Bad Kitty

Great Satan put the "OOOH" in shampoo and the 'Ho" in Hostess this week as she hosted some of the bravest girls in the world.

"International Women of Courage Awards " celebrated these nigh indestructable, living embodiments of what Uncle Tony so aptly appointed and annointed as the "Universal Values of the Human Spirit.

Mutabar Tadjibayeva of Uzbekistan - Imprisoned for criticizing her government's handling of events surrounding the 2005 violence in the city of Andijon, Mutabar Tadjibayeva refuses to be silenced. She has returned to human rights advocacy, and remains a fearless critic of human rights abuses.

Wazhma Frogh of Afghanistan - Afghanistan Country Director for the NGO Global Rights and a dynamic leader in the fight against domestic violence, marital and child rape, and sexual abuse in Afghanistan.

Norma Cruz of Guatemala - is on the forefront of women who are fighting on behalf of victims of violence and sexual abuse. As director of the NGO Survivors Foundation, Ms. Cruz combats the widespread impunity that too often accompanies the endemic violence against women in Guatemala.

Suaad Abbas Salman Allami of Iraq - A prominent lawyer, Suaad Allami fights against the erosion of women's rights and defends the most disadvantaged. She founded the NGO Women for Progress and the Sadr City Women's Center, which offers free medical care, literacy education, vocational training, and legislative advocacy. She has accepted a Humphrey Fellowship from the State Department for academic year 2009-2010.

Ambiga Sreenevasan of Malaysia - An accomplished lawyer who became President of the Malaysian Bar Council, Ambiga Sreenevasan masterfully uses the rule of law to advance human rights, the status of women, and religious tolerance. In the face of death threats and intimidation, Ms. Ambiga has emerged as a strong voice of tolerance and justice.

Hadizatou Mani of Niger - Sold to a "master" at the age of 12 for the equivalent of $500, Hadizatou Mani persevered in gaining her freedom and helped pave the way for others trapped in similar circumstances to seek justice. Through her valiant efforts, persistence, and refusal to succumb to social pressure to abandon her case, she won a historic, precedent-setting decision in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice that condemned her enslavement.

Reem al Numery of Yemen - When she was 12, Reem Al Numery had her childhood cut short when she was forced to marry her 30-year -old cousin. She has emerged as a strong and brave voice on behalf of other girls facing a similar fate. Her courage has inspired a widespread drive against child marriages in Yemen.

The American experience proves as girls advance status wise, so do families, communities, career work places - and the entire nation.

Tolerance and egalitarianism are the handmaidens of success - on every scale - personal, national and international, wealth, education, self worth.

With war against women, there will be no peace.

Deny us learning and literacy and we grant failure, intolerance, misery and rage to our own sons and daughters too.

Ignore us and neglect us. Keep your societies pitiful, needy, and backwards.

If we are not loved, we will not love back; and if we are not nurtured, we will neglect.

If we are not valued - we have no values to instill.

Girls who are treated with cruelty give birth to murderous intolerants and oppressors.

Destroy us - and you shall destroy yourself

Art - "Bad Kitty"

Collision Course

The recent near-violent confrontation on the South China Sea between the Chinese navy and a U.S. navy reconnaissance ship brought back memories of the 2001 showdown over the crash landing of an American recon plane on Hainan Island. History has a funny way of repeating itself.

The Chinese intention is pretty clear - it wants to test a new American president who is even more of a rookie at international affairs than George W. Bush was in April 2001. But more important, the Chinese really would want to know how its navy stacks up against the world's premier sea power.

China's adventure into the Horn of Africa region last year was but a thinly disguised attempt to flex its new naval muscles. A land power throughout its history, China in recent years has made a concerted effort to bolster its maritime capabilities. It needs a stronger navy to provide safe passage for its growing number of freight and merchant ships - the backbone of the world's second-largest exporter.

