The Star-Tribune covers the solemn memorial service for the late Paul Wellstone...
TV cameras then panned to a beaming Walter Mondale, Wellstone's likely replacement in the U.S. Senate race, which brought more cheers.
"If Paul Wellstone's legacy comes to an end, then our spirits will be crushed and we will drown in a river of tears," a clearly emotional Kahn said.
"We are begging you, do not let that happen. We are begging you to help us win this Senate election for Paul Wellstone."
In a move that brought gasps of delight from some and stony silence from a few, Kahn then began urging select Republicans to drop their partisanship and work for Wellstone's replacement.
He singled out some by name. To U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., Kahn said, "You know that Paul loved you. He needs you now. . . . Help us win this race"...
It was during Kahn's speech that Gov. Jesse Ventura and First Lady Terry Ventura got up shaking their heads and walked out. Lott also walked out during the service.
Ventura spokesman John Wodele, who wasn't at the service, said it would be "inappropriate to assume [that political rhetoric] was why he left." But of Kahn's speech, Wodele said, "It's too bad. I'd better not say anything else."
I usually don't talk about national politix, at least not overtly, and I promise to keep such things to a minimum in the future â but...
I used to think I was a libertarian, because I believe the most important element that makes us Americans is our personal liberty. That was until Harry Browne explained things. Now I'm content being a Republican, no Whig party being available. In the heady daze of my youth I was a Dummycrat, until I noticed that, for all their rhetoric, to the Dem politicians everything is all about politics except money, which is what politics is all about. I think the Publicans will remain the minority party in this country, not because of any lack of ideas, but because they refuse to be as breathtakingly foul as the core Democrat leadership.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:50 am ||
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I wouldn't give up on the Libertarian Party so quick. Just because the leadership has an irrational foreign policy doesn't mean you can't vote for Libertarians at the state and local races.
(I know I'm beating a dead horse but Harry Browne was already kicked out of the party when he made his statements about 9/11 and the War in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Cal Ulmann ||
10/30/2002 10:59 Comments ||
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It is all style over substance. Yet, the so called intellectual community (which I have always suspected of being self-created)continues to support these "dead-o-crats" in the press, the university system, Hollywood and among the worker parties (unions, teachers, street sweepers). It reminds me of Graucho's retort: " Why the hell would I want to join a club who would have me as a member".
Posted by: Jack ||
10/30/2002 11:07 Comments ||
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The campaign speech eulogy they should have delivered:
Friends, Democrats, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come not to bury Wellstone, but to endorse Mondale.
The elections that men win live after them;
The ones they lose are oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Wellstone.
Our party is nothing if not ambitious:
If it were to lose control of the Senate, would be a grievous fault,
And grievously Wellstone trailed in the polls.
Here, under leave of Clinton and the rest--
For Clinton is an honourable man;
Clinton, Kennedy, McAuliffe, Lautenberg;
So are they all, all honourable men (ha ha!)--
Let this not be Wellstone's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But internal polling data says he was going to lose;
And winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.
No, therefore, let us rally for Mondale, his successor,
And bring him great victory.
He hath proposed the taxes greatly to increase
Whose ransoms will the general coffers fill:
When that the special interests have cried,
Mondale hath wept with them:
Is this not how the game is played?
Ambition should be made of stern stuff:
And, brother, are we ever ambitious;
Daschle is an honourable man.
You all did see that on C-SPAN
Jim Jeffords presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did not refuse: now that is ambition, baby!
Yet Daschle says he is not ambitious (who doth he fool?);
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to eulogize poor, dead Wellstone,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You want to keep control of the Senate, right?
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for Wellstone
When you can be out working for a Mondale victory!
Bag the funeral and let's have a rally!
My heart is not in the coffin there with Wellstone,
For I must vote early and often for Mondale.
Posted by: Mike Morley ||
10/30/2002 11:43 Comments ||
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The Democratic channel has become all dead people all the time. Dead Democrats vote. Dead Democrats even get elected. Now a Dead Democrat is campaigning for the near dead Democrat Mondale.
#5
Since they've gotten so much political mileage out of the deceased, I've heard rumors to the effect that the Democratic candidate for president in 2004 will be whatever's left of Franklin Roosevelt. Be a good pick for them. Excite the old folks and you know how they vote.
