Eleven Marines were injured by an explosion in a trash receptacle aboard the USS Saipan in the Persian Gulf, the Navy said Thursday. The explosion occurred late Wednesday in a sleeping area, piercing a bulkhead and injuring people in the adjacent compartment. The cause was being investigated.
One Marine was taken to an Army field hospital in Kuwait with a serious arm wound and was in stable condition, the Navy said. The rest were being treated aboard the ship, and the injuries were not life-threatening, according to the Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. The Marines are part of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and were deployed to the Gulf in support of the ongoing war on terrorism and the American-led war in Iraq. The Saipan, an amphibious assault ship, deployed from Norfolk Naval Station on Jan. 6.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/08/2003 11:23 am ||
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Dammit--hit "submit" before I added comments. It just sounds verrrrry suspicious that you have an exploding "trash receptacle" in a sleeping area... Another fraticide/fragging incident, I wonder?
Posted by: Dar ||
05/08/2003 11:24 Comments ||
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#2
If I were the skipper, everyone named Mohamed would be a suspect.
#3
Are we sure somebody didn't throw away a souvenir from Iraq so he didn't get bagged with it? They're cracking down on that bigtime according to a friend of mine.
The Saudi government has arrested 149 Saudis believed to be part of an al Qaeda network plotting poison attacks in the kingdom, a senior Saudi intelligence official told ABCNEWS. The arrests were made over several days, with the last major arrests occurring about a week ago. A Saudi public statement alludes to the uncovering of a terrorist cell, but does not mention the 149 al Qaeda arrests. The government does not plan to make the fact of the arrests public, fearing that confidence inside Saudi Arabia would deteriorate.
I think my confidence level would increase if somebody told me they'd rounded up 149 krazed killers...
The al Qaeda network had been planning to initiate a series of major terrorist attacks, primarily in Riyadh, on the occasion of the war in Iraq. Saudi intelligence had a source in the group and the plans were frustrated, but the Saudi government was shocked by the discovery that the group had stockpiled poisons, C-4 explosives, hand grenades and small arms in preparation for their planned attacks. The source indicated that the al Qaeda group had been planning to poison water storage containers at public buildings. Initial interrogations have established links between members of the al Qaeda cells and bazaar merchants from the province of Qasim. Qasim is an area of Saudi Arabia that has traditionally been associated with anti-monarchy sentiment, and businessmen from there have been among the largest contributors to Osama bin Laden. Things seem to be heating up in the land of Saud.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 10:35 am ||
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I guess that the time limit on protection money paid to OBL to go away and leave the Saudis alone has run out. It is show time for the govt.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 10:49 Comments ||
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#2
Islamic terrorists and the Saudi royal family are a mutual admiration society. One could not exist without the other so fat chance the Royal Wahabis will lift a finger to stamp out Al-Qaeda. They ARE Al-Qaeda! Follow the money...
Posted by: Ned ||
05/08/2003 11:39 Comments ||
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... the group had stockpiled poisons, C-4 explosives, hand grenades and small arms in preparation for their planned attacks.
Yes, but did they have a lair?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2003 13:11 Comments ||
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Ned---this lends credence to the old phrase that sometimes you are your own worst enemy!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 13:25 Comments ||
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The Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Nayef, has said that 19 Islamic militants being sought by the authorities are suspected members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. I'm shocked, shocked that they admitted this.
The group - all but two of them Saudis - had been planning to carry out attacks in the kingdom. Following a shoot-out with some of the men on Tuesday, the security services found a big arms cache in the house they had been using in the capital, Riyadh. Prince Nayef said the men - 17 Saudis, an Iraqi and a Yemeni - were known members of an al-Qaeda cell. He told a Saudi newspaper they were all young men who had received military training in Afghanistan. The Saudi media have shown pictures of the men and are making much of the huge cache of weapons and explosives found in their hide-out. In the past, officials referred to such people merely as "misguided youth" - and a spate of attacks on Westerners in the kingdom was officially blamed on expatriates involved in the illegal production of alcohol. The fabled "alk runners".
Now there is more openness. The authorities say they have arrested hundreds of al-Qaeda suspects since the 11 September 2001 attacks against the United States, and acknowledge that Bin Laden has sympathisers in the country. They have not said what targets the 19 men were planning to attack. But last week, the US State Department said it had intelligence reports warning of attacks against Americans in the Saudi kingdom.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 07:49 am ||
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This update explains a lot: Suspected terrorists who had been planning attacks in Saudi Arabia targeted the royal family as well as American and British interests, and received orders directly from Osama bin Laden, a senior security official said Thursday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the prime targets were the defense minister, Prince Sultan, and his brother, the interior minister, Prince Nayef.
Planning a hit on royals will get you a lot of attention in Saudiland.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 8:26 Comments ||
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Anybody know if OBL has issued a statement regarding U.S. forces pulling out of Saudi.That was one of his stated goals.
#3
a slight glow was noticed from the protein paste on the floor of his collapsed cave.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 8:29 Comments ||
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Right, Steve. Saudi is by far the strangest piece of real estate on the earth (that I've lived in) The Magic Kingdom. I never met any expat involved in selling alcohol willing a Saudi neck massage. They'd just stop making it if a party got too out of hand or if they got dressed down by their boss. Bomb a car? Knew it was bogus.
I wonder if Atom Ant (aka, whatzisname, Adel Al-Jubeir, right?) will be on "Meet the Press" TV soon.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/08/2003 13:40 Comments ||
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London Mayor Ken Livingstone has launched an astonishing attack on US President George W Bush, calling him "corrupt". Mr Livingstone made his attack during an address to schoolchildren in a debate on the Iraq war. How unusual. A leftie preaching hate to The Children(TM).
He said he would get as much pleasure from Mr Bush being forced out of office as he had done from the downfall of former Iraq leader Saddam Hussein. Aww poor Ken, missing your buddy Greasy Galloway already?
The outburst was immediately criticised by London politicians who fear a negative effect on the mayor's efforts to attract American tourists here. They won't never hear, will they, Ken?
Mr Livingstone was answering questions on the Iraq war and other subjects during a two-hour meeting with 200 schoolchildren at City Hall on Thursday morning. After making a pointed reference to Mr Bush, he was asked by Channel 4 broadcaster Krishnan Guru-Murthy, who was chairing the meeting, to explain his making a personal attack on the US president when he disliked answering personal questions himself. The mayor said: "I think George Bush is the most corrupt American president since Harding in the Twenties. He is not the legitimate president." He later added: "This really is a completely unsupportable government and I look forward to it being overthrown as much as I looked forward to Saddam Hussein being overthrown." Considering Livingstone attended anti-war rallies protesting against Saddam's forced removal, maybe he doesn't dislike Bush as much as it might seem.
Conservative mayoral candidate Steve Norris described Mr Livingstone's attack on President Bush as "utterly irresponsible". "The red mist comes down and his judgement flies out of the window. He has no right whatever to insult President Bush," he said. "He has every right to his own view but not to express it when he is mayor of this city." Asked about Mr Livingstone's comments, White House Press Secretary, Ari Fleischer, said: "First of all, I've never heard of the fellow. Second, I'm not going to dignify it with a response." And in a statement, officials from the US embassy in London, said: "Mayor Livingstone's opinions about the United States are a matter of complete indifference to the American embassy, the American government and the American people." And just about everyone else for that matter.
I wonder, do a lot of people in Europe think he's going to be voted out in a landslide next year? Because it's going to be the other way around - there's no doubt about it. And the fact that he isn't the brightest president we've had in a while says even MORE about the left and their stale old ideas if they can't even beat him.
I looked forward to Saddam Hussein being overthrown
Just how short does he think our attention spans are?? If you wanted Saddam overthrow then for god's sake why the f#%ck did you march AGAINST the effort to do exactly that?? Could you be the most retarded man on the planet??
Posted by: g wiz ||
05/08/2003 16:54 Comments ||
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How about that another pompous out of touch lefty spewing invective at a man of his word, what a shocker! This will only get funnier and Wackier as Bush keeps power and the left spins further and further out of orbit.
#3
Overthrown? You mean Red is anti-democratic? What an idea to pass onto 200 kids. Any way to hear an audio of his speech? He must have been screaming at the top of his lungs and foaming at the mouth when he said this.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/08/2003 17:28 Comments ||
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oh ya there's such a moral equivalence between the rule of saddam and the rule of President Bush....
oh, where are the underground child prisons in america by the way? you know the ones your kid is forced to live in if they refuse to join the republican party?
#5
:And the fact that he isn't the brightest president we've had in a while says even MORE about the left and their stale old ideas if they can't even beat him."
Fact? I don't recall that being a fact? Seems to be doing all right with an MBA from Harvard, successful Governor of Texas, Major-League Baseball team co-owner, yadda yadda...but if the Dems wanna believe that, like Ronald Reagan, he's just a lovable (to some 70%) dunce...well then I'll just have to gracefully accept the consequences - will they do the same?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 19:16 Comments ||
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Verrrry interesting!
How to play to your base (they didn't call him "Red Ken" for nothing) by saying one thing that actually means something else:
"...I look forward to it being overthrown..."
[cheers from the assembled idiots]
"...as much as I looked forward to Saddam Hussein being overthrown."
[that is, not at all, see g wiz's post above].
However, I don't think he'll be out MARCHING against the overthrow of the Bush administration... that might give the game away! ;-)
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
05/08/2003 20:12 Comments ||
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#7
Mr. Big Man is so brave, he rants against the evil Sadaam Mr. Bush in front of the local kindergarten.
Now that Mr. Mayor has stepped out from behind his curtain in OZ, somebody quick get him a brain, a heart and some courage. He needs all three.
#8
Funny how now that the war is over, and the coalition won to cheering crowds, that all the lefties SWEAR that they wanted Saddam out just as musch as those who supported the war. Hypocritical liars all.
What did Kennedy say: Victory has many fathers, but defeat is an orphan.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/09/2003 0:54 Comments ||
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The self-proclaimed hairy leftyArchdruid Archbishop of Canterbury has expressed his unwillingness to conduct a thanksgiving service for the end of the war in Iraq, fearing that it could appear triumphalist. Dr Rowan Williams has told No 10, which is drawing up plans to honour the Armed Forces, that he would be happy to lead or preach at a memorial service, which would have a sombre tone. But in a break with tradition which will disappoint many in the forces, he has indicated to friends that he is reluctant to take part in a national religious event which might seem to bless conflict. Try thinking of it as the defeat of a great evil by the careful and minimal application of lesser evil. We do. But if you regard our armed forces as the agents of Satan, whatever they do, why not just come out and say it? That would be more honest, and preferable to making them out to be part-time criminals.
To bless the defeat of a great evil first requires a belief in evil...
Major wars in the past century have been marked by thanksgiving services, which express the nation's thanks for the forces as well as remembering the dead. There have also been victory parades through the streets of London. After the 1982 Falklands conflict, Margaret Thatcher was said to have been angry when the late Lord Runcie, then Archbishop of Canterbury, preached a sermon at the thanksgiving service in St Paul's calling for Christian reconciliation. He said that the Argentine dead should be remembered as well as the British. A remembrance and thanksgiving service for those who served in the 1991 Gulf war was held in Glasgow Cathedral, despite warnings by the Rt Rev David Jenkins, then Bishop of Durham, that any triumphalism would be "perfectly appropriate obscene".
Makes you wonder, when churchmen are dismayed at the defeat of evil. But, like I say, first you've got to believe in it...
Insiders said that Dr Williams, whose anti-war rhetoric in the approach to the war against Iraq irritated Downing Street, would feel awkward about taking part in a service which might appear to be at odds with his utterly discreditedtrendy beliefs. Calls for such an event are expected to grow over the coming months. But Dr Williams's reservations echo those of other senior figures, who feel that a thanksgiving service would send the wrong message to the Iraqi people. The desired message, then, would be something like "Our boys and girls fought and died for your freedom. Our priests will duly shame and stigmatise them on their return."
Tony Blair said last month that "It would be extraordinary if we did not denote by a major event what has happened. There will be a major celebration." John Reid, the Leader of the House, said the event "could take one of various forms of memorial service or some form of homecoming parade". But Adml Sir Michael Boyce, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said last month that a victory parade might appear "arrogant or patronising about the Iraqi children, puppies, kittens, baby ducks, people".
Might it appear arrogant if the defeat of their entire army wasn't something to take pride in? All in a day's work, so to speak, like taking out the trash?
A national event is not likely to be staged for months because troops are expected to remain in Iraq for some time. America also plans to mark the end of the war. Church liturgists said that, although the contents of memorial and thanksgiving services were virtually interchangeable, the nomenclature indicated the overall tone. "The Archbishop may want the service to focus on a remembrance of those who died rather than on any sense of a righteous victory," one said. The Dean of St Paul's, the Very Rev John Moses, said: "We must remember with thanksgiving the dead of our Armed Forces, but we must also be alert to the sensitivities of the Arab world and those in our own country who were opposed to military action." I.e. Can't possibly offend the massed ranks of the confused and the wrong.
And the sensitivities of Brits don't count for a hill of beans next to those of the Arabs...
Posted by: Bulldog ||
05/08/2003 08:42 am ||
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so does this make anybody there think again about ending the legal status of the anglican church? Whats the point of an established church if it won't even celebrate the state's victories?
#3
Fred, have you got that picture of "the boys" shortcutted some place for quick use? This has got to be the fourth or fifth time you've used it. It is a classic.
#6
"Since the left tends to be knee-jerk anti-Christian it amazes me how many clergymen are leftists."
Not really. An awful lot of the clergy - especially the politician types that wind up with these ecclesiastic roles as opposed to the ones who work with actual congregations - are also knee-jerk anti-Christian.
#9
I protest! As a descendent of a long line of Druid Priests and Mentors, I demand that no more links be made between honest, straightforward cutthroat Druids and the namby-pamby, luke-warm, dishwater imbibing Anglicans. If they want a fire-and-brimstone sermon of victory, I'll gladly undertake the job, just as soon as my sheet returns from the dry cleaners.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/08/2003 20:16 Comments ||
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IRNA -- Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi met his Luxembourg counterpart Lydie Polfer Wednesday evening and discussed bilateral relations and regional and international issues. ''I was very happy and honoured to receive today in Luxembourg my colleague Dr Kharrazi,'' Polfer told a joint press conference after their talks. Polfer said she paid a ''very important and enriching visit'' to Tehran last year because ''it gave me the opportunity to know more about Iran and about the people in Iran.''
