The Jerusalem Post
Report: Nasrallah is in Damascus
A top Iranian envoy was in Syria on Thursday for talks on the Israeli-Hizbullah conflict in a meeting that brought together the guerrilla organization's two key sponsors, according to Iranian news reports. A Kuwaiti newspaper reported that Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was taking part in the session.
Kuwait's Al-Siyassah newspaper, known for its opposition to the Syrian regime, said the meeting was designed to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah fighters with "Iranian arms flowing through Syrian territories."
Al-Siyassah said it learned of the meeting from "well-informed Syrian sources" it did not identify. According to the newspaper, Nasrallah was moving through Damascus with Syrian guards in an intelligence agency car. He was dressed in civilian clothes, not his normal clerical garb.
The Mehr news agency in Iran said Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was in Damascus for meetings on the crisis, but gave no other details. Similar reports were carried by the Iranian Labor News Agency and the Fars agency.
Al-Siyassah said Larijani would meet Syrian President Hafez Assad and Nasrallah.
There was no mention of Larijani's travels in Iranian state-run media.
None of the reports could be independently confirmed.
Meanwhile, al-Qaida's no. 2 leader on Thursday warned that the terrorist group would not stand idly by while "these (Israeli) shells burn our brothers" in Lebanon and Gaza.
In a taped message broadcast by al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said al-Qaida now saw "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us."
The Egyptian-born physician said Hizbullah and Palestinian fighting against Israel would not be ended with "cease-fires or agreements."
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires ... . It is a Jihad for God's sake and will last until (our) religion prevails...from Spain to Iraq," al-Zawahri said. "We will attack everywhere."
Al-Zawahri wore a gray robe and white turban. A picture of the burning World Trade Center was on the wall behind him along with pictures of two other terrorists.
The Arab satellite broadcaster appeared not to have transmitted the entire tape, using instead selected quotes interspersed with commentary from an anchor.
"The shells and rockets ripping apart Muslim bodies in Gaza and Lebanon are not only Israeli (weapons), but are supplied by all the countries of the crusader coalition. Therefore, every participant in the crime will pay the price," al-Zawahri said.
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Dozens demonstrate in favor of Lebanon campaign
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Dozens of people gathered at the Carmel Center in Haifa on Thursday to demonstrate in favor of continuing the military campaign in Lebanon.
The protestors waved Israeli flags, as police secured the event.
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23 people wounded in rocket strike
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Seven people were lightly wounded on Thursday, when a barrage of rockets landed in several northern communities on Thursday afternoon, striking a factory in Kiryat Shmona, and structures in Majdel Krum, Karmiel and Nahariya.
Two of the people sustain shrapnel wounds, while five others, including four whose Majdel Krum home was struck, suffered from shock.
As a result of the strike, several fires broke out in Kiryat Shmona, nearly decimating the detergent factory. One of the firefighters who worked to control the flames was lightly wounded.
Eight rockets landed in Tiberias in the late afternoon, while five fell in Karmiel. Police said that northern Israel sustained 75 rockets during the day.
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Annan's libel
THE JERUSALEM POST
Jul. 26, 2006
It is difficult at times, and perhaps today impossible, to fathom how UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan assesses events involving Israel. On Tuesday, four members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were killed when their position was hit by IDF fire.
Annan reacted by declaring that the incident was "an apparent deliberate targeting by the Israeli Defense Forces of a UN observer post."
Yesterday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert conveyed to Annan Israel's "deep regret" over the incident, as well his "reservations" over Annan's "inconceivable" decision to accuse Israel of deliberately targeting UN forces.
Reservations? Perhaps Olmert had to be polite, but outrage would be a more appropriate sentiment.
Just yesterday, Israel paid another terrible price in its soldiers' lives in the fight against Hizbullah. They died defending their country, but they also died, in effect, implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which demands the disarming of Hizbullah.
Israel has already apologized for, and pledged to investigate, the deaths of the UNIFIL soldiers. Where is Kofi Annan's apology for insulting Israel, and his investigation of how UNIFIL came to be so inseparable from Hizbullah that it has been almost impossible to target the later without inadvertently hitting the former? Where is his gratitude for Israel's implementation, with the blood of its children, of a UN resolution?
And why, pray tell, would Israel target UNIFIL? Is Annan suggesting some sort of Israeli anti-UN sadism, or that Israel would have some reason to target UNIFIL in its war with Hizbullah?
But the lack of clear thought inherent in Annan's allegation goes further. The IDF, perhaps more than any other military force, does its utmost to avoid hitting noncombatants. The most outstanding instance of this was Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, when the IDF used infantry to flush out terrorists rather than bomb them from the air and kill innocent civilians. Dozens of soldiers paid with their lives for upholding this standard.
In his own report on UNIFIL, delivered just last week to the UN Security Council, Annan noted that "on the morning of 15 July, IDF announced via loudspeakers to the residents of [the Lebanese villages of] Ayta ash Shab and Marwallin that they should vacate their villages," clearly to minimize noncombatant casualties. Far from targeting civilians, Annan is aware that the IDF routinely sacrifices the element of surprise to spare them.
The lamentable killing of the four UNIFIL personnel clearly requires investigation, something the IDF carries out in any case of a mistake made in the heat of battle. But an investigation of even greater importance to long-term regional stability would be of UNIFIL's failure to fulfill its mandate of restoring peace and security in southern Lebanon and assisting the Lebanese government in restoring its effective authority in the area.
