Monday, January 29, 2007

LAYKOFF ALERT!! --- A DEMOCRAT MAKES A "FRAME"


Biden: 'Failed policy' emboldens enemy

By HOPE YEN, Associated Press Writer Sun Jan 28, 3:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON -

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman on Sunday dismissed criticism a resolution opposing a troop buildup in
Iraq would embolden the enemy and estimated perhaps only 20 senators believe
President Bush "is headed in the right direction."


"It's not the American people or the U.S. Congress who are emboldening the enemy," said Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and White House hopeful in 2008. "It's the failed policy of this president — going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely."

Globalization And The Davos Spectacle


Thanks Palestinian Pundit

Chavez: “Capitalism must be transcended”


Redacted from an article by Alan Woods

In Jan, 2005, Venezuelan President Chavez gave a speech at the Gigantinho Stadium at the closing session of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In this speech, President Chavez gave further indications of the direction in which the Bolivarian Revolution is moving. This speech, reported in Venezuelanalysis.com (Caracas, Jan 30, 2005), deserves to be studied by every conscious worker and revolutionary youth.

The Bolivarian Revolution started out as a national democratic revolution, aimed at freeing the people of Venezuela from the rule of a corrupt and degenerate oligarchy that acted as the local agency of imperialism.

The recent nationalisation of Venepal and decree on agrarian reform marked a clear turn of the Revolution in the direction of a decisive confrontation with its enemies.

U.S. imperialism is not invincible.

The aim of the Bolivarian Revolution is to spread to every country in Latin America – and beyond.

The satellite TV network TeleSur, “which will allow us to tell our people’s reality in our own words.”

“We must start talking again about equality. The U.S. government talks about freedom and liberty, but never about equality.

The U.S. people, with whom we share dreams and ideals, must free themselves... A country of heroes, dreamers, and fighters, the people of Martin Luther King, and Cesar Chavez.”

He paid tribute to the cooperation with Cuba, which, along with several Central American countries, receives Venezuelan oil at below market prices, in exchange for assistance in healthcare, education, agriculture and other areas. And that Venezuela has used a Cuban literacy method approved by UNESCO that has allowed more than 1.3 million Venezuelans learn how to read and write. He said Venezuela is using Cuban vaccines, which now allow poor children to be vaccinated against diseases such as hepatitis.

“When imperialism feels weak, it resorts to brute force. The attacks on Venezuela are a sign of weakness, ideological weakness. Nowadays almost nobody defends neoliberalism. Up until three years ago, just Fidel [Castro] and I raised those criticisms at Presidential meetings. We felt lonely, as if we infiltrated those meetings.”

“Just look at the internal repression inside the United States, the Patriot Act, which is a repressive law against U.S. citizens.

“because the peoples are not going to accept in peace impositions such as neoliberalism or such as colonialism.”
“Capitalism must be transcended”

the need to pass from the national democratic tasks to the socialist transformation of society:

It is necessary to transcend capitalism. But capitalism can’t be transcended from within capitalism itself, but through socialism, true socialism, with equality and justice. But I’m also convinced that it is possible to do it under democracy, but not in the type of democracy being imposed from Washington,” Chavez said.

To succeed it makes deep inroads on private property, unless it takes the decisive step of expropriating the landlords, bankers and capitalists.

“We have to re-invent socialism. It can’t be the kind of socialism that we saw in the Soviet Union, but it will emerge as we develop new systems that are built on cooperation, not competition,” he added.

“It is impossible, within the framework of the capitalist system to solve the grave problems of poverty of the majority of the world’s population. a new type of socialism, a humanist one, which puts humans and not machines or the state ahead of everything.

Socialism is democratic or it is nothing. From the very beginning, the control and administration of industry, society and the state must be in the hands of the working class itself. That is the only way to prevent the formation of a bureaucracy – that abominable cancer on the body of the workers’ state – and to ensure that the masses are actively identified with the Revolution from the start. The active participation of the masses is the first rule of socialism.

