WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.
"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
Bump. Nothing on FOX news
2 police killed in northern Iraq; Hamas protest turns violent Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen killed two policemen and wounded two others early Tuesday in the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi authorities said.
West of Baghdad, Iraqi police fired shots to disperse a violent protest over the Israeli killing of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.
The slain policemen - twin brothers - were shot by assailants in a car, Kirkuk police Capt. Abdul-Salam Zangana said. He identified them as Ahmed and Mohammed Kadhim. The attack occurred as they parked their car in a main square and worshippers left a nearby mosque.
Rebels often target police and other Iraqis who work with the U.S.-led coalition that is governing Iraq.
In Ramadi, the provincial capital of Anbar province, Iraqi police fired in the air after protesters burned two police cars and two grenades were thrown at the governor's office, witnesses said. Television footage showed U.S. soldiers remaining behind at the building, protected by concrete blast barriers, as police with assault rifles moved down the street to disperse the crowd. At least two police and three protesters were injured.
Muslim clerics in Ramadi, where support for the anti-U.S. insurgency is strong, had urged followers to protest Monday's targeted killing of Yassin, the spiritual leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in Gaza City.
At Abu Ghraib prison on the outskirts of Baghdad, the U.S. military released 272 detainees who had been picked up in security sweeps. The men, many of them bearded and wearing Arab robes or track suits, appeared to be in good health.
Two days ago, 168 prisoners were also released, said Lt. Col. Craig Essick of the 16th Military Police Brigade out of Fort Bragg, N.C. He estimated there were between 5,500 to 6,000 security detainees at the prison, and the average prisoner spends three to six months in jail. A military panel meets daily to review cases.
On Monday, gunmen killed two Finnish businessmen as they drove in Baghdad, and 14 British troops were wounded in two explosions during a demonstration in the southern city of Basra.
British soldiers fired tear gas at about 500 unemployed Iraqi civilians protesting a failure to get jobs with the local customs police, said Col. Zafer Abdel-Nabi, chief of Basra customs. The crowd threw rocks, petrol bombs and a grenade at troops; six civilians were injured, he said.
The British Ministry of Defense said the soldiers - three of whom were seriously wounded - were evacuated to a nearby British military hospital.
British TV showed demonstrators throwing rocks at soldiers riding tanks and standing behind plastic shields. Two Associated Press photographs showed a British soldier running down a street with his head and shoulders on fire.
Some demonstrators shouted slogans in support of Saddam Hussein and condemned Yassin's killing, witnesses said. "We are all sons of Yassin," they shouted.
The two Finns were killed near a highway underpass in west Baghdad, according to Iraqi witnesses. The victims' Iraqi driver was unhurt.
The Finns were part of a nine-member technological delegation visiting the Iraqi capital, said Markus Lyra, a Foreign Ministry official in Helsinki. "The men were on their way to the Ministry of Electricity to make business contacts as part of a larger group," he said.
The assailants fled.
The victims were Seppo Haapanen, an employee of Entso, a Finnish company that specializes in electricity and power networks; and Jorma Toronen, of Air-Ix, which builds railways, the Foreign Ministry said.
Also Monday, the office of Iraq's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric said he had told the United Nations that the country's U.S.-backed interim constitution was a recipe for the breakup of Iraq.
Grand Ayatollah al-Husseini al-Sistani, in a letter sent March 19 to U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, criticized the constitution for its three-part presidency shared by Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs. The plan "enshrines sectarianism and ethnicity," he wrote, adding that it "puts the country in an unstable situation and could lead to partition and division."
Thanks for the FYI Rev. Watch out for this Ramah because it comes disguised in email as someone you are use to getting email from, I have no clue how they replicate what your familiar with but this is quirky!
Great! I did not see it yet. How has it affected you, JP?
Let me know if you still have the psy butterflies -g- after the performance -g-
Richard Clarke should be hung from the highest tree in Washington. What a scumbag!
BTTT!
Rantisi Named Leader of Hamas in Gaza By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a hard-liner who rejects all compromise with Israel, was chosen Tuesday as the new Hamas leader, one day after the group's founder was assassinated by Israel.
Rantisi said he emerged from secret elections as the chief of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas operative based in Syria, remains the leader of the group's political bureau, the main decision-making body.
