Saturday, December 31, 2005

Drowning Your Troubles

--I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming--
(President Jimmy Carter)

--I have orders to be awakened at any time in case of a national emergency. Even if I'm
in a cabinet meeting-- (President Ronald Reagan)

--I wish Stanley Baldwin no ill, but it would have been much better if he had never lived--
(Winston Churchill)

--Lady Astor to Churchill: Winston, if you were my husband, I would flavour your coffee
with poison.
Churchill: Madam, if I were your husband, I should drink--

--Bessie Braddock to Churchill: Winston you're drunk!
Churchill: Bessie, you're ugly, and tomorrow morning I shall be sober--

--British Politics,
the difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this:
If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune.
but if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity--
(Benjamin Disraeli)

Emotions Etched

I think of you and teardrops fill my eyes
a single thought of you intoxicates me so much.
yet some insist, a man never cries
this canvas, here, I'm painting with my brush...

your love, of course, is way beyond the stand
and tears are not the measure of the mile.
but I have this brush that's here within my hand
and so I'll paint, if only for a while...

I'll paint you here, your wonders to extol
a world to note the love within my heart:
an artist paints from deep inside his soul
so let them gaze upon this work of art!

emotions etched in strokes that I employ
I'm shedding tears, such wondrous tears of Joy!

Adams Repentance

I was a dweller once in paradise
there, the insulting snake's advice
deceived me--I became his friend
disgrace was swift and I was banished from that place.
my dearest hope is that some blessed day
a guide will come to indicate the way
back to my beloved paradise...
***** "Quote of the Day" *****
***********************************

"God bless our good and gracious king
whose promise non relies on
who never said a foolish thing
nor ever did a wise one..."

(John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester)
***** "Funny Video Clips" *****
*************************************

The following site has funny video clips with several categories:
-stunts
-sports humor
-animal humor
-commercials
-almost stupid
-just plain stupid

this clip is called, 'the new inmate'
http://stupidvideos.com/video/commercials/newinmate/

Friday, December 30, 2005

***** "China's Foothold In Africa" *****
***********************************************

China has become the leading arms supplier in Sudan as part of Beijing's strategy to plant, nurture and protect its oil interests on the African continent.

The Washington-based Jamestown Foundation stated in a report that China has recently become the fifth largest arms supplier to the African continent.

The report titled, "Beijing's Arms and Oil Interests In Africa," claimed that China has sold combat aircraft and helicopters to the Sudanese government.

The state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, owns 40 percent in Sudan's largest oil venture. The Sino-Sudanese oil field project covers 82,000 square kilometers in southern Sudan and is expected to produce 15 million tons of crude oil per annum.

"China has pursued a policy that is entirely based on narrow economic interests and has been keen to supply the Sudanese government with fighter aircraft and an assortment of weaponry," the report authored by Ian Taylor stated.

"Apart from profits accrued from these arms sales, the policy helps consolidate and protect investment in Sudan's oil reserves," said the report.
***** "US No Longer Promoting Landmine Ban" *****
****************************************************************

by-Haider Rizvi
Courtesy of: Yahoo news
Wednesday December 28, 2005
http://news.yahoo.com

United Nations (OneWorld)--In 1994, the United States was the first nation to call for the elimination of landmines that killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of innocent people around the world.

But that was then. Today, Washington not only stands in opposition to an international treaty that bans the use and production of antipersonnel landmines, but intends to make new ones too.

In a reversal of its earlier policy, the US is reportedly planning to produce a new generation of landmines called "spider" by March 2007, a move that has alarmed civil society groups campaigning for a global ban on the use and production of landmines for years.

The 1997 treaty, which has been endorsed by nearly 150 countries, calls for a ban on the production, stockpiling, and use of antipersonnel landmines.

Major powers among the 40 nations who have not signed the treaty are the United States, Russia, and China.

Last month, more than 100 countries sent delegates to an international meeting on landmines in Croatia, but the United States did not.

Ironically, the United States was at the forefront of international efforts to adopt the landmine treaty in the 1990s.

The United States would "seek a worldwide agreement as soon as possible to end the use of antipersonnel mines," President Clinton said at the start of his second term in the White House.

But the Bush administration reversed that promise last February with the State Department declaring that landmines still have "a valid and essential roles in protecting US forces in military operations."

"no other weapon currently exists that provides all the capabilities provided by landmines," the official statement added.

"It's a step backward for the United States," says Stephen Goose, an arms expert with US-based Human Rights Watch.

"while the rest of the world is rushing to embrace an immediate and comprehensive ban, the Bush administration has decided to cling to the weapons in perpetuity," he adds.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 people are killed or maimed by mines each year--mostly civilians and mostly in countries now at peace--according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), an independent umbrella organization.

