The al-Qaida group that kidnapped American Paul M. Johnson Jr. said in an online statement Friday that it had killed the hostage, and posted three still photographs of his beheaded body.

“In answer to what we promised ... to kill the hostage Paul Marshall after the period is over ... the infidel got his fair treatment. ... Let him taste something from what Muslims tasted who were long reached by Apache helicopter fire and missiles,” the statement said.

Johnson, 49, worked on targeting and night vision systems for Apache helicopters.

Two gay couples are seeking ratification of what they say are lifetime commitments in a suit asking that they be declared married.

The Albany County Supreme Court petition of Elissa Kane and Lynne Lekakis and Robert Barnes and George Jurgsatis is similar to others in which same-sex couples are seeking the legal right to marry. But it differs in that it is apparently the first involving couples who are already "married."

[snip]

The lawsuit filed late Wednesday in Albany County is an Article 78 proceeding which seeks to compel the state Department of Health to permit the Albany City clerk to issue marriage licenses to the two couples. Both couples were joined March 27 in Albany by Unitarian Universalist Minister Sam Trumbore.

Whether those ceremonies created legal marriages is an issue raised in their lawsuit. It relies in part on a provision in the Domestic Relations Law that, Kindlon contends, recognizes ceremonial marriages regardless of whether the parties have a valid marriage license. If the courts disagree and find that Domestic Relations Law does not recognize such unions, then it should be stricken as unconstitutional, according to the suit.

It was completely baseless to talk about ethnic cleansing in Darfur region or any other allegations as opposed, to the mere fact of a problem in Darfur which is mainly labeled and characterised by many credible circles as a humanitarian crisis escalated by rivalries between different tribes and groups in the vast and somewhat arid parts of Darfur in search of adequate land, water and pastures.

Furthermore, some outside interferences and as a reflection of the hidden agenda especially of the former American administration in which it was designed to destabilise Sudan and topple its regime by the aid of some of its neighbours has mainly contributed to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

[edit]

The Sudanese government has spared no effort to cater for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur region and has indulged in diplomatic and political endeavours to end the insurgency in Darfur with the aid of neighbouring Chad and its President Idris Deby.

[edit]

And now Sudan has hope that the whole issue of the insurgency and the humanitarian aspects associated with it will be appropriately dealt with in that region.

[edit]

As to the alleged ethnic cleansing, it is to be clearly stated that it is not in the culture or norms of Sudan to conduct such practices.

That is why Sudan has, without any reluctance, permitted United Nations fact-finding missions to freely visit the areas to verify its position.

It is clear that there is a reign of terror in Darfur. While the Government appears to employ different tactics to counter the rebellion, the mission encountered a consistency of allegations that government and militia forces carried out indiscriminate attacks against civilians; rape and other serious forms of sexual violence; destruction and property and pillage; forced displacements; disappearances; and persecution and discrimination.

[edit]

It is the manner of the response to this rebellion by the Government of the Sudan which has led to the current crisis in Darfur. Following a string of SLA victories in the first months of 2003, the Government of the Sudan appears to have sponsored a militia composed of a loose collection of fighters, apparently of Arab background, mainly from Darfur, known as the "Janjaweed." In other words, and worryingly, what appears to have been an ethnically based rebellion has been met with an ethnically based response, building in large part on long-standing, but largely hitherto contained, tribal rivalries. In certain areas of Darfur, the Janjaweed have supported the regular armed forces in attacking and targeting civilian populations suspected of supporting the rebellion, while in other locations it appears that the Janjaweed have played the primary role in such attacks with the military in support.

[edit]

Attacks on villages appear often to have taken place at night or in the early morning. Where there were alleged air raids, land attacks invariably followed shortly thereafter. These were carried out either by Janjaweed or Sudanese government soldiers, or a combination of both. The chief visible distinction between these two forces appears to be in their method of transport: Janjaweed were invariably said to use horses and camels, while government soldiers were described as travelling in military vehicles. Both were dressed in combat fatigues and both were well armed (AK-47s, G3s and rockets were often mentioned). From some descriptions, it appears that the Janjaweed were more active in attacks on villages with the military more prominent in attacks on towns, though the primary operational distinction appears to be that the military were significantly more active in the north and the Janjaweed in the south.

[edit]

Those interviewed invariably described the Janjaweed as being exclusively "Arab", as opposed to the victims who were described as "black" or "African". What this distinction precisely entailed was difficult for the mission to establish, but that such a perception was held by those displaced is incontrovertible.

