Posted on 03/03/2008 10:30:39 AM PST by Bahbah
yep and gold opened at $988.00 per oz.
I’m glad you approve of the carpet choice :)
I definitely had your coffee habit in mind.
Ecuador cuts ties with Colombia BBC News
Ecuador has cut diplomatic ties with Colombia in a deepening crisis over a cross-border raid by Colombian troops. Venezuela also said it was expelling all Colombian diplomats in the wake of the raid, which killed senior Farc rebel Raul Reyes and 16 others. Ecuador and Venezuela have deployed troops to their borders amid calls for restraint led by the head of the UN. Bogota has accused both states of having ties with the Farc and says the rebels have tried to buy uranium. Colombian national...
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/03/04/Ecuador_cuts_ties_with_Colombia/
Chavez Saber-Rattling Doesn’t Mean War AOL Read Full Article
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Judging by the fever-pitch rhetoric, the Andes region was girding for war on Monday. The leftist presidents of Venezuela and Ecuador recalled ambassadors from Bogota and began moving tanks and troops to reinforce their borders with Colombia. But will this political theater lead to war? Probably not. Relations have clearly hit a new low between President Alvaro Uribe and his leftist neighbors. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela warned darkly that Colombia and its U.S....
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/03/04/Chavez_SaberRattling_Doesnt_Mean_War_u/
More boggling.
Humanitarian Aid Flows into Gaza, Missiles and Mortars Fly Out
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Even as Palestinian Authority terrorists continue to launch mortar and missile attacks at Israel, Jerusalem has given the go-ahead to open crossings into Gaza so trucks can deliver medical and other supplies to the region.
For the second time in three days, truckloads of humanitarian aid made their way from Israel into Gaza through the Sufa Crossing.
In addition, Israeli officials approved passage through the Kerem Shalom Crossing. It is the first time the terminal has been open since a spate of terror alerts seven weeks ago prompted the IDF to close the crossing.
Early Tuesday morning, 80 trucks rumbled through the two terminals and into southern Gaza carrying medications and other medical supplies.
Sixty of the trucks passed through the Sufa Crossing with supplies donated by Jordan and Turkey. Two days earlier, Israel sent 62 trucks loaded with cases of fresh units of blood as well as basic food stuffs such as flour, sugar, salt and oil.
Twenty more trucks laden with other humanitarian supplies drove through the Kerem Shalom Crossing.
The decision by Major-General Yosef Mishlav, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, to open the crossings for delivery of supplies into Gaza came after a request by PA Health Minister Fathi Abu Mogli. According to a report by The Jerusalem Post, the PA official specifically requested supplies from Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals firm.
Hospitals in Gaza have complained they are overloaded with people wounded in clashes between PA terrorists and IDF forces, seriously taxing doctors’ ability to treat those who arrive in their emergency rooms.
Egypt opened its border at the Rafiah crossing Sunday to allow 150-200 sick and wounded Gaza residents to enter the country for medical care.
On Monday, two Israeli hospitals accepted seriously ill patients and wounded Gaza residents for advanced treatment as well.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125459
” Chavez Saber-Rattling Doesn’t Mean War “
I’ve seen a lot of this “whistling past the graveyard” sentiment the past couple of days.....
Situations involving massed troops along borders tend to take on a life of their own — even if Hugo doesn’t actually *intend* to enter armed conflict at this time, any small incident can - and will - spiral out of control...
And, to be sure, I’m not as sanguine about Hugo’s intentions, or lack thereof, as are most of the commentators — it’s time to blow the dust off of one of my favorite cautionary aphorisms: “Never assume that your enemy is making the same calculations that you are..”
Could be.
I don’t “know” the situation and players there yet so I’m just gathering “data points” right now.
Meanwhile, in the rainbows and colored balloons world of Condi and the State Department —
Rice to focus on Gaza-Egypt border-—Peace Still Possible in 2008
Jerusalem Post ^ | 3-4-08
Posted on 03/04/2008 7:01:05 AM CST by SJackson
Rice to focus on Gaza-Egypt border
The Palestinian Authority is expecting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to provide it with a “face-saving device” that will allow it to return to negotiations with Israel, according to assessments in Jerusalem on the eve of Rice’s visit.
