Old South Rising in Alabama

Old South Rising in Alabama
Friday, November 05, 2004

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Old times are not forgotten in the heart of Dixie.

Alabama voters elected a Supreme Court candidate linked to Old South ideals and apparently killed a move to strike segregationist language from the state Constitution, a victory of sorts for the state's neo-Confederate crowd.

Michael Hill, president of the pro-secession League of the South, said Tom Parker's election Tuesday and the Amendment Two results make it obvious many Alabama voters still identify with Southern causes.

A black law professor said the twin developments were worrisome.

"The message is that people don't care, they don't understand, and that some people are bigots," said Bryan Fair, who teaches at the University of Alabama.

Parker denied any race-based agenda, and Amendment Two opponents said their objections were based solely on the possibility that the measure would lead to new taxes for public schools, not racism. But issues and symbols dating back generations became an undercurrent flowing through some races in Alabama.

Parker — a former aide to Roy Moore, the Alabama chief justice who was ousted from the bench for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the courthouse — did not back down when stories emerged shortly before the vote about his handing out tiny Confederate flags and associating with leaders of ultraconservative, pro-Confederacy groups, including the League, which campaigned heavily for him.

Parker and Moore also were leading opponents of Amendment Two, which would have stricken from the Constitution language mandating segregated schools and imposing poll taxes — provisions, now unenforceable, that were approved in 1901 to repress blacks and poor whites. Critics claimed another part of the proposal could have led to federal court orders for big tax increases to fund schools.

Unofficial returns showed voters defeating the amendment by a razor-thin margin, but the final outcome may not be known until provisional ballots are counted next week.

In case the amendment ultimately fails, legislators plan to use a special session beginning next week to introduce new versions of Amendment Two, minus the language that opponents claim could lead to a tax increase. Hill said he supports the idea of removing the segregationist language.

Parker spent less than $200,000 on the general election and attributed his victory more to his support of Moore's Ten Commandments fight than any links to pro-Confederate groups.

But he also said: "I think Alabamians appreciate our history, and that includes the Civil War and civil rights."

The League of the South also supported a candidate for president, Constitution Party nominee and League member Michael Peroutka, who got only 2,007 votes in Alabama to 1.2 million for President Bush.

Parker's win and opposition to Amendment Two are more likely linked to support for Moore — who supported Parker and opposed the amendment — than racism or Confederate leanings, said Jess Brown, who teaches political science at Athens State University.

"I think the Moore wing of the Republican Party has a lot of grassroots energy and support in rural Alabama," Brown said.

UN's Annan Seeks to Prevent an Assault on Fallouja

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
UN's Annan Seeks to Prevent an Assault on Fallouja
November 5, 2004
By Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer

His letter to U.S., British and Iraqi leaders warns of increasing hostility and election boycott.

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned leaders of the United States, Britain and Iraq that another full-scale assault on the rebel-held city of Fallouja would further alienate Iraqis and disrupt elections planned for January.

Annan's warning, contained in a letter sent Sunday, has angered some officials here.

"This is an issue for the government of Iraq," said British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry. "It's easy for those not in Iraq to underestimate the overwhelming concern the Iraqis have for security. There cannot be an area as big as Fallouja which is allowed to be a base for terrorism."

Some diplomats said Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was "furious" when he received the letter. Iraq's new U.N. ambassador immediately sought to meet with Annan to argue that the U.N. was interfering. Allawi recently criticized Annan for not doing enough to help Iraq prepare for elections. The world body's officials say Iraq is not secure enough for more U.N. workers to help organize the nationwide vote.

Annan's letter underscores a fundamental disagreement between the U.S.-led coalition and the U.N. about how best to bring stability to Iraq.

Leaders of the U.S., Britain and Iraq say that retaking insurgent strongholds is the only way to secure the country before the elections. But Annan argued in his letter that another invasion of Fallouja would only create more enemies and spark an election boycott by Sunni Muslims.

