Well, it looks like we’ll have to choose between the folks who poisoned Prince William Sound, and the average American driver, because we have a threat from Chavez to cut off oil shipments over Exxon lawsuit filed in London.
How a company based in the US files suit in the UK, over actions taken in Venezuela is beyond me.
FWIW, Venezuelan oil is not fungible. It’s a “sour” crude, and refineries have to be set up to refine it, so this would be a hole in the world oil supply.
At least that is how I read a statement that says that he would , seek a military presence in Iraq for “years” but pledged in an interview aired Sunday that he would not establish permanent bases.“
He wants Iraq forever, but he does not want it to be an issue in the general.
The trials will be under the Any trials would be held by military tribunal under the terms of the Military Commissions Act, which is a mistake.
As representatives of the military say in the case, “Relatively little amounts of evidence will be classified,” and to use unfair and widely ridiculed courts at Guantanamo is a further stain on the reputation of the US.
I believe that Bush’s goals of this is two fold, to help the Republican presidential nominee in the general election, and to attempt to ensnare his successor in the military commissions quagmire, so as to avoid war crimes charges against himself.
These cases are, or should be, a …dare I say it… a “slam dunk, and they can, and should, be conducted in US courts under US rules, not phony courts under Gulag rules.
This complicates a final resolution in the Balkans, but my guess is that it was inevitable.
Truth be told, I support this. I think that, the Serbians forfeited the right to sovereignty to the region when they attempted to ethnically cleanse it.
Van Schaick’s account matches that of Peace Corps members and staff who claim that last July their entire group of new volunteers was instructed by the same U.S. Embassy official in Bolivia to report on Cuban and Venezuelan nationals.
The State Department says any such request was “in error” and a violation of long-standing U.S. policy which prohibits the use of Peace Corps personnel or Fulbright scholars for intelligence purposes.
This paints big fat targets on the backs on a group of people who are sent out into the world to understand, and develop friendships with, foreigners all over the world.
Bush League Diplomacy in action.
Well, it appears that Bush and His Evil Minions™ are abandoning it’s senate confirmation free “Iraq Forever” plan. (see earlier details here)
Someone threw a spanner into the works, and I’m wondering who and how.
Attaturk reminds us that five years ago today, we had A Day which will live in Wankery, when Colin “The Most Overrated Man in America” Powell lied through his teeth to the world.
I think that the Polish government realizes that whoever comes in after Bush is likely to want to take US foreign policy in a different direction, and will likely drop the provocative installation of an ABM site in Poland and the Czech Republic, leaving them high and dry, so the delay in the missile defense pact announced by the Polish defense minister is a way to kick the football down the road to the next administration.
The translation from bureaucrat-speak is, “Sod off you short-timer incompetent prats.”
Not much of a surprise.
Considering the American record on nuclear power, the terms over budget and behind schedule come to mind, the negotiations between France and India on nuclear power should come as no surprise.
They will get the job done right, and given the direct involvement of the French government, if the contractors screw up, they won’t go running to the government to get their money, as a number of US plants built in India have (IIRC one tied to Enron).
So, Bush’s agreement with India probably won’t generate a whole bunch of business for US companies, and it makes us less safe too…lovely.
Now that the Israelis are saying, fine, “you broke the border, you own it”, to Egypt, it appears that Egypt has started cracking down on the border.
Gaza has no real economy, not enough water, no resources, and a bunch of very pissed off residents, so it’s no surprise that it’s becoming a hot potato.
Bush’s intent to make permanent and binding security arrangements with Iraq without congressional approval do appear to be unprecedented.
There were formal treaties for Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and NATO, and when Reagan entered into security arrangements with Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, this was submitted to the congress for approval.
You know it’s out there when Dana Freaking Rohrabacher is saying that this is “arrogant”.
This might refresh your memory.
It turns out that the Russians did not do it. It was an Estonian script kiddie, see here, and here.
Just when I think that I’ve become so jaded and cynical that Bush and His Evil Minions™ are incapable of horrifying me, they prove me wrong.
Paul Wolfowitz has been named by the State Department to sit on an arms control panel.
I guess because that whole WMD in Iraq thing worked out so well.
“Total disengagement” means no electricity, no fuel, no nothing, no kidding.
