Because of an editing error, an article on Thursday about British prewar intelligence on Iraq misstated the location cited by President Bush in his State of the Union address when he talked about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium. Basing his comments on a British report, the president said Iraq had made those efforts in Africa. He did not specifically mention Niger, though that country was identified several weeks earlier — along with Somalia and Congo — in the National Intelligence Estimate provided to members of Congress on Iraqi purchase attempts.
Yeah, Niger and the entire continent are easy to get confused. Not to mention that both words contain the letter ‘r’. This kind of error indicates a lot about the pervasiveness of the delusional cocoon the reporters at the NY Times live in. Apparently they forgot that they were only vending the poisoned Cool-Aid and drank it themselves.
[source]
Iraq is ready to retaliate against countries it accuses of supporting violence wracking the country, the country’s defense minister warned Tuesday.
Hazim al-Shaalan mentioned no countries by name but accused old foe Iran of “blatant interference.” Iraq has also complained in the past about guerrilla fighters entering the country from Syria.
“We are prepared to move the arena of the attacks on Iraq’s honor and its rights to those countries,” he was quoted as saying by the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
Looks like someone is getting the pieces in the right places for the next move of the Great Game.
[source]
President Robert Mugabe declared that Zimbabwe was undergoing an economic “revival” at the opening of the last session of parliament before key elections next year.
[…]
In his address to parliament, the president said his land reform programme had led to a good harvest and announced new laws tightening control over non-governmental organisations, some of which claim the contrary.
It’s not so odd to me that Mugabe makes these kind of counter-factual claims, but that so many others, especially outside of Zimbabwe, let him get away with it.
[source]
The French 35-hour-week, a bold experiment to reduce high unemployment, appeared at a crossroads following a vote by Bosch workers to put in extra time without pay to save their jobs.
French politicians and unions were in a state of angst over a vote by workers at a subsidiary of German group Bosch to accept extra unpaid work to avert the re-location of a plant to the Czech Republic.
Yeah, don’t those workers realize that the 35 hour work week makes more jobs? Why if it didn’t, we would have to start doubting whether Socialism itself worked!
The Detroit Federation of Teachers is threatening to sue if Michigan universities sponsor charter schools, as allowed under a new state law. On what grounds? They’ll come up with something. Central Michigan University is thinking of starting a Detroit charter school. The Detroit News reports:
Janna Garrison, head of the union representing roughly 9,000 teachers in Detroit Public Schools, wouldn’t specify on what legal grounds the union would challenge the law, saying it’s still premature. But she said CMU and other colleges considering authorizing new charters should be “ashamed.”
“What they’re doing is not about educating students,” Garrison said. “What they’re doing is about making money off our children: greed.”
Don’t we all contemplate inchoate legal action first and figure out reasons later?
To blame Israel for encouraging Mr Arafat’s worst tendencies will only serve as an excuse for his continuing failure to reform, but neither should the Israeli government be tempted to see Palestinian disarray (as the Jerusalem Post claimed yesterday) as “a good scenario for Israel (with) a divided enemy”. Division will lead to more terror. Israel must offer more incentives for moderation. [emphasis added]
What, not being in a living hell with random gunnies shooting each other isn’t enough incentive? Israel must offer more? I guess that’s The Guardian’s equivalent of “does not compute!”, to be uttered whenever ugly facts get in the way of an editorial viewpoint.