to vote and the access to vote and being thrilled by the opportunity," Lekovic said.
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:22:00 AM |
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| 2 of Zarqawi's Terrorists Arrested in Iraq |
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NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Jan. 28, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The government on Friday announced the arrests of two close associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, including the chief of the terror mastermind's Baghdad operation. The announcement came two days before historic elections that extremists have vowed to subvert.
Insurgents, meanwhile, targeted more polling sites across the country, and a suicide car bomber killed four policemen in the capital. U.S. fighter jets thundered through the skies over Baghdad throughout the morning in a show of force against the militants. American troops and insurgents exchanged fire on a major Baghdad thoroughfare. The crackle of gunfire could be heard over the noon call to prayer.
Qassim Dawoud, a top security adviser, told reporters that the arrests of the al-Zarqawi lieutenants occurred in mid-January but gave few details. Dawoud said one of the men, Salah Suleiman al-Loheibi, headed al-Zarqawi's Baghdad operation and had met with the Jordanian-born terror leader more than 40 times over three months.
The other was identified as Ali Hamad Yassin al-Issawi.
The announcement brings to three the number of purported al-Zarqawi lieutenants arrested this month. The announcement appeared aimed at bolstering public confidence in security forces in advance of Sunday's election.
Rebels have threatened to kill anyone who votes, and officials fear a low turnout, especially among Sunni Arabs, could tarnish the legitimacy of the new government. Iraqis will choose a 275-member National Assembly and governing councils in the country's 18 provinces.
Expatriate Iraqis began casting ballots amid tight security in early voting in 14 countries from Australia to Sweden.
"This is a long dream that now comes true," said 56-year-old Karim Jari before casting his vote in Sydney, Australia, where young children mingled in line with elderly Kurdish women in head-to-toe black robes and men in colorful traditional costumes. "We hope this is a new beginning."
On Thursday, al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq posted a video on the Internet showing the murder of a candidate from Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party. The tape included a warning to Allawi personally: "You traitor, wait for the angel of death."
Friday's suicide car bombing rattled Baghdad's Doura neighborhood, a flashpoint in recent days, with several street battles between insurgents and Iraqi National Guard troops, and with assassinations of government officials.
Police opened fire on the speeding car in an attempt to stop it just as it burst into flames. Hours later, another car bomb exploded on the neighborhood's main road, causing some damage to a school where voters are to cast ballots Sunday. No one was hurt.
Elsewhere, insurgents hit designated polling centers in at least six major cities across the country. Gunmen attacked a school to be used as a polling station in Kirkuk, killing one policeman, officials said.
Bombs blasted three more schools designated as polling sites in the city of Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad. A mortar shell landed on a house close to a school believed to be used as polling site in the western city of Ramadi, wounding two women and two children, a hospital doctor said.
In southern Iraq, a roadside bomb hit an Iraqi police vehicle, killing one officer and wounding three others, said police Lt. Col. Karim al-Zaydi. The attack occurred in the town of Zubair, south of the port city of Basra.
Also Friday, insurgents shelled a U.S. Marine base south of Baghdad, injuring three American troops and three civilians, the military said.
Authorities on Thursday night found the bodies of four Iraqi National Guardsmen who had been shot dead in Ramadi, capital of the troubled Anbar province. Police believe the four had been kidnapped several days ago.
President Bush, in an interview published in The New York Times on Friday, said he would withdraw the 150,000 U.S. forces from Iraq if the new government formed after Sunday's vote asks for a pullout. But Bush said he expected the country's new leaders would want multinational forces to stay.
"I've, you know, heard the voices of the people that presumably will be in a position of responsibility after these elections - although you never know," Bush said in an interview with the newspaper. "But it seems like most of the leadership there understands that there will be a need for coalition troops at least until Iraqis are able to fight."
