AL-QAEDA'S commander in Saudi Arabia was among more than a dozen terrorists killed in a three-day gun battle with security forces in the north of the kingdom, according to an exiled Saudi opposition leader. In a major coup for the authorities, Saleh al-Aufi's body was said to have been found burned to a crisp beyond recognition in a wheelchair in the wreckage of a complex where the militants were besieged. Aufi lost a leg last July when he escaped a police raid on his apartment where the severed head of a US hostage, Paul Johnson, was found in the freezer of his fridge alongside food. "They have to do a DNA test [to identify him] because there's nothing left of his features," Dr Saad al-Fagih, the leader of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, said.
The authorities did not want to declare Aufi's death - a major blow to al-Qaeda in Osama bin Laden's homeland - publicly until the DNA test results had confirmed his identity, Dr Fagih told The Scotsman, but they were "99 per cent certain". Aufi had been reported dead last November but surfaced again last month with calls issued on Islamist websites for terror attacks in neighbouring Gulf Arab states. Other reports from within the kingdom suggested Aufi - a former used-car dealer and disgraced former prison guard - may have been seriously wounded and captured rather than killed.
The ferocious battle that ended late on Tuesday was the biggest blow to al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia since bin Laden's followers launched a terrorist campaign there two years ago. Saudi officials said the dead also included Abdulkarim al-Mejjati, a Moroccan described by the Saudi media as the mastermind of the May 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca in which 33 bystanders and 12 bombers were killed. He was also linked to the Madrid train bombings last year. "We even have suspicions that he had a connection with the Qatar incident," said Jamal Khashoggi, an adviser to the Saudi ambassador in London. A British teacher was killed in Qatar last month in a car-bomb attack on a theatre during a performance of Twelfth Night. "The Moroccan is one of the five most important [al-Qaeda] activists worldwide," added Mr Khashoggi. Saudi papers described Mejjati as one of the thinkers of the organisation and an expert bomb-maker with extensive combat experience. His mother was said to be French and his wife American.
Another terrorist killed in the shoot-out in the northern town of al-Ras was named as Saud Hamoud al-Otaibi, al-Qaeda's chief propagandist in the kingdom, who had been urging militants to join the fight against US forces in Iraq. Yesterday, another of Saudi Arabia's most-wanted militants, Abdul-Rahman Mohammad Jubran al-Yazji, was shot dead by security forces in a separate incident in the capital, Riyadh. If Aufi's death or capture is confirmed, it means that four of the 26 most-wanted militants on a list issued by the authorities in December 2003 have been removed as a threat in the past four days. Most of the rest have been captured or killed, with just two or three at large. Otaibi's loss to al-Qaeda was particularly significant. He was its leading spokesman in Saudi Arabia "who was adept at misleading young men who lack experience and religious background".
This article starring:
ABDULKARIM AL MEJJATI
Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia
ABDUL RAHMAN MOHAMAD JUBRAN AL YAZJI
Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia
DR SAAD AL FAGIH
Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia
Jamal Khashoggi, an adviser to the Saudi ambassador in London
Paul Johnson
SALEH AL AUFI
al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
SAUD HAMUD AL OTAIBI
Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia
Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/07/2005 12:06:14 AM ||
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Missing: One-legged, one-eyed terrorist. Answers to the name of Lucky.
Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed, comments@d-corner.com THERE are many studies being done in the West to profile your average Al-Qaeda member. The reasonably scientific ones come to the same conclusions: Your friendly jihadist is of a middle class provenance, is well off financially, and probably educated in the West.
So much for the "poverty breeds terrorism" idea...
Like the Nazis, they believe in their own superiority of moral and racial origins.
We've remarked on that a time or two here...
Whether Islam or Aryan purity is used to canvass this thought is immaterial since the ensuing behavior is the same. Basically, I am good you are bad and there is no place for us both on earth, is the governing rule. I don't know how much education you need to reach this point nor am I aware of any institution in the West that has this item on its curricula.
Madrassahs, on the other hand, are a different story. So are mosques. So are certain diwans...
As for the middle class part, I beg to differ -again, on definition and not substance. These people do not belong to middle anything. They are cultists. Your average middle class youth in Jeddah, for example, is busy polishing his car and finding accessories for his state of the art bike. On the other hand, the "educated" youths belong to a group of people who made their money simply because they belong to this cult and there are jobs open to them alone. In Biblical terms they resemble the Essenes with a twist. The twist is an aggressive attitude that takes the shape of a gun and a bomb.
There are multiple definitions of "middle class", the main ones being economic and social. The economic middle class is of middle income, usually holding white collar or government jobs. The social middle class is neither of the aristocracy nor of the plebs, and is usually thought of as holding "middle of the road" opinions. I think the implication of the studies is that the jihadi class is economically comfortable on the one hand, not of the princely class nor having to labor overly hard for a living on the other — and that the opinions they hold are broadly reflective of the opinions of their peers.
For my Muslim readers I will give an example of such a cult that is closer to home. The Carmathians of tenth century Arabia were an exact replica of our "educated" youth of today. They managed to sack Makkah, Karbala, and reached as far north as Damascus, all in the name of purity and "cleansing" the earth of the vile "unbelievers." Sure enough, your average Carmathian was more "educated" than the rest of the population, but more deadly.
The Carmathians, big in the 9th and 10th centuries, were rather like the Hashishim. I believe the Druze are the latter day remnants, though I understand the sect still lives in Zanzibar.
There is nothing more dangerous to a nation's health than its semi-educated youth.
... as in "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
Worse, it is those who think they know better, or more than the experts, who are the real disease. They take short cuts and cannot be reasoned with. A hallmark of education is patience with those who disagree with you. The semi-educated turn to the sword and chop off heads to cure a headache. Another hallmark of real education is a healthy sense of humor. Try finding that amongst your "educated, middle class" morons.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Interesting. So are we talking about jihadis or liberals?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/07/2005 0:43 Comments ||
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And be sure to read the whole article I posted about the students and faculty of Columbia BOTH being "semi-educated"! No tolerance and no sense of humor there!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/07/2005 1:27 Comments ||
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"Half-educated."
Is that anything like being half-assed? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/07/2005 12:29 Comments ||
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Fred - Your in-line commentary reminded me of this Twain quote about raw youth vs experience & wisdom:
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."
#7
Hey, I call foul! O'Rourke's off limits without prior agreement!
My favorite:
âWe be bad. ... Weâre three-quarters grizzly bear and two-thirds car-wreck and descended from a stock-market crash on our motherâs side. You take your Germany, France and Spain, roll them all together, and it wouldnât give us room to park our cars. Weâre the big boys, Jack, the original giant economy-sized new and improved butt-kickers of all time.â
--PJ O'Rourke ("Holidays in Hell" - "Among the Euro-Weenies")
THE families of three Britons beheaded by Islamic terrorists are hoping that their killer will finally reveal if Osama bin Laden ordered their captives' murder. Authorities in Chechnya are questioning one of the kidnappers who had agreed to release the telephone engineers in exchange for a £3 million ransom. Days later in December 1998 the men were murdered and their severed heads left by the side of a road. Darren Hickey, 26, Rudi Petschi, 42, Peter Kennedy and a New Zealand colleague, Stanley Shaw, 58, had been tortured during their 64 days in captivity.
Russian security officials say that Chechen Interior Ministry police arrested a suspect this week in connection with the murder of six Red Cross workers. The suspect, Adam Dzhabrailov, is said to have admitted his role in the slaughter of the Western engineers, who were installing a mobile phone network in Chechnya. Officials in Moscow say that Dzhabrailov, 31, is being held at a secret location while he is questioned about the alleged role of al-Qaeda's leader in the murders. There are claims that bin Laden paid the kidnappers more than £30 million to drive all Western workers out of Chechnya and to intensify their attacks against Russian forces. Last night Noel Hickey, Hickey's uncle, said: "There have been so many unanswered questions for so long. At the time the families were told a deal for their release had been agreed. Then the next thing we hear the men were executed in this horrible way. It won't bring back Darren and the others or end their families' suffering but I hope that at last we are told the truth — whatever it is."
