NP? worth reading

[Doug Millison]

"The neoconservatives around George Bush are crazy.
They actually believe the United States can run about
the world, overthrowing governments by force and
establishing democracies in their place.

This group of maniacs not only wants war with Iraq,
but after that, war with Syria, Iran and North Korea.
Any government that doesn't meet their standards of a
modern, Western-style democracy is a target for
America's military might in their warped minds.

This is a prescription for the decline and fall of the
American Empire. Overextension — urged on by a bunch
of rabid intellectuals who wouldn't know one end of a
gun from another — has doomed many an empire. Just let
the United States try to occupy the Middle East, which
will be the practical result of a war against Iraq,
and Americans will be bled dry by the costs both in
blood and treasure. 

This crowd has the gall to sneer at people trying to
keep the United States out of war as being
"appeasers," if not traitors. They act as if it were
brave for a fat, pale-skinned journalist or
commentator to advocate war that will be fought by
other people's sons and daughters. It is the worst
kind of moral cowardice to be for war if you yourself
are not going to participate in the fighting. [...] 

continues at:
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20020927/index.php


Ashcroft’s Baghdad Connection
Why the attorney general and others in Washington have
backed a terror group with ties to Iraq

By Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE
  	  	Sept. 26 —  When the White House released its
Sept. 12 “white paper” detailing Saddam Hussein’s
“support for international terrorism,” it caused more
than a little discomfort in some quarters of
Washington.	  
  	
  			THE 27-PAGE DOCUMENT—entitled “A Decade of
Deception and Defiance”—made no mention of any Iraqi
ties to Osama bin Laden. But it did highlight Saddam’s
backing of the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO),
an obscure Iranian dissident group that has gathered
surprising support among members of Congress in past
years. One of those supporters, the documents show, is
a top commander in President Bush’s war on terrorism:
Attorney General John Ashcroft, who became involved
with the MKO while a Republican senator from Missouri.
        The case of Ashcroft and the MKO shows just
how murky fighting terrorism can sometimes get. State
Department officials first designated the MKO a
“foreign terrorist organization” in 1997, accusing the
Baghdad-based group of a long series of bombings,
guerilla cross-border raids and targeted
assassinations of Iranian leaders. Officials say the
MKO—which originally fought to overthrow the Shah of
Iran—was linked to the murder of several U.S. military
officers and civilians in Iran in the 1970s. “They
have an extremely bloody history,” says one U.S.
counterterrorism official.

        But the MKO, which commands an army of 30,000
from bases inside Iraq, has tried to soften its image
in recent years—in part with strong backing from
politically active Iranian-Americans in the United
States. The MKO operates in Washington out of a small
office in the National Press Building under the name
the National Council of Resistance of Iran. According
to the State Department, the National Council of
Resistance is a “front” for the MKO; in 1999, the
National Council itself was placed on the State
Department terrorist list. But National Council
officials adamantly deny their group has earned the
terror label and have aggressively portrayed itself to
Washington lawmakers as a “democratic” alternative to
a repressive Iranian regime that itself is one of the
world’s leading sponsors of terrorism. “You’re talking
about a really popular movement,” says Alireza
Jafarzadeh, the National Council’s chief Washington
spokesman, who insists that the MKO “targets only
military targets.” 
        Only two years ago, these arguments won
sympathy from Ashcroft—and more than 200 other members
of Congress. When the National Council of Resistance
staged a September 2000 rally outside the United
Nations to protest a speech by Iranian President
Mohammed Khatami, Missouri’s two Republican
senators—Ashcroft and Chris Bond—issued a joint
statement of solidarity that was read aloud to a
cheering crowd. A delegation of about 500 Iranians
from Missouri attended the event—and a picture of a
smiling Ashcroft was later included in a color
briefing book used by MKO officials to promote their
cause on Capitol Hill. Ashcroft was hardly alone.
Among those who actually appeared at the rally and
spoke on the group’s behalf was one of its leading
congressional supporters: Democratic New Jersey Sen.
Bob Torricelli.  [...[

continues at:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/813579.asp

he United States should maintain its military
superiority in the world and keep other nations from
challenging it because it is "a very special country,"
a top White House official said late Wednesday.

"The United States is a very special country in that
when we maintain this position of military strength
that we have now, we do it in support of a balance of
power that favors freedom," said national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice, appearing on PBS's "The
HewsHour with Jim Lehrer" program. [...]

continues at:
http://jang.com.pk/thenews/sep2002-daily/27-09-2002/world/w2.htm


Later, she insisted that her Porsche was in the shop
and the check is in the mail.







=====
<http://www.dougday.blogspot.com/>
<http://www.online-journalist.com/index.html>

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