Che’s methods are not applicable. “That thesis of one, two, or three Vietnams, did not work, Che’s aim of spreading the Revolution to Latin America was correct and necessary. But unfortunately the tactic he adopted was mistaken.

the tactic of guerrilla war has led to one defeat after another in Latin America. The Cuban Revolution took the US imperialists by surprise. But they learned the lessons and applied them. As a result, every time a “foco” appeared, they immediately crushed it before it could develop further – as we saw with the tragic fate of Che Guevara in Bolivia.

But it makes little sense in Latin America where the big majority of the population lives in towns and cities.

The great advantage of the Venezuelan Revolution is that it is a mainly urban revolution (though with important support in the peasantry) based on the active movement of the masses, in particular the working class and its natural allies, the urban poor, the unemployed, the revolutionary youth, the women and the progressive intelligentsia.

Parliamentary and extra-parliamentary struggle

Pay careful attention to the parliamentary struggle. Skilfully combined democratic slogans with the economic and social demands of the proletariat, linking them to the idea of taking power. That is the only way to build a mass base, to mobilise the masses and thus to create the objective conditions for a revolutionary overturn. There is no other way.

The Bolivarian Revolution began on the electoral plane and has dealt one blow after another against the counterrevolutionaries, By this means it has rallied the masses behind it. It is a dialectical law that the struggle in parliament must eventually be resolved outside parliament. Reformists and parliamentary cretins do not understand this. That is why they always lead the movement to defeat – as in Chile. If the pro-bourgeois reformist wing of the Bolivarian Movement wins, the same fate awaits the people of Venezuela.

However, the pro-bourgeois and reformist elements have not yet won. The masses are pressing from below. The workers demand nationalisation of the factories, the peasants want to put an end to landlordism. The Revolution has not ended, as the reformists claim. It has scarcely begun!

mobilising, inspiring and organising millions of oppressed people who were never organised before. That is a tremendous achievement!

The masses in Venezuela have developed a very keen sense of democracy. They will not tolerate bureaucracy and autocratic methods. This is the greatest guarantee against the danger of a future totalitarian state. It will be impossible (or at least very difficult) to impose a Stalinist dictatorship under such conditions.

quoted by the great Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, that “each revolution needs the whip of the counterrevolution to advance.” He listed actions by the opposition and the U.S. government to drive him out of power. “But we resisted, and now have gone onto the offensive. We recovered our oil industry... In 2004, from the oil industry budget we utilized $4 billion in social investments, education, health, micro-credits, scholarships, and housing, aimed at the poorest of the poor, what neoliberals call waste of money. But that is not a waste of money because it is aimed at empowering the poor so that they can defeat poverty.” He added that “that money before stayed out of Venezuela or just benefited the rich.”

“privatisation is a neoliberal and imperialist plan. Health can’t be privatised because it is a fundamental human right, nor can education, water, electricity and other public services. They can’t be surrendered to private capital that denies the people from their rights.” It is necessary to fight against privatisation. But the real solution is to establish a genuine socialist plan of production under the democratic control and administration of the working class.

The only really reliable point of support for the Bolivarian Revolution is the millions of oppressed workers and peasants of Latin America and the Labour Movement of the whole world. If it shows that it is capable of taking the decisive step of breaking the stranglehold of Capital and ending capitalist slavery once and for all, that passive sympathy will be immediately transformed into militant action. US imperialism would be paralysed and unable to intervene because it would be faced with uprisings everywhere – and a mass movement inside its own borders.

MIDDLE EAST "BIRTHPANGS" NOW CALLED "REALIGNMENT"


Rice's Strategic Reset

By David Ignatius
Friday, January 26, 2007; Page A21
Washington Post

What's America's strategy in the Middle East? Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week sketched a new framework based on what she calls the "realignment" of states that want to contain Iran and its radical Muslim proxies...

For explanation go to Missing Links

The events in Lebanon last week were an early implementation of the new Rice strategy
Joseph Samaha comments on where Lebanon fits in Condoleeza Rice's new "realignment" strategy, outlined in a WaPo column by David Ignatius yesterday.

