Thursday , February 22, 2007

By Eric Shawn

Bernard Cornfeld, the highflying playboy financier, gleans millions from a bogus mutual fund investment organization, then seeks refuge in Switzerland, where he serves barely a year in the slammer for his duplicity.

Robert Vesco, accused by the SEC of stealing $224 million, manages to live on the lam for two decades before finally landing in a Cuban jail.

Marc Rich, the infamous billionaire, sits in Geneva, having slipped through the pardon process courtesy of Bill Clinton, and remains quite free.

And now, former Under-Secretary of the U.N., Benon Sevan. He doesn't seem to have nearly as much money as the preceding trio, but we can add him to the list of the illustrious wanted.

In August of 2005, Sevan resigned as Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, boarded a plane at J.F.K., and flew home to the sunny resort island of Cyprus. Good timing on his part, because in January of this year federal prosecutors indicted Sevan, charging him with bribery for allegedly siphoning off $160,000 in oil vouchers from Saddam Hussein’s regime.

These days, he apparently resides in a small apartment but seems to run the very real risk of being apprehended should he ever leave Cyprus.

Through his lawyer, he has denied the charges. His defense has been that the money came from his elderly aunt, to supposedly defray living expenses on her annual visit to the Sevans in New York — a subject about which we at FOX News have already reported extensively.

After the indictment came, American authorities promptly alerted INTERPOL. If Sevan leaves Cyprus to go shopping in Paris, eat out in Rome, or visit museums in Leningrad, he will presumably be nabbed, cuffed, and dispatched to the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City.

As a veteran reporter of many criminal cases, I wonder if Sevan has any potential deal-making information to offer up — specifically, something that could implicate higher-ups at the U.N? But even if he doesn’t know anything incriminating, how long can he abide by what, in effect, is house arrest on an island slightly larger than Connecticut? His refuge threatens to become a very large prison.

Now, there are calls for the Cyprus government to extradite Sevan, even though Cyprus and the United States does not have an extradition treaty pertaining to financial crimes. Cyprus has promised "to offer any further assistance" to the United States in its efforts to locate Sevan. Now, let’s see if Sevan's countrymen step up to the appropriate challenge.

The two leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee have embarked on some prodding. Democratic chairman Tom Lantos, and ranking Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen co-signed a letter to his Excellency Andreas Kakouris, the Cypriot Ambassador to the United States, essentially demanding that his nation knock on Mr. Sevan's door and haul him out. The ambassador, as of yet, has not told us what his government plans to do about this.

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen told me that "it is in the interest of American taxpayer, and it is in the interest of maintaining whatever integrity is left of the United Nations" to have Sevan extradited and deposited at the defense table.

She quite correctly notes that if Sevan is left alone by his government, U.N. officials, diplomats, or crooked financiers "will merely say 'let me find a country with whom the United States does not have an extradition requirement regarding financial improprieties, and that is where I will be sipping my coffee in the morning at any bistro.'"

She has a point. Here is a former top official of the United Nations, essentially on the lam. The U.N. is supposed to uphold the worst accountable through the International Criminal Court in The Hague, yet no one can do anything about Mr. Sevan's glaring absence while under indictment.

He should, I think, have his day in court. His lawyer, Eric Lewis, has aggressively defended his client in the media, lambasted the Oil-for-Food investigation headed by Paul Volcker, all the while challenging the specific allegations against his client. He even questioned the motivation for the indictment.

"Instead of focusing on the devastating wrongdoing in Iraq," Lewis charged, "the U.S. government has chosen to focus instead on fully disclosed family gifts from a deceased relative. Mr. Sevan is being used to distract attention from the political and humanitarian disaster in Iraq from which the world will not soon recover."

Judging by such fiery statements, we should look forward to watching Lewis in action in front of a jury. Let Sevan — who is innocent before proven guilty — clear his name, or, if the evidence so warrants, be convicted. Either way, it appears that so far we have been cheated of the opportunity to witness the appropriate legal proceeding.

Mr. Lewis notes that any decision to extradite his client has to be based on international agreements that permit such an extradition. He says that in this case, there are none: "The issue of extradition is governed by treaties and constitutions and administered by the Executive. For the Congress to try to become involved in an ongoing matter like this one is, in my view, without legal basis and is simply political posturing."

Recently, Sevan told the newspaper, The Cyprus Mail, that he has nothing to hide. In an article by Jean Christou, Sevan said that "when he returned to Cyprus some 18 months ago, he was not aware that as a Cypriot citizen he could not be extradited to the U.S. 'I came home because it's my country,' he said."

In the movie and television show "The Fugitive," David Jansen, and later Harrison Ford, spent their lives on the run — but for now, Benon Sevan has shown that sometimes you don't have to run, or even hide, to beat the rap.

Narcotics trade funding Afghan insurgency

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: The Taliban and Afghan warlords are being funded with billions of dollars from “the massive, illegal opium trade”, according to Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, a Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In an article in the Washington Times, she writes that the deteriorating security in Afghanistan has been made possible by the opium crop’s skyrocketing expansion. Much of the money is used to buy sophisticated weapons for the Taliban and warlords, pay their fighters, purchase supplies, bribe Afghan and Pakistani officials and provide an impoverished population with the means to earn a living and thereby secure their allegiance and support. Thus, the fight in Afghanistan is not merely against a few thousand militants, but an expanding narco-state that extends throughout the country. Without this support, these forces would be hard-pressed to operate, much less continue increasing their numbers and firepower. Given this reality, the odds against success are lengthening, she warns.

Ros-Lehtinen attributes the failure of sustained US efforts in Afghanistan to the emergence of the narco-mafia that funds terrorism. She is of the view that the Taliban and their allies cannot be defeated without targeting the illegal drug trade. “Our anti-narcotics policy has long been hobbled by conflicting views and bureaucratic battles between the various players, including the Departments of Defence and State, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and other US agencies, along with our NATO allies, especially the British. There is little prospect these long-entrenched divisions will be reconciled by themselves,” she points out.

The Congresswoman has co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates recommending the appointment of a high-level coordinator of Afghan narco-terrorism policy to create and lead a unified campaign against drugs and terror that utilises all US agencies, assets and assistance, as we are doing successfully in Colombia. Also needs to be implemented is a new DEA “ride-along” policy with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and US military forces on the ground in Afghanistan in order to combine ongoing US and NATO military operations when these overlap with those of the DEA.