Initially Rantisi said he was the new head of the Hamas political bureau, giving the impression he was replacing Mashaal, but Hamas leaders later clarified he was only in charge of Hamas in Gaza.
Rantisi replaces Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was slain in an attack by Israel.
Rantisi told The Associated Press that Hamas would press for more attacks against Israel.
"We will be unified in the trenches of resistance," the 54-year-old pediatrician said. "We will not surrender, we will never surrender to Israeli terror."
Since its creation in 1987, Hamas has been run largely as a collective of senior activists in Gaza and the Arab world, with Yassin in a key role as ideologue, spiritual leader and strategist.
Hamas leaders said that while the killing of Yassin was a blow to morale, it would not hamper the group's operations, including its ability to carry out attacks. Hamas is pledged to Israel's destruction.
"Hamas will continue in the same way Sheik Yassin taught us. Hamas has its infrastructure, its institutions," Ismail Hanieh, a top Yassin aide, said as Hamas leaders formed a reception line at a Gaza City soccer stadium Monday night to greet thousands of mourners.
Hamas is secretive about its organization, though the broad outlines are known.
General policy is set by the political bureau, headed by Mashaal in Damascus, Syria. Other members of the bureau include several Hamas leaders in the Arab world, as well as Rantisi, Hanieh and Mahmoud Zahar in Gaza.
The Hamas military wing, Izzedine al Qassam, plans and carries out attacks on Israelis. It is headed by two shadowy figures, Mohammed Deif and Adnan al-Ghoul, who top Israel's wanted list and have been operating from hiding for years.
It remains unclear how much autonomy the military wing has in deciding on the timing and target of attacks, and to what extent it is directed by the political bureau.
Israel said Yassin personally approved many of the hundreds of Hamas attacks it said killed 377 Israelis and wounded more than 2,000 over the years.
"He (Yassin) preached, advocated and served as source of inspiration and planning of murderous attacks," the Israeli army chief, Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon, said Tuesday.
All top Hamas members are pledged to Israel's destruction. However, within the group, there are different views on how to reach the objective. Palestinian analysts said Yassin led the more pragmatic wing of Hamas.
In recent interviews, Yassin said his group is ready to participate in elections after an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and stop firing homemade rockets at Israel. "He (Yassin) was a moderating factor," said Ali Jarbawi, a political science professor at the West Bank university of Bir Zeit.
Yassin and Hanieh also kept in close touch with the Palestinian Authority, despite fierce rivalries, to try to work out an arrangement with the Palestinian Authority on how to run Gaza after an Israeli pullback.
Rantisi rejects any compromise with Yasser Arafat's government.
Last summer, he was one of the most vocal opponents to Hamas' decision to halt attacks on Israel temporarily.
He is popular among young Hamas activists, and on Monday delivered Yassin's eulogy.
Rantisi spoke at length, making much of his relationship with Yassin — they once shared an Israeli prison cell for several months.
Referring to Yassin, Rantisi said: "We are the ones who gave their commitment to God and to you, and to continue the holy war in the service of God."
WAR ON TERROR
In '99, Clarke saw
Iraq-al-Qaida link
But Bush critic told '60 Minutes' Sunday there was 'absolutely' no evidence 'ever'
Posted: March 23, 2004
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37704 Check out what MRC compiled on Clark:
1) The broadcast network newscasts on Monday night ran through the
Bush White House's retort to the attacks on it from Richard Clarke
about President Bush's supposed lack of interest, pre-9/11, in
fighting terrorism and poor job of doing it since 9/11. But they
still led with Clarke's charges, treating them as fully credible,
while only ABC's Terry Moran passed along how "there is a deep
sense of betrayal in the West Wing tonight." All also ignored
Clinton's record, an eight-year period of time when Clarke oversaw
that administration's anti-terrorism efforts. But FNC's Brit Hume
on Monday night, and this week's edition of Newsweek, conveyed how
Clarke earlier criticized the Clinton team for its missed
opportunities to take on al-Qaeda.
2) Forgetting all about what the Clinton administration did or
didn't do for eight years to fight terrorism, ABC's Good Morning
America concentrated their Monday sessions with Dick Clarke and
Condoleezza Rice on the Bush record over eight months. Clarke
oversaw counter-terrorism policy during the Clinton years. CBS and
NBC didn't have Clarke, but pounded at Rice over Clarke's charges
against President Bush.