� 2005 The Associated Press
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:06:00 AM |
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| GOP has verified 737 illegal votes in governor race |
| Thursday, January 27, 2005 |
January 26, 2005  - OLYMPIA, Wash. - State Republican Party officials say they have verified 737 illegal votes in the governor's election. State Party Chairman Chris Vance says the votes came from felons, dead people, people who voted twice, and from provisional ballots that were illegally fed directly into voting machines. Republicans have filed a court challenge to the election of Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire. Gregoire lost the first two counts against Republican Dino Rossi. She won by just 129 votes after a final, hand recount. Vance says there should be a new election, because the number of illegal votes is so much larger than the margin of victory. Republicans filed briefs today responding to Democrats' motions to dismiss their election challenge. The next court hearing is scheduled for February 4th. (Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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| posted by J.R. @ 3:03:00 AM |
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| Terrorist's clothing Discovered in Texas ? |
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Suspicious jacket shows plane flying toward tower, Arabic military badge
Posted: January 27, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com The discovery in Texas of a jacket featuring an Arabic military badge and an airplane headed toward a tower with the words "Midnight Mission" is fueling fears of a possible connection to terrorism. 
Patch depicting plane flying toward tower with words 'Midnight Mission' |
According to a Department of Homeland Security morning brief marked "For official use only," a report from Customs and Border Protection noted that on Dec. 23, Border Patrol agents stationed in Hebbronville, Texas, found a jacket with an Arabic patch in a lay-up area on Highway 285. The jacket is said to have a total of three patches, two sewn on the back, and one on the inside. The two patches on the back were an Arabic military badge and one with the letters "Daiwa," while the patch on the inside read "Midnight Mission." This "Midnight Mission" patch features a logo depicting "an airplane flying over a building and headed towards a tower," according to the brief. The military patch with the Arabic writing shows the image of a lion's head, with wings and a parachute emanating from the animal. 
Arabic military patch said to read 'way to immortality' |
The report notes, "DHS translators concluded that the patch read, 'Defense Center,' 'Ministry of Defense,' or 'Defense Headquarters.' The bottom of the patch read 'Martyr,' 'Way to Eternal Life' or 'Way to Immortality.'" The brief also states, "The 'Daiwa' patch stands for a corporate company which sells sport fishing products with corporate offices in eight countries including Japan, the U.S., Australia, France, Germany, Taiwan, Thailand, and the UK." The report notes the document "may contain initial and preliminary reporting which may or may not be accurate or be supported by corroborative information. The [Homeland Security Operations Center] is actively evaluating the reporting to establish its accuracy and to determine if it represents a possible link to terrorism." No one from Border Patrol or Homeland Security was available for comment on the jacket and patches by press time. The morning briefs produced by DHS are a daily roundup of suspicious activities covering a wide scope of events. Other typical entries logged include the arrests of individuals tied to terrorism, bomb threats at sensitive targets such as oil refineries, and this month's train collision and chemical leak in Graniteville, S.C. The discovery of the jacket comes at a time when defense of U.S. borders and domestic security top the concerns of Americans, according to a recent poll. Just yesterday, both President Bush and Congress addressed the need for reforming immigration laws and protecting the border. Bush continued his push to grant illegal aliens guest-worker status, while a leading member of his own party, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., has introduced a get-tough crackdown dealing with driver's licenses, political asylum, deportation and border security. Meanwhile, James Gilchrist, a retired California businessman is beginning the "Minuteman Project," with 240 volunteers ready for a month of aerial and ground surveillance on the Arizona-Mexico border. "This border issue is about all 50 states, not just Arizona or Texas," Gilchrist told the Washington Times. "It's about our Constitution and how it applies to all of us."
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| posted by J.R. @ 2:42:00 AM |
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| Plane Forced to Land; Dirty Bomb Link Investigated |
| Tuesday, January 25, 2005 |
Department of Homeland Security officials forced a small plane carrying four apparently illegal Chinese immigrants and a pilot identified as a Mexican national to land at an airport in San Antonio Monday night, officials said today. The immigrants were being held at Stinson Airfield shortly after federal agents forced their plane down.
Update: Four Chinese Nationals Not Linked to Terrorism
Authorities are trying to determine if the four pasengers on board the Cessna 172-P, two men and two women, are linked to a report that several Chinese nationals were attempting to set off a 'dirty bomb' in the Boston area.
