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Date Posted: 17:21:37 11/02/07 Fri
Author: part 2
Subject: Re: November 2, 2007
In reply to: part 1 's message, "November 2, 2007" on 17:20:27 11/02/07 Fri

REP. KUCINICH: IT'S TIME FOR CONGRESS TO IMPEACH CHENEY

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC) -- "We have to stop planning for war against
Iran," Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) said in response to a question
on the latest sanctions levied against Iran, posed to him during
the Oct. 30 Democratic candidates debate at Drexel University in
Philadephia. "We have to insist that we enforce the Constitution
of the United States, which this President continues to violate,
and, again, I state that the President and Vice President should
be subject to impeachment."
Later in the debate, Kucinich brought up the impeachment
question again saying, "I will say it one more time. It's time
for the Democratic Party to take a position on impeachment, and
for the House of Representatives to move the bill that I've
introduced." Kucinich's bill is HRes 333, which has over 20
co-sponsors so far.
On Oct. 23, in a conference call set up by the Progressive
Democrats of America, Rep. Kucinich announced he will go before
the House of Representatives sometime before Thanksgiving, on a
point of personal privilege, to move the impeachment of Vice
President Dick Cheney. (gbm)

NEW POLLS SHOW THAT THE AMERICAN POPULATION IS FURIOUS AT
CONGRESS

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--Results of two recent polls show that over
two-thirds of the American public is furious at Congress,
especially at the do-nothing new Democrat majority.
According to a recent National Public Radio poll conducted
by Democratic advisors James Carville and Stan Greenberg, 69% of
voters disapprove of the job Congress is doing. This is the
highest disapproval rating since the Democrats reclaimed their
Congressional majorities. Stan Greenberg commented that, "We have
never seen people as angry and frustrated as they are now ...
even more than in 1992."
According to USA Today, a Gallup poll taken Oct. 12-14
showed that 72% of those surveyed said that they were not
satisfied with the way things are going in the country. The poll
noted that most of those surveyed were very pessimistic about the
war in Iraq, and were very anxious about the state of the
economy. Nearly one year after the Democrats took control of the
Congress, three out of four surveyed felt that Congress had
accomplished little or nothing in the past year. (gbm)

MUKASEY NOMINATION "IS AT RISK," SPECTER SAYS

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--The nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to
become U.S. Attorney General "is at risk" because of his refusal
to give a straight-forward answer as to whether waterboarding
constitutes torture, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) said yesterday.
Speaking at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Specter
said that the waterboarding issue "could defeat" Mukasey's
confirmation, but Specter also said that he thinks the nominee
has said about as much as he can on the issue without putting
U.S. personnel at risk of prosecution, and he called for a closed
session of the Judiciary Committee on the subject.
Four Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, Senators Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Joseph Biden (D-DE),
and Edward Kennedy (D-MA), have now declared that they will vote
against Mukasey because of his refusal to admit that
waterboarding is torture. The big question is how Sen. Chuck
Schumer (D-NY), who strongly advocated for Mukasay, will vote
next Tuesday in the committee.
Waterboarding, which creates an unbearable sensation of
drowning, dates back to the Spanish Inquisition as a method of
torture. On a number of occasions over the past century, the
United States government has prosecuted waterboarding as a war
crime.
Many observers have charged that Mukasey is protecting the
White House by his refusal to answer the question. Sen.
Whitehouse, appearing on PBS last night, said that Mukasay's
testimony "has been scrubbed by the White House, and by the Vice
President." Legal experts quoted in today's New York Times point
out that once waterboarding is clearly defined as torture, then
those who approved such methods can be held legally liable, all
the way up to the President.
And that would certainly include the foremost advocate of
such "dark" methods: Dick Cheney. [ews]

