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The NFL Network also had an item on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice potentially joining the 49ers as team president. Reporter Adam Schefter said he had spoken to a 49ers official who said that was a possibility. Rice went to Stanford, she is friendly with former 49ers receiver and current league director of football operations Gene Washington and she's expressed interest in joining the league in some capacity. But how would she be welcomed in San Francisco? Her politics don't exactly scream "Bay Area." The prospect of Rice joining the 49ers got a chilly reception from show co-hosts Marshall Faulk and Warren Sapp, and I imagine it would get a similar response from most 49ers fans.
Heh. Looks like the Law of Unintended Consequences up and bit somebody on the ass. Thanks, Putie!Russia vows missile defence deal response
Russia has accused America of starting a new arms race by locating part of its missile defence shield in Poland and warned that its response would go beyond diplomatic measures.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who yesterday signed a deal with Warsaw to install a silo of 10 interceptor missiles on Poland’s Baltic Coast, just over 100 miles from Russian territory, described Russian paranoia as “bizarre”.
The deal, signed at a ceremony in Warsaw with Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski, would allow for a deployment by 2012.
Russia has already promised to target the new installation, warning Poland that agreeing to the deal exposed it “100 per cent” to Russian military strikes, possibly with nuclear missiles.
Last night the Russian foreign ministry said its response to the shield “would go beyond diplomacy” and said the deal was creating a new arms race in the European “continent and beyond its borders.”
After signing the deal however, Miss Rice said such Russian threats “border on the bizarre” and promised that the US would “guarantee” Poland’s territory.
She added that the current diplomatic frostiness between Washington and Moscow did not compare with the decades long ideological standoff of the 20th century.
“I don’t think this is a new Cold War,” she said. “It is a difficult time but I think we shouldn’t overstate the depth of the difficulties.”
Moscow has accused America of using the shield to build a ring of steel around Russia and undermine its strategic nuclear deterrent, but Miss Rice insisted that was not the case.
“This is a system that is defensive and is not aimed at anyone,” she said.
“This is an agreement that will establish a missile defence site that will help us to deal with the new threats of the 21st century of a long-range missile threats from countries like Iran or from North Korea.”
Russian suspicions of a new western-led arms race were exacerbated by the timing of the deal, which was struck last week as Russian forces entered Georgian territory in the Caucasus.
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said it was nothing but “fairy tales” to suggest the shield was only directed against “rogue states”.
Mr Sikorski has insisted that the timing of the deal was “pure coincidence” and said Russia would be invited to inspect the base to ensure that Moscow was not its target.
Despite such assurances, however, the war in the Caucasus has had a dramatic effect on public opinion in Poland, previously sceptical about the benefits of hosting the shield.
Latest surveys reveal that a majority of Poles now back the agreement, which is likely to be ratified by a comprehensive majority in the country’s parliament.
Some 58 percent of people are now in favour of the missile shield, almost twice the number who supported the deal six months ago.
That was when negotiations between the US and Poland over the missile silo appeared stalled, following 12 months of discussions.Heh. And it's all thanks to Putin's paranoia and constant blathering about aiming his nukes at his neighbors.
A new Polish government elected last year appeared determined to strike to toughest deal possible in return for Polish cooperation with Washington.
Above all, new centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk wanted American Patriot missile batteries, capable of destroying incoming short-range warheads, on Polish territory.
Under the terms of the deal signed yesterday, a US patriot battery will be relocated to Poland by 2009.
“The presence of the Patriot battery which will defend our territory and the US installation is a practical dimension of this watershed agreement,” Mr Tusk said.
A $5000 dollar reward is being offered to any Auckland University student who can make a successful citizen's arrest of United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit to the country this weekend.May this worm Do ought to man up and try to apprehend the "war criminal" himself.
Auckland University Student Association (AUSA) president David Do said the arrest would be for her role in "overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation" of Iraq.
"It is hard enough living as a student in Auckland these days without having a war criminal coming to town, so we thought we'd give our students a chance to make a dent in their student loans and work for global justice at the same time."
Dr Rice will be in Auckland on July 26, where she will meet with Prime Minister Helen Clark, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Opposition leader John Key.
