U.S. “Democracy” in Algeria
06 October, 2006
By: Dr. Steven Harris
Source: AlJazeera
"Our commitment to democracy is being tested in the Middle East," George Bush said in a televised Washington speech in defence of US democracy.
Some governments in the region were "beginning to see the need for change", he said, citing Morocco, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Yemen. Thursday, 6 November, 2003
One of the post-invasion reasons given by George Bush for the justification of the presence of over 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq was that they ‘ would help build democracy'. Residents and observers of the Middle East could be forgiven for choking on that statement given the U.S. record of not only supporting but imposing dictators in the Middle East - from the Shah of Iran to Saddam Hussein himself. The recent Palestinian elections resulted in a clear victory for Hamas. The result - not only was all U.S. and European funding cut off, but friendly governments and people who were willing to step in have been prevented from doing so. It is of course the U.S. government's right to stop funding but it has surely no right to prevent other governments from donating money to the Palestinian people.
However, the great Middle East ‘democracy' that is Algeria, is rarely mentioned by the great liberator in the White House. A look at Algerian democracy and human rights might surprise those who still believe that the U.S. is actually interested in democracy in the Muslim world.
In December 1991, Algeria has the first (and last) free multi-party elections since the liberation from France in 1962. The two main parties were National Liberation Front (FLN) and the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS).
The FIS won the first round of the country's first multiparty elections by a large majority. Under the electoral rules, there was to a second round of voting in areas where one party had secured less than 50%of the vote. From the first round it became obvious that the FIS was on course to win a two-thirds majority. What happened next is an exmaple of European and American comitment to democracy in the Middle East.
The Algerian military then canceled the second round, forced then-president Bendjedid to resign, and banned the Islamic Salvation Front. This needs to spelt out again; an election was cancelled and a party on course to secure more than two-thirds of the popular vote in a free and fair election was banned! On January 13, 1992, following the military coup that upset Algeria's burgeoning democratic system, the United States issued a formal but low-key statement condemning the military takeover. Twenty-four hours later, Department of State spokesmen retracted the statement, calling for a peaceful resolution but offering no condemnation of the coup.
The ensuing brutal crackdown by the military has engulfed Algeria in a violent Civil War. No accurate figures are available but the estimate is that at least 100,000 people were killed, often in unprovoked massacres of civilians. In 2002, The UN Special Rapporteurs on torture and on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions were refused access to Algeria throughout the year. The Algerian government rejected calls by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union, the G8 and others for the Special Rapporteurs to be allowed to visit the country to investigate human rights issues. It also rejected an attempt by the UN Secretary-General to discuss the situation. Amnesty International and other international human rights organizations were refused access to the country throughout the year.
Post 9/11, the US has gone from being a silent spectator to one of the world's most brutal civil wars caused by the cancellation of a fair election to supporting the Algerian government. In 2002 the United States said that it will supply equipment to help the Algerian Government in its fight against Islamic militants. The Algeria military junta pledged support for the U.S. anti-terrorism campaign, and the Assistant Secretary of State William Burns visited Algiers and announced that the U.S. was drafting a proposal to congress on increasing military aid to assist Algeria's counterterrorism capabilities. "Washington has much to learn from Algeria on ways to fight terrorism," Mr Burns told the New York Times. The fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq would no doubt agree.
The supply of weaponry to the Algerian security forces caused outrage by human rights groups who have clearly stated that the Algerian government used "arbitrary arrest, disappearances and torture" in its war against armed Islamic militants. Earlier in 2002 even the British Ambassador, Graham Hand Stewart, was quoted by an Algerian newspaper as saying that the Algerian security forces were brutal and acted outside the law.
If the U.S. thought that closer military ties might improve Algeria's human rights record, then they were at best delusional. In February 27, 2003, Human Rights Watch declared that Algerian security forces made "disappear" at least 7,000 persons, more than the number recorded in any other country during the past decade except wartime Bosnia.
To date, the Algerian authorities have utterly failed to investigate these "disappearances" or to provide families with answers about the fate of their loved ones. None of the missing has returned and no one has been held accountable for their "disappearance."
Why this blatant hypocrisy with elections in Lebanon and elsewhere? Perhaps as usual the answer is found not only in the fear that the FIS was a genuinely popular Islamic party, but also in Algeria's huge mineral wealth.
As of 2005, Algeria had 160 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven natural gas reserves, the seventh-largest in the world. Algeria's recoverable natural gas potential, however, may be as high as 282 Tcf. Algeria is a major natural gas exporter, mostly to Europe and the United States. Algeria accounts for one-fifth of the EU natural gas imports in 2000, second only to Russia. The hydrocarbons sector is the backbone of the economy, accounting for roughly 60% of budget revenues, 30% of GDP, and over 95% of export earnings. Algeria has the seventh-largest reserves of natural gas in the world and is the second-largest gas exporter; it ranks 14th in oil reserves.
The lessons are therefore clear from Palestine to Algeria; the U.S. does want democracy but only if you vote for a pro-western government. Otherwise, everything ranging from economic sanctions to brutal military repression may follow.
The people of Iraq and Afghanistan could be forgiven therefore for not giving the U.S. the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Results of 1991 Elections by party
Party---------------Votes---------------Share of Vote---------------Seats
FIS-----------------3,260,359-----------47.3%----------------------188
FLN----------------1,613,507------------23.4%-----------------------15
FFS------------------510,661--------------7.4%-----------------------25
Hamas--------------368,697--------------5.3%------------------------0
RCD----------------200,267--------------2.9%------------------------0
Ennahda------------150,093-------------2.2%------------------------0
MDA-----------------135,882-------------2.0%------------------------0
PRA-------------------67,828--------------1.0%-----------------------0
PNSD-----------------48,208-------------0.7%-----------------------0
PSD-------------------28,638-------------0.4%-----------------------0
MAJD-----------------27,623-------------2.6%-----------------------0
Other parties---------176,332------------2.6%-----------------------0
Independents---------309,624-----------4.5%-----------------------3
Total------------------6,897,906---------100%--------------------231
Turnout: 7,822,625 (59%)
Valid votes cast: 6,897,906 (52%)
Thursday, 12 July 2007
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Sheehan considers challenge to Pelosi
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, 08 July, 2007
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070708/ap_on_el_ho/cindy_sheehan_pelosi
CRAWFORD, Texas - Cindy Sheehan, the soldier's mother who galvanized the anti-war movement, said Sunday that she plans to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unless she introduces articles of impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks.
Sheehan said she will run against the San Francisco Democrat in 2008 as an independent if Pelosi does not seek by July 23 to impeach Bush. That's when Sheehan and her supporters are to arrive in Washington, D.C., after a 13-day caravan and walking tour starting next week from the group's war protest site near Bush's Crawford ranch.
"Democrats and Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership," Sheehan told The Associated Press. "We hired them to bring an end to the war. I'm not too far from San Francisco, so it wouldn't be too big of a move for me. I would give her a run for her money."
Messages left with Pelosi's staff were not immediately returned. The White House declined to comment on Sheehan's plans.
She plans her official candidacy announcement Tuesday. Sunday wrapped up what is expected to be her final weekend at the 5-acre Crawford lot that she sold to California radio talk show host Bree Walker, who plans to keep it open to protesters.
Sheehan announced in late May that she was leaving the anti-war movement. She said that she felt her efforts had been in vain and that she had endured smear tactics and hatred from the left, as well as the right. She said she wanted to change course.
She first came to Crawford in August 2005 during a Bush vacation, demanding to talk to him about the war that killed her son Casey in 2004. She became the face of the anti-war movement during her 26-day roadside vigil, which was joined by thousands. But it also drew counter-protests by Bush supporters, many who said she was hurting troop morale.
Sheehan, who has never held political office, recently said that she was leaving the Democratic Party because it "caved" in to the president. Last week, she announced her caravan to Washington, an undertaking she calls the "people's accountability movement."