"I just loved those quaint local customs..."
''I was very much impressed by this wish of going on with the reform process,'' she said. Wednesday's talks between the two sides covered the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Middle East, disarmament, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, fight against terrorism and drug trafficking. ''We agree on the importance of involvement of the UN very closely in the reconstruction of Iraq,'' she noted.
Oh, don't we, though?
On the issue of terrorism, Polfer said, ''Iran has played a very active role in the aftermath of 11 September in the fight against terrorism.''
I guess the antagonist is a pretty important role...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 04:35 pm ||
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The problem with Luxembourg is the heavy French influence. Enough said. However, I must say that I like visiting the Grand Duchy and we must always remember that General Patton's final resting place is there.
Posted by: Fred J ||
05/08/2003 17:01 Comments ||
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"Thank you madam ambassador. Now would you please cover yourself head to toe in this muslin sheet and keep you thoughts to yourself until asked by a more-worthy man"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 19:33 Comments ||
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Despite submitting a bid nearly 20 percent lower than that of its European rivals, Pratt & Whitney appears to be on the verge of losing a $3.6 billion contract to power a new Airbus military transport, ratcheting up transatlantic tension over fair trade.
[snipped, rerun from 5/6/2003]
#1
Paul - yes the DoD is looking at replacing the twin nacelles and twin TF-33s with single C-17 engines (total of 4 of the C-17's veruss 8 of the older TF-33). Cuts engine maint by as much as 3/4 (half as many engines, and more modern so better maint). Also reduces weight and wingload. Plus 4 of those engines deliver more thrust than 8 of the old ones with better fuel economy - means the Buffs fly faster, farther, carry more and stay airborne longer. Plus lower heat signature.
#2
I read in Aviation Week and Space Tech some time last year that it would make financial sense for the USAF to buy tankers from Airbus and the Euros to buy C-17's. Win-win. Anyone know anything about this?
Posted by: Michael ||
05/08/2003 13:46 Comments ||
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#3
That's what you get for attempting to conduct business with the AOW's. Consider yourself lucky to have learned your lesson BEFORE they reeeally stuck it to you, not after.
#4
If Pratt has to cut it's own throat in order to get the bid, does it really want it? Some victories are pyrrhic. If possible, wait for the dust to settle.
Posted by: Scott ||
05/08/2003 13:51 Comments ||
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A couple of years ago, a proposal was made (by Pratt?) to lease engines out to the USAF for the B-52 fleet, which would increase engine efficiency ( which translates to increased range). I wonder if anyone in the USAF is looking into this again.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 14:19 Comments ||
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Paul - yes the DoD is looking at replacing the twin nacelles and twin TF-33s with single C-17 engines (total of 4 of the C-17's veruss 8 of the older TF-33). Cuts engine maint by as much as 3/4 (half as many engines, and more modern so better maint). Also reduces weight and wingload. Plus 4 of those engines deliver more thrust than 8 of the old ones with better fuel economy - means the Buffs fly faster, farther, carry more and stay airborne longer. Plus lower heat signature.
#7
You know you're getting tired when you see "Pratt Bid..." and think "Brad Pitt... oh no, not another leftie celebrity story!". (Apologies, Brad, if they're due.)
Posted by: Tom ||
05/08/2003 20:19 Comments ||
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Some one hundred activists including the anti-globalization militant Jose Bove demonstrated in the French Channel port of Calais on Tuesday over police treatment of asylum seekers. The protesters said they were angry at the way asylum seekers trying to gain passage to England have been treated by the French authorities since a controversial centre for them was closed last December.
Then again, they're usually angry about something, aren't they?
Since the closure, which was requested by the British government, between 100 and 250 asylum-seekers, many of them Iraqi Kurds and Afghans, have been wandering around Calais, most of them without shelter or means of subsistence. Not an ideal situation, to be sure.
Police have on several occasions detained them, and on April 23 a well-known local activist who had given refuge to many of the refugees was charged with seeking to help smugglers take them across the Channel. Tuesday's protesters visited a food distribution centre for the immigrants in Calais, where they were joined by Danielle Mitterrand, a human rights activist who is the widow of French president Francois Mitterrand. Mitterrand said she had a "feeling of dishonour" at the way the asylum-seekers were being treated.
How many's she got living in her basement?
"They should have a place in which to wash and sleep," she said, while stopping short of calling for the opening of a new shelter like the Red Cross facility shut down at Sangatte, near Calais, late last year. Hopefully they're not planning to open a UN-style "refugee" camp.
Posted by: seafarious ||
05/08/2003 02:42 am ||
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Wait a minute. These folks are in FRANCE and they want asylum in ENGLAND?
Daneille, you should be outraged! How dare they think that England would be a better place to live than la belle France? You and Jose "destroyer of McDonald's" should be pushing hard to find them housing and jobs in France. Show the English bastards how humane you really are!
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/08/2003 4:11 Comments ||
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"Hopefully they're not planning to open a UN-style "refugee" camp."
Speak for yourself. I'd like to see an Ein al-Ha...oh wait, that's what the ghettos of Paris have turned into. Oh well, they won't act until the suicide bombers hit. Even then, who ultimately cares? It's France, their stance on terrorism will cost them greatly in the long run.
Posted by: Brian ||
05/08/2003 7:12 Comments ||
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The only solution for these folks would have been for the French to start shipping the "refugees" through the Chunnel to England. Anything else is wrong.
The French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, was booed and whistled at when he said at the annual conference of one of this country's most important Muslim groups last month that Muslim women would have to go bareheaded when posing for pictures for their identity cards. He did not seem to notice â or perhaps chose to ignore â that a vast majority of the women in the audience were wearing head scarves. A few of them had even swathed their faces in black and hidden their hands under black gloves. And perhaps the law-and-order interior minister can be forgiven for overlooking the shopping bags on sale at a score of kiosks, the ones with the silhouette of a woman wearing a veil and the phrase "I love my veil" in English and Arabic.
In a largely secular continent still trying to come to grips with Islam, France, with its large Muslim population and long colonial history with Algeria, is something of a bellwether. But even here, it is unclear how â or even whether â the tensions between secularism and Muslim piety will be resolved. In a sense, France's center-right government is trying to create a model Muslim citizenry. President Jacques Chirac has spoken about his vision of a "tolerant" Islam. Mr. Sarkozy said recently, "There is no room for fundamentalism at the Republic's table." For them, model Muslims would be French-speaking and law-abiding. They would celebrate the 1905 French law that requires total separation between church and state. They would attend mosques presided over by clerics who are French-trained and avoid politics in their sermons. Model Muslim women would not try to wear head scarves in the workplace; model Muslim girls would not try to wear head scarves to school. Most important, model Muslims would call themselves French first and Muslim second.
The thinking goes something like this: Muslims must be integrated into French society to avoid a culture clash that could contribute to terrorism. So the French government has embarked on a two-pronged strategy that will give Muslims what French leaders call "a place at the table," but monitor and regulate their activities at the same time. This strategy lay behind Mr. Sarkozy's campaign to put together an official Islamic council led by a "moderate," suit-and-tie-wearing mosque rector to interact with the French state. It also underlies Mr. Sarkozy's belief that the only way France can stop radical foreign clerics from preaching on French soil is to create a home-grown variety that identifies more with French culture and tradition. It is the reason French intelligence has assigned operatives to monitor sermons in mosques and prayer centers every Friday.
The idea of the French state regulating a religious community is rooted in Napoleon's bold concordat concluded with the papacy in 1802. While the concordat recognized Catholicism as the "preferred religion" of France, it also forced the pope to accept nationalization of church property in France, gave the state the right to appoint bishops, police all public worship and make the clergy "moral prefects" of the state. A few years later, the French state sought to transform the Jewish population into better French citizens by controlling their behavior, going so far as to propose briefly that every two marriages between Jews be matched by a marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew.
But in an era in which the French state enjoys less and less direct control over its citizenry, transforming a Muslim population into an ideal citizenry may be too much of a stretch. "It is very difficult to say it openly but this is a very troubling situation, a crossroads," said Pierre Birnbaum, professor of politics and philosophy at the Sorbonne and author of "The Idea of France." "The state, which is no longer the center of the nation, may not be in a position to rule on religion from above," he said. "It may not have the power to integrate."
France is home to about five million Muslims, about 7 percent of the population. But that figure is hopelessly unreliable because under French law, people are not officially counted, polled or classified according to religion. Officials say they do not know whether there are any Muslims among France's 577 members of the National Assembly, although a Muslim cultural organization affiliated with the Paris Mosque says there are none. There are no Muslim ministers, although there are two Muslim state secretaries, one for long-term development, another for veterans affairs.
The driving force behind France's campaign to make its Muslim citizens more French is to curb political radicalism and terrorism, both inside and outside the country. The problem is that mainstreaming Muslims into European society does not necessarily translate into an embrace of European ideals. France â like the rest of Europe â was stunned when the perpetrator of a suicide bombing in Israel late last month was identified as Asif Hanif, a 21-year-old middle-class Briton of South Asian origin. Another Briton, Omar Khan Sharif, the 27-year-old son of a successful businessman originally from Kashmir, reportedly fled the scene. Both came from comfortable, Westernized suburban neighborhoods.
The French are aware as well of the power of a protest leader like Dyab Abou Jahjah, the Lebanese-born son of university teachers, who speaks five languages and founded an Arab pride movement for immigrants in Belgium. He demands affirmative action in schools, the workplace and housing, and calls assimilation "cultural rape." So even as France struggles to "integrate," as French officials call it, its Muslim population, the nightmare is that the strategy may fail. Radicalism and terrorism sometimes may have less to do with religion and more to do with an overwhelming sense of alienation and rage linked to economic and political realities, like discrimination, joblessness and the open-ended war between Israel and the Palestinians.
Posted by: Omer Ishmail ||
05/08/2003 12:27 am ||
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keep on dreaming my heart bleeds for the french. ha.
#2
I seem to recall hearing 11,000 Frankislamofascists jeer Sarkozy - the human doormat who manages homeland affairs for the pre-plucked gallicians - when he addressed them on the patriotics of un-veiled women.
#3
I see they managed to squeeze blame for the JEEWWWSS into the last sentance. And to think I was under the impression this article was about France's efforts to integrate Muslims into their society.
#5
Maybe we could start with a Citizenry of Model Frenchmen. Oxymoron Alert!
Moveable arms and legs! High strength plastic! Very high detail to say nothing of being physically correct! Collect the entire set! New models every month! New bobble-head versions available!
Posted by: john ||
05/08/2003 10:53 Comments ||
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#6
I am the very model of a modern muslim jihadi,
I've information chemical, koranic, and karate...
#7
Bravo, Penguin! Nice parody of Gilbert & Sullivan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 11:16 Comments ||
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#8
I look forward to the graffiti of the 21st century: Algeria out of France now!
Posted by: Mark IV ||
05/08/2003 11:55 Comments ||
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#9
Shouldn't it be "Muslims Envision a Citizenry of Model Frenchman"? Frogistan
heheheheheheheh
Posted by: g wiz ||
05/08/2003 12:07 Comments ||
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#10
Folks, we are all of good humor and wit, and that is great, but what is happening to France is a free introductory offer of what can happen to anyone's country when the Imams and their flocks want to come into one's country and not assimilate, and the host appeases. We are watching a host being devoured by its parasite. We can say poetic justice for France, but we better be watching our sixes, too.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 14:16 Comments ||
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#11
Al-Aska Paul. (Peace be upon you).
That's my point. They DON'T assimilate. The religion won't allow it. It's their way or no way. And if you don't like it, be prepared to fight for your life because they don't take "no" for an answer very well.
#12
Of course, when the Euros wake up, it'll be a different story. What ever happened to all those Albigensians? How's Jan Huss doing these days? Maybe I'll stop by and ask an Arian bishop, down in Barcelona. He's probably discussing important stuff with the Moriscos right now...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2003 14:56 Comments ||
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#13
Here are some thoughts on assimilation. If a newly (or even relatively newly, i.e., 10-20 years) arrived Arab/Muslim man sends his kids to the local public school, they'll be OK. He sends them to a religious one (like the Universal School at 93rd and Harlem in a Chicago suburb, think is Bridgeview, mosque right next door), watch out. I visited that mosque a decade ago on several occasions and did not like hearing the usual Jew/press/Israel conspiracy theory spiel.
I think, correct me if I'm wrong, this is the mosque Sidi Arnaout has been affiliated with. Mr. Arnaout was charged in 2002 to money laundering/Bosnian/Afghan/met-Osama-long-time-ago shennanigans. Had been under surveillance for several years. Patrick Fitzgerald, the Northern District of Illinois fed prosecutor and prosecutor in NYC of '93 WTC bombers, nailed his ass. Arnaout plea bargained a 20-year sentence after denying everything initially.
OTH, my favorite car mechanic is from Jerusalem and has been here for about 15 years. Was previously in UAE. He's set up a nice business, takes my checks eventhough his policy is not to accept them. His sons all play Little League, love the Cubs and Bears. He prays, fasts during Ramadan, but has calendars all over his shop of some VERY hot-looking chicks straddling tires and hood ornaments. He's OK by me and I got no problem that he's got his own opinions on ME. He was actually happy we took out Baathists. Visiting his shop is my Arab cafe fix.
So, I don't know. It's a tough nut to crack figuring out who's honest and who's not. My suggestion is for Rantburgers to talk to these guys in a friendly way, get to know them and make own judgements.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/08/2003 15:42 Comments ||
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#14
Govt's cannot make a people assimilate, this is done at the culture/social level. There thousands of muslims who live happy and propersous lifes in the US. Why because our govt does not force people to something they are not. These people are welcomed by the communites they live and end up being decent, hard working people who just happen to read the Koran instead of the bible. Is this the case 100% of the time , no but you do not hear any stories of people who have lived here for years going on suicide missions.
Posted by: Dan ||
05/08/2003 18:11 Comments ||
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Hey! Look who's back in Fifth Column! Again!
