Wednesday, April 23, 2003

 
GOP: No Qualms About Executing Their Own

Republicans are showing that they have no problem crushing anyone who doesn't fully support every whim of this Administration.

"House Republicans, infuriated by the role of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) in cutting a deal with GOP centrists to reduce the size of President Bush’s proposed tax cut, are apparently looking for ways to punish him.

But most of the ideas floated so far, including preventing Grassley from chairing the conference committee that will decide the fate of the tax cut, or even from serving on the committee, appear to be either unworkable or ineffective, leaving House leaders, and even some Senate Republicans, frustrated with Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

Grassley infuriated House GOP leaders when he struck a deal April 10 to restrict any tax-cut agreement that comes back from a House-Senate conference to a maximum of $350 billion. House leaders were caught off guard because they believed they had a clear understanding with the Senate that the tax cuts would be negotiated later, after both chambers passed separate tax cuts of $350 billion and $550 billion."

Simultaneously, a conservative tax-cut advocacy group has begun running television ads targeting two Republican senators who "foiled the GOP's attempt to win a larger tax cut in the federal budget resolution last week."

"The Club for Growth, which backs conservative candidates in primaries against more liberal Republican officeholders, is sponsoring the ads. They hope to convince Sen. George V. Voinovich, Ohio Republican, and Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, Maine Republican, to change their minds and support a larger tax cut.

"'The ad basically makes the point that Bush needed strong allies in fighting the war and the French abandoned him. He needs strong allies here at home, and people like George Voinovich and Olympia Snowe abandoned him,' said Stephen Moore, president of the club."

This analogy is of course ridiculous and disgusting. Supporters of Snowe were quick to point out how "Equating a vote on the budget resolution with the war in Iraq trivializes the sacrifices of the men and women serving there," and that "No one who stands her ground while crafting a budget should have her patriotism challenged."

You can bet that these same Republicans who defended Snowe and Voinovich were calling for the heads of Michael Moore and the Dixie Chicks shortly after they stood up to Bush. It's GOP Hypocrisy stronger than ever. Long live the GOP!

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posted by Thomas Ball 3:38 PM

 
More Foreign Policy Bumbling

In character with the Administration's incredibly inept foreign policy making, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld released a classified memo that suggested the United States "team up with China to press for the removal of North Korea's leadership."

So why is this bumbling? Well, it seems that prior to these revelations, Secretary of State Colin Powell offered North Korea assurances that the US is not trying to undermine its Government. Of course this is but one more example of the Administration outing itself as a self-contradicting, lying machine. My guess is that they will not be held accountable for these actions.

"Details of the document have emerged only days before the US and China are due to meet North Korea to try to convince it to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

It argues that Washington's goal should be the collapse of Kim Jong Il's Government, but this seems at odds with the US State Department's approach of convincing Kim, in the words of one senior administration official, "that we're not trying to take him out".

Hardliners in the Pentagon - and some at the White House - say the US should use its speedy victory in Iraq to drive home to North Korea that it could meet the same fate if it ignores President George Bush's demands: that it dismantle its nuclear weapons program, ship its spent nuclear fuel out of the country and open up to intrusive inspections."

In any event Colin Powell is once again the focus of embarrassment and the rift between Powell and Rumsfeld is back in the spotlight. For those who are keeping score, Rumsfeld has won every previous skirmish between the two, probably because Rumsfeld is the one with support from Bush, Cheney, Perle and Wolfowitz. And don't even suggest that Powell was the one who insisted that the Administration go to the UN prior to the Iraq Invasion. It should be clear by now that the move was purely a token gesture with little material impact.

To keep this particular instance of incompetance in perspective, we must remember that it is but one in a long line of ham-fisted, international foul-ups.

Recall that Rumsfeld, almost immediately upon his confirmation as Defense Secretary, "ordered a halt to all U.S. military 'programs and contacts' with China...But later, Defense Department officials said that the [Rumsfeld statement] was issued in error and that the Pentagon's policy was to review all military contacts with China on a case-by-case basis."

