Target Centermass

Author: Gunner

  • US Mounts New Military Offensive Ahead of Afghan Elections

    The U.S. is going back on the attack to help ensure Afghan elections.

    Major Jon Siepmann, a U.S. spokesman, says the new countrywide operation, dubbed “Lightning Resolve,” aims to protect civilians against militants opposed to the coming elections.

    Afghanistan is due to vote for president on October 9 and for a parliament next spring, replacing the transitional government that has ruled since a U.S.-Afghan alliance ousted the former hard-line Taleban regime in 2001.

    Remnants of the Taleban have been waging an armed struggle against the current government. They want to block the elections, which they say are meant to ensure U.S. domination over Afghanistan.

    Be democratic or die. Not quite “Don’t tread on me” but it’ll do.

  • Slim-Fast Trims Whoopi From Ads

    Following her recent allegedly bawdy performance at a Kerry fundraiser, Whoopi Goldberg has been dropped as a spokesperson for Slim-Fast.

    “I only wish that the Republican re-election committee would spend as much time working on the economy as they seem to be spending trying to harm my pocketbook.”

    Whoopi, check the economy. It’s strong. Oh, and welcome to a world where actions have consequences.

  • Envoy: Palestinian Authority May Collapse

    The AP is reporting that the U.N envoy for the Middle East is questioning the stability of the Palestinian Authority.

    Roed-Larsen painted a grim picture of lawlessness in the Palestinian Authority, its failure to institute critical reforms, and he blamed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news – web sites).

    He lamented that there was “no sign” of the bold leadership needed to tackle Palestinian reform and move toward peace.

    “The Palestinian Authority, despite consistent promises by its leadership, has made no progress on its core obligation to take immediate action on the ground to end violence and combat terror, and to reform and reorganize the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

    Roed-Larsen said the only explanation is “the lack of political will” to advance toward reform, which is critically needed in the security services.

    “Despite a well-intended prime minister, the paralysis of the Palestinian Authority has become abundantly clear,” he said.

    “Clashes and showdowns between branches of Palestinian security forces are now common in the Gaza Strip (news – web sites), where Palestinian Authority legal authority is receding fast in the face of the mounting power of arms, money and intimidation,” Roed-Larsen said.

    “The perceived Palestinian Authority abdication of responsibility” has led many residents of Rafah in southern Gaza to take matters into their own hands, including establishing a checkpoint to prevent Palestinian officials from entering the city or crossing into Egypt, he said.

    The PA lasts as long as Arafat wants it to last. Arafat lasts as long as the Palestinians allow him to last (or the Israelis tolerate him to last).

  • Blogging From My First Hometown

    With my father in the highly-regarded Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, I have taken this opportunity of my visit to get a hotel room in St. Charles, just across the Missouri River and about fifteen minutes from the hospital. Why did I do this instead of getting a hotel closer to Dad? Well, in a way, I’Â’m closer to Dad here.

    I lived in St. Charles from the age of six months to seventh grade, when I finally moved to Texas. I played little league baseball and BoysÂ’’ Club football here. I learned to ride a bike and make a paper airplane here. I read The Lord of the Rings and watched Star Wars here. I attended elementary school, back when we still played bombardment (dodgeball) in P.E., and suffered through wearing a blazer and tie in the stupid sixth-grade choir here. I watched Reagan get elected President here, moving to Texas the very next day.

    And my father, of course, had a role in all of these memories, especially the baseball and learning to ride a bike. Dad took the time to manage my first four baseball teams, and I am just loaded with memories of those years.

    I sat at my father’Â’s bedside today (well, technically yesterday as itÂ’s now past midnight). He’Â’s been moved from the ICU, and I think he’Â’ll live through this visit. That’Â’s the good part; the bad part is that it wasn’Â’t really my dad there today. Just a drugged, beaten, tired shell of a man. There were flashes of his old self, but not much. I hope there’Â’s more of that old self before I leave here. If not, I don’Â’t think he has the fight to hold on ‘‘til my next visit. His muscles have melted away, he struggled to adjust his pillow an inch, he stumbled on remembering words, he rarely breathed easily.