Madonna has thanked France for its opposition to the Iraqi war, during a private performance for 200 guests of a radio station in Paris. Dressed in a low-cut black top and black glittery trousers, she performed the title track to her album, American Life.The exclusive event, held at the city's Nobel restaurant, lasted 40 minutes. Well, good for you! And, don't worry, nobody back here in the US of A will never hear about this. Just ask Natalie Maines.
But for those not invited to the venue, the concert was broadcast by the radio station live over the internet and to nine European countries. Wow! How lucky can you be!
As she thanked the French for opposing conflict in Iraq, she told fans: "Here in France I feel at home." Well, I think we all have the answer for that...
#4
Another dumb blond (regardless of hair color d'jour), who needs to shut up.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
05/08/2003 14:34 Comments ||
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#5
CC has it right - she's offended Americans, and now the British, and gonna start on the French, all to try and stir interest in her failing career - hang it up - hey there's always an acting career!..oh wait...damn
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 15:04 Comments ||
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#6
"Je veux remercier tout le vous des primates capitulards et tou-jours en quête de fromages."
Posted by: Mike ||
05/08/2003 16:22 Comments ||
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#7
I'd like to see her go to a radio station in Baghdad and talk to a group of Iraqis about her opposition to the war.
Posted by: g wiz ||
05/08/2003 16:38 Comments ||
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#8
Douglas De Bono: I remember the Madonna nude shots from the mid-80's. As I recall, she's definitely no blond.
#9
as they say: the carpet don't match the drapes.
She's made comments inflammatory to anybody who'd listen, then suck-up reversals - it's obvious she's trolling for interest about her "controversy" but not sure how to bring it about without doing the death knell
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 19:50 Comments ||
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#10
People, please! Don't feed the trolls! She just does it for publicity, and the media (and, ahem, others) just rise to the bait every time.
Posted by: eric ||
05/08/2003 20:31 Comments ||
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Bulldog. Are you familiar with this raving maniac?
By Margaret Drabble Wasn't she in the Flintstones?
I knew that the wave of anti-Americanism that would swell up after the Iraq war would make me feel ill. And it has. It has made me much, much more ill than I had expected. My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat like acid reflux, that fashionable American sickness. I now loathe the United States and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world. Jesus, lady. Take a pill, willya?
I can hardly bear to see the faces of Bush and Rumsfeld, or to watch their posturing body language, or to hear their self-satisfied and incoherent platitudes. The liberal press here has done its best to make them appear ridiculous, but these two men are not funny. You got that right. Ask the Taliban and Saddam Hussein how funny they are.
I was tipped into uncontainable rage by a report on Channel 4 News about "friendly fire", which included footage of what must have been one of the most horrific bombardments ever filmed. I think she tends to exaggerate.And she appears to be a just a teeny bit high strung.
Is she gonna come down with the vapors? Ethel! Get the salts!
But what struck home hardest was the subsequent image, of a row of American warplanes, with grinning cartoon faces painted on their noses. Cartoon faces, with big sharp teeth. It is grotesque. It is hideous. This great and powerful nation bombs foreign cities and the people in those cities from Disneyland cartoon planes out of comic strips. This is simply not possible. And yet, there they were. A tradition we picked up from the RAF in North Africa in World War Two. That's the Royal Air Force, lady. As in British.
Others have written eloquently about the euphemistic and affectionate names that the Americans give to their weapons of mass destruction: Big Boy, Little Boy, Daisy Cutter, and so forth. You left out "Mother of All Bombs". And it's "Fat Boy", not "Big Boy". Get it right, looney tune.
We are accustomed to these sobriquets; to phrases such as "collateral damage" and "friendly fire" and "pre-emptive strikes". We have almost ceased to notice when suicide bombers are described as "cowards". The abuse of language is part of warfare. Long ago, Voltaire told us that we invent words to conceal truths. More recently, Orwell pointed out to us the dangers of Newspeak. But there was something about those playfully grinning warplane faces that went beyond deception and distortion into the land of madness. A nation that can allow those faces to be painted as an image on its national aeroplanes has regressed into unimaginable irresponsibility. A nation that can paint those faces on death machines must be insane. Again, lady. We got this from the RAF. The insane Royal Air Force. I believe they work for you. If you look not so hard, you could probably find a few of their aircraft decorated in a similar fashion.
There, I have said it. I have tried to control my anti-Americanism, remembering the many Americans that I know and respect, but I can't keep it down any longer. I detest Disneyfication, I detest Coca-Cola, I detest burgers, I detest sentimental and violent Hollywood movies that tell lies about history. I think we'll get by without your support. It'll be hard , but I think we'll survive. We got plenty of our own nuts over here.
I detest American imperialism, American infantilism, and American triumphalism about victories it didn't even win.
"I detest technology. I detest innovation. I detest convenience. I detest personal freedom. I detest the fact that an American can be born in a shack and rise to be respected and admired. I detest that these people find it in their hearts to help and protect others..."
On April 29, 2000, I switched on CNN in my hotel room and, by chance, saw an item designed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war. The camera showed us a street scene in which a shabby elderly Vietnamese man was seen speaking English and bartering in dollars in a city that I took to be Ho Chi Minh City, still familiarly known in America by its old French colonial name of Saigon."The language of Shakespeare," the commentator intoned, "has conquered Vietnam." I did not note down the dialogue, though I can vouch for that sentence about the language of Shakespeare. But the word "dollar" was certainly repeated several times, and the implications of what the camera showed were clear enough. The elderly Vietnamese man was impoverished, and he wanted hard currency. The Vietnamese had won the war, but had lost the peace. Just leave Shakespeare and Shakespeare's homeland out of this squalid bit of revisionism, I thought at the time.
Kinda bugs you that Vietnam's still a socialist paradise, doesn't it?
Little did I then think that now, three years on, Shakespeare's country would have been dragged by our leader into this illegal, unjustifiable, aggressive war. We are all contaminated by it. Not in my name, I want to keep repeating, though I don't suppose anybody will listen. Oh, we'll listen, lady. If you scream loud enough, we don't have a choice.
America uses the word "democracy" as its battle cry, and its nervous soldiers gun down Iraqi civilians when they try to hold street demonstrations to protest against the invasion of their country. So much for democracy. (At least the British Army is better trained.) Yeah, so much for democracy. Saddam would never do anything like this.
Thought we went over there to pot a few Baathists? If they line up in the streets, hollering and making faces, well, what's the harm?
America is one of the few countries in the world that executes minors. Well, it doesn't really execute them — it just keeps them in jail for years and years until they are old enough to execute, and then it executes them. It administers drugs to mentally disturbed prisoners on Death Row until they are back in their right mind, and then it executes them, too.
Yep. In some parts of America, anyway. We put 'em down like dogs...
...and they will never murder anyone else again.
They call this justice and the rule of law. America is holding more than 600 people in detention in Guantánamo Bay, indefinitely, and it may well hold them there for ever. Guantánamo Bay has become the Bastille of America. They call this serving the cause of democracy and freedom. I keep writing to Jack Straw about the so-called "illegal combatants", including minors, who are detained there without charge or trial or access to lawyers, and I shall go on writing to him and his successors until something happens. This one-way correspondence may last my lifetime. I suppose the minors won't be minors for long, although the youngest of them is only 13, so in time I shall have to drop that part of my objection, but I shall continue to protest. That's good, lady. It's good to have a hobby. Maybe you can adopt a couple of them and they can come live with you?
A great democratic nation cannot behave in this manner. But it does. I keep remembering those words from Nineteen Eighty-Four, on the dynamics of history at the end of history, when O'Brien tells Winston: "Always there will be the intoxication of power⊠Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever." We have seen enough boots in the past few months to last us a lifetime. Iraqi boots, American boots, British boots. Enough of boots. ...one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.
I hate feeling this hatred. I have to keep reminding myself that if Bush hadn't been (so narrowly) elected, we wouldn't be here, and none of this would have happened. There is another America. Long live the other America, and may this one pass away soon. It's that Evil Bush again! Bring back Billy and Jimmah and that other America? No thanks,lady.
Posted by: tu3031 ||
05/08/2003 07:47 am ||
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#1
America uses the word "democracy" as its battle cry, and its nervous soldiers gun down Iraqi civilians when they try to hold street demonstrations to protest against the invasion of their country. So much for democracy. (At least the British Army is better trained.)
Two words, Margaret: Bloody Sunday
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 10:14 Comments ||
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#2
Who the F. is she? Lady, 25 million Iraqis have a hope now. It won't be easy and there have been/are/will be hurt feelings and mistakes made as reconstruction moves forward. You didn't see your precious Commie Party of Iraq demonstrating on May 1? Notice, guys, she didn't mention the Iraqi Antiquities scandal. Then to compare us to "1984". Lady, the guy who was in power was the one who promulgated that horror. Orwell would take you down so quickly in a debate, you're head would come off. He's a favorite of mine, and I know how he'd feel re Iraq/Saddam. If you don't believe me, just hope you have a conversation with Chris Hitchens, a legit, published Orwell expert.
Let's look at the numbers. Mark Steyn has said it so well. What damage and death the war has cost so far does not in any way compare to the numbers of even 6 months of Iraq in Saddam days. And we won't go back to those days, anyhow. Yeah, baby, the USA and friends are responsible for it. I'm proud.
I used to be a liberal; now I'm a thinker. This wacko lady is all emotion. She obviously has no contact with Iraqis on the ground, just probably the Archbishop of Canterbury dude.
Posted by: michael ||
05/08/2003 10:19 Comments ||
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#3
Pity, poor woman can't afford her meds now that her bonus checks from Sadaam have ceased. She looks just like you would expect her to. Heh heh. http://www.artandculture.com/arts/artist?artistId=1238
One of her philosophies: "The human mind can bear plenty of reality but not too much intermittent gloom."
Ironic for a woman who clearly can't handle reality and wallows in gloom.
#4
"...that fashionable American sickness" sums it all up pretty nicely, I think. Emotional, naive, inaccurate, full of pithy yet unwarranted wisdoms. Typical leftie diatribe. But you've got to hand it to her - she's refreshingly open about her problem. Good fisking, tu3031, but she did half the job herself.
I don't know anything about her, but you can read her bio on her website. She seems to be a failed actress-turned prodigious, though obscure, author. She should try writing comedy.
#9
Oh that other America, candlelight vigils, workshops, sit-ins, virtual protests, voices that must be heard. Hey lady it gets worse, in this state (WA) it's click it or ticket, we mean it, seatbelts save lives.
#10
I'll second that FormerLiberal.
And what the hell is she talking about when she says painting faces on warplanes goes beyond deception? Does this dumb gash really think the U.S. army is trying to disguise a bomber squadron, or a swarm of friggin Apaches as cartoon caracters?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/08/2003 10:59 Comments ||
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#11
If it weren't for the thousands of American combat aircraft during the 1940's (along with other types of American combat equipment) painted with cartoons, Goofy here would be speaking German and citing passages from Mein Kampf, rather than talking about '1984'.
I suppose she finds Disneyland Paris an abomination (like many French parents with children who love Mickey Mouse).
#12
She rages because America executes 'children.' Looks like a 16 year-old murderer is a 'child' in her eyes. Fair enough. Britain's Labor Party, under pressure from homosexuals who must have needed access to younger meat, lowered the age of consent for sodomy to 16 a few years ago. That means that HER country and HER party legally allows homosexual acts with children. Geez, I could really hate a place like that...
Posted by: Ned ||
05/08/2003 11:58 Comments ||
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#13
tu3031: Just a footnote. Weren't Chanute's Flying Tigers in China the first to decorate their noses? Or had things already heated up in NA? I guess we're talking 1940 for both forces, in any case. The important thing is those painted noses are still beautiful to see 60 some odd years later.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/08/2003 12:25 Comments ||
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#17
It's interesting, and a measure of the left's Goebbels-inspired duplicity, to see a British trotskyite hate-monger try to invoke her subculture's greatest and most successful opponent, George Orwell.
#18
Mike: Here you go... In describing the genesis of the name "Flying Tigers" and the group's insignia, Chennault says:
... The insignia we made famous was by no means original with the A.V.G. Our pilots copied the shark-tooth design on their P-40's noses from a colored illustration in the India Illustrated Weekly depicting an R.A.F. squadron in the Libyan Desert with shark-nose P-40's.
Also, it's not "Fat Boy", it's "Fat Man". That one's on me.
#19
"Margaret should marry Michael Moore." What do you think there offspring would be like? My quess is some combination of George Galloway and Howard Dean.
#21
Who the hell is this person. No matter what the US does it will not be good enough for this one - her anti-americanism distorts her vision of the world. Isn't sad when everyone has to see the world through the United States. She also ends with saying if Bush wasn't elected none of this would of happened. What world is this person in - does she think the people of US just do as we are told! No president could ignore the changed world (at least from the American perspective) Dem or Rep without feeeling the wrath of the american people. Listen we were attacked and not just by a bunch of sods out for weekend outing. Terrorist do not operate without support of nations and Iraq, during the 90's, did support terrorism. Be it alqeda ( or however you spell this shit) or another group terrorism is going to met with the full force of the United States. These countries really messed up thinking that we would never do anyting. If 9-11 never happened the status quo would still be, the tally's would still be there, saddam would still be there and these liberal aholes would find another issue to badger the big bad ugly americans! Screw them, if you play with fire expect fire in return. This culture that has grown in the Middle East that it is ok to kill americans is going to stop - either by talking or by the bullet- but it is going to stop! I just thank god we have a president who looks after the interest of the US and not he rest of the world (or young interms). It's interesting the last US president who was called a 'Cowboy' was Reagan - he brought the Soviets to their knee's and cowed Libya into thinking twice about hitting us. We need more Regans and Bush's - if you do not like well you can go to hell.
Dan
A patriot.
Posted by: Dan ||
05/08/2003 13:25 Comments ||
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#22
Time for someone to up their dosage.
Sheesh, I hope the old gal feels better after she's vented cause for every reasonable point there were ten unreasonable ones.
And where do the Brits get off complaining about American food? I suspect no one ever forced this gal to eat at McD's or Burger Sling.
