Marines to cut armored vehicle orders

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 31 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Marines plan to buy fewer bomb-resistant vehicles than planned despite pressure from lawmakers who are determined to spend billions of dollars on the vehicles.

Bush pushes Democrats to OK war funding

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 15 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush sternly pressed Democrats to approve money to fund the Iraq war "without strings and without delay" before leaving town for the Christmas holidays, something congressional leaders have already indicated they will not do.

After Annapolis, hurdles for Israeli and Palestinian leaders

Observers warn that Palestinian President Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert may be too weak to keep peace efforts on track.
By Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 29, 2007 edition

Can Iran and Hamas Sink Annapolis?

By SCOTT MACLEOD
Wed Nov 28, 12:25 PM ET

As would-be peacemakers bask in the international limelight of the Annapolis conference, back in the Middle East two other parties are serving up notice that no deal will come to pass, if they can help it: Iran and its Palestinian ally, Hamas. "The Annapolis conference was already a failure," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told journalists after a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.

Recapping the Annapolis Mideast Conference

Aaron David Miller
Woodrow Wilson Center Public Policy Scholar
Wednesday, November 28, 2007; 12:30 PM

Aaron David Miller, a Woodrow Wilson Center public policy scholar and an adviser to the State Department on Israeli-Palestinian issues for 25 years, was online Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 12:30 p.m. to analyze the outcome of the Mideast Conference in Annapolis, Md., which is scheduled to end Tuesday.

Iran leader vows no concessions on nukes

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 34 minutes ago


ARDABIL, Iran - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed again Wednesday not to make concessions to the West over Iran's nuclear program, while an Iranian newspaper reproached the hard-line leader for his attacks on critics in the country's conservative camp.

Bush Presses Congress for Iraq War Funding

By Scott Stearns
White House
21 November 2007


President Bush is pressing Congress to approve his latest budget request for the war in Iraq, where he says leaders are beginning to make progress toward political reconciliation. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story

Middle East Peace Conference Convenes Next Week

By Meredith Buel
Washington
21 November 2007

Listen to Buel report

The United States has invited nearly 50 countries and international organizations to a Middle East peace conference next week designed as a springboard for Israel and the Palestinians to begin negotiations toward a solution of their conflict.

Washington In Iraq: A Convenient Truth

Iraq is not at war with Iran, but Washington appears to be posturing for just such a follow-up invasion, one that Americans fear would, in many ways, mirror the second Iraqi invasion. But based on everything we know about Al Qaeda in Iraq, it is but a small faction, a fraction of what might curtail counterinsurgency efforts there led by the Pentagon In Iraq and the Iraqi government.

The problem is really not the Pentagon In Iraq, just as it is not Al Qaeda In Iraq, just as it was not Saddam who bombed the Trade Center on 9/11, in Iraq. Clearly, the problem is becoming Washington In Iraq, which will become, if we're not careful, Washington In Iran. How are Pentagon commanders supposed to explain to the Shiite-led Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki that while Washington might be preparing for a war with Iran, over its nuclear programs, the Pentagon's primary concern is stability in Iraq, which could even be compromised by just such saber-rattling ? Sure the Iranian nuclear program is a concern to the International Community. But notwithstanding an Iraqi government at war with Iran, how can the Pentagon In Iraq justify to the Iraqi government and American people, Washington at war with Iran ?

It makes it appear as if the entire Iraqi endeavor was directed at Iran in the first place, and as if the Iraqi invasion, predicated on the testimony of one, " Curveball," was devoid any redeemingly substantive basis. Saddam never possessed WOMDs, even as the American people continued for at least two years after the invasion to believe otherwise.

That's not to say that Saddam never violated international law, in the early 1980s, as an Iraqi court ruled. But it happened in the context of a war with Iran. So the same arguments that the adminstration uses to justify sex torture with political aims of the kind that were committed at Abu Ghraib, because those acts occurred in the context of a war, coincide with what arguments were long used to justify acts committed by Saddam that were found to be genocidal, more than two decades hence, and not without strategic implication.

Again, if the purpose of invading Iraq was to wage war with Iran, strategically, the idea that Saddam had once committed genocide becomes ever less compelling with respect to the real strategic motive. The fact that Saddam committed genocide becomes nothing more than a convenient truth.

The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins of the CIA (Paperback)

A sprawling chronicle that details how a clutch of Ivy- educated Wall Street attorneys and their associates--the ``Old Boy network''--created the Central Intelligence Agency and influenced the formative decades of the cold war.

