KABUL: Afghan state television said on Sunday government forces attacked suspected Taliban strongholds in the southeast of the country, killing at least two fighters. Quoting security officials the Kabul TV said Afghan forces had surrounded Namaki village and engaged the enemy in Guldanmiz, both near the town of Spin Boldak, which lies close to the Pakistani border. Among the Taliban dead in the latest fighting was Hafiz Abdur Rahim, the Kabul TV reported, describing him as âone of the leading Taliban commanders in the border areasâ with Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 05:35 pm ||
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Pakistan issued a formal protest to Afghanistan Monday for dumping the bodies of 21 Taliban fighters on its territory along the border last week. Up to 40 Taliban guerrillas were killed in Afghanistan last Wednesday in what Afghan officials said was the hard-line group's most bloody defeat since it was driven from power in late 2001. Afghan authorities later laid out 21 blood-soaked bodies in Pakistani territory along the border, to allow relatives to collect them. "Get your dead jihadi's out of our country."
Pakistan's new foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan told a news conference that Pakistan had sent a "demarche of protest" to Afghanistan for the incident. "There was a clash in Afghanistan and there were several casualties, a number of bodies were thrown on our side and this was sort of desecration of those dead bodies," Khan said. "This was received with concern and anger and our authorities conveyed their protest to the Afghan authorities." They are still trying to pretend that the deaders are not based in Pakland.
Outgoing foreign ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told the same news conference that the Afghan ambassador was called to the foreign ministry and given the demarche. The foreign ministry said six to eight bodies were claimed by Afghan relatives living in Pakistan, while the rest were taken back to the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 09:05 am ||
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#1
to quote the old computer saying "garbage in, garbage out"
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
06/09/2003 9:31 Comments ||
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#2
A little Afghan "chin music" for the neighbors?
#3
The Afghan army needs to send an apology for the "mistaken relocation" of Jihadi Bodies inside the PAK border. To avoid mistakes of this kind, the Afghan Army will, in the future, drop the Jihadis on the Pak side of the border before they get into Afghanistan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/09/2003 13:47 Comments ||
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#4
If we really want to drive the point home, let's dump their decapitated bodies by the foot of the pikes that their heads* are mounted on.
*placed along the border roads at 50 ft intervals, perhaps with creative "Burma Shave" signs tacked on for good measure
Posted by: Dave ||
06/09/2003 14:14 Comments ||
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#5
Several thousand
Jihad men
Will never go back
To Pakland again
Burma-Shave
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 15:51 Comments ||
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#6
When cutting
Taliban whiskers
You don't need
To leave one half
Of them for seed
Burma-Shave
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 15:55 Comments ||
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#7
Omar's
Whiskers
Need no trimmin'
He kisses goats
Not the wimmin
Burma-Shave
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 16:11 Comments ||
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#8
Why dig a hole
When a head on a pole
Fulfills the role
Of counting the Toll
Burma- Shave
Prime Minister Abdulqader Bajamal, called last week for an overall change in the education curricula as well as mosque preachers. Opposition sources said Bajamal told the GPC Parliament caucus members in a special meeting that âit is important now that a comprehensive change in the education curricula should carried out before they come translated from the US.â
"We can do it ourselves, or someday somebody else will do it for us..."
âWe are Muslim people and there is no harm if we lessen the religious content in themâ he added. Bajamal stressed, in his meeting with GPC parliamentarians before presenting his platform to the parliament this week, that mosques should be made free from current preachers most of whom belong to Islah party. Some of them won the parliamentary election and were able to defeat some prominent GPC leaders.
Campaigning from the pulpit, so to speak...
President Ali Abdullah Saleh stressed in his first meeting with the new government that the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Guidance should play an important role in bringing about moderate mosque preachers far away from extremism and terrorism. The former government of Bajamal was able in 2000 to abolish the religious schools which were run by Islah party.
I can feel my heart softening toward him already...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 11:37 am ||
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#1
So they're gonna send all the Wacko Wahaabi mullahs, muftis and imams back to Saudi?