Landmines are especially heinous weapons of war, the group says, because they are indiscriminate--unable to distinguish between soldiers, civilians, peacekeepers, and workers, or others--and inhumane--designed to maim rather than kill, but frequently killing nonetheless.

They also deprive people of land and infrastructure in some of the poorest countries in the world, hamper reconstruction and the delivery of aid, deprive communities and families of breadwinners, and kill livestock and wild animals, according to the group.
***** "Quote of the Day" *****
***********************************

'Not In Vain'
(Emily Dickinson)

If I can stop one heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain:
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain...

A Wanderer's Tale

I dreamt a dream, the realist dream
the dream of ages yet to be
and all began on some great land
who's residents were none but trees.
at first I feared they'd feel it queer
a wanderer as small as me
but not a glance, they stood in trance
was even cast aside to see.

hello? I cried, then louder, tried
and waited for my echo's end
while answered by no distant cry
but hums of melancholy winds.
so north, I strode yet trodden roads
'til Joints and bones were coming loose
I traveled long years, and stumbled on
and all to fall upon a spruce.

Why does this silence linger here
that aches my soul and wears my wit?
he chanted in the deepest tongue
a word that I shall never forget:
"this is the land that's starved for love
we lost it some where long ago,
and should you find it, share the love
or fade away like the passing snow

how can this be? I spoke in tears
how could all empathy be lost
there must be someone here who knows
the price that love's return should cost?
"there may be one," he mumbled on
"the wisest maple of the south
but long the Journey, here to there
through summer's hands to winter's mouth."

I must thought I, farewell old friend
and fresh of hope, I took the trail
In fear so great, it was too late
I, onward, built a wanderer's tale.
I tread a day, and then a week,
and weeks to seasons, they to years
and years to more, a decade's time
reality to dreamer's tears.

but yes! came forth the final day
when, in the clearing, saw these eyes
a tree of such great width and power
his mighty arms raised towards the skies.
excuse me sage, but I have spent
my life seeking an answer here
what must I do to purchase love?
whereabouts to draw it near?

"a foolish deed," he raised a laugh
"you've all the love you really need
Just look at me! this glory, great
began when I was but a seed.
I took the love that other's gave
and grew into the strongest tree
so keep and take and you shall make
the loveliest of everything."

I couldn't help but notice how
he didn't bear a single leaf
and pride, the drink which he relied
had left his countenance quite weak.
while something in his booming voice
took pride in apathetic theft
behind the wall of his facade
the truth is, he had nothing left.

I woke. and, oh! the wild relief
that every thing was all a dream
and what a vile and horrid thing
as lifeless as their world had seemed.
and so, to shake away my thoughts
I took a walk along the street
then awe-struck by the silent cry
of every passer's eye, I'd meet.

"this is the land that's starved for love
we lost it some how long ago
and should you find it, share the love
or be the hope we'll never know."
and so the dream, that scary dream
I, oh so painfully recall
was all the less a wanderer's tale
and not a dream at all.

In Search Of Enemies

~The CIA and the Third World War~

by-John Stockwell
(former station chief-angola task force)

My expertise, as you know, is CIA, Marine Corp, three CIA secret wars. I had a position in the National Security Council in 1975 as the chief of the Angola task force running the secret war in Angola. It was the third CIA war I was part of.

The National Security law creating the National Security Council and the CIA, as you know, was passed in 1947. The CIA was given its charter to perform such other duties and functions as might be necessary to national security interests and given a vague authority to protect its sources and methods. I think it was in the mid '80s that I coined this phrase the 'Third World War' because in my research I realized that we were not attacking the Soviet Union in the CIA's activities, we were attacking people in the Third World. And I am going to Just quickly, in the interest of time, Just give you a little sense of what that means, this 'Third World War.'

Basically, its the third, I believe in terms of loss of life and human destruction, the third bloodiest war in all of history. They undertake to run operations in every corner of the globe. They also undertook the license of operating Just totally above and beyond US law. They had a license, if you will to kill, but also they took that to a license to smuggle drugs, a license to do all kinds of things to other people and other societies in violation of international law, our law, and every principle of nations working together for a healthier and more peaceful world.

Meanwhile, again, they battled to convert the US legal system in such a way that it would give them control over our society. Now we have massive documentation of what they call the 'Secret Wars of the CIA'. We don't have to guess or speculate, we had the Church Committe investigate them in 1975 which gave us our first really in-depth powerful look inside this structure.