Prelude to Terror: the Rogue CIA, The Legacy of America's Private Intelligence Network the Compromising of American Intelligence

by Joseph J. Trento (Author) "THE MASSIVE INTELLIGENCE failures that resulted in the September 11th attacks have left many people wondering how this could have happened..."

1976: CIA and Other Intelligence Agencies Use BCCI to Control and Manipulate Criminals and Terrorists Worldwide

Saudi Intelligence Minister Kamal Adham is given the task. “With the official blessing of George H. W. Bush as the head of the CIA, Adham transformed a small Pakistani merchant bank, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), into a world-wide money-laundering machine, buying banks around the world to create the biggest clandestine money network in history.” BCCI was founded in 1972 by a Pakistani named Agha Hasan Abedi, who was an associate of Adham’s. Bush himself has an account at BCCI established while still director of the CIA. French customs will later raid the Paris BCCI branch and discover the account in Bush’s name.

Bhutto: Time for Musharraf to go

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) -- Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Tuesday called on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to immediately step down in the wake of a mass crackdown on the opposition this week.

Pakistan ISI officials well aware of Osama's whereabouts, CIA Officer

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf may not be knowing about al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's presence within Pakistan's territorial limits, but ISI officials are very well aware about his whereabouts, CIA officer Gary Schroen, who spearheaded US' search for Osama in Afghanistan, has said.

ISI was in bed with Osama: 9/11 commission

July 23, 2004 10:05 IST
Last Updated: July 23, 2004 10:37 IST

While conceding that Pakistan's intelligence service "was in bed with Osama bin Laden", the bipartisan 9/11 Commission has recommended that the US should give long-term military and other aid to Pakistan.

How George Bush became the new Saddam

Patrick Graham

It was embarrassing putting my flak jacket on backwards and sideways, but in the darkness of the Baghdad airport car park I couldn’t see anything. “Peterik, put the flak jacket on,” the South African security contractor was saying politely, impatiently. “You know the procedure if we are attacked.”

Experts: Danger of nuclear-armed Iran may be hyped

By Warren P. Strobel

McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Sunday, November 11, 2007

WASHINGTON — A hostile country led by anti-American ideologues appears close to developing its first nuclear weapon and, as a U.S. election approaches, the president and his advisers debate a pre-emptive military strike. Newspaper columnists demand action to stop the nuclear peril.

Turkish helicopters strike inside Iraq

By YAHYA BARAZANJI, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago

ULAIMANIYAH, Iraq - Turkish helicopter gunships attacked abandoned villages inside Iraq on Tuesday, Iraqi officials said, the first such airstrike since border tensions have escalated in recent months.

Commentary: Inexorable march toward war with Iran?

By Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Wednesday, October 31, 2007

There were some things far more frightening this week than Halloween's small ghouls and goblins — and the scariest of all is the Bush administration's seemingly inexorable march toward military confrontation with Iran.

PetroChina tops $1 trillion in value, snatches crown from Exxon Mobil

BEIJING — The state-controlled firm PetroChina toppled Exxon Mobil from its perch Monday as the world's most highly valued company as eager Chinese investors briefly pushed its value to $1.1 trillion

As military balks, Chinese public pushes for aircraft carriers

TIANJIN, China — On a windswept pier at the Binhai theme park, tourists board an aged Russian aircraft carrier, the Kiev, and imagine what it would be like if China had such a symbol of maritime might.

Iraq orders $100 million arms supply from China

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has ordered light military equipment from China worth $100 million because the United States is unable to meet Baghdad's requirements, the Washington Post reported President Jalal Talabani as saying

100,000 U.S. troops could leave soon: Iraq president

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least 100,000 U.S. troops could return home from Iraq by the end of 2008, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in an interview aired on Sunday although he proposed that several American military bases stay in Iraq.

Iranians held by U.S. released

By Bobby Caina Calvan | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Friday, November 9, 2007

BAGHDAD — Nine Iranians held captive by the U.S. military, including two accused of helping smuggle weapons into Iraq, were freed Friday as military commanders continued monitoring for signs that Iran is sticking to its pledge to stop arming and supporting Shiite Muslim militias.

Millions of Iranians ready for martyrdom: Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday millions of Iranians would be ready to sacrifice themselves fighting the country's enemies, in an apparent reference to the United States and its allies.

U.S. business fears backlash from Iran sanctions bill

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. companies doing business in the European Union, China, Russia and other countries could face retaliation if a bill aimed at pressuring Iran to give up nuclear weapons becomes law, industry officials said on Wednesday

Bhutto under house arrest in Pakistan

By ZARAR KHAN, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 20 minutes ago

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani police placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest Friday, uncoiling barbed wire in front of her Islamabad villa, and reportedly rounding up thousands of her supporters to block a mass protest against emergency rule.

