CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Attacks Iraq

The BBC reports Iraq has accused ian forces of entering Iraqi territory and shelling Kurdish rebel positions in the north:

ian troops bombed border areas near the town of Hajj Umran before crossing into Iraq, the defence ministry in Baghdad said on Sunday.

Last week the Associated Press reported Iraqi President Talabani is concerned about ian troop concentrations on those countries' borders with Iraq:

also reportedly has moved forces to the border, and last week shelled a mountainous region inside Iraq used by ian Kurd fighters for infiltration into , according to Iraqi Kurd officials. No casualties were reported from Friday's artillery and rocket barrage.

's current leadership seems determined to confront the U.S. defies the U.N., ignoring a Security Council call to suspend all nuclear fuel enrichment and instead accelerated the program. ian president Ahmadinejad has said that Israel must be "wiped off the map," called the Holocaust a myth, and suggested Israel be moved to Germany or Alaska. The State Department reports that remains the "most active state sponsor of terrorism."

In January, at the National Review Online, Ilan Berman wrote that 's President Ahmadinejad is actively seeking a crisis with the West:

In a recent closed-door session of the foreign policy and national security committee of the majles, 's parliament, Ahmadinejad laid out the cornerstone of his foreign-policy strategy. The past decade-and-a-half of "détente," Ahmadinejad told lawmakers, had cost the Islamic republic dearly. The message was unmistakable: It is now time for confrontation.

Berman also reminds us that in his manifesto, "Islamic Government," Khomeini outlined the guiding philosophy of the ian mullahs' regime:

To create a victorious and triumphant Islamic political revolution . . . to unite the Moslem nation, [and] to liberate [all] its lands.

That goal is very similar to bin Laden's goal of causing a conflagration, a war between the Islamic world and the infidels.

Last week I wrote that any overt cross-border operations into Iraq by or Turkey would certainly cause al sorts of unanticipated consequences. Maybe the consequences aren't so unanticipated. Maybe 's attack on Iraq is yet another attempt to provoke the United States.

Defies UN Demands

The U.N. nuclear watchdog says that has ignored a U.N. Security Council call to suspend all nuclear fuel enrichment and has accelerated the program.

According to Reuters the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said had done little during a 30-day grace period to answer questions meant to determine whether its nuclear activity is solely for civilian purposes.

ian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said his country would ignore any U.N. resolution designed to curb its atomic activities:

"Those who want to prevent ians from obtaining their right, should know that we do not give a damn about such resolutions," he told a rally in northwest .

The IAEA report also:

Confirmed that had flouted the Security Council's demands.

Confirmed 's claim this month to have enriched uranium with a cascade of 164 centrifuges to the low level needed to fuel nuclear power plants.

Revealed is building two new cascades of 164 centrifuges at its underground enrichment plant.

IAEA inspectors have found no hard proof that has a military nuclear program, but ElBaradei has said he still cannot say for sure that it is not conducting one in secret. News reports have raised questions about ian research on advanced "P-2" centrifuges, documents on how to design an atomic bomb core, and intelligence reports of links between uranium ore processing, high-explosives tests and a missile warhead design.

The U.N.'s credibility is again at stake. As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said:

To be credible, the Security Council of course has to act. It cannot have its word and its will simply ignored by a (U.N.) member state.

If China and Russia remain opposed to Security Council action they should be made to publicly vote on a resolution, even if the resolution fails or is vetoed. The world cannot just sit by and simply watch as ian mullahocracy pursues its nuclear ambitions. In order for diplomacy to have a chance of persuading to give up nuclear its ambitions, must pay a price for staying the course. The continuing dithering can only encourage the mullahs.

Nothing Gringo - Mexico To Boycott U.S. Firms

It's bad enough that Mexico interferes in the internal affairs of the U.S. by encouraging illegal immigration and even supporting demonstrations in the U.S. supporting rights for illegal aliens, but to boycott American businesses is going too far.

CNN:

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (AP) -- "The Great American Boycott" is spreading south of the border, as activists call for Mexicans to boycott U.S. businesses on May 1.

The protest is timed to coincide with a May 1 boycott of work and shopping in the United States that also has been dubbed "A Day Without Immigrants." The boycott, which grew out of huge pro-migrant marches across the United States, is designed to pressure Congress to legalize millions of undocumented people.

Mexican unions, political and community groups, newspaper columnists and even some Mexican government offices have joined the call in recent days.

