News – Fighting Terrorism in Iraq

Iraq

The holy month of Ramadan is kicked off by fresh US bombing raids in Falluja. Ground assaults are also part of the offensive, after local officials broke off peace talks and said US and Iraqi authorities were making impossible demands. One of those demands was to hand over Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. So they’re assuming that the current leadership in Falluja has him to hand over? Interesting. US forces have also arrested the chief negotiator for Falluja and the city’s police chief.

Poland is preparing to reduce the number of troops they have in Iraq and Prime Minister Marek Belka has said “Poland will reduce her contingent from the beginning of 2005 and will be talking about further reductions. … We will not remain in Iraq an hour longer than is sensible, than necessary to achieve our mission’s goal: To return Iraq to the Iraqi people and give security to the world.”

The Carlyle Group has, wisely I think, decided to pull out of the Iraq debt recovery consortium.

Israel/Palestine

Israel says now that they’ll scale back their offensive in Gaza, but the operation will continue. Residents in Jabalya haven’t noted a change yet. Deputy Defense Minister Zeev Boim says the offensive has done it’s job and that only two rockets have landed in Sderot in the past week. Nice, but once you pull back, the militants will be right back there. You can’t linger in Gaza forever if you’re going to disengage. So the operation is largely futile.

A senior Israeli intelligence official believes Hezbollah is involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the West Bank.

Russia

In a further assault on Russia’s democratic status, new laws are being introduced to make it harder for small political parties to get into the game.

Anna Politkovskaya is the sort of journalist you can respect for her bravery and firm outlook. I think we need more like her all over.

US

As we all know, Kerry made a remark about Cheney’s daughter in the last debate. That remark has been drawing considerable fire from republicans. Kerry says he was just praising ‘strong families’. The comment came up during a question on if homosexuality was a choice. Bush went with the general ‘dunno’ sort of answer while Kerry said, “I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as. I think if you talk to anybody, it’s not choice.”

I’d say the most he could be accused of is putting words into someone else’s mouth. It’s not like he outed her, I’ve known Cheney had a lesbian daughter for months. And as party to the campaigning(because it isn’t like she’s been staying out of it), she becomes fair game just like Bush’s girls and Kerry’s girls. If she wasn’t at all involved, then it would be a different story in my opinion. If anything, the republicans are likely to blow it up even farther with the sort of backlash that might be brewing.

The FCC notes that it has no grounds to block Sinclair Media Group from showing the anti-Kerry program, “Stolen Honor” on it’s stations.

I’ll give Arnie props for telling it like it is. Bush and Kerry were avoiding giving real answers to questions.

A Colorado resident has filed suit to try and stop a ballot measure that could amend Colorado’s constitution to split the state’s electoral vote proportionally based on the popular vote. It would be the first state to do this. Nebraska and Maine allocate their votes to the winner of each congressional district. I think it should be how every state does it. It would be the easiest way to truly have the people decide.

Despite programs to beef them up, ships and ports remain, according to experts, full of big loopholes through which terrorists could strike at us.

A crash that forces the testing of e-voting machines in Florida to be postponed is heralded by some as a show of the technology’s current unreliability. I would agree. Obviously it will take longer for our governments to find stable, reliable machines. I think they need to take that time rather than risking another fiasco in Florida.

Do you think the prez wails on Massachusetts too much?

General

An interesting muse here. How do we reconcile the choices that we make today, with the impact they will have on tomorrow? Every choice we make will have consequences for those who come after us. They won’t get to vote until after this is all written and done. It’s something to think about as you make your own choices.

Just to annoy gamers all the more, Halo 2 gets leaked onto the net. Will it go the way of Half Life 2 and be delayed? I only know one thing for sure.. I’m not buying it unless they port it to Mac.

International Papers notes the deportation of Metin Kaplan to Turkey, where he is a wanted man, as a test of Turkish Justice. As Turkey is eager to get into the EU, this is a clear way to test their commitment to leaving behind their more brutal past.

A review on Team America: World Police. I still don’t know if I’ll see it. Looks like it b ashes left and right, though the left bashing seems a little off kilter. I’ll have to see what else is on tap for the weekend movie viewing.

Today’s Papers has a panel concluding that contrary to previous studies, neurological problems suffered by Gulf War I vets have probably been caused by exposure to chemicals during the war, the Pentagon planning to promote the former top commander in Iraq who was in charge while the Abu Ghraib abuses were ongoing, raids south og Baghdad where again and again villages entered were empty, as if they knew the marines were coming and more in the one page news.

Amusements

<A HREF="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1516&ncid=1516&e=1&u=/afp/20041014/od_afp/afplifestyle_food_spoon_041014223418″>Woman pays $960 restaurant bill, gets accused of stealing teaspoon

Twelve-year-old lets workers avoiding picket line slip through backyard for a fee. Two bucks is two bucks

Man fights repossessor and police with petrol bombs, a barbecue lighter and a chainsaw. Because that was obviously the smartest thing to do

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: Back to the drawing board. Photoshop rejected or unlikely prototypes

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