China sees lessons for Iran in North Korea: report

BEIJING (Reuters) - Six-country talks that have nudged North Korea towards nuclear disarmament could be a model for defusing a standoff with Iran, but Washington appears set on a different path, an official Chinese newspaper said on Thursday.

In the overseas edition of the People's Daily -- the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece -- China's former ambassador to Iran said six-party negotiations hosted by Beijing set an example for engaging Tehran, which is pressing ahead with nuclear development that Western powers say could give it weapons capability.

U.S. ambassador raps Norway for dialogue with Iran

By John Acher

OSLO (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to Norway said on Wednesday that Oslo's dialogue with Iran risked helping to legitimize policies of the Iranian government.

Ambassador Benson Whitney said his remarks were meant as "constructive suggestions" to a close and valued ally.

Bush: Threat of World War III if Iran goes nuclear

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush warned on Wednesday a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War III as he tried to shore up international opposition to Tehran amid Russian skepticism over its nuclear ambitions.

Bush was speaking a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has resisted Western pressure to toughen his stance over Iran's nuclear program, made clear on a visit to Tehran that Russia would not accept any military action against Iran.

Putin gave Iran "special" atomic message: report

During the visit, Putin made clear to Washington that Russia would not accept military action against Iran and he invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Moscow for talks.

Russia to sell Iran 50 MiG-29 engines: report

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to sign a deal to sell 50 new jet engines to Iran for the Islamic Republic's air force during his visit to Tehran, a Russian newspaper said on Tuesday.

Russian business daily Kommersant, citing unnamed sources, said an initial $150 million deal for 50 RD-33 turbo-thrust engines for Iran's Azarakhsh fighters could be signed while Putin attends a Caspian regional summit in the Iranian capital.

Putin tells U.S. not to strike Iran

By Oleg Shchedrov and Parisa Hafezi

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin made clear to Washington on Tuesday that Russia would not accept military action against Iran and he invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Moscow for talks.

Putin made the invitation to Ahmadinejad, shunned by the West which fears his nuclear program is a cover for building atomic weapons, after meeting him and leaders of other Caspian Sea states who ruled out any strikes on Iran from their region.

New sanctions boosts talk of war with Iran

By Sue Pleming - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration's decision on Thursday to slap more sanctions on Tehran is aimed at hiking diplomatic pressure over its nuclear program but experts say it will be seen by many as a step closer to war.

Talk of war and anti-Iranian rhetoric has mounted in recent months over Tehran's refusal to give up sensitive nuclear work the West says is aimed at building a bomb, with so-called hawks in the administration pushing for action before President George W. Bush's term ends in January, 2009.

U.S. slaps new sanctions on Iran

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States slapped new sanctions on Iran and accused its Revolutionary Guard of spreading weapons of mass destruction on Thursday but Russian President Vladimir Putin said such moves only forced Tehran into a corner over its nuclear program.

Also labeling Iran's Qods military force a supporter of terrorism, Washington imposed sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, banks and individuals as well as the defense ministry, hoping to increase pressure on Tehran to stop uranium enrichment and curb its "terrorist" activities.

U.S. says plans new talks soon with Iran on Iraq

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S. ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker said on Saturday he expected to meet his Iranian counterparts most likely in the next few weeks to discuss Iraq.

"The (Iran-U.S.) channel is not dead," Crocker told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on Iraq in Istanbul.

Iran welcomes atomic cooperation idea, will not yield

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran welcomes proposals to work with other countries to enrich uranium but will not accept an offer that requires Tehran to halt its sensitive atomic work, its deputy chief nuclear negotiator said on Saturday.

Congress presses Iran but wants to avoid war

By Susan Cornwell - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With Americans weary of the Iraq war and U.S. elections on the horizon, Congress is struggling over how to get tough on Iran without giving President George W. Bush a blank check for a military strike.

New threat stirs Iraqi nationalism

Oct 30, 2007 04:30 AM
Richard Gwyn

The Turkish man on the street, stopped by a roving BBC-TV camera crew, answered the reporter's question with a much more challenging question of his own.

Why, he asked, did the United States "support the Israelis in Lebanon when just a couple of soldiers were kidnapped?"

Ouch.

Multi-unilateralism and World War

An outbreak of unilateralism. Sounds like the making of something revolutionary.

Exactly. Exactly why the United Nations was formed after World War II.