"I didn't expect to be back so soon, but the focus is different than it was before," Sheehan said Sunday. "Instead of talking and making accusations, we're going into communities and talking to the people who've been hurt by the Bush regime. We're finding out how we can help people."
Sheehan, who will turn 50 on Tuesday, said Bush should be impeached because she believes he misled the public about the reasons for going to war, violated the Geneva Convention by torturing detainees, and crossed the line by commuting the prison sentence of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. She said other grounds for impeachment are the domestic spying program and the "inadequate and tragic" response to Hurricane Katrina.
Libby was convicted of lying and obstructing justice in an investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity.
Sheehan said she hopes Pelosi files the articles of impeachment so Sheehan can move onto her next projects, including overseas trips for humanitarian work. But if not, Sheehan said she is ready to run for office.
"I'm doing it to encourage other people to run against Congress members who aren't doing their jobs, who are beholden to special interests," Sheehan said. "She (Pelosi) let the people down who worked hard to put Democrats back in power, who we thought were our hope for change."
Pelosi was elected to the House in 1987 and became the first female speaker in January.
Sheehan said she lives in a Sacramento suburb but declined to disclose which city, citing safety reasons. The area is outside Pelosi's district, but there are no residency requirements for congressional members, according to the California secretary of state's office.
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
Sunday, 08 July, 2007
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070708/ap_on_el_ho/cindy_sheehan_pelosi
CRAWFORD, Texas - Cindy Sheehan, the soldier's mother who galvanized the anti-war movement, said Sunday that she plans to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unless she introduces articles of impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks.
Sheehan said she will run against the San Francisco Democrat in 2008 as an independent if Pelosi does not seek by July 23 to impeach Bush. That's when Sheehan and her supporters are to arrive in Washington, D.C., after a 13-day caravan and walking tour starting next week from the group's war protest site near Bush's Crawford ranch.
"Democrats and Americans feel betrayed by the Democratic leadership," Sheehan told The Associated Press. "We hired them to bring an end to the war. I'm not too far from San Francisco, so it wouldn't be too big of a move for me. I would give her a run for her money."
Messages left with Pelosi's staff were not immediately returned. The White House declined to comment on Sheehan's plans.
She plans her official candidacy announcement Tuesday. Sunday wrapped up what is expected to be her final weekend at the 5-acre Crawford lot that she sold to California radio talk show host Bree Walker, who plans to keep it open to protesters.
Sheehan announced in late May that she was leaving the anti-war movement. She said that she felt her efforts had been in vain and that she had endured smear tactics and hatred from the left, as well as the right. She said she wanted to change course.
She first came to Crawford in August 2005 during a Bush vacation, demanding to talk to him about the war that killed her son Casey in 2004. She became the face of the anti-war movement during her 26-day roadside vigil, which was joined by thousands. But it also drew counter-protests by Bush supporters, many who said she was hurting troop morale.
Sheehan, who has never held political office, recently said that she was leaving the Democratic Party because it "caved" in to the president. Last week, she announced her caravan to Washington, an undertaking she calls the "people's accountability movement."
"I didn't expect to be back so soon, but the focus is different than it was before," Sheehan said Sunday. "Instead of talking and making accusations, we're going into communities and talking to the people who've been hurt by the Bush regime. We're finding out how we can help people."
Sheehan, who will turn 50 on Tuesday, said Bush should be impeached because she believes he misled the public about the reasons for going to war, violated the Geneva Convention by torturing detainees, and crossed the line by commuting the prison sentence of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. She said other grounds for impeachment are the domestic spying program and the "inadequate and tragic" response to Hurricane Katrina.
Libby was convicted of lying and obstructing justice in an investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity.
Sheehan said she hopes Pelosi files the articles of impeachment so Sheehan can move onto her next projects, including overseas trips for humanitarian work. But if not, Sheehan said she is ready to run for office.
"I'm doing it to encourage other people to run against Congress members who aren't doing their jobs, who are beholden to special interests," Sheehan said. "She (Pelosi) let the people down who worked hard to put Democrats back in power, who we thought were our hope for change."
Pelosi was elected to the House in 1987 and became the first female speaker in January.
Sheehan said she lives in a Sacramento suburb but declined to disclose which city, citing safety reasons. The area is outside Pelosi's district, but there are no residency requirements for congressional members, according to the California secretary of state's office.
The unintended consequences of the “cakewalk war”
By Paul Craig Roberts
07/02/07
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17951.htm
John Lukacs in his monograph, June 1941: Hitler and Stalin, reports that “the best military experts throughout the world predicted the defeat of the Soviet Union within a few weeks, or within two months at the most” following Hitler’s invasion of Russia on June 22, 1941.
While the superb German military machine made an excellent showing, by the beginning of 1943 its offensive capability was exhausted and the Germans were defeated at Stalingrad.
Germany lost the war one and one-half years before the US could manage the invasion of Normandy.
If Hitler had not depleted the German Army in Russia, a US invasion of Normandy could not have been contemplated.Lukacs concerns himself with unintended consequences of June 22, 1941.
It is not too early, or too late, to concern ourselves with the unintended consequences of March 20, 2003.
Four and one-quarter years ago the Pentagon and its neoconservative advisors and media propagandists promised Americans a “cakewalk” war of 3 to 6 weeks duration.
Six weeks later on May 2, 2003, in history’s most ill-advised propaganda stunt, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, whose tower was adorned with a banner declaring “Mission Accomplished,” and announced the end to major combat operations in Iraq.
In fact, the war had hardly begun.
Four years later with the failure in June 2007 of President Bush’s desperate last measure--”the surge”--US offensive capability is exhausted.
The US military can do no more and has less control of the situation than ever.
Perhaps the clearest indication that the war in Iraq is no longer under American control is Turkey’s announcement of plans to invade northern Iraq, the home of the Iraqi Kurds.
As June 2007 came to an end, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul announced that if US or Iraqi forces did not eliminate the Kurdish guerrillas that were attacking Turkey, the Turkish Army would move into northern Iraq to deal with the situation.
Foreign Minister Gul was unequivocal: “The military plans have been worked out in the finest detail. The government knows these plans and agrees with them. If neither the Iraqi government nor the US occupying forces can do this [crush the guerrillas], we will take our own decision and implement it.”
This ultimatum puts President Bush in an impossible situation.
Neither the Iraqi government nor the US military have the means to deal with Kurdish guerrillas in their mountain strongholds.
The US military cannot even occupy Baghdad.
The Iraqi government exists in name only and can be found only in its offices located inside the fortified and US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad.
Moreover, to the extent that the in-name-only Iraqi government has any support, it comes from the Kurds in northern Iraq.
The rest of Iraq is controlled by Sunni insurgents and Shi’ite militias.
Even Basra in the south has been abandoned to the Shi’ite militias by Bush’s British ally.
The over-stretched American Empire hasn’t any troops to send to northern Iraq.
NATO, whose charter was to defend Western Europe from Soviet invasion should have been disbanded two decades ago.
Today NATO functions as an auxiliary US force and has been sent to Afghanistan, where it is being defeated like the British and Russians before it.
In the midst of this unmanageable chaos, vice president Cheney, Bush’s former UN ambassador John Bolton and large numbers of Christian and Jewish Zionists are demanding that the US attack Iran, and Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The unintended consequences of the “cakewalk war” are already far outside the Bush administration’s ability to manage and will plague future governments for many years.
For the administration to initiate new acts of aggression in the Middle East would go beyond recklessness to insanity.
========
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions..
By Paul Craig Roberts
07/02/07
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17951.htm
John Lukacs in his monograph, June 1941: Hitler and Stalin, reports that “the best military experts throughout the world predicted the defeat of the Soviet Union within a few weeks, or within two months at the most” following Hitler’s invasion of Russia on June 22, 1941.