"Remember, nothing gringo on May 1," advises one of the many e-mails being circulated among Internet users in Mexico.

"On May 1, people shouldn't buy anything from the interminable list of American businesses in Mexico," reads another. "That means no Dunkin' Donuts, no McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, Sears, Krispy Kreme or Wal-Mart."

Mexicans are biting the hand that feeds them a little too hard. As I have posted before, Mexicans think they have an inalienable right to migrate to the U.S.:

Mexico's economy, society and political system are built around the assumption that migration and amnesties for undocumented migrants will continue — and that the $20 billion they send home every year will keep coming, and almost certainly grow.

In fact, the government is counting on continued cash from a Mexican-born U.S. population it predicts will rise from 11 million to between 17.9 million and 20.4 million by 2030.

[. . .]

President Vicente Fox is one of many Mexican who considers the migrants "heroes," because they send money to their impoverished home villages, and in some cases risk death walking into America in pitiless desert sun.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico has warned that by tying the Mexican "Nothing Gringo" campaign to the May 1 "Day Without Immigrants" boycott in the United States Mexicans and the orginizers of the demonstration supporting rights for illegal aliens are risking a backlash.

The Chamber of Commerce is right. Many will see the Nothing Gringo boycott of America businesses for what it is - blatant anti-Americanism. I certainly do.

UPDATE: It has been suggested that an appropriate response would be a Cinco de Mayo boycott.

Construction Begins At Ground Zero

Four and one-half years after the twin towers were reduced to a smoldering pile of rubble, construction of the Freedom Tower has begun.

It's official even if, as the New York Times reports, construction really started a couple of weeks ago.

Senate Panel Recommends Abolishing FEMA

A bipartisan Senate investigation concludes the Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot be fixed and recommends FEMA be replaced.

The Associated Press reports the recommendations of a seven-month investigation to be detailed in a Senate report to released next week propose creating a new agency, called the National Preparedness and Response Authority, that would plan and carry out relief missions for domestic disasters.

Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins, who led the inquiry, described FEMA as a "shambles and beyond repair."

Many of the 86 recommendations were far less dramatic. The recommendations range from creating a Homeland Security Academy to better trained relief staff, to encouraging people and state and local governments to plan for evacuating and sheltering pets during a disaster.

It's hard to defend FEMA, but I don't understand how replacing FEMA with a new agency will improve our ability to respond to a disaster on the scale of Katrina. I think we would be much better off with an agency that helps local and state governments develop plans for disater response. We need to regain part of that famous American self reliance.

The big lesson of the Katrina disaster is that everyone must prepare to fend for themselves until help arrives. There will be situations, natural disasters or horrific terrorist attack, in which the calvary won't get there for awhile. That's just the way it is. The government can't always provide immediate relief.

The City of San Francisco has figured this out. The City's Office of Emergency Services has set up a website called 72 Hours. The site implores you to imagine that you have no electricity, no gas, no water and no telephone service, that all the businesses are closed and you are without any kind of emergency services, then asks what will you do until help arrives?

The 72 Hours site offers advice on how to prepare for a disaster and survive until help does arrive. We should all think whether we are prepared and what we would do when faced with a disaster.

The Culture Of Corruption Claims Another Democrat

The Associated Press reports that Matt Brown, Rhode Island's Democratic secretary of state, abandoned his bid to replace Rhode Island's Republican U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee. Brown ended his campaign after questions surfaced over his fund-raising practices.

In a statement on the Matt Brown for US Senate website, Brown cited money problems and said he does not intend to run for re-election as secretary of state. It was the money that torpedoed Brown's campaign.

Brown has acknowledged asking his most generous donors to contribute money to state Democratic parties in Hawaii, Maine and Massachusetts after those parties gave his campaign $25,000. The donors had already contributed the maximum amount allowed by law to Brown's campaign.

That undercut Brown's platform of clean government and campaign finance reform.

I first read about this scandal a month ago in an Associated Press article in The Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The story was interesting because it concerned Hawaii Democrats contributing to a U.S. Senate candidate in Rhode Island who was still competing for the party's nomination:

The Hawaii Democratic Party contributed $5,000 to Brown despite the fact the local party has carefully avoided giving any support to either of the primary election candidates in their own U.S. Senate race between incumbent Sen. Daniel Akaka and Rep. Ed Case.

