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Home Front: Politix

Is the media tiring of its beta-male status?

2010-01-08

The national press corps has done a pretty good imitation of a beta male for the past year, saying nothing but "yes, dear" and "anything you say, dear" to President Barack Obama. Until recently, the only White House press corps reporters who have showed any journalistic independence and watchdog intensity have been ABC's Jake Tapper and Fox's Major Garrett. But yesterday, CBS's Chip Reid, whose Wikipedia page says, ironically, that he "assumed the position on Jan. 5," decided he was tired of the unchanging view of the beta male. He aggressively challenged Obama's hapless press secretary Robert Gibbs over Obama's broken promise to let C-SPAN televise the health care logrolling session. This left Gibbs sputtering, his fish-like maw drawn peevishly tight. As one Washington reporter put it on her Twitter page last night: "If Gibbs had a cologne brand, it would be called Cornered Petulance, and it would smell remarkably like Scott McClellan. " The media has been a lagging indicator of Obama's popularity, continuing to worship the golden-tongued man-child even as the vast rabble from coast to coast has soured on the president's TelePrompTer glibness. That may be changing, if even CBS is beginning to see that the emperor is less than fully clothed. Over the years, when the media was confronted with charges of bias against Republicans and conservatives, a common rejoinder was, "We're not biased. We just hate incompetence." Well, it's time to test that. As we have seen since Christmas, there is ample incompetence to go around in Washington these days, not just in the executive branch, but in the legislative, as well. The congressional health care sausage making is the nexus where the incompetence of both branches comes together in one glorious cluster farge. Cluster farge? It can't be much longer until "Ye gods and little fishes!" rings through the marbled halls in orotund tones of frustration. Obama promised on the campaign trail last year eight times that the health care debate would be open to all, with all deal-making airing on C-SPAN in unmediated glory. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (no relation to Chip) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are taking the Chicago approach, if you like, by flipping the figurative bird to the American public. All deliberations between the two houses will be behind closed doors. The public will be shut out, just as all Republican have been shut out of the process since the beginning. As Chip Reid showed, if there's one thing even a liberal reporter hates it's being shut out of a meeting that should be public. Will those who cover Congress be as feisty as Reid and hold legislators' feet to the fire? Will they throw off their beta male traits or continue to be happy watching the alpha male's behind for the rest of this first term?

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Britain

White House Seeks a Proper Invitation for the Queen

2009-06-02

The Obama administration is working with their French counterparts to make sure that Britain's Queen Elizabeth -- reportedly miffed, according to the British Press, at not being invited to the D-Day anniversary festivities in Normandy this weekend -- gets a formal invitation. Alrighty then. They do have a sense of shame...however vestigial it may be. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said on Monday that President Obama thinks the queen should be present at the event on Saturday. "We are working with those involved to see if we can make that happen," Mr. Gibbs said. Mr. Gibbs's comments came after Buckingham Palace pointedly noted last week that the queen didn't get an invite, an omission which has had the British press fuming. Mr. Obama is attending the event (French President Nicolas Sarkozy invited him two months ago) as is British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Mr. Sarkozy has said that the queen is welcome to come to the ceremony, but Obama administration officials say that they would like to see her receive a formal invitation. Driving home that point, Mr. Gibbs joked at the end of his daily briefing with reporters Monday: "Will you -- will you -- will you please pass that directly to the queen for me?" Bollocks. I'm sure someone was able to perceive the humour in Mr. Gibb's comment. Makes you wish for Scott McClellan ...

