Twitter's been hacked! So far the SC Twits are Safe

It's all an Al Qaeda plot I tell you, they're hacking Brit Brit's Twitter (eww sounds dirty!). A few months ago the Military Intelligentsia warned:

"Extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by hacktivists and activists for surveillance," it said. "This could theoretically be combined with targeting."

And who better to target than a semi-washed up Teen Pop Idol who in her older age is reverting back to Trailer Trash Barbie.

But it's not just Brit Brit, it's Bill O. -aka- Papa Bear,

Rick Sanchez from CNN,

and even the President Elect, though the hactivist didn't go all out against him as they did the others. So who is it, the A-rabs, the "Asians", or just some disaffected libruls.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, we feel comfortable in South Carolina that we're safe - oh wait! SCHotline has been hacked by some sort of homophobic bigot... oh wait, that's just them. So we're safe, for now, and we're sure that the king of the South Carolina Twittosphere - Wesley Donehue will keep us posted on twitter threat levels.

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Cheney has watched Frost/Nixon one too many times already

But unlike Frost and Nixon, Dick Cheney is showing that he can surpass Richard Nixon these days with all the "confessions" and logical fallicies and obfuscation to justify his actions and assertions that at no time is the President accountable to anyone, and he does it blithely and nonchalantly and with such hubris - it's like watching a crumudgeoned serial killer's dance during an interrogation with cops, the same sociopathic pyschosexual gratification when the killer believes and tells you that you will never catch them.

The cops can posture and sputter and question, and for the serial killer they can admit gleefully yes, all the while not believing that they can be touched - and scariest of all is that sometimes they're right.

[On Monday of this past week, Cheney admitted to Jake Tapper of ABC that he was instrumental and authorized torture]

God help us all that this shadow of a man should not live much longer but hurry to fade and to become the distant nightmare that he is destined and willing to become - a ghost story used to scare children at halloween.

The latest from Fox News Sunday is so telling, it's like looking at an alternate universe, except sadly it's not, from this week's creature feature:

WALLACE: If you could conceptualize it for me, sir, what do you think are the powers of the president relative to Congress and relative to the courts during war?

CHENEY: Well, I think in wartime, when you consider his responsibilities as commander in chief, clearly that means command of the armed forces.
It also, when you get into use of forces in wartime, means collecting intelligence. And therefore, I think you're fully justified in setting up a terror surveillance program to be able to intercept the communications of people who are communicating with terrorists outside the United States.
I think you can have a robust interrogation program with respect to high-value detainees. Now, those are all steps we took that I believe the president was fully authorized in taking and provided invaluable intelligence which has been the key to our ability to defeat Al Qaida over these last seven years.

WALLACE: This is at the core of the controversies that I want to get to with you in a moment. If the president during war decides to do something to protect the country, is it legal?

CHENEY: General proposition, I'd say yes. You need to be more specific than that. I mean — but clearly, when you take the oath of office on January 20th of 2001, as we did, you take the oath to support and defend and protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
There's no question about what your responsibilities are in that regard. And again, I think that there are bound to be debates and arguments from time to time, and wrestling back and forth, about what kind of authority is appropriate in any specific circumstance.
But I think that what we've done has been totally consistent with what the Constitution provides for.
The president of the United States now for 50 years is followed at all times, 24 hours a day, by a military aide carrying a football that contains the nuclear codes that he would use and be authorized to use in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States.
He could launch a kind of devastating attack the world's never seen. He doesn't have to check with anybody. He doesn't have to call the Congress. He doesn't have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in.

WALLACE: So what...

CHENEY: It's unfortunate, but I think we're perfectly appropriate to take the steps we have.
And go back and look at how eager the country was to have us work in the aftermath of 9/11 to make certain that that never happened again. Now we've had a lot of time pass over it, so we've had, I think, people more complacent, perhaps, than was true some time ago.
We've also had a lot of our critics who want to score political points made what I think are outrageous charges. But in my mind...

WALLACE: So what rights do the Congress — what constitutional rights do the Congress and the courts have to limit the power of the president when it comes to these matters of national security?

