The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 03/19/2006 - 03/26/2006

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Abramoff clearing DeLay

Disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff has advised friends that he has no derogatory information about former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and is not implicating him as part of his plea bargain with federal prosecutors.

Abramoff's guilty plea on fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges requires him to provide evidence about members of Congress. That led to speculation that this would mean trouble for DeLay, who faces money laundering and conspiracy charges in Texas.

However, Abramoff has not given a clean bill of health to any other congressman -- including Rep. Robert Ney, who has stepped down as chairman of the House Administration Committee. Ney was the only member of Congress named in court papers connected with Abramoff's guilty plea Jan. 4.

Briton Thanks Soldiers Who Rescued Him

Freed British hostage Norman Kember returned home Saturday after four months in captivity in Iraq and thanked the soldiers who saved him and two other peace activists.

Kember, 74, arrived on a commercial flight from Kuwait and was reunited with his wife, Pat, in a terminal in Heathrow Airport. He waved to the waiting TV cameras.

A joint U.S.-British military operation freed Kember and Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, on Thursday. They were rescued without violence from a house west of Baghdad.

"I do not believe that a lasting peace is achieved by armed force, but I pay tribute to their courage and thank those who played a part in my rescue," Kember said in a statement he read to journalists while smiling and holding his wife's hand.

After their rescue, the three members of the Christian Peacemakers Teams group learned that a fellow hostage, 54-year-old American Tom Fox, had been killed by the hostage-takers weeks earlier.

Kember declined to answer questions about his ordeal and said the world's focus should be on the needs of the Iraqi people.

Some British media were critical of what they viewed as an apparent lack of a formal thank you from the peace activists for the efforts to rescue them. But Kember's supporters maintained that thanks was expressed quickly.

"We are thankful to all the people who gave of themselves sacrificially to free Jim, Norman, Harmeet and Tom over the last four months, and those supporters who prayed and wept for our brothers in captivity, for their loved ones and for us, their co-workers," Christian Peacemaker Teams said Thursday in a statement.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the rescue was launched three hours after a detainee captured the night before told American forces where the hostages were.

10 Things You May Not Have Known About Immigration

Immigration is about to sweep aside foreign port ownership and lobbying scandals as the dominant election year debate on Capitol Hill, with the Senate preparing to take up a bill on the thorny topic. With that in mind, we've assembled 10 facts behind the headlines.

Did you know ...

1. That during 2001-2004, the number of entering legal immigrants -- 3.8 million -- eclipsed the 3.7 million who arrived in the decade of the 1890s during the mass migration from Europe? That's according to the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics.

2. That after Mexico, the primary sources of legal U.S. immigrants are India, China and the Philippines? Mexico accounts for about 20 percent; the next three around 6 percent each. They are followed, at 3 percent or less, by Vietnam, El Salvador, Cuba, Haiti, Bosnia, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Ukraine, Korea, Russia and Nicaragua. These top 15 account for 60 percent of legal immigrants.

3. That there are at least 11.5 million unauthorized U.S. immigrants from all countries? The estimate, by the Pew Hispanic Center, is a figure larger than the populations of Cuba (11.3 million), Portugal (10.6 million) and Michigan (10.1 million).

4. That more than 7 million unauthorized immigrants were employed in March 2005? The number accounts for nearly 5 percent of the civilian labor force, the Pew Center estimates. These immigrants make up 36 percent of insulation workers, 29 percent of roofers, 27 percent of butchers and food processing workers, 22 percent of maids and housekeepers and 19 percent of parking lot attendants.

5. That the percentage of immigrants -- legal and illegal -- in some of the nation's biggest cities remains below the era of a century ago, never mind the recent high numbers? In the early 1900s, the level of immigrants in cities such as New York and Chicago was in the 12 percent to 14 percent range, American University history professor Alan Kraut said. Today, Kraut said, the figure is around 11 percent.

6. That the "green card" is actually dark blue? It has come in a variety of colors at various times in its history, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. The changes were made to prevent counterfeiting and, later, to make it easier for machines to read. The first cards enabling unnaturalized immigrants to live and work indefinitely in the United States -- a product of the Alien Registration Act of 1940 -- were printed on white paper. By 1951, the form was green, but in 1964 it was pale blue and a year later changed to its current color. It also has been issued in pink and pink-and-blue.

7. That the cost of making one arrest along the U.S.-Mexico border jumped from $300 in 1992 to $1,700 in 2002? So finds a Cato Institute study by Princeton University sociologist Douglas Massey, whose measurement is in constant, year 2000 dollars.

8. That Border Patrol officials rely on more than 250 remote video camera sites and 10,500 ground sensors? The system uses radar, heat-sensitive, seismic and magnetic technologies. But as of August 2005, it covered just 4 percent of the combined northern and southern borders, according to Congress' Government Accountability Office.

9. That the number of foreigners other than Mexicans entering illegally has soared? The Border Patrol apprehended 25,000 in 1997 and more than 100,000 in 2005, according to the Congressional Research Service. A Senate bill would authorize the secretaries of state and homeland security to develop ways to help Mexico tighten its southern border to combat human smuggling from Guatemala and Belize.

10. That the Homeland Security Department releases non-Mexican illegal immigrants caught in the United States if they do not have felony convictions and do not pose a threat to national security? The reason is a lack of bed space in detention facilities. They are given a notice to appear in court for deportation proceedings, but most never show up.

The department wants to end the disparity by expanding bed space. Currently there are around 20,000 beds, and the budget request for next year would add 6,700. Compare that to the MGM Grand Las Vegas, the country's largest hotel, which has about 8,000 beds.