[edit]

It is clear from the findings of the mission that a climate of impunity has prevailed, and continues today to prevail, in Darfur. While the Government of the Sudan maintained that it was making a concerted effort to re-establish law and order and effective accountability in the region but that it was being undermined in these efforts by the actions of the rebels, this was not, in the opinion of the mission, borne out by realities on the ground.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in comments sure to help President Bush, declared Friday that Russia knew Iraq's Saddam Hussein had planned terror attacks on U.S. soil and had warned Washington.

Putin said Russian intelligence had been told on several occasions that Saddam's special forces were preparing to attack U.S. targets inside and outside the United States.

"After the events of September 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services several times received information that the official services of the Saddam regime were preparing 'terrorist acts' on the United States and beyond its borders," he told reporters.

"This information was passed on to our American colleagues," he said. He added, however, that Russian intelligence had no proof that Saddam's agents had been involved in any particular attack.

The Kremlin leader's comments were certain to bolster Bush, whose campaign for re-election in November is under pressure from the Iraq crisis.

President Bush yesterday defended his assertions that there was a relationship between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, putting him at odds with this week's finding of the bipartisan Sept. 11 commission.

"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda: because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," Bush said after a Cabinet meeting. As evidence, he cited Iraqi intelligence officers' meeting with bin Laden in Sudan. "There's numerous contacts between the two," Bush said.

[edit]

The panel's staff reported on Wednesday that there were contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda, "but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship."

In challenging the commission's finding, Bush and his aides argued that their previous assertions about the ties between Iraq and the terrorist organization were justified by the contacts that occurred.

"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda," Bush said. "We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."

Nearly seven in 10 Americans believe it is likely that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, says a poll out almost two years after the terrorists' strike against this country.

Sixty-nine percent in a Washington Post poll published Saturday said they believe it is likely the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks carried out by al-Qaeda. A majority of Democrats, Republicans and independents believe it's likely Saddam was involved.

Violent clashes in the Chad-Sudan border region, involving Chadian army troops and pro-Khartoum Arab militias, sparked fears the devastating conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region could widen still further.

[edit]

Thousands of those refugees fled over the border into Chad, to where the fighting now appears to be spreading.

The Janjawids have been accused in several reports by the UN and non-governmental organisations of carrying out massive atrocities against non-Arab peoples of Darfur.

A senior Chad official said earlier that the Janjawids were seeking recruits in Chad and that authorities in the country feared that conflict would spill over the frontier.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan raised the possibility Thursday of international intervention to protect more than 1 million people threatened by fighting in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The Sudanese government is responsible for safeguarding civilians in Darfur, Annan said, but it may need help from the international community.

"And the Sudanese government should be willing to accept that assistance," Annan said.

"Based on reports that I have received, I can not at this stage call it genocide," [Annan] explained. "There are massive violations of international humanitarian law, but I am not ready to describe it as genocide or ethnic cleansing yet."

"The failure to pass an amendment will give a green light to liberal judges all across the country and the consequences will be devastating. The words 'husband' and 'wife' will be meaningless. Homosexual adoption will be instantly legalized and generations of children will be raised in wholly unnatural environments - deprived of ever having the benefit of a mother and a father. The public schools will teach your children that two men 'marrying' each other are morally equivalent to one man and one woman. It's legal, so it must be okay! Our kids will be taught how to perform 'safe sodomy' in their sex education classes. Churches will be pressured to either abandon the Scriptures or lose their tax exempt status if they refuse to 'marry' homosexuals. That would be discrimination, after all!" [italics mine]

At one point during the debate, Judiciary Chairman Hatch shouted that the proposed subpoena was a 'dumb ass thing to do.'

Hatch said he had conversations before today's meeting with White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and Ashcroft. Gonzales would work with the committee on what documents to turn over, said Hatch, who termed the subpoena so broad that it was a 'fishing expedition.' The proposed subpoena, offered by Judiciary ranking member Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., was modified before the vote and narrowed to request 32 documents relating to terrorism interrogations, including rules for military intelligence personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, site of numerous publicized abuses.

acting pursuant to this joint resolution is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorist and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

I and several colleagues have been working on a story that, if and when it comes to fruition --- and I’m confident it shall --- should shuffle the tectonic plates under that capital city where I normally hang my hat. So that’s something to look forward to in the not too distant future.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) Taking of hostages;
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

Article 9

The provisions of the present Convention constitute no obstacle to the humanitarian activities which the International Committee of the Red Cross or any other impartial humanitarian organization may, subject to the consent of the Parties to the conflict concerned, undertake for the protection of prisoners of war and for their relief.

[edit]

Article 126

Representatives or delegates of the Protecting Powers shall have permission to go to all places where prisoners of war may be, particularly to places of internment, imprisonment and labour, and shall have access to all premises occupied by prisoners of war; they shall also be allowed to go to the places of departure, passage and arrival of prisoners who are being transferred. They shall be able to interview the prisoners, and in particular the prisoners' representatives, without witnesses, either personally or through an interpreter.