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Home Front: Politix

Solis Senate Session Postponed in Wake of Husband's Tax Lien Revelations

2009-02-06

Another heroic failure of Bambi's vetting operation ... A Senate committee today abruptly canceled a session to consider President Obama's nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis to be labor secretary in the wake of a report saying that her husband yesterday paid about $6,400 to settle tax liens against his business -- including liens that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years. The report, by USA Today, came just before the Senate's Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee was slated to meet to consider Solis's nomination, which had been delayed by questions over her role on the board of the pro-labor organization American Rights at Work. A source said that committee members did not learn about the tax issue until today. I hear Blago is available ... "Today's executive session was postponed to allow members additional time to review the documentation submitted in support of Representative Solis's nomination to serve in the important position of Labor Secretary," read a joint statement issued by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the panel's chairman, and Mike Enzi (Wyoming), the committee's ranking Republican. "There are no holds on her nomination and members on both sides of the aisle remain committed to giving her nomination the fair and thorough consideration that she deserves. We will continue to work together to move this nomination forward as soon as possible." Every time Obama nominates someone for the Cabinet the IRS gets a check. He should keep this up ... No new date has been set for the hearing. The disclosure about Solis's husband comes after tax problems caused trouble for three of Obama's top appointees, leading two of them -- HHS-nominee Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer, who was to be chief performance officer -- to withdraw. Asked about the USA Today report at the White House daily briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs emphasized that the nominee's tax returns are in order. "Well, I read the story in USA Today, and it quotes somebody that works here, so obviously we've -- we know about this story. I'll say this. We reviewed her tax returns, and her tax returns are in order," said Gibbs. Gibbs makes me long for the days of Scott McClellan ... "The story denotes that her husband had some issues with paying a business tax, and obviously that tax is -- should be paid. He's -- she's not a partner in that business, Gibbs continued. "So we're not going to penalize her for her husband's business mistakes. Obviously, her husband, I think, has and should pay any taxes that he owes. "

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Home Front: Politix

VDH: Postmortem

2008-11-05

Victor Davis Hanson Some postmortem thoughts on what went wrong for Republicans... (other than the mid-September meltdown and the celebrity charisma that surrounded our first serious African-American candidate that together made all else secondary.) 1. Spending. When Republicans spend at rates higher than Democrats they suffer the wage of hypocrisy, and discredit tax cuts, since the public blames lower taxes for mounting deficits even when they have been demonstrably proven to have brought in greater revenue. In the future, conservatives need to forget all the gobbly-gook about deficits being tolerable as this or that percentage of GDP— and just balance the budget, since the public deals in psychology and symbolism as much as abstract economic data. 2. People. Conservatism means an allegiance to past values and behavior. When the Republican Congress not only spent lavishly, but was marked by a series of scandals--Foley, Cunningham, Stevens, et al.--then Republicans lost that high ground as well. Conservative reconstruction must focus on being above the ethical norm, not indistinguishable from corrupt career politicians. By the same token, highly-visible appointments of incompetent sycophants like Press Secretary Scott McClellan or "Brownie" at FEMA remind voters that conservatives have standards no different from the alternative when they claim otherwise. 3. Populism. Joe the Plumber caught on because (finally) the case was made that confiscatory tax rates (40% on top income, 15.3% FICA/Medicare, once caps removed, 5-10% state income tax) mean that none of us can hope to have the financial success guaranteed to others by birth. Down-to-earth, Fargo-talking Palin was a missed opportunity because almost immediately for some reason she was served up to the DC press in gottcha interviews and caricatured as a hockey-mom bimbo by NY-DC grandees of her own party. Eisenhower and Reagan worked because they were able to show the people that they came from, and were one with, them, and convince the people that they did better even when the rich were better off as well. The critical argument that the liberal party is now anti-populist and mostly one of the largely affluent who want government to enact a boutique, utopian social agenda, and the poor who want redistribution and guaranteed government 24/7 attention, was never seriously made. PS. I think out-of-power conservatives have a real opportunity to show that they will express differences in a professional, constructive fashion that puts the country first and politics second, and that was not always true of the last eight years when we got everything from the Knopf novel Checkpoint to the Gabriel Range film to the (failed) effort to rename a sewer plant after the President.

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Home Front: Politix

George Soros Executive Vetting Obama's VP List

2008-06-11

As we revealed here at LGF back on May 28th, the Scott McClellan book was published by a company that is owned by the Perseus Funds Group, a George Soros operation: The Soros-McClellan Connection. It’s more than a little interesting to discover that James Johnson, currently under fire as the head of Barack Obama’s VP selection committee, is also the Vice Chairman of Perseus Funds. The Soros cabal is perhaps the most serious threat our democracy faces.

