PARIS – Whoever poisoned Alexander Litvinenko had two goals: a long and lingering death for the KGB defector and pointing a finger of accusation for his killing right in the face of Vladimir Putin.

Which leads me to believe Putin had nothing to do with it.

In an assassination, one must ask: Cui bono? To whose benefit? Who would gain from the poisoning of Litvinenko?

The 1977 murder of Lebanese Druze leader Kamal Jumblatt trumpeted the use of high-profile political assassination as a primary tool of Syria's your-necks-under-our-jackboots domination of Lebanon. Ever since then, the entrenchment in Lebanon of the Syrian Moukhabarat, the secret intelligence apparatus, has given Damascus the means to strike in Beirut virtually at will. As for motive, Syria ultimately wants to recover its Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967. By retaining its ability to influence events in Lebanon, which borders Israel, Syria remains an indispensable component for a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But what of Lebanon's other neighbor?

Like the Syrian Moukhabarat, Israel's secret intelligence agency, the Mossad (whose motto is "By way of deception thou shalt do war"), has a track record that evidences means in Lebanon. As far back as the early 1970s an Israeli reporter, Raphael Rothstein, revealed that the assassination in Beirut of Ghassan Kanafani, the editor of the weekly newspaper of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, had been carried out under Operation God's Wrath, a Mossad campaign targeting Palestinian resistance leaders. More recently, the 2002 assassination of Elie Hobeika, a Lebanese militia leader killed a day after agreeing to testify in a war crimes case brought in Belgium against then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, left many in Lebanon accusing the Mossad of the crime.

The Gemayel assassination suggests that the plan to remake the Middle East is moving forward and foreign agents are using “positive instability” as a means of subverting national sovereignty in Lebanon.

The ideologues in the Olmert government and their neocon-counterparts in Washington imagine a Muslim world which is buried under twisted iron and rubble from Gaza to Afghanistan, from Syria to Iran. They believe that Israel’s dominance depends on its ability to topple rival-regimes and splinter their states into smaller less-threatening units. This may explain why Olmert sees a positive value in the sectarian bloodbath that now envelops Iraq.

Imagine the entire Middle East subsumed by this dark and anarchic vision?

Who Killed Pierre Gemayel?

It emerged yesterday that Mr Litvinenko travelled to Israel just weeks before he died to hand over evidence to a Russian billionaire of how agents working for President Putin dealt with his enemies running the oil company.

He passed this information to Leonid Nevzlin, the former second-in-command of Yukos, who fled to Tel Aviv in fear for his life after the Kremlin seized and then sold off the £21 billion company.

Mr Nevzlin told The Times that it was his "duty" to pass on the file. "Alexander had information on crimes committed with the Russian Government’s direct participation," he said."He only recently gave me and my attorneys documents that shed light on the most significant aspects of the Yukos affair."

Investigators have told The Times that Mr Litvinenko had apparently uncovered "startling" new material about the Yukos affair and what happened to those opposing the forced break-up of the company.

The London trail

Nazareth: Commentators and columnists are agreed. Pierre Gemayel’s assassination must have been the handiwork of Syria because his Christian Phalangists have been long-time allies of Israel and because, as industry minister, he was one of the leading figures in the Lebanese government’s anti-Syria faction. President Bush thinks so too. Case, apparently, settled.

Unlike my colleagues, I do not claim to know who killed Gemayel. Maybe Syria was behind the shooting. Maybe, in Lebanon’s notoriously intrigue-ridden and fractious political system, someone with a grudge against Gemayel -- even from within his own party -- pulled the trigger. Or maybe, Israel once again flexed the muscles of its long arm in Lebanon.

It seems, however, as if the last possibility cannot be entertained in polite society. So let me offer a few impolite thoughts.

Planning to write a film script about the case, Shane O’Sullivan, an independent researcher, investigated the assassination of RFK. But, O’Sullivan found much more than he had hoped.

On Monday night, the BBC broadcast O’Sullivan’s report on their high-profile programme, Newsnight. O’Sullivan’s findings shocked many people. Working through an exhaustive analysis of videotapes made at the Ambassador Hotel on the night of RFK’s assassination, O’Sullivan identified three figures as former agents of the CIA. Two of the agents O’Sullivan identified could be seen moving away from the hotel pantry shortly after the shooting of RFK.

Andrew Councill for The New York Times

Marshall Wittmann calls his career “eclectic,” saying he has always been drawn to independent thinkers.

To say that Mr. Wittmann defies classification is like saying Paris Hilton defies modesty. But in his peripatetic soul, he is a Washington Original, a man without a political country going to work for a senator without a political party.

Mr. Lieberman, a longtime Democrat of Connecticut who was re-elected as an independent and calls himself an “Independent Democrat,” has not ruled out becoming a Republican.

Mr. Wittmann, meanwhile, is a Trotskyite turned Zionist turned Reaganite turned bipartisan irritant turned pretty much everything in between — including chief lobbyist for the Christian Coalition, the only Jew who has ever held that position.

MAP OF THE NEW MIDDLE EAST

Rep Emanual - Top U.S. Zionist Controller

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Democrat congressman for the 5th District of Illinois in Chicago is the son of an Israeli terrorist. Rahm's father, Benjamin, was a member of the Irgun, the Zionist terrorist organization that coined a new word as they blew up hotels, train stations, and other buildings in Palestine in the 1930s and 40s.

