Docudharma Times Sunday August 31

Are We Caught In The Sarah Palin

Twilight Zone?

New Orleans Empties as Gustav Closes In

Mayor Orders a Full Evacuation as Storm Gathers Over the Gulf of Mexico

 By Dana Hedgpeth and Jacqueline L. Salmon

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, August 31, 2008; Page A01

NEW ORLEANS, Aug. 30 — Mayor C. Ray Nagin on Saturday night ordered a mandatory evacuation of this city ahead of Hurricane Gustav, which swelled from an already deadly tropical storm into a monster depression with winds of more than 150 mph.

“This is the real deal, not a test,” Nagin said as he issued the order, effective 9 a.m. Eastern time Sunday for low-lying areas and 1 p.m. citywide. He warned residents that staying would be “one of the biggest mistakes of your life.”

Troop ‘Surge’ Took Place Amid Doubt and Debate

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By MICHAEL R. GORDON

Published: August 30, 2008  

WASHINGTON – When President Bush speaks to the Republican convention on Monday, he is expected to tout the “surge” of forces in Iraq as one of his proudest achievements. But that decision, one of his most consequential as commander in chief, was made only after months of tumultuous debate within the administration, according to still-secret memorandums and interviews with a broad range of current and former officials.

In January 2007, at a time when the situation in Iraq appeared the bleakest, Mr. Bush chose a bold option that was at odds with what many of his civilian and military advisers, including his field commander, initially recommended. Mr. Bush’s plan to send more than 20,000 troops to carry out a new counterinsurgency strategy has helped to reverse the spiral of sectarian killings in Iraq.

USA

Lots of no-shows expected at Republican National Convention

So many GOP lawmakers have sent regrets — citing tough reelection battles, previous commitments or other scheduling conflicts — that a Senate official notes ‘it’s probably easier to say who is atten

 By Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

August 31, 2008

DAYTON, OHIO — As Sen. John McCain prepares to accept the Republican presidential nomination this week, his party’s four-day convention will be notable in part for who isn’t attending.

Compared with past GOP conventions, a surprising number of prominent lawmakers and candidates will stay away from the festivities Sept. 1 to 4 in St. Paul, Minn. — chiefly citing tough reelection battles, previous commitments or other scheduling conflicts.

At least 10 incumbent senators, plus several Senate candidates, have sent their regrets. Only three incumbents in hotly contested races, including Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, will join the partygoers.

“It’s probably easier to say who is attending,” said Rebecca Fisher, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. But the list is “a moving target,” she added.

Republican officials have encouraged candidates to focus first on winning their own elections. But an aide to a Republican senator, who spoke on condition of anonymity, offered another reason for the no-shows.

US election: It’s the most vicious election campaign ever – and here’s why

As he bids to be president, Barack Obama is feeling the force of the mighty Republican propaganda machine. TV and radio hosts, authors and well-funded lobby groups have joined forces in a sophisticated and aggressive smear campaign. Paul Harris reports on the attack dogs ?

Paul Harris

The Observer,

Sunday August 31 2008

The Republican war room in Denver looked harmless. It was on a busy road in a neighbourhood of modest motels and petrol stations. Only a handmade sign, emblazoned with an arrow and the words ‘John McCain’, pointed the way.

But looks can be deceiving. More than two dozen Republican staffers were camped in Denver last week, spearheading the latest assaults on Barack Obama who was addressing the Democratic convention nearby. ‘We came here to piss the Democrats off,’ said one Republican aide with a grin.

They have largely succeeded. Each day new adverts have hammered a relentless drumbeat of negativity, painting Obama as too liberal, too inexperienced and practically a danger to America’s future.

Asia

Christians hide in forests as Hindu mobs ransack villages

 As death toll rises, Prime Minister denounces ‘national shame’ in state of Orissa where 60 churches were burned down

Gethin Chamberlain

The Observer,

Sunday August 31 2008

Thousands of terrified Indian Christians are hiding in the forests of the volatile Indian state of Orissa after a wave of religious ‘cleansing’ forced them from their burnt-out homes with no immediate prospect of return.

A mob of Hindu fundamentalists rampaged through villages last week, killing those too slow to get out of their way, burning churches and an orphanage, and targeting the homes of Christians. Up to 20 people were reported dead, with at least two deliberately set alight, after the murder of a Hindu leader last Saturday provoked the violence.

In some districts, entire villages lay deserted, abandoned by Christian populations who would rather shelter in the forests than return to face the risk of death. Some villagers attempted to return to their homes yesterday despite threats of further violence.

Thai PM turns to parliament to defuse protests  



by Thanaporn Promyamyai

BANGKOK (AFP)

Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej turned to parliament Sunday to try and defuse protests that have blockaded his offices and briefly shut airports, but insisted he would stay in power.

Samak is still looking for a peaceful way out of the crisis that began Tuesday when thousands of anti-government protesters rampaged through Bangkok’s historic district and invaded his offices, demanding his immediate resignation.

After police briefly clashed with rowdy demonstrators last week and protests spread outside the capital, the premier called the emergency parliament session, but he has so far ruled out declaring a state of emergency.