#24
Marks for technical merit:
1.1 , 1.3 , 1.0 , 5.9 , 6.0
Marks for presentation:
5.5 , 5.8 , 5.5 , 6.0 , 6.0
(the last two judges were French & N.Korean respectively)
#26
Liberalhawk: How Hitchens would describe himself today would be interesting. I saw him carve up some academics like I never saw before on Charlie Rose several months ago re Iraq/Saddam. BTW, has he been on TV recently, since beginning of war, anywhere? I haven't seen him at all, but I work nights and don't have cable.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/08/2003 15:50 Comments ||
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#27
Would they name their estate Drabblemoore?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2003 16:00 Comments ||
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#28
Drabble and Whatshername from the east coast that can't stand the USA should become roomies in Costa Rica. They have alot in common, but Drab seems to have some more fire in her belly.....ah...yuuuk!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 16:22 Comments ||
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#29
Best of the Web had her bio w/ comments (of course)
Dementia Watch
"Lonely pregnancies, jealous sisters, fears of physicality, and loss of identity are Margaret Drabble's specialties," according to the novelist's bio on the Art and Culture Network Web site. That may explain why she's so addled when it comes to the world around her. For some reason London's Daily Telegraph has seen fit to publish an essay in which Drabble describes her allegedly war-induced psychosomatic symptoms:
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 19:03 Comments ||
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#30
She's just a narrow-minded bigotted little racist.
Don't worry the left are so full of bitterness that they lost (ie: didn't get to undemocratically control the actions of our elected leaders) but also humiliated (ie: were blatantly proved wrong by that happy crowd dancing on Saddam's statue) that now they have turned even more venomous (if possible) stewing on their hate.
They will turn to personal attack.
What they cannot win by political debate they will try through the back-door of dirty politics to destroy people's reputations personally.
Witness: Livingstone's abuse of Bush
Witness: The Australian Lefts gunning for the Governor General in an attrocious smear campaign (because if they get him sacked, Howard will be smeared by association).
Lucky Blair is head of the Left: they cannot organise against him quite so viciously as he's one of their own.
#31
If you've ever had the misfortune of eating a Wimpy Burger, you cannot really appreciate Micky-D's or Burger King. I believe the Brits could foul up boiling water. Obviously, this "lady" needs a huge reality-fix. Wonder if she could survive it...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/08/2003 21:04 Comments ||
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#32
Old Patriot, that's uncalled for. Our cooking skills aren't necessarily that bad. I, personally, have (pleasantly surprised) Italian friends who would testify to that!
Frank G, the Best of the Web peice wonders why the Telegraph published Drabble's article - I think that's pretty clear. Although the Telegraph (or Torygraph as it's sometimes known) is a right-wing paper at heart, it has inputs from left-wing writers auch as Drabble. Drabble's opinions, though they may occasionally sound surprising to you, are absolutely typical of many in this country and many more abroad. They are, as I said before, emotional, maive, inaccurate etc. and yet are held firmly. It would be amusing if this were one lone idiot crying to the world, but she is just one of many. This is the kind of mindset we, and the average Telegraph reader, are up against. She encapsulates and exemplifies he mental aptitude of your average leftie. Know thine enemy!
EFL, well worth reading in full. Zuhair Mahmoud was an Iraqi nuclear scientist before his religious conversion. Now he runs a theological school in Burgundy, training imams for a 'lost generation' of young Muslims in France.
In this unlikely bucolic setting, the European Institute for Human Sciences has operated since 1990. Despite its name, it is a theological college whose aim is to train up imams and religious scholars capable of representing a modern Islamic society emerging across the continent. Snipped...Beautiful rolling hills, enlightened scholarship, etc. etc.
However not all French Muslims are happy with the growing influence of the UOIF and its training institute in the Burgundy hills. For the Islam it promotes is unmistakeably traditionalist, and the UOIF is itself linked to the the originally Egyptian movement, the Muslim Brotherhood.
Slightly different take on them in this posting from a couple weeks ago...
Posted by: seafarious ||
05/08/2003 02:49 am ||
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"and the tiny hamlets of honeyed stone"
Gosh! It just sounds.... too good to be true! The enlightened nuclear scientist who saves the world through peace, love and tolerance.
Hmmm....oh that it would be true! I want to believe and it certainly is a noble goal. But...sniff, sniff (actually you don't need to sniff, with that pesky relationship to the Muslim brotherhood, the smell is overwhelming) this is pure unadulterated propaganda.
Someone take note, this is an interesting new and improved tactic.
#2
heh, heh...kind of like an mutant scene out of Toy Story this. Cute, inanimate theologians by day.... evil nuclear scientists, fiendishly plotting world destruction, by night.
#3
not to be a thread hog...but I just realized (I'm a little slow sometimes) that this is just another preemptive action. Let see...hmmm... nuclear scientists being educated just "a few kilometres (miles) from the town of Château-Chinon, political fiefdom of the late Socialist president François Mitterrand".
Man...the stuff that is spilling out just keeps getting better and better.
#4
That article was posted a couple of weeks ago, on www.fuckfrance.com That website has disappeared, as have 20 other anti-jihadi sites in France. Maudits!
This isn't out of the side of their mouth they were using to talk to Armitage, I guess...
IRNA - Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali has vowed to continue the country's political, moral and diplomatic support for the Kashmiris struggle to achieve right of self-determination. He was talking to six-member delegation of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) headed by Syed Yousaf Naseem who called on him at the Prime Minister's House on Wednesday evening. APHC delegation appreciated the efforts of Prime Minister Jamali in taking initiative to open up meaningful dialogue with Indian leadership and hoped that this would help in resolving all outstanding issues between the two countries, including the core issue of Kashmir. The delegation thanked the Prime Minister for extending support for Kashmir cause and reiterated the resolve to continue their struggle for achieving freedom and seeking solution to Kashmir issue ccording to United Nation's resolutions, according to official news agency, APP. "The Prime Minister paid glowing tributes to the sacrifices rendered by Kashmiri people for achieving freedom and expressed the confidence that their sacrifices would not go waste", the news agency said.
"But, nope, nope, we ain't got no camps on our side o' the border. Nope. And we ain't sendin' no gunnies to kill the heathen Hindoo. Nope..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 04:29 pm ||
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IRNA -- Pakistan has urged the Commonwealth to restore its membership of the 54-nation body, which was suspended after the October 1999 bloodless military coup, the foreign ministry said Wednesday. The issue came under discussion during a telephone conversation between Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri and Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon yesterday. Kasuri told McKinnon that democracy had been restored in Pakistan, which held elections in October last year leading to the induction of a civilian government headed by Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali, the statement said. "It was now the expectations of the government of Pakistan that Pakistan will be able to return to the Commonwealth," Kasuri said. "It was for the Commonwealth to do the right thing for Pakistan now."
What the hell? If Zim-Bob-We's in, why not Pakland?
"The two leaders agreed to remain in touch and felt that it was important that Pakistan return to the Commonwealth at an early date," the statement said, without explicitly stating McKinnon's reaction to Pakistan's appeal.
I think that means he said he'd get back to them on that...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 04:14 pm ||
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Islamabad has ruled out the existence of any camps in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir training Kashmiris fighting Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. Speaking at a news conference following his talks with Pakistani officials, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said President Pervez Musharraf has given him an "absolute assurance that there is nothing happening across the Line of Control." He added that Musharraf told him there were no militant training camps in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, as India alleges and that "if there were camps they would be gone tomorrow."
All I can think is that they're giving Perv plenty of rope to hang himself. The statement's laughable on its face...
Pakistan has always denied existence of such camps and ruled out any role in anti-India movement going on in Kashmir since late 80s. Armitage, who held separate sessions with Musharraf, Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali and the foreign minister during his two-day visit, acknowledged that cross border infiltration into Indian-controlled Kashmir was going down. "The infiltration and the cross-border violence and the lethality are down from this time last year," he told the news conference.
On the other hand, if some goober with a turban is in the process of cutting off your head, you don't really care that not as many heads were cut off this year as last, do you?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 02:30 pm ||
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Two American soldiers have been killed in separate attacks in Baghdad. And at least one other soldier was injured when a US vehicle hit an explosive in part of the city believed to have been cleared of land mines.
In the first shooting attack, an unidentified Iraqi walked up to a soldier on a bridge and opened fire with a pistol, apparently at close range. Senior US Army officers in Baghdad say the soldier, whom they did not identify, belonged to the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment. US forces say they trade fire with armed Iraqis almost daily across the country.
In a separate attack, a US Army 3rd Infantry Division soldier was killed when a sniper shot him in the head in east Baghdad, says Captain Tom Bryant, spokesman for the Army's V Corps, which is based at Baghdad's airport. He had no further details. Earlier, an American Humvee hit a "probable land mine" in a road near Baghdad's airport, Bryant says.
Hizb ut-Tahrir is present in Iraq, and it strongly struggled against the man-made systems in its work to re-establish the Khilafah, where it was subject, in that process to severe harm, harassment, imprisonment, torture and martyrdom (shahaadah).
I think that means they were Sammy's omnipresent, most determined opposition, fighting against his regime 24 hours a day. We just never noticed. Prob'ly a deep-laid conspiracy or something...
It is still present and undertakes the Daâwah. Hizb ut-Tahrir warmly calls you to stand with it and work with it; it reminds the influential people from amongst the army and outside the army, of the times when they used to respond to the call to support it in establishing the Khilafah. They would answer by saying they were afraid of the loss of their life if they worked for the Khilafah due to the repression of the tyrants. They knew then, if they were killed it would have been fee sabeelillah (in the path of Allah), with one of two happy endings; victory or martyrdom (shahaadah).
Or maybe only one happy ending...
Let them witness today how the lives are lost and the blood flows, but not fee sabeelillah and without victory or martyrdom (shahaadah). Why donât they heed the lesson from what took place in the past, so they rush to the support (nusrah) of Hizb ut-Tahrir and re-establishing the Khilafah?
I presume this kind of message makes more sense in Arabic than it does in English. Otherwise it become obvious they're not crazy, it's just that their language makes no sense, so they can't think coherently. A semanticist's nightmare would be an engineering manual written in this sort of language...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 02:49 pm ||
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#1
I don't know. I read it and...nah, I got nothin'. Maybe it makes more sense in Korean?
A "special" Iraqi tribunal could be set up to try toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, if caught, and members of his regime for crimes against the Iraqi people, a top U.S. law official. "There is a broad consensus that crimes against the Iraqi people be handled by Iraqi justice," said Clint Williamson, the senior U.S. advisor to Iraq's justice ministry.
Recipe for rabbit stew: First, catch a rabbit...
"We think the Iraqis should have the lead on that," Williamson said of the prosecution of the 55 top Iraqi officials on Washington's most-wanted list with Saddam as the ace of spades. "Prosecution involving crimes on a large scale will immobilise the system for years. So we need to set up some sort of special arrangements to deal with it. It has to be clarified and the details have to be determined, but it will probably take place within the broad premises of the Iraqi justice."
Does that mean they're gonna cut Sammy's ears off and then feed him into a shredder?
Asked about the chances of trying former Iraqi officials in local courts, Iraqi judge Ibrahim Malik al-Hindawi said "Iraqi law is applicable to all Iraqis, whatever their position."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 01:50 pm ||
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Doctors have reported 17 confirmed cases of cholera in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) fears many more have gone unreported. Initial cases were discovered in children under the age of four and doctors fear an outbreak of the disease is occurring throughout the city. More samples have been sent to a laboratory in Kuwait for confirmation, and final results are expected by tomorrow. Health experts have been warning of the potential for a large outbreak of cholera given the shortage of clean water and the lack of sanitation in southern Iraq. this is the short text of actual news that is useful from the website. On their TV program they added a great deal of editorial (clearly I can't show you as it was broadcast) that implied that the US protected the oil fields instead of the hospitals and exaggerated the looting, providing no actual figures or facts on that, despite the publication on 05/05 of the independant survey quoted in the WAPO that indicated US tanks protected many hospitals and only 7/27 were looted. Is there any way legal action can be taken (eg: unsubstantiated defamation) by the US consulate against biased propaganda of this nature?
Posted by: Anon1 ||
05/08/2003 04:22 am ||
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#1
broadcast was on SBS nightly news, in Sydney Australia.
#2
They're running out of crying children in hospital beds to film for the "news". Hey, we heard there were a dozen kids with the runs in Basra, lights...camera...DOWN WITH EVIL AMERICA.
Last nights BBC was 50% crying children. That includes the reporters and anchors.
EFL
The US envoy to Iraq, the former general Jay Garner, promised yesterday that committed members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party would be weeded out, after mounting protests over their being allowed jobs in the country's new administration. Hundreds of Iraqi doctors held a demonstration in the centre of the city at lunchtime against the US appointment of Ali Shnan al-Janabi as head of the health ministry. He was number three in the ministry during Saddam's regime. The doctors chanted: "New clean era. New clean figures." One of them, Imad Saud, a resident surgeon in cardiothoracic medicine, said that before the war Mr Janabi had been a faithful servant of Saddam. "How can we trust him?" He's got a point there.
The US and British are finding "de-Baathification" of Iraq more difficult than expected. To get the country up and running they are having to turn to people with administrative and technical experience, even though these same people occupied senior positions in Saddam's regime. Defending the policy, Gen Garner, who leads the coalition's Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, said: "Like most other totalitarian regimes, most of the people that worked in running the country were part of the party. Some were good, some were bad. You bring everybody back and you can sort out who was good and who was bad and then you jug the bad ones and try them for crimes against humanity. It takes time."
The US yesterday appointed as governor of the province that includes Tikrit, Saddam's stronghold, Brigadier-General Hosin Jasem Mohamed al-Jbouri. Nahad Gaze Ahmed al-Nasere, a former Iraqi airforce colonel, was appointed deputy governor. Both men signed statements renouncing any loyalty to the Baath party. But Major-General Tim Cross, the British deputy head of ORHA, insisted that some members of the former regime had already been blocked from participating in a new government. "At the ministry of planning, some of the senior leadership ... are being asked to go home and take extended leave," Gen Cross said. "And we're even providing a home for them on a former military base!"
Ummm... How soon's the Ministry of Planning going to be disbanded? I've noticed that countries without them seem to get along better than countries with them. Only think I could think of that'd be worse for Iraq would be a Department of Islamic Planning...
