April 2007

What War?
Posted: Monday, April 30, 2007

¤ Wolfowitz refuses to resign
Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank, has repeated his refusal to step down, while the US president has spoken out to back him.
Wolfowitz, a former deputy defence secretary, said the charges over his handling of a pay rise for his girlfriend was a "smear campaign". He said he would not resign over "unfair charges".

¤ Incompetence at the Top
Every American who voted Republican shares responsibility for the great evil America has brought to the Middle East.
The evil that America brought to Iraq transcends the tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians who have been killed and maimed in the conflict. The evil goes beyond the destruction of ancient historical artifacts and the civilian infrastructure of a secular state and the decimation of the lives, careers, and families of millions of Iraqis.

¤ Did Pfizer Illegally Market Its New HIV/AIDS Drug?
¤ Who Will Stop the U.S. Shadow Army in Iraq?
¤ U.S. death toll passes 100 for April

¤ A Media Scandal A Day Keeps The Ratings In Play
New York, New York: When I grew up one of the most popular TV shows was "What's My Line?," a quiz with stars guessing what contestants did for a living. It was fun, upbeat and positive.
Today, on TV news channels, the theme has shifted to "What's My Scandal?" with a predictable focus on wrongdoing in high places. It's tendentious, moralistic and negative.

¤ American Journalism: An Obituary
Watching Bill Moyers' special on his return to PBS, Buying the War, I was struck by the stark contrast between the yeoman work of then Knight-Ridder (now McClatchy) reporters Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel, and everybody else in what used to be called the journalism profession.
It does no disservice to Landay and Strobel to say that there was nothing particularly astounding about the work they did in exposing the Bush/Cheney administration's lies and deceptions in the two-year campaign to put the country at war against Iraq. As they explain to Moyers, they did what any real reporter was supposed to do, going to to sources they'd developed in the military and intelligence community in Washington, talking on and off the record with sources willing to tell the truth about what was going on, digging up and actually critically reading documents like the UN inspectors' reports on Iraq WMD inspections, and finally confronting the lying officials for comment.

¤ Tell the Truth
¤ The Iraq war is over
¤ Italy rocked by satanic, drug-induced sexual abuse in kindergarten
¤ Bush Has Destroyed Iraq and America

¤ Sorry They've Been So Mean To You, George
"If you can't say something positive about someone, don't say anything."
This was drummed into me by my Irish grandmother and, as was the case with most of her admonishments, it has stood me in good stead. On occasion, though, it has been a real bother-as when I felt called to comment on George Tenet's apologia, In the Center of the Storm, coming soon to a bookstore near you.
On the verge of despair, I ran into an old classmate of Tenet's from PS 94 in Little Neck, Queens. Help at last. He told me that George was more handsome than his twin brother Billy, and that his outgoing nature and consummate political skill got him elected president of the student body.
Positive enough, Grandma? Now let me add this.

¤ What War?
¤ Willful Blindness, "Doublethink," and the Mogadishu Massacre
¤ Who Have Become The Israeli Government
¤ Another case for the US to leave ...
¤ Shattered Lives
¤ Blackwater mercenaries, West Point graduates & other
¤ The Honeymoon's Over for Bush and the Saudis
¤ Heroin is "Good for Your Health"
¤ Corporate Media Ignores Durbin's Admission Iraq Invasion was Predicated on Lies
¤ CIA Prisons Still in Operation Investigating Reports
¤ "Dumb, Stupid Animals to be Used" The US War Against Its Troops
¤ Suicide car bomb in Iraq kills 60
¤ Blueprint for Dictatorship

US Democrats Raise Prospect of Bush's Impeachment Over Iraq
Posted: Monday, April 30, 2007

A top US congressional Democrat has raised the possibility of George W. Bush's impeachment in a bid to force the president to accept a compromise that would place conditions on continued US military involvement in Iraq.Representative John Murtha, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Defense and is close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, made the comment Sunday in response to repeated threats by the president to veto legislation that calls for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by the end of next March.
Full Article : commondreams.org

Inside the struggle for Iran
Posted: Monday, April 30, 2007

A grand coalition of anti-government forces is planning a second Iranian revolution via the ballot box to deny President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad another term in office and break the grip of what they call the "militia state" on public life and personal freedom.

Encouraged by recent successes in local elections, opposition factions, democracy activists, and pro-reform clerics say they will bring together progressive parties loyal to former president Mohammad Khatami with so-called pragmatic conservatives led by Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

America prepares to talk with Iran after 28 years
Posted: Monday, April 30, 2007

Condoleezza Rice held out the prospect yesterday of direct talks with her Iranian counterpart this week in what would be America's most significant contact with the Islamic republic since ties were severed almost 30 years ago.

The US Secretary of State was speaking shortly after Iran said that Manouchehr Mottaki, its Foreign Minister, would on Thursday attend talks in Egypt on the future of Iraq.

"I will not rule out that we may encounter one another," Dr Rice said in a series of interviews with Sunday talk shows. "This isn't an opportunity to talk about US-Iran issues. This is really an opportunity for all of Iraq's neighbours to talk about how to stabilise Iraq."
Full Article : timesonline.co.uk

Pulling the Trigger on Iran
Posted: Saturday, April 28, 2007

¤ Inside Africa's Guantánamo

¤ Iraq suicide blast kills dozens
At least 60 people have been killed and and 170 wounded in a suicide car bomb attack near a Shia shrine in the central Iraqi city of Karbala.
Saturday's blast occurred at a checkpoint not far from the shrine which is located in a busy area close to shops and restaurants in Karbala, which is 100km southwest of Baghdad, Iraq's capital.
"Many of the wounded are women and children," said Salim Kadhim, a spokesman for the Karbala health department.

¤ What Drugs Had Cho Taken?

¤ Afghanistan and Iraq are the Same War
Four years ago the U.S. and Britain unleashed war on Iraq, a nearly defenseless Third World country barely half the size of Saskatchewan.
For twelve years prior to the invasion and occupation Iraq had endured almost weekly U.S. and British bombing raids and the toughest sanctions in history, the "primary victims" of which, according to the UN Secretary General, were "women and children, the poor and the infirm." According to UNICEF, half a million children died from sanctions related starvation and disease.

¤ The War on Hip Hop
No sooner had talk radio's Don Imus been fired by CBS for his slur against the Rutgers women's basketball team than the media's focus turned to a favorite scapegoat: hip-hop music. And leading the way were not only the usual assortment right-wingers, but a succession of Black establishment figures.

¤ Lying as Art Form
"My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators." So said Vice-president Dick Cheney on March 16, 2003 as U.S. soldiers marched toward Baghdad at the start of America's Iraqi disaster. Nearly six months later, on Meet the Press, Mr. Cheney, not generally compared to Pollyanna, seemed to adopt her type of viewpoint:
"Well, I think we have (been greeted as liberators) by most Iraqis. I think the majority of Iraqis are thankful for the fact that the United States is there, that we came and we took down the Saddam Hussein government. And I think if you go in vast areas of the country, the Shia in the south, which are about 60 percent of the population, 20-plus percent in the north, in the Kurdish areas, and in some of the Sunni areas, you'll find that, for the most part, a majority of Iraqis support what we did."

¤ Tracking Torture
¤ Quit Your Day Job, George
¤ Time for a Combative Mobilization of the People

¤ Screening Films in Bolivia: Where the Movie Villains are American
On my first trip to Germany, shortly after college, I learned the power of media conditioning. I had grown up watching World War Two movies on television, filled with villainous Nazis. "You vill tell us vat ve vant to know. Ve haf our vays to make you talk " Surrounded by German speakers, whom I had only ever heard as menacing movie stereotypes, I felt my heart rate gallop.
Now I live in Bolivia, where the most treacherous movie villains in local films are Americans. Hollywood movies show here too, but in Bolivian productions Americans are violent and diabolical.

¤ The White House Scales Back Talk of Iraq Progress
¤ Saturday: 123 Iraqis Killed, 113 Wounded
¤ Pulling the Trigger on Iran
¤ Bush Has Gone AWOL

¤ Conquering Poverty with Politicos or Pop Stars?
So this week, America’s most watched pop culture phenomenon tried to make confronting poverty sexy. American Idol made a valiant effort to use the influence of America’s highest rated program and a cast of entertainment stars to turn water cooler discussions from Sanjaya’s hairdo to poverty in America and “giving what you can” to charity. The show may have just touched the surface but such effort by a high powered media enterprise is mildly impressive.
Not surprisingly, the program and its corporate sponsors glazed over what its viewers could collectively do to force political solutions making our government recognize its moral responsibility to those struggling economically among us. The show did perpetuate the neo-liberal idea that economic justice is a humanitarian action to be left to the sphere of charity; you give “what you can.” Low income peoples’ health and opportunities depends on what donors are willing to contribute, their basic human rights are of little consequence.

¤ Instability, Chaos, Violence Born of Unstable, Irresponsible, and Dangerous Leaders
The news from Darfur (as well as in this country from Virginia Tech) demonstrates how much damage can be inflicted on a country by dangerously unstable people. Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, has permitted a situation to flourish in Darfur that, according to United Nations reports, has resulted in the deaths of more than 200,000 people and the displacement of more than 2,000,000 since the conflict began in 2003. President Bashir has repeatedly assured the international community that he will permit U.N. peacekeepers into the country only to change his mind and permit the suffering to continue. On April 16 he let it be known that he would immediately allow U.N. attack helicopters and 3,000 international peacekeepers into Darfur to protect civilians. The final stage of the U.N. plan if permitted to be fully implemented will result in the creation of a 21,000 person joint African Union-United Nations force that would replace the extant African Union force now in place.