In December, the Hawaii Democrats were asked to donate to the Brown campaign and sent Brown $5,000. In early January, the Hawaii Democratic Party received a $6,000 from a Rhode Island man. The contributor, a member of Brown's campaign committee, had already given Brown the $4,200 maximum allowed contribution. The Brown campaign gained $5,000 it couldn't have received otherwise, and the Hawaii party made $1,000 profit.

Similar contributions were also made to state Democratic parties in Massachusetts and Maine. Those parties also contributed to Brown.

If these donations may have violated federal election law:

It's illegal for an organization to pass on contributions in someone else's name, said an official for the Federal Elections Commission.

The Star-Bulletin reported the Hawaii Republican Party Chairman Sam Aiona wanted the Federal Elections Commission to investigate the matter, But the FEC would investigate only if someone filed a complaint.

So the Hawaii Republican Party filed a complaint accusing Democrats in Hawaii, Maine and Massachusetts of illegally laundering campaign money:

"There is reason to believe that the Brown campaign provided an alleged contribution laundering scheme, whereby it steers donors to the Hawaii, Maine and Massachusetts state parties, with the explicit or implicit agreement that the state parties would in turn contribute to the Brown campaign," according to the complaint, read to the Associated Press by Nakano, that was to be filed with the Federal Elections Commission.

Brown isn't the first Democrat to quit over this campaign finance scandal. The Boston Globe reported that the chairman of the Maine Democratic Party acknowledged that he resigned in part because the scheme to help bankroll Brown's U.S. Senate campaign, which he called "a mistake in judgment."

This contribution laundering scheme reminds me of the scheme that has Tom Delay fighting criminal charges.

Afghanistan Is Open For Business

In today's Wall Street Journal, Ann Marlowe starts off an article by describing a conversation she had with a recent Yale graduate:

"Why did you decide to come to Afghanistan?" I asked. He stared at me. "This is the largest rebuilding and development effort in the history of the world. Who wouldn't want to be here?"

According to Marlowe, Afghanistan is finally open for business.

The signs are everywhere, from Kabul's traffic jams to Mazar-i-Sharif's building boom; from the opening of a Coca-Cola bottling plant to the country's first private university, the American University of Afghanistan, offering programs in business administration and information technology.

Business is not only booming in Kabul, much of the real economic action takes place in the provinces.

Like its coverage of Iraq, when reporting on Afghanistan the main stream media usually focuses on bombs going off and the numbers of combatants killed. Marlowe's article paints a much different picture of Afghanistan:

The security situation is far better than the media and the $500-a-day security companies would have you believe. British-educated Minister of Communications Amirzai Sangin notes that Americans are losing opportunities due to fears about security: "There is potential for five mobile companies here. The fact that Investcom paid $40 million for their license -- and that another company is in negotiations with us now -- should give you the assurance that there is security here. We have 3,700 employees in every one of the 34 provinces and to date no person has been killed or kidnapped."

Since the kidnapping of an Italian woman in May 2005, there have been no attacks on foreigners in Kabul -- no robberies, kidnappings, assaults or murders. In fact, part of the problem is that because Afghans don't see the situation in most of their country as unsafe, they haven't addressed the outsider perception. As a Western-educated Afghan who sees it from both sides told me, "What Afghanistan needs to do right away is to hire a good PR firm to tell people that it's safe to come here!"

Despite concerns about religious freedom, I am optimistic about Afghanistan's future. I much prefer Marlowe's view of Afghanistan as a land of opportunity to the negative stories we see day in and day out. I hope her view is the one most likely to prevail.

No Proof of Secret CIA Prisons

The Associated Press reports the European Union's antiterrorism coordinator says investigations into reports that US agents shipped prisoners through European airports to secret detention centers have produced no evidence of illegal CIA activities:

''We've heard all kinds of allegations, impressions; we've heard also refutations. It's up to your committee to weigh if they are true. It does not appear to be proven beyond reasonable doubt," he said. ''There has not been, to my knowledge, evidence that these illegal renditions have taken place."

[. . .]

De Vries told the committee no EU-US agreement authorized secret renditions of terror suspects, that hundreds of CIA flights did not occur over Europe as reported by various media organizations, and that he has no news of European countries using intelligence obtained under torture.