She and her colleagues would also want the extradition to the US of major drug kingpins and drug warlords. Steps should also be taken to help develop and facilitate trade promotion and increased trade-building capacity for Afghan products and industries to increase exports and create legitimate livelihoods in place of illicit opium farming and production.

According to the legislators, “Of course, these recommendations must be part of a much broader effort that includes a greatly enhanced effort by Pakistan to secure its tribal areas and the president’s proposals to increase funding for roads, rural electrification, alternative livelihood programmes, and training for security forces. But without a comprehensive counter-narcotics policy, these efforts by themselves are unlikely to succeed. The problem with our strategy in Afghanistan is not primarily one of resources, but of policy. Our enemies draw their strength not merely from their weapons and their fanaticism, but from the opium in the fields as well”.

Pressing Allies, President Warns of Afghan Battle

Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

If your email program has difficulty viewing this page, see www.dailyalert.org. DAILY ALERT

Thursday,

February 15, 2007

 RSS-XML

 _____ 

To contact the Presidents Conference:

click here

 _____ 

In-Depth Issues:

Discovery of Mosaic Halts Work at Jerusalem Walkway - Donald Macintyre (Independent-UK)

    A geometric patterned fifth or sixth century AD Byzantine mosaic fragment was exposed by archaeological workers Wednesday at the bottom of an underground shaft where one of the pillars for a walkway connecting to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is intended to go.

    "We have a real time discovery," reported Gideon Avni, director of excavations and surveys at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

    Dr. Avni vehemently denied claims by some Islamic leaders - and echoed by demonstrators from Cairo to Damascus - that the excavations posed a threat to the foundations of the mosques, saying they were all taking place in a limited area outside the walls of the compound.

    The Israeli authorities are arranging for webcam pictures o! f the dig to prove his case.

 _____ 

Mahdi Army Commanders Withdraw to Iran During Baghdad Security Crackdown - Michael Howard (Guardian-UK)

    Senior commanders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have been spirited away to Iran to avoid being targeted in the new security push in Baghdad, a high-level Iraqi official said Wednesday.

    "The strategy is to lie low until the storm passes, and then let them return," said the official.

 _____ 

Saudi Terrorists Urge Attacks on Oil Facilities in Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela - Maamoun Youssef (AP/Washington Post)

    Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Saudi Arabian terrorist faction, has urged Muslim militants to attack oil facilities all over the world, including Canada, Mexico and Venezuela, to stop the flow of oil to the U.S., according to an article by the group posted on the Internet.

    Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for last year's attacks on oil installations in Saudi Arabia and Yemen after bin Laden called on militants to stop the flow of oil to the West.

 _____ 

French Police Arrest Eleven for Recruitment for Al-Qaeda - Ariane Bernard (New York Times)

    The French antiterrorism police have arrested 11 people, most of them accused of connections to Iraqi insurgency recruitment rings linked to al-Qaeda, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

 _____ 

Useful Reference:

The Mughrabi Ramp - The Real Story - Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem Region Archaeologist (Israel Antiquities Authority)

Why Must Excavations Be Conducted Next to the Temple Mount? - Dr. Gideon Avni, Head of Excavations and Surveys (Israel Antiquities Authority)

 _____ 

Search

Key Links

Media Contacts

Back Issues

Fair Use

 _____ 

Related Publications:

Israel Campus Beat

Israel HighWay

        News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:

*       Congress Freezes $86M Meant for Abbas - Eli Lake Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), chairwoman of the House subcommittee that funds the federal foreign operations budget, has placed a hold on $86 million in proposed security assistance to Mahmoud Abbas, at the request of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). Lowey said, "It is imperative that we have a fuller understanding of exactly what the funding is for and what the situation is on the ground....Last Thursday's Mecca agreement raised additional questions." The $86 million was to be used, essentially, to train soldiers loyal to Abbas to fight Hamas. (New York Sun)

*       Bush: Iran's Arms Role in Iraq Is Certain - Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Marc Santora President Bush said Wednesday that he was certain that factions within the Iranian government had supplied Shiite militants in Iraq with deadly roadside bombs that had killed American troops. But he said he did not know whether Iran's highest officials had directed the attacks. Bush publicly endorsed assertions that an elite branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps known as the Quds Force has provided Shiite militias in Iraq with the sophisticated weapons that have been responsible for killing at least 170 American soldiers and wounding more than 600. "I can say with certainty that the Quds Force, a part of the Iranian government, has provided these sophisticated IEDs that have harmed our troops."

    The chief American military spokesman in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV! , said people, including Iranians, detained in Iraq in the past 60 days, "have told us that the Quds Force provides support to extremist groups here in Iraq in the forms of both money and weaponry." (New York Times)

*       Gaza Battle between Fatah, Hamas Scars Two Universities - Dion Nissenbaum The smell of charred books drifted through the ravaged rooms of the Islamic University's main library. "I can't recognize it," said math student Rihan Riha, 20. "It's totally destroyed." The attacks on competing colleges allied with the two factions are visible reminders of how deep the divisions between Hamas and Fatah run, how fragile their power-sharing deal may be and what could happen if the two return to open warfare.

    Forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas stormed the Islamic University after claiming that Hamas was using it as a launching pad for mortar attacks. Virtually every building was set ablaze. Thousands of books in the central library were destroyed. The student union hall was ransacked. Offices across campus were torched. The Islamic University has long served as an intellectual incubat! or for Hamas. Virtually every major leader of the militant Islamist movement has taught or studied at the university.