¤ Intention to Heal: In The Aftermath of The Blacksburg Killings
Twenty-three year old Seung Cho was born in Korea, but lived in this country since the age of 8. In his graduating year at Virginia Tech, he lived in a dorm with 5 other suite mates, not one of who knew anything about him. His roommate said, “Sometimes I would come back and find him sitting in a chair, staring into space.” A fellow student said, “I went to high school with him and it became a joke for us, if we gave him ten bucks, could we get him to speak?” Another student in his suite said, ” He didn’t say very much. I just thought he didn’t speak English very well.”
Over the past week of coverage, no fellow student has stepped forward to say s/he knew him personally or that he was a friend. Why? I ask myself if early in his life, Seung Cho’s isolation was caused by racism or a mindset provoked by a racist incident. I ask that about my own experience of isolation in America.

¤ Car bomb kills 57 near Iraqi Shi'ite shrine
¤ 28 dead in Charsaddah bomb blast

¤ Why They Fight
Watching Paul Wolfowitz, exposed in a sex and corruption scandal involving fellow World Banker and private squeeze, Shaha Ali Riza, grappling for several weeks now to save his super-cushy job at the World Bank has brought to mind the infamous quote Ron Suskind teased from a neocon senior aid to George W. Bush, "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality...and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
Regarding reality, Wolfowitz, it seems, has had to call in re-write (and not for the first time).

¤ Background On The U.S. Sponsored War In Somalia
The fighting began in December when US-backed Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia. Four months ago today, Islamic fighters abandoned the capital, marking the official fall of the Islamic Courts Union, which had controlled Mogadishu for six months last year.

¤ Tales Of Terror - Somalia Report
¤ Israel's lab in Palestine
¤ The Apathetic American

British military sanctions Afghan poppy cultivation
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2007

Angry Afghan officials have reprimanded British diplomats over a campaign by UK troops in Helmand telling farmers that growing poppy was understandable and acceptable.

A radio message broadcast across the province assured local farmers that the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) would not interfere with poppy fields currently being harvested.

"Respected people of Helmand. The soldiers of ISAF and the Afghan national army do not destroy poppy fields," it said. "They know that many people of Afghanistan have no choice but to grow poppy. ISAF and the Afghan national army do not want to stop people from earning their livelihoods."
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

Baghdad residents find little security
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2007

¤ Pat Tillman family, Jessica Lynch blow open Bush administration war deceit
The searing congressional testimonies from the family of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch may sound the long overdue death knell for mainstream American public support for the Bush administration and its criminal war.
Tuesday, one unwilling and outraged war poster child and the agonized family members of the other stood before Congress, looked the Bush administration in the eye, and said, "Enough."
Kevin Tillman, who served with his brother, accused the Bush administration of intentional deceit.

¤ 18 dead in Chechnya helicopter crash
¤ Bush vows to resist calls for withdrawal

¤ Cold-Blooded Senator
We usually hear little about shooting deaths unless enough people die in the same place at the same time. Every day 32 Americans are killed by gun violence. It is the act of terror most likely to be inflicted upon us all. Ironically, 32 was the number of fatalities inflicted by a gunman at Virginia Tech University.
Just as they did eight years ago at Columbine High School, the media descended upon Blacksburg, Virginia. They spoke to students about their dead classmates, about desperate efforts to save lives, and the horror of the bloodshed they witnessed. They spoke lovingly of their friends who died and painstakingly enumerated their special qualities.

¤ Put Bush's 'puppy dog' terror theory to sleep
¤ Baghdad residents find little security

¤ The puppet who cleared the way for Iraq's destruction
Among those relishing the exposure of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz's manoeuvres on behalf of his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, in recent weeks was almost certainly the former US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld was driven from public life thanks to the catastrophe of Iraq, and for the moment at least lurks in obscurity. Wolfowitz, his deputy until 2005, contributed in almost equal measure to the debacle, yet managed to slide from the Pentagon into the presidency of a leading international institution with every chance to redeem himself. Blame for torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, bungling over troop levels, chaos in Iraq's reconstruction, and the general meltdown in Pentagon management has all too often been laid at Rumsfeld's door alone. However, Wolfowitz was an energetic enabler of these outrages and many other notorious initiatives.

¤ Tenet: "Slam Dunk" Comment Misused
¤ Four oil firms cede control to Venezuela's Chávez

¤ U.S. Media Have Lost The Will To Dig Deep
In an email uncovered and released by the House Judiciary Committee last month, Tim Griffin, once Karl Rove's right-hand man, gloated that "no [U.S.] national press picked up" a BBC Television story reporting that the Rove team had developed an elaborate scheme to challenge the votes of thousands of African Americans in the 2004 election.
Griffin wasn't exactly right. The Los Angeles Times did run a follow-up article a few days later in which it reported the findings. But he was essentially right. Most of the major U.S. newspapers and the vast majority of television news programs ignored the story even though it came at a critical moment just weeks before the election.
According to Griffin (who has since been dispatched to Arkansas to replace one of the U.S. attorneys fired by the Justice Department), the mainstream media rejected the story because it was wrong.

¤ 9/11 Was Bad, But …
¤ Slavery in Guantanamo

¤ Fisk Takes Western Officials - and Reporters - to Task
In wide-ranging remarks during a lecture at the American University of Beirut on Thursday, veteran British journalist Robert Fisk sharply criticized US policy in Iraq, analyzed shortcomings in Western journalism on the Middle East and reflected on the state of politics in the region, saying he was "distressed" by what he called the people's hesitancy to question rulers.The lecture, entitled "After the Collapse: Disengagement in the Middle East," ran for about 45 minutes and was followed by more than 20 minutes of questions. A live telecast of the remarks was broadcast in a second room to accommodate an overflow crowd.

¤ Big Media's Assault on Democracy
¤ Afghan forces recapture district
¤ Virginia Tech

¤ Bush boogies on the White House lawn
George Bush has finally given a response to the age-old question: can the president really dance?
After a 30-second boogie on the White House lawn, the answer is: it depends what you mean by dancing.
A besuited Mr Bush was making an appearance for Malaria awareness day in the Rose Garden on Wednesday when the Kankouran West African dance company brought in for the occasion invited him to join in.

¤ Serving British soldier exposes horror of war in 'crazy' Basra
A British soldier has broken ranks within days of returning from Iraq to speak publicly of the horror of his tour of duty there, painting a picture of troops under siege, "sitting ducks" to an increasingly sophisticated insurgency.
"Basra is lost, they are in control now. It's a full-scale riot and the Government are just trying to save face," said Private Paul Barton.
The 27-year-old, who returned from his second tour of Iraq this week along with other members of 1st Battalion, the Staffordshire Regiment, insisted that he remains loyal to the Army despite such public dissent. He said he had already volunteered to go to Afghanistan later this year.

¤ Depleted Uranium - Poisoning U.S. Troops And The Planet
¤ Theater of Death

¤ The Great Wall of Segregation...
…Which is the wall the current Iraqi government is building (with the support and guidance of the Americans). It's a wall that is intended to separate and isolate what is now considered the largest 'Sunni' area in Baghdad- let no one say the Americans are not building anything. According to plans the Iraqi puppets and Americans cooked up, it will 'protect' A'adhamiya, a residential/mercantile area that the current Iraqi government and their death squads couldn't empty of Sunnis.
The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, "Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!" And yet, it will also be difficult to get out.

Oil Companies Give Venezuela Control
Posted: Friday, April 27, 2007

Thursday, Apr 26, 2007

Four major oil companies on Wednesday agreed to cede control of Venezuela's last remaining privately run oil projects to President Hugo Chavez's government, but Conoco Phillips resisted, prompting warnings that its fields could be taken over outright.

Markets have waited to see if the companies, which pump and process heavy oil in the Orinoco River basin, would remain as minority partners after Chavez decreed last month that their fields be nationalized on May 1. The four projects are considered Venezuela's most lucrative.
Full Article : venezuelanalysis.com

When In Doubt, Build A Wall
Posted: Thursday, April 26, 2007

¤ Ethiopian troops shell Mogadishu
¤ Campus killer fired 170 rounds in nine minutes

¤ Israeli Democracy
The time will have to come for Israel to declare its hand: is it "a state of the Jewish people throughout the world" as it defines itself, or a state of all its citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish? So far Israel has managed to convince the Western world that it is the only democracy in the region, but neglects to add that this democracy works only for its Jewish citizens. This is the conundrum: Israel has been unable to reconcile what it says it is, with want it wants to be democratic and exclusively Jewish.

¤ Paul Wolfowitz and Haiti
¤ This Occupation Shall Remain Nameless
¤ The Rights of Children in the United States

¤ Cho and Cheney
There is a look on the face of someone trying to understand the recent mass killing by Seung-Hui Cho at Virginia Tech. Blank eyes, a furrowed brow, a slowly shaking head. The brain hits a wall of comprehensibility. The part of the mind that imagines what happens in other minds reaches its limit; a rational person simply cannot identify with what Cho did.
There was something familiar in that look. I realized it was the same look I have seen over and over in the past four years on the faces of those I talk to in other countries about what Bush has done in Iraq. "Why?" they ask me, as if my nationality might shed some light. "Is he mentally ill?" I have no simple answers. They shake their heads. I remember the eyes of a woman in Argentina tearing up at the senseless tragedy.

¤ A Media Role in Selling the War? No Question.
Perhaps the truth shall eventually set you free, but first it might make you very, very depressed. Tonight's edition of "Bill Moyers Journal" on PBS is one of the most gripping and important pieces of broadcast journalism so far this year, but it's as disheartening as it is compelling.
It's always depressing to learn that you've been had, but incalculably more so when the deception has resulted in thousands of Americans dying in the Iraq war effort.
In this 90-minute report, called "Buying the War," Moyers and producer Kathleen Hughes use alarming evidence and an array of respected journalists to make the case that, in the rage that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the media abandoned their role as watchdog and became a lapdog instead.