3) Sunday's 60 Minutes devoted two 13-minute segments, totaling
just over 26 minutes, to Dick Clarke's charges against the Bush
administration over ignoring the terrorist threat, but though
Clarke oversaw the Clinton administration's counter-terrorism
policy for eight years, Lesley Stahl didn't mention Clinton until
nearly ten minutes into the first segment, and that was a
laudatory recollection of how the Clinton team prevented some
millennium attacks. Stahl only alluded to the Clinton years once
more, but on Monday's Fox and Friends, FNC analyst and
international businessman Monsoor Ijaz delved into a subject
skipped over by CBS, how Clarke himself had blocked efforts,
pushed by the Abu Dabi royal family, to capture Osama bin Laden.
4) WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee talk show host Charles Sykes caught an
illuminating instance of how a CBS News reporter extolled in an
interview the "optimism" of the Iraqi people who have a "tangible
feeling of freedom," are confidently marching "toward democracy"
and don't feel scared by the violence since it really impacts few
of them in their daily lives, to only moments later assert in a
CBS Radio newscast: "Iraqis are terrified of coalition soldiers,
terrified of crime and terrified of more attacks."
5) CBS and ABC on Monday night ran full stories on how the FBI
trailed anti-war activist John Kerry in the early 1970s, but only
ABC's Dan Harris pointed out what CBS's Byron Pitts missed, how
the FBI "documents do show that some of Kerry's recent statements
about his anti-war activism are inaccurate."
6) As presented by Dennis Kucinich, Letterman's "Top Ten Ways
Dennis Kucinich Can Still Be the Next President of the United
States."
> 1) The broadcast network newscasts on Monday night ran
through the Bush White House's retort to the attacks on it from
Richard Clarke about President Bush's supposed lack of interest,
pre-9/11, in fighting terrorism and poor job of doing it since
9/11. But they still led with Clarke's charges, treating them as
fully credible, while only ABC's Terry Moran passed along how
"there is a deep sense of betrayal in the West Wing tonight."
All also ignored Clinton's record, an eight-year period of time
when Clarke oversaw that administration's anti-terrorism efforts.
But FNC's Brit Hume on Monday night, and this week's edition of
Newsweek, conveyed how Clarke earlier criticized the Clinton team
for its missed opportunities to take on al-Qaeda.
In previewing the 9/11 commission hearings this week, CNN's
David Ensor, on Monday's NewsNight, conveyed a common-sense
assessment that doesn't match the media's enthusiastic embrace of
Clarke's attacks on the Bush team: "It may be a rough week and
clearly there are lessons to be learned but, for what it's worth,
several career officials say they do not believe that either Mr.
Bush or Mr. Clinton can really be held responsible for what 19
terrorists were able to do on September 11, 2001."
Monday's evening show coverage followed stories Saturday and
Sunday night on ABC's World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News.
(CBS probably covered it too on Sunday night before the big 60
Minutes two-parter with Clarke, but NCAA basketball bumped the CBS
Evening News in the Eastern and Central time zones on Sunday
night.)
-- ABC's Charles Gibson, anchoring World News Tonight, set up
the first of the broadcast's two March 22 stories:
"There is a very nasty fight underway between the White House
and the President's former counter-terrorism advisor, Dick Clarke.
It is a fight that could have real affects on this fall's
election. Clarke, who left the White House staff a year ago,
charges the administration ignored warnings of impending al-Qaeda
attacks before 9/11 and then was intent on blaming the attacks not
on al-Qaeda but on Iraq."
As Gibson spoke, ABC placed on screen:
"TERROR
WARNINGS
IGNORED?"
Pierre Thomas ran through Clarke's charges and how on the
morning shows National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice fired
back. Next, Terry Moran provided the White House response and he
emphasized its ferocity: "It was unprecedented. Never before has
this White House launched such a ferocious and personal attack
against a domestic critic..."
Moran included soundbites from White House Press Secretary
Scott McClellan and from Vice President Dick Cheney's appearance
on Rush Limbaugh's radio show. Following a clip of David Gergen
talking about how the White House is trying to limit the political
damage, Moran concluded: "So it's political, but it's also
personal. There is a deep sense of betrayal in the West Wing
tonight over these charges and that explains, in part, the
fierceness of these attacks on Mr. Clarke."