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said last night that it was waiting to learn the outcome of the Russian investigation. "We are in close touch and will keep the families informed," a spokesman said. The suspected killer was captured on Monday during a security sweep. Vladimir Kravchenko, Chechnya's acting Prosecutor-General, said: "Dzhabrailov in his confession told us in detail about the kidnapping and execution of the three Britons and one New Zealander. We will carefully check his testimony about his role in this." The UK-based engineers were abducted on October 3, 1998. A captive held with them said that they were given a pitcher of water and a loaf to share each week. They also had to watch videos of beheadings carried out by Islamic militants. They were apparently beheaded in a disused factory near the capital, Grozny, and their remains driven outside the city. Their bodies were found 100 yards from where the severed heads were dumped in potato sacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/07/2005 12:15:49 AM ||
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XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX WED APRIL 06, 2005 19:05:28 ET XXXXX
Probe Into Leak of CIA Agent's Identity May Be Complete
The special prosecutor investigating whether Bush administration officials illegally revealed the identity of a covert CIA operative says he finished his investigation months ago -- except for questioning two reporters who have refused to testify, the WASHINGTON POST is planning to report on Thursday.
Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has interviewed columnist Robert Novak, who first published the name of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame, the report suggests.
Fitzgerald is not likely to seek an indictment for the crime he originally set out to investigate -- whether a government official knowingly exposed a covert agent. Fitzgerald may instead seek to charge a government official with committing perjury by giving conflicting information to prosecutors.
Would former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson be considered a government official? Hey, I can dream, can't I?
Developing...
Posted by: Steve ||
04/07/2005 9:09:11 AM ||
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Hey, somebody remembers me. Wow.
Thanks a lot.
Posted by: Joe Wilson ||
04/07/2005 11:58 Comments ||
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Don't blame me I was just drinking on the veranda when my CIA Super Secret Undercover Agent Wife Valerie Plame said I was going to Nigeria to look for some cake. After two weeks of drinking in the Hotel bar and many visits from local working girls I could not find any cake. I stumbled back on a flight, drank my way back to the U.S., and dutifully reported that I saw no cake in Tanzania. My CIA Super Secret Undercover Agent Wife Valerie Plame told me that I was in Nigeria and not Tanzania and boy did we have a laugh. Also I brought her a little present back that one of the local girls gave me (should clear up in a couple of weeks). I must remind everyone that I was an UNPAID investigator and you get what you pay for. Also I am looking for some other PAID work to help support my CIA Super Secret Undercover Agent Wife Valerie Plame who is currently working at CIA HQ.
Posted by: Joe Wilson ||
04/07/2005 13:19 Comments ||
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Oh, yeah... Ritter called last night. He's trying to get me, Blixie, and Clarkie gigs at Al-Jazzera. Hey, a buck's a buck...
Posted by: Joe Wilson ||
04/07/2005 13:26 Comments ||
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Joe Who?
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2005 13:28 Comments ||
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Blowing Valeries Plames cover had nothing to do with her activities within the CIA; it was all about her position as a Democratic Party operative. She could no longer pretend to be "neutral".
Posted by: john ||
04/07/2005 21:54 Comments ||
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On Monday evening, about 400 faculty members and graduate students gathered in the imposing rotunda of Columbia University's main administration building. Photographs of street protests from the Ukraine's Orange Revolution last winter decorated the walls, which seemed appropriate given the whiff of rebellion in the room.
The professors who took the podium over the course of three hours all expressed some variation on a theme: that their academic freedom was under attack, and that the university's administration had not adequately protected them.
-snip-
The professors were responding to the formation and findings of a faculty committee which investigated student complaints that professors in the Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department intimidated students who expressed pro-Israel views.
More at link
Also see the Page 2 article about the Danger of Being Half-Educated, from Arab News, no less!
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/07/2005 1:18:15 AM ||
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#1
There's an excellent term for people like this in Russian language: образовщина
Obrazovschina is a group of people that, although educated, for one reason or another (usually because of being dogmatic or indoctrinated in some way) couldn't become intelligentsia.
#3
Andrea, erudition in one specialized topic can be hardly considered smarts. I would surmise that our age is the era of specialized idiots. Well, at least that is what seems to be the current edumacayshun system producing. Almost as if on purpose--the elites can manipulate virtual idiots easier than smart people.
People like Ward Ch. are just opportunists that use the system--find your schtick that is in compliance with LLL paradigm and you future is almost secured within the sheltered edu environment. That is, unless your lunacy is very obvious and you fake and plagiarize almost verbatim without shame. Then you may have a problem one day to weasel out of the self made cow pie.
#4
Sobiesky is right, and almost unnoticed is the development of internet based amateur scientists. Recently a number of open source science projects have started. I'm not predicting the end of ivory tower academic science, but it will be a useful counterweight.
#5
Most of these shit puppets could benifit from firing. Nothing wakes a fool up more certainly than the loss of their income. Tenure can be overcome if an Administration has the will to over come it. The object should be to force that will upon these administrators.
#6
Trouble is the rot goes all the way to the top. The only way American academia will be cleaned up is through the action of outsiders - either politicians in the case of public universities, or alumni and prospective students in the case of private schools.
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) - Three volunteers patrolling the border for illegal immigrants were being investigated after a man told authorities he was held against his will and forced to pose for a picture holding a T-shirt with a mocking slogan. The volunteers said they were members of the Minuteman Project - a monthlong effort that has people from around the country fanned out along the border to report undocumentedILLEGAL migrants and smugglers. Law enforcement officials have said they fear the project will lead to vigilante violence.
Border Patrol agents called in deputies from the Cochise County Sheriff's Office on Wednesday afternoon to report that an ILLEGAL immigrant was detained by three men who identified themselves as project volunteers.
Carol Capas, a sheriff's office spokeswoman, said the 26-year-old Mexican man told agents he was physically restrained and forced to hold a shirt while his picture was taken and he was videotaped.
The shirt read: ``Bryan Barton caught an illegal alien and all I got was this T-shirt.'' I LOVE IT!
Barton is one of the three volunteers. He told agents that they waved the man over to them, offered him food and water, and gave him the T-shirt and money before the Border Patrol arrived.
``All they did was provide water and wait for the Border Patrol,'' Minuteman spokesman Grey Deacon said. ``What's the big deal?''
Deacon said project organizers were told by sheriff's officials that the incident wasn't a problem.(Smart politcial move)But Capas said the investigation was continuing and authorities were reviewing a videotape that Barton provided to deputies.
``We do not have the time nor the patience for anyone attempting to turn this situation into a three ring circus,'' Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants have dropped notably in the Naco area since civilian volunteers began gathering there. Agency spokesmen an increased presence by Mexican authorities south of the border and say it's too soon to tell whether the volunteers are having an impact. Gee it's working!
The volunteers, many of whom were recruited over the Internet, plan to watch the border throughout April and report any illegal activity to federal agents.
Except for Wednesday's incident, Border Patrol officials said the volunteers have remained peaceful. However, they have continued to unwittingly trip sensors that alert the agency to possible intruders, forcing agents to respond to false alarms. Authorities said volunteers' footprints have also made if difficult for agents to track illegal immigrants. Yeah sure, like they were 'tracking' them before.
Francisco Garcia, a volunteer for a shelter in Altar, Mexico, some 60 miles south of the Mexico-Arizona border, has said the migrants he has encountered have dismissed the Minutemen simply as ``crazy people'' - but for migrants' rights activists the situation is worrisome.
``For us, it's clear to see things could get out of control because those in the migration business are not easily intimidated,'' Garcia said. ``We're afraid an aggression could escalate into an international incident.''