Online records of the Federal Aviation Administration show the 20-year-old plane is co-owned by Afzal Hameed of Dover, Del. The other co-owner is listed as Alyce S. Taylor, but no address is given for her. The FAA records state that the plane's last three-year registration was filed in 1999, and that the agency received no response in 2002 after mailing new registration forms to Hameed.
San Antonio Police surrounded the airport close to 9 p.m. Monday after receiving a call for help from the Department of Homeland Security, officials said. The single-engine plane was intercepted after officials said it was flying in American airspace illegally.
"Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials will hold these people and will determine what their status will be," San Antonio police Captain Jeff Humphrey told 1200 WOAI news.
Humphrey said it appears to be an 'alleged smuggling case.'
Officials say the pilot of the plane told investigators that he had taken off from 'south of the border,' but Humphrey said he could not say any more. He said he didn't know where they were heading.
A federal government source who asked not to be identified told 1200 WOAI news a preliminary search of the terrorist data base did not indicate that any of the four passengers were on it.
Humphrey said its undetermined right now whether the four people on board were related to the hint of a dirty bomb plot' in Boston.
"I've been looking at the pictures (of the Boston suspects) on the TV like everybody else, and I did not recognize anything that would make me think that there was a connection," Humphrey said.
He said Department of Homeland Security was also questioning the pilot. No word on his identity.
A man suspected of telling authorities about the possible terror threat in Boston has been detained in a Mexican border town and was being questioned about last week's tip and his motivation for calling it in, FBI officials said. Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinones was taken into custody Monday in Mexicali by Mexican state judicial police, Dan Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the FBI's San Diego division, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Quinones, one of the 16 people sought for questioning last week about the alleged terror plot, was being questioned on behalf of the FBI, special agent Kiffa Shirley told The Associated Press.
"The first area of concern for the FBI is to resolve any pending national security threat issues, and that issue being the statement that was made that nuclear material was being brought into the United States," Dzwilewski said. "We're working with Mexican authorities trying to resolve that question."
Shirley said late Monday he did not know Quinones' nationality, age or occupation, or where he was being questioned.
Officials have stressed since news of the tip first broke that they doubted the credibility of the terror claims. A leading theory was that a smuggler tipped authorities to a false terror plot to exact revenge on a group of Chinese immigrants, perhaps because members failed to pay.
The tipster claimed that members of the group had talked about material supposedly called "nuclear oxide" that would follow them from Mexico to Boston. The implication was that the group was plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" that spews hazardous material and can sicken or kill people.
No evidence has been found for such a plot. Still, authorities stepped up security in Boston, and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney skipped President Bush's inauguration in Washington.
Dzwilewski said the United States would like to extradite Quinones, who Shirley said was being interviewed as part of a joint investigation by the FBI and Mexican authorities.
"We're so pleased with the extraordinary cooperation of Mexican authorities," Shirley said.
Over the weekend, the FBI said another person who had been wanted for questioning in relation to the alleged plot had been in federal custody for more than two months and has no terrorist connections. She was identified as Mei Xia Dong, 21, of China.
For the latest on this developing story, tune now to NewsRadio 1200 WOAI and watch News 4 WOAI for the complete story.
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| posted by J.R. @ 3:38:00 PM |
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| Guantanamo tip tied to arrests of 22 in Germany |
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WASHINGTON -- Information obtained through the interrogation of a Guantanamo Bay detainee led to a spectacular series of counterterrorism raids in Germany this month, in which more than 700 police swept through mosques, homes, and businesses in six cities and arrested 22 suspected militant extremists, according to a senior Defense Department official.
Click on the above title for more....
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| posted by J.R. @ 10:09:00 AM |
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| Groups Join Together to Fight Terrorist Media |
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Coalition to Stop Terrorist Media
First Target: Hezbollah's Al-Manar Television Station
Washington, D.C., Jan 13 -
The Coalition Against Terrorist Media, an organization of Christian, Muslim, Jewish and secular groups and individuals urging action against terrorist owned and operated media outlets, formally launched its efforts today.