Recall also, that Bush blurted out that the US would do "whatever it took" to defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack, shattering decades of intentional "strategic ambiguity" regarding the issue.

In the end, although the Administration calls for a US-China partnership to deal with North Korean "regime change", at least some officials are showing some common sense:

"Several officials who have seen [the memo] say it is ludicrous to think China would join in any US-led effort to bring about the fall of the North Korean Government. 'The last thing the Chinese want,' one official said, 'is a collapse of North Korea that will create a flood of refugees into China and put Western allies on the Chinese border.'"

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posted by Thomas Ball 10:31 AM

 
Bush, Iraq and North Korea News Summaries

US WARNING TO FRANCE (Sky News) US Secretary of State Colin Powell has warned France it will suffer the consequences for opposing the United States over the war with Iraq. "It's over and we have to take a look at the relationship. We have to look at all aspects of our relationship with France in light of this," Mr Powell said. Asked if there were consequences for having stood up to the United States, Mr Powell replied "yes" but did not elaborate.

France, Russia Push for U.N. Inspectors (Associated Press) Security Council members who opposed the war in Iraq - including France, Russia and Germany - are insisting that U.N. inspectors be allowed to join a weapons hunt now being conducted exclusively by the United States. The Bush administration, which went to war after failing to convince those countries that Iraq needed to be forcefully disarmed of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, says it will search for them on its own. But the French, German and Russian ambassadors suggested Tuesday that compromising on disarmament may get Washington something it wants even more - an end to U.N. sanctions that are holding back Iraq's reconstruction efforts.

BLIX ACCUSES US OVER IRAQ (Sky News) Chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix has accused America of trying to discredit his team's work ahead of the Iraq war.Dr Blix, who is due to address the UN Security Council in New York in a closed session, made his comments in a television interview. Dr Blix said the US had deliberately leaked stories about an Iraqi military drone and cluster bombs."At that time the US was very eager to sway the votes of the Security Council and they felt that stories about these things would be useful to have and they let it out," he said.Dr Blix continued: "I think it has been one of the disturbing elements that so much of the intelligence on which the capitals built their case seems to have been shaky and there are some flagrant cases."

US rejects calls for Blix to return (UK Guardian) Washington yesterday dismissed calls for Hans Blix and United Nations weapons inspectors to return to Iraq, threatening a fresh diplomatic battle within the Security Council. Senior officials called on the council to adjust to the "new facts on the ground" and scrap the sanctions that sent Mr Blix's inspectors into Iraq. Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, said: "The Iraqi regime that created the environment for the inspectors previously to go in no longer exists. Make no mistake about it, the United States and the coalition have taken on the responsibility for dismantling Iraq's [weapons of mass destruction]."

U.S. Still Confident It Will Find WMD in Iraq (Reuters) The U.S. military remains confident it will find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, even though it has yet to discover any after a month in the country, a U.S. general said on Tuesday. "We've not found any weaponized chemicals, biological agents or any nuclear devices at this point. That work is ongoing," Brooks said. "We remain confident that we'll find evidence of the program that's been in place in Iraq for some time."

France Proposes Suspending U.N. Sanctions Against Iraq (FOX News) The U.N. should suspend sanctions against Iraq, France proposed Tuesday in an important step toward the United States' goal of ending trade embargoes on the newly liberated country. President Bush called last week for an end to the sanctions, so Iraq's oil revenue can be used to finance reconstruction. Saddam Hussein's toppled regime repeatedly blamed the trade sanctions, imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, for plunging the country deep into poverty. Under Security Council resolutions, sanctions cannot be lifted until U.N. inspectors certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have been destroyed along with the long-range missiles that deliver them.

