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Friday, July 25, 2003 |
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"...We have been sold a war on disarmament or terrorism or the nexus between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction or liberation. Any one of the four. And now with the President's speeches, you clearly have the idea that we're going to go in and take this preemptive action to overthrow a regime, occupy its country for the purposes, the explicit purposes of fostering the blossoming of democracy in a part of the world where we really have very little ground, truth or experience...."
- - Joseph Wilson (Ambassador/Middle East Scholar)
KNOW YOUR HISTORY - JULY 25th
1963 -- Limited nuclear test ban treaty agreed upon by the US., UK, & U.S.S.R., barring all but underground nuclear tests.
1990 -- US Ambassador tells Iraq, US won't take sides in Iraq-Kuwait dispute.
RHINO HERE:
Yesterday's release of the 800-page report by the 9/11 joint inquiry of the Senate & House intelligence committees has 2 main points: 1) The 9/11 attacks may have been prevented if the "intelligence" community had been "keeping the toilet paper dry", an old hippie saying for being competent, & 2) that the shrub gang continues to refuse to tell the public what intelligence the president-select saw before 9/11 about the threat posed by Al Qaeda. For more on the commission's findings, see David Corn's excellent web report at:
The 9/11 Investigation
And for more on intelligence screw ups, RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is an in-depth look at how the beltway boyz burned what was probably their best in-tel source on Al Qaeda; that is the cooperation of the country of Syria. Written by veteran investigative journalist Sy Herch, it covers a lot of interesting ground.
But first, links to 2 articles related to the Mid East Road Map
Have ya heard? Texas Tom DeLay leaves soon for a diplomatic tour through Israel, Jordan & Iraq, where it seems he''ll be proclaiming something like, "Palestinian State? Yeah right! Maybe in a generation or two."
DeLay Is to Carry Dissenting Message on a Mideast Tour
By DAVID FIRESTONE, NY TIMES, July 25, 2003
WASHINGTON, July 24 - Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, never tires of reminding people that he is just a former pest exterminator from Sugar Land, Tex. But beginning this weekend, he will travel to the world's most complex and troubled region, meet with prime ministers, speak to a foreign parliament and, by his presence, remind the Bush administration to pay heed to its right flank as it seeks to make peace. As he travels next week through Israel, Jordan and Iraq, he will take with him a message of grave doubt that the Middle East is ready for a Palestinian state, as called for in the current peace plan, known as the road map, backed by the administration and Europe.
"I'm sure there are some in the administration who are smarter than me, but I can't imagine in the very near future that a Palestinian state could ever happen," he said in an interview today, as he prepared to leave for a weeklong official tour...
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/25/international/middleeast/25DELA.html?th
Yossi Beilin was a minister in the governments of Yithak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak.
All Road Maps Lead to Washington
By YOSSI BEILIN, NY TIMES OP-ED , July 25, 2003
TEL AVIV
With Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel and the Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, each heading to the White House in the next few days, optimism is in the air. After all, we have an American president eager to prove that the war in Iraq can lead to an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, a right-wing Israeli leader who supports the establishment of a Palestinian state, and a Palestinian prime minister who is against the armed intifada. Also, the terrorists are holding their fire for the time being, and both sides have committed to Mr. Bush's "road map" to peace. The actual situation, though, is far more complex and fragile....
READ MORE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/25/opinion/25BEIL.html?th
6:59:10 AM 
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THE SYRIAN BET
Did the Bush Administration burn a useful source on Al Qaeda?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH, The New Yorker, Issue of 2003-07-28, Posted 2003-07-18
... American intelligence and State Department officials have told me that by early 2002 Syria had emerged as one of the C.I.A.'s most effective intelligence allies in the fight against Al Qaeda, providing an outpouring of information that came to an end only with the invasion of Iraq. (A number of the details of the raid and the intelligence relationship were reported by U.P.I. on July 16th.) Tenet had become one of Syria's champions in the interagency debate over how to deal with its government. His antagonists include civilians in the Pentagon who viewed Syria, despite its intelligence help, as part of the problem. "Tenet has prevented all kinds of action against Syria," one diplomat with knowledge of the interagency discussions told me.
Syria is one of seven nations listed by the State Department as sponsors of terrorism. It has been on the list since 1979, in large part because of its public support for Hezbollah, the radical Islamic party that controls much of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for, among other acts, the 1983 bombing of the American Marine barracks in Beirut, which left two hundred and forty-one Americans dead; it was implicated in the 1984 kidnapping of William Buckley, the C.I.A.'s Beirut station chief, who was tortured and murdered; and it has been linked to bombings of Israeli targets in Argentina. Syria has also allowed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, two groups that have staged numerous suicide bombings inside Israel, to maintain offices in Damascus.
Nevertheless, after September 11th the Syrian leader, Bashar Assad, initiated the delivery of Syrian intelligence to the United States. The Syrians had compiled hundreds of files on Al Qaeda, including dossiers on the men who participated-and others who wanted to participate-in the September 11th attacks. Syria also penetrated Al Qaeda cells throughout the Middle East and in Arab exile communities throughout Europe. That data began flowing to C.I.A. and F.B.I. operatives.
Syria had accumulated much of its information because of Al Qaeda's ties to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic terrorists who have been at war with the secular Syrian government for more than two decades...
READ IT ALL:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030728fa_fact
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6:03:57 AM
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© Copyright 2005 Gary Rhine.
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