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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (245655)	8/11/2005 11:56:59 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573130

Mother's peace vigil gains support SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who started a quiet roadside peace vigil near President Bush's ranch last weekend is drawing supporters from across the nation, including the Pacific Northwest. Dozens of people have joined her in Crawford, Texas, while others have sent flowers and food. One activist called her "the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement." Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., says she was surprised at the response. "Before my son was killed, I used to think that one person could not make a difference," she said Wednesday under a tent where she has slept since Saturday. "But one person that is surrounded and supported by millions of people can be heard." Lietta Ruger is one of those supporters. The mother from Bay Center near Longview arrived Wednesday in Crawford. "We're all Cindy Sheehan," said Ruger, who plans to stay at the makeshift encampment until Monday. "When I left Seattle yesterday my 5-year-old grandson said, 'Grandma's going to talk to the president so Daddy doesn't have to go away again,' " said Ruger, whose son-in-law and nephew have already served in Iraq. About 30 people gathered at the Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle Wednesday evening to support Sheehan's demand to speak with Bush and to protest the war. "This mother has called (Bush) on (his reason for going to war) and we need to support her," said protest organizer Judith Shattuck, a member of Progressive Democrats for America. That organization called for solidarity protests nationwide on the eve of when it thinks Sheehan will be removed from her roadside vigil, Shattuck said. Teri Barclay, a Duvall mother who works in Seattle, said her son served two tours with the Marines in Iraq before he was discharged in September 2004. She's been against the war from the beginning but has grown increasingly angry that U.S. troops have not had the equipment and supplies they need to protect themselves, and that the Department of Veterans Affairs has not had the money to properly help them when they return home. Barclay was especially upset that Bush has gone on vacation while the nation is at war and men like her son are dying in Iraq. "Our sons have sacrificed a lot, and where is his sacrifice? Where is his support?" Barclay asked. Sheehan's support includes a caravan of people who left Wednesday from Houston to join her roadside encampment near Waco. And some Swedes have even donated portable toilets that were set up outside the Peace House in Crawford, which is run by liberal activists. Joshua Trujillo / P-I Jennifer Lincoln's sign expresses her feelings in front of the federal building in Seattle. Lincoln's sister is in the military. Although a few Crawford residents have complained about the protesters, no one has been arrested because the group has been on the public right of way, said Capt. Kenneth Vanek of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office. The protest is expected to grow today as Bush meets at his ranch with his top foreign policy advisers, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to discuss Iraq and other issues. On Saturday, two high-level Bush administration officials, the national security adviser and deputy White House chief of staff, talked to Sheehan for about 20 minutes. Sheehan called the brief meeting "pointless" and still wants to talk to the president. Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, in April 2004 just five days after he arrived. Two months later, Sheehan was among grieving military family members who met with Bush at Fort Lewis. Since then, she said, various government and independent commission reports have disputed the Bush administration's claims that Saddam Hussein had mass-killing chemical and biological weapons -- a main justification for the March 2003 invasion. On Wednesday, a coalition of anti-war groups called on Bush to speak with Sheehan, who they say has helped to unify the peace movement. "Cindy Sheehan has become the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement," said the Rev. Lennox Yearwood, leader of the Hip Hop Caucus, an activist group. "She's tired, fed up and she's not going to take it anymore, and so now we stand with her." seattlepi.nwsource.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (245655)	8/11/2005 11:59:39 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573130

