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Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (23475)	8/10/2005 11:46:29 AM
From: Jamey	Respond to of 81888

This is just to weird. The web site where the indictments were reported was "comprimised and was moved". "We apologize for this inaccuracy; however, we still stand by our on-the record source Tom Heneghen and our story reporting that true bill indictments have been voted out by the Chicago grand jury against a host of Bush administration officials, and that Vice President Cheney, President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are aware that boxes of cash left the Philippines right after 9.11: "The 'family' want their boxes!!...Things are getting out of hand!...too much is in the wrong hands!" "I was also warned by an intelligence source that my web-host was an FBI Division 5 contractor or informant who had infiltrated the website without my knowledge. After that warning, I realized that my recent website difficulties were not an accident--especially since all that evidence had previously been provided to the grand jury by intelligence sources and whistleblowers." tomflocco.com

To: sea_urchin who wrote (23475)	8/12/2005 4:28:05 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81888

Told you so...() Leading Shiite seeks autonomy for region By Edward Wong The New York Times* FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2005 BAGHDAD One of Iraq's most powerful Shiite politicians called Thursday for the formation of a semi-independent region in the oil-rich south, throwing the drafting of the new constitution into further turmoil and endangering a crucial deadline looming just four days away. The politician, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite with close ties to Iran, said before a large gathering of followers in the holy city of Najaf that it was necessary to secure broad governing powers for the south, which is dominated by Shiite Arabs and was long oppressed under the rule of Saddam Hussein. The issue of autonomous regions is the biggest sticking point in talks over the constitution. Kurdish leaders, intent on preserving the wide powers of Iraqi Kurdistan in the north, have been the biggest proponents of regional autonomy. The former ruling Sunni Arabs, fearing an unfair division of oil resources, have adamantly rejected the idea. Sunni Arab leaders immediately denounced Hakim's remarks and said it would now be almost impossible to finish the constitution on time. "I don't think we will reach an agreement in four days," said Fakhri al-Qaisi, a Sunni Arab member of the 71-seat constitutional committee. "There's no agreement between any of the groups. All the doors have closed. The Kurds have insisted on their demands. The Shia insist on their demands." Until now, Shiite religious leaders had said they wanted moderate regional autonomy. But Hakim's demands marked a break from that and followed a meeting he had on Wednesday in Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered Shiite cleric in Iraq. The ayatollah told Shiite politicians last week that he supported the concept of autonomy, though he did not make specific recommendations. Hakim wields enormous influence on constitutional committee because its chairman, Humam Hamoudi, is a close aide to Hakim. Throughout the constitution drafting process, the country's major ethnic and sectarian groups have bargained hard on a variety of matters, but no single issue has inspired more frustration or ill will than the definition of regional powers. Hakim's remarks pushed the major negotiating groups farther apart just days before an Aug. 15 deadline, when the National Assembly is supposed to approve a draft of the constitution and pave the way for a referendum on the document in October and national elections in December. The Bush administration has been putting enormous pressure on the Iraqis to stick to the political timetable, in hopes that the process will help drain the Sunni Arab insurgency of some of its wrath and bolster flagging American opinion on the war in Iraq. Qaisi, the Sunni leader, said the Sunni Arabs could not approve of the creation of autonomous regions, as in a confederation, because that would lead to the breakup of Iraq. "We want the unity of Iraq," he said, "and we want to preserve this unity." The insurgent war continued to roil the country Wednesday, as Iraqi officials reported that at least seven people, including three Iraqi soldiers and an intelligence officer, were killed in various attacks. The American military said an unmanned aerial drone crashed near the northern city of Mosul on Tuesday night. American troops went to retrieve the drone, but "the local population carried it away prior to the arrival of the troops," the military said in a statement. An official with the tribunal charged with trying Saddam and his aides said the trial of Saddam would almost certainly take place in mid-October at the earliest. The tribunal will likely give Saddam's lawyers a definite date at the end of this month, and the lawyers will then be given at least 45 days to prepare, said the official. The movement for southern autonomy that Hakim supports has been gathering momentum over the summer. Politicians in the south, particularly in Basra, have been lobbying drafters of the constitution to enshrine in the document the right of provinces in Iraq to break off into autonomous regions, similar to Iraqi Kurdistan. The south could profit enormously from such an arrangement - it has 80 to 90 percent of Iraq's vast oil reserves and the only ports in the country. Many southerners say they are frustrated that the central government in Baghdad does not allocate more oil revenues to their impoverished region. Many of the Shiite politicians who initially backed the idea of southern autonomy are secular. Hakim is the first leading religious Shiite figure to lend his backing. iht.com (*) Message 21563974 Message 21045455