Senator Church said in the 14 years before he did his investigation, that he found that they had run 900 major operations and 3,000 minor operations. And if you extrapolate that over the whole period of the 40 odd years that we've had a CIA, you come up with 3,000 major operations and over 10,000 minor operations. Every one of them illegal, every one of them disruptive of the lives and societies of other peoples and many of them bloody and gory beyond comprehension, almost.

Exstensively, we manipulated and organized the overthrow of functioning constitutional democracies in other countries. We organized secret armies and directed them to fight in Just every continent in the world. We encouraged ethnic minorities to rise up and fight, people like the Mosquito Indians in Nicaragua, the Kurds in the Middle East, the Hmongs in South East Asia.

And of course, we have organized, and still do, fund death squads in countries around the world. Like the Treasury Police in El Salvador which are responsible for most of the killings of the 50,000 people Just in the '80s and there was 70,000 before that.

An orchestration of CIA secret teams and propaganda led us directly into the Korean war. We were attacking China from the Islands of Quemoy and Matsu, Thailand, Tibet (a lot of drug trafficking involved in this by the way), until eventually we convinced ourselves to fight the Chinese in Korea and we had the Korean war and a million people were killed.

Same thing for the Vietnam war and we have extensive documentation of how the CIA was involved at every level of the National Security Complex , because its a very cooperative thing into manipulating the nation into the Vietnam war. And we wound up creating the Golden Triangle in which the CIAs Air America Airplane's were flying in arms to our allies and flying back out with heroin.

We launched the largest--this is something that Jimmy Carter did, Admiral Turner brags about it--the operation in Afghanistan. The biggest single operation I am told in the history of the CIA's secret wars and sure enough very quickly we produced the Golden Crescent which is still the largest source of heroin perhaps in the world today.

Trying to summarize this Third World War that the CIA, the US National Security Complex with the Military all interwoven in it in many different ways, has been waging, let me Just put it this way, the best heads that I coordinate with studying this thing, we count at least minimum figure, six million people who've been killed in this 40-year long war that we have waged against the people of the Third World.

These are not Soviets, we have not been parachuting teams into the Soviet Union to kill and hurt and maim people, especially not since 1954 when they actually developed the capability of dropping atomic weapons on the United States.

They aren't British, French, Swedes, Swiss, Belgians, we don't do bloody gory operations in the countries of Europe. These are all people of the Third World. They are people of countries like the Congo, Vietnam, Kampuchea, Indochina, Nicaragua, where conspicuously, they nor their government's, do not have the capability of doing any physical hurt to the United States.

They don't have ICBM's, they don't have Armies or Navies. They could not hurt us if they wanted to. There has rarely been any evidence that they really wanted to. And that, in fact is perhaps the whole point. If they had ICBM's we probably wouldn't have done those things to them for fear of retaliation.

Cheap shots, if you will, killing people of other countries of the world who cannot defend themselves under the guise of secrecy and under the rubric of national security...

(John Stockwell is the highest-ranking CIA official ever to leave the Agency and go public. He ran a CIA Intelligence gathering post in Vietnam, was the task-force commander of the CIA's secret war in Angola in 1975 and 1976, and was awarded the medal of merit before he resigned. Stockwell's Book, ''In Search of Enemies' is an international best seller)

Thursday, December 29, 2005

***** "Syria Wants New Rules For Cooperation On UN Probe" *****
**********************************************************************************

Wednesday December 28, 2005
Courtesy of: http://today.reuters.com/news/home.aspx

Damascus (Reuters)--Syria said on Wednesday it wanted to lay fresh ground rules for cooperation with the new chief of a UN team investigating the killing of a Lebanese former Prime Minister, Rafik al-Hariri.

"we want to agree on a protocol for cooperation to identify the meaning of cooperation...and what is required before it can be said that Syria has cooperated fully and unconditionally with the international committee," Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara told politicians from parties allied with the ruling Baath party.

Shara said there was no reason for the new chief investigator, expected to be Belgian Prosecutor Serge Brammertz, not to sign such a deal when he takes over this month.

"let us forget the former committee led by Mehlis. The new committee has no interest in not signing an agreement or memorandum of understanding," Shara said, adding that the
inquiry had failed to produce compelling evidence against Syria.

Mehlis, who was appointed in May to lead the probe, has chosen not to renew his contract, citing personal reasons.

His official role with the UN ends this month, when he is widely expected to be replaced by Brammertz, Deputy Prosecutor of the Hague-based International Crime Court.

Comment:
That's a wise move on the Syrians part, to have all the parameters established beforehand, because international politics and diplomacy depend on being as vague as possible, in order to give a nation or international body sufficient maneuvering room to operate and to inject "their definitions" as they see them to be in the agreements that were formulated.

