Breaking News RCMP: Shootings-Grow Op, Peschmann: UN CA's Prime Minister-Annan's #2, Al-Qaeda's Armies, Russia's Loose Nukes, Liberal Brand

Breaking news on CFRA after 3 pm Ottawa time -- A number of RCMP officers have been shot during a grow-op bust near Edmonton Alberta.

Marijuana is Harmless? The grow-ops obviously are not benign.


Canada's Prime Minister, the UN Secretary-General and Louise by Marinka Peschmann, Special to Canada Free Press, March 3, 2005

Marinka Peschmann is a freelance writer whose first book collaboration, the best-selling The Kid Stays In The Picture; was made into a documentary. She's contributed to several books and stories ranging from showbiz and celebrities to true crime and politics.

Canadian coincidences are piling up in the UN’s Oil-for-Food Program. Fox News reported on Tuesday that Annan's #2 Blocks Oil-for-Food Scrutiny.


Kofi Annan’s #2 is Canada's Louise Fréchette. Louise Fréchette served under Prime Minister Paul Martin when he held the title of Canada's Minister of Finance.

According to Fox News, "Four years into the seven-year Oil-for-Food program with graft and mismanagement by then rampant, Fréchette intervened directly by telephone to stop United Nations auditors from forwarding their investigations to the UN Security Council." [. . . . ]

Search: UN Anti-Corruption panel, Volcker Committee's Investigation, Martin and Fréchette

Do not miss the last two paragraphs.




FOXnEWS.COM - U.S. & World - Annan's #2 Blocks Oil-for-Food Scrutiny

George Russell is Executive Editor of FOX News. Claudia Rosett is a journalist-in-residence with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

UNITED NATIONS — With U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (search) next up for review by Paul Volcker’s inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal, a crucial question is whether Volcker will expand upon information tying the scandal directly to the U.N. chief’s office — by way of Annan’s second-in command, Louise Frechette (search). [. . . . ]

Search: "Frechette had connections to a number of Oil-for-Food figures."

[. . . . This is the ]the pivotal human element of security. Good security is 20 percent equipment and 80 percent people, says Gen. Eugene Habiger, a former commander of U.S. strategic nuclear forces.

Russia's loose nukes James Holmes, Editorial/Op-Ed, Mar. 3, 05

James Holmes, a senior research associate at the University of Georgia Center for International Trade and Security, co-edited "Nuclear Security Culture: The Case of Russia," a major peer-reviewed report sponsored by NATO and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

On Feb. 24, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Bratislava, Slovakia, to discuss a variety of issues. Defying predictions that they would accomplish nothing of substance, the two presidents inked an agreement on nuclear security. They vowed to "focus increased attention on the 'security culture' in our countries, including fostering disciplined, well-trained, and responsible custodians and protective forces, and fully utilized and well-maintained security systems." To describe this as a welcome move understates matters. To prevent nuclear terrorism at home, American leaders must look abroad — in particular to Russia, a country awash in the makings of nuclear weapons. [. . . . ]

The Saudi Buck Stops Here FrontPageMagazine.com, March 3, 2005

[The State Department sharply criticized Saudi Arabia for its human rights abuses in its annual report published last week. Nothing, however, is being said about Saudi Arabia's continuous funding of the spread of Wahhabism around the world. Wahhabism remains the major source of Islamist ideology and Saudi Arabia has never stopped funding its expansion. The Saudis don't like to hear about that, however, and so the Administration is keeping mum.

In an attempt to prevent exposure of how they fund terrorism, the Saudis have been suing those who attempt focus light on their crime in British courts. And they have been successful. Current detailed information on the Saudis' funding of international Islamist terrorism is extremely difficult to come by. Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, however, is making up for that deficit in her book, Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It. The updated paperback has just been published in the midst of a legal battle to uphold the First Amendment, so that the US media can also report about the ongoing Saudi funds for terror, without fearing expensive libel lawsuits. The following is an excerpt from Funding Evil -- The Editors] [. . . . ]

Link and read.

Search: threatening to sue, Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz, named in all the 9/11 lawsuits, BCCI Group, Muwafaq Foundation, Golden Chain, Benevolence International Foundation, Prince Turki, the Saudi ambassador to London, handed a judgment




Al-Qaeda's Armies by Jonathan Schanzer, interviewed on FrontPageMagazine.com, March 3, 2005

FP: What motivated you to write this book?

Schanzer: I first started thinking about Al-Qaeda's Armies when I came to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in September 2002. One year after the 9/11 attacks, analysts inside the beltway were spending countless hours researching al-Qaeda, but there was something missing. The primary target known as "al-Qaeda" had been oversimplified. As a result, many Americans believed that if the U.S. military simply captured Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the terrorist threat would dissipate. The Bali bombing and the attack on the French Tanker Limburg in Yemen that fall demonstrated to me that al-Qaeda's power and reach stemmed from a network of small and local groups that work as "subcontractors" for terrorist attacks all over the world, even as bin Laden and his top lieutenants hid in distant caves. In other words, the al-Qaeda network was able to be resilient because it relied not only upon its top leaders and clandestine cells, but also "affiliate groups," which are larger, homegrown, organic Islamist terror groups that became volunteer fighters for the al-Qaeda matrix. . . .

FP: Tell us how the affiliate groups give al-Qaeda its resiliency. [. . . . ]

FP: Could you discuss the sources you used for your research? [. . . . ]

FP: You interviewed one of Saddam Hussein's former intelligence officers. Can you tell us about that experience? [. . . . ]

FP: What it will take to successfully fight and defeat these affiliate groups? [. . . . ]

What do Liberals stand for? -- Not any one ideology, but a 'modus operandi, an unalloyed pragmatism' and 'a shameless appetite for power,' Andrew Cohen writes as the party begins its policy convention in Ottawa.

Liberal brand Andrew Cohen, The Ottawa Citizen, Mar. 3, 05

Andrew Cohen teaches journalism and international affairs at Carleton University. Email: andrew_cohen@carleton.ca

/'libr( )l/ -n. One that will run from the left and govern from the right, but has an uncanny instinct for finding the centre and holding it ...
- - -
As the legions of the Liberal Party of Canada gather today to talk policy, their real impulse is to celebrate power -- the enduring success of a political dynasty that has governed Canada for all of the last decade, much of the last generation, and most of the last century. [. . . . ]

And yet, as Liberals salute their success this week, some of them worry deeply about their party. If the land is strong, as they boasted in 1972, is the brand strong in 2005? [. . . . ]

This is well written -- worth reading -- cynics will enjoy it.