With diplomacy focused on creating a new multinational force in the aftermath of the fighting in southern Lebanon, it is essential to understand what went wrong with the existing one.
Such an investigation must determine more than just how UNIFIL troops were located in such close proximity to Hizbullah terrorists that they ended up in the line of fire. More fundamentally, it would delve into how, in complete contravention of its objectives, UNIFIL stood by without a murmur as a terrorist organization amassed thousands upon thousands of rockets whose unprovoked use has killed and wounded dozens of Israelis and precipitated the current war.
The bitter irony is that Annan himself reported to the Security Council back in January 2001 that UNIFIL had completed implementation of the part of its mandate requiring it to help Lebanese authorities resume control of the area vacated by Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000. If he was right, the IDF would not now be operating against Hizbullah, and absorbing mounting casualties. And four UNIFIL workers would not be dead today.
Since his initial outburst, Annan has accepted Israel's apology, although it is not entirely clear whether he now accepts Israel's insistence on the inadvertent nature of the incident. That's not enough.
It is Israel that is owed an apology for Annan accusation, which our UN ambassador called shocking, distressing, premature, hasty and erroneous. We are owed more than that: an independent, blue-ribbon investigation into how UNIFIL forces became human shields for the terrorist army they should have been fighting to dismantle.
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From 1982 to 2006
Uri Dan, THE JERUSALEM POST
Jul. 26, 2006
The Bush administration is now doing its best to put right the injustice caused to Israel by the administration of president Ronald Reagan in the last Lebanon War, in 1982-83.
George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice are making every effort to give Israel the time it needs to crush Hizbullah and create the diplomatic and military conditions that will prevent Lebanon again being used as a base to launch missiles and rockets against Israel.
The great concern, understanding and friendship President Bush is demonstrating toward Israel are also the result of his basic and just policy: a refusal to compromise with global, regional or local terror. In addition, in the dozen or so meetings Bush held with former prime minister Ariel Sharon, Sharon always remembered to remind the American president of the grave threat posed to Israel by Syria and Iran via their proxy Hizbullah.
In their talks Sharon repeatedly brought up "the threat of 13,000 rockets and missiles" in the North, saying that he would find the proper way and proper time to deal with it.
FOR EXAMPLE, when Sharon was waging the war against the Palestinian suicide bombers in April 2002 - including in Jenin - and Hizbullah opened fire against Israel in the North, Sharon immediately ordered the air force, under the command of Dan Halutz, and the artillery to return massive firepower that immediately paralyzed Hizbullah. And to enable the American administration to gain a better understanding of the situation, he invited then secretary of state Colin Powell to tour the northern front and learn firsthand about the threat to Israel.
So it should come as no surprise that the Bush administration is continuing to give Israel unprecedented and historic support vis-a-vis the fanatic Islamist forces, from Hizbullah to Hamas, that have openly declared their intent to destroy Israel and are doing everything in their power to do so.
THE REAGAN administration did not understand that Israel went to war to fight against the PLO reign of terror in Lebanon in 1982. Yasser Arafat controlled his terror forces from Beirut exactly as Hassan Nasrallah is controlling his today.
At the time, as media adviser to defense minister Ariel Sharon, I participated in most of the debates he held in Lebanon and Israel that eventually led to Arafat, together with his 10,000 terrorists, being driven out of Beirut following heavy bombing in August 1982.
Except that the US didn't like that victory won by defense minister Sharon. And when Sharon tried to create a sophisticated security zone in southern Lebanon so the area would never again serve as a base for an armed militia - either PLO or Hizbullah - the US administration placed obstacles in his path.
Defense minister Caspar Weinberger and the State Department Arabists did everything they could to get rid of Sharon because he, together with Menachem Begin, symbolized an Israel that had surprisingly independent policies.
That is why the American administration stirred up political and personal opposition to Sharon in Israel itself. Not much was needed; Shimon Peres, Haim Ramon and their friends from the Labor Party, together with the majority in the media, launched unbridled attacks against "Sharon's war in Lebanon." The very same politicians and journalists who now laud and justify the second Lebanese war, did everything they could to sabotage the war in 1982, motivated by narrow political interests.
Some admitted publicly then that if Sharon were to succeed in the war in Lebanon it would make him the natural successor to Menachem Begin, when the time came.
SHARON, a consummate security professional, was thrown out of the Defense Ministry in February 1983 before he had a chance to realize Israel's security plan in southern Lebanon. After that - for 17 years - Israel was mired in Lebanon without a real leader or path.
Sharon's removal from the Defense Ministry came in the wake of the distorted conclusions presented by members of the commission of inquiry into the massacre by Lebanese Christians of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatilla.
The background for the political lynching was prepared by Peres, Ramon and minor politicos such as Amir Peretz, who in late 1982 organized the massive "rally of 400,000" in Tel Aviv against "Sharon and Begin, the murderers."
Today Defense Minister Amir Peretz praises the war in Lebanon at every opportunity. The irony is that if Begin and Sharon had been permitted to properly complete the first Lebanese war, we would not, we can be fairly sure, be fighting the second one now.
As long as Sharon remains alive, it will not be too late for the politicians and media people supporting this second war to apologize to him.