  1. There are the "moderates" (non-democratic) - Saudi Arabia (GCC), Egypt, Jordan, etc.
  2. There are "extremists" - Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas,
  3. In the middle are "target administrations" the Iraqis, Palestinians and Lebanese, democracies that need to be helped and supported by the (non-democratic) "moderates" to resist the "extremists",
but these target administrations are also required to take aggressive actions themselves
  • Maliki to support the occupation
  • Abbas is supposed to topple the elected Hamas government with US arms and funding;
  • Lebanon to escalate the general strike into a sectarian confrontation with Hizbullah.
Aid from the "moderates" to encourage the target populations to confront the "extremists." This is the "realignment".

This new policy is the result of the failures of the US in Iraq and of Israel in Lebanon.
  • Baker-Hamilton or Kagan (American Enterprise Institute)
Bush chose escalation. It's important to realize how wide-ranging and all-encommpassing this escalation is.
  • More battleships to the Gulf;
  • deployment of Patriot missiles in the region;
  • invasion of Somalia;
  • provoking Iran;
  • cutting off any chance of talks with Syria;
  • sharpening the Hamas-Fatah split;
  • more troops to Iraq.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

INTERESTING BLOG FROM "HEALING IRAQ"

Friday, January 26, 2007

No Quorum for Months


Iraqi Parliament has failed to reach quorum since October 2006. Understandably, it's hard to attend parliamentary sessions when you live in the Green Zone, or the Rashid Hotel, or Amman, or Dubai, or London. MP Adnan Al-Pachachi, who spoke from Dubai, complained that their salaries can only afford 20 security guards, while they need at least 40 to make it from the Baghdad Airport to the Green Zone. I wonder how many security guards Pachachi would need if he were to venture on the streets of Baghdad, which he probably hasn't seen in decades.

Funny, too, that he would complain about the salary. Iraqi members of parliament receive up to $120,000 in salaries and benefits, or about $10,000 a month, plus the additional salaries of 20 security guards - which most MPs choose to pocket instead. Actually, the first bill Iraqi MPs (of all sects and ethnicities) passed unanimously was the one in which they defined their salaries, privileges and benefits. That session was conveniently closed to the media. Perhaps you should also know that the average salary for a civil servant in Iraq is $150. A day labourer would make less than half of that. And you would be considered quite well-to-do if your salary is $400 or $500.

Shame. And this is what they call a "democratically-elected government."

Meanwhile, Iraqi refugees are piling up in Jordan and Syria, except they are regarded as tourists, since Jordan is worried about the consequences of the word "refugee." Soon, Iraqis might not even have that luxury. I often tell my family to come up with a plan to leave as soon as possible before Syria - the last remaining outlet for Iraqis fresh out of the country - decides to close its borders as well when it becomes too much of a strain.

Here is my post on Iraqis in Jordan when I was in Amman last summer.

Friday, January 26, 2007

UNITED FRUIT COMPANY REDUX


Asked about U.S. policy, Brownfield reiterated that governments have a "sovereign right" to nationalize companies but that they are bound by international obligations to do so "in a transparent and legal way, and to offer fair and quick compensation."

The government plans to nationalize the telecommunications company CA Nacional de Telefonos, or CANTV — whose largest minority shareholder is New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. — and Electricidad de Caracas, owned by Arlington, Virginia-based AES Corp.

"Our hope is that any nationalization be a negotiated process that eventually represents the interests of all parties involved," Brownfield said.

Chavez has said he wants an immediate state takeover of CANTV and will not pay shareholders the international market value. He has said the price paid for the telephone company would take into account debts to workers, pensions and other obligations to the state.

U.S. officials have accused Chavez of becoming increasingly authoritarian and of being a destabilizing force. The Venezuelan leader has repeatedly accused Washington of plotted against him.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

IT'S HARD TO HAVE A CONVERSATION IN A BURNING HOUSE


And I want you to join me not just for the campaign but for a conversation about the future of our country -- about the bold but practical changes we need to overcome six years of Bush administration failures.

