Playing Politics with Terror Alerts

Can somebody turn down the gain on the hysteria levels for this thread?



Sheesh . . .

Xena, why are you so fired up - that you INSIST disagreement is hate?

I have never wanted Bush in the White House, neither wanted his father, neither wanted a president who went across "oceans" and interfered in other continents 'business'. But I do not hate them. In fact, I pray for them, just as I do my own family.

But because of the need in the USA for oil, there are those willing to make the "bucks" , no matter what the cost - for such a DEMANDING market.

"Hate" is a strong term. I disagree with most of the policies of the administrations who have taken the USA into war and killed multiplied THOUSANDS of our young men. It seemed to 'me', there was always a better way to do it.

However, you know, and I know... all of this has begun, years before now. It makes little difference who is put into the presidential chair insofar as terriorism is concerned. It is not a 'winnable' WAR, and can only be controlled with extreme change. We all know how long it takes to affect change.

I would say 'hate' is directed at us, Xena, but mostly is not part of our reasoning, either in elections or opinions.

You flatter us!

For what it's worth, I am putting my money on Kerry... (No kidding I am literally putting my money on Kerry by buying Kerry futures here http://www.biz.uiowa.edu/iem/) I think Bush is screwing up enough to lose this election.



If this is true, why do you care if Kerry wins or not. You're not small minded are you?

But the question of what "any other president" would is an interesting one.

Sorry theollady,

On this one thing I have to side with the warrior princess...

I really do hate Bush.

You are pathetic! You are in such denial there is no hope for you. You must live in a cave if you aren't aware of the agenda of the media, Hollywood and all the big mouths who is the leadership of the Democrat party. They couldn't care less about the war on terror. Your hatred for Bush is unwarranted and completly void of reason. Just goes to show you Michael Moore was right in a way when he said Americans are stupid. Anyone who still thinks Bush lied and Iraq is an unjust war are showing their ignorance. 1998, Clinton thought it was urgent enough to make regime change in Iraq policy. Facts don't matter for the Left, hate Bush crowd. Pathetic!
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Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate) --H.R.4655-- H.R.4655

One Hundred Fifth Congress of the United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday, the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight
An Act To establish a program to support a transition to democracy in Iraq.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Iraq Liberation Act of 1998'.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

The Congress makes the following findings:

(1) On September 22, 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, starting an 8 year war in which Iraq employed chemical weapons against Iranian troops and ballistic missiles against Iranian cities.

(2) In February 1988, Iraq forcibly relocated Kurdish civilians from their home villages in the Anfal campaign, killing an estimated 50,000 to 180,000 Kurds.

(3) On March 16, 1988, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iraqi Kurdish civilian opponents in the town of Halabja, killing an estimated 5,000 Kurds and causing numerous birth defects that affect the town today.

(4) On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded and began a 7 month occupation of Kuwait, killing and committing numerous abuses against Kuwaiti civilians, and setting Kuwait's oil wells ablaze upon retreat.

(5) Hostilities in Operation Desert Storm ended on February 28, 1991, and Iraq subsequently accepted the ceasefire conditions specified in United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 (April 3, 1991) requiring Iraq, among other things, to disclose fully and permit the dismantlement of its weapons of mass destruction programs and submit to long-term monitoring and verification of such dismantlement.

(6) In April 1993, Iraq orchestrated a failed plot to assassinate former President George Bush during his April 14-16, 1993, visit to Kuwait.

(7) In October 1994, Iraq moved 80,000 troops to areas near the border with Kuwait, posing an imminent threat of a renewed invasion of or attack against Kuwait.

( On August 31, 1996, Iraq suppressed many of its opponents by helping one Kurdish faction capture Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish regional government.

(9) Since March 1996, Iraq has systematically sought to deny weapons inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) access to key facilities and documents, has on several occasions endangered the safe operation of UNSCOM helicopters transporting UNSCOM personnel in Iraq, and has persisted in a pattern of deception and concealment regarding the history of its weapons of mass destruction programs.

(10) On August 5, 1998, Iraq ceased all cooperation with UNSCOM, and subsequently threatened to end long-term monitoring activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency and UNSCOM.

(11) On August 14, 1998, President Clinton signed Public Law 105-235, which declared that `the Government of Iraq is in material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations' and urged the President `to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations.'.

(12) On May 1, 1998, President Clinton signed Public Law 105-174, which made $5,000,000 available for assistance to the Iraqi democratic opposition for such activities as organization, training, communication and dissemination of information, developing and implementing agreements among opposition groups, compiling information to support the indictment of Iraqi officials for war crimes, and for related purposes.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS REGARDING UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD IRAQ.

It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.

SEC. 4. ASSISTANCE TO SUPPORT A TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN IRAQ.

(a) AUTHORITY TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE- The President may provide to the Iraqi democratic opposition organizations designated in accordance with section 5 the following assistance:

(1) BROADCASTING ASSISTANCE- (A) Grant assistance to such organizations for radio and television broadcasting by such organizations to Iraq.

(B) There is authorized to be appropriated to the United States Information Agency $2,000,000 for fiscal year 1999 to carry out this paragraph.