The New York Times reminds us that "many European nations were outraged after an article in The Washington Post in November cited unidentified intelligence officials as saying that the C.I.A. had maintained detention centers for terrorism suspects in eight countries, including some in Eastern Europe.

The story earned the Washington Post's Dana Priest a Pulitzer Prize.

In addition to the international uproar caused by Priest's article, government officials have said it did significant damage to relationships between the U.S. and allied intelligence agencies. You likely recall that because of Priest's article, in December Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had to remind our European allies that the United State does not violate allies' sovereignty or break international law, and that Europeans that their governments are also fighting against terrorists who have bombed commuters in Madrid and London.

It is ironic that the European Union official announces there is no evidence to support the allegations of illegal CIA activities just as the a CIA officer is fired for leaking information NBC News reported pertained to stories on the CIA’s rumored secret prisons in Eastern Europe and was allegedly provided to Dana Priest.

Some bloggers, such as Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters and Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse, are wondering whether the CIA European detention center story may have been a sting designed to identify the leaker.

Religious Freedom Commission Concerned About Religious Rights In Pakistan And Afghanistan

The Associated Press reports the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom will raise alarms about Islamic extremism in Pakistan and rights for non-Muslims in Afghanistan in its annual report. It is also expected to renew its call for tougher measures against Saudi Arabia and China to persuade those countries to work to end religious persecution:

Pakistan is one of Washington's most crucial allies against al-Qaida and its offshoots, but it also suffers from sectarian violence between majority Sunni Muslims and Shiites that's claimed hundreds of lives, including an April 11 bombing that killed 56 people at a Sunni gathering. The country's small Christian communities have also come under attack.

The commission has recommended "particular concern" status for Pakistan since 2002, but no action has been taken by the State Department.

With Afghanistan, the commission has been highly critical of perceived shortcomings in the country's post-Taliban constitution and legal codes that do not guarantee protections for non-Muslims. The calls should be amplified this year following the arrest of the Christian convert Abdul Rahman, who faced a possible death penalty before charges were dropped and he was granted asylum in Italy.

I have supported our strategy of fighting the War Against Terror by bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East because I believe that it is the best way to stop Islamo-fascism. But when fundamental religious freedoms in the countries where we establish democratic reforms can't be guaranteed, then the knee jerk reaction is to question whether we are on the right track. We are. There is no viable alternative. No one has suggested another strategy. We must be patient ant vigilant in this struggle. We can't expect long time Islamic countries to be converted into bastions of religious tolerance and Jeffersonian democracy after dyeing thumbs blue a few times. We are in a long, very long struggle. It will take patience, determination and persistence to prevail. But, as the saying goes, failure is not an option.

Foreign Troops On The Border Worry Iraq

The Associated Press reports Iraqi President Talabani is concerned about ian and Turkish troop concentrations on those countries' borders with Iraq:

Turkey has moved thousands of troops to the border region in what its military said was an offensive against Turkish Kurd guerrillas.

also reportedly has moved forces to the border, and last week shelled a mountainous region inside Iraq used by ian Kurd fighters for infiltration into , according to Iraqi Kurd officials. No casualties were reported from Friday's artillery and rocket barrage.

According to the Cihan News Agency, at a news briefing Talabani addressed reports that Turkey is preparing to conduct operations within Iraqi borders, said:

There is no trans-border operation; Turkey is conducting operations within its own borders for the moment as far as we know. However, we oppose Turkey conducting any operation within Iraq’s borders. I do not think the US will accept this either.

Last week the Washington Times published an article providing some background on the Kurds push for autonomy which is likely the reason for the troublesome troop concentrations:

The problem of the Kurds, a tormented nation-tribe deprived of statehood throughout its history, also affects Turkey's neighbors , Iraq and Syria, where an estimated 10 million Kurds live.

[. . .]

To the Turkish government, the creation of a semiautonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq has brought the specter of autonomy for Turkey's Kurdish population.

[. . .]

In recent weeks, suicide bombers have appeared in the conflict, which since the 1980s has claimed an estimated 37,000 lives in the war between the Turkish army and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), regarded by Turkey, the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization.

Hardly a day goes by without rioting and clashes in the mountains, where Kurdish fighters are reportedly supplied with weapons from Iraq. The victims include Kurdish guerrillas and an increasing number of Turkish soldiers.

I'm not sure how much to make of this. Any overt cross-border operations into Iraq by or Turkey would certainly cause al sorts of unanticipated consequences.