IMHO the first Minuteman to die by a Coyote or ILLEGAL Immigrant will be the trip wire that brings the Feds down on the border but hard. After that the Government will have no choice but to stop an armed insurgency.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge ||
04/07/2005 11:50:05 AM ||
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IMHO the first Minuteman to die by a Coyote or ILLEGAL Immigrant will be the trip wire that brings the Feds down on the border but hard.
True but only to protect the kind & innocent migrants from the evil 'Mericans.
#2
if any Minutemen are killed, the government is not going to "send Feds down on the border but hard". The incident will be handled as that Minuteman being blamed for being there in the first place. Our current government is not going to engage in any international incident with Mexico. Illegal immigrants will be a problem for those who feel passionately about it. It's obvious our government doesn't.
#3
Shellback, I don't think that the States could look at it that way and would demand Federal action. It's funny that the Illegal thought that he had some rights trampled on by the Minuteman. I bet by next week some t-shirt shop in Arizona has them all outfitted with extra t-shirts for Illegals.
Posted by: Joe Wilson ||
04/07/2005 16:00 Comments ||
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I agree with Shellback
/still a polywog
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
04/07/2005 17:40 Comments ||
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This situation will slow down considerably with hot weather, then pick up again in the fall. But unless a handle is gotten on it now, it *could* turn into real vigilantism. However, that can mean many things. First of all, the vigilantes could start by posting "Keep Out" signs, warning of all that the vigilantes *might* do. And what the vigilantes *might* do is almost unlimited. It would amount turning the border area into a "danger zone", trying to make it just hazardous enough so that illegals wouldn't risk it--or sharply reducing the numbers willing to try. Just off the top of my head I can think of at least a dozen inexpensive and effective things that would keep people away--make them too frightened. A combination of real threats and psyops.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has sought to drum up support for his reforms of the world body by warning member states that human rights had entered a "new era" focusing on their implementation and respect of fundamental freedoms.
Mr Annan told the UN Human Rights Commission that his controversial plans to revamp the 53-member body marked the end of a 60-year period dominated by the establishment of international human rights standards and obligations.
"The cause of human rights has entered a new era," he said in a keynote speech.
"The era of declaration is now giving way as it should, to an era of implementation."
Mr Annan urged countries to rally around his attempt to bolster and sharpen the pillars of the UN human rights effort, giving them more authority to ensure that all countries fulfill their human rights obligations.
"Nobody has a monopoly on human rights virtue. Abuses are found in rich countries as well as poor," Mr Annan said.
The international communityââ¬s commitment still faced a test in Sudanââ¬s strife-torn region of Darfur, he said, despite recent progress with an agreement to bring abuse there before the International Criminal Court.
Although welcome, the African Union peacekeeping force was "clearly not sufficient" to maintain security throughout the region and there was "hardly any progress towards political settlement," Mr Annan said.
"For all of us, as individuals and as an institution, this situation is a test. For thousands of men, women, and children, our response is already too late."
An estimated 300,000 people have died in Darfur and more than two million forced to flee their homes after being targeted in two years of violence involving government forces, allied militia and rebels.
A parliamentarian from Darfur said in Sudan yesterday that his passport had been confiscated and he had been barred from travelling to the meeting of the Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
Sudan is a member of the Commission until 2007.
Mr Annan admitted his proposals, unveiled last month as part of broader reform of the world body, were "dramatic".
They include reducing the size of the Commission and setting up a membership test on human rights merit, following accusations that the current forum is dominated by countries with a record of abuse.
Posted by: tipper ||
04/07/2005 11:22:22 AM ||
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UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has accused the UN Human Rights Commission of failing to uphold human rights and said a new, permanent body is needed. Speaking in Geneva, Mr Annan said the commission was undermining the credibility of the entire UN.
Hard to do, undermine something that isn't there
Human rights groups say the body's member nations are too concerned with protecting their national interests.
Current members include Sudan, Zimbabwe, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia - all accused of rights abuses.
I know when I think of abuse, Saudi comes to mind.
"We have reached a point at which the commission's declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system," Mr Annan said as he addressed the commission's annual six-week session at its Swiss headquarters. "Unless we re-make our human rights machinery, we may be unable to renew public confidence in the United Nations itself," he said.
As part of his programme of UN reforms, Mr Annan wants to create a smaller Human Rights Council, whose members must uphold the highest human rights standards. Mr Annan said the UN needs the new council if it is to prevent appalling suffering occurring around the world. He said the council must be more accountable and more representative. It would, he explained, allow for a more comprehensive and objective approach, which, in turn, would produce more effective assistance. "The main intergovernmental body concerned with human rights should have a status, authority and capability," Mr Annan said.
The commission was launched in 1946 to uphold human rights worldwide, and has 53 members. Libya chaired the commission in 2003, despite opposition from the US and human rights groups.
In his annual address last year, Mr Annan warned that the conflict in Sudan's province of Darfur bore worrying similarities to the Rwandan genocide.
The commission had before it strong evidence of atrocities being committed in Darfur and of the Sudanese government's involvement in them, but no resolution was passed condemning Sudan. Instead, Sudan was elected to the commission for another year.
There is talk of a resolution this year, but the countries drafting it include Sudan itself and Zimbabwe, also in the spotlight for human rights violations.
Activists also want the commission to condemn the US for its treatment of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Oh, that one I'm sure will fly through
Posted by: Steve ||
04/07/2005 8:49:31 AM ||
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First sensible thing Kofi has said in a while, but alas, too little too late. Shouldn't have waited until the peasants placed your head in the guillotine before trying to steer the UN in a less corrupt and more enlightened direction. May the next Secretary General be a better man than you.
Posted by: ed ||
04/07/2005 10:00 Comments ||
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Cute but wrong, Coffee.
The UN is undermining the UN. And has been for 50 years.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/07/2005 10:35 Comments ||
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So the oil-for-food scandal, the child rape, the goat sex, the dictator coddleing, the turning a blind eye to genocide, etc... are NOT harming the credibility of the UN?
#7
Mark Twain tells a story along that line. He once had a case of consumption. The doctor prescribed that he must stop drinking, smoking and swearing. It almost killed him (not the consumption, heh), but it worked. In a matter of less than 2 weeks he was fit again and, as he described it, "I took to these delicacies, again." Then later, an elderly woman friend came down with it. She asked for his assistance to get to see a doctor and Twain told her there was no need - he knew the cure. All his friend had to do was stop drinking, smoking, and swearing. "But I don't do any of those things!" she protested. "Well, there you have it," he drawled, "you're a sinking ship - with no freight to throw overboard."
Kofi and the entire management of the UN needs to commit sepuku. No, really. I offer my services to be his second and lop off his head after he's suffered enough. Might take awhile. Then the UN should be dismantled and tossed out of this country.
TEHERAN - Iran is prepared to keep its controversial uranium enrichment programme suspended for several months, provided negotiations with the European Union make progress, chief negotiator Hossein Moussavian said on Wednesday.
This is for today only, of course.
"This is not a problem of days or months," Moussavian told AFP. "What's important is to reach a basic agreement which guarantees that negotiations can be successful." If such an agreement is reached, "negotiations can continue for several months." Tehran agreed in November to suspend its enrichment activities as a goodwill gesture, but the Europeans want the suspension to become permanent, a demand the Iranians have termed "absurd".
They'll have a different word than 'absurd' when the Israeli Air Force comes calling.
Iran says it has the right to enrich uranium to low levels to produce atomic fuel for civilian power stations, but highly enriched uranium can provide the core for an atomic bomb. The European Union is currently considering, ahead of a meeting next week with Iranian negotiators in Geneva, a proposal by Tehran to allow it to produce low-level enriched uranium on a small scale.
A fable about the camel's nose seems appropriate ...
