Posted on 06/11/2003 9:32:56 PM PDT by null and void
Good Morning.
Welcome to the daily thread of Operation Infinite Freedom - Situation Room.
It is designed for general conversation about the ongoing war on terror, and the related events of the day. In addition to the ongoing conversations related to terrorism and our place in it's ultimate defeat, this thread is a clearinghouse of links to War On Terrorism threads. This allows us to stay abreast of the situation in general, while also providing a means of obtaining specific information and mutual support.
WASHINGTON — President Bush's foreign policy team knew that the meticulously crafted photo opportunities of last week's Middle East summit in Aqaba, Jordan, would almost certainly be followed by grisly pictures from the region when opponents of peace on both sides resumed their deadly cycle of violence.
But the harsh reality of Wednesday's bus bombing in Jerusalem clearly rocked the administration. The bombing, which left 16 Israelis dead, was the bloodiest attack in a week of violence that has killed nearly 40 people on both sides.
"It is clear there are people in the Middle East who hate peace," Bush said. "I urge and call upon all of the free world, nations which love peace, to not only condemn the killings, but to use every ounce of their power to prevent them from happening in the future."
He should thank God for Islamist terrorism, for otherwise he would not have the perfect reason for toppling countries that either go off the dollar standard or threaten to do so.
Saddam did in 2000, when he asked the UN and was granted permission to do all his oil sales under the "food for oil" program in euro instead of dollars. Look what happened to him.
In August of 2002, Iran has made similar noises and has converted more than half of its forex reserves from dollars to euros - and look at whose doorstep we are after taking Saddam out of the picture? I haven't heard the Iranians talk about switching to euro ever since.
Few poeple realize how big a threat the euro is to the US and its dollar.
1. Russia and China's central banks have begun to sell dollars and stock up on euros instead for their monetary reserves.
2. Malaysia and Indonesia, both oil produicers and OPEC members,have voewd to do the same.
3. Then-OPEC chief, Javad Yarjani, (he may still be) gave a speech at a Seminar in Spain on the International Role of the Euro on April 14, 2002. During that speech he presented a virtual "how to" lesson in what the OPEC countries expect from the Euro nations before they would "convert" to euro for all of their oil transactions.
If OPEC goes euro, other western nations will have no reason to hold much in terms of dollars anymore. They'll buy euros instead to buy oil from the Arabs.
Having taken Iraq, the US forces now sit smack dead in the middle of OPEC land, next door to Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the gulf emirates. One more "euro" noise from them and they will have a US liberation force in their country as well.
Not that terrorism isn't real, or that the danger isn't real, nor that we shouldn't defend ourselves. But there are whales swimming under the surface, and we see only ripples. Those whales have the euro sign written all over them.
Research "euro vs dollar" on the net. This stuff will "guide" US Policy decisions from now on until the euro is no longer a threat, or until the US is an economic superpower no more.
Problem is, the dollar is essentially deefenseless. Only military intervention can stop the trend - which Bush has apparently understood completely.
Question: How long can we keep that up?
EW
JERUSALEM — The failed assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi is likely to weaken the already precarious position of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and to herald a new wave of terrorist attacks against Israelis.
This was the assessment of most Israeli analysts even before the Hamas-backed suicide bombing in Jerusalem Wednesday and Israel's retaliatory air raid in Gaza.
Prime Minister Sharon was roundly criticized at home and abroad for Tuesday's unsuccessful helicopter assault on Rantisi, who is considered to be second only to Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in the Hamas hierarchy. The attack was widely seen as a deliberate attempt to derail the fledgling "road map" to Middle East peace.
The Bush administration also joined in rebuking Israel, with President Bush himself saying he was "deeply troubled" by the assassination attempt. Privately, however, some American sources said the administration's public statements should be taken at less than face value. The administration itself, they said, is frustrated at Hamas attempts to undermine the legitimacy of Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, and is expressing some private sympathy with the Israeli attack.