In the letter to Allawi, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Annan acknowledged the need to restore security in Iraq but said a political process that included groups not represented in the interim government would be the best foundation for stability.

"The threat or actual use of force not only risks deepening the sense of alienation of certain communities, but would also reinforce perceptions among the Iraqi population of a continued military occupation," he wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Times.

As U.S.-led forces massed on the outskirts of Fallouja in mid-October, Allawi demanded that Falloujans hand over Jordanian-born militant leader Abu Musab Zarqawi or the city would face all-out attack. Allawi has appealed to religious and tribal leaders to try to persuade militants to stop their attacks and join the electoral process, but he warned Sunday that the "window for diplomacy is closing."

The Iraqi government, however, is not united on the need for a military solution. In a direct challenge to Allawi on Monday, Iraqi President Ghazi Ajil Yawer, a Sunni, said an attack on Fallouja was unnecessary. "The way the coalition is managing the crisis is wrong," Yawer told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas.

"It is as if someone shot his horse in the head to kill a fly that landed on it. The fly flies away, and the horse dies," he said.

As U.S. airstrikes on Fallouja continued Thursday, Bush defended the need to rout the insurgents.

"In order for Iraq to be a free country, those who are trying to stop the elections and stop a free society from emerging must be defeated," Bush said during a White House news conference.

The U.S. has been urging the United Nations to provide more experts to help organize the balloting, but Annan has limited the staff in Iraq to 35 until the U.N. is guaranteed better protection.

On Thursday, the State Department announced that Georgia would send 691 troops to Iraq as part of a special U.N. security force. Fiji has committed 170 troops to protect U.N. workers and facilities in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone in Baghdad.

British and American officials expressed hoped that the additional troops would prompt the U.N. to send more election experts soon — and that the world body would leave decisions about Fallouja to the Iraqi government.

"We want a peaceful end in Fallouja as much as anybody. But this is something the government of Iraq is working to effect and they're in the best position to know what will work and won't," said Adam Ereli, a State Department spokesman. "The important principle here is that the Iraqis be allowed to determine the future of their government and not be held hostage to terrorists."

Times staff writer Alissa J. Rubin in Baghdad contributed to this report.

I wonder who Kofi Annan and his UN co-criminals have inside Iraq to ensure the malicious fighting continues. Which group of terrorists is the UN using to do their bidding in Iraq? What have Kofi Annan and his UN co-criminals promised them in return?

The First Lady: Laura's New Agenda

The First Lady: Laura's New Agenda
By Tamara Lipper
Newsweek

She was the president's secret weapon through the homestretch. Now she's got fresh goals for a second term.

New confidence: The First Lady wants to focus on alcohol and drug abuse among youths.

Nov. 15 issue - In the past four years, Americans have learned a lot of things about Laura Bush. Some fit the prim, proper stereotype. She's a neat freak who, her husband has joked, would want a vacuum cleaner if she were stranded on a desert island. And between speeches on her nonstop campaign tour—she was one of the most sought-after speakers besides the president himself—she diligently prepared for Christmas at the White House. It's a massive undertaking that began early in the summer. On the way to campaign events she pored over pages of possible themes, before selecting one that will remain top secret until after Thanksgiving. In addition to her stack of weighty briefing books and prepared speeches, her carry-on bag included sample Christmas-card designs. But other things about the First Lady might surprise her admirers. Mrs. Bush is a big Ben Stiller fan, and especially liked the campy comedy "Zoolander."

As she looks ahead to four more years in the White House, the First Lady's agenda would likely have the same mix of the traditional and the somewhat unexpected. With a 74 percent favorability rating, she is far more popular than her husband. In recent interviews, Laura has hinted at longer-term plans. Aides say she is concerned about drug and alcohol abuse among juvenile delinquents. In a second term, says an aide, Laura would like to focus on programs devoted to helping these kids—boys in particular—by getting them cleaned up and teaching them life skills. This interest is "something fairly new," says the aide, and came up unexpectedly. The issue was brought to Mrs. Bush by a Dallas friend who told her about a program that gives at-risk kids stray dogs to train. "I just would be interested to see if there is something we could do for those young people who get in trouble," she told Larry King.

