Posted on 05/24/2003 8:56:34 PM PDT by null and void
US general backs Iraqi council amid boycott threat
The 30-member council's first meeting after a swearing-in ceremony was adjourned without agreement after the Arabs and Turkmen asked for more time. Chaotic scenes highlighted ethnic tensions in a city of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians.
The Arab and Turkmen delegations were angered when they failed to win representation in a block of six independent seats, which mostly ended up in Kurdish hands.
TONY SNOW, FOX NEWS: This week Congress passed a short-term $330-billion tax cut, while passing on another $20 billion in aid to states. Will that help the economy? Our latest Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll seems to show that the public is skeptical: 47 percent of the respondents said our economic worst is yet to come, while 43 percent feel prospects will improve.
Joining us to discuss tax cuts and tell us what's next on the president's plate is Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Downer discusses Al Qaeda with Iranian counterpart Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is continuing his tour of the Middle East, meeting with his Iranian counterpart in Tehran.
Mr Downer has echoed United States concerns about Al Qaeda terrorists operating in Iran to Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi.
The meeting took place as the Washington Post newspaper reported that the Pentagon was pushing for a more aggressive US policy to destabilise the Iranian Government.
Mr Downer said he had seen the newspaper report but added "the Americans haven't told me that".
The official said the U.S. had intercepts for months prior to the bombings, which showed that senior Al Qaeda operatives in Iran were communicating with Al Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia about an upcoming attack, with cryptic language suggesting the attack was going to happen in Saudi Arabia.
The operatives had been in Iran for at least months, and came there after they fled Afghanistan during the U.S. military's attack aimed at toppling the Taliban government.
The U.S. official also said there is intelligence after the Riyadh attacks that strongly suggests these operatives were pleased with their mission and involved in the attacks. The official stresses the intercepts were cryptic, with no specificity as to exact target, date or type of attack.
They said the accident happened at about 10 a.m. in the al-Thawra slum (search) as Iraqi contractors were removing four unexploded Iraqi missiles left over from the war.
Army Lt. Col. Joel Armstrong identified the rockets as SA2 surface-to-air-missiles. But he said he had no information on the explosion or the number of casualties. No U.S. soldier was involved in the destruction of the missiles, he said.
NORFOLK, VA. — A sailor whose ship was returning home from deployment in the Persian Gulf died after he fell overboard in the Atlantic Ocean about 900 miles off the Virginia coast, military officials said Saturday.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Dwayne Williams, 23, of Philadelphia, was killed Friday after falling from the USS Nassau, an amphibious assault ship based in Norfolk.
Commander Ernest Duplessis, a spokesman for the Navy's Second Fleet, said Williams' fall appeared to be accidental, but would not offer details.
The ship's captain said Williams was chasing a football when he tripped and fell overboard.
Capt. Russell Tjepkema said Williams was wearing coveralls and boots, which would have weighed him down, and did not have a lifejacket. He said authorities searched Friday until it became too dark to continue trying.
"My mind tells me this is the right thing to do, but my heart tells me to go back and look for the guy," he told CNN.
Duplessis said there were 8- to 10-foot seas, and the water temperature was approximately 64 degrees. He estimated that a person could survive for about 3 hours in those waters.
TONY SNOW, FOX NEWS: Today on Fox News Sunday, a crucial Israeli cabinet meeting on the fate of President Bush's Middle East peace plan. [...] The cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approved President Bush's so-called road map to peace in the Middle East. [...]
Let's talk a little bit about what's going on in the Middle East.
Dwayne Williams
'The worst day in the ship's life'
Dwayne Williams, a 23-year old petty officer third class from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was chasing a football Friday morning when he tripped and fell over the side of the ship, plunging 70 feet into the Atlantic, said Capt. Russell Tjepkema.
"Dwayne Williams was an absolutely fine sailor," Tjepkema said. "Everybody knew him on the ship. I knew him personally. He was cheerful, good humored, and he talked about his wife and mom and grandma a lot."
Democrats Question Whether Bush 'Hyped' Iraq Threat
By Vicki Allen WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Senate Democrats on Sunday said they believed the Bush administration either exaggerated the threat posed by Iraq, or may have had faulty intelligence on its alleged weapons of mass destruction.