March 24, 2006

(Chuck McCutcheon can be contacted at chuck.mccutcheon@newhouse.com.)

9/11 Commish Bob Kerrey: News Docs Show Saddam a Threat

A bombshell Iraqi intelligence document detailing a 1995 pact between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden to conduct "joint operations" against the U.S. proves that Saddam Hussein "would collaborate with people who would do our country harm," former 9/11 Commission member, Bob Kerrey said Friday.

"This is a very significant set of facts," Kerrey told the New York Sun.

"I personally and strongly believe you don't have to prove that Iraq was collaborating against Osama bin Laden on the September 11 attacks to prove he was an enemy [of the U.S.] and that he would collaborate with people who would do our country harm," the Nebraska Democrat explained.

While Kerrey cautioned that the 1995 pact doesn't implicate Saddam directly in the 9/11 attacks, he contended: "It does tie him into a circle that meant to damage the United States."

"Saddam was a significant enemy of the United States," Kerrey said, adding that the relationship between the Iraqi dictator and the al Qaida chief would become clearer as more materials from the former regime get translated and analyzed.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Saddam General: Newsweek Translation of Saddam Tapes Wrong

by Jim Kouri, CPP

Former Iraqi Air Force Gen. Georges Sada claims that Newsweek's
translation of some of Saddam Hussein's tapes is wrong. Newsweek reported that
the Saddam tapes include statements that there were no weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq.

Speaking on Fox News Channel, General Sada said that the tapes were not
translated correctly and his translation is that Saddam Hussein did
have WMD. Why would Newsweek publish an erroneous story? Sada believes
they used unqualified translators who confused Arab dialects. Others
believe Newsweek may have a vested interest in perpetuating the story that
Iraq had no WMD.

General Sada also says that chemical or biological weapons were flown
to Syria in 56 flights, but was unable to confirm it.

General Sada's allegations are confirmed by others. A Pentagon
official, John A. Shaw, who was responsible for keeping track of Iraq�s weapons
programs, claims that special Russian troops in civilian clothes
supervised the transfer of Saddam�s WMDs into Syria. An Israeli general,
Moshe Yaalon, has made a similar claim. The general in charge of Pentagon
spy satellites has admitted observing large truck convoys from Iraq to
Syria before the war began.

Yet most of the 2 million documents have not been explored or even
translated. It�s almost as if the CIA and the Pentagon don�t want to know
what they contain.

According to the Boston Herald, the CIA�s clandestine war against the
White House means the agency cannot be trusted for an honest account of
what�s in this material.

Many believe that Congress should make sure that an independent body,
with no ax to grind, checks the documents and releases every last one
that can be made public safely.

Chris Wallace: Rethink Saddam-Osama Ties

The press needs to rethink claims that there was no operational link between Iraq and al Qaida in light of new Iraqi intelligence documents revealing that Saddam Hussein approved "joint operations" with Osama bin Laden against the U.S., "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace said Friday.

"You've got to keep an open mind," Wallace told KLIF Dallas fill-in radio host, Steve Malzberg.

"It's one of the worst things that a reporter can do when he doesn't allow himself to be persuaded by the facts. When it's like, 'I know better.'" Wallace explained. "But if there's a secret document, a record of meetings that happened . . . you've got to go where the facts lead you.

The Iraqi intelligence document, first reported earlier this week by the Weekly Standard, detailed a February 1995 meeting between bin Laden and senior agents of Saddam's Mukhabarrat intelligence service, where the al Qaida chief asked for help with "joint operations" against the U.S.

Wallace said the development may force "a new understanding of the relationship between al Qaida and Hussein's regime in Iraq."
"You've got to be open-minded enough to acknowledge that," he added.

The Fox host's sentiments aren't yet shared by all of his colleagues. MSNBC host Chris Matthews, for instance, sounded Friday morning like he was either unaware of the "joint operations" document or had already decided to dismiss it.

Complaining to radio host Don Imus that the White House has repeatedly tried to mislead the American people about an Iraqi role in al Qaida terrorism, Matthews said:

"Recently the president suggested that [the Iraq war] was almost a hot pursuit - like a New York police chase - we chased them back into their country, we pursued the terrorists back to Iraq. And it's all nonsense."

The MSNBC host made no mention of the "joint operations" document.

Report: Osama Bin Laden's Sons in Iran

U.S. intelligence officials believe that part of Osama bin Laden's family has now moved to Iran, which is playing host to an ever growing contingent of al-Qaida members.

The Iran-based branch of bin Laden's clan includes three of the terror mastermind's sons, according to the Los Angeles Times. Several of bin Laden's wives and other relatives are suspected of being there as well, U.S. officials told the paper.

The bin Laden information was gathered through the use of electronic eavesdropping and satellite surveillance that can monitor the daily movements of designated individuals.

Beyond the bin Ladens, however, Iran is playing host to an increasing number of al-Qaida operatives - a development that has U.S. intelligence fearing a burgeoning alliance with the terror group.

"Iran is becoming more and more radicalized and more willing to turn a blind eye to the al-Qaida presence there," a U.S. counter-terrorism official told the Times.

ABC News Exec: "Bush makes me sick" email revealed

A top producer at ABC NEWS declared "Bush makes me sick" in an email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

John Green, currently executive producer of the weekend edition of GOOD MORNING AMERICA, unloaded on the president in an ABC company email obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT.

"If he uses the 'mixed messages' line one more time, I'm going to puke," Green complained.