As well as the doctors, opposition parties have lodged protests over the policy of appointing former Baathists. Zaab Sethna, a spokesman for one of the main exile groups, the US-backed Iraqi National Congress, said: "We have cautioned against Baathists being used and made our views known to ORHA in no uncertain terms." He was especially scathing about the British government, which he accused of bringing back prominent Ba'ath party members in the southern city of Basra, which is under the control of British forces. Mr Sethna said: "If the US and British find themselves in the position of protecting Baathists, this is folly. It is the surest way to spawn anti-Western sentiment... Senior, middle and junior people who worked for the former regime will have to be looked at on a case by case basis. It has to be Iraqis who do this. The US and British can't identify them." So, okay, get on with making a list.
In the Shia rising after the 1991 war in the Gulf, many Ba'athists in the south were hung from lampposts. Good idea.
But there have been few revenge attacks this time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2003 01:12 am ||
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it has to be iraqis who do this - which means it has to wait till we've settled on which Iraqis will be in charge.
Few revenge attacks this time - has got to be one of the most underplayed stories of the war. Aside from quagmire fixation, the biggest fear of the idiotarians from Fisk on down was that the aftermath would involve a revenge bloodbath leading to civil war. That hasnt happened - thats why the frustrated antis have been grabbing at straws, like the looting.
U.S. forces in Iraq have found a trailer built by the toppled government of President Saddam Hussein as a mobile biological weapons laboratory. Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone stopped short of calling the big truck a 'smoking gun' proving U.S. charges that Iraq produced weapons of mass destruction, telling reporters that sophisticated production equipment had been found inside the vehicle but no germ agents. It was the first time U.S. officials have said they have found firm evidence of such an Iraqi weapons program, which was cited before the war as a justification for the invasion to oust Saddam.
The trailer was found on April 19 in northern Iraq and will soon be taken apart and minutely examined in Baghdad, Cambone told a Pentagon briefing. 'While some of the equipment on the trailer could have been for purposes other than biological weapons agent production, U.S. and U.K. tactical experts have concluded that the unit does not appear to perform any function beyond ... the production of biological agents,' he said. Cambone said the 'mobile production facility,' painted military green, was similar to 18 that the United States believes the former Iraqi government built. He said the vehicle was taken over by U.S. forces at a Kurdish checkpoint near the town of Tall Kayf. It was found on a heavy-equipment transporter typically used for carrying tanks, he said.
Navy Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told reporters Iraqi sources have said three types of biological weapons were produced in such mobile laboratories: anthrax, botulism and staphylococcus. But Cambone said the trailer 'has had a very caustic substance washed through it,' perhaps ammonia, and that no agents or components were found in initial inspections.
Aboard the trailer was equipment that can be used to make biological weapons — living microorganisms or biological toxins used deliberately to spread disease — including a fermenter that could help produce germ warfare agents, he said. Other equipment included gas cylinders to supply clear air for agent production and a system to capture and compress exhaust gases to evade detection of weapons production. 'As time goes by and the more we learn, I'm sure we're going to discover that the WMD programs are as extensive and as varied as the secretary of state (Colin Powell) reported in his February address (to the United Nations),' Cambone said. 'We are poring through documents, we are talking to people, and more of this is going to come to the surface as time goes by. It is a tough, laborious process.'
Cambone said the truck was very similar to those described by an Iraqi defector who has helped U.S. officials understand the Iraqi weapons program. That information was used by Powell when he described the alleged mobile weapons labs to the U.N. Security Council in an unsuccessful February attempt to win approval from the world body for the subsequent U.S.-led invasion. U.S. officials have accused the Iraqis of using mobile laboratories to produce germ warfare agents amid ongoing international inspections to avoid detection and to get weapons near to where they would be used. Iraq agreed after the 1991 Gulf War to give up any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs. Cambone said that U.S. forces and experts had so far gone to about 110 sites in Iraq suspected of being associated with weapons of mass destruction and still had hundreds more to inspect.
Posted by: Omer Ishmail ||
05/08/2003 12:15 am ||
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This means they do have WMD, so we can't lift sanctions!
U.S. Customs agents, working with military and museum experts at the National Museum in Baghdad, have recovered nearly 40,000 manuscripts and about 700 artifacts, government officials announced in Washington Wednesday, leaving perhaps only a few dozen key pieces missing. The museum was looted after the city fell to U.S.-led forces last month, but there has been disagreement since then about how many and what kinds of items were taken. U.S. officials believe some valuable pieces were taken by professional thieves.
Agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs (ICE) said that so far they have photos and documentation to confirm only 38 items from the museum are still missing. Although they suspect additional pieces may have been stolen, they declined to speculate on the scope of the additional uncatalogued items that may have been looted. Officials from ICE, newly created as part of the Department of Homeland Security, said many of the missing items had been stored for safekeeping in hidden storage vaults within the museum before the war. Other items had been returned after public promises of amnesty and rewards.
Agents said they have found evidence that certain select high-value pieces had been stolen. Officials from a U.S. government delegation, which just returned to Washington from an Interpol conference on the missing antiquities in Lyon, France, this week, said the number of missing artifacts was never mentioned in their meetings. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who led the group, vowed to help the global effort to recover missing items, but did not mention any numbers or refer to the scope of the Baghdad museum thefts.
The Justice Department officials said their best information continues to be that whatever the scope, the thefts were organized, not the result of random crime. "From the evidence that has emerged, there is a strong case to be made that the looting and theft of the artifacts was perpetrated by organized criminal groups," Ashcroft said Tuesday at the Lyons conference. Expanding on those comments, ICE agents Wednesday said there was no apparent sign of forced entry to the storage sites, and the doors were locked when investigators arrived. Agents said they broke through a cinder-block barrier in the basement to find a room with hundreds of cardboard and plastic boxes containing thousands of the less valuable items that had been reported missing. A similar box filled with such items was recovered last week near Kut in southern Iraq, said officials who believe the intruders are attempting to move the remaining missing artifacts out of Baghdad.
Posted by: Omer Ishmail ||
05/08/2003 12:02 am ||
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Sir, it appears to be an inside job! What should we do?
EFL
A Muslim cleric, flanked by about 100 cheering followers dressed all in white, went on trial for ordering his stick-wielding followers to trash nightclubs and bars that offended his Islamic sensibilities. "There's too much fun going on!" Habib Rizieq, the head of the Islamic Defenders Front, has been charged with inciting violence and defaming the state for giving an Oct. 2002 speech in which he encouraged his followers to destroy amusement centers that he said violated Islamic law. Rizieq denied the charges.
"Nope. Wudn't me."
But if convicted, he faces up to six years in jail. After he told the court he was not guilty, the trial was adjourned until Monday. Rizieq is the latest Muslim radical to face justice in the country's efforts to crack down on leaders of a small but vocal radical Islamic movement. Rizieq and his brownshirts gang rose to prominence in 1999, and are seen by some Muslims as the answer to the country's weak or corrupt law enforcement. He claimed to be destroying immoral establishments that were allowed to operate with the support of the police. But detractors claimed he was only doing the bidding of the police, who were angry at establishments that refused to pay protection money. Following the Bali bombings, Rizieq's group briefly disbanded but reformed in February and began recruiting volunteers to fight in the Iraq War. That went well, didn't it?
Hope they had a suitably high casualty rate...
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 08:32 am ||
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MEMRI translation of Qaeda rantings on alneda.com...
"The danger of the Shi'a to the region is no less than that posed by the Jews and the Christians. Throughout Islamic history, the Shi'a helped the Christians and the polytheists in their battles against Muslim countries. The seemingly anti-Jewish and anti-Christian Shi'a hatred is nothing but slogans used to export the Khomeini revolution."
"It's all an act. And all those dead people, they're props..."
According to the article, the Shi'a in Iran developed a five-step plan, each step lasting ten years, to export their revolution to the countries of the region. The plan was devised by the "Shura Council of the Iranian Cultural Revolution," and the article maintained that "whether the plan has been truly hatched by it or not, it does reflect the reality."
Ahah! The obligatory deep-laid plot...
"Since the threat that we face from the naïve leaders who have Sunni roots is much greater than the dangers that we face from the West and the East⊠if we succeed in undermining the entities of these governments by creating discord between the rulers and the clergy, and by hurting businessmen in those countries, and by diverting [capital] from them to our country or to other countries in the world, we would achieve a startling victoryâŠ"
"If we steal all their stuff, then they're powerless, right?"
"We witnessed how the Shi'a clergy in Iraq rushed to open the gates for the Crusaders, and how they cooperated with them in order to control Iraq. At the beginning they issued a Fatwa about the need to fight the enemy who is attacking Muslim countries. [But] this Fatwa was meant for internal consumption and was not implemented in the field, and the Iranian-based Shi'a 'Badr Brigades' did not enter Iraq and did not fire a single bullet in accordance with the Fatwa."
"When the Shi'a realized that the balance is tilting in favor of the Crusaders, they rushed to open the gates for them and to cooperate with them to control most of the southern cities. They reiterated the role of one of their ancestors, Ibn Al-'Alqami, who opened the gates of Baghdad for the Mongols [in 1258]. Nothing is left for the Americans but to thank those Shi'a clergymen for their efforts to assist them in entering the cities and controlling them⊠The Iraqi Shi'a continue to support the enemies, the Crusaders, [and] they inform on the Sunnis [to the Americans] to get them arrested or killed."
Oh, perfidy!
The article also offered several calculations which, it claimed, prove that the Shi'a are not the majority in Iraq, and that such claims are "American propaganda:"
Couldn't possibly be. All you have to do is count the turbans...
"If the Shi'a call for the establishment of a government representing the majority, then this government should be Sunni, because the Sunna are the majority in Iraq. They constitute 68% of all Arabs and non-Arabs. The problem is that this majority, in reality, is an absent majority, because there is not one Sunni country that takes care of them and demands for them their rights.
That doesn't make any sense. Or does that mean they're all off fighting jihad?
The only way the Sunna will be able to restore their legitimate rights is by raising the banner of Jihad against the enemies of the nation and Islam."
If you have jihad and counterjihad, what happens to all the dead guys when they get to Paradise? Are they allowed to get together to play cards and swap doe-eyed virgins? Or do they go to separate ends of Paradise, with djinns and avenging angels to keep them separated?
"In conclusion, the threat of the Shi'a to the nation is equal to the threat posed by the Jews and the Christians. They harbor the same ill-will against the nation, which needs to protect itself from them and from being deceived by them⊠They pose a danger not only to Iraq, but to the whole region. If the Shi'a have influence over Iraq, or if they obtain some kind of autonomy in southern Iraq, they will be so much closer to extending their influence. After all, they exist in considerable numbers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain.
But not the majority. Nope. Nope...
If those Shi'a get organized and if their initiatives get support from countries that sponsor them â Iran, Syria, and Lebanon â it will mean that they have reached advanced stages in their 50-year plan⊠The Muslims should be careful, because the Shi'a do not hesitate to cooperate with the Crusaders and the Jewish enemies [of] the Sunna. The Shi'a believe that the threat of the Sunna and their heresy is greater than the threat posed by the Jews and the Christians. Whoever follows history knows that the Shi'a assisted the enemies of the nation who stabbed her in the back. It suffices that the Shi'a defiled the sanctity of Allah's house and stole the Black Stone [the Ka'ba] for twenty years, before it was brought back to its place. Those who are familiar with the beliefs of the Shi'a can hardly fathom the depth of their evil and hatred. Beware them, Oh Muslims."
They kidnap Sunna babies and sacrifice them. They use the blood to mix with their felafel...
"We also caution against those who advocate befriending the Shi'a. Such [an] approach can only cause further harm to the nation. To get close to the Shi'a is more dangerous than getting close to the Jews, because the animosity of the Jews is well known, while the Shi'a pretend [to be friendly] and deceive the nation⊠How can we approach those who believe that we should curse the followers of the Prophet Muhammad and accuse them of heresy? They, who curse the Prophet's wives and accuse [the Prophet's wife] 'Aisha of prostitution?... If you advocate getting closer to people with such beliefs, then getting closer to Christians is not as bad⊠[N]ot everyone who maintains that he is Muslim is indeed a Muslim, if his deeds completely nullify Islam âŠ"
On the other hand, many people who identify themselves as Muslims, whether Shia or Sunni, seem to be nuts...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 10:12 pm ||
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#1
I'm telling you, Mohhamed, you just can't trust anyone anymore. First Jews, then Christians and now, worst of all, the Shia! And you know what Mohhamed...I'm not so sure about you either.
The official website of Ansar Al-Islam has released an audio message in Arabic describing a successful martyrdom operation by the Mujahideen on the 21st of March 2003 inside a gathering of the American troops and the Jalal Talabani militia that claimed the lives of about 50 of them. The Ansar Al-Islam martyrdom Mujahid who performed the operation is Abdu-Nur who is one of the Arab Mujahedeen who immigrated to Kurdistan recently to fight with the Mujahideen.
One of the Arab mercenaries, 'nother words...
Abul-Hurr's original name is Abd-El-Aziz Ben Mohamed El-Gharbi; he was born in 1982 in the Eastern area of Saudi Arabia.
Where else?
The message sheds light on the details of the last hour before Abul-Hurr martyred; he was sitting with his brother Mujahedeen and left them when they started to eat. When they asked him to eat some desserts with them for the last time, he refused saying "It is a long life if I wait until I eat these desserts". He gave his pair of shoes to his brothers to use them and he hurried to his car that was prepared with explosives and he detonated himself inside the gathering of the enemies of Allah, killing about 50 of them, including an Australian journalist that was known after his death that he had a long history of cooperation with the CIA.
Yeah, yeah. Don't they all?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 02:42 pm ||
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Following appeared in second half of the story on arrest of 19 terrorists in Saudi: Al-Majalla, a sister publication of Arab News, reports that Al-Qaeda is preparing a new attack in the United States on the scale of Sept. 11 after adopting a new operational structure which is impenetrable to US intelligence. âAn attack against America is inevitable,â Al-Majalla quotes the militant networkâs newly appointed spokesman Thabet ibn Qais as saying in an e-mail to the magazine. Al-Qaeda has âcarried out changes in its leadership and sidelined the Sept, 11, 2001 teamâ, the magazine quotes Ibn Qais as saying. âFuture missions have been entrusted to the new team, which is well protected against the US intelligence services. The old leadership does not know the names of any of its members.â
Ibn Qais mocks concerns expressed by Washington about a possible Al-Qaeda attack on its consulate in the Pakistani metropolis of Karachi, saying the networkâs target is the United States itself. âOf course, the US Consulate in Karachi is a US interest and a staging post for Federal Bureau of Investigation personnel in Pakistan, but it doesnât necessarily constitute a pressing target. Striking it is not a priority for Al-Qaeda compared with the plans under way preparing a new attack in the United States on the scale of Sept. 11.â
The purported message from Al-Qaeda scoffed at recent press reports that US agents are hot on the trail of its leader Osama Bin Laden, whose whereabouts have been a mystery since the ouster of his Taleban sponsors in Afghanistan in late 2001. âWe keep our cool in the face of such reports, just as we do when the Americans say they have uncovered new Al-Qaeda plans or arrested our leaders,â Ibn Qais is quoted as saying. With the war over, expect that "racist" profiling in airports and at the borders to get more scrutiny from the press and Hollywood, now that it's no longer needed.