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
06/09/2003 13:35 Comments ||
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RAIDS carried out in Australia after the Bali bombing disrupted plans for terrorist attacks on Australian soil, ABC Television's Four Corners program will reveal tonight. No! You mean the racist, fascist scare campaign from Howard to brown-nose Bush and victimise Islamics was Justified? It actually saved Australian Lives???? I'm shocked - shocked i say!
Four Corners reporter Sally Neighbour said the program's investigations uncovered proof that Sydney served as a key financial and support group for terrorist organisation Jemaah Islamiah (JI). somebody better tell SBS - and Bob Brown, Mark Latham and the rest of the Socialists...
"It would appear that their activities have been disrupted by the raids after the Bali bombings, and of course as we now know, they had got to the point where they were planning terrorist attacks in Australia," Ms Neighbour told ABC radio. She said Australian Federal Police had confirmed JI aimed to become a fully operational cell within Australia, capable of carrying out terrorist attacks. "(Mining magnate) Joe Gutnick was targeted by this group ... on orders from the al-Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan," Ms Neighbour said. "In 2000, they cased the Israeli Embassy with a view to bombing (it) ... and the consulate in Sydney."
Those would be the startsie targets â people were supposed to say to themselves "they're targeting Jews, so it doesn't have anything to do with us..."
Ms Neighbour said JI undertook extensive fundraising within Australia, sending money back to South-East Asia to finance, among other things, an arms factory that produced rocket-propelled grenades and launchers. A $US1 million ($A1.51 million) donation from Australia also funded a fleet of vehicles used by members of the Islamic left. "In short, Sydney in particular was a key financial and support base for the group (JI), and as time went by they decided to try and take control of a new mosque that was being built in Dee Why," Ms Neighbour said. "There was actually quite a violent power struggle which ended in blows over control of the mosque which (JI leader Abu Bakar) Bashir and his group saw as a really good base for their group in Australia." Perhaps under threat of an inquiry into their anti-US bias during the Iraq war, ABC has decided to start reporting the other side of the story
Posted by: Anon1 ||
06/09/2003 03:57 am ||
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The French National Sport...
The third nationwide strike in as many weeks will begin in France tonight as public-sector workers protest against government plans to reform the pension system. How does anything get done over there? Oh, that's right. Nothing's supposed to get done over there. Forget I mentioned it.
The 24-hour strikes, timed to coincide with the return to work after a long holiday weekend and with a parliamentary debate of the reform plans, threaten to cripple public transport again.
Transport unions, which hobbled rail and air services and grounded most international flights last week, said they would resume action from 7pm British time, threatening the return of hundreds of people from the Pentecost holiday weekend. Screw the people! But that's okay. Everybody who gets screwed in this strike will just screw these people over when their union goes on strike. It's so simplisme!
"We will relaunch the action after Pentecost," Marc Blondel, the head of France's third biggest union, Force Ouvrier, told television channel LCI. France's CGT union said in a statement that railway workers would take part in the strike, which is also backed by electricity workers. It has proposed further action in the rail sector on 12 and 15 June. A srike a week, that's all we ask...
The action recalls strikes in 1995, also over pension reform, which damaged the conservative government of the time. It lost power in 1997. The incumbent centre-right government is showing no sign of backing down, vowing to forge ahead with the reforms requiring workers to pay into the state pension scheme for 40 years from 2008, in line with the private sector, up from 37.5 years now. The compromise will be to add 2.5 years vacation time to everyone's contracts to cover the disparity. That'll keep everybody happy.
The measure is designed to cope with an "age crunch" expected to hit the system later this decade as the post-war baby-boom generation floods into retirement. Air France said on Friday it could see some disturbances to short and medium-haul flights because of the strike but had not changed its schedule. Air traffic controller unions have said they will join the strike, which could force authorities to limit the number of flights. So why should Air France even go through the effort when the ATC's will take care of that end for them.
Teachers opposed to changes affecting university autonomy and the transfer of staff have also threatened a walkout on 12 June if talks with the government, scheduled for tomorrow, prove unsatisfactory. And, somehow, you get the feeling they will.