¤ Bush Blames the Troops
Blame it on the military but make it look like you're supporting the troops. That's been the convenient gambit of failed emperors throughout history as they witnessed their empires decline. Not surprisingly then, it's become the standard rhetorical trick employed by President Bush in shirking responsibility for the Iraq debacle of his making.
Ignoring the fact that we have a system of civilian control over the military, which is why he, the elected president, is designated the commander in chief, Bush hides behind the fiction that the officers in the field are calling the shots when in fact he has put them in an unwinnable situation and refuses to even consider a timetable for getting them out.

¤ When In Doubt, Build A Wall
I wasn't surprised to learn about the Bush Administration's now-uncertain plans to build a wall between Sunnis and Shiites in Baghdad. After all, walls seem to be one of his favorite, all-purpose solutions. From the increased security around the presidential palace in Washington to the anti-immigrant electrified fortress at the border with Mexico, this president has proven himself a builder and a divider.He builds walls around information, too. Consider the secret detention centers and extraordinary renditions, the PATRIOT Act and secret tribunals, the stonewalling anytime Cheney or Rove are asked to account for their actions, the attempts to re-classify mounds of government documents and keep everything they do secret.

¤ U.S. Frees International Terrorist
¤ The Real Tragedy of Waco
¤ Why Mental Illness is not to blame for the Virginia Tech Massacre
¤ Putin says foreigners meddling in Russia
¤ Suicide bomb kills 10 at Iraq checkpoint

¤ The Lies of the Times
The New York Times has finally deigned to bestow prominent notice on the Bush Administration's third on-going "regime change" operation, its blood-soaked proxy war in Somalia. But it should come as no surprise that today's front page piece by Jeffrey Gettleman (People Who Feed Off Anarchy in Somalia Are Quick to Fuel It) is riddled with the same kind of slavish spin, artful omissions and outright lies that the paper produced in those glorious Judy Miller days of yore before the invasion of Iraq. One can only hope that Gettleman submits an invoice to the White House, to get his rightful due for this remarkable piece of government propaganda. For the story is permeated with the Bushist ethos: blame the victims, bury the truth, and smear all those who oppose the Leader's will.

¤ 'al Qaeda': A Figment Of The Fear- And War-Mongering Propagandists Imagination.
Yesterday the Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his band of fearmongering lunatics warned Australians gathering at Gallipoli for ANZAC Day to be aware of a 'terrorist threat'. In the UK Guardian today it is reported that the 'head of Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command said yesterday that al-Qaida had survived the six-year long "war on terror" launched by President George Bush and Tony Blair, and its central leadership had retained the ability to order devastating attacks on Britain.' As well as Gallipoli that is. And in Iraq, where it seems the Iraqi franchise of 'al Qaeda' has claimed responsibility for the deaths yesterday of nine US troops.

So good is the 'al Qaeda' franchise business that even the Israelis have tried to set up an 'al Qaeda' shop in Palestine. Unfortunately the locals soon discovered that the business wasn't genuine (apparently Mossad hadn't paid bin Laden the franchise fee) so the business was quickly shut down.

¤ Bin Laden overseeing Iraq, Afghanistan ops: Taliban
¤ Rosie Tells ABC To Screw Its 9/11 Censorship

¤ UN Criticises Iraq for Concealing Casualty Figures
Americans rushed to unite in horror and mourning in response to the mass killings in Blacksburg in a way we haven't seen since, perhaps, the attacks of 9/11. Where I live, in Washington, D.C., residents are already sporting their Virginia Tech ribbons and sweatshirts, the way so many Americans once donned those “I [heart] New York” caps and T-shirts. While media coverage has been 24/7 and fast-paced, if not downright hysterical — as is now the norm on all such American-gothic occasions from OJ's car chase on — the framing and contextualizing of the massacre/suicide at Virginia Tech has been narrow indeed.

¤ The Cho in the White House
Americans rushed to unite in horror and mourning in response to the mass killings in Blacksburg in a way we haven't seen since, perhaps, the attacks of 9/11. Where I live, in Washington, D.C., residents are already sporting their Virginia Tech ribbons and sweatshirts, the way so many Americans once donned those “I [heart] New York” caps and T-shirts. While media coverage has been 24/7 and fast-paced, if not downright hysterical — as is now the norm on all such American-gothic occasions from OJ's car chase on — the framing and contextualizing of the massacre/suicide at Virginia Tech has been narrow indeed.

¤ Giuliani Plays the Islamic Terror Card
Maybe Rudy Giuliani could be forgiven for trying out various stump speeches on his Republican audiences now that his campaign for President is up and running. But the message he is delivering as he tours New Hampshire needs to be rejected, indeed repudiated, because as Barak Obama noted Giuliani's stump speech reached a new low in American political discourse. Reports just in from New Hampshire (4.24.07) suggest that Giuliani thinks the issue he has been pushing may be pure electoral gold: the fear which he believes American voters have of Islamic Terrorism.

¤ Holocaust Redux
Such is the state of human affairs, whether in the present age or in those that came before, that not a decade passes without humanity resurrecting, in some corner of the globe, in some forsaken nation, the devastation unleashed by human wickedness. Whether mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, endemic rape, pillage, scorched earth and yes, even Holocaust, human wickedness prevails upon the human condition, leaving us impotent beasts in its wake, unable to control or suppress its malevolent tentacles, seemingly powerless to alter or halt its predictable and disastrous momentum.

¤ Somalia burns - but does anyone care?
¤ The Great Wall of Segregation...
¤ Why Walls 'Don't Work' in Baghdad
¤ Suicide bombing kills Iraqi troops
¤ Laura Bush on Iraq: 'No one suffers more than their president and I do'

Venezuelan Opposition Marches in Support of RCTV
Posted: Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Thousands of people marched in Caracas on Saturday in support of the private television channel RCTV, whose broadcast license the Chavez government has refused to renew. Chávez affirmed on Sunday that he would not give in to national or international pressure to renew the license and would never change his decision.

Starting in the morning hours on Saturday, opposition protesters, political organizations, politicians, journalists, RCTV actors and workers marched through the center of Caracas with signs and Venezuelan flags. The marchers protested in support of "freedom of expression," and against what they call the "closing" of RCTV.

"No to the closing of RCTV," said the actor Gustavo Rodríguez to the concentration of marchers in front of the RCTV building.
Full Article : venezuelanalysis.com

Zimbabwe: Nigerian Poll Exposes West, Again
Posted: Wednesday, April 25, 2007

The Herald

PRESIDENTIAL and legislative elections in Nigeria have come and gone, but what they left is widespread disappointment and more questions than answers.

Central to the inquest is whether it is possible to speak of Zimbabwe and Nigeria's elections in the same breath?

While we were not on the ground in Nigeria, reports of the loss of over 200 lives in poll-related violence, last-minute ballot printing, theft of ballot boxes at gunpoint and the failure to deliver them to some stations leave us with no doubt that the poll lacked credibility.

Even the outgoing president Olusegun Obasanjo, whose party ostensibly "won" the election expressed disappointment with the process, though he was surprisingly amenable to the outcome. But what surprises us even more is that while all observer missions have condemned the Nigerian process as a disgrace, the response from Western groups and governments has been quite muted when compared to the disgust from Nigerian and other developing world observer missions.

We, however, must emphasise from the outset, that we do not believe that Western countries have any right to bless or condemn any election on the continent, particularly when they do not disguise their contempt for African observers whom they do not even invite to their own countries.

But we would have thought the West, that always masquerades as a custodian of democracy, would join progressive observers in agitating for a rerun.

The same goes for Obasanjo who was quick to join the Western bandwagon in condemning Zimbabwe's 2002 presidential poll which can never be compared, by any stretch of the imagination, to the sham that occurred across Nigeria last week.

This is not to say we do not know why US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair seem to have lost their voices where Nigeria is concerned.

They have been benefiting a lot from Obasanjo's penchant to export crude oil, and import refined petroleum products.

Obasanjo also served them well in their fight with Harare when he went against African Caribbean and Pacific voices in the Commonwealth that had recommended the lifting of Zimbabwe's suspension from the councils of the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth's gripes, we were made to believe, were over the way the 2002 elections had gone in Zimbabwe, which is also the EU's justification for its illegal sanctions.

Today, we ask the same observers to hold the Zimbabwean process and the Nigerian poll to scrutiny, and tell the world whether they have the right to question the legitimacy of our own process. We ask, as a wronged people, betrayed both by Obasanjo and his peers what the recompense will be on Nigeria where 200 lives were lost and a key opponent only allowed to contest just a few hours before the election?

Today, Obasanjo who had hoped to leave the scene under the halo of plaudits, exits amid a cloud of shame, hoist by his own petard.

Let the Nigerian experience be a lesson to all, it is not necessarily the credibility of a process that the West is interested in, but the malleability of the regime that determines the Western response.

This is why we agree with President Mugabe that the only voices that matter are those of our brothers from the developing world, we advise Abuja to listen to their concerns.

As for the Westerners, they can go hang.

Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com

Visit: Zimbabwe Watch

Zimbabwe: 'President can do without honorary degrees'
Posted: Wednesday, April 25, 2007

News Editor
The Herald

BRITISH and American universities intending to withdraw honorary degrees conferred on President Mugabe are free to do so because he did not solicit for the honour in the first place, a Government official said yesterday.

Presidential spokesman and Information and Publicity Secretary Cde George Charamba said Cde Mugabe has seven degrees which he read for and the honorary ones were an unsolicited honour he can do without.

Cde Charamba's statement follows reports on anti-Government online news services claiming that two American and one British universities were considering petitions to strip President Mugabe of honorary degrees conferred on him.

The website &nquote; newzimbabwe.com &nquote; quoted officials as saying Edinburgh University in Scotland, the University of Massachusetts and the Michigan State University were carrying out the review because of alleged human rights violations in Zimbabwe.