While the superb German military machine made an excellent showing, by the beginning of 1943 its offensive capability was exhausted and the Germans were defeated at Stalingrad.
Germany lost the war one and one-half years before the US could manage the invasion of Normandy.
If Hitler had not depleted the German Army in Russia, a US invasion of Normandy could not have been contemplated.Lukacs concerns himself with unintended consequences of June 22, 1941.
It is not too early, or too late, to concern ourselves with the unintended consequences of March 20, 2003.
Four and one-quarter years ago the Pentagon and its neoconservative advisors and media propagandists promised Americans a “cakewalk” war of 3 to 6 weeks duration.
Six weeks later on May 2, 2003, in history’s most ill-advised propaganda stunt, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, whose tower was adorned with a banner declaring “Mission Accomplished,” and announced the end to major combat operations in Iraq.
In fact, the war had hardly begun.
Four years later with the failure in June 2007 of President Bush’s desperate last measure--”the surge”--US offensive capability is exhausted.
The US military can do no more and has less control of the situation than ever.
Perhaps the clearest indication that the war in Iraq is no longer under American control is Turkey’s announcement of plans to invade northern Iraq, the home of the Iraqi Kurds.
As June 2007 came to an end, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul announced that if US or Iraqi forces did not eliminate the Kurdish guerrillas that were attacking Turkey, the Turkish Army would move into northern Iraq to deal with the situation.
Foreign Minister Gul was unequivocal: “The military plans have been worked out in the finest detail. The government knows these plans and agrees with them. If neither the Iraqi government nor the US occupying forces can do this [crush the guerrillas], we will take our own decision and implement it.”
This ultimatum puts President Bush in an impossible situation.
Neither the Iraqi government nor the US military have the means to deal with Kurdish guerrillas in their mountain strongholds.
The US military cannot even occupy Baghdad.
The Iraqi government exists in name only and can be found only in its offices located inside the fortified and US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad.
Moreover, to the extent that the in-name-only Iraqi government has any support, it comes from the Kurds in northern Iraq.
The rest of Iraq is controlled by Sunni insurgents and Shi’ite militias.
Even Basra in the south has been abandoned to the Shi’ite militias by Bush’s British ally.
The over-stretched American Empire hasn’t any troops to send to northern Iraq.
NATO, whose charter was to defend Western Europe from Soviet invasion should have been disbanded two decades ago.
Today NATO functions as an auxiliary US force and has been sent to Afghanistan, where it is being defeated like the British and Russians before it.
In the midst of this unmanageable chaos, vice president Cheney, Bush’s former UN ambassador John Bolton and large numbers of Christian and Jewish Zionists are demanding that the US attack Iran, and Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The unintended consequences of the “cakewalk war” are already far outside the Bush administration’s ability to manage and will plague future governments for many years.
For the administration to initiate new acts of aggression in the Middle East would go beyond recklessness to insanity.
========
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions..
Friday, 29 June 2007
Hair Follicles May Regrow After Head Wounds
May 16, 2007
By Randy Doting
HealthDay Reporter
http://health.yahoo.com/news/175229
WEDNESDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- A chance finding in wounded lab mice could point the way to reversing hair loss, scientists say.
While studying the healing of wounds in mice, a team at the University of Pennsylvania noticed that the animals developed new hair follicles after their skin was scraped.
This is very unusual, because "the dogma was that when you're born, you're stuck with the number of hair follicles that you have," said study co-author Dr. George Cotsarelis, director of the university's Hair and Scalp Clinic. And, if the follicles die -- as occurs during aging -- they can't be revived.
No one knows if new follicle growth occurs in wounded humans or if researchers can find a way to harness the hair-growing effect without having to actually hurt people.
But scientists are hopeful, especially considering that current treatments for baldness do not create new follicles to replace ones that have died.
"We're amazed that we're getting follicles to form," Cotsarelis said. He believes the findings could even "lead to a better understanding of regeneration that might be important for treating wounds and larger sorts of injuries down the road."
Apparently, something in the mice's healing process reprograms stem cells in the skin to start making new follicles, Cotsarelis said. Essentially, he said, the process is like rebooting a computer and sending out a new command through a gene. "You're getting the clock to go back to where it was at birth," he explained.
The result is new follicles that seem to act just like follicles should -- they sprout hair.
The study is published in the May 17 issue of the journal Nature.
The wounds that appear to cause the hair regrowth in the mice are similar to a common dermatological treatment known as dermabrasion, Cotsarelis said. In dermabrasion, layers of skin are scraped off and healing begins.
So, why not start treating balding people with dermabrasion on their heads? Cotsarelis -- who is forming a company to explore ways to develop the treatment for human use -- cautioned that it's not quite that easy. Scientists may have to expand upon the treatment and work with genes to make hair grow properly, he said.
Besides hair growth, the research could have other benefits. "The follicle is a small organ, a mini-organ," Cotsarelis said. "If you can figure out how to regenerate the follicle, you also have a better idea about how to regenerate a finger or a limb."
Dr. Andrzej A. Dlugosz, a professor of dermatology at the University of Michigan who's familiar with the study, said the research is "very elegant" and especially unique since it involves mice that have not been genetically altered.
As to the scientific study of hair loss, he said that hair growth problems are hardly trivial. "There are many types of hair loss, and some of these can be emotionally devastating. Developing effective ways to restore hair can do a lot of good for patients in terms of their general well-being," Dlugosz said.
Indeed, he said, the research might also help produce skin grafts that look and function more like normal skin in burn victims.
May 16, 2007
By Randy Doting
HealthDay Reporter
http://health.yahoo.com/news/175229
WEDNESDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- A chance finding in wounded lab mice could point the way to reversing hair loss, scientists say.
While studying the healing of wounds in mice, a team at the University of Pennsylvania noticed that the animals developed new hair follicles after their skin was scraped.
This is very unusual, because "the dogma was that when you're born, you're stuck with the number of hair follicles that you have," said study co-author Dr. George Cotsarelis, director of the university's Hair and Scalp Clinic. And, if the follicles die -- as occurs during aging -- they can't be revived.
No one knows if new follicle growth occurs in wounded humans or if researchers can find a way to harness the hair-growing effect without having to actually hurt people.
But scientists are hopeful, especially considering that current treatments for baldness do not create new follicles to replace ones that have died.
"We're amazed that we're getting follicles to form," Cotsarelis said. He believes the findings could even "lead to a better understanding of regeneration that might be important for treating wounds and larger sorts of injuries down the road."
Apparently, something in the mice's healing process reprograms stem cells in the skin to start making new follicles, Cotsarelis said. Essentially, he said, the process is like rebooting a computer and sending out a new command through a gene. "You're getting the clock to go back to where it was at birth," he explained.
The result is new follicles that seem to act just like follicles should -- they sprout hair.
The study is published in the May 17 issue of the journal Nature.
The wounds that appear to cause the hair regrowth in the mice are similar to a common dermatological treatment known as dermabrasion, Cotsarelis said. In dermabrasion, layers of skin are scraped off and healing begins.
So, why not start treating balding people with dermabrasion on their heads? Cotsarelis -- who is forming a company to explore ways to develop the treatment for human use -- cautioned that it's not quite that easy. Scientists may have to expand upon the treatment and work with genes to make hair grow properly, he said.
Besides hair growth, the research could have other benefits. "The follicle is a small organ, a mini-organ," Cotsarelis said. "If you can figure out how to regenerate the follicle, you also have a better idea about how to regenerate a finger or a limb."
Dr. Andrzej A. Dlugosz, a professor of dermatology at the University of Michigan who's familiar with the study, said the research is "very elegant" and especially unique since it involves mice that have not been genetically altered.
As to the scientific study of hair loss, he said that hair growth problems are hardly trivial. "There are many types of hair loss, and some of these can be emotionally devastating. Developing effective ways to restore hair can do a lot of good for patients in terms of their general well-being," Dlugosz said.