"We are involved in negotiations and as long as we are, suspension continues," said Moussavian. However, he repeated Iran's refusal to renounce efforts to master the uranium enrichment cycle as sought by the three European nations of Britain, France and Germany involved in negotiations. "We must master the enrichment and production cycle of nuclear fuel," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/07/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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âWe must master the enrichment and production cycle of nuclear fuel,â he said, since we already have the directions and cruise missles for the next few steps....
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/07/2005 1:07 Comments ||
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A promise from the crazy mullahs is not worth the toilet paper it's printed on. And it's good for only one thing....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/07/2005 10:50 Comments ||
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The guy on the right looks like Woody Allen.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/07/2005 13:31 Comments ||
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UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen called yesterday for Lebanese elections to be held on time to avoid instability amid a Syrian pullout but said the disarming of the resistance group Hezbollah was not yet on the agenda. As talks over crucial legislative elections due by the end of May opened between pro-Syrian loyalists and the opposition, Roed-Larsen said the polls were "the most important instrument to safeguard the stability of the country." The UN envoy said the elections should "take place as scheduled in a free and fair manner" in Lebanon which has been thrown into political turmoil since the killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri two months ago. He said the United Nations will later decide the "modalities and timeline" of a team to verify the completion of the Syrian pullout and was engaged in talks over the dispatching of international observers to the polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A stealthy move by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, on the Senate floor yesterday may have stolen the contract for Marine One, the president's helicopter, from Lockheed Martin Corp. and two fellow Democrats, New York Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles E. Schumer. The Senate, without much debate and after a perfunctory voice vote, passed Mr. Dodd's amendment that bars companies wishing to build Marine One from doing business with companies from countries that are state sponsors of terrorism.
Snicker, slipped one by them, who would vote against a amendment like that.
That could threaten the recently awarded contract for Marine One, which the Navy gave to a U.S.-European partnership of Lockheed Martin, the nation's largest defense contractor, and Agusta Westland. Connecticut is home to the losing bidder, Sikorsky Aircraft, while Lockheed Martin had planned to build the helicopter at a plant in New York.
Mr. Dodd charged that Agusta Westland is considering marketing to Iran and said that should concern Americans. "There are few more sensitive and more important national security concerns than the safe transport of our nation's chief executive," Mr. Dodd said. "This measure can help protect our national security by ensuring that America's adversaries don't gain access to our nation's critically important technology." Mr. Dodd said a better option is to keep the contract with "the all-American-made Sikorsky helicopter."
Hell, that works for me. That's why you'll never see Air Force One being a AirBus.
The amendment is part of the Senate's foreign affairs authorization bill and has to pass a number of legislative hurdles to take effect. Still, it was a legislative coup for Mr. Dodd, though it brought the Senate to a halt yesterday afternoon as both parties' leaders rushed to the floor to try to sort out the matter.
"Wait a minute, I just voted for what?"
The contract with Lockheed Martin, which is based in Bethesda, would mean hundreds of jobs for the company's Oswego plant in New York, and Mr. Schumer was visibly angry as he announced that he would personally block all Senate business until the situation was resolved.
"An amendment just passed without notice to any of us that involves a dispute about a helicopter between New York and Connecticut," he said. "I didn't know of that amendment, neither did Senator Clinton, neither did anybody else."
But a Senate source said Mr. Schumer had been on the floor the entire time Mr. Dodd was speaking about his amendment.
Just what I thought, slipped it by..
Mr. Schumer later exchanged words with Mr. Dodd, then walked to a corner phone of the chamber to make calls. Mrs. Clinton later came to the floor, walked by Mr. Dodd's desk, and angrily wagged her finger at him.
Watch your back, Chris. And don't visit any DC parks.
Both New Yorkers then pleaded with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, and Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, to help them. Mr. Schumer could be heard telling the leaders Mr. Dodd was trampling the "regular order" procedures of the Senate, which usually require that amendments passed by voice are cleared with every office.
The $6.1 billion contract was awarded in January. It covers 23 helicopters, with the first to be delivered in 2009. Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky had battled fiercely for the contract to build Marine One, the designation given to helicopters used to transport presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/07/2005 1:43:24 PM ||
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#1
This is going to put a lot of pressure on the Brits. It's almost as good as requiring Americans to get back into the country so Canadians have to have passports too. Crossing at Niagra Falls is going to take a lot longer. Bwahahaha
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/07/2005 14:40 Comments ||
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#7
This has been coming for a while and Mrs D. is right, its mainly the Brits who will have to decide whether they do business with the USA, far and away the biggest arms buyer on the planet, or continue in their European joint ventures. I think I know which way they will jump (at least BA Systems).
#8
Ya gotta love Schumer's "But I'll stop all senate business until the factory goes in my district, whether they're doing business with Iran or not" ultimatum.
What's Ripley's line from Aliens?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
04/07/2005 19:17 Comments ||
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Outside Fallujah a year ago today, a small convoy was ambushed by 50 insurgents. A rocket-propelled grenade hit the first Humvee, robbing one Marine of his hands and raking the others with shrapnel. Machine-gun fire swept the kill zone. Captain Brent Morel was in the second Humvee. "Stop and dismount," was all he said before opening his door and sprinting off toward the ambush position. A small band of Marines followed him over two berms, splashing across a chest-deep canal as they closed on the ambushers. As the surprised enemy broke, the Marines shot them down. It was the last time a large group of insurgents attacked an American convoy on that route with small arms, notwithstanding numerical advantage.
Twelve hours later, the casualty assistance teams were at the doorstep of Brent's widow, Amy, and his parents, Mike and Molly.
On a rooftop fight in Fallujah last year, Lance Corporal Carlos Gomez-Perez hurled grenades and manned a machine gun to drive back a band of insurgents. Once the roof was cleared, he walked downstairs, pouring blood. An RPG had torn a chunk the size of a Coke can out of his shoulder. "Sorry, sir," he mumbled to his lieutenant. "Mind if I take a break to get this patched up?"
The public image of the military is shaped by the press. No matter how laudatory the actions of a soldier, if the press ignores them, the public is not aware of them. Today's battlefield elites are given scant focus by media elites. On Monday, Sgt 1st Class Paul Ray Smith was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, with little fanfare and media coverage that burned out in 24 hours. So whom are we celebrating?
In World War II, the press were cheerleaders who shared a symbiotic relationship with the military. Gutsy warriors like Audie Murphy and "Pappy" Boyington were famous for their high kill totals. In Vietnam, the press soured on the effort, tied the troops to the policymakers and refused to laud aggressive soldiers. Instead, victims were accentuated. American prisoners of war — who were certainly brave — were the only acclaimed heroes. Rugged commando-types — just as brave — were ignored.
This was reflected in the wave of Vietnam movies that proliferated in the 1980s. In the four most popular movies — Rambo: First Blood Part II, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Casualties of War — two themes emerged: soldier as victim and soldier as criminal.
In Iraq, the most famous soldiers to emerge are PFC Jessica Lynch and PFC Lynndie England, a victim and criminal, respectively. Their public images are the offspring of Vietnam. Celebrity and cynicism have trumped achievement.
Habits die hard, for the press as well as for the rest of us. The disproportionate coverage of seven guards at Abu Ghraib and one quick-acting Marine in a mosque trumped the extraordinary victory won by thousands of Marines and soldiers in Fallujah, now one of the safest cities in the Sunni Triangle. The obsessive spotlight damaged the image of the American soldier at home while failing to assuage our detractors abroad. America is proud of its collective conscience, but self-flagellation has a deteriorating effect.
A nation's selection of its heroes is a reflection of its values. Jihadists like Zarqawi are not idealistic agrarian reformers. We are not a nation of victims. The press ought to make a real effort to show the tough guys who fight for us.
They don't have to look far. One hundred and forty squads fought house to house in Fallujah last November. In the course of two weeks, on three separate occasions the average squad shot jihadists hiding in rooms waiting to kill an American and die. The average 19-year-old searched dozens of houses each day, knowing with certainty that he would open a door and someone would shoot at him, not once, but on three separate occasions. Fewer than one SWAT team in a hundred encounters determined suicidal shooters barricaded in a room. Our SWAT teams are dedicated and courageous and we have seen many deserved depictions of their bravery.