'Atallah Abu Al-Subh: Assalam Alaykum and Allah's mercy and blessings upon you. In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. May Allah give us the strength to confront all the satans, and first and foremost, Condoleezza Rice, who has come to the region for the sixth time since the conspiracy of Annapolis – the lie most dangerous to the Palestinian people in recent months.Tell us how your really feel.
[...]
With the arrival of that black scorpion with a cobra's head, Condoleezza, I began to worry that she would use her venomous fangs and hiss to kill this initiative and new spirit that we should protect.
[...]
The arrival of Condoleezza Rice is not a good sign. An even worse sign is the meeting between the Palestinian leadership and the Zionist entity, in the presence of that scorpion-cobra. Condoleezza Rice, you are not welcome.
[...]
Every proud Palestinian views you as a murderer, and sees the blood of the children of Palestine between your lips and on your fangs. I pray to Allah that you will soon slither away, along with your master who is more Zionist than the Zionists, that murderer and criminal, whose place in history is more advanced than that of Nero, Hulagu, Genghis Khan, Timor the Lame, Hitler, and Mussolini, and before them that of Nimrod – that criminal murderer, little Bush, who is striving to fan the flames in this region.
The first class of Palestinian security officers trained under a multimillion-dollar U.S. program to strengthen the Palestinian Authority is deploying to one of the West Bank's most restive cities without promised supplies of body armor, helmets or even flashlights after Israel blocked a shipment of equipment.The Israelis have it exactly right. We're essentially supplying and equipping these goons who will turn their weapons on them at the first opportunity.
The shortage in U.S.-funded supplies threatens the Palestinian government's ability to provide security in the West Bank, which Israel has made a condition of future withdrawals from the occupied territories. There have also been significant problems with the training, including a final round that one American involved in the program described as "a complete fiasco."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrives in the region this weekend, has said the training program is an essential part of the Bush administration's push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement before it leaves office in January [snicker -- ed.].
But Israel has traditionally viewed Palestinian security forces as potential adversaries, even though this training class is affiliated with the moderate Palestinian government that serves as the Jewish state's counterpart in peace talks. In this case, Israel failed to approve delivery of the requested supplies in time for the deployment, according to senior Palestinian officials.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice mocked anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as a coward on Sunday, hours after the radical leader threatened to declare war unless U.S. and Iraqi forces end a military crackdown on his followers.And she did it in his backyard. Ms. Rice is in Baghdad for some meetings with the Iraqi government and I want to know where this kind of talk has been all these years? The last time somebody in this administration talked with any kind of bravado was when President Bush proclaimed to the world to "Bring it on."
"I know he's sitting in Iran," Rice said dismissively, when asked about al-Sadr's latest threat to lift a self-imposed cease-fire with government and U.S. forces. "I guess it's all-out war for anybody but him," Rice said. "I guess that's the message; his followers can go too their deaths and he's in Iran.Mookie, the ball is in your court. Will he sit in Iran and order his followers to certain death? A death that can be more appropriately called sacrifice or suicide then it can martyrdom. How long will Iran allow him stay? If Iran kicks him out where will he go? Probably to Syria to huddle with other Middle Eastern cowards.
Someday she might figure out who the bogeyman is.Rice Slams US Envoy's NKorea Criticism
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday sharply rebuked a fellow member of the Bush administration who criticized international negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to scrap its nuclear weapons program.
Rice said that Jay Lefkowitz, President Bush's special envoy on North Korean human rights, "doesn't know what's going on in the six-party talks, and he certainly has no say on what American policy will be in the six-party talks."
Lefkowitz said Thursday that the North is not serious about disarming and probably still will have its nuclear weapons when the next U.S. president takes over in January 2009, despite four years of nuclear disarmament talks by the United States, the Koreas, Japan, China and Russia.
The Bush administration has been working to distance itself from the rare public criticism of administration policy by a government official. The comments come at a time when the nuclear talks have reached an impasse, and the North has missed a promised deadline and increased its hostile rhetoric.