(2) MILITARY ASSISTANCE- (A) The President is authorized to direct the drawdown of defense articles from the stocks of the Department of Defense, defense services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training for such organizations.

(B) The aggregate value (as defined in section 644(m) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961) of assistance provided under this paragraph may not exceed $97,000,000.

(b) HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE- The Congress urges the President to use existing authorities under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide humanitarian assistance to individuals living in areas of Iraq controlled by organizations designated in accordance with section 5, with emphasis on addressing the needs of individuals who have fled to such areas from areas under the control of the Saddam Hussein regime.

(c) RESTRICTION ON ASSISTANCE- No assistance under this section shall be provided to any group within an organization designated in accordance with section 5 which group is, at the time the assistance is to be provided, engaged in military cooperation with the Saddam Hussein regime.

(d) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENT- The President shall notify the congressional committees specified in section 634A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 at least 15 days in advance of each obligation of assistance under this section in accordance with the procedures applicable to reprogramming notifications under section 634A.

(b) DESIGNATION OF ADDITIONAL ORGANIZATIONS- At any time subsequent to the initial designation pursuant to subsection (a), the President may designate one or more additional Iraqi democratic opposition organizations that the President determines satisfy the criteria set forth in subsection (c) as eligible to receive assistance under section 4.

(c) CRITERIA FOR DESIGNATION- In designating an organization pursuant to this section, the President shall consider only organizations that--

(1) include a broad spectrum of Iraqi individuals, groups, or both, opposed to the Saddam Hussein regime; and

(2) are committed to democratic values, to respect for human rights, to peaceful relations with Iraq's neighbors, to maintaining Iraq's territorial integrity, and to fostering cooperation among democratic opponents of the Saddam Hussein regime.

(d) NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENT- At least 15 days in advance of designating an Iraqi democratic opposition organization pursuant to this section, the President shall notify the congressional committees specified in section 634A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 of his proposed designation in accordance with the procedures applicable to reprogramming notifications under section 634A.

SEC. 6. WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL FOR IRAQ.

Consistent with section 301 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993 (Public Law 102-138), House Concurrent Resolution 137, 105th Congress (approved by the House of Representatives on November 13, 1997), and Senate Concurrent Resolution 78, 105th Congress (approved by the Senate on March 13, 1998), the Congress urges the President to call upon the United Nations to establish an international criminal tribunal for the purpose of indicting, prosecuting, and imprisoning Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi officials who are responsible for crimes against humanity, genocide, and other criminal violations of international law.

SEC. 7. ASSISTANCE FOR IRAQ UPON REPLACEMENT OF SADDAM HUSSEIN REGIME.

It is the sense of the Congress that once the Saddam Hussein regime is removed from power in Iraq, the United States should support Iraq's transition to democracy by providing immediate and substantial humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, by providing democracy transition assistance to Iraqi parties and movements with democratic goals, and by convening Iraq's foreign creditors to develop a multilateral response to Iraq's foreign debt incurred by Saddam Hussein's regime.
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It goes on ... How many times do people have to show you hard evidence that warrants taking out Saddam? Nothing matters, only that you hate Bush.....

Yawn. Got anything else?

Proves my point. You don't care about the policies of our country. I suppose you would prefer we go around making accusations and never do anything about it. This is not a time to be passive.

Your willingness to dismiss anything prior to 9-11 shows how little sympathy you have for the families of loved one lost in terrorist attacks since the beginning. Yeah, I got more. Dead embassy workers, diplomats private citizens and our military. Too bad you have so little respect. Iraq was deemed a threat by Democtrats and now they are upset that we actually did it. Hypocrats should be the new name, Dems are the biggest hypocrites on the planet, I was one! It is disgusting how they are making the war in Iraq a political issue. Here's more reasons. If you have anything disproving any of the things I post, I'd love to see it. Otherwise you have no argument. You can yawn and whine all you want about Bush, but you can't disprove anything. Time to milk the cow....

Anyone who still refers to Saddam as "secular" hasnt done his homework. The man converted to Islam on the battlefield in 1991, he even added "God is great" to the national flag, he then set about founding and funding mosques, began sending checks to Palestinian "martyrs" and otherwise acting like a "good muslim". Sure, could all be a ruse, but you simply have to stop calling him "secular".

A wealth of evidence on the public record ?- from government reports and congressional testimony to news accounts from major newspapers ?- attests to longstanding ties between bin Laden and Saddam.

* Abdul Rahman Yasin, a member of the al Qaeda cell that detonated the 1993 World Trade Center bomb, fled to Iraq. U.S. forces recently discovered a cache of documents in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, that show that Iraq gave Yasin both a home and a salary.

* Bin Laden met eight times with officers of Iraq's Special Security Organization, a secret police agency run by Saddam's son Qusay, and with Saddam's external intelligence service, according to intelligence made public by Secretary of State Colin Powell, at the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 6, 2003.

* Bin Laden met the director of the Iraqi mukhabarat in 1996 in Khartoum, according to Powell.

* An al Qaeda operative now held by the U.S. confessed that in the mid '90s, bin Laden had forged an agreement with Saddam's men to cease all terrorist activities against the Iraqi dictator.

