FROM IRAN WITH HATE

From FoxNews: Iran's President Criticizes Bush in Private Letter.

Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice swiftly rejected the letter, saying it made no progress toward resolving questions about Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

"This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Rice said. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."

Rice's comments were the most detailed response from the United States to the letter, the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president since the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The letter from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made only an oblique reference to Iran's nuclear intentions. It asked why "any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a threat to the Zionist regime."

Otherwise, it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.  Tuesday, May 9, 2006

www.coxandforkum.com

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IRAN EXPERT: AHMADINEJAD A DEFIANT CHALLENGE

The German magazine Der Speigel interviewed an expert on Iran regarding the letter from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to George Bush and its purpose. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh tells Der Spiegel that far from an act of potential conciliation, the Iranian president sent the letter as an act of defiance -- and warns that Ahmadinejad is not bluffing in this crisis:

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Wahdat-Hagh, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to US President George W. Bush. In the letter, he once again questions Israel's right to exist, accuses the US of lying about Iraq and insists on his country's right to use nuclear technology. What message is Ahmadinejad trying to communicate?

Wahdat-Hagh: The purpose is to show strength. It's Ahmadinejad's way of saying: "We are powerful! You are a cowboy! Islam, though, is the true democracy and your system will collapse." Former Iranian President Khatami used to give interviews to CNN. But Ahmadinejad has gone directly to Bush and told him straight to his face that Iran is going to continue with the strategy it has thus far followed.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The letter, in other words, doesn't open up any new options for the West to convince Iran to give up its nuclear program.

Wahdat-Hagh: Ali Ardashir Larijani, the head of the country's Supreme National Security Council, has already said that the letter can't be read as a watering down of the Iranian position. On the day that the UN Security Council once again addresses the issue of Iran, Ahmadinejad could have said: "I'll make some concessions on our uranium enrichment program." But he's not willing to do that. Instead, he points to American mistakes -- for example in Iraq.

That gets to the heart of the hyperbole over this supposed attempt at a breakthrough. If Ahmadinejad wanted to create an opening for peace, all he needed to say was that Iran would negotiate on uranium enrichment, perhaps accepting the Russian offer to supply Teheran with uranium suitable for peaceful energy production and not weapons. He didn't need to write George Bush a letter; he could just as easily sent Larijani to the IAEA or to the UN Security Council to negotiate their compliance with the NPT.

Wahdat-Hagh, who works for MEMRI, also disagrees with those who claim that the Iranian nuclear program amounts to a giant bluff. He tells Der Spiegel that the Iranian rocket program is very real, and that their nuclear-weapons program is no vaporware either. The Iranian mullahcracy intends on transforming itself into Southwest Asia's leading military power, and have developed the rockets and new domestically-produced submarines to show its reach throughout the region. It has a strategic point with which to extort concessions from nations around the world: the Straits of Hormuz, through which most of the oil produced in the area gets shipped. Nuclear weapons represent the final key, the most powerful component with which to catapult Iran into the same class as Pakistan, India, and the West.

In fact, as Wahdat-Hagh points out, the arrogance of a Muslim leader posing as a lecturer on Christianity is quite deliberate and intended to humiliate Bush in the eyes of Iranians. Ahmadinejad does not want Iranians to see him as respectful or deferential to the Great Satan, but scolding and condescending. It establishes him as Bush's superior and shows Iranians that he does not fear the US, but is contemptuous of it. On the other hand, Ahmandinejad knows that the West will interpret this much differently -- as an extension of dialogue, and a potential diplomatic opening. Ahmadinejad wanted Bush to respond to his missive with a plea for more contact, a reaction that would have had a much different impression in Iran and the Middle East than it would in the West.

Many people assume that Ahmadinejad enjoys popular support, or at least his nuclear program does, but Wahdat-Hagh disputes this. He points to surveys performed under careful conditions that show much less unity than the mullahcracy will adknowledge, and even the peaceful use of nuclear energy has some in Iran nervous about the regime's intentions. The amount of domestic support has always been overestimated; it's possible that this might even fuel the mullahcracy's drive for nuclear weapons -- in order to keep outsiders from empowering democratic activists.

