UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United States and Syria locked horns on Tuesday, with Washington urging others to join it in imposing sanctions on Damascus and Syria telling America to stop trying to impose its will on Arabs.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told the United Nations General Assembly that the world pays the price when the U.S. government thinks it knows what Arabs want better than the Arabs themselves.

Washington has long listed Syria as a “state sponsor of terrorism” and relations have worsened with the United States accusing Syria of helping to fuel the insurgency in Iraq. Damascus denies both charges.

…In his U.N. speech, Rice’s Syrian counterpart said it was essential that the United States and other countries draw up a schedule for withdrawing from Iraq. He insisted it would help curb the violence there.

“Tragically enough, we all end up paying the price when the decision makers in Washington believe that they know better, and are in a better position to understand and grasp the needs and circumstances of the Arabs,” Moualem said.

“They diagnose the ambitions and aspirations of the Arab individual in a manner that is tailored to their own vision.”

Moualem assailed the United States for its support of Israel and other policies in the Middle East, saying the flow of U.S. weapons to Israel was sowing destruction. He also criticized those who finance and support what he called the injustices of the Israeli occupation of Arab territories.

“The Palestinians are subjected to a crippling blockade because the advocates of democracy were dissatisfied with the results of the elections in the Palestinian territories,” Moualem said.

today.reuters.com

Standards of human rights in the Palestinian territories have fallen to intolerable new levels, says a UN expert on the Mid-East conflict. John Dugard said Israel was largely to blame for turning Gaza into “a prison” and “throwing away the key”.

He also criticised Canada, Europe and the US for cutting funds to Palestinian Authority, run by the Hamas militant group which does not recognise Israel.

An Israeli official said the statement was unrealistic and over-simplified.

TIME: Why do you attack President George W. Bush with such jolting language?

CHAVEZ: I believe words have great weight, and I want people to know exactly what I mean. I’m not attacking President Bush; I’m simply counterattacking. Bush has been attacking the world, and not just with words–with bombs. When I say these things I believe I’m speaking for many people, because they too believe this moment is our opportunity to stop the threat of a U.S. empire that uses the U.N. to justify its aggression against half the world. In Bush’s speech to the U.N., he sounded as if he wants to be master of the world. I changed my original speech after reading his.

TIME: But doesn’t your rhetoric–referring to Bush, for example, as an “alcoholic”–risk alienating potential allies?

CHAVEZ: First of all, Bush has called me worse: tyrant, populist dictator, drug trafficker, to name a few. I was simply telling a truth that people should know about this President, a man with gigantic power.

TIME: Is all of this mostly for domestic consumption back in Venezuela?

CHAVEZ: No. American author Noam Chomsky in his book [Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance] talks of two superpowers in today’s world–one is the U.S., which aggressively wants to dominate the world, and the other is global public opinion. I don’t consider what I’m saying personal attacks on President Bush–I want to wake up U.S. and global public opinion about him.

TIME: Do your feelings about Bush reflect your feelings toward America in general?

CHAVEZ: No. I revere America as the nation of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Mark Twain–who was a great anti-imperialist, who opposed U.S. adventurism in the Spanish-American War.

time.com

Chavez’s sound and fury, unlike Macbeth’s, signifies something.

Sen. Joe Lieberman has a 10-point advantage over Democrat Ned Lamont among likely Connecticut voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

Lieberman, a three-term Democrat running as an independent after losing the party nomination in a primary, is favored by 49 percent to 39 percent over Lamont in the three-way race. Republican Alan Schlesinger trails with 5 percent.

The race has tightened slightly since an Aug. 17 poll that showed Lieberman leading 53 percent to 41 percent.

“Ned Lamont has lost momentum,” said poll director Douglas Schwartz said. “He’s gained only two points in six weeks. He’s going to have to do something different in the next six weeks or … Lieberman stays in for another six years.”