Posted by: Chris ||
10/30/2002 15:53 Comments ||
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Cal -- I was a Libertarian for twenty years but just switched registration to Republican. What put me over was the Clinton-era lack of morality and the realization that politics isn't just about what's just -- e.g. what the laws ought to be -- but about the character that brings about a successful resolution of our national discussion. Republicans strive to be both just and good, whereas Libertarians seem willing to misbehave to win just like Democrats. Here in Massachusetts, Libertarian Carla Howell challenged Republican petitions to keep the Republican Senate candidate off the ballot two years ago, after all those years of Libertarians spending so much on ballot access and complaining about restrictive laws! She hoped to get 20% of the vote instead of 5% if she kept the Republican off. This kind of small-heartedness isn't going to save the country from the Democrats.
To everyone: not all Democrats are bad people. Just the ones in political office, I think.
I pointed out to a liberal Dem friend of mine last night how tacky this was, and he went ballistic, telling me in no uncertain terms that as a Republican I had no right to say anything, since (as we all know) us evil Republicans wanted Wellstone gone long ago, and it's just all politics, yadda yadda. I replied that as a conservative, of course I believe that there are some things more important than politics. Respect for dead, for instance.
That silenced him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/30/2002 17:04 Comments ||
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I live in England and don't understand American voting procedures that well (we go to the polls and vote for any party we feel like on the day - any one of half a dozen or so - the winners are usually Labour or Conservative).
So this story seems very strange to me. Is the Democrat (Labour) booster asking for the Republican (Conservative) candidates to endorse Mondale (I honestly thought he was dead)? On the memory of a dead bloke who voted against the Iraq motion?
Wow.
And the Governer who they've all been slagging off 'cos he's a ex-wrestler did the only decent thing and left.
Wow.
Are the Democrats likely to win in Minnesota? Do they deserve to?
Or have I missed the point?
Posted by: Tony ||
10/30/2002 17:20 Comments ||
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Well Tony, I certainly don't pretend to speak fo all Americans, or even the Dems (I'm Republican), but I'm speculating that a lot of people were either put off by the scene last night (Independents and loosely bound Dems and Repubs) or energized to vote (Republican-always voters)...I think this will repulse a lot of people and backfire on the Dems
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/30/2002 17:48 Comments ||
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Everytime the Democratic party digs itself a new hole I think they've finally found the bottom and cant go down any further. However, they have a near metaphysical ability to find even lower levels to sink to. Is this the party of FDR, Jack Kennedy and Harry Truman? Men of principle, even though they were on the other side of the argument form myself.
Today, its a bunch of frat boy semi-literate leftists who are the poster children for what happens to people when women dont breast feed their kids.
Booing? at a funeral? I have expected to see the camera superimpose a "snidely whiplash" moustache hat and cape on Senator Lott.
My only question is, did they have big neon "applause" and "Boo" signs behind the cameras for the audience to respond to on queue?
Its 7 days and counting, anyone yet ready to place their bets on who wins what this time out?
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
10/30/2002 18:47 Comments ||
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Fred,
Mike's speech is a classic! It should be kept on the site for a few days to get maximum exposure.
Posted by: Denny Wilson ||
10/30/2002 21:18 Comments ||
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I'm in the same boat. After being a libertarian for 10 years, I had to return to the republicans.There is just something about WW3 starting that made me realise how a weak posture on defense threatens our extinction. Islam has been trying to kill us for 1400 years. Everytime there's a 10 min. break in the battle, we in the west forget we're at war. We go about our own business, after all, we like BBQ's and tittie bars a lot more than war. Islam just re-groups and plans the next battle.
#13
Tony:
I'll take a shot at explaining the American electoral system. There is no "party" voting. I think an American election ballot would be pretty strange to a European. We vote on judges, attorneys general, secretaries of state, county commissioners, sheriffs and here's a selection of boards and commissioners that are voted on: sewer, water, road, education, regents, universities, elections, clerks, insurance, fire, police. We also vote on requests for debt, ie bond issues at the State and local levels. On top of this we have propositions put up by citizen signatures, referenda put on the ballot by State legislatures, constitutions and constitutional amendments at the State, not National level. We also have the possibility to "recall" elected officials with a special election and I'm certainly leaving off a lot. When I lived in California, we had ballots that were 15 pages long.