Africa

Race against time to save Congo’s apes

A Belgian aristocrat leads park rangers in fight to protect gorillas from poachers and rebel militias

Dan McDougall in Goma

The Observer,

Sunday August 31 2008

Given the genocidal record of Belgium’s King Leopold II in the Congo towards the end of the 19th century, the choice of Emmanuel de Merode – a descendant of Belgian royalty – as director of Africa’s oldest national park might raise some eyebrows. But as crisis threatens to overwhelm Virunga National Park, which lies at the epicentre of a war zone, it is Merode’s credentials that count rather than past colonial misdeeds.

London-born Merode, a former head of the conservation group Wildlife Direct, is now responsible for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s endangered mountain gorilla population, whose plight came to the world’s attention last year when photographs of four bullet-ridden carcasses were published. The appointment follows a year which has seen rebel general Laurent Nkunda’s army take over the park, swamping it with an estimated 16,000 armed militia.

Hannibal Gadaffi accuser fears his brother is a victim of revenge



From The Sunday Times

August 31, 2008

John Follain in Paris

A former servant of a son of Colonel Muammar Gadaffi, who is suing over the repeated beatings and death threats that he allegedly received, claims that his brother has gone missing in Libya in an act of revenge by the Libyan leader.

Gadaffi’s fiery fifth son Hannibal, 32, and his wife Aline, a former model, were arrested at a Geneva hotel last month after the hotel staff complained to police. The couple were charged with threatening and assaulting their servants and were released on £250,000 bail. The Gadaffis deny wrongdoing.

The two former employees, known as Hassan, 36, a Moroccan, and Mona, 35, a Tunisian, who are now in hiding in Switzerland, described their ordeal last week.

Europe

Where’s next in Vladimir Putin’s sights?

Russia’s aggression towards Georgia, its long-range missile tests and the fiery rhetoric coming out of both Moscow and western capitals in the past week have provoked comparisons with the cold war. How worried should we be?

From The Sunday Times

August 31, 2008

Matthew Campbell, Jon Swain in Tbilisi, Tony Allen-Mills in New York, Kevin O’Flynn in Moscow, Askold Krushelnycky and Isabel Oakeshott

A graffito daubed on the wall of a Georgian army base at Senaki by Russian soldiers who looted the place last week reads, “Thanks Uncle Sam for the uniforms”. The Russians could not resist a swipe at America for arming, training and even dressing the Georgian armed forces.

Uniforms were not the only US kit that the Russians seized from the defeated Georgian army in the short but vicious war that appeared to have put paid to the country’s hopes of joining Nato. At Poti, the Black Sea port occupied by Russian troops, five US Marine Corps Humvees were captured. They had been awaiting shipment back to America after being used in a military exercise with the Georgian army. Now their fate is uncertain. A Russian general called it a “detail” but his relish in the capture of American military hardware was a telling example of how East-West antagonism has been revived.

Russian collective farms become hot capitalist property  >





By Andrew E. Kramer

Published: August 31, 2008



PODLESNY, Russia: The fields around this little farming enclave are among the most fertile on earth. But like tens of million of acres of land in this country, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they literally went to seed.

Now that may be changing. A decade after capitalism transformed Russian industry, an agricultural revolution is stirring the countryside, shaking up village life and sweeping aside the collective farms that resisted earlier reform efforts and remain the dominant form of agriculture.

The change is being driven by soaring global food prices (the price of wheat alone rose 77 percent last year) and a new reform allowing foreigners to own agricultural land. Together, they have created a land rush in rural Russia.

Middle East

Hezbollah warlord was an enigma  

Imad Mughniyah, alleged mastermind of infamous terrorist attacks, was one of the most hunted men in the world. His death is as mysterious as his life.

By Borzou Daragahi and Sebastian Rotella, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

August 31, 2008  

BEIRUT — In Hezbollah’s inner circle they called him “The One Who Never Sleeps.”

Imad Mughniyah was one of the most hunted men in the world. Western security forces spent 25 years pursuing the Hezbollah warlord, the alleged mastermind of infamous attacks of the late 20th century and a pioneer of brutal tactics later emulated by Al Qaeda. In fact, he may have proved a more disciplined, effective master of asymmetric warfare than even Osama bin Laden.

Mughniyah survived through anonymity: changing hide-outs, moving without bodyguards or drivers, a pistol always in his belt. On the evening of Feb. 12, he left a safe house in the Kfar Soussa neighborhood of Damascus, a warren of nearly identical towers that house the employees and headquarters of Syria’s vast intelligence apparatus.

He had just held a sit-down with a Syrian spy chief and was preparing for a secret meeting that night with President Bashar Assad, Western anti-terrorism officials say.

Latin America

Drug Violence Alters the Flow of Life in Mexico  

 

By MARC LACEY

Published: August 30, 2008

TIJUANA, Mexico – With a bingo hall, a dog track and a vast room of slot machines, Casino Caliente has a fair share of shrieks and groans any night of the year. But when a team of heavily armed men dressed in black barged in and ordered everyone to the floor on a Friday night this month, the outbursts rose to an entirely different level.

“Everybody down!” the masked men shouted, adding expletives to make their point and urgently directing their automatic weapons this way and that. Panic filled the bingo hall, for no one knew what was to come next.

Gone are the days when Mexico’s drug war was an abstraction for most people, something they lamented over the morning papers as if it were unfolding far away.