Iraqi insurgents use 2nd 'dirty' bomb

Yahoo! News

n Baghdad, a pickup truck carrying chlorine gas cylinders was blown apart, killing at least five people and sending more than 55 to hospitals gasping for breath and rubbing stinging eyes, police said.

On Tuesday, a bomb planted on a chlorine tanker left more than 150 villagers stricken north of the capital. More than 60 were still under medical care on Wednesday. Chlorine causes respiratory trouble and skin irritation in low levels and possible death with heavy exposure.

In Washington, two Pentagon officials said the tactic has been used at least three times since Jan. 28, when a truck carrying explosives and a chlorine tank blew up in Anbar province. More than a dozen people were reported killed.

A third Pentagon official said the United States has been concerned about Iraqi militants' ability to get weapons like chlorine bombs and use them effectively. But the official cautioned that chlorine bombs are just one threat on a long list of possible attacks that Iraqi fighters may try to carry out.

Rice Criticizes Russian General's Remarks Over Missile Shield

FOXNews.com

BERLIN —
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday called a Russian general's warning that Poland and the Czech Republic risk being targeted if they host U.S. missile defense bases "extremely unfortunate.

Rice also repeated assurances the system does not threaten Russia.

in an interview published Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said U.S. plans for missile defense sites in Europe suggest the United States is seeking nuclear superiority over Russia.

Lavrov called for new arms control negotiations and said simple U.S. assurances that the Cold War foes are no longer enemies are insufficient.

Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, head of Russia's strategic missile forces, said Monday that Russia might train its missiles on the two countries if they accept a U.S. proposal to base 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.

"I think that was an extremely unfortunate comment," Rice said at a news conference in Berlin, adding that system did not threaten Moscow's forces "and we have had the opportunity to explain that to Russia."

She said the U.S. has made clear to Russia that the system would be to counter any missile threat from Iran. The system is too small to stop Russia's large nuclear arsenal, she said.

"Anyone who knows anything about this knows that there is no way that 10 interceptors ... are a threat to Russia or that they are somehow going to diminish Russia's deterrent of thousands of warheads," Rice said.

"I think everyone understands that with a growing Iranian missile threat, which is quite pronounced, that there need to be ways to deal with that problem," she added.

I think it's safe to say that Russia is no longer an ally, if they ever were. They were supplying night vision goggles to Iraq as the war started, and also repaired radar sites that we destroyed. They have also refused to assist in Iranian nuclear non-proliferation.

40 Immigrants Found in Truck in Texas

40 Immigrants Found in Truck in Texas

HARLINGEN, Texas —
Forty Brazilian immigrants were found loaded inside a stifling tractor-trailer about 75 miles north of the Mexican border, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

Border Patrol agents discovered the immigrants Saturday at a highway checkpoint in Falfurrias, officials said. A patrol dog alerted agents to the scent of people.

"As soon as those agents opened the back of the trailer, they could just feel the heat coming from inside," said Border Patrol spokesman Oscar Saldana.

The driver, a U.S. citizen, was charged with smuggling, but his identity was being withheld.

The immigrants — including men, women and children — are being processed for deportation, officials said.

The discovery comes less than a month after a jury sentenced truck driver Tyrone Williams to life in prison for a May 2003 smuggling attempt in which 19 immigrants died in his trailer.

What's better than 40 illegals in a truck being arrested? 40 illegals in a truck at the bottom of a lake.

Edwards pulls a John Kerry

Edwards: Israel NOT a threat to world peace

WASHINGTON John Edwards' presidential campaign wants to make it clear that he doesn't consider Israel a threat to world peace.
A spokesman for the 2008 Democratic candidate issued a statement today denying such a report on Variety.com.

Columnist Peter Bart reports that Edwards told a Hollywood fundraiser last month that the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities is perhaps the greatest short-term threat to world peace.