With a couple of exceptions, all our elections are "first past the post". That is the guy, who gets the most votes, wins, majority is not needed. Louisiana and Georgia do require a majority and have a runoff election two weeks later.
The Presidential election is not a popular vote. It is 50 separate State elections, where the candidate, who gets the most votes, wins the electoral votes for that State. There is one electoral vote for each congressional district and one for each Senator. The Electoral College meets in December after the November election to elect the President.
Malaysian religious authorities have raided a transvestite beauty pageant and arrested 80 Muslim contestants and guests. State religious officer Abdul Rahim Mahmud said yesterday that his team of men, backed by police, stormed the "Queen of Paperdolls 2002" contest in Muar, a small town in southern Johor state. He said the transvestites ran helter-skelter and some tried to evade arrest by hiding in secret compartments in the lounge. Abdul Rahim declined to say how many people were arrested but The Star newspaper reported that 80 of the nearly 200 transvestites, many dressed in elaborate satin gowns and jewellery, were detained. He said those arrested would most likely be charged with wearing female clothes and acting like a woman in a public place, an offence under Islamic Sharia law. If convicted, they face a fine of up to 1000 ringgit ($A470) and six months imprisonment. Thank Allah for the religious police! If they'd been proper Muslims, those perverts would have been wearing burkas, so who'd have known? Only thing I can't figure, though: if these rubesgoobers Muslims are so much against the pleasures of the flesh, how does their population keep increasing?
Several women, who were arrested, were being investigated for "being at the vice den" and may be charged with behaving indecently under the same law, he added. Oh, let 'em go. They were just offering hair and makeup tips...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:17 pm ||
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Another evil Zionist plot foiled by the vigilant defenders of the One True Faith.
Diplomatic circles in the Middle East are buzzing with rumors of a failed coup against the Qatari regime on the night of Oct. 13. At least two members of the royal family are said to have joined with officers of Yemeni and Pakistani background, along with individuals from Islamic organizations, all opposed to the growing U.S. military presence. Yemenis and Pakistanis, y'say? Why, who'da thunkit!
American troops stationed at the Al Udeid Air Base supposedly helped thwart the coup attempt, which had been penetrated in advance by Qatar security officials, after which 140 people were arrested. The rumors go on to suggest that Qatar suspects that the Saudis were behind the plot. The United States has been feverishly upgrading the Al Udeid base, in anticipation of a Saudi refusal to allow use of its Prince Sultan Air Base for the upcoming assault on Iraq. Even if the Soddies weren't behind it, which they probably were, it's to our advantage to play up the fact that they were. Truth just adds a bit of body to the sauce...
There is no confirmation for these coup rumors, but Wednesday's Gulf News carried an interesting editorial that said: "Disagreements are normal, be they between people or countries. If handled in a civilized manner, disagreements can only strengthen relationships. Adversity is another great healer of rifts. Faced by a common outside threat, people and countries band together to present a front that is as strong as its cohesiveness. Sadly these truths do not often hold good in the Middle East." That's because there's a state that regards itself as the the big kid on the block, and the emirates are expected to regard themselves as its satellites. If the coup had come off, the U.S. would have been left pretty close to naked in the area, just at the moment it was about to thump heavily on Iraq. But if the Soddies blew it, and their muscle boys were the usual suspects, they're left with egg all over their faces... Thanks to Steve for the headzup!
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 04:34 pm ||
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Do the Soddis have any idea that this coup-plotting stuff can go both ways?
Isn't it about time for the Shi'a minority in eastern Saudi-controlled Arabia to assert their independence? I seem to recall that when Panama declared its independence from Columbia, there was an American battleship that just so happened to be in the harbor (Colon, I think), and that conveniently had its big guns pointed at the Columbian fort in town. Just a coincidence, you understand.
I think Teddy Roosevelt had a good idea there.
Regards,
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/30/2002 17:08 Comments ||
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Once the Iraqi oil is controlled by a regime not genetically opposed to the U.S., then we can explain the reality to the house of fraud Saud. In the meantime, our new friends, the Qataris, should get every dollar and consideration previously wasted on the Soddies
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/30/2002 17:58 Comments ||
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"Adversity is another great healer of rifts"
Pardon my poor english, but isnt adversity the creator of rifts?
