Re: The United States planted a couple [...] nuclear bombs deep under the ocean southeast of Sumatra for the sole purpose of...
...blackmailing the world into NOT hindering or foiling the impending war against IRAN. Did you notice that all the countries hit by the tsunami are not "foul-weather friends" of the US, to say the least? India declined to dispatch troops in Iraq. Indonesia and Malaysia are predominantly Muslim... And to top it all: the timing of the terrorist tsunami was perfect: mostly European tourists were killed as the article below shows. Hence the location allowed US Judeofascists to kill two birds with one tsunami: "Old Europe" and "anti-US South Asia".
Indeed, the world according to Gus is a grim one: after all, I coined the concept of "Terror Diplomacy" (as the next stage after "Gunboat Diplomacy" and "Nuclear Deterrence")
Hope fades for the missing foreigners
By Judy Dempsey International Herald Tribune
Thursday, December 30, 2004
BERLIN A grim Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on Wednesday told his country to prepare for the worst and expect German fatalities in the hundreds from the Asian tsunamis, a message repeated across Europe as governments and relief agencies absorbed the extent of the tragedy and girded for unprecedented emergency efforts.
Referring to the tsunamis as "the worst and most devastating natural catastrophe in living memory," Schröder noted that 1,000 Germans were missing and held out little hope that many of them would be found alive.
More than 2,000 Scandinavians are among the many Europeans missing, some of the crowds of tourists who have become accustomed to using the Christmas holiday period to escape dark winters for the sunny beaches of southeastern Asia.
What had become a blithe intercontinental routine turned to horror this holiday, leaving Europeans back home riveted to searing television images of their wounded and shocked compatriots and the tens of thousands of Asians killed.
Both Swedish and Norwegian officials said this week that the Asian tsunamis have caused trauma in their countries, which are unaccustomed to disaster on a mass scale. King Carl-Gustaf XVI made a rare television broadcast to express the national grief over 1,500 missing Swedes. Prime Minister Goran Persson called the tsunamis "the worst catastrophe of our life" and added, "This will impact everyday life for a long time to come."
Britons, Finns, Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Italians, Austrians and Israelis are also missing. In Israel, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying, "I cannot recall facing such a terrible problem of despair for years."
Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator, sharply criticized rich nations for a "stingy" response to the disaster earlier this week.
An unusually plain-spoken diplomat from Norway, Egeland denied that those remarks were directed at the United States, and indeed had earlier this year been equally critical of wealthy Western countries and their response to the killings in the Darfur region of Sudan.
But governments, their militaries and relief agencies are mounting ever greater relief efforts now. The German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, and the Austrian chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel, on Wednesday called on their citizens to donate to relief for the Asian disaster rather than spend money on traditional New Year's fireworks.
In Germany, Schröder had broken off his holiday to head a relief effort that had kicked into action almost as soon as the tsunami ended its course of destruction on Sunday. He has also canceled a short trip later this week in Austria to mark the 10th anniversary of its European Union membership.
The British prime minister, Tony Blair, however, remained in the Egyptian sea resort of Sharm al-Sheik despite criticism he should be back in London to organize the emergency relief.
"The prime minister is entitled to some rest because he's normally on duty day and night," said his foreign secretary, Jack Straw. The British government has pledged £15 million, or $29 million, to help survivors of the tsunami.
During 2002 floods which engulfed large parts of Eastern Germany, Schröder quickly assumed control, sending in the army to shore up river banks and mobilizing maximum assistance to affected areas. To date, his government has displayed the same brisk organization in responding to the tsunamis.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Schröder announced he would allocate €20 million, or $27 million, in emergency aid, and proposed a debt moratorium for Indonesia and Somalia when Paris Club members meet on Jan. 20. President George W. Bush said he would consider the German proposal.
Schröder said the Bundeswehr, or German Army, would send out its special hospital plane to the Asian disaster region. It would also leave mobile clinics and equipment for supplying drinking water for as long as needed.
Fischer, whose Foreign Ministry has been working round the clock since Sunday coordinating with German diplomats in the affected region and providing telephone hot lines, said he would much prefer any money spent on New Year's Eve be instead sent to relief organizations. "Even small sums are important and valuable," he said.
The Swedish government, criticized on Wednesday by the media for reacting too slowly in bringing home the injured, organized planes airlines to fly to the region and help with the rescue mission.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it had contacted most of the 2,000 Israelis who had gone to the region, a popular vacation spot for those who have completed their military conscription. It had failed to make contact with between 90 and 100 Israelis believed to be in the disaster zone.
"There are groups of Israelis, a minority, who have not bothered to contact our situation room and are not cooperating with the Foreign Ministry," said Nissim Ben-Sheetrit, deputy director general of the ministry.
As most governments are slowly discovering, the region is desperately poor, lacking basic infrastructure and amenities - which may explain why some survivors have yet to make contact.
iht.com |