Is London, for instance, part of the broader European Union, or does it exist in a special category ? How many special categories are there, for states, actors, regimes, agendas?

When Prince Charles or Bush/Cheney meet with Saudi royalty, and arab states enter into a campaign of support for providing Iran with uranium to meet energy demands, an Iran currently in economic turmoil, does it signal, as it did with Iraq, and by most accounts, wrongly, the tendency to isolate a single state when there are any number of arab states, including Egypt, with nuclear programs ?

And what happens when one of those Arab states, not capable of governance by a union of arab states, decides to, as a western regime or agenda, or actor, even, might, act unilaterally ?

I don't known that Osama bin Laden will serve as culpable pretext with respect to an invasion of Iran, or even weapons of mass destruction, which may or not at some point in time exist in Iran, but certainly, in this round of diplomatic negotations with two of the world's largest oil suppliers, who appear to now be under a systematic demonization and raid strategy, cannot render the kind of subjective basis, to those who consider themselves rational, for an invasion of Iran, at least not without the Security Council moving to take swift action, as it did against Saddam in 1990, against states which presume to invade a state such Iran, which hasn't deemed to invade or materially threaten any of its neighbors.

Oh, I know. Ahmadinejad said that he wanted to wipe Israel off of the map. And Bush believes that North and South Korea are technically still at war. Should we simply tarverse the entire list of stupid things leaders have ever said that have never led to WW III, before this does ? Do we have to go there ? Are the Bush Rogues that simple-minded and ignorant ?

What would Americans likely support, World War III, or the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, as a measure in pursuit of world peace ? Is Bush really a greater threat to world peace than Osama ?

In fact, Iran actually supports the current Iraqi neighborly regime, a fact that Bush and the Pentagon-In-Iraq may not like, but a fact nonetheless, that Bush and his allies, of which there may be one remaining, who is known to travel under the name, Luci, will be forced to reckon, as it pertains to international law. At what point does the U.N. decide to send peacekeepers into Iraq to prevent an outbreak of war between the PIQ and Iran, with Iraq as a launching pad ? Is the PIQ not not functioning as a " state within a state ? " Hopefully, as his predecessor did, amply, Secretary Moon is well, and amply aware, of the predisposition of Americans toward the illegal war, rape, torture, brutality and atrocity occurring in Iraq as we speak.

Americans do not eat and drink while tommorrow others starve and die so that states and corporations, the fascist elite, can extort wealth from the powerless. If Oil-For-Food was not that, what was it ? How many states supported the first Iraqi invasion, led by the first President Bush ? And why ? Because there may be profit attached. And money is not a good reason to support the killing and slaughter, not to mention disgusting and perverted acts of forcible homosexual sodomy that to which Iraqis have been exposed at the hands of the second, far worse, Bush. Homsexuality and fundmametalism do not make for pleasant bedfellows and Bush knew that going in, as a fundamentalist himself, a Christian fundamentalist, but a fundamentalist nonethless, a dangerous predisposition, about which the Constitition does not distinguish or dicriminate on the basis of religion. In other words, to say that Bush was not a fundamentalist, equally as dangerous as Osama bin Laden, would be an act of discrimination, and one in which liberals would hesitate to engage.

What makes Iran so different ? That seems to be the question to which Barack Obama has been seeking an answer that extends beyond the mere rhetorical diatribe of Bush and Gingrich, the former of which appearing to not only be incapable of distinguishing between Lebanon and Iran, as it might apply to World War, which with such rhetoric, each also seems to support as a measure that neoconservatives attempt to categorically brand as that which will solve the more abstract problem of Osama bin Laden, the condition known as " nuclear proliferation," and the sum of which may result in nuclear terror of a kind that Washington is not prepared to counter or stop.

In neologic, quite simply, war is the answer to terror. Occupying Iraq to the tune of tens of trillions of dollars will somehow either solve the problem or render it soluble. We need to do battle with Al-Qaeda in Iraq, you see. Because that's where they are, right along with those weapons of mass destruction that we'd been telling you about, me and Don, right before the Iraqi invasion that has only served to not only claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, but arguably, an innocent Saddam Hussein, who once supported the United States.

Is it possible to commit genocide in the context of a war, as Congress has been in the process of debating with respect to Turkey ? The Iran-Iraq war of the early 1980s was a war between states that also involved elements within states resisting their own governments. If Bush were repressive in response to war opposition in the U.S. on the basis of war opposition, would it amount to genocide if causalties resulted ?