Posted by: Mark IV ||
05/08/2003 08:21 am ||
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I'm flying to D.C. nekt week, and I certainly hope to see some profiling going on at the airport.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/08/2003 13:11 Comments ||
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Haven't we heard this all before? And besides, I've never heard of this new "spokesman". They usually have this Kuwaiti guy make statements like that.
Via Sonic...
One has ordered his forces into battle more times than any other postwar British leader. The other threatens military action against "evil" nations and keeps a scorecard of dead al-Qaida leaders, marking each fatality with an X.
Now, Tony Blair and George Bush have received international recognition for their unswerving willingness to use force: a nomination for the 2002 Nobel peace prize.
Makes a lot of sense to me, not that it'll ever fly...
The prime minister and US president have been jointly nominated for the accolade by a rightwing Norwegian politician who believes their military campaign against terrorism meets Alfred Nobel's criteria that the winner "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses".
Hard to hold a peace congress when you're sitting in the middle of a pile of rubble, isn't it?
Harald Tom Nesvik, who represents the Party of Progress in the Norwegian parliament, said yesterday: "The background for my nomination is their decisive action against terrorism, something I believe in the future will be the greatest threat to peace. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to use force to secure peace."
It's kind a a right-wing thing, I guess â libs wouldn't understand â but, if somebody declares war on you and you do nothing, they're going to win. If you do something, but then stop because you want to be "nice", they'll do something awful to you again. If you keep hitting them and hitting them, until they're eventually pounded into paste, then they're all dead, so there's no fighting left to do. That's called "peace."
Mr Nesvik has nomination rights as a member of a national legislature. The committee keeps the names of nominees secret for 50 years, but those making nominations often make their choice public. The full list of nominees will not be completed until later this month.
Posted by: sonic ||
05/08/2003 07:15 pm ||
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Perspective: Should Bush and Blair demean themselves to accept an award bestowed on Yasser, Jimmy C, and panted after by Bill Clinton? I think not
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 20:24 Comments ||
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#2
Yeah, this'll happen. Hitler will be awarded it posthumously before they'll win it.
#3
Ah, it's a year early.
They disbanded one of the largest armies in the world.
Hundrends of thousands of men dropped their weapons without firing a shot.
"Democrats love to bring up William Bennett. They think it makes up for Bill Clintonâs indiscretions. You know the difference between William Bennett and Bill Clinton. If William Bennett hits on 17, itâs not someoneâs daughter."
A terrorist network led by a Yemeni national planned to kill the US ambassador to Beirut by firing a rocket-propelled grenade into his car in northern Lebanon earlier this year, judicial officials said Thursday. According to AP, the attack never materialized. Three Lebanese newspapers, citing security and other judicial sources, said Thursday the attempt during a visit by US Ambassador Vincent Battle to the northern port city of Tripoli on Jan. 15 was foiled when the envoy's motorcade changed its planned route.
In comments published in the As-Safir newspaper, Prosecutor General Adnan Addoum said the Yemeni national was hiding in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh in southern Lebanon. Judicial and security officials quoted by the leading An-Nahar newspaper Thursday said Khaled Mohammed al-Ali, a leader of a terrorist network suspected of involvement in anti-Western attacks, has provided interrogators with information on the assassination plot. Al-Ali's arrest was announced Sunday.
IRNA -- Government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh Wednesday confirmed that Iran had set up a committee to crack down on those Internet sites which churned out 'immoral' material. "The Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution has assigned a committee in connection with immoral sites and the telecommunications (company) has apparently started taking practical measures against these sites by blocking access to them," he said during a weekly briefing.
"Nope. Nope. Y'can't be lookin' at no titties! They're un-Islamic..."
Press Tuesday quoted state prosecutor Abdonnabi Namazi as saying that the Judiciary was drawing up a bill to probe into Internet offenses amid rising shift to cyber entertainment in a country where more than 60 percent of the youth are aged below 20. The move is part of the Islamic Republic's plans to regulate Internet use and clamp down on cyber-acquaintances and solicitations as well as exposure to offensive material. The Persian daily Jomhuri-ye Eslami quoted a deputy post, telephone and telegraph minister as saying that the telecommunications company had shut down certain Internet sites which were involved in presenting 'immoral as well as political material'. According to the daily, Massoud Davari-Nejad said that the telecommunications company was in negotiations to buy 'special software (equipment) which could professionally put filters on such sites'. "Some of the sites promote immoral issues and are accessible after paying money," he said.
"No more nekkid webcam? Dang. Guess I'll just read my Koran, then..."
"Several other sites ridicule religious and political figures of the country in an obscene manner," the daily quoted him as saying.
Ummm... No more Rantburg, either. Doesn't that tangle your turban?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 04:24 pm ||
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How do you land a gig surfing porn all day? Some shieks have all the luck.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
05/08/2003 17:04 Comments ||
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Sam if I knew I would NOT be a rantburg.com. Except when my arm got tired.
IRNA -- Some 154 members of the parliament on Wednesday called on the Foreign Ministry to adopt active diplomacy to restore relations with the United States as a "deterrent approach" to possible threats. They said in a statement that popularity of the Islamic Republic makes it capable enough to turn the "threats" into "opportunity", adding that dealing with the threats against national security requires active diplomacy to communicate with outside world and explain national goals and democratic agenda of the Islamic Republic to other countries.
Either that, or you could take over the U.S. embassy and hold a few people hostage for awhile. See how it works this time...
The MPs defended their call for restoring relations with the United States as being in line with the national interest and a democratic demand. The MPs urged the Foreign Ministry to push for confidence building in the international scene and help remove any misunderstanding with other nations.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
05/08/2003 04:10 pm ||
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Note: A linchpin of Democrats' strategy is to use Karl Rove as the "strawman" to attack the President. They will paint Rove as being behind every strategic decision from federal offices down to city councils. I've already seen this in South Dakota (in the Daschle-Thune probable match-up), Colorado and elsewhere.
Republicans won their fight to redraw Colorado's congressional districts as lawmakers wrapped up their 2003 session Wednesday, but Democrats vowed the war was far from over. But, I thought Democrats were against war?
"The battle doesn't stop at 12 o'clock (midnight) today," the end of the session, said Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver. "The battle goes into the court. . . . Awfully bellicose coming from an avowed pacifist.
The Senate passed the redistricting bill on a party-line vote of 18-17 at 8:45 p.m. Thirty-four minutes later, the chamber adjourned. The governor is not expected to call a special session. SB 352, the bombshell bill that threw the legislature into turmoil this week, redraws Colorado's seven congressional districts to strengthen the GOP's hold on five of them. Heh, heh
In the House, which passed the bill earlier, Democrats protested by refusing to vote, then holding up masks with the likeness of Republican Rep. Bob Beauprez. Beauprez won the 7th Congressional District seat by only 121 votes in November. Can always count on the Democrats for street theatre and empty gestures.
In the Senate, a tearful minority leader vowed to fight redistricting "with every breath." Sen. Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden, called it "tyranny by the majority," a plan "conceived in darkness and introduced in stealth." Obviously, Joan went to the Senator Bobby Byrd School of flowery and dramatic oratory.
Here it is, the money quote:
She told fellow Democrats she was convinced President Bush's chief adviser, Karl Rove, had a role in the plan. "Absolutely not true," said Sen. Jim Dyer, R-Littleton. "I can vouch for that."
#1
"A linchpin of Democrats' strategy is to use Karl Rove as the "strawman" to attack the President. They will paint Rove as being behind every strategic decision from federal offices down to city councils"
kinda like what the GOP did with Carville. And now the dems are blocking judicial nominations!! Bunch a damned plagiarists, you ask me. Cant they come up with something original instead of always copying the GOP?
#3
Ah-HA!!! It's not the Evil Bush! It's the Even More Evil Rove!
As far as Carville goes? He looks more inbred then a Saudi Arabian Hillbilly. And he is, indeed, Satan.
#4
Carville is Satan? Cheeze. All this time I thought he was Beelzebub...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2003 14:59 Comments ||
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C.C., Fred:
Sorry, guys, but both of you are wrong.
Ever seen The Two Towers?
Remember Gollum?
Now look at a picture of Carville. "Hillary, my Preciousss. Nasssty Republicanssss . . . we hates them, we hates them forever!"
Posted by: Mike ||
05/08/2003 15:41 Comments ||
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Mike,
But what about the smell of brimstone when he walks into the room? I stand by my identification!
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2003 16:02 Comments ||
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#8
O.K. back to the original message. Look for the Democrats to use Karl Rove as part of their campaigns. The thing is that Rove doesn't look the party of the villianous marionette master and from what I read he's actually quite personable and likeable.
#9
Some local background for you all - I live in the district in question.
The redistricting is long past due.
The legislature was obligated to do the redistricting after the census by the state constitution. The Democrats abdicted their responsiblity when they held a 1 vote majority in the state Senate over the past 2 years - mainly in opposition to the Republican house and their plan (which is the one that got passed yesterday). Theu preferring to get their plan instated by judicial fiat of the courts instead of fair voting. They got a liberal judge in Denver who only slightly modified the Democrat plan that makes the 7th Congressional District run along the interstate for 15 miles, then take in urban west Denver neighborhoods.
Why did the judge allow that "gerrmander"? Not to produce representative government or a representative district, but to deliberately and artificially produce an "evenly split" district for the reason of "competitive elections".
Nevermind that the suburban technological area southeast, nor the new businesses near the airport, and the farms out east of there are over 30 minutes wway from the parts of other counties he gerrmandered by way of a 7-8 mile long, 120 foot wide unpopulated swath of elevated interstate. And nevermind that the area he was adding is almost completely unionized blue-collar urban areas to the west of Denver with few concerns that are mutual with the eastern counties where I live. The judge and Dems ignored all that and said they wanted to produce a given outcome ("balanced" 34-33-33 Dem-Repub-Indep) - which they got surprised when a republican won this district.
The judge ignored that the farmers out to the east get shortchanged - urban issues get carried, while things like drought and water rights sit. Heavy industry comes to the forefront instead of things like tax breaks for tech industry that we have here to the east. The very large "Federal Center" was gerrmandered in, meaning those unionized federal employees get more attention than almost the same number of airport and telecom employees.
There is really very little in common between the parts of Jefferson County/lakewood that the judge grafted onto suburban Aurora and the eastern plains of Arapahoe county.
The new districts made mostly of eastern counties just make more sense, having more in common than the old gerrmandered split system did.
Edited for brevity.
A 15-year-old Iraqi girl who was severely burned during coalition bombing was brought to the United States for treatment in an effort that started with a train conductor who saw her on television. Hannan Shihab, who arrived in Michigan on Tuesday, is believed to be the first Iraqi child injured during the war to receive care at a U.S. hospital, according to the University of Michigan and the office of a congressman who helped get her here. She was listed in stable condition after she was examined Wednesday at the university hospitals' burn center, said Dr. Paul Taheri, the center's division chief. Hannan was injured after a kerosene lamp near her bed overturned during a bombing raid in March. Second- and third-degree burns cover 20 percent of the girl's body, including her face, hands, chest and legs, Taheri said. He said she will have to undergo numerous surgeries over about six weeks, plus months of rehabilitation.
Journalists from Britain's Independent Television News found her April 14, swathed in dirty bandages and sobbing in pain outside the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. They took her to one of the city's few functioning hospitals. Among those seeing the ITN story relayed on CNN was the 54-year-old train conductor, James Thornberry. He called the burn center and within hours, it agreed to treat her for free, he said. Through ITN and CNN, he located the girl and her family.
Rep. Mike Rogers spoke to the Defense Department and immigration officials and got her on military flights from Iraq to Germany. And Northwest Airlines donated two first-class, round-trip tickets to take the girl and her mother from Germany to Detroit.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/08/2003 11:32 am ||
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Thank you Thornberry, hospital, and congressman. Maybe we should all be making phone calls.
Posted by: Michael ||
05/08/2003 12:31 Comments ||
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#2
Speaking of little girls, whatever happened to Galloway's?
Posted by: Scott ||
05/08/2003 14:06 Comments ||
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#3
Blinded by poor medical care, living in Baghdad with no money. Waiting for Scott Ritter to call back...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2003 15:00 Comments ||
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#4
If that's true, they ought to hang him just for that.
Edited for brevity.
The Senate voted unanimously to support adding seven eastern European nations to NATO, hailing the shift of former communist states into free-market democracies allied with the United States and Western Europe. If approved by all 19 NATO member states, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia would be added to the alliance. Sixteen of the current members have not yet ratified the expansion. Foreign ministers of the seven nations were in the Senate Gallery to witness the 96-0 vote, well over the two-thirds vote needed for ratification. They were to meet later with President Bush. No House vote is needed on the expansion.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/08/2003 10:18 am ||
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But are they gonna throw the frogs out? To hell with them being half-in (political, but not military), they can either put up or shut up.
A masked gunman opened fire outside the home of a Fatah official in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp on Thursday, seriously wounding his younger brother, camp security sources said. The likely intended target was Jamil Zeidan, a military official with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. He remained inside the house in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp and was not injured. The gunman shot at Jamil's younger brother Osama Zeidan and a group of guards outside the house, hitting Osama in the head and neck. The guards returned fire, but the gunman escaped unhurt. Osama Zeidan, 29, was taken to hospital in the nearby southern port city of Sidon. It was the second time in less than a month that the home of the Zeidan family had been shot at. I guess that means that somebody has "issues" with Jamil.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 08:52 am ||
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Gee, Palestinians shooting members of Fatah. Things are getting back to normal.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
05/08/2003 14:32 Comments ||
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Just another Wednesday night in Ein el-Hellhole. Saturdays, around 9, the place is really rockin'...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2003 15:05 Comments ||
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Edited for brevity.