PAT BUCHANAN EXPOSES THE HYPOCRISY -- OR THE IDIOCY



"This war," said Bush, "is an ideological struggle. ... To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and to come to kill us."

But the "conditions" that drove those 19 men "to come to kill us" is our dominance of their world, our authoritarian allies, and Israel.

They were over here because we are over there.

"What every terrorist fears most is human freedom – societies where men and women make their own choices."

The truth is terrorists do not fear free societies, they flourish in them. The suicide bombers of 9/11, Madrid, and London all plotted their atrocities in free societies. From the Red Brigades, who murdered Italy's Aldo Mori, to the Baader-Meinhoff Gang, who tried to kill Al Haig, to the Basque ETA, the IRA and the Puerto Rican terrorists who tried to assassinate Harry Truman, free societies are where they do their most effective work.

"Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies,"

During 2006, free Latin peoples brought to power anti-American Leftists Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and Rafael Correa in Ecuador, and came close to electing their comrades Ollanta Humala in Peru and Andrés Manuel López-Obrador in Mexico.

In the free elections Bush demanded in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, the winners were the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Hamas and Shi'ite militants with ties to Iran.

If a referendum were held in the Middle East on the proposition of the US military out and Israel gone, how does Bush think it would come out?

"So we advance our security interests by helping moderates, reformers and brave voices for democracy," said Bush.

But how many of those "moderates" – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco, Kuwait, the Gulf States – are ruled "by brave voices for democracy"?

Our Islamist enemies would likely endorse unanimously a Bush call for free elections in all those countries, as elections could not but help advance to greater power, at the expense of our friends, those same Islamist enemies.

"The great question of our day is whether America will help men and women in the Middle East to build free societies," said Bush.

But if we bleed our country to give the men and women of the Middle East the freedom to choose the society they wish to live in, are we sure they will not choose a society where Sharia is law? In liberated Afghanistan, popular sentiment was behind beheading a Muslim who converted to Christianity.

What leads Bush to believe everyone wants to be like us? Is it not ideology?

To characterize "the totalitarian ideology" we confront, Bush quoted Osama bin Laden: "Death is better than living on this Earth with the unbelievers among us."

"Give me liberty or give me death!" said Patrick Henry of the Brits remaining in this country that Brits had founded. "Live free or die!" is the motto of the great state of New Hampshire.

This is the heart of the war we are in. Americans believe in freedom first. Millions of Muslims believe in Islam first – submission to Allah. We decide for us. Do we also decide for them?

DOME OF THE ROCK ON VODKA BOTTLE IN ISRAEL



...The Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Sheikh Mohammed Hussein condemned the behavior of the Israeli company saying that "the marketing of wine bottles with a picture of the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine in Jerusalem, on them is an Israeli attempt to humiliate Muslims everywhere". He said that "putting a picture of a holy shrine on a bottle of wine which is forbidden in Islam is an insult on Islamic creed and Islamic civilization."

"It is a belligerence on Muslims dignity and passion", he added.

CARTOONIST -- STEVE BELL

REPORTING LIVE FROM MY OWN ASS --- THIS IS THOMAS FRIEDMAN


Column can be found here

Thanks Angry Arab News Service

From Friedman's column today: "The brutally honest Syrian-born poet Ali Ahmad Said, known as Adonis, gave an interview from Paris on March 11, 2006, with Dubai TV*, and warned of what’s at stake (translation by Memri): “The Arab individual is no less smart, no less a genius, than anyone else in the world. He can excel — but only outside his society." Really? But Adonis' own career refutes that theory. Adonis excelled but only INSIDE his society. He excelled when he wrote in Syria and Lebanon; but when he went OUTSIDE his society, he never wrote anything memorable.

*No. Friedman does not watch Arab TV; and can't understand it even if he watches it. But he can read MEMRI reports..