But Cde Charamba said the President does not suffer from a crisis of academic achievement and will not lose sleep over the threat by the universities.

"President Mugabe has read for seven degrees. He has honorary degrees from Africa, Asia, former Eastern Europe, Europe and America.

"Honorary degrees are exactly that, an unsolicited honour from the giver.

"The President did not accost anyone to confer the honour.

"If anything, those Western universities improved their international profile by associating themselves with the President," Cde Charamba said.

He added: "It is not like the President suffers a crisis of achievement. He has seven solid degrees which are more than enough to earn him a living and recognition. He does not lose sleep over the threats."

The reports said Scottish MP Nigel Griffiths was to personally present Edinburgh University chiefs with a "dossier" spelling out why the Zimbabwean President should be stripped of his honorary degree.

Griffiths last week tabled a parliamentary motion calling for the award to be revoked, and has now asked for an early meeting with principal Tim O'Shea to discuss the subject.

Edinburgh conferred Cde Mugabe the honorary degree in 1984.

The reports said Michigan State University, which gave Cde Mugabe honorary degrees in 1984 and 1990, has also received similar petitions.

Terry Denbow, a Michigan State spokesman, said: "There have been discussions, but I know of no formal process for rescinding the degree."

Bill Wright, a spokesman for UMass president Jack Wilson, said university officials and trustees were "just in the discussion phase" about what to do with Cde Mugabe's degree.

If they decide they want to withdraw the honour, it is not likely to happen anytime soon.

While the university has a detailed procedure for awarding the degrees, there is no process for taking one back.

But Michael Thelwell, a professor in the UMass Afro-American studies department, and others cautioned against revoking the degree just to appease President Mugabe's critics.

"The task of intellectuals is to seek the truth, not to be swayed by pressures of the moment," said Bill Strickland, a UMass politics professor.

Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com

Visit: Zimbabwe Watch

'Little girl Rambo' decries US propaganda
Posted: Tuesday, April 24, 2007

¤ Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps
Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent armed soldiers into residential areas, took over radio and TV stations, issued restrictions on the press, tightened some limits on travel, and took certain activists into custody. They were not figuring these things out as they went along. If you look at history, you can see that there is essentially a blueprint for turning an open society into a dictatorship. That blueprint has been used again and again in more and less bloody, more and less terrifying ways. But it is always effective. It is very difficult and arduous to create and sustain a democracy - but history shows that closing one down is much simpler. You simply have to be willing to take the 10 steps.

¤ How Imus' Media Collaborators Almost Rescued Their Chief

¤ The War Goes Ever On
President Bush's latest delusion--the surge--has not increased security. The surge has been accompanied by new records of daily Iraqi civilian casualties, such as the 312 Iraqis killed and 305 wounded on April 18. Recently, US commanding general David Petraeus said that Iraqis would just have to learn to live with daily bombing attacks. Petraeus promises Iraqis decades of violence when he says, "Iraq is going to have to learn--as did Northern Ireland--to live with some degree of sensational attacks."

¤ Tragedy and Irony After Virginia Tech
¤ Sunnis Protest Baghdad's "Prison Wall"
¤ Ahmadinejad offers to hold direct talks with U.S. President Bush
¤ Real Crimes Of Wolfowitz Ignored
¤ Yeltsin poisoned by Putin?
¤ Labour slumps to lowest poll rating since 1983
¤ Virginia Tech: Is the Scene of the Crime the Cause of the Crime?
¤ Nine US soldiers killed in Iraq suicide blast

¤ 'Little girl Rambo' decries US propaganda
The former US private Jessica Lynch today condemned what she said were Pentagon efforts to turn her into a "little girl Rambo", and accused military chiefs of using "elaborate tales" to try to make her into a hero of the Iraq war.
Speaking at a congressional hearing on the use of misleading information, an emotional Ms Lynch described how she suffered horrific injuries when her vehicle was hit by a rocket near the Iraqi town of Nasiriya in March 2003, killing several of her companions.

¤ MSM Gets an "F" at VT
The news media demolished their right to be accorded unswerving, unquestioning, and eternal faith in their veracity when the botched the WMD’s and the run-up to the Iraq War. Their performance in the wake of Pat Tillman’s death, did nothing to resort their believability. Recent reports indicate that there was a cover up after the Haditha incident, and they fumbled the subsequent coverage.

¤ Ranger: Told to conceal Tillman truth

¤ Clashes claim 37 lives in Mogadishu

¤ The Iraqi Crisis That Has No Name
Since the shock-and-awe invasion of Iraq began in March 2003, that country’s explosive unraveling has never left the news or long been off the front page. Yet the fallout beyond its borders from the destruction, disintegration, and ethnic mayhem in Iraq has almost avoided notice. And yet with — according to United Nations estimates — approximately 50,000 Iraqis fleeing their country each month (and untold numbers of others being displaced internally), Iraq is producing one of the — if not the — most severe refugee crisis on the planet, a crisis without a name and without significant attention.

¤ Fighting cripples Somali capital

¤ Mr. Bush, Tear Down That Wall
Meanwhile, back in Baghdad, we’re building a wall. Actually, quite a few walls.While we were absorbed with the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech-and before that the Don Imus affair and the Alberto Gonzales tragicomedy-the war in Iraq was pushed below the fold. While we weren’t looking, the U.S. military started building high walls in parts of the Iraqi capital to separate Sunnis from Shiites. Basically, we’re turning Baghdad into Belfast.

¤ 74 dead in attack on Chinese-run oil field in Ethiopia
¤ Israelis with Ahmed Chalabi are building the walls in Iraq
¤ Video: The Battle of Baghdad

Luis Posada Carriles, A Terrorist Walks
Posted: Monday, April 23, 2007

WITH A MISGUIDED decision upholding bail for Cuban-born terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has done more than free a frail old man facing unremarkable immigration charges. It has exposed Washington to legitimate charges of hypocrisy in the war on terror.

By allowing Posada to go free before his May 11 trial, the court has released a known flight risk who previously escaped from a Venezuelan prison, a man who has boasted of helping set off deadly bombs in Havana hotels 10 years ago and the alleged mastermind of a 1976 bombing of a Cuban airplane that killed 73 people. Posada's employees confessed to the attack, and declassified FBI and CIA documents have shown that he attended planning sessions.

In other words, Posada is the Zacarias Moussaoui of Havana and Caracas. Moussaoui is serving a life sentence without parole in a federal prison in Colorado for conspiracy in the 9/11 attacks; Posada is free to live in Miami.
Full Article : venezuelanalysis.com

Ex-Russian president Yeltsin dies
Posted: Monday, April 23, 2007

The former Russian president Boris Yeltsin has died aged 76, the Kremlin said today.

Mr Yeltsin - who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union - became the first popularly elected president in Russian history in June 1991.

His period in office was characterised by the introduction - sometimes tumultuous - of free market reforms into the former command economy.

By the time he left power, Mr Yeltsin had become deeply unpopular because of his economic "shock therapy", which brought with it the rise of the oligarchs, deep corruption and a huge drop in living standards.
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

Axis of Cowards: Bush, Congress and the Media
Posted: Monday, April 23, 2007

¤ Ex-Russian president Yeltsin dies
¤ Axis of Cowards: Bush, Congress and the Media
¤ Democrats Take Cover from Impeachment
¤ Lack of Basic Health Insurance Kills 18,000 Americans Every Year
¤ Earth Day, Incorporated

¤ Suicide bombings around Iraq kill 46
suicide car bomb struck a restaurant in Iraq on Monday, killing at least 19 people and wounding 35, police said. The attack occurred on a highway near Ramadi, a city that is 70 miles west of Baghdad, a policeman said on condition of anonymity out of concern for his own safety. Three suicide bombers launched attacks in different parts of Iraq on Monday, killing at least 27 people and wounding nearly 60 on Monday, police and politicians said.

¤ Venezuela’s Chavez: US Harboring ‘Terrorist’ Jet Bomber
President Hugo Chavez on Sunday accused US President George W. Bush of harboring the convicted bomber of a Cuban airliner. “I accuse the president of the United States of protecting an international terrorist,” Chavez said. “They have freed the father of all terrorists: the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles,” Chavez said.

¤ Hip-Hop Is Not The Problem
¤ Government looses Kismayo, fighting continues in Mogadishu

¤ UN Official Says Humanitarian Crisis in Palestine
"For the Palestinians, the situation is grave. In Gaza there are an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians and approximately 80 per cent of the population lives below the official poverty line at US $2.05 per day per capita. The Palestinian Gross Domestic Product collapsed by 23 per cent in the last year. One million, or 70 per cent of these people, are registered as refugees and 1.05 million people depend on international assistance."

¤ Here We Go Loop de Loo: Spinning Through the News Cycle
¤ Tomgram: Dahr Jamail, Into the Iraqi Diaspora

¤ We build walls, not nations
No British soccer players, Czech supermodels or Chinese infotainment moguls have been lining up to get a piece of the new exclusive gated territory in the global market - courtesy of Pentagon real-estate developers and lavishly promoted as The Great Wall of Adhamiyah. But then, who wants to live behind a 5-kilometer-long, 3.7-meter-high concrete wall, being erected in haste by the 407th Brigade support battalion of the famed 82nd Airborne Division, currently based in sprawling Camp Taji, north of Baghdad.

¤ IRAQ: U.S. Blamed for 'Bloody Wednesday'
Iraqis blame the U.S. occupation for the failure of two parallel security plans drawn up by U.S. forces and Iraqi troops that failed dramatically with the bombings last week that killed more than 300 people in Baghdad.

Under the security plans additional troops were brought to Baghdad and most city streets closed. But car bombings, operations by death squads and attacks on U.S. troops continue.