    I treasure these moments with Dad, but I doubt these will be the memories that IÂ’’ll later look back on and smile. Those will be the times much like my little league baseball days. After my visit today, instead of driving straight to the hotel, I wandered over to Blanchette Park. I looked at the hill where Dad used to take me sledding in the winter and the pool where he took me for swimming lessons. Then I watched a couple of innings of kids playing baseball. Moments in games I’Â’d played on those very same fields flashed from the old movie projector in my mind. Dad was there, at least in my heart.

    Field of Dreams said it best: “Hey, Dad, you want to have a catch?”

  • Knowing the Days Were Numbered

    What would you ask your father?

    As much as I’m trying to get this blog off the ground, I cannot guaranty a lot of posting over the next week, as I’m going to hit the road to St. Louis. My dad is there in ICU with multiple complications. I’ll post as I can; maybe a lot as I’ll be away from the office, maybe a little or none with questionable access. I’m playing it by ear.

    Soon, I’ll post more about him, but he was a great baseball coach.

  • New British Inquiry Is Showing That Saddam Did Seek Uranium in Africa

    Jack Kelly, writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, decisively argues against the idea that Bush lied about Iraqi attempts to purchase yellowcake in Africa.

    Britain’s Financial Times reported Wednesday that an official British government inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq has concluded that Britain’s MI-6 was correct to conclude that Saddam Hussein’s regime had sought to buy uranium ore from Niger.

    If so, this gives the lie to the charge that “Bush lied!” when he said in his 2003 State of the Union address: “The British government has learned that Saddam recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

    I like how Mr. Kelly quickly gets to the key point: the keystone of the “Bush lied” campaign is gone. It didn’t vanish — it never existed.

    The “Bush lied!” charge hung on two slender reeds. The first is that the only “evidence” the CIA had at the time of an Iraq-Niger-yellowcake connection was a fairly obvious forgery obtained through Italian sources. The second was the “investigation” conducted in early 2002 by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson on behalf of the CIA.

    Wilson spent less than two weeks in Niger. In his July 2003 New York Times op-ed about the investigation, in which he described his methodology as “drinking sweet mint tea and meeting with dozens of people: current government officials, former government officials, people associated with the country’s uranium business.” The people he talked to told him that Niger hadn’t sold uranium to Iraq. Wilson’s op-ed accused the Bush administration of manipulating intelligence — and ignoring his report on Niger — to justify a war on Iraq.

    There were two problems with Wilson’s investigation. The first is that the people to whom Wilson was talking might not have been telling him the truth. The second is that to say that Niger did not sell uranium to Iraq is not the same as saying Iraq did not try to buy yellowcake ore from Niger.

    In fact, Wilson himself has confirmed that Iraq did indeed try to buy uranium from Niger.

    Game, set, match.

  • Gang Attacks Mother on French Train

    In a display of misplaced anti-semitism and cowardice, the AP tells the story of a young mother assaulted on a train, apparently because the attackers mistook her as a Jew.

    A gang of young men attacked a woman riding a suburban train with her infant, cutting her hair and drawing swastikas on her stomach. Other passengers watched but did nothing, police reported.

    French politicians issued denunciations Sunday as news of the Friday morning attack spread through the nation.

    Police said the gang of six set upon the 23-year-old woman on a suburban train north of Paris and grabbed her backpack where they found identity papers that showed an address in the capital’s well-to-do 16th district. “There are only Jews in the 16th,” one of the group of attackers said.

    The young woman, who was not identified, was not Jewish and no longer lived in the district, police said.

    Ah, France, the great bastion of freedom and justice. Of course, here is the part that does not surprise me:

    According to the police account, none of the passengers on the train came to the woman’s rescue.