CHENEY: Well, the Congress has — clearly has the ability to write statutes and has certain constitutional authorities granted in the Constitution.
But I would argue that they do not have the right by statute to alter a presidential constitutional power. In other words, you can't override his constitutional authorities and responsibilities.

WALLACE: So if they want to say he can't surveille or he can't detain...

CHENEY: Well, they have, for example, said — passed the War Powers Act. The War Powers Act is still in force out there today. That requires him to grant certain notifications to the Congress and give them the authority to supersede those by vote, if they want to, when it comes to committing troops.
No president has ever signed off on the proposition that the War Powers Act is constitutional. I would argue that it is, in fact, a violation of the Constitution, that it's an infringement on the president's authority as the commander in chief.
It's never been resolved, but I think it's a very good example of a way in which Congress has tried to limit presidents' authority and, frankly, can't.

And it goes from there. January 20, 2009 can't get here quickly enough.

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Violence Rocks the City of Charlotte

At 12:05 PM EST Gunman stormed the South Park Mall in Charlotte firing indiscriminately at innocent shoppers. Witnesses said the gunman(men) entered via the Macy's and fanned out throughout the mall, security was overwhelmed.

Scores are reported wounded, it's still unknown how many have been killed. The mall is porous but police are scrambling to lock it down - so far no one has control of the situation, it's been reported that the FBI are either on scene or en route. Don't know if the gunman(men?) are still in the mall or have escaped.

Not much other information is available.

Say prayers, follow the coverage at the Observer. (continued below the picture)

The above report is a fiction, an unfortunate parallel to the recent violence of late in Mumbai India. But why write it, why create such a parallel? Because what happened in India could also happen here. The terrorists in Mumbai used rudimentary weapons, weapons that are readily available on the streets of the US. As if to underscore this availability then you have to look no further than the South Carolina General Assembly. They've made this weekend a "2nd Ammendment Sales Weekend" removing the sales tax of most if not all firearms available in South Carolina. And while state legislators lauded the plan saying,

“It’s to bring recognition that the Second Amendment of the Constitution is every bit as important as the First Amendment,” which establishes freedom of religion and speech, Pitts said. “It’s very much symbolic.”

One can't help but wonder if such a political stunt seems rather inappropriate in the wake of such tragedy and loss of life as has been caused this week by gunmen.

My dissenters will chime in seemingly angelic chorus that Guns don't kill people, people kill people, to which I will say yes and it just so happens that the weapon of choice in those killings are guns.

Remember the same gun that's available to the sportsman to use properly as a method of killing game and maintaining a time honoured American tradition can at the same time be used as a weapon to kill scores of people.

The gun in the home purchased to protect one's property and family is the same kind of gun on the street used to perpetrate crime.

So yes, the problem is not the guns per se it's the people who obtain them and then use them for nefarious deeds, the prescient question now is - what to do about guns coming into the hands of the wrong folks for the exchange of coin, certainly a sales tax holiday on top of all the loopholes and cut arounds is not the solution.

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Following President Bush's "If you're not with us..." logic

If we apply President Bush's "if you're not with us, you're against us" logic then Anne Coulter, Sean Hannity and the rest of the hateful, vile, seething American Far Right including the James Dobsons and Hugh Hewitts of the world, must all be Al Qaida sleeper cells. Al Qaida is apparently upset that their 'message' is being muddled and rejected by -- get this, 'Pro-Obama Media Bias,'

Global reactions to Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri's controversial condemnation of U.S. President-Elect Barack Obama as a "House Slave" (or, alternatively, "House Negro") have begun to pour in -- including via the top jihad web forums used by Al-Qaida to disseminate its propaganda. Though hardcore Al-Qaida supporters have predictably dismissed any criticism of Dr. al-Zawahiri and are fiercely backing his choice of words, there is a rather ironic (if not entirely unfamiliar) twist to this issue. After observing international press reporting on the incident, these same supporters are now bitterly attacking the media for its "unfair" pro-Obama bias and for deliberately "confusing" the meaning of al-Zawahiri's message.

So, keeping that in mind, it should be obvious that purchasing any materials from Focus on the Family, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter or any other right wing terror organization, such as "red state" or "townhall" only funds the enemies of American Liberty and Peace.