Under the Bush regime's current interpretation of international law, it appears that might be exactly the case. The response to repression in the context of intervention, or external aggression, branded " unpatriotic " by the BR, seems to be pivotal, particularly where it's more than clear that the Patriot Act was drafted some time prior to 9/11 and as thus, could not possibly represent a response to 9/11, which the BR has portrayed as the Iraqi No Weapons Invasion. What the Patriot Act represents in the broader context of civil liberties, human rights and freedom, is some not irrelevant expectation of 9/11.

Is the Patriot Act, in that sense, damning ? Perhaps. Because NPT stipulates that attacks be a matter of shared intelligence with the Security Council, G-8, NATO, and other relevant institutional actors. Did the Bush Adminstration, by not either stopping or mitigating 9/11, not only render itself complicit in the attack, which is not to say that as former-President Bill Clinton pointed out earlier this week, that it was an " inside job," but also, given the Patriot Act and its obviously expectant and pre-emptive posture - did the Bush Regime violate NPT, at a time when NPT could not be more relevant, with Osama still lurking and Bush unable to deliver ?

Might not being able to capture Osama inspire " inside job " theories ? Absolutely. People worldwide are frustrated with Bush and have been since the Supreme Court stopped the recount. They don't want to hear about democracy in the Middle East when democracy in America ceased to exist with Bush v. Gore.

There is also, has also been, a decidedly anti-liberal tendency in the media dating back to 1993, when, with the election of Bill Clinton president, Rush Limbaugh declared America to be " Held Hostage," cleverly referencing the Iranian Hostage Crisis of 1979 in which President Jimmy Carter was depicted as having handled with ineptitude, and which may have cost President Carter a very close, though not as close as Bush v. Gore, election, to future President Ronald Reagan.

Bush strategy: Bash Democratic Congress

The latest scolding came Thursday. Bush accused Democrats of forgetting the lingering terrorist threat and putting the nation at risk.

Fox Cuts Off Sally Field's Anti-War Speech

Fox Censors Gidget

Bush Attacks Bloggers, CodePink Organizers

"When it comes to funding our troops, some in Washington should spend more time responding to the warnings of terrorists like Osama bin Laden and the requests of our commanders on the ground," Bush said, "and less time responding to the demands of MoveOn.org bloggers and Code Pink protesters."

Bush rhetoric is sinister. He clearly used 9/11 as pretext to invade Iraq, claiming that Saddam was supporting Osama, which a post earlier today, referencing Curveball, dispels, and which raises serious speculation regarding the adminsitration's own own involvement: was the administration merely negligent and incompetent prior to 9/11, or is this a case of depraved indifference, particularly for those of us who watch Law and Order, or did, prior to Fred Thompson's entry into the presidential race?

Hillary seems to be on the right side:

"George Bush's faulty and offensive historical analogies aren't going to end the war in Iraq, make America safer or bring our troops home," she said in a statement. "Americans are tired of the president's efforts to play politics with national security and practice the politics of division."

In other words, the Bush cabal ( shrubs ) has managed to use 9/11 to implicate Saddam Hussein, largely predicated on the testimony of one Curveball, over and above that of George Tenet, Director of the CIA in conjunction with French intelligence ( see At The Center of the Storm and The 9/11 Report ), the DIA, which said that Saddam, a secular leader would not support someone like Osama, a revolutionary; implicate Saddam in 9/11 and then claim that he possessed WOMDs, which was proven false, and then continue to make the claim, which is to say, implicate the integrity of the weapons inspectors who said it was false, people like Hans Blix.

What's even more horrendous is that, for a time, 60% of the public, long after it was known to be false, still believed that Saddam had indeed possessed WOMDs, and may have also believed Saddam to have been involved with 9/11.

Now, in their defense, Americans who believed such a lie may have been manifesting a symptom of war trauma, or PTSD: denial induced rationalization. But not the denial to which Bush is referrring - war denial. And not the rationalization both Bush and Gingrich seem to be, persistently, undertaking: that of WW III.

While with Gingrich it was Lebanon and a " prisoner of war " having been taken in 2006, for Bush, it's Iran's nuclear program.

The only denial here is that this regime is one largely predicated upon dictatorship, given that the 1983 Supreme Court censured the 1973 Congress that ended Vietnam, a separation of powers issue, while allocating to itself the power to immediately terminate another such " National Emergency," which had been predicated largely upon a 1948 National Emergency with respect to Korea, that Harry Truman failed to terminate prior to leaving office, a Gulf of Tonkin " incident," that served, much as 9/11, as plausible interventative pretext, and expansionst greed.