Syria, rightly so wants to avoid the web that Iraq (pre US invasion) was entangled in, when the US and UN constantly declared that Iraq wasn't cooperating, Iraq hasn't met it's obligations, Iraq is trying to avoid the UN inspection teams.

Therefore, by constantly being told that Iraq never cooperated, continues to lie and hide Its WMDs, they never saw the light at the end of the tunnel, they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't.

It took the US invasion to actually shed light on the truth and that is, Iraq had actually cooperated to the fullest, and had handed in and destroyed its WMDs, and that the actual liars were ultimately exposed...
***** "India Tests Nuclear-Capable Missile" *****
***********************************************************

Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Courtesy of: AFP
http://www.afp.com/english/home/

New Delhi (AFP)--India successfully tested its nuclear-capable, short-range Dhanush ballistic missile, defence officials said.

The locally-developed missile, a naval version of the surface-to-surface Prithvi, was tested on Wednesday from a ship in the Bay of Bengal off the coast of Orissa State, the Press Trust of India said, quoting official sources.

Dhanush--which means bow in Hindu--has a range of 250-kilometers (156-miles) and carry a payload of 500-kilometers (1,100-pounds).

India, which conducted a series of nuclear tests in 1998, has already developed and deployed two ballistic missiles and a surface missile.

It hopes to cap the programme with a 5,000-kilometer (3,125-miles) range ballistic missile to give it the capability of striking beyond South Asia.

Nuclear-armed rivals, India and Pakistan frequently test-fire missiles, but as part of a slow-moving peace process have agreed to inform each other in advance.
***** "Quote of the Day" *****
***********************************

"the past: is our cradle, not our prison,
there is danger as well as appeal in its glamour.
the past is for inspiration, not imitation,
for continuation, not repitition..."

(unknown)
***** "Pakistan Launches Nuclear Project" *****
**********************************************************

Wednesday, 28 December 2005
Courtesy of: The BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk

Pakistan has begun building a new nuclear power plant in Punjab province.

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz launched work on the 325-mega watt plant in Chashma, which is the second to be built at the site with Chinese help.

It was "a milestone" in the history of nuclear technology in Pakistan, Mr Aziz told officials from both countries.

Officials say Chashma-2, south of the capital Islamabad, is for peaceful purposes and will follow International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards.

Pakistan has a parallel nuclear establishment, which runs its nuclear-weapon and missile technology programme.

Pakistan's first nuclear power plant was built in 1972 in Karachi, with Canadian assistance.

Western nations later ceased nuclear co-operation with Islamabad, after it was alleged Pakistan was developing nuclear weapons.

Pakistan conducted nuclear weapons tests in 1998.

Its rival India lauched its first nuclear weapon more than a decade earlier.
***** "The New Western Way Of War" *****
***************************************************

Over at NASPIR, the Network of Activist Scholars of Politics and International Relations,
Martin Shaw offers a review of a chapter from his own book. He Highlights some interesting points:

"were the terrorist atrocities in London the result of the 'warped logic' of the terrorists, as Blair maintained, or of the logic of war in todays conditions, fueled by the way the west fights its own wars, transferring risk from western troops to innocent civilians?
cane the west continue to fight wars this way?"

The concluding chapter of Martin Shaw's 'The New Western Way of War'... :
Risk-Transfer War and its Crisis in Iraq (polity Press), analyses the links between the 'deliberate' atrocities of terrorists in western capitals and the 'accidental' massacres of civilians in western wars.

It argues that paradoxically the 'massacre embrace' of the terrorists trumps the 'massacre embarrassment' of the west, and that the answer for the west lies in the search for methods other than war, which has become counterproductive for our type of society.
Hence we should abandon the idea of a 'war on terror.'

For Shaw, the contemporary western way of war focuses on containing risks to the lives of western soldiers in order to minimise political and electoral risk to governments. Risk is transferred to innocent civilians, whose killing is explained away as 'accidental'.

Yet the idea of managing risk is fundamentally at odds with the brutal, unpredictable nature of war. Ultimately, attempts to manage, govern and rule over the risks of war produce greater risks for western societies--as the bombings in Madrid and London have shown--and hence for those in power.

After Iraq, the new western way of war is in crisis and it will be more difficult for governments to fight this type of war.

Polity Press
May 2005
164 pages
0-7456-3410-9 hardback: $45.00
0-7456-3411-7 paperback: $14.99

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

*** "Mass Grave Unearthed In Gujarat, India" ***
***********************************************************

Tuesday 27 December 2005
Courtesy of: http://news.bbc.co.uk

Villagers have found remains of a number of bodies in a grave in the Indian State of Gujarat, officials say.