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Pirate Attacks are up! (wacky claim and oversimplification of the day)

If you've been following Matt Drudge these past few days the high seas swarming with Pirates. Sensationalistic Yellow Journalism aside, Pirates are more and more brazen these days -- especially off the East African coast.

Something else struck me though, this October was actually rather cold. So cold in fact that certain corners of society who have been adamant in their doubts about climate change had something to actually base their opinions on. And while they criticise Dr. Hansen, who works for NASA, made assertions about this past October being the warmest on record, I offer a different scenario.

It's the pirates... back in June we talked about the cult of the Spaghetti Monster and their beliefs on the inverse relationship between pirate attacks and global temperatures.

Perhaps it's (not) Occam's Razor that lends (in)credulity of such an explanation, but it's a hell of a lot easier to make this assertion as opposed to the foolishness that human activity and the release of green house gasses has little or no effect on the environment and climate around us. But hey, maybe I'm just being snarky.

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Churning up the base

One result of stirring up the base with "otherness," whether you hear the cries of Terrorist, Kill Him! Off with his head, or whatever, is that someone always takes it just a bit too far.

Just look at Ohio, where rightest wing nuts have called in Death Threats to the secretary of state, sent an unusual package calling for death to Obama Supporters and hacked her website.

Folks should be reminded that John McCain doesn't care about a washed up leftist domestic terrorist from 40 years ago, which is fine, but he should be concerned with the rightist domestic terrorists of the past 20 years. Timothy McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski - both rightest domestic terrorists stoked to terror by their believing that society was moving to far left because of media and political developments amongst other delusions.

This in essence, is what John Lewis was talking about when comparing the rhetoric of McCain and Palin to George Wallace.

If people have no problems calling in Death threats to the Ohio Secretary of State because of a perceived injustice as perpatrated by libruls because the pretty lady, who knows the Lord, says so then what should stop any of them if Obama is elected from trying something stupid and crazy. Are these folks the "Real America" so esteemed by the Republican Party? The must be if they're not affraid of calling Libruls Un-American.

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Quote of the Day: Blessed Virgin Mary Vs. Our Lady of Wasilla

Leading Apostles and Prophets with titles such as "Generals of Intercession" go on spiritual warfare ventures with names like "Operation Ice Castle" - to attack the territorial demons which they believe prevent Muslims and Roman Catholics from embracing the true faith. In one such venture, one of the participants happily testified that she believed their efforts against the demon, "the Queen of Heaven", may have resulted in the death of Mother Theresa.

- Bruce Wilson, on Sarah Palin's Third Wave Theology

Emphasis added. If people can espouse that Barack Obama embraced the radical liberation theology of Rev. Wright, is it not also ok to believe that Sarah Palin embraces a similar extreme
theology from the right? Yes.

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Obama Assasination Foiled? Conspirators arrested and being questioned

Even as Ted brought unity and Michelle introduced America to the new Camelot and Democrats cheered and cried, at least four people have been arrested in Denver on weapons and drug charges and have admitted that they were plotting to assasinate Barack Obama on Thursday night from a "...high vantage point using a ... rifle … sighted at 750 yards."

Police on Sunday arrested one member of the group 28 year old Tharin Gartrell after pulling him for driving erratically. According to CBS4 in Denver in the vehicle police "found two high-powered, scoped rifles in the car along with camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, wigs, a bulletproof vest, a spotting scope, licenses in the names of other people and 44 grams of methamphetamine. One of the rifles is listed as stolen from Kansas."

Two other consipirators were soon arrested, one after leaping from six stories in an attempt to evade arrest, Shawn Robert Adolph, 33.

At least one member of the group has ties to white separatists.

The FBI, ATF, Secret Service as well as State and Local Police agencies are coordinating their efforts with a joint terrorism task force (b/c of the white separatists) and the US Attorney will make a statement this afternoon.

According to the NYTimes Linda Douglass, a senior adviser to the campaign, declined to comment late Monday on reports of the investigation. It is the campaign’s practice not to comment on such reports, which have occurred periodically through the campaign.