It was the protected cruiser Nashville, not a battleship, but you're otherwise correct. Actually, there was a significant amount of coordination between the Panamanian rebels and the USA, and Nashville sent a landing party ashore to secure the Panama Railroad.
Posted by: Mike Morley ||
10/31/2002 9:09 Comments ||
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A senior Iraqi official on Wednesday urged the United States to withdraw its draft Security Council resolution, saying U.N. weapons experts can do their job without it. "Nope. Nope. Don't need it..."
The American draft, which is opposed by France, Russia and China, warns Iraq of "serious consequences," presumably including military action, if President Saddam Hussein's government fails to cooperate with the inspectors. "But why should there be any serious consequences? What does La Belle France care if Iraq has nukes?"
"America should withdraw its resolution from the Security Council," Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mehdi Saleh told The Associated Press. "Iraq has always insisted there is no need for a new resolution." Saleh, however, refused to answer directly when asked whether Iraq would reject the new resolution if it is accepted by the 15-member U.N. Security Council. Thought they'd already rejected it?... Oh. That's right. That was a month ago.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 11:34 am ||
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Reports from Iran say two reformist Members of the Iranian Parliament have been killed in a car crash. The Iranian news agency (Irna) said Ali-Reza Nuri, the brother of the jailed former Interior Minister, Abdollah Nuri, and Massud Hashemizehi died when their car left the road and crashed into a ravine. A third MP, Anoushiravah Mohseni was injured and is being treated in hospital. The driver of the car was also killed. They had been travelling between Tehran and the northern city of Chalous. Iran has one of the highest rates of road accidents in the world, which correspondents say is blamed on poor roads, dilapidated vehicles and reckless driving. Sawing most of the way through the brake lines helps, too, when needed...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:01 pm ||
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Iranian President Mohammad Khatami condemned the use of violence in the name of Islam but urged the major world powers to resist being influenced by people who hated the religion. One word: Hezbollah.
In an address to the Spanish Senate on the third day of his state visit to Spain, Khatami said: "Whoever practices terrorism and killing in the name of Islam is only denying its spirituality. One cannot, and one should not, resort to violence in the name of religion, just as one cannot deploy military forces throughout the world in the name of human rights and democracy." On the other hand, one seems to be able to maintain a widespread terror network, by now responsible for thousands of deaths...
Khatami urged the "major world powers not to let themselves be influenced by people who hate Muslims and not to wage a propaganda war and military action against them". "Just let them go on doing what they've been doing. You have nothing to worry about..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 11:13 pm ||
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Denmark arrested a senior Chechen rebel on Wednesday at the behest of Russia, which said it suspected him of helping plot last week's Moscow theater siege in which at least 119 hostages died. A Danish judge ordered Akhmed Zakayev detained for 13 days, to make sure he did not flee. The justice minister said he might be extradited if Russia promised not to use the death penalty. So promise not to use it. A life term someplace unpleasant 60 miles east of Blagoveshchensk shouldn't take too many years...
Zakayev, a top aide to the region's fugitive separatist president, Aslan Maskhadov, had attended a long-planned Chechen exiles' gathering this week in Copenhagen. Denmark's agreement to allow the meeting enraged Russian President Vladimir Putin, who canceled a state visit next month in protest. That's only because it was stupid and tactless...
Police said they received information from Russia on Tuesday that Zakayev was suspected of helping prepare the theater siege and of taking part in other "terrorist" acts from 1996-99. By "terrorist" acts, ABCNews means acts that "killed" people or "multilated" them, or even otherwise caused them "pain."
Maskhadov and Zakayev have both condemned the raid in Moscow as the work of an extremist rebel faction outside their control. That said they were operating on Maskhadov's orders... Thanks to Steve for the link...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 11:02 am ||
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Give him a life sentence with no clothes in Siberia.
Russian security forces arrested Tuesday, October 29, thirty Russian citizens - including several security officers - on suspicion of helping the Chechen terrorists fighters who took 800 people hostage in a Moscow theater. The suspects include security officials and political advisers, accused of having allegedly colluded with the Chechen hostage-takers. The Sovs aren't that far in the past. There are enough people experienced with the "old methods" still around to make these guys very unhappy. If not, they can bring some out of retirement...
