U.S. Scolds Israel on Plan for West Bank Settlement

Ahhhhhh shoot they scolded them, do you believe it, no doubt they will still build their illegal settlements, what do you want to bet.

By HELENE COOPER

WASHINGTON, Dec. 27 — In a rare public rebuke to Israel, the Bush administration said Wednesday that an Israeli plan to construct a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank for the first time in 10 years could violate the terms of an American-backed peace proposal.

“We are aware of reports about the Maskiot settlement,” said Gonzalo Gallegos, director of the State Department’s Office of Press Relations. “The establishment of a new settlement or the expansion of an existing settlement would violate Israel’s obligations under the road map.”

The road map is the shelved plan that is supposed to lead to peace between Israelis and Palestinians and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Under the plan, Israel is not supposed to build more settlements in the West Bank.

“The U.S. calls on Israel to meet its road map obligations and avoid taking steps that could be viewed as pre-determining the outcome of final-status negotiations,” Mr. Gallegos told reporters.

For the Bush administration, which has shied away from criticizing Israel, the rebuke was so unusual that State Department officials took pains to assure reporters that it represented official policy and had been cleared by senior members of the administration.

The criticism was made as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to go to the Middle East early in 2007 to try to shore up support for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Defense Ministry and settler groups announced plans for the construction of about 30 houses at Maskiot. Israeli officials said the settlement was not new, but a revival of a 1982 settlement, which had become a military training site by the mid-1990s.

“This was set up by the Israeli government nearly 25 years ago,” said David Siegel, spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington. “It’s not a new settlement.” >>>cont

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Bush's Support for Death Penalty Opens Rift With UK

By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
Published: 28 December 2006

The Bush administration welcomed the confirmation of the death penalty against Saddam Hussein, reopening the divide with the European Union and the United Nations, which are opposed to execution.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said Saddam should not be hanged for crimes against humanity because his trial had been flawed and was marred by political interference by the Iraqi government.

A spokeswoman for Amnesty said: "We are against the death penalty as a matter of principle but particularly in this case because it comes after a flawed trial."

Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Programme at Human Rights Watch, said: "Imposing the death penalty, indefensible in any case, is especially wrong after such unfair proceedings. That a judicial decision was first announced by Iraq's National Security Adviser underlines the political interference that marred Saddam Hussein's trial."

Iraq's US-appointed interim government reinstated the death penalty in August 2004, causing friction with its coalition partner, Britain. The former top British representative in Iraq, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said the UK would not participate in a tribunal or legal process that could lead to execution.

A Foreign Office spokesman said yesterday that while the execution of Saddam was "a matter for the Iraqis", Britain remained opposed to the death penalty, and had made representations to the government on that score.

The outgoing UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has expressed opposition to imposing the death penalty on Saddam on principle.

But the deputy White House press secretary, Scott Stanzel, struck a different note. "Today marks an important milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law," he told reporters aboard Air Force One. "Saddam Hussein has received due process and legal rights that he denied the Iraqi people for so long."

I bet it is an important milestone, Georgie covers papies ass, all those Skeletons about to come out hmmmmmm? But Georgie you think Saddam wont get the information out there. I wouldn't hold my breath.

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