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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TopCat who wrote (35742)	7/16/2004 10:58:48 AM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 81568

When Clinton lied Nobody died. It is time that we put an end to this divide and rule policy of Bush. Pitting one against the other. "Either you are with us or you are against us" approach. With every passing day, your favorite GWB is alienating more and more people. You wondered if I was getting testy. Absolutely not. It is called the "morning after effect of F9/11."

To: TopCat who wrote (35742)	7/16/2004 11:39:47 AM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 81568

Proof that a true "Rebuild Iraq" coalition can be successful if Bush and his Halliburton imperialists keep out. Awarding exclusive contracts to all those who supported Bush is the prime cause of the hanging of corpses from that Iraqi bridge. Give true freedom to the Iraqi people and the world will rush into help. Unadulterated political thinking, my friend. Not going off the wall saying "Oh he lied and needs to be impeached." <font size=3> Malaysia Unlikely to Send Troops to Iraq By JASBANT SINGH Associated Press Writer KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Malaysia's prime minister said Thursday his country probably won't send troops to Iraq, but he will urge other Islamic countries to do so. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also chairman of the Islamic world's largest political group, said Muslim countries near Iraq should consider sending security forces now that the United States has handed over power to the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. "Yes, power has been handed (to the Iraqis) but peace is not fully secured," Abdullah said in an interview with The Associated Press and the British newspaper The Guardian. "We feel very strongly that Muslim countries in the region are better placed to send their troops because it is near (to them), it is more economical." Abdullah had said Malaysia would consider sending troops once Iraqis were back in charge of the country - but only if they were part of a U.N.-mandated peacekeeping force. On Thursday, Abdullah said Malaysia was likely only to send a medical team to Iraq, "when the situation is a little more stable." He did not give details about the possible size of the team, where it would be sent or for how long. "In all probability that is the best role," Abdullah said. The interview came the day before Abdullah leaves Malaysia on his first official trip to Washington as leader, for talks Monday with President Bush. The trip includes stops in London and Paris for meetings with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac. Malaysian officials say Abdullah, who is the current chairman of both the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Summit and the Non-Aligned Movement of 116 mostly developing countries, will raise with Bush the issues of the war on terrorism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Malaysia opposed the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Abdullah recently said using military force against terrorism without addressing its root causes would only fuel more extremism. But Malaysia is considered an ally in the fight against terrorism, having arrested scores of Islamic militant suspects, including some linked to al-Qaida. The White House invitation signals improving ties between the United States and Malaysia since Abdullah took over in October following the retirement of longtime Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose blunt criticism of U.S. policies and remarks about Jews sometimes caused offense in Washington. Latest News Malaysia Unlikely to Send Troops to Iraq Malaysia's Anwar Rushed to Hospital Interactives Iraq's New Government Prison Abuse Scandal Street Fighting Tribes of Iraq Reconstruction of Iraq Coalition Casualties Recent Stories Philippines Pulls More Troops From Iraq Philippines' Decision Cheered at Home Blast Rips Through Iraqi Residential Area Marine Who Vanished in Iraq Lands in U.S. Iraq Turns to Muslim Nations for Help Cavalry Scouts in Iraq Perform Old Mission Captors: Hostage Goes Free When Troops Go It also comes two months after the U.S. officials praised Abdullah's government for arresting the alleged middleman in the nuclear proliferation network of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan. The middleman, Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, arranged a deal with business contacts in Malaysia - including Abdullah's son - to make parts for Libya's secret nuclear weapons program. The Malaysian company involved was cleared of any wrongdoing by police, who concluded it did not know that the parts it made for Tahir were to be used in uranium-enriching centrifuges. In the interview, Abdullah said he wouldn't discuss whether the government would grant U.S. investigators access to interrogate Tahir, who is being held without trial under a tough national security law. He said he wasn't aware of such a request from U.S. officials as yet. Abdullah said that Malaysian officials would cooperate with international efforts to stop proliferation, and had been "very transparent" in their dealings with the International Atomic Energy Agency. "We will make sure that such things do not happen here again," Abdullah said, without giving details about whether Malaysia has tightened rules on the production or export of industrial products that might have more than one use, including in nuclear industries. hosted.ap.org

To: TopCat who wrote (35742)	7/16/2004 12:37:44 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 81568

You folks get so bent out of shape at "lies" that you do not know what you are talking about. What do you call this? Iraq Finance Audit Shows Lack of Controls <font size=3> By MARTIN CRUTSINGER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) -- An audit of Iraq's oil revenues revealed a lack of adequate financial controls and an inability to get information on large non-competitive contracts, including one awarded to Halliburton, the board established to monitor Iraq finances reported Thursday. The International Advisory and Monitoring Board on Iraq released an audit prepared by accounting firm KPMG, which cited concerns about an inability to track how much oil is being produced in Iraq and a lack of proper internal controls on the money being spent. hosted.ap.org The board, which met Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, said it had been unable to gain access to audits already done by U.S. agencies on a number of noncompetitive contracts awarded for various Iraq reconstruction projects including one given to Halliburton to repair Iraq's oil production facilities. Halliburton, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, has been awarded more than $7 billion in Iraq contract work, including not only the oil production restoration project but also the feeding and housing of U.S. troops. Democrats in Congress have criticized those contracts. Monitoring board members said L. Paul Bremer, the former head of the American-led occupation in Iraq, had assured them U.S. audits of the single-source contracts would be provided, but now they were being told legal issues had to be cleared up before the audits could be turned over. The monitoring board said it was pressing U.S. authorities to provide a list of all noncompetitive contracts that had been awarded. "We are still waiting for a response," said Bert Keuppen, a senior adviser to the finance department of the International Monetary Fund. "I think as time goes by, the members of the board will get a little more impatient." The board is composed of officials from the United Nations, the IMF, the World Bank and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. It was authorized by the U.N. Security Council in May 2003 to monitor the operations of the Development Fund for Iraq, which was designated as the recipient of Iraq oil revenues and assets of the previous government frozen by various countries. The KPMG audit, which covered the period from May through December of last year showed $10.3 billion had been put into the fund, with $5.6 billion of that coming as a transfer from the U.N. Oil for Food program. The United Nations and Congress are conducting separate investigations into allegations of corruption in that program, which was designed to provide humanitarian relief to the Iraqi people from economic sanctions imposed during the presidency of Saddam Hussein. The audit said an additional $3.7 million in the reconstruction fund came from Iraq oil sales that occurred after the U.S.-led coalition took over the country last year. The audit said $757,550 of the $10.3 billion in the reconstruction fund represented the amount in frozen assets turned over by various countries that had seized accounts connected to the prior government. The largest amounts included $211,077 from Switzerland, $207,945 from the United States, $184,066 from Britain and $98,088 from Japan. The IMF last week formally recognized Iraq's new interim government following the June 28 handover of power from the U.S.-led coalition. IMF spokesman Thomas Dawson said Thursday that an IMF team had good preliminary discussions with members of the new Iraqi government last week with the goal of beginning to provide IMF loans to the country by the final three months of this year. His organization has said it could loan $850 million to Iraq in emergency post-conflict assistance and provide a total of $2.5 billion to $4.25 billion over the next three years.