But there is another aim at work. China may not be spoiling for a fight with the U.S. Navy, but it wants to make sure it won't be totally overwhelmed if a confrontation becomes inevitable. Of course, much of this has to do with Taiwan - China knows if it must take the island by force, a thousand missiles and a hundred divisions of the PLA won't get the job done if they can't get across the Taiwan Strait.


And there's the matter of the South China Sea, which has long been considered a "lake" by the Chinese, who claims ownership of all of the potentially oil-rich (on par with Kuwait by one estimate) Spratly Islands. Hainan Island serves as the hub of China's budding submarine fleet, a force that has undergone rapid modernization and is quickly becoming the second-strongest in the world.

So when an American ship crept nearby, it became a golden opportunity for China to fire a shot across the bow of USS Barack Obama. The new president's reaction, or the absence of, will give China important clues it's looking for.

Submitted by Samuel Chi

Pic - "Peoples Liberation Navy holds eternal vigilance agaoinst Imperialist chicanery"

The Indo Sino Tibet War

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Lhasa uprising. Much of the associated commentary suggests that Tibet is, at most, an internal human rights issue in China, albeit one that impacts China's foreign relations with Western democracies who care about the plight of the Tibetan people. Indeed, the Dalai Lama's admission that Tibet is part of China, and that he seeks true autonomy rather than actual independence for his people, reaffirm this view.

There is also, however, an external dimension to the Tibetan crisis, one that implicates core national security interests of nuclear-armed great powers.

This is the role Tibet's dispensation plays in the conflict between China and India.

Indian strategist C. Raja Mohan puts it bluntly:

"When there is relative tranquility in Tibet, India and China have reasonably good relations. When Sino-Tibetan tensions rise, India's relationship with China heads south."

Although not widely recognized in the West, the nexus of Tibet and the unresolved border conflict between China and India ranks with the Taiwan Strait and Korean peninsula among Asia's leading flashpoints.

Contrary to Chinese propaganda, Tibet was not traditionally a part of China.

Over the centuries, relations between China and Tibet were characterized by varying degrees of association spanning the spectrum from sovereignty to suzerainty to independence. The People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet in the middle of the last century precisely because Tibetans did not consent to Beijing's rule.

For its part, prior to Indian independence, then-British India vigorously supported Tibetan autonomy and sponsored the Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim, and Ladakh to create an expansive geographic buffer between China and the subcontinent.

John Garver's excellent history of Sino-Indian rivalry contains useful maps depicting a rump China and an expansive Indian subcontinent separated by a vast, autonomous Tibet, demonstrating how far apart were India and China geographically until Chinese unification by the Communist Party several years after Indian independence gave them a common border.

That common border has since been a source of conflict. As is well known, India and China went to war over their territorial dispute in 1962, ending the era of what Indian Prime Minister Nehru called "Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai" ("Indians and Chinese are brothers").

What is less well known in the West is that China, while subsequently resolving 17 of its 18 outstanding land border disputes with neighboring countries, has kept the territorial conflict with India alive, at times appearing to inflame the issue as a source of leverage over New Delhi.

Over the past two years, Chinese officials have publicly asserted Chinese claims to the entire Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which some Chinese military advisors and strategists refer to as "Southern Tibet." Chinese forces have periodically engaged in small-scale cross-border encroachments, destroying Indian military bunkers and patrol bases in Ladakh and Sikkim.


At the same time, China has been systematically constructing road and rail networks across the Tibetan plateau in ways that tilt the balance of forces along the contested frontier in China's favor; India has responded with infrastructure projects of its own, including roads and air fields, to enable military reinforcement of its border regions, but has failed to keep pace with its northern neighbor.


China has also positioned large numbers of military and security forces on the Tibetan plateau, mainly with an eye on suppressing popular unrest. But the possibility of using them to "teach India a lesson" (as in 1962) remains.