Human rights activists say they are the remains of Muslims killed in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

More than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims were killed in the 2002 riots, although many believe the figure to be higher.

Residents of the Pandarwada village in the State's Panchmahal district uncovered the remains near a river bank. Twenty-six people are said to have died in an attack on the village in 2002.

A human rights activist, Teesta Setalvad, says all those accused of carrying out the killings were acquitted in 2002 for lack of evidence. She says human rights organisations will now approach the Gujarat high court on Wednesday to press for the remains of the bodies to be sent for a forensic test.

The Gujarat riots broke out after 58 Hindus were killed when a train was set on fire in the town of Godhra, allegedly by a Muslim mob.

The Sabamatti express was carrying Hindu pilgrims returning from the destroyed site of the Babri Mosque at Ayodhya, when it was attacked. How the blaze started is not clear.

(Lal Krishna Advani, leader of the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, made several provocative speeches that incited a Hindu mob to demolish the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, and then built a Hindu temple on top of it).
"Qataluki Ya Baghdad!: Oh Baghdad, They Killed You!"


This is a video clip with a song that laments what is being done to Baghdad, Iraq...

Warning! contains disturbing footage...

The singer is Ahmed Abd Rabbu...

http://habibah.net/video/baghdad.wmv
"Quote of the Day"

We live in deeds, not years
In thoughts, not breaths
In feelings, not figures...
"A Psalm Of Life"

(Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
life is but an empty dream!
for the soul is dead that slumbers,
and things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
and the grave is not its goal;
dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way,
but to act, that each tomorrow
find us farther than today.

Art is long, and time is fleeting,
and our hearts, though stout and brave,
still, like muffled drums, are beating
funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of life,
be not like dumb driven cattle!
be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
let the dead past bury its dead!
act,-act in the living present!
heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
we can make our lives sublime,
and, departing, leave behind us
footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
sailing o'er life's solemn main,
s forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
with a heart for any fate;
still achieving, still pursuing,
learn to labor and to wait.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

"French Active In Rwanda Genocide"


by-Adam Sage, Paris
Courtesy of: The Australian

One of the most controversial episodes in France's recent history is to come under legal scrutiny after a Judge opened a formal inquiry into allegations that the French Army conspired in the Rwandan Genocide of 1994.

The move, which will renew debate over the actions of Francois Mitterrand, France's late President, is embarrassing for Paris at a time when it is struggling to maintain its influence in Africa.

Despite attempts by the French Defence Ministry to block the case, Jaques Baillet, the Prosecutor at the Army Tribunal, has begun an investigation into the role of France's troops during the massacres.

An estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the violence that followed the death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana in an aircraft crash. Most of the victims were Tutsis, slaughtered by the rival Hutu tribe.

The 2500-strong French peacekeeping force sent to Rwanda by Mitterrand is accused not only of failing to stop the genocide, but also of actively participating in it.

The accusations are contained in a lawsuit filed by six survivors who say they saw atrocities committed with the complicity of the French Army. Mr Baillet rejected four of the plaintiffs on the ground that they had not suffered personally.

Although French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie described the claims as outlandish, the Prosecutor decided two witnesses were sufficiently credible to warrant an inquiry.

One is Aurea Mukakalisa, who was raped by Hutu militia in a refugee camp set up and controlled by the French Army.

"the Hutu militiamen entered the camp and designated the Tutsis, who were forced to leave by French soldiers," says Ms Mukakalisa, who was 27 at the time.

"I saw the militia kill the Tutsis who had left the camp. I saw French soldiers themselves kill Tutsis using knives."

Her brother, Felicien, was a victim at the Murambi camp. His body has never been found.

The second witness, Innocent Gisanura, who was 14 at the time, was among thousands of Tutsis who fled into the Biserero forests in the hope of escaping the violence.

"we were attacked and chased by militiamen," he says in his statement. "French soldiers watched what happened from their vehicles without doing anything."

The claims have revived the debate over France's ambition to retain influence in Africa--an ambition that shaped much of Mitterrand's foreign policy.

Under his Presidency, France armed and trained Habyarimana's forces, which critics say formed the backbone of the Hutu militia during the genocide. Mitterrand then authorised the French peacekeeping mission, known as Operation Turquoise.

Rwandan Tutsis say French troops first failed to stop the killings, and then established a buffer zone that enabled the killers to escape. These claims have poisoned relations between Paris and Kigali.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has accused France of failing to tell the truth about Operation Turquoise.

In 1998, a French parliamentary committee attempted to investigate France's role in the genocide. But most of the evidence it sought was classified as a state secret.

The French Army is already facing a legal inquiry into allegations that soldiers killed an injured rebel during a peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast in May.