What did Vladimir Putin say about Madelaine Albright ? Her lust for Siberia is almost erotic ?

What that 1983 decision led to was the 1985 Congress passing legislation that would require Congress to possess two-thirds majorities in both Houses to terminate a National Emergency, which is the current War in Iraq, a majority that Congress does not have and probably cannot get prior to a Bush-Gingrich rhetorically inspired rampage en route to WW III.

Bluebloggin

If Bush doesn’t arrange for a terrorist attack to make his point, he will pull the trigger on Iran. Either way, Bush has paved the way to finish off the US Constitution. We are already getting used to living in a ‘police state’, George Orwell was off by a few years … Bush’s definition of Democracy is fed to him by those imaginary voices he describes as ‘God’. I picture Cheney on a microphone at the other end of a speaker hidden under Bush’s pillow. “This is God … this is what I want next …”

http://www.bluebloggin.com/2007/10/31/bhutto-wont-accept-musharraf-state-of-emergency-stunt/

Iraqi Troop Presence May Mobilize Young Voters

Thomas Patterson, of the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, says the Iraq war played a big part in stirring up the youth vote in 2004 - and could do so again if the Bush administration decides to "stay the course" in Iraq.

Young US voters may get scoop in 2008

The creators of Scoop08.com, which launches on 4 November, say it will be the first to harness the power of students across the US to follow the campaign.

Bush tells Dems war denial is dangerous

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
Thu Nov 1, 7:52 PM ET

WASHINGTON - President Bush compared Congress' Democratic leaders Thursday to people who ignored the rise of Lenin and Hitler early in the last century, saying "the world paid a terrible price" then and risks similar consequences for inaction today.

Faulty Intel Source "Curve Ball" Revealed

Nov 1

CBS - 60 Minutes has identified the man whose fabricated story of Iraqi biological weapons drove the U.S. argument for invading Iraq.

Nuclear disarmament ( and NPT )

However, critics argue that the major nuclear powers are not doing enough themselves to disarm, or to put pressure on allies such as India, Pakistan and Israel who are known - or widely thought - to have nuclear weapons.

Are the nuclear states supposed to be disarming?

US pushes for tougher sanctions on Iran

By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - A top American diplomat pressed for harsher U.N. sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program on Friday, while Iran's former president said talks with the U.N. atomic watchdog were progressing and warned against threatening his country.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns was meeting diplomats from the four other permanent Security Council members and Germany to rally support for a tougher track with Iran, which has a deadline next month to fully disclose details of its nuclear program.

Rafsanjani warns Iran of ‘unprecedented’ US threats

TEHRAN (AFP) — Influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Thursday warned Iran to be alert in the face of “unprecedented” actions by its arch-foe the United States.
Washington has never ruled out taking military action against Iran over its nuclear programme although the White House insists it wants to calm the crisis through diplomacy.

“Since the (1979 Islamic) revolution, the enemies have plotted a lot but the current situation is unprecedented. Therefore everybody must be alert,” the powerful cleric said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Obama, Edwards accuse Clinton of flip-flop on Iran

"A couple of months ago, Sen. Clinton called me 'naive and irresponsible' for taking this position, and said that we could lose propaganda battles if we met with leaders we didn't like," Obama said in Des Moines.

"Just yesterday, though, she called for diplomacy with Iran without preconditions," he said. "So I'm not sure if any of us knows exactly where she stands on this."

Iran letter sparks new fight between Clinton, Obama

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sen. Hillary Clinton signed a letter to President George W. Bush on Thursday warning he has no authority from Congress for an attack on Iran, setting off a new round of fighting with Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama.

Iran's complex political system

Iran's complex and unusual political system combines elements of a modern Islamic theocracy with democracy. A network of unelected institutions controlled by the highly powerful conservative Supreme Leader is countered by a president and parliament elected by the people.

Iran nuclear envoy vows no change

Iran's new nuclear negotiator has said his country will continue nuclear discussions "with strength".

IAEA findings on Iran dismissed

France and the US have dismissed a finding by the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog Mohammed ElBaradei that there is no evidence of Iran building a bomb.

Russia raps Saudi atomic fuel proposal for Iran: RIA

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's nuclear chief on Friday said only full nuclear powers should create centers for enriching uranium, in a swipe at a Saudi proposal for Arab states to help supply Iran with enriched uranium.

World powers discuss Iran sanctions in London

By Sophie Walker

LONDON (Reuters) - Six world powers meet on Friday to discuss imposing a third round of sanctions on Iran because of its refusal to stop enriching uranium, which they suspect could be used to build nuclear weapons

Rice: Kurdish rebels are 'common threat'

By ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writers
35 minutes ago

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States, Turkey and Iraq will counter any attacks on Turkey by Kurdish rebels operating out of northern Iraq.