Parents and students fear the industrial action will disrupt the annual secondary school exams due to start that day. The government says it will take "maximum precautions" to ensure the exams go smoothly. Unless the test givers go on strike. Which they will eventually. Yes, I quake in fear when I think of the French led EU giving us a run for our money economically and productivity wise. Pay attention, Europe.
#1
The US should open up the floodgates and allow a bunch of French Visa's right now. Everyone in France worth taking in would jump at the chance. Let the rest ride out their socialist dillusions to the inevitable end. Taking their best and brightest is the best revenge possible.
His conclusion is that the weasels are headed for trouble, and that's trouble for the rest of us:
As long as the current economic policies there continue without major reform, collapse is inevitable. The longer it's delayed, the worse it will be, but there's no way of knowing exactly how it will happen, or when. There are gradual processes involved such as capital flight, brain drain, demographic inversion, and a rising level of radicalism and terrorist violence by trade unions. And there's always the spectre of France's disaffected Muslim population (who have been smuggling and stockpiling weapons) to spice up the projections. There's going to be a tipping point, and then things will change really rapidly and almost unpredictably. . . .
Consider how much the world eventually paid because of the collapse of the Weimar Republic. Then consider what the price would have been if the Weimar Republic had owned France's nuclear arsenal, and it had fallen into the hands of the Nazi dictatorship. What would happen because of the formation of a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic of France? Or a nuclear-armed People's Republic of Socialist France? Both with a religious zeal to spread the new French enlightenment to the world? I don't want to find out.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/09/2003 17:34 Comments ||
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#5
One thing's for sure. After the Islamic demographic bomb goes off in La Belle France, you won't be allowed to use the word "Pentecost" as the call to prayer rings out from the mosque of Notre Dame
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
06/09/2003 19:02 Comments ||
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#6
Pentacost will give way to Holocaust. France only has a chance if they start reform now, or it will be another Iran smack dab in the middle of Europe. I hope that we and the Brits are making contingency plans. It would be good to have Germany and Spain on our side for containment.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/09/2003 19:49 Comments ||
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#7
"Consider how much the world eventually paid because of the collapse of the Weimar Republic."
Omigod. We're going to send the UN peacekeepers into France. The mind reels...
If the UN had troops in France, how would either side know when to retreat?
Could the French veto a UN intervention in France?
If so, would a NATO force of Poles and Latvians be within its charter?
If not, who would go? We could appeal to the North Koreans to assume neutral peacekeeping duties. Mmm, all those tasty French babies...
Nope, I think we're gonna have to let France implode.
There IS one proven alternative... but I don't think... err, TGA?
Posted by: Mark IV ||
06/09/2003 21:35 Comments ||
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#8
M-IV - THAT was funny.
Posted by: Scott ||
06/09/2003 23:19 Comments ||
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Police and justice officials probing the separate killings of two arms industry executives in Moscow said on Monday they were looking at the possibility the crimes may be linked.
"Duh, Holmes! D'ya think they might be linked?"
Igor Klimov, acting director general of Russia's largest anti-aircraft missile maker Almaz-Antei, was gunned down by men in camouflage uniforms outside his central Moscow home on Friday as he left for work. Then just after midnight on Friday Sergei Shchitko, commercial director of an Almaz-Antei subsidiary, was shot in the head by a lone gunman after stopping his car in Serpukhov, outside Moscow, on his way home.
"Watson, I believe there may be certain subtle similarities in these cases!"
Both men were killed with silenced pistols. Asked if investigators were looking at the possibility of a link between the two crimes, Prosecutor Sergei Abrosimov of the prosecutors' office in Serpukhov replied: "Yes, among other theories."
"It could also be space aliens, or perhaps mutants..."
Contract killings of businessmen, and sometimes political figures, have become commonplace in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 sparked cut-throat competition for control of its massive resources and industry. But murders of top managers in state-owned weapons producers, which generate billions of dollars in exports every year, are extremely rare. Interfax news agency quoted police as saying the gunmen who attacked Klimov, who took over Almaz-Antei only in February, apparently tried to seize his briefcase and shot him after he resisted. Other reports says that they left the briefcase and didn't take several thousand dollars he had on him. Interesting.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 09:24 am ||
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#1
Perhaps these men were mistakenly murdered. Wrong place wrong time, happens everyday, your town, my town any town 3CP.
