Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. Why Clinton Can't Be Boss of the U.N.
2. Oil Reserve Could Decide Bush's Re-election
3. U.S. War Exercises Enrage North Korea
4. More About Iraq's Ties to Palestinians
5. Timmerman, Jesse Jackson's Nemesis, to Join the Senate?
6. The NewsMax Grapevine: Peter Paul, Ruddy, Dr. Menges, DeLay, Clinton, Tammy Bruce, More
7. De Borchgrave Reveals Latest War Information
 

1. Why Clinton Can't Be Boss of the U.N.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's report that Bill Clinton has widespread support in the United Nations to become secretary-general caused panic and shockwaves after columnist Geoff Metcalf, NewsMax.com, and others picked up the report. Now here's the good news: It can't happen.

Stewart Stogel, NewsMax's correspondent at the United Nations, points out that the U.N. Charter prohibits a citizen of a Permanent Five country from taking the position.

Turns out that the disastrous Jimmy Carter (of course!) and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev already looked into the job, to no avail.

But then again … the Clintons had little use for the U.S. Constitution. The U.N. Charter will be much easier to trample over. And with so many of America's enemies in love with Bill Clinton, making an amendment to the U.N. Charter may not be so difficult.

2. Oil Reserve Could Decide Bush's Re-election

Now that crude oil is flirting with near-record highs of $40 a barrel, President Bush is under pressure to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve - and by doing so drop the price of oil.

After 9/11, the president wisely ordered the Department of Energy to fill the reserve to the max. The SPR has gone from 544 million barrels to 599 million "and is well on the way its maximum capacity of 700 million barrels - enough to quench America's thirst for Persian Gulf imports for 313 days," BusinessWeek reports.

In addition to Iraq, the unstable economic and political situation in oil-rich Venezuela is another unknown variable.

Presidents have used the emergency reserve just five times since its establishment in 1975, and each time critics howled.

But President G.H.W. Bush was accused of waiting too long. By the time he took advantage of the reserve during the Gulf War, crude prices had already doubled, to as high as $41 a barrel. The delay hurt the economy and helped unleash Bill Clinton on America.

Will this President Bush suffer a similar fate?

Clearly, if Bush wants to stimulate the economy for next year's election, he must move soon to cut dramatically the price of oil.

3. U.S. War Exercises Enrage North Korea

The South Korea-U.S. combined forces command announced it would stage two joint military exercises from Tuesday through April 2, according to South Korean KBS. They are the "reception, staging, onward movement and integration" exercise, a combined commanding exercise, and "Foal Eagle" exercise, a large-scale field mobile exercise. More than 200,000 troops will participate.

North Korea's communist propaganda machine raged, "The plan to stage month-long large-scale joint war exercises announced by warhawks at a time when the situation on the Korean Peninsula is getting tenser over the nuclear issue there goes to clearly prove that the U.S. reckless plan for a nuclear war has entered the phase of practical implementation."

4. More About Iraq's Ties to Palestinians

Here's an update on the close links between Iraq and Palestinians revealed after Israel's capture in January of a former Palestinian intelligence officer before he could follow Iraq's instructions to poison water in the Jewish nation.

Straight from the horse's mouth: "I was told to be ready to spread poison in the major Israeli water pipelines, the River Jordan or the Lake of Galilee," admitted the captured Mohammed Farouq Abu Roub.

"I got these instructions in Iraq, where I was given thousands of dollars to carry out mega-attacks," he said, Jewish Voice and Opinion reported.

5. Timmerman, Jesse Jackson's Nemesis, to Join the Senate?

Kenneth Timmerman, author of the best seller "Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson," is reportedly pondering a bid for the U.S. Senate from Maryland in 2004.

But sources tell NewsMax's Wes Vernon that it is not yet clear to what extent the Maryland Republican Party is prepared to mount a well-funded campaign against the Democrat incumbent, Sen. Barbara Mikulski. Her third term is up next year.

