Geneva, Dec. 2006 – In the final day of its third regular session, the UN Human Rights Council condemned Israel twice, bringing its total number of resolutions against the Jewish state, in its six months of existence, to eight. Israel is the only country in the world that the Council has condemned for human rights violations since it was inaugurated in June. Today’s censures were the only Council resolutions from this session that addressed a specific country.
The two texts deal with “follow up” to two earlier Council resolutions pronouncing Israel guilty of human rights violations in Gaza and in Lebanon without mentioning the actions or violations of Hamas or Hezbollah, which were widely criticized by Western states and human rights organizations as one-sided. Both of today’s resolutions mandate additional reporting on and scrutiny of Israel’s conduct when the Council meets again in March.
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Posted by Walt as Freedom & Human Rights, Middle East at 2:08 AM EST
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by Daniel Clark
Under the 1997 International Chemical Weapons Convention, all signatories, including the United States, were to destroy their stockpiles of chemical weapons by 2006. That deadline has since been put off until 2012, but the U.S. is now requesting a further extension, to the year 2023.
To this point, we've only eliminated approximately 41 percent of our Cold War-era chemical weapons stocks, while the Russians have only destroyed about 3 percent of their own. This is unacceptable. According to our inspectors, Saddam Hussein obliterated all of his chemical weapons in a moment of panic, after those same intrepid inspectors had gotten a little too close for comfort. If he can complete a project like that almost instantly, then there's no excuse for our taking 26 years to do the same.
Are we so filled with hubris that we won't admit that there are certain things our enemies can do better than we can? Saddam may be a genocidal maniac, but if he really destroyed all of his chemical weapons in 1991 — as the Duelfer Report tells us he did — then our global commitments demand that we at least try to learn his methods before asking for yet another 11 years. To that end, here are some suggestions on how to destroy chemical weapons quickly and inexpensively, in such a way that is sure to satisfy the international community.
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Posted by Walt as War & Peace at 7:13 PM EST
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by Thomas Lindaman
More than a few Republicans were sweating out Election Day 2006, but one of them had to be U. N. Ambassador John Bolton. Remember, he got the job when President Bush made a recess appointment to put him in the post. Now, Bolton has to be approved by the Senate, which as we know is tentatively controlled by the Democrats by virtue of a 49-49-2 makeup, with the 2 Independents tending to skew Democrat.
Bolton has been a thorn in the Democrats’ sides since he was brought up as a nominee. Democrats said Bolton would send the wrong message to the world and to the U. N. because, get this, he was "too gruff." Yeah, and calling Bush everything from stupid to Hitler is pillow talk, right? Either way, the prospects that Bolton will be confirmed by the Senate to be Ambassador are dimmer than the people who green-lighted the remake of "House of Wax" and made Paris Hilton an actress.
Or are they? Maybe it’s my askew way of looking at the world, but I think the Democrats have to get Bolton appointed this time because their future as majority party in Congress is at stake. How, you ask? Here are six reasons I came up with.
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Posted by Walt as General Commentary at 9:04 PM EST
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