The attacks Wednesday last week took a high casualty among Kurdish workers known to work in that area. Kurds in the north have stayed relatively free of the violence and the sectarian Shia-Sunni killings in the rest of the country. Kurds had supported the U.S.-led invasion four years back.

¤ What the separation-walls mean
¤ USA: Cornering the Market on Morality
¤ Mass Murderers
¤ International conference highlights plight of Iraqi refugees

Zimbabwe Independent Opposition, Not For Real
Posted: Sunday, April 22, 2007

¤ Zimbabwe Independent Opposition, Not For Real
The pro-western groups that oppose Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe have found themselves in a bit of a bind. Those groups in Zimbabwe were the first to appeal to the international community to get involved and take sides in Zimbabwe's internal politics, now they are offended when some of us 'outsiders' formulate our own opinions from evaluating the history and information being presented.

¤ Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is Bush
George W. Bush likes to present the "war on terror" as a clear-cut moral crusade in which evildoers who kill innocent civilians must be brought harshly to justice, along with the leaders of countries that harbor terrorists. There are no grays, only blacks and whites.

But evenhanded justice is not the true core principle of the Bush Doctrine. The real consistency is hypocrisy: violence which Bush favors – no matter how wanton the slaughter of innocents – is justifiable, while violence that goes against Bush's interests – even an insurgency against a foreign military occupation – must be punished without remorse as "terrorism."

In other words, if Bush hates the perpetrators, they are locked up indefinitely without charge and, at his discretion, can be subjected to "alternative interrogation techniques," what most of the world considers torture. The rule of law is out the window. Wild West hangin' justice is in. Even the ancient fair trial right of habeas corpus is discarded.

¤ 51 killed as Somalia fighting rages
¤ Week's toll may hit 1,000 as bombs pound Somali capital

¤ The 'Paths of Death' Lead to Washington
They are events with no apparent connection: the growing and ceaseless carnage unfolding in Iraq which yesterday claiming over 200 victims; the uncontrollable violence tied to drug trafficking that rocks Mexico and that culminates in deadly shootings like that which took place yesterday at Tijuana General Hospital; and the recurrence of deadly shootings at schools and universities in the United States, like the events of this past Monday at Virginia Technical University. But those realities of destruction and death do share a common denominator: they are all the result of the decisions and strategies of the government next door [the United States].

¤ Bush's Terror War in Somalia Rages On
As sure as night follows day, when George W. Bush backs a "regime change" invasion of a country, you will see headlines like this: "Corpses Rotting in the Streets." We see it every day in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we are seeing it again in Somalia – the third nation-breaking operation launched under the rubric of Bush's "War on Terror."

¤ When Evil Met Stupid
The question is asked all the time, by people of all political stripes. Is some person evil or just incompetent? Is some horrible situation caused by evil or incompetence? We want the simplest answer, but in this world, simple isn't always correct. In too many situations today, we have collisions of Evil and Stupid, and they always conspire to make the world worse.
Let's take a look at a quick ten, shall we?

¤ UN Official Says Humanitarian Crisis in Palestine
"For the Palestinians, the situation is grave. In Gaza there are an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians and approximately 80 per cent of the population lives below the official poverty line at US $2.05 per day per capita. The Palestinian Gross Domestic Product collapsed by 23 per cent in the last year. One million, or 70 per cent of these people, are registered as refugees and 1.05 million people depend on international assistance."

¤ Microsoft admits Vista failure
¤ Iraq PM calls halt to Baghdad wall

¤ After Tillman death, Army clamped down
Within hours of Pat Tillman's death, the Army went into information-lockdown mode, cutting off phone and Internet connections at a base in Afghanistan, posting guards on a wounded platoon mate, and ordering a sergeant to burn Tillman's uniform. New investigative documents reviewed by The Associated Press describe how the military sealed off information about Tillman's death from all but a small ring of soldiers. Officers quietly passed their suspicion of friendly fire up the chain to the highest ranks of the military, but the truth did not reach Tillman's family for five weeks.

¤ Iran, US take their fight to Afghanistan
Marine General Peter Pace, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, is not beyond making gaffes. When the clever editors of the Chicago Tribune recently prompted him to discuss his former commander-in-chief Bill Clinton's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy on homosexuality among US servicemen, Pace responded that homosexuality was as "immoral" as adultery.

¤ Blair Set To Quit On May 9
¤ Sunni-Shiite Wall Construction Halted
¤ Millions face famine as crop disease rages
¤ France faces left-right Elysée showdown

Latest US solution to Iraq's civil war: a three-mile wall
Posted: Saturday, April 21, 2007

The US military is building a three-mile concrete wall in the centre of Baghdad along the most murderous faultline between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

The wall, which recognises the reality of the hardening sectarian divide in Baghdad, is a central part of George Bush's final push to pacify the capital. Work began on April 10 under cover of darkness and is due for completion by the end of the month.

The highly symbolic wall has evoked comparisons to the barriers dividing Protestants and Catholics in Belfast and Israelis and Palestinians along the length of the West Bank.

Captain Scott McLearn, who is based at Camp Victory, the US base on the outskirts of Baghdad, said Shias "are coming in and hitting Sunnis, and Sunnis are retaliating across the street".
Full Article : guardian.co.uk

Mugabe 'an outstanding leader', says Zambian vice-president
Posted: Saturday, April 21, 2007

¤ Zimbabwe: Mugabe 'an outstanding leader', says Zambian vice-president
Zimbabwe's embattled President Robert Mugabe won a show of support from neighbouring Zambia with its vice-president calling him one of the world's great leaders, state media in Harare reported Friday.

In comments carried by the Herald newspaper, Rupiah Banda said Mugabe had shown courage by embarking on his controversial land reform programme in the face of Western criticism and any problems in Zimbabwe should be resolved among Africans.

"We are proud to stand in front of the world and say this is our brother and that any problems here or in Zambia can be solved by ourselves within the context of our continent and our organisation," Banda said after meeting with Mugabe on Thursday.

¤ Zimbabwe: Anglican Bishops Support Mugabe
THE Anglican Church Province of Central Africa has added its voice to the growing condemnation of the illegal Western sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and called for their scrapping, urging Britain to honour its obligations to fund land reforms in the country.

In their Pastoral letter issued at the end of their Episcopal Synod in Harare last week, the 14 bishops and one canon, among them the head of the Province of Central Africa, the Most Rev Bernard Amos Malango, acknowledged that the economic situation in Zimbabwe stemmed from illegal sanctions.

"We, the bishops, are concerned and pained at the distressing occurrences that have been taking place in Zimbabwe; the deteriorating economy has rendered the ordinary Zimba-bwean unable to make ends meet.

¤ Bank investigates contracts linked to Wolfowitz
¤ Two dead in Nasa hostage drama

¤ I long for the days of "We now resume normal broadcasting"
As I was growing up and yes I am a boomer, we only had the six and eleven o’clock news as well as the print medium to keep us informed. I feel that those of us who grew up in that time almost wish we could go back in time. Why do I say that? When cable news came into our lives it created a 24/7 news cycle in which every nuance of a major story could be stretched at length. In essence became voyeurs to human tragedy. Have we become voyeurs to this human tragedy through the Virginia Tech massacre and now with the Houston tragedy? It is not only those tragedies I speak of but anyone tragedy that the media feels will draw us in.

¤ A Killer Cocktail
¤ The Heart of Whiteness

¤ How Iraq was Looted
When President Bush announced "Mission Accomplished," and the end of the war in May 2003, he also said we would help the citizens of Iraq rebuild their country. "Now that the dictator's gone," he stated, "we and our coalition partners are helping Iraqis to lay the foundations of a free economy."
Apparently he was referring to the Coalition Provisional Authority that took up residence in Saddam's luxurious palace in May 2003, with the newly appointed King, Paul Bremer. The CPA was granted the authority to award reconstruction contracts in Iraq and it used that authority to implement what will go down in the history books as the most blatant war profiteering scheme of all time.

¤ Deputy Mayor dies as more fighting continues

¤ The Big Picture
President Bush is pretty much universally abhorred by libertarians, and his popularity among the general public has fallen greatly. This is as it should be. With all the focus on Bush, though, I think the more important lesson he teaches is being neglected.

Libertarians are quite rightly hostile to the idea that massive state power is fine as long as it's in the "right" hands. The widespread acceptance of that idea by the general public serves to make statism largely invulnerable to attack; all of the state's numerous evils can be blamed on specific malign individuals, without ever considering the possibility that state power itself is the root of the problem.

¤ Dubya vs. Seung-Hui Cho: Who's The Greater Menace?
Officials in West Virginia are taking heavy flak for their failure to act on early warnings that South Korean Seung-Hui Cho, who massacred 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech, was a seriously disturbed menace to his community
How then to judge the United States Congress which continues to ignore overwhelming evidence that George W. Bush is an infinitely greater threat to his countrymen; indeed to the entire globe.
Wait, you say, how can you compare the august President of the United States with a dangerously deranged 23 year old South Korean?

¤ Yet another Fallujah leader assassinated
¤ Collateral Damage is Murder
¤ French vote set for close finish
¤ The occupation disparate solution: A wall

¤ Thousands without food and supplies due to failing distribution system
Thousands of Iraqis are going without food and basic supplies as the country’s food distribution infrastructure crumbles, according to a new report.

The country’s Public Distribution System (PDS), set up in 1995 as part of the UN’s Oil-for-Food programme, has been hit by insecurity, poor management, corruption and a lack of political will.

Zimbabwe: Mugabe 'an outstanding leader'
Posted: Saturday, April 21, 2007

Zimbabwe: Mugabe 'an outstanding leader', says Zambian vice-president

angolapress-angop.ao

HARARE, 04/21 - Zimbabwe's embattled President Robert Mugabe won a show of support from neighbouring Zambia with its vice-president calling him one of the world's great leaders, state media in Harare reported Friday.

