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RosettaStoned
Stranger


Registered: 05/29/06
Posts: 540
Loc: North America
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
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Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't
#7745699 - 12/11/07 04:09 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
by Rep. Ron Paul
The latest National Intelligence Estimate has been greeted by a mixture of relief and alarm. As I have been saying all along, Iran indeed poses no quantifiable imminent nuclear threat to us or her neighbors. It is with much alarm, however, that we see the administration continue to ratchet up the war rhetoric as if nothing has changed.
Indeed nothing has changed from the administration's perspective, as they have had this latest intelligence report for some time. Only this week has it been made known to the public. They want it both ways with Iran. On the one hand, they discredit the report entirely, despite it being one of the most comprehensive intelligence reports on the subject, with over 1,000 source notes in the document. On the other hand, when discrediting it fails, they claim that the timing of the abandonment of the weapons program, just as we were invading Iraq, means our pressure must have worked, so we must keep it up with a new round of even tougher sanctions. Russia and China are not buying this, apparently, and again we are finding ourselves on a lonely, tenuous platform on the world stage.
The truth is Iran is being asked to do the logically impossible feat of proving a negative. They are being presumed guilty until proven innocent because there is no evidence with which to indict them. There is still no evidence that Iran, a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has ever violated the treaty's terms – and the terms clearly state that Iran is allowed to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful civilian energy needs. The United States cannot unilaterally change the terms of the treaty, and it is unfair and unwise diplomatically to impose sanctions for no legitimate reason.
Are we to think that Iran hasn't noticed the duplicitous treatment being received by so-called nuclear threats around the globe? If they have been paying attention, and I think they have, they would see that if countries do have a nuclear weapon, they tend to be left alone, or possibly get a subsidy, but if they do not gain such a weapon then we threaten them. Why wouldn't they want to pursue a nuclear weapon if that is our current foreign policy? The fact remains, there is no evidence they actually have one, or could have one any time soon, even if they immediately resumed a weapons program.
Our badly misguided foreign policy has already driven this country's economy to the brink of bankruptcy with one war based on misinformation. It is unthinkable that despite the lack of any evidence of a threat, some are still charging headstrong into yet another war in the Middle East when what we ought to be doing is coming home from Iraq, coming home from Korea, coming home from Germany, and defending our own soil. We do not need to be interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and waging war when honest trade, friendship, and diplomacy are the true paths to peace and prosperity. http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=12033
-------------------- "Government big enough to provide you with all you need is also big enough to take everything you have." ~ Thomas Jefferson "Without stupid, faggy potheads we wouldn't have wars." - Zappa
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SlashOZ
:D



Registered: 10/20/06
Posts: 3,557
Loc: Following the water cycle
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Re: Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't [Re: RosettaStoned]
#7745778 - 12/11/07 04:32 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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ron paul is the man once again.
-------------------- "Life sucks but in this really beautiful way" - Axl Rose "Life's a bitch and then you die that's why we get high cuz you never know when you're gonna go." - NAS "When people don't know what you're about they put you down and shut you out" - Black Sabbath "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - Gandhi "Look up at me I am God, look down on me and I am evil, look at me I am you." - Charles Manson. "Don't question my reality." - Me (as far as I know)
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Minstrel
Man of Science


Registered: 03/15/05
Posts: 1,974
Loc: Hogtown
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Re: Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't [Re: RosettaStoned]
#7745789 - 12/11/07 04:34 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Man, I hope America goes to war with Iran. Then it'll only be a matter of time before the world says "Enough of this shit".
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BlimeyGrimey
Collector of Spores