The coalition, which was organized by the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, is particularly focused on Hezbollah�s al-Manar television station. It has been working informally for more than three months briefing government officials and educating the American people about the threat that al-Manar poses.
The coalition�s early efforts have already yielded significant results. On Dec. 17, 2004, the U.S. State Department added al-Manar to the Terrorist Exclusion List. Following al-Manar�s designation as a terrorist organization, satellite providers stopped distributing it to the United States.
�While we are pleased that al-Manar is no longer available in the U.S, we recognize that much more needs to be done to eliminate al-Manar as a viable operational weapon for Hezbollah,� said Avi Jorisch, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. �Hezbollah uses al-Manar to incite violence, recruit suicide bombers, and communicate with its soldiers in the field. In other words, al-Manar is just one tool, like car bombs or assassinations, by which Hezbollah advances its violent agenda.�
Hezbollah, which until the 9/11 attacks had killed more Americans than any other terrorist organization, is believed to have sleeper cells in place across the United States. �Hezbollah uses al-Manar to recruit terrorist foot soldiers�and those soldiers may one day receive their orders to attack from the same source,� Jorisch said. �As one high ranking official told me, Al-Manar is meant �to help people on the way to committing what you call in the West a suicide mission.� Those are chilling words�and a threat we must take seriously.�
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| posted by J.R. @ 9:45:00 AM |
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| The Iraqi people will defy the Ba'athists and Islamofascists |
| Monday, January 24, 2005 |
Blair is right. Why aren't more democrats backing these elections?
William Shawcross
Monday January 24, 2005
Guardian
Just look at who is trying to stop Iraqis voting and by what methods. That alone shows how important this week's elections are to Iraq.
The horrific war against the Iraqi people is being run by the same people who oppressed and tortured them for decades - Saddam's henchmen and gaolers. They are more than ably abetted by the Islamofascist jihadists led by Osama bin Laden's Heydrich in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Elections really do matter to people - especially to people who have been denied them. We saw that in 1993 when millions of Cambodians braved threats from the Khmer Rouge. We saw it in Algeria in 1995, when the government, almost overcome by years of Islamist terrorist assault, called elections and the silent majority defied the terrorists' threats and voted en masse.
We saw it much more recently in Afghanistan, where the people confounded the western critics and scoffers and, despite Taliban threats, voted overwhelmingly to put the curse of the Taliban's Islamic extremism behind them.
And we are seeing it most brutally and clearly in Iraq today, where everyone associated with the attempt to give the Iraqi people a decent future risks being murdered.
One of the foreign heroes of the Iraqi election process is Carlos Valenzuela, the Colombian who is the chief UN election official in Baghdad. He has been asked constantly if legitimate elections can take place despite the non-stop violence, the car bombs, the suicide bombers, the multiple murders. He has replied yes. "Look," he has said, "in my country we have elections that are not perfect, that have been marred by violence and terrible intimidation. But still people go to the polls. And still the results are accepted as legitimate."
He has also, quite rightly, praised the Iraqi election workers. If you need one image to remind you what this election is about, remember the horrific photograph from December of three Iraqi election workers dragged from their car in Baghdad and murdered, on camera, in the street.
The Iraqi elections are at one level a brutal theocratic struggle between Sunni and Shia, between Bin Laden and Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Sistani, the principal leader of the Shias, who constitute 60% of the Iraqi population, has told his followers that it is their duty to vote. But in a video aired on al-Jazeera, Bin Laden declared that "Anyone who participates in these elections... has committed apostasy against Allah". He endorsed killing of security people in the new government - "Their blood is permitted. They are apostates whose deaths should not be prayed over."
Zarqawi describes the Shias as "the lurking snakes and the crafty scorpions, the spying enemy and the penetrating venom, the most evil of mankind". Every day he murders more. Last Friday a car bomber murdered 14 people, including children, as they left their mosque in Baghdad. He murdered Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, one of the principal Shia parties, and he recently tried to murder Hakim's brother and successor. In that attack 13 other Iraqis were killed and 66 wounded.
Allied to the Islamist groups are Ba'athist groups who want to restore Sunni Ba'athist dictatorship. Several of their military leaders were arrested in Falluja in November.