Indian pundits note that public reminders from Beijing of China's decisive victory over India in the 1962 war have spiked over the past year, sending what Indians believe is a clear signal to New Delhi at a time of rising tensions. Combined with China's reported deployment in Tibet of nuclear missiles targeting India, officials in New Delhi feel increasingly alarmed in the face of Chinese provocation.

In striking statements little noted in the West, both Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and respected former National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra recently warned China against any attempt to seize Indian-held territory along their contested border.


Surging border tensions may be related to worries in Beijing over the Dalai Lama's succession. Some of the holiest sites in Tibetan Buddhism, including the sacred monastery at Tawang, are in Indian-held territory. The Dalai Lama, who has been in poor health, has said that he would not feel obligated to nominate a successor from, or be reborn in, Tibet proper, raising the possibility that the next Dalai Lama could be named outside China -- in the Tibetan cultural belt that stretches across northern India into Bhutan and Nepal.


Some Indian strategists fear that China may act to preempt, or respond to, an announcement of the Dalai Lama's chosen successor in India - particularly in Tawang -- by deploying the People's Liberation Army to occupy contested territory along the Sino-Indian border, as occurred in 1962, creating a risk of military conflict between the now nuclear-armed Asian giants.

Although China enjoys the dominant military position in the Tibetan plateau, India still has cards to play. It hosts the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile in Dharamsala, enabling Tibet's representatives to keep their cause alive in the court of world opinion.

And unlike Britain -- which last October withdrew its recognition of China's "suzerainty" (in favor of "sovereignty") over Tibet in a failed effort to placate Beijing, leading one scornful Singaporean commentator to note that China was "bringing Europe to its knees" -- India continues to recognize only Chinese suzerainty over Tibet, rather than full and consensual sovereignty.

This creates the possibility that New Delhi could play a "Tibet card" in its relations with Beijing in the same way that China accuses the United States of playing a "Taiwan card" to keep it off balance.

What do Sino-Indian border tensions linked to the Tibetan cause mean for the United States?

First, the U.S. has a compelling interest in preventing conflict between one of its largest trading partners and its newfound strategic partner.

Second, historic U.S. support for the cause of human rights in Tibet, in addition to Washington's growing military ties with New Delhi, mean that the United States would find it difficult to be a neutral arbiter in such a conflict.

Third, India's continuing political and moral support for the Tibetan government-in-exile demonstrates that it shares with America a set of ideals in foreign policy, creating the basis for greater values-based cooperation between Washington and New Delhi - a prospect that has not gone unnoticed in Beijing.

Fourth, given China's development of military capabilities designed to threaten U.S. access to the Western Pacific and Southeast Asian waterways, Chinese pressure on U.S. friends including the Philippines and Vietnam to back down on claims to contested islets in the South China Sea, and Chinese harassment of the U.S. Navy in Asian waters, Washington has an important interest in making perfectly clear to Beijing that the use of force to resolve contested territorial claims or limit freedom of the seas is unacceptable -- and could upend rather than facilitate China's peaceful rise.

Submitted by Daniel Twining, Senior Fellow for Asia at the German Marshall Fund of the United States

Pic - "My aim is true"

ISI Cleaning Crew

Since Land of the Pure's recent Swat Valley fete of Taliban, AQ cats and fanboys proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Pakistan - for whatever reasons - cannot seem to impose the essential writ of state in certain portions (like up to 25%!) of non sovereign turf it's time to face facts.

Carnegie Endowment for Internat'l Peace - one of Great Satan's premier think tanks has unleashed Dr Frédéric Grare's provocative recipe for cutting straight to it - Pakistan's shadowy ISI - the Inter Security Intell agency.

ISI has bloody bona fides in mayhem, instability, assassination and intolerant murderous chicaney. Also ISI is thought to be chock full of terrorist agents and overt sympathizers with Great Satan's blood sworn enemies.

"Reforming the Intelligence Agencies in Pakistan’s Transitional Democracy" shares all the gossip and naughty hottie details detailing such a move. Essenially - The "AfPak" theatre of unconventional war is about as stable as it's going to get unless certain creeps are not marginalized, woo'd over, or magically made to disappear.