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Home Front: Politix

Cheney calls suspending gas tax a 'false notion'

2008-06-03

Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday rejected a suspension of the federal gasoline tax as proposed by his party's presumptive presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain. Cheney said it would offer little help to consumers coping with gas prices around $4 a gallon. The vice president's critique went further than President Bush's own comments on the idea, which appears dead anyway. "I think it's a false notion, in the sense that you're not going to have much of an impact, given the size of the gasoline tax on the total cost of the gallon of gas," Cheney said when asked about the matter during a luncheon appearance. "You might buy a little bit of relief there, but it's minimal." The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline on Monday was $3.98, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Of that total, the federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon. Both McCain, R-Ariz., and a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, have proposed suspending the tax. Bush has said he would consider any idea from Congress, but he was not enthusiastic about it. Democratic leaders in Congress have shown little interest, too, and no votes are anticipated on the matter in the House or the Senate. The gas tax is the main source of revenue for the Highway Trust Fund that provides grants for highway and bridge construction and repair. Cheney said the broader solution is to expand the exploration of energy sources in the United States. Bush has long called for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil development, which is strongly opposed by environmentalists, most Democrats and a few moderate Republicans. The vice president spoke in a Q&A session at the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize luncheon. When asked about the scathing tell-all book by Bush's former press secretary Scott McClellan, Cheney said he hadn't read it and had no plans to do so. But he did pointedly comment when asked generally about former administration officials who write such books, saying, "I thought Bob Dole got it about right." Dole said, among other things, that "there are miserable creatures" like McClellan in every administration who are spurred on by greed. Cheney's comment comes after White House press secretary Dana Perino has said the White House harbors "no ill feelings" toward McClellan.

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Home Front: Politix

Former Bush aide defends book against criticism

2008-05-30

Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan, defending his book critical of President George W. Bush and the Iraq war, said on Thursday he may have made a mistake by not speaking out sooner. You made a mistake by speaking out at all ... Under fire for what former White House colleagues see as a betrayal of the Bush administration, McClellan said on NBC's "Today" show that, at the time, he had misgivings about the war and felt the administration was rushing into it. In the end, however, he said he trusted Bush and his advisers. The "Today" show interview was the first for the former White House spokesman since news of his book, "What Happened -- Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," hit the capital. All the reporters lauding him today thought he was dumb as a box o' rocks back when he was the Chief Presser ...

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Home Front: Politix

Ex-Bush spokesman Scott McClellan: President used 'propaganda' to push war

2008-05-28

The spokesman who defended President Bush's policies through Hurricane Katrina and the early years of the Iraq war is now blasting his former employers, saying the Bush administration became mired in propaganda and political spin and at times played loose with the truth. In excerpts from a 341-page book to be released Monday, Scott McClellan writes on Iraq that Bush "and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war." "[I]n this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security," McClellan wrote. McClellan also sharply criticizes the administration on its handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. "One of the worst disasters in our nation's history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush's presidency," he wrote. "Katrina and the botched federal response to it would largely come to define Bush's second term." Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said the White House would not comment Tuesday because they haven't seen the book. Frances Townsend, former Homeland Security adviser to Bush, said advisers to the president should speak up when they have policy concerns. "Scott never did that on any of these issues as best I can remember or as best as I know from any of my White House colleagues," said Townsend, now a CNN contributor. "For him to do this now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional." Scott, it would be easier if you just beat your face on an oak tree or something. Fox News contributor and former White House adviser Karl Rove said on that network Tuesday that the excerpts from the book he's read sound more like they were written by a "left-wing blogger" than his former colleague. In a brief phone conversation with CNN Tuesday evening, McClellan made clear that he stands behind the accuracy of his book. McClellan said he cannot give on-the-record quotes yet because of an agreement with his publisher. Early in the book, which CNN obtained late Tuesday, McClellan wrote that he believes he told untruths on Bush's behalf in the case of CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose identity was leaked to the media. Rove and fellow White House advisers Elliot Abrams and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were accused of leaking the name of Plame -- whose husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, had gone public with charges the Bush administration had "twisted" facts to justify the war in Iraq. Libby was convicted last year of lying to a grand jury and federal agents investigating the leak. Bush commuted his 30-month prison term, calling it excessive. At the time, McClellan called the three "good individuals" and said he spoke to them before telling reporters they were not involved. "I had allowed myself to be deceived into unknowingly passing along a falsehood," he wrote. "It would ultimately prove fatal to my ability to serve the president effectively." McClellan wrote he didn't realize what he said was untrue until reporters began digging up details of the case almost two years later. A former spokesman for Bush when he was governor of Texas, McClellan was named White House press secretary in 2003, replacing Ari Fleischer. McClellan had previously been a deputy press secretary and was the traveling spokesman for the Bush campaign during the 2000 election. He announced he was resigning in April 2006 at a news conference with Bush. "One of these days, he and I are going to be rocking in chairs in Texas talking about the good old days of his time as the press secretary," Bush said at that conference. "And I can assure you, I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done." You can buy Scott's book on Amazon, of course.