Walter Cronkite, the former CBS news anchor who advocates the U.S. giving up sovereignty and the creation of a U.N. standing army, is now getting a nationally syndicated newspaper column to air his views. Hey, why hint around? Walt just comes right out and says he wants American sovreignty abandoned.
Editor and Publisher reports the 86-year-old is slated to begin writing a weekly opinion piece for King Features Syndicate this August, after having rejected previous offers to write commentaries. Why the change of heart? Oh yes, do tell. We're waiting with bated breath...
In a statement released by King, Cronkite says he's troubled by "our bellicose military policy; our arrogant foreign policy; our domestic security policy that threatens our freedom of speech, press, and person; and our financial policy that many if not most economists believe threatens a national deficit deep into this century." Your standard leftist response. At least he's true to form. Glenn Mott, managing editor of King, told E&P Online that Cronkite's liberal voice will give newspapers an alternative to conservative voices distributed by his and other syndicates. As for his "liberal voice" giving newspapers an alternative; wake up Alice, you're dreaming. Our media is dominated by noted, out-spoken liberals. What masturbatory B.S.
"He's seen many of the major events of the past century â and probably known every president since Franklin Roosevelt," said Mott. "He has historical perspective and credibility." I fail to see how being old gives you more credibility.
Experience, certainly. But there are millions who experienced the same events that Cronkite did. Thousands who also have known these same presidents. How is he more credible than those who are elderly, experienced the same things, but didn't report for CBS? Are they implying that his reporting for CBS makes him more credible? I'd say that's highly suspect, at least.
In recent years, he's been noted for his globalist views in numerous speeches. No, surely you jest!
In a speech at the United Nations in 1999, Cronkite said the first step toward achieving a one-world government is to strengthen the U.N. One World Government is the goal? Where the hell have I been? I thought the goal was world peace, feeding the children, and environmental rescue. How stupid. The goal is one-world Socialism...
"It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace," he said. "To do that, of course, we Americans will have to yield up some of our sovereignty. That would be a bitter pill. It would take a lot of courage, a lot of faith in the new order." Yes, we all know how wonderfully the UN model works.
So, all it takes is faith in the "new order"? Count me out, Jack.
He was later asked by the BBC if the United Nations had lived up to his earlier dreams for a "Parliament of Nations." Cronkite responded: "I wouldn't give up on the U.N. yet. I think we are realizing that we are going to have to have an international rule of law. We need not only an executive to make international law, but we need the military forces to enforce that law and the judicial system to bring the criminals to justice before they have the opportunity to build military forces that use these horrid weapons that rogue nations and movements can get hold of â germs and atomic weapons." This old reptile makes my skin crawl. What a pinko, Commie bastard.
The money quote of the whole article: "Walter Cronkite, the former CBS news anchor who advocates the U.S. giving up sovereignty and the creation of a U.N. standing army"
He's "credible" in the Socialist sense. When you're dealing with your media types, I guess that's all that matters. Sorry Walt, your "One World Government" is quickly losing its luster among the unwashed proles. Decades of corruption, genocide, and ineptitude have a tendency to degrade the reputation of an institution like the UN.
Yet another column I won't be reading by another deluded Socialist who espouses views that would enslave the common man while ensuring himself a place in the top echelons of society.
They tried that. It was called the Soviet Union. It failed miserably.
#2
Cronkite was the main reason the US lost the Vietnam war after the Tet offensive. The US won every battle, defeated the Viet Cong as an effective fighting force. Finally had a chance to let South Vietnam stand on their own. But nooooooooo. Cronkite decides the war is unwinnable and says so on air and convinces everyone the war is unwinnable. This changed opinions in America and North Vietnam.
#3
As far as I'm concerned, he's just a windy old hack that can't stand not being in the spotlight, spinning current events to his Commie view.
What a tool.