In 2002, not long after the First Lady recorded a radio address on the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban, the women working behind the cosmetics counter at an Austin, Texas, department store thanked her. It wasn't until then, says a top aide, that she realized how much influence she could have.

Voters who suspected Mrs. Bush is more moderate than her husband had their suspicions confirmed during the campaign. She signaled that she differed with the president on high-profile issues, including a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. A week before the election she told Charlie Gibson of ABC News that "I'm not really sure about it. I think it's important to have the debate." It's a time-honored tactic in Republican politics: the candidate's wife softening the hard-line views of her husband (who softened his view in his own appearance on ABC). Her mother-in-law, Barbara Bush, did the same for the first President Bush when she hinted she was pro-choice. But Laura is careful to avoid the appearance that she may actually have some influence over her husband. "I understand why he has the opinions he has. He understands why I have the opinions I have," she told The Washington Post. "But we don't argue issues—we've been married too long to spend a lot of time arguing issues."

Instead, she used her influence to sway crowds in swing states across the country. When Karl Rove worried that Florida was tilting toward John Kerry in the final weeks of the campaign, he immediately turned to Laura Bush. The First Lady went on a solo campaign tour across the state. She urged voters to let her husband finish the job he started. Thanks in part to Laura, he'll now have that chance. She will, too.

The Truth Hurts

The Truth Hurts
Friday, November 05, 2004
By John Gibson

Iraq's Interim Prime Minister Allawi stepped on some toes Thursday when he said some of America's so-called European allies were spectators in the Iraq war.

The French responded by snubbing Allawi, having an official European Union welcome deleted from a statement on Iraq and then that oily Chirac ran off to see Arafat on his deathbed. Imagine preferring to hold a conversation with a terrorist in a coma rather than meeting with the man who is trying to bring the values of the French revolution to poor, beat up Iraq.

And then the prime minister of Luxembourg spoke up (how many of you can find that particular postage stamp on the map?) and he said he didn't like being called a spectator state. Well, Luxembourg was a spectator and still is.

Germany got huffy and reminded Allawi that they are training Iraqi cops in Germany and had agreed to reduce Iraq's debt. Let's see, any danger involved in training those cops back in Hamburg? And was that Iraqi debt to Germany unwise German loans to the butcher of Baghdad himself? Maybe they should collect their loans from him.

Oh never mind, those Euros are what they are: too weak to lead and too proud to follow.

But how about our fellow Americans?

The New York Times Web site listed its five most e-mailed articles Friday: All five were from Thursday's post-election sob fest.

The New York Times' Thomas Friedman, normally moderate and clear thinking, spewed bitterness, writing: "This was not an election. This was station identification. I'd bet anything that if the election ballots hadn't had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, 'Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?' the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way."

FOX News is big, but 59 million viewers? I don't think so, Thomas.

Times' columnist Paul Krugman titled his column Thursday as, "No Surrender", as if he were hunkered down against Bush in Fallujah.

There is good news: Many of these people are threatening to move to Canada.

That's My Word.

Soldiers, Rebels Clash in Ivory Coast

Soldiers, Rebels Clash in Ivory Coast
Friday, November 05, 2004

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Ivory Coast soldiers battled rebel forces as warplanes launched more bombing raids Friday, escalating hostilities a day after the government abandoned a cease-fire meant to end a civil war that killed thousands of people.

A "skirmish" between government and rebel forces occurred near the town of Raviar, about 20 miles south of the rebel stronghold of Bouake, said U.N. military spokesman Philippe Moreux.

"We are waiting to see how many combatants were involved and exactly what happened," Moreux said.

There was no immediate word on casualties in the clashes, which came a day after government warplanes bombed Bouake, breaking the 2003 cease-fire. The jets ran five bombing runs there, destroying rebel headquarters and ruining other buildings, including homes and businesses.