Rice, speaking with reporters on her way to Germany for talks on Iran's nuclear program, said that she knows where Bush stands on North Korean policy, "and I know where I stand, and those are the people who speak for American policy."
Asked if she thought the Chinese and Russians would be confused by Lefkowitz's comments, Rice said she doubted they would even recognize the special envoy's name.
[...]
Sure looks like GazaTHE Hamas rulers of Gaza have implored the US to bring an end to the crippling boycott of the Gaza Strip, which they have likened to the World War II siege of Warsaw's Jewish Ghetto.Really? To say that strains credulity would be the understatement of the decade.
In the militant group's first public appeal to the US since it won democratic elections in the Palestinian Territories in January last year Hamas said yesterday it did not have "any ideological arguments with the West".
Hamas spokesman, Ahmed Yousef, said the group had tried unsuccessfully many times to directly contact US and European Union officials. Israeli Government sources also claim that deposed Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya attempted to contact officials in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office in the weeks following his poll win.Now it gets really amusing.
However, in an open letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice released yesterday, Hamas made public its bid for dialogue, underscoring the increasingly desperate predicament of the leadership and of Gaza's 1.4 million residents.
After its emphatic electoral win, Hamas embarked on a law-and-order program, vowing to end corruption and turn the attention of the administration towards domestic affairs. But the US, the UN, the EU and Russia then launched a boycott of the new government that has intensified ever since.A law-and-order program?
In the letter to Dr Rice, Mr Yousef said: "It is hard to get across the appalling level of (hardship) that the Palestinian people, and in particular the 1.3 million Palestinians who live in Gaza, currently suffer from.
"Our isolation is complete, confining us in a ghetto (worse than the Jewish ghettos of Warsaw) where our sewage, power and water systems have been destroyed, all normal supplies constrained and even humanitarian aid withheld. Many people have not been paid for nearly two years, over 75 per cent are unemployed and now the Israelis are threatening to cut off fuel and power and invade us once again.Whose fault is this? Sure as hell isn't Israel's. Sure isn't the United States.
"You cannot preach about exporting democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and ignore the democratic process in Palestine," the letter continues.
"On a personal note, we found it amusing that a black person empathises with Israeli deaths on the one hand and Palestinian segregation on the other - if media reports are accurate. It is a military occupation, Dr Rice.
"Their citizens face insecurity and death because that is the situation they have created for themselves ... If you were even-handed in this conflict, if you engaged with us openly, then the chances of peace would dramatically increase.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year.OK, you want to avoid repeating mistakes, so you get advice from the clowns who made them?
Rice invited Carter, a vocal critic of Bush administration policies, to the State Department on Wednesday where the two discussed his Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts in the 1970s, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday.The mind boggles.
Their talks were "good and cordial," he said. They focused on the Middle East and not Carter's recent criticism of President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere.
A Soviet specialist, Rice also telephoned another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who tried, and ultimately failed, in his eight years in office to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together.
Rice has made clear she will devote all her energy in the Bush administration's final 14 months to get what others have failed to attain in the past -- a viable, independent Palestinian state living side by side with a secure Israel.Give it up now. Only one side is interested in peace here, and it isn't the Palestinians.
I'm surprised Olmert (apparently) hasn't pledged Israeli money to pay for it yet.Prime Minister Ehud K. Olmert has approved the construction of a new Arab town 20 kilometers south of Shchem (Nablus) and 35 kilometers north of Ramallah along Highway 505, the main east-west highway through Samaria. The town is to be located in 'Area B,' which is under Israeli security control and will house 30-40,000 hostile 'Palestinians' in its first phase and 70,000 within ten years. Olmert did not bring the plan to the cabinet for approval before committing to Secretary of State Rice last night that the town would be built. DEBKA is calling the plan a 'major strategic restructure' of Samaria:DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources report that the new town site will encompass the Palestinian villages of Qabalan, Oseria and Qudela and straddle Trans-Samaria Highway 505 opposite Tapuach junction. The US planners intend the new town to provide territorial contiguity between Nablus and Ramallah. At the same time, it will cut off Israeli villages in the Jordan Valley from the settlement blocs in Samaria.