PS And shouldn't Adonis offer some royalties to the estate of Raphael Patai? I mean, he never offers any observations on Arab society that were not mentioned in The Arab Mind.

From Unclaimed Territory


the person who, by far, was most responsible for selling the war to centrists and liberal "hawks" and thereby creating "consensus" support for Bush's war -- Tom Friedman, from his New York Times perch as "the nation's preeminent centrist foreign policy genius."

Friedman is truly one of the most frivolous, dishonest, and morally bankrupt public intellectuals burdening this country. Yet he is, of course, still today, one of the most universally revered figures around, despite -- amazingly enough, I think it's more accurate to say "because of" -- his advocacy of the invasion of Iraq, likely the greatest strategic foreign policy disaster in America's history.

INSURGENCY AND COUNTERINSURGENCY IN IRAQ


More than two years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, a loosely organized insurgency continues to target American and Coalition soldiers, as well as Iraqi security forces and civilians, with devastating results. In this sobering account of the ongoing violence, Ahmed Hashim, a specialist on Middle Eastern strategic issues and on irregular warfare, reveals the insurgents behind the widespread revolt, their motives, and their tactics. The insurgency, he shows, is not a united movement directed by a leadership with a single ideological vision. Instead, it involves former regime loyalists, Iraqis resentful of foreign occupation, foreign and domestic Islamist extremists, and elements of organized crime. These groups have cooperated with one another in the past and coordinated their attacks; but the alliance between nationalist Iraqi insurgents on the one hand and religious extremists has frayed considerably. The U.S.-led offensive to retake Fallujah in November 2004 and the success of the elections for the Iraqi National Assembly in January 2005 have led more "mainstream" insurgent groups to begin thinking of reinforcing the political arm of their opposition movement and to seek political guarantees for the Sunni Arab community in the new Iraq.

Hashim begins by placing the Iraqi revolt in its historical context. He next profiles the various insurgent groups, detailing their origins, aims, and operational and tactical modi operandi. He concludes with an unusually candid assessment of the successes and failures of the Coalition's counter-insurgency campaign. Looking ahead, Hashim warns that ethnic and sectarian groups may soon be pitted against one another in what will be a fiercely contested fight over who gets what in the new Iraq. Evidence that such a conflict is already developing does not augur well for Iraq's future stability. Both Iraq and the United States must work hard to ensure that slow but steady success over the insurgency is not overshadowed by growing ethno-sectarian animosities as various groups fight one another for the biggest slice of the political and economic pie.

In place of sensational headlines, official triumphalism, and hand-wringing, Insurgency and Counter-insurgency in Iraq offers a clear-eyed analysis of the increasingly complex violence that threatens the very future of Iraq.

About the Author
Ahmed S. Hashim is Professor of Strategic Studies at the U.S. Naval War College. His previous books include Iran: Dilemmas of Dual Containment and Iraq: Sanctions and Beyond, both written with Anthony H. Cordesman.

Lt. General William E. Odom--

For anyone who doubts that the Vietnam case is instructive for understanding the Iraqi case, I recommend Ahmed S. Hashim's recent book, Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Iraq. A fluent Arab linguist and a reserve US Army colonel, who has served a year in Iraq and visited it several other times, Hashim offers a textured study that struck me again and again as a re-run of an old movie, especially where it concerned US training of Iraqi forces.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

HUH?



"We know this policy is going forward," said Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York. "We know the troops are moving. We know that we're not likely to stop this escalation. But we are going to do everything we can to send a message to our government and the Iraqi government that they had better change, because the enemy we are confronting is adaptable."

And right now, Presidential candidates are tailoring their messages for elite donors, and the rich don't really care about inequality or Iraq. They care first and foremost about preserving the status quo, because in the status quo they are, well, rich. That's a problem, because if your message is targeted towards the top 1% of the country, you're leaving 99% of the country out of the conversation.