US Secretary of State Rice to visit the region
Rice is scheduled to arrive at noon Tuesday, after spending some five hours in Egypt. The prevalent feeling in Jerusalem is that despite the recent flare-up in Gaza, her discussions in Cairo will focus on securing an agreement between Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas regarding the border situation. Such an agreement, according to this assessment, would be the incentive to get the Palestinian Authority back to the negotiating table.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas suspended talks with Israel on Sunday because of the fighting in the Gaza Strip.
According to official assessments in Jerusalem, the PA does not want to call off the negotiations, if for no other reason than continuing talks is the only card it holds.
“Without the negotiations, the Palestinian Authority doesn’t have anything,” one senior government official said. “The fact is that the international community pledged billions of dollars to them in Paris because of [the PA’s] commitment to Annapolis and negotiations. If they stop the negotiations, they will lose that international support, and without that, they have nothing - they don’t have Gaza, and they barely have control of the West Bank.”
According to this official, the IDF’s surprise pullout from Gaza on Monday was timed to coincide with Rice’s visit, in order to give her an opportunity to try to work out some kind of border agreement.
When Rice’s visit was first planned several weeks ago, it was expected to focus on two main issues: coming up with some kind of security regimen on the Gaza-Egypt border following the breach there in January, and pushing the diplomatic process with the Palestinians forward.
The intensified fighting in Gaza, however, threatened to change the focus of her talks completely.
“The fact that we stopped the military action allows her to go back to the original aims, to address an agreement on Rafah,” the official said.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, at a meeting with the foreign diplomatic corps in Jerusalem Monday, stressed that the IDF leaving Gaza Monday morning did not mean that Israel’s actions there were over.
[it’s a long article — more at link....]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980098/posts
Here’s a story that sends visions of Kennedy-Castro-CIA dancing through my head.....
‘Bush approved plot to oust Hamas’
Jerusalem Post ^ | 3-4-08
Posted on 03/04/2008 7:12:44 AM CST by SJackson
US President George W. Bush is said to have approved a covert initiative to overthrow the Hamas government shortly after Hamas won the January 2006 parliamentary election, according to confidential documents obtained by Vanity Fair magazine.
The documents, which have been corroborated by sources at the US State Department and Palestinian officials, reveal that the plan was supposed to be implemented by the State Department.
The report confirms allegations by Hamas and other Palestinians that the US has been supplying Fatah with weapons and money so that its forces could bring down the Hamas government. Some senior Fatah officials have also accused the US of “meddling” in Palestinian affairs by encouraging Fatah to work toward toppling the Hamas government.
The magazine said that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliott Abrams were entrusted with provoking a Palestinian civil war, in which forces led by Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan - fortified with new weapons supplied at America’s behest - would remove the democratically elected, Hamas-led government.
The State Department, according to Vanity Fair, declined to comment.
The magazine quoted a former US intelligence official with experience in covert plans that said the plan was “close to the margins” with regards to its legality. But, he added, “it probably wasn’t illegal.”
The report said that instead of driving its enemies out of power, the US-backed Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize total control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
David Wurmser, who resigned as Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief Middle East adviser a month after the Hamas takeover, said he believed that Hamas had no intention of taking over the Gaza Strip until Fatah forced its hand.
“It looks to me that what happened wasn’t so much a coup by Hamas but an attempted coup by Fatah that was preempted before it could happen,” he was quoted as saying. Wurmser said that the Bush administration engaged in a “dirty war in an effort to provide a corrupt dictatorship [led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] with victory.”
Wurmser said he was especially galled by the Bush administration’s hypocrisy. “There is a stunning disconnect between the president’s call for Middle East democracy and this policy,” he said. “It directly contradicts it.”
Neocon critics of the administration told the magazine that the old State Department vice of rushing to anoint a strongman rather than solving problems directly had led to the terrible missteps in the Gaza Strip.
