Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government is working on an integrated plan to address Mexico's escalating war with drug traffickers and could complete work on the initiative as early as this week, a top U.S. military official said on Tuesday. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who oversees U.S. military interests on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border as the head of Northern Command, told the Senate that the plan would likely involve all agencies of government including law enforcement and the military. Among the priorities are likely to be measures to deal with violence that spills over the U.S. border,...

How prepared are you for Christmas? A lot of singles I know and who live on their own do not really do much for Christmas in the way of decorations or buying any special food etc for Christmas. A lot of them get an invite for the day to spend either with friends or family members and therefore their sole preparation is buying a few gifts for the people likely to be at this event and maybe contributing either monetarily to the host/hostess or taking a few food/drink items on the day. So as a single you think you are...

SEOUL (AFP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has been preparing a military-led collective leadership to rule the communist country after his death, a news report said. Kim, 65, who inherited power from his father, had given up the dynastic succession for various reasons, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted unnamed diplomatic sources in Beijing as saying. "Chairman Kim, who had picked his eldest son Jong-Nam to succeed to him, changed his mind a few years ago... and is preparing to allow in a collective leadership system," one of the sources said. Some leaders in the North oppose another father-to-son...

Our best case scenario is for missiles to be hitting us in the next year or two. Either the West goes to war to stop Iran from going nuclear, and Iran fires conventional missiles at us in retaliation, or the West waits too long and Iran launches a nuclear first strike at us. Either way, a terrible war is coming. It cannot be avoided.” That’s the sobering assessment a senior Israeli political leader shared with me over breakfast this week. In that context, President Bush’s recalibrated Mideast strategy is resonating positively here. The combination of 20,000 more U.S. troops in...

Israel is 'preparing for more fighting' By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem (Filed: 21/08/2006) Any chance of long-term peace between Lebanon and Israel all but vanished last night after Amir Peretz, the Israeli defence minister, said his country was preparing for another round of fighting. Mr Peretz spoke only hours after Israeli commandos mounted a raid deep inside Lebanon. Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, said it was a violation of the week-old UN ceasefire. With talks on a beefed-up peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon apparently stalled, Mr Annan's senior envoy for the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, said there was...

With 38 days until his inauguration, Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday moved his transition team into City Hall and began laying the groundwork for the transfer of power from incumbent James Hahn. Former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg, who came in third behind Villaraigosa and Mayor James Hahn in the primary election, is expected to chair the mayor-elect's transition team. He'll be assisted by Robin Kramer, executive director of the Broad Foundation, who was chief of staff to former Mayor Richard Riordan. Kramer said the transition team plans to create an Internet Web site within the next several days so interested...

SACRAMENTO – Days before proposing a package of harsh budget cuts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to highlight his determination to solve California's problems by unveiling his massive plan to "blow up the boxes" of state government. Then he will hold rallies around the state to promote a government-reform package likely to include reorganization of the bureaucracy, elimination of state agencies and streamlining of government operations. Staffers at the Little Hoover Commission, which is required by law to review government reorganization plans, are clearing their calendars for the first week in January, when Schwarzenegger's proposal will land on their desks...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Raising new alarms about Iran, the Bush administration concluded Wednesday that the country is getting ready to produce enough enriched uranium for four nuclear weapons. Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton, the administration's point man on nuclear proliferation threats, said "we view with great concern" revelations in a classified report circulated among member governments by the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran is about to convert 37 tons of "yellowcake" uranium into uranium hexafluoride gas. Bolton said that move combined with Iran's recent announcement that it intends to test its gas centrifuges "are further strong evidence...

West Preparing for Return of West Nile By DAN D'AMBROSIO, Associated Press Writer DELTA, Colo. - Insects are shaking off the winter cold in the West, promising another season of the West Nile virus, the mosquito-borne killer that has infected thousands of people — killing 564 of them — since the first domestic case turned up in New York in 1999. For two-thirds of the country, the crisis has largely passed. But in the West, health officials are drawing up battle plans from the apple orchards of western Colorado to the California coast. Carried by birds bitten by infected mosquitos,...

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Addressing thousands of cheering supporters Saturday, Yasser Arafat dismissed the latest Israeli threats against him, referring to himself as a "mountain" that will not be moved. But confidants of the Palestinian leader said he was taking the warnings seriously and was preparing for the possibility of his death. Arafat delivered his public comments after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he was no longer bound by a promise to Washington not to harm the Palestinian leader. Sharon's remarks Friday were seen as his strongest threat against Arafat yet. Sharon's remarks were criticized by Russia, Germany and...

US preparing to abandon UN and launch war within a week By David Usborne Rupert Cornwell Andrew Grice and Katherine Butler 14 March 2003 The United States sent a powerful signal last night that it will soon abandon efforts to win a second United Nations resolution, in effect clearing the decks for military action against Iraq late next week. Washington left the door open to a few extra days of diplomacy so that frantic negotiations on Britain's near-moribund compromise plan could continue over the weekend. A vote that had been expected today could be put off until Monday, White House...

Terror mastermind 'was preparing more attacks' on US By Andrew Buncombe in Washington 04 March 2003 The alleged al-Qa'ida mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was plotting attacks against commercial targets in the United States and the Arabian peninsula, the plans for which may already have been set in motion, American intelligence officials said yesterday. His arrest in Pakistan at the weekend and subsequent interrogation should provide a "treasure trove" of information about the terrorism network, they said. A Bush administration official said the man accused of being the main operational planner behind the 11 September attacks was placed in their custody...

Are we preparing for war or playing politics? By Thomas L. Friedman I am worried. And you should be, too.I am not against war in Iraq, if need be, but I am against going to war without preparing the ground in America, in the region and in the world at large to deal with the blowback any U.S. invasion will produce.But I see few signs that President Bush is making those preparations. The Bush team's whole approach was best summed up by a friend of mine: ``We're at war -- let's party.'' We're at war -- let's not ask the...