OpEdNews - Diary: DIPLOMATIC MYSTERY: Saudi Ambassador's Sudden Exit

"... he gathered his staff on Friday and announced that he would leave his post."

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DIANE'S NEWS CLIPS begins here :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> IF LINK DOESN'T WORK, THEN PASTE ARTICLE LINK(S) INTO YOUR BROWSER -- OR GO DIRECTLY TO >> http://www.truthout.org DIPLOMATIC MYSTERY: Saudi Ambassador's Sudden Exit http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306D.shtml Prince Turki, a former head of Saudi intelligence and a powerful player in the Saudi royal family, had only been in Washington for 15 months when he gathered his staff on Friday and announced that he would leave his post. ----- The New York Times | Without Deliberate Speed http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306C.shtml The editors of the New York Times write: "Mr. Bush has no more time to waste on 'listening tours' and photo ops. The nation is in a crisis, and Americans need to hear how he plans to unwind the chaos he has unleashed in Iraq. If the president is delaying because he is searching for a good option, he can stop. There are none." ----- Levin at Brookings: Redeploy/Withdraw http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306A.shtml Senator Carl Levin writes: "The President's position contains the same flaw that General Abizaid has pointed to when explaining why it would be unwise to increase the number of US troops. [snip] ----- Tom Engelhardt | "Fixing" the War http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306I.shtml Tom Engelhardt writes: "Think of the ISG as the clean-up-crew version of the Blue Team of Millennium Challenge '02. Before they even began, Bush family consigliere Baker and cohorts ensured that while the ISG would be filled with notable movers and shakers from numerous previous administrations, no one on it, nor any expert 'team' advising it, would represent the one point of view that a majority of Americans have by now come to support - actual withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq on a set timeline." ----- Sari Gelzer | Tom Engelhardt on "Mission Unaccomplished" http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306K.shtml [snip] "The collection of interviews surpasses the usual mainstream media's soundbytes and the reader enters the realm of intimate discussion with some of the most interesting and intelligent peace activists, former military personnel, scholars, journalists, and everyday Americans." ----- Army, Marine Corps to Ask for More Troops http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306M.shtml The Army and Marine Corps are planning to ask incoming Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Congress to approve permanent increases in personnel. In addition, the Army will press hard for "full access" to the 346,000-strong Army National Guard and the 196,000-strong Army Reserves by asking Gates to take the politically sensitive step of easing the Pentagon restrictions on the frequency and duration of involuntary call-ups for reservists, according to two senior Army officials. ----- Michael Winship | 109th Congress: Goodbye and Amen http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306B.shtml Michael Winship writes: "Not much was accomplished during the 109th, but there was the usual manic flurry of activity the last couple of days, sort of like those sudden deathbed confessions at the moment of reckoning that keep you from going to Hell." ----- Frida Berrigan | What We Leave Behind http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306N.shtml "Indiscriminate weaponry like cluster bombs hides who is responsible and removes culpability," writes Frida Berrigan. "Without responsibility, how can there be law? The big bomb releases the little bombs, which might kill a soldier tomorrow, a farmer next month, or a child a year from now. Cluster bombing is different from strafing a village, massacring a family or executing a suspected militant. Hands and consciences remain clean while bodies are shredded and pulped. There is no My Lai massacre or No Gun Ri atrocity with cluster weapons. Rather, a permanent state of terror is created where all human activity is dangerous and costly." ----- John Borowski | World's Largest Science Teachers' Organization Awash in Denials http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306O.shtml "The refusal by the National Science Teachers Association to distribute Al Gore's film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has ignited a firestorm of controversy and an avalanche of inquiries that the NSTA continues to mishandle," writes John Borowski. ----- Bush to Sign India Nuclear Deal Into Law on Monday http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306P.shtml President George W. Bush will sign into law on Monday a civil nuclear cooperation deal that allows the United States to sell nuclear technology to India. Some in Congress say the legislation, which helps clear the way for India to buy US nuclear reactors and fuel, will undermine efforts to curb the spread of nuclear weapons. ----- Bush "Decides" Direction of Iraq Policy http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306E.shtml ----- VIDEO | Jason Leopold: Army Targets Truthout for Subpoenas in Watada Case http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306J.shtml In a case that cuts right to the heart of the First Amendment, a US Army prosecutor has indicated he intends to subpoena Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash, a Truthout reporter, and two of the nonprofit news organization's regular contributors, to authenticate news reports they produced and edited earlier this year that quoted an Army officer criticizing President Bush and the White House's rationale for the Iraq War. ----- Judge: White House Handling of Katrina Housing "Legal Disaster" http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121306R.shtml ----- Joan E. Bertin and Jay Dyckman | What the Government Won't Say About Global Warming Will Hurt Us All ... http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/121306EC.shtml ----- DuPont Still Hiding Teflon Hazard Study http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/121306LA.shtml _________________________________ Submitted by: http://madams12@earthlink.net Wolfowitz Clashes With World Bank Staff and Mideast Chief Exits ... Christopher Swann Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz faces mounting criticism from directors of the international lending organization who say he relies on a coterie of political advisers with little expertise in development while driving away seasoned managers. Half of the bank's 29 highest-level executives have departed since Wolfowitz, the former U.S. deputy Defense secretary and an architect of President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq, took office in June 2005. Among them is Christiaan Poortman, vice president for the Middle East and a 30-year World Bank veteran, who left in September after resisting pressure to speed up the pace of lending and adding staff in Iraq. ...................snip......................... Three directors, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they are concerned governments might be less willing to contribute because of unhappiness with Wolfowitz. Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20061212/pl_bloomberg/a6vaazxtmewc_1 _________________________________ .ron corvuswire@verizon.net : MYSTERY OF FANNING ISLAND - Was Mohammed Atta's "Close Associate" in Florida. a CIA Pilot? WORLD EXCLUSIVE ... Dec 11 2006--Venice,FL ... by Daniel Hopsicker Wolfgang Bohringer, the German pilot who was one of Mohamed Atta's closest associates in Florida as well as the subject of an FBI terror alert in the South Pacific, was apprehended two weeks ago and taken into custody, but then was almost immediately released after he told authorities responsible for his capture that he works for the CIA. [snip] Continued >> http://www.madcowprod.com/120112006.html ----- Wolf Blitzer versus David Duke - video ... http://www.corvuswire.com/wolf-duke.htm ----- Dennis Kucinich is the man! .ron Dennis Kucinich is the man! That is, if you seek to bring the troops home now, cut endless defense spending, implement fully-paid universal healthcare and fully-paid college tuition, and eliminate unAmerican "free trade" practices which result in the permanent loss of American jobs and gross trade deficits. Dennis Kucinich isn't afraid to speak Truth to Power and to The People! I find Dennis so refreshing with his undeniable bluntness and patriotic sense of urgency to move mountains, if need be. Dennis Kucinich kicks a*s! Great video... http://www.corvuswire.com/kucinich-cnn.htm _________________________________ [NEWSDISSECTOR] Decider Indecisive: No New Plan Yet http://www.newsdissector.com/blog/2006/12/13/decider-indecisive-no-new-plan-yet/ _________________________________ By Devlin Buckley ... Drug Mafia, CIA Blamed For Sacking Of Afghan Governor In a country flooded with narcotics traffickers and corrupt government officials, one of Afghanistan's few remaining 'clean' governors, Mohammed Daud, has been removed from his position, and many are blaming the drug mafia and the CIA for his abrupt dismissal. http://72.5.214.25/articles/genera_devlin_b_061211_drug_mafia_2c_cia_blam.htm _________________________________ http://eddiestinson@gmail.com The utter futility of drug prohibition @ 1 Billion a DAY! The Futility of Drug Prohibition ..... and the only time I ever agreed with Friedman Excerpt: " In 1989 when drug czar Bill Bennet was escalating the drug war on behalf of President George H.W. Bush, Friedman wrote an open letter in the Wall Street Journal reminding him that the problems he was trying to combat were the made worse by prohibition. He warned that crack was a product of prohibition correctly pointing out "it was invented because the high cost of illegal drugs made it profitable to provide a cheaper version." He concluded the letter: "Moreover, if even a small fraction of the money we now spend on trying to enforce drug prohibition were devoted to treatment and rehabilitation, in an atmosphere of compassion not punishment, the reduction in drug usage and in the harm done to the users could be dramatic. " [snip] Full article >> http://www.alternet.org/story/45010/ _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://mediamatters.org Russert and panel failed to challenge claim that "no one knew" intel on Iraq WMDs was flawed On Meet the Press, host Tim Russert let former Reagan adviser Ken Adelman assert without challenge that "no one knew" that intelligence indicating Iraq had weapons of mass destruction "wasn't true" prior to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. In fact, members of the intelligence community, including senior CIA analysts, challenged the accuracy of the intelligence that Iraq had WMDs. Read more >> http://mediamatters.org/items/200612120007?src=other ----- Stephanopoulos, Blitzer failed to confront Smith on timing of his Iraq war reversal Discussing Sen. Gordon Smith's December 7 Senate floor statement denouncing the war in Iraq, neither ABC's George Stephanopoulos nor CNN's Wolf Blitzer challenged Smith on the timing of his statement, when it had become clear long before that no weapons of mass destruction would be found in Iraq and that the function of coalition troops had become essentially that of, in Smith's words to Blitzer, "street cops in a sectarian civil war." Read more >> http://mediamatters.org/items/200612120005?src=other ----- WSJ's Stephens touted conservative think tank as "very effective" on global warming [snip] Media Matters has documented that two of CEI's television ads contained misleading statements about global warming. Read more >> http://mediamatters.org/items/200612120006?src=other _________________________________ Submitted by: http://jablankfort@earthlink.net Gilad Atzmon - Think Tribal, Speak Universal (Don't let the smear campaigners set the agenda!) GILAD ATZMON - THINK TRIBAL, SPEAK UNIVERSAL I may as well be the King of The Jews. I have achieved the unachievable, accomplished the impossible. I have managed to unite them all: Right, Left and Centre. The entirety of the primarily-Jewish British political groups: the Zionists the anti-Zionists, Jewish Socialists, Tribal Marxists, The Board of Deputies, Jewish Trotskyites, Jews Sans Frontieres, Jews Avec Frontieres for the first time in history all speak in one single voice. They all repeat exactly the same misquotes. They all hate Gilad Atzmon. "Pretty impressive," I think to myself, "I must be doing something right." Yet, I am slightly confused by my own achievement. When it comes down to it, I'm not the canonical enemy; I am a jazz musician and author. I am not a politician, nor am I a member of any party. I do not present or support any political agenda. I have never been involved in any act of violence (not even as an Israeli soldier) nor have I ever called for violence. I am what some may call an "independent critical thinker". It is my personal understanding that I choose to share with my readers and listeners. I express my very own reading into events and some speculations regarding the notion of identity. I write about things that I find while looking into myself. This is indeed very dangerous for people who try to promote some collective dogmatic and ethnic tribalism. It is apparently the individual and critical thinker who endangers any form of ideological dogmatism (in general) and Jewish collectivism (in particular). Surely, the most effective way to confront a thinker is through open intellectual debate. But somehow, this is precisely what those who oppose me refuse to do. Instead, they employ various tactics aimed at silencing me. They are filled with hate. Because, it seems, hate is the name of the game. I recently came across an interesting insight into the subject of hate and anti-Semitism. It goes like this: [snip] Continued >> http://peacepalestine.blogspot.com/2006/12/gilad-atzmon-think-tribal-speak.html _________________________________ Solar Flares and Geminid Meteors Space Weather News http://spaceweather.com X-FLARE: Sunspot 930 erupted again this morning, producing a strong X3-class solar flare. The blast triggered an ongoing radiation storm and probably hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) toward Earth. Auroras are possible when the CME arrives on Dec. 14th or 15th. Note: The radiation storm mentioned above is of moderate intensity and, unless it strengthens greatly, poses no threat to astronauts orbiting Earth onboard the International Space Station or the space shuttle. The astronauts are protected by the walls of their spacecraft as well as by Earth's magnetic field. GEMINID METEORS: The Geminid meteor shower peaks tonight. Start watching around 9 p.m. local time on Wednesday, Dec. 13th. The display will start small but grow in intensity as the night wears on. By Thursday morning, Dec. 14th, people in dark, rural areas could see one or two Geminids every minute. Visit http://SpaceWeather.com for meteor observing tips, sky maps, and updates about solar activity. Would you like a call when auroras appear in your area? Sign up for SpaceWeather PHONE: http://spaceweatherphone.com . _________________________________ Agricultural researchers applied for a patent on a compound found in fresh blackberries that inhibited tumor growth in animals. In the study, the compound called C3G not only inhibited cancer cell growth in mice, but also inhibited the spread of cancer cells to other organs. The compound may one day be a key natural ingredient in new products formulated for their anti-cancer properties, reported California Farm Bureau Federation. _________________________________ http://www.truthdig.com | http://www.showusthewar.com _________________________________ ...............Pictures of some snow We've all heard the expression that no two snowflakes are identical. But they're so small that it's hard to tell. Well, believe it or not, today's Cool Site is dedicated to snowflakes. You'll see some absolutely stunning up-close photos of snowflakes. You can also read about attempts to create synthetic snowflakes. And don't forget to check out the activities for kids. They'll love them! And, as to the question of whether two snowflakes are ever identical, you'll even find an answer to that. TO VISIT TODAY'S COOL SITE, GO HERE: http://www.its.caltech.edu Be sure to listen to me Monday through Friday. Use my map to find me near you http://www.komando.com/listen/index.aspx _________________________________ eHEALTHY NEWS Recharging Your Brain - A simple technique can help you think more clearly, improve your memory, give you more energy and increase your emotional well-being. http://www.mercola.com/2006/may/27/recharging_your_brain.htm ----- Is Splenda in Your Drug? - You could unknowingly be consuming Splenda in any number of surprising ways. http://www.mercola.com/2006/may/30/is_splenda_in_your_drug.htm _________________________________ VIDEO: Home Court Advantage 3:19 11/28/2006 - This kid makes some amazing basketball shots on his home court. I used to try to make shots like this but then again I could barely make free throws. Eventually I broke the rim after lowering it for a dunk contest. http://break.com/verizon/insanebball62.html _________________________________ NationalGeographic.com http://lava.nationalgeographic.com/pod/ _________________________________ NASA Astronomy picture of the day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html _________________________________ When it's played the way is spozed to be played, basketball happens in the air; flying, floating, elevated above the floor, levitating the way oppressed peoples of this earth imagine themselves in their dreams. ~ John Edgar Wideman