Right now, it appears that many in the West have fallen into Ahmadinejad's trap with his letter. Fortunately, it also appears that Bush and his foreign-policy team are not among them.  Tuesday, May 9, 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

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WHY HE WRITES

It's hard to really understand the workings of the mind of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but this brief quotation from his letter of yesterday to President Bush could hold a significant clue:

Liberalism and Western-style democracy "have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity," said the letter, obtained late Monday by The Associated Press.

"Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems," it read.

Shattering and fall? There are a lot of wisecracks that come to mind (just as there are every time Ahmadinejad speaks) but this is a serious matter, obviously, and the Iranian president may be revealing more than he thinks here. Leaving aside that Ahmadinejad is supposedly the victor in a "democractic" election himself, the Iranian leader is trumpeting the demise of his principle enemy (liberal democracy) because he fears it is winning. He undoubtedly views the Iraq War from a radically different perspective from the editors of the New York Times or a student demonstrator in St. Germain. The former two see it as abject failure but to Ahmadinejad, Iraqi democracy, for all its myriad inadequacies, is a nightmare that, despite Iranian infiltration of the Shiites, will not go away.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, here's a positive development of which I was entirely ignorant.  Tuesday, May 9, 2006

www.rogerlsimon.com

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AP SMITTEN WITH AHMADINEJAD

You are not going to believe this one, as Associated Press writer Nick Wadhams delivers one of the most astounding pieces of mainstream media backwardsthink I have ever read: Letter Shows Iran’s President Seeking Bond. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

UNITED NATIONS - With his 18-page letter, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered President Bush a history lesson, philosophy lecture and religious sermon laced with references to Jesus Christ.

The document gives rare insight into a man who has largely been a mystery to the West, showing him as fixated on a long list of grievances against the United States and seeking to build on a shared faith in God.

Ahmadinejad, whose Islamic government is suspected by the West of pursuing nuclear weapons, questions whether Christ and other religious prophets would have approved of U.S. policies and actions in the Middle East.

“I have been told that Your Excellency follows the teachings of Jesus (Peace be upon him) and believes in the divine promise of the rule of the righteous on Earth,” Ahmadinejad wrote Bush, who has said that Christ is his favorite philosopher.

“If Prophet Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ishamel, Joseph, or Jesus Christ (Peace Be Upon Him) were with us today, how would they have judged such behavior?” he wrote.

As Ahmadinejad asked Bush to do some soul-searching and atone for past U.S. transgressions, the United States dismissed the letter as irrelevant and devoid of any concrete proposals whatsoever.

Read the whole thing. It gets much, much worse.

AL QAEDA IN GAZA

Al Qaeda is officially in business in Gaza, under the auspices of Hamas: Al-Qaeda distributes first communique in Gaza.

Gaza - A hitherto unknown Palestinian militant group announced Tuesday it was an off-shoot of the terror network al-Qaeda.

In leaflets telefaxed to reporters and pasted on street corners in Gaza City, the ‘al-Quds (Jerusalem) Islamic Army’ said that, like its parent organization, it would target ‘the crusaders and every enemy of Islam and Muslims and their collaborators.’

‘We will blow up our bodies in their positions’ and ‘strike with an iron fist at all the crusader, American and Zionist campaigns,’ said the statement, adding the group adhered to the principles of al-Qaeda leaders Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri and Musab al-Zarqawi.

The authenticity of the statement was hard to verify, but it bore the signature of al-Qaeda. It was the first such leaflet signed by al-Qaeda in Gaza and openly announcing the formation of an al-Qaeda wing in the Palestinian territories. ...

Tuesday’s leaflet said the al-Qaeda Palestine off-shoot would soon release a video, showing Palestinian al-Qaeda members training.

ROP BOMB ATTACK IN DENMARK

A Danish politician was the target of a firebomb attack last night, after threats signed “Al Qaeda” were received: Bomb attack targets local politicians. (Hat tip: Fjordman.)

And Danish sociologists know who to blame: Danish society.