(Emphasis added)

All of this as yesterday another person was arrested, this time in Denver, at the Speaker of the House's hotel also carrying multiple loaded gun cases and under the auspices of not having a concealed weapons permit.

::Update:: Acording to an AP article on Drudge, the Federal Officials believe that despite the consiparcy and weapons the would be assasins were not a credible threat.

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WAR!

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You know it's a strange day

You know it's a strange day when I agree with Bill Kristol on anything.

Money Quote (of a Quote):

In August 1924, the small nation of Georgia, occupied by Soviet Russia since 1921, rose up against Soviet rule. On Sept. 16, 1924, The Times of London reported on an appeal by the president of the Georgian Republic to the League of Nations. While “sympathetic reference to his country’s efforts was made” in the Assembly, the Times said, “it is realized that the League is incapable of rendering material aid, and that the moral influence which may be a powerful force with civilized countries is unlikely to make any impression upon Soviet Russia.”

Seriously folks, despite our follies in Iraq, the situation in Georgia is perilous and proves that Terrorism is not the only threat in the 21st century. Just look at the news reports today,

Georgians beg for help from US, they helped in Iraq;

Georgians declare a unilateral cease-fire, the Russians do not follow suit, French and Finns try to intercede;

Russians move well beyond South Ossetia into the heart of Georgia;

Folks this is serious stuff, and all we've done so far is transport Georgia's troops back from Iraq to help them defend their homeland. The Russians accuse Georgia of attempting to perpetrate crimes of humanity as their causus belli, but they've been amassing troops for months just north of the border. For years they've given the folks in these breakaway regions Russian passports. What are we in the West to do?

::update:: it appears that the BBC has come to similar conclusions as I originally had and wonder if Georgia should just quit Ossetia.

Andrew Sullivan expounds and indicates that yes, we are neutered and unfortunately there's nothing we can do about it now except move forward.

Amb. Marc Ginsberg has a plan.

There's more information in the comments folks, including additional commentary from both sides of the issue. It's worth checking out and joining in.

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Do Nothings

Why are we doing nothing to help the Georgians?

*CNN

*Bloomberg News

Would the secession of South Ossetia into Russia, already nearly complete by duplicitous acts of the bear giving the people of the disputed region Russian Passports be tantamount to the Appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s? I'd imagine some parallels could be drawn, but there are stark differences.

The secessionists never believed they should be a part of the Georgian Republic. Perhaps it would behoove Georgia to give up territorial claim to the region and the other Russian backed region in order to save its civilians.

It's a difficult choice, but as we know the American government has been neutered and has not the ability to assist in the fight to force Russians back out of Georgian territory even though we and our Western European allies owe it to this a friendly and allied nation to do something more than balk and complain.

A sad day indeed as more innocents die because of the Russia's desire for territorial and economic imperialism.

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McCain's financial ties to terrorists

To quote a previous entry (with Links) on McCain's not so savory connections, employees, etc.

John McCain's campaign has been plagued by seedy figures, lobbyists who have represented in the least frigid friends and at worst some of the cruelest of regimes the world knows - including the current Burmese regime, as well as associates who have helped terrorist groups via fundraisers.

But now it appears that he's also accepting bundled money from even seedier sources in the least a warmongering profiteer, in the worst possible terrorists.

Marc Ambinder asks an important question:

If there were a group of questionable donations all with the name Abdullah
that were funneled through a guy in Jordan
who is a Jordanian national
who is under investigation for war profiteering
and it were Barack Obama
instead of John McCain
would this be a bigger deal?

The short answer, yes - here's another pass by the media for Uncle Grumpy.

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Pepsi Presents New Zanzibar

Unfortunately it's probably not as humourous as the Simpson's episode potrayed African Coups.

Saw it on CNN this morning and more details from an AP article, but a military coup has taken place in Mauritania ousting the sitting President and Prime Minister for firing four top military commanders. The millitary is claiming that the government was corrupt and was being to complacent with their dealings with Islamofascists.

I've actually got a friend who is a former Peace Corps volunteer working for a NGO in Mauritania. I've e-mailed her to find out her status, but communication has been far and few between especially on her blog. The AP article suggests that all US nationals are safe and accounted for which is a good thing.

