29. februar 2004

Terrorist hunters rounding up fugitives' relatives The claim from Iranian state radio that Bin Laden was already captured was certainly nonsense, and the earlier report that he was "boxed in" is unlikely to be true, but there are a number of signs that the good guys are closing in on both Bin Laden and other top terrorists. Taking a lesson from the operation ending with the capture of Saddam Hussein, American investigators have started to round up relatives of al-Qaeda leaders to question them about their possible whereabouts. Also, supposedly, some of the same experts who helped captured Saddam has been transfered to Afghanistan to repeat the feat there. 9:52:24 PM    comment []  trackback []

Quote of the Day "I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true." (Carl Sagan) ... or, at least, being on the right track. 6:57:58 PM    comment []  trackback []

Aristide has fled Haiti President Jean-Bertrand Aristide has stepped down as president and fled Haiti. With rebels holding most of the country and threatening the capital, and strong international pressure from both France and the US to resign, Aristide's last act as president, at least, was the right one. In accordance with the constitution, chief justice of the Supreme Court, Boniface Alexandre, was sworn in as interim president. There was jubilation in rebel-held areas at the news, while the reaction in Port-au-Prince was, to put it mildly, more mixed. International peace keepers may soon be in place, even though we all recognise a real quagmire when we see one. PS: The Supreme Justice the second-in-line to the presidency? The Haitians don't believe in balancing the powers, do they? Oh well, I doubt that is the most serious problem they have. PS2: Maybe Aristide isn't the big democratic hero the press made us believe the last time some Haitians tried to kick him out. 5:12:23 PM    comment []  trackback []

Those who helped Saddam rob Iraq It appears nobody at the UN noticed that Iraq went for the lowest instead of the highest bidders in its oil for food programme. Why do that? Because then there is more room to add kickbacks of 10% of more on top of oil deals, money that came back to Saddam's government as unaccounted for cash. The new Iraqi independents have been reporting about the massive fraud scheme for some time now, and many bloggers have been writing about it, but now the New York Times publishes Susan Sachs' great and detailed article on the Oil for Palaces programme, having investigated the documents available through Iraq's oil ministry. From this article it appears that not only some, but most (if not all) companies involved in contracts with Iraq through the UN programme paid kickbacks to Saddam. And the UN body set up to monitor the deal claims ignorance to this day, as billions were flowing into Iraq to Saddam, his sons and associates. Not only were they paying huge sums to Saddam's corrupt regime, in many cases the products sold to Iraq were pure shams: like useless, outdated medical equipment and non-essential medicines. Thus the businesses contributed not only to Saddam's corruption, they added to the suffering of the Iraqi people. Even more serious, perhaps, was the way all this money was used by Saddam Hussein to buy favourable articles by journalists and support by politicians around the world. In the high-flying days after Iraq was allowed to sell its oil after 10 years of United Nations sanctions, the lobby of the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad was the place to be to get a piece of the action. That was where the oil traders would gather whenever a journalist, actor or political figure would arrive in Iraq and openly praise Mr. Hussein. Experience taught them that the visitor usually returned to the hotel with a gift voucher, courtesy of the Iraqi president or one of his aides, representing the right to buy one million barrels or more of Iraqi crude. The vouchers had considerable value. With the major oil companies monopolizing most Persian Gulf oil, there was fierce competition among smaller traders for the chance to buy Iraqi oil. And as long as Iraq kept its oil prices low enough, traders could make a tidy profit, even after buying the voucher and paying the surcharge. "We used to joke that if you get one million barrels, you could make $200,000," Mr. Faraj, of SOMO, added, referring to a period when the vouchers sold for about 20 cents per barrel. "And yet the ones who got it were those people who used to come here and praise Saddam for his stand against imperialism." Names! We want names. If you can't wait for the NYT to give them, check out this MEMRI analysis based on articles in Iraqi newspapers like Al-Mada. Is anybody surprised that the Russians, both private companies and the state itself, were among the biggest players in this game? Or that we find British MP and traitor George Galloway on the list? Obviously, it was those who supported the war to remove Saddam Hussein that could justifiably have used the slogan "no blood for oil" against the opponents. Via InstaPundit, who has been following this story for some time. 1:19:38 PM    comment []  trackback []

Tucows acquires Bloggrolling The ISP (and more) Tucows has acquired the blog service company Blogrolling.com. Some people consider blogs a thing for the future. 4:16:27 AM    comment []  trackback []

Sports boss will not allow this girl to fly Anette Sagen is a female ski jumper. Ski jumping is a big winter sport in Norway, Austria, Germany and some other countries, but it is a very new sport for women. Nineteen year old Anette Sagen from Norway is presently the best in the world. She recently won the German-Austrian ski jump week, the most prestigious competition. Like most other ski jumpers, she thinks the longer the better. And the longest ski jumps are made in ski-flying, like in Vikersund, where a skilled jumper can jump over 200 meters (~650 ft). There are no ski flying competitions for women yet, but Anette really wanted to just try, as a test jumper. No big deal, right? Enter Torbjørn Yggeseth, a 69 year old man, and a Norwegian leader of FIS, the international skiing association. He thinks young girls should be protected against their own stupid ideas, for their own saftety. Since he's a big man in FIS, there is hardly a chance in hell for Anette or any other girl to be allowed to jump in Vikersund. Yggseth is currently one of the least popular men in Norway. Because who wouldn't want to allow Anette to fulfill her dream and fly? 1:19:11 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2004 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.03.2004; 07:01:31.