In comments carried by the Herald newspaper, Rupiah Banda said Mugabe had shown courage by embarking on his controversial land reform programme in the face of Western criticism and any problems in Zimbabwe should be resolved among Africans.

"We are proud to stand in front of the world and say this is our brother and that any problems here or in Zambia can be solved by ourselves within the context of our continent and our organisation," Banda said after meeting with Mugabe on Thursday.

"Zimbabwe is a sovereign state which should be respected by all and that within its sovereignty, its people decide who is their leader and as far as we are concerned, right here (pointing at Mugabe), we have one of the most outstanding leaders in the world and in Africa."

Banda's words of praise are in contrast to recent comments from Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa who has compared the situation in Zimbabwe to the sinking of the Titanic.

Banda is seen as close to Zambia's founding president Kenneth Kaunda who recently warned against the "demonisation" of his old ally Mugabe.

South African President Thabo Mbeki was recently tasked by regional heads of state to help resolve the divisions between Mugabe government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change after recent attacks on MDC leaders.

Zimbabwe is currently in the throes of an economic meltdown which has seen inflation surge towards the 2,000 percent mark.

Western critics have traced the decline of the economy to the launch of the land reform programme in 2000 which saw thousands of white-owned farms seized by the state.

http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=526167

Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com

Visit: Zimbabwe Watch

Zimbabwe: Anglican Bishops Support Mugabe
Posted: Saturday, April 21, 2007

By Caesar Zvayi
The Herald (Harare)

THE Anglican Church Province of Central Africa has added its voice to the growing condemnation of the illegal Western sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and called for their scrapping, urging Britain to honour its obligations to fund land reforms in the country.

In their Pastoral letter issued at the end of their Episcopal Synod in Harare last week, the 14 bishops and one canon, among them the head of the Province of Central Africa, the Most Rev Bernard Amos Malango, acknowledged that the economic situation in Zimbabwe stemmed from illegal sanctions.

"We, the bishops, are concerned and pained at the distressing occurrences that have been taking place in Zimbabwe; the deteriorating economy has rendered the ordinary Zimba-bwean unable to make ends meet.

"This, we note, has been exacerbated by the economic sanctions imposed by the Western countries, these so-called targeted sanctions (presumably) aimed at the leadership of the country have affected the poor Zimbabweans who have borne the brunt of the sanctions ...

"We, therefore, call upon the Western countries to lift the economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, we further call upon the British government to honour its obligation of paying compensation to the white farmers."

The Anglican Bishop's pastoral letter exposes the patently political nature of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishop's Conference that released its own letter ahead of the Easter holidays, accusing President Mugabe and the Government of corrupt governance and human rights abuses.

The Catholic Bishops, led by the head of the Bulawayo Diocese -- Archbishop Pius Ncube -- and two of his colleagues from South Africa, Archbishop Buti Tlagale and Bishop Kevin Dowling, held an opposition rally on April 12 under the auspices of the Save Zimbabwe Convention and pledged to facilitate illegal regime change in the country.

Turning to the recent orgies of violence, the Anglican Bishops urged the Government to provide a framework for peace by creating an environment conducive for dialogue.

"As bishops, we denounce all forms of violence perpetrated by whatever source as a means of resolving conflict as this is a degradation of those created in the image of God."

Last month, MDC factions embarked on orgies of violence disguised as a "defiance campaign," through which they sought to depose the Government in the streets. When their attempts were thwarted, they launched terrorist activities that saw them assault police officers, burn private and public property and carry out 11 reported petrol bombings on police stations and private property.

The statement by the Anglican Bishops was in line with the theme of the 27th Independence Anniversary Celebrations, "Uniting Against Sanctions," and the resolution on Zimbabwe at the extra-ordinary summit of Sadc heads of state and government at the end of March in Tanzania.

At the summit, Sadc leaders reaffirmed their support and solidarity for the people and Government of Zimbabwe, called for the lifting of the illegal sanctions, recognised the legitimacy of the electoral system and urged Britain to honour its obligations to fund land reforms in Zimbabwe.

They also pledged a rescue package to mitigate the effects of the sanctions and tasked South African president Thabo Mbeki to facilitate dialogue between the Government and the opposition.

Apart from Archbishop Malango, other bishops who signed the Pastoral Letter dated April 12 2007 were Right Revs: Christopher J. Boyle (Northern Malawi), Albert Chama (Northern Zambia), Elson Jakazi (Manicaland), Derek Kamukwamba (Central Zambia), Nolbert Kunonga (Harare), William Muchombo (Eastern Zambia), Ishmael Mukuwanda (Central Zimbabwe), Robert Mumbi (Luapula) Trevor Mwamba (Botswana), David Njovu (Lusaka), Wilson Sitshebo (Matabeleland), Godfrey Tawonezvi (Masvingo), James Tengatenga (Southern Malawi), and Rev. Canon Michael Mkoko, Vicar General of the Diocese of Lake Malawi.

The Anglican Bishop's pastoral letter left egg on the face of the head of the church, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Willams who, last month, tried to pressure his bishops, among them Dr Kunonga, to join the bandwagon of condemning the Government for alleged human rights excesses.

Dr Williams went to the extent of holding a one-on-one meeting with Bishop Kunonga on the sidelines of the Anglican Conference on Tackling Poverty held in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he urged him to drop his "soft stance" towards the Government.

In the wake of the meeting, Dr Williams was criticised by church members who said Bishop Kunonga, who is well-known for his progressive sentiment, should not be pressured into telling falsehoods about his country.

Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com

Visit: Zimbabwe Watch

Is the US Already at War With Iran?
Posted: Friday, April 20, 2007

¤ We need to kill him
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has to be killed. Really be killed, I mean, physically. He should be eliminated, put to death, assassinated, and all those words that serve to say the same thing. Former Mossad Director Meir Amit said this explicitly in a recent interview with the "Kfar Chabad" weekly. It is indeed a very impolite way to express our disgust with the Iranian archenemy. Government officials, including ones who have retired already, usually merely hint at such matters - that is, if they choose to talk about them at all.

¤ Vermont Senate: Impeach Bush
¤ Trump: Bush is the Worst President in the History of the United States.
¤ US bombs Iraqi mosque
¤ Bush muses on marriage, chicken-plucking
¤ Officials: Gunman Barricaded In JSC Building
¤ Heavy fighting continues

¤ Bowing Down to Our Own Violence
Several days after the mass killings at Virginia Tech, grisly stories about the tragedy still dominate front pages and cable television. News of carnage on a vastly larger scale — the war in Iraq — ebbs and flows. The overall coverage of lethal violence, at home and far away, reflects the chronic evasions of the American media establishment. In the world of U.S. mainline journalism, the boilerplate legitimacy of official American violence overseas is a routine assumption. “The first task of the occupation remains the first task of
government: to establish a monopoly on violence,” George Will wrote three years ago in the Washington Post. But now, his latest Newsweek column laments: “Vietnam produced an antiwar movement in America; Iraq has produced an antiwar America.”

¤ CBC defends choice not to air Cho video
¤ New US Postal Rates Undermine Small Publications
¤ Google's first-quarter profit skyrockets by nearly 70%
¤ Spain and Iraq, Four Years On
¤ Desperation in Gitmo's Camp 6

¤ The Bloodiest 12 Months of the War
There is an Iraq surge, but it is a surge in deaths. The year up to March 2007 has been the worst 12 months for civilian fatalities since the invasion was launched. Almost 50 per cent of all violent civilian deaths since the March 2003 invasion occurred in the period between March 2006 to March 2007 according to figures compiled by Iraq Body Count .
''All these deaths have been documented and verified by IBC,'' Hamit Dardagan, principal researcher of the UK based organisation said. 'We believe the figures are higher as not all deaths can be verified.''

¤ Drought threatens crop catastrophe, Australian prime minister says
¤ US builds Baghdad wall to keep Sunnis and Shias apart
¤ Sunnis, Shiites unite to oppose divisive wall
¤ Iraq may hold twice as much oil
¤ Al-Malaki Sheds Light On Bombings

¤ Va. gunman's family feels hopeless
The family of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho told The Associated Press on Friday that they feel "hopeless, helpless and lost," and "never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence." "He has made the world weep. We are living a nightmare," said a statement issued by Cho's sister, Sun-Kyung Cho, on the family's behalf.

¤ Mission Accomplished in Iraq by Bremer and CPA
"With one swipe of the pen, Bremer granted himself the authority to run the government ministries, appoint Iraqi officials and award contracts for reconstruction. Next he fired 500,000 Iraqis, most of them soldiers, but pink slips also went out to many doctors, nurses, teachers and other public employees as well."

¤ Is the US Already at War With Iran?
Until the recent tragic massacre on the campus of Virginia Tech, the media’s previous obsession was covering what was undoubtedly the most important story since the paternity test results were revealed for Anna Nicole Smith’s baby: Don Imus, the favored "shock jock" of the Washington political establishment, is something of a bigot. Of course, this isn’t news to anyone who has paid passing attention to the man over the past few years, but it did provide national news outlets with a much-needed excuse to avoid reporting on all of those depressing stories from Iraq, which are just too much of a distraction from the truly important work that remains to be done in this country – like electing the next American Idol.

By giving Don Imus more coverage than any single human being deserves, news outlets were able to shelve stories that had started to grow a little stale – like that one about the United States government supporting terrorist attacks in the Middle East. Oh wait, you didn’t hear that one?

¤ U.S. Census: One in Five Lives on Less than $7 per day

¤ A hierarchy of death
Thirty-two die in American university shooting. Result? Huge media coverage in the US and Britain. In Iraq, almost 200 die, arguably the worst day of carnage in that beleaguered country since the coalition invasion. Result? Coverage so restrained as to be, in many cases, totally negligible. Could you even find it in the Times this morning? Why?
General reasons first. The media operate what amounts to a hierarchy of death. Here are the criteria: foreign deaths always rank below domestic deaths. Similarly, on the basis that all news is local, deaths at home provide human interest stories that people want to know about, while the deaths of foreigners are merely statistics.