Edwards' spokesman Jonathan Prince says the article is erroneous. He says Edwards says one of the greatest short-term threats to world peace is Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Previously, John Edwards says Israel is the biggest threat to world peace

John Edwards is an idiot

Out of all the mad men in the middle east, past and present, Edwards says ISRAEL is the biggest threat. His idiocy should automatically disqualify him from running for president.

The Hillary Spot on NRO

There are other emerging fissures, as well. The aggressively photogenic John Edwards was cruising along, detailing his litany of liberal causes last week until, during question time, he invoked the "I" word — Israel. Perhaps the greatest short-term threat to world peace, Edwards remarked, was the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. As a chill descended on the gathering, the Edwards event was brought to a polite close.

GOP donor hit with terror charges

MSNBC.com

WASHINGTON - A New York man accused of trying to help terrorists in Afghanistan has donated some $15,000 to the House Republicans' campaign committee over three years.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to charges that include terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and money laundering.

From April 2002 until August 2004, the man also known as "Michael Mixon" gave donations ranging from $500 to $5,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to Federal Election Commission reports and two campaign donor tracking Web sites,

I wonder if the investigation included Democrats? I'm guessing probably not. I find it extremely hard to believe that jihadi's are not contributing to Democrats. After all, they are the key to spreading Islam and destroying our way of life.

Stranded climbers and dog safely off the mountain

This is getting pretty ridiculous. I say anyone who wants to go up the mountain is fully responsible for getting back down. Why should rescue teams continuously risk their lives and taxpayers be burdened to save these people? If they don't want to die on the mountain, then they should stay off of it.

Stranded climbers and dog safely off the mountain - CNN.com

MOUNT HOOD, Oregon (CNN) -- All three climbers and a dog stranded on Mount Hood since Sunday are now off the mountain, said Russell Gubele, command officer for Mountain Wave Search and Rescue.

Lt. Nick Watt with the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department said the rescue was successful because the climbers were well equipped.

"Everything they did was right," said Watt. "In fact everything the climbers did in this occasion was right which makes the big difference between ... a successful rescue and a recovery."

The two women and a man, who suffered only minor injuries, were brought down under their own power, accompanied by three rescue teams, to a point where they could be picked up by a snow cat -- a truck-sized vehicle on tracks instead of wheels, Gubele said.

The snow cat ferried them further down the mountain to a waiting ambulance, which brought them to a state camp site.

The climbers used a mountain locator unit which helped rescue teams find them.

The three huddled in their sleeping bags with a Labrador retriever to keep warm as they awaited rescue, according to a spokesman for the climbers.

The dog, named Velvet, is doing better than the humans, climber Trevor Liston said at a news conference Monday evening.

Tiny baby to leave Florida hospital

The sad part is there are babies older than this being killed by doctors everyday.

Tiny baby to leave Florida hospital - Yahoo! News

A premature baby that doctors say spent less time in the womb than any other surviving infant is to be released from a Florida hospital Tuesday.

Amillia Sonja Taylor was just 9 1/2 inches long and weighed less than 10 ounces when she was born Oct. 24. She was delivered 21 weeks and six days after conception. Full-term births come after 37 to 40 weeks.



"We weren't too optimistic," Dr. William Smalling said Monday. "But she proved us all wrong."

Neonatologists who cared for Amillia say she is the first baby known to survive after a gestation period of fewer than 23 weeks. A database run by the University of Iowa's Department of Pediatrics lists seven babies born at 23 weeks between 1994 and 2003.

Amillia has experienced respiratory problems, a very mild brain hemorrhage and some digestive problems, but none of the health concerns are expected to pose long-term problems, her doctors said.

"We can deal with lungs and things like that but, of course, the brain is the most important," Dr. Paul Fassbach said Monday. "But her prognosis is excellent."

Amillia has been in an incubator since birth and has been receiving oxygen. She will continue getting a small amount of oxygen, and her breathing will be monitored once she leaves Baptist Children's Hospital. She now is between 25 and 26 inches long and weighs 4 1/2 pounds.