    Afterward, masked gunmen believed to be with Hamas attacked Al Quds Open University with rocket-propelled grenades, stormed the three-story building, doused classrooms with gasoline and set them on fire. Dozens of computers were stolen, and scores more were destroyed, said university spokesman Assad Keita. (McClatchy/Kansas City Star)

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

*       Hamas Delays Formation of PA Unity Government - Avi Issacharoff Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday postponed the appointment of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to form a unity government after Hamas presented a number of conditions. Hamas wants the unity government to recognize every decision made by the current Hamas government, including the establishment of a Hamas security force and various political appointments. On Tuesday a Fatah leader in Gaza, Maher Mekdad, said that Abbas wanted to appoint Mohammed Dahlan as deputy prime minister, but Hamas sees Dahlan as a sworn enemy and is fiercely opposed to the appointment. (Ha'aretz)

*       Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi Sworn In as IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi took office on Wednesday as the Israel Defense Force's 19th Chief of General Staff. (Jerusalem Post)

    See also Gen. Ashkenazi: "Despite Our Yearning for Peace, the Time Has Not Yet Come to Sheath Our Sword" (Jerusalem Post)

    See also Gen. Ashkenazi: CV (Jerusalem Post)

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

*       Condi's Summit Won't Bridge Palestinian Gaps - Zev Chafets Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem next Monday. The event is already being called, in Hebrew, "the delusional summit." Rice wants to talk with the parties because that's what diplomats do, but it is doubtful that she expects results. The gaps are too wide and the animosities are too deep, not just between Israel and the Arabs but among the Palestinians themselves. If the two Palestinian sides can keep the peace until next Monday, Abbas will meet with Rice not as the leader of the unified Palestinian people, but as Hamas' junior partner and mouthpiece. And nothing he can say will move the peace process an inch. (New York Post)

*       Absurd to Call Israel an Apartheid State - Irshad Manji I respectfully challenge Jimmy Carter's recent critique of Israel as an apartheid state. Would an apartheid state have several Arab political parties, as Israel does? Would the vast majority of Arab Israeli citizens turn out to vote in national elections, as they've usually done? Would an apartheid state extend voting rights to women and the poor in local elections, which Israel did for the first time in the history of Palestinian Arabs? Would an apartheid state award its top literary prize to an Arab? Israel honored Emile Habibi in 1986. Would an apartheid state encourage Hebrew-speaking schoolchildren to learn Arabic? Would an apartheid state be home to universities where Arabs and Jews mingle at will, or apartment blocks where they live side by side? Would an apartheid state ensure conditions for the freest Arabic pre! ss in the Middle East? The writer is the author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith. (Australian)

*       Temple Mount Wisdom - Gilad Kariv Anyone with eyes in their head and an honest heart knows that repairing a bridge at the Mughrabi Gate isn't part of an Israeli conspiracy to take over the Temple Mount, and that those are indeed renovation works whose time has come. The scope of the hypocrisy of Islamic Movement leaders is further clarified in light of the fact that in recent years the Waqf authorities, with the Islamic Movement's encouragement, removed hundreds of tons of Temple Mount soil that contained archeological findings holding immense religious and historical significance. The Waqf also dug huge halls under the al-Aqsa Mosque and almost brought about the collapse of the holy Mount's supporting walls. With this being the daily reality at the Mount, the arguments articulated by leaders of the Islamic Movement and those who back them show nothing but a lack of religious, public, and l! eadership integrity. The writer is a Reform rabbi and attorney. (Ynet News)

Observations:

The International Implications of the Hamas-Fatah Mecca Agreement

- Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

*       The Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah does not presage a favorable diplomatic turn. It is merely a tactical political measure calculated to create a false impression regarding Hamas' political flexibility in order to whitewash the organization into being accepted as a legitimate player in the international arena without it having to meet the three preconditions of the Quartet.

*       In practice, Gaza under Hamas rule continues to be a hotbed of terror organizations, including those with ties to al-Qaeda.

*       The political flexibility of Hamas, as expressed in the Mecca agreement, derives first and foremost from Hamas' inability to score a decisive triumph, as well as from the international political and economic pressure which eroded public support for the Hamas government and the carrot and stick policy of Saudi Arabia (Hamas' financial patron). Hamas' main objective is the removal of the international boycott on the Palestinian Authority.

*       Despite the desire of the EU countries to see a stable and democratic Palestinian government, past experience demonstrates that the billions of dollars poured into the Palestinian Authority since the Oslo process commenced have only served to strengthen the radical forces. If assistance is now extended to a Palestinian government where Hamas predominates, the West would be sawing off the limb of the tree which constitutes its Middle Eastern perch.

*       Hamas, as part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, does not conceal its aspirations to foment Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East, which would topple the moderate regimes allied with the West and establish an Islamic caliphate which will threaten Europe.

Prepared for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs

If your email program has difficulty viewing this page, see www.dailyalert.org. DAILY ALERT

Thursday,

February 15, 2007

 RSS-XML

 _____ 

To contact the Presidents Conference:

click here

 _____ 

In-Depth Issues:

Discovery of Mosaic Halts Work at Jerusalem Walkway - Donald Macintyre (Independent-UK)

    A geometric patterned fifth or sixth century AD Byzantine mosaic fragment was exposed by archaeological workers Wednesday at the bottom of an underground shaft where one of the pillars for a walkway connecting to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is intended to go.

    "We have a real time discovery," reported Gideon Avni, director of excavations and surveys at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

    Dr. Avni vehemently denied claims by some Islamic leaders - and echoed by demonstrators from Cairo to Damascus - that the excavations posed a threat to the foundations of the mosques, saying they were all taking place in a limited area outside the walls of the compound.

    The Israeli authorities are arranging for webcam pictures o! f the dig to prove his case.

 _____ 

Mahdi Army Commanders Withdraw to Iran During Baghdad Security Crackdown - Michael Howard (Guardian-UK)

    Senior commanders of the Mahdi army, the militia loyal to radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have been spirited away to Iran to avoid being targeted in the new security push in Baghdad, a high-level Iraqi official said Wednesday.

    "The strategy is to lie low until the storm passes, and then let them return," said the official.

 _____ 

Saudi Terrorists Urge Attacks on Oil Facilities in Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela - Maamoun Youssef (AP/Washington Post)

    Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Saudi Arabian terrorist faction, has urged Muslim militants to attack oil facilities all over the world, including Canada, Mexico and Venezuela, to stop the flow of oil to the U.S., according to an article by the group posted on the Internet.

    Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for last year's attacks on oil installations in Saudi Arabia and Yemen after bin Laden called on militants to stop the flow of oil to the West.

 _____ 

French Police Arrest Eleven for Recruitment for Al-Qaeda - Ariane Bernard (New York Times)

    The French antiterrorism police have arrested 11 people, most of them accused of connections to Iraqi insurgency recruitment rings linked to al-Qaeda, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.