Elected officials fear that a culture of political violence is emerging in Denmark after a firebomb was thrown at the home of a councillor in the city of Korsor in western Zealand on Monday night.

The bomb missed its target, and Fritz Neumann, a member of the Danish People’s Party, and his family escaped unharmed, but police say the attack is just the latest in a string of similar incidents.

Six other city council members in Korsor have received written and electronic threats signed ‘Allah is great’ and ‘Al Qaeda-network’ in the past three months. Police believe they were related and could have to do with a rejected application for asylum.

The latest bombing renewed concerns that Denmark’s relaxed politicial culture made politicians particularly vulnerable to attacks. Monday’s attempted arson brought back memories of a similar attack on the home of the minister of integration, Rikke Hvilshoj, last year. In two separate incidents, police also recently arrested young men who issued death threats to PM Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Social Liberal MP Naser Khader.

Political observers were unable to single out a motive for the attacks. Many of the incidents have targeted right-of-centre politicians, but they dismissed the idea that left-wing militants could be the source.

‘The crisis about the cartoons of Mohammed could have been a clear chance for more militant groups to make an impact, because there was such a clear polarisation. Nevertheless, you didn’t see those groups step forward,’ René Karpantschof, a sociologist at Copenhagen University, told daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende.

Lack of respect was one likely cause, according to Niels Jorgen Cappelorn, the director of the Soren Kierkegaard Research Centre. ‘I don’t think this is an expression of a political rebellion. I think it’s a desperate yell by people who cannot figure out how to communicate in a society that’s racing ahead with the speed of a bullet train,’ said Cappelorn.  Tuesday, May 9, 2006

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CAPTURED AQ DOCUMENTS: "EVERY YEAR IS WORSE THAN THE PREVIOUS YEAR"

CENTCOM announced today that they had captured al-Qaeda correspondence in Iraq that discusses the state of the insurgency, especially around Baghdad but also around the entire country. Far from optimistic, the documents captured in an April 16th raid reveal frustration and desperation, as the terrorists acknowledge the superior position of American and free Iraqi forces and their ability to quickly adapt to new tactics.

In these passages, the AQ terrorist author -- described as a person "of significance" due to the extensive analysis applied -- often refers to the elected Iraqi government as the "Shi'ites":

A glance at the reality of Baghdad in light of the latest events (sectarian turmoil)

1. It has been proven that the Shiites have a power and influence in Baghdad that cannot be taken lightly, particularly when the power of the Ministries of Interior and Defense is given to them, compared with the power of the mujahidin in Baghdad. During a military confrontation, they will be in a better position because they represent the power of the state along with the power of the popular militias. Most of the mujahidin power lies in surprise attacks (hit and run) or setting up explosive charges and booby traps. This is a different matter than a battle with organized forces that possess machinery and suitable communications networks. Thus, what is fixed in the minds of the Shiite and Sunni population is that the Shiites are stronger in Baghdad and closer to controlling it while the mujahidin (who represent the backbone of the Sunni people) are not considered more than a daily annoyance to the Shiite government. The only power the mujahidin have is what they have already demonstrated in hunting down drifted patrols and taking sniper shots at those patrol members who stray far from their patrols, or planting booby traps among the citizens and hiding among them in the hope that the explosions will injure an American or members of the government. In other words, these activities could be understood as hitting the scared and the hiding ones, which is an image that requires a concerted effort to change, as well as Allah’s wisdom.

The author of this analysis acknowledges two truths. First, rather than representing any real existential threat to the government, the insurgency only rises to the level of a "daily annoyance". This clashes with the depiction in the American media of the Zarqawi network as a mass destabilizer, a description that even AQ rejects. The terror analyst also recognizes that the tactics used by the terrorist network have largely alienated even the Sunnis by killing those who represent no threat to AQ -- the "scared and the hiding ones". AQ, he says, needs an image makeover.

2. The strength of the brothers in Baghdad is built mainly on booby trapped cars, and most of the mujahidin groups in Baghdad are generally groups of assassin without any organized military capabilities.

