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Archive for March, 2003

Monday, March 31st, 2003

THEY JUST DON’T GET IT…AND THEY NEVER WILL

From UPI ” Comments by Secretary of State Colin Powell to a Congressional panel Wednesday indicated that the Bush administration is unwilling to completely cede control of the post-war reconstruction effort to the United Nations. But Powell did say that the United Nations should play some role, especially in funding the rebuilding of Iraq.

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow at the liberal Institute for Policy Studies, said Powell’s testimony made it clear that the White House has no intention of sharing power with the United Nations except in an attempt to gain some international credibility for its military occupation of Iraq.

“The administration’s view is to use the United Nations as support cover, a political fig leaf to allow other governments to give money to the reconstruction effort and not have it look like America is going it alone,” said Bennis. “That is a serious problem.”

Bennis said the United Nations should be a central part of the effort to rebuild war-torn Iraq, but also indicated that she was worried that United Nations participation would ultimately legitimize the type of U.S. policies that lead to the invasion.

“There will have to be new government agencies and institutions, and I think the United Nations is well suited to helping Iraqis plan that out,” she said. “That can’t be imposed by U.S. tanks if it is going to have any legitimacy to it.”

Actually Ms. Bennis, it can. ” Legitimacy ” is vested in sovereign governments and the UN is not a world legislature however much the Social Democratic left has tried to stretch the UN charter during the last ten years. The UN does not grant legitimacy and often recognizes as ” legitimate ” powerless phantom governments of psuedo- nations that are hardly more than geographic expressions. The UN is a political forum, a handy umbrella for a variety of humanitarian agencies and a useful rubber stamp on the rare occasions a consensus exists among all the Security Council members. That and no more. Iraq will have a legitimate government when Saddam Hussein is dead and a democratically elected government replaces his clique of murdering thugs. If matters were left to the UN, Saddam would be torturing his people until the day he dies of old age.

Monday, March 31st, 2003

SOMEONE CALL HANS BLIX

UPI Wire reports “– U.S. Marines were reported by MSNBC to have stumbled upon a huge arms cache in western Iraq, so large it will take demolition crews a week to destroy it. “

Monday, March 31st, 2003

MILOSEVIC ACCUSED OF ASSASSINATION

Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister Accuses Milosevic of Ordering Ex-President’s Killing

By Jovana Gec Associated Press Writer

Published: Mar 30, 2003

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) – Serbia’s deputy prime minister linked Slobodan Milosevic and his wife to the slaying of a former Serbian president Sunday, days after police ordered her detained for questioning.

Ivan Stambolic – a political foe of the former Yugoslav leader – was killed months before Milosevic was ousted from power in October 2000. Milosevic is currently on trial at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands.

“It is logical to assume that the direct order (for the murder) came from the Milosevic family,” Zarko Korac told private BK television, two days after police discovered the remains of Stambolic.

No one has been charged with the crime.

Serbian authorities said Saturday that they have “credible suspicions” that Milosevic’s wife, Mirjana Markovic, was involved in the murder and threatened to issue an international arrest warrant unless she returns immediately from Russia to talk with investigators.

On Sunday, Milosevic’s daughter, Marija, told the Montenegrin daily, Publika, that her mother called from Russia, where she has been since February, and said “let them issue the warrant.”

Police say Stambolic was executed by five members of the Unit for Special Operations, who received the equivalent of about $50,000 from the unit’s commander, Milorad Lukovic – a Milosevic loyalist.

At the time, Stambolic, Serbia’s president from 1986 until 1987, was considering challenging Milosevic in presidential elections.

Lukovic is also wanted by police as a suspected organizer of the March 12 assassination of Serbia’s reformist prime minister, Zoran Djindjic – the investigation of which resulted in the discovery of Stambolic’s remains.

The prime minister’s assassination triggered a major crackdown on organized crime figures and Milosevic loyalists believed to be linked to Djindjic’s slaying. Thousands of crime figures, war veterans, former police chiefs and judges have been detained.

On Sunday, police said another key member of the so-called Zemun Clan of drug traffickers, Miladin Suvajdzic, had been arrested

Monday, March 31st, 2003

QUOTE OF THE DAY

” Few discoveries are more irritating than those that expose the pedigree of ideas “

~ Lord Acton

Sunday, March 30th, 2003

AS I PREDICTED the first horrors of Baathist Iraq are coming to light


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