Representatives and delegates of the Protecting Powers shall have full liberty to select the places they wish to visit. The duration and frequency of these visits shall not be restricted. Visits may not be prohibited except for reasons of imperative military necessity, and then only as an exceptional and temporary measure.

...

The delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross shall enjoy the same prerogatives. The appointment of such delegates shall be submitted to the approval of the Power detaining the prisoners of war to be visited.

Pentagon officials still insist Rumsfeld acted legally, but admit it all depends on how you interpret the law.

To hear much of the news reporting yesterday, you'd think a national 9/11 Commission report had blown a giant hole in the Bush administration's rationale for toppling Saddam Hussein.
The commission did no such thing.

But that didn't stop congressional Democrats — led by presumptive presidential nominee John Kerry — from renewing their charges that the administration "misled America" about Saddam Hussein's ties to Osama bin Laden.

Again, that's not what the report says.

And even if it did, a Saddam-Osama alliance is not why America opened a front in Iraq as part of the War on Terror.

The staff report, released as part of yesterday's final public hearings, says there was no evident connection between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 attacks.

In fact, the Bush administration has never said there was.

The report also says the commission has "no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States."

Again, the administration never said there was.

The Bush administration, which has long been criticized for being secretive, is suddenly opening up just in time for re-election.

Since the beginning of June, President Bush, first lady Laura Bush, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and other senior administration officials have made themselves unusually accessible to the media.

* The Vice President's energy policy task force
* Creating secret deportation hearings
* Weakening the freedom of information safety net
* Restricting unclassified information
* Preventing the news media from gathering information
* Limiting access to Presidential records
* Asserting executive privilege
* Limiting academic freedom of expression
* Growing delays in responding to FOIA requests

Bush-Cheney '04 spokesman Scott Stanzel did not address the question of whether the Kerry fundraising signals sustained Democratic fundraising success. But he said that "we have always indicated we will be outspent by the Democratic nominee and the liberal soft-money groups."

In fact, when money raised by the parties, the two presidential candidates and by "soft money" committees known as "527s" is added, the total on the Republican side is $574 million and on the Democratic side $421 million, a $153 million GOP advantage.

"We're a nation of law. We adhere to laws. We have laws on the books. You might look at those laws, and that might provide comfort for you."

In a rare admission of violating the Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war, the Pentagon has acknowledged it improperly held an Iraqi prisoner in secret for more than seven months.

The military has held the man in Iraq since October without assigning him a prisoner number or notifying the International Committee of the Red Cross that he is a prisoner, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Wednesday night.

AL-JAZEERA: "... as far as the Administration is concerned, for the record now, it is still the U.S. position of the Administration that the regime of Saddam Hussein did help al-Qaida in targeting the U.S.?

SECRETARY POWELL: I think we have said, and it is clear, that there is a connection, and we have seen these connections between al Qaida and the regime of Saddam Hussein and we stick with that. We have not said it was related to 9/11..

The (Iraqi) regime has long-standing and continuing ties to terrorist groups, and there are al Qaeda terrorists inside Iraq."

President Bush, weekly radio address, Sept. 28, 2002

"(On the Sept. 14 edition of NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Vice President) Cheney described Iraq as 'the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11.' "

The Washington Post, Sept. 29, 2003

* * * * * * * * *

"On May 1, speaking from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Bush said, 'The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001, and still goes on ...' "

The Washington Post, September 28, 2003

* * * * * * * * *

"We have reporting that places [9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta] in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence officer a few months before the attacks on the World Trade Center."

Vice President Dick Cheney, NBC's "Meet the Press," Sept. 14, 2003

MR. McCLELLAN: We're aware of these issues, because the coalition and our military works very closely with the International Red Cross on these issues. And I would point out that you might want to talk to the Pentagon about some of these matters, because we believe in cooperating closely with the Red Cross. And the military has worked to address some of the issues that they raised. And they can probably brief you on some of those issues that they have worked to address.

Q -- try to put pressure on them to allow International Red Cross to visit prisons and detention center, would you allow the International Red Cross and other human rights organization to visit prisons under the control of the U.S. military?

THE PRESIDENT: Of course, we'll cooperate with the International Red Cross. They're a vital organization. And we work with the International Red Cross. And you're right, we do point out human rights abuses. We also say to those governments, clean up your act. And that's precisely what America is doing.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, acting at the request of George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, ordered military officials in Iraq last November to hold a man suspected of being a senior Iraqi terrorist at a high-level detention center there but not list him on the prison's rolls, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials said Wednesday.