Indeed, he said, the research might also help produce skin grafts that look and function more like normal skin in burn victims.
Thursday, 28 June 2007
Chavez ready for war against US
26 June, 2007
Source: Guardian
http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2007/06/26/8512.shtml
President Hugo Chavez has ordered Venezuela's armed forces to prepare for a guerrilla war against the United States, saying there must be a strategy to defeat the superpower if it invades.
He said Washington had already launched a non-military campaign using economic, psychological and political means to topple his socialist government and seize control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
"We must continue developing the resistance war, that's the anti-imperialist weapon. We must think and prepare for the resistance war every day," the president told hundreds of soldiers assembled at Tiuna Fort, a military base in the capital Caracas, on Sunday.
Wearing an olive-green uniform, red beret and presidential sash, Mr. Chavez said Venezuela was locked in "asymmetrical warfare" with the US and that, if it led to combat, soldiers must be prepared to lay down their lives.
"It's not just armed warfare, I'm also referring to psychological warfare, media warfare, political warfare, economic warfare," he said.
There was no immediate response from Washington, but the Bush administration has rejected previous claims that it was plotting to attack its outspoken South American foe.
Mr. Chavez's speech came on the eve of a trip to Russia, Belarus and Iran, hosts who share much of his antipathy towards Washington.
He said that while in Minsk he would put "the final touches" to a deal to buy an Air Defence system with long-range radar and missiles and in Moscow he would discuss the possible purchase of submarines.
Venezuela has recently purchased £1.5bn worth of Russian weapons including 53 military helicopters, 24 SU-30 Sukhoi fighter jets and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Mr. Chavez stressed the build-up was a deterrent. "We are strengthening Venezuela's military power precisely to avoid imperial aggressions and assure peace, not to attack anybody."
The air system was purely defensive, he said. "But if somebody comes here, well then, ssssssshhh," he said, imitating the sound of a missile.
The former paratrooper said US dirty tricks were evident in the student-led protests which greeted his decision last month not to renew the licence of RCTV, an opposition-aligned television station. He also said Washington was trying to sabotage the Copa America, a pan-regional football tournament which Venezuela is due to host over the coming weeks.
The Bush administration tacitly backed a coup that briefly ousted Mr Chavez in 2002 and has made no secret of its distaste for a leader who has thrown an economic lifeline to Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Mr Chavez claimed there have been numerous US-sponsored attempts on his life since the coup, but he has not provided details.
26 June, 2007
Source: Guardian
http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2007/06/26/8512.shtml
President Hugo Chavez has ordered Venezuela's armed forces to prepare for a guerrilla war against the United States, saying there must be a strategy to defeat the superpower if it invades.
He said Washington had already launched a non-military campaign using economic, psychological and political means to topple his socialist government and seize control of Venezuela's vast oil reserves.
"We must continue developing the resistance war, that's the anti-imperialist weapon. We must think and prepare for the resistance war every day," the president told hundreds of soldiers assembled at Tiuna Fort, a military base in the capital Caracas, on Sunday.
Wearing an olive-green uniform, red beret and presidential sash, Mr. Chavez said Venezuela was locked in "asymmetrical warfare" with the US and that, if it led to combat, soldiers must be prepared to lay down their lives.
"It's not just armed warfare, I'm also referring to psychological warfare, media warfare, political warfare, economic warfare," he said.
There was no immediate response from Washington, but the Bush administration has rejected previous claims that it was plotting to attack its outspoken South American foe.
Mr. Chavez's speech came on the eve of a trip to Russia, Belarus and Iran, hosts who share much of his antipathy towards Washington.
He said that while in Minsk he would put "the final touches" to a deal to buy an Air Defence system with long-range radar and missiles and in Moscow he would discuss the possible purchase of submarines.
Venezuela has recently purchased £1.5bn worth of Russian weapons including 53 military helicopters, 24 SU-30 Sukhoi fighter jets and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Mr. Chavez stressed the build-up was a deterrent. "We are strengthening Venezuela's military power precisely to avoid imperial aggressions and assure peace, not to attack anybody."
The air system was purely defensive, he said. "But if somebody comes here, well then, ssssssshhh," he said, imitating the sound of a missile.
The former paratrooper said US dirty tricks were evident in the student-led protests which greeted his decision last month not to renew the licence of RCTV, an opposition-aligned television station. He also said Washington was trying to sabotage the Copa America, a pan-regional football tournament which Venezuela is due to host over the coming weeks.
The Bush administration tacitly backed a coup that briefly ousted Mr Chavez in 2002 and has made no secret of its distaste for a leader who has thrown an economic lifeline to Fidel Castro's Cuba.
Mr Chavez claimed there have been numerous US-sponsored attempts on his life since the coup, but he has not provided details.
Friday, 22 June 2007
Clerics to honour Osama bin Laden
NEWS: CENTRAL/S. ASIA
THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007
Source:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BFF16653-B650-4EBF-A6D0-8281F5404683.htm
A group of Pakistani religious leaders led by a pro-Taliban figure has said it will bestow a title on Osama bin Laden in response to Britain's decision to grant a knighthood to Salman Rushdie.
Allama Tahir Ashrafi, head of the Pakistan Ulema Council, said on Thursday that the group would give bin Laden the title Saifullah.
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The name means "Sword of God" and would be given to the al-Qaeda leader for "serving Muslims by waging jihad against infidels".
Ashrafi said: "If Britain can give a knighthood to Rushdie, we too have the right to make awards to our leaders and heroes."
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He said that while he was not in contact with bin Laden, the award would reach the fugitive al-Qaeda chief "at an appropriate time".Ashrafi said his group represented more than 3,000 religious leaders. However, Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, Pakistan's religious affairs minister, said he was not familiar with the group.
TensionsUl-Haq has stirred tensions by suggesting the knighthood could justify suicide attacks and undermine Pakistan's effort against "terrorism".
On Thursday, he said he would travel to Britain soon to meet Muslim scholars and promote interfaith harmony.
Religious parties in Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim state of 160 million people, have called for nationwide protests on Friday to condemn Britain for bestowing the honour on Rushdie.
On Thursday, about 200 people rallied in the eastern city of Multan chanting "We are ready to die for Prophet Muhammad's honour" and "Down with Britain".
Pakistan, a close ally of Britain and the US, has condemned the knighthood for Rushdie, who has been accused of insulting Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses.
Protesters have burned effigies of Rushdie and Queen Elizabeth II on the streets of Pakistani cities and demanded that Britain take back the award - a request London has refused.
NEWS: CENTRAL/S. ASIA
THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007
Source:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BFF16653-B650-4EBF-A6D0-8281F5404683.htm
A group of Pakistani religious leaders led by a pro-Taliban figure has said it will bestow a title on Osama bin Laden in response to Britain's decision to grant a knighthood to Salman Rushdie.
Allama Tahir Ashrafi, head of the Pakistan Ulema Council, said on Thursday that the group would give bin Laden the title Saifullah.
bodyVariable350="Htmlphcontrol1_lblError";
The name means "Sword of God" and would be given to the al-Qaeda leader for "serving Muslims by waging jihad against infidels".
Ashrafi said: "If Britain can give a knighthood to Rushdie, we too have the right to make awards to our leaders and heroes."
bodyVariable300="Htmlphcontrol2_lblError";
He said that while he was not in contact with bin Laden, the award would reach the fugitive al-Qaeda chief "at an appropriate time".Ashrafi said his group represented more than 3,000 religious leaders. However, Mohammed Ijaz ul-Haq, Pakistan's religious affairs minister, said he was not familiar with the group.
TensionsUl-Haq has stirred tensions by suggesting the knighthood could justify suicide attacks and undermine Pakistan's effort against "terrorism".
On Thursday, he said he would travel to Britain soon to meet Muslim scholars and promote interfaith harmony.