In response to the southern wall (or is it a fence…whatever) between Egypt and Gaza, Israel is no longer in control of all of Gaza’s access point, and so there are elements in the Israeli government arguing that:
Matan Vilnai, deputy minister of Defence, speaking on an army radio station said that: “We have to understand that when Gaza is open on the other side it is no longer our responsibility, consequently we want to separate ourselves from it”. Vilnai added that, following the withdrawal of Hebrew colonists in 2005, “we want to continue our disengagement from Gaza and stop delivering electricity, water and medicines so that they can be supplied by someone else: we will act responsibly until an alternative comes up”
(See here, here, here, here, and here)
In response to these suggestions, Egypt is moving to regain control of the boarder.
It would appear that no one wants responsibility for Gaza. I think that this concept is less appetizing than Plutonium toothpaste.
I think that he is done, and that his options will be death or exile.he’s losing retired military officers, the new Pakistani Chief of Staff, General Ashfaq Kiyani, is forbidding active duty military men from meeting with him, etc.
Of course, through all this, Bush and His Evil Minions™ are without a clue:
Frustration is growing among Musharraf’s military and political allies partly because he is not listening to their advice, U.S. and Pakistani analysts said. “He’s locked in his own bubble that ‘l’etat, c’est moi’ — the state is me. He doesn’t understand how anti-democratic he is. He’s not thinking clearly anymore,” said the senior congressional official.
The Bush administration is still backing Musharraf, even as officials speak more frequently of working with “the Pakistani people,” instead of “the Pakistani leader.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday met Musharraf on the outskirts of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in the highest-level contact since he declared emergency rule in November.
Rice pressed him to ensure that the vote is free and fair and that the Pakistani people have confidence in the results, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Such remarks suggest that the administration is discounting the new assessments on Musharraf from intelligence and congressional officials.
This is unlikely to end well.
The Jerusalem Post is reportingIranian “sabotage” delayed the launch of the TecSar Satellite.
Sabotage is the JPost’s term, not mine.
It appears that Iran was using its contacts with India’s Marxist and Muslim parties to apply pressure against the government launching Israel’s satellite.
Israel has its own organic launch capabilities, but they have to do a retrograde launch over the Med to avoid Diplomatic issues.
Yep, this is the result of 6 years of failed Bush policies, he goes to the House of Saud to beg for help.
This must be some sort of definition of “returning honor and dignity to the White House” that I was unaware of:
……These days, President George W. Bush needs the world’s biggest exporter of crude more than it needs him.
With oil at about $90 a barrel, the U.S. economy at risk of sliding into recession and American banks trying to raise cash to ride out the subprime-mortgage crisis, Bush has become a supplicant for Saudi financial help.
….
Senator Hillary Clinton tried to turn it into an object of derision by describing Bush as “begging the Saudis” to cut the price of oil. “How pathetic,” she said.
I got your back on this statement, Hill.
Pathetic.
It certainly does paint the picture of an incompetently run investigation, with conclusions being driven by political believs, rather than the facts, which is a characteristic of Bush and His Evil Minions™.
That being said, that the finger being pointed at Iran significantly began with the Clinton administration, and the inclination to blame Iran for anything bad happening in the world dates to the late 1970s, so there is a bureaucratic imperative at work here in both the US intelligence services, and the State Department.
Gareth Porter’s article is interesting, but it raises more questions than it answers.
Well, it appears that the Canadian Foreign Ministry will rewrite its training manual so that the United States will no longer be listed as a nation that tortures.
“We find it to be offensive for us to be on the same list with countries such as Iran and China. Quite frankly it’s absurd,” U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins told The Associated Press on Friday.
More absurd is that the United States does routinely torture people in its custody, and routinely sends people to other nations to be tortured.
I want my country back.
Honestly, I would not trust him as my pastry chef, but the statements by former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and the former prime minister Edouard Balladur thatTony Blair is unfit to be the next EU president is rather refreshing.
One of their arguments is technical, they feel that the First EU president (the treaty is going the rounds) should go to a country that is a part of the Euro zone, but the other is that, “Both men [d’Estang and Balladur] say Europe’s first president must come from a country which is fully committed to all EU policies, including the euro. Mr Balladur – breaking publicly with President Sarkozy – also says Mr Blair is too close to the United States to be chosen as a “fitting spokesman for Europe”. Their views are echoed, off the record, by senior officials in Belgium and Italy.”
In other words, for this high profile, if largely ceremonial position, he’s simply Bush’s Poodle, and nothing can fix that.