U.S. Broadens Terror Fight, Readying Troops for Yemen

President Bush has approved plans to send as many as 100 troops to Yemen to help train that nation's military to fight terrorists, senior administration officials said today.
(...)

Asked what kind of equipment Yemen was seeking, the ambassador said: "We are asking the U.S. to assist us in any way they can. We're in need of everything, anything. You name it, we want it."

A senior administration official said the type of equipment being discussed included helicopters, night-vision goggles and other kinds of sensors, and small arms.
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Sounds more like a way to sell weapons for the defense industry. And then there is the oil thing...

U.S. presence in Georgia
about oil?
Russia says American military there to protect access to petroleum

U.S. intervention in the former Soviet republic of Georgia is not so much to fight terrorists but to establish a "firm foothold" in the Caucasus region in order to protect its access to the vast oil reserves of the Caucasus and Central Asia, according to official Russian sources.

The action "may lead to unpredictable consequences" and "may involve costs both material and political," Moscow said, characterizing reports of the U.S. military presence in Georgia as "shocking news."
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thanks to American Samizdat

J'ACCUSE ENCORE: BUSH'S DEATH SQUADS

Today, The Washington Post ran the fifth segment in its series on what transpired within the Bush Cabinet in the aftermath of September 11. Of particular interest is what CIA Director George Tenet brought to the table at Camp David last September 15. According to the article by Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, when Tenet produced a Top Secret "Worldwide Attack Matrix" that specified targets in 80 countries around the world, he sought unprecedented authority to simply assassinate foreign terrorists directly or though allied intelligence services. The CIA even prepared a "Memorandum of Notification" which would allow the agency to have virtual carte blanche to conduct political assasinations abroad. This Memorandum trumped previous mechanisms by which the President would authorize intelligence actions (but not assassinations) through individual Presidential Findings. The fail safe mechanisms established under the administrations of Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton were simply erased at the urging of Tenet. In light of these revelations, what was authorized by the President may have led to the assassinations of a number of human rights and ethnic leaders not connected in any way with Al Qaeda but did represent bothersome roadblocks to a number of U.S. military and corporate interests.
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thanks to American Samizdat