Religious parties in Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim state of 160 million people, have called for nationwide protests on Friday to condemn Britain for bestowing the honour on Rushdie.
On Thursday, about 200 people rallied in the eastern city of Multan chanting "We are ready to die for Prophet Muhammad's honour" and "Down with Britain".
Pakistan, a close ally of Britain and the US, has condemned the knighthood for Rushdie, who has been accused of insulting Islam in his novel The Satanic Verses.
Protesters have burned effigies of Rushdie and Queen Elizabeth II on the streets of Pakistani cities and demanded that Britain take back the award - a request London has refused.
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Carter Blasts US Policy On Palestinians
by: Shawn Pogatchnik
Associated Press Writer
June 19, 2007
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_eu/carter_us_palestinians
DUBLIN, Ireland - Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S., Israel, and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas' new regime in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal."
Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate movement.
Hamas fighters routed Fatah in their violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamas and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank.
Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funneling aid to Abbas' new government in the West Bank but continue blocking Hamas in the Gaza Strip represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."
"All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.
The U.S. and European countries cut off the Hamas-led government last year because of the Islamic militant group's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel. They have continued to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other organizations.
In the latest crisis, the U.S., Israel and much of the West have been trying to shore up Abbas in hopes that the West Bank can be made into a democratic example that would bring along Gaza.
During his speech to Ireland's annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election that Hamas won. He said the vote was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.
Far from encouraging Hamas' move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.
"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.
"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.
Carter said the U.S. and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" — but Hamas routed Fatah in the fighting last week because of its "superior skills and discipline."
by: Shawn Pogatchnik
Associated Press Writer
June 19, 2007
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070619/ap_on_re_eu/carter_us_palestinians
DUBLIN, Ireland - Former President Jimmy Carter accused the U.S., Israel, and the European Union on Tuesday of seeking to divide the Palestinian people by reopening aid to President Mahmoud Abbas' new regime in the West Bank while denying the same to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who was addressing a human rights conference in Ireland, also said the Bush administration's refusal to accept Hamas' 2006 election victory was "criminal."
Carter said Hamas, besides winning a fair and democratic mandate that should have entitled it to lead the Palestinian government, had proven itself to be far more organized in its political and military showdowns with Abbas' moderate movement.
Hamas fighters routed Fatah in their violent takeover of the Gaza Strip last week. The split prompted Abbas to dissolve the power-sharing government with his rivals in Hamas and set up a Fatah-led administration to govern the West Bank.
Carter said the consensus of the U.S., Israel and the EU to start funneling aid to Abbas' new government in the West Bank but continue blocking Hamas in the Gaza Strip represented an "effort to divide Palestinians into two peoples."
"All efforts of the international community should be to reconcile the two, but there's no effort from the outside to bring the two together," he said.
The U.S. and European countries cut off the Hamas-led government last year because of the Islamic militant group's refusal to renounce violence and recognize Israel. They have continued to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the United Nations and other organizations.
In the latest crisis, the U.S., Israel and much of the West have been trying to shore up Abbas in hopes that the West Bank can be made into a democratic example that would bring along Gaza.
During his speech to Ireland's annual Forum on Human Rights, the 83-year-old former president said monitors from his Carter Center observed the 2006 election that Hamas won. He said the vote was "orderly and fair" and Hamas triumphed, in part, because it was "shrewd in selecting candidates," whereas a divided, corrupt Fatah ran multiple candidates for single seats.
Far from encouraging Hamas' move into parliamentary politics, Carter said the U.S. and Israel, with European Union acquiescence, sought to subvert the outcome by shunning Hamas and helping Abbas to keep the reins of political and military power.
"That action was criminal," he said in a news conference after his speech.
"The United States and Israel decided to punish all the people in Palestine and did everything they could to deter a compromise between Hamas and Fatah," he said.
Carter said the U.S. and others supplied the Fatah-controlled security forces in Gaza with vastly superior weaponry in hopes they would "conquer Hamas in Gaza" — but Hamas routed Fatah in the fighting last week because of its "superior skills and discipline."
Friday, 15 June 2007
Iran protest at UK Queen's party
By Frances Harrison
BBC News, Tehran
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6754905.stm
Demonstrators have thrown paint and eggs at the UK embassy in Tehran to try to prevent an annual party in honour of Queen Elizabeth II's birthday.
They said any Iranian guests who tried to attend the party were dirty traitors willing to sell out their country.
The protesters also called for the expulsion of the ambassador and relations to be cut off.
Police pushed back demonstrators as they tried to block the mission's side entrance to stop guests from entering.
This is the first time protesters have tried to sabotage an embassy reception like this, and it stems from a desire to stop Iranians having contacts with foreigners.
'England's servants'
"The British embassy should be shut down" and "Death to England, down with the den of spies," the demonstrators shouted.
All this as 1,500 guests were invited for the biggest diplomatic reception of the year at the embassy.
Islamic students in black shirts pelted the front gate of the building with bags filled with coloured paint, tomatoes and eggs.
"Shame on you, servants of the English," they chanted.
They called the guests dirty Iranians willing to eat the birthday cake of the queen of lies and corruption.
The women demonstrators screamed as the riot police pushed and shoved them to try to make them leave.
Some diplomatic cars turned back as they saw how volatile the situation was.
At least one vehicle was attacked, and many guests gave up trying to go to the party after getting stuck in traffic.
A couple of hundred determined guests did make it inside the compound. (Photographs were taken of them, possibly for future retaliation against these people).
But the intention was to intimidate Iranians from attending.
This comes as Iran's minister of intelligence recently warned Iranians not to give interviews or information to foreigners, and a number of Iranian-Americans have been jailed on suspicion of spying.
Queen Elizabeth II was born on 21 April 1926, but official celebrations to mark her birthday are held in June.
By Frances Harrison
BBC News, Tehran
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6754905.stm
Demonstrators have thrown paint and eggs at the UK embassy in Tehran to try to prevent an annual party in honour of Queen Elizabeth II's birthday.
They said any Iranian guests who tried to attend the party were dirty traitors willing to sell out their country.
The protesters also called for the expulsion of the ambassador and relations to be cut off.
Police pushed back demonstrators as they tried to block the mission's side entrance to stop guests from entering.
This is the first time protesters have tried to sabotage an embassy reception like this, and it stems from a desire to stop Iranians having contacts with foreigners.
'England's servants'
"The British embassy should be shut down" and "Death to England, down with the den of spies," the demonstrators shouted.
All this as 1,500 guests were invited for the biggest diplomatic reception of the year at the embassy.
Islamic students in black shirts pelted the front gate of the building with bags filled with coloured paint, tomatoes and eggs.
"Shame on you, servants of the English," they chanted.
They called the guests dirty Iranians willing to eat the birthday cake of the queen of lies and corruption.
The women demonstrators screamed as the riot police pushed and shoved them to try to make them leave.
Some diplomatic cars turned back as they saw how volatile the situation was.
At least one vehicle was attacked, and many guests gave up trying to go to the party after getting stuck in traffic.
A couple of hundred determined guests did make it inside the compound. (Photographs were taken of them, possibly for future retaliation against these people).
But the intention was to intimidate Iranians from attending.
This comes as Iran's minister of intelligence recently warned Iranians not to give interviews or information to foreigners, and a number of Iranian-Americans have been jailed on suspicion of spying.
Queen Elizabeth II was born on 21 April 1926, but official celebrations to mark her birthday are held in June.
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
U.N. Mideast line swayed by U.S., Israel: ex-envoy
By Patrick Worsnip
Wed Jun 13
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A former U.N. Middle East envoy quit his job last month making bitter allegations that U.N. policy in the region had failed because it was subservient to U.S. and Israeli interests, according to a leaked document.
In a confidential end-of-mission report, seen by Reuters, Alvaro de Soto poured scorn on the Quartet negotiating group of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations, and suggested the world body should pull out.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday the report represented De Soto's personal views and disputed his former envoy's conclusion that the Quartet had become a "side-show."