While it may prove harder to clean up and out ISI than convincing girls not to text while driving, there prob isn't much choice left.

"Pakistan’s new and fragile government must reform the country’s intelligence agencies to counter their influence on civil society and politics. The army remains the dominant actor in Pakistan’s political life, despite some improvements in civil-military relations in recent years. (GsGf editorial note - despite losing every war - including all the ones they've started - which IS all of them)

Previous abuses of power by both Pakistani regimes and the intelligence agencies—particularly Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)—make reforms imperative before Pakistan can continue its democratic transition.

Through interviews with Pakistani officials and case studies in Indonesia and Chile, Grare argues that with patience, resolve, and assistance from the international community, Pakistan’s government can successfully reassert civilian control over the intelligence community. "

Available complete in PDF, Dr G shares some of the plots and connivances to re make ISI totally over:

Work through the Pakistani government, not the intelligence services. The current double standard of demanding that the government end support for regional extremists within its agencies, yet still maintaining working relations with those agencies, undermines the government and vindicates intelligence actors.

Pursue alternate supply routes to Afghanistan to diminish the importance of Pakistan and its agencies to the NATO mission. The international community should seek routes through China and Iran to reduce Islamabad’s leverage over Western countries fighting in Afghanistan. The newly opened Russia route isn’t a stable solution, given ongoing tensions over NATO.


Condition aid to the Pakistani military on improved control of the intelligence agencies and counterterrorism cooperation. Pakistani intelligence agencies are losing their base of support and are increasingly targeted by terrorists. Previous resistance to cooperate in counterterrorism is likely diminishing, and the international community should capitalize on the opportunity. "

Land of the Pure also faces some serious meds:

Restore the Supreme Court and prosecute ISI violations of legality. Reestablishing judicial preeminence is critical to intelligence reform and democratization, so amnesty for past violations should not be used as a political bargaining tool.

Reinforce the separation between civilian and military intelligence agencies. The integration of former ISI agents into other civilian bodies—particularly the Intelligence Bureau (IB)—should be limited or stopped. Cross-recruitment prevents organizations from becoming independent

Strengthen the police force. A better-trained and equipped police can take over some of the counterterrorism work currently used by the intelligence agencies to legitimize their control.


Build public support, but manage expectations. Public support is essential to advance reforms, but raising public expectations beyond reasonable objectives could enflame social tensions. Public intolerance of intelligence agencies abuses is often the best guarantee against a return to corruption after reforms have taken place. "

Dr G's conclusion is quite conclusive:

"Pakistan’s civilian government would be wrong to ignore the need to decisively establish its supremacy over the intelligence community.

Reducing the role of the military in intelligence should be a priority not only because it will help the government consolidate itself domestically but also because the perception abroad of Pakistan’s emerging democracy and consequent foreign support will be shaped by its capacity to impose its authority on the intelligence agencies’ activities on issues ranging from domestic terrorism to foreign policy.”

Tough to imagine that Land of the Pure's internal enemies of a semi secular democracy would sweetly submit to such stiff prodding without some very tough love.

May be time for Great Satan to become way more than crazy and unpredictable. Indeed, it may be time to add mean and scary to the list.


Pic - "ISI Cleaning Crew"

Tough Times and Sweet Talk

Oh it's true! Despite non notable Syrian Al Ba'Ath party notables in Basharopolis entertaining Great Satan less than 6 kilometers away from where a super sweet sexyful 'mystery blast' magically blasted one of Great Satan's sworn arch enemies - (just in time for St Valentine's Day! How romantic), things may seem to be looking up for the Lion of Syria - Dr General President For Life Bashar al Assad.