But it's very clear that her campaign will be a $500 million attempt to cover for the fact that she has just not been honest or trusthworthy on the most important issue of our time, Iraq. What Jim Webb showed after the State of the Union is that $500M can buy you many things, but it cannot buy you integrity and strength. It can't buy you voter trust. And as the campaign heats up, the Republican nominee is going to run from the Iraq war. We better make sure that we're not stuck with somebody like Hillary Clinton, who is supporting it.

U.S.-Iraqi Army Offensive Aimed at Sunni Haifa Street Stronghold


By Adel Faker
Baghdad, Jan 24, (VOI) – The Iraqi defense ministry said Iraqi army forces launched on Wednesday dawn an operation in Haifa Street during which they killed two gunmen and arrested 11 wanted persons of several nationalities. The forces also seized a large arms cache in al-Karkh preparatory school

THERE WAS GOING TO BE A NEW AMERICAN CENTURY, BUT THEN SOMEBODY...


Via. Max Boot adds:

...So are shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles such as the

  • American FIM-92 Stinger,
  • British Starstreak,
  • French Mistral,
  • Chinese Qianwei-2,
  • Russian SA-7 Grail,
  • Russian SA-14 Gremlin,
  • Russian SA-16 Gimlet,
  • Russian SA-18 Grouse.

There are at least 100,000 such systems in the arsenals of over 100 states and at least 13 non-state groups such as Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and the Tamil Tigers. The best models have a range of 23,000 feet.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

IS YOUR HOG ON METH? HOW WOULD YOU KNOW? HOW COULD YOU TELL?


Well, yes. You see, your hog is definately on meth. Look for these here warning signs. Euphoria leading to paranoia, stealitazation of your thangs, and jibberish style oinkery what make no sense at' all. Warn your hog about the dangers of meth before it's too damn late.

"YOU ARE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US" -- GEORGE BUSH, NOVEMBER 6, 2001


November 6, 2001 Posted: 10:13 p.m. EST (0313 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Tuesday that there was no room for neutrality in the war against terrorism.

"Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity," he said. "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror." (Full story)

AND THE ANSWER IS?


Muharram is the first month of the Islamic Hijri calendar


The Day of Ashura (عاشوراء translit: ‘Āshūrā’, also Aashoora and other spellings) is on the 10th day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar and marks the climax of the Remembrance of Muharram but not the Islamic month. For Shi'a Muslims, it commemorates the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of Muhammad at the Battle of Karbala in the year 61 AH (AD 680), and is a day for mourning.

This day is of particular significance to Shi'a Muslims, who consider Husayn the third Imam and a rightful successor of Muhammad. Many Shi'a make pilgrimages on Ashura to the Mashhad al-Husayn, the shrine in Karbala, Iraq that is traditionally held to be Husayn's tomb. Shi'as also express mourning by thumping their chests and crying after listening to Speeches on How Hussain and his family were Martyred. This is intended to connect them with Husayn's suffering and death. Husayn's martyrdom is widely interpreted by Shi'a as a symbol of the struggle against injustice, tyranny, and oppression.

It isn't ordinary time in Iraq for the Shiites, it is ritual time, sacred time. It is a time of deep mourning, of grief and the beating of chests and even flagellation with chains. It is the season for commemorating the martyrdom, the cosmically wrongful killing of al-Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, who led the people of Kufa in what is now Iraq against the tyrannical empire of the Umayyad Caliph Yazid. His generals cut the plucky scion of the House of the Prophet down without mercy, along with his relatives and followers. They are said to have carried Husayn's head aloft on a stave and to have deposited it before the caliph in his palace in Damascus. The death of Husayn is the "passion" of Shiite Islam, their Good Friday. His shrine is in the Iraqi city of Karbala, where guerrillas dressed as American troops killed 5 American soldiers on Sunday. Emotions run high already. A sense of the meaning of the commemoration for Shiites can be gained from this British Shiite web site.

US says 'thousands' of missiles missing



Updated: 2005-02-25 08:46

WASHINGTON - It has been known for years that thousands of light and lethal shoulder-fired missiles are in black-market circulation. What is not known is exactly who has them and whether many have fallen into the hands of terrorists or criminals...