This prisoner and other "ghost detainees" were hidden largely to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring their treatment, and to avoid disclosing their location to an enemy, officials said.

Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, the Army officer who in February investigated abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison, criticized the practice of allowing ghost detainees there and at other detention centers as "deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine, and in violation of international law."

We mean, we'll cooperate with the Red Cross, from now on. Sorry about all that lying and deceit.

Bin Ladin's anti-government activities prompted the Saudi government to expel him in 1991, after which he relocated to Sudan. Although the Afghan war had ended, al-Qa'ida has remained a formidable organization consisting of mujahedin of many nationalities who had previously fought with Bin Ladin. Many of these have remained loyal to and continue working with him today.

In May 1996, Sudan expelled Bin Ladin, largely in response to U.S. insistence and to the threat of UN sanctions following Sudan's alleged complicity in the attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995. Within a month, Bin Ladin took refuge in Afghanistan, where his support for and participation in Islamic extremist activities continued.

IN A PAIR of interim staff reports, the Sept. 11 commission yesterday gave the fullest and most detailed report on the planning of the attacks that the American public has received to date. Yet showing a peculiar instinct for the capillaries rather than the jugular, part of the public debate immediately focused on a single passing point that is no kind of revelation at all: "We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States." Administration foes seized on this sentence to claim that Vice President Cheney has been lying, as recently as this week, about a purported relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. The accusation is nearly as irresponsible as the Bush administration's rhetoric has been.

[edit]

All of which makes the flap over Mr. Cheney's statements a bit frustrating. The administration has not recently suggested that Iraq was behind Sept. 11. Nor, in fact, did the commission yesterday contradict what Mr. Cheney actually said -- and President Bush backed up -- earlier this week: that there were "long-established ties" between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Rather, the commission reported that a "senior Iraqi intelligence officer" met with Osama bin Laden in Sudan in 1994 and that contacts continued after he relocated to Afghanistan. Captured al Qaeda operatives, the report notes, have "adamantly denied" a connection with Iraq, and the famed meeting in Prague between Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta and an Iraqi intelligence operative appears never to have happened. Indeed, there is no evidence of operational support for the group by Iraq, the commission staff argues; al Qaeda's requests apparently went unanswered. That said, the commission has not denied that there were contacts over a protracted period.

The trouble for the administration is that Mr. Cheney has not always been careful to distinguish between Iraqi ties to al Qaeda and supposed support for the attacks. Indeed, it was he who kept the Prague meeting story alive long after others in the government thought it discredited. His recent comments not only overstate what now appear to be rather tentative ties between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, but they probably help to keep alive in the minds of many Americans a link between Iraq and the attacks that not even Mr. Cheney still alleges. If the U.S. intelligence community now believes that the relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein consisted of no more than what the commission reports, Mr. Cheney ought not be implying more.

Vice President Cheney, outlining al Qaeda's activities in various countries, said in a speech in Orlando on Monday that Hussein "had long-established ties with al Qaeda." Bush, asked yesterday if he would qualify that claim or cite evidence to support it, defended Cheney's assertion, citing the terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi (who is now operating in Iraq).

"Zarqawi is the best evidence of connection to al Qaeda," Bush said during his appearance with Karzai. "He's the person who's still killing. Remember the e-mail exchange between al Qaeda leadership and he, himself, about how to disrupt the progress toward freedom?"

Even though Zarqawi is actively terrorizing Iraq today, and does appear to have a relationship with al Qaeda, his association with Hussein has never been established.

Communications between Zarqawi and al Qaeda that Bush alluded to yesterday took place several months after Hussein was removed from power.

Bluntly contradicting the Bush administration, the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks reported Wednesday there was "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein had ties with al-Qaida.

... Bin Laden made overtures to Saddam for assistance, the commission said, as he did with leaders in Sudan, Iran, Afghanistan and elsewhere in his drive to build an Islamic army. While Saddam dispatched a senior Iraqi intelligence official to Sudan to meet with bin Laden in 1994, the commission said it had not turned up evidence of a "collaborative relationship."

The Bush administration has long claimed links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, and cited them as one reason for last year's invasion of Iraq.

On Monday, Vice President Dick Cheney said in a speech that the Iraqi dictator "had long established ties with al-Qaida." ... Last fall, Cheney referred to what he called a credible but unconfirmed intelligence report that Mohamed Atta, one of the Sept. 11 hijackers, had met at least once in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official a few months before the attacks. The (9/11) panel report said that meeting never happened.

President Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The Bush administration never made any claim that there was a connection between Saddam and al Qaeda."