"She's going to be in a normal crib, she's going to have normal feedings, she's taking all her feedings from a bottle," Smalling said.

Amillia is the first child for Eddie and Sonja Taylor of Homestead. She was conceived by in vitro fertilization, which made it possible to pinpoint her exact time in the womb, and was delivered by Caesarean section.

Sen. John McCain Calls Rumsfeld One of the Worst Defense Secretaries in U.S. History

How I wish the man would just retire and disappear on some ranch.

FOXNews.com - Sen. John McCain Calls Rumsfeld One of the Worst Defense Secretaries in U.S. History

BLUFFTON, S.C. —
Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Monday the war in Iraq has been mismanaged for years and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will be remembered as one of the worst in history.

"We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement — that's the kindest word I can give you — of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war," the Arizona senator told an overflow crowd of more than 800 at a retirement community near Hilton Head Island, S.C. "The price is very, very heavy and I regret it enormously."

• Click here for more 2008 news at FOXNews.com's You Decide 2008 Center.

McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained that Rumsfeld never put enough troops on the ground to succeed in Iraq.

"I think that Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history," McCain said to applause.

The comments were in sharp contrast to McCain's statement when Rumsfeld resigned in November, and failed to address the reality that President Bush is the commander in chief.

"While Secretary Rumsfeld and I have had our differences, he deserves Americans' respect and gratitude for his many years of public service," McCain said last year when Rumfeld stepped down.

Read the rest here

McCain says Roe should be overturned

McCain says Roe should be overturned - Politics - MSNBC.com

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, looking to improve his standing with the party’s conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.

“I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned,” the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states.

McCain also vowed that if elected, he would appoint judges who “strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States and do not legislate from the bench.”

The landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade gave women the right to choose an abortion to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court has narrowly upheld the decision, with the presence of an increasing number of more conservative justices on the court raising the possibility that abortion rights would be limited.

Social conservatives are a critical voting bloc in the GOP presidential primaries.

McCain’s campaign also announced early Sunday that he had been endorsed by former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who had been considering his own bid for the White House, and former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm, who failed in his bid for the Republican nomination in 1996.

Keating told the crowd that McCain is the “only candidate who is a true-blue, Ronald Reagan conservative.”

McCain later attended an evening rally promoting an abstinence program. He told the crowd of more than 1,000 teens and parents that young people have pressures far different from the ones he faced while growing up. “Sometimes I’ve made the wrong choice,” McCain said.

He also talked about his experience as a prisoner of war during Vietnam, and described some of the torture he suffered. His captors “wanted to make us do things that we otherwise wouldn’t do,” including confessing to war crimes, McCain said.

He and fellow prisoners were beat up for practicing their religion, but they continued to do it. “Sometimes it is very difficult to do the right thing,” he said.

McCain has strong name recognition and the largest network of supporters in South Carolina. That backing comes in part from his staunch support for the Iraq war, something on which he focused a day earlier in Iowa. But it’s the same state that dealt a crushing blow to his presidential aspirations in 2000.

McCain is trying to build support among conservatives after a recent rebuke from Christian leader James Dobson, who said he wouldn’t back McCain’s presidential bid. Conservatives question McCain’s opposition to a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. He opposes same-sex marriage, but says it should be regulated by the states.

How adorable is John McCain? Maybe when he's done playing "conservative", he can invite his imaginary friends over for a tea party.

Report: al-Qaida leaders back in control

BREITBART.COM - Report: al-Qaida leaders back in control

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Senior al-Qaida leaders have re-established control over the terror network and set up training camps in Pakistan, The New York Times reported.

Citing U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism officials, the newspaper said the senior officials, operating from Pakistan, have set up training operations in tribal regions near the Afghan border.