De Soto, a Peruvian diplomat who formerly worked on El Salvador, Cyprus and the Western Sahara, spent two years on the Middle East before resigning in May, ending a 25-year U.N. career. He was replaced by Briton Michael Williams.
His scathing 53-page farewell, addressed to a handful of top U.N. officials and first reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper in Wednesday editions, made clear he left because he was frustrated that he was being ignored.
In the document dated May 5, he railed at restrictions he said were placed on him by U.N. headquarters against talking to the Hamas-led Palestinian government and to Syria.
De Soto condemned economic sanctions imposed by Israel, the United States and the EU on Hamas after it won Palestinian elections last year and said their effective endorsement by the Quartet had had "devastating consequences" for Palestinians.
"The steps taken by the international community with the presumed purpose of bringing about a Palestinian entity that will live in peace with its neighbor Israel have had precisely the opposite effect," he wrote.
"Even-handedness has been pummeled into submission in an unprecedented way since the beginning of 2007."
SIDE-SHOW
Speaking to reporters, Ban regretted that De Soto's report had leaked out, but said: "I'd like to make it clear that this is his personal view. I would not agree with his point that the Quartet has been kind of some side-show."
He said the grouping had been "re-energized" and noted that at its next meeting, in Egypt later this month, it would meet Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, Jordanian, Qatari, Syrian and Arab League officials.
De Soto sharply criticized the Islamist Hamas movement for advocating Israel's destruction, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a foe of Hamas, for weak leadership, and the Palestinian failure to halt militant attacks on Israeli civilians.
But he also charged that Israeli policies seemed "perversely designed to encourage the continued action by Palestinian militants."
De Soto blasted what he called "the tendency that exists among U.S. policy-makers ... to cower before any hint of Israeli displeasure and to pander shamelessly before Israeli-linked audiences."
But much of his criticism was aimed at the United Nations, where, he said, "a premium is put on good relations with the U.S. and improving the U.N.'s relationship with Israel."
"I don't honestly think the U.N. does Israel any favors at all by not speaking frankly to it about its failings regarding the peace process," De Soto said.
He said Ban should "seriously reconsider" continued U.N. membership in the Quartet, which he said had become "pretty much a group of friends of the U.S."
De Soto said he regretted that his advice to U.N. headquarters had gone unheeded. "I concluded that my uphill effort was not going to succeed," he said.
By Patrick Worsnip
Wed Jun 13
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A former U.N. Middle East envoy quit his job last month making bitter allegations that U.N. policy in the region had failed because it was subservient to U.S. and Israeli interests, according to a leaked document.
In a confidential end-of-mission report, seen by Reuters, Alvaro de Soto poured scorn on the Quartet negotiating group of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations, and suggested the world body should pull out.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday the report represented De Soto's personal views and disputed his former envoy's conclusion that the Quartet had become a "side-show."
De Soto, a Peruvian diplomat who formerly worked on El Salvador, Cyprus and the Western Sahara, spent two years on the Middle East before resigning in May, ending a 25-year U.N. career. He was replaced by Briton Michael Williams.
His scathing 53-page farewell, addressed to a handful of top U.N. officials and first reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper in Wednesday editions, made clear he left because he was frustrated that he was being ignored.
In the document dated May 5, he railed at restrictions he said were placed on him by U.N. headquarters against talking to the Hamas-led Palestinian government and to Syria.
De Soto condemned economic sanctions imposed by Israel, the United States and the EU on Hamas after it won Palestinian elections last year and said their effective endorsement by the Quartet had had "devastating consequences" for Palestinians.
"The steps taken by the international community with the presumed purpose of bringing about a Palestinian entity that will live in peace with its neighbor Israel have had precisely the opposite effect," he wrote.
"Even-handedness has been pummeled into submission in an unprecedented way since the beginning of 2007."
SIDE-SHOW
Speaking to reporters, Ban regretted that De Soto's report had leaked out, but said: "I'd like to make it clear that this is his personal view. I would not agree with his point that the Quartet has been kind of some side-show."
He said the grouping had been "re-energized" and noted that at its next meeting, in Egypt later this month, it would meet Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Saudi Arabian, Jordanian, Qatari, Syrian and Arab League officials.
De Soto sharply criticized the Islamist Hamas movement for advocating Israel's destruction, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a foe of Hamas, for weak leadership, and the Palestinian failure to halt militant attacks on Israeli civilians.
But he also charged that Israeli policies seemed "perversely designed to encourage the continued action by Palestinian militants."
De Soto blasted what he called "the tendency that exists among U.S. policy-makers ... to cower before any hint of Israeli displeasure and to pander shamelessly before Israeli-linked audiences."
But much of his criticism was aimed at the United Nations, where, he said, "a premium is put on good relations with the U.S. and improving the U.N.'s relationship with Israel."
"I don't honestly think the U.N. does Israel any favors at all by not speaking frankly to it about its failings regarding the peace process," De Soto said.
He said Ban should "seriously reconsider" continued U.N. membership in the Quartet, which he said had become "pretty much a group of friends of the U.S."
De Soto said he regretted that his advice to U.N. headquarters had gone unheeded. "I concluded that my uphill effort was not going to succeed," he said.
Palestinian Pinochet Making His Move?
by: Tony Karon
May 17, 2007
Source:
Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5670
There’s something a little misleading in the media reports that routinely describe the fighting in Gaza as pitting Hamas against Fatah forces or security personnel “loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.” That characterization suggests somehow that this catastrophic civil war that has killed more than 25 Palestinians since Sunday is a showdown between Abbas and the Hamas leadership — which simply isn’t true, although such a showdown would certainly conform to the desires of those running the White House Middle East policy.
The Fatah gunmen who are reported to have initiated the breakdown of the Palestinian unity government and provoked the latest fighting may profess fealty to President Abbas, but it’s not from him that they get their orders. The leader to whom they answer is Mohammed Dahlan, the Gaza warlord who has long been Washington’s anointed favorite to play the role of a Palestinian Pinochet. And while Dahlan is formally subordinate to Abbas, whom he supposedly serves as National Security Adviser, nobody believes that Dahlan answers to Abbas — in fact, it was suggested at the time that Abbas appointed Dahlan only under pressure from Washington, which was irked by the Palestinian Authority president’s decision to join a unity government with Hamas.
If Dahlan takes orders from anyone at all, it’s certainly not from Abbas. Abbas has long recognized the democratic legitimacy and popularity of Hamas, and embraced the reality that no peace process is possible unless the Islamists are given the place in the Palestinian power structure that their popular support necessitates. He has always favored negotiation and cooperation with Hamas — much to the exasperation of the Bush Administration, and also of the Fatah warlords whose power of patronage was threatened by the Hamas election victory — and could see the logic of the unity government proposed by the Saudis even when Washington couldn’t. Indeed, as the indispensable Robert Malley and Hussein Agha note, nothing has hurt Abbas’s political standing as much as the misguided efforts of Washington to boost his standing in the hope of undermining the elected Hamas government.
Needless to say, only an Administration as deluded about its ability to reorder Arab political realities in line with its own fantasies — and also, frankly, as utterly contemptuous of Arab life and of Arab democracy, empty sloganizing notwithstanding — as the current one has proved to be could imagine that the Palestinians could be starved, battered and manipulated into choosing a Washington-approved political leadership. Yet, that’s exactly what the U.S. has attempted to do ever since Hamas won the last Palestinian election, imposing a financial and economic chokehold on an already distressed population, pouring money and arms into the forces under Dahlan’s control, and eventually adapting itself to funnel monies only through Abbas, as if casting in him in the role of a kind of Quisling-provider would somehow burnish his appeal among Palestinian voters. (As I said, their contempt for Arab intelligence knows no bounds. )
But while the hapless Abbas is little more than a reluctant passenger in Washington’s strategy — and will, I still believe, repair to his former exile lodgings in Qatar in the not too distant future — Mohammed Dahlan is its point man, the warlord who commands the troops and who has been spoiling for a fight with Hamas since they had the temerity to trounce his organization at the polls on home turf.