Raviar is in a buffer zone meant to divide forces of the rebel-controlled north and government-controlled south. The zone is patrolled by some of the more than 10,000 U.N. and French peacekeepers deployed in the West African country.

Rebels also said there were new air attacks Friday by government warplanes, saying two bombed the rebel-held town of Vavoua and strafed it with machine-gun fire.

The target in the town west of Bouake was not clear, said rebel commander Yeo, who only gave his first name.

Bouake residents cowered in darkened homes Friday, fearing more onslaughts as government warplanes flew overhead. With water and electricity cut, families ventured out to draw water from wells.

Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie of France, Ivory Coast's former colonial ruler, called the situation "extremely worrying" and urged the United Nations to "give all lawful means" to help peacekeepers here restore order. Alliot-Marie, speaking to France Inter radio in Paris, confirmed Friday's bombing raids.

On Thursday, at least 39 people — including 14 civilians — were gravely injured in air attacks, said Antoine Foucher, spokesman for the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. The group said it was sure others were killed, but it could not say how many.

The government also bombed another rebel-held city, Korhogo, on Thursday, New York-based Human Rights Watch said. Civilians were believed to be among the casualties, the group said.

The U.N. Security Council, fearing a return to a full-scale war that would threaten its peace efforts across the region, called the attacks "grave" and "worrying" after an emergency meeting late Thursday.

The world body suspended all humanitarian work in Ivory Coast after fighting resumed and condemned what it called "major" violations of the cease-fire.

Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, has been split since a September 2002 coup attempt triggered a civil war. A 2003 peace deal, brokered under pressure from France and others, ended major fighting. But a power-sharing deal failed to take hold, and distrust and ethnic, regional and political hatreds continue to run strong.

Ivory Coast's government showed no sign Thursday of backing down.

"Stand up, with everyone behind us, and let us liberate the country," Army chief of staff Gen. Matthias Doue assured a loyalist throng of 3,000 in the commercial capital, Abidjan.

"Liberate Bouake!" mobs answered.

Loyalist mobs elsewhere in Abidjan attacked unarmed U.N. personnel and burned two of their vehicles, Human Rights Watch said.

Crowds also burned the offices of at least three opposition newspapers and the headquarters of the opposition Rally of the Republicans party, witnesses said.

The state-owned daily Fraternite Matin newspaper said electricity to the north was cut and telephone lines were down.

Zarqawi Group Purportedly Wants Hassan Freed

Zarqawi Group Purportedly Wants Hassan Freed
Friday, November 05, 2004

CAIRO, Egypt — The insurgent group Al Qaeda in Iraq called Friday for the release of the kidnapped executive of the CARE charity, Margaret Hassan, and promised to free her if she fell into their hands.

In a message posted on the Internet, the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it wanted the world to know "if (the kidnappers of Margaret Hassan) handed us this captive, we will release her immediately unless it is proven she was conspiring against Muslims."

The authenticity of the statement could not be verified, but it was signed "Al Qaeda in Iraq" and it appeared Friday on a Web site known for publishing messages from Islamic militant groups.

The statement appeared three days after a video was broadcast in which Hassan's kidnappers said Britain had 48 hours to withdraw its troops from Iraq or they would transfer her to Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, which until recently called itself Tawhid and Jihad, has claimed responsibility for beheading a number of Western hostages, such as the American businessman Nick Berg and the British construction worker Kenneth Bigley. It also claimed to have carried out a series of major vehicle bombings, such the attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad last year.

The director of CARE International in Iraq, Hassan, 59, was kidnapped Oct. 19 as she drove to work in Baghdad. Patients at a hospital run by CARE staged a small demonstration calling for the release of Hassan, who has Irish, British and Iraqi citizenships.

Videos of Hassan in captivity have been released, but no group has claimed responsibility for her abduction.

More than 170 foreigners have been kidnapped in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's regime fell in April 2003. More than 30 foreign hostages have been killed. Some kidnapping groups seek ransom, while others pursue political motives such as the withdrawal of foreign companies and troops from Iraq.