Dr. Bill Wattenburg came on about 5 minutes ago.
His opening was about the threat of a "Crude Nuclear Device, not only one, but there will be several".
He suggested that there be conversation on the aftermath tonight, that he wants to talk about it, and how to survive, what to expect, that it could be years before we are normal again.
Listen on the computer at : kgo.com
The Middle East's real bane:
corruption
by Michael Rubin
The Daily Star (Beirut)
November 18, 2005
http://www.meforum.org/article/790
President George W. Bush has made democratization a pillar of his
administration's strategy. "It is the policy of the United States to seek
and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in
every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny," he
declared in his January 20, 2005, inaugural address.
Whether because of Bush or not, democracy has progressed in the
Greater Middle East. Afghans and Iraqis marched to the polls after
decades without the right to vote. Palestinians and Egyptians, too, have
held contested elections after years of stilted referendums and closed
campaigns. Following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri, the Lebanese banded together to advance
democracy and reform.
Progress is shaky, however, its permanence far from assured. While
both Western and Arab media juxtapose bombings with democratization,
the true threat to both political reform and stability in the Middle East is
not terrorism, but corruption; and across the region, the problem is
worsening.
Take the case of the Iraqi Kurds. Long championed as a model of
liberalization, they are becoming a regional embarrassment. Rather than
pursue democracy, the Iraqi Kurdish leadership is more consumed with
self-enrichment. Following Iraq's defeat in 1991, the Kurds rose in
rebellion against Saddam Hussein. The leader of the Kurdish Democratic
Party, Massoud Barzani, returned to Iraqi Kurdistan with little but
respect for his family name. Fourteen years later, his personal worth is
estimated at close to $2 billion. Corruption and nepotism are rife. No
foreign businessman can strike a deal in his region without entering into
partnership with Barzani or a favored relative. Human rights workers in
Irbil say they have met Kurds imprisoned for failing to pay kickbacks.
Across the region, the Barzani family conflates government, party, and
personal property. Local militias uphold not the rule of law, but rather
serve as Barzani's enforcers. The Kurdish Parliament, meanwhile, is
flaccid; its power no greater than that of its Syrian or Libyan
counterparts.
The cost of corruption goes beyond money. An embezzlement scandal
sparked the 1994-97 Kurdish civil war between Barzani and his rival,
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan leader Jalal Talabani, Iraq's current
president. Barzani is not alone. With the complicity of United Nations
officials and cynical politicians, Saddam Hussein siphoned off $1.8 billion
from the UN's oil-for-food program. While children died for lack of
medicine, he built palaces and his family members bought real estate in
Amman.
Corruption has done almost as much to hobble Iraq's reconstruction as
the insurgency. Former Defense Minister Hazem al-Shalaan embezzled
close to $500 million in six months, audacious even by Middle Eastern
standards. Such money could have been used to arm and protect Iraq's
army and fight jihadists. Shaalan's colleagues in the electricity and
transportation ministries also raked off millions.
Iraq is not unique. Visitors to Iran often hear students vent their
frustration with professors who sell grades, doctors who extort money
for treatment, and officials who use their government positions for
personal enrichment. Expediency Council Chairman Ali Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani has cornered the lucrative pistachio trade. Revolutionary
foundations have done the same in the oil and import-export markets.
Petrodollar wealth has not reached the population. In 1995, Iranian
courts convicted businessmen linked to the Foundation for the Disabled
and Oppressed for embezzling $400 million. Iranians, however, say the
decision to press charges was more about politics than justice. Far more
corruption goes unpunished. Senior Iranian officials live in luxury little
different from that of the monarch they overthrew.
Palestinian ministers have also used their positions more for
self-enrichment than development. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has
little to show for billions of dollars in foreign aid. Critics of Israel can
point to the bulldozed Gaza airport and complain about border closures,
but it was not the Israeli government that built palatial mansions for
Palestinian ministers or that wired PA President Yasser Arafat's wife
Suha $22 million annually. In 2003, a team of American auditors
estimated Arafat's net worth at $3 billion. At the time of his January
2001 assassination, Palestine Broadcasting Services director Hisham
Makki had $17 million in his bank account; his monthly salary was only
$1,500. In the autumn 2004 issue of Middle East Quarterly, former
Palestine International Bank director Issam Abu Issa detailed the
mechanism by which other Arafat aides pocketed millions of dollars.
