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<p>WASHINGTON - It was both an auspicious and ominous way to begin the week: Auspicious because of President George Bush's resolute demand that Saddam Hussein and his sons leave Iraq. There were also ominous noises from his predecessor in the White House, Bill Clinton, who bared not only his antagonism to the president but his horror at envisioning a strong America.</p>

One Coin, Two Sides <>P> By Greg Buete Published 01/03/2003 Deep in South America two terror fronts are colliding. While fundamentally dangerous apart together they are capable of producing terror attacks against the West in both greater magnitude and frequency than ever before. The region is called the Triple Border. It is a lawless region between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil that supports a community of 30,000 Muslims, many of them radical expatriates of the Lebanese civil war and aligned with Hezbollah. As Jeffery Goldberg of the New Yorker discovered, Hezbollah, an Iranian backed Lebanese terrorist group responsible for over 300...

SÃO JOSÉ DOS CAMPOS, Brazil — When a satellite rocket exploded in late August on its launching pad at a military-controlled base at Alcântara, on the eastern edge of the Amazon, 21 of Brazil's top scientists and technicians were instantly incinerated. For Brazil, the disaster was the third failure trying to launch a satellite on its own rocket, and the worst in the history of its space program. But more than calling into question that program's future, the catastrophe also provided a vivid warning to other developing nations tempted to reach for grand ambitions in space on budgets already stretched...

OUR OPINION: VISION OF A HEMISPHERIC FTAA IS A GOAL WORTH PURSUING Let's be clear. The pursuit of a Free Trade Area of the Americas, which continues in earnest this week in Miami, is an eminently worthwhile effort. But everyone should keep this much in mind: So far, there is no FTAA agreement. The Miami meeting is one in a long series of discussions. No one, not even negotiators, now knows what an FTAA might be in final form, nor should they state categorically what it will mean or do. We simply don't know. We can discuss FTAA goals and...

THE BIG PICTUREEditor, Naples Daily News:While peasants toppled the president of Bolivia for planning to sell natural gas to the United States, let us note that President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's elected tyrant and Fidel Castro's protege, finances the Bolivian congressman leading the insurrection (Evo Morales). The protests in Bolivia are similar to the ones organized by Cuba in Venezuela in the mid-1990's They are part of a strategy developed in the late 1980's by Castro, Brazilian President Luiz Ina Lula da Silva and other communists, all members of the Foro de Sao Paolo.Recognizing that guerrilla warfare was ineffectual, a plan...

<p>Although its prime concern is terrorism, the United States is also willing to consider poverty, disease and other nonmilitary issues when it meets Monday to forge a new security agenda with 33 other countries in the Western Hemisphere, U.S. officials say.</p>

<p>Venezuela's vice president criticized the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday for appearing to suggest that Venezuela did not have a firm anti-terrorist stance.</p> <p>Gen. Richard Myers, when asked Tuesday about allegations that Venezuela is permissive with Colombian rebels crossing into its territory, said, "It's not helpful when countries don't fully support the anti-terrorism fight.</p>

The United States will intensify its training of Colombian troops to bolster their campaign against leftist rebels, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday.< Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it is in the United States' own interest -- and of other countries in the region -- to see the rebels defeated. ''Terrorism of any kind affects the stability and security of not only Colombia but also the entire Western Hemisphere,'' Myers said at a military airfield in Bogotá as he ended a two-day visit and headed for Nicaragua. Later Tuesday, in Managua, Myers...

WASHINGTON - After years of feeling all but forgotten by Washington, Latin American officials Wednesday welcomed Roger Noriega's confirmation as the first Senate-approved assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs since 1999. ''This is one of the best decisions the Senate has made in more than five years,'' El Salvador Ambassador Rene Antonio León Rodríguez said after the Senate vote late Tuesday. ``U.S. policy will have a champion now. And the region will finally get the attention it deserves.''Noriega's confirmation came after a long delay because Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., had been blocking the vote for months in an...

In 1966 Che Guevara traveled from Cuba to South America, his mission to incite the Andean cordillera to an armed struggle against capitalism and the United States. He failed and was killed by the Bolivian army in 1967. Today, American political and economic policies threaten to reawaken his dream. Guevara, an Argentine doctor who had never been to Cuba before he landed there with Castro in 1956, was unfamiliar with the conditions that had made the revolt against the military dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista possible on the island. His failure to ignite even a modest South American uprising was due...