The blunt comments by Green, along with other emails obtained by the DRUDGE REPORT, further reveal the inner workings of the nation's news outlets.

A friend of Green's at ABC says Green is mortified by the email. "John feels so badly about this email. He is a straight shooter and great producer who is always fair. That said, he deeply regrets the sentiment expressed in the email and the embarrassment it causes ABC News."

[UPDATE: Green sent email to ABC staff: "By now some of you have seen the DRUDGE REPORT featuring a private email I sent to a colleague in 2004. I want all of you to know how much I regret the embarrassment this story causes ABC. It was an inappropriate thing to say and I'm deeply sorry.']

Did Russian Ambassador Give Saddam the U.S. War Plan?

Iraq Archive Document Alleges Russian Official Described Locations, Troops, Tanks and Other Forces Before Operation Iraqi Freedom Began

Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of seven documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which the U.S. government has released.

The documents discuss Osama bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda and more.

The full documents can be found on the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office Web site: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.htm.

Note: Document titles were added by ABC News.


"U.S. War Plan Leaked to Iraqis by Russian Ambassador"
Two Iraqi documents from March 2003 -- on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion -- and addressed to the secretary of Saddam Hussein, describe details of a U.S. plan for war. According to the documents, the plan was disclosed to the Iraqis by the Russian ambassador.

Document written sometime before March 5, 2003

The first document (CMPC-2003-001950) is a handwritten account of a meeting with the Russian ambassador that details his description of the composition, size, location and type of U.S. military forces arrayed in the Gulf and Jordan. The document includes the exact numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, different types of aircraft, missiles, helicopters, aircraft carriers, and other forces, and also includes their exact locations. The ambassador also described the positions of two Special Forces units.

Document dated March 25, 2003

The second document (CMPC-2004-001117) is a typed account, signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hammam Abdel Khaleq, that states that the Russian ambassador has told the Iraqis that the United States was planning to deploy its force into Iraq from Basra in the South and up the Euphrates, and would avoid entering major cities on the way to Baghdad, which is, in fact what happened. The documents also state "Americans are also planning on taking control of the oil fields in Kirkuk." The information was obtained by the Russians from "sources at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar," according to the document.

This document also includes an account of an amusing incident in which several Iraqi Army officers (presumably seeking further elaboration of the U.S. war plans) contacted the Russian Embassy in Baghdad and stated that the ambassador was their source. Needless to say, this caused great embarrassment to the ambassador, and the officers were instructed "not to mention the ambassador again in that context."

(Editor's Note: The Russian ambassador in March 2003 was Vladimir Teterenko. Teterenko appears in documents released by the Volker Commission, which investigated the Oil for Food scandal, as receiving allocations of 3 million barrels of oil -- worth roughly $1.5 million. )

Thursday, March 23, 2006

US Troops Attacked After Saddam-Bin Laden Pact

U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia were attacked by al Qaeda twice in the months following Saddam Hussein's decision to approve Osama bin Laden's request for help in attacking "foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia.

An Iraqi intelligence document released last week states that bin Laden met in Sudan with senior Iraqi intelligence agents on Feb. 19, 1995, where he requested help in conducting "joint operations against foreign forces" in Saudi Arabia.

Saddam "was informed of the details of the meeting in our letter 370 on March 4, 1995," the Iraqi intelligence memo explains.

The document goes on to state:

"The approval was received from the Leader, Mr. President, may God keep him . . . . We were left to develop the relationship and the cooperation between the two sides to see what other doors of cooperation and agreement open up."
Reporting on the bombshell document on Wednesday, ABC News noted:

"Given that the document claims bin Laden was proposing to the Iraqis that they conduct 'joint operations against foreign forces' in Saudi Arabia, it is interesting to note that eight months after the meeting � on November 13, 1995 � terrorists attacked Saudi National Guard Headquarters in Riyadh, killing 5 U.S. military advisors. The militants later confessed on Saudi TV to having been trained by Osama bin Laden."

Unnoted by ABC: Eight months after the Riyadh attack, 19 U.S. servicemen were killed when a large truck bomb blew up the Khobar Towers military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

In August 1996 - two months after the Khobar attack and a year-and-a-half after he entered into his "joint operations" agreement with Saddam - bin Laden issued a Declaration of Jihad outlining his organization's goals.

Topping his agenda, according to PBS: "Drive US forces from the Arabian Peninsula, overthrow the Government of Saudi Arabia, liberate Muslim holy sites, and support Islamic revolutionary groups around the world."

Bin Laden also declared that Saudis have the right to strike at U.S. troops in the Persian Gulf.

ABC News: Viewers Say Media Biased in Iraq Coverage

Over the last 24 hours, ABC News has been reading hundreds of messages sent in by viewers in response to President Bush's claim that the media are undermining support for war in Iraq.

Viewer opinions ran the gamut, but the vast majority believed the media were biased in their Iraq coverage.

"I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, for a solution to this, because it seems that our major media networks don't want to portray the good," a woman from West Virginia asked President Bush at a recent town hall.

Teena from Wisconsin agreed.

"If we have the capabilities of the media and we can see the blood, bombs, killing and horror, shouldn't we also see the teaching, cleanup, building, training of soldiers � and the many other great things I know our soldiers are doing for us?" she wrote.

Many of the postings expressed a desire to get a better sense of the reconstruction effort, and the improvements in daily life for Iraqis.

"I think you should cover how many women are now allowed to work, how many kids are now enrolled in school and excelling," wrote Renee from Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M.

