] French Foreign Minister Dominque de Villepin said his
] country would not rule out the use of force as a last
] resort -- but the U.N. must be at the centre of whatever
] action is taken.

These are the initial reactions of several nations, including permanent and current members of the Security Council: France, Britain, China, Spain, Germany, Bulgaria, and Russia.

International Reactions to Powell's U.N. Presentation

] These are the key points of the US Secretary of State
] Colin Powell's briefing to the Security Council on Iraqi
] non-compliance with UN resolutions.

I watched this one live, and found it extremely compelling. The parts that had the least weight for me were some of the audio tapes of conversations between Iraqi officials, since I could easily see those as being taken out of context -- they didn't "prove" anything to me. But the discussion of links to Al Qaeda, the flow of weapons and support from within Iraq to terrorist activities in Jordan and Europe -- that was sobering. Also, the video of a fighter jet fitted with a spray nozzle, on a training mission and spraying simulated anthrax over a wide area... That was chilling, to think of such a weapon being used on our own troops.

Now, I'm very curious to learn what the rest of the world thinks of this evidence, and whether it's changing any other minds out there. If Iraq does have to be disarmed by force, I would far rather that it be done by a coalition of nations and not just the U.S. But if we do decide to go in alone, I will still support it.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things."

BBC | Powell UN briefing: Key points

Decius wrote:
] Elonka wrote:
] ] Ah, just to be clear, I don't have a problem with ID checks at
] ] bus terminals, hotels, and train stations, either. Those are
] ] private companies who have the right to refuse service, so I
] ] believe that they also have the right to institute reasonable
] ] security measures, and I see an ID check as a reasonable
] ] measure.
]
] You kind of wriggled around my point to an extent, so I want
] to reengage it a bit...

Heh. I feel like you're trying to force me into the position of defending the legality of a wide spectrum of behaviors. But I'm not prepared to do that. I'm not an attorney or a lawmaker, I'm just a private (but voting) citizen who has my own views on what is and isn't acceptable for *me*. If you don't share those views, that's fine, I respect your right to have a different opinion.

] First off, and I'm not really very familiar with the law in
] this area, but I don't think private companies have a "right
] to refuse service." For example, I'm fairly certain that its
] illegal to put a big sign in front of your store that says
] "Whites Only." There are certain things that buinesses can
] refuse service for (proper dress, behavior), but this isn't a
] right like freedom of speech is a right. Its a legislated
] issue. You can refuse service in certain contexts. I don't
] know exactly what those contexts are. In some cases (such as
] the American's with Disabilities Act) you are forced to
] provide service.
]
] However, I won't pursue this point any further. For the
] purpose of this dicussion I'll conceed that it ought to be
] legal for companies to require ID for their services for
] simple identification purposes. I wouldn't do business with
] such a company, and I'm not sure it should be legal, but its
] too much of a tangent to explain.

Private companies *do* have the right to refuse service. If someone's on a bus or a plane, and starts raising a ruckus, the transportation company has the right to throw them off such vehicle. As you mentioned, there are indeed certain race- or disability-based exceptions, but in general, no one has a "constitutional right to ride a particular bus."

To be even more clear, I'll bring it into my own industry, of multiplayer games. As a private company, we have policies about what behaviors are and aren't allowed in our games. If someone doesn't abide by those policies (or even if they do), we can choose not to do business with them. No one has any constitutional right to be allowed to log into one of our products. We have the right to refuse service to anyone, and we exercise that right on a routine basis.

] The core point that I'm concerned with is that an ID check is
] meaningless unless it is correlated with a database.

I disagree quite strongly on this point. ID check... [ Read More (0.3k in body) ]

RE: How to fly without ID!

] The Yugoslav parliament has voted itself out of
] existence, dissolving the Yugoslav federation after
] nearly 74 years.
] From now on it will be called just Serbia and Montenegro
] - the two remaining republics joined in a loose union.
] Yugoslavia lost its other four republics in the bloody
] wars of independence in the 1990s, as Croatia, Slovenia,
] Bosnia-Hercegovina and Macedonia broke away.

As two of my grandparents were born in Croatia, I definitely count part of my heritage as Yugoslav. I spent a year there as a child, and was emotionally devastated when war broke out several years ago. I would lie awake at night, horrified to think that bombs were falling on places where I had played as a child.