The office of Russia's military prosecutor has filed criminal charges against an army commander stemming from the crash of a mammoth military helicopter in Chechnya last August and acknowledged that the death toll was higher than previously reported. The helicopter, a transport aircraft that was grossly overloaded with at least 147 passengers, was shot down by Chechen fighters on Aug. 19 and crashed in a minefield as it approached the main Russian military base in Chechnya, just east of Grozny. It was the single worst loss of life in Russia's second war in Chechnya, now in its fourth year.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/08/2003 08:52 am ||
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Overloaded is bad.
Shotdown is worse.
Shotdown into a minefield?
Just wasn't their day.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
05/08/2003 10:03 Comments ||
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The pilot dipped heavily into the luck barrel and it was empty that day. I just cannot imagine seeing 147 people in a helicopter! And flying!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 10:57 Comments ||
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While it may be cramped, the Mi-26 is a monster of a helicopter. It has basically the cargo capacify of a c-130. Here is a page with pictures of one moving a downed chinook after Anaconda last year MI-26 Picture
#5
Yes, I can see how you can pack 147 people into the chopper. Boy, that is a committee of main rotor blades!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 13:31 Comments ||
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The MI-26 is an upgraded MI-6 "HOOK". According to my (old, obsolete) Janes, the HOOK has a maximum passenger limit of 94 people and a crew of five. I don't have the figures on the MI-26, but I don't think they increased the troop capacity by 50 or more!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/08/2003 20:33 Comments ||
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Informed Palestinian sources have confirmed that four Palestinian factions have decided to close their Damascus offices in response to escalating tensions between Syria and the United States. A Palestinian official in Damascus said that the four factions, namely Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, have âdecided willinglyâ to freeze activities in the country and hence close their offices in the Syrian capital.
The anonymous source said, âThe factions received no orders from the Syrian authorities concerning the office closure. They took the decision on their own so that they wouldnât cause Damascus any further embarrassment, particularly in view of the pressure imposed on Syria by the US which claims these organizations are âterroristâ organizations.â He added, âthese offices do not exceed two or three for each faction and their activities are limited to meetings and press-related activities.â This, according to the source, âmakes it easy for the various factions to close their offices, as opposed to other factions such as the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) which, in addition to its press-related activities, also provides services for several [Palestinian] refugee camps in Damascus.â
The source said the factions closed their offices last Tuesday [May 6], and since then they have not released any declarations or statements to the press or otherwise. As a confirmation to that, Al Bawaba was unable to obtain any statements from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP and PLFP - General Command to comment on the situation. It should be mentioned that Ahmed Jibril -- leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command has stated he was ready to close offices in Syria in order to ease U-S pressure, but he has not heard from Damascus. The group "is ready to meet the Syrian demands if such demands are useful for Syrian policy," Jibril told reporters in Damascus.
Hamas spokesman in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told Al Bawaba that he had âno commentâ when asked to speak about the developments. Hamas never did have a âphysicalâ office in Damascus as its activities were carried out from the home of Khaled Mishaal , head of Hamas politburo.
Following a meeting with the Syrian president last week, US secretary of state Colin Powell said that Syrian American relations would depend on Damascusâ response to US demands, which included the closure of Palestinian offices and curbing Lebanonâs Hezbollah. Not too long after leaving Damascus, Powell announced at a press conference in Beirut (his next stop on a tour of the Middle East) that the Syrians have indeed begun closing the offices of the Palestinian factions in Damascus. However, the various groups reiterated then to Al Bawaba that there was no change in their âsituationâ and that their duties have not been affected [by the visit]. Assuming a lower profile, but of course they were under no pressure from the Syrian government to do so. Right.
I'd guess their offices will relocate to Beirut and that they'll maintain something along the lines of diplomatic residences in Damascus.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 08:46 am ||
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âThe factions received no orders from the Syrian authorities concerning the office closure. They took the decision on their own so that they wouldnât cause Damascus any further embarrassment, particularly in view of the pressure imposed on Syria by the US which claims these organizations are âterroristâ organizations.â
#2
"The factions received no orders from the Syrian authorities concerning the office closure. They took the decision on their own so that they wouldnât cause Damascus any further embarrassment...."
Yeah, right - pull the other one!
Syria must have the most fertile land in the Middle East, what with all the verbal horse manure that's produced there.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/08/2003 10:55 Comments ||
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#3
They got factions! Damn, I want factions.
OK, now the difference between the PFLP and the PFLP-GC? Besides two letters and a punctuation mark? Is it like "We're more popular!"
You realize, of course, that this means war!
BBC News has seen evidence which suggests that cats are being farmed for their skins in the European Union. It is thought that tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of cat and dog skins are traded in Europe each year. Europe, it seems, is a magnet for cat and dog fur. Cat blankets, so the aficionados say, are good for rheumatism and dog pelts are, according to campaigners, often labelled misleadingly and sold as the fur of some exotic, even mythical beast. Since the US has banned the trade of cat and dog skins, the European market has expanded. A video seen by BBC News shows one Belgian furrier displaying a blanket he says was made from cats farmed in Belgium. What's more, he says that stray cats and dogs are rounded up and skinned. That would seem to contradict the assertion from the officials who help run the EU at the European Commission that there is no cat or dog farming inside the union. PETA, Greenpeace, hello? Where's your protest now?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 08:10 am ||
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This goes a long way toward explaining why Olde Europe seems to be so full of rats these days.
#3
Yet more evidence that proves continued British involvement in the EU is a catastrophe. We've got to stop pussy-footing around, and get out, fur the sake of the national interest. Tony'll be having kittens over stories like this, showing how those unscrupulous weasels will fleece the innocent at any opportunity...
#12
Hmmm. Everyone knows the Koreans like nothing better than a juicy mouthful of hot dog. Now the Belgians turn out to be flaying our favourite pets and selling the pelts to like-minded friends in western Europe. Perhaps the AoW needs renaming. The Axis of Puppy-Slayers, Axis of Kitty-Killers, Axis of Faux-Ermines?
Or perhaps this is more than mere coincidence. Perhaps our leaders are under some sinister influence intent on dividing the world into those who value/cherish/obey their pets, and those who would eat or wear them. Spotty, barney and India have the President's ear, I tells ya! Forget the Jews, it's the Hounds and Kitties who've got Bush wrapped round their little paws.
More crying from the babies at Foggy Bottom.
Diplomats are paid to have cool minds and even cooler temperaments, but inside the State Department, plenty of America's elite diplomats are privately seething. They are up in arms over what they see as the hijacking of foreign policymaking by the Pentagon and efforts to undercut their boss, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. "I just wake up in the morning and tell myself, 'There's been a military coup,' and then it all makes sense," said one veteran foreign service officer.
The first two years of the Bush administration have seen what the diplomat called a "tectonic shift" of decision-making power on foreign policy from State to the Defense Department, one that has seen the Pentagon become the dominant player on such key issues as Iraq, North Korea and Afghanistan. "Why aren't eyebrows raised all over the United States that the secretary of Defense is pontificating about Syria?" the official, who declined to be identified, said, fuming. "Can you imagine the Defense secretary after World War II telling the world how he was going to run Europe?" he added, noting it was Secretary of State George C. Marshall who delivered that seminal speech in 1947. Leading conservatives and Pentagon officials say such comments show the State Department's failure to grasp how profoundly global politics and U.S. foreign policy interests have been redefined, especially in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
(con't see link)
During wartime, State typically takes a back seat to the War Department Defense. Has somebody at State gotten a memo saying the war's over?
Posted by: Anonymous ||
05/08/2003 07:55 am ||
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"Why aren't eyebrows raised all over the United States that the secretary of Defense is pontificating about Syria?"
Well, Ivy-League-boy, possibly because your little striped-pants group managed nothing well, and quite a lot badly. Your track record shows very little success, and a lot of occasions when you seem to have forgotten whom you were representing. Rumsfeld seems to know EXACTLY who's interests he represents and has the successes in hand to have my trust
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 8:27 Comments ||
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#2
Yes Marshall was Secretary of state. But the Army ran much of Europe until his 'seminal speech.'
The State Dept largely sat out WWII. They are doing the same for the WOT. These careerists just do not have the stomach to be in a confrontational posture with respect to so many nations. They like delivering good news and we have little of that to deliver right now.
#4
DOD thinks out of the box. Give Rummie and co. credit, State. Did anyone catch Nightline last Friday? An anonymous govt. official, probably State, (sitting in shadows, but you could see he was wearing glasses and his voice wasn't disguised) was sitting there moaning along the same themes as this article. Oh, the Muslim/Arab world is angrier now/Oh, it's like we just found out that Shiites are in Southern Iraq, etc. Actually, everything he said was true, but he had absolutely no suggestions on what US policy should be. Typical of State people I've met over the years while living in Arab world.
See, State always has thought that we should adjust our policies so that we're popular. Just think about the "Why-do-they-hate-us-crowd" To win popularity contests, you just say yes all the time. But then those "others" start losing respect for you. Ditto State and this jerk on TV last Friday. He just wants to retire in peace. Buddy, go write a memo. A few diplomats have resigned in the last 6 months. At least they had the honesty to say they couldn't take it, so they got out. This whiner on TV the other night should do the same, but he won't because it would mean not having that diplo passport, discounts at hotels and travel agencies, etc. Rantburgers know what I'm talking about. The guy in the article is exactly the same.
The world has changed, pal. Your culture at State will have to, too. I'm not too optimistice since it is PC on steroids. Powell has at least made some effort to incorporate this new mindset when he said France would have to pay a price for its intrangicence (sp?) over Iraq.
Get out of the kitchen if it's too hot, quit going to the press and cry, analyze why State is so far down the totem pole inside the Beltway and go tell Powell to his face how you feel, gutless. He'll appreciate your opinion.
Posted by: michael ||
05/08/2003 9:59 Comments ||
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#5
Powell and Rumsfield are playing good cop and bad cop and doing a pretty good job of it. This "loyalist inside the State Department" is not in on the game plan and isn't wise enough to keep silent.
Clear indication of what's wrong at the State Department.
Rockets fired from an Israeli helicopter have struck a car in Gaza City, killing a member of the armed wing of Islamic militant group Hamas. Palestinian sources named the dead man as Iyad al-Bayk who was reportedly responsible for securing and hiding militants. "One [rocket] hit the car from the front and the other from behind," witness Imad Mouhmmed told AP news agency. "There were pieces of human flesh flying into the air." Hellfire sandwich
The incident comes two days before US Secretary of State Colin Powell is due to arrive in the region to promote a new peace plan. Smoke billowed from the scene of the attack in which three rockets were fired, Palestinians sources say. AFP news agency said an Apache helicopter had swooped on the car in Gaza City's northern Rimal district. Responding to the attack, Hamas spokesman Abdul Aziz Rantisi warned there would be "severe reprisals". "Dire revenge" statement being SOP.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 07:54 am ||
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I wonder if they're having any trouble getting people to volunteer for leadership roles in Hamas? It's seems to be a fatal condition.
#2
probably not, but the quality of the applicants diminishes with every work accident and targetted removal of the a**holes
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/08/2003 9:23 Comments ||
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Hamas has a human resources department? Must be fascinating work. I'd love to see the benefits package.
No more dog and pony shows for this guy anymore. At least he didn't suffer the indignity of blowing himself up.
After assuring the White House for months that North Korea had not begun producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, American intelligence officials changed their assessment last month, concluding that the country may have produced relatively small amounts, according to senior administration and intelligence officials. The new assessment was delivered to the White House in mid-April, after President Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, ordered a review of the intelligence. A little more than a week later, North Korean officials, meeting with the United States in Beijing, boasted that they had already turned 8,000 spent nuclear-fuel rods into weapons-grade material, and strongly hinted they would export it unless they struck a deal with the United States.
Intelligence officials say they believe that the North Korean claim was an exaggeration, intended to extract concessions from Mr. Bush, who said late last month he would not give in to what he has termed "blackmail." But his aides remain divided about what blend of incentives and threats to use in dealing with the government of Kim Jong Il. Mr. Bush's top foreign policy advisers met today to review their next steps on North Korea, with some officials at the Pentagon urging that Mr. Bush move vigorously to intercept missiles and illicit drugs being shipped out of the country. Those exports create much of the hard currency that the North uses to finance its nuclear program. At the same time, officials say they are likely to engage in a second round of talks with North Korea. That is partly to satisfy China, which has become a major player in pressuring the North to dismantle its nuclear facilities.
The changed assessment reflects the inexact nature of intelligence about North Korea. But the possibility that the North is already reprocessing nuclear material â and thus could soon begin producing weapons beyond the two the C.I.A. believes it manufactured more than a decade ago â is bound to change the tenor of Mr. Bush's meetings in the next two weeks with the leaders of South Korea and Japan. "It means we don't have forever to solve this problem," one senior American official said.
(con't see link)
Posted by: Anonymous ||
05/08/2003 06:47 am ||
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The South Korean press is also reporting increased activity at the Yongbyon nuclear facility (actually, they were citing a NYT report). I can only hope that Pyongyang is not serious about selling nuclear material, or else we could have a potentially ugly situation on our hands. On the bright side, I live way outside of any potential blast radius, and I never really liked Seoul all that much to begin with.
PS: Much thanks to whoever posted my report from a couple of days ago here at Rantburg. Not only was I personally honored, but my hit counter really appreciated it.
Posted by: The Marmot ||
05/08/2003 9:56 Comments ||
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Gotta watch those hit counters. They can get expensive...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/08/2003 10:35 Comments ||
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Marmot---do you want to borrow my Nuclear Blast Effects Computer circular slide rule, just to be sure?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 11:31 Comments ||
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#4
Fred - Your last comment, and the reply you gave to Dar yesterday, made me wonder, "do you know what you have here?" I mean, isn't 20k hits/day worth something? (no, I don't have a product, wish I did) This has gotta be expensive. But there is no other place like this. You should ramping UP, not thinking about less hits.