Mary Mutschler's son is in the Navy. She wrote from Oregon: "We need to hear about deaths, and what's going on as far as that's concerned. But we need to hear what's going good also."

The latest national poll reveals that 31 percent of Americans believe the media make things in Iraq sound worse than they are.

Terror gang planned to buy bomb from Russian mafia

Terrorists linked to an alleged al-Qa'eda gang which plotted a bombing campaign in Britain tried to buy a radioactive bomb from the Russian mafia, the Old Bailey was told yesterday.

The gang was also said to have discussed attacking the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, a London nightclub, and gas and electricity facilities

A Luton taxi driver who is said to be a member of the alleged gang was given information while in Pakistan about a "radioisotope bomb", the jury was told.

Salahuddin Amin was asked by a man he knew from a mosque in the Bedfordshire town to contact another man.

Amin contacted the third man via the internet and was told "they had made contact with the Russian mafia in Belgium and from the Mafia they were trying to buy this bomb".

Amin told police after his arrest that he did not think the attempt to buy the bomb was serious, as he did not think it likely that "you can go and pick up an atomic bomb and use it".

David Waters QC, for the Crown, said "nothing appears to have come of" the radio-isoptope bomb idea but added that, whether it was a realistic prospect or not, the discussion showed Amin's importance to the terrorist organisation.

Mr Waters who opened the case for the second day, said a more concrete contribution from Amin was to research and pass on to the alleged ringleader, Omar Khyam, from Crawley, Sussex, the recipe for improvised, home-made explosives.

Amin and Khyam are also alleged to have received training in Pakistan in how to make the toxin ricin.

The pair and five other co-defendants, all British citizens, deny plotting to carry out explosions in London using bombs made from ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder.

The charges in the trial do not involve any radiological element. The jury has been told, however, that the British-based gang was in the final stages of a conspiracy to use ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder, with remote-controlled detonators supplied by a Canadian fellow Muslim "jihadi", to bomb Britain.

The detonators were said to be capable of exploding a device at a range of up to one and a quarter miles.

The gang may have planned three bombs, according to evidence from a police and MI5 bugging operation.

They allegedly had more than half a ton of ammonium nitrate. Although no precise targets had been selected, several had been discussed, Mr Waters said. At the home of Khyam and his brother Shujah Mahmood, police found "a long list of synagogues".

One defendant, Waheed Mahmood, 34, allegedly raised the possibility - in a conversation bugged in Khyam's car on Friday, March 19, 2004 - of "a little explosion at Bluewater - tomorrow if you want."

"I don't know how big it would be, we haven't tested it, but we could do one tomorrow," Waheed Mahmood said. He also referred to the Madrid bombing of 2004, saying: "Spain was a beautiful job, weren't it, absolutely beautiful, man, so much impact."

The home of Jawad Akbar, another defendant, was also bugged. A conversation between him and Khyam, with Khyam's brother, Shujah, probably also present, centred on potential targets.

Akbar referred to "attacks upon the utilities, gas, water or electrical supplies", Mr Waters said. "Alternatively, a big nightclub in central London might be a target. As he put it: 'The biggest nightclub in central London, no one can put their hands up and say they are innocent - those slags dancing around'."

Akbar continued: "I think the club thing you could do, but the gas would be much harder."

He was heard saying to his wife, on Feb 26, 2004, that he did not pray at the mosque because he "did not want to appear ostentatiously religious". He added: "When we kill the Kuf [non-believers] this is because we know Allah hates the Kufs."

He was later recorded anxiously telling his wife about two missing CDs, adding: "They got Transco written on them . . . Transco, you know what, if we get raided today, we're finished." Waheed Mahmood, the jury heard, worked for Morrison's Utility Services, a contractor hired in the south east by National Grid Transco, which supplies electricity in England and Wales and high pressure gas in Britain.

Another defendant, Anthony Garcia, allegedly approached a supplier of ammonium nitrate in the autumn of 2003 to buy 50kg (110lb) and then 600kg (1,300lb) of fertiliser.

Mr Waters said: "Garcia had originally indicated that he wanted it for his allotment.

''This was perhaps somewhat surprising as the allotment would have to be the size of four or five football pitches and, further, it was the wrong time of the year to purchase and apply ammonium nitrate as a fertiliser."

Israel next battleground for al-Qaida terrorists?

Signs are mounting that al-Qaida terrorists are setting their sights on Israel and the Palestinian territories as their next jihad battleground.

Israel has indicted two West Bank militants for al-Qaida membership, Egypt arrested operatives trying to cross into Israel and a Palestinian security official has acknowledged al-Qaida is "organizing cells and gathering supporters."

Al-Qaida's inroads are still preliminary, but officials fear a doomsday scenario if it takes root.

Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon have established contacts with al-Qaida followers linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, according to two Israeli officials.

Al-Zarqawi has established footholds in the countries neighboring Israel - Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan - and is interested in bringing his fight to Israel, too, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because Israel does not want to identify those involved in the issue.

Tuesday's indictment of two militants on charges of belonging to al-Qaida and receiving funds from the group for a planned double-bombing in Jerusalem was Israel's most concrete allegation to date linking al-Qaida to West Bank Palestinians.

The indictment described in detail how the two, Azzam Abu Aladas and Balal Hafnai, met with al-Qaida operatives in Jordan, arranged for secret e-mail exchanges and received thousands of dollars from al-Qaida to carry out the attack. The indictment came just three weeks after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the London-based Al Hayat newspaper that al-Qaida had infiltrated the West Bank and Gaza.