Registered: 08/24/05
Posts: 3,788
Loc: Puget Sound
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Re: Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't [Re: SlashOZ]
#7746205 - 12/11/07 05:57 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I can't believe people still fall for this shit. Every politician says what "needs" to be said until they get into office.
How many times have we been lied to before? Doesn't anyone realize that they are all the same? Hasn't anyone thought that maybe some politicians will denounce the Bush administration simply to "be cool" as some would put it.
Why would the new candidates for presidency say things that they know the public doesn't like?
Politicians can only be trusted as far as you can throw them. The simple fact is you can't throw them at all because you'd never be allowed to get close enough to even touch them once they are in office.
This is just my opinion. Not trying to flame anyone or start any drama. Just throwing in my 2c.
-------------------- Message me for free microscopy services on Psilocybe, Panaeolus, and Gymnopilus species. Looking for wild Panaeolus cinctulus and Panaeolus olivaceus prints.
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Luddite
I watch Fox News


Registered: 03/23/06
Posts: 2,946
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Re: Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't [Re: BlimeyGrimey]
#7746757 - 12/11/07 08:01 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Al-Qaida claims bloody Algiers bombings
By HASSANE MEFTAHI and JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writers 44 minutes ago
ALGIERS, Algeria - Two truck bombs set off in quick succession sheared off the fronts of U.N. offices and a government building in Algeria's capital Tuesday, killing at least 26 people and wounding nearly 200 in an attack claimed by an affiliate of al-Qaida.
Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, in a posting on a militant Web site, called the U.N. offices "the headquarters of the international infidels' den." A U.N. official said at least 11 of its employees died.
The bombs exploded 10 minutes apart around 9:30 a.m., devastating the U.N. refugee agency and other U.N. offices along a street in the upscale Hydra neighborhood, as well as Algeria's Constitutional Council, which rules on the constitutionality of laws and oversees elections.
The blasts, which came on the month's 11th day, a number rich in symbolism both for Algerians and for al-Qaida, drew swift international condemnation.
"It was horror," said Mohammed Faci, 23, whose arm was broken by the blast as he rode a bus.
The targeting of U.N. offices was a new development in the 15-year war between Algeria's secular government and Islamic insurgents, who previously focused their hate on symbols of the military-backed administration and civilians.
Al-Qaida's self-styled North African branch's Web posting said two suicide bombers attacked the buildings with trucks carrying 1,760 pounds of explosives each. Images were provided of the two "martyrs," identified as Ibrahim Abu Uthman and Abdul Rahman Abu Abdul Nasser Al-Aassemi.
"This is another successful conquest ... carried out by the Knights of the Faith with their blood in defense of the wounded nation of Islam," said the statement, which claimed that more than 110 "Crusaders and apostates" were killed.
Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni said the Algerian government was "certain" that al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa — formerly known as the Salafist Group for Call and Combat — "was behind the attack."
Counterterrorism officials in Algeria's former colonial ruler, France, say the group is drawing members from across North Africa.
Although it is thought to have only several hundred fighters, the al-Qaida affiliate has resisted security sweeps to organize suicide bombings and other attacks as it shifts its focus from trying to topple the government to waging holy war and fighting Western interests.
Al-Qaida has been urging attacks on French and Spanish interests in North Africa. In September, Osama bin Laden's chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, called for jihad in North Africa to "cleanse (it) of the children of France and Spain."
Al-Qaida has struck on the 11th in several countries, including the Sept. 11, 2001, attack in the U.S. Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa claimed responsibility for attacks last April 11 that hit the Algerian prime minister's office and a police station, killing 33 people.
Dec. 11 itself has meaning for Algerians. On that date in 1960, pro-independence demonstrations were held against the French colonial rulers. The Constitutional Council is located on December 11, 1960 Boulevard.
Anne Giudicelli, a former French diplomat specializing in the Middle East who runs the Paris-based consulting firm Terrorisc, said Tuesday's attack bore the "clear signature" of al-Qaida-affiliated groups — in the choice of targets and use of near simultaneous bombings.
"They attacked ... neighborhoods where there is plenty of security, which is a way to show their strength in the war with security services," she said.
Louis Caprioli, a former assistant director of France's DST counterintelligence agency who now works for the risk-management company Geos, said the attack may have been a reaction to the arrest last month of Bouderbala Fateh, a leading figure in Algeria's al-Qaida branch. The raid found three bombs, 1,760 pounds of explosives and a rocket launcher in the group's hide-out.
Algeria's militants "feel a need to fight back after many arrests, after (militants) turned themselves in or were killed," he said. "They needed to react to show their operational capacity."
After Tuesday's bombings, one damaged U.N. building stood with its insides spilling into a street littered with the soot-covered remains of parked cars crunched by the blast. The Constitutional Council lost chunks of its white facade, exposing red brick underneath, and a neck-deep crater was gouged in the road outside.
The attacks killed 26 people, an Interior Ministry statement said Tuesday evening. It said the dead included two U.N. staffers — one Danish, the other Senegalese — as well as three people from Asia whose nationalities were not given. Another 177 people were injured, of which 26 were hospitalized, the ministry said.
Other sources said the toll was higher. An official at the civil protection agency who spoke on condition of anonymity said 45 people were killed. A doctor at a hospital who said he was in contact with staff at other hospitals put the death toll at a minimum of 60.
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, quoted by the APS news agency, called the higher figures inflated and said the government had no reason to hide the real death toll.
"There are still a number of people unaccounted for, a number of people trapped under the rubbble, and the latest death toll that we have is 11," U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
Marie Heuze, a spokeswoman for the world body in Geneva, said that if all the missing were dead, it would be the deadliest assault on the United Nations since the 2003 attack on U.N. offices in Iraq that killed top U.N. envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 others. That attack was staged by Islamic extremists who later affiliated with al-Qaida.
World leaders roundly condemned the attack. President Bush extended condolences for those killed in "this horrible bombing," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner condemned the attacks as "barbarity" and said that while Algeria had made great progress in fighting terrorism, "the sordid beast is not yet dead."
Algeria has been battling Islamic insurgents since the early 1990s, when the army canceled the second round of the country's first multiparty elections, stepping in to prevent a likely victory by an Islamic fundamentalist party.
Islamist armed groups then resorted to force in trying to overthrow the government, and up to 200,000 people have been killed in the ensuing violence.
___
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071212/ap_on_re_af/algeria_explosion
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RosettaStoned
Stranger