The overwhelmingly Democrat state just elected Robert Ehrlich its first Republican governor since Spiro Agnew in the 1960s. There are those in the party who are inclined to husband the GOP's resources for Ehrlich's re-election campaign in 2006.

His defeat of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of the late Robert Kennedy, was a bitter pill for the state's left-wing activists, Before Ehrlich was even sworn in Jan. 15, state Democrats, accustomed to power in the statehouse almost as a presumed birthright, began taking potshots at him.

Others believe that Mikulski, a leftist from Baltimore, is vulnerable at a time when the Republicans have gained more momentum in the state, and that an all-out effort should be made to raise funds for the Senate race in '04 and the governor's contest in '06.

Timmerman, a resident of Kensington in the Washington suburbs, is a longtime freelance investigative reporter, with a heavy emphasis on national security issues. Given that the public generally trusts Republicans over Democrats when it comes to defending this country, this issue could resonate at a time when many of the Democrats' past weak security policies have come back to haunt them.

A wild card: As NewsMax has reported, there is already a movement to recruit Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, a rising star in the GOP, to run against Mikulski.

6. The NewsMax Grapevine

We hear that Judicial Watch client Peter Paul is set to return to the U.S. from Brazil any moment now - and is anxious to tell all on Hillary's illegal fund-raising for her 2000 Senate campaign . . . Judicial Watch recently polled its 200,000 members on their favorite JW lawsuits . . . Peter Paul's was a favorite, and so, surprisingly, was the suit against Republican good guy Tom DeLay . . . The Counter Clinton Library - the one aimed at setting the record straight on the Clintons' record of disaster in the White House - plans an exhibit showing how Clinton aides ransacked the White House as they exited: destroying computers, graffiti, gluing phones, even leaving foul-smelling items in the vents . . . NewsMax's Christopher Ruddy joined Miami Cuban leader Carlos Perez this past week. Ruddy was interviewed for Perez's No. 1 TeleMiami program, as well as the No. 1 drive-time talk show with Armando Perez-Roura. The program went on for nearly two hours of non-stop call-ins with many Cuban Americans telling Ruddy that NewsMax is their No. 1 destination on the Web . . . Perez-Roura told Ruddy he gives Castro only one or two more years to remain in power . . . Dr. Constantine Menges, former Reagan national security adviser and lead CIA honcho for Latin America, has issued "The Americas Report: Emerging Threats to Democracy." He warns that Castro's power has never been stronger in Latin America with new allies in Venezuela and Brazil. Menges says Latin America may be America's next 9/11 - unless we act now. P.S. Some U.S. senators have touted Menges as a possible replacement for CIA Director George Tenet, if that latter is ever removed . . . And we are waiting eagerly for Tammy Bruce's new blockbuster, "The Death of Right and Wrong" (Prima). Bruce takes on the hard-core left, which is promoting a cultural meltdown in America. Like Bernard Goldberg, Bruce is a defector - a liberal exposing the Left's hypocrisy. The book is due out in late April.

7. De Borchgrave Reveals Latest War Information

One of America's most renowned journalists, editor-at-large for UPI and the Washington Times, Arnaud de Borchgrave, shares his insights about the new war on terrorism exclusively with NewsMax readers. In a stunning one-hour audiotape, "Eve of War with Arnaud de Borchgrave," de Borchgrave reveals what he believes will happen now that America sits just a few minutes from a new war with Iraq.

This new audio program, "Off the Record: Eve of War with Arnaud de Borchgrave," reveals:

• The secret meeting Saddam held last year with his sons and closest advisers where they made clear their plans for dealing with America if we invade Iraq. De Borchgrave's account is chilling.
• Why America needs to be ready for an attack with weapon of mass destruction in the near future.
• Why he is not surprised that al-Qaeda has not hit us again, and why he thinks the next attack could be much bigger than 9/11.
• A terrorist plan, discussed openly by extremists, to shut down oil shipping in the Persian Gulf and cause the economic collapse of world stock markets.
• A warning about the Panama Canal and Suez Canal as major terrorist targets.

...And much, much more.

For more details on the de Borchgrave tape, Click Here Now.