Iran orders attack on Israelis before elections

Iran has ordered Palestinian terror groups to carry out a large-scale bombing inside Israel before elections here next week, security officials told WorldNetDaily.

The information has prompted nationwide alerts and tightened security measures in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

"The Tehran regime is looking to disrupt the election process and deteriorate the security situation to distract international attention from the pressure over its nuclear program," a senior security official said.

Officials say Iran has instructed the Islamic Jihad and West Bank cells of the Fatah-linked Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror groups to infiltrate immediately an Israeli city and carry out a mass-casualty attack.

Israel says both Islamic Jihad and the Brigades receive funding from the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Brigades leaders previously have told WorldNetDaily they coordinate with Hezbollah. Islamic Jihad, whose leaders frequently visit Iran, has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the past 11 months.

Israeli security services are following leads on more than 50 general and 11 specific terror warnings, including information on attacks in Jerusalem.

Yesterday, a suicide bomber was caught trying to infiltrate from Ramallah. On Tuesday, a dramatic high-speed chase on the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway involving police motorcycles and helicopter units ended in the capture of a bomber on his way to blow up a target in central Israel.

"The coming period is a very tense one in which terrorist organizations will come and try to carry out an attack. We are organizing in a very big way in an attempt to prevent an attack," said police chief Gen. Moshe Karadi.

US and British Troops Rescue 3 Christian activists in Iraq

U.S. and British troops Thursday freed three Christian peace activists in rural Iraq without firing a shot, ending a four-month hostage drama in which an American among the group was shot to death and dumped on a Baghdad street.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the U.S. military spokesman, said the hostages were being held by a "kidnapping cell," and the operation to free the captives was based on information from a man captured by U.S. forces only three hours earlier.

No kidnappers were present when the troops broke into a house in western Baghdad. The captives' hands were tied, Lynch said.

"They were bound, they were together, there were no kidnappers in the areas," Lynch told a news briefing.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry said the captives were rescued northwest of Baghdad between the towns of Mishahda, 20 miles away from Baghdad, and the western suburb of Abu Ghraib, 12 miles away.

British officials in Baghdad said those freed were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men - members of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams - were kidnapped Nov. 26 along with their American colleague, Tom Fox.

The body of Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., was found earlier this month.

"We remember with tears Tom Fox," group co-director Doug Pritchard said. "We had longed for the day when all four men would be released together. Our gladness today is bittersweet by the fact that Tom is not alive to join his colleagues in the celebration."

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Kember was in "reasonable condition" in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. The two Canadians required hospital treatment, but he gave no further details.

Straw also gave few details of the operation, saying only that it followed "weeks and weeks" of planning.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said he was delighted by the trio's release.

"He is particularly pleased for those released and their families. He congratulates everyone involved in the operation to rescue the hostages," his office said in a statement.

Loney's brother, Ed, told CBC television that his mother had spoken with James on the phone and he sounded "fantastic."

"He's alert and he was asking how we were doing and said he was sorry for the whole situation," Ed Loney said. "My mom said, 'Don't worry about it - just get home and we'll talk about all that stuff when you get here.'"

The kidnapped men were shown as prisoners in several videos, the most recent a silent clip dated Feb. 28 in which Loney, Kember and Sooden appeared without Fox. Fox's body was found March 10 near a west Baghdad railway line with gunshot wounds to his head and chest.

Iraqi police said at the time it appeared that Fox had been tortured because he had bruises and cuts on his body, apparently inflicted before he was shot to death.

The previously unknown Swords of Righteousness Brigades claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The consequences of U.S. defeat in Iraq.

The third anniversary of U.S. military action to liberate Iraq has brought with it a relentless stream of media and political pessimism that is unwarranted by the facts and threatens to become a self-fulfilling prophesy if it goes unchallenged.

Yes, sectarian tensions are running high and the politicians of Iraq's newly elected parliament are taking a long time forming a government. But the attack on the Golden Mosque in Samarra several weeks back has not provoked the spiral into "civil war" that so many keep predicting. U.S. casualties are down over the past month, in part because Iraqi security forces are performing better all the time.

More fundamentally, the coalition remains solidly allied with the majority of Iraqis who want neither Saddam's Hussein's return nor the country's descent into a Taliban-like hellhole. There is no widespread agitation for U.S. troops to depart, and if anything the Iraqi fear is that we'll leave too soon.

Yet there's no denying the polls showing that most Americans are increasingly weary of the daily news of car bombs and Iraqi squabbling and are wishing it would all just go away. Their pessimism is fed by elites who should know better but can't restrain their domestic political calculations long enough to consider the damage that would accompany U.S. failure. A conventional military defeat is inconceivable in Iraq, but a premature U.S. withdrawal is becoming all too possible.

With that in mind, it's worth thinking through what would happen if the U.S. does fail in Iraq. By fail, we mean cut and run before giving Iraqis the time and support to establish a stable, democratic government that can stand on its own. Beyond almost certain chaos in Iraq, here are some other likely consequences:
� The U.S. would lose all credibility on weapons proliferation. One doesn't have to be a dreamy-eyed optimist about democracy to recognize that toppling Saddam Hussein was a milestone in slowing the spread of WMD. Watching the Saddam example, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi decided he didn't want to be next. Gadhafi's "voluntary" disarmament in turn helped uncover the nuclear network run by Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan and Iran's two decades of deception.

Now Iran is dangerously close to acquiring nuclear weapons, a prospect that might yet be headed off by the use or threat of force. But if the U.S. retreats from Iraq, Iran's mullahs will know that we have no stomach to confront them and coercive diplomacy will have no credibility. An Iranian bomb, in turn, would inspire nuclear efforts in other Mideast countries and around the world.

