Congress on Sudan: It is genocide. AFP article in the Sudan Tribune, without further comment: "The US Congress unanimously passed a resolution declaring the atrocities being committed in Darfur, Sudan, a genocide, and calling on the White House to intervene multilaterally or even unilaterally to stop the violence. By a vote of 422 to zero, the House of Representatives and "the Senate concurring" passed the resolution introduced a month ago by New Jersey Democrat Donald Payne stressing that in Darfur 30,000 people have been "brutally murdered", 130,000 have fled to neighboring Chad and more than one million have been internally displaced by the violence. Quoting the United Nations Resident Humanitarian Coordinator who said that the violence in the poverty-stricken region "appears to be particularly directed at a specific group based on their ethnic identity and appears to be systemized," the resolution "declares that the atrocities unfolding in Darfur, Sudan, are genocide." It urges the US administration of President George W. Bush to "call the atrocities ... by its rightful name: 'genocide,' and calls on it to lead an international effort to prevent it. The resolution, adopted late on Thursday, further calls on the Bush administration "to seriously consider multilateral or even unilateral intervention to prevent genocide should the United Nations Security Council fail to act." It also demands "targeted sanctions, including visa bans and the freezing of assets of the National Congress and affiliated business and individuals directly responsible for the atrocities in Darfur," and urges USAID to help the refugees resettle and rebuild their communities." (Sudan Tribune / Agence France-Presse, via Google)
Israel dispatches Islamic Jihad head man. According to the latest Debka bulletin, "Israeli helicopter-borne rocket hits car in Zeitun district of Gaza City killing two Islamic Jihad terrorists, according to witnesses. One identified as Hatem Rachim who paraded head of Israeli soldier after IDF APC blown up three months ago." (Debka)
Wretchard on the ransom tax. Latest post at the Belmont Club discusses hostage negotiators' " habit of skimming stuff off the top when handling ransom money." Wretchard observes that of about one million offered by the Philippines government for the release of hostage Angelo de la Cruz, the hostage takers only saw about a quarter-million. (Belmont Club)
Danger present for Democrats, Republicans alike. Cliff May reports that Senators Joseph Lieberman (D - Connecticut) and Jon Kyl (R - Arizona) have moved to revive the bipartisan Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), originally a Cold War -era organization dedicated to educating Americans about the danger of Soviet Communism. According to Cliff May on CPD, the organization, founded in 1950, enjoyed a revival in the 1970s under Democratic Senator Henry "Scoop" Jackson, a staunch anti-Communist. Today, "in its third incarnation, with Senators Lieberman and Kyl as honorary chairmen, the CPD is to focus on terrorism and the movements that are using terrorism to damage and, ultimately they pray, destroy America." (Foundation for the Defense of Democracies)
Goli Ameri out-raises opponent Wu. The Republican challenger for Oregon's first congressional district, Goli Ameri, has outpaced the Democratic incumbent David Wu in fund-raising by more than $100,000, raising nearly $500,000 in the second quarter. Ms. Ameri, the first Iranian-American woman ever to run for US Congress, is running on a strong pro-business and pro-freedom platform. The Tehran-born business leader is the founder of eTinium, a consulting firm for high-tech corporations such as Lucent and Nortel. Oregon's First District includes parts of downtown Portland and extends through the Oregon coast, also including tech-oriented cities like Hillsboro, Beaverton, and Tigard. (Goli Ameri 2004)