 _____ 

Useful Reference:

The Mughrabi Ramp - The Real Story - Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem Region Archaeologist (Israel Antiquities Authority)

Why Must Excavations Be Conducted Next to the Temple Mount? - Dr. Gideon Avni, Head of Excavations and Surveys (Israel Antiquities Authority)

 _____ 

Search

Key Links

Media Contacts

Back Issues

Fair Use

 _____ 

Related Publications:

Israel Campus Beat

Israel HighWay

        News Resources - North America, Europe, and Asia:

*       Congress Freezes $86M Meant for Abbas - Eli Lake Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), chairwoman of the House subcommittee that funds the federal foreign operations budget, has placed a hold on $86 million in proposed security assistance to Mahmoud Abbas, at the request of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). Lowey said, "It is imperative that we have a fuller understanding of exactly what the funding is for and what the situation is on the ground....Last Thursday's Mecca agreement raised additional questions." The $86 million was to be used, essentially, to train soldiers loyal to Abbas to fight Hamas. (New York Sun)

*       Bush: Iran's Arms Role in Iraq Is Certain - Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Marc Santora President Bush said Wednesday that he was certain that factions within the Iranian government had supplied Shiite militants in Iraq with deadly roadside bombs that had killed American troops. But he said he did not know whether Iran's highest officials had directed the attacks. Bush publicly endorsed assertions that an elite branch of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps known as the Quds Force has provided Shiite militias in Iraq with the sophisticated weapons that have been responsible for killing at least 170 American soldiers and wounding more than 600. "I can say with certainty that the Quds Force, a part of the Iranian government, has provided these sophisticated IEDs that have harmed our troops."

    The chief American military spokesman in Baghdad, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV! , said people, including Iranians, detained in Iraq in the past 60 days, "have told us that the Quds Force provides support to extremist groups here in Iraq in the forms of both money and weaponry." (New York Times)

*       Gaza Battle between Fatah, Hamas Scars Two Universities - Dion Nissenbaum The smell of charred books drifted through the ravaged rooms of the Islamic University's main library. "I can't recognize it," said math student Rihan Riha, 20. "It's totally destroyed." The attacks on competing colleges allied with the two factions are visible reminders of how deep the divisions between Hamas and Fatah run, how fragile their power-sharing deal may be and what could happen if the two return to open warfare.

    Forces loyal to Mahmoud Abbas stormed the Islamic University after claiming that Hamas was using it as a launching pad for mortar attacks. Virtually every building was set ablaze. Thousands of books in the central library were destroyed. The student union hall was ransacked. Offices across campus were torched. The Islamic University has long served as an intellectual incubat! or for Hamas. Virtually every major leader of the militant Islamist movement has taught or studied at the university.

    Afterward, masked gunmen believed to be with Hamas attacked Al Quds Open University with rocket-propelled grenades, stormed the three-story building, doused classrooms with gasoline and set them on fire. Dozens of computers were stolen, and scores more were destroyed, said university spokesman Assad Keita. (McClatchy/Kansas City Star)

News Resources - Israel and the Mideast:

*       Hamas Delays Formation of PA Unity Government - Avi Issacharoff Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday postponed the appointment of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to form a unity government after Hamas presented a number of conditions. Hamas wants the unity government to recognize every decision made by the current Hamas government, including the establishment of a Hamas security force and various political appointments. On Tuesday a Fatah leader in Gaza, Maher Mekdad, said that Abbas wanted to appoint Mohammed Dahlan as deputy prime minister, but Hamas sees Dahlan as a sworn enemy and is fiercely opposed to the appointment. (Ha'aretz)

*       Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi Sworn In as IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi took office on Wednesday as the Israel Defense Force's 19th Chief of General Staff. (Jerusalem Post)

    See also Gen. Ashkenazi: "Despite Our Yearning for Peace, the Time Has Not Yet Come to Sheath Our Sword" (Jerusalem Post)

    See also Gen. Ashkenazi: CV (Jerusalem Post)

Global Commentary and Think-Tank Analysis (Best of U.S., UK, and Israel):

*       Condi's Summit Won't Bridge Palestinian Gaps - Zev Chafets Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Jerusalem next Monday. The event is already being called, in Hebrew, "the delusional summit." Rice wants to talk with the parties because that's what diplomats do, but it is doubtful that she expects results. The gaps are too wide and the animosities are too deep, not just between Israel and the Arabs but among the Palestinians themselves. If the two Palestinian sides can keep the peace until next Monday, Abbas will meet with Rice not as the leader of the unified Palestinian people, but as Hamas' junior partner and mouthpiece. And nothing he can say will move the peace process an inch. (New York Post)

*       Absurd to Call Israel an Apartheid State - Irshad Manji I respectfully challenge Jimmy Carter's recent critique of Israel as an apartheid state. Would an apartheid state have several Arab political parties, as Israel does? Would the vast majority of Arab Israeli citizens turn out to vote in national elections, as they've usually done? Would an apartheid state extend voting rights to women and the poor in local elections, which Israel did for the first time in the history of Palestinian Arabs? Would an apartheid state award its top literary prize to an Arab? Israel honored Emile Habibi in 1986. Would an apartheid state encourage Hebrew-speaking schoolchildren to learn Arabic? Would an apartheid state be home to universities where Arabs and Jews mingle at will, or apartment blocks where they live side by side? Would an apartheid state ensure conditions for the freest Arabic pre! ss in the Middle East? The writer is the author of The Trouble with Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith. (Australian)

*       Temple Mount Wisdom - Gilad Kariv Anyone with eyes in their head and an honest heart knows that repairing a bridge at the Mughrabi Gate isn't part of an Israeli conspiracy to take over the Temple Mount, and that those are indeed renovation works whose time has come. The scope of the hypocrisy of Islamic Movement leaders is further clarified in light of the fact that in recent years the Waqf authorities, with the Islamic Movement's encouragement, removed hundreds of tons of Temple Mount soil that contained archeological findings holding immense religious and historical significance. The Waqf also dug huge halls under the al-Aqsa Mosque and almost brought about the collapse of the holy Mount's supporting walls. With this being the daily reality at the Mount, the arguments articulated by leaders of the Islamic Movement and those who back them show nothing but a lack of religious, public, and l! eadership integrity. The writer is a Reform rabbi and attorney. (Ynet News)

Observations:

The International Implications of the Hamas-Fatah Mecca Agreement

- Lt. Col. (res.) Jonathan D. Halevi

(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

*       The Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah does not presage a favorable diplomatic turn. It is merely a tactical political measure calculated to create a false impression regarding Hamas' political flexibility in order to whitewash the organization into being accepted as a legitimate player in the international arena without it having to meet the three preconditions of the Quartet.