� Broader Mideast instability. No one should underestimate America's deterrent effect in that unstable region, a benefit that would vanish if we left Iraq precipitously. Iran would feel free to begin unfettered meddling in southern Iraq with the aim of helping young radicals like Moqtada al-Sadr overwhelm moderate clerics like the Grand Ayatollah Sistani.

Syria would feel free to return to its predations in Lebanon and to unleash Hezbollah on Israel. Even allies like Turkey might feel compelled to take unilateral, albeit counterproductive steps, such as intervening in northern Iraq to protect their interests. Every country in the Middle East would make its own new calculation of how much it could afford to support U.S. interests. Some would make their own private deals with al Qaeda, or at a minimum stop aiding us in our pursuit of Islamists.

� We would lose all credibility with Muslim reformers. The Mideast is now undergoing a political evolution in which the clear majority, even if skeptical of U.S. motives, agrees with the goal of more democracy and accountable government. They have watched as millions of Iraqis have literally risked their lives to vote and otherwise support the project. Having seen those Iraqis later betrayed, other would-be reformers would not gamble their futures on American support. Nothing could be worse in the battle for Muslim "hearts and minds" than to betray our most natural allies.

� We would invite more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. Osama bin Laden said many times that he saw the weak U.S. response to Somalia and the Khobar Towers and USS Cole bombings as evidence that we lacked the will for a long fight. The forceful response after 9/11 taught al Qaeda otherwise, but a retreat in Iraq would revive that reputation for American weakness. While Western liberals may deny any connection between Iraq and al Qaeda, bin Laden and the rest of the Arab world see it clearly and would advertise a U.S. withdrawal as his victory. Far from leaving us alone, bin Laden would be more emboldened to strike the U.S. homeland with a goal of driving the U.S. entirely out of the Mideast.

We still believe victory in Iraq is possible, indeed likely, notwithstanding its costs and difficulties. But the desire among so many of our political elites to repudiate Mr. Bush and his foreign policy is creating a dangerous public pessimism that could yet lead to defeat--a defeat whose price would be paid by all Americans, and for years to come.

U.S., Iraqi Forces Capture 50 Insurgents

U.S. and Iraqi forces trapped dozens of insurgents Wednesday during a two-hour gunbattle at a police station south of Baghdad, a day after 100 masked gunmen stormed a jail near the Iranian border and freed more than 30 prisoners, most of them fellow insurgents.

Sixty gunmen, firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, attacked the Madain police station before dawn, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammadawi said. U.S. troops and a special Iraqi police unit responded, capturing 50 of the insurgents, including a Syrian, al-Mohammadawi said.

Four policemen, including one commander, were killed and five were wounded, he said. None of the attackers was killed.

Madain, about 14 miles southeast of Baghdad, is at the northern tip of Iraq's Sunni-dominated "Triangle of Death," a region rife with sectarian violence � retaliatory kidnappings and killings in the ongoing conflict between Sunnis and Shiites.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

'US could wipe out Iran nuke program in two days'

Another voice has been added to those who believe that air strikes should halt Iran's quest to develop nuclear weapons.
Gary Berntsen, the former senior CIA operative who led the search for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in late 2001, believes the United States has the ability to easily destroy Iran's nuclear facilities. He said the US could use bunker-buster bombs and other weapons to carry out the operation.
"We can dig those things out. We can destroy them," he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview.
"We can take care of it in a couple of days with air strikes and they wouldn't be able to stop us," he added. "It wouldn't be difficult to plan. They'd be some dangers but I think the United States can do it." Berntsen, who left the CIA in June last year after more than 20 years of service, believes it will be difficult to persuade Iran to stop its nuclear program.
"I know the Iranians. I've worked against the Iranians for years. They are determined to get this no matter what, and they will lie and cheat and do whatever they have to do to get themselves a weapon," he said.
Berntsen ruled out covert action because of the scale of Iran's nuclear program.
"This is a huge system of facilities they have. This is not going to be a small sort of engagement. We are probably going to have to destroy 30 facilities in 30 locations. Or at least 15," he said.
Berntsen's comments came after former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle said earlier this month that Iran's prime nuclear facilities could be devastated in one night by a small fleet of US B-2 bombers.
In addition, Moshe Ya'alon, Israel's former chief of General Staff, said the IDF has the capabilities to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and could do it in conjunction with the US and some EU countries. However, Berntsen believes Israel should not carry out any operation.
"It's better for the United States to do it. If you (Israel) do it, we'll have all sorts of problems in the Middle East, all sorts of countries that will align themselves with the Iranians over this. Politically it makes more sense for the US to do it," he said.
Berntsen also ruled out a ground operation.
"This is huge country. There are 70 million people there. It's gigantic. We don't need to be getting into something like that," he said.
However, Berntsen believes that the US should first exhaust all the political options before carrying out a strike.
"We should do what we're doing right now. That means taking them to the United Nations and make this 'the world against Iran,' because the Iranians appear determined to create a weapon," he said.
"If by chance they disarm, then we can avoid this, but if they don't disarm we will need to take care of this ourselves," he said.
"The Iranians have to know that we mean business. They will either disarm or we will destroy their facilities. No ifs, ands, or buts. They present a threat to peace in the Middle East. They present a threat to Israel. We cannot accept that," he added.
Berntsen predicted that if Iran doesn't disarm, President George Bush would carry out an attack regardless of domestic opposition.
"I think that President Bush has demonstrated that he says what he means and he means what he says. A lot of people didn't think he would do Iraq. This is a guy who doesn't put his finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. President Bush means business.