Surely the media can do more to bring alive for all of us the nature of the sacrifices, courage, and, yes, ferocious aggression of our troops. The strength of our martial might is in our warriors more than in our weapons. It is time we understood why they are so feared. Our riflemen are not victims; they're hunters. Audie Murphy would be proud of Carlos Gomez-Perez, Brent Morel, and Paul Ray Smith.
— Owen West, a trader at Goldman, Sachs, served with the Marines in Iraq. Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defense, has written several books about combat. They are writing a screenplay entitled, No True Glory: The Battle for Fallujah.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/07/2005 9:33:05 AM ||
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#1
A humbled, inadequate Thank You is all I can muster through the tears of gratitude...
#2
An RPG had torn a chunk the size of a Coke can out of his shoulder. "Sorry, sir," he mumbled to his lieutenant. "Mind if I take a break to get this patched up?"
That, my friends, is one serious young man. I'm not sure I am worthy to be protected by the likes of him.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/07/2005 14:57 Comments ||
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Pass the link along to everyone you know. Just because the MSM are asswipes who short-sheet everything and everyone American, we can do our level best to see to it the bravery of these amazing people gets out to a wider audience.
Thank you people, from the bottom of my heart.
We can do little things to help them - it's time for Operation AC to gear up again for the coming heat. Donate whatever you can - Frankie does it right. Thanks to Dar for originally posting the link - they've become my favorite way to help.
#4
That reminds Me of a comic in which some typical self-important yuppie says "I didn't join. I don't think our best and brightest should be in the military."
The other person responds "And yet, there they were."
Opposition and religious leaders in the Islamic state of Mauritania have condemned the government's decision to stop Friday being a day off. From next week, the weekend will be Saturday and Sunday, instead of Friday and Saturday at present. Friday is a Muslim holy day and offices will still shut at midday, so people can go to the mosque and seeth pray. The government says bringing the country into line with other countries will save millions of dollars.
President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya has also been strongly criticised for recognising Israel, and Islamic radicals were accused of being behind recent coup attempts. Opposition leader Mohamed Ghoulam Ould Haj Seikh said: "This is a political decision aimed at improving the regime's image in the West." Communications Minister Hamoud Ould Abdi said: "Each year we lose US$70m... economic losses could be higher, now that we are entering the era of oil, gas and gold." One of the world's poorest countries, Mauritania is poised to benefit from the exploitation of its offshore oil reserves.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/07/2005 9:02:40 AM ||
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U.S. military officials are concerned that ethnic tensions could turn into widespread violence and, perhaps, civil war in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk, setting a dangerous pattern for rest of the country.
Kirkuk oil fields hold at least 6 percent of the world's oil reserves and Kurdish talk of secession is at a fever pitch.
A bloc of Kurdish-led politicians received the majority of seats on the provincial council after January elections and is now threatening to fill most key positions with Kurds. Arab and Turkmen (also known as Turkomen) politicians protested with a series of walkouts and now refuse to show up at council meetings, where Kurdish leaders insist on speaking in their mother language.
The Kurds are also accelerating efforts to bring back families pushed out of Kirkuk and the surrounding province by former dictator Saddam Hussein during his massive resettlement campaigns aimed at weakening Kurdish opposition. The Kurds hope the influx will help make Kirkuk a part of the Iraqi region of Kurdistan and possibly provide an economic engine for an independent Kurdish nation. Breaking away from Iraq, though, would be difficult for the Kurds because of pressure from neighboring countries such as Iran and Turkey, which oppose an independent Kurdistan.
"We're worried about the domino effect of the Kurds getting the senior leadership positions and the Arabs and Turkomen going back to their constituencies and saying the Kurds have taken over, and the Turkomen and, to a greater extent, the Arabs rise up," said Lt. Col. Anthony Wickham, the U.S. Army's liaison to the Kirkuk council.
"Worst-case scenario is a civil war," he said. "The threat is out there. There are armed Arab groups, Turkomen groups that say they need to arm themselves, and the Kurds say, `We know how to keep the peace, we'll deploy the Peshmerga,'" a militia that numbers in the tens of thousands.
Wickham is worried not only about potential havoc in Kirkuk, but also about the destabilizing effect it would have across ethnically divided Iraq as it makes its way toward democracy.
Saddam used savage military might to suppress ethnic and religious groups that opposed him. With him gone, many of those groups are sorting out long-simmering tensions.
Rizqar Ali Hamajan, a Kirkuk council member and a senior official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a political party, said his party estimates that Saddam pushed about 600,000 Kurds out of the Kirkuk area. Not only should those people be able to return to the province - which has an estimated population of 1.5 million - but they should be able to bring their families with them, Hamajan said.
The province is about 40 percent Arab and 35 percent Kurd, according to U.S. officials in the area. The return of even a small percentage of those 600,000 and their families to Kirkuk would give Kurds a decisive numerical advantage.
Many in Iraq consider Kirkuk key in the effort to keep ethnic differences from tearing the nation apart. Kirkuk, as elsewhere in Iraq, has seen its share of battles between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces, and, as ethnic tensions rise, the danger of individual attacks triggering wider violence has increased.
On March 19, for example, a yellow taxi pulled up in front of a police station and a passenger threw out a soda can. When an officer came out to inspect the can, it blew up, killing him. The next day, a roadside bomb at a traffic roundabout exploded near a truck full of police officers on their way to their comrade's funeral. Four officers were killed.
When police failed to find any leads, they returned to the traffic circle the following day and rounded up potential witnesses. Among them were two Turkmen vegetable vendors. While in custody, both vendors were beaten and tortured by a Kurdish officer who pushed lit cigarettes into their bodies, lashed them with cables and punched and kicked them in their faces, according to family accounts verified by U.S. military officials.
The two vendors were cousins of Tahsin Mohammed Kahya, a Turkmen who's the chair of the Kirkuk council and an immensely popular local politician.
His tribe called for massive protests and violence. The city stood on the brink.
"It could have been the spark," Wickham said.
Kahya asked his tribe to keep its guns away and to let the political process take its course. But he's far from certain that the peace will hold, especially given the provincial council's inability to appoint government leaders and the prospect of a Kurd-dominated government.
"If the decision-makers cannot agree, then it will go to the streets," he said. "If we fail, we will tell the people we have failed, and it's up to them to decide what they want to do - maybe then we would have a bad situation."
Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto, who commands Task Force Liberty, the U.S. Army element stretching from just north of Baghdad to Kirkuk, also worries about the tensions. "As the politics goes down lower, I think the level of understanding (between ethnic groups) becomes less," and the result, he said, is bombs sometimes being placed on the road.
While U.S. officials used to intervene in local governmental affairs, choosing council members and making sure they all spoke with one another, they remained in the background after the Iraqi elections in January, letting Iraqis for the most part succeed or fail on their own accord.
The need for ethnic groups in Kirkuk to negotiate their differences is probably the most important issue facing Iraq today, Taluto said.
"What can Task Force Liberty do about that? Not a hell of a lot, frankly," he said.
Many Arabs and Turkomen say the Kurds are using force, when necessary, to push them out of Kirkuk. They accuse Kurds, who say they left the Peshmerga militia before joining the Iraqi army and police, of using their positions to intimidate people into leaving.
Hamajan, the Kurdish council member, denied there were any Peshmerga present in Kirkuk. He then added, smiling, that "the leader of the Peshmerga is about to become president of Iraq," referring to Jalal Talabani, a former Peshmerga commander who was elected president on Wednesday by the national assembly.
Outside Hamajan's office, Kurdish men in military fatigues holding AK-47s patrolled the gate.