To rely on proxies such as Dahlan, former UN ambassador John Bolton said, was “an institutional failure, a failure of strategy.” Bolton blamed Rice, saying Rice, “like others in the dying days of this administration, is looking for a legacy. Having failed to heed the warning not to hold the elections, they tried to avoid the result through Dayton.” Lieutenant General Keith Dayton was the US security coordinator for the Palestinians, who reached a secret agreement with Dahlan to strengthen Fatah’s forces.
According to three US officials, Bush referred to Dahlan as “our guy,” a sentiment that was shared by Rice and Assistant Secretary David Welch, the man in charge of Middle East policy at the State Department.
The report uncovers three different confidential memos that describe the covert plan: One, prepared by US Consul-General in Jerusalem Jake Walles, states how the Bush Administration intended for him to tell Abbas in Ramallah in 2006 to dissolve the Hamas government if it would not recognize Israel, promising the US would back him if he did.
“We believe that the time has come for you to move quickly and decisively,” the text reads. “If Hamas does not agree within the prescribed time, you should make clear your intention to declare a state of emergency and form an emergency government explicitly committed to that platform. If you act along these lines we will support you both materially and politically... We will be there to support you.”
The second memo, drawn up by the State Department, asserts that means had to be found to produce an “endgame” by the end of 2007 for Abbas to remove Hamas from power by collapsing the government, and that he must be given the means to strengthen his forces.
According to the Vanity Fair report, the third memo, described as a US “action plan” for the PA president, set out a plan by which Abbas would fire his own Fatah-Hamas “unity” government and rely on a security deal between Dahlan and Dayton to strengthen Fatah’s forces.
Meanwhile, the magazine said, US officials led by Rice had spent several months begging Arab governments for money in order to supply Fatah’s forces with new weapons from Egypt under a previously undisclosed covert US program - a scheme described by some sources as “Iran-Contra 2.”
Dahlan goes on the record about these events for the first time, saying that despite pleas from Fatah that they were unprepared for elections, Bush pushed ahead. “Everyone was against the elections,” Dahlan is quoted as saying. “Everyone except Bush. Bush decided, “I need an election. I want elections in the Palestinian Authority.”
Following Hamas’s victory, “everyone blamed everyone else,” the report quotes an official with the Department of Defense as saying. “We sat there in the Pentagon and said, “Who the f*** recommended this?”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980107/posts
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oops......
“Through the Looking Glass”.....
U.S. waived congressional restriction on Egypt aid
Reuters ^ | 3-4-08
Posted on 03/04/2008 7:27:06 AM CST by SJackson
CAIRO (Reuters) - The Bush administration has released $100 million in military aid to Egypt after telling the U.S. Congress the money was necessary for national security reasons.
At a joint news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Cairo, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters she had waived the congressional restrictions that had withheld the amount.
“I have exercised on behalf of the United States the waiver in terms of Egyptian assistance ... The Bush administration sought to have that flexibility. We believe that this relationship with Egypt is an important one and that the waiver was the right thing to do,” Rice said.
Congress had withheld the sum until the administration certified Egypt had done enough to protect the independence of the judiciary, curb police abuses and put a stop to arms smuggling from Egypt to Gaza.
But it also gave the administration an option to waive the restrictions “in the national security interest of the United States”.
Hamas took control of Gaza in June, prompting Israel to tighten its military and economic cordon around the coastal territory. But Israel said in December that Egypt was doing a “terrible” job of stopping arms smuggling to Gaza through the Sinai peninsula.
In turn Egypt accused Israel of encouraging pro-Israeli groups in the United States to lobby members of the U.S. Congress to the detriment of Egyptian interests, specifically by persuading Congress to withhold the aid.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Israel of fabricating evidence to implicate Egypt and Aboul Gheit threatened diplomatic reprisals against the Jewish state.
Rice added: “I have said to the foreign minister even today the importance the United States attaches to democracy and reform in Egypt and the importance that we attach to progress on those fronts. But yes, I have exercised the waiver.”
The U.S. administration has gradually softened criticism of Egypt’s rights record in the years since 2005, and analysts say an easing of U.S. public pressure on Egypt has given the state a freer hand over the past year to act against critics in the run-up to an eventual transition of power from Mubarak who, at 79, has been in power for 26 years.