Monday, March 20, 2006

From Iraq's Front Line, it Looks Like the Media Has Lost the Plot

A soldier friend stationed in Baghdad for the past two months has been sending me emails with such arresting lines as: "It's late here and I [have] to get the Chief of Staff back to the Palace."

From his office in the fortified military and government area, the Green Zone, he scans the web for news about Iraq and compares it with his reality.

"Baghdad is not burning down around my ears," he wrote last week. "Things were tense a while back, but violence was within limits. Callous thing to say, but that is the reality around here."

The only "quagmire" he sees is "the soft patch of ground out by the rifle range and no civil war in sight".

He exhibits a soldier's sang-froid. "We are expecting to be very busy the next few days. The terrorists are extremely media savvy (it's the only area they get to win) and will be looking for big headlines. End of religious festival, big crowds and convening of new government."

But with the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion tomorrow, he says, "the only people who seem to have lost both their grip on reality and their nerve are the western media".

His reality is quite different: "I am more and more impressed with the Iraqis every day. There are problems, to be sure, but I do not know of any country that has gone through the sorts of upheavals that this one has without any problems.

"One just has to remember the catastrophes of the French Reign of Terror, or the Russian and Chinese revolutions, not to mention the disasters that were Vietnam and Cambodia."


He also sent me a letter which has been circulating among soldiers for a month, from the mayor of Tal 'Afar, near the Syrian border, praising the "lion hearts" of the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment who have changed the city from "ghost town in which terrorists spread death and destruction to a secure city flourishing with life".( An Iraqi Mayor salutes the US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment )


The violence of revenge attacks on Sunnis across Iraq, after last month's bombing of the Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra, led many commentators to declare the civil war they have been predicting for three years had arrived. But others point to signs the crisis has spurred Iraq's political leaders to sort out their differences and work to form a national unity government, three months after their third successful election. And as Sunni politicians engage in the process, there are encouraging reports of infighting among Sunni insurgents.

Last Thursday Iraq's new parliament was sworn in and 82-year-old Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi told its first short session: "We have to prove to the world that a civil war is not and will not take place among our people. The danger is still looming and the enemies are ready for us because they do not like to see a united, strong, stable Iraq."

The Iraqi parliament now has 60 days to elect a president and approve a prime minister and cabinet.

Unlike John Howard, US President George Bush has been damaged by the Iraq situation and fears grow of political paralysis for the last three years of his presidency. But George Friedman, author of America's Secret War and founder of Stratfor global intelligence subscription service, wrote last week that American weakness might in fact compel Sunnis and Shias to "sort things out themselves".

And in The Washington Post, David Ignatius, in Baghdad, wrote that the Samarra mosque crisis was the catalyst that broke a deadlock and brought Iraq's political factions together last week.

Also regarded as a positive development was Iran's announcement on Thursday it was ready to open talks with the US over its influence in Iraq.

At the University of Sydney last week, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed her admiration for the Iraqi people. "Every time they have been confronted with a challenge, going all the way back to the transfer of sovereignty in 2004, the Iraqis have faced up to that challenge.

"In the face of extremely difficult odds, the Iraqi people are trying to expand the realm of what people think is possible in that part of the world. They voted, then wrote and ratified their own constitution, and then they voted again.

"And now their freely elected leaders are debating, and arguing, and compromising. In other words, they are engaging in a process called democracy."


The anti-war protesters who picketed Rice might try having more faith in the Iraqis and the brave soldiers like my friend who are supporting them.

"I think it is right that we are here," wrote my friend last week on his 39th birthday, "and that we support these people against the thugs, criminals and terrorists who would try and turn back the clock on them".

Bin Laden Sought 'Joint Operations' With Saddam

An Iraqi intelligence document released last week indicates that Osama bin Laden sought to conduct "joint operations" with Saddam Hussein's regime six years before the 9/11 attacks - and was given the green light by the Iraqi dictator.

The document, detailed in the March 27 issue of the Weekly Standard, describes a Feb. 1995 meeting between bin Laden and Iraqi intelligence that was personally approved by "the Honorable Presidency" - an apparent reference to Saddam.

"We discussed with [bin Laden] his organization. He requested the broadcast of the speeches of Sheikh Sulayman al-Uda [who has influence within Saudi Arabia and outside due to being a well known religious and influential personality] and to designate a program for them through the broadcast directed inside Iraq, and to perform joint operations against the foreign forces in the land of Hijaz [Saudi Arabia]."

The document goes on to note that "the Honorable Presidency was informed of the details of the meeting in our letter 370 on March 4, 1995."

The document indicates that Saddam personally granted bin Laden's request for help with propaganda broadcasts and instructed his agents "to develop the relationship [with bin Laden] and the cooperation between the two sides to see what other doors of cooperation and agreement open up."

The 1997 Iraqi intelligence document goes on to report: "Currently we are working to invigorate this relationship through a new channel in light of his present location [Afghanistan]."

The reference by Iraqi intelligence to "joint operations" with bin Laden apparently contradicts one of the 9/11 Commission's most important findings that Saddam had no "operational relationship" with al Qaeda.

U.S. Iraq Casualties Plummet in March

The press is marking the third anniversary of the liberation of Iraq with an avalanche of reports that a sectarian "civil war" has broken out, which, reporters say, means U.S. efforts to bring stability to Iraq are on the verge of failure.