"There's overwhelming evidence there was a connection between al Qaeda and the Iraqi government. I am very confident that there was an established relationship there."
Vice President Cheney, 1/22/04

Reagan was a tremendously well-educated man because he was a voracious reader whose own library was filled with books of history, economics and biography, heavily annotated in his own hand. His commentaries referred to hundreds of sources and thousands of facts and figures; he was a one-man think tank.

On the 183 weekends he spent at Camp David, he usually saw two movies, and also viewed them constantly at other times. During the 1983 world economic summit, the only one held in the United States during his tenure, he never opened his briefing book beforehand, despite his staff's anxiety about his performance. Afterward, Chief of Staff James Baker asked Reagan why he hadn't looked at it. "Well, Jim," replied Reagan, " `The Sound of Music' was on last night."

In a meeting with congressional leaders on arms control (the fundamental facts of which Reagan was amazingly ignorant), his contribution was to relate the plot of the film "War Games." "Reagan at least knew that `War Games' was a film," writes Cannon. "At other times he related cinematic scenes of heroism as if they were historical events."

Colin Powell, the national security adviser, believed that Reagan's surprise suggestion to Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva summit that they would unite if the Earth were invaded by aliens from outer space was inspired by "The Day the Earth Stood Still," a 1951 science-fiction movie. Powell devoted a good deal of his energy to keeping references to what he called Reagan's "little green men" out of his speeches.

(Reagan's desire to construct an astrodome in outer space-the Strategic Defense Initiative-was partly inspired, according to Cannon, by Reagan's reading of a novel, "Air Force One Is Haunted," whose plot involves the ghost of Franklin Roosevelt whispering advice to the current President.)

[A] president aided by the friendly ghost of Franklin Roosevelt [who] forces the Soviets to back down by deploying 390 anti-missile missiles in a system called "Umbrella."

The United States government is threatening to take action against Sudan over what it said were ongoing human rights atrocities in the western region of Darfur.

"We do not intend to stand by while violence and atrocities continue in Darfur," said Deputy Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Charles Snyder in a statement before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Tuesday. "Our message to the government of Sudan is clear: Do what is necessary now, and we will work with you. If you do not, there will be consequences. Time is of the essence. Do not doubt our determination."

Snyder said the US administration was "exploring actions" it could take against individuals responsible for the situation in Darfur, specifically by "freezing assets they may have in the US and prohibiting the issuance of visas to them".

-- The United States is the third-largest unchurched nation in the world.
-- North America is the only continent where Christianity is not growing.
-- Seven out of 10 people in America do not know Christ.
-- Only 4 percent of Americans have a biblical worldview.
-- More than 80 percent of all churches in the United States are plateaued or declining.
-- Christians lose 72 churches per week or 10.27 per day.

"We are salt and light in this culture but so often the church has been compromised. The anti-Christian, secular culture is not compromising in its efforts," he said, noting that feminists, terrorists and homosexuals have an agenda. "These agendas apart from Jesus Christ are the pathway to hell," he warned. "But God has given us the agenda which is the pathway to heaven," defining that as "Jesus who is the way, the truth and the light."

A seven-year-old unofficial truce discouraging House members from filing ethics complaints against one another disintegrated Tuesday when a freshman Democrat accused one of the most powerful members of Congress, the House majority leader, Tom DeLay, of "bribery, extortion, fraud, money laundering and the abuse of power."

The Democrat, Representative Chris Bell of Texas, who is leaving Congress because he lost a primary election, filed a 187-page complaint against Mr. DeLay, also of Texas, with the House ethics committee. The complaint accuses the majority leader of illegally soliciting campaign contributions, laundering campaign contributions to influence state legislative races and improperly using his office to influence federal agencies.

Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who rarely grants interviews, made a surprise walk through the Speaker's Lobby, the corridor that runs alongside the House chamber where reporters generally congregate to interview members.

"The worry I have," Mr. Hastert said, "is that you again politicize the process, and it denigrates what ethics is all about."

Representative Ray LaHood, Republican of Illinois, said, "This is the gotcha politics that ruins our system here in Washington."

Mr. LaHood said he was contemplating proposing a rule to prevent "lame-duck members" from filing ethics complaints and said Democratic leaders should tell Mr. Bell "to back off."

... came as the Senate prepared to vote -- probably next month, just before the Democratic National Convention -- on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages.

... "I cannot think of a more decent and Christian thing to do. . . . When people are being stoned in the public square, we ought to come to their rescue," said Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), who co-sponsored the proposal ...

Smith, who supports a ban on same-sex marriage, told reporters he thought it important for the Senate to act against hate before dealing with the marriage issue. "Before you get to marriage, get over hate," he said. An early vote on the hate-crimes measure gave senators such as Smith a chance to vote against violence against gays before they vote against allowing them to marry.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks and the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan, 'al Qaeda's funding has decreased significantly,' the report says. But the group's expenditures have decreased as well, and 'it remains relatively easy for al Qaeda to find the relatively small sums required to fund terrorist operations,' the report warns.

