Senior Republican and Democratic politicians alike warned at the weekend that far from withdrawing US troops from Iraq, the White House and Pentagon may have no choice but to send more to re-impose security.Mr Kennedy also accused Mr Bush of using Iraq to divert attention from the administration’s “deceptions here at home” ­ especially on the economy, health care and education.He lambasted Mr Bush for trying to blame President Clinton and the Democrats for the recession whose after-effects now weigh upon Mr Bush’s re-election prospects. But the low casualty count, and the swiftness of battlefield victory, soon invalidated the comparison.Now, however, the fear has returned to haunt supporters and critics of Mr Bush’s war, that the US might have trapped itself in an unwinnable conflict, from which it could not withdraw Once more the dreaded “Q-word” or “quagmire” is to be heard. But on education, health care and the economy ­ as on Iraq ­ this president had created what Mr Kennedy called “the largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon”.The military attack on Iraq was first likened to Vietnam in March and April 2003, as advancing US forces encountered guerrilla resistance on the way to Baghdad. Americans “would be much better served if the senator from Massachusetts would remember who the enemy is”.Mr Kennedy’s attack, delivered in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington, is the latest of several against Mr Bush ­ with whom he once worked closely to fashion an important 2001 education reform measure, “No Child Left Behind”. The licences could only be used in Florida and those seeking them would have to prove they owned or were leasing a car..

Edward Kennedy has declared that Iraq is turning into “George Bush’s Vietnam”, part of what the veteran liberal senator called a “breach of trust with the American people”. We are prohibited from being a part of that.” He called the licence “the one document they need to be able to function”.Undocumented immigrants seeking licences would be fingerprinted and required to show identification such as an employee identification card or taxpayer number, the bill’s sponsor, Senator Rudy Garcia, said yesterday.Consulates would have to provide criminal background checks for applicants. Some also argued that providing licences to undocumented immigrants rewarded illegal behaviour.Mr Bush said he “would prefer to have our borders be secure, that we deport people when they are found to be here illegally.” But he added: “That’s not a responsibility of the state. Mr Bush said illegal immigrants should not be allowed into the country. “But once they’re here, what do you do? Do you basically say that they’re lepers to society? That they don’t exist? A policy that ignores them is a policy of denial.”The decision came four months after Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California and a fellow Republican, fulfilled a campaign promise by repealing a law that would have allowed an estimated two million illegal immigrant drivers to begin applying for licences.Opponents of the California law said it would have posed a threat to national security because there were not enough background checks. A bill allowing Florida’s illegal immigrants to apply for driving licences has won the backing of Jeb Bush, the state’s governor. A spokesman said: “Hunters administer a blinking-eye reflex test to ensure death.”.

Tina Fagan of the Canadian Sealers’ Association, said: “Markets are good, acceptance is growing and prices are well up.”The cull has not attracted the outrage it once did, partly because the Canadian seal population rebounded during the slump in pelt demand, and is blamed for depleting cod stocks.The Canadian government has also issued guidelines on humane slaughter and banned the killing of seal pups less than 12 days old Canada says that seals are no longer skinned alive. The court said it believed the source was Binalshibh himself.. Canadian ice floes are streaked with blood once again as the largest seal cull in 50 years gets under way amid rising demand for baby seal pelts. 11 attacks and remains on the run.El Motassadeq lived with his wife and two children in an apartment near Hamburg’s Technical University, where he studied before his November 2001 arrest.His attorney said he is expected to resume living with his family at a different location that he would not disclose.The absence of testimony from Binalshibh also helped bring about the acquittal of el Motassadeq’s friend and fellow Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi on the same charges in February.Mzoudi’s case turned in his favor when the Hamburg court heard a statement from an unidentified source that only Binalshibh and the suicide hijackers knew of the Sept 11 plot – which could also exonerate el Motassadeq. 11 plot.The federal appeals that court threw out his conviction last month cited the absence of testimony by Ramzi Binalshibh.

The Yemeni, captured in Pakistan on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, is believed to have been the Hamburg cell’s main contact with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.Binalshibh might be able to testify that El Motassadeq knew nothing of the plot, the Moroccan’s lawyers say.New evidence that could help el Motassadeq at his retrial emerged at a Hamburg court hearing Friday where lawyers sought his release.The court was presented with an intercepted 2003 telephone call in which suspected cell member Said Bahaji told his wife that he and others close to the hijackers knew nothing of the planned attacks.Also presented was a 2002 letter from Bahaji to his mother in which he wrote “Mounir didn’t know anything,” the attorney said.German authorities say Bahaji, a suspected cell logistician, left Germany shortly before the Sept. An appeals court has ordered a retrial starting June 16, saying he was denied a fair trial because the US government refused access to a key witness in its custody.Prosecutors allege el Motassadeq helped cell members conceal their involvement in the plot to attack the United States while they lived and studied in Hamburg.El Motassadeq acknowledged during his trial that he trained at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan and was friends with the three Hamburg-based suicide hijackers – Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah – but he denied any knowledge of the Sept. He also faces unchanged charges of membership in a terrorist organization, she said.El Motassadeq was found guilty of the combined charges in his first trial. El Motassadeq’s whereabouts were not immediately known.In their decision, the judges also said they viewed suspicions against el Motassadeq as less serious than before.While the original arrest warrant cited “urgent suspicion” that he was guilty of more than 3,000 counts of accessory to murder, that has been downgraded to “adequate suspicion,” Westphalen said. 11 pilots.He was ordered freed on condition that he stay in Hamburg and not be issued a new passport, said Sabine Westphalen, spokeswoman for the Hamburg state court.