The Capital Times, March 21, 2005
Five killed in three Baghdad car bombs
By Todd Pitman
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Kurdish
and Shiite leaders agreed to
convene Iraq's new parliament
Wednesday even if they fail to
complete a deal to form a coalition
government. Three car bombs
exploded Tuesday in Baghdad,
killing at least five people, police
said.
Shiite officials said they also
agreed to reach out to the
country's Sunni Arab community
to name the parliament speaker
for the 275-member National
Assembly that is to convene for
the first time since the Jan. 30
elections.
In northern Iraq, insurgents blew
up an oil pipeline connecting the
Kirkuk fields with a refinery in
Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad,
an official in the Northern Oil Co.
said. The pipeline is used only for
domestic deliveries, the official
said on condition of anonymity.
He did not have details on the
extent of the damage.
A car bomb targeting a U.S.
military convoy exploded on
a road about 500 yards from
the main avenue leading to
Baghdad's international airport,
police Capt. Thamir Talib said.
Four civilians were killed and
seven were wounded, including
two police officers, he said.
Witnesses said some American
troops also were wounded,
although that was not confirmed
by U.S. officials. When U.S.
forces arrived to evacuate them,
another car bomb exploded,
wounding more troops. One
Humvee was destroyed and
two civilian cars were in flames,
witnesses said.
A U.S. military spokesman said
he was checking into the report.
Another suicide car bomb
exploded in northeastern
Baghdad, killing one child and
wounding at least four people,
including a police officer, police
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Col. Muhanad Sadoun said. The
bomber was trying to hit a patrol
of traffic police but crashed into a
tree, Sadoun said.
In Mosul, the U.S. military said
Tuesday that six insurgents
were killed and four were injured
Monday in clashes with U.S. and
Iraqi forces.
A U.S. Marine with the Ist
Marine Expeditionary Force died
Monday in Anbar, a troubled
province that has been a hotbed
Car bombs frequently occur at check points in Iraq.
of guerrilla activity and includes
the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and
Qaim, officials said Tuesday.
At least 1,515 members of the
U.S. military have died since the
beginning of the Iraq war in March
2003, according to an Associated
Press count.
Around Qaim, near the Syrian
border, a U.S. Marine transport
helicopter and a Cobra gunship
destroyed a truck whose
occupants used a mounted
machine gun to fire on them,
Marine Maj. Sean Gibson said.
Both aircraft returned safely to a
nearby base and no one aboard
was injured, he said.
The Shiite clergy-backed
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United Iraqi Alliance and a
Kurdish coalition, which won the
two biggest blocks of seats in
January's landmark elections,
agreed last week to form a
coalition government with Islamic
Dawa Party leader Ibrahim al-
Jaafari as prime minister. In
return, Jalal Talabani will become
Iraq's first Kurdish president.
"We discussed the blueprint of
the agreement reached Thursday.
Some issues were revised and
Photo courtesy of www.back-to-iraq.com
those revisions are still being
discussed," alliance member Ali
al-Dabagh told The Associated
Press
Al-Dabagh expressed optimism
a final deal would be reached
soon, but he added that even
without an agreement "the first
session of the National Assembly
will be held on Wednesday
anyway."
Barham Saleh, a Kurd, indicated
the two groups want to reach
out to other factions to fill some
Cabinet posts. He said Shiite and
Kurd negotiators planned to meet
Tuesday with representatives
from interim Prime Minister Ayad
Allavvi's Iraqi List, which placed a
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distant third in the parliamentary
elections.
Al-Dabagh declined to discusses
details of the issues that snagged
the Shiite alliance's talks with the
Kurds.
"We still do not have an
agreement on who will be
parliament speaker," he said. "We
do not want to name the speaker;
the Sunnis must participate in this
decision."
A meeting with Sunni Arab
representatives will be held
Tuesday.
Sunni Arabs, who comprise
only about 20 percent of the
population but were the dominant
group under Saddam Hussein's
regime, largely stayed away from
the elections.
On Tuesday, Iraqi authorities
stepped up security around the
heavily fortified Green Zone,
where the parliament will meet.
Two bridges leading to the Green
Zone were shut down by Iraqi
security forces, and roadblocks
were erected on other streets
leading to the area.
The U.S.-led coalition press
office issued a statement saying
the newly elected members
will take the oath of office
Wednesday. They will then elect
the parliament speaker and two
deputies, as well was the new
transitional government's three
member Presidency Council.
The United Iraqi Alliance has
proposed Sheik Fawaz al-Jarba,
one of the few Sunni Arabs in
its coalition, to be speaker. It
was unclear whether the Sunni
community would agree.
Sunni Arabs are believed
to make up the core of the
insurgency and including them in
the political process was seen as
a way to isolate the militants.
The Shiite alliance won 140
seats in the National Assembly,
but needs the Kurds' 75 seats to
assemble the two-thirds majority
required to elect a president,
who will then nominate the prime
So many careers, all
the time in the world
Speaker to tell students
about interdiciplinary
career at PSH
By Kathryn Herr
Editor in Chief
kah92B@psu.edu
Bonnie Nelson Schwartz will
be speaking to Penn State
Harrisburg students on March 30
at 2 p.m. The event will be held
"She is not unwilling
to go where she
knows nothing."
-Kathryn Robinson
in the Morrison Gallery in the
Library. Schwartz will be talking
about her career to illustrate the
possibilities of interdisciplinary
studies, which is the basis for
the Communications program at
PSH.
