I’m a little under the weather, but here’s a little bit of what I’ve been reading.<\/p>\n
Zarqawi’s family disown him after bombings<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Iraq’s most-wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been disowned by members of his family in Jordan who have pledged to “sever links with him until doomsday” and proclaimed their loyalty to Jordan’s king, Abdullah II.<\/p>\n The statement, which also removed “protection” from Zarqawi, came amid further protests in Jordan at the suicide bombings at three hotels on November 9 in Amman , the capital, that killed 59 people, including revellers at a wedding party.<\/p>\n Zarqawi’s organisation al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blasts and subsequently threatened to kill the king. But yesterday, 57 members of his al-Khalayleh clan, including his brother and first cousin, took half-page advertisements in Jordan’s leading newspapers to revile the militant leader.<\/p>\n “We denounce in the clearest terms all the terrorist actions claimed by the so-called Ahmed Fadheel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, who calls himself Abu Musab al-Zarqawi”, wrote the family members who proclaimed “homage” to the Hashemite throne and “to our precious Jordan”.<\/p>\n “We announce, and all the people are our witnesses, that we – the sons of the al-Khalayleh tribe – are innocent of him and all that emanates from him, whether action, assertion or decision.”<\/p>\n The statement effectively declared open season on Zarqawi, saying that anyone who carried out acts of terrorism in the kingdom would not be protected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Al-Zarqawi May Be Among Dead in Iraq Fight<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a gunfight some by their own hand to avoid capture. A U.S. official said Sunday that efforts were under way to determine if terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was among the dead.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Interesting timing between those two stories. Meanwhile, the U.S. is playing down stories<\/a> that Zarqawi is taking the dirtnap. Chad and Mac at In the Bullpen<\/a> have been posting updates<\/a>.<\/p>\n UK will embrace ‘voluntary’ Kyoto targets<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Interest groups on both sides of the Kyoto divide are calling remarks by Margaret Beckett, Prime Minster Tony Blair’s Environment Secretary, the death of the protocol.<\/p>\n Ms Beckett told The Observer that future work on climate change could involve “voluntary” targets rather than the compulsory targets that are Kyoto’s engine.<\/p>\n Like Mr Blair before her, she said that achieving consensus on compulsory targets would be impossible in the present political environment.<\/p>\n But where Mr Blair appears ready to embrace the approach advanced by the US-led Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, Ms Beckett appears to be engaged in seasoning an apparently unpalatable stew in order to help reluctant international partners consume what’s really on their plates.<\/p>\n And that dish is, essentially, the end of Kyoto.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Davids Medienkritik<\/a> takes a look at why Kyoto is failing<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of the few causes behind which the Left still can unite is the Kyoto treaty on the reduction of greenhouse gases. After all, the refusal of the U.S. to sign “Kyoto” makes a good reason to kick off anti-American campaigns.<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n Anyway, casual observation tells me that the front line of the “Sign Kyoto” movement is beginning to fall apart, in Europe as well as in the U.S.. The “consensus science” approach comes under increasing fire[.]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Meanwhile, Protein Wisdom<\/a>‘s Jeff Goldstein points out the beneficial irony<\/a> of any failure of the treaty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m a little under the weather, but here’s a little bit of what I’ve been reading. Zarqawi’s family disown him after bombings Iraq’s most-wanted militant, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been disowned by members of his family in Jordan who have pledged to “sever links with him until doomsday” and proclaimed their loyalty to Jordan’s king, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-middle-east","category-politics","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}