Source:
http://theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17668323%255E2703,00.html
"Islamic Leaders Urge Restraint In Sudan-Chad Tensions"


Sunday, December 25, 2005
Courtesy of: http://www.afp.com

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (AFP)--The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) urged Sudan and Chad to exercise self-restraint to defuse the rapidly escalating tension between the two neighbors.

The Secretary General of the world's largest Islamic body, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, said the two countries should "demonstrate self-restraint and calm the situation," following Ndjamena's accusation that Khartoum was trying to destabilise its government.

He appealed to the two members of OIC to "resort to common sense and mature reflection to resolve this passing conflict through a peaceful and brotherly way."

The African Union said yesterday it had sent a delegation to Chad and Sudan in a bid to defuse rapidly escalating tensions as Chad declared it was in a "state of belligerence"
with Sudan.

The mission was sent as already strained ties between the two nations plummeted on Friday with Chad's declaration, after increasingly bitter accusations have been lobbed back and forth by the two capitals.

Ndjamena charges that Khartoum is trying to destabilise Chad by hosting rebels and a growing number of Chadian Army deserters in western Sudan, from where an attack was launched on Chad's eastern frontier town of Adre last Sunday.

Several new rebel groups have sprung up recently in eastern Chad, a region inundated by some 200,000 refugees from the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region.

Khartoum had accused Ndjamena of deploying planes and troops on its territory before the latest incident.
"Philippine Rebels To Target US Troops"


Monday 26 December 2005
Courtesy of: al-Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net

Marxist Guerrillas in the Philippines have given warning of possible assaults on American troops and threatened to escalate attacks against the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The communist party of the Philippines, in a statement on Monday, its 37th anniversary criticised the US military for its increasing intervention in the Philippines. It urged its members to take steps to deter the US from "further plundering" the country.

It called on its armed wing, the New People's Army, to "study and learn in advance how to inflict casualties on US military personnel" and said the rebels should look forward to
"the glorious opportunity" of avenging the deaths of Filipinos killed during the 1898 to 1946 US occupation.

The rebels--blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist group--have stepped up their attacks in recent months, killing several Filipino soldiers and wounding dozens more in landmine attacks.

There have been no known attacks on American soldiers.

Communist rebels have said Washington's counterterrorism training also intends to wipe them out. They have warned US troops to stay away from their strongholds.

Monday, December 26, 2005

"Uncivil <---> Civil War"


today you are Joyous, while I'm filled with rue
I canvassed, I voted, what more could I do?
I cried invasion, you said rescue
your state is red, my state is blue...

you protect corporation's, and I want to sue
my mind is enlightened, yours is full of number-2
you export deMOCKracy, while the people you screw
your state is red, my state is blue...

you claim war on terror, and I say be true
I say civil rights, you say my view
you're killing health care, and I've got the flu
your state is red, my state is blue...

you like the cowboys, and I side with the sioux
my pet goes 'meow', your pet goes 'moo'
you believe Rummy's fairy-tales, are actually true
your state is red, my state is blue...

I fought the good fight, did all I could do
there are millions of me, and amazingly more of you
oh Cheney, Cheney, you're a devious shrew
your state is red, my state is blue...
"Quote of the Day"


you know it's funny
when it rains, it pours
they got money for wars
but can't feed the poor...

cause, I think we can make it
In fact, I'm sure
and if you fall
stand tall
and come back
for more...

(2 Pac Shakur)
"Corruption Is How We Win!"


One of the many interrelated plots in the movie "Syriana," is how the oil company executives of "connex" (as in: ex-con, criminals, con you), and "killen" (as in: to physically kill you, to make a killing in profits), seem to only care about getting rich and are willing to do almost anything at anyone's expense to make more money.

There is a profound and memorable monologue that nails it on the head, where Danny Dalton (played by Tim Blake Nelson) tells Bennett Holiday (played by Jeffrey Wright):

"Corruption ain't nothing more than government intrusion into market efficiencies in the
form of regulation. that's Milton Friedman, he got a goddamn Nobel Prize.
we have laws against it, precisely so we can get away with it.
corruption is our protection.
corruption is what keeps us safe and warm.
corruption is why you and I are prancing around here instead of fighting each other for
scraps of meat out in the streets.
corruption is how we win!"

for oil execs who are supposed to be educated, sophisticated and worldly, they talk and act like a bunch of gangsters.

this speaks volumes about our so-called elite...
'Armed and Dangerous'

by-Syed Saleem Shahzad
December 22, 2005
Courtesy of: Asia Times
http://atimes.com

Karachi--Any Resistance movement is generally only as good as the weapons it uses, and that is something that has bedeviled the poorly-equipped Taliban-led anti-US forces in Afghanistan for a long time.