Sure hope not - though to be fair - the last few years have totally sucked for the Lion of Syria:

"Syria lacks the size of Egypt and the resources of Saudi Arabia. But it has been able to project power and influence in the region because of its willingness to support radicalism, act as a disruptive force and thus create a situation in which it cannot be ignored. Thus, Damascus backs a host of Palestinian groups opposed to a peaceful settlement of the conflict with Israel - including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, PFLP-GC and others. Syria offered significant support to the Sunni insurgency in Iraq. And most importantly, Damascus maintains influence in Lebanon - following its ignominious departure in 2005 - via its relationship with the pro-Iranian Shia militia, Hiz'B'Allah


The ability to foment chaos and project influence in Lebanon is key for the Assad regime. The expulsion from that country was a personal humiliation for the young president, and its loss is exacting an economic cost on Damascus. Furthermore, the regime seeks to prevent at all costs the commencement of the work of the tribunal into the killing of former prime minister, Rafik al-Hariri. Its chosen method for doing this is the fomenting of instability in Lebanon and the instrument it chooses to use is Hiz'B'Allah

The mainstream Arab states - most importantly Egypt and Saudi Arabia - are frightened by the growth of Iranian influence across the region. They are furious with Syria for its backing of non-Arab Iran. But only by backing the radical power in the region can Syria maintain its powerful role as mischief-maker. No Iran means no more fomenting radicalism, no more reaping the benefits of having to be bought off, no more pro-Iranian militias to help out in Lebanon, no return to Lebanon, and the nightmarish possibility of seeing major regime figures collared for the killing of Hariri.

It is a near certainty that the regime will prefer to maintain all of these - with the additional mobilising charge of the "occupied Golan" into the bargain - rather than give it all up and become a minor, status quo power."

Simply Put:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is driven by more geostrategic ones. Simply put, Syria has had a bad run in the last year, and that bodes ill for a tyrant whose survival rests on an image of omnipotence.

Syria now faces pressure along several fronts, in addition to the ones noted in Israel’s press, for which it would need to “change the subject” to buy a strategic respite and counteract international pressure. Syria came out of the 2006 Lebanon war with a newfound confidence (and belligerence), a strong suspicion that Israel as a regional force was spent, and even threats to take back the Golan Heights by force.

But the two years since have not been good for Damascus.

In Iraq, the Sunni tribes through whom Syria worked to encourage the insurgency have aligned with the United States. As a result, Syria is in danger of having the Sunni entities on its border view Damascus and its alliance with Iran as a greater threat than the United States. Indeed, many of those tribes have a large presence in Syria and constitute a sizeable chunk of Syria’s majority Sunni population. In short, while until now, Iraq’s Sunnis saw Syria as their protector, they may start seeing Syria as an enemy, leaving Damascus sitting atop a political powder keg.

Then, a few months later, came the defeat of the Fatah al-Islam terror group by the Lebanese army, which exposed a weakness in Syria and its strategy from which Damascus has yet to recover. Syria and Iran had hoped to pit the Lebanese government against the Palestinians, and therein split Lebanon’s Sunni ranks by unleashing the al-Qaeda-like Fatah al-Islam group in the Nahr al-Barid Palestinian refugee camp. What stunned the Syrians, and set back their plans to shore up this important flank in preparation for wider confrontation, was that Lebanon’s Sunnis universally sided with Lebanon’s government against the Palestinians.

Then there is Syria’s (now defunct) nuclear program. In the aftermath of Israel’s September 2007 air strike, Syria has been left in a precarious situation. The disclosure of Damascus’ clandestine program has exposed Syria to a dangerous set of inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency and legally-binding actions by the UN Security Council that could ultimately leave it as beleaguered as Tehran, or even Saddam’s Iraq.

Syria’s woes are not solely external. A recent study by the U.S. government’s Open Source Center (formerly the Foreign Broadcast Information Service) has noted telltale signs of critical failures in a number of Syria’s economic sectors of late. The first is the food industry. Between April 16 and 29 the Syrian government halted exports of key food items: semolina, lentils, beans, wheat, barley, and tomatoes.