Gates: Iran assured Iraq on weapons

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
2 hours, 27 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Iran apparently has assured the Iraqi government that it will stop the flow into Iraq of bomb-making materials and other weaponry that U.S. officials say has inflamed insurgent violence and caused many American troop casualties, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday.

Obama Pledges ‘Aggressive’ Iran Diplomacy

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and JEFF ZELENY
Published: November 2, 2007

CHICAGO, Oct. 31 — Senator Barack Obama said he would “engage in aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iran if elected president, and would offer economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek “regime change” if Iran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues.

Obama introduces Iran measure

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
37 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Democrat Barack Obama is offering a Senate resolution that says President Bush does not have authority to use military force against Iran, the latest move in a debate with presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton about how to respond to that country's nuclear ambitions.

After Turkish soldiers are killed, tensions rise on border with Iraq's Kurdish region

A day after 12 Turkish soldiers were killed in an ambush by alleged Kurdish guerrillas near the border with Iraq's Kurdish region, the Turkish government rushed troops to the border area and the government in Ankara came under intense pressure to move forces into the Kurdish portion of Iraq.

The Associated Press reports that many Turks believe the semiautonomous Kurdish government in Iraq is providing safe-haven to a Kurdish movement violently seeking independence from Turkey.

Why Turks no longer love the U.S.

US Secretary Rice arrives Friday to defuse tensions over Kurdish rebels in Iraq.By Yigal Schleifer | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the November 1, 2007 edition

'Genocide' talk tests Israel-Turkey ties

Jewish support for Congress to call an Armenian massacre 'genocide' has strained relations between the longtime allies.
By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IS TABLED

A draft US congressional resolution that would have recognized the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in Ottoman-era Turkey as genocide has been tabled after the White House, the US military and the Turkish government convinced many original supporters of the measure that its adoption would irreparably damage US-Turkish relations.

Democrats, Republicans Spar Over Turkey Genocide Resolution

Democrats and Republicans are trading criticisms over a resolution calling the mass killings in the early 20th century of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire a genocide. VOA's Dan Robinson reports, while Democratic leaders say they still intend to bring the measure to a vote in the House of Representatives in coming weeks, they acknowledge that reaction in Turkey to a recent House committee vote approving the measure has had an impact on lawmakers

Poll: US single biggest threat to Turks’ security

Meanwhile, a recent poll by the Pew Research Center put the US favorability rating in Turkey at 9 percent versus 52 percent in 2000. Turks now see the United States as the single biggest threat to their nation's security.

"The fact is that Secretary Rice is going into the jaws of a real credibility problem and is up against some real narrow parameters in terms of what she can do to overcome that credibility problem," Parris, now with the Brookings Institution, told Reuters.

Commentary: Turkey

By Kevin Charles Pedrick

It was an odd, 180 degree turn of events, within the span of a week. There it was, the specter of Congress, appearing to be primed and postured to seek sanctions against Turkey, for alleged acts of genocide committed in 1915.

" Say what ? "

" Alleged acts of genocide. They committed genocide. "

" In what year ? "

" 1915. "

" You have to be kidding me. "

" No. Standard operating procedure. It's the new way government is done. Remember Tilden v. Hayes ? "

" But there was a World War taking place in 1915. "

" Yes. And ? "

" And isn't that a bit of cherry picking, not to mention, belated ? Who in God's name remembers 1915 besides that Nobel Prize winner who believes that African Americans are inferior based on his studies of DNA ? Ninetenn freaking fifteen ? "

" But genocide is genocide. Saddam committed genocide, and that's why Don had to liberate the Iraqis. "

" You mean Saddam committed genocide the last time Iraq was at war with Iran ? "

" Genocide is genocide is genocide no matter how you cut it, when it's committed. Genocide's wrong. "

" And so now that Bush has decided to support the Turks, less than a week after Congress appeared to support sanctions for some obscure historic atrocity, when the Kurds rise up and start a Civil War in Turkey and the Pentagon reacts by suppressing and killing them, and then burying them in mass graves, who will have committed genocide, V.I. Lenin ? "

Helicopters, troops pound PKK targets inside Turkey

Troops backed by the air force have killed several Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists near the eastern province of Tunceli, and suspected PKK targets were bombed by Cobra helicopters in a separate operation on the mountainous Turkish-Iraqi border in southeastern Anatolia, news reports from the region said yesterday.