The race is seen as many as a referendum on President Bush’s handling of the Iraq war. Lamont, a political newcomer and multimillionaire, ran on an anti-war platform to upset Lieberman in the Aug. 8 primary.

news.yahoo.com

yeah well this is one they can’t afford to lose…any mean necessary you know…

WASHINGTON: The US military’s top general warned on Friday that forces unfriendly to the United States are brewing in the Americas, arguing that “together we need to do something about it.”

General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, singled out Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez who this week attacked President George W. Bush as the “devil” in a speech to the UN General Assembly.

“There have been increases in government actions that are not friendly to us,” Pace said in a question-and-answer session with Pentagon employees. “President Chavez is clearly not a friend to the United States.”

He said it would be interesting to see what impact Chavez’s speech would have on Venezuela’s quest for a seat on the US Security Council.

thenews.com

LA Times: Chavez to Double Energy Subsidies to the Needy in U.S.

Child Hunger in the Land of Abundance Makes Us All Poor

…While it is normal to expect high levels of hunger and poverty in a developing country, it may come as a surprise to observe a similar epidemic in one of the richest countries in the world. The Food Bank for New York City recently reported that nearly 20 percent of children in the city rely on free food to survive. According to statistics from Bread for the World, 13 million children went to bed hungry in the United States in 2004, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

JERUSALEM – An Israeli military judge on Tuesday ordered the release of 21 Palestinian Hamas officials detained in a dragnet launched after a soldier was abducted by gunmen in the Gaza Strip, an army spokesman said.

A lawyer for the detainees said the release roster issued by Ofer Military Court included at least three Palestinian cabinet ministers and a lawmaker. But implementation of the ruling was deferred until Thursday so prosecutors could appeal.

“Twenty-one Hamas officials are to be released, but this has been put on hold for 48 hours so the prosecution can file challenges,” an army spokesman said, adding that a successful appeal would put the release on hold.

Israeli forces took at least 30 Hamas officials, among them Palestinian cabinet ministers and lawmakers including parliament Speaker Aziz Dweik, into custody after Corporal Gilad Shalit was seized in a June 25 border raid.

Israel said the detainees were suspected of offences linked to Hamas’ role in spearheading a 6-year-old Palestinian revolt. But Palestinians accused Israel of gathering “bargaining chips” to force Shalit’s release.

A lawyer representing some of the detainees, Osama al-Saadi, said he expected the Hamas officials to be released on bail, raising the prospect of their future prosecution by Israel.

The army spokesman had no immediate comment on the terms of the release.

Hamas, an Islamic group whose charter calls for Israel’s destruction, trounced the long-dominant and more moderate Fatah faction in Palestinian elections last January, prompting an aid embargo by Western donor nations.

In a bid to break the diplomatic deadlock, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader, announced on Monday that a coalition government would be formed with Hamas.

But Israel and the United States remained skeptical pending clarification of whether the new administration would recognize the Jewish state and renounce violence, preconditions set for restoring aid.

A Hamas spokesman said the group had no intention of recognizing Israel, and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, said the new government would not negotiate with Israel.

msnbc.msn.com

First off, are they going to be released or not? Second, was this not a mass kidnapping? What nauseating swill. The whole article. And this is where millions come to get their ‘news.’

…Within weeks of the kickoff of the Baghdad security plan, the U.S. military’s top spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, boasted that the murder rate in Baghdad had fallen by 46 percent and attributed most of the fall to the new security sweeps. 

On Thursday, Caldwell revised the figures, posting a statement on the website of the Multi-National Force-Iraq that the murder rate had dropped even more – by 52 percent from July. 

That claim was immediately contradicted by the morgue figures, which trickled out in accounts by various news organizations citing unnamed officials. 

Johnson said he couldn’t comment on morgue figures and declined to release the raw numbers on which Caldwell’s claim was based. He said the numbers were classified and that releasing them might help “our enemy” adjust their tactics. 

“We attempt to strike the right balance, being as open and transparent as possible without providing information that places our troops or Iraqi civilians at undo risk by the enemy adjusting their tactics for greater impact,” he said, in explaining the decision not to release the figures.

realcities.com/mld