Dahlan’s ambitions clearly coincided with plans drawn up by White House Middle East policy chief, Elliot Abrams — a veteran of the Reagan Administration’s Central American dirty wars — to arm and train Fatah loyalists to prepare them to topple the Hamas government. If Mahmoud Abbas has been reluctant to embrace the confrontational policy promoted by the White House, Dahlan has no such qualms. And given that Abbas has no political base of his own, he is dependent entirely on Washington and Dahlan.
Seeing the disastrous implications of the U.S. policy, the Saudis appeared to have put the kibosh on Abrams’ coup plan by drawing Abbas into a unity government with Hamas. And as Mark Perry at Conflict Forum detailed in an excellent analysis Dahlan was just about the only thing that the U.S. had going for it in terms of resisting the move towards a unity government.
Although his fretting and sulking in Mecca couldn’t prevent the deal, the U.S. appears to have helped him fight back afterwards by ensuring that he was appointed national security adviser, a move calculated to provoke Hamas, whose leaders tend to view Dahlan as little more than a torturer and a de facto enforcer for Israel.
But Dahlan appears to have made his move when it came to integrating the Palestinian Authority security forces (currently dominated by Fatah) by drawing in Hamas fighters and subjecting the forces to the control of a politically neutral interior minister. Dahlan simply refused, and set off the current confrontations by ordering his men out onto the street last weekend without any authorization from the government of which he is supposedly a part.
The new provocation appears consistent with a revised U.S. plan, reported on by Mark Perry and Paul Woodward, that emphasized the urgency of toppling the unity government. They suggest the plan emanates from Abrams, who they say is operating at cross purposes with Condi Rice’s efforts to appease the Arab moderate regimes by reviving some form of peace process.. They note, for example, that Jewish American sources have told the Forward and Haaretz that Abrams recently briefed Jewish Republicans and made clear to them that Rice’s efforts were merely a symbolic exercise aimed at showing Arab allies that the U.S. was “doing something,” but that President Bush would ensure that nothing would come of them, in the sense that Israel would not be required to make any concessions.
Whatever the precise breakdown within the Bush Administration, it’s plain that Dahlan, like Pinochet a quarter century, would not move onto a path of confrontation with an elected government unless he believed he had the sanction of powerful forces abroad to do so. If does move to turn the current street battle into a frontal assault on the unity government, chances are it will be because he got a green light from somewhere — and certainly not from Mahmoud Abbas.
But the confrontation under way has assumed a momentum of its own, and it may now be beyond the capability of the Palestinian leadership as a whole to contain it. If that proves true, the petulance that has substituted for policy in the Bush Administration’s response to the 2006 Palestinian election will have succeeded in turning Gaza into Mogadishu. But it may be too much to expect the Administration capable of anything different — after all, they’re still busy turning Mogadishu into Mogadishu all over again.
by: Tony Karon
May 17, 2007
Source:
Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5670
There’s something a little misleading in the media reports that routinely describe the fighting in Gaza as pitting Hamas against Fatah forces or security personnel “loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas.” That characterization suggests somehow that this catastrophic civil war that has killed more than 25 Palestinians since Sunday is a showdown between Abbas and the Hamas leadership — which simply isn’t true, although such a showdown would certainly conform to the desires of those running the White House Middle East policy.
The Fatah gunmen who are reported to have initiated the breakdown of the Palestinian unity government and provoked the latest fighting may profess fealty to President Abbas, but it’s not from him that they get their orders. The leader to whom they answer is Mohammed Dahlan, the Gaza warlord who has long been Washington’s anointed favorite to play the role of a Palestinian Pinochet. And while Dahlan is formally subordinate to Abbas, whom he supposedly serves as National Security Adviser, nobody believes that Dahlan answers to Abbas — in fact, it was suggested at the time that Abbas appointed Dahlan only under pressure from Washington, which was irked by the Palestinian Authority president’s decision to join a unity government with Hamas.
If Dahlan takes orders from anyone at all, it’s certainly not from Abbas. Abbas has long recognized the democratic legitimacy and popularity of Hamas, and embraced the reality that no peace process is possible unless the Islamists are given the place in the Palestinian power structure that their popular support necessitates. He has always favored negotiation and cooperation with Hamas — much to the exasperation of the Bush Administration, and also of the Fatah warlords whose power of patronage was threatened by the Hamas election victory — and could see the logic of the unity government proposed by the Saudis even when Washington couldn’t. Indeed, as the indispensable Robert Malley and Hussein Agha note, nothing has hurt Abbas’s political standing as much as the misguided efforts of Washington to boost his standing in the hope of undermining the elected Hamas government.
Needless to say, only an Administration as deluded about its ability to reorder Arab political realities in line with its own fantasies — and also, frankly, as utterly contemptuous of Arab life and of Arab democracy, empty sloganizing notwithstanding — as the current one has proved to be could imagine that the Palestinians could be starved, battered and manipulated into choosing a Washington-approved political leadership. Yet, that’s exactly what the U.S. has attempted to do ever since Hamas won the last Palestinian election, imposing a financial and economic chokehold on an already distressed population, pouring money and arms into the forces under Dahlan’s control, and eventually adapting itself to funnel monies only through Abbas, as if casting in him in the role of a kind of Quisling-provider would somehow burnish his appeal among Palestinian voters. (As I said, their contempt for Arab intelligence knows no bounds. )
But while the hapless Abbas is little more than a reluctant passenger in Washington’s strategy — and will, I still believe, repair to his former exile lodgings in Qatar in the not too distant future — Mohammed Dahlan is its point man, the warlord who commands the troops and who has been spoiling for a fight with Hamas since they had the temerity to trounce his organization at the polls on home turf.
Dahlan’s ambitions clearly coincided with plans drawn up by White House Middle East policy chief, Elliot Abrams — a veteran of the Reagan Administration’s Central American dirty wars — to arm and train Fatah loyalists to prepare them to topple the Hamas government. If Mahmoud Abbas has been reluctant to embrace the confrontational policy promoted by the White House, Dahlan has no such qualms. And given that Abbas has no political base of his own, he is dependent entirely on Washington and Dahlan.
Seeing the disastrous implications of the U.S. policy, the Saudis appeared to have put the kibosh on Abrams’ coup plan by drawing Abbas into a unity government with Hamas. And as Mark Perry at Conflict Forum detailed in an excellent analysis Dahlan was just about the only thing that the U.S. had going for it in terms of resisting the move towards a unity government.
Although his fretting and sulking in Mecca couldn’t prevent the deal, the U.S. appears to have helped him fight back afterwards by ensuring that he was appointed national security adviser, a move calculated to provoke Hamas, whose leaders tend to view Dahlan as little more than a torturer and a de facto enforcer for Israel.
But Dahlan appears to have made his move when it came to integrating the Palestinian Authority security forces (currently dominated by Fatah) by drawing in Hamas fighters and subjecting the forces to the control of a politically neutral interior minister. Dahlan simply refused, and set off the current confrontations by ordering his men out onto the street last weekend without any authorization from the government of which he is supposedly a part.
The new provocation appears consistent with a revised U.S. plan, reported on by Mark Perry and Paul Woodward, that emphasized the urgency of toppling the unity government. They suggest the plan emanates from Abrams, who they say is operating at cross purposes with Condi Rice’s efforts to appease the Arab moderate regimes by reviving some form of peace process.. They note, for example, that Jewish American sources have told the Forward and Haaretz that Abrams recently briefed Jewish Republicans and made clear to them that Rice’s efforts were merely a symbolic exercise aimed at showing Arab allies that the U.S. was “doing something,” but that President Bush would ensure that nothing would come of them, in the sense that Israel would not be required to make any concessions.