***Sorry about the highlighting. It looks like I left a tag open on my first comment...***
#6
Someone please send Walter a prairie dog - preferably from Illinois.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/09/2003 20:55 Comments ||
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#7
Yeah, Walter chimes in with this crap about every year or so just so people have an answer to the question, "Hey? Is Walter Cronkrite still alive?"
Then he gets on his big sailboat and sails down to his big house on the Vineyard and basks in the glow of the beautiful people.
He's just setting himself up for their adulation.
#8
Thank God for Walter. If it weren't for toadies like him, we wouldn't know what the elitists were thinking.
Posted by: Scott ||
06/09/2003 23:28 Comments ||
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#9
Why does anyone listen to this guy? Most old timers like me just have flatulence from one end, but Walter seems to have achieved a remarkable ability to not only produce it from both ends, but to market it for fun and profit. (So that's the way it is, June 8, 2003. Goodnight from CBS)
#10
Thank you Yank, for mentioning Cronkite and his despicable statements on the Tet offensive. The U.S clearly and obviously not only one that battle decisively, we destroyed the Viet Cong in the bargain, yet Cronkite declared the war lost before most of the facts were even in. He is the father of the "rush to judgement" and quagmire crowd. His statements are one of the greatest stains on journalistic history, right up there with the New York Times' Walter Duranty, who won a Pulitzer prize reporting from the Soviet Union that everything was going just swimmingly in the Ukraine..."any report of a famine is today
an exaggeration or malignant propaganda" as millions were dying thanks to Stalin, he buddy.
Malcolm Muggeridge, who covered the famine, called Duranty the "greatest liar" in journalism. He turns out to be wrong. Cronkite has that honor now.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/10/2003 3:01 Comments ||
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SUKKUR: Six people were killed in a clash on Sunday while five Jakhrani tribesmen were arrested to avoid any incident in the area. Law enforcement agencies increased security in Shakarpur by erecting barricades and setting up pickets, but the tense situation prevailed in the area. Bhaio and Jakhrani tribesmen clashed over an old enmity leaving Gul Sher Jakhrani, Muhammad Ismail Jakhrani, Azmat Jakhrani, Rais Mubarak Bhaio and Qabil Bhaio dead. To avenge the killing of their men, armed Jakhrani tribesmen got to the Bhaio chiefâs house, but police arrested them and took away their weapons.
"Yar! We be tribesmen! You can't do dat!"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 05:29 pm ||
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#1
The Boyo's and the Jackrabbits, huh? What ever happened to the Bugtits? They get all killed off?
They should make a reality TV show out of this stuff.
MULTAN: Hunger strike of Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ) activists entered its third day in New Central Jail.
Mmmm. Boy, this meatball sub is way too big. I couldn't possibly eat it all...
The news of the hunger strike had been concealed for two days by the jail authorities. Jail Superintendent Muhammad Akbar Khan said the prisoners were demanding that they be kept in barracks with other prisoners and their fetters removed which was not possible as they were convicted terrorists and had to be kept in the condemned cells. The jail holds convicted terrorists of LJ Malik Ishaq, Ghulam Rasul, Muhammad Tufail and other dangerous prisoners.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 05:24 pm ||
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#1
"Gettin' HUNGRY, boys? Here - have some nice, crispy bacon..."
KurdishMedia.com
London: Saadoun Hammadi, the head to the Iraqi National Assembly, was arrested by the coalition forces in his house in Al-Qasisya neighbourhood, the PUK daily Kurdistani Niwe reported today. According to the Kurdish daily, Hammadi was arrested in his house and has been moved to an unknown location.
He must have known this was coming. I thought he'd be in Pakistan by now...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 05:03 pm ||
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Via La Bellicosa...
KIRKUK - Another battered truck hauling what appears to be a dazzling fortune in gold bars was stopped at a routine U.S. Army checkpoint in Iraq on Wednesday, the third such cache of bullion seized in two weeks. An officer with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the unit that detained the truck near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said that 1,183 ingots were recovered in the latest bust.
Iraq's such a poor country. I wonder why?
