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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (6209)	12/10/2003 11:20:16 PM
From: kumar	Respond to of 15987

There is a middle-ground that needs to be examined and understood. The administration has said "Prime Contractors will be from US , Iraq & Allies". Not a word about subcontractors. There are probably many Iraqi and other people in the region going as far east as India/Pakistan, they have an understanding of the people, the culture, the language, prior work experience etc, that would be very willing to take on sub contract roles. In my experience, I have never seen a prime contractor not using subcontractors for parts of a project.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (6209)	12/11/2003 7:41:41 AM
From: lorne	Respond to of 15987

TIKRIT, Iraq, Dec. 11 — U.S. forces arrested three men suspected of heading Iraqi rebel cells in their homes in the early hours of Thursday and said they seized a cache of weapons big enough to launch 50 guerrilla attacks. msnbc.com IN THE FRONT garden of one of the two houses raided in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit, soldiers dug up a hoard of rifles, grenades and explosives that the commanding officer described as “a Fedayeen candy shop.” “This is mission-oriented. This is stuff they dole out,” said Lt. Col. Steve Russell of the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. “They are not moving weapons here — this is the head of a snake,” he told reporters invited to witness the raid. “They are probably in charge of two or three cells. This is one of the most unusual varieties of weapons caches we have seen.” U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq have been dogged by attacks, often in the form of improvised bombs against military convoys. They are believed launched by rebels loyal to former President Saddam Hussein, some of whom have been identified as remnants of Saddam’s feared Fedayeen militia. Russell said the three men arrested, two brothers and a brother-in-law all aged about 40, were members of Mohammed’s Army, a group he described as a “local terrorist cell” based in what is the main city in Saddam’s home region. “They are connected to the former regime,” he said. The men, woken from their sleep next to their wives and children, pleaded their innocence. But as reporters left the site, soldiers were still finding white plastic sacks stuffed with weapons buried a few inches under the soil. “You have a smoking gun in your hand,” Russell told one of the arrested men who, according to a U.S. army interpreter, had protested: “I just sell wood, I sell shoes. Saddam is my enemy.” As the two men of that house were undergoing initial interrogation outside, their wives and bleary-eyed young children waited in their bedrooms. Reuters witnessed as a young boy, prompted by an insistent Arabic-speaking soldier, lifted the corner of his mother’s mattress to reveal an AK-47 assault rifle. Troops also discovered an apparently newly bought wireless doorbell set, which can be used to trigger bombs from a distance. Russell said the weapons find was significant as U.S. troops rarely discover the “middlemen” who are neither fully blown arms traffickers nor the foot soldiers who pull the trigger, but are in charge of directing attacks. He said better intelligence and tipoffs were leading to more effective raids on Iraqi rebels than in recent months. “We are draining the swamp of the high and the low,” he said. “It is starting to get pretty good. It is starting to get as good as it was in July and August. As the bulk of troops left the house, two U.S. helicopters fired salvos of explosives into a nearby farmer’s field, a show of force the U.S. military calls “harassment and interdiction” of local militants.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (6209)	12/11/2003 1:16:36 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Lee Malvo, Muslim hatemonger December 10, 2003 From the moment John Allen Muhammad and Lee Malvo were arrested in the Beltway-area sniper case last fall, the media and Muslim activists wanted us to believe that the serial killings had absolutely nothing to do with Islamic terrorism. CNN downplayed Muhammad's religious conversion – calling him by his old name, John Allen Williams, when his identity was first revealed. Malvo was cast as a clueless dupe with no true convictions. Nihad Awad of the Council on American-Islamic Relations argued: "There is no indication that this case is related to Islam or Muslims." Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper railed against conservative commentators such as the indomitable Mark Steyn, who had taken note of Muhammad's Islamic faith and his reportedly expressed anti-American sentiments after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Roeper also ridiculed National Review columnist James Robbins for astutely observing that the sniper was acting "like a jihadist warrior." Roeper smugly concluded: " ... an awful lot of conservatives really, really wanted the snipers to be terrorists. But they were wrong. I'll say that because they never will." Now it is time for Roeper, CAIR and the militant Religion of Peace propagandists to face the facts once and for all. A chilling stack of evidence, introduced by Malvo's own lawyers last week at his capital murder trial, exposes accused sniper Malvo as an unrepentant Muslim extremist. He may not have been a card-carrying member of al-Qaida, but as Claremont Institute fellow John Hinderaker notes on Powerlineblog.com, Malvo was more of a "freelance" Islamofascist – as legions of aggrieved fanatics around the world are. Malvo's violent drawings and anti-American and anti-Semitic rantings show him to be every bit as blood-thirsty, hatemongering and martyr-craving as any Sept. 11 hijacker or Palestinian suicide bomber. Among Malvo's jailhouse artwork: Exhibit 65-006: A self-portrait of Malvo in the cross-hairs of a gun scope shouting, "ALLAH AKBAR!" The word "SALAAM" scrawled vertically. A poem: "Many more will have to suffer. Many more will have to die. Don't ask me why." Exhibit 65-013: The word "INSHALLAH" above a portrait glorifying "Muammar Kaddafi" as "The Liberator" dressed in full military regalia. Exhibit 65-016: A portrait of Saddam Hussein with the words "INSHALLAH" and "The Protector," surrounded by rockets labeled "chem" and "nuk" (sic). Exhibit 65-043: Father and son portrait of Malvo and Muhammad. "We will kill them all. Jihad." Exhibit 65-056: A self-portrait of Malvo as sniper, lying in wait, with his rifle. "JIHAD" written in bold letters. Exhibit 65-057: A drawing of the Twin Towers burning with a plane flying toward the buildings. Captions: "JIHAD ISLAM UNITE RISE!" along with "America did this" and "You were warned." Portrait of Malvo as sniper labeled "Believer" and portrait of Osama bin Laden labeled "prophet." A poem: "Our minarets are our bayonets, Our mosques are our baracks (sic), Our believers are our soldiers." The American flag and the Star of David drawn in cross-hairs. Exhibit 65-067: A suicide bomber labeled "Hamas" walking into a McDonald's restaurant. Another drawing of the Twin Towers burning captioned: "85 percent chance Zionists did this." More scrawls: "ALLAH AKBAR," "JIHAD" and "Islam will explode." Exhibit 65-103: A lion accompanies chapter and verse from the Koran ("Sura 2:190"): "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you and slay them wherever ye catch them." Exhibit 65-109: Portrait of Osama bin Laden, captioned "Servant of Allah." Exhibit 65-117: The White House drawn in cross-hairs, surrounded by missiles, with a warning: "Sep. 11 we will ensure will look like a picnic to you" and "you will bleed to death little by little." Exhibit 65-133: Reference to "Islamic counter attack force ... ICAF." Exhibit 65-114: Self-portrait of Malvo as sniper. Rant says "they all died and they all deserved it." Exhibit 65-101: Malvo's thought for the day: "Islam the only true guidance, the way of peace." Ten Americans were murdered at the hands of the Beltway-area snipers. Malvo's lawyers say he was insane and "brainwashed." No more so than your average madrassa student in Jeddah or America-hating cave dweller in Tora Bora. Malvo is, in his own words, a "believer" of Allah and a "soldier" for "JIHAD." Stop telling me Islam had nothing to do with it. worldnetdaily.com

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (6209)	12/11/2003 7:48:01 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Hawk, you asked who the term "we" refers to. It refers to what Bush represents as the US. So you would prefer that the "we" refer to any company but a US corporation, right? Let the US taxpayer fatten the pockets of French, German, and Russian shareholders, but offer nothing to US companies and the AMERICAN workers who derive a living working for them? Listen pal.. I'm not a big fan of "Money for Nothing".. If the US taxpayer's money has to be spent, I would rather US corporations be the prime beneficiary of those prime contracts rather than boosting the bottom line of some foreign corporation. Charity begins at home.. If Bush is serious and wants the Iraqi people get the best int he world, then he needs to throw it open for all and have the Iraqis pick the contractors for their rebuilding. Ok.. we can wait until they a constitution and/or elected government.. Maybe in a couple of years we can start rebuilding Iraq... right? The largest amount of that money is likely to be spent hiring Iraqi labor to accomplish their contracts. Their labor is cheaper.. bottom line.. Hawk