U.S. Planners Surprised by Strength of Iraqi Shiites (Washington Post) As Iraqi Shiite demands for a dominant role in Iraq's future mount, Bush administration officials say they underestimated the Shiites' organizational strength and are unprepared to prevent the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government in the country. The burst of Shiite power -- as demonstrated by the hundreds of thousands who made a long-banned pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala yesterday -- has U.S. officials looking for allies in the struggle to fill the power vacuum left by the downfall of Saddam Hussein. As the administration plotted to overthrow Hussein's government, U.S. officials said this week, it failed to fully appreciate the force of Shiite aspirations and is now concerned that those sentiments could coalesce into a fundamentalist government.

Pentagon Reports Raising $1.7 Billion to Assist Relief Effort (NY Times) Jordan has pledged a mobile field hospital, and the United Arab Emirates plan to set up a hospital and send a water purification system to Baghdad, Pentagon officials said today as they reported on the most recent international relief efforts. The Defense Department comptroller, Dov Zakheim, who is responsible for the Pentagon's role in managing Iraq's reconstruction, said about $1.7 billion in financial assistance, food, medicine and other relief products had been raised from various countries. The United Nations issued a "Flash Appeal for Iraq" on March 28 seeking $2.2 billion in assistance, and has gathered about $400 million, Mr. Zakheim said. The rest of the $1.7 billion raised thus far has been offered individually by donor states outside of that United Nations framework, he said.
 
Annan Says 'Serious Discussion' at U.N. on Iraq Oil (Reuters) U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday that "serious discussions" were under way in the U.N. Security Council to get Iraqi oil exports flowing again. Annan acknowledged Washington's call for a complete end to sanctions on Iraq but declined to speculate on a possible timetable for the lifting of the U.N. embargo. He was speaking ahead of a 1930 GMT session of the Security Council on Tuesday to discuss the program that allows the sale of crude in return for humanitarian goods under U.N. supervision.
 
North Iraq Crude-Oil OutputMay Resume This Week (WSJ) Iraqi crude-oil production may resume as early as this week in the north of the country, even as a big question mark hovers over how Iraq will be represented at this week's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Northern wells are likely to be producing modest amounts of oil again in a "couple of days," according to Kahtan al-Anbaki, a member of a small group of senior oil-ministry officials, which has been meeting regularly in Baghdad to help restore the country's petroleum operations. The new oil will be used to feed Iraqi refineries and power plants, and won't be available for export.The region was producing about 40% of the country's estimated 2.5 million barrels of oil a day before the war.
 
Iran Is Said to Send Agents Into South Iraq (NY Times) Iranian-trained agents have crossed into southern Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein and are working in the cities of Najaf, Karbala and Basra to promote friendly Shiite clerics and advance Iranian interests, according to defense and other United States government officials. The officials cited intelligence reports that said the agents include members of the military wing of an Iraqi exile group that operates from Iran with that government's training and support. Known as the Badr Brigade, the militia is the armed force of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite group with headquarters in Tehran.
 
U.S. OKs Cease-Fire with Iranian Militia in Iraq (Reuters) The U.S. military in Iraq has agreed a cease-fire with the People's Mujahideen, an armed group of Iranian dissidents which had been backed by Saddam Hussein, a senior commander said on Tuesday. "We've had some encounters of various sorts with the People's Mujahideen. Some of our actions involve targeting them with lethal fire," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a briefing at U.S. Central Command war headquarters in Qatar. "At this point a cease-fire is in effect and some Mujahideen have moved into assembly areas...in non-combat formation."
 
Scientists: Bacteria Destruction Ordered (Associated Press) Six Iraqi scientists working at different Baghdad research institutions were ordered to destroy some bacteria and equipment and hide more in their homes before visits from U.N. weapons inspectors in the months leading up to the war, the scientists told The Associated Press. In separate interviews, all of the scientists said they were involved in civilian research projects and none knew of any programs for weapons of mass destruction. It was not clear why their materials, ostensibly for nonmilitary research, were ordered destroyed. But their accounts indicate the government of Saddam Hussein may have had advance knowledge of at least some of the inspectors' visits, as the United States suspected, and that the former Iraqi regime was deeply concerned about any material that could raise the suspicion of U.N. experts.
 