*       In practice, Gaza under Hamas rule continues to be a hotbed of terror organizations, including those with ties to al-Qaeda.

*       The political flexibility of Hamas, as expressed in the Mecca agreement, derives first and foremost from Hamas' inability to score a decisive triumph, as well as from the international political and economic pressure which eroded public support for the Hamas government and the carrot and stick policy of Saudi Arabia (Hamas' financial patron). Hamas' main objective is the removal of the international boycott on the Palestinian Authority.

*       Despite the desire of the EU countries to see a stable and democratic Palestinian government, past experience demonstrates that the billions of dollars poured into the Palestinian Authority since the Oslo process commenced have only served to strengthen the radical forces. If assistance is now extended to a Palestinian government where Hamas predominates, the West would be sawing off the limb of the tree which constitutes its Middle Eastern perch.

*       Hamas, as part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, does not conceal its aspirations to foment Islamic revolution throughout the Middle East, which would topple the moderate regimes allied with the West and establish an Islamic caliphate which will threaten Europe.

Marathon airport gets commercial service after 6 year hiatus

By ADRIAN SAINZ
AP Business Writer

MARATHON, Fla.
Commercial air service to the middle Florida Keys was set to be restored Thursday after a nearly six-year hiatus, promising to bring a financial boost while giving tourists more access to the island chain.

A 40-seat Delta Airlines jet was to scheduled to land at Florida Keys Marathon Airport at 12:35 p.m. The fully booked flight was to be greeted with much fanfare, with fire trucks spraying arching streams of water for the plane to pass under on the 5,000-foot runway.

Delta is offering a daily flight to and from its Atlanta hub and Marathon, with an additional arrival in Marathon on Friday and an additional departure to Atlanta on Sunday.

Marathon is a city of 11,000 people about an hour's drive from both the fishing and diving destination of Key Largo and historic Key West. Tourists in the Middle Keys have the sometimes inconvenient option of flying into Miami and driving more than three hours to reach their Keys destination by using U.S. 1, the only road in and out of the island chain. They can also fly into Key West's busy airport, which has 60 flights per day.

"This gets people actually where they want to go," said U.S. Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican who helped secure federal baggage screeners for the airport. "You don't have to fly to Miami and then drive here. What a waste. We pollute the atmosphere with more vehicles on the highway."

The Marathon airport has been operating solely for small planes that offer charter flights, air taxis and private lessons after commercial air service ended in April 2000. At that time, the airport was suffering from decreasing capacity stemming from sluggish traffic in the summer season.

But the rebirth of commercial service did not come easily. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Keys officials fought hard for a federal grant for the airport and an agreement from the Transportation Safety Administration to offer baggage screeners, which it had initially refused.

The agency at first said it did not have enough resources to provide federal baggage screeners. That caused Delta to push back its start date from October 2006.

But Ros-Lehtinen sought help from Mica, then a member of the House aviation subcommittee. They helped convince the TSA to enter in a partnership program which allows for private contractors to eventually take over the duties of federal screeners.

"We put a lot of pressure on the agency, but good pressure, not pressuring them into doing something that they shouldn't do (but) into having them see its a logical decision to open this airport up," said Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who represents Miami-Dade County and most of the Keys.

Also secured was a $750,000 grant from the Federal Aviation Administration for the airport, and another $300,000 that was locally raised to provide profit guarantees for the first year.

Ros-Lehtinen and Keys officials, including Marathon Mayor Chris Bull, tout the economic advantages of adding commercial traffic to the airport in the Middle Keys, where operators of hotels, charter boat services and restaurants benefit from tourism. The new service is estimated to add 27 jobs and bring an economic impact of about $43.7 million - more than double the $17.1 million it generated in 2004, according to a study by The Boyd Group.

Tourists likely will make up the bulk of Delta's passengers, with Keys residents also able to take advantage of the flight to Delta's busy Atlanta hub. But flights aren't cheap, ranging from about $600 to potentially more than $1,000 per ticket.

The addition of commercial service faced little local opposition, mainly because the airport is adding only one flight which won't significantly affect noise. But some local small-business owners said they are not completely sure the new service will help them financially.

John Paryse, 61, owns the 7-room Anchor Inn just down U.S. 1 from the airport. He says travelers who spend $600 or more on a flight would more likely prefer to spend big money on a room at a more expensive hotel with water access and scores of amenities instead of at his small, inexpensive roadside hotel. That gives the large corporation an advantage over the mom-and-pop hotel owner.

"The people they're going to count on are a bit more upscale," said Paryse, who charges $75 to $99 per room. "It might help if they priced it more affordably, but I don't know."

Ros-Lehtinen said she was wants to expand commercial service both in Marathon and Key West. Peter Horton, Monroe County's airport director, said expanding service at the airport was a goal.

"We have opportunities for other airlines as well because the Delta numbers are so strong," Horton said. "I see nothing but increased air service for this facility."

The House Debates Iraq
Hillary and Barack should review the tape.

BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Thursday, February 15, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST

It's not likely that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain or Rudy Giuliani took time this week from the rigors of presidential trajectory to watch the House floor debate on Iraq. Too bad. They would have learned something useful.

Whatever its gerrymandered imperfections, the Founders' "house of the people" is born biannually from 435 congressional districts. The House leadership scheduled time for debate on the Democrats' famous "97-word" resolution unto midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday and into evening today, with a vote scheduled for tonight or tomorrow.

That debate--seen mainly by beat reporters and C-Span's hyperpartisans--spread before us a political inkblot on Iraq and the war on terror that is at least as accurate as the opinion polls that substitute for actual views of the electorate. Each member stood amid the chamber's polished wood and gave the nation the sum of his or her political calculation and personal belief.

The most striking impression from the debate is the most obvious: The nation is polarized. Of what I saw, there was no common ground between the two parties, none. Mainly, it was Blue America (Massachusetts, New York, cities, blue California) versus Red America (Florida, Texas, suburbs, red California).