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Home Front: Politix

Lileks: Gas Fumes Obscure GOP Base

2006-05-04

If the economy continues to percolate nicely, it will be due to increased drywall sales: Experts predict a continued increase in the number of Republican voters banging their heads into walls, trying to wake from this nightmare. It's not the president's poll numbers -- that could be fixed by impeachment. (Worked for Clinton.) It's not the staff shake-up -- new blood's fine, but nobody in Peoria is switching parties because Scott McClellan got the gentle boot. It's not even the Iraq war, the prospect of war with Iran, or the prospect of no war with Iran. It's Congress. In short, the Republican base wants to know: Where's all this partisan extremism we were promised? Nothing better exemplifies the world-turned-upside-down madness than the response to the gas "crisis." If the GOP was intent on educating the public, it would explain obscure concepts like "supply" and "demand" and how this big country called "Chi-na" has been sopping up more liquefied dinosaurs than usual. Also, we don't build enough refineries, and thanks to the greenies we can't drill anywhere Steven Spielberg might see the rig from his house. And he has houses everywhere. But who cares? Man up, ya crybabies! We're Americans. Let's go poke holes in Mother Nature's noggin and hoover up some light sweet crude so we don't have to rehash this drivel next year. The actual GOP response? Hundred-dollar rebates. Cash money, friend, just for drivin'. We feel your pain: Here, have some money we borrowed from someone else. How's your Starbucks bill looking this week? Caramel mocha lattes add up, we know, and perhaps we can spot you a twenty (as long as you'll agree you're addicted to caffeine) and let Congress mandate 25 percent ethanol in your morning cup. Rebates! If there's anything that exemplifies the nanny-state mentality, it's driving up the federal armored car and pitchforking sawbucks out the back. For a moment the nation braced for the Democratic response -- if it had been true to form, the rebates would have been twice the size, adjusted for income, paid for with a tax on those chrome fish emblems Christians like to stick on their cars, printed on recycled paper with soy ink and introduced at a press conference featuring a leading liberal strategic theorist like Susan Sarandon, who would use the opportunity to complain that Karl Rove has been giving her movies one star on Amazon.com review sites. As it happens, the Democrats saw a nice issue left on the ground, picked it up and gave it a close look: hmm. Tax relief. Crazy, but it just might work. And so we had the Republicans throwing money at the problem, and the Democrats proposing a moratorium on gas taxes. You almost expected Bill Frist to propose alternate fuels based on embryo stem cells. Anything but drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, of course. Some GOP senators still balk at that. Look: The only possible reason for a Republican senator not voting to drill the heck out of ANWR is that he has been informed, in secret briefings, that the Earth will split and millions of armed Mole-Men bent on conquest and pillage will spill out. Make that liberal Mole-Men. Conservative Mole-Men could form a new base of support. But no: We can't drill anywhere, because some constituents at a tony fundraiser might make sad faces about the elk. Rove, we're told, has a plan for '06: turnout. The base should choke it down and realize that a Democratic Congress would be anathema to conservatives: a big hard tax wedgie, cut and run from Iraq, Bush in the dock, no more judicial nominees, marriage licenses for gay ANWR elk, the full horror. So the strategery is simple: Turn out enough Republican voters to assure control of the House and Senate, but not too many -- wouldn't want them to get cocky. Give the Republicans another clear majority, and they may come up with some delightful plan to grant pre-amnesty and health insurance to unborn Mexicans, paid for with estate taxes and abortion-doctor license fees. So now both parties are based on the notion that the other guys are worse. Wonderful. At least they agree on something.

