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

To: Dan B. who wrote (74348)	3/10/2006 11:29:00 AM
From: Orcastraiter	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 81568

We've been mislead. Powell also said that Saddam had mobile weapons labs and WMD manufacturing plants. He even had aerial photos of the crimes. But as we all know these assertions turned out to be completely false. As for Al Qaeda freely operating in Baghdad for 8 months, it's possible. Al Qaeda was freely operating in San Diego, Boston and Florida too. Tenet asserts that training was given in the past to a few al Qaeda members. But he doesn't say when in the past, or he doesn't say how the training came about. What he does say is that training was limited to a few occasions. We know very little about that training. Training was also being given to Al Qaeda associates in Phoenix and Florida in piloting aircraft. We don't know if this training was sanctioned by the governments. Certainly Bush didn't know about the training taking place in the US, even though the FBI wrote memos to that effect. What I believe is that there was enough evidence available for us to be keeping a sharp eye on Saddam. To demand weapons inspectors be allowed into the country. To demand that Iraq needed make democratic changes. Was there enough evidence for an invasion and an occupation? To me the case was not made for such actions. In fact we were told many lies about the need for this war. I think it's clear that Iraq was not part of some Al Qaeda network which needed to be taken out. Iraq was on Bush's radar for other reasons...and well before 9-11. Most of this information, as we have seen time and time again, is really unvetted hearsay. There is no smoking gun. And there are many players with many agendas floating information, and misinformation as they see fit. What it points out is how limited our intelligence in the middle east really is. Acting on limited intelligence is very unwise as we can all see in hindsight. To show how limited the intelligence is, you even throw in a painting of a mural as evidence of involvement. I saw similar artwork in other countries. It is not evidence of Al Qaeda collaboration. It's art. 9-11 evoked many emotions, and it showed up in some artwork. When artwork becomes evidence justifying an attack, then it's time to take off the brown shirts and put them away. Orca

To: Dan B. who wrote (74348)	3/11/2006 4:26:00 PM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 81568

Milosevic Found Dead in His Prison Cell The Associated Press Saturday 11 March 2006 Amsterdam, Netherlands - Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader who orchestrated the Balkan wars of the 1990s and was on trial for war crimes, was found dead in his prison cell near The Hague, the UN tribunal said Saturday. Milosevic, 64, apparently died of natural causes, a tribunal press officer said. He was found dead in his bed at the UN detention center. Milosevic has been on trial since February 2002, defending himself against 66 counts of crimes, including genocide, in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. The trial repeatedly was interrupted by Milosevic's poor health and chronic heart condition. It was recessed last week until Tuesday to await his next defense witness. His death comes less than a week after the star witness in his trial, former Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic, was found dead in the same prison. Babic, who was serving a 13-year prison sentence, committed suicide. He testified against Milosevic in 2002. A figure of beguiling charm and cunning ruthlessness, Milosevic was a master tactician who turned his country's defeats into personal victories and held onto power for 13 years despite losing four wars that shattered his nation and impoverished his people. Milosevic led Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic, into four Balkan wars, but always managed to emerge politically stronger. The secret of his survival was his uncanny ability to exploit what less adroit figures would consider a fatal blow. Each time he would bounce back, skillfully reinventing himself in a series of political transformations - as a devout communist, a reform-minded nationalist, and again as a communist at a time when most of the world had abandoned Marxist ideology. He once described himself as the "Ayatollah Khomeini of Serbia," assuring his prime minister, Milan Panic, that "the Serbs will follow me no matter what." For years, they did - through wars which dismembered Yugoslavia and plunged what was left of the country into social, political, moral and economic ruin. But in the end, his people abandoned him: first in October 2000, when he was unable to convince the majority of Yugoslavs that he had staved off electoral defeat by his successor, Vojislav Kostunica, and again on April 1, 2001, when he surrendered after a 26-hour standoff to face criminal charges stemming from his ruinous rule. -------