Posted on 05/19/2003 9:02:22 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
This is the Daily Thread of Operation Infinite Freedom, formerly Operation Iraqi Freedom - Situation Room - LIVE THREAD.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In depth discussion of events should be left to individual threads - but links to the threads or other articles is highly encouraged. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information.
Hehehe, I felt like kidding around tonight.
President Bush and first lady Laura Bush poses with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo at the North Portico of the White House before the start of the State Dinner, Monday, May 19, 2003, in Washington. Arroyo is getting America's version of the royal treatment, a state visit featuring a day full of pomp and glitter that President Bush reserves for courting the most crucial of friends. At rear are honor guard members.
Guests stand as President Bush and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo prepare to exit the East Room of the White House following the conclusion of the entertainment portion of the State Dinner, Monday, May 19, 2003, in Washington. Arroyo is getting America's version of the royal treatment, a state visit featuring a day full of pomp and glitter that President Bush reserves for courting the most crucial of friends.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo , right, waves, followed by President Bush, and first Lady Laura Bush after hosting the entertainment portion of the State Dinner in the East Room of the White House Monday, May 19, 2003, in Washington. Arroyo is getting America's version of the royal treatment, a state visit featuring a day full of pomp and glitter that President Bush reserves for courting the most crucial of friends.
Secretary of State Colin Powell escorts Philippine President Gloria Arroyo out of the State Department in Washington Monday, May 19, 2003, after their meeting. Earlier the president met with President Bush at the White House and tonight will attend a State Dinner in her honor at the White House.
President Bush center, delivers opening remarks before the toast for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo during the start of the State Dinner in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, May 19, 2003, in Washington. Arroyo is getting America's version of the royal treatment, a state visit featuring a day full of pomp and glitter that President Bush reserves for courting the most crucial of friends.
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Bill Frist R-Tenn., left, and Lynne Cheney, right, wife of the vice president Dick Cheney take their seats in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, May 19, 2003, in Washington. The two where guests at the State Dinner for Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
President Bush right, leans in to share a toast with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in the State Dinning Room of the White House, Monday, May 19, 2003, in Washington. Arroyo is getting America's version of the royal treatment, a state visit featuring a day full of pomp and glitter that President Bush reserves for courting the most crucial of friends.
President Bush stands with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as a member of the honor guard carries the U.S. flag into the Grand Foyer of the White House, Monday, May 19, 2003, in Washington. Arroyo is getting America's version of the royal treatment, a state visit featuring a day full of pomp and glitter that President Bush reserves for courting the most crucial of friends.
President Bush and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo followed by first lady Laura Bush and Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo, husdand of President Arroyo, arrive in the Grand Foyer of the White House, Monday, May 19, 2003, in Washington. Arroyo is getting America's version of the royal treatment, a state visit featuring a day full of pomp and glitter that President Bush reserves for courting the most crucial of friends.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 20 (Tuesday) -- Members of an al Qaeda cell are believed to have fled Saudi Arabia for the United States or Europe shortly before the recent bombings here, and U.S. and Saudi officials fear an imminent attack on U.S. soil or against Americans overseas, a Saudi official with access to intelligence material from the United States and the kingdom said today.
ElBaradei: Deeply concerned
The Bush administration has responded coolly to a request from the UN's nuclear agency that its experts be allowed to return to Iraq.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed ElBaradei, expressed concern about the looting and destruction of nuclear sites.
Steven Hatfill has denied involvement in the anthrax attacks of 2001 and has said he is planning several lawsuits.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steven Hatfill, under FBI surveillance in the anthrax investigation, was issued a ticket after an altercation this weekend with an agent, officials said.
The DNA carried to Israel by British policemen answered one question about the rapidly decomposing corpse found floating off a Tel Aviv beach a week ago but it raised many more that may never be resolved.
Israel's state forensics institute yesterday confirmed a week of speculation that the body hauled out of the sea was that of the missing British suicide bomber, Omar Khan Sharif, the 27-year-old father of two from Derby who slipped into Israel, strapped several pounds of explosive to his body three weeks ago and then fought with the people he had been trying to kill when the bomb failed to detonate. After that he ran off into the darkness.
Does the United Nations have the will to stop the killing in Congo?
This week UN security council members face a stark choice: deploy a robust intervention force to protect tens of thousands of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri region, or let the UN's underpowered Monuc force muddle along and withdraw if fighting escalates. Thousands of lives are threatened by gun battles and machete-wielding militias, as well as by disease and hunger.
We are facing a world standing at the crossroads
Said K Aburish Los Angeles Times, May 18 "The bombings at three complexes housing westerners in Riyadh last week made one thing clear: the Saudi royal family does not have the kingdom as firmly under its thumb as it once did. When the country's ailing 81-year-old ruler, King Fahd, dies, control could rapidly deteriorate... Saudi Arabia's most striking problem is economic. Once flush with oil money, the west's most important Arab ally among the Gulf states is now going bust in the face of lower oil prices...
The invasion of Iraq was a "single campaign in a much larger war" against the Bush administration's "axis of evil", the conference was told.
"Iraq was not a war, Iraq was a battle," said John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org, an American defence policy research group.
AS THE Bush administration took office in January 2001, Iran presented a classic nuclear proliferation challenge that appeared to be manageable with traditional non-proliferation tools.
Today, however, America believes the challenge is far more serious than previously thought, and that the tools for addressing it are no longer sufficient.
LONDON (Reuters) - Moroccan police have found a suspected suicide bombers' lair in Casablanca as a senior Washington official conceded there was no end in sight to the "war on terror".
After a week when suicide bombers killed dozens of Arabs and foreigners in the Saudi capital Riyadh and Morocco, there was evidence Osama bin Laden's Islamists were regrouping. One expert said al Qaeda had a new military chief to replace the alleged mastermind of September 11, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
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