Bombings in Israel first in months

Today's bus bombings in Beersheba, Israel were the first since March.

Israel attributes the calm to its West Bank wall, which may be praised for thwarting the daily suicide attacks carried out by militant Palestinians but blamed for cutting off Palestinians from family members, jobs and many necessities for survival such as clean water and food.

Yassir Arafat condemned the attacks saying that such violence only gives Israel reason to reciprocate and is not in the interest of the Palestinian people.

Israel responded to the attacks by storming Hebron, the nearest Palestinian city to Beersheba. The homes of the presumed attackers were surrounded and family members were questioned. Perhaps a heavy handed response, but one which could only be expected.

Israel and Israelis point to the fence as a necessary preventative measure against such attacks and today's bombing has strengthened that sentiment even more.

A voice from Sudan

"Thank God for George Bush!"

UPDATE

Email from Mark

UPDATE: More Attacks Promised for Kabul

According to the New York Times, the taliban has promised more attacks in the near future:

In a telephone interview, a Taliban spokesman, Latif Hakimi, claimed responsibility for the attack, on what he called an American base involved in reconstruction. He also promised more attacks, saying, "Lots of Taliban mujahedeen have entered Kabul, and we will explode more bombs."

Al-Qaeda has joined the Taliban in claiming responsibility for the attack, which occured Sunday. The Taliban is denying responsibility for the earlier attack in the southeast, which occurred Satudray night.

No more news yet from Mark.

Attack on my brother's compound - Afghanistan

From ABC:

An explosion tore through the office of an American defense contractor in the heart of the Afghan capital Sunday, killing as many as six people and seriously injuring several more, officials and residents said. The victims included several apparent U.S. citizens.

The blast hit the office of Dyncorp Inc., an American firm that provides security for Afghan President Hamid Karzai on behalf of the United States...

From Mark:

I'm alright, in case you were worried. If you didn't hear yet, there was an attack on one of my company's houses. It was not near my house. I was involved in the response to the attack. Just wanted to let you know i'm ok. Kind of tired now, i'll talk to you later.
-Mark

Reports now say that as many as 17 people have died in two different blasts which happened within 24 hours of each other. The second blast was at a religious school in the south of the country and killed 10 people, including four children. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the Kabul blast on my brother's compound:

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the bomb was detonated by a Taliban fighter using a remote control device.

"A few minutes ago he phoned our chief ... to say that he finished his mission and is alive," Hakimi said.

I will update as I recieve more information.

Connie Rice: an exercise in bad analogy

Political commentator Connie (not Condoleezza) Rice's "Top 10 'Taboo' Things Said about Baghdad" should be called, "I like to generalize everything to the point of absurdity so that my analogies work".

Might I retort?:

10.) Yes, it is great that the Iraqis are now free to flood their streets with tens of thousands of protesters in open demonstrations.

It's also great that we are free to do so as well. No one is saying that RNC protesters will not be able to protest.

9.) No, without a certain sustainable level of economic security, there will be no physical security.

The same would apply and does apply in the US. High unemployment produces higher crime rates.

8.) No, Iraqis cannot recover from 40 years of Hussein's savage brutality overnight.

Is it so hard to understand why that might be? Who is acting like 400 years of American slavery is ancient history? And, yes, it is irrelevant to the Iraq issue, unless you want to point out the fact that we didn't recover from slavery overnight either.

7.) Maybe quotas aren't the best solution in the long run, but sometimes Democracy needs a jump start.

Much like my car, which is sitting dead in the parking lot at the Avenue.

6.) It's probably a good thing that "we're confiscating thousands of guns to reduce violence and killing in Baghdad".

And there is a difference between gun control in Iraq and gun control in the US. Mainly because the US isn't in the midst of a bloody civil war, among other things... not least of which is the fact that, in Iraq, there are children on the streets carrying AK-47s and shooting at American Soldiers.

OK... I'm done.

Japan to keep tabs on N. Korea from space

Japan has plans to launch two spy satellites into orbit next year, contrary to "a long-standing policy of conducting only nonmilitary space missions."

"Abu Ghraib Probe Points to(?) Top Brass"

Funny how the Washington Post is reporting on the Fay report. They seem to be trying as hard as they can, without outright making up the necessary connections, to show that the higher-ups had something to do with the abuses. Eg., the wording as follows:

Another defense official said the Army study would be "a comprehensive report, a thorough look at another aspect of Abu Ghraib, to include up to the CJTF-command level," a reference to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who until recently was the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

OK, so some official implied that the report would be examining the involvement of everyone... even Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez! Uh, yeah... but let's not jump to conclusions just yet. Especially seeing as we already know that the report concludes that no one outside of the Abu Ghraib prison is directly responsible for the abuses, which would include Sanchez.

Report on Iraq Abuse Will Widen the Blame

Though the LATimes reports that a "Report on Iraq Abuse Will Widen the Blame", the actual implications of the report are more limited in their scope than many would like to see. The Fay report, after its director Army Maj. Gen. George R. Fay, concludes that no one outside of the Abu Ghraib prison is directly responsible for the abuses. This is contrary to an ad produced by MoveOn.org which seeks to implicate Donald Rumsfeld for allowing the abuses to take place. MoveOn.org claims on their website that:

We now know Rumsfeld personally approved a policy that "encouraged physical coercion and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners," violating their fundamental human rights under the Geneva convention.

Though Fay was given the authority to recommend action against senior military brass,

Some on Capitol Hill said they were dismayed that the investigation failed to implicate more senior military officers or Bush administration officials.

The Fay report expands the blame for the abuses beyond the seven MPs already charged to include

military intelligence officers and contract interrogators for the CIA and possibly other agencies.
...
Fay's report also will recommend disciplinary action against Army Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade.
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The Fay report also is expected to recommend discipline for Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, commander of the 800th Military Police Brigade, a reserve unit in charge of U.S.-run prisons in Iraq, for her alleged lax oversight of the compound...

Germans upset over US troop redeployment

As noted on David's Medienkritik, the leaders of ver.di, a major German workers' union, are upset at the proposed pullout of US troops stationed in Germany. This comes amid fervent anti-American rhetoric from the same group.

Its leaders now realize that there won’t be enough warmongers around to adequately support members’ Socialist way-of-life. They rightfully “fear” that the planned withdrawal of tens of thousands of US military personnel and their dependents from Germany will result in thousands of lost union jobs, particularly in areas surrounding affected bases and installations.

“But…warmongers?” You ask. Well sure, that is exactly how ver.di’s chairman, union kingpin Frank Bsirske, described the American government and military just last year.

Translations of some of Bsirke's other anti-American musings are also available at David's Medienkritik.

More anti-Semitism in Europe

Jewish students attacked at Auschwitz

While on a tour of the museum at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland on Sunday, a group of around 50 Jewish university students from Israel, the U.S. and Poland were verbally attacked by a three-member gang of French male tourists.

US out to sabotage Iran's atom bomb programme

From the Telegraph:

The Bush administration is trying to find covert ways to sabotage or delay Iran's nuclear weapons programme believing that diplomatic deals struck with European nations have barely slowed Teheran's rush towards the bomb.

Intelligence and administration officials are urgently trying to find secret means "to disrupt or delay as long as we can" the development of an Iranian bomb, one said. The urgency stems, in part, from "increasingly strong private statements" by Israeli counterparts that they may be forced to take military action to stop Iran achieving its dream of a nuclear arsenal.
...
It is uncertain that it is possible to stop Iran joining the nuclear club, thanks to the know-how Teheran bought from Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former Pakistani nuclear chief...