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International-UN-NGOs

Europe puts sanctions at the top of UN agenda

2006-05-03

BRITAIN, France and Germany will prepare today the text of a UN Security Council resolution aimed at forcing Iran to halt its controversial uranium enrichment programme or face sanctions. More soft power, that's what we need by gawd! In a not-so serious escalation of the confrontation with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions, envoys from the three European countries will prepare a draft resolution that could be voted on this month. British diplomats said that the wording of the text would be similar to the language used last month for a non-binding statement calling on Tehran to stop its enrichment work. But this time it will be presented under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which makes the demands mandatory under international law. That'll shake the Iranians to their cockles. Mandatory, oh my! The Iranians would probably be given a new deadline to comply or face the likelihood of sanctions in a follow-up resolution. Unless there's an intermediate resolution that gives the Iranians another 'this time we really mean it' deadline. “We believe now is the time to move ahead on a Chapter VII resolution,” Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, said, adding that such a move had “the force of international law to compel the regime to change its behaviour”. I can think of other ways of 'compeling' the Iranians to change their behavior, and it doesn't involve talking. The biggest obstacle facing the Europeans and their American allies is resistance from Russia and China, both permanent members of the Security Council with the power of veto. Moscow and Beijing have important trade relations with Iran and want to avoid any move that could harm those ties. Nevertheless, the calculation in Western capitals is that neither country would dare to use its veto power to side with Iran against the rest of the international community. No, no, certainly not! Are the EU leaders really that gullible? Senior American, British, French and German diplomats tried yesterday to persuade their Chinese and Russian counterparts that it was time for the international community to show resolve against Iran. Last night the US gave warning that it might take matters into its own hands if the UN Security Council failed to endorse sanctions. “If for whatever reason the Council couldn’t fulfil its responsibilities, then I think it would be incumbent on us, and I’m sure we would press ahead to ask other countries or other groups of countries to impose those sanctions,” John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, said. President Ahmadinejad has already said that Iran “does not give a damn” about the threat of sanctions. Which does make the whole dance here rather pointless, doesn't it?

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Home Front: Politix

It's officially Snowing

2006-04-26

One can hope he will be able to improve communication between Bush and the nation (vital component to the War on Terror); he has a better chance than most, though I am not very optimistic. President Announces Tony Snow as Press Secretary James S. Brady Briefing Room 9:10 A.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I'm here in the briefing room to break some news. I've asked Tony Snow to serve as my new press secretary. Tony already knows most of you, and he's agreed to take the job anyway. (Laughter.) And I'm really glad he did. I'm confident Tony Snow will make an outstanding addition to this White House staff. I am confident he will help you do your job. My job is to make decisions, and his job is to help explain those decisions to the press corps and the American people. He understands like I understand that the press is vital to our democracy. As a professional journalist, Tony Snow understands the importance of the relationship between government and those whose job it is to cover the government. He's going to work hard to provide you with timely information about my philosophy, my priorities, and the actions we're taking to implement our agenda. He brings a long record of accomplishment to this position. He has spent a quarter of a century in the news business. He's worked in all three major media -- print, radio and television. He started his career in 1979 as an editorial writer for The Greensboro Record in North Carolina. He's going to -- went on to write editorials for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk. He ran the editorial pages in both The Daily Press of Newport News and The Washington Times. He's written nationally syndicated columns for both The Detroit News and USA Today. During his career in print journalism, he's been cited for his work by the Society for Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, and Gannett. For seven years, he served as the host of "FOX News Sunday." Most recently, he reached Americans all across our country as the host of "The Tony Snow Show" on FOX News Radio, and "Weekend Live with Tony Snow" on the FOX News Channel. He's not afraid to express his own opinions. For those of you who have read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, "You should have heard what I said about the other guy." I like his perspective, I like the perspective he brings to this job, and I think you're going to like it, too. Tony knows what it's like to work inside the White House. In 1991, he took a break from journalism to serve as Director of Speechwriting and Deputy Assistant to the President for Media Affairs. He's taught children in Kenya. He belongs to a rock band called Beats Working. He's a man of courage, he's a man of integrity, he loves his family a lot. He is the loving husband of a fine wife, and the father of three beautiful children. He succeeds a decent and talented man in Scott McClellan. I've known Scott since he worked for me in Texas. We traveled our state together, we traveled our country together, and we have traveled the world together. We have also made history together. Scott should be enormously proud of his service to our nation in an incredibly difficult job. I've always -- I will always be grateful to him. I will always be proud to call him, "friend." I appreciate Scott's offer to help Tony Snow prepare for his new job, and I'm proud to welcome Tony as part of our team. MR. SNOW: Well, Mr. President, I want to thank you for the honor of serving as Press Secretary. And just a couple of quick notes, I'm delighted to be here. One of the things I want to do is just make it clear that I -- one of the reasons I took the job is not only because I believe in the President, because believe it or not, I want to work with you. These are times that are going to be very challenging. We've got a lot of big issues ahead, and we've got a lot of important things that all of us are going to be covering together. And I am very excited, and I can't wait, and I want to thank you, Mr. President, for the honor, and thank all you guys for your forbearance, and I look forward to working with you. Thanks.

