yin Yang, Yawn

ood
news,
bad
news
and no news:
It only took 27
days before the
State of Israel forced
Hamas to seek
HARRY
another leader.
KI RS BAUM
"It's death whether
by killing or by can-
Columnist
cer; it's the same
thing," said late-
Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi last
month. "Nothing will change if it's an
Apache or cardiac arrest. But I prefer
to be killed by Apache."
Well, a request is a request. On
April 17, Israel was only too eager to
comply.
Condemnation for the assassination
may have rained down from the
United Nations, but the "fly-by" pro-
duced glee in my family.
"Great!" said my brother when I
called him of the news. "That [exple-
tive deleted] needed killing."
Rantissi was one of those rare
breeds. A pediatrician whose personal
Hippocratic oath told him to heal the
sick and kill the Jews — how positive-
ly Mengele-like.
Hamas has refused to name its suc-
cessor (probably at the current leader's
own request), but if I were a member,
I'd be a bit hesitant to wave my flag
around.
Israel doesn't back down from a
fight; and it won't stop until there's no
fight left — something I wish the
Bush administration would have done
in Afghanistan ...

Speaking of which, one of the most
disturbing things Bob Woodward
mentioned to Mike Wallace on 60
Minutes April 18 was the $700 million
in funding for Afghanistan secretly
diverted to construction activities in
Saudi Arabia for the Iraq War.
Congress will make a determination
whether this was a legitimate diversion
of finds in the War on Terrorism, or a
breaking of constitutional law.
One thing is clear: Afghanistan is in
trouble.
Sen. Carl Levin's summed it up dur-
ing his opening statement of the
Senate Armed Services Committee
Hearing on U.S. Policy and
anistan
Operations
attui

on April 20. "The last few weeks have
seen a number of challenges to the
government of President [Hamid]
Karzai from regional warlords and
their militias," he said. "Additionally,
NATO nations have not fulfilled
requests for more troops and the nar-
cotics problem in Afghanistan seems
to be out of control."
According to Seymour Hersh of the
New Yorker, former National Security
Adviser Richard Clarke told him,
"The U.S. has succeeded in stabilizing
only two or three cities. The president
of Afghanistan is just the mayor of
Kabul."
Warlords have taken opium produc-
tion to record levels and Hersh quoted
a United Nations report from last fall:
"Opium production, which follow-
ing a ban imposed from the Taliban,
had fallen to 185 metric tons in 2001,
soared last year to 3,600 metric tons."
Afghanistan produced 75 percent of
the world's opium, and 70 percent of
farmers cultivate poppies in 28 of the
nation's 32 provinces.
The Pentagon is now putting more
money into narcotics control — $73
million.
I wonder what $700 million could
have accomplished for Karzai and his
country?

The Apprentice has finished its first
highly rated season. Bill Rancic may
have "won" a job with Donald Trump,
•but Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth,
has won the talk show circuit. The
African American drama queen talked
a good game, but when it came to
actual work, she made the excuse into
an art form.
Twice caught in lies: Omarosa first
accused a fellow contestant of using
the "n-word," then she lied to another
contestant about a phone call in the
final segment, costing him the win.
She's hogged the airwaves, but man-
aged to avoid those pesky questions
about her deceit with the simple, "I'm
so over that — can we move on?"
She's also been approached by a
shampoo company to advertise their
product.
I hope her 15 minutes are almost
up. I can't believe that any company
would hire a do-nothing liar to do
anything.
You want to be on television
Omarosa? How about as a guest
corpse on CS- is

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