Aug. 14, 2006 issue – The Bush administration insists Iraq is a long way from civil war, but the contingency planning has already begun inside the White House and the Pentagon. President Bush will move U.S. troops out of Iraq if the country descends into civil war, according to one senior Bush aide who declined to be named while talking about internal strategy. “If there’s a full-blown civil war, the president isn’t going to allow our forces to be caught in the crossfire,” the aide said. “But institutionally, the government of Iraq isn’t breaking down. It’s still a unity government.” Bush’s position on a pullout of U.S. troops emerged in response to news-week’s questions about Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Warner warned last week that the president might require a new vote from Congress to allow troops to stay in Iraq in what he called “all-out civil war.” But the senior Bush aide said the White House would need no prompting from Congress to get troops out “if the Iraqi government broke down completely along sectarian lines.”

msnbc.msn.com

Responding to reports that formaldehyde may be sickening hurricane victims living in government-provided travel trailers along the Gulf Coast, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has reversed course and ordered air quality tests to determine if some of the units are emitting unacceptably high levels of the toxic gas.

The tests for formaldehyde –- listed as a human carcinogen, or cancer-causing substance, by the International Agency for Research on Cancer and a suspected human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency — will be conducted by the EPA, which is currently working with FEMA to finalize a sampling plan, EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said Thursday.

“EPA does not normally test indoor air … but there’s an exception in the Stafford Act that allows for cooperation and testing in a special situation,” she said.

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said the agency has requested the tests for formaldehyde “out of an abundance of caution” and added that agency officials remain “highly confident and comfortable in the travel trailer program.”
msnbc.msn.com

They can be “highly confident and comfortable”, since they don’t have to live in the damn things; or maybe they’re just high.

August 3, 2006 — A son of Osama bin Laden has gone from Iran to Lebanon with the mission to organize terror attacks against Israel, it was reported yesterday.Saad bin Laden, 27, one of the terror mastermind’s eldest sons, was released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard last Friday, according to the German daily Die Welt. “From the Lebanese border, he has the task of building Islamist terror cells and preparing them to fight with Hezbollah,” the paper said, quoting intelligence sources.

“Apparently, Tehran is counting on recruiting Lebanese refugees in Syria for the fight against Israel, using bin Laden’s help,” it added.

The young bin Laden was supposedly under house arrest in Iran.

In 2004, Iranian former foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said the country had jailed about a dozen al Qaeda suspects and would put them on trial. Among them were bin Laden and Saif al-Adel, the terror network’s security chief.

Up until this latest move, intelligence officials believed that Saad, who speaks fluent English, was part of a small cadre running al Qaeda from Iran.

“Our general view is Iran certainly does have a few al Qaeda-related figures,” said a counter-terrorism official when asked about the Die Welt report. “The general perception is Iran keeps these people as a bargaining chip.”

According to that official, Shiite Muslim Iran is not sympathetic to members of the Sunni-dominated al Qaeda but “they protect them as long as they think they can make use of them.”

nypost.com

Oh okay…

BINT JBEIL, Lebanon (Reuters) – “Four bodies inside this house”, reads the notice scrawled with charcoal on the remains of a house in the southern Lebanese village of Aynata.

In the neighbouring town of Bint Jbeil, the stench of death rises from the ruins of the once-bustling market street.

One village along in Aitaroun, tearful residents clutch white sheets and what belongings they can salvage, begging journalists and rescue workers alike for a ride out of “hell”.

“We have been living in hell and fear for 21 days, without power or water and we felt real hunger. We even ate stale and mouldy bread to keep going,” sobbed Zeinab Baalbaki, who said a number of her relatives have been killed in Israeli air raids.

“The children felt the worst pain because we could not find milk. Is it their fault, these people who had their homes brought down on their heads?”

After 21 days of Israeli air strikes, rescue workers have used a partial 48-hour respite to aerial bombardment to visit Lebanese border villages that have seen the worst of the violence and been largely cut off from the world.

There, they have found ruined buildings and largely deserted streets. Where residents have been stranded, some are now hungry or wounded and desperately waiting for a chance to get out.

The Lebanese government says dozens of bodies have yet to be recovered from beneath the rubble or from cars hit by Israeli missiles. The government has so far put the war’s death toll at 750, including unrecovered bodies.

reuters.co.uk

Walid Jumblatt, leader of the most powerful clan in Lebanon’s Druze community, said on Tuesday the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas had dealt a fatal blow to Lebanese hopes of a strong independent state, free of Iranian and Syrian influence.

Speaking from his family’s palatial 18th century redoubt high in the Shouf mountains above Beirut, Mr Jumblatt said the Shia Hizbollah movement already sensed victory.

He accused the movement of working to an Iranian and Syrian timetable when it kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July 12, triggering a devastating Israeli retaliation. In the process Hizbollah had “stolen the hopes” of young Lebanese whose protests last year helped force Syria to withdraw its troops after 22 years in Lebanon.