Now, the organization is far more decentralized, with operational commanders and cell leaders making the decisions that were previously made by bin Laden, the panel found.

Yet, al Qaeda remains interested in carrying out chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear attacks against the United States, the report says. Although an attempt to purchase uranium in 1994 failed -- the material proved to be fake -- 'al Qaeda continues to pursue its strategic objective of obtaining a nuclear weapon,' according to the report.

By any means possible, it warns, 'al Qaeda is actively striving to attack the United States and inflict mass casualties.'

U.S. lawmakers are calling on the United Nations to act to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan's Darfur region.

Members of a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee were briefed on the situation in Darfur by U.S. officials and representatives of international human rights groups

[edit]

Many lawmakers also called on the United Nations to do more to respond to the situation in Darfur. "The international community must condemn Khartoum's actions unequivocally and must insist that Khartoum stop attacks on civilians by government troops and militias and provide unfettered access for humanitarian workers," said Senator Joe Biden is the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee.

The U.N. Security Council last week unanimously approved a resolution calling for an end to the fighting in Darfur. Senior U.N. officials have also accused the Sudanese government of blocking relief workers and aid supplies from reaching in the troubled region, although they say the situation has improved somewhat in recent weeks.

"Let us tell the truth, the world did not lift a finger to stop it," said [John Prendergast, co-director of the International Crisis Group]. "There was not one United Nations Security Council resolution, or one permanent U.N. human rights monitor put on the ground. There was not any additional pressure applied."

"Terrorists Cheer Kerry's Rhetoric"

"How Democrats Steal Elections"

"Fascism, Corruption and My Democratic Party"

"Saddam on Kerry's Short List for VP"

"Source: Clintons Infected Reagan With Alzheimer's"

"Bin Laden to Address Dems in Boston"

"The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever."(Section 8i)

"The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature."(Section 8g)

Ten years ago, the international community stood by as the Rwandan Genocide claimed 800,000 lives. Today, as world leaders remember that unprecedented human catastrophe with empty expressions of “Never Again”, the people of Sudan face a similar fate. Add your name to the petition calling on Colin Powell to immediately recognize the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan and move aggressively to bring it to an end —an action that could save more than 1,000,000 lives.

[edit]

Rarely does history provide so clear an opportunity to avoid the tragic wrongs of the past. Ten years after Rwanda, you can be assured that history will remember inaction in Darfur with even greater condemnation.

The international community has been slow to react to Darfur's catastrophe and has yet to move with sufficient urgency and commitment. A credible peace forum must be rapidly created. Immediate plans for humanitarian intervention should begin. The alternative is to allow tens of thousands of civilians to die in the weeks and months ahead in what will be continuing genocidal destruction.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday warned the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region required immediate attention.

"This is a humanitarian emergency of catastrophic proportions that must be addressed, not tomorrow, but now," Annan said on the sidelines of the 11th UN Conference on Trade and Development.

Undersecretary General Jan Egeland said operations in 20 countries were either being sabotaged on the ground or undermined by a lack of funds.

He said the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region was currently the world's worst.

"I think it's not genocide yet and we can prevent it from becoming one," he told the UN Security Council.

The UN children's fund UNICEF has warned that half a million children are in danger in Darfur, as its director Carol Bellamy prepared to visit the war-ravaged region of western Sudan on Sunday and Monday.

[edit]

A recent UNICEF report described the situation of displaced children and women in Darfur as "grim", saying that child malnutrition in the region had reached as high as 23 percent.

But another part of the problem is purely economical. We need to improve job prospects so that poor, inner city residents-mostly of color-will have a sense of future possibilities for themselves, and their family. Here, the economic policies initiated by President Clinton are instructive. In the decade and a half prior to the Clinton administration, this country witnessed the most severe economic stratification of the century. During that time, the wealthiest 40% of the country experienced gains in real income (with the top 20% experiencing the lion's share of gains). Meanwhile, the bottom 60% of the country lost 18% of their real income. Bottom line: during the Regan/Bush (sic) years, the rich got very rich, the rest lost money. That began to change around 1995, when Clinton's implemented a series of reforms geared toward improving the economic status of the middle and lower class. His dedication to investing in human capital resulted in unprecedented economic progress for ethnic minorities and women.

"Would you support or oppose the Catholic Church denying communion to Catholic politicians who are in favor of legal abortion?"

Among the general public:
Support 22%
Oppose 68%
Unsure 11%

Catholics:
Support 22%
Oppose 72%
Unsure 6%

"Do you think it is appropriate for Catholic bishops to refuse to give communion to elected officials who publicly disagree with the Church's position on issues like abortion, or is that not appropriate?"