Dr. Kathryn Robinson is bringing
Schwartz to speak in conjunction
with the fall semester guest
Don Finn. Robinson hopes to
motivate students to embrace
new ideas and adventures when
released into the world. "She is
not unwilling to go where she
knows nothing," said Robinson.
"I think the students will benefit
from talking with her."
Among many varied careers,
Schwartz is an actress and
director for both film and theater.
She has written two books and is
the original creator of the Helen
minister
Authorities in Najaf, south of
Baghdad, arrested a suspect
believed to have been involved in
the 2003 assassination of Shiite
leader Ayatollah Mohammed
Baqir al-Hakim, said police chief
Maj. Gen. Ghaleb al-Jazaeri.
Ramzy Hashim was arrested 10
days ago and confessed that he
was one of the assailants in the
Aug. 29, 2003, attack outside a
Najaf mosque that killed more
than 85 people, including al-
Hakim.
The Baghdad office of Abdel Aziz
al-Hakim, the cleric's younger
brother and leader of the alliance,
confirmed that a suspect involved
in the assassination was detained
in Najaf more than a week ago.
AI-Jazaeri added that Hashim
allegedly came to Najaf with
other accomplices to carry out
attacks on the office of Iraq's top
Shiite authority, Grand Ayatollah
Ali al-Sistani.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said
organized crime and criminals
for-hire appear to be taking a
bigger role in the insurgency,
although former Saddam loyalists
and foreign fighters still pose a
major threat.
"That may be a larger piece of
what we're seeing out there, as
opposed to hardcore insurgents,"
he said. Some are "people just
executing crimes to make money
and to gain influence," and some
aim to intimidate, "much like
organized crime has done in other
parts of the world," he added.
Lt. Gen. David Petraeus,
commander of the U.S. effort
to train and equip Iraqi security
forces, said Monday that about
50,000 of the 145,000 Iraqis
trained and equipped so far are
capable of taking on insurgents.
Associated Press reporters
Qasim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad
and Yahya Barzanji in Kirkuk
contributed to this report.
Hayes Awards, Washington D.C.
Schwartz has directed the Irish
Music Celebration in Washington
D.C. for several years.
Schwartz is very active in many
fields of communications. She
directed the closing ceremony
for the 1992 Olympics held in
Barcelona. She also directed
the opening ceremonies and the
Women in Sports exhibit for the
1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Schwartz is the founder of the
David Abardnmson foundation,
a program that financially funds
education for African students
who are earning medical degrees
in America.
There is a possibility of a
second speaker to accompany
Schwartz's presentation.
The event will be catered by
Stacks Market.
Photo courtesy of www ‘Nisc edu
Bonnie Nelson Schwartz, ac
tress, director and author, will be
speaking at PSH on March 30.
World
View
By Osman Abdalla
Staff Reporter
oaalo6@psu.edu
The term "skepticism" is derived
from a Greek noun, skepsis,
which means examination or
inquiry consideration. What
leads most skeptics to examine
every phenomenon is that there
is no certainty. It is always better
to ask about any idea than to just
spontaneously believe in it.
David Hume's skepticism
treats the ancient philosophers'
skepticism as dissipated plebeian
principles. And he considered
that ancient philosophers would
be entirely forgotten after they
leave the feelings of our hearts,
the agitation of our passions, and
the vehemence of our affection.
He also considered that modern
philosophy had improved and
will improve. In addition, he
considered that in every art
or profession that the spirit of
accuracy, however acquired, will
carry modern society nearer to
its perfection.
Hume's extreme skepticism
appears clearer than anywhere
else when he says, "Nothing,
at first view, may seem more
unbounded than the thought of
man, which not only escapes all
human power and authority, but
is not even restrained within the
limits of nature and reality." In
the section of Skeptical Doubts
Concerning the Operation
of Understanding, Hume
doubted any demonstrative and
undemonstrative ideas as long
as' they were conceived by the
human mind, even matters of fact.
So basically, there is absolutely
nothing we can base on to
demonstrate our hypotheses.
All that we have done so far to
explain the world is maybe just
paradoxes, or from our own un
intact fiction.
Most of the definitions published
and spread about skepticism
claim that skepticism is the
thinking mechanism of thinking
skeptically or with doubt. To
me, to be a skeptic, is still
controversial, especially when
I ask myself this question: is
believing in doubt a belief? To
deal with any issue by doubting
it, is a judgment. Taking that
action of doubt is based on belief,
which is similar to pragmatism.
To suspend judgment is basically
to suspend final answers to
a question because there is
nothing indubitable. Therefore
pre-judgment might furnish for
further deception or constant
belief.
Starting from an ignorant state
does not exist anyway; there is
no such action without a belief
or judgment. But let me break
the word belief down to its
unforeseeable degrees. There
are numerous kinds of beliefs
that reside between the judgment
of right and the absolute belief
of certain idea. The difference
between the belief and its
precedent beliefs is in quantity,
not in quality. So actually, the
development of belief is simply
defines being as dynamic. Also,
the fact that we are thinking things
defines our being as dynamic.
So the start of belief B, about
the issue I, develops itself to
B 2 after the doubt process or
the mind turns by a certain
observation, and so on until the
accomplishment of BA, which is
the absolute believe. This could
be either the freedom from the
misery of doubt or starting of