The seizure fits a pattern established by two similar gold-laden vehicles stopped by U.S. troops in late May. All the trucks appeared to have originated in Baghdad and seemed to be heading for either the Syrian or Iranian border. "Same modus operandi," the American officer said, on condition of anonymity. "Mercedes truck. Bad registration. Trying to pass it [the gold] off as brass." More than 4,100 gold bars have been confiscated so far from the rusty beds of old trucks trundling down the bomb-cratered roads of Iraq. The combined value of the gold has been calculated at between $718 million and $1 billion â the worst act of plunder in Iraq since Saddam Hussein's younger son, Qusai, swiped $1 billion in cash from the Central Bank.
It's terrible, the way this poor Third World country just can't get ahead...
The source of such vast quantities of gold in war-bruised Iraq remains a tantalizing mystery. U.S. officials have kept mum about the case. Ordinary Iraqis fascinated by the tale of the "gold trucks" have spawned conflicting rumors. Some say the loot is Kuwaiti gold seized during the 1990 Iraqi invasion, while others insist it is treasure pried from thousands of looted Baath Party safety-deposit boxes in Baghdad. But a source close to the U.S. investigation said that all the truck-borne ingots share the same strange characteristic: The bars aren't pure, like the bullion found at Fort Knox, but crudely melted bricks of jewelry. That obscure detail convinces many knowledgeable Iraqis that the gold's journey stretches all the way back to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, and into Saddam's greedy pockets. "Iraq has no major gold reserves, and no Iraqi banks ever held this much private jewelry," said Daya al-Khayoun, director general of Iraq's state-run Rafideen Bank, which saw 60 of its 70 Baghdad branch offices gutted by looters after the war. "What was found in those trucks has to be the gold Saddam asked Iraqis to donate to fight the Iran war," al-Khayoun said. "That gold helped keep him in power."
I think I'm starting to get a glimmer why the Iraqis remained a poor country despite their natural riches...
During the bleakest years of the conflict between Iran and Iraq, Saddam and his ministers appeared on Iraqi television, exhorting citizens to contribute their jewelry to the war effort. Some of that jewelry ended up being hammered into a solid gold carriage for Saddam, which broke under its own weight during a 1996 parade. But the bulk of the people's patriotic largess ended up unspent in state vaults beneath Iraq's Central Bank or in Saddam's presidential palaces, al-Khayoun said.
"Holmes! You don't think the fact that the nation's rulers could see no further than money, guns and wild wimmin had anything to do with the nation's poverty?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 02:16 pm ||
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#1
Who do they used to move this stuff, Stupid Guy Trucking?
#3
How many are getting through? The Hussein's were wonderfully inept at covert operations. They were never good at devolving the authority necessary to operate in a fluid environment.
The gold smuggling operation has the Husseins' fingerprints all over it. Centralized (a few big trucks rather than a lot of little ones), rigidly executed, poor results. This tells me at least one of these mo fo's is still alive and calling the shots. How much is getting through? Using only big trucks instead of small ones means that you are limited to only a few improved roads. Checkpoints tend to be on big roads. My swag is that the majority of the gold in this smuggling operation being intercepted. Refining that answer further depends on knowledge of factors that probably none of us here are privy to.
#4
Man, I hate to say this, but we're talking about Iraq here: could this jewelry have come from families Saddam murdered? The Nazis certainly "harvested" gold from their victims...
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/09/2003 18:49 Comments ||
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YANGON: A United Nations envoy visiting Myanmar to secure the release of Aung Saan Suu Kyi will leave the country on Monday without seeing the detained Nobel laureate, a source close to the UN envoy, Razali Ismail, said on Sunday. âHe will go back to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, cutting short his trip,â the source said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 05:27 pm ||
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Reached for comment, Koffi Annon, Secretary General said, "Hey, whaddya gonna do?"
The UN is absolutely worthless.
What a waste of my money.
