THE US, THE UN AND THE IRAQIS THEMSELVES, V. 7.0

Ge--

Let's see...

Gonzales defines 'torture as interogation falling just short of organ failure or death ....
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Does he give any clearer parameters? I agree, of course, that it stops short of death. Does he say where it starts?

Post-Saddam Iraq has become "a magnet for international terrorist activity," said Robert Hutchings, director of the National Intelligence Council, the official research arm of the entire US intelligence community, as he presented Mapping the Global Future, the NIC's latest report on long-term global trends.

The NIC warning is the second repudiation within a week of the Bush administration's rationale for the war. Two days ago, the White House quietly signalled it had ended the search for Saddam's non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Since then - and especially during his 2004 re-election campaign - the President has portrayed Iraq as a key part of the global war on terror and insisted the US has been made safer by the overthrow of Saddam.

But these claims have been demolished by the NIC. According to David Low, a senior NIC official, Iraq has been transformed into "a training and recruitment ground, and an opportunity [for terrorists] to enhance their technical skills".

The likelihood now - even in the best case scenario where the upcoming Iraqi elections restore some stability to the country - is that foreign terrorists currently operating there will "go home, wherever home is", and disperse across the world as new threats to the US.

Implicitly, the report also debunks the assertions of Mr Bush and Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, that Saddam had close and active links with al-Qa'ida. Instead, it says, radical Islamic terrorists only moved in amid the post-war chaos. As the report notes, the al-Qa'ida generation that trained in Afghanistan will dissipate, "to be replaced in part by survivors of the conflict in Iraq".

My first inclination is the need to believe that a 'President' would never lie to the people he/she serves.... second would be that they (Americans) are too damn lazy to search out the truth ..... next would be apathy .. ie the 50% that do not vote.

She just doesn't accept the fact that the Pres. may not have the best interests of the country in mind. It's like she can't concieve of a president lying to the American people

Iraq unveils election day security precautions

Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq ?- In an apparent bid to head off car bombings on election day, Iraqi authorities will restrict the use of automobiles throughout the country and will place security cordons around polling stations, a Cabinet minister said Saturday.

Provincial Affairs minister Waeil Abdel-Latif also pledged that the government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi would provide adequate security for voters on Jan. 30, but he acknowledged that the security situation in four of the country's 18 provinces was unstable.


Iraqi security forces, he said, will shoulder the prime responsibility for security on election day. But the U.S.-led multinational force will provide support if asked, Abdel-Latif said.

"The government is determined to make available facilities and security guarantees to ensure the success of the election," he said at a joint news conference with the head of Iraq's electoral commission, Abdul-Hussein Hendawi.

Abdel-Latif gave no details on how cars would be restricted, but security sources have said authorities are considering banning the use of private vehicles Jan. 29-31.

Vehicles used by security forces would carry special identity markings.


The Jan. 30 vote will produce a 275-seat assembly that will elect a new president and two vice presidents who, in turn, will name a prime minister who must be ratified by the assembly. One of the assembly's primary tasks would be to draft a permanent constitution.

If adopted in a referendum due by Oct. 15, the document will be the basis for a second election in December.

Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in car bombings and suicide car bombings over the past year, conducted by insurgents and terrorists linked to al-Qaida who hope to prevent the election.

Already, at least seven electoral workers have been killed by insurgents in recent weeks, some in broad daylight in Baghdad. An intensifying intimidation campaign has led to the resignation of scores of election workers. In some areas, residents have been threatened with death if they vote.

Allawi said earlier this week that some areas probably would be too unsafe to participate in the elections, but he promised to increase the size of the army in the face of the bloody insurgency. Allawi also spoke by telephone with President Bush to reaffirm the importance of holding the elections as scheduled, the White House said.

There are a total of 15.2 million eligible Iraqi voters, of whom 1.2 million are abroad. Those abroad will vote in 14 countries, including the United States, Iran, Syria, Britain and Sweden.

Hendawi, the head of the electoral commission, said voter registration has been carried out in a "normal fashion" in 16 of Iraq's 18 provinces. The two troubled regions are Ninevah and Anbar, where the 20-month-old Sunni Muslim insurgency is fiercest.


He said voters in the two provinces, which include trouble hotspots such as Mosul, will be allowed to register and vote on the same day, but will not be permitted to cast their ballots outside their respective provinces.

Polling stations will open at 7 a.m. and close at 5 p.m., but the final results will not be announced until 7-10 days later. First results could be available on the day of the vote, he added.

In another nod to security concerns, the vote counting will take place at the polling stations, he said.

A national holiday will be announced to coincide with the election, but Abdel-Latif said details would be announced later by the prime minister's office.

Hendawi was noncommittal when asked about reports that Israelis of Iraqi origin would be allowed to vote.


"The commission grants the right to vote to every Iraqi without discrimination based on nationality or religion. Everyone who has Iraqi citizenship and is of voting age, which is 18, can vote if he can prove that," he said, in the first public comments by an electoral official on the thorny issue.

Iraq was home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the Arab world until the 1940s and 1950s, when it stripped them of their citizenship and expelled them. Many settled in Israel.

Sarah Tosh of the Jordan-based Out-of-Country Voting Program has said Israelis of Iraqi descent need two documents proving their heritage to register.

The program is organizing the vote for Iraqi expatriates in the 14 countries, which do not include Israel. Absentee ballots are not permitted.

Graner, the suspected ringleader of the abuse, described himself as a by-the-book prison guard corrupted by superiors who ordered him to physically mistreat and sexually humiliate detainees.

Ge--

Let's see...

Gonzales defines 'torture as interogation falling just short of organ failure or death ....
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Does he give any clearer parameters? I agree, of course, that it stops short of death. Does he say where it starts?

Gelisgesti

You must of saw my post before I deleted it.

I am just finding my way around the search stuff, most of the time it is more frustrating for me than it is worth.

Does the geneva convention really have that in there about providing athletic wear for pow's? If you saw my post you saw the url to the geneva convention that I read and I didn't see anything about that in there.