Hillary la Française, Cherchez la Femme?

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: October 31, 2007
WASHINGTON

Cécilia Sarkozy acts so American, while Hillary Clinton acts so French

World Briefing | Middle East

Lebanon: Claim Hezbollah Has Rearmed

By WARREN HOGE
Published: November 1, 2007

In a report to the United Nations Security Council, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed “great concern” over information supplied him by Israel that Hezbollah had rearmed to a level higher than before the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon

Iraq Asks for Iran’s Help in Calming Kurdish Crisis

By ALISSA J. RUBIN
Published: November 1, 2007

BAGHDAD, Oct. 31 — Iraqi officials asked for Iran’s help on Wednesday in negotiating a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Turkey over Kurdish guerrillas who have been using northern Iraq as a base to stage raids on Turkish troops across the border.

Japan orders navy ships home from Afghan mission

By Linda Sieg
Thu Nov 1, 8:35 AM ET

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan ordered its naval ships on Thursday to withdraw from a refueling mission in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan as a political deadlock kept the government from meeting a deadline to extend the activities.

Iranian FM expected in Turkey for talks on Kurdish rebels

ANKARA (AFP) - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will hold talks in Ankara Friday with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan on mounting tensions with Iraq over separatist Kurdish rebels, an Iranian diplomat told AFP.

Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation

The American-Iranian relationship has been fraught for years—indeed, for far longer than most Americans realize—USA Today diplomatic correspondent Slavin shows. Interweaving history with current events, she demonstrates how decades-old American perfidy continues to color Iranian expectations, much as the 1979 hostage crisis continues to affect Americans today. Without losing sight of the brutality with which the Islamic Republic was established—and is often maintained—Slavin skillfully presents its surprisingly multifaceted culture and political establishment, where mullahs are sometimes on the side of reform, and Western-minded businessmen might support systematic corruption and repression

Commentary: Inexorable march toward war with Iran?

There were some things far more frightening this week than Halloween's small ghouls and goblins — and the scariest of all is the Bush administration's seemingly inexorable march toward military confrontation with Iran.

Attacking Iran for Israel?

With 200-300 nuclear weapons in their arsenal, Israelis enjoy a nuclear monopoly in the Middle East. They mean to keep it that way, and they want the U.S. to help. Tools

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is at her mushroom-cloud hyperbolic best, and this time Iran is the target. Her claim last week that "the policies of Iran constitute perhaps the single greatest challenge to American security interests in the Middle East and around the world" is simply too much of a stretch

Gulf Arabs offer to provide uranium to Iran: report

DUBAI (Reuters) - U.S.-allied Gulf states are willing to set up a body to provide enriched uranium to Iran to defuse Tehran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear plan, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister told a newspaper on Thursday

Iran War Drumbeat Grows Louder

By SCOTT MACLEOD/DOHA

The prospect of war with Iran is beginning to look real.

W.M.D. in Iran? Q.E.D.

CHENEY: Well, I think we are in the final stages of diplomacy, obviously. We have done virtually everything we can with respect to carrots, if you will. It’s time for squash. Not to mention mushrooms, clouds of them.

U.N. still probing Iran nuclear case

The head of a watchdog agency says he can't verify that the nation's program is purely for peaceful purposes.

By Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 30, 2007

UNITED NATIONS -- The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency said Monday that the inquiry into Iran's nuclear case was not closed, as the country's president proclaimed to the United Nations last month, and called it regrettable that Iran continued to enrich uranium despite the Security Council's demand to stop the process.

Wider Iranian threat is feared

Many U.S. officials believe small conflicts on the ground or at sea are potentially riskier than a nuclear program.

By Paul Richter and Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 31, 2007

WASHINGTON -- While the White House dwells on Iran's nuclear program, senior U.S. diplomats and military officers fear that an incident on the ground in Iraq is a more likely trigger for a possible confrontation with the Islamic Republic

Price to pay if Iran does not halt enrichment: US diplomat

VIENNA (AFP) - Iran will have a price to pay if it does not cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency and halt uranium enrichment, a top US official said Thursday in Vienna.

German FM moots EU sanctions on Iran

by Jean-Luc Renaudie

TEL AVIV (AFP) - Visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday raised the possibility of EU sanctions against Iran after Israel called for Berlin's backing over its enemy's nuclear drive.

Russia and China block tough Iran sanctions: U.S.

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday Russia and China had been blocking tough U.N. sanctions against Iran for months and pledged a drive to impose them if Iran did not halt nuclear activity within two weeks.