Whatever the precise breakdown within the Bush Administration, it’s plain that Dahlan, like Pinochet a quarter century, would not move onto a path of confrontation with an elected government unless he believed he had the sanction of powerful forces abroad to do so. If does move to turn the current street battle into a frontal assault on the unity government, chances are it will be because he got a green light from somewhere — and certainly not from Mahmoud Abbas.
But the confrontation under way has assumed a momentum of its own, and it may now be beyond the capability of the Palestinian leadership as a whole to contain it. If that proves true, the petulance that has substituted for policy in the Bush Administration’s response to the 2006 Palestinian election will have succeeded in turning Gaza into Mogadishu. But it may be too much to expect the Administration capable of anything different — after all, they’re still busy turning Mogadishu into Mogadishu all over again.
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Venezuela Launches Sale of "Bolivarian" Computers
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
By: Chris Carlson
Source:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2326
Mérida, June 12, 2007 - The Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez announced the launch of their "Bolivarian Computers" last week, consisting of four different models produced in Venezuela with Chinese technology. The new computers will run the open-source Linux operating system and will first be used inside the government "missions" and state companies and institutions but eventually are expected to be sold across Venezuela and Latin America.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez presented the new machines to the public last week at an event in the state of Falcon as he donated them to a school there. The new computers are produced by the joint venture VIT (Venezuela de Industria Tecnológica), which is owned by the Chinese company Lang Chao and the Venezuelan Ministry of Light Industry and Commerce.
"The price of other similar brands is US$ 930, and the price of our computer is US$ 690, almost 40% less," explained President Chavez. "But, in addition, it has an added value, given that it comes with open-source software and a three year guarantee, while other brands only offer one year."
Production of the models began in the end of 2006 and the first 1,619 units were distributed to students of Integral Medicine in the government program Mission Sucre. Chavez promised last October to give a computer to every one of the 11,100 students in the second year of the new medical education program Integral Community Medicine (MIC) and began to follow through with that promise last May.
"I feel excited because the president came through with his promise, and that makes us be more responsible with the program, more dedicated, since it is a big help that motivates us to keep moving forward," said one student.
Units have also been given to the Urban Transportation Fund, the Agrarian Bank, the national mail service Ipostel, and the Experimental University of Simon Rodriguez.
And although the first units have been donated to the public sector, the new Bolivarian computers will also be sold inside Venezuela and exported.
"We are working with cooperatives and small companies to form our own distribution network," said the manager of sales Eduardo Hernandez. "It's a slow process. This month we have already completed the formation (of a distribution network) in Caracas and by the end of the year we will have distribution and technical support throughout the whole country."
The computer factory is located on the Paraguana Peninsula in the state of Falcon and has an annual capacity of 150,000 units. For this year the factory is expected to assemble 80,000 units and 6,000 laptop computers.
Until now Venezuela has always imported computers both from well-known brands and generic brands from the developed world. With this new venture the Venezuelan government hopes to diversify national production, integrate national productive chains, and work towards technological independence for the country.
According to the web page of the new state company, VIT has the objective of "production, marketing and sale of technological products, with an emphasis in manufacturing and assembling computers and accessories. Our efforts are also focused on national export, with a future projection to the international market."
By the end of the year, the intention is to begin to locally produce some of the technology in order to substitute some of the imported components used in the assembly of the machines for components produced in Venezuela. In order to do this, the government has built installations for research and development in order to design the components inside the same factory.
The company is offering 3 different desktop models and one laptop with a price range of US$ 405 (Bs. 870,750) to US$ 1,400 (Bs. 3,010,000). The processors will range in speed from 1.5 GHz to a 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium IV and the laptop will use a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.With respect to the operating system, Venezuela has taken a strong position in favor of open-source software in order to "promote technological development" and help "reach technological independence." For this reason the computers will use the open-source Linux, but the components are also compatible with the Windows operating system.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
By: Chris Carlson
Source:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2326
Mérida, June 12, 2007 - The Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez announced the launch of their "Bolivarian Computers" last week, consisting of four different models produced in Venezuela with Chinese technology. The new computers will run the open-source Linux operating system and will first be used inside the government "missions" and state companies and institutions but eventually are expected to be sold across Venezuela and Latin America.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez presented the new machines to the public last week at an event in the state of Falcon as he donated them to a school there. The new computers are produced by the joint venture VIT (Venezuela de Industria Tecnológica), which is owned by the Chinese company Lang Chao and the Venezuelan Ministry of Light Industry and Commerce.
"The price of other similar brands is US$ 930, and the price of our computer is US$ 690, almost 40% less," explained President Chavez. "But, in addition, it has an added value, given that it comes with open-source software and a three year guarantee, while other brands only offer one year."
Production of the models began in the end of 2006 and the first 1,619 units were distributed to students of Integral Medicine in the government program Mission Sucre. Chavez promised last October to give a computer to every one of the 11,100 students in the second year of the new medical education program Integral Community Medicine (MIC) and began to follow through with that promise last May.
"I feel excited because the president came through with his promise, and that makes us be more responsible with the program, more dedicated, since it is a big help that motivates us to keep moving forward," said one student.
Units have also been given to the Urban Transportation Fund, the Agrarian Bank, the national mail service Ipostel, and the Experimental University of Simon Rodriguez.
And although the first units have been donated to the public sector, the new Bolivarian computers will also be sold inside Venezuela and exported.
"We are working with cooperatives and small companies to form our own distribution network," said the manager of sales Eduardo Hernandez. "It's a slow process. This month we have already completed the formation (of a distribution network) in Caracas and by the end of the year we will have distribution and technical support throughout the whole country."
The computer factory is located on the Paraguana Peninsula in the state of Falcon and has an annual capacity of 150,000 units. For this year the factory is expected to assemble 80,000 units and 6,000 laptop computers.
Until now Venezuela has always imported computers both from well-known brands and generic brands from the developed world. With this new venture the Venezuelan government hopes to diversify national production, integrate national productive chains, and work towards technological independence for the country.
According to the web page of the new state company, VIT has the objective of "production, marketing and sale of technological products, with an emphasis in manufacturing and assembling computers and accessories. Our efforts are also focused on national export, with a future projection to the international market."
By the end of the year, the intention is to begin to locally produce some of the technology in order to substitute some of the imported components used in the assembly of the machines for components produced in Venezuela. In order to do this, the government has built installations for research and development in order to design the components inside the same factory.
The company is offering 3 different desktop models and one laptop with a price range of US$ 405 (Bs. 870,750) to US$ 1,400 (Bs. 3,010,000). The processors will range in speed from 1.5 GHz to a 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium IV and the laptop will use a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.With respect to the operating system, Venezuela has taken a strong position in favor of open-source software in order to "promote technological development" and help "reach technological independence." For this reason the computers will use the open-source Linux, but the components are also compatible with the Windows operating system.
Monday, 4 June 2007
Overheard In A Montreal Restaurant
May 12, 2007
May 12, 2007
If George Wanker Dumbass Bushpig II -- cocaine-addict, drug-trafficker, and alcohol-induced war monger, war profiteer, war criminal, mass murderer, oil bandit extraordinaire, the Hebrew-whores' Grand Pimp and an international whoremaster, Jewish-cockroach lover, Zionazi-sympathiser, and your general cross-worshipping pagan and Jesus-worshipping heretic, son of Bushpig I -- can put a bounty of US$50 million on the head of Osama Bin Ladin, then why isn't Osama Bin Ladin putting a bounty of $500 million on Bushpig's head, since Bushpig is the bigger piece of shit and Osama is much richer than Bushpig with an estimated net worth of 5 billion dollars? Is it because Osama is too nice a guy to bring himself down to Bushpig's level, or he actually did put a bounty on Bushpig's head but our great and good, free and fair media didn't tell us about it in their unbiased news reports?
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