The new Palestinian urban entity, which our sources reveal Olmert first learned about in his talks with President Bush on June 19, will be the first Arab town to go up in the region in 1,500 years, since the foundation of Ramleh. [I actually find that 1500 figure hard to believe. CiJ]
During his White House visit, Olmert learned that the Americans regard the Palestinian town as a primary project for consolidating Mahmoud Abbas’ government. It is designed to provide tens of thousands of jobs for West Bankers, whose unemployment rate has soared to 70 percent since the Palestinian uprising was launched against Israel in 2000.
American town planners and architects hired by the US government have prepared initial diagrams after secret visits to the site. During her current tour, Rice showed the plans to the Israeli prime minister, Abbas and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad.
The problem still outstanding is financing. It was hoped that the Saudis would put up part of the initial investment for the foundations. When he brokered the Mecca accord for a Palestinian unity government earlier this year, the monarch pledged $250 million in aid to the Palestinians. However, this hope was dashed, when King Abdullah flatly refused to hear of aid to the Abbas regime in his talks with the US secretary in Jeddah Tuesday.
Private Palestinian hands. Kind of like the private treasury that Yasser Arafart established?Israel Negotiates With Hamas in Tel Aviv
(IsraelNN.com) Sources described as "reliable" have been quoted by the Palestinian Authority news agency Quds Press saying a Hamas official made a secret trip to Tel Aviv last week to discuss the border crossings into Gaza. The reports say that just over a week ago, Abd al-Salah, who oversees economic affairs in the office of Hamas Authority prime minister Ismail Haniyeh, came secretly to Tel Aviv to meet with economic officials.
Al-Salah arrived with a proposal to transfer control of the Gaza crossings to private Palestinian Authority hands, under European supervision. He also raised the issue of the economic dependence of Gaza upon Israel.
The sources emphasized that the meeting was approved by both Israel and Hamas. Israel has said that it would not negotiate with or recognize Hamas, which calls for the destruction of all of Israel and its total replacement by an Arab state. Hamas, on the other hand, never ruled out talks with Israel on day-to-day issues in order to promote Hamas interests.Such as continued perpetual victimhood, an unlimited supply of arms and armaments from Iran, via Syria; and maybe a seat at the UN for good measure?
In other Hamas news, Russia and Hamas appear to disagree regarding their diplomatic relations. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister said on Tuesday that his country would reduce the level of its contacts with Hamas. On Wednesday, however, a Hamas parliament member said that exiled Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal, and other Hamas officials, have been invited to Moscow for an official visit.Having lost the respect of New Europe,
Meanwhile, visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is about to begin her meetings with Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials. Following her meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh with Gulf state leaders, she said that Hamas must get used to the idea of "two states," i.e., a PA state alongside Israel.And that was said from which side of her mouth?
It was originally reported that Secretary Rice feels such a PA state can be formed even before Fatah and Hamas reunite. However, what she in fact said was, "We hope that at some point in time, when the two-state solution arrives, it will be a uniting force for all the Palestinians who want a state, and it will be a point of time at which people will have to choose if they are out of that consensus."And what choice have they already made in Gaza, dear?
Pssst, Olmert! New cooperation is going to give you the same results as the old cooperation did.Olmert to Rice: "Keep Hamas out of the game"
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday that Hamas Islamists had to be "kept out of the game" while Israel explores new cooperation with the Palestinians.
At their first meeting since Hamas seized control in Gaza, Olmert discussed with Rice the possibility of handing over some security control in the occupied West Bank to President Mahmoud Abbas's forces and said this could only happen "after proper security guarantees" were given, an Israeli spokesman said.Just like the guarantees given in exchange for the various Land For
NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon -- Heavily armed foreign jihadists have been entering Lebanon from Syria from around the time Western authorities noticed a drop in the infiltration of foreign fighters from Syria to Iraq, Lebanese officials say.Not surprising that they've stopped coming into Iraq, as they are now opening a new front. Is anyone doing anything to stop the flow?