-- CBS Evening News anchor John Roberts intoned: "The Bush
administration launched a counter-offensive against a former White
House insider who claims far more could and should have been done
about al-Qaeda before September 1th. The charges are made by
Richard Clarke in a new book published by Simon and Shuster, which
like CBS is owned by Viacom. Clarke's accusations were detailed in
an interview last night on 60 Minutes."
Bill Plante began with Clarke' case: "In a scathing
indictment, former White House counter-terrorism advisor Richard
Clarke accuses the President of ignoring the threat from al-Qaeda
until after 9/11 and then linking the terrorist group to Iraq
without evidence."
-- The NBC Nightly News led with Clarke, unlike ABC and CBS
which began with the Israeli killing of the Hamas leader. Tom
Brokaw announced: "President Bush has made the war on terror the
centerpiece of his re-election campaign, referring to himself as a
'War President.' But now, Richard Clarke, a terrorism expert who
served in the Bush White House, has written a scathing critique of
the President's actions, or lack of them, before and after 9/11.
And those charges have touched off a separate war, a political
firefight in which the White House is attacking from all angles.
As NBC's David Gregory reports from the White House tonight,
Clarke's credibility, integrity and motives are under assault."
Gregory ran through Clarke's charges and how the White House
is "in full crisis mode" to respond, before he concluded:
"The White House is sensitive about Clarke's book because it
raises an important question for the election: Whether the war in
Iraq was a legitimate part of the war on terror or whether it was
a dangerous diversion that has instead put America at greater
risk."
On Saturday's NBC Nightly News, however, in a story prompted
by Clarke's charges, reporter Rosalind Jordan squeezed in a
mention of the Clinton years: "Several top Clinton administration
officials will also testify, but Clarke says their record wasn't
perfect. Even after the attack on the USS Cole in October 2000,
Clarke said no one wanted to admit al-Qaeda did it."
-- FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume relayed what ABC, CBS
and NBC ignored, what Clarke told the author of a book released
late last year. Hume recalled for viewers:
"Clarke's attacks on the Bush administration for not doing
enough to stop terrorism mark a striking shift for a man who was
only recently attacking the Clinton administration for the same
thing. In an interview for the book, 'Losing Bin Laden,' by
Richard Miniter, Clarke says he urged an attack on al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan after the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole. He says that
Defense Secretary Cohen said there wasn't enough provocation, that
Janet Reno fretted it might violate international law, CIA
Director George Tenet said he wanted to investigate first, and
that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was against it for
diplomatic reasons. Mr. Clinton was against it, too. Clarke says
in the book that one of his colleagues remarked after the meeting,
quote, 'What's it going to take to get them to hit both al-Qaeda
and Afghanistan? Does al-Qaeda have to attack the Pentagon?'"
-- This week's Newsweek story previewing the commission
hearings cited Clarke's criticisms of Bush, but also raised
Clinton shortcomings. "Storm Warnings" read the headline in the
March 29 edition by a big photo of Bush and Clinton standing side-
by-side. The subhead: "Bin Laden was a threat, but Clinton never
pushed it and Bush seemed more interested in Saddam. What went
wrong."
Reporter Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas relayed Clarke's
attacks on Bush, but they also gave space, unlike the networks, to
questions about Clinton's performance:
"For Kerry and the Democrats, the catch is that Bill Clinton
did no better to tame the terrorist threat during his last years
in office. As Washington Post managing editor Steve Coll recently
showed in his book Ghost Wars, those in the national security
bureaucracy under Clinton spent more time wringing their hands and
squabbling with each other than going after Osama bin Laden. And
Clinton never stepped in and ordered his troops to stop dickering
and do the job.
"The White House counter-terror chief during the late '90s and
through 9/11 was Dick Clarke. A career civil servant, Clarke was
known for pounding the table to urge his counterparts at the CIA,
FBI and Pentagon to do more about Al Qaeda. But he did not have
much luck, in part because in both the Clinton and early Bush
administrations, the top leadership did not back up Clarke and
demand results.
"Clarke does not absolve Clinton (or himself) of
responsibility -- the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa happened on
Clinton's watch -- but he saves his harshest criticism for Bush
and his national-security team...."