3. There is a clear absence of organization among the groups of the brothers in Baghdad, whether at the leadership level in Baghdad, the brigade leaders, or their groups therein. Coordination among them is very difficult, which appears clearly when the group undertake a join[t] operations.

This passage admits that the foreign insurgents not only do not have any organization or military capabilities, but also resist coordination. In some ways, that makes discovering and neutralizing them more difficult, but it also keeps AQ from holding any territory or controlling the area in any meaningful way. Their assets in Baghdad cannot even coordinate with each other to carry out joint operations, indicating a poor system of communications -- likely brought about by American and Iraqi offensives against the network.

4. The policy followed by the brothers in Baghdad is a media oriented policy without a clear comprehensive plan to capture an area or an enemy center. Other word, the significance of the strategy of their work is to show in the media that the American and the government do not control the situation and there is resistance against them. This policy dragged us to the type of operations that are attracted to the media, and we go to the streets from time to time for more possible noisy operations which follow the same direction.

This direction has large positive effects; however, being preoccupied with it alone delays more important operations such as taking control of some areas, preserving it and assuming power in Baghdad (for example, taking control of a university, a hospital, or a Sunni religious site).

This is a frank admission that the only effect that AQ has made is to convince the media -- presumably the American media -- that the situation cannot be controlled, despite their acknowledgement that they represent nothing more than a nuisance. It also cautions against falling in love with seeing themselves on the TV, because the cost of such operations results in a lack of assets for holding real territory. Right now, they cannot even hold a university, let alone a city or suburb.

At the same time, the Americans and the Government were able to absorb our painful blows, sustain them, compensate their losses with new replacements, and follow strategic plans which allowed them in the past few years to take control of Baghdad as well as other areas one after the other. That is why every year is worse than the previous year as far as the Mujahidin’s control and influence over Baghdad.

The terrorists realize that their control over the Sunni Triangle -- their power base -- has waned with each passing year. It also acknowledges the great strength of the American military: its ability to quickly adapt and persevere. The "clear and hold" strategy adopted by military commanders in conjunction with the training of the Iraqi army has forced AQ to the brink of irrelevancy, and they know it.

5. The role that the Islamic party and the Islamic Scholars Committee play in numbing the Sunni people through the media is a dangerous role. It has been proven from the course of the events that the American investment in the Party and the Committee were not in vain. In spite of the gravity of the events, they were able to calm down the Sunni people, justify the enemy deeds, and give the enemy the opportunity to do more work without any recourse and supervision. This situation stemmed from two matters:

n First, their media power is presented by their special radio and TV stations as the sole Sunni information source, coupled with our weak media which is confined mainly to the Internet, without a flyer or newspaper to present these events.

n Second, in the course of their control of the majority of the speakers at mosques who convert right into wrong and wrong into right, and present Islam in a sinful manner and sins in a Muslim manner. At the same time we did not have any positive impact or benefits from our operations.

In other words, the Americans are winning the media war in Iraq. That's something that the American media has yet to report in any substantive way. The memo also indicates that the mosques have largely turned against the insurgents, apparently excoriating them for sinfulness. Their continuing murder of Iraqi civilians and police have only made that impression worse.

6. The mujahidin do not have any stored weapons and ammunition in their possession in Baghdad, particularly rockets, such as C5K Katyosha or bomber or mortars which we realized their importance and shortage in Baghdad. That was due to lack of check and balance, and proper follow-ups.

The insurgents have finally run low on ammunition, and AQ cannot resupply them in Baghdad. That sounds like a critical tipping point for AQ in Baghdad.

7. The National Guard status is frequently raised and whether they belong to the Sunnis or Shiites. Too much talk is around whether we belong to them or not, or should we strike and kill their men or not?

It is believed that this matter serves the Americans very well. I believe that the Committee and the Party are pushing this issue because they want to have an influence, similar to the Mujahidin’s. When and if a Sunni units from the National Guard are formed, and begin to compete with the mujahidin and squeeze them, we will have a problem; we either let them go beyond the limits or fight them and risk inciting the Sunnis against us through the Party’s and the Committee’s channels.