Sure, the victims and their families are human beings, too, but if they are thousands of miles away they cannot - in the eyes of the media's editorial controllers - generate the same sympathy and interest as deaths near at hand.

Zimbabwe Independence Day
Posted: Thursday, April 19, 2007

¤ Zimbabwe Independence Day - An African Statement
Yesterday the people of Zimbabwe celebrated their nation's 27th year of independence and the US and other European powers are not pleased. They hoped that the White minority settlers in Zimbabwe could have continued controlling the vast amounts of land that were taken during colonial rule.

Despite the increasing pressure from the US and other European powers, the majority in Zimbabwe remain strongly aligned to the ruling ZANU-PF party and their president, Robert Mugabe. It was hoped that economic hardship fueled by sanctions and the ongoing campaign by Western countries to demonize President Robert Mugabe could have been enough to turn the majority of people in rural areas against Mugabe. So far that has failed.

¤ The Hobbesian Hell of Iraq
What are we to make of the bizarre contrast between our national grief over the terrible slaughter of students and faculty at Virginia Tech and our muted reaction to the continuing bloodbath in and around Baghdad? One mass killing in the 209 years since Virginia Tech was founded is not exactly a trend. It is a terrible thing but not likely to be repeated anytime soon.

We cannot say the same about events in Baghdad and Iraq. Just today four separate car bombs in and around Baghdad teft at least 180 Iraqis--mostly Shia--dead. On Tuesday, at least 85 bodies turned up and there were more bombings. Monday was not much better--thirty corpses and at least twenty killed in bombings. Sixty nine plus on Sunday. And the beat goes on.

¤ Wolfowitz's World Bank deputy tells him to quit

¤ In Baghdad, carnage continues
US efforts to subdue the insurgency in Baghdad suffered a setback yesterday when the Iraqi capital endured one of its most wretched days in four years of slaughter, with nearly 200 people killed and more than 200 injured in a volley of afternoon bomb attacks.
Some of the capital's poorest and most densely populated areas once again confronted scenes of carnage and devastation as at least five large explosions detonated within a terrifying few hours. In the worst attack, a car bomb at a market in a Shia district killed at least 140 people, some of them labourers rebuilding the marketplace from a previous attack in February.

¤ A Day of Bombs and Blood
¤ Somalia Fighting Kills at Least 12

¤ Police 'sorry' killer's videos were broadcast
US police said tonight they were "sorry" hate-filled videos recorded by campus killer Cho Seung-Hui have been broadcast. Virginia Police Superintendent Steve Flaherty said he was disappointed US channel NBC chose to show the disturbing footage. He said officers studied the ranting speeches recorded by the 23-year-old South Korean murderer but they "simply confirmed what we already knew". Although NBC News delayed broadcasting clips for several hours while FBI officers examined the footage, it has since been criticised for airing them

¤ Wednesday: 312 Iraqis, 1 GI Killed; 302 Iraqis Wounded
¤ Unplugged McCain sings 'bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran'
¤ John McCain Just Doesn't Get It - II
¤ Former Mossad chief not against taking out Ahmadinejad
¤ The Endless War
¤ Tangled in Table Talk

¤ Heck of a Job, Wolfie
At least they can't blame Paul Wolfowitz on the Jews anymore. That's the good news in the scandal; his lover and neocon political soul mate, Shaha Ali Riza, the World Bank official who received a lucrative transfer to the State Department at Wolfowitz's direction, is an Arab Muslim. She is one in a group of Arab exiles, the most prominent being Ahmed Chalabi, who clearly had as much of a role as the oft-mentioned Israel lobby in driving the U.S. to war. Throw in the Christian right's fierce support for the invasion and responsibility for this debacle is now proved to be quite ecumenical.

¤ Meeting the Resistance in Iraq

¤ Wolfowitz's Quid Pro Quo
Of the top five outside international appointments made by embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz during his nearly two-year tenure, three were senior political appointees of right-wing governments that provided strong backing for U.S. policy in Iraq.

The latest appointment came just last month, when former Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan Muasher was named senior vice president for external affairs. Muasher served as King Abdullah II's ambassador in Washington in the run-up to the Iraq War in 2002 and reportedly played a key role in ensuring Amman's cooperation in the March 2003 invasion. During and after the invasion, when Muasher served first as foreign minister and then as deputy prime minister, he was considered among Washington's staunchest supporters in an increasingly hostile Arab world.

¤ Imus Is Out, But Whitey Execs Get the Last Laugh
¤ Mauritania swears in first President
¤ Iran denies US claims on weapons in Afghanistan
¤ 'I Wish The Iraq War Never Existed,' It Was 'Osama Bin Laden's Idea'
¤ Va. Tech shooter was laughed at
¤ Backlash leads to pullback on Cho video
¤ Bomber gets by Baghdad security; 12 dead
¤ The Deeper Darkness Behind the Wolfowitz Scandal

¤ Deadly clashes erupt in Mogadishu
Fighting has erupted again the Somali capital Mogadishu, leaving at least 10 civilians dead and 15 more injured, Al Jazeera says. Heavy shelling could be heard around the city on Thursday as Ethiopian troops clashed with Somali groups opposed to the country’s interim government, agencies report. Witnesses told the AFP news agency that eight people were killed when a mortar landed in a bus station in the south of the city.

¤ Bringing Down the House of Lies
It's a bit of a mixed feeling to realize that millions and millions of people who didn't get this distinction two, four or six years ago now understand that the "political' issues we now face aren't about right and left, they're about right and wrong. On one hand, what took you so long? On the other, thank God and welcome aboard.

¤ Trouble is brewing for the US in Iraqi Kurdistan
¤ The Assault on a Pregnant Woman

¤ Our dead, their dead
As tragic as the Virginia Tech shootings are, let's face it: 32 dead is a slow day in U.S.-occupied Iraq.

"Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate," President Bush said. "They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time." He would know.

In America, we have the luxury of mourning our dead for days or even years (see 9/11). If Iraqis tried to "pull together" and "come to grips" with every massacre of innocents . . . well, you get the idea.

Zimbabwe Independence Day - An African Statement
Posted: Thursday, April 19, 2007

By Ayinde
rastafaritimes@yahoo.com
April 19, 2007

Yesterday the people of Zimbabwe celebrated their nation's 27th year of independence and the US and other European powers are not pleased. They hoped that the White minority settlers in Zimbabwe could have continued controlling the vast amount of land that was taken during colonial rule.

Despite the increasing pressure from the US and other European powers, the majority in Zimbabwe remain strongly aligned to the ruling ZANU-PF party and their president, Robert Mugabe. It was hoped that economic hardship fueled by sanctions and the ongoing campaign by Western countries to demonize President Robert Mugabe could have been enough to turn the majority of people in rural areas against Mugabe. So far that has failed.

The life expectancy of an average Zimbabwean, as reported by the White House Deputy Press Secretary, Dana Perino, is 36 years old and the White Western powers are doing all they can to increase the pressure on the ordinary people through sanctions and rhetoric that is designed to scare away investors and financers from Zimbabwe. In other words, if the common folks in Zimbabwe do not force their government from power, allow Whites to control the most and best agricultural land, and accept western neocolonial polices, then they deserve to suffer and die.

Many in the African-American community join Africans in the international community in supporting those in Zimbabwe who bravely speak out against sanctions, for Britain to honour the agreement to finance the land redistribution exercise and for Zimbabwe to move further way from neocolonial policies.

Zimbabwe should also be calling for compensation from colonial powers for the theft of land, the hardship that Africans endured, and the wealth that the West derived from the unjust and illegal acquisition of land in Zimbabwe.

Many Zimbabweans understood that maintaining political freedom and reducing poverty required a new direction. They understood that the government was right to move away from the IMF and World Bank policies. They also understood that the government was right to fast track the process of reclaiming lands from White settlers and returning them to the indigenous African population.

We in the African community support Zimbabwe's efforts to develop true independence, free from the dictates of western powers and poverty.

Email: zimbabwecrisis@yahoo.com

Visit: Zimbabwe Watch

Zimbabwe: Celebrating victory over British forces
Posted: Thursday, April 19, 2007

The Herald
April 19, 2007

FULL text of the prepared speech by President Mugabe on the occasion of the 27th Independence Anniversary celebrations held at Rufaro Stadium in Harare, and various provincial centres.

TODAY, the 18th of April 2007 marks the 27th Anniversary of our hard-won Independence and freedom from the shackles of British colonialist and imperialist domination. We celebrate not only our 27th year of sovereignty and self-determination but also our success, our collective success, in repulsing the unending attempts by our erstwhile colonisers and other detractors to disturb our peace, stability and tranquillity. Congratulations Zimbabwe, Congratulations Comrades and Friends, on our refusal to be re-colonised! Let the sound of our Celebrations reach the ears of Britain and her allies, and let them know that we shall never, never, never be a colony again.

This 27th Anniversary demonstrates the victorious spirit of the unity of our people, the unity of a people who know how this country came into being, a people prepared to stand in defence of their country's achievements and future direction. It is this spirit of oneness, the unyielding singleness of purpose which, during the Liberation Struggle, cheered and lifted our gallant patriots to the heights of supreme sacrifice in the name of freedom and sovereignty. These heroes and heroines of the struggle would turn in their graves if today we were to bequeath anything less than full, uncompromised Independence and sovereignty to the future generations of the country. Thus today is a day when we also celebrate our continuing electoral successes and victories over British-sponsored negative forces, however organised.