U.S. officials confirmed that at least half the Iraqi army troops in Kirkuk are Kurds. Wickham said he knows of Arabs being taken from Kirkuk and put into a Kurd-controlled prison in nearby Sulaimaniyah, but he didn't know the specifics of who took them there or why.
Khalaf Farhan, a Sunni Arab and former army general in Saddam's army, said Iraqi soldiers raided his house last week. Just before he was blindfolded, Farhan said, he saw a large Kurdish-looking man who was speaking Kurdish.
Farhan, whose face was bruised and scratched and whose left eye was badly swollen days later, said he was beaten in the face with a rifle butt, punched and kicked.
When he was shoved into a vehicle outside, Farhan said, one of the soldiers leaned toward him and said, "OK, do you want to sell the house?"
In one area, at least 40,000 Kurds have returned to rebuild a series of small villages demolished by Saddam. Those families were given $1,000 each and building supplies by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan operating out of Sulaimaniyah, a neighboring province.
The resettlement of Kurds in Kirkuk is provided for by Iraq's transitional law, which also says that the decision about Kirkuk becoming a part of Kurdistan will "take into account the will of the people."
The Kurds interpret this to mean that a provincial referendum will decide the matter.
Many Arabs and Turkomen said the Kurds are pushing for resettlement not just out of a sense of historical justice, but to stack the chips in their favor for the referendum, and, ultimately, to break away from Iraq.
One of the few things that U.S. and Iraqi officials interviewed in Kirkuk agreed about was that if the Kurds went down that path, it would be a bloody one.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/07/2005 12:24:43 AM ||
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#1
And have the "ethnic tensions" in Yugoslovia been resolved yet? Anybody wanna guess how long the civil war will be? Or the outcome?
[sigh]
I'm so tired of eveybody insisting they have it their way, and - oh by the way, we have yet to avenge the past inequities from 500 years ago, so now we're gonna slaughter thousands - then we'll feel better. {ad nauseum}
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/07/2005 0:55 Comments ||
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I am noticing a distinct anti-Kurd bias on the Left and in the MSM. For example the article does not mention the highly relevant fact that the interim constitution says the Arabs brought into Kirkuk will be relocated back to their provinces of origin.
#3
I think the Kurds got it about right...They rely chiefly on themselves for security.
..in my humble Chinese opinion!
Posted by: Chinese Whomoger1851 ||
04/07/2005 3:41 Comments ||
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#4
To follow on from my point, since the Kurds are the de facto and now de juro government in Kirkuk, one can hardly fault them from trying to implement the agreed (interim) constitution.
#5
The Kurds are the closest thing we have to an ally over there. They have implemented democratic proceses. Why would the MSM not hate them?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
04/07/2005 7:49 Comments ||
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#6
i havent noticed anything anti-kurd in the WaPo ( I dont see the NYT regularly) or the wire services - Juan Cole however is on an anti-Kurd rampage apparently.
IIUC the TAL gives Kurds the right to return to Kirkuk and reclaim their properties. I presume the arabs who were settled there can stay if they buy or rent their own homes instead of the ones confiscated from Kurds - surely there arent to be internal movement restrictions in the new Iraq?
#7
LH, you are thinking like an American. In federal multi-ethnic states, who gets to live where and form the local majority is a crucial issue. In Belgium they have been wrangling for 200 years over whether particular villages are Flemish or Walloon. Another example closer to home is Quebec.
#8
LH, you are thinking like an American. In federal multi-ethnic states, who gets to live where and form the local majority is a crucial issue. In Belgium they have been wrangling for 200 years over whether particular villages are Flemish or Walloon. Another example closer to home is Quebec.
There was too much defeatism in the tea house for young Atiqullah's taste. He was sure the Taliban would be back. "Afghanistan's military and political situation is tumultuous, as unpredictable as spring weather. It is sunny and cool for part of the day and suddenly you see the cloud burst and it rains," Atiqullah said, hoping that the Taliban would prevail eventually, with Allah's help. His older companion said the reality on the ground was different. "The Taliban are not the threat they were a year ago and Americans seem to have succeeded in taking our country," he said. But an anticipated spring offensive in the last few weeks showed the Taliban were still in business after a long winter lull that followed their failure to disrupt Afghanistan's presidential poll last October.
A plan by President Hamid Karzai to offer amnesty to all but the most-hardened Taliban fighters could weaken the insurgency. Karzai also dropped leading anti-Taliban figures from his new cabinet, and there have been several reports by security forces of Taliban surrendering recently. "The Taliban are neither weakened nor will any one of them surrender arms to the infidels. The reports of surrenders are just propaganda by the occupying infidel forces," Mullah Dadullah, one of the most-wanted Taliban commanders, told Reuters by satellite telephone. "The jihad (holy war) in Afghanistan will continue until the infidels are ousted."
Certainly, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chief of Sfaff, General Richard Myers, appeared to overstate his case when he described the security situation in Afghanistan as "exceptionally good" during a visit in mid-March. But then the U.S. forces are hoping to hand over control of southern Afghanistan to NATO-led peacekeepers early next year, a few months after parliamentary polls set for September. The recent spate of attacks have ranged across the south and east, and a bomb blast on March 27 in Kabul was the first in the capital for five months, though there were no fatalities. U.S. forces had suffered their worst one-day losses in combat for some time a day earlier when four soldiers were killed by a land mine in Logar province just south of Kabul. Bombs in the southern city of Kandahar and eastern city of Jalalabad also announced the Taliban's defiance during recent visits by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. first lady Laura Bush.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/07/2005 12:14:27 AM ||
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Like many ultra-conservative rural Pashtuns, Nikbin has an abiding hatred of foreign troops in his land
Interesting. How about Arab, Chechen Izzies, do they count?
#2
Come on Sobiesky, you can't expect them to be logical about it. The poor beasties have too much time on their hands to "tink". Nikbin could get off his duff and try to come into the 21st century but playing would-be mud hut mullah is more fun to him.
#3
"The Taliban are neither weakened nor will any one of them surrender arms to the infidels. The reports of surrenders are just propaganda by the occupying infidel forces," Mullah Dadullah, one of the most-wanted Taliban commanders, told Reuters by satellite telephone.
Satellite phone, eh?
I hope someone at the CIA is going through Reuters phone accounts and call records.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
04/07/2005 10:56 Comments ||
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I have a feeling that the US is going to use the old tried and true method for dealing with them, much like they used to settle the Apaches. Food, and plenty of it. There is nothing that insurgents, mafias, renegades and other troublemakers hate worse than prosperity.
Kahwla Aziz Mohammed can remember receiving many things from her government in far-off Baghdad, including the bullets that Iraqi security forces used to execute her husband.
In 1988, Saddam Hussein's government killed thousands of Kurds with poison gas. In 1991, the year of her husband's execution, soldiers, and more bullets, made refugees out of an estimated 1.5 million Kurds in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War.
On Wednesday, though, Mohammed and Kurds across northern Iraq celebrated something new emanating from the south: a share of power.
"I couldn't believe at first that a Kurdish leader will be a president for the country," Mohammed said, taking her sons and grandsons out into the Kirkuk neighborhoods to press candies and fruit drinks on strangers, traditional means of celebration in this tremendously traditional land.
In Kirkuk, in Mosul and in lush, green Sulaymaniyah, Kurds poured into the streets by the thousands, pounding drums and roaring cheers at the Iraqi National Assembly's election of a Kurdish faction leader, Jalal Talabani, to the presidency.
Men and women stood shoulder to shoulder, swirling white handkerchiefs and swaying. Parading down roads, people slapped stickers of Kurdish flags on government buildings and passing cars. "Today is the happiest day on Earth," said Haman Najm Abdullah, 55, a trader in a Kirkuk market.
Talabani's election puts the onetime rebel leader in a largely ceremonial post in a national government that is to write a constitution taking the country into new elections. More importantly, Wednesday's vote ended a half-century of powerlessness for Iraqi Kurds, who last saw one of their own in high office in the final days of Iraq's monarchy.