Syrian authorities, hoping to disrupt Lebanon so they can reassert control of the country, "have stopped sending [the jihadists] to Iraq and are now sending them here," charged Mohammed Salam, a specialist in Palestinian affairs in Lebanon. "They sent those people to die in Lebanon."
Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, commander of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, said about half of the militants who have been battling Lebanese forces in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp outside Tripoli for nine days had fought previously in Iraq.
"They are very dangerous," he said in an interview. "We have no choice, we have to combat them."
Officials traveling with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said before Miss Rice's meeting with her Syrian counterpart in Egypt early this month that Syria appeared to be taking "positive" steps to guard its border with Iraq, resulting in a reduced number of jihadists crossing the border.Read the rest.
But U.N. officials running the Nahr el-Bared camp told The Washington Times that a large band of foreigners carrying mortars, rockets, explosive belts and other heavy weapons entered the camp in a group several months ago.
That is near the time that infiltration of militants from Syria into Iraq fell off, according to Lebanese authorities, who suspect the jihadists were simply redirected by Damascus.
McLEAN, Va. - XM Satellite Radio suspended shock jocks Opie and Anthony for 30 days Tuesday, one week after they aired crude sex comments about Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth II and one day after they made light of the incident in their broadcast.More at Weasel Zippers.
"Comments made by Opie and Anthony on yesterday's broadcast put into question whether they appreciate the seriousness of the matter," Washington-based XM said in a statement. "The management of XM Radio decided to suspend Opie and Anthony to make clear that our on-air talent must take seriously the responsibility that creative freedom requires of them."
Opie and Anthony, who last week apologized for the sex comments, struck a more defensive tone on Monday's broadcast. They lamented the state of radio and what they perceived as excessive reactions to comments made by themselves and other radio disc jockeys.
"We're under the same scrutiny as (National Public Radio) _ it doesn't make sense," they said on Monday's show.
WASHINGTON — XM Satellite Radio shock jocks Opie and Anthony apologized Friday for airing a homeless man's crude comments that he'd like to have sex with Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush and Queen Elizabeth.Al Sharpton was unavailable for comment.
The remarks were made on their show Wednesday by a guest the duo call Homeless Charlie. As the name of each woman came up, the guest said he would like to have sex with her -- using language not fit for print.
Opie and Anthony laughed as they imagined Rice's "horror" while describing a violent sexual encounter in which Rice is punched in the face.
Washington-based XM condemned the remarks.
"We deplore the comments made on Wednesday's 'Opie & Anthony Show,"' XM spokesman Nathaniel Brown told The Associated Press on Friday. He would not say whether XM planned to take disciplinary action.
Opie and Anthony, whose full names are Anthony Cumia and Greg "Opie" Hughes, apologized to listeners on Friday's show.
"We apologize to the public officials for comments that we made on our XM show on May 9th. We take very seriously the responsibility that comes with our creative freedom and regret any offense that this segment has caused," they said.
WARNING: The Link To The Audio Is VERY Graphic...Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expects to have a "substantive" meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem today or tomorrow, reversing a more than two-year-old policy not to talk with Damascus at a high level, U.S. officials said yesterday.
The officials, traveling with Miss Rice to this Egyptian Red Sea resort for an international conference on Iraq, also offered unusual praise for the Syrians for taking "positive" steps to guard their border with Iraq. The border has been a popular route for foreign fighters seeking to enter Iraq.
Miss Rice also may meet with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, diplomats here said. The secretary said she is willing to participate in such a meeting, but Tehran had not decided.
"There is a good possibility for a substantive discussion on Iraq" when Miss Rice meets with Mr. Muallem on the sidelines of the Sharm el Sheik forum, a senior State Department official said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday declared the United States had lost the war in Iraq, a conclusion he said he communicated to President Bush at a meeting Wednesday.The New York Post calls it Harry Reid's White Flag in a withering editorial, while his cohort in cowardice, the Damascus Diva, gets worked over in the Washington Times.
"This war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday," Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, said at a Capitol Hill press conference with anti-war state legislators.
Mr. Reid said that both Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates agree with his position, though neither has ever declared defeat.
"You have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows," said Mr. Reid, who left the press conference without fielding follow-up questions.
