USAID, the State Department agency in charge of reconstruction projects in Iraq, hid cost overruns by disguising the overspending as administrative and overhead costs, the New York Times reports today...
Iran is poised to reject a U.N. proposal calling for it to suspend uranium enrichment by August 31st "or else..." the "or else" probably not including sanctions against selling oil to Europe and China...
Israel is in a rejectionist mood, too. The government there has rejected a call for a humanitarian ceasefire in order to get aid to civilian Lebanese trapped by the shelling and straffing of their neighborhoods by U.S. built warplanes. Also, apparently the Israelis are still targeting U.N. facilities in Lebanon:
In a separate incident, two Indian soldiers with the UN peacekeeping force were wounded in an Israeli strike on their observation post, the UN said.
The incident came days after four UN observers died in an Israeli air strike.
Hm... first they kill a Chinese, now they injur a couple of Indians ... both counries being heavily dependent on Iranian oil ... oh never mind ... And nations will want to contribute to a U.N. peacekeeping force ... why?
Also, according to the Guardian, "legitimate targets" of Israeli airstrikes also include Red Cross ambulances ... go figure. And here's a chilling account of the 6 hour bombardment of that first U.N. post in Lebanon, courtesy of the LA Times. A clip:
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations post where four peacekeepers were killed by Israeli fire Tuesday was hit at least 16 times over six hours, including five direct hits on the base as its unarmed staff repeatedly notified Israeli liaison officers and begged for help, U.N. officials said Wednesday.
On Tuesday U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the airstrike that hit the post in southern Lebanon was "apparently deliberate." ...
...The U.N. post was "longestablished and clearly marked," Annan said Wednesday.
U.N. officials who briefed reporters here said the attack began about 1:20 p.m. Radio contact with the post was lost about 7:30 p.m. During those hours, U.N. officials made at least half a dozen calls to top officials at the Israeli mission to the U.N. to seek an end to the attack, a senior U.N. official said. Additional calls were made to the Israeli military by U.N. generals on the ground demanding that the Israelis hold their fire.
The calls went unheeded and the fire continued even when a U.N. rescue mission was underway after a direct hit on the observer post, the official said.
The nearest known Hezbollah activity was more than three miles away, although in the past there have been Hezbollah weapons caches in the area, a senior U.N. official said. The U.N. is still trying to determine if the hits were from aerial bombardment or artillery.
According to information compiled so far by the U.N., the base, which is one of four in southern Lebanon, had received fire several times in the last few days before the barrage that killed the observers, who were a Canadian, a Finn, an Austrian and a Chinese.
"They were unarmed observers in the service of peace," Annan said.
Back to the BBC for a moment, for a read on what Israel is up to...
On "dismantling" Hezbollah:
Israeli officials have indicated to the BBC that Israel may be willing to stop fighting as soon as a UN resolution is passed next week - before the arrival of an international peace force - and that they will not insist on the Hezbollah disarming first.
And on "taking out the terrorists":
The UN says some 600 people - about a third of them children - have been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon.
They include a mother and her five children killed in a new wave of Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon, Lebanese medics said. Israel said it was investigating.
Quite an operation, isn't it? BTW it continues in Gaza too.
And getting aid to those stranded Lebanese is next to impossible while Israel keeps up the bombardment.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah's leader is getting cocky, perhaps realizing that in a way, his side has already won this mini-war. Israel is being roundly condemned all over the world, including Europe (sans the U.K.) for killing so many civilian children in Lebanon, and they are already backing down on eliminating Hezbollah (or mounting full-on invasion of Lebanon.) So once again, neoconservative geostrategic war planning meets the real world, and fails miserably.
Ministers are growing increasingly concerned about the government's approach to the conflict in Lebanon, as normally loyal MPs warn that Britain is damaging its international standing.
Cabinet members feel the tone of government pronouncements is making it look indifferent to the suffering of Lebanese civilians, and senior backbenchers are openly critical of Tony Blair's stance. "We could do with sounding a little bit more like Kim [Howells] and a little less like Condi [Rice]," said one minister.
Foreign office minister Mr Howells has repeatedly called for Israel to show "proportionality and restraint", while the foreign secretary and prime minister have refused to condemn its actions.
Greg Pope, a Blairite and member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, told the Guardian that there was widespread dismay that the government had not called for an immediate ceasefire.
"Tony has misjudged [this issue], and is leaving us isolated among European countries and at home," he said.
Yo, Blair! Good going, bloke!
And part of the reason the Brisih might be dismayed is that Blair's buddy Bush continues to trot out the abusrd clackings of radical neoconservatism, whereby killing scads of Arab women and children somehow triggers the birth pangs of Jeffersonian democracy across the Middle East.
Of course, not everyone is condemning Israel. They have their supporters, both in neocon America and in the U.K..
But I think everyone can appreciate the human, and now the environmental disaster that the Israeli campaign against Lebanon has become. Pics from the BBC can be found here.
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%>
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