Across the Near East, Kurds are spread out across four countries' borders, with no single nation of their own. In all four countries, they are a minority.
In Iraq, Kurds make up about 20 percent of the population, about the same percentage as Sunni Arabs and one-third that of Iraq's Shiite Arabs. In an informal poll conducted during Iraq's Jan. 30 national elections, more than 90 percent of Iraqi Kurd voters indicated they wanted independence, poll organizers said.
But Kurds' enthusiastic participation in the national vote won them the second-largest share of seats in the National Assembly, behind only the Shiites. That helped secure Talabani the presidency, and a number of top cabinet seats are expected to follow.
"After I saw the voting for Talabani in the assembly, I realized that Iraq is really moving to democracy -- Arabs and Kurds, all one land," Nozard Ali Hasan, another Kurd, said in Kirkuk.
"I was very happy when I saw Uncle Jalal as the president," said Mohammed, the widow, using the name by which supporters call Talabani.
"I am sure he will return all of our rights, because he struggled to get the rights for the Kurds," she said. "He will carry on and work for the same for all Iraqis, not only the Kurds."
Talabani and others in the incoming government will have to work out agreements on distributing revenue from the rich oil fields in the Kurdish region and control of the tens of thousands of militia fighters known as pesh merga.
Talking with reporters in Baghdad on Wednesday, Talabani tried to address the worries of southern and central Iraqis that the country would split along factional lines.
The pesh merga would be part of the Iraqi armed forces, he said. Once redesigned, the national flag would fly over Kurdistan as well as the rest of the country, he said. And Iraq would keep just the one capital.
"There's no presidency in Kurdistan," he said. "The president remains in Baghdad."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
04/07/2005 12:03:19 AM ||
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TOKYO - Japan has decided Sudan is too risky to contribute UN peacekeeping troops, ruling against a mission that would have marked a new breakthrough for the officially pacifist country, reports said on Wednesday. Japan, which sent a team to Sudan last month to study a possible deployment, decided that security in the vast African country was uncertain and that Japan would be stretched thin in light of its mission in Iraq, Kyodo News said.
The Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said on its website that Japan would instead send civilians such as diplomats to help the 10,000-strong Sudan peacekeeping force, which was approved by the UN Security Council on March 24. The reports quoted unspecified government sources. There was no immediate official comment.
Japan had studied whether to send troops who would disarm combatants as part of the ceasefire ending Sudan's bloody 21-year north-south civil war, in a much riskier operation than Tokyo's previous peacekeeping missions.
UN Undersecretary General Jean-Marie Guehenno, who is in charge of peacekeeping, on a visit here in early March encouraged Japan to be part of the Sudan mission, making clear Tokyo could participate by sending civilians.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/07/2005 11:11:34 PM ||
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Egypt's judges have rallied mounting calls for political reforms, asking for a long-due separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches and threatening to disturb upcoming presidential polls. The Egyptian Judges' Club — Egypt's equivalent of a judges' union — presented a draft law to Parliament via left-wing opposition MP Abul Ezz Al-Hariri late last month that seeks to amend the current judiciary law and guarantee their independence from the executive branch. "A new judiciary law must be passed during the current parliamentary session (ending in June) before we consider supervising any future elections," said a statement released by the Judges' Club general assembly in Alexandria.
The judges are due to meet on April 14 and examine whether "to abstain from supervising the elections if a new law is not passed", one union member told AFP. Some are "even calling for a sit-in or a strike but we're trying to dissuade them because we want to resort to dialogue and rather than a confrontation", added Hisham Bastawissi, who also sits on Egypt's court of cassation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The Israeli police will close access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to all non-Muslims on Sunday to block an attempted demonstration by extreme rightists, a spokesman said. "We already prevented such a demonstration on March 30, but to ensure that this measure is effectively applied, we prohibit all visits on Sunday," the spokesman told AFP yesterday. He clarified that this would not apply to the Muslim faithful. A small group Revava (Myriad) called the demonstration to oppose Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull all Jewish settlers and troops out of the Gaza Strip this summer.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Much better to simply seal it off and close it to everyone.
Four Palestinian officials, including two currently in custody, have been charged over accusations that they siphoned off $1.7 million of public funds, a senior official said yesterday. The two under arrest are suspected of diverting the funds for their personal ends and their case files have already been forwarded to the state prosecutor, the head of the Palestinian intelligence service Tawfiq Al-Tirawi told AFP. Two other officials suspected of involvement in the scandal have fled to neighboring Jordan but the Palestinian Authority has submitted a request to the government in Amman for their extradition, Tirawi added.
Tirawi said several other officials were likely to be interrogated shortly on the orders of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas who has pledged to curb the rampant corruption with the Palestinian Authority. While Tirawi did not reveal the identities of the four who have been charged, other officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that three were employees of the Finance Ministry while a fourth worked in the presidential office. Reformist Finance Minister Salam Fayad told AFP last month he had managed to increase revenues by $30 million a month by cracking down on corruption which flourished during the era of Yasser Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader who died in November.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#2
$30 million a month increase by cutting corruption is quite a bit of skimming! Since an earlier story only got back $1.5 million or so, there are a lot of people getting money! I think the U.S. should increase the bankroll it is giving those wonderfuly efficient people.
#5
What about all the foreign investments Arafish had - IIRC he even owned part of a Greenwich Village bowling alley, among 69 other foreign firms, with a profit of $300 Million. Start recovering those (see: Suha's fortune), and show a capable society before they get dollar one in aid
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/07/2005 9:31 Comments ||
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Qazi Hussain Ahmed, president of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and ameer of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), underwent a successful heart surgery at a local hospital on Wednesday. Qazi attended the MMA Supreme Council meeting held in Mansoora on Wednesday morning and stayed there till 11:00am. Later, he left for the hospital where his surgery began at 12:00 noon and ended at 6:30pm after which he was shifted to the intensive care unit. Dr Syed Fayyaz Hashmi operated on Qazi. He underwent a heart surgery in 1992 in London and was operated on for a spinal problem two years ago.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/07/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Need to photoshop a heart into Qazi's hand... ^
#6
SPOD - I agree wholeheartedly! Backward Qazi doesn't mind indulging in modern medicine to keep his raggedy carcass alive while he works hard to keep everything else somewhere around the 14th century. The bugti master mindphuk of it all is probably lost upon him I imagine.
#7
The specs he's wearing, his clothes, his transport, his comms, his weaponry, his fucking fridge where he keeps the hearts chilled for late-night snacks - all are 20th century, as well.
Brief, vivid picture of Fazl lugging his bulk through a marathon...
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, secretary general of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) and opposition leader in the National Assembly, said on Wednesday that the religious alliance would not let the government hold mixed marathons and would stage countrywide demonstrations till the release of its workers arrested on April 2.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna allow it."
Fazl said the MMA would observe April 8 as a protest day to condemn the police action against MMA activists on the eve of a marathon in Gujranwala. Talking to reporters at Camp Jail in Lahore, Fazl said the MMA would hold a rally from Gujranwala to Lahore on April 16 if the government did not release its activists. Briefing reporters about the MMA's supreme council's meeting in Mansoora with Qazi Hussain Ahmed in the chair, Fazl said the MMA leadership thanked workers, transporters, traders and people for making the April 2 strike a "success". Fazl said that even wives and daughters of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi would support MMA's stance against mixed marathons.
... or else.
To a question about his participation in the National Security Council meeting, Fazl said: "It is hard to attend the meeting in such a situation but the alliance will discuss it." The Camp Jail administration did not allow MMA leaders to meet the detained activists.
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04/07/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Of course not. That fat guy would end last, weeeell behind of the slowest woman.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) legislators walked out of the house on Wednesday to protest police raids for the arrest of Chaudhry Asghar Gujjar, the MMA's parliamentary chief, and the speaker's attitude.