Though I've come to an acceptance that the union forged by Tito would eventually completely dissolve, the news today that Yugoslavia is no more, fills me with sadness, like hearing that a childhood home I once lived in has been bulldozed over.

I console myself with the knowledge that some of the separate states are now better off with their own independence. And my hope, of course, is that once the final old bonds have been removed, that the entire area will have the freedom to grow even more, with honor, and peace.

Elonka

Yugoslavia Is No More

Decius wrote:
] Elonka wrote:
] ] But in terms of security at airports? I agree with the sign
] ] that is posted at St. Louis Lambert International Airport,
] ] which, to the best of my recollection, says: "Passengers
] ] wishing to fly are not required to submit to search of their
] ] persons or belongings. Such search may be refused, in which
] ] case the airlines have the right to refuse to allow the
] ] individual to board the aircraft."
]
] You might be interested in this, its a lawsuit covering this
] issue which is currently in the courts:
]
] http://cryptome.org/freetotravel.htm
]

Interesting, though I can't say that I necessarily agree with everything in the suit.

]
] 1. You state that an ID requirement to fly is ok if it isn't
] also coupled with ID requirement as bus terminals, hotels,
] train stations, and other travel related businesses. The case
] argues that it is.

Ah, just to be clear, I don't have a problem with ID checks at bus terminals, hotels, and train stations, either. Those are private companies who have the right to refuse service, so I believe that they also have the right to institute reasonable security measures, and I see an ID check as a reasonable measure.

Where I would draw the line (and I understand that *my* location for drawing the line is completely different from other people's location -- this is just my personal stance), is where someone is required to show ID even when traveling *under their own power*. So in my world view: getting on a Greyhound requiring an ID check to cross a state line? Okay. Having to routinely show an ID when driving across a state line in my own car? Not okay.

] This also creates an incredible opportunity for abuse.

Such opportunities exist everywhere, alas. If I may be permitted an "abuse" rant on a related subject:

I have to admit that I've been amused and horrified at some of the laughable security procedures that have gone into place after September 11th. For example, though I saw it as a good idea to limit access to airport gates to ticketed passengers only, then they turned around and said that an E-ticket was sufficient proof that you were a ticketed passenger. I laughed when I heard that, because e-tickets are *trivial* to forge -- Anyone with access to a single E-ticket, a printer, and any kind of HTML editor (including Notepad) could churn out an infinite number of e-tickets with any name that they wanted, within about 30 seconds. Though these forged e-tickets would *not* be good enough to actually get someone on a plane, at the security checkpoint all that would be checked was that the name on the ID matched the name on the printout, and you'd be waved through. I also have personal experience of times that I'd accidentally show the wrong e-ticket to security at an airport (like I said, I do a lot of flying, and sometimes ... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

RE: How to fly without ID!

] Kozer said she wasn't roped into the roles -- she
] auditioned for them after she quit law school and was
] saddled with huge loans while studying real estate.

Roped... Saddled... Ah, journalism at its best. ;)

Original article, with a few of the bondage pics in question, is at the following URL:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/kozer1.html

Joe Millionaire's Sarah has no apologies for bondage flicks

Rattle wrote:
] ] SADDAM Hussein's senior bodyguard has fled with details
] ] of Iraq's secret arsenal.
] ]
] ] His revelations have supported US President George W.
] ] Bush's claim there is enough evidence from UN inspectors
] ] to justify going to war.
] ]
] ] Abu Hamdi Mahmoud has provided Israeli intelligence with
] ] a list of sites that the inspectors have not visited.
] ]
] ] They include:
] ]
] ] AN underground chemical weapons facility at the southern
] ] end of the Jadray Peninsula in Baghdad;
] ]
] ] A SCUD assembly area near Ramadi. The missiles come from
] ] North Korea;
] ]
] ] TWO underground bunkers in Iraq's Western Desert. These
] ] contain biological weapons.
]
] Something about this does not seem right. Why is this public
] right now? If this is true, wouldn't it be best to keep it
] secret from everyone other then the weapon inspectors? They
] are the ones who need this information right now. If this is
] true, and its not acted on quickly by the inspectors, then
] when they get there they will find only burned out facilities.

