US wants to renegotiate draft UN reform agreement: report
A total of 750 UN amendments have been presented to selected envoys by the new US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton.
In them, the US government proposes to eliminate new pledges on foreign aid to poor nations, scrap provisions calling for action to halt climate change and urging greater progress by nuclear powers in dismantling their nuclear arms.
...
The US amendments call for striking any mention of the 2000 Millennium Development Goals, in which UN members set goals over the next 15 years to reduce poverty, preventable diseases and other scourges of the world's poor.
In their stead, the US wants to underscore the importance of the 2002 Monterrey (Mexico) Consensus, that focused on free-market reforms and required governments to improve accountability in exchange for aid and debt relief, the Post said.
The proposals also underscore US efforts to impose greater oversight of UN spending and to eliminate any reference to the International Criminal Court.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
MATESHIP OF STATE
Parliamentary guards told 'no more Mr Nice Guy'
Security staff at Parliament House in Canberra have been directed not to use the word 'mate' when addressing people in the building.
The Department of Parliamentary Services has confirmed a daily brief directed security staff to treat all visitors with courtesy and not to use the term 'mate' or similar colloquialisms.
Security staff at Parliament House in Canberra have been directed not to use the word 'mate' when addressing people in the building.
The Department of Parliamentary Services has confirmed a daily brief directed security staff to treat all visitors with courtesy and not to use the term 'mate' or similar colloquialisms.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
CLEARWATER, FLORIDA
Divers In Gulf report `zero things' Alive
Diver Mike Miller struggles to convey the horror he has seen on the ocean floor. He struggles because there are only so many ways you can say dead.
``I'm talking zero things are alive out there,'' Miller said. ``The only way to describe it is a nuclear bomb.''
Miller and other alarmed divers say they have documented a dead zone 20 miles offshore in the Gulf waters from Johns Pass to Clearwater. This information, combined with an unprecedented number of dead turtles washing up on Pinellas County beaches this week, has divers, fishermen and scientists worried that red tide is killing more efficiently.
``Normally when we get a red tide, you can go a little north or a little west or south or someplace else and dive,'' said Ben Dautermen, who takes divers out of Clearwater on his charter boat. ``Usually it doesn't kill every single thing.''
Red tide, an algae toxic to fish and an irritant to humans who breathe its choking vapors, has hung stubbornly to Florida's west coast for close to three months. Miller and other longtime locals who make their living in the Gulf say it's the worst outbreak in their experience.
Diver Mike Miller struggles to convey the horror he has seen on the ocean floor. He struggles because there are only so many ways you can say dead.
``I'm talking zero things are alive out there,'' Miller said. ``The only way to describe it is a nuclear bomb.''
Miller and other alarmed divers say they have documented a dead zone 20 miles offshore in the Gulf waters from Johns Pass to Clearwater. This information, combined with an unprecedented number of dead turtles washing up on Pinellas County beaches this week, has divers, fishermen and scientists worried that red tide is killing more efficiently.
``Normally when we get a red tide, you can go a little north or a little west or south or someplace else and dive,'' said Ben Dautermen, who takes divers out of Clearwater on his charter boat. ``Usually it doesn't kill every single thing.''
Red tide, an algae toxic to fish and an irritant to humans who breathe its choking vapors, has hung stubbornly to Florida's west coast for close to three months. Miller and other longtime locals who make their living in the Gulf say it's the worst outbreak in their experience.
SIBERIA HEATING
Warming hits 'tipping point'
It's a frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined, contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas and, for the first time since the ice age, it is melting.
It's a frozen peat bog the size of France and Germany combined, contains billions of tonnes of greenhouse gas and, for the first time since the ice age, it is melting.
ANIMAL INSTINCT
A bizarre freeway of fish swimming by the thousands along a US shoreline Thursday morning left crowds of beach-goers agog and marine biologists bewildered.
"I've lived her for 10 years, and I've never seen anything like this. It's incredible," said Bob Ricci of Englewood.
Beach-goers reported that a wide variety of sea creatures came swimming south in a narrow band close to the beach at mid-morning.
Included in the swarm were clouds of shrimp, crab, grouper, snapper, red fish and flounder. They were joined by more usual species, including sea robins, needlefish and eels.