I wish to applaud the resilience of our people, who have resisted the brazen attempts of our detractors, openly working in cahoots with their shameless local puppets, to reverse the gains of our Independence through their "regime change" agenda. We have observed how of late, this conspiracy has attempted to transform into a militant criminal strain, characterised by the puerile attempts of misguided opposition elements to create a state of anarchy through an orgy of violence. As Government, our message remains clear that we will not hesitate to deal firmly with those elements who are bent on fomenting anarchy.

On the broader socio-economic arena, the economy has continued to be buffeted by seemingly unending waves of price hikes largely prompted by both unbridled greed among some of our businesspersons and by the strategy of our saboteurs. These spates of increases in prices of basic commodities have largely been without justification. The price escalations have eroded the incomes of our people, thereby stirring disquiet across all sectors of the economy. Because price instability adversely affects ordinary consumers and business entities alike, it is imperative that all stakeholders should work together to stem the existing inflationary spiral. We cannot drift along while this vice continues to undermine our economy.

It is on this premise that Government, in conjunction with other social partners, is actively involved in negotiations for the eventual establishment of a Social Contract. Within this framework, Government, business, labour and other key stakeholders are expected to agree on establishing binding protocols that will form the basis of sustainable confidence building and help the planned turnaround of the economy. I would like to commend the unity of purpose so far exhibited by the social partners who are "putting Zimbabwe first".

On another front, Government is also expediting the setting up of the National Incomes and Pricing Commission, which will provide the framework for appropriate pricing of goods and services using well-tested scientific pricing models.

It is hoped that the Incomes and Pricing Commission will be fully operational during this second quarter of 2007. But above all these attempts, is the need for greater production of those commodities in scarce supply in order to more than satisfy demand for them. This is indeed the function of more investment capital, domestic and foreign, hence our Look East policy.

Government continues to accord high priority to poverty reduction and the attainment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. In light of this, funds have been allocated to the Rural Capital Development Fund for water and sanitation facilities in various rural districts of the country.

Regrettably, this thrust has once again suffered some setbacks following the drought that affected the Southern African region. However, Government is determined to ensure that none of our people in the affected areas will starve.

Faced by the various challenges that characterise our economy, Government has evolved decisive measures to deal with them through the National Economic Development Priority Programme. The Programme's major objectives are the reduction of inflation, stabilisation of the local currency, ensuring food security, increasing output and productivity, generation of foreign earnings, removal of price distortions and effective policy co-ordination and implementation.

Following the successful implementation of the Land Reform Programme, Government is now focused on raising productivity through the rehabilitation and development of irrigation facilities and provision of inputs such as seed, fertilizer, chemicals and tillage.

In addition to this, Government would like to see agricultural mechanisation assume a very pivotal role as a springboard to greater levels of production. Hence the creation of the new ministry of Agricultural Engineering and Mechanisation.

Measures are being taken in the context of the National Economic Development Priority Programme, to capacitate the local manufacturing industries through injection of foreign currency by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe so they can produce some of the agricultural equipment we need.

It is my hope that the 2007/2008 agricultural season will see a much better state of our national preparedness.

In order to further boost agricultural production, the development of new crop varieties able to cope with the emerging climatic conditions will continue in earnest. Since Independence, 54 crop varieties have been developed and are now grown widely by our farmers. Furthermore, the Agricultural Extension Worker Programme has, since 2005, successfully trained over 200 graduands, thus significantly reducing the vacancy rate for field extension workers.

Following the launch of the 99-year lease agreements last year, a total of 475 farmers have so far qualified for the leases. The provision of leases as security of tenure, and as collateral in accessing financial borrowings, should in turn improve productivity on the farms.

The Nation's fight to reduce inflation has necessitated measures that address structural and supply constraints to economic production.

Government is currently working on a package of assistance to boost capacity utilisation for certain selected strategic companies critical in the overall economic turnaround programme's contribution to job creation and foreign currency generation.

In the mining sector, the country continues to lose much-needed foreign currency through rampant leakage and smuggling of some of our high value minerals, notably gold and diamonds.

The focus of Government this year will therefore be on ensuring that these nefarious activities are stamped out. In this sector, Government will soon introduce a Bill governing the ownership structures of mining organisations to enhance empowerment and national control.

In our continued general efforts to accelerate the involvement of indigenous Zimbabweans in the economy as a whole, my Government is finalising the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Bill, which will provide legal underpinning to the Indigenisation and Empowerment Policy.

As part of the process of empowering our emerging entrepreneurs, Government has continued to provide concessionary funding facilities for the micro, small and medium enterprises sector.

A total of $39,5 billion has so far been availed through Sedco for on-lending to the enterprises this financial year. This included funds earmarked for projects by the youths. A total of $200 million was provided under the NEDPP for the funding of 51 projects at various Growth Points throughout the country.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's $16 billion SMEs facility introduced in 2006 has so far benefited 1 222 projects, while Sedco's Loan Booth Scheme has assisted in addressing the financial requirements of the informal sector, which is mainly operated by women and the youth without collateral security.

In order to empower our youths, the Zimbabwe Youth Employment Network was developed and approved by Cabinet in May 2006. This has given birth to the Youth Development Fund and Loan Guarantee Scheme as specific windows for providing financial support to youth driven enterprises.

The Infrastructure Development Bank, through the Youth Development Fund, has successfully provided funds to 32 youth enterprises, creating 522 jobs in the process.

The empowerment of women economically remains top priority for Government. To date, a significant number of women is now effectively involved in critical sectors of the economy.

Government is also soon to introduce gender budgeting as an essential instrument for guaranteeing mainstream of women within Government policies and programmes.

External business trips have been organised for women to visit countries like China, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, Botswana, South Africa, among others. Government has set aside $5 billion from the RBZ facility for women projects, from which a total of 511 women have already benefited.

Tourism remains one of the key growth nodes in our economic turnaround programme, and with that objective in mind Government has over the past year channelled funds towards the development of the Gonarezhou National Park, which is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park shared by South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

2006 was however, a bad year for our environmental conservation, as veld fires destroyed vast tracts of plantations as well as natural forests and grasslands. Government, through the Ministry of Environment and Tourism responded with the launch last year, of the Fire Management and Protection Strategy, which should go a long way in minimising the outbreak and damage caused by uncontrolled fires. Political and civic leaders are also urged to educate our people on the need to preserve our flora and fauna for posterity.

To enhance national fuel requirements, Government continues to work on bio-diesel and ethanol projects, which, it is hoped, will reach a mature stage in the near future.

To alleviate the current power shortages in the country, Government has embarked on various initiatives, which include the renewal of existing Power Purchase Agreements with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa and Mozambique. Furthermore, Zesa and NamPower of Namibia negotiated and signed a Loan Financing Agreement and Power Purchase Agreement involving the refurbishment of Hwange Power Station. This should go a long way towards improving the performance of Hwange Power Station in supplying power to the national grid.

In the area of transport, Government continues to seek more finance for the development of our national road structure and the enhancement of our national airline (Air Zimbabwe) through the acquisition of more aircraft and the intensification of training programmes for more engineers, pilots and other technical experts.

The worrisome issue of the brain drain in technical skills to neighbouring countries and abroad is fast turning the country into a training ground for other countries with little or no benefit accruing to the nation.

It is for this reason that Government has now created a Skills Retention Fund to attract, retain and support personnel in critical skills shortage areas of the national economy. These recruits will have improved conditions of service.

Government has also embarked on a Cadetship Scheme with a view to recruiting a cadre exhibiting loyalty, patriotism and commitment to serving the public.

Furthermore, Government has taken a deliberate decision to enhance the provision of non-pecuniary incentives in the public service. To this end, a new Public Servants Housing Programme for Public Servants has been established and in the spirit of public and private sector partnership, a Public Servants Housing Development Company has been formed to raise funds for the construction of such houses. In addition, Government is also providing bus services at reasonable fares to transport civil servants to and from work.

Whilst the country is experiencing a downward trend in the prevalence of HIV and Aids from 23,4 percent in 2005 to 18 percent in 2007, the situation is still worrying. We should all steer clear of this dreaded scourge, especially through abstinence from premarital sex and faithfulness to one's spouse. The rollout of the anti-retroviral treatment programme is continuing despite the attendant challenge of scarce foreign currency.

In the realm of international relations, we continue to give priority to efforts to promote investment, trade and tourism for economic turnaround under the auspices of the NEDPP.

We have therefore redoubled our efforts to forge strong and mutually beneficial economic ties with both our traditional friendly and new co-operation partners. In that context, we held very successful Joint Commissions with Zambia, China, Iran and Namibia. The Joint Commissions with China and Iran gave fresh impetus to our "Look East Policy" while those with Zambia and Namibia further strengthened our co-operation with these two regional partners.

The advent of unilateral and military adventurism by the powerful few poses the greatest threat to international peace and security.

Accordingly, Zimbabwe will continue to push for the upholding of multi-lateralism and peaceful settlement of disputes as the best guarantee to international stability and security for all nations, big or small.

To improve the efficiency of the international system, Zimbabwe has remained steadfast in its support for calls for reform of the United Nations, especially its Security Council, to make it more democratic.

I wish to express Zimbabwe's gratitude to those countries in the international community and especially to Sadc for remaining unwavering and understanding in their support and solidarity with Zimbabwe.

Let me at this point thank our security forces for continuing to be the vanguard of our revolution and national integrity.

Indeed, they have continued to play a critical role in buttressing our economic turnaround efforts. The ZRP in particular, have greatly assisted in stamping out crime in the country and criminal and impudent behaviour in the mining sector though Operation Chikorokoza Chapera/Isitsheketsha Sesiphelile where anarchy had become the order of the day. In the face of extreme provocation they have curbed and inhibited the criminal tendencies of the opposition parties.

As part of their civic activities, members of the Security Forces continue to spearhead the implementation of operation Maguta/Inala, which seeks to boost the country's food security in joint efforts with A1, communal and resettled farmers to open up vast tracts of land for grain