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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lurqer who wrote (39989)	3/20/2004 10:44:39 AM
From: jlallen	Respond to of 89467

No...can't say as I have.... I base my judgment on the conversations and recollections of several of my relatives who served in that conflict.... and my own readings....which include "Tet!", "The Cat from Hue", McCain's memoirs, and others.....

To: lurqer who wrote (39989)	3/20/2004 10:51:33 AM
From: lurqer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Taiwanese president's supporters jubilant with victory one day after assassination attempt CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Supporters of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian celebrated victory with booming fireworks and blasting air horns Saturday as he won a narrow re-election just a day after being wounded by a would-be assassin's bullet. Chen beat Nationalist Party rival Lien Chan, a former vice president, in an electoral rematch that lifted his Democratic Progressive Party to its second presidential win. Lien vowed to challenge the results of what he called an unfair contest. The mood was ecstatic outside Chen's campaign headquarters in Tainan, his hometown in southern Taiwan where he and Vice President Annette Lu were both shot and slightly wounded while campaigning on Friday. The area is a stronghold for Chen's party, which leans toward independence from China and thus is a huge irritant to Beijing. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and insists on eventual reunification although they have been separated politically for more than half a century. "The Chinese communists will respect us more now and they won't treat us like second-class citizens," said Fang Ting-neng, who owns a small textiles factory in Tainan. "Today we showed that Taiwan can't be put down," said high school student Amy Wu. "We've been oppressed in the international arena, but we will still work with all our hearts to walk our own road." At the Nationalist Party headquarters in the capital Taipei, faces fell and some people wept as it became obvious they had lost following a night of varying news reports on who was ahead and by how much. Campaign workers started shaking their heads in dismay as each set of new numbers popped up on a screen. Lien supporter Wang Ta-tong said the shooting on Friday had given Chen an unfair edge. The Nationalists have said the attack was suspicious and its influence should be investigated. "We were ahead all along, then they played a dirty trick," Wang said. sfgate.com lurqer

To: lurqer who wrote (39989)	3/20/2004 11:27:10 AM
From: T L Comiskey	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Bin Laden's right-hand man slips net By Rodney Dalton, New York correspondent and Agencies March 20, 2004 A BULLETPROOF LandCruiser at high speed bursting out of a tribal compound in Pakistan's South Waziristan region was just the latest infuriating setback in the US's quest to bring down the top of the al-Qa'ida tree. The car, followed by two armoured vehicles and a phalanx of heavily armed militants able to wipe out dozens of crack troops sent to blast the terrorists from their nest, is believed to have contained Ayman al-Zawahiri, right-hand man to Osama bin Laden. After mounting speculation that US and Pakistani forces ranged on either side of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border were about to pounce on al-Qa'ida's key planner, a senior Taliban spokesman yesterday made the claim Washington least wanted to hear - that both Zawahiri and bin Laden were safe in Afghanistan. "He may have slipped the net," the official said. Al-Zawahiri, a 52-year-old Egyptian doctor, is one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists and has a $US25million ($33.4million) price on his head. So desperate is Washington to nail the pair, the House of Representatives yesterday doubled the reward for bin Laden's capture to $US50million. Stiff resistance from about 200 well-armed fighters holed up in fortified mud huts early in the week -- in the onslaught of Operation Mountain Storm, designed to rid the lawless border area of foreign fighters -- had led Pakistani officials to conclude they were close to a "high-value" target. Pakistan's leader, General Pervez Musharraf, told CNN exactly that, and said the fighters "are not coming out in spite of the fact that we pounded them with artillery". He did not refer to al-Zawahiri by name, but officials later said that was who they believed the President meant. The White House, keen not to raise false hopes, sought to play down the significance of the strategist's scalp. "It would be of course a major step forward in the war on terrorism ... but I think we have to be careful not to assume that getting one al-Qa'ida leader is going to break up the organisation," US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said. It now appears it was not to be. While it is still not certain al-Zawahiri was in the car, one Pakistani security official said the presence of high-powered bulletproof vehicles, and the high level of force used to provide covering fire for their getaway, supported that theory. The battle against militants dug into the 30km-diameter region continued yesterday, with hundreds more troops joining the thousands already engaged, and mortars and helicopter gunships laying down a barrage of fire. Hundreds of al-Qa'ida fighters are believed to be hiding in South Waziristan, the remotest and most conservative of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal districts. The Bush administration sees Pakistan -- an overwhelmingly Muslim country -- as an invaluable ally in the war on terrorism. This has come at great personal risk to General Musharraf, who has narrowly escaped two recent assassination attempts. Former al-Qa'ida No 3 Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was caught in Pakistan in March 2003 and the US has maintained pressure for further victories. During a visit to Islamabad on Thursday, US Secretary of State Colin Powell praised General Musharraf for his country's help and announced Washington now regarded it as a "major non-NATO ally". In recent broadcasts, al-Zawahiri has described the war on terrorism as a war on Islam, and criticised Islamic leaders who co-operated with the US. "(George W.) Bush appoints corrupt leaders and protects them," he said in a tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television. theaustralian.news.com.au Dan