Yes, a national referendum on the CREDIBILITY, COMPETENCY and CHARACTER of the _resident is coming...
Geir Moulson, Chicago Sun Times: ''It divided more than it united, there were no reasons for it. Time has shown that the arguments for it lacked credibility and the occupation has been managed badly,'' he said. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair ''will have to engage in reflection and self-criticism,'' he said. ''You cannot organize a war with lies.''
Repudiate the 9/11 Cover-Up and the Iraq War Lies,
Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-spain16.html
Spanish leader blasts U.S. policy
March 16, 2004
BY GEIR MOULSON
MADRID, Spain -- Spain's incoming prime minister
launched a verbal attack on President Bush on Monday
and pledged to bring Spanish troops home from Iraq
unless the United Nations takes control there.
A day after his Socialists swept Spain's ruling
conservatives from power in elections overshadowed by
terrorist bombings, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero also
promised to lead a more pro-European government that
would restore ''magnificent relations'' with France
and Germany -- which unlike Spain's outgoing
government both opposed the Iraq war.
In a surprise defeat, Prime Minister Jose Maria
Aznar's conservatives on Sunday became the first
government that backed Washington in Iraq to be voted
from office.
Countries besides the United States that are assisting
in postwar Iraq, and their troop contributions:
TOP 10 FOREIGN TROOP CONTRIBUTORS TO IRAQ
**United Kingdom -- 8,220
**Italy -- 3,000
**Poland -- 2,500
**Ukraine -- 1,650
**Netherlands -- 1,307
**Spain -- 1,300
**Australia -- 850
**Romania -- 500
**Denmark -- 500
**Thailand -- 451
**Remaining 25 coalition countries: 3,722
Source: Brookings Institution
AP
The election was held amid charges that Aznar made
Spain a target for terrorists by supporting the war,
and that his government concealed possible connections
between the attack and Islamic terrorists for
political gain.
Thursday's train bombings -- the worst terrorist
attacks in Spain's history -- killed 200 people.
Zapatero campaigned on a pledge to order Spain's 1,300
troops home. He made clear Monday he is prepared to
fulfill it.
''I have said clearly in recent months that, unless
there is a change in that the United Nations take
control and the occupiers give up political control,
the Spanish troops will come back, and the limit for
their presence there is June 30,'' Zapatero said. He
described Spain's decision to commit peacekeepers to
Iraq as ''an error.''
The U.N. Security Council has authorized the current
multinational force in which Spain is participating.
But there has been no talk of turning that force,
which is led by the United States, into a
U.N.-controlled peacekeeping force.
Zapatero promised to maintain ''cordial'' relations
with Bush, but he had harsh words on the war in Iraq
in a separate interview.
''It divided more than it united, there were no
reasons for it. Time has shown that the arguments for
it lacked credibility and the occupation has been
managed badly,'' he said. Bush and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair ''will have to engage in
reflection and self-criticism,'' he said. ''You cannot
organize a war with lies.''
Zapatero's rise is "a blow" to Bush, said Nile
Gardiner, a conservative U.S. analyst. "The Spanish
statement has sent the wrong messages to the rest of
Europe. It amounts to a policy of appeasement."
Other governments helping rebuild Iraq pledged Monday
to stay the course. Poland said a pullout would hand a
victory to terrorists.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said that all
countries, not just those who supported the campaign
to topple Saddam Hussein, were the targets of
terrorists.
''We are under a threat from Islamic extremism, and so
is almost every other country in the world,'' Straw
told BBC radio. ''No one should believe that somehow
if you say 'I opposed the military action in Iraq,'
that this makes you safer or exempts you as a
potential victim.''
AP
Bombings tied to Morocco, Islamic radicals
BY ANDREW SELSKY AND NICOLAS MARMIE
MADRID, Spain -- Evidence is mounting that the Madrid
bombings may be tied to a bloody attack in Morocco
last year and that Islamic extremists linked to
al-Qaida were behind the bombings, officials said
Monday.
One of five suspects held by Spanish police in
connection with Thursday's attack had traveled to his
home country of Morocco, then left on April 20, 2003
-- almost a month before the May 16 attacks in
Casablanca that killed 45 people, officials said.
The suspect, Jamal Zougam, also has connections to a
key suspect in the Casablanca attacks and possibly to
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Moroccan official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity. Al-Zarqawi is a
key operative working with Osama bin Laden's terror
network.
It appears ''increasingly likely'' Islamic extremists
played a role in the Madrid attacks, though ''a number
of avenues are being pursued,'' said a U.S.
counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition
of anonymity.
Cell phones apparently were used as detonators on the
10 train bombs, and the five suspects were arrested
after a phone and prepaid card were found on a bomb
that failed to explode.
Zougam, two other Moroccans -- including Zougam's half
brother, Mohamed Chaoui, 34 -- and two Indians are
being questioned in the Madrid attack.
In 1983, Zougam's mother took him and Chaoui to Spain.
Years later, as young men, they opened a shop
repairing cell phones in Madrid. In 2002, they were
joined by Mohammed Bekkali, the third Moroccan
suspect.
Meanwhile, a victory against terror was scored Monday
by Saudi security forces. They killed two militants,
including one considered al-Qaida's chief of
operations on the Arabian Peninsula, in a shootout.
AP
Posted by richard at March 16, 2004 11:39 AM