Rahm was an Israeli citizen until he was 18 years old, when for obvious reasons he hid his Israeli passport in his underwear drawer. In 1991, however, he pulled his Israeli passport out and went and reportedly joined the Israeli Army to defend Zion from Saddam's Scuds.

A month before the November elections, Vice-President Dick Cheney was sitting in on a national-security discussion at the Executive Office Building. The talk took a political turn: what if the Democrats won both the Senate and the House? How would that affect policy toward Iran, which is believed to be on the verge of becoming a nuclear power? At that point, according to someone familiar with the discussion, Cheney began reminiscing about his job as a lineman, in the early nineteen-sixties, for a power company in Wyoming. Copper wire was expensive, and the linemen were instructed to return all unused pieces three feet or longer. No one wanted to deal with the paperwork that resulted, Cheney said, so he and his colleagues found a solution: putting “shorteners” on the wire—that is, cutting it into short pieces and tossing the leftovers at the end of the workday. If the Democrats won on November 7th, the Vice-President said, that victory would not stop the Administration from pursuing a military option with Iran. The White House would put “shorteners” on any legislative restrictions, Cheney said, and thus stop Congress from getting in its way.

Human Rights First welcomed the release November 20 of Cuban journalist Oscar Mario González Pérez, who had been held without trial since his arrest in July 2005.

Last week, the New York-based advocacy group mounted a campaign for González’s release, following reports from his wife that his health was drastically deteriorating in prison and that he was being denied medical care. More than 1,000 Human Rights First supporters sent emails and letters to Cuban authorities urging that González be freed.

Since his detention, González had suffered from serious health problems that were exacerbated by poor prison conditions and medical neglect. Prison authorities had repeatedly denied knowledge of any charges against him and had refused to provide his lawyer with information about the indictment or possible trial.

Consider the unique problems faced by the corporate suits at CACI International, a defense contractor whose services have included "coercive" interrogations of prisoners in Iraq -- interrogations most people simply call "torture."

Think about the image problems a major multinational corporation faces after becoming inextricably linked with the abuses at Abu Ghraib, a firm whose employees have contributed to the iconic images of the occupation of Iraq -- the symbols of American cruelty and immorality in an illegal war. What can a company like that possibly do to protect its brand name after contributing to the greatest national disgrace since the My Lai massacre?

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that U.S. District Court Judge Richard W. Roberts of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation to submit "proper disclosures" to the Court and Judicial Watch by December 15, 2006 concerning the U.S. government's evacuation of Saudi royals and members of the bin Laden family from the United States immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In an analysis of the FBI documents produced to date, Roberts criticizes the adequacy of redaction descriptions, the accuracy of the sworn statement submitted with the documents, the validity of exemption claims, and other errors in the FBI's disclosures. Roberts' order also denied the U.S. government's request for summary judgment in Judicial Watch's lawsuit filed under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (Judicial Watch v. Department of Homeland Security & Federal Bureau of Investigation, No. 04-1643 (RWR)) Judicial Watch filed its original FOIA request on Oct. 7, 2003.

By Patrick J. Buchanan

[See also: The Fulford File: Email RNC About Martinez Nomination! By James Fulford]

With the resignation of Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman, President Bush intends to fill the post with Florida's Mel Martinez, a Hispanic who led the battle in the U.S. Senate for amnesty for illegal aliens.

"Martinez is going to lead the fight for amnesty that Bush could not win when Republicans controlled the Congress," one angry RNC member told The Washington Times' Florida's Martinez tapped for RNC chief, November 14, 2006] Ralph Hallow. [

Unable to extract an amnesty bill from Denny Hastert and Co. in the House like the McCain-Kennedy bill he supports, Bush is looking to cut a deal with San Francisco Nancy.

Amnesty is to be the Bush legacy, and Martinez is to be the face of the party on the most explosive domestic issue of our era.

For that, GOP precinct workers walked the line to hold Congress for the party.

The secret vote Thursday was one of only two contested votes for the new leadership of the Democratic Party after it wrested control of the House from the Republicans in last week’s elections.

Hoyer was challenged by Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.), a former U.S. Marine who had emerged as one of the toughest critics of the Iraq war.

In an unusual move, party leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), slated to become speaker, endorsed Murtha.

Hoyer has made a point of promoting bipartisan support of Israel, has urged freshmen lawmakers to join the numerous congressional delegations to Israel he has led, and has isolated Democrats who have been strongly critical of the Jewish state.

According to Roll Call, the tally was 149 votes for Hoyer and 86 for Murtha.

The Church of England has broken with tradition dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die.

Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs - but a bishop representing the national church has now sparked controversy by arguing that there are occasions when it is compassionate to leave a severely disabled child to die.

Bishop: Argued cost of keeping ill babies alive should factor in life or death choices

And the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, who is the vice chair of the Church of England's Mission and Public Affairs Council, has also argued that the high financial cost of keeping desperately ill babies alive should be a factor in life or death decisions.

The shock new policy from the church has caused outrage among the disabled.