Russian media have been reporting that the Chechen thugs fighters were briefed by security insiders about the authorities' handling of the crisis. Russian Interior Minister, Boris Gryzlov, said his forces were involved in an "unprecedented operation" to identify a network of helpers in Moscow and the surrounding area. A government-sponsored newspaper reported that the Chechen fighters had been briefed about what was going on outside by what it described as an "analytical center". The center was collecting information from various sources - including the rescue headquarters - processing it and sending instructions to the fighters. Every person that charge can be proved against should be shot just as dead as the Chechens are. The word for that is "treason."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:24 pm ||
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If one of the security officers is proved to have helped the terrorists, they might bring back that quaint old KGB custom of slowly lowering him into a vat of acid while new KGB officers watch from a grandstand. Helps prevent anyone from doing this in the future.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/31/2002 7:55 Comments ||
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Russia has asked Turkey to shut down Chechen foundations there, saying they were in contact with them during the Moscow theater siege, a Turkish news agency said Wednesday. Moscow also said the Chechen charities in Turkey finance the rebels. About 25,000 Chechens live in Istanbul and western Turkey, and up to 5 million Turks trace their roots to the Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya. Anatolia quoted Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Alexander Lebedev, as saying "there was proof" that the gunmen who seized a Moscow theater last week made telephone calls to groups in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates during the siege. I would guess that they've got many of those conversations on tape, so they can pick through them at their liesure to pull out those hard-to-pronounce Arab personal and place names.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:49 pm ||
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I'm not sure how I feel about this.
Let's wait and see how we feel, maybe run it by Congress, the Russ do have a point after all, but on the other hand the Turk are a long time NATO ally. This is hard!
#3
SHIPMAN Turkey lost any points when they blocked the 4ID from going into Iraq from the north. We wouldn't be having near as many problems in the Sunni Triangle if it weren't for Turkey's decision to jump in bed with France, Germany, Iraq, and, yes, Rusia. Looks like Russia has figured the score out but Turkey is still allied with the losers. Let's see what proof the Russians have of their charges and then let the chips fall where they may.
If Turkey has a problem, call Jacques.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/30/2004 20:06 Comments ||
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Editors Note: This news item appeared on qoqaz.com, an arabic website out of Malaysia which is known to dessiminate messages from the Chechen Mujahideen, shortly after the Moscow massacre ended and provides us with insight into the other side of the story.
We remind our viewers that the statements, opinions and points of view expressed in this article are those of the author and shall not be deemed to mean that they are necessarily those of Jihad Unspun, the publisher, editor, writers, contributors or staff.
After the refusal of the Russian rulership to fulfil the demands of the Chechen Mujahideen and the military storm of the theatre which practically was a green light to the killing of the hostages, the Mujahideen blew up their explosives that lead to the killing of not less than about 170 hostages besides a great number of the Russian special forces who were killed when the Mujahideen blew up explosives at the entrance to the theatre.
It is noteworthy that that operation of the Russian forces began with the firing of narcotizing gas bombs according to Mujahideen who were inside the theatre which accelerated the blowing up of some explosives in the center and sides of the theatre since a lot of Russian soldiers had entered the theatre. More than 38 Mujahideen were martyred after a gun battle with the Russian forces and a few Mujahideen managed to withdraw among the hostages.
The Mujahideen were then taken by helpers to a safe place far away from the theatre.
The operation is considered to be a message to the Russian rulership from the heart of Russia in the capital city Moscow which makes clear that the Mujahideen will not stop such operations and that it will reoccur by the permission of Allah. If a great number of Mujahideen who carried out this operation were killed â which is what they desired namely the martyrdom in the Cause of Allah â then (it should be known) that there is a great number of Chechen man and women who are (continuing) on this path and ask for martyrdom.