No New Wars (Newsweek) Bush, speaking with a small group of business reporters at the White House, volunteered twice that he's not gearing up for a new conflict in response to a question about the future costs of the war on terror. "I have no specific operation in mind at this point in time," the president said, adding a few minutes later, "I can't think of a specific moment or a specific incident that would require military action as we speak." The president spent most of the 45-minute session pitching what's left of his economic stimulus package ahead of a trip to Ohio on Thursday, where he'll make the case for a larger tax cut than Congress seems willing to give him.
 
Arafat Under Pressure to Bend in Leadership Crisis (Reuters) The United States and European Union have weighed in behind Palestinian prime minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas in his leadership battle with President Yasser Arafat, senior officials said on Tuesday. Hanging in the balance are Arafat's decades-old domination of Palestinian politics and a U.S.-backed peace "road map" that envisions an end to 30 months of violence and creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. With a self-imposed deadline for agreement on a cabinet due to expire on Wednesday, senior Palestinian officials said Miguel Moratinos, the EU's Middle East peace envoy, telephoned Arafat on Sunday to hammer home an uncompromising message. The officials said Moratinos told Arafat the EU would accept no one but Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen, as prime minister.
 
Arafat, Abbas 'Narrow Differences' on Leadership (Reuters) Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and his premier-designate have narrowed differences over cabinet posts and powers which are blocking a Middle East peace plan, a senior Palestinian official said on Tuesday. The United States and the European Union have weighed in behind Mahmoud Abbas in his leadership tussle with Arafat. Hanging in the balance are Arafat's decades-old domination of Palestinian politics and a U.S.-backed peace "road map" that envisages an end to two-and-a-half years of Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005.
 
U.S., North Korea Begin Nuclear Talks in China (Reuters) U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly began talks with North Korea on Wednesday aimed at resolving a standoff over Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons program, but few expect a breakthrough. With North Korean negotiator Li Gun considered too junior to cut a deal, diplomats said the first formal face-off between Washington and Pyongyang since the crisis began last October was likely to yield only plans for more talks. North Korea wants a security guarantee from the United States, as well as aid and diplomatic recognition, and says it needs a powerful deterrent to stave off the threat of attack. Washington says Pyongyang, which President Bush has bracketed as part of an "axis of evil" along with Iran and pre-war Iraq, must scrap the nuclear program before it will offer a guarantee.
 
Heroin Busts Point to Source Of Funds for North Koreans (WSJ) High-level defectors allege that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and his late father, Kim Il Sung, have personally overseen development of the narcotics trade. As the economy began contracting in the late 1980s, the defectors say, the North Korean leaders ordered state collective farms and youth brigades to produce opium to earn hard currency. U.S. and Asian intelligence officials say North Korea linked up with criminal gangs in the region to enhance its network. "North Korea is essentially now a state-run criminal syndicate," asserts Raphael Perl, a researcher at the U.S. government's Congressional Research Service, who has tracked the country's drug trade for a decade.
 
U.S. stopped al-Qaida plots against troops (UPI) U.S. intelligence agencies and their allies disrupted a number of terrorist threats -- including some from al-Qaida against U.S. troops in the Gulf -- during the war against Iraq, U.S. officials have told United Press International. "There were a number of disruptions to terrorist efforts around the world over the last month or so," a U.S. intelligence official told UPI, adding that some of the efforts were by al-Qaida operatives. "Rolled up is probably too precise a phrase," the official, who requested anonymity, went on, "If you think of it as someone snuffing out a burning fuse, that's not the case, but people who were planning bad things have ended up getting deported or arrested or detained."

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posted by Thomas Ball 8:02 AM