But only a few short weeks ago reporters were measuring success [or, in their case, failure] in Iraq by a completely different standard: the number of U.S. troops killed in combat operations.

So why the shift in focus? It turns out that while the so-called Iraqi civil war has been raging, the number of U.S. casualties has plummeted to less than half of what they were over the previous five months.

In fact, if the current trend continues, March will be the second least deadly month for American GIs since the war began.

According to the web site Lunaville.com - which keeps the most comprehensive and up to date statistics on U.S. casualties - about one soldier a day [1.1] has died in Iraq during the first three weeks in March.
That's a vast improvement over February's numbers, when U.S. troops were dying at the rate of 2.07 per day. In every month since November 2005, the U.S. death rate has topped 2 per day. In October, it was over 3.

The lowest U.S. troop death rate since the U.S. invaded was in February 2004, when less than one soldier per day [.79] was killed in combat operations.

Big credit goes to the U.S. military: the soldiers on the ground whose efforts to train Iraqis to do the frontline fighting themselves seem to be finally be paying off.

Still, don't look for much coverage of this dramatic turn of events - especially from reporters for whom "good news is no news" in Iraq.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Utah: Parental Permission Needed for Abortion

Girls younger than 18 will need a parent's permission before they can have an abortion under a bill signed Thursday by Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman.

The old law required notification of at least one parent, but not permission.

The new law allows minor girls to seek an exception in Juvenile Court to the parental consent rule - but not the notification requirement - in cases of abuse, incest or estrangement from their parents, or when a doctor determines the life or health of the girl is at risk.

Huntsman "supports efforts to restrict abortion, except in instances in rape or incest, or where necessary to preserve the life of the mother," said Mike Mower, the governor's deputy chief of staff.

Data from the state Health Department indicate Utah has one of the lowest abortion rates in the country. In 2003, the most recent year statistics are available, there were 3,338 abortions statewide.

Conservative Baby Boom, Liberal Baby Bust

In a trend that�s found worldwide as well as in the U.S.: Liberals are much less likely to have children than conservatives.

That trend "augers a far more conservative future � one in which patriarchy and other traditional values make a comeback, if only by default,� Phillip Longman, a fellow at the New America Foundation, writes in an essay in USA Today.

"Childlessness and small families are increasingly the norm today among progressive secularists. As a consequence, an increasing share of all children born into the world are descended from a share of the population whose conservative values have led them to raise large families.�

Conservatives, most of whom are pro-life, are also less likely to have abortions than are their politically liberal counterparts. Liberals, in essence, may be killing their own future through abortion.

Longman points to these figures:

In the U.S., 47 percent of people who attend church weekly say their ideal family size is three or more children, but only 27 percent of those who seldom attend church feel that way.

In Utah, where more than two-thirds of residents are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 92 children are born each year for every 1,000 women. Vermont � the first state to embrace gay unions � has the nation's lowest rate: 51 children per 1,000 women.

The average fertility rate in states that voted for President Bush in 2004 is more than 11 percent higher than the rate in states that voted for Sen. John Kerry.

Demographic data show that in Europe today, progressives who say they find soft drugs, homosexuality and euthanasia acceptable are far more likely to live alone or be in childless, cohabiting unions than those with more conservative views.
Longman also points out that nearly 20 percent of American women born in the late 1950s are reaching the end of their reproductive lives without having children.

Therefore, "the greatly expanded childless segment of contemporary society, whose members are drawn disproportionately from the feminist and countercultural movements of the 1960s and '70s, will leave no genetic legacy,� writes Longman, author of "The Empty Cradle: How Falling Birthrates Threaten World Prosperity and What to Do About It.�

He concludes that tomorrow's children "will be for the most part descendants of a comparatively narrow and culturally conservative segment of society.�

The USA Today essay was adapted from a story in Foreign Policy magazine

'Law & Order' actor: I know more about war than troops

NBC's Richard Belzer dismisses '19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn't get a job'

According to actor and comedian Richard Belzer, American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are too uneducated to be expressing support for the U.S. military mission since they're just "19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn't get a job" and "they don't read twenty newspapers a day."

Belzer, who's best known as Detective John Munch on NBC's "Homicide: Life on the Street" and "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit," is a frequent guest on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher."

On Friday night's live broadcast, Belzer attacked claims by fellow guest Florida Congresswoman Ileanna Ros-Lehtinen's that U.S. soldiers continue to express support for the war.

In the lively exchange, captured by the website NewsBusters, Belzer dismisses Ros-Lehtinen accounts of meeting with troops in Iraq and their credibility as "bull----."

Belzer: "You think everyone over there is a college graduate? They're 19 and 20-year-old kids who couldn't get a job ..."

U.S. Navy returns fire on suspected pirates

The U.S. Navy engaged suspected pirates earlier today in the Indian Ocean, killing one and wounding five, after the suspects brandished rocket-propelled grenade launchers and opened fire on a boarding party.

The USS Cape George, a guided-missile cruiser, and the USS Gonzalez, a guided-missile destroyer, were involved in coalition maritime security maneuvers with the Royal Netherlands Navy when the suspected vessel, a 30-foot fishing boat towing two skiffs, was spotted 25 nautical miles off the coast. Boarding teams from the Gonzalez were approaching the vessel to make a routine check when observers on both Navy ships spotted the suspects brandishing RPGs.

The pirates opened fire, which was returned from both U.S. ships, resulting in 1 death and a fire being ignited aboard the fishing vessel. Boarding teams took twelve suspects into custody, including 5 who were wounded, and confiscated a RPG launcher and automatic weapons. No U.S. Sailors were injured.