SENATE GOP LEADER MCCONNELL EARMARKS DEFENSE FUNDS FOR BAE

Nov. 1, 2007 -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is
pushing $25 million in earmarked funds for BAE Systems, at the
same time that the British arms firm is under criminal
investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for bribery and
violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader, which reported the
earmarks on Oct. 27, reported that McConnell, who has received
at least $53,000 in campaign donations from BAE's political
action committees and employees since his 2002 re-election,
slipped money for three weapons projects into the defense
appropriations bill which the Senate approved on Oct. 3.
Another company which BAE purchased two years ago, United
Defense Industries, pledged $500,000 to a political-science
foundation that McConnell created, the McConnell Center at the
University of Louisville.
"Most politicians decide that a scandal is a good time to
stop doing business with a company, at least until the scandal is
over," said Melanie Sloan, director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). "Particularly
when we're talking about a criminal investigation over bribery.
You would think that a member of Congress would want to steer
clear of anyone accused of bribery." [ews]

SENATE DEMS SPLIT OVER TELECOM IMMUNITY FOR CHENEY'S WIRETAP
PROGRAM

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--Leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee
said yesterday they oppose granting retroactive immunity to
telecommunicaions companies that cooperated with Administration's
warrantless wiretapping program, setting up a likely floor fight
between the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. The
Intelligence Committee, headed by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV),
with only two Democrats opposing, has voted up a version of the
FISA reform bill which protects the companies from civil suits,
as has been demanded by the White House.
There are currently more than 40 lawsuits pending, brought
by citizens charging that their rights were violated by the
domestic wiretap program -- a program which was directly
initiated and overseen by Vice President Dick Cheney.
At the outset of yesterday's hearing, Judiciary Committee
chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said he has a "grave concern" over
the immunity, or "amnesty," provision in the Intelligence
Committee bill. He said Congress should not provide an incentive
for future unlawful activity by offering "an after-the-fact free
pass." Leahy stressed that immunity is actually designed "to
shield this Administration from any accountability for conducting
surveillance outside the law," and that the lawsuits now pending
are probably the only avenue that exists for review of the
wiretapping program.
The senior Republican on the committee, Sen. Arlen Specter
(R-PA), also said he has "great reluctance" to give immunity for
the wiretap program, partly because of the Administration's
secrecy over the program. Specter pointed out that when the
committee wanted to issue subpoenas last year, Cheney blocked
them by "contacting Republican members without notifying the
Chairman."
Speaking in favor of allowing the courts to hear the issue,
Specter said that courts are best equipped to rein in
presidential powers. "In the long history of this country, the
courts have done a much better job in protecting civil liberties,
than has the Congress, from an overreaching executive branch," he
said.
One knowledgeable source that that the dispute between the
two committees will probably have to be resolved on the Senate
floor, and the source expressed concern that most Senators,
including Democrats, would defer to the Intelligence Committee on
the issue. [ews]

IBERO-AMERICA

CORREA NAMES BANK OF SOUTH NEGOTIATOR TO COORDINATE ECUADOR'S
ECONOMIC POLICY

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--Yesterday, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa
swore in nationalist economist Pedro Paez, head of the
President's Technical Commission for the Bank of the South, as
Economic Policy Coordinator. From that new cabinet post, Paez
will be responsible for coordinating everything from the
Economics Ministry and the Foreign and Trade Ministry, to
customs, taxes, social security, and the state development banks.
The mission of the new post is not to create another
bureacracy, but to better order the functioning of the public
sector, President Correa said in welcoming Paez to the cabinet.
For his part, Paez said that along with assumes his new
duties, he will continue working on the design of a new financial
architecture internationally. In a dialogue with Dennis Small of
LaRouche's EIR magazine on Radio 530AM of Quito, Eucador this
past Sept. 12, Paez explained that his government understands
that a new regional financial architecture is required to find
ways to not be subject to the whims of the international
financial markets, so as to defend the sovereignty and
productive activities of the nations of South America. [ggs]

FREE TRADE DESTRUCTION OF MEXICO CREATES DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--The destruction of the Mexican economy by
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the
free-market policies imposed over the past two decades, have
produced an extraordinary demographic crisis that threatens the
nation's survival.
Just over the six years of the Vicente Fox Presidency
(2000-2006), 3.2 million people--half a million annually on
averge--left the country, according to the Government Secretary.
This translates into 8% of the economically-active population,
consisting largely of young men, who head for the United States
in search of work.
Thus, the sectors of the population that tend to be most
productive--young workers--are leaving in droves. On top of this,
Mexico's birth rate is dropping, and life-expectancy is
increasing. This situation immediately calls for the programmatic
solutions offered by statesman Lyndon LaRouche, such as
cross-border infrastructure development projects, to give young
Mexicans hope for the future and a reason to stay at home. [crr]