Like the Russians allowed themselves to invade our state and country in Chechnya and to destroy our homes and to murder our people and children and to rape our women, then we will allow ourselves to do the same with them and Russia will never become happy until we gain our right âeven if the disbelievers hate itâ. Note that this is for dissemination to the rubes Believers. I think I'd tend to trust the Russers a little more on this, especially since I was watching FoxNews live at the time and neither I nor the FoxNews reporter on the scene noticed the explosions or the heroic gun battle. It's a pretty grimy mindset that causes these people to lie in the face of easily observable evidence because they don't want to admit that they only managed to kill a couple defenseless hostages.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 11:14 pm ||
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Three Sudanese men have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms by a court in Khartoum for helping a Saudi national in a failed attempt to hijack a Saudi airliner earlier this month. The three were handed jail sentences ranging from 17 to 12 years by a criminal court in the Sudanese capital as well as being heavily fined. A Saudi national had tried to hijack the plane with a gun shortly after it took off from Khartoum for Saudi Arabia on 15 October. He was overpowered and the airliner returned to the city. The BBC's Alfred Taban in Khartoum says that lawyers in Khartoum agree the sentences are heavy - the maximum sentence for hijacking in Sudan is 10 years. The Soddies said the guy was a nut. Since when do nuts have accomplices?
One of the three men was found guilty of taking a bribe from the hijacker, Adel Nasser Ahmed Faraj, to allow him to take his gun on board the plane. He was fined $1,200. The other two defendants, a broker and a tailor, helped Mr Faraj obtain the gun. The judge said he had written to the aviation authority to ask them to improve security measures at Khartoum airport. As Joe Isuzu would say, "Gooood idea!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:00 pm ||
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A French court has sentenced two Algerian men to life imprisonment for the 1995 bombing campaign on Paris public transport which killed eight people. Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, both aged 34, are already serving 10-year jail sentences for membership of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA). Bensaid is also serving 30 years for a failed attack on a high-speed TGV train in August 1995. Around 200 people were also injured in the bombings, leaving the city in a state of shock. The worst attack happened on 25 July at the Saint-Michel suburban railway (RER) station - when all of the eight fatalities occurred. Explosives and nails had been packed into a gas bottle, and the explosion caused horrific injuries. Adherents of the Master Religion are allowed to do that sort of thing. After all, the victims are only infidels, for the most part...
GIA said it carried out the bombings to punish France for supporting the Algerian Government in its war on Islamic rebels. A third man accused over the attacks, Rachid Ramda, 33, has been held in London since 1995, but his extradition has been blocked by UK courts. Judges in Paris are expected to try him in absentia. Guess he can be sentenced in absentia, too. And serve his time in absentia.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 09:51 pm ||
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Wait a minute. I thought the Frogs, er, French were against trials in absentia. They certainly have refused to turn back Americans convicted in American courts in absentia. There was a celebrated case of that in the news recently -- some goof whacked his girlfriend (in Philly?), fled to France, got convicted, and then the French wouldn't hand him back.
I guess it's different when the French do it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/31/2002 12:14 Comments ||
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Lawyers acting for the main suspect in the Washington area sniper case have appealed to the public to respect the presumption of innocence in US law. John Allen Muhammad was arrested last Thursday, with a young companion, John Lee Malvo. Since their arrests, the killings have come to an end but Mr Muhammad's court-appointed lawyer, Jim Wyda, called on people to respect his client's right to a presumption of innocence and a fair trial. "What we're asking you to do, and asking the public to do, is to respect that process. Mr Muhammad needs it very badly. This is a situation when there is so much emotion and so much passion that breeds the chance for error and mistake," Mr Wyda said. "Just ignore all those dead people. Prentend this is something you didn't have to go through, some other people you never heard of, that it was somewhere else, on the other side of the world..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 09:55 pm ||
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It would be my great pleasure if my first-ever jury service in a Virginia courthouse was on the sniper murder case.
Hope they try 'em in Richmond. Pleasepleaseplease.
#2
I think they're both guilty, but it would be best to keep an open mind. There are wacky scenarios under which they could be innocent of some or all of the shootings; there's the possibility that there was a third shooter involved. If they don't get a fair trial, we're no better than certain other countries.