Catholics only:
Support 17%
Oppose 78%
Unsure 5%

Although we have differing opinions on rights for same-sex couples, we believe the Federal Marriage Amendment reflects a fundamental disregard for individual civil rights and ignores differences among our nation's many religious traditions.

... The First Amendment already protects religious organizations from governmental interference in such matters, and constitutional definitions of marriage are therefore unnecessary.

Regardless of judicial and legislative decisions defining the legal rights of gay couples, religious marriage will justly remain the prerogative of individual faith traditions in accordance with their doctrinal beliefs. And this is as it should be.

Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a group that seeks to push the liberal Protestant denominations in a more conservative direction, called the letter "a blatant attempt by left-leaning religious leaders to undercut and intimidate other religious voices."

This cartoon on today's Washington Post editorial page lays the responsibility for the current tragedy in Sudan at the feet of...the Bush administration. Excuse me, but how did America get stuck with this? Aren't the 158,000 refugees and thousands of deaths the responsibility of the United Nations? I thought liberals at the Post objected to unilateral action by the United States abroad?

If the U.N. doesn't exist to intervene in situations like the crisis in Dufar, then why have a U.N. at all? If the United States has become, as the Post insists today, the de facto U.N., then lets stop paying our billions in dues and send Kofi and the gang packing.

Unless this divide can be overcome, the Bush administration will have to choose in the coming weeks between giving up on Iraqi disarmament and leading a military campaign without further approval from the United Nations. President Bush signaled yesterday that if pressed he will choose to act with a "coalition of the willing" rather than be blocked by the council's failure of nerve. That was the right message to send.

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Instead, Mr. Bush should offer a detailed public explanation of what the United States knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and challenge the United Nations, one last time, to preserve its relevance by acting to implement Resolution 1441. In the meantime, the administration should continue to prepare the military coalition that even now is taking shape in the Persian Gulf. It would be best if that coalition could act with full Security Council support; but it can, if necessary, succeed without it.

"To give the parent of such a child a sort of 'heckler's veto' over a patriotic ceremony willingly participated in by other students, simply because the Pledge of Allegiance contains the descriptive phrase 'under God,' is an unwarranted extension of the establishment clause, an extension which would have the unfortunate effect of prohibiting a commendable patriotic observance."

"The amendment's sponsor, Representative Rabaut, said its purpose was to contrast this country's belief in God with the Soviet Union's embrace of atheism. 100 Cong. Rec. 1700 (1954). We do not know what other Members of Congress thought about the purpose of the amendment. Following the decision of the (9th Circuit) Court of Appeals in this case, Congress passed legislation that made extensive findings about the historic role of religion in the political development of the Nation and reaffirmed the text of the Pledge."

To the millions of people who regularly recite the Pledge, and who have no access to, or concern with, such legislation or legislative history, "under God" might mean several different things: that God has guided the destiny of the United States, for example, or that the United States exists under God's authority.

How much consideration anyone gives to the phrase probably varies, since the Pledge itself is a patriotic observance focused primarily on the flag and the Nation, and only secondarily on the description of the Nation.

Dear Arabs,

I am truly sorry that Americans decided to take up arms and sacrifice their own youth in the defense of Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, and the first Gulf War. After we clear up this mess in Iraq, we will refrain from any such activity in the future.

I am truly sorry that I did not hear any of you call for an apology from Muslim extremists after 911. After all, the hijackers were all Arabs.
...
I am sorry that so many people are unable to differentiate between the gang rape rooms and mass graves of Saddam Hussein on the one hand, and the conditions of Abu Ghraib on the other.

I am sorry that our prison guards do not show the same restraint that Arabs show when their brothers in arms are killed. By the way, you shouldn’t be sorry about that.

I am sorry that foreign trained terrorists are trying to seize control of Iraq and return it to a terrorist state. I am sorry we have not yet dropped at least 100 Daisy cutters on Fallujah in order to stop that effort.
...
I am sorry that Muslim extremists have not yet apologized for the U.S.S.
Cole, the embassy bombings, and for flying a plane into the World Trade Center, which collapsed in part on Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, which is one of our Holy Sites.

I am sorry that we have not taken a portion of the diet of Michael Moore and shipped it to one of your starving villages in the Middle East. You need it Moore (pun intended) than he does.

I am sorry that your only supporters are professors, journalists, and other assorted Leftists who also support homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, partial birth abortion, and everything that you abhor in this world. I am sorry that everyone else in America is against you.

Finally, I am sorry that I am going to have to end this apology by asking you to kiss the right side of my conservative butt. I’m probably just having a bad day.