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US bomb shipment stops at UK airport
By NATHAN GUTTMAN AND JPOST STAFF
British Foreign Minister Margaret Becket criticized the United States on Thursday for failing to follow procedures for international arms shipments after a US plane carrying a shipment of "smart bombs" for Israel stopped for refueling at Scotland's Prestwick Airport, Sky News reported.
The foreign secretary said that it appeared that safety regulations had not been observed.
Becket said that she had "already let the US know that this is an issue that appears to be seriously at fault," and that she intended to lodge a formal protest after she met with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The US is rushing a delivery of "smart bombs" to Israel after Israel indicated it needed the bombs for its military campaign against the Hizbullah.
The New York Times reported Saturday that the decision to rush the shipment was reached after little debate within the administration. The "smart bombs" - bombs which are equipped with precision guidance devises, are part of an arms deal reached months ago between Israel and the US, but the fighting in Lebanon led Israel to ask for an expedited delivery of the bombs, before the agreed scheduled of supply.
According to the report, the US is stressing that the early shipment should not be seen as an emergency supply to help Israel, but rather as a change of schedule in a deal which was previously agreed upon.
An American - Islamic group - Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on the Bush administration to stop the deal, saying that the rush delivery at a time of war would be "unconscionable."
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US blocks UN from condemning Israel
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
The United States blocked the UN Security Council on Wednesday from issuing a statement that would have condemned Israel's bombing of a UN post on the Lebanon border that killed four military observers overnight Tuesday.
US diplomats refused to comment, and US Ambassador John Bolton was in Washington preparing for a new confirmation hearing before the Senate; however, several diplomats said the United States objected to one paragraph, which said the council "condemns any deliberate attack against UN personnel and emphasizes that such attacks are unacceptable."
Earlier Wednesday, UN officials said that the UN observers in Lebanon had telephoned the IDF 10 times in six hours to ask it to stop shelling near their position
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The Washington Post
Deadliest Day for Israel in Lebanon
By Jonathan Finer and Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A01
AVIVIM, Israel, July 27 -- More than 100 Hezbollah fighters staged a fierce ambush on Israeli ground forces entering the Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil before dawn Wednesday, killing at least eight soldiers and wounding 22 with gunfire, mortars and antitank missiles.
Later Wednesday, another Israeli soldier was killed near the Lebanese town of Maroun al-Ras.
It was the bloodiest day for Israeli troops in southern Lebanon since clashes there began two weeks ago. "We walked into a wasp's nest and we knew it would be a wasp's nest," said Maj. Zvika Golan, a spokesman for the Israeli army's Northern Command. By his account, all of the ambushed soldiers were on foot because the roads into the town were littered with antitank mines.
The fighting passed two other milestones of intensity Wednesday: One hundred and fifty-one missiles were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel, the most in a day in the current conflict; and 24 Palestinians were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip, the highest number since Israeli settlers and forces were pulled out of the strip last year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072600806.html
Exxon Mobil 2Q Profit Jumps 36%
By Steve Quinn
AP Business Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; 9:58 AM
DALLAS -- Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it earned $10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company.
The earnings figure was 36 percent above the profit it reported a year ago. High oil prices helped boost the company's revenue by 12 percent to a level just short of a quarterly record.
Shell 2Q Profit Up 40 Pct. on Oil Prices
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's second-largest oil company, said Thursday its second-quarter earnings jumped 40 percent as high oil prices offset production difficulties in Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico.
As Profit Rises, BP Chief Seeks To Allay Anger
NEW YORK, July 26 He has gone to the best schools, been knighted, been made a life peer and turned British Petroleum into the world's second-largest publicly traded oil company, but John Browne is still scrambling to make his company bigger, fix a troubled U.S. subsidiary and, above all, explain why...
Exxon Mobil's report comes a day after another large U.S. oil company, ConocoPhillips, said it earned more than $5 billion in the quarter and at a time when many drivers in the U.S. are paying $3 for a gallon of gas -- increasing the likelihood of further political backlash in Washington.
Exxon Mobil, the world's largest oil company by market capitalization, said earnings amounted to $1.72 per share in the April-June quarter compared with a profit of $7.64 billion, or $1.20 per share, a year ago.
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Shell 2Q Profit Up 40 Pct. on Oil Prices
By TOBY STERLING
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 27, 2006; 8:27 AM
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's second-largest oil company, said Thursday its second-quarter earnings jumped 40 percent as high oil prices offset production difficulties in Nigeria and the Gulf of Mexico.
Net profit rose to $7.32 billion from $5.24 billion a year earlier. Sales rose less than 1 percent to $83.1 billion from $82.6 billion.
Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer said in a statement the earnings were "underpinned by overall good operational performance and not simply high energy prices."
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Overseas Tensions Force Bush to Change Direction
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A03
The latest crisis in the Middle East has disrupted President Bush's plans domestically and internationally at a sensitive juncture, reopening divisions with allies abroad and jeopardizing attempts to restore public confidence at home, according to officials, analysts and diplomats.
The discord at a conference in Rome yesterday over a proposed cease-fire in Israel and Lebanon underscored the widening gap between the United States and Europe over how to stop the fighting. And the images of mayhem from the two-week-old war, combined with the rising death toll in Iraq, have further rattled a domestic audience that polls show was already uncertain about Bush's leadership.
For the president, the timing could not be much worse. In a second term marked by one setback after another, the White House was in the midst of a rebuilding effort aimed at a political comeback before November's critical midterm elections. Now the president faces the challenge of responding to events that seem to be spinning out of control again, all but sidelining his domestic agenda for the moment and complicating his effort to rally the world to stop nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea.