Friday, August 12, 2005
SHIPPING NEWS
Furniture causes FedEx fits
Instead of scouting street corners for a ratty, unwanted couch, Avila got creative and built an apartment full of surprisingly sturdy furniture -- out of FedEx shipping boxes.
Fanciful as his creations may seem, FedEx is not amused. The shipping giant's lawyers have sent Avila letters demanding he take down the site he created to document his project, invoking, among other things, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (.pdf), or DMCA.
GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT
Go Cindy, Go
Cindy Sheehan -- the 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year -- has, in the space of just a few days started, from a seemingly quixotic personal mission, something of a phenomenon with media swarming around her, leading liberal and antiwar activists parachuting in to try to make her their long-sought voice, and political experts in both parties working to assess what role she may have in galvanizing the public's gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties in Iraq.
Cindy Sheehan -- the 48-year-old mother of Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, killed in an ambush in Baghdad last year -- has, in the space of just a few days started, from a seemingly quixotic personal mission, something of a phenomenon with media swarming around her, leading liberal and antiwar activists parachuting in to try to make her their long-sought voice, and political experts in both parties working to assess what role she may have in galvanizing the public's gathering unhappiness with the increasing American casualties in Iraq.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
SOLAR SYSTEM
New planet identified in Solar System
Astronomers say they have found a new planet in our Solar System, the first one bigger than Pluto since that object was discovered in 1930. The planet is also further away than Pluto, the furthest known planet, the researchers said.
The planet, temporarily named 2003UB313, was found in an ongoing survey at Palomar Observatory’s Samuel Oschin telescope, he added. The observatory is on the Palomar Mountain near San Diego, Calif.
Pluto, while historically considered a planet, is more correctly termed a “Kuiper Belt Object,” -- the Kuiper Belt is an area of the solar system outside Neptune’s orbit, and which is believed to contain asteroids, comets, and icy bodies.
Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, it is also the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest Kuiper Belt Object.
Discoverers Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz said they first photographed the new planet on October 31, 2003. But it so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data last January. Since then, the scientists said, they have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions.
Astronomers say they have found a new planet in our Solar System, the first one bigger than Pluto since that object was discovered in 1930. The planet is also further away than Pluto, the furthest known planet, the researchers said.
The planet, temporarily named 2003UB313, was found in an ongoing survey at Palomar Observatory’s Samuel Oschin telescope, he added. The observatory is on the Palomar Mountain near San Diego, Calif.
Pluto, while historically considered a planet, is more correctly termed a “Kuiper Belt Object,” -- the Kuiper Belt is an area of the solar system outside Neptune’s orbit, and which is believed to contain asteroids, comets, and icy bodies.
Currently about 97 times further from the sun than the Earth, it is also the farthest-known object in the solar system, and the third brightest Kuiper Belt Object.
Discoverers Brown, Trujillo and Rabinowitz said they first photographed the new planet on October 31, 2003. But it so far away that its motion was not detected until they reanalyzed the data last January. Since then, the scientists said, they have been studying the planet to better estimate its size and its motions.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
ANIMAL KINGDOM
Dog saves abandoned baby; carries her to litter of puppies
A newborn baby abandoned in a Kenyan forest was saved by a stray dog that apparently carried her across a busy road and through a barbed wire fence to a shed where the infant was discovered nestled with a litter of puppies, witnesses said Monday.
The baby girl, named "Angel" by hospital workers, was clad in a tattered shirt and wrapped in a plastic bag when the dog found her Friday, said Aggrey Mwalimu, owner of the shed where the baby was discovered in a poor neighborhood near the Ngong Forest in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
A newborn baby abandoned in a Kenyan forest was saved by a stray dog that apparently carried her across a busy road and through a barbed wire fence to a shed where the infant was discovered nestled with a litter of puppies, witnesses said Monday.
The baby girl, named "Angel" by hospital workers, was clad in a tattered shirt and wrapped in a plastic bag when the dog found her Friday, said Aggrey Mwalimu, owner of the shed where the baby was discovered in a poor neighborhood near the Ngong Forest in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
Thursday, April 07, 2005
DARK AGE
A New Bretton Woods: Time To Reverse George Shultz's Destruction of Exchange Controls
"We are caught, like a ship in a storm, within an already onrushing world crisis, which now threatens to plunge the planet as a whole into a new dark age. It were still possible to save the world economy from this horror; but, we shall not survive without abrupt, radical measures which would return us to President Franklin Roosevelt's intended unleashing of his intended, post-war implementation of the Bretton Woods monetary system. We either choose that option, or blame ourselves for the awful things which soon follow."
Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. Foreword to Earth's Next Fifty Years
The post-Bretton Woods floating exchange rate system is at disintegration point. Global financial speculation is wildly out of control, creating massive bubbles in property and derivatives markets, which threaten to blow, and driving up the price of oil toward $US100 per barrel. Global debt levels are unpayable, and the debt of one company alone, General Motors, which is over $US300 billion, is teetering just one grade above junk bond status, and threatens to explode the global financial system. As long forecast by U.S. physical economist Lyndon LaRouche, the world is on the brink of depression.
"We are caught, like a ship in a storm, within an already onrushing world crisis, which now threatens to plunge the planet as a whole into a new dark age. It were still possible to save the world economy from this horror; but, we shall not survive without abrupt, radical measures which would return us to President Franklin Roosevelt's intended unleashing of his intended, post-war implementation of the Bretton Woods monetary system. We either choose that option, or blame ourselves for the awful things which soon follow."
Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. Foreword to Earth's Next Fifty Years
The post-Bretton Woods floating exchange rate system is at disintegration point. Global financial speculation is wildly out of control, creating massive bubbles in property and derivatives markets, which threaten to blow, and driving up the price of oil toward $US100 per barrel. Global debt levels are unpayable, and the debt of one company alone, General Motors, which is over $US300 billion, is teetering just one grade above junk bond status, and threatens to explode the global financial system. As long forecast by U.S. physical economist Lyndon LaRouche, the world is on the brink of depression.
Thursday, March 31, 2005
SCIENCE MATTERS
Experiment could help explain why we, and all things, exist
An new experiment involves shooting neutrinos underground between two sites 735km apart.
The neutrinos zip through Earth virtually unhindered because they’re largely immune to most of nature’s forces, including forces that make other particles bounce off each other rather than go through each other. In fact, trillions of naturally produced neutrinos pass harmlessly through you each second.
A detector at the mine site catches some of the neutrinos from the beam, though only about one in a billion, thanks to this same tendency of theirs to soar through things. The detector is built to analyze how the neutrinos have changed during their trip.
All this effort is supposed to help edge science toward an understanding of why material things in the universe, such as our bodies and all the stuff around us, exist.
Neutrinos are the only material particles that respond significantly to just one of the four known physical forces: the Weak force. The experiment might help solve a problem in accounting for matter’s existence.
The difficulty is that the universe contains both matter and a sort of mirror-image matter called antimatter. The two tend to merge and annihilate each other. So if the universe in its infancy contained equal amounts of each—as certain principles of physics suggest it should have—all the stuff would have long since disappeared.
[The project is called MINOS, for Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search.]
An new experiment involves shooting neutrinos underground between two sites 735km apart.
The neutrinos zip through Earth virtually unhindered because they’re largely immune to most of nature’s forces, including forces that make other particles bounce off each other rather than go through each other. In fact, trillions of naturally produced neutrinos pass harmlessly through you each second.
A detector at the mine site catches some of the neutrinos from the beam, though only about one in a billion, thanks to this same tendency of theirs to soar through things. The detector is built to analyze how the neutrinos have changed during their trip.
All this effort is supposed to help edge science toward an understanding of why material things in the universe, such as our bodies and all the stuff around us, exist.
Neutrinos are the only material particles that respond significantly to just one of the four known physical forces: the Weak force. The experiment might help solve a problem in accounting for matter’s existence.
The difficulty is that the universe contains both matter and a sort of mirror-image matter called antimatter. The two tend to merge and annihilate each other. So if the universe in its infancy contained equal amounts of each—as certain principles of physics suggest it should have—all the stuff would have long since disappeared.
[The project is called MINOS, for Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search.]
DARK ACCELERATORS
Mystery objects stump astronomers
The two bizarre objects in our galaxy - which appear to be light-years wide, spew powerful radiation, yet appear pitch black - were detected in a survey of sources within our galaxy of very high-energy gamma rays.
The newfound objects are distinct from another, well known type of gamma-ray source called gamma-ray bursts—momentary flashes of gamma rays, detected about once a day, which astronomers think may signal the birth of black holes as dead stars abruptly shrink out of existence.