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So why is he being released?

Abu Qatada, a radical cleric with ties to many terrorist cells and acts of terrorism is scheduled for release in Britain based on the notion that he would not get a fair treatment in his home country (Jordan).

I'm perplexed on how the court came to such a conclusion - is it because he was tried in abstentia? Or because there's a possibility he would face the death penalty or the prospects of a very long sentence in a very tiny prison cell.

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Tragically Ironic

The picture above is of the Ship USS Peleliu, from an article I read in the Guardian. The article is about a report which is to be released on the United States use of Prison Ships, potentially 17 total since the 9/11 attacks. The report alleges, "the United States is operating floating prisons to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees." The report is to cite sources inside the US Government, including the Military and other international governmental sources.

I titled this post tragically ironic in part because of the following information gleaned from the article:

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu...

To many younger Americans, and some baby boomers, the name Bataan probably doesn't mean much at all, but I became intimately aware of the significance of that small tropical Filipino peninsula when I was in ninth grade while doing a History Day Project on one of the victims from McColl, SC, and I'll never forget the horrors and tragedies associated with that location.

What many don't realize is that we weren't just attacked at Pearl Harbor that December day in 1941, we were also attacked in the Philippines as well as other smaller installations in the Pacific. Our Pacific fleet having been ransacked in an effort to shore up the Atlantic by what we presumed to be the greater threat of Hitler, we were caught off guard and left nearly defenseless with very little 'modern firepower' and only the courage of the men, American and Filipino, stationed in Luzon and Manila. Shortly after the initial air attacks on Pearl and Manila (the Pearl of the Philippines), the Japanese invaded and managed to push the Allied forces back through the following months to the tiny Bataan Peninsula towards what was a stocked Spanish American War Island Fortress, Corregidor, where presumably aid from the US Navy would come to carry off the defenders.

Aid never came, and what followed was a forced march of over 75000 American GIs over rugged Jungle Terrain under torturous conditions including forced starvation, beatings and humiliations and random acts of murder by the Japanese of not only the prisoners, but Filipino Civilians who dared offer any aid or comfort to the weakened GI's. The episode is recorded as the Bataan Death March, and unfortunately for surviors didn't always end at the "Death camps" in the center of the Island. No, Prisoners who in turn survived their tenure at the camps would be routinely forced to march northward to the coast where they would board prison ships and rendered to the Japanese Mainland from the Philippines to various work camps. (One of the more infamous of these ships being the Arisan Maru the ship which is believed to have been the one to hold the subject of my 9th Grade Project).

So it should be no wonder, in knowing this history, that to learn that a US Ship named in honor of the survivors of such a heinous event in American history is being used as a vehicle of imprisonment and allegedly torture, or even as a stepping point to torture (because that's what rendition is) is tragically ironic, outrageous and a disservice to the memory of so many who died at the hands of our enemy, an enemy who we then charged for such behaviour and called - war crimes.

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African Nations stand up for Zimbabwe

By now we've all heard about the Chinese Cargo ship en route to deliver thousands of pounds of ammunition to the land locked country of Zimbabwe. A questionable act considering the oppressive regime has yet to announce the results of the hotly contested Presidential Election.

Last week the ship was turned away from South Africa's main port in protest. And it's been revealed that the other major ports in countries such as Angola, Mozambique and Nambia have now also turned away the ship with its much questioned and protested cargo. The President of Zambia was quoted as saying:

"I hope this will be the case with all the countries because we don't want a situation which will escalate the tension in Zimbabwe more than what it is."

This after Zimbabwean church leaders issued a joint statement today calling for international intervention, saying people were being tortured, abducted and some murdered in a campaign against opposition supporters.

The An Yue Jiang is carrying 1500 rocket-propelled grenades, 3,000 mortar rounds and mortar tubes, and three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition according to Voice of America.

The ship may be headed back to China where the government is more than a bit concerned about the refusal to allow it to conduct its business. The Chinese foreign ministry is urging the international community not to politicise the trade deal, despite the recent reports that Chinese Military Units have also been seen within the country's borders.