The conventional wisdom now is that the "independent" vote is ascendant. But if Iraq is hot next year, the presidential runners will have to turn the trick of surviving the cauldrons of their boiling blue and red primaries and then purporting in the general election that they've emerged from them a lovely, independent pink. On foreign policy, that won't be easy, especially for Hillary and Barack.

Both need to find a worldview somewhere, because their party doesn't have one that extends beyond the suburbs of Baghdad.

In the House debate, it was the calculation of Speaker Pelosi and her leadership to keep the focus on the poll-proven unpopularity of the Iraq war and the 21st century's most famous bogeyman, "George Bush." The GOP calculation was to move the debate off Iraq and onto the broader war on terror.

Politics aside, the result on public view was a Democratic side that looked small, mired in talk of American "failure," while a number of senior Republicans--John Boehner, Pete Hoekstra, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, even Peter King--produced almost stirring speeches on the substance and meaning of the global threat.

Pete Hoekstra, recently chairman of the intelligence committee, gave what must be the severest attack on radical Islam ever by a U.S. public figure. Forget Pope Benedict; there was nary a genuflection to Muslim sensibilities in Mr. Hoekstra's argument that the enemy is not some vague thing called terrorism: "We are not at war with a tactic. We are at war with a group of militant Islamists who hate us and who hate much of the rest of the world."

John Boehner reviewed each Islamic terrorist act directed at the U.S. dating to the Iran hostage-taking of 1979. "Too bad it took so long to open our eyes," he said, "but they are open now." Ileana Ros-Lehtinen quoted the famous blueprint of al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri: "The first stage: expel the Americans from Iraq." Rep. Charles Boustany said plausibly that other Arab nations could never help with a political settlement if the region is engulfed in violence after a U.S. exit.

So one may ask: Where were you guys when we needed you? Republicans lost the election because most of them foxholed the past two years when the going got tough. Instead of this Kissingerian geopolitical vision, they let one guy carry the burden (they would reply that the "one guy" never asked for their help).

Sens. Clinton and Obama should take a long look at Tuesday's videotape of the Democratic House now shaping the party's foreign policy. Is this where they'll want to be next year?

Even allowing for the politics of the Iraq-only script, it got a little weird watching speaker after speaker (excepting freshman and former Navy admiral Joe Sestak) pretend that the world and all its troubles can be telescoped down to the Sunni Triangle. Rep. Tom Lantos, chairman of the foreign affairs committee and nominally responsible for a larger view, simply wrote off Iraq's government--"They have made minimal and cosmetic efforts"--and the entire Iraqi people: "Iraqis themselves don't seem to want it."

The more difficult political problem, though, is still Vietnam. All the while the Democratic members were withdrawing support for the U.S. commitment in Iraq, they were at pains to inoculate themselves against their toxic experience with Vietnam. So horrifying are the famous images in the 1970s of what presumably were not evangelicals spitting on GIs coming home from Vietnam, that House Democrats, with every second intake of breath, spoke of the troops and their families ("their wonderful families"--Rep. Ike Skelton). History may view this as progress.

Then there is the matter of the also-famous 1975 decision to withhold appropriations for the war in Vietnam. Democrats insist they won't pull the plug on the troops in Iraq, preferring what they call, with no apparent irony, a "fully funded withdrawal." Still, several invoked the "power of the purse" (Messrs. Conyers and McGovern), referring to next month's vote on an appropriations supplemental. And Rep. Jim McDermott said he'd duplicate the 1971 Hatfield-McGovern amendment to bring the troops home.

It will be the job of Speaker Pelosi and candidates Clinton and Obama to convince the wider world that these hell-no, we'll-never-go compulsions aren't simply bred into the party's genetic code after 30 years. Starting with why so many House Democrats, led by Ms. Pelosi, called the Bush surge an "escalation," from the hallowed anti-Vietnam lexicon.

The debate offered the inevitable amusements of politicians in full throat. Both sides (Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York on the left, Pete Sessions of Texas on the right) claimed that the Iraq Study Group proved their positions, driving the final stake into the corpse of "bipartisanship." Colin Powell and Gen. John Abizaid were raised up more than once as heroes of the Democratic opposition (still not too late to disown the honor). And after the House chamber had filled with learned references to Robert Frost, Douglas MacArthur and John Stuart Mill, came Rep. Jim Pascrell (D., N.J.) that "Iranians are ethnically of Indo-European descent; their language is similar in structure to classical Latin." Over this, I believe, there was bipartisan head-scratching.

Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page. His column appears Thursdays in the Journal and on OpinionJournal.com.

MAST ACADEMY

A group of MAST students recently took a Close Up trip to Washington with social science teacher Alan Melchior and met with Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Founded in 1970, Close Up, a citizenship education program, sponsors trips to Washington so students can watch and learn about the inner workings of government.

Losing Afghanistan to opium?

By Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
February 15, 2007

The spring opium harvest will soon begin in Afghanistan. So will a murderous spring offensive by the Taliban and its allies against U.S. and coalition troops. The two events are directly related, for the Taliban and the warlords are funded by the billions of dollars deriving from the massive, illegal opium trade.
    The deteriorating security in Afghanistan has been made possible by the opium crop's skyrocketing expansion. Much of the money is used to buy sophisticated weapons for the Taliban and warlords, pay their fighters, purchase supplies, bribe Afghan and Pakistani officials and provide an impoverished population with the means to earn a living and thereby secure their allegiance and support.
    Seen in this context, it is clear that U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan are battling more than merely a few thousand militants. They are at war with an expanding narco-state that extends throughout the country. Without this support, our enemies would be hard-pressed to operate, much less continue increasing their numbers and firepower. Given this reality, the odds against success are lengthening.
    After five years of sustained U.S. effort in Afghanistan, it should be apparent to all that our strategy has not succeeded. Yet as a new approach is about to be rolled out, it does not appear that those formulating this new proposal fully understand that the Taliban and its allies cannot be defeated without also targeting their principal source of financing -- the illegal drug trade.
    Our anti-narcotics policy has long been hobbled by conflicting views and bureaucratic battles between the various players, including the Departments of Defense and State, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and other U.S. agencies, along with our NATO allies, especially the British. There is little prospect these long-entrenched divisions will be reconciled by themselves.
    To encourage the administration to focus on this central problem, I and four of my colleagues on the House Foreign Affairs Committee recently sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommending a number of steps be taken immediately, including:
    • Appointing a high-level coordinator of Afghan narco-terrorism policy to create and lead a unified campaign against drugs and terror that utilizes all U.S. agencies, assets and assistance, as we are doing successfully in Colombia.
    • Implementing a new DEA "ride-along" policy with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and our own military forces on the ground in Afghanistan in order to combine ongoing U.S. and NATO military operations when these overlap with those of the DEA.
    • Extraditing to the U.S. major drug kingpins and drug warlords, using a new narco-terrorism provision in the USA PATRIOT Act that makes the use of illicit drugs to support acts of terrorism or foreign terrorist organizations a federal crime. Extradition has worked well in Colombia, and can work in Afghanistan.
    • Expediting training by the Colombian National Police's elite anti-narcotics unit, which visited Afghanistan last year, of their Afghan counterparts. We were pleased to see Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, note recently the key role our Colombian allies, and U.S. experience in Colombia, can play in the fight against illicit drugs in Afghanistan.
    • Helping develop and facilitate trade promotion and increased trade-building capacity for Afghan products and industries in order to increase exports and create legitimate livelihoods in place of illicit opium farming and production today.
    Of course, these recommendations must be part of a much broader effort that includes a greatly enhanced effort by Pakistan to secure its tribal areas and the president's proposals to increase funding for roads, rural electrification, alternative livelihood programs, and training for security forces. But without a comprehensive counternarcotics policy, these efforts by themselves are unlikely to succeed.
    The problem with our strategy in Afghanistan is not primarily one of resources, but of policy. Our enemies draw their strength not merely from their weapons and their fanaticism, but from the opium in the fields as well.
    
    Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida is the ranking Republican member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
    

U.S. Legislators Want Cyprus to Extradite Indicted U.N. Official

Benon Sevan Watch: An Oil-for-Food Letter-to-Cyprus

It wouldn’t be unilateralism if the UN Secretariat actually gave a hoot about seeing justice done. But in the case of Benon Sevan, it’s tempting to conclude that the only folks who care about extensively documented allegations of corruption in the top tiers of the UN are a handful of U.S. congressmen, the Feds and maybe a couple of journalists.

Alleged by the UN’s own “independent inquiry” to have taken pay-offs on Oil-for-Food deals, and indicted last month in the U.S. on the same grounds, the former head of the UN’s Oil-for-Food program, Benon Sevan is still at large on Cyprus. There, as a Cypriot citizen, Sevan — who denies any wrong-doing — is safe from U.S. extradition. He has been back there for almost two years now, on full UN pension, and has never had to face questions in court. The Cypriot authorities have shown no sign of opening an investigation.

But at least two members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Chairman Tom Lantos (Democrat) and Ranking Member Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican), think it’s still worth asking that justice be done. They’ve just sent a joint letter to the Ambassador of Cyprus to the U.S., Andreas Kakouris, reminding him of Sevan’s indictment, and noting that “The accession of Cyprus to the European Union was welcomed by many as heralding a new era of international cooperation by your country.” In that context, they hope the government of Cyprus “will undertake robust efforts to investigate, locate, and extradite Mr. Sevan, so that he may be fairly tried for his alleged violations of United States law and international confidence.” You can read the full letter here.

(It would not be hard to locate Sevan, who has been living openly in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia; as for the investigating, there are stacks of documents already, including the reports of Volcker’s inquiry; records of Sen. Norm Coleman’s subcommittee; and it is quite possible that U.S. prosecutors would be helpful as well).

I would like to link to a lot more open letters like the one just sent by Ros-Lehtinen and Lantos, all urgently asking that Sevan face justice, but written by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan; current UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon; President Bush; and the assorted eminences of the European Union. But I can’t do that, for the glaring reason that they haven’t written any such letters. … UN integrity? Big shrug.

N.Y. Lawmaker Freezes $86M Meant for Abbas

By ELI LAKE
Staff Reporter of the Sun
February 14, 2007

WASHINGTON — Rep. Nita Lowey, a Democrat of New York, has placed a hold on $86 million in proposed security assistance to the embattled Palestinian Arab president, Mahmoud Abbas, at the request of a Republican colleague, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican of Florida.

The hold on the funding comes after Mr. Abbas signed a compact last week in Mecca with the leaders of Hamas, the Iranian-supported Palestinian Arab party that now controls most of the ministries in the Palestinian Authority. That deal, which has come under fire from Israeli leaders, would commit Mr. Abbas in principle to a national unity government without requiring Hamas to recognize Israel or prior international agreements to renounce and fight terrorism. The deal also obligates Mr. Abbas's Fatah Party and Hamas to adhere to a cease-fire in intra-Palestinian Arab fighting.

President Bush authorized the $86 million on January 31 as part of his administration's new strategy to challenge Iranian proxies throughout the Middle East. As part of the "Sunni" strategy, American counterterrorism operatives late last year began training a security service loyal to Mr. Abbas in Jericho. Since then, the training has continued in Egypt and Jordan, according to two Bush administration officials.

Yesterday, Ms. Lowey, who is chairman of the House subcommittee that funds the federal foreign operations budget, confirmed in an e-mailed statement that she had placed the hold on the funding in order to learn more about the security training. "Early last week, I placed a hold on the $86 million," she said. "It is imperative that we have a fuller understanding of exactly what the funding is for and what the situation is on the ground." Asked for further comment, she added, "Last Thursday's Mecca Agreement raised additional questions."

A spokesman for the State Department said on Monday that it would provide information to any lawmakers who requested it.

The original push for delaying the funding for security training came from Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking minority member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who first asked Rep. Tom Lantos of California, the Democratic chairman of the committee, to place a hold on the $86 million. Only committee chairman are allowed to place information-related holds on foreign operations funding.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Lantos, Lynne Weil, said the congressman declined Ms. Ros-Lehtinen's request in January because the Bush administration had yet to announce its intention to send the money to the Palestinian Authority. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen then took up the matter with Ms. Lowey, who placed the hold on the funding last week.

The $86 million, intended for the training of a small security service loyal to Mr. Abbas, has been a worry for America's pro-Israel lobby since Mr. Abbas signed the Mecca agreement with Hamas. Essentially, those funds were to be used to train soldiers to fight Hamas in what emerged late last year as a near civil war between the Palestinian Arab factions in Gaza.