-The format is ingenious - playing off the pundits, saves having to pay 'em
-It is user-friendly - even trogs like me can add 2 cents (all right - one cent! sheesh!)
-You got the proper doctrine - conservatism IS the wave - heck, we're RIGHT
-You're funny - online, only Ott is funnier
-Your regulars are as sharp as Fray's - plus they're RIGHT (read: correct)
-People come back - there's more truth on these pages than in most churches I've been in
This has got to equal = Bank!
Blogs are possibly the last bastion of true journalism. And you are on the bleeding edge. (as seen on Lehrer Newshour, fer cryin out loud)
What you have rivals Slate for moxie and far outshines them in truth. (their agenda is a dead horse - your's can carry YOU) Slate just went into the black. There has gotta be corporations salivating to have a stab at 20k hits. And no one here is gonna mind a few ads. Place a few tastefuls, go down to Geeks-R-Us and get a master (it's a buyer's market) and you do your comment thing.
I don't know what you do for a living - but unless you're minister of the gospel (a real, called one) I doubt whether you're doing anything as important as this. THIS is impact.
Do you know what's in your hands?
Posted by: Scott ||
05/08/2003 15:37 Comments ||
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EFL
The United States will press the U.N. Security Council to immediately lift sanctions against Iraq and phase out the oil-for-food humanitarian program over the next four months. The resolution also would create an international advisory board — including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund — to audit how income from Iraq's oil industry is spent and ensure it is being used to benefit the Iraqi people. Inviting Kofi to an audit is like inviting Libya to be on the UN Human Rights Commission.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States expects to present the draft this week. The debate in the 15-member council will be key to judging how much the bitter split that broke out over the question of invading Iraq has healed.
My prediction: vapors emitted, sparks flying, resultant occasional explosions...
A senior Russian official said that rather than lifting sanctions, Moscow only wants a suspension of the embargoes on food and medicine — suggesting that a new confrontation may be in the works. But there were indications Germany might not be an obstacle this time, and many council members have said they really want to avoid another bruising battle and to try to find a consensus — something Annan has also been pushing for. Germans coming to their senses?
Don't count on it too heavily. Giving us what we want at this stage will be regarded as justification for the war. Can't have that. Gotta contain the hegemons, y'know...
Powell and President Bush both adopted a conciliatory tone. In Washington, Bush insisted ``the mood that existed before the war has changed and people want to work together for the good of the Iraqi people.'' After meeting Annan, Powell predicted the U.S. resolution will unite the international community, and referred to France, Russia, Germany and China as ``our lamentable friends.''
Then his lips fell off. It was so embarrassing...
He told the Foreign Policy Association's annual dinner Wednesday night that the resolution will ask the United Nations ``to play a vital role,'' saying it can be a great help in humanitarian assistance and political reconstruction. His definition of 'vital' is different than Dominique's.
``More importantly, it will be a resolution that can bring us all together to sing Kumbaya around the campfire give the Iraqi people a better life and hope for a much brighter future,'' Powell said. Council diplomats who have seen the resolution said it calls for the immediate lifting of sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. It would also phase out over four months the oil-for-food program, which has been feeding 90 percent of the country's 24 million people. Phasing out the program would end U.N. control over the oil revenues. The United States wants to use that money to pay for Iraq's reconstruction. U.N. humanitarian programs that have been operating under the oil-for-food program would be ended as well, though U.N. officials already have started setting up new programs in Iraq and coordinating between other aid groups. Russia and France, which both had lucrative contracts with Saddam Hussein's government under the oil-for-food program, have not been in a hurry to end it. Every day the money sits in a French bank is a good day for them.
Russia has already circulated its own draft resolution calling for Annan to run the oil-for-food program, including taking charge of Iraq's petroleum sales and future development of its oil fields until an internationally recognized Iraqi government comes to power. And they would then delay said recognition as long as they could. Wotta sweet plan.
The United States has launched a diplomatic offensive to win support for the new U.N. resolution, sending Assistant Secretary of State Kim Holmes to Moscow and Berlin and putting Iraq on Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's agenda in Pakistan, which currently holds the Security Council presidency.
The council diplomats did not say whether the draft U.S. resolution addresses the possibly contentious issue of weapons inspections in Iraq. Under council resolutions, U.N. inspectors must certify that Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs have been eliminated along with the long-range missiles to deliver them before sanctions could be lifted. The United States has deployed its own inspection teams to search for weapons of mass destruction - and top U.S. officials have said they don't want U.N. inspectors to return any time soon. "Hans, go home already!"
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said that Moscow wants sanctions lifted as soon as possible, but in accordance with council resolutions, meaning the world body must be certain Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction. Russia favors a ``temporary solution'' involving a resolution that would suspend sanctions on goods including food and medicine. Take all the time you like. Meantime we'll re-build Iraq and let them sell their own oil. And kiss your debt repayments goodbye.
France also has made a proposal that doesn't meet U.S. wishes. It wants to suspend the sanctions, phase out the oil-for-food program, have U.S. and U.N. inspectors work together, and lift sanctions when a legitimate Iraqi government is in place. But France's U.S. Ambassador Jean-David Levitte said in an interview in Washington that ``we want to find the best possible solutions in the interest of the Iraqi people.'' "As we define it, of course. We are French, and so we know better."
Germany's national security adviser, Bernd Muetzelburg, met with Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, on the sanctions question. Afterward, Germany's U.S. Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger told reporters his country would not stand in the way of a pragmatic resolution of the sanctions issue. Unless Dominique and Jaques tell them otherwise.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2003 12:59 am ||
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And while he is at it: go after the Iranian Shia-pets. Kill those savages!
#2
The U.S.is lifting our own sanctions(can't remember what they are,there are 4).The way I figure it is we tell the AoW"Lift the sanctions"if they don't we(CoW)bust the sanctions with all of the food/medical and reconstruction contracts going to companys from the CoW.
You know Dominique thier ass'!
#3
You know, this debate would be a wonderful forum for the US to present the evidence on the WMD we have found in Iraq. My feeling all along is that we have been collecting information and double checking on the samples at multiple labs in order to do a massive dump when the time is right. It's time.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/08/2003 10:48 Comments ||
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not only double-checking the lab results, but tracing the paper trail on all the Made in France labels.
A regional capital, anyway -- Tripoli, the cities outside of any French urban area, Lagos and Berkeley are still the world-champs at chaos and misrule.
In Harare these days you never know where you are going to end up when you take a taxi. A dozen passengers crammed into a taxi van recently complained angrily among themselves about Zim-Bob-We's high inflation, critical fuel shortages and the police who shoved them when they were stopped at roadblocks. When one man tried to defend the police, a woman retorted: "The police are just Mugabe's dogs." The rest of the passengers cheered. When the taxi stopped, the man jumped out and ran to some nearby police officers. He identified himself as an off-duty policeman and ordered them to arrest the passengers. They were jailed overnight and charged for insulting police, a crime under the Public Order and Security Act. Memo to self: don't diss the police when in a taxi in Harare.
For many months horror stories have been emerging from Zimbabwe about the suffering inflicted by President Robert Mugabe. Newspapers have been filled with accounts of political corruption, rapes and beatings. But behind these stories lie the daily hardships felt by the capital's 1.7 million people. What was once a thriving city has descended into a place of empty supermarkets, petrol queues and blackouts. In the past week the longstanding fuel shortages have taken a turn for the worse. Hundreds of vehicles spend entire days and nights in fuel queues in Harare. "We used to laugh at Zambians because of all the shortages they had. Now they are laughing at us because it is much worse here," said a salesman. "We never thought it would get this bad." You let Mugabe rule you. What did you expect?
A few months ago Mr Mugabe's motorcade of more than 20 vehicles, including two trucks full of armed soldiers, passed a fuel queue on Samora Machel Avenue in downtown Harare. The president was met by jeers and hoots of derision. Some people threw empty cans. The soldiers later returned and beat up many of those in the queue. A law has also been passed declaring it illegal to make derogatory comments or gestures to the presidential motorcade. Law freshly imported from Saddam's Iraq, and enforced much the same way.
Harare's new mayor, Elias Mudzuri, tried to improve city services; garbage collections were organised and crews sent out to fill potholes. But Mr Mudzuri, elected by nearly 80% of Harare's voters, belongs to the opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Last week the Mugabe government sacked him, accusing him of incompetence and corruption. Mr Mudzuri has been barred from his office and has gone into hiding after receiving threats. Let's hope he stays alive til after Bob is stood up against a wall deposed. Zimbabwe will need him.
At first glance, the supermarket in central Harare appears well-stocked and busy. But on closer inspection, rows and rows of toilet paper are displayed. "That is where there should be salt and that is where there should be sugar, but those items are out of stock so they put up toilet paper," said Idah Mandaza. "And mealie meal [maize meal, Zimbabwe's staple food] and cooking oil and soap, they have all been replaced with toilet paper. But we can't eat loo paper. Either basic things are not available or I can't afford them. I never thought it would come to this."
On the other hand, if you come down with the trots, you're all set...
For Mrs Mandaza, Zimbabwe's inflation of 228% and 12% decline in GDP are not dry economic statistics. They are the harsh facts of life that she, her family and everyone in Zimbabwe grapple with daily. Zimbabwe's once thriving middle-class is struggling to get by, but the poor are desperate. Growing numbers are begging and rummaging through rubbish bins. The disparity in wealth has widened after two years of economic crisis. "In 40 years working as a doctor, I have never seen so many cases of malnutrition, particularly among children," said a general practitioner. "It used to be that I would only see signs of kwashiorkor [a form of malnutrition caused by inadequate protein intake] in children from the rural areas. Now I see it in city children." Thank goodness Tim Robbins and the Ditzy Chicks are all over this.
The United Nations estimates that nearly 1 million urban Zimbabweans do not have enough food. In total, more than 7 million of the country's 12 million people are threatened with starvation, according to the government. Just a few years ago Zimbabwe was extolled as the breadbasket of Africa for all the surplus food it exported. Someone else was running the farms then. Can't remember who -- somebody help me out here.
An unruly commotion erupts in the supermarket as people rush to the bakery section where bread is put on the shelves. After a few minutes of shoving and grabbing, the bread is gone. There used to be a similar rush when milk and other fresh dairy products were delivered. But for two weeks there have not been any milk deliveries. A dairy farm that supplied 40% of Harare's milk has been overrun by Mr Mugabe's hard boys supporters, according to local newspaper reports.
Dollars to donuts, they're sitting around eating beef right now...
The supermarket no longer puts its rare deliveries of maize meal or other scarce items on sale in the store. After some mini-riots in which shelves were knocked down, the scarce goods are sold at the back of the store where deliveries are made.
Whatcha might call "socialism with an avaricious face"...
Zimbabwe's once respected police are now widely feared for arbitrary arrests, beatings and torture. In the past two months 10 high-profile Zimbabweans, including three members of parliament and one lawyer, have accused police of torturing them with electric shocks. Medical examinations have confirmed injuries consistent with their harrowing accounts. Most were released without charges. Bob's a softie at heart â Saddam would never have released them alive.
Last month more than 250 opposition supporters were forced to go into hospital after men dressed in army uniforms raided their homes and beat them. But not everyone is gloomy and depressed. "The worse things get, the sooner we will have a change," said one motorist queueing for fuel. He pointed to the visit to Harare on Monday of South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian equivalent Olusegun Obasanjo. "Do you think they came to congratulate Mugabe on doing such a good job? No, they came to tell Mugabe he must go. The pressure is mounting and change is in the air. I can feel it." Make it soon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2003 12:48 am ||
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Sad isn't it? The people actually believe that words out of the mouths of Mbeki and Obasanjo is going to get Bob to leave.
Bob will leave when he feels THREATENED, not when he's getting gentle requests to move on. He'll only be gone when he's dead or when there is a popular uprising, or heaven forfend, someone sends in troops to kick his ass out and save these people.
But don't expect the candy-ass leftist government in South Africa to do it...no way.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/08/2003 4:07 Comments ||
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No one said that strongmanocracy would be easy or pretty. It just takes time.
#3
Don't worry, folks. Kofi and the UN are on the case. The file is on the in-basket here....uh...no... Maybe over here... No.. Oh, here it is...uh... no that is Ivory Coast...should be over in Jaques pile. Damn! It's missing. Call Mbeki or Obasanjo and see if it went there. We will get back to you, we promise.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/08/2003 11:06 Comments ||
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Funny, when it was Rhodesia, it was the flower of Africa. See what a little hard work can do.
As an indicator that reconciliation may be a distant goal, West African peacekeepers were building a wall on the road outside Tiebissou to mark the demarcation line between government and rebel-controlled territory. The four foot high wall was one of seven under construction at peacekeeper checkpoints. Four foot high wall? That wouldn't stop anyone over twelve years old -- oh, come to think of it, it would stop half the soldiers in the African wars.
Those living in areas controlled by rebels say pensioners and civil servants have been unable to get at their money since the start of hostilities. Banks in the rebel-held north have been closed since September and the route to government held cities like the official capital Yamoussoukro and the coastal business center of Abidjan is clogged with roadblocks and checkpoints. Can't have banks in a Muslim sphere of influence. Why, it would be ... be ... un-Islamic!
The local adult civilians are also worried that the longer the younger rebel recruits are allowed to taste the power they have during a war, the harder it will be to disarm them. Good thinking. I'm going to go upstairs and take away my ten year old daughter's CD player right now.
Even if all sides stop skirmishing, there remain major unresolved questions to be solved before thousands of fighters will let themselves be disarmed - like who gets the defense and security positions in a new power-sharing government. Weeks of diplomatic jockeying have produced no agreement on these two posts. Forget the portfolios -- who's going to confiscate the AK-47s' currently held by the kid warriors?
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2003 12:40 am ||
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Whose going to confiscate the weapons?
Why the valian French will, of course!
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
05/08/2003 4:08 Comments ||
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a four foot high wall would stop vehicles - maybe you havent seen all the jersey walls in place here in USA since 9/11.
#4
LiberalHawk, yes, I've seen them -- we have quite a few around Chicago. Good point. Hadn't thought of that when I posted this article. I would think that technicals, etc. are precious enough to the rebels and the gummint that they wouldn't risk them in an approach on the Foreign Legion. But perhaps they would try a truck-bombing.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/08/2003 13:18 Comments ||
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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.
The 