Palestinian refugees, meanwhile, live in squalor.
The situation is little different in Cairo and Amman, where President
Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah II build palaces rather than schools. In
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, residents pump sewage from tanks several days
per week. However, the money allocated for a more efficient sewer
system has disappeared.
According to Transparency International, Oman and Israel are tied as
the "cleanest" of Middle Eastern countries. However, they rank only 28th
overall. The African countries of Swaziland, Malawi and Madagascar rank
above Yemen, Libya and the PA. Troubled sub-Saharan Africa should not
be the model to which Arab countries aspire.
Terrorism is tragic. A car bomb in Baghdad, Beirut or Basra can
devastate dozens of lives. But corruption affects millions. Saddam
Hussein's embezzlement condemned many thousands of children to
death from preventable disease. The danger is not that the victims of
corruption turn to terrorism. Mali is one of the five poorest countries on
earth, and yet Freedom House ranks it as the most democratic country
in the Islamic world. Mali does not produce terrorists; Saudi Arabia does.
Rather, the danger is in disillusionment. Iraqi Kurds, stifled by the
corruption of their leaders, are supporting Islamist parties. While former
Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi describes himself as the great secularist
hope, his administration's corruption drove even liberal Iraqis to vote for
an Islamist alternative. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became Iran's president
not because Iranians supported his hard-line views, but because of their
disgust with Rafsanjani, who, to most Iranians, is regarded as corruption
incarnate. The greatest political beneficiary of PA corruption has been
Hamas. Likewise, Turks swept Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
Justice and Development Party to power not because they endorsed its
religious vision, but because of anger with the endemic corruption of the
mainstream parties.
When Islamists come to power, democracy takes a hit. So too do
liberalism, women's rights and tolerance. Washington may preach
democracy; Arab reformers may debate whether reform should be
gradual, rapid, top-down or bottom-up. But until Arab citizens hold their
leaders accountable, in the press, on the Internet, and on the street, the
democracy debate will be moot.
Michael Rubin, resident scholar at the American Enterprise
Institute, is editor of the Middle East Quarterly.
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This is one of those that I can't open, but it came as a stolen ship alert, so I am posting it.
granny.......
http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/11192005/col_wate/74023.htm
Google Alert for: boats and ships stolen
No solace in timeless sea
Portsmouth Herald News - Portsmouth,NH,USA
... watches and liquor from voyaging yachtsmen - Asian and Indonesian pirates have
stolen entire ships. They approach at night in small, fast boats in constricted ...
Loudspeaker call to Islamize America
By Nonie Darwish
The Islamist movement in the United States has no
intention of expressing sensitivity to the majority
Judeo-Christian culture of America. Even 9/11 has not
slowed them down, but might even have given more fuel
to their cherished dream of seeing America and its
government Moslem.
The City Council of Hamtramck, Michigan, gave its
preliminary approval to the Bangladeshi al-Islah
mosque to carry the Arabic call to prayer five times a
day through a loudspeaker. The Moslem call for prayer,
in Arabic, says: “Allah is great. I confess that there
is no God but Allah. I confess that Mohamed is his
messenger. Call for prayer, call for prayer.” This is
repeated for two minutes.
Devout Moslems already know when it is time to pray
and in this day and age there are certainly other ways
to call people for prayers that conforms to noise
regulation and respects the wish of the general public
not to hear loudspeakers 5 times a day praising a God
that is different from theirs and in whose name the
terrorists of 9/11 committed their atrocity. How far
are we Arab/Moslem Americans going to keep pushing the
envelope to test America’s patience? To whose benefit
these loudspeakers are being installed? Could the
loudspeakers be another sign of an audacious,
in-your-face conquest of America to please those who
finance these mosques?
Americans are the most tolerant people in the world
and it seems that the more tolerant they become, the
more they are taken advantage of. How far will our
tolerant Judeo-Christian culture be pushed around? And
how many times will Christians give the other cheek to
prove they love those who despise them?
Arab/Moslem Americans should reciprocate the tolerance
and sensitivity to the rest of America. They should
not demand from America to tolerate unwelcome
loudspeakers even if the politicians in the city
council want to please the Arab population for their
vote. Mosques in the US should know better because in
most Moslem countries, Jewish synagogues and Christian
churches are not even permitted to be built, much less
promoted via public-address loudspeakers.