DOHA, Qatar (Reuters) - OPEC cannot permit Iraq to attend meetings of the cartel while Baghdad remains under the rule of an occupying U.S.-led authority, oil ministers said Wednesday.
"We cannot have relations with Iraq until there is an internationally recognized government, that is a consensus," said Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez.
"This does not mean we do not want Iraq in the organization. We do want Iraq in OPEC and we think Iraq will want to stay in OPEC because they will need a reasonable price for oil," he said.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell turned up pressure on Myanmar's military rulers over the detention of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, saying he would seek action from their Asian neighbors at a meeting next week.
Powell's comments, in a signed article published in the Asian Wall Street Journal on Thursday, were the latest expression of international outrage over the treatment of the pro-democracy activist, who is now in her 13th day of detention.
"The junta that oppresses democracy in Burma (Myanmar) must find that its actions will not be allowed to stand," he said in the commentary in which he called for financial measures against Myanmar's military rulers.
Palestinians identified the bomber as Abdel Madi Shabneh, 18, a high school student from Hebron.
Israeli copter attack kills two Hamas operatives; Israel decides to fight Hamas ''by all means''
Two Palestinians were killed in another Israeli helpicopter missile strikes on Gaza City on Wednesday night. Attack helicopters fired two missiles at targets in the Gaza Strip Wednesday midnight. Palestinian sources reported two people were killed and five were wounded in the strike. All in all, ten Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli helpicopter missile strikes on Wednesday.
According to Palestinian sources, the missiles were fired at the Sabra neighborhood in Gaza City, where Hamas founder and leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin lives.
Israeli sources said that the missiles were fired at a Hamas cell that was about to launch mortar shells at the nearby Netzarim settlement.
The two dead were identified as Rami Abu Kmil and Mohammed Daghmash - members of Hamas military wing.
Meanwhile, according to the Tel Aviv-based Haaretz dail, Israeli security officials decided to continue to fight Hamas "by all means", in a meeting held late Wednesdy at the Defense Ministry.
BANGKOK: Two Thai Muslims accused of planning bomb attacks on embassies and tourist spots in Thailand have confessed and admitted belonging to the regional group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), blamed for last year's Bali bombing, police said on Wednesday.
"Two of the suspects told police that they planned to carry out attacks both against embassies in Bangkok and major tourist destinations including Phuket and Pattaya," regional police commander Paisan Thangaitrong said.
The pair, identified by police as Maisuri Haji Abdullah and his son Mayahi Haji Doloh, and medical doctor Waemahadi Wae-dao, were arrested the day before in the southern province of Narathiwat, which borders Malaysia.
The three appeared in the provincial court under tight security on Wednesday. The arrests fly in the face of repeated statements from Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that the kingdom does not harbour terrorists and remains a safe haven for the millions of tourists who flock here.
General Panlop Pinmanee, deputy director of the military's Internal Security Command, said the doctor did not admit membership of the group but had confessed to making counterfeit passports for its members.
"During interrogations the doctor admitted he prepared fake passports for JI members," he said. Singaporean officials also announced the day before that a senior Singaporean JI member, Arifin bin Ali, was arrested in Bangkok on May 16 and repatriated to the city-state a day later.
Thailand's Interior Minister Wan Muhamad Nor Matha said the two suspects who confessed said they knew Arifin and other members of JI.
A Thai police source said the targeted places included the embassies of Australia, Britain, Israel, Singapore and the United States.
A senior official from the National Intelligence Authority said on Wednesday that the organisation had monitored the three arrested men and one other suspect since receiving tip-offs from Singaporean authorities in mid-May. "It's a positive step forward in the global war on terror and we certainly commend Thai authorities for their vigilance," deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also welcomed the arrests. "I congratulate the Thai authorities on showing a strength and determination to deal with this problem," he said.
BAGHDAD, June 11 -- In the end, it was a simple promise, sealed with a handshake between a feisty Iraqi merchant and an equally spirited U.S. Army sergeant, that brought part of Palestine Street back to life at night.