Former judge Mohammad Ma'moun el-Hodaibi, deputy guide-general and official spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood, has temporarily undertaken all responsibilities of general guidance of the group, said Mohammad Morsi el-Ayyat, spokesman of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Egyptian People's Assembly (parliament) Wednesday, October 30. In exclusive statements to IslamOnline, El-Ayyat said the group's bylaw stipulates that the deputy guide-general assumes the responsibilities of the guide-general whenever the latter is unable to do so because of illness, arrest or travel. The Muslim Brotherhood guide-general Mustafa Mashhour was admitted to intensive care unit in El-Nozha Hospital Tuesday, October 29, after suffering a brain stroke. "The work of the Muslim Brotherhood is institutional and does not depend on a particular person. The post of guide-general does not hamper the institutional work of the group because more than 90 percent of the group's activities do not, for the major part, depend on the guide-general," El-Ayyat told IslamOnline. The Muslim Brotherhood is a rather shadowy Islamist International running through the Middle East, and, indeed, world-wide. It's one of Islamism's mostly-legitimate faces.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:32 pm ||
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Australia plans to use aid as a weapon in the war on terrorism, notably by promoting state education in areas of Asia where allegedly, some Islamic religious schools are breeding radicalism, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Wednesday, October 30. Downer said talks between Australian and U.S. officials at an Asia-Pacific summit in Mexico and then in Washington this week raised the need to âbetter focusâ aid programs to help fight terrorism, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported. âWe could focus more effectively on education to ensure that state-based education is of a higher and better quality and more readily available in countries in the region so that thereâs less need to resort to religion-based schools,â Downer told ABC radio from Washington. Damned good idea. The only problem there is that, given the current state of the American education establishment, we might well go from having religious schools educate anti-American lunatics to having government-sponsored schools educate anti-American lunatics. I hope they don't recruit or train the teachers that'll run them in Berkeley or Chapel Hill...
Both the United States and Australia, he said, were concerned that at some Islamic schools in Asia and the Pacific, âextremist doctrines are taught and people are recruited into radical groups. Issues like that are sophisticated points but we need to start focusing on (them) increasingly.â What's "sophisticated" about it? You get 'em young, you can teach 'em what you want. Even without a 100 percent success rate, you've still got a lot of cannon fodder ready to blow on command. That's about as sophisticated as a punch in the gut...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:41 pm ||
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Every accredited religous school in the United States that I have worked with have always encouraged and taught good-old American values and Patriotism.
Posted by: G ||
10/31/2002 10:44 Comments ||
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But the foreign religious schools - the madrassahs - teach exactly the opposite. The Aussies, and probably the U.S. will follow suit, are talking about funding schools that will in theory present points of view more to our liking. The soft part of that argument is that somewhere along the line our state funded institutions in the USA have ceased doing that. Funding a few hundred schools worldwide that teach post-modernist neo-Marxist anti-globalism would appear to defeat the purpose of funding the schools, wouldn't it? "Two, three, many Chomskys!"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2002 11:44 Comments ||
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A senior Lebanese guerrilla who was sent to Israel to organize Palestinian attacks has been arrested, the government said Wednesday. Fawzi Ayoub, 38, who fought with the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, was arrested in June, a statement from the prime minister's office said. And they're just letting it out now? That's a pretty long conversation...
Ayoub is a senior Hezbollah fighter who took part in operations in and outside Lebanon, "including events in which many civilians were casualties," the Israeli statement said. Ayoub spent some years in Canada, the statement said. Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, said Wednesday that Ayoub held Canadian citizenship. He said Canada was notified of his arrest in late June and immediately requested consular access to Ayoub. Bet they're cheesed. If they'd known, maybe Chretien could have had him sprung by now...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:54 pm ||
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In Sydney, one man was in custody after an ASIO raid. The men, Julius Basri, 31, his father Ali, 56, and brother Jaya Fadly, 30, immediately denied involvement in Jemaah Islamiah (JI). "Nope. Nope. Not us..."
Acting on warrants signed by the Federal Attorney General, Daryl Williams, ASIO and Federal Police - with guns drawn and armed with a sledgehammer - first raided the Lakemba flat of Jaya Basri and his family on Sunday night. Shortly after 5am yesterday, they arrived with balaclavas, machine guns and helmets to raid the homes of the Suparta and Herbert families in the Perth suburb of Thornlie. About midday in Sydney yesterday - as Jaya Basri was telling a news conference that he feared authorities would persecute his family - a raid was conducted on the Belmore house of his father, where his brother was taken into custody over an expired visa. Dontcha hate it when they persecute your family? Betcha don't hate it as much as those people hated being dynamited, though...
