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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elsewhere who wrote (45028)	9/18/2002 7:43:54 AM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I doubt that RSA or ElGamal have been broken. I used to know a guy who did encryption for the CIA. He told me a couple of things which may or may not be true. Any code can be broken, but some take longer than others. But RSA has a "hole" built into it that allows US agencies to decode RSA encrypted messages. It still uses a lot of computer time, so you have to really want to decode the message. He never mentioned ElGamal.

To: Elsewhere who wrote (45028)	9/19/2002 3:41:29 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Safire is really pissed about you, JJ. He doesn't care about the your Iraq attitude. It is the Publishing takeover that is making him mad. September 19, 2002 The German Problem By WILLIAM SAFIRE [W] ASHINGTON At a meeting in the Axel Springer building in Hamburg on Aug. 27 with about 30 American friends of Germany, the defense minister who had been recently booted out of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's cabinet for financial irregularities was asked why Germany was so loudly opposed to President Bush's campaign to oust Saddam Hussein. Rudolf Scharping reported that he had answered that very question in a Schröder cabinet meeting: it was all about the Jews. Bush was motivated to overthrow Saddam by his need to curry favor with what Scharping called "a powerful ? perhaps overly powerful ? Jewish lobby" in the coming U.S. elections. Jeb Bush needed their votes in Florida as George Pataki did in New York, and Congressional redistricting made Jewish votes central to control of Congress. Germany, the discredited minister said proudly to his discomfited audience, had rejected such pandering. That bigoted political analysis is typical of the way Germany is undermining its Atlantic alliance. Today, Schröder ? campaigning for re-election Sunday ? seems eager to be more pro-Arab than the Arab League. Not even if the U.N.'s Kofi Annan himself grabbed a rifle and led the charge would his Germany send one soldier to depose Saddam. The dismaying fact is that poll-driven German politicians are certain that such thumbing noses at the U.S. is the key to political victory. Schröder is using it to distract voters from 10 percent unemployment, 0.5 percent growth and a dispute about his hair color. His semi-conservative opponent, Edmund Stoiber, tut-tuts about anti-Americanism but is afraid to take a stand against the Hitler of the Persian Gulf. No matter who wins, the German-American relationship loses. Our response cannot be to mutter "how sharper than a serpent's tooth" and demand a refund of the Marshall Plan. It should be to reassess the need for our troop presence in Europe, which a half-century ago was "to keep Russia out, Germany down and America in." With Russia in and Germany up, should America get out? Of 120,000 U.S. military in Europe, over 70,000 are in Germany (including those in heavy tanks and other outmoded equipment confronting a Red Army that isn't there). An equal number of dependents are in Europe with them, spending U.S. dollars. Why? Defense officials tell me in classic Pentagonese that we are already "reconfiguring our footprint" ? that is, reviewing deployment of our troops globally to make us capable of applying mobile force anywhere rather than to sit in place to meet any specific threat. That's part of the "lily pad concept," on the analogy of frogs hopping around a number of forward bases, "and no slur intended to the French." But is Germany any longer an American forward base? If the Russian bear growls, can't the German eagle shriek? On Oct. 1, our European Command will be extended south all the way to the Cape of Good Hope. Perhaps there are lily pads on which to station troops and position supplies closer to flash points where action may be needed. And in the coming reconfiguration, what about our overseas armed forces' freedom of action? The Saudis have long threatened restriction of our use of bases there, which caused us to build a Qatar lily pad. Would Germany, turned militantly anti-military, also prove unreliable as a jumping-off point in a crisis? I can understand why Germans, having chosen welfare over defense, bridle at superpower hegemony. I bridle at German book-publishing hegemony. Few Americans realize that two huge German Gesellschaften are gaining a stranglehold on U.S. books. Bertelsmann owns Random House, which means Alfred Knopf, Anchor, Ballantine, Crown, Doubleday, Bantam, Dell, Dial, Fawcett, and the combined Book of the Month Club and Literary Guild. The von Holtzbrinck Group owns Farrar, Straus; Henry Holt (including half of Times Books); and St. Martin's Press. You can bet a German-owned publisher is going to get "Mein Kampf Over Inspection" by Saddam Hussein. Do I resent this unilateral cultural imperialism by literary tycoons in the Fatherland? Every red-blooded American author does. But I also see it driven by a laudable profit motive, not by any need of Germany to pander to its Muslim lobby. The rise of anti-Americanism in Germany is a minor problem for Americans, who can pull up stakes. It is a big problem for Germans. nytimes.com

To: Elsewhere who wrote (45028)	9/19/2002 12:45:08 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

>>German justice minister compares Bush to Hitler 19/09/2002 - 13:21:43 German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s justice minister was under fire today for comparing President George Bush’s methods to those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. With only days before a neck-and-neck general election the opposition conservatives demanded that Schroeder sack the minister who is nicknamed Daeubler-Nasty. Herta Daeubler-Gmelin thought she was off the record when she told trade unionists that Bush’s desire to wage war on Iraq was not due to oil. “The Americans have enough oil. Bush wants to distract attention from his domestic problems. This is a popular method. Hitler also used it,” she said Only after some of the unionists questioned her assertion did Daeubler-Gmelin add: “I did not equate Bush with Hitler.” But the minister then continued her criticism of Bush and the United States. “The US has a lousy legal system,” said Daeubler-Gmelin said. She said if current American laws aimed at insider trading had been in force in 1980s when the president worked in the oil sector: “Bush would be sitting in prison today.” Newspaper Schwaebische Tageblatt said Daeubler-Gmelin had not known a reporter was at the meeting and she later phoned the paper to stress she had not compared Bush to Hitler. In a statement, the German Justice Ministry described the story as “absurd” and the product of a small-town “local reporter. Daeubler-Gmelin is known for her sharp tongue and has been nicknamed Daeubler-Nasty in parliament. Opposition conservatives demanded that Schroeder sack the minister for the comments. “Those who compare Bush with Hitler and then say he’s a criminal do great damage to Germany,” said Micael Glos, parliamentary leader of the opposition Christian Social Union. Glos said Daeubler-Gmelin’s comments were the new high point of Schroeder’s anti-American campaign aimed at this Sunday’s German general election. Schroeder has made opposition to the United States over an Iraq war a central plank of his re-election bid. Schroeder, who had been trailing, now has a narrow lead over his conservative challenger, Edmund Stoiber, according to four out of Germany’s top five opinion polls.<< breakingnews.iol.ie

To: Elsewhere who wrote (45028)	9/19/2002 12:50:06 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

>>Stoiber may bar US using Germany as Iraq war base September 19, 2002 12:25 PM ET Email this article BERLIN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Edmund Stoiber, challenging Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Sunday's German election, raised the possibility on Thursday that he may bar U.S. forces from using Germany as a base from which to attack Iraq. Asked in an RTL television interview if he would let U.S. forces use Germany as a stategic base for an attack on Iraq if the U.S. took unilateral action, the conservative challenger said: "Definitely never if the Americans go it alone." Stoiber did not elaborate and Stoiber's press office could not immediately comment on whether he had been referring to a possible withdrawal of flyover rights for U.S. military aircraft based in Germany. Stoiber's comments mark a distancing from the United States after he himself had accused Schroeder of souring relations with Washington by ruling out German involvement in an Iraq war.<< reuters.com So now they both say it. But what is this "go it alone" business? Rummy says we will have help. My guess is the Brits, the Aussies, and several nations in the region like Qatar and Kuwait will help. Will that make Shroeder and Stoiber happy?