The Standard

Sarkozy: Nuclear Iran "Unacceptable Risk"

French President: World Must Guard Against Proliferation

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that a nuclear Iran was an "unacceptable risk" for the "stability of the world."

Mr. Sarkozy's comments came in lead up to a brewing confrontation over how to address Iran's refusal to comply with UN resolutions that require it halt its nuclear research program.

Iran already faces limited sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council in March.

Its continued defiance has lately led to new efforts to impose wider sanctions that would include a blanket arms embargo.

The US, UK and France are in support of this tougher stance.

France Seeks EU-wide Sanctions

China and Russia have urged that Iran be given more time to comply.

Both nations have made a habit out of delaying sanctions aimed at Iran in the past.

Their positions as permanent members of the UN Security Council mean that sanctions could fail to pass due to either country's veto.

There is a growing consensus among the western powers this round of sanctions will not go through and Mr. Sarkozy has urged European nations to support EU-wide sanctions against Iran.

This move would squeeze Iran economically without requiring the support of Russia and China.

Europe is Iran's largest trading partner and there are reports that President Sarkozy has pressured French banks and the oil giant Total to refrain from new business with Iran.

Mr. Ahmadi-Nejad also spoke to the UN on Tuesday.

In what has become his familiar style of radical brinksmanship, he declared that "...the nuclear issue of Iran is now closed."

China to Censor with Cartoon Characters

So it appears the Pubilc Security Ministry of China is doing its work.

Who are they? You ask?

They're the 30,000 people hired by the Central Propaganda Department to monitor the internet for political threats like the folk song written recently by civics teacher, Li Hua.

Mr. Li sung that local Communist party officials had "sold us like pigs, sold our flesh and sold our doo-doo" after his school was swallowed up by a larger private institution in which the officials had a financial stake.

Mr. Li posted the critique on the internet, getting himself seven days of jail-time (no trial), two interrogations, and the pleasure of writing a note criticizing his own inappropriate behavior.

Mr. Li, it's clear, did not have the benefit of knowing beforehand just how closely Chinese censors patroled the internet.

But fear not.

The Public Security Ministry has recently introduced two little cartoon characters in police uniforms that will pop up (every half an hour) on internet users webscreens to remind them that they're being monitored.

Chinese officials hope that these will discourage such rabid dissidents as Mr. Li from "disrupting social stability" ahead of the Communist Party Congress in October.

Der Spiegel: Chinese PLA Hacked German Government Computers

German Der Spiegel reports that Chinese spyware was detected in mulitple German government computer networks.

These included the chancellery, the foreign ministry, and the ministries of economy and research.

German intelligence services discovered the operation in May.

Information networks were infected with "Trojan" spyware when Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files containing the virus were opened.

Hackers based in the northwest Chinese province, Lanzhou, used this software to steal German governmental information on a daily basis until German intelligence services took countermeasures.

German officials told Spiegel they believed the People's Liberation Army of China was directing the operations.

China's rapid economic development over the last decade has also seen it rise as a more potent player in the international game of power.

In mid-August, the Chinese and Russian militaries staged war games in Russia to mark the end of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) summit. The war games brought together 6,000 military personnel from Russia, China, and four other Central Asian nations.

Bush Laments 'Tyranny'

On a slow news day like this, it can be fun to put things into context.

A story like the one in WaPo comes along, where US President George W. Bush laments that he's had trouble "ending tyranny in our world" because of US "bureaucracy".

Now, everyone in the US can admit the bureaucracy's gotten a bit rough since some of the new 9/11 legislation.

This said, Mr. President, shedding some light on the last six years of your government might help us figure out why it seems so tough preserving democracy and ending tyranny in the world today.

In fact, Mr. President, we'll do it this way. We'll pretend I'm not a mere private citizen with a voice, but your advisor - a member of the Cabinet.

And we'll pretend it's six years ago.

Here's my advice.

1) Do not use cheap legal language to justify the existence of a military prison at Guantanemo Bay that holds prisoners of war without trial and spits in the face of Habeas Corpus rights -- the legal bedrock of modern civilization and the pride and dignity of governments ruling over the English-speaking peoples for the last 500 years.

2) Do not take unilateral action to start a war that is counter to the interests of the American people, counter to the national security interests of the United States, and undermines the authority of the United Nations -- the only possibility the community of free nations might have to legislate the world in a way that secures liberty for all humankind.

3) As leader and news figure, do not consistently refuse to acknowledge reality and have colleagues spread bad information in a way that corrupts the American news landscape, spurring hatred among the American people and undermining American civil society.

4) If, by chance, you do happen to do all of what I've told you not to do.

Do not appoint ambassadors and government officials that drive a wedge between the US and European governments in an attempt to justify the poor, ill-planned, unnecessary war, that (hypothetically, of course) would be counter to the interests of nearly every nation in the world except Iran.

It will be hard to plant trees abroad if you burn the forests at home, Mr. President.

It's the ash on your hands, sir.

It will do something to the seeds.