Rice arrived in the region on Tuesday to try to persuade Israelis and Palestinians to quickly resume U.S.-sponsored peace talks suspended over a recent Israeli offensive.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980117/posts
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From the article, with my added emphasis —
“U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters *SHE* had waived the congressional restrictions that had withheld the amount. “
Related topic.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mar 3, 2008 1:34 | Updated Mar 3, 2008 23:52
Army aims ‘to topple Hamas regime’
he government has yet to define or approve the overall goals of the current military campaign in the Gaza Strip, and will wait until Wednesday - after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit - to do so, senior government officials said Sunday night.
Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post the IDF had short-term goals for a limited offensive, such as the one now under way, dubbed “Hot Winter,” and longer-term goals for a larger operation.
The longer-term goals for an IDF operation that has not yet been approved by the government include “weakening and even bringing down the Hamas government,” the officials said.
The other goals of a much broader operation in Gaza include putting an end to the rocket fire and dramatically reducing the smuggling of arms from Egypt into Gaza.
he short-term goals are to shift Israeli cities out of Kassam range, which explains the current IDF activity near the Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip; delivering a heavy blow to Hamas; and hitting the Kassam production line.
“Israel wants to stop the rocket fire,” one senior official said. “If it is done through diplomatic means, that’s one way. But if it isn’t, then we will have to do it militarily.”
The official said it was no coincidence that the security cabinet was not meeting until Wednesday to discuss the government’s goals and aims in Gaza, after the Rice visit, to see if her intervention would put an end to Hamas’s rocket fire.
The officials said that if Rice were able to bring about calm by getting Hamas to stop the attacks, it was unlikely that the government would go ahead on Wednesday and okay a widespread ground push into Gaza.
Rice is scheduled to go to Egypt before coming to Israel on Tuesday. Since most of the international community does not talk directly to Hamas, Egypt is the mediator.
Senior government officials said the IDF was likely to scale back its activities on Monday night, so as not to embarrass Rice with a major conflagration when she arrived on Tuesday.
The sources said the level of the fighting tapered off on Sunday, largely because the combat was most intense when the IDF first penetrated into Gaza. Once the army was deployed there, the intensity diminished, as those who resisted were either killed or retreated.
Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, meanwhile, said that since Wednesday, an average of 50 rockets had hit the South per day, including 13 Grad missiles in Ashkelon. He said about 100 Palestinians had been killed in the fighting and that, despite media reports that the majority were civilians, 90 were terrorists.
Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), illustrated at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday the Palestinian use of the civilian population by telling the story of an elderly man from Jabalya who was filmed driving a wagon that carried a Grad missile. When the wagon went past a grove of trees, two men came out, took the missile out of the wagon and set it up to fire. That incident was captured on film.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, meanwhile, told the cabinet that the current round of fighting was “unavoidable” and must be seen as part of efforts to create a “different equation” in the South.
OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin expanded on this and provided the ministers with an overall assessment of what Hamas was trying to do by increasing its rocket fire, saying that the organization’s decision to bombard Israeli communities was connected to its own strategic situation.
Having been in power now for more than two years, Hamas was dissatisfied with its overall situation and decided that it needed to take dramatic action to reshuffle the deck, Yadlin said.
“Hamas is not pleased with the current situation,” Yadlin was quoted as telling the cabinet. He ticked off a number of factors working against the Islamist group: the Quartet conditions for talking to Hamas have remained in place for two years; very few countries are willing to speak to them; a diplomatic process is under way with the Palestinian Authority; and the Annapolis process runs contrary to the organization’s overall strategy.
“All those pressures - diplomatic, economic and military - brought Hamas in the last two months to the conclusion that its situation is unbearable, and they need to break the siege and create a new military balance against Israel,” Yadlin said.
He added that Israel’s killing of a “high-quality” terrorist cell on Wednesday, made up of operatives who had trained in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, was also a severe blow to the Islamist organization.
Yadlin said Hamas was trying to create new rules for the game. However, he added, “I want to say that with all attention on the South, when I look at the threats on Israel, I remember Iran, Syria and Hizbullah. The fact that they are not shooting now does not mean that they are outside of the battle. The opposite is true. They are all looking to see how this will end, and how this will end [will significantly affect] how they will act.”