Secretary of State Rice has publicly praised Mr. Abbas as a partner for peace and is pressing him and his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Olmert, to begin land for peace negotiations, sidelining Hamas.

Mr. Abbas this week dispatched envoys to Western capitals to appeal to those governments to lift some financial and banking sanctions on the Palestinian Authority. Hamas's victory in the January parliamentary elections last year triggered the sanctions that forced Jordan's Arab Bank to end its relationship with the Palestinian Authority.

Reuters reported yesterday that the effort to get the financial penalties lifted has run into resistance. "I am finding it hard to sell the agreement," the wire service quoted one of the aides dispatched by Mr. Abbas as saying. "Some are hesitant, others are unconvinced, others still say they have to wait and see what the Quartet will decide in their February 21 meeting."

A policy paper written February 12 by the executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Robert Satloff, raises the question of the Palestinian Arab leader's commitment to negotiations.

"Hamas clearly emerges strengthened by the Mecca accord," he wrote. "In exchange for some flexibility on naming ministerial portfolios and a vaguely worded statement about ‘respect[ing]' unspecified resolutions and agreements, Hamas received a huge political boost in the form of an embrace by both Abbas and the Saudi leadership."

As part of the Mecca accord, Saudi Arabia pledged $1 billion to the Palestinian Authority.

House Begins Full Debate on the Iraq War

House Plunges Into Debate on Iraq War

By DAVID ESPO

WASHINGTON - Democrats relentlessly assailed President Bush's policy in Iraq as a catastrophic failure Tuesday as the House plunged into momentous debate on a war that has lost public support and cost more than 3,100 U.S. troops their lives. "No more blank checks," declared Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"This battle is the most visible part of a global war" against terrorists, countered the Republican leader, Rep. John Boehner, hoping to limit GOP defections on what loomed as an extraordinary wartime rebuke to the commander in chief. "If we leave, they will follow us home. It's that simple."

The Democratic leadership set aside most of the week for the historic debate, expected to culminate in a vote on Friday on a bare-bones, nonbinding resolution that "disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush ... to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq."

The 95-word measure adds that "Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States armed forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq."

The debate was Congress' first on Iraq since Democrats gained control of the House and Senate in midterm elections shadowed by voter opposition to the war. Decorum carried the day in the chamber _ where catcalls are part of near-daily discourse _ as Democrats and Republicans took their five-minute speaking turns across the hours.

Passage was a virtually certainty. Democratic leaders said they expected no more than one or two members of their rank-and-file to oppose the resolution. Republicans said that despite quiet lobbying by the White House, they expected at least two dozen GOP lawmakers to swing behind the measure, suggesting that it would command the votes of at least 250 or 260 votes in the 435-member House.

Across the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would attempt to pass an identical measure later this month. Republicans blocked debate on a different proposal critical of the troop increase earlier this winter, after Democrats refused to give equal treatment to a GOP-backed alternative.

Democrats made clear the nonbinding measure was the beginning of a longer campaign to bring the war to an end.

"A vote of disapproval will set the stage for additional Iraq legislation, which will be coming to the House floor," said Speaker Pelosi of California, who underscored the significance of the debate by delivering the first speech.

"In a few weeks, the war in Iraq will enter its fifth year, causing thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of casualties, costing hundreds of billions of dollars and damaging the standing of the United States in the international community. And there is no end in sight," she said.

Boehner followed her to the well of the House seconds later, the first Republican to speak.

"There is no question that the war in Iraq has been difficult. All Americans are frustrated we haven't seen more success more quickly," he conceded. Pivoting quickly, he called the Iraq War the latest in a string of conflicts dating to the founding of the nation more than two centuries ago.

"Every drop of blood that has been spilt in defense of freedom and liberty _ from the American Revolution to this very moment _ is for nothing if we are unwilling to stand against this threat," he said.

Republican congressional aides said the White House was working against the measure, although presidential press secretary Tony Snow, asked if that was the case, said "no."

"We've made our views known, in terms of what people have to keep in mind. But members of the House and members of the Senate have the freedom to go ahead and write their resolutions and do what they want with them," he said.

Additionally, ambassadors from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar met with several Republican lawmakers during the day and warned them of the consequences of a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., said one ambassador compared the U.S. involvement in Iraq to open-heart surgery _ requiring the surgeon to stay until the job was finished.

One by one, Democrats cast the war in starkly different terms.

"The administration's policy on Iraq has failed. It failed yesterday, it's failing today, and it will fail tomorrow," said Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont, serving his first term in Congress after winning his seat last fall. "These failures have left America weakened, not strengthened."

Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, who served in World War II and has been in Congress since 1955, joined the chorus of critics. "When faced with a choice of approving of the president's policy or giving a vote of no confidence, the choice is easy," he said. "I cannot support, nor will I condone, any policy that continues the long train of failure that brought us to this point."

Republican supporters of the administration countered, but were urged to do so carefully.

"If we let Democrats force us into a debate on the surge (in troops) or the current situation in Iraq, we lose," Reps. John Shadegg of Arizona and Pete Hoekstra of Michigan said in a letter to fellow Republicans.

"As in the Cold War, our current struggle is one of survival," Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said in floor debate. "The enemy does not mean merely to chase us away. The goal of the Islamist extremist radicals is to destroy us. If we run, they will pursue. If we cower, they will strike."

"The world is watching. The radical jihadists who oppose us are watching," said Shadegg, warning against anything that could signal weakness on the part of the United States.

Republicans had sought to offer an alternative measure, drafted by Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, that would have prohibited Congress from cutting off funds for the troops. Johnson was a prisoner of war during Vietnam, and Boehner teared up before reporters as he listened to the Texan describe his reaction at the time when he learned of anti-war protests back in the United States.

But Democrats decided not to allow a vote on the GOP proposal, and the House decided, 227-197, to uphold the rejection. Republicans said if it had been allowed to come to a vote, their measure would have exposed divisions among Democrats, some of whom have said they will not vote for any more money for the war.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., echoing the remarks of other party leaders, said Democrats would protect the members of the armed forces in harm's way. "There will be no defunding which will cause any risk to the troops," he told a news conference.

Numerous Democrats have expressed a determination to withdraw combat forces from Iraq, but they also say they would do so in a way that did not expose the troops to additional danger.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)