MEXICAN PRESIDENT "PERVERSELY" GUTS BUDGET OF PUBLICLY-FUNDED
ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURE

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--A leader of the Mexican Electricity Workers
Union (SME), Martin Esparza Flores, is warning that electricity
infrastructure in the country's important central region is
operating under "emergency conditions" as a result of the
Calderon government's refusal to finance the state agency in
charge of repairing and replacing obsolete equipment.
Addressing a Senate committee on Oct. 26, Esparza denounced
President Felipe Calderon for "perversely" allocating only 1
billion pesos to the state-run Central Power and Electricity
(LFC) agency, while setting aside 12 billion pesos to finance the
operations of private foreign utilities, which function on the
basis of what's profitable, as opposed to how best to meet the
population's needs.
"This is a time bomb," Esparza said. LFC needs at least 10
billion pesos to repair or replace 30-year-old equipment, cables,
and transformers, as well as to build new substations. Were there
to be a sharp drop in voltage, as a result of the
infrastructure's grave state of disrepair, he warned, half of
Mexico City--the Federal District--would be left without power,
together with parts of Mexico state and Hidalgo. This would
especially affect lower-income population areas, as well as the
Mexico City subway, and the equipment that pumps lakebed waters
from under the capital city. Within ten minutes of a power
outage, Esparza stated, the water level in Mexico City would
immediately rise by 12 meters.[crr]

WESTERN EUROPE

FRENCH SOCIALIST PARTY LEADER ROYAL PRAISES LESSONS OF
ARGENTINA'S ECONOMIC SUCCESS

PARIS, Nov. 1, 2007 (EIRNS)--Following a visit to Argentina where
she met at length with Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner during her
final campaign swing, French Socialist Party leader Segolene
Royal wrote an enthusiastic letter to the networks in France of
her association, Desirs d'Avenir, on what she had learned there.
Argentina's new President-elect clearly inspired Royal to say
things she has not dared to say here, such as stating that the
IMF rule was disastrous, and calling for more regulation of the
financial markets.
Describing Buenos Aires as "one of the most beautiful
(cities) in the world," Segolene Royal reports to her friends
that she was "curious to see up close how a country full of
potential but pushed to bankruptcy by the `Washington consensus'
dogma, was able to put itself back together again, freeing itself
from this ultra-liberal ideology and giving the State back its
role in driving and regulating" the economy.
Most of the "leftist" parties now leading South America know
that "while the market is a good servant, it is a bad master,"
she wrote. These countries are a laboratory of new
ideas, which is important because this is not a time of change as
such, but of a "change of epoch".
Royal detailed how Argentina recovered in five years from a
crisis in which the GDP plunged by 11%, indebtedness grew to 111
billion Euro, and 50% of the population fell below the poverty
level. Now, she indicates, "growth is up to 8%, 2.5 to 3 million
jobs have been created, the debt of the State has been
restructured.... The loan formerly granted by the IMF has been
paid off early, at the same time that the government of Nestor
Kirchner freed itself from the disastrous tutorship of the IMF."
Argentina still has many problems, but "Cristina does not
accept that large international money lenders push Argentina back
to where it was," she wrote reporting that the two talked a lot
about the current financial and subprime crisis.
"For me as for her it is clear: globalization, far from
disqualifying the State, calls for new forms of intervention of
public power to seize all the opportunities and, at the same
time, protect against the risks of a blind financialization
acting on its own." [CBI]

