News – Paying for Another’s Crimes

Iraq

Despite being freed up Saddam, Iraq is not freed of having to pay reparations for Saddam’s crimes. It is a bit twisted to have this recovering country paying out almost 200 million(on Oct 21) to countries and corporations that don’t really need the money they’ll be getting from Iraq. Here is a small sample of who has been getting “reparation” awards from Iraq: Halliburton ($18m), Bechtel ($7m), Mobil ($2.3m), Shell ($1.6m), Nestlé ($2.6m), Pepsi ($3.8m), Philip Morris ($1.3m), Sheraton ($11m), Kentucky Fried Chicken ($321,000) and Toys R Us ($189,449). The most annoying part about it is that these groups aren’t claiming damage to property due to Saddam, they’re claiming they “lost profits” or, in the case of American Express, experienced a “decline in business” because of the invasion and occupation of Kuwait. What sort of bull is that?

Khaled al-Jumaili, Falluja’s negotiator, has been released by US forces today. The interim Iraqi government pledges to keep hitting Falluja until they give up the militants, again assuming the officials there are complicit or have some access to said militants. Highly unlikely, if only because it would be stupid of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to put himself in such a situation.

We have a report of 18 US troops, from the 343rd Quartermaster Company from South Carolina, who refused to undertake a mission, due to safety concerns according to a preliminary investigation. Last Wednesday they refused to take their unarmored fuel tankers from Tallil in southeastern Iraq to Baghdad. Considering how easy it would be to blow something like that up, I’m not surprised they were concerned, if they weren’t well guarded.

Britain is considering a US request to move their troops into areas of greater potential danger than they’re in now. Meanwhile some opine it might be done to to help boost Bush’s political standing. Some say the move is indented to free up some more US forces for an impending attack on Falluja and may put some British troops under US command.

Mohammed Younis al-Ahmed, former senior Baath party organizer and Saddam Hussein aide, has been named by western intelligence as a key figure, directing the Sunni insurgency from Syria. They say he’s one of 20-50 senior Baath party figures based in Syria who are a part of the Sunni insurgency.

Israel/Palestine

Israeli troops kill five militants and Sharon faces pressure for a referendum on his Gaza pullout plan.

Reporting on the aftermath of the17 day Gaza raid, Chris McGreal at Jabaliya refugee camp. This year has already seen the destruction of thousands of Palestinian homes. Makes it kind of silly when agonizing over pulling out 7,500 Jewish settlers, you think? If Israel is going to withdraw from Gaza, they need to just do it already. And stay withdrawn.

Jerusalem’s Christian community is demanding that Jewish leaders and the Israeli government do something about growing harassment of their clergy by religious Jews. Said harassment has come to a head in an incident where a Jewish student spat at Armenian Archbishop Nourhan Manougian and ripped off his crucifix, whereupon the archbishop slapped him. Fortunately the Israeli mainstream finds this abuse rather disgusting. Armenians are bearing most of the abuse from this minority of religious Jews and some fear young Armenians might do something in retaliation.

Belarus

Western monitors say that parliamentary elections and a referendum to allow President Alexander Lukashenko to run for a third term fell short of complying with international standards for elections.

US

Last week the Guardian started Operation Clark County to help their UK readers write to undecided voters in Clark County, Ohio(a battleground state). The effort was nonpartisan, making no provision for political affiliation in writers or receivers. Writers were encouraged to be polite and to explain why the receiver should care about their opinion in their letters. Here are some reaction(not necessarily from those being written to) from the US. Leave it to some Americans to show their true colors. Some seem to think that even this little bit of letter writing can be considered tampering with a US election. Shows what they know, don’t it?

Word is, despite advice from state election officials to junk it, Jeb Bush is using the inaccurate felon no-vote list that is said to have disenfranchised 2,500 voters in 2000.

Looks like the Supreme Court will have to make a decision on the place of religious symbols and rituals on public life. Hopefully they can come up with a proper ruling on a very complex matter. The Supreme Court has also heard oral arguments in the Roper v. Simmons case, one involving the juvenile death penalty. The arguments focusing on how the adult and adolescent minds differ.

With all the analysis over Kerry’s comment involving Mary Cheneyy in the third Presidential Debate, I just have to wonder.. what does Mary Cheney think? I’d like to know. Has anyone heard of her commenting on this?

General

The British academy of science is urging the UN to ignore Bush’s calls for a ban on human cloning. Which I would agree with. Let Bush decide what the US will do, other nations already have legislation to allow therapeutic cloning while banning reproductive cloning.

On the movie scene, Team America: World Police has done rather poorly at the weekend box office, coming in #3 with $12.3 million. I’ll admit, I saw it this weekend. And I was often laughing my ass off. There are a few things that must be said about this openly offensive film. #1. If you can’t take a joke, don’t see it. #2. If puppet sex and puppet vomit offend you, don’t see it. #3. If you don’t want to see major Hollywood actors blow up, get shot and otherwise be killed, don’t see it. The movie is an open dig at conservative warmongering, liberal gullibility and just about every Islamic terrorist stereotype you canthink of. Ultimately it was more sophisticated than I expected and easily fits into the so stupid it’s good category for me.

The maker of CerryOS, purported to allow OSX to be run on a Windows PC, says his OS emulator is not BS and any similarity to PearPC is coincidental. You can make your own determination when a demo comes out later this week.

Les Seules(The Outsiders in english), an all girl gaming group, is hitting the male-dominated envorionment of competative Couterstrike playing. I wish them good luck and happy hunting.

Why develop vaccines in space? Cause lack of gravity makes it easier to grow protein crystals.

Today’s Papers has note of the weapons buyback program in Sadr City which has warranted a two day extension, note of the massive legal preparations both parties are making ahead of the election, more general Iraq notes and other tidbits in the one page news.

Amusements

A Halloween must: Contact lenses that let you look like lizards, cats, aliens or Marilyn Manson

From the “Things you only see in Alaska” department: A bull moose hanging by its antlers from an electrical power line in the middle of the wilderness

Mom tries to visit son in jail, gets to stay after officers find bags of cocaine and meth in her pockets

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop these Calton Hill cacklers

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this garden of cone trees

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop these men being proud of science gone wrong