One was Colonel Muayed al-Nasseri, who said that Saddam had set up his group, Muhammad's Army, after the fall of Baghdad. Under interrogation he said that his group had been receiving aid from both Iran and Syria, neither of which wish to see a democracy in Iraq. He said Iran had given them "one million dollars... cars, weapons... even car bombs". He said that Saddam had sent him to Syria to liaise with Syrian intelligence, which was proving especially helpful with money. Other Saddamite officials are working with impunity from Damascus. Washington has protested about this, but the US has not yet put any really strong pressure on Syria.
The impact of terrorism on the election has already been huge. Many of the political parties have not dared name their candidates for fear they will be murdered. Public meetings are virtually impossible. The risks of going to the polling stations are real everywhere, huge in some places. Many candidates have been murdered; those who are elected will face real dangers.
What is astonishing is that people still seem determined to vote for a new Iraq. A recent poll by the London-based paper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat found that 66% of those asked supported the elections on schedule. Iraqi women, who due to past bloodshed constitute a majority of the Iraqi population, are particularly interested.
According to the latest poll conducted in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra by Women for Women International, "94% of women surveyed want to secure legal rights for women; 84% of women want the right to vote on the final constitution; [and] nearly 80% of women believe that their participation in local and national councils should not be limited... despite increasing violence, particularly against women, 90.6% of Iraqi women reported that they are hopeful about their future".
Although al-Jazeera broadcasts poison, Iraqi domestic television is now among the freest in the region. There are more than 20 licensed local TV stations, and 65% of the population are thought to have satellite dishes, banned until the fall of Saddam.
People are being extremely brave in flouting the demands of the killers. Both Kurds and Shias are resisting the horrific provocations from Sunni terrorists. The election will not end the crisis in Iraq. But Iraqis, like the Algerians and Afghans, clearly wish to defy those who seek to murder, mutilate and incarcerate them.
Tony Blair said in Baghdad in December: "On the one side you have people who desperately want to make the democratic process work, and want the same type of democratic freedoms other parts of the world enjoy, and on the other side people who are killing and intimidating and trying to destroy a better future for Iraq. Our response should be to stand alongside the democrats."
Blair is absolutely right. It is shocking that so few democratic governments support the Iraqi people. Where are French and German and Spanish protests against the terror being inflicted on voters in Iraq? And it is shocking that around the world there is not wider admiration of, assistance to and moral support (and more) for the Iraqi people. The choice is clear: movement towards democracy in Iraq or a new nihilism akin to fascism - Islamist fascism.
� William Shawcross's most recent book is Allies: the United States, Britain, Europe and the War in Iraq
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
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| posted by J.R. @ 11:30:00 PM |
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| Trial Opens Over Raid on Elian Gonzalez |
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Mon Jan 24, 2:28 PM ET
MIAMI - A trial opened Monday in a $3 million-plus lawsuit by 13 people who say they were injured or traumatized when federal agents seized a screaming Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives' home.
The opening witness was neighbor Maria Riera, who testified that she clutched her chest and thought she was dying when an agent doused her with tear gas during the April 22, 2000, raid to reunite the 6-year-old boy with his father in Cuba.
The 13 neighbors and protesters are seeking up to $250,000 each, claiming that agents used excessive force during the armed raid.
"I was stopped by a gentleman on my left approaching me with a shotgun," said Riera, who lived across the street from the home where the boy had lived since shortly after he was rescued from a shipwreck on Thanksgiving Day 1999.
She said a black-garbed agent wearing a mask ordered her to "stand back" or he would shoot, adding a word of profanity. She said she complied, but a second agent approached with a gas gun as she stood in her driveway and left her in a gray cloud of tear gas.
A total of 108 people sued over the raid, but U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore limited the case to people who were not on the Gonzalez family property and were beyond police barricades.
Elian, now 11, was one of three survivors of a shipwreck that killed his mother.
The raid took place after the family refused to return the boy so he could be taken back to Cuba.
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| posted by J.R. @ 11:24:00 PM |
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