"Yeah! He got a attitude! We're leavin'!"
Arshad Mehmood Bagoo, Dr Waseem Afzal, Muhammad Waqas and women legislators of the alliance tried to raise one point of order after the other as soon as proceedings got underway. Bagoo claimed that police were raiding to arrest Gujjar, who had not committed any crime. Raja Basharat, Punjab law minister, said that the police were doing no such thing, but Bagoo remained unconvinced and kept shouting otherwise. Chaudhry Muhammad Afzal Sahi, Punjab Assembly speaker, stopped Bagoo from discussing the topic further.
"My Gawd, Mister Speaker! You shot him!"
The MMA's legislators tried to persuade the speaker to give them the floor but he refused.
"Yeah! And I'll do the same to anybody that tries to grab the floor!"
They got angry and walked out of the house. After a scheduled prayer break, MMA legislators Dr Waseem Akhtar and a few women came back to participate in the rest of the proceedings.
This article starring:
ARSHAD MEHMUD BAGU
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
CHAUDHRY ASGHAR GUJJAR
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
DR WASIM AFZAL
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
MUHAMAD WAQAS
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
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They're hatching deep-laid plots, too, mark my words!
LAHORE: The identity of the people arrested for the attack on the Gujranwala mini-marathon exposes the nefarious designs of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said Muhammad Basharat Raja, minister for law and local government. According to a handout issued on Wednesday, he said that of the 38 accused, only three belonged to Gujranwala. Raja said that the MMA had brought armed persons from remote areas such as Mohmand Agency, Bajor Agency, Tank, Laki Marawat, Swabi and Nowshera to "attack innocent participants of a peaceful sports competition". Raja said that the weapons recovered from the accused indicated that the attack was well thought. He said that the incident should serve as an eye-opener for those who sympathise with the MMA.
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Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abu al-Gheit said Wednesday Sudanese war crimes suspects need not go to the International Criminal Court (ICC) if the Sudanese judiciary holds fair trials.
That's what I said yesterday: Give 'em a fair trial and hang 'em quick...
In a first of its kind ruling, the UN Security Council last week referred suspects accused of war crimes in Darfur to the ICC in The Hague. Egypt has said it does not want to see the "internationalization" of Sudan's Darfur conflict. "The International Criminal Court issues accusations but if the internal judiciary in the country concerned plays its role then it negates the need for the criminal court," Abu al-Gheit said after meeting his Sudanese counterpart in Cairo. "If there appears to be any reluctance (to prosecute), maneuvering or attempt to dodge these accusations then in this case the International Court will make a move against the accused," Abu al-Gheit added.
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#4
The thought process for Javed - Hmmmm This is a vereee complikated question. Oh it is soooo hard. My head herts but I must persevere. let's see ... I keell u soldiers. That's OK. I keell u civilians intentionally. That's OK. U keell our soldiers of god. Not nice. U keell my muslim civilians intentionally. Not nice. There we have it brothers! Hence therefore we have "Terrorism" defined. Indeed and decreed! That was tough! Next question please.
GUJRANWALA: Thirty-eight of the 43 arrested men involved in the attack on the mini-marathon belonged to remote areas, proving that the attack had been preplanned and armed men were hired to attack the marathon, said Gujranwala deputy inspector general police Altaf Qamar on Wednesday. Qamar said that the 38 men belonged to Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies, Tank, DI Khan and Swabi. "The people of Gujranwala did not object to the marathon and the identification of arrested persons has proved the fact," he said in a handout. He added that only three were from Gujranwala, one from Lahore and one from Narowal.
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PESHAWAR: Nek Muhammad-led militants, who signed a peace agreement with the government last November, have denied sheltering foreign militants in South Waziristan Agency, a source told Daily Times on Wednesday. The militants denied the above in a meeting with Peshawar Corps Commander Lt Gen Safdar Hussain in Peshawar on Tuesday, the source added.
... and if you can't believe Nek Muhammad-led militants, who can you believe?
"If someone tells you about the presence of foreign militants in our homes, the army should raid them. However, we want to emphasise that every report about the presence of foreign militants should be believed only when it is checked and rechecked," the source quoted Haji Sharif as telling the corps commander. The peace deal signed by the Sharif-led group included laying down weapons, denouncing terrorism and pledging allegiance to the state while the government dropped all terrorism charges against the militants who signed the deal. A tribal elder told Daily Times that the military suspected Haji Sharif's comrades of sheltering foreign militants. "I was asked by the military to visit the house of one of Haji Sharif's comrades to check whether any foreign militants were staying there. "I went there but found no foreign militants," he said.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
AL-QAEDA'S commander in Saudi Arabia was among more than a dozen terrorists killed in a three-day gun battle with security forces in the north of the kingdom, according to an exiled Saudi opposition leader. In a major coup for the authorities, 
THERE are many studies being done in the West to profile your average Al-Qaeda member. The reasonably scientific ones come to the same conclusions: Your friendly jihadist is of a middle class provenance, is well off financially, and probably educated in the West. 
THE families of three Britons beheaded by Islamic terrorists are hoping that their killer will finally reveal if Osama bin Laden ordered their captives' murder. Authorities in Chechnya are questioning one of the kidnappers who had agreed to release the telephone engineers in exchange for a £3 million ransom. Days later in December 1998 the men were murdered and their severed heads left by the side of a road. Darren Hickey, 26, Rudi Petschi, 42, Peter Kennedy and a New Zealand colleague, Stanley Shaw, 58, had been tortured during their 64 days in captivity.
TEHERAN - Iran is prepared to keep its controversial uranium enrichment programme suspended for several months, provided negotiations with the European Union make progress, chief negotiator Hossein Moussavian said on Wednesday. 
UN envoy 
There was too much defeatism in the tea house for young Atiqullah's taste. He was sure the Taliban would be back. "Afghanistan's military and political situation is tumultuous, as unpredictable as spring weather. It is sunny and cool for part of the day and suddenly you see the cloud burst and it rains," Atiqullah said, hoping that the Taliban would prevail eventually, with Allah's help. His older companion said the reality on the ground was different. "The Taliban are not the threat they were a year ago and Americans seem to have succeeded in taking our country," he said. But an anticipated spring offensive in the last few weeks showed the Taliban were still in business after a long winter lull that followed their failure to disrupt Afghanistan's presidential poll last October.
TOKYO - Japan has decided Sudan is too risky to contribute UN peacekeeping troops, ruling against a mission that would have marked a new breakthrough for the officially pacifist country, reports said on Wednesday. Japan, which sent a team to Sudan last month to study a possible deployment, decided that security in the vast African country was uncertain and that Japan would be stretched thin in light of its mission in Iraq, Kyodo News said.
Egypt's judges have rallied mounting calls for political reforms, asking for a long-due separation of powers between the judicial and executive branches and threatening to disturb upcoming presidential polls. The Egyptian Judges' Club — Egypt's equivalent of a judges' union — presented a draft law to Parliament via left-wing opposition MP 
Four Palestinian officials, including two currently in custody, have been charged over accusations that they siphoned off $1.7 million of public funds, a senior official said yesterday. The two under arrest are suspected of diverting the funds for their personal ends and their case files have already been forwarded to the state prosecutor, the head of the Palestinian intelligence service 
Maulana 
LAHORE: The identity of the people arrested for the attack on the 
Egyptian Foreign Minister 
GUJRANWALA: Thirty-eight of the 43 arrested men involved in the attack on the mini-marathon belonged to remote areas, proving that the attack had been preplanned and armed men were hired to attack the marathon, said Gujranwala deputy inspector general police Altaf Qamar on Wednesday. Qamar said that the 38 men belonged to Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies, Tank, DI Khan and Swabi. "The people of Gujranwala did not object to the marathon and the identification of arrested persons has proved the fact," he said in a handout. He added that only three were from Gujranwala, one from Lahore and one from Narowal.
PESHAWAR: 