U.S. officials told the newspaper there is mounting evidence that Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, have been putting an operations center together. Until recently, the Times said, the Bush administration had said bin Laden and Zawahri were detached from their followers and cut off from operational control of al-Qaida.

U.S. analysts said recent intelligence indicated the bases functioned under a loose command structure, operated by groups of Arab, Pakistani and Afghan militants allied with al-Qaida -- with guidance from their commanders and Zawahri. Bin Laden, appears to have little direct involvement, the newspaper said.

The training camps reportedly have not reached the size and level and sophistication noted in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

I certainly hope this isn't surprising to anyone. Pakistan asked for this to happen when they came to an agreement appeasement with the warlords in the north.

Edwards raps lack of direct talks with Iran

Edwards raps lack of direct talks with Iran - Politics - MSNBC.com

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards criticized the Bush administration on Sunday for failing to engage directly with Iran to resolve problems with the Iraq war and Iran’s effort to develop nuclear weapons.

“It’s a huge strategic mistake not to be dealing directly with Iran,” Edwards told the Associated Press in an interview before a campaign event in Dubuque.

“What we should be doing with Iran, both on the Iraq issue and the nuclear issue, is being much smarter than we’re being now. We have tools available to us to engage them.”

America’s relationship with Iran emerged as a hot topic last week amid reports the Iranian government was shipping armor-piercing weapons to militias in Iraq.

Some intelligence reports suggested the shipments were being authorized by top Iranian officials. President Bush acknowledged Iran was providing hostile weapons to Shiite groups, but stopped short of blaming top Iranian leaders.

Edwards said Bush’s reluctance to open diplomatic lines with Iran and Syria was costing the United States in its efforts to stabilize Iraq. The former North Carolina senator said the U.S. and its European allies have the leverage and resources to enlist Iran’s cooperation.

“The way for America to engage them on this issue is to use the economic tools available ... to make it clear if they are willing to give up their nuclear weapons we are willing to make nuclear fuel available to them,” he told the AP.

Edwards said the United States should offer a serious package of economic incentives and make it public, “so the Iranian people, who have not been historically anti-American, know that we’ve made this offer ... and hopefully drive a deeper wedge between a radical leader (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) and his own people.”

This man is about as clueless as they come. “The way for America to engage them on this issue is to use the economic tools available ... to make it clear if they are willing to give up their nuclear weapons we are willing to make nuclear fuel available to them,”" Russia already tried this with Iran. If they are unwilling to compromise with an "ally", what makes Edwards think it will work with us? The democrats will head this country to destruction with their appeasement and negotiations with terrorists.

Iran: US 'will lose in Middle East'

BREITBART.COM - Iran: US 'will lose in Middle East'

The United States will not achieve its goals in the Middle East, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned on state television.

"Realities in the region show that the arrogant front, headed by US and its allies, will be the principal loser in the region," the broadcast quoted Khamenei as saying in a meeting with Syrian president Bashar Assad.

Assad has now left Iran after a two-day visit to discuss Iraq and other regional issues with senior Iranian officials, including Khamenei and president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

During his visit, Assad accused the US and Israel of trying to harm the regional positions of Iran and Syria by raising questions about their roles in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine.

"Through effort and co-ordination we have to enlighten public opinion about the ominous aims of the US and Zionists," said Assad.

Ahmadinejad expressed similar concerns when he accused the US and Israel of targeting Islamic countries under the pretence of achieving peace. "They imply that they are pursuing peace and security in the region, however they want to improve their and the Zionists' position in the region and hit Islamic countries," Ahmadinejad said.

The US has accused Syria of not doing enough to prevent militants from crossing its border into Iraq and has blamed Iran for supporting Shiite militias in attacks that have killed American troops.

US officials also accuse Iran and Syria of interfering in Lebanon and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by supporting Hezbollah and Hamas, both of which are considered by the US to be terrorist groups.

Iran and Syria have long been close allies. During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Syria was the only Arab country to support Iran.