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Homeland Security Contracts Abused
Report Finds Extensive Waste
By Griff Witte and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A01
The multibillion-dollar surge in federal contracting to bolster the nation's domestic defenses in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been marred by extensive waste and misspent funds, according to a new bipartisan congressional report.
Lawmakers say that since the Homeland Security Department's formation in 2003, an explosion of no-bid deals and a critical shortage of trained government contract managers have created a system prone to abuse. Based on a comprehensive survey of hundreds of government audits, 32 Homeland Security Department contracts worth a total of $34 billion have "experienced significant overcharges, wasteful spending, or mismanagement," according to the report, which is slated for release today and was obtained in advance by The Washington Post.
The value of contracts awarded without full competition increased 739 percent from 2003 to 2005, to $5.5 billion, more than half the $10 billion awarded by the department that year. By comparison, the agency awarded a total of $3.5 billion in contracts in 2003, the year it was created.
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'Waiting to Get Blown Up'
Some Troops in Baghdad Express Frustration With the War and Their Mission
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A01
BAGHDAD, July 26 Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an hour. But not until his convoy of armored Humvees had finally rumbled back into the Baghdad military base, and the soldiers emptied the ammunition from their machine guns, and passed off the bomb-detecting robot to another patrol, did he turn around in his seat and give his answer.
"Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a Frustrated? "You have no idea," he said.
As President Bush plans to deploy more troops in Baghdad, U.S. soldiers who have been patrolling the capital for months describe a deadly and infuriating mission in which the enemy is elusive and success hard to find. Each day, convoys of Humvees and Bradley Fighting Vehicles leave Forward Operating Base Falcon in southern Baghdad with the goal of stopping violence between warring Iraqi religious sects, training the Iraqi army and police to take over the duty, and reporting back on the availability of basic services for Iraqi civilians.
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GM Loses $3 Billion, But Signs Improve
By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page D01
General Motors Corp. yesterday reported a $3.18 billion loss in the second quarter, primarily due to the cost of the company's massive employee buyout program. But analysts pointed to signs of strength elsewhere in the results, including GM's continued progress in cutting costs.
Investors were cheered by the results, pushing GM shares higher.
General Motors Corp. headquarters are shown in Detroit, Tuesday, July 25, 2006. General Motors will have a chance to show its turnaround efforts are working when it releases second-quarter financial results Wednesday. The earnings report comes as the automaker is facing pressure to join an alliance with Nissan and Renault and less than a week after rival Ford Motor Co. conceded that its own restructuring was moving too slowly. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) (Paul Sancya - AP)
The report included a $3.66 billion after-tax charge related to the buyout program in which 34,410 factory workers, or nearly one-third of the total hourly workforce, took cash payments to leave the company voluntarily or retire early.
Without the charges, GM earned $1.15 billion in the quarter, compared with a loss of $231 million in the corresponding period a year earlier, also excluding charges. The North American division narrowed its loss to $85 million from $1.14 billion. GM's revenue grew 12 percent, to $54.4 billion.
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Washington State Upholds Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A03
SEATTLE, July 26 -- Deferring to state lawmakers and agreeing with most other U.S. courts, the highest court in Washington state on Wednesday upheld a state law that bans same-sex marriage.
The Washington Supreme Court, though, was bitterly divided in its 5 to 4 decision, producing six separate opinions in rejecting the claim of 19 gay couples that they are victims of state-sanctioned discrimination that harms their children and their financial security.
Jeff Kingsbury, left, and his partner Alan Fuller, look over the Washington State Supreme Court ruling that upheld the state's ban on gay marriage Wednesday, July 26, 2006 at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Kingsbury and Fuller, who live in Olympia, Wash., and say they have been a couple for 14 years, were plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the state that led to the ruling. The 5-4 decision leaves Massachusetts as the only state to grant full marriage rights to gay and lesbian couples. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) (Ted S. Warren - AP)
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In its lead opinion, the Washington court insisted repeatedly that elected lawmakers have wide discretion to define marriage -- while judges do not.
"At the risk of sounding monotonous," the lead opinion said, "legislative bodies, not courts, hold the power to make public policy determinations." It added that where "no fundamental right is at stake, that power is nearly limitless."
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The Bolton Nomination, Act II
Bush Presses Anew for Confirmation of Controversial Envoy
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A04
UNITED NATIONS, July 26 -- U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton's blunt diplomatic style has made him a political rock star among conservative Republicans who relish his routine exposure of U.N. foibles and criticism of its bureaucrats.
But international diplomats, including several from countries closely allied with the United States, complain that he has furthered U.S. isolation here and undercut U.S.-backed efforts to reform the sprawling bureaucracy of the United Nations.
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"He sometimes makes it very difficult to build bridges because he is a very honest and blunt person," said South Africa's U.N. ambassador, Dumisani Shadrack Kumalo, chairman of a coalition of developed nations. He said there is a perception among many developed countries in the coalition, known as the Group of 77, that it appears "Ambassador Bolton wants to prove nothing works at the United Nations."
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2 Americans Among Dead in Afghan Crash
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 27, 2006; 7:18 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A helicopter crashed in bad weather in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan, killing all 16 people on board, including at least two American civilians, officials said Thursday.