[The objects are not black holes, which generally are smaller and which, despite their name, do seem to emit visible light, though that light actually comes from around them and not inside them. Astronomers have dubbed the mystery objects dark accelerators.]
The two bizarre objects in our galaxy - which appear to be light-years wide, spew powerful radiation, yet appear pitch black - were detected in a survey of sources within our galaxy of very high-energy gamma rays.
The newfound objects are distinct from another, well known type of gamma-ray source called gamma-ray bursts—momentary flashes of gamma rays, detected about once a day, which astronomers think may signal the birth of black holes as dead stars abruptly shrink out of existence.
[The objects are not black holes, which generally are smaller and which, despite their name, do seem to emit visible light, though that light actually comes from around them and not inside them. Astronomers have dubbed the mystery objects dark accelerators.]
Sunday, March 27, 2005
POLICE STATE
Police efforts 'amaze' Baxter protesters
Protesters say they are amazed at what they say is the brutality displayed by police during protests outside the Baxter detention centre in South Australia's north.
Police in full riot gear confiscated a number of kites and had previously charged at a crowd of protesters, popping several dozen helium filled balloons.
A large huddle of protesters carrying a big bunch of balloons marched towards the centre. More officers dressed in full riot gear then charged at the crowd, using sharp tools to pop all of the protesters' balloons.
Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition says the police behaviour has been over the top.
"It's hard to imagine a gentle, kinder natured protest than flying a kite and for people to be assaulted in the way they have been today by the STAR force officers is just beyond the pale," he said.
Baxter Detention Centre protesters forced us to act: police
Assistant Commissioner Burns says the officers were forced to act after protesters failed to heed police warnings about violating the restricted airspace around Baxter.
"They played a game of brinkmanship and provocation by continuing to fly kites after numerous requests not to," he said.
Protesters say they are amazed at what they say is the brutality displayed by police during protests outside the Baxter detention centre in South Australia's north.
Police in full riot gear confiscated a number of kites and had previously charged at a crowd of protesters, popping several dozen helium filled balloons.
A large huddle of protesters carrying a big bunch of balloons marched towards the centre. More officers dressed in full riot gear then charged at the crowd, using sharp tools to pop all of the protesters' balloons.
Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition says the police behaviour has been over the top.
"It's hard to imagine a gentle, kinder natured protest than flying a kite and for people to be assaulted in the way they have been today by the STAR force officers is just beyond the pale," he said.
Baxter Detention Centre protesters forced us to act: police
Assistant Commissioner Burns says the officers were forced to act after protesters failed to heed police warnings about violating the restricted airspace around Baxter.
"They played a game of brinkmanship and provocation by continuing to fly kites after numerous requests not to," he said.
VOICE OF REASON
Media silence abets Ruddock's atrocities
One of Australia's leading barristers, Julian Burnside QC, has mounted a blistering attack on Australia's media, accusing it of refusing to report the government's escalating atrocities.
He can't even get publicity for his argument that Ruddock -- recently appointed Australia's first law officer without a murmour of protest from the mainstream media -- could be charged under Australian law with crimes against humanity. Apparently, according to one editor, that's not 'interesting'.
The Australian Criminal Code now recognises various acts as constituting crimes against humanity. Burnside QC has argued that Australia's system of mandatory, indefinite detention appears to satisfy each of the elements of the crime -- as outlined in the Rome statute by which the International Criminal Court was created -- and that careful analysis of the criminal code therefore suggests that Mr Ruddock and Mr Howard are guilty of crimes against humanity by virtue of their imprisonment of asylum seekers.
Tragically, it is unlikely that charges will be laid. The only person who can bring charges is the Attorney General: now that Mr Ruddock occupies that responsible office, there is not much cause to hope that he will investigate his own past misdeeds.
At the speech -- with Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone sitting metres away -- Burnside said “If moral arguments have no purchase, it remains the fact that our government is engaged in a continuing crime against humanity when assessed against its own legislative standards. I accuse Mr Howard and Mr Ruddock of that crime.
“I accuse Senator Vanstone of that crime. I expect that they will ignore this accusation, since the only person who can bring charges is the Attorney General of the Commonwealth.”
And, as predicted, Vanstone rose to her feet and spoke for a few minutes without once trying to rebut or defeat Burnside's claim.