Joe Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the administration "hyped" Iraq's potential for developing nuclear arms and for using other weapons of mass destruction, but said he expected such weapons will be found.
Rally For America: 20,000+ gather at MU stadium in support of America’s troops
The Herald-Dispatch ^ | 5/25/03 | JEAN TARBETT
HUNTINGTON -- Kyle Smithson couldn’t say the words.
"Just because," he said with tears in his eyes, summing up the reason he drove from Cincinnati to Huntington, painted USMC on his forehead for "United States Marine Corps" and carted flags and signs into Marshall University Stadium Saturday.
When the former Marine found his voice, he managed an explanation: "To thank the ones who have come home and the ones who didn’t come home and to thank the families of both."
Smithson did not send that message alone. An estimated 20,000 to 25,000 patriots found their way to Huntington on Saturday from various parts of the country for the Rally for America. Philadelphia-based radio talk show host Glenn Beck hosted the event as the finale to his series of rallies throughout what he calls the "real America."
They came in caravans, on buses and planes, from as far east as New Hampshire and as far west as California. The sea of green usually sweeping the home side of the stadium on Saturday was replaced by red, white and blue.
Cheering in support of their nation, president and troops, participants wore stars and stripes on T-shirts, high-tops, sun visors and even pajama pants. Children sat atop their parents’ shoulders, waving American flags in a warm breeze under a blue sky.
That sky filled with white doves, released early in the program representing freedom, and later with red, white and blue balloons, released in the final bars of Lee Greenwood’s "God Bless the USA."
"It was beautiful," said Valerie Gilbert of Charleston. "It was like family -- everybody on the same page and supporting the same thing. It’s something I hope they have more of so I can raise my daughter to know how many people support America."
~~~
Troops of the Black Diamond Girl Scouts Council of Scott Terrace 
Members of the Huntington Outdoor Theater Group
| The colonel's mistake was to be decisive, humane and charismatic |
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The Telegraph, by Kevin Myers - 5/25/2003
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| War crime," intoned half a dozen newspapers. "War crime," agreed the Press Association and Reuters. "Special Investigation Branch investigates," everyone announced. Well, what's been going on? Prisoners being bumped off, children machine-gunned, hospital ships sunk? At worst, at the very worst, a Ba'athist thug was hit over the head with a pistol, and kicked in the bottom, by a British Army officer, Lt Col Tim Collins of the Royal Irish Regiment. |
| Rabbis create special seder to welcome troops home |
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The Philadelphia Inquirer, by Kristin E. Holmes - 5/25/2003
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| Jewish military families celebrating return of loved ones from Iraq now have a ritual, adapting Passovert hemes and rites. The "Seder of Safe Return" is designed to welcome home members of the armed services and give people who gather for the ritual meal a chance to reflect. Organizers say the new seder sheni, a delayed observance of last month's Passover ritual, is the first ceremony ever developed for Jewish personnel returning from conflict abroad. |
| Associated Press, by Bob Thomas |
| - 5/25/2003 |
| One hundred years ago Thursday, a son named |
| Mugabe ratchets up the terror |
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Toronto Star, by Basildon Peta (of London Independent) - 5/25/2003
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| Zimbabwe appears to be headed for more chaos and bloodshed after the main opposition party said it would launch a series of June street protests dubbed ''the final push for freedom.'' Buoyed by the success of its two-day national protest in March, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says it is prepared to mobilize Zimbabweans to deal with President Robert Mugabe's regime ''once and for all.'' |
He's banned the Baathists from government, ordered Iraqis to disarm and consigned Saddam Hussein's military to history's trash bin.
L. Paul Bremer has all but said there's a new sheriff in town, yet the U.S. civilian administrator's difficult task has just begun to restore order and basic public services and show that the American effort to rebuild post-war Iraq is advancing steadily.
DONALD H. RUMSFELD was responsible for planning the war in Iraq, he was responsible for overseeing the conduct of the war in Iraq, and today he is responsible for the wreck that is Iraq.
How misguided has American policy been? In just the three weeks after Baghdad fell, things got so bad so fast that the American in charge there, Jay Garner, had to be given the boot. The long-standing American promise that authority would be quickly turned over to an interim government has now been scrapped - which is a smart move, but a graphic confession that the original idea wasn't working out at all.
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