Just before that, the regime decided “to support the agricultural sector and encourage farmers to increase production.” It also took measures to ensure all produce “is sold to government marketing establishments,” suggesting Assad’s regime is worried about black market activity which wrests authority and power from the centralized regime.

Then there has been the spate of assassinations in Syria: Gen. Muhammad Suleiman, a top Assad adviser; Imad Mughniyeh, the operations commander of Hizballah; Muhammad Suleiman, a senior military officer killed last month in the port town of Tartus; and Hisham el-Badni, Khaled Mashaal's top aid, who was taken out of his car and shot in the city of Homs in December

In late September, meanwhile, a car bomb exploded near a Syrian intelligence agency office in Damascus, killing 17.

If all this weren't telling enough, Assad's recent crackdown on dissidents offers yet another sign of his growing insecurity. In May, Tarek Bayassi, aged 24, received a three-year sentence for publishing "false news" on the Internet. After reporting on riots in an industrial town near Damascus, Mazen Darwish, president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, was given a short sentence for "defaming and insulting the administrative bodies of the state."

Essentially for Bashar - Syria track realises several points:

First, breaking bad with Iran would imply a break with Hiz"B"Allah as well. For Syria to turn its strongest asset in Lebanon into a mortal enemy would be a strategic blow of unimaginable proportions for Damascus.

Recogging Little Satan would also tear from Syria its leadership role on the Palestinian issue. Without these allies, Syria would be in a difficult position to continue to assert itself as the guardian of Arab pride and defiance, which continue to be the cornerstones of its governing ideology and the justification behind its militarization and sacrifice.

Bashar needs Iran's mullahopolis to simply survive. Indeed, it is so much so that it is inconceivable that Damascus would see any money or security assistance as capable, grand, or clever enough to counteract the deadly, massive and sophisticated Iranian structures which operate in Syria and have entrenched themselves over nearly three decades. It was one thing for Sadat to expel intrusive Slavs in 1972, but quite another for Syria to expel Iran’s agents of influence.

Fifth, Damascus is not as interested in the Golan Heights as it is in Lebanon. Bashar al-Assad labors under the burden of losing his father’s signal achievement—the successful takeover of Lebanon in 1975-1976. Trying to get the Golan back, which his papa never did, is a distant second priority.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, the Syrian regime cannot escape its fate as an Alawite government in a Sunni land. The moment it fails the Sunni majority, it delegitimizes its stewardship and puts its stability in peril. Any move to acknowledge Little Satan's right to exist would trample on the key mechanism through which this regime (and the Alawite community upon which it is built) has justified itself among Sunnis since 1969: pan-Arab nationalism.

In short, Syria’s pan-Arab nationalist rhetoric is an essential part of its legitimacy to rule over its Sunni majority. The regime cannot cede pan-Arab or Sunni “rights” in the name of the Sunnis and still expect to be considered legitimate, let alone to survive.

Indeed, Syria is acting consistently with previous rounds. Its peace feelers today, as in the mid-1990s, are tactical diversions designed to restore to Damascus the initiative it has lost in recent months to pursue its strategic aims. And that, more than anything else, would explain why Tehran is signaling that “it is not worried by the talk about the resumption of talks between Israel and Syria over the Golan Heights.

Pic "The closest Bashar may ever get to getting his hands on Golan"

Green Eggs And HAMAS

Can Great Satan really give cash to the Strip without giving cash to HAMAS?

The Strip's voters freely elected the world's very 1st suicide regime that promised they would never say Little Satan's real name out loud, never cut peace deals, never give up the resistence until the last drop of innocent blood had been shed.

And the Strip's voters suffered terribly in their day gigs as human shielding when Little Satan threw up her hands, said the heck with it and did the Strip blitz.

If blinging American dollars into the Strip would totally eradicate rocket rich rejectionists then it might be worth it.

That is one mighty might too.

Kinda like the thought process of

"If I stuff more money in this dancer's thong she might stop dancing in my lap and get a gig at the library."