Julian Burnside QC suggests citizens write to federal parliamentarians asking very simple, but hard, questions about the key aspects of refugee policy.
One of Australia's leading barristers, Julian Burnside QC, has mounted a blistering attack on Australia's media, accusing it of refusing to report the government's escalating atrocities.
He can't even get publicity for his argument that Ruddock -- recently appointed Australia's first law officer without a murmour of protest from the mainstream media -- could be charged under Australian law with crimes against humanity. Apparently, according to one editor, that's not 'interesting'.
The Australian Criminal Code now recognises various acts as constituting crimes against humanity. Burnside QC has argued that Australia's system of mandatory, indefinite detention appears to satisfy each of the elements of the crime -- as outlined in the Rome statute by which the International Criminal Court was created -- and that careful analysis of the criminal code therefore suggests that Mr Ruddock and Mr Howard are guilty of crimes against humanity by virtue of their imprisonment of asylum seekers.
Tragically, it is unlikely that charges will be laid. The only person who can bring charges is the Attorney General: now that Mr Ruddock occupies that responsible office, there is not much cause to hope that he will investigate his own past misdeeds.
At the speech -- with Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone sitting metres away -- Burnside said “If moral arguments have no purchase, it remains the fact that our government is engaged in a continuing crime against humanity when assessed against its own legislative standards. I accuse Mr Howard and Mr Ruddock of that crime.
“I accuse Senator Vanstone of that crime. I expect that they will ignore this accusation, since the only person who can bring charges is the Attorney General of the Commonwealth.”
And, as predicted, Vanstone rose to her feet and spoke for a few minutes without once trying to rebut or defeat Burnside's claim.
Julian Burnside QC suggests citizens write to federal parliamentarians asking very simple, but hard, questions about the key aspects of refugee policy.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
PANDEMIC PROPORTIONS
Man confirmed dead from bird flu
A 28-year-old man from Cambodia has died of bird flu at a hospital in the capital, the second victim of the deadly virus in the kingdom, the health minister said Thursday.
The victim came a village 20 kilometres away from the home of the first victim who died in January.
A 28-year-old man from Cambodia has died of bird flu at a hospital in the capital, the second victim of the deadly virus in the kingdom, the health minister said Thursday.
The victim came a village 20 kilometres away from the home of the first victim who died in January.
DEMOCRACY DEBATE
Jimmy Carter to chair Election Reform Commission
Former President Jimmy Carter will lead a bipartisan commission to examine problems with the U.S. election system, American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management said on Thursday.
Carter, a Democrat whose Carter Center has monitored more than 50 elections around the world, will co-chair the private commission with Republican James Baker, who served as Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush.
Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat who lost his seat in the 2004 election, will also participate.
'I am concerned about the state of our electoral system and believe we need to improve it,' Carter said in a statement. He said the group will assess 'issues of inclusion' in federal voting and propose recommendations to improve the process.
Disputes over recounts and voter eligibility marred the 2000 U.S. presidential election and concerns emerged in the November 2004 poll about exceedingly long lines that kept voters from the polls in several states including Ohio, whose 20 electoral college votes ultimately decided the election in President Bush's favor.
Former President Jimmy Carter will lead a bipartisan commission to examine problems with the U.S. election system, American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management said on Thursday.
Carter, a Democrat whose Carter Center has monitored more than 50 elections around the world, will co-chair the private commission with Republican James Baker, who served as Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush.
Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat who lost his seat in the 2004 election, will also participate.
'I am concerned about the state of our electoral system and believe we need to improve it,' Carter said in a statement. He said the group will assess 'issues of inclusion' in federal voting and propose recommendations to improve the process.
Disputes over recounts and voter eligibility marred the 2000 U.S. presidential election and concerns emerged in the November 2004 poll about exceedingly long lines that kept voters from the polls in several states including Ohio, whose 20 electoral college votes ultimately decided the election in President Bush's favor.
Friday, March 25, 2005
CLOAK AND DAGGER
Lawsuit filed to obtain flight 77 videos
On the morning of september 11th, 2001 the FBI visited at least two private businesses near the pentagon and confiscated several security camera video tapes.
Business #1 is the cigto gas station with several security cameras aimed in the direction of the pentagon. Flight 77 flew directly over the gas station at an altitude of roughly 50 feet, less than 3 seconds from impact.