No arrests were made on security-related matters, but more than 80 plastic bags - containing passports, birth certificates, computers, mobile phones, video tapes, books, magazines, a prayer calender and personal papers - were taken away. He could be pure as the driven snow. But he'd better be hoping that every one of those passports is genuine...
The Department of Immigration also picked up six Indonesians yesterday at a Dee Why factory for visa violations. All were worshippers at the Dee Why Mosque. Four are threatened with deportation. In the intel biz, you make your money looking for patterns. Once you find a pattern, you try to follow it, in anticipation of more and better quality information. Some patterns are pretty tiresome, though. This is one.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:50 am ||
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Indonesian police released facial images of three Bali bombing suspects last night. In the biggest development in the 19-day manhunt for the Bali terrorists, police released artists' impressions of the three men. One, a fat-bellied man with puffy cheeks and lips, has been dubbed "Sleepy Eyes" - and was seen by witnesses acting oddly in the minutes before the blasts. The head of the Indonesian investigation, General I Made Pastika, suggested the three may still be hiding out in Indonesia to enjoy the "aftermath of their activities". "Oooh! Watching infidel bodies carried out is so neat!"
"These three people are our suspects," he said, holding up the images to a packed news conference. "But these three are actually part of a bigger group, possibly between six to 10 people who have been behind the planning." Why don't I have the least bit of confidence in this investigation?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:50 am ||
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Why don't I have the least bit of confidence in this investigation?
Because one of their suspects is described as an "angry white male".
A majority of people in the world's most populous Muslim country want a crackdown on the militant groups that have brought Indonesia's government into disrepute and blighted the economy, former president Abdurrahman Wahid said on Wednesday. In an article published by The Sydney Morning Herald, as quoted by DPA, Wahid urged the government of his successor, Megawati Soekarnoputri, to welcome foreign involvement in the search for the perpetrators of the Bali bombing. The internationally renowned Muslim cleric said some of Jakarta's reluctance to root out extremists was a fear of antagonizing them. "This is unacceptable thinking," Wahid wrote. "The moderate Muslim majority is in fact eager to have the suspects arrested, because they cannot do so themselves." If they can't do it, and the gummint won't do it, they're in sad shape. I think they're in sad shape...
The former chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, said Indonesians must accept that the aftermath of the Bali bombing had shown their government's security apparatus to be woefully inadequate and that foreign intelligence experts should be engaged to help. "We cannot, and should not, deny access to these foreign security agencies because they are the consequence, not the cause, of our security problems," he wrote. It'll last until the Indons can convince them to butt out, and not a minute longer. On the other hand...
The chairman of Muhammadiyah, the second largest Muslim organization in the country, Prof. Syafi'i Ma'arif, in Surabaya, East Java, warned the government on Tuesday against arresting other Muslim leaders after the arrest of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir. "Please, do not try to or else we will shout from the rooftops in protest. After all, I believe that Ba'asyir is just a scapegoat in response to pressure from a dictating country, the U.S.," he said as quoted by Antara. Nothing like waiting for the evidence to be in, is there? Guilty conscience here?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
10/30/2002 10:10 pm ||
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Steve sent me a link to an interesting article from Sydney Morning Herald on an al-Qaeda recruiter that the Aussies dumped in November of last year. It's pretty hefty, so I put in in WOTWeek.
The Australian Government secretly deported a suspected al-Qaeda member from Melbourne two months after the September 11 attacks following evidence that he was involved in activities linked to terrorism. Ahmad Al Joufi, a Saudi national who arrived in Melbourne on a false passport, was found to be of "sufficiently bad character" to warrant immediate removal. It's just coincidental that he's a Soddy. He could just as easily have been an Angry White Male Gun Nut⢠or something like that. Ask any newsroom...
According to intelligence sources, Ahmad Abdul Rahman Awdah Al Joufi arrived in Australia in March 1999 on a false Saudi passport on a mission to recruit frontline fighters for a "Holy War" against Russia. He is believed to have promised potential recruits money and lifetime compensation for families of the wounded.
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.