Forecasters expect Irene to intensify 8/11/2005 7:02 AM By: Associated Press MIAMI -- Tropical depression Irene became a tropical storm once again as it got better organized while moving closer to the East Coast on Wednesday, raising the possibility it could eventually hit the United States as a hurricane, forecasters said. Irene's top sustained winds had strengthened to near 40 mph, giving it tropical storm status. Tropical storms have sustained winds of at least 39 mph. Forecasters say Tropical Storm Irene could eventually hit the United States as a hurricane. At 11 p.m. EDT, Irene was about 680 miles south-southeast of Bermuda, forecasters said. It was moving west-northwest near 13 mph and was to continue over the next five days in the general direction of the U.S. coastline from Florida to the Carolinas, according to National Hurricane Center in Miami. Jennifer Pralgo, a hurricane center meteorologist, said it is possible that Irene could reach hurricane strength winds of 74 mph if it reaches land as it will be passing over warmer waters. "We need to see how much it will get its act together," she said. Irene became a tropical storm Sunday, breaking records as the earliest ninth named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Nov. 30. Normally, there are only two named storms by this time in the season. news14charlotte.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (245655)	8/11/2005 11:59:52 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573130

Iraqi Shi'ites demand autonomy Kamal Taha \| Baghdad, Iraq 11 August 2005 04:22 A leading Iraqi Shi'ite politician demanded autonomy for central and southern provinces where the majority community predominates on Thursday, four days before the deadline for a final draft of a new Constitution. The proposed Shi'ite autonomous region would mirror a Kurdish one in the far north, and the call from Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the powerful Shi'ite religious party the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, gave new support to Kurdish demands for a fully federal Iraq. On the ground, at least 16 people died in insurgent attacks as a source close to the Iraqi court charged with considering war-crimes prosecutions against Saddam Hussein's regime said the ousted president's trial could start within two months. "We see the need for an autonomous zone in the centre and south of Iraq," Hakim told reporters in the central Shi'ite holy city of Najaf, adding that discussions are continuing on whether there should be one or more autonomous regions for the Shi'ites, who are estimated to make up 60% or more of Iraq's 27-million population. Some Shi'ite politicians have previously called for autonomy in the south and centre -- notably the leader of the secular Iraqi National Congress, Ahmed Chalabi, a one-time Pentagon darling now accused by Washington of passing on state secrets to arch-foe Iran. But it is the first time that Hakim, a former exile in Iran who headed the victorious Shi'ite alliance in January elections, has lent such explicit support. His comments came after meetings in Najaf on Wednesday with Shi'ite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who led his outlawed militia in a six-month uprising against the United States-led coalition last year. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, who heads the rival Shi'ite religious party Al-Dawa, already said last week that Sistani backed the principle of a federal Constitution for Iraq. The emerging consensus between Kurds and Shi'ites on a federal Constitution leaves only the ousted Sunni Arab elite at odds on one of the key sticking points in the drafting of the new charter. "The Sunnis are still apprehensive about federalism, but then they are discussing it, and officials from the US and United Kingdom embassies and the United Nations are briefing them as well as others," a member of the drafting committee, Mahmud Othman, said. Othman said representatives of all three communities met separately in Baghdad to discuss the remaining stumbling blocks in finalising a draft by Monday to be put to referendum in October. Federalism is not the only controversy still dogging the negotiations just four days before the deadline. The role of Islam and the relationship between state and religion is also at issue, with the Kurds and Shi'ites taking differing positions. "It is not just identity of Iraq or decentralisation, but the formation of Iraq itself, the most sensitive issue, which is being debated," government spokesperson Leith Kubba told reporters. In violence on the ground, at least 16 people were killed, five of them in a roadside bombing in the key northern refinery town of Baiji. A senior US commander ruled out any early withdrawal of US troops, saying the fledgling Iraqi security forces are still not up to the task of taking on the persistent insurgency. "The earliest they're going to be capable of running a counter-insurgency campaign is ... next summer," the Washington Post quoted the unidentified official as saying. After more than 18 months in US custody, Saddam took a step closer to answering war-crimes charges in the dock with the announcement by a source close to the Iraqi special tribunal that a trial might open in less than two months. "My best guess is that the trial could begin 45 days from the day the defence looks at the evidence," the source said, adding that Saddam's lawyers have already seen the prosecution case. The court filed the first charges against the ousted president late last month in connection with the 1982 killing of 143 residents of a village north-east of Baghdad, where he had been the target of a failed assassination bid. -- Sapa-AFP mg.co.za