Business #2 is the sheraton national hotel. It is known, based upon a prior FOIA report filed by CNN which requested the tapes - that the sheraton's security cameras DID capture the plane - however because of national security, the FBI won't release the video.
On the morning of september 11th, 2001 the FBI visited at least two private businesses near the pentagon and confiscated several security camera video tapes.
Business #1 is the cigto gas station with several security cameras aimed in the direction of the pentagon. Flight 77 flew directly over the gas station at an altitude of roughly 50 feet, less than 3 seconds from impact.
Business #2 is the sheraton national hotel. It is known, based upon a prior FOIA report filed by CNN which requested the tapes - that the sheraton's security cameras DID capture the plane - however because of national security, the FBI won't release the video.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
WEIRD SCIENCE
Underground Extra-terrestrial UFO bases all around the world
Geologists in the East and West coasts are busy understanding a new theory that shows possible underground UFO bases all around the world.
According to this theory the UFO bases are along the interface of the seven large and many small tectonic plates meet each other.
[Story fails to name a geologist.]
Geologists in the East and West coasts are busy understanding a new theory that shows possible underground UFO bases all around the world.
According to this theory the UFO bases are along the interface of the seven large and many small tectonic plates meet each other.
[Story fails to name a geologist.]
TALIBAN IN SUITS
Fundamentalism influences Government in Schiavo case
"The cynical use by the US Republican Party of the Terri Schiavo case repeats, whether deliberately or accidentally, the tactics of Muslim fundamentalists and theocrats in places like Egypt and Pakistan. These tactics involve a disturbing tendency to make private, intimate decisions matters of public interest and then to bring the courts and the legislature to bear on them. President George W. Bush and Republican congressional leaders like Tom Delay have taken us one step closer to theocracy on the Muslim Brotherhood model."
"The cynical use by the US Republican Party of the Terri Schiavo case repeats, whether deliberately or accidentally, the tactics of Muslim fundamentalists and theocrats in places like Egypt and Pakistan. These tactics involve a disturbing tendency to make private, intimate decisions matters of public interest and then to bring the courts and the legislature to bear on them. President George W. Bush and Republican congressional leaders like Tom Delay have taken us one step closer to theocracy on the Muslim Brotherhood model."
Monday, March 21, 2005
CLOAK AND DAGGER
Lebanon's Hariri assassinated to make way for US airbase
According to high-level Lebanese intelligence sources - Christian and Muslim - former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was reportedly assassinated in a bombing authorized by the Bush administration and Ariel Sharon's Likud government in Israel.
Hariri, a pan-Arabist and Lebanese nationalist, was known to adamantly oppose the construction of a major US air base in the north of Lebanon.
The United States wants Syrian troops completely out of Lebanon before construction of the base is initiated. Hariri's meetings with Hezbollah shortly before his death also angered Washington and Jerusalem, according to the Lebanese intelligence sources.
The Lebanese air base is reportedly to be used as a transit and logistics hub for US forces in Iraq ... In addition, the Lebanese base will be used to protect US oil pipelines in the region ... as well as to destabilize the Assad government in Syria.
A number of intelligence sources have reported that assassinations of foreign leaders are ultimately authorized by two key White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams. In addition, Abrams is the key liaison between the White House and Sharon's office for such covert operations, including political assassinations.
According to high-level Lebanese intelligence sources - Christian and Muslim - former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was reportedly assassinated in a bombing authorized by the Bush administration and Ariel Sharon's Likud government in Israel.
Hariri, a pan-Arabist and Lebanese nationalist, was known to adamantly oppose the construction of a major US air base in the north of Lebanon.
The United States wants Syrian troops completely out of Lebanon before construction of the base is initiated. Hariri's meetings with Hezbollah shortly before his death also angered Washington and Jerusalem, according to the Lebanese intelligence sources.
The Lebanese air base is reportedly to be used as a transit and logistics hub for US forces in Iraq ... In addition, the Lebanese base will be used to protect US oil pipelines in the region ... as well as to destabilize the Assad government in Syria.
A number of intelligence sources have reported that assassinations of foreign leaders are ultimately authorized by two key White House officials, Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy National Security Adviser Elliot Abrams. In addition, Abrams is the key liaison between the White House and Sharon's office for such covert operations, including political assassinations.
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