LITVINENKO WAS MI6 AGENT, SAYS BRITISH PAPER

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--The charge that Alexander Litvinenko,
murdered by radiation-poisoning last year in London, was a paid
agent of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, was made over the
weekend by the {Daily Mail} of London. This tends to confirm the
same charge made earlier by Russian officials.
As reported by the {Christian Science Monitor} in the U.S.
today, the {Daily Mail}, citing anonymous intelligence and
diplomatic sources, said that former KGB agent Litvinenko was
receiving a monthly retainer of $4000 from British Intelligence.
"It is understood that Sir John Scarlett, now the head of MI6 and
once based in Moscow, was involved in recruiting him to the
Secret Intelligence Service," the {Daily Mail} said.
In May, as LPAC reported at the time, Andrei Lugovoy, whom
the British have charged with the murder, said that Litvinenko
had told him that he had been recruited by the British secret
services. "I cannot get away from the thought that Litvinenko was
an agent who had gone out of control and they [MI6] got rid of
him," Lugovoy said in May.
Lugovoy has now declared that he has been vindicated. "I
hope the British public will demand, after this publication in
their newspaper, that their secret services shed light on the
situation surrounding Litvinenko's death," Lugovoy told
Itar-Tass. Lugovoy's lawyer added: "The new information confirms
what Lugovoy has been saying."
"Litvinenko's death was used as a pretext to begin a
political provocation against Russia, to damage Russia's image,"
says Viktor Alksnis, a deputy in the State Duma. "The whole story
smells bad."
Significally, these revelations about British Intelligence
have surfaced about a month after an interview with Lyndon
LaRouche, entitled "The Threat Comes from London" was published
in the Russian online journal RPMonitor. It has since been
re-posted on at least 15 other Russian websites and blogs. [ews]

Polls Say Europeans Desire A Referendum On New European Treaty

Nov. 1 (EIRNS)--A national poll, published by the French daily
{Le Parisien} says that over 60% of the French population want to
have a new referendum on the European treaty agreed on in Lisbon
on October 18--because the treaty would be a repeat of the
European Constitutional Treaty that was already rejected. Fully
53% of the French population rejected the European Constitutional
Treaty in May 2005. The poll confirms an investigation of the
Institut Harris for the Financial Times saying the rate is 63%,
with only 27% opposing such a referendum. In Germany, 76% of the
Germans would like a referendum, in Britain 76%, in Italy 65% and
in Spain 65%.
Europeans clearly smell something very rotten was cooked up
by "the experts" in Portugal. In a column of the London
Independent, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, closely associated with
the rewrite, said the treaty had been specifically written to
push aside any threat of referendum by avoiding the use of any
vocabulary that uses the word "constitution" (kav)

WAS SARKOZY TRAINED BY THE US STATE DEPARTMENT?

Nov. 1, 2007 (EIRNS)--Voltairenet.org, an
internationally-influential website, commented on the statement
made by Karen Hughes, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public
Diplomacy and Public Affairs. Hughes stated on Oct. 25 that
"More than 130 participants [in our programs since 1945] have
become leaders of their countries, including the current prime
minister of Great Britain [Gordon Brown], the President of France
[Nicolas Sarkozy], and the President of Turkey [Abdullah Gül]."
"While the biography of Gordon Brown is well-known," adds
Voltairenet.org, "it is the first time a U.S. official has
admitted that Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Gül had been trained by the
State Department, a fact that those concerned have always tried
to hide." (kav)

EASTERN EUROPE

BALTIC REPUBLICS REAFFIRM JOINT NUCLEAR POWER PLANT PROJECT

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--Two days ago, leaders of three Baltic
countries meeting in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania,
reaffirmed their commitment to the joint project of a new nuclear
power station which is to replace an old, Soviet-era one in
Ignalina, Lithuania, near that site.
Latvian President Valdis Zatlers, Estonian President Toomas
Hendrik Ilves, and Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus agreed to
welcome Poland into the project. Adamkus said the new power plant
would help meet the region's surging energy demand and promote
its economic development. Zatlers said the three countries would
wait for a formal decision from Poland's new government, given
that the country has just wrapped up legislative elections.
Expressing hope that the Baltic nations would cooperate with
Poland on the project, he said at the same time that even if
Poland decided to bow out, the project would proceed nonetheless.
The Ignalina plant, built in the 1980s, and which had the
same type of reactor involved in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear
disaster in Ukraine, has been the only nuclear power plant in the
Baltic region. Lithuanian authorities shut down the No. 1 reactor
due to safety concerns in 2004, and are required by the European
Union to close the No. 2 reactor at the end of 2009.
In February 2006, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia decided to
build a new power plant at the Ignalina site, and days later
Lithuania reached agreement with Poland to welcome the latter to
participate in the joint project. Construction of the new nuclear
power plant is expected to be completed no earlier than 2012, but
the final deal is pending, until remaining differences among the
four countries can be resolved. (rap)