The resistance has steadily taken steps though, to beef up its arsenal to include modern automatic weapons and ground-to-air missiles. This it has done in part by forging closer links with the Resistance in Iraq, as well as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil.

According to Intelligence sources who spoke to Asia Times Online, al-Qaeda concluded that its attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 was a failure, even though 17 American sailors were killed.

As a result, al-Qaeda sent a team to the LTTE to gain expertise in maritime combat operations. The LTTE, as part of its longstanding battle against the Sri Lanken government, has developed a relatively sophisticated maritime wing.

The interaction was brief and inconclusive, and al-Qaeda subsequently rejected the idea of maritime combat, deciding instead to fight the United States on land. Nevertheless, the links established between the two groups were to prove useful in another way.

Pakistani Intelligence sources say that al-Qaeda now works with the LTTE to get weapons, including automatic arms and ground-to-air missiles. The weapons are paid for in cash, as well as in drugs originating from Afghanistan, according to the sources.
The drugs primarily are sent to Scandanavian countries and Thailand, the latter being a traditional base from which the LTTE has smuggled weapons.

"this is a perfect arrangement as resources are complemented--the Tigers get ideological support, while regular arms supplies on the other hand go to al-Qaeda, which ultimately feeds its fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan," said the source.

"the smuggling channels are the same that the Tamil Tigers have adopted for years [with International arms cartels]. the latest weapons originate through arms dealers, as well as thoughs stolen from arms depots and shipped from South America and Lebanon. they are transferred from ship-to-ship and sometimes offloaded at the final destination," the source said.

-In The Firing Line-
In the mountains and on the plains of Afghanistan, the Resistance operates in several ways, ranging from suicide bombings to attacking convoys and brief pitched battles.

"but an air defense system [ground-to-air missiles] can break the back [of the enemy] in low-intensity conflicts," a top Pakistani official told Asia Times Online.

"the Resistance movement in Afghanistan has now acquired that system in bulk. there are possibilities that some pieces will also have been supplied to Iraq. as soon as this system comes into full action, drastic results will come," he said.

After the Taliban retreated in the face of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, the Afghan Resistance was largely scattered. The Taliban did preserve some heavy weapons, but these could not be easily accessed due to the strong US military presence, and many caches were seized.

Furthermore, some of the armory, especially missiles, required special storage facilities to prevent exposure to harsh climate conditions, but this was not possible, and the weapons were damaged.

Slowly, as the Resistance took firmer root and with the help of money from foreign Arab fighters who had fled to the tribal areas of south and north Waziristan in Pakistan, the Resistance acquired missiles, guns and ammunition from the indigenous home-made arms industry at Dara Adam Khel near Peshawar.

Authentic weapons are, of course, expensive, now the Taliban has solved this problem by tapping into Afghanistan--and the world's--richest cash crop, poppies. Using contacts among the warlords who control the drug trade, the Taliban are able to divert some of the money, which is then earmarked for weapons purchases.

With the drug money and the networks of the LTTE, the Afghan Resistance is now well positioned to sufficiently arm itself to take its war with foreign forces in Afghanistan to a new level.
'Mere Moments'

counted all the times, I've cried, lost count so long ago
of love that love never had a chance, a love I'll never know
these shattered words of sorrow beckon winter's past
and make their claim upon the bed of a love that failed to last...

dreaming never brought along that lasting wait till dawn
when love holds on past midninght and waits to carry on
slipping through the doorway before the heart has sung
giving up sweet memories before they have begun
lonely is the soul that waits for two hearts to be one...

(unknown)
'CIA Chief Admits To Torture After Six-Hour Beating, Electrocution'

December 21, 2005
Courtesy of: http://theonion.com
Issue: 41-45
(Satire)

Langley, Va--An internal CIA investigation into the possible use of illegal and inhumane interrogation techniques produced a confession from CIA Director Porter Goss Monday, with the aid of waterboarding, food and light deprivation, and the application of wire hangars hooked to a car battery to the testicles.

"I did it...we did it... we all did it!
the president knew...the president did it!
please, God, please stop,"

said a voice identified as Goss' on recordings produced by CIA auditors.

"stop, please stop!
I won't do it again...the president won't do it again...please let me die!"

Critics of the methods used to obtain the information continue to claim that torture is an ineffective means of obtaining intelligence, pointing out that Goss did not sound sorry...

Sunday, December 25, 2005

'The Ohio Patriot Act'

"Bill would allow arrests for no reason in public places"

Monday December 19, 2005
Courtesy of: News5
http://newsnet5.com

A bill on Gov. Bob Taft's desk right now is drawing a lot of criticism.