    EDIT: It seems the whole story was fraudulent. This lady may be nuts, but she seems to have a good read on her fellow French, nevertheless.

    French President Jacques Chirac had called the alleged attack shameful. But during his annual Bastille Day television interview, following the woman’s retraction, he called the whole affair regrettable.

    But Mr. Chirac said he does not regret his earlier condemnation of the alleged incident. He said France is currently in a period of racist acts against Jews, Muslims, and others. He said the attacks are unacceptable and violate the country’s principles.

  • Terrorism Chatter and the Election

    Democratic National Convention, Republican National Convention, November election, polling places, shopping malls, blah, blah, blah.

    I hope nobody has forgotten the most obvious, visible and probably easiest target: the upcoming Olympic Games in Athens. Not that the others aren’t potential, though personally I would suspect the Dem brewfest will be safe in Boston.

  • Muslim Cleric’s Visit Ignites Complaints in Britain

    VOA is reporting that a visiting Islamic cleric is causing a stir across the pond for his previous defense of Palestinian suicide bombings.

    One prominent Jewish member of Parliament, Louise Ellman, said there is plenty of evidence against the cleric.

    “Dr. Qaradawi is on record supporting mass murder through suicide bombings,” she said. “That means killing young children at pizza parlors, it means folk singers on Tel Aviv beach being blown up, it means people at religious festivals being blown up. And he is inciting mass murder.”

    Mr. al-Qaradawi’s defenders in Britain say his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict represent mainstream opinion among most Muslims. They also point out that he condemned the terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001, as well as the bombings in Madrid last March.

    The Muslim Association of Britain, which is sponsoring his visit, said he was delivering a sermon Friday at London’s Central Mosque that emphasizes the responsibility of Muslims to be active and law-abiding participants in Britain’s democracy.

    I’m torn as to whether this guy should just be expelled or whether he should be grabbed, handed over to the Israelis and forced to spend the rest of his life in pizzarias and discos until he renounces terrorism.

    I find it interesting that he denounce the 9/11 and Madrid bombings. I do wonder, though, if these denunciations were voiced in Arabic to his fellow Egyptians.

  • U.S. Stands with Israel against U.N. Action on Barrier

    Per Reuters, the U.S. will oppose action by the U.N. based upon the World Court ruling denouncing the security barrier.

    Palestinians face a brick wall of U.S. opposition to possible United Nations (news – web sites) action against Israel after the World Court ruled the Jewish state’s West Bank barrier was illegal and should be dismantled.

    “We don’t think there’s a need for (U.N.) General Assembly action at this point,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said after the World Court, the U.N.’s top legal body, announced its non-binding ruling in The Hague (news – web sites) on Friday.

    The General Assembly can, and probably will, denounce Israel and demand a dismantling of the barrier. And? And nothing, any General Assembly resolution will be non-binding, and the U.S. will block any Security Council motion. Why? Because we see that the Israelis have a right to defend themselves against Palestinian terrorism. Who cares about the judgement of a “world court” led by a judge from the justice-and-freedom-loving nation of China.

    The Palestinians later intend to take their case to the 15-nation Security Council, where the United States — Israel’s main ally, vetoed a resolution last October that sought to bar the Jewish state from extending the West Bank barrier.

    In The Hague, Nasser al-Kidwa, the U.N. Palestinian observer, declined to say whether he would push for sanctions against Israel.

    “It remains the obligation of the international community to ensure that compliance takes place. We will take it step by step,” he said …. The court said the barrier, which is about a third built, “severely impeded” Palestinian rights to self-rule.

    I want to go on record as saying the major impediment to Palestinian self-rule is the terrorist Arafat. The Palestinians have had many opportunities to take the peace route; each time, they have found an excuse to venture down the road less traveled by the peaceable.

    Opinion polls show strong support in Israel for the project.

    “The choice was between the inconveniences which are caused to the Palestinians — and we recognize that there are inconveniences — but the fence doesn’t kill,” said Israeli Vice Premier Ehud Olmert.