But I really feel sorrow for those Palestinian children because they have never had the opportunity to know any other way. They have been taught hate since the beginning of their lives.
The US defence secretary yesterday tapped into deepening international concern about a clandestine nuclear programme in Iran, warning that Tehran was actively working to develop a bomb.
Donald Rumsfeld's remarks, delivered during a visit to Germany, appeared aimed at exerting pressure on Tehran and the UN's nuclear monitoring agency, which meets next week in Vienna to decide how to respond to Iran's failure to honour nuclear safeguards.
His intervention also appeared to advance the next project of Pentagon hawks: regime change in Tehran.
The convention has the full backing of Germany
Final push for EU constitution
The body in charge of drafting a constitution for the European Union is entering its final session with strong backing for its proposals from Germany and France.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said after talks with French President Jacques Chirac in Berlin on Tuesday that the two countries were determined to support the proposals of the Convention on the Future of Europe "without reservation".
The convention is hoping to complete the document ahead of a Friday deadline so that it can be presented to EU leaders next week.
The convention's chairman, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, said last week that a basis for consensus was emerging among the group leading the work.
But the BBC's Tim Franks in Brussels says that while there is talk of consensus there is still fierce criticism, inevitable for a constitution trying to knit together widely differing visions of the EU.
BALI, Indonesia, June 11 — A key suspect in last year's Bali bombings told an Indonesian court on Thursday he was proud of the attack that killed whites and that it served them right.
Amrozi, a 40-year-old mechanic, also said he had been involved in several bombings across Indonesia including a blast outside the home of a Philippine diplomat in 2000 that killed two people.
Amrozi is charged with plotting, organising and carrying out crimes of terror and causing mass casualties in the October 12 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.
When asked how he felt about the impact of the Bali attack, Amrozi told the court: ''There's some pride in my heart. For the white people, it serves them right.''
Amrozi, testifying at his own trial for the first time, also said he was ''more than remorseful'' for the Balinese.
He said he had helped prepare explosives for the blast at the Manila envoy's Jakarta residence, bomb attacks in the eastern city of Ambon between 1999 and 2002 and at various churches on Christmas Eve 2000.
He described how the bomb that exploded in a van outside the packed Sari Club in Bali had been given the code name ''dodol,'' an Indonesian sweet.
''The car was brought here then it was laden with a bomb and it was destroyed,'' he said. ''It was brought here for the purpose of bombing.''
Wearing a black and white Muslim prayer cap and a white shirt, Amrozi appeared relaxed as he sat in the centre of the makeshift courtroom and chuckled as he explained how he and alleged bomb plotter Imam Samudra referred to the bomb by its code name.
''We did not say bomb because we did not want others to know. Nobody should know about it, so how could we say bomb? We usually said we were delivering dodol,'' he said.
Samudra, a 33-year-old computer expert, told the court on Wednesday that he had come up with the idea of attacking the United States and its allies but Amrozi had chosen Indonesia's famous tourist island as the target.
Amrozi, the first key suspect to go on trial over the October 12 attacks, has been dubbed the laughing bomber by the media because of his behaviour during the pre-trial investigation.
The Bali attack was the worst since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Many officials suspect the Southeast Asian militant Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah was responsible. Indonesian police and some Asian and Western governments believe the Jemaah Islamiah is closely linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda.
Police have arrested more than 30 men over the Bali bombings.
Amrozi's trial was adjourned until June 16.
The ceasefire was due to end at midnight on Wednesday (1600 GMT), but the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said it had extended the deadline following a request by the Malaysian Government, which often mediates between the rebels and Jakarta.
The Philippine military's vice chief of staff, Lieutenant General Rodolfo Garcia, welcomed the ceasefire extension as a "positive move".
But he said the government still wanted a "permanent ceasefire... that would ensure the continuation of the peace talks".
The original 10-day ceasefire began on 2 June, after the military launched a series of intense aerial and artillery attacks to hunt down what President Gloria Arroyo termed "terrorist cells".
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