Monday, January 22, 2007

WHAT'S BEHIND CHINA'S ASAT TEST?


In August of 2006, President George W. Bush asserted the U. S. right to "freedom of action in space...the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."

It now seems that the Bush Administration will have to determine the exact boundary of those "national interests" as regards China. The magnitude of interest payments to Chinese bondholders, and the quantity of U.S. currency held by Chinese banks may become a factor in these deliberations.

What's in it for China? Politically, what does the Chinese ASAT test mean?



  • Perhaps it is a signal urging restraint on U.S. expansionism (e.g., war with Iran), a warning deemed useful after November 7th.
  • Perhaps it is a self-promotional signal to the international community, to elevate the esteem for China by those who shudder under the shadow of U.S. power.
  • Perhaps it is a signal from an anxious major investor to a reckless corporate adventurer, to moderate actions that might jeopardize principal -- it would not do for prized American war bonds to collapse.
  • Perhaps it is a Chinese vote of confidence in a new space demilitarization regime. Perhaps, though this is very unlikely, it is an assertion of Chinese aggressiveness in a "space war."
  • (perhaps) instead a clear yet subdued statement on the protection of Chinese "national interests" as regards access to the Earth's resources.
  • it points to an easy "WMD" that might be developed by others, and deployed against U.S. and international space assets...the development of an ASAT capability rests on the integration of easily acquired technologies: aerospace electronics, computers and missiles.
  • it would not be beyond the reach of small nations, well-funded national groups, and corporations. The pejorative terms "rogue states" and "terrorist groups" have been applied to such entities (the specific mapping of pejorative to entity depending on bias)

ZAWAHIRI TO BUSH: IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?

The tape is Zawahiri's response to Bush's announce
ment of the deploy
ment of 20,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq. Zawahiri scoffs at the American plan, stating: “Why send 20,000 only? Why not send 50 or 100 thousand? Aren't you aware that the dogs of Iraq are pining for your troops' dead bodies?" Zawahiri invites the president to deploy the entire American army to Iraq, claiming that the mujihideen are capable of destroying ten armies.

Zawahiri also exhorts al Qaeda followers to take up arms and fight jihad wherever Muslims are oppressed, listing Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Palestine, and Algeria.

That why I call on all the Arab nationalists and leftists to come back to Islam, the religion of honor, dignity and freedom because it is the real safeguard against humiliation, repression and invasion. It is the revealed religion of Arab the religion of truth and justice which prohibits submission to created beings and fear of them, it is the religion of submission to God alone and seeking his pleasure and his alone. And that’s why you will only find honor in Islam.

Nationalists split the Muslim Ummah into Arabs, Persians, Kurds, Turks, Afghans and others then split the Arabs into Egyptians, Moroccans, Syrians, Iraqis, Lebanese, Saudis, Yemenis and others and thus provided the best possible service to the crusade invading the Islamic world and instead of the Ummah uniting to confront the colonialist campaign, as it previously united to face the crusade and Mongol invasions, the Ummah fell apart and fought itself, hasn’t the time also come for us to reject and disbelieve in the international law which imposed on us the Sykes Picot borders and the existence of Israel in one of the holiest places of Islam, imposed on us the crusader presence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and south Lebanon and even imposed on us the pulling back of the real borders of Lebanon to 30 kilometers inside Lebanon

CONFIRMED: SHOULDER FIRED MISSILE --- NOW IT'S A DIFFERENT KIND OF PARTY


U.S. helicopter crash caused by hostile fire: report

Mon Jan 22, 9:14 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military helicopter that crashed outside Baghdad, killing all 12 on board, was shot down by a shoulder-fired missile, CNN reported on Monday.

The Black Hawk was most likely brought down on Saturday by hostile fire, according to unidentified U.S. officials cited by CNN. The crash was still under investigation but debris recovered on the ground indicate a missile was involved, CNN said.

Twenty U.S. troops were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for the American military in
Iraq.