Seems to be the rationale behind the recent " International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Economy for the Reconstruction of Gaza."

Over 70 nations, to the delight of the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's delight pledged an amazing $4.5 billion bucks to put paid to Palestinian Sympathy Fatigue once and for all.

Essentially rebuilding the Strip, after Little Satan's 3 weeks in heat battle to stomp out Iranian fed and funded rocketeers and whittle down the infamous Izzedeen al K'Ssam (HAMAS's State Army).

As Madame Sec described it, this is a nuanced effort. The broad aim is to bypass the Iranian fed and funded rowdy rocketeers who rule the Strip like a medievel fiefdom, and direct tons of cash for strictly humanitarian uses into the Strip "in coordination with" the inept, corrupt and suspect Palestinian Authority.

Thus the long boring title for the Sharm el-Sheikh shindig: "The International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Economy for the Reconstruction of Gaza."

Thus, also, the confusion and contradictory news accounts over how much of the multiple billions in aid will flow to the West Bank, how much to the Strip, when and how this will happen, and who will decide

And so, despite a record which suggests that decades of aid to the Palestinians--bilateral, multilateral, you name it--have brought no peace, but continuing violence, surely this time might be the charm.

The plan this time seems to be to flood the Palestinian Authority with enough bling bling that will magically unclutch HAMAS' clutches on the Strip's steering wheel.

"Foster conditions" to create a responsible, accountable Palestinian state, sweetly snuggled right up against Little Satan Madam Sec promised that Great Satan's $900 million in new aid to Palestinians (new, shiny crisp 100 dollar bills)--still to be approved by Congress--would include $300 million for the Strip.

"We have worked with the Palestinian Authority to install safeguards that will ensure that our funding is used only where, and for whom, it is intended, and does not end up in the wrong hands."

Good luck!

The best case scenerio may in fact be that despite any efforts - such a vast amount of booty dropping on Palestine will be like wonderbra for HAMAS - a real boostier boosting boost.

Exactly how such HAMAS would be stymied from getting their hands on crack jack is curious. State Department has been about as vague as camoflouging a hangover from the preacher.

At a State Department press briefing on Monday, while MAdam Sec hung out in Pyramidland pledging the pledge, a spokescat mentioned that up to $300 million would go for Strippers "urgent humanitarian needs" as identified by UN and the Palestinian Authority.

Friendly funding funds would hit the Strip "in coordination with U.N. agencies, international organizations and USAID grantees" and "through the State Department for the U.N. agencies, [International Committee of the Red Cross] and other humanitarian organizations."

At UNRWA's site please find a killer pic of Sec Gen Moon sweetly backlit with cool sunbeams in a wrecked UNRWA foodstuff/HAMAS ammunition depot.

Under that pic is where the fun begins.

Several banks, complete with Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) codes and account numbers through which benefactors are invited to send money to UNRWA for its "Special Gaza Appeal"
are listed.

One is the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria, hq'd in Damascus, an interesting choice for Ban and UNRWA to brag about because, the last five years this bank has been under sanctions by Grreat Satan's Treasury as an institution of "primary money-laundering concern."

In 2004, Treasury imposed sanctions on the Commercial Bank of Syria, alleging it had laundered illicit fundage from the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food program in Iraq, and had also handled "numerous transactions that may be indicative of terrorist financing and "money laundering." According to Treasury, this included two accounts "that reference a reputed financier for Usama bin Laden."

Whoa!

In 2006, Treasury finalized its rule, which is still current, against the Commercial Bank of Syria. Under-Secretary Stuart Levey alleged that the bank had been used by terrorists to move money, and "as a state-owned entity with inadequate money laundering and terrorist financing controls, the Commercial Bank of Syria poses a significant risk of being used to further the Syrian Government's continuing support for international terrorist groups."

Among the terrorist groups cited as examples of such clients were Hiz'B'Allah in Lebanon, and such creeps in the Strip's hood like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and of course HAMAS.