During the past 10 years, Iranian companies have invested more than �350 million in Syria, in sectors such as power generation, motoring, cement and agriculture.

I cannot wait for the day when mushroom clouds are aplenty in Iran.

U.S. Officials: Militants May Have Fled Baghdad Due to Crackdown

BAGHDAD, Iraq —
Citing an increase in attacks in provinces that border Baghdad, U.S. military officials are starting to believe Sunni and Shiite extremists have fled the Iraqi capital to avoid the new security crackdown.

Attacks north and west of the capital Saturday contrasted with a lull in major violence in Baghdad as U.S. and Iraqi forces try to regain control from sectarian militias and criminal gangs.

A twin bombing left 11 dead in northern Iraq and U.S. aircraft went in action against Sunni insurgents west of Baghdad, as Iraqi officials claimed early success in the campaign to restore order in the capital.

The bombers struck in a Kurdish neighborhood of the oil city of Kirkuk, about 180 miles north of Baghdad, as streets were filled with cars and pedestrians.

Police and witnesses said the first blast occurred near shops and a bus depot. Minutes later, a suicide car bomber attacked the same area. Terrified shoppers fled screaming in panic amid burning cars and debris. A restaurant owner lay screaming on the sidewalk, his body soaked with hot cooking oil after one of the blasts hurled him onto the curb.

Eleven people were killed in the two blasts and 65 were wounded, police Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qader said. Sunni Arabs and Kurds have laid rival claims on Kirkuk and its oil wealth.

In Ramadi, a Sunni insurgent hotbed 70 miles west of the capital, U.S. jets strafed gunmen after they ambushed a U.S. patrol, said 2nd Lt. Roger Hollenbeck, a Marine spokesman. Hours later, U.S. aircraft destroyed a car with gunmen who were trying to escape after they attacked an Army patrol, Hollenbeck said.

There were no U.S. casualties, but Hollenbeck said eight insurgents were killed — four in each attack. The U.S. military did report, however, that a Marine was killed the day before in Anbar province, which includes Ramadi.

Iraqi authorities said they foiled a would-be suicide attack near Karbala, about 50 miles south of Baghdad. A minivan came under fire after the driver failed to slow at a checkpoint, and then detonated the explosives and was killed, said Karbala police spokesman Rahman Mishawi. There were no other casualties.

In Baghdad, however, much of the gunfire appeared to come from Iraqi police shooting in the air to clear the way for their convoys.

On Palestine Street, a main thoroughfare in east Baghdad, police commandos in armored personnel carriers manned dozens of checkpoints — some only about 100 yards apart. In Waziriyah, a Sunni area of northeast Baghdad, cranes put concrete blast barriers in place to block would-be suicide bombers.

American paratroopers from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division joined Iraqi soldiers in a sweep through a mostly Sunni neighborhood. U.S. Apache helicopters and a jet flew overhead.

Although the Baghdad operation has been in full swing only four days, Iraqi authorities have already begun heralding it as a major success. Iraqi spokesman Brig. Gen. Qassim Moussawi told reporters that "crimes and terrorist attacks" had dropped by 80 percent since Wednesday.

Police said the bodies of only five apparent victims of sectarian death squads were found in Saturday across the capital — in contrast to the scores that were recovered daily in the weeks before.

U.S. officials, however, have said it is too early to declare success.

And Sunni politicians have complained that the initial raids have focused on Sunni neighborhoods, sparing Shiite hotspots such as Sadr City, stronghold of the Mahdi Army of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Sunnis blame the Mahdi Army for much of Baghdad's sectarian violence and for forcing thousands of Sunni families from their homes. Shiites insist the greater threat comes from Sunni extremists including al-Qaida in Iraq.

Al-Sadr is a close ally of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Shiite prime minister convinced al-Sadr to remove many of his armed militiamen from the streets to avoid a showdown with the Americans.