But he said that like many Lebanese he had to support the Shia movement in its resistance against “brutal Israeli aggression”. They were “a well entrenched guerrilla army, not afraid to die, plus they are fighting Vietcong style”, he said. Israel’s widening offensive would only cause more destruction and weaken further the Lebanese state.

“After the 12 July, Lebanon is now unfortunately being entrenched solidly into the Syrian-Iranian axis,” he said. “The hopes of a stable, prosperous Lebanon where we could attract investments is over for now. It is a fatal blow for confidence.”

ft.com

Well this is going according to Israel’s timetable, that is for damn sure, but who knows how deep and entangled this web of deception goes? Your worst enemies could be your best friends…for all we know…

(Mexico City — July 30, 2006) The sea of yellow swept through the veins of Mexico City en route to the Zocalo on Sunday, the platelets returning to the heart. Yellow for clean elections; amarillo for democracy, as manifest in the candidacy of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who believes that his populist electoral victory in the presidential election three weeks ago was stolen from him and the working class and poor of Mexico who voted for him.

Unlike John Kerry, Obrador — the mayor of Mexico City — did not disappoint the perhaps 2 million people who completely filled the Zocalo and avenues in every direction for block after block after block. He has presented evidence of fraud at 70,000 polling places to the Supreme Court. And, as his voice echoed from loudspeakers everywhere, he called on his supporters to remain in the Zocalo (after apologizing to the thousands of street vendors who would be inconvenienced by the occupation), setting up dozens of large white tents — one for each Mexican state — for the vigil to use to organize itself and expand.

axisoflogic.com

The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable.

A car bomb in a market in the Shia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad yesterday killed 34 people and wounded a further 60 and was followed by a second bomb in the same area two hours later that left a further eight dead. Another car bomb outside a court house in Kirkuk killed a further 20 and injured 70 people.

“Iraq as a political project is finished,” a senior government official was quoted as saying, adding: “The parties have moved to plan B.” He said that the Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties were now looking at ways to divide Iraq between them and to decide the future of Baghdad, where there is a mixed population. “There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into [Shia] east and [Sunni] west,” he said.
independent.co.uk

In the public relations battle brewing on-line, there is a new eye to the center of the storm surrounding the war with Hizbullah – a series of photos showing Israeli children writing messages on shells meant for targets in Lebanon.

Questions over the photos’ authenticity have been put to rest by authorities that were present during the incident, which occurred on July 17 near the northern border. The mostly local children had been brought to see the shells by their parents. Although it remains unclear who encouraged them to write the messages, their colorful scribbles, including a Star of David, hearts, and “From Israel, with Love,” have appeared in dozens of blogs, or on-line journals, and on-line photo hosting sites.

Although the IDF has failed to issue a response to the incident, a spokesman from the IDF said it “appeared as though the situation occurred unofficially.” Although an officer was present during the incident, the soldiers, and the IDF as a whole, did not condone or condemn the incident.

An official close to Israel’s public relations campaign said that there was “no way” to spin the incident in a positive light. “Some people are simply irresponsible,” said the official.
jerusalempost.com

As a ‘liberal,’ even ‘treasonous’ newspaper, the New York Times has the curious ability to suck up to the racist sociopaths in Israel and here in America and make profuse if not nauseating excuses for mass murder.

Consider Noah Feldman, not only a law professor at New York University but a ‘senior fellow’ at the Council on Foreign Relations, who writes for the ‘newspaper of record,’ or maybe it should be characterized as the newspaper of pro-Israel propaganda and scandalous apologia for crimes against humanity:

“For its part, Israel is gambling that the right strategy is to make the people who elected Hamas and a government that includes Hezbollah reckon the costs of their representatives’ recklessness. That is why Israel has targeted not only Hezbollah leaders and strongholds but has also bombed infrastructure that sustains daily life for everybody in Lebanon. From Israel’s standpoint, this is no longer a fight with nonstate terrorists who are holding their fellow citizens hostage to their tactics. It is, rather, war between Israel and countries that are pursuing (or tolerating) violent policies endorsed (or at least accepted) by their electorates.”

How utterly and criminally disgusting.
kurtnimmo.com

PARIS, July 24 (Reuters) – Lebanon’s president accused Israel on Monday of using phosphorous bombs in its 13-day offensive and urged the United Nations to demand an immediate ceasefire.

“According to the Geneva Convention, when they use phosphorous bombs and laser bombs, is that allowed against civilians and children?” President Emile Lahoud asked on France’s RFI radio.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said arms used in Lebanon did not contravene international norms.

“Everything the Israeli Defence Forces are using is legitimate,” the spokeswoman said.
Lahoud gave no details but said the United Nations had to take concrete action to force Israel to stop its assault.

“The massacre must be stopped as soon as possible. Afterwards we can talk about everything,” he said. “A decision has to be taken so that there is an immediate ceasefire.”
Lahoud’s comments came as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Beirut to seek a “sustainable” ceasefire in Lebanon.
alertnet.org