Iraqi Informant Threw US Curveball on WMD For War

The Iraqi informant known as “Curve Ball” – whose fake story about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction program helped build the case for the US-led invasion of Iraq – has been identified by the CBS 60 Minutes Program.

Rafid Ahmed Alwan first arrived in Germany as a refugee in 1999 and told authorities he had been a chemical engineer who managed a biological weapons factory, Djerf al-Nadaf, in Iraq.

Apparently, Mr Alwan told this story to increase his chances of being granted asylum in Germany. He further embellished the story when he told German officials that a dozen of his co-workers had died manufacturing biological weapons.

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US Atomic Inspectors At North Korea Nuclear Facility

US atomic inspectors have arrived in North Korea to supervise the first steps of disabling the country’s nuclear facilities under an agreement reached in February during the six-nation diplomatic process.

The nine-member American team will first oversee the decommissioning of the main reactor in Yongbyon, which has produced weapons-grade plutonium.

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Madrid Train Bombings Victim Families Rail Court Acquittals

The families of victims killed in the 2004 Madrid train bombings were outraged yesterday at the Spanish national court’s acquittals of seven defendants and the perceived leniency in sentences handed down to those convicted of the worst terrorist attacks carried out by Islamic militants on European soil.

On March 11, 2004 ten backpacks loaded with nails and dynamite exploded on four commuter trains during morning peak hour in Madrid. The blasts ripped apart several carriages, killing 191 people and wounding 1,841 more.

Spanish authorities brought a total of 28 suspects to trial – 19 Arabs, mostly from Morocco, and 9 Spaniards. Seven other men believed to have been ringleaders blew themselves up in a Madrid apartment three weeks after the attacks as police closed in to arrest them.

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US, Iran Rhetoric Feared Heading For Military Showdown

US lawmakers and the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency fear that heated rhetoric between the United States and Iran will escalate into a military conflict with devastating consequences throughout the Middle East and around the world.“My fear is that, if we continue to escalate from both sides, that we will end up into a precipice, we will end up into an abyss,” said Mohamed ElBaredei, director general of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency. “The Middle East is in a total mess, to say the least. And we cannot add fuel to the fire.”

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Draft for US Diplomats For American Embassy in Iraq?

In a move that has already drawn inevitable comparisons with military conscription, the State Department has announced on Friday that US diplomats may soon be compelled to serve one-year tours of duty at the American Embassy in Iraq.

The plan has been prompted by a chronic lack of volunteers for postings in Baghdad, where the US embassy now comes under daily fire from insurgents.

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Microsoft Agrees To European Commission Ruling

Ending its long-standing battle with European courts, Microsoft agreed on Monday to bow to a 2004 European Commission ruling and share interoperability information with open-source software developers.

European commissioner for competition policy Nellie Kroes hailed the agreement as “a victory for consumers” and said the resulting changes would “profoundly affect the software industry”.

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Turkey Holds Crisis Meeting After Kurdish Rebel Attacks

Turkey’s Prime Minister will hold a Sunday evening crisis meeting with government and military officials after Kurdish rebels ambushed and killed 12 Turkish soldiers near the Iraqi border early Sunday.

This brings the death toll among Turkish soldiers and security personnel to 40 for the past month alone.

“Our parliament has granted us the authority to act, and within this framework we will do whatever has to be done,” said Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, referring to Wednesday’s overwhelming vote by the Turkish parliament to allow military incursions into Iraq to strike back at the PKK.

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Turkey Expected to Grant Attacks On Kurdish PKK In Iraq

The Turkish parliament is expected to grant permission today for the country’s military to attack Kurdish PKK rebel forces in northern Iraq, who are blamed for a series of deadly attacks on Turkish troops.

While the parliament is expected to approve the action by a considerable margin, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is urging calm and insisting that military strikes within Iraq’s borders would not be automatic.

“Passage of this motion does not mean an immediate incursion will follow, but we will act at the right time and under the right conditions,” Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday. “This is about self-defense.”

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Rice Says Middle East Peace Process Will Continue in Annapolis

Kicking off a fresh round of diplomatic talks in the Middle East to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced on Monday that the Bush administration considers the establishment of a Palestinian state “essential for the future” of the Middle East and the United States.

“Frankly, it’s time for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” she said after emerging from a three-hour meeting in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

“I wanted to say in my own voice to as many people as possible that the United States sees the establishment of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution as absolutely essential for the future, not just for Palestinians and Israelis, but also for the Middle East and indeed for American interests. That’s really a message that I think only I can deliver.”

Brokering a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians has been the elusive foreign policy ‘holy grail’ for successive US presidents, and President George Bush now appears determined to include it in his legacy.

Israeli and Palestinian diplomatic teams will meet over the coming weeks to develop a joint declaration ahead of the US-sponsored Middle East summit scheduled to begin on November 26 in Annapolis, Maryland.

The peace process encompasses a mine field of contentious issues including the right of return for Palestinian refugees, Israeli-Palestinian borders, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, national security for both states and the allocation of water resources.

While Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would prefer that a general statement, if any, be hammered out prior to the summit, Mr Abbas has said he will not show up unless a detailed document sets objectives and deadlines for the start and end of final-status negotiations.

“Everything should be clear in the conference … not open-ended,” said Mr Abbas.

Dr Rice didn’t say whether she thought the document needed to completed before the conference to serve as a basis for the peace talks, but said the leaders would be expected to deal with substantive issues when they meet next month.

“We frankly have better things to do than invite people to Annapolis for a photo-op,” she said.

Mr Olmert suggested in a speech to the Knesset on Monday that he may agree to relinquish control of some outlying Palestinian neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, long considered a basic concession to move the two-state solution forward.

Ahmed Qureia, a former Palestinian prime minister and the lead Palestinian negotiator in the peace talks, said last week that the Palestinians are ready to yield parts of the West Bank to Israel if compensated with an equal amount of land.

Despite the numerous and complex issues that need to be worked through, Dr Rice said she felt encouraged that the initiative is “the most serious effort to end this conflict in many, many years”.

Blackwater CEO Prince Says Iraq Lawsuits Politically Motivated

Blackwater chairman and CEO Erik Prince has come out swinging at growing accusations that his contractors in Iraq are trigger-happy cowboys who fired without provocation on unarmed civilians last month in Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding 27.

Mr Prince speculated that the attorneys representing four victims in a lawsuit against him and Blackwater only want to score political points and get media attention. He also suggested that the US military, which was on the scene minutes after the September 16 incident in Nisoor Square, did not conduct a thorough investigation.

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