Afghan army and U.S.-led coalition troops have recovered 12 bodies and were searching for four more in the difficult, mountainous terrain where the civilian Mi-8 helicopter crashed on Wednesday, Col. Tom Collins, a coalition spokesman, told reporters.
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20 Members of Somalia's Parliament Resign
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 27, 2006; 9:29 AM
BAIDOA, Somalia -- At least 20 members of Somalia's parliament resigned Thursday, accusing the country's virtually powerless government of failing to bring peace.
"Our government failed to implement national reconciliation, so we have decided to resign," said Osman Ali Atto, who stepped down as public works minister.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/27/AR2006072700392.html
Bird Flu Vaccine Shows Promise
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A11
The giant pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline reported yesterday that it has made an experimental vaccine for bird flu that appears to work at a dose far lower than even the familiar seasonal flu shots.
The vaccine contains an adjuvant, or immune booster, along with a killed version of the H5N1 influenza virus. It allows a smaller-than-usual amount of virus to stimulate a protective level of antibodies in the bloodstream. That, in turn, would permit public health authorities to stretch the supply of vaccine during a pandemic and cover more people.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601716.html
Kidnapping Mexican Democracy
By Enrique Krauze
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A25
MEXICO CITY -- To illustrate the "ad terrorem" method by which truth was imposed in totalitarian societies, Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski told a story: Two girls race each other in a park, the one who is behind repeatedly proclaiming at the top of her lungs, "I'm winning! I'm winning!," until the one in the lead gives up and runs crying to her mother, saying: "I can't beat her, she always wins."
Minus the ending, something similar is happening in Mexico. After a model Election Day (free, orderly, peaceful) during which 41,791,322 Mexicans voted, their votes tabulated in 130,477 polling places by 909,575 citizens, the PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party) candidate for president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, lost by a margin of 0.57 percentage point to Felipe Calderón, candidate of the National Action Party (PAN).
...Besides proclaiming his own victory, insulting the president, personally threatening Calderón and his family, calling the officials of the Federal Electoral Institute "criminals," and anticipating the verdict of the judiciary's Federal Electoral Tribunal, López Obrador has employed tactics worthy of an Orwell novel. Arithmetical irregularities that are isolated, that are only presumed and not confirmed by the tribunal, are presented to the public as clear proof that the whole process was tainted. And if, as occurred on July 11, his own polling-place representatives deny a purported irregularity, López Obrador argues that they were "bought" or corrupted.
Most troubling of all is that López Obrador has called for demonstrations all over the country "in support of democracy" -- the same democracy whose institutions he has impugned. Even though he insists that the marches will be "peaceful" and "won't get out of hand," he knows very well that in the atmosphere he has created, violent actions might be initiated by either side. It isn't hard to gauge his intentions. He's made them very plain, and since he's a man of his word, he must be believed: "I'll go as far as the people want me to go."
Apparently, however, "the people" are not the 27,034,972 Mexicans of all classes who didn't vote for him; they're not even the 14,756,350 citizens who supported him at the polls. "The people," or "the nation," will be those sectors of the population that López Obrador is able to get out into the country's streets and plazas in coming days and weeks -- those who see him as he sees himself, as the Mexican messiah. And who will interpret the wishes of this "people," a repository of natural and divine law rather than of the petty laws written by men? The charismatic leader who incarnates Truth, Reason, History and Virtue, the leader who will save Mexico from oppression, inequality, injustice and poverty, who will "purify national life": Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601497.html
Recount the Votes -- and Be Patient
By Jorge de los Santos
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A25
The 2000 U.S. presidential election was a bitter episode in American history. It was one of the closest elections ever, with 537 votes in the state of Florida separating the candidates. It took a month of court challenges and recounts before the election was finally certified.
After Election Day, several weeks of legal maneuvering by the Bush and Gore teams followed. Neither side was satisfied with the vote counts, and both crafted plans of action and created their own "recount commissions." At the end, after hearing all the arguments, the courts ultimately ruled, clearing the way for a Bush presidency.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601494.html
New FBI Division To Probe Weapons Terrorists May Use
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A23
The FBI yesterday announced the creation of an investigative division focused on weapons of mass destruction, part of Director Robert S. Mueller III's latest reorganization plan aimed at gathering intelligence and preventing terrorist attacks.
In addition to the new WMD Directorate, Mueller told reporters he has hired an associate deputy to oversee finances and other administrative duties, and is adding or reshuffling several other senior positions.
The plan also includes a new science and technology branch encompassing the FBI Laboratory and other technical support services.
Mueller, who has overseen a series of realignments since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, characterized the latest moves as the third phase of a process aimed at making the FBI into an agile and modern domestic intelligence agency. Previous changes included a dramatic increase in the number of counterterrorism agents and the creation of a directorate focused on intelligence gathering and analysis.
"We have grown as an organization substantially since September 11," Mueller said. "It made sense in my mind to evolve the organization to what you see today."
Mueller's new associate deputy director -- FBI veteran Joseph L. Ford -- will be the No. 3 official and will oversee branches including human resources, information technology and finance. Ford, a special agent since 1981, worked on the Enron corporate fraud investigation and was head of the FBI's San Francisco office.
The WMD Directorate will be headed by Vahid Majidi, a former manager and scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory who served as chief science adviser to the Justice Department.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/26/AR2006072601629.html
Haaretz
Security cabinet decides against expanding Lebanon operation
By Amos Harel and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
The security cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, decided Thursday morning against expanding the Israel Defense Forces operation in southern Lebanon, Israel Radio reported.
