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Asia Times Online :: Asian News, Business and Economy - Bush down south : "SAO PAULO - US President George W Bush - biting the dust in Iraq, contested at home, despised around the world - is taking a break and heading south on a five-stop tour of Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. He is not visiting the 100,000-hectare family ranch his daughter Barbara bought last autumn in the Paraguayan chaco. He might be tempted to stay in. The Bush reception won't be exactly of the Rolling Stones variety. Massive protests are scheduled everywhere - even in countries where he is not showing up. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez - Bush's continental nemesis - will address a huge crowd in".........

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News - Israel, Iran, US lead 'least-liked' countries : "WASHINGTON - A majority of people from around the world hold predominantly negative views of Israel, Iran, and the United States, according to a survey of more than 28,000 respondents in 27 countries. The survey, which was sponsored by the British Broadcasting Corp's World Service and designed by Globescan and the Washington-based Program for International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), found that 56% and 54% of all respondents said they had"............

Christopher Ketcham: What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks? : "On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, an FBI bulletin known as a BOLO ­- 'be on lookout' -- was issued with regard to three suspicious men who that morning were seen leaving the New Jersey waterfront minutes after the first plane hit World Trade Center 1. Law enforcement officers across the New York-New Jersey area were warned in the radio dispatch to watch for a 'vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack': White, 2000 Chevrolet van with 'Urban Moving Systems' sign on back seen at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, at the time of first impact of jetliner into World Trade Center Three individuals with van were seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion. FBI Newark Field Office requests that, if the van is located, hold for prints and detain individuals."..................

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 03/06/2007 | 4 years after invasion, many Iraqis look back with longing : "BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four years ago, Iraqi poet Abbas Chaychan, a Shiite Muslim who'd been forced into exile during the predominantly Sunni Muslim regime of Saddam Hussein, hailed the American presence here in a poem that praised the top U.S. diplomat in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer. 'We have breakfasts of kabab and qaymar,' he wrote, describing the new Iraq with a reference to a rich cream that's considered a sign of wealth. 'We put, in your stead, Mr. Bremer / Better than a tyrant of our own flesh and blood, and his torture.' Last January, shortly after Saddam was hanged, Chaychan again put words to paper. But his outlook had changed. 'History is proud to write about him,' he said of Saddam. 'It wasn't a rope that wrapped around the neck / It was the neck that wrapped around the rope. ... 'From his childhood he was a leader, stubborn and against...

Al Jazeera English - News Al Jazeera detainee 'force-fed'

Press TV Israeli officer sells weapons to terrorists in Iraq Wed, 07 Mar 2007 22:44:47 Ma'ariv Daily has reported that an Israeli retired officer sells weapons to terrorist groups in Iraq. Shmoel Avivi, an Israeli retired officer, had established a firm in Iraq 2 years ago, which secretly sold arms to terrorist groups in Iraq, Ma'ariv reported. Amnesty International reported that Avivi was one of the biggest weapon dealers in the Middle East. Iraqi sources earlier announced that terrorist attacks in Iraq were backed by the intelligent agencies of CIA and Mossad and the secret agents of Iraqi former regime. Earlier, Iraqi parliament security commission chairman Hadi Ameri had accused the occupying soldiers of secretly directing the terrorist attacks and forming terror squads in Iraq. MB/KB