Assad, Ahmadinejad vow to form alliance against U.S., Israel

Iranian President Mahmoud Adhmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday vowed to form an alliance against what they called U.S. and Israeli conspiracies against the Islamic world.

Iran's ISNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying that the Islamic world in general and Iran and Syria in particular should maintain their vigilance and neutralize conspiracies aimed at sowing discord among Muslims.

Ahmadinejad said that what the U.S. really aims for under the pretext of development in the region "is just another effort to strengthen its own status and that of the Zionists."

The Iranian president also praised the agreement by rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah to form a unity government.

"Dispute among Muslim factions has always been harmful for regional nations and useful for Islam's enemies," he said.

ISNA quoted Assad as saying that expansion of Tehran-Damascus ties would help resolve the problems of the Islamic world. He accused the U.S. of trying to attract public opinion within the Islamic world by undermining Iran-Syria relations.

"America's policies have failed in the region ... By creating divisions among Muslim nations, Washington wants to pursue its aims," IRNA quoted Assad as saying during his meeting with Ahmadinejad, who urged "Muslim countries to preserve unity."

The Syrian leader said Muslims worldwide should be informed about "the evil aims by the U.S. and Zionists" which he said were sowing discord among Muslims.

Assad arrived earlier Saturday in Tehran for a two-day visit to discuss developments in the Middle East and was scheduled to also meet Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, former president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

On the agenda would be Iraq, Lebanon and cooperation with the
Palestinians. Assad was in Tehran in August 2005 immediately after
the start of Ahmadinejad's presidential term.

Ahmadinejad said earlier Saturday that Lebanon and Hezbollah have his complete support in their struggle against Israel and the United States.

"Iran and Lebanon are two parts of the same body, and only through cooperation between our two nations will it be possible to foil the conspiracies of the enemy," Ahmadinejad said.

"Thanks to Hezbollah, the Lebanese people have become a symbol of courage, faith and respect for all nations, and all this through the power of resistance," Ahmadinejad added.

On Friday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that his organization is entitled to secretly transfer arms in order to fight Israel, and that he will not forgive the Lebanese Army for seizing last week an arms-laden truck that belonged to Hezbollah.

Nasrallah said "we have plenty of weapons ... and we have the right to transport our arms to combat Israel."

Nasrallah said the arms transfers are carried out in secret in order "to hide them from the Israeli enemy."

The Hezbollah chief added that his group has no intention of disarming, and intends to maintain its forces in southern Lebanon. "The resistance will always stand by the Lebanese Army in southern Lebanon, with our weapons, men and blood... to defend Lebanon," he said.

Hezbollah is "ready to give the army all the arms it needs," but will not forgive anyone who confiscates even a single bullet, Nasrallah added.

Nasrallah was speaking at a Beirut rally marking the anniversary of the assassination of his predecessor, Sheik Abbas Musawi, who was killed in 1992 in an Israeli strike.

Last week, the Lebanese Army confiscated a truck that was full of Hezbollah weapons.

Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr said during a televised interview that the arms shipment was comprised of rockets, but staunchly denied allegations that the shipment came from Syria, saying it originated from within Lebanese territory.

The Shi'ite organization announced that the truck belongs to it, and demanded that the Lebanese Army release it immediately.

The incident heightened tensions between Lebanon's government and Hezbollah, which has called for its overthrow.

Nasrallah, vowed on Friday to continue the opposition campaign led by his militant group to force Prime Minister Fuad Saniora to share power or step down, saying he was confident of eventual triumph, claiming the militants had the resources for it.

"No one should imagine that the opposition's coffers have emptied," he said. "If the (demands) are not met, the opposition will continue its actions by means which it finds appropriate."

However, Nasrallah insisted his Sh'ite Muslim followers would not incite a conflict that could degenerate into a civil war. Saniora is backed by the country's Sunnis.

"Civil war is a red line," Nasrallah said, an expression he also used last month after scuffles between pro- and anti-government supporters turned into Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian clashes that killed eight people.