:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 3.15.2004 ::
:: "Spanish PM Pledges to Bring Home Troops" ::
* Hmmm. What's that? A democratically elected Socialist? I wonder how George II & his cronies will react. Precedent? Can anoyone say C-h-i-l-e? *
LONDON - Spain's newly elected prime minister pledged Monday to bring his peacekeeping troops home from Iraq by June 30. All other governments helping rebuild Iraq said they would stay the course, but there were signs of nervousness after the Madrid bombings and the Spanish government's defeat at the polls.
Socialist leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's remarks came as Spanish police investigated whether Thursday's coordinated bombings were carried out by Islamic extremists - possibly al-Qaida - intent on punishing Spain for its support for the U.S.-led war. The blasts killed 200 people and wounded about 1,600.
Britain, America's closest ally, insisted the coalition must remain committed to bringing stability and democracy to Iraq. So far, no significant opposition party has called for a withdrawal of Britain's 8,220 troops.
Poland, which leads a multinational force in southern Iraq, said a pullout of its 2,500 troops would hand a victory to terrorists. Prime Minister Leszek Miller pledged to stay with the peacekeeping mission despite pressure from opposition lawmakers.
"It would amount to an admission that the terrorists are right and that they are stronger than the whole civilized world," Miller said.
The European Union, meanwhile, announced it would hold high-level security talks Friday in Brussels, Belgium, to assess additional anti-terrorism measures, including a continentwide intelligence service and a European arrest warrant.
Last October, Poland and Spain, also a U.S. ally in Iraq, were named as possible targets on a taped message attributed to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"We reserve the right to respond at the appropriate time and place against all the countries participating in this unjust war (in Iraq), particularly Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland, Japan and Italy," said the voice on the tape, broadcast on Al-Jazeera.
posted by me
:: 10:38:00 PM [+] ::
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