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Terror Networks

US believes bin Laden tape is authentic

2006-04-24

A newly released audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden urges Muslims to prepare for a long war in Sudan and attacks the U.S. and European cutoff of aid to the Palestinian government, now controlled by the militant group Hamas, as proof of "a Zionist-crusaders' war on Islam." The tape, broadcast Sunday by the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera, is the first reported message from the Al Qaeda leader since January. The White House said Sunday afternoon that U.S. intelligence officials believed the tape was authentic. In his last message, on Jan. 19, Bin Laden said Al Qaeda was preparing attacks against Americans but offered a truce, without spelling out the conditions. In the new tape, however, he said members of the Western public shared responsibility for the actions of their governments because they "are renewing their allegiance to its rulers and master" — an apparent implication that civilians could be targeted. Peter Bergen, an expert on Bin Laden and one of the few Westerners who have interviewed him, said in an interview that the subject matter of the latest communication was "not particularly interesting. The real message is, 'I'm alive.' " But because Bin Laden retains much symbolic power within militant groups and a wider circle of sympathizers, the new tape is likely to provoke some response and reaction, said Bergen, author of the recently published book "The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of Al Qaeda's Leader." "There is some cause and effect," he said. President Bush was informed of the tape about 6:30 a.m., White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. "The Al Qaeda leadership is on the run and under a lot of pressure," McClellan told reporters traveling with the president in California. Leading senators from both parties criticized the administration Sunday for its failure to track down Bin Laden. "Frankly, I'm very dissatisfied that we haven't brought him to justice, and I think it has to be a top priority," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told "Late Edition." "But one day, we'll catch him." Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, charged on the same program that the administration "took its eye off the ball when President Bush decided to go after Iraq instead of Al Qaeda, the people who had attacked us on 9/11, and their leader Bin Laden." Bin Laden's comments on the violent refugee crisis in Sudan were his first on the fighting in that country, which was his home from 1992 to 1996, when he was expelled under U.S. pressure and moved his base to Afghanistan. Bin Laden was harbored by the Sudanese government during the period in which he plotted the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Those attacks killed more than 220 people and injured about 4,000. More than 180,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in Darfur, in western Sudan, as Arab militias have fought African tribal rebels. Negotiators are trying to broker a truce, and United Nations peacekeepers may be sent there. Last year, an accord ended a decades-long civil war between the Arab-Muslim rulers and predominantly Christian and animist rebels. Bin Laden contended that the West was trying to divide the country. "Our goal is not defending the Khartoum government but to defend Islam, its land and its people," Bin Laden said on the tape, according to Al Jazeera's English-language website. Media in the Middle East have reported recently that Al Qaeda is trying to organize in Sudan, as well as in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Lebanon. There are no overt connections between Al Qaeda and Hamas, and the organization quickly distanced itself from Bin Laden's comments. "The ideology of Hamas is totally different from the ideology of Sheik bin Laden," spokesman Sami abu Zuhri told the Associated Press. Bin Laden has cited the Palestinian struggle against Israel in the past, but Hamas leaders have said they are fighting only Israel and are not part of the global Islamic radical movement. The Hamas spokesman said his group was interested in good relations with the West, AP reported.

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