Registered: 05/29/06
Posts: 540
Loc: North America
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
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Re: Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't [Re: BlimeyGrimey]
#7746989 - 12/11/07 08:45 PM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Ron Paul isn't just another politician. Given the fact that the elite are going out of their way to silence him speaks volumes. Just read up on his voting record. If he were just another elite spewing crap to get elected someone would have dug up some dirt besides "he inserts pork into bills them votes no on them to look cool!" lol
When have you heard a politician speak of dissolving the federal reserve? He is attacking the heart of their power, if you value your country you should do a little research on Ron Paul. He is likely one of, if not the only last hope for this country to turn around before things get much worse.
-------------------- "Government big enough to provide you with all you need is also big enough to take everything you have." ~ Thomas Jefferson "Without stupid, faggy potheads we wouldn't have wars." - Zappa
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Aldous
enthusiast



Registered: 10/19/99
Posts: 977
Loc: inside my skull
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Re: Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't [Re: Luddite]
#7748021 - 12/12/07 04:22 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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Quote:
Luddite said: Al-Qaida claims bloody Algiers bombings
I fail to see the connection.
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 2 months, 20 days
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Re: Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't [Re: Aldous]
#7748046 - 12/12/07 04:51 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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> I fail to see the connection.
Terrorists are bad, thus we need to bomb Iran, with an exit strategy that takes us through Syria. (sarcasm for the impaired)
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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RosettaStoned
Stranger


Registered: 05/29/06
Posts: 540
Loc: North America
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
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Re: Bombed If You Do, Bombed If You Don't [Re: Aldous]
#7748145 - 12/12/07 06:38 AM (16 years, 1 month ago) |
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I've had Luddite on ignore for a very long time. You honestly don't get anymore nutcase than him.
-------------------- "Government big enough to provide you with all you need is also big enough to take everything you have." ~ Thomas Jefferson "Without stupid, faggy potheads we wouldn't have wars." - Zappa
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