Despite these urgings the international community (sans the US unfortunately) has taken note and though no other powers are taking such bold steps as Zimbabwe's neighbors it has been revealed that Germany has received a court order to call in some debts of Zimbabwe which means that the Mugabe regime might not get the weapons, Mrs. Merkel will. According to the International Herald Tribune:

A German bank obtained a court order to impound the cargo of a Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe as it tries to recover unpaid debts from the southern African country, officials said Tuesday.

But KfW IPEX-Bank GmbH, a subsidiary of Germany's state-owned KfW development bank, was unaware that the An Yue Jiang was carrying arms when it obtained the order from a South African court last week, spokeswoman Dela Strumpf said.

On Thursday, KfW IPEX-Bank obtained an court order in Durban, South Africa, to impound the ship's Zimbabwean-owned cargo because the Zimbabwean government still owes the German bank about €40 million (US$63 million at current rates), Strumpf said.

"We did not know at any time that the ship was carrying weapons," Strumpf said. "We would have never accepted weapons."

(Yeah Right!) Let's hope that one day the American Government will wake up and decide to do something more in helping resolve the dire situation that is unfolding in Zimbabwe and in other regions like Darfur.

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SC shaken by latest School Violence

As is always the case, when the national news media turns it's probing eyes on the people of South Carolina, it's rarely with rose tinted lenses. Today isn't any different as the people in Mei Country are all rattled at the prospects of what could have been the worst case of school violence in recent South Carolina memory.



The residents of Chesterfield County are on edge today as police have Chesterfield High School bunkered down. This past weekend a young man was arrested after his parents received a delivery to their home of substantial amounts of bomb making materials.



So our thoughts and prayers are with the families of Chesterfield and the surrounding areas (including Cheraw) as they try and grapple with such a sad situation whose tragic outcomes have been averted. More at The State.

::Updated:: It appears that the list of charges against the young man are lenghtening as the Federal Government is stepping in on the case. Of concern is the fact that the materials to be used in the bomb were shipped via the US Postal Service.

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Guns are good....

Today as we focus on remembering the tragedy that was the VATech shooting last year, and continue to ponder and parse exactly what Obama said when he said certain folks were bitter which is why they cling to their guns let us look to a counter protest at the South Carolina State House to remind ourselves that Guns are good.

Not only are they good, but they save lives...

And perhaps the quintessential argument behind it all is that to support gun control is to be an advocate of racism.

This counter protest was in response to a mother of one of the casualties of the shooting staging her own demonstration - by herself, in support of tougher gun legislation including closing the loophole for gun shows.

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Hacking, or Cyber-Terrorism?

In the past few weeks folks in the MSM have shown renewed interest in what we're doing as a country (and bloc) to prevent cyber-terrorism. Many are calling for a more stringent approach to a very real threat that is more possible and imminent than a missile attack.

Some of our allies are moving ahead to update their standards and systems in preparation for the proven reality of cyber-spying and terrorism. It was only, after all, last summer that the Chinese Government was successful in hacking into the Pentagon's e-mail system. More recently the German Government has been able to trace cyber-attacks to Beijing.

But what about jihaddists?

AmP has posted that the hacking of a Catholic website with the usage of Islamic paraphernalia, including replacing images of cardinals with that of asses and making statements transliterated into English about the 'illustrious' (crude translation) order. Thomas ends his post by positing this:

The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre should not only notify their ISP, they should notify the U.S. government.

But is this really cyber-terrorism? Or is it just hacking. After all, I'm doubtful the Knights use sophisticated programming to either 1) design their page or 2) control security. Granted the imagery and wording used is indicative of some islamo-centered anti-Catholicism (and anti-Americanism) but is this the "first shot" to be heard round the war in the great battle of cyberspace?

Probably not...

But it makes for great aggrandizement and fear mongering, much as he would testify that Global Warming 'yahoos' are foolish for immediately rushing to their conclusions about Climate Change.

The reality is that unless you're equating all "hacking" where there's damage to someone's site as cyberterrorism - which implies a gravity not necessary for punk kids showing off their disdain for a group or just showing off (even kids in say - oh Egypt), then this isolated event can't be called terrorism - but plain old hacking.