The discussion came a day after nine IDF troops were killed in fierce battles with Hezbollah in the area.
During the meeting, Olmert said the goals of Israel's 17-day offensive are being met, the radio said. The ministers also decided to call up additional reserves to refresh troops in Lebanon, it added.
"It was decided to continue the offensive with the same strategy, using pinpointed ground incursions and air strikes, not to bring in massive forces," said a source om Jerusalem. "At the moment the army is not bound by time, it can act as long as needed."
Olmert convened a late-night meeting Wednesday with the "group of seven" - ministers who form part of the security cabinet - to discuss options and exchange views about the continuation of the operation in view of the rising casualties in battles against Hezbollah and the continued Katyusha rocket attacks against northern Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743489.html
Only after a clear success
By Haaretz Editorial
The number of Israelis who have died thus far in the fighting in Lebanon and on the home front rose yesterday, following a bitter battle at Bint Jbail, and now stands at over 50. This harsh fact sharpens doubts about the wisdom with which this campaign is being run - a different issue than its purpose and justice. It is joined by an incident in which four United Nations observers in southern Lebanon were killed by an accidental Israel Defense Forces strike. Most of the peacekeeping burden in southern Lebanon is carried by UNIFIL. The very real danger to UN Blue Helmets may reduce countries' willingness to contribute units to a force that the United States is trying to set up in Lebanon as part of a new security arrangement.
In the 28 years since its establishment, UNIFIL failed to achieve its mission of implementing Security Council Resolution 425 and contributing to the restoration of security and order along the border. Instead of serving as a buffer between the PLO, and later Hezbollah, and Israel, it was a loose sieve that offered immunity to the planners of attacks. Therefore, the American effort to establish a new multinational force instead of the weak UNIFIL is justified, as is the approach of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is working toward a stable cease-fire - in other words, a cease-fire after Hezbollah is weakened.
A premature cease-fire means a cessation of fire between salvos, and not an end to it. Hezbollah's leadership will be able to claim victory, arguing that it issued a call for a cease-fire immediately after it abducted two IDF soldiers, but that after two weeks of exchanging blows, their demand for negotiations were finally accepted. They will recoup their losses, with the generous support of their financiers in Tehran, and at a convenient moment, renew the fire.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743210.html
Katyushas hit Nahariya and Kiryat Shmona homes; one wounded
By Eli Ashkenazi, Tomer Levi, Jack Khoury and Yuval Azoulay, Haaretz Correspondents, and Itim
Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon fired dozens of Katyushas at targets in northern Israel on Thursday, with rockets landing across the Galilee and Hula Valley.
A house in Kiryat Shmona sustained a direct hit Thursday afternoon, wounding at least one person. In Nahariya, an empty house was hit earlier in the day, and no one was injured.
Some rockets fell in open areas, causing fires to break out.
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The first barrage came at around 8 A.M., when six rockets struck Safed and three fell in Ma'alot. Some two hours later, six rockets landed in the Rosh Pina area, two more struck the Safed region and a single rocket struck the Carmiel area.
Four rockets fell in the vicinity of Rosh Pina at around 11 A.M., and three more landed in Nahariya and Rosh Hanikra around 14 P.M.
Since the start of the conflict in Lebanon, more than 1,400 rockets have been launched at Israel. Of that number, 352 have slammed into cities, and 19 people have been killed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743555.html
What they will say in Ramallah
By Avi Issacharoff
Israelis are not the only ones who monitored developments in the south Lebanon town of Bint Jbail yesterday. Top Fatah officials in the territories watched Arab television reports on the fighting and the body count among Israel Defense Forces soldiers, aware that military achievements by Hezbollah bolster support for Hamas among Palestinians.
Fatah fears that Israel could end its campaign in Lebanon before making significant gains against Hezbollah. 'Stopping the fighting now would be interpreted as an Israeli defeat, which would immediately affect events here, especially in the Gaza Strip,' said a Tanzim militia leader, who is among the leaders of the current intifada. "The extremist organizations, Islamic Jihad and Hamas, will feel as if the victory were theirs, as will the Palestinian public - which equates Hezbollah with Hamas. The moderate Palestinian camp will face collapse if Hezbollah has the upper hand when this war is over. What will Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas] be able to tell his people in the face of the achievements of [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah or Hamas?" the Tanzim official asked rhetorically.
Over the past two weeks, the Hamas leadership in the territories and abroad has been concerned about the implications of the war in Lebanon for the organization's future. Some Gazans have been calling for a comprehensive cease-fire agreement with Israel that would include the return of the captured soldier Gilad Shalit, in exchange for guarantees that Palestinian prisoners would be released in the future. The images from the Shiite quarter in Beirut and from other places in Lebanon have sent the Palestinians and Hamas a message about what could happen in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip should Israel take action against the Palestinian organization.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743208.html
Nasrallah, the Palestinian Messiah
By Avi Issacharoff
Some 200 people demonstrated in downtown Ramallah on Tuesday to protest U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the city and express support for Lebanon and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The demonstrators sang the praises of the Lebanese people and lauded the ties between Beirut and Ramallah. Then, at a certain stage, the familiar chanting began. One of the demonstrators, sitting on the shoulders of his colleagues, shouted out: "Ya Nasrallah, ya habib, udrub udrub Tel Aviv(hey, Nasrallah, hey, beloved, strike, strike Tel Aviv)," and the others joined in the chanting.