At a time when American youth are dying to stabilize
Iraq and bring democracy to a Moslem country, the last
thing I want to see as an Arab American is my fellow
Americans upset at us for forcing Koran read to them
through amplifiers.
Mosques all over the Middle East have used and abused
loudspeakers to spread not only the call for prayers,
but also Friday sermons. In many Arab capitals you can
often hear a prayer to destroy the infidels
(non-Moslems) and the Jews, the enemies of God, over
loudspeakers that are often used as tools of
incitement and indoctrination. People in congested and
noisy Arab cities such as Cairo often hear 3 or 4
mosque loudspeakers simultaneously since there could
be 4 or more mosques in one square mile. The dawn
prayer can come as early as 5 am and many Moslems in
the Middle East hate it, but are too afraid to say
anything about it.
Why is America importing fear, oppression and
insensitivity to the American general public? There is
a fine line between tolerance and self destruction.
top
http://www.islamreview.com/articles/loudspeaker.shtml
For information or comments, write to
Feedback@IslamReview.com
November 20, 2005 Anti-Terrorism News
(Jordan - Zarqawi) Family severs links with al-Qaida terror leader
http://www.breakingnews.ie/2005/11/20/story231098.html
(Indonesia) Police identify third Bali suicide bomber
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20051120.A01&irec=0
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Aryanto Boedihardjo said that the third suicide bomber was Aip Hidayat
Iraq Ambush Kills 24, Including 1 Marine
http://interestalert.com/story/siteia.shtml?Story=st/sn/11200000aaa01f8f.ap&Sys=siteia&Fid=WORLDNEW&Type=News&Filter=World%20News
Indian engineer, three Afghans kidnapped in Afghanistan
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2005/November/subcontinent_November708.xml§ion=subcontinent
(Israel) 4 Hamas Terrorists Arrested
http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=93279
(UK - Iraq) Snipers' head shots had to kill terrorists simultaneously to prevent explosions
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/20/nsas120.xml
(Australia) ASIO intimidating Muslims: advocate
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200511/s1510890.htm
Philippines troops die in ambush
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4453886.stm
The army blamed both attacks on the Maoist New People's Army (NPA), which has been fighting the central government since the 1960s.
Bush rejects timetable on Iraq pullout
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1646655,00.html
(Egypt) Police arrest 200 Islamists
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17307727%255E1702,00.html
Detroit 'Sleeper Cell' Prosecutor Faces Probe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/19/AR2005111900952.html
Two Bombs Planted at Banks in Mexico City
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MEXICO_BOMBS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=INTERNATIONAL
In the wreckage of the first bomb, police found a letter claiming responsibility for the attacks from the previously unknown Barbarous Mexico
Revolutionary Workers' Commando; the group sent an e-mail to AP singling out U.S. businesses in Mexico, including Wal-Mart and McDonald's
‘Sayyaf, JI getting Mideast support’
http://www.philstar.com/philstar/News200511200403.htm
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General says Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) still receive active support from foreign groups,
most of them from Middle East
Terrorists led by Al-Qaeda representative in N. Caucasus killed
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051118/42139882.html
Turkish police arrest two for al Qaeda links
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19770178.htm
Bangladesh arrests 9 militants
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=6250870&cKey=1132379416000
One of those held is son-in-law of Shayek Abdur Rahman, leader of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which is blamed for wave of bombings on August 17
Travel warning for Indonesia
http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2270942005
Australia & U.S. issue travel warnings for citizens due to intel on terrorist attacks before yearend
U.S. Offers Red Cross Access to Terror Suspects
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,176060,00.html
Suicide bomber kills 25 at Iraqi funeral
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/19/iraq.main/index.html
A suicide car bomber struck a funeral ceremony Saturday evening north of Baghdad, killing at least 25 people and wounding 30 others, Iraqi police
in Abu Sayda said.
(Canada) Jihadists born here pose new threat
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=cb4b3799-46b2-4bff-b42e-852d05978222&page=1
A "secret" intelligence study obtained by the National Post says a "high percentage" of the Canadian Muslims involved in extremist activities were
born in Canada
(Jordan) 200,000 protest Amman attacks (update)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20051118-110234-2315r.htm
I presume he is talking about a real fission device and not nuclear material wrapped around high explosive...the so called dirty bomb?
If so years for a return to normality is more like decades away