* In October 2000, another Iraqi intelligence operative, Salah Suleiman, was arrested by Pakistani authorities. Suleiman was shuttling between Iraqi intelligence and Ayman al Zawahiri, al Qaeda's No. 2.

* Spanish investigators have uncovered documents seized from Yusuf Galan ?- who is charged by a Spanish court with being "directly involved with the preparation and planning" of the Sept. 11 attacks ?- that show the terrorist was invited to a party at the Iraqi embassy in Madrid. The invitation used his "al Qaeda nom de guerre."

* An Iraqi defector to Turkey, known by his cover name as "Abu Mohammed," told the Sunday Times of London that he saw bin Laden's fighters in Iraq in 1997. At the time, Mohammed was a colonel in Saddam's Fedayeen. He described an encounter at Salman Pak, the training facility southeast of Baghdad, where militants trained to hijack planes with knives ?- on a full-size Boeing 707.

* In 1998, Abbas al-Janabi, a longtime aide to Saddam's son Uday, defected to the West. At the time, he repeatedly told reporters that there was a direct connection between Iraq and al Qaeda.

* The Sunday Times found a Saddam loyalist in a Kurdish prison who claims to have been Dr. Zawahiri's bodyguard during his 1992 visit with Saddam in Baghdad. Dr. Zawahiri was a close associate of bin Laden at the time.

* Following the defeat of the Taliban, almost two dozen bin Laden associates "converged on Baghdad and established a base of operations there," Powell told the United Nations in February 2003. From their Baghdad base, the secretary said, they supervised the movement of men, materiel and money for al Qaeda's global network.

* Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi oversaw an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Wounded, he sought medical treatment in Baghdad in May 2002. When he recovered, he restarted a training camp in northern Iraq. Zarqawi's Iraq cell was later tied to the October 2002 murder of Lawrence Foley, a U.S. Agency for International Development official. The captured assassin confessed that he received orders and funds from Zarqawi's cell in Iraq.

* Documents found among the debris of the Iraqi Intelligence Center show that Baghdad funded the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan terror group led by an Islamist cleric linked to bin Laden. According to a London's Daily Telegraph, the organization offered to recruit "youth to train for the jihad" at a "headquarters for international holy warrior network" in Baghdad.

* CIA Director George Tenet told the Senate Intelligence Committee: "Iraq has in the past provided training in document-forgery and bomb-making to al Qaeda. It also provided training in poisons and gasses to two al Qaeda associates; one of these [al Qaeda] associates characterized the relationship as successful. . . . This information is based on a solid foundation of intelligence. It comes to us from credible and reliable sources. Much of it is corroborated by multiple sources."

Just remember your audience Xena. Most lefties don't CARE what evidence you have, how you present it, or how strong it is. All they want is Bush out. That's it. If you are not working towards that goal, then you will be ignored, belittled, and scorned.

I know. There's too many people out there who would like to ignore history. I know I won't change these trolls minds. There are some out there that browse these forums and don't post. If I can make 1 person understand why we are at the place we are in now with documents and posts, that's a victory. For every 1 troll, there are the undecided out there lurking who may have never seen the Iraq Liberation Act. Maybe if they see these things, they will wake up to actually take a look at the facts instead of the "talking points" of the anti-Bush crowd.

I try to post as many credible articles and documents I can.....

Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I find your hysterical ranting.... hysterical.

To accuse us of not having sympathy for the dead, just because we don't agree with the policies that are in place now, is ridiculous and low. If you're not here to debate, but rather to chide us for not being good goose-stepping americans, then keep it to yourself.

Good day sir.

Cycloptichorn

There really aren't that many trolls here. Most of the user base here is actually quite intelligent and resourceful. Simply blinded by partisan rhetoric on either side.

When that partisan rhetoric overcomes the ability to hold a civil debate, we are sliding into the realm of trolldom.

Cycloptichorn

Ignorance is bliss! We are in a worldwide war on terror and Iraq was just one rung on the ladder! You can not respect the innocent dead if you are willing to dismiss the past. To igore Saddam would have been irresponsible. To disagree with the war in Iraq does our country no good. It stems from you thinking that Bush was wrong. It was never so right. You do a disservice to our country by perpetuating the idea is was unjust. It aids the enemy to be going against our govt for doing something that it had to do. Terrorism is the foremost issue in our time. You can hate Bush, but to call the war in Iraq an unjust war is dead wrong.

Yep.

Care to explain, precisely, how invading Iraq constitutes any part of the "war on terror," which the Shrub claims as his number one priority, while Afghanistan goes abegging, and we make cozy in bed with Pakistan's military dictator--Pakistan, the nation in which AQ and Taliban fighters shelter and train? Some war on terror.

Since you called me and others on another thread 'Jew hater', the above is rather honourable.

Wasn't gonna say nothin but a spade's a spade.

Well, Walt, someone has to defend the Jews, and I do not see a long line to get in...

So you stand on the insult that I'm one of the Jew haters here?

Ah yes, the stench of hypocricy . . . from McG, no less, the Christian Soldier, dedicating his life to the defense of Jews. What a disgusting performance.