December 12, 2003

The entire news media has ignored a major Pro Democracy Rally held December 10th in Baghdad.  It was notable because it was against terrorism, AND the arab media.  Signs that said "Our people are for the reconstruction" , and "To bribed Arab stations:Killing Iraqis and destroying their civil facilities is NOT resistance" were aimed directly against the media that has been reporting the recent attacks as if they are popular resistance. Read a first hand account with pictures of this fantastic event here.   10:14:08 AM

Muslims threatening France's core values, says head of presidential panel MSNBC - Bernard Stasi said outlawing head scarves and other religious symbols from schools will not solve all France's problems with its large immigrant community. But he said the nation cannot tolerate those who seek to undermine its values, which include a strict separation of church and state. 8:53:43 AM

Pentagon alleges Iraq rip-off San Francisco Chronicle - A Pentagon investigation has found evidence that a subsidiary of the politically connected Halliburton Co. overcharged the government by as much as $61 million for gasoline delivered to Iraq under huge no-bid reconstruction contracts... UPDATE: "The officials said Halliburton did not appear to have profited from overcharging for fuel, but had instead paid a subcontractor too much for the gasoline in the first place."--news story, New York Times, Dec. 12  The gasoline was imported to Iraq from Kuwait, at more than twice the rate that others are paying. 8:25:39 AM

ITALY: MAN DIES IN SYNAGOGUE BLAST A car exploded near a synagogue in the central city of Modena, killing its Jordanian driver in an apparent suicide that the police and government officials insisted was not a terrorist attack. The police said that the man was emotionally unstable and that he set fire to a flammable liquid in the car, which was parked beside a wall surrounding the synagogue. Nope, no terrorism here.  Just some guy, a Jordanian-born man with Kuwaiti citizenship, blowing himself up next to a synagogue.  It wasn't that he was trying to kill jews, just that "he had trouble relating to people".  Probably not all people, just people who might be going to a synagogue. 8:23:43 AM