One state representative said it resembles Gestapo-style tactics of government, and there could be changes coming on the streets of Ohio's small towns and big cities.

The Ohio Patriot Act has made it to Taft's desk, and with the stroke of a pen, it would most likely become the toughest terrorism bill in the country.

The lengthy piece of legislation would let police arrest people in public places who will not give their names, address and birth dates, even if they are not doing anything wrong.

WEWS reported it would also pave the way for everyone entering critical transportation sites such as, train stations, airports and bus stations to show ID.

"It brings us frighteningly close to a show me your papers society," said Carrie Davis of the ACLU, which opposes the Ohio Patriot Act.

"the variety of people who are opposed to this is not Just a group of the usual suspects.
we have people far right and to the left, opposing the bill who think it is a bad idea,"
said Al McGinty, NewsChannel5's terrorism expert.
'GOP Convention 2004'

Check out this video-cut on the Republican National Convention of 2004...
The cut is hilarious...

http://rapidshare.de/files/8209498/GOP_Convention_2004.avi.html
'Israeli Report: Palestinians No Longer Deterred'

Friday, December 23, 2005
Source: World Tribune

Tel Aviv--Israel's military has concluded that it has lost its deterrence against Palestinian Insurgency Groups.

Military sources said a report submitted to the General Staff asserted that Palestinian Insurgency Groups, particularly in the Gaza Strip, were no longer deterred by Israel.
The report said Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip have failed to stop Palestinian missile attacks on the Jewish State.

On Thursday, Palestinian gunners fired Kassam missiles toward Ashklon. The missiles landed in a military base as well as in the industrial zone south of the city's residential area, Middle East Newsline reported.

"we have lost all of our deterrence against the terrorists in the Gaza Strip," a military source said. "They don't care about our response or even if their missiles go astray and strike Palestinian homes."

An army officer and four soldiers were injured in an attack for which Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, the source said. Near the military base is an industrial zone that contains such strategic facilities as a power station and oil terminal.

Israeli artillery batteries responded by firing toward open fields in the northern Gaza Strip. Minutes earlier, Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim told Israel State Radio that Palestinian Insurgency Groups appeared to have suspended missile strikes.

Military sources dismissed the prospect that the Insurgents would be deterred by Israeli artillery salvos in the northern Gaza Strip. They said the goal of the Insurgents, financed by Iran and Hizbullah, was to attack strategic facilities in the Israeli city of Ashkelon.
The Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad and Fatah have claimed responsibility for most of the missile salvos.

The report said Islamic Jihad and Fatah have been coordinating with Hizbullah, which finances Palestinian gunners. Hizbullah has deployed 15,000 missiles and rockets along the Israeli-Lebanese border, and the report warned that the Shi'ite Militia could launch attacks toward Israel in support of Palestinan Insurgents.

The Defense Ministry agreed with the military assessment, the sources said.
The two bodies, along with Israel's Intelligence Agencies, hold weekly sessions on the security situation and relay recommendations to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz.

"we have to impose here deterence," Amos Gilad, the Director of Political-Military Division of the Defense Ministry, said, "the phenomenon is intolerable. the question is what should be done,"

Over the last week, Palestinian gunners have fired Kassam-class, short-range missiles inside military bases and strategic facilities in the Ashkelon area. So far, nobody has been injured.

The sources said Palestinian gunners have managed to enter former Jewish settlements in the northern Gaza Strip. They said this has enabled the firing of Kassam-3 missiles, with a range of between nine and 12 kilometers.

The Defense Ministry has received a military assessment that Kassam missiles could rain on Ashkelon in January 2006. The assessment said Hamas would use its new extended-range Kassams against Israel when it formerly resumes attacks on the Jewish State.

"currently, there isn't sustained fire at the strategic facilities," Gilad said.

For his part, Mofaz has pledged to review a range of recommendations by the military. But he has ruled out the prospect of a ground invasion, urged by the military's southern command.

"it's not high on the list [of feasible actions]," Mofaz said.

courtesy of:
http://worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453727.197222222.html

'The Weeping Willows'

(by-Robert Fulwood, Old Australia)

the willows weep along the banks
of the river by the glade
they tell of thoughts not spoken
of a love that will not fade.

for you and I no longer walk
by the stream that meanders there
our hearts no longer Joined as one
by the love we had to share.

but hopes are only faded
when the loving is no more
so still with thoughts of you in mind
I will forever walk the shore.

for someday you and I may meet
on life's ever changing trail
to walk along the banks again
of that river by the dale.

so until that one chance meeting
when we will never part
I will keep a candle glowing
In the window of my heart.