It seems to happen almost every decade. A new Arab leader arises who promises to defeat Israel in war and save the Palestinians from their sufferings, and as usual, many of the Palestinians become followers of the false messiah. In the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of people in the Arab world believed that Gamal Abdel Nasser would be the leader to rout Israel. Nasser also insisted on representing the Palestinians in their struggle, on the grounds that they are part of the Arab world, and it was his defeat that opened the way for Yasser Arafat, who promised throughout the 1970s and 1980s that Palestine would be established with the aid of a gun. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Saddam Hussein was the leader who captured the hearts of many Palestinians with his promises to strike at Israel, defeat it and assist them in setting up a Palestinian state.
The current savior in the eyes of many Palestinians is Hassan Nasrallah. More than 10 marches in favor of Nasrallah and his organization have been held in the territories since the start of hostilities in the north. Activists from a variety of organizations carry his picture aloft in protests and many individuals see him as the only leader who can take on Israel and win. "Hassan Nasrallah, master of resistance," is written on a portrait of Nasrallah that hangs in the A-Shini supermarket in Ramallah's Nablus Road.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743180.html
Report: Nasrallah to meet Assad, Iranian security chief in Syria
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent, and Agencies
Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah was to visit Damascus on Thursday to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad and the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, the Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Seyassah reported.
The report, which quoted Syrian sources, said Nasrallah arrived in dressed in civilian clothes, not his normal clerical garb.
Al-Seyassah, known for its opposition to the Syrian regime, said the meeting was designed to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah fighters with "Iranian arms flowing through Syrian territories."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743568.html
Temple Mount entry limited to prevent planned Friday protest
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
Police on Thursday restricted entry to Jerusalem's Temple Mount to Palestinians under the age of 40 after it received information that a protest was scheduled to take place on its premises after Friday prayers.
Demonstrators were said to have planned an event including 70 wedding ceremonies and a rally against Israel's offensive in Lebanon.
Police sources said after deciding to limit entry to the shrine that the Temple Mount is a place of worship and not a stage on which to mount political protests.
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Security forces have taken up positions around the Temple Mount and inside Jerusalem's Old City ahead of prayers scheduled for Friday in order to disperse crowds.
The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743562.html
9 soldiers killed, 27 wounded in Lebanon fighting
By Amos Harel and Eli Ashkenazi
Nine Israel Defense Forces soldiers died yesterday and 27 others were injured in the hardest day of fighting in southern Lebanon since the war began two weeks ago. Five of the injured soldiers are in serious condition.
The IDF believes that Hezbollah lost 15 of its fighters in yesterday?s fighting.
Eight of the IDF dead ? five soldiers and three officers ? were from the Golani Brigade; they were killed in fighting in the town of Bint Jbail. The ninth soldier, a paratrooper, was killed last night in Maroun al-Ras.
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The IDF began its operation against Bint Jbail on Monday morning. By Tuesday evening, troops from the Golani and Paratroops Brigades had taken up positions on the outskirts of the town, and Golani soldiers had also entered some of the homes.
At approximately 5 A.M. yesterday, Golani infantry entered Bint Jbail from the northeast and headed toward the center of town. The aim of the operation was to find and engage Hezbollah guerrillas and destroy their stores of arms.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743193.html
The turnabout will come quickly
By Meron Benvenisti
No one can predict when the reversal will come, when all the experts will begin competing for first place in revealing the failures of the war: mistaken strategy, political dilettantism and shooting from the hip; the weakness disguised as courageous determination; the illusions, arrogance and boasting; the addiction to an impulse of revenge; the cruelty and the lack of moral inhibitions.
But the manipulators and the self-declared heroes should not delude themselves, nor should the naive, or those who are drunk with patriotism or those who consider themselves experts: the moment will arrive more quickly than they imagine and within a short while everyone will be hiding behind the pose of "we told you so" when they know which way the wind is blowing.
That is when all the declarations, the assessments and the excuses - that could be uttered and written only in an atmosphere of lack of critical skepticism that prevails when a "state of war" is declared - will be revealed.
It is only in an atmosphere of this kind that serious people can justify the destruction of a country on the grounds that they "are helping its government in this way" to gain the upper hand over Hezbollah - a kind of variation on the theme of "the raped woman actually enjoyed herself." It is only in an atmosphere of this kind that a well-bred person can be glad that the lack of American pressure to stop the bombings makes it possible to continue the killing and destruction.
Only reliance on patriotic emotions, which cloud any rational thinking, makes it possible to state without shame - after many days of multi-casualty pounding and the inexplicable destruction of an airport, highway interchanges, power stations and entire neighborhoods - that actually this activity was in vain, since it was known in advance that the bombs could not achieve their objectives and that a massive ground invasion was unavoidable.
Only people who unabashedly exploit primitive urges allow themselves to personalize the war and focus it on the annihilation of their enemy, Hassan Nasrallah. Only those who are convinced the war will bring down a smoke screen over any cynical or hypocritical act can brag that they are assisting in an international humanitarian activity after they themselves brought about the catastrophe.
No one is able to predict the minute when the opposition to the war and the bloodshed turns from an act of betrayal into a legitimate and even correct stance; when a moral condemnation of the war's evil effects becomes acceptable from a patriotic point of view and when slogans like "uprooting terror," "a war for our homes," "an existential struggle" and their like, turn from resonant war-cries into empty rhetoric.