Agreed, something doesn't smell right. I searched around at google.com/news, and everything just seems to come back to the above story in a Melbourne paper. It doesn't seem to be off one of the trusted "wires", so may be being squashed for other reasons. Maybe it's false, maybe it's supposed to be secret, maybe it's flat out propaganda, and maybe it's just that the wires won't pick it up until they can verify it from multiple or verifiable sources.

I did find some related stuff at a site called Debka, which referred to Saddam's chief bodyguard as "Hamdi Hamouda" (close to the Melbourne paper's spelling of "Abu Hamdi Mahmoud"). I can't rate the Debka site's reliability very high, but that article is here:

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=245

There's also reference to a "sacked" bodyguard named Jassem Abdullah, who's been claiming to know the location of secret caches for the last few weeks. That article (again, I can't rate it highly for reliability) is here:

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=247

One very frustrating thing about researching Arabic news, is the fluidity of how names are spelled and arranged. Sometimes a name might be spelled "Binalshibh" and sometimes "bin al'shib", and so forth. So there may be more information about Jassem/Hamdi/Hamouda and others, that I just haven't found yet. I definitely think it's a lead worth following though!

RE: Herald Sun: Saddam's bodyguard warns of secret arsenal [02feb03]

Darwin wrote:

] As a die-hard Constitutionalist, I believe that we still have
] an absolute, unfettered, God-given right to travel from point
] A to point B without permission from the state -- in the air,
] as well as on land. This Nazi procedure of "your papers,
] please" has never been appropriate for our country. I have had
] occasion to travel a good deal in the last several months, and
] on those trips I decided to research and test this issue about
] the necessity for producing identification. I have talked with
] agents, and their supervisors, of several major airlines in
] cities across America, and have gradually pieced together a
] rather complete picture of the real legal situation regarding
] our right to travel.

I also have the occasion to travel quite often, and am a close observer of airport security measures. Over the last 20 years, I have kept a journal of each airport I pass through, and jotted down notes about all kinds of miscellany, such as what type of aircraft that I fly on, how many other passengers there are, what kind of safety briefing takes place (on Cathay Pacific the stewardesses do a kind of choreographed "aloha" dance while they're demonstrating the oxygen masks), what kinds of special security I had to go through at the airport, and other miscellany.

Let me say up front that personally, I don't have a problem with showing my ID. But I have found it fascinating to see how different airports across the country have adopted different variations of security procedures since September 11th. Even when traveling through different airports on the same day, I'd run into vastly different "federal requirements" in each location. For example, in one airport I'd be required to take off my shoes, in another I wouldn't. On one route, if I was traveling in one direction I'd be required to pass through a metal detector and have my bags checked with the new "chemical pad" detector, but traveling in the other direction I didn't even have to pass through a metal detector to board the aircraft, and so forth.

Most recently (last week) I observed that Chicago O'Hare and St. Louis Lambert airports were stating that ID did *not* need to be shown to board an aircraft, but in Syracuse Airport, it was still a requirement. And *all* airports that I passed through last week still required that ID be shown to pass through the initial security checkpoint where the carry-ons are x-rayed. Interestingly, at St. Louis Lambert airport, I had to show ID not once but *twice* at the same security checkpoint -- Once when I first got into line, and again at the *end* of the line, right before I went through the detectors (there were only 3 people in line, too). But at that same airport, I *didn't* have to show ID as I boarded the aircraft -- I just needed to give them my boarding pass.

Taking a step back from all of it though, I have to say that I really don't... [ Read More (0.1k in body) ]

How to fly without ID!

] BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Major Iraqi newspapers reported the
] space shuttle Columbia tragedy on their front pages on
] Sunday, but it appeared at the bottom, overshadowed by
] one of Saddam Hussein's almost-nightly meetings with
] military commanders.
]
] Although no official Iraqi government statement was
] issued, individual Baghdad officials expressed sympathy
] for the American people, despite the tense confrontation
] between the United States and Iraq.

I'm sorry to hear that Saddam can't even release a formalized "condolences" message about the tragedy. On the other hand, I find it encouraging that at least there are *some* officials in the Iraqi regime who were able to react as human beings.

Shuttle Tragedy Played Lower in Baghdad

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