I believe that we should not allow this situation to exist at all, and we should bury it before it surfaces and reject any suggestion to that effect.

The terrorists understand that their only hope in fighting the Iraqi army is if the Sunnis do not enlist. As soon as the Sunnis start enlisting in large numbers, AQ runs the risk of murdering family members of the dwindling support they currently still have. Integrating the Iraqi Army will provide the biggest blow to AQ ambitions in the nation, and almost guarantees to put them on the run for good.

The rest of the document evaluates the commanders in the field for AQ, and they sound like a sorry lot. The expertise of the Baghdad commander is limited to transporting cars for conversion to booby-traps; otherwise, the analyst notes, he's rather "simple" and has no grasp of strategic matters. The commander for Northern al-Karkh worries about his own personal security, because the Americans have his picture and voice print -- so all he does is hide out.

At the end, we find this gem:

Northern al-Karkh groups are estimated at 40 mujahid, so is the Southern Karkh. They could double that number if necessary. Al-Rassafah groups in general is estimated at 30 mujahidin as I was informed by the commander of al-Rassafah. These are very small numbers compared to the tens of thousands of the enemy troops. How can we increase these numbers?

This plaintive assessment shows how weakened Zarqawi has become at the hands of the Americans. Between the three commands in the Baghdad area, AQ has a grand total of 110 mujahid, admittedly no match for the thousands of American troops in Baghdad and the thousands of Iraqi troops we are training and putting into play. No wonder Zarqawi has given up on suicide missions -- he has almost nothing left.

This document shows that we have just about triumphed over the AQ network in Iraq, and AQ knows it. Hopefully, the American media might finally start reporting it.

UPDATE: Added the final quote and edited the description.

UPDATE II: Michelle Malkin isn't holding her breath about the press covering this, but my good friend and fellow NARNian John at Power Line notes that the AP actually did report on the documents. They did manage to miss the point about how they have been successful only in manipulating the American media.  Monday, May 8, 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

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SAUDI ARABIA WANTS TO BE ON UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

The religious apartheid kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where women must wear burqas and are not allowed to drive, where criminals are executed by having their heads hacked off in public, where they have a government agency called The Ministry for the Protection of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (just like the Taliban), where practicing Christianity is a crime and where simply being Jewish is an even bigger crime, where the imams preach jihad and hatred for the West ... is asking to be granted a seat on the new UN Human Rights Council.

JEDDAH, 9 May 2006 — The Kingdom is vying today for one of the 47 seats of the newly formed United Nations Human Rights Council. Sixty-five countries have announced their candidacies for a place on the council. The election is being held by the UN General Assembly in New York.

The Saudi government launched its official bid to win a seat on the new council in a letter addressed to the Secretary-General Kofi Annan on April 23.

“Saudi Arabia has a confirmed commitment with the defense, protection and promotion of human rights. This commitment has been manifested in its performance as a member of the Commission on Human Rights. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia pursues the policy of active cooperation with international organizations in the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” said the letter.

UPDATE: And in the first round of voting today, they got their wish—they’ll be joining fellow human rights abusers Russia, China, Cuba, and Pakistan: Some spoilers win seats on new UN rights council. (Hat tip: Ethel.)

Human Rights Watch sees this as “progress.”

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Five nations seen by rights groups as among the world’s worst abusers were elected along with 39 other countries to the United Nations’ new Human Rights Council in a first round of voting on Tuesday.

Russia, China, Cuba, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, identified by New York-based Human Rights Watch as unworthy of membership on the new U.N. body, were among those winning seats. ...

Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said it was inevitable some rights foes would win seats but “the important step is that we have made real progress” over the discredited Human Rights Commission, shut down in March.

“It doesn’t guarantee that the council will be a success, but it is a step in the right direction,” Roth said.