Diskin, meanwhile, said Hamas was fundamentally interested in further establishing its control in Gaza, and once that was consolidated, wanted to move to take over the West Bank as well. Diskin said Hamas wanted to create a new balance of terror, whereby Israel’s killings of Hamas leaders would be met by barrages on Israeli cities in the South.
“They are trying to create a new balance of terror to create calm, so they can consolidate their strength in Gaza and then move to the next level: taking over in Judea and Samaria,” Diskin said
Hamas signaled by firing fewer rockets on Friday that it was interested in calming down the situation, and was surprised that Israel responded with a massive offensive on Saturday, he said.
Palestinians in the West Bank were beginning to show signs of solidarity with Gaza, Diskin said, but he didn’t envision masses taking to the streets on Monday. That didn’t mean, however, that there would not be attempts to carry out a terror attack from the West Bank as a sign of solidarity, he said.
One of the things that troubles me about the Vanity Fair report (Vanity Fair????) is that it was no secret that we were supplying Fatah with weapons and other support. I mean, if we on this thread knew it, it can hardly have been a secret.
Also, while John Bolton is a blunt and plain spoken man, the remarks attributed to him sound positively catty which is something I haven’t seen before.
I don’t trust anyone :(
Suicide car bomb kills Afghan policeman, wounds 4
Tue Mar 4, 2008 5:29am EST
KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) - A suicide car bomber killed an Afghan policeman and wounded four others in an attack on a government building in the southeastern province of Khost on Tuesday, the district governor said.
The attack in the Tani district of Khost, close to the Pakistan border, came a day after Taliban insurgents opened fire on guards on a joint NATO and Afghan military compound in another part of the same province then rammed a truck bomb into the base.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Tuesday two of its soldiers were killed and 15 people were wounded in Monday’s attack in the district of Sabri.
The vast majority of ISAF troops in Khost are American.
The Taliban carried out more suicide and roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan last year after suffering heavy casualties whenever they engage Afghan and foreign troops in direct combat.
As snows melt across the mountainous country, both sides in the conflict are gearing up for the traditional Spring start of the fighting season.
(Reporting by Elyas Wahdat; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by David Fogarty)
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL32329920080304?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
” I don’t trust anyone :( :
I know — but it was just too juicy (and funny) a story (in the classic “Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” genre) to pass up..... ;~)
Besides — everybody else in the world has “Classified Government Documents”, so why not Vanity Fair?? ;~)
What to say, what to think!
In God I trust - all others pay cash ;)
Israel has said many times that she will not negotiate while under fire.
I agree with that position.
“Fewer” rockets is still “under fire” - I don’t expect much progress in the “peace process”.
Another trip around the mulberry bush... (yawn...)
Russia, China block UN Iran resolution
Yahoonews ^ | March 4, 2008 | GEORGE JAHN
Posted on 03/04/2008 7:56:43 AM CST by processing please hold
VIENNA, Austria - Russia and China on Tuesday scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran’s nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said.
The decision appeared to be the result of lingering unhappiness by the two world powers about not being informed earlier of plans for such a resolution.
It came a day after the U.N. Security Council imposed another round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran defiantly vowed to continue its nuclear program, which it insists is aimed only at generating power.
Moscow on Monday had threatened not to back the new U.N. sanctions against Iran unless the West gave up its IAEA resolution plans.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1980141/posts
Neat story.
Just wish for once that I could look at anything out of the MSM without wondering more about the political/policy objective of the piece than any kernel of fact it might contain.
I’m afraid that as soon as I see any reference to “neocon” in a so-called news story, my attention span drops to nanoseconds. Naming Bush as simultaneously idiot and a dark master of events cuts that by a few orders of magnitude.
Yawn.
Suppose somebody will run a real live honest-to-God news organization anytime before hell freezes over?
” wondering more about the political/policy objective of the piece than any kernel of fact it might contain. “
It does take a healthy skepticism - and a strong stomach...
Having said that, I posted the story more as a “just for fun” than as a serious ‘dot’ to be considered....
(Besides, anything that makes the State Dept look as silly as they really are is just okay in my book... ;~))
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