All of them are on Great Satan's Enemies List.

UNRWA's choice of this bank is all the more bizzare in light of the lifestyle choices of a number of Hamas leaders, such as Khaled Meshal, who lives nowhere near Palestine - instead he's safe as milk in far away exile in Damascus.

Council on Foreign Relations' backgrounder released in 2006, Meshal has served Hamas from Damascus as head of the terrorist group's politburo, and as chief strategist and fundraiser. In 2006 he was alleged by Little Satan's then-Vice PremierPeres to have ordered the kidnapping into the Strip of Little Satan's soldier Gilad Shalit, who has not yet been released.

Tough to say if it is of any concern to UNRWA that one of the conduits headlined by Ban Ki-moon for its Stripper bailout is a Great Satan accursed and accused censured bank, hq'd in a backwards nation that just so happened to host the most wanted man in the world Imad Mughiniyah or lets cats like Meshal hang out in, and is designated by Great Satan as a state sponsor of terrorism.

U.N. has no definition of terrorism. UNRWA, which employs mostly local Palestinian staff, and has never had an independent outside audit, is not bound by Great Satan's sanctions.

Way too many questions about this and it might be better just to toss the cash in a dumpster somehwere.

All is not lost though - aggrevate the living daylights out of both of your senators and your congresscat. Call, Email and fax - til they announce when the vote on the bling will be held and let them know it aint cool.

Follow up at least twice a week with calls and faxes.

Let them know you -

"could not, would not ever flip
for flinging blinging in the Strip"

Art - "Green Eggs and HAMAS"

Congrats Field Marshal President for Life!

Congrats to Field Marshal President for Life Omar al Bashir! As failed state Sudan's intolerant despot you are the world's very first sitting 'leader' indicted by the International Criminal Court on five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes. You are the first sitting head of state to be wanted for arrest.

Despite the very best efforts of the mohammedist bloc (OIC for the initially correct) who pointed out it's tough enough for illegit regimes to maintain power, murder and mayhem without busy body free and tolerant humanitarian nations queering the mix. Saudiland's OIC calls it

“Unwarranted and unacceptable. The moves of the ICC prosecutor could seriously undermine the ongoing efforts aimed at facilitating and promoting lasting peace in Darfur”

Oh snap! Say it ain't so.

No surprise - all the fun free choice nations are high fiving each other (even a reasonably ICC skeptical Great Satan) while the League of not hot autocrazies are openly concerned that humanitarian hubris could threaten and even take out any unelected regime.

For the first time in history, the world will get to watch how a sitting head of state reacts to such damning charges.

ICC predicts that


"Bashir’s regime has already issued veiled threats against the UN and AU missions in Sudan, the international humanitarian agencies operating there and Sudanese who support the ICC prosecution. It could also direct, or encourage, violence against the millions of displaced Darfuris living in camps in the war-torn region.

There are signs that it may also declare a state of emergency and clamp down on internal political opposition, to show the Darfur rebel groups that they will not be able to use this development to their military and political advantage."

It could get scary too.

In the worst-case scenario, experts see Bashir consolidating his power, kicking out aid workers, stepping up repression in Darfur, and even squashing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South signed just a few years ago.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, the court's prosecutor says that is flat out fakebelieve talk - and not vey good fakebelieve talk either:

"For people in Darfur, nothing could be worse than it is now."

Overnight, the stakes have changed in Sudan. Justice looks possible, impuntity looks over, and internal unrest looks likely.

What the heck will happen there next?

UN Ambassador Susan Rice has never kept it secret how Great Satan should lay it out and play it out:

"If we've come to the point where the United States and the rest ofthe international community is going to be intimidated by a relatively weak African or other government around the world then we've lost our way, we've lost the war on terrorism, and we've lost our moral compass, if we're not prepared to stand up to protect civilians from genocide."

Pic - "Al-Bashir"