No one can predict this, but experience teaches us that the turnabout from patriotic criticism to rational behavior based on moral norms occurs sooner or later, sometimes within weeks or months and sometimes after a generation. It seems that in the current outbreak of violence, the change will come very quickly; its conduct, objectives and results do not encourage too much enthusiasm and it has not even been granted the title of "war" since those who waged it are not sure if they want to commemorate it among the state's official wars or if they believe it would perhaps be better to forget it.
They cannot allow themselves to think that all should know their assessments were incorrect, and therefore they will seek a "victory" that will justify all the loss of life and destruction, and the very need for such a victory will merely prolong the suffering and bereavement. The public that supports them will have difficulty demanding soul-searching of them since the tribal solidarity will protect the political and military leaders.
Very soon everything will return to what it was before - apart from those who sacrificed their lives and those who were killed in the shellings and bombings. And the major loser will be the people of Israel who, by an unmeasured reaction to a provocation, established their position as a foreign element in the region, as the neighborhood bully, the object of impotent hatred.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/742762.html
Rome Conference /Nasrallah set the tone
By Zvi Bar?el
Israel?s absence from the Rome Conference on Lebanon that took place yesterday allowed Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah to set the tone of the conflict: One between the ideology presented by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ? a ?new Middle East? ? and the ideology of Hezbollah.
Nasrallah wants the world and the citizens of Lebanon to view the conflict not as a military operation or a war over the release of captives and prisoners, which he argues can be halted at any moment if Israel agrees to negotiate, but as ?the transformation of Lebanon into an entity under American-Zionist hegemony,? as he called it in his television appearance early yesterday.
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For the first time, Nasrallah did not mention the Lebanese government. He presented himself and his organization as the ones waving the flag of ?honor? ? not only national honor, the kind that won?t allow international forces on Lebanese soil, but ideological honor, the kind that is meant to prevent the ?big plan? from being implemented.
Nasrallah said there were two plots afoot. He said Israel had been planning all along to take serious action against Lebanon in August or September; that is the small plan. According to this scenario, Hezbollah?s abduction of two soldiers was meant to eliminate the element of surprise that Israel would otherwise have had.
The big plan, said Nasrallah, was the American-Zionist hegemony.
?This war is more dangerous than the occupation in 1982,? he said, ?because today the intention is to return Lebanon to the control of the United States and Israel.?
Nasrallah does not see the Lebanese government as being able to take part in this ideological struggle, or as doing more than acting on his behalf.
In the absence of a cease-fire, Nasrallah sees himself as bearing responsibility for victory. Thus, he wants to be the one to set the parameters for defining victory, or at least for successful warfare: conducting a war of attrition, generating fear by declaring that areas deep inside Israel are being targeted, and causing as many Israeli casualties among soldiers and civilians as possible.
The Lebanese government is now left to help the needy, supply food and medicine and keep the Lebanese from fighting amongst themselves. This divided responsibility will pose no threat to Nasrallah as long as the government itself continues to be split over which political objective to pursue.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743185.html
U.S. promotes alternative plan as Rome meet fails
By Assaf Uni?and Yoav Stern
The Rome summit on the situation in Lebanon ended with no clear results yesterday, after the United States shot down a joint European-Arab demand for an immediate cease-fire.
The 18 participants, including the U.S., Russia and European and Arab states, issued a joint statement expressing their ?determination to work immediately to reach with the utmost urgency a cease-fire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities.? The statement, which was being hashed out until the last moment, also called for an international force to be deployed in South Lebanon under a UN mandate in order to help the Beirut government implement Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for disarming Hezbollah and deploying the Lebanese army in the south. The statement also called for humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
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The U.S., which fiercely opposed the calls for an immediate cease-fire, has been working on its own proposal for solving the conflict in Lebanon. Its initiative calls for Israel?s withdrawal from the Shaba Farms and a deployment of NATO forces to guarantee Hezbollah?s disarmament.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat quoted Lebanese sources yesterday as saying that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented this proposal to officials in Beirut earlier this week.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743188.html
Eight nations sign protocol opening Nazi archives
By The Associated Press
BERLIN ? Meticulous files showing how Nazi concentration and labor camp inmates suffered and died will soon be available to researchers, after Germany and seven other countries signed an agreement yesterday to open a vast war-era archive.
Historians campaigned for years for access to the more than 30 million documents in the archive in the German town of Bar Arolsen.
Because of strict German privacy laws, the International Committee of the Red Cross, which administers the archive, had made them available only to victims of the Nazis and their relatives. But in April, the 11-nation governing body of the Red Cross?s International Tracing Service agreed to expand access.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743178.html
95 French Jewish community leaders on solidarity tour
By Zohar Blumenkrantz
The French Jewish community has sent 95 representatives on a solidarity tour of Israel.
?We promised to do the same in Haifa as we have for cities like Tel Aviv and Netanya,? said Joel Mergui, the president of the French Jewish communities? umbrella organization, the Consistoire de Paris, at a meeting held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv. Mergui was one of the representatives who organized in 48 hours for the visit.
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In an unprecedented gesture, all of the Jewish communities and organizations in France managed to send representatives to the tour; from the head of the Consistoire to the representative of the students? union. They turned out in Haifa, visited the wounded, and met the mayor, Yona Yahav. They also held special prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743216.html
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