ANTI-ISRAEL EUROPEAN MEMBER QUITS

Chris Davies, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament, has resigned after he let his hatred for Jews show a little too much: Lib Dem leader in Europe resigns following anti-Israel remark. (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

The row dates back to a trip that Mr Davies made to the Palestinian Authority. On his return Mr Davies accused Israel of pursuing “racist policies of apartheid” while posing as a victim. His remarks prompted a flood of emails from supporters of Israel. One correspondent wrote: “You make the same mistake as many others who call themselves liberals - you seem to equate the situation of the Palestinian people as being exactly the same as the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.”

This prompted Mr Davies to respond: “Sounds like racism to me. I hope you enjoy wallowing in your own filth.

”The correspondent sent back another email calling on Mr Davies to “have the decency of replying properly to my letter”. This prompted Mr Davies to say that if he stood for re-election he would highlight “the racist policies of apartheid being put into practice by an Israeli government”.  Tuesday, May 9, 2006

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog

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CUBA GIVING CHINA AND INDIA ACCESS TO CARIBBEAN OIL

The US and Cuba have had a pact in place for almost thirty years dividing the Florida Straits between the two nations for ownership of the oil and natural gas underneath the ocean. Up to now, Cuba has been unable to drill for the resources, and the US has been unwilling to do so. Now, with energy prices skyrocketing due to rising demand, Cuba has leased its field to China and India. Both will begin drilling within sight of the US, giving Cuba much-needed hard currency while demonstrating the lack of US resolve in mustering its own resources:

With only modest energy needs and no ability of its own to drill, Cuba has negotiated lease agreements with China and other energy-hungry countries to extract resources for themselves and for Cuba.

Cuba's drilling plans have been in place for several years, but now that China, India and others are involved and fuel prices are unusually high, a growing number of lawmakers and business leaders in the United States are starting to complain. They argue that the United States' decades-old ban against drilling in coastal waters is driving up domestic energy costs and, in this case, is giving two of America's chief economic competitors access to energy at the United States' expense.

"This is the irony of ironies," Charles T. Drevna, executive vice president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, said of Cuba's collaboration with China and India. "We have chosen to lock up our resources and stand by to be spectators while these two come in and benefit from things right in our own backyard."

Inaction on the part of the US on our side of the straits may result in a loss of our reserves. No one knows whether the Cuban fields have a connection to our own, and the Chinese and Indian drilling could wind up depleting our own oil and natural gas. That would allow the Chinese and the Indians to get a strategic advantage in energy supply, and in the case of the former allow yet another potentially hostile player control world oil sales along with the kleptocracies in the Middle East. It also puts a few bucks into Castro's pocket, helping his grip on power, but there's little to be done about that.

We can do something about the potential encroachment on our oil fields by lifting the bans on off-shore drilling and increasing the domestic production of oil and natural gas. The Times notes that we could become self-sufficient for energy for the next generation just on the known oil and gas reserves off our shores, and that does not count the ANWR preserve. The commodities market for oil would deflate with the US running on its own energy production, greatly reducing the revenue to potentially dangerous regimes. At the least, we can shed our trade with Venezuela and the Middle East, focusing on imports from Canada and Mexico instead, and extending the life of our reserves in the process. That would send a message that we have the will to reach self-sufficiency as well as remind some regimes how much they rely on American petrodollars and the inflated price of oil for survival.

Congress needs to create a real energy plan that supports vastly increased domestic production in the short term. That will provide the only means to alleviate market shock from the exponential increases in demand from the two most populous nations in the world. If properly staged, we can use the savings on energy costs to fund the architecture of a new energy delivery system -- perhaps hydrogen, or a switch to nuclear-generated electricity for all transportation needs. That would take a generation to establish, and we have at least that much reserve to get the nation to that goal.

Instead, we will probably continue to dream up conspiracy theories about greedy oil companies which have few investment choices, given the restrictions on drilling and refining that the US has imposed on the domestic industry. And while we travel through the fascination of paranoia, we will allow our economic and military rivals to steal our reserves out from underneath us -- literally -- and pretend that their drilling somehow doesn't carry the same environmental problems as our drilling would.  Tuesday, May 9, 2006

www.captainsquartersblog.com

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DAY BY DAY

By Chris Muir

www.daybydaycartoon.com

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ZACKY MOUSSAOUI

www.filibustercartoons.com

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