BANDA ACEH: Indonesia's military said Monday it has killed 160 separatist rebels in Aceh province and taken more than 300 prisoners as the operation to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) entered its fourth week. The government said it would soon submit evidence to the United Nations in hopes of having GAM added to its list of terrorist organisations. The military in a statement said 13 soldiers and three policemen have also died since its biggest military operation for a quarter-century was launched on May 19. It said 103 of the 313 rebels under lock and key had surrendered. International rights groups say they have received reports of serious abuses by both sides since the current conflict began after a peace pact collapsed. The military, which has a past record of gross rights abuses in Aceh, has cited a court-martial which jailed three soldiers on Monday as evidence of willingness to curb excesses this time.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 05:20 pm ||
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Washington officials continue to look for a way to dislodge the clerical leadership of Iranâs Islamic Republic. The latest ploy may be to inflame passions in the most politically active part of Iran-Azerbaijan. Administration officials have been meeting quietly with Mahmoud Ali Chehregani, who heads the Southern Azerbaijan National Awakeness Movement which is operating inside Iran. Although, according to the Washington Times, defense officials emphasized their meetings were not aimed at supporting or encouraging a change in Iranâs government, it is hard to believe such an assertion.
No, no! Really! We wouldn't do anything like that...
It is now no secret that the Bush administration would like to see âregime changeâ in Iran. However, military planners know that an Iraq-style invasion could not win in a military conflict with Iranian troops.
Sure it would. It just wouldn't look like the one that rolled over the Iraqis. We've done it twice in two years, three times in 12 years, and still they don't believe it...
Therefore the most satisfactory strategy for the White House hawks will be to try to find an indigenous resistance movement and provide it with financial, possibly logistical, support and hope for the best.
The Northern Alliance approach...
Chehregani seems ideal. He is an academic (a linguist), and a charismatic figure. He was a popular Parliament representative from Azerbaijan, elected with 600,000 votes. He was imprisoned three years ago for his strong protests against the Islamic regime, but freed with the help of Amnesty International and a letter from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. More important, he espouses a secular, democratic government for Iran.
Sounds ideal for our purposes...
Azerbaijan is fertile ground for a new Iranian political movement. It has traditionally been the part of Iran with the loosest connections to Tehran. Although culturally Iranian, the majority of its population speaks Azeri  a Turkic language. Armenian, Assyrian and Kurdish communities make up significant minority populations in the region.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 11:47 pm ||
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A group of Dinnieh suspects on Friday night shouted slogans against Lebanese judicial authorities as they appeared before the Judicial Council, the highest judicial court in the country. As the court was convening, 27 suspects held state prosecutor Adnan Addoum and the Judicial Council to blame for an open hunger strike they were observing in protest at their continued detention, and at being âoppressed and slammed in tight spaces without any careâ for their human rights.
Oh, man, this barbecue is way more than I can eat...
The court session scheduled for Friday was later postponed due to detainee Omar Rifai suffering an acute heart attack, which followed his hunger strike.
Did he die from it? It'll cut the court costs if he did...
One of the defense attorneys for the accused, Akram Khodr, told reporters that 12 of the 27 had started a hunger strike about 20 days ago while others had started three days ago. The strike was in protest at the detainees being banned from observing religious rites, he said, and being kept in closed confinement and having to sleep standing up. The suspects are being tried for carrying out an armed insurrection on New Yearâs Eve in 1999 in the Dinnieh area in the North.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 11:36 pm ||
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The Lebanese Army on Saturday carried out a widespread military operation in the Bekaa with large parts of the area, especially the village of Brital, being subjected to immediate control by the governmentâs armed forces. âIt was the biggest such raid by the army since 1943,â security sources said. Military units started entering the heart of Brital and neighboring villages, where they arrested a gang accused of smuggling weapons to Syria and Iraq. The army used light and heavy vehicles, together with helicopters, in the raid. Several members of the armyâs intelligence units also took part in the raid and conducted an investigation into the âsource of the weaponry, which was being smuggled across the border.â
Yeah... Wonder where it's coming from?
At 4am on Saturday, two army units started advancing in the direction of the hills surrounding Brital, allegedly the long-term stronghold of outlaws involved in numerous car robberies and drug-smuggling operations. It then started raiding houses in Brital and neighboring towns, and a large number of wanted men surrendered to the army. It arrested an arms-smuggling ring, from which it seized more than 22 anti-tank rockets and about 40 rocket-propelled grenades, in addition to ammunition and more than 100,000