For that I am truly sorry.

[W]hat started as an effort to repeal a $5 billion-a-year subsidy has grown into one of the most significant corporate tax measures in years. The Senate bill, 980 pages long, includes more than $167 billion in business tax cuts over 10 years, handing out favors to NASCAR racetracks, foreign dog-race gamblers, Oldsmobile dealers and bow-and-arrow makers, to name a few. The centerpiece is a tax credit to effectively lower the tax rate on domestic manufacturing from 35 percent to 32 percent.

The House version, with $143 billion in benefits over a decade, has a similar centerpiece. But it includes provisions not in the Senate bill, from a $9.6 billion buyout for tobacco growers to a two-year, $3.6 billion measure allowing residents of states with no income tax to deduct state and local sales taxes from their federal income tax. Other provisions grant a $148 million tax break for bank directors, and would single out for help timber owners, human clinical drug trials, bow-and-arrow makers, tackle box companies, and sonar fish finders. Alcohol distillers won two provisions worth $428 million over the next decade.

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Into that atmosphere rushed an armada of business lobbyists, and the reward has been rich. "Anybody who's a good lobbyist in this town has gotten one or two provisions in it," he said.

The results have made even some of those lobbyists shake their heads, marveling at provisions that have nothing to do with export subsidies, manufacturing or overseas corporate taxes.

"I hate to be this cynical, but I am," said Donald Alexander, a former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service who has worked on the legislation. "This just shows what can happen if people scream loud enough."

The Great Communicator was never at a loss for words; President Bush has a hard time finding the right ones. Reagan was masterful, in tough times, at reassuring Americans that things were never as bad as they seemed. September 11 presented Bush with that same challenge, though perhaps a more difficult version than faced by any president before him. At first he seemed to have met it with distinction, but his excursion into Iraq has raised serious questions that he has yet to answer; hence his anemic approval ratings. The truth is that a year ago, Democrats thought that if President Bush went to war and won (which was never in doubt), he would be unbeatable this November. But he went to war and won -- sort of -- and now Democrats are more confident than ever.

The Bush administration is considering toughening its policy toward the government of Sudan over the events in Darfur, the western region where thousands of people have been killed and more than a million driven from their homes by Arab militias that many in the region say are linked directly to the Sudanese Army.

Bush officials say they are considering whether what is happening in Darfur amounts to genocide. So far, the administration has only used the term ethnic cleansing. The officials say they are also considering sanctions on individual Sudanese officials tied to the displacement.

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Mr. Powell steered clear of the term genocide in describing the events in Darfur but said that administration lawyers had begun a review to determine whether the conditions for genocide have been met.

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Ten years ago, Clinton administration officials were hesitant to use the word genocide to describe the events in Rwanda, and former President Clinton later apologized for the delay. Mr. Powell has privately expressed his desire to prevent a similar incidence of mass death on his watch, officials said.

MR. LACEY: Okay. Now, some have used the term "ethnic cleansing" to describe this situation and others outside of the government are even using the term "genocide." Now, the Government of Sudan calls these terms inflammatory, inaccurate. What's the right term here? Is this ethnic cleansing? Does this reach the level of genocide?

SECRETARY POWELL: You know, these turn out to be almost legal matters of definition and I'm not prepared to say what is the correct legal term for what's happening. All I know is that there are at least a million people who are desperately in need, and many of them will die if we can't get the international community mobilized and if we can't get the Sudanese to cooperate with the international community. And it won't make a whole lot of difference after the fact what you've called it.

MR. LACEY: Okay, okay. Is there anyone in the U.S. Government doing any analysis, or have they done any analysis, to determine whether the situation in Darfur can be described as genocide? Because, as you know, that is a -- it is a legal determination and it does trigger certain responses. Is that review underway or has that review been done?

SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah, I believe it's being discussed interagency and our lawyers are looking at it, as well as our policy officials. I don't think they have made a -- come to a conclusion yet as to whether all of the criteria that are used to make a determination of genocide have been met yet. But I'd rather have my guys look at this with the lawyers and get back to you, rather than me pop off and give a legal opinion.

MR. LACEY: Yeah, okay, but there's a review but you haven't heard any -- you haven't heard any determination that the standard has been reached or hasn't been reached?

SECRETARY POWELL: I don't think they have come to a conclusion yet as to whether the standard has not or -- has or has not been reached. But I do know there is a review underway.

It all represents a sea change in how the world views Darfur, says John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group in Washington. "It's a whole lot more than we had two weeks ago," he adds. And it stems from many things, including increased media coverage and President Bush directing his staff to work on the issue. Yet despite the attention, Mr. Prendergast says, "It's not even close to being enough to deal with this crisis."