SOUTHWEST ASIA

REGIONAL POWERS MOVE TO GET KURDISH CRISIS UNDER CONTROL

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)--A Southwest Asian regional meeting beginning
today in Istanbul, has apparently shifted its earlier focus on
the internal security of Iraq, to the current crisis between the
Turkish government and the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) on the
Turkey-Iraq border. The Istanbul meeting is being attended by all
of Iraq's neighbors, plus the permanent members of the UN
Security Council, and some G-8 members.
The long-simmering conflict between the Kurds and Turks (as
well as other governments in the region) recently flared up over
PKK killings of Turkish soldiers, and Ankara's threat to pursue
the assailants in cross-border incursions into Iraq's Kurdistan
region.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with Iranian
Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki in Baghdad yesterday and
"urged Iran to help defuse the border crisis between Turkey and
the PKK and to give its entire support at the Istanbul
conference," according to a statement from al-Maliki's office.
Mottaki announced that Iran would "deliver a plan regarding the
situation in Iraq" at the Istanbul meeting.
Meanwhile, BBC reported that Turkish Deputy Prime Minister
Cemil Cicek said after a cabinet meeting yesterday, that they had
started "military, political and diplomatic measures" against the
PKK. Though no details were released, the measures could entail a
boycott of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq,
which the Turks accuse of supporting the PKK. This could mean a
cut-off of food imports, electricity supplies, and other imports.
The Iraqi Foreign Minister announced at the same time, that
checkpoints were being set up on the Turkish-Iraqi border to cut
off the PKK supply lines.
As to possible military actions, Turkish Foreign Minister
Ali Babacan announced today that any military action his country
may take "would be aimed at hitting terrorist bases and would not
be an invasion," and that a planned meeting on Monday between
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President George W.
Bush would "determine the steps that Turkey would take." The
Turkish Daily News reported that U.S. Secretary of State Rice,
would meet Turkish officials in Ankara prior to attending today's
regional meeting in Istanbul. Pentagon press secretary Geoff
Morell stated that "The key for any sort of military response, by
the Turks or anybody else, is actionable intelligence. We are
making efforts to help them get actionable intelligence."
Russia, through a Kremlin deputy spokesman, urged Turkey to
solve the crisis peacefully, saying (as reported by the
International Herald Tribune), "We stick to the position that,
exercising its legitimate rights, Turkey should realize its
responsibility as a regional state so as not to make things
worse. Any sharp movements can deteriorate the situation, take it
out of control." (mlm, grc)

ARABIC GULF STATES PROPOSE JOINT URANIUM ENRICHMENT WITH IRAN

Nov. 1, 2007 (LPAC)-- Times Online (UK) reports a statement by
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal at the
conclusion of King Abdullah's state visit to Britain, that to
defuse the conflict over the Iranian nuclear program, Saudi
Arabia and a consortium of Arab Gulf states have invited Iran to
enrich uranium jointly, under international inspection, in a
neutral country such as Switzerland. The consortium, the Foreign
Minister said, would be for all users of enriched uranium, and
would distribute the nuclear fuel according to need. No further
details are available at this time. (grc)