As for real cyberterrorism Shashdot has an interesting interview with the Air Force's Cyber Czar which discusses certain aspects of what the American Government is doing to prevent/neutralize these threats (interesting albeit brief and cursory for security purposes).

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Bush calls for end to Israeli Occupation of Palestine

:::Updated:::

Peace in the Middle East. Remember that bumper sticker saying and people would say it gruffly like in a hip hop video. It seems that Peace may finally be possible, if the Bush administration has anything to do with it.

The Bush administration is taking an interesting stance in the month following the Annapolis conference.

President Bush with nothing else to loose is doing something no other President has ever done in pursuit of a lasting Peace in the Middle East. He's putting his foot down. I have to congratulate him on such efforts, it's about time is a phrase that comes to mind. There have been many missed opportunities within the last 15 years to exert American Muscle since we're at the apogee of our Influence.

"There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967," Bush told reporters in Jerusalem. "The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people."

If President Bush can pull this off it may very well be the saving grace for his legacy and tenure in the White House - with the country at war, the economy in recession and a national debt that has consumed a record budget surplus and since balooned, this is the Salvo that he needs as he rides off into the sunset to Crawford.

Many see this as a step away from the policy that the US has held for the past 50 + years of unabashed support for the State of Israel. Many on the American Right will no doubt be angered over what the President call's painful concessions. Especially considering American Support for Israel is at a 5 year high at least among evangelical Americans. "There should be an end to the occupation that began in 1967," Bush told reporters in Jerusalem. "The agreement must establish a Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people, just as Israel is a homeland for the Jewish people." Bush said. (CNN) The President has not gone so far as to support dividing Jerusalem or any other plan for the Holy City, but in October of 2007 Vice Premier Ramon hit the airwaves with the question: “Wouldn’t it be the right deal today for the Palestinians, the Western world and the international community to recognise [Israel’s] annexation of .... [Jewish] neighbourhoods as part of Jerusalem, and for us to quit the Arab neighbourhoods?” (Hindu Times)

Many in the international community agree with a division or perhaps a restoration of the "International City" designation from 1949. (From About)

On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181 which called for the partition of the British-ruled Palestine into a independent Jewish State and an independent Arab State. The resolution also called for Jerusalem to be an international city, and neither Jewish nor Arab, administered by the U.N.'s (now defunct) Trusteeship Council, which would appoint a Governor of the City.

Bush support of ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and return to 1967 borders is not shared by a majority of Israelis according to a Jerusalem Post pole. The pole found that only 26 percent of Israelis support a withdrawal to the 1967 borders, while 66% oppose such a move. 29% favored a divided Jerusalem as the capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state, while 68 percent declared their support for a united Jerusalem under Israeli rule. This is underscored by two statements. One made from Benjamin Netanyahu to the President, "Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people and will remain under Israeli sovereignty for eternity." The second one is a cause for greater pause, it was made by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and denies Israels historic claims to the city.

The Israelis aren't the only ones feeling passionate about the President's visit. In protest Hamas has been firing rockets from Gaza into southern Israel, luckily no one has been killed from the attacks. According to the AP, while in the West Bank speaking earlier at the Muqata compound where the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was besieged by Israeli forces just a few years ago, Palestinian President Abbas hailed Bush as the first U.S. president to commit fully to back a Palestinian state. (emphasis added)

President Bush while in the West Bank visited the Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity: "Not only was my soul uplifted, but my knowledge of history was enriched."

While Bush finishes up his mideast tour garnering support for the peace process from key regional allies such as Egypt and begging the Arabs to lower oil prices in Israel a hawkish caucus within the parliament has delt a blow to peace by pulling out of Olmert's government. This spells trouble for an already tenous struggle for peace as the Jewish hardliners dissent over the possible division of Jerusalem. Another faction is threatening to leave the government if plans move forward to Divide the Holy City.

This only days after the Housing Ministry moved forward against the advice of the Israeli Attorney General for "expanding" a neighborhood that would in effect completely cut off East Jerusalem from Bethlehem. The Ministry refuses to call it a new "settlement" and insists it's part of the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem of 1968. Ironically the group that suffers the most from this development are not Palestinian Muslims but the Christian Community.

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