Pro-Castro Senators Hold a Bush Nominee HostageBy Wall Street JournalWall Street Journal | June 25, 2003 More than halfway through his term, President Bush still doesn't have a confirmed Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere. The reason is one of those Beltway scandals that deserves more public attention, not least because the episode is doing tangible harm to U.S. national interests. The stability of the Americas is obviously vital to U.S. security, and U.S. leadership is essential for a stable Latin America. But with Colin Powell and Mr. Bush otherwise engaged with the Middle East, the absence of...

US voted out of human rights body in symbolic rebukeFriday, Jun 13, 2003,Page 7 In a symbolic rebuke to the Bush administration, the member nations of the Organization of American States (OAS) have for the first time voted to exclude the US from representation on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, considered the most prestigious human rights monitoring body in the Western Hemisphere. The decision came at the end of the three-day annual assembly of the OAS, held this year in Santiago, Chile, and attended by Secretary of State Colin Powell. Addressing the conference on Monday, Powell sharply condemned a...

One of the most fascinating topics in economic and social research is the issue of development. What allows some countries to "quantum leap" to higher levels of income per capita, and how do they remain at those high levels? The literature on economic growth, development, and prosperity mostly agrees that the key to prosperity is open markets, sound institutions, and particularly a strong rule of law.2 The reason is simple. Open markets allow for competition, which is the only method, as F. A. Hayek wrote in the Road to Serfdom, "by which our activities can be adjusted to each other...

<p>WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The United States and Chile are preparing to sign a historic free-trade agreement in Miami on Friday, but that pact will come as relations between Washington and Latin America have become distant, at best, and in some cases are in a deep freeze.</p> <p>Friday's trade deal signing, between an American trade representative and Chile's foreign minister, probably would have been conducted in Washington with more fanfare if Chile hadn't joined Mexico earlier this year in refusing to endorse U.S. military action against Iraq at the United Nations.</p>

<p>The United States will sign a trade agreement with Chile today, setting the stage for Congress to vote on the first two free-trade pacts negotiated by the Bush administration.</p> <p>Today's ceremony in Miami follows by one month Mr. Bush's signature on a pact with Singapore.</p>

The French-Iraqi-Cuban Connection Augustin Blazquez tells NewsMax of stranger-than-usual happenings in Cuba. A friend of his, Carlos Wotzkow, reports: "Every day, for one week, hundreds of Iraqis, disguised in the white clothing of Kuwait, have been arriving at Cuba, and they do not come alone, but accompanied; women and children packed as if they were sardines. My sources are not airport visitors, they work there, and they assure to me that all arrive by Air France. "Is that the true reason for the visit from [French Foreign Minister Dominique de] Villepin to Syria? Will he be consolidating another "route of...

Democrats Fight Bush on Colombia May 9: Colombian President Uribe met with President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, trade representatives, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, CIA Director George Tenet, 25 congressmen and businessmen during a five-day stay in Washington that ended Saturday. The Colombian president visited the U.S. to lobby for sustainable aid to Colombia amid Democrat protests of too high a budget for the South American country. Bush and Uribe were allies during war in Iraq and agree on several lines of policy, not least in their treatment of terrorism. The majority of Democrats in Congress complained about the...

The main program of President Lula da Silva in Brazil, Fome Zero (Famine Zero), superficially proposes to reduce the hunger and the misery of approximately 15 million out of 170 million Brazilians. During his first hundred days in office, President Lula drew the nation into this program. TV stars, non-governmental entities, journalists and entrepreneurs showed interest in collaborating with Lula -- sometimes donating, sometimes offering themselves as volunteers for his propaganda. Despite the raging controversy over the effectiveness of the distribution of food to the poor, mainly to people who live in the Brazilian Northeast, the intentions of Lula da...

The attitude of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) and his cabinet regarding the Iraq conflict revealed once again the ambiguity that characterizes the present Brazilian administration. However, ambiguity might not be the proper term. It would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a deft masking of the leftist ideological line that inspires the Workers’ Party (PT) administration. The PT remains faithful to the principles that always have and continue to orient it. Also noteworthy is the ever-present influence of Liberation Theology in the present government. This ideological alignment is a driving force behind opposition to the U.S.-led...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. (Cites importance of regional partnerships to build prosperity) (3430) President Bush's foreign-policy agenda aims to support "people's desire for human dignity and well-being" through "cooperation with our friends and allies, not only to meet the security threats we face, but also to boost trade, conquer infectious disease, and strengthen democracy," says Secretary of State Colin Powell. Addressing the Council of the Americas conference at the State Department on April 28, Powell emphasized that the president's agenda "is directly relevant to our hemisphere," as demonstrated by collaborative efforts between the United States...