ARABIAN GULF STATES PLAN COMMON RAILWAY GRID

Nov. 1, 2007- (LPAC) Construction is to begin in 2008 on the
high-speed passenger and cargo service that will connect all the
emirates, according to a report by the news agency, Emirates
Today. The first phase of the 800 km passenger and cargo network
will start operating in 2013, and is expected to ease traffic
congestion and reduce the number of trucks on the roads. Once
complete, the network will link up with similar projects in
neighboring Gulf countries.
A senior official close to the project, said that a
consortium of German railway companies had drawn up a feasibility
study and finalized the design. "The project has the full
blessing of the UAE's President, and a decision has already been
made to go ahead," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Details of the cost of the network have yet to be released, but
some sources said the figure could reach $3 billion (Dh11bn).
The cargo trains will carry containers, dry bulk, cement,
sand, rock, aggregates, and petrochemical products. The line will
start at the Abu Dhabi-Saudi Arabia border, and connect all the
emirates. The network would ultimately be connected to the
planned 1,000 km long Gulf region railway network, the
construction of which is scheduled to start in 2010. Ramiz Al
Assar, the World Bank's Senior Transport Specialist, said
yesterday that the Gulf line would cost $2.5 billion (Dh9.2
billion), and would be ready by 2015. The railway will run for
1,000 km near the Gulf coast, extending from Muscat in Oman to
Kuwait City and passing through the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia
at speeds of up to 180 kph. A Gulf states summit in December will
decide whether to extend the line by another 1,000 km to include
Yemen. (rap)

ASIA

PARTY CONGRESS LAYS OUT PROGRAM FOR "HU'S NEW DEAL"

Nov. 1, 2007--In discussions with a Chinese scholar working at
the one of the U.S. think-tanks, EIR brought up the observation
that the latest Communist Party Congress had indicated something
of a "Rooseveltian thrust." The political report of Hu Jintao,
the real basis of the congress discussion, was focussed less on
simply talking about maintaining high rates of growth and more on
the need of improving the standards of living of the population;
for instance emphasizing the need for medical insurance, public
education for the broad masses in the countryside, affordable
housing, a social safety net, and dealing with the very real
environmental problems that the "hothouse" development had
brought with it. Hu encapsulated this in the slogan of a
"scientific view of economic development."
While these issues are not new for the period in which Hu
has been party leader, they have been made the prime focus of the
Congress, and the party constitution has been amended to reflect
these issues. The scholar agreed. "People have started to call
it Hu's `New Deal'," he said. While the debate reflected the
influence of the Left, which complained that the rapid economic
growth was at the cost of the great mass of the people, and the
Right, which wanted less state control over economic decisions,
the party leadership had found a middle position. The party
leadership had developed the present orientation to deal with
burgeoning problems. The scholar also noted that among the Hong
Kong analysts, there was much "chatter" about how the party
leadership was reading the Roosevelt biography, a rumor which he
thought might well have some substance to it. "The Party is
talking about the `three mountains' that have to be overcome," he
said. "These mountains are education, housing, and medical
insurance." [WCJ]

Pakistan On The Brink

Nov. 1, 2007 (EIRNS)--A suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying
Pakistani air force personnel today, killing eight people,
including five officers, in the latest terrorist attack to hit
the South Asian nation. Sources in the United States and India
warn that the country is "on the brink" of a major
political/social crisis, that could result in the assassination
of political leader Benazir Bhutto and/or President Musharraf, a
declaration of a state of emergency, a possible military coup,
etc. The Northwest Frontier Province, along the border with
Afghanistan, has, according to these sources, re-emerged as a
command and control center for Al Qaeda and Taliban, and is
almost totally outside the control of the Pakistani central
government in Islamabad.
This week, Adm. William Fallon, the Commander-in-Chief of
CENTCOM, arrived in Pakistan for talks with Gen. Musharraf,
amidst reports that the U.S. is planning to launch a major
military offensive against the Al Qaeda/Taliban stronghold. U.S.
intelligence sources also report that NATO has prepared a recent
intelligence assessment, warning that the situation inside
Afghanistan is deteriorating badly, as well. Mrs. Bhutto, who
recently returned from years in exile as part of the political
deal with Musharraf that could see her appointed as the next
Prime Minister, was the target of a bombing attack at her first
public rally last month; she has left Pakistan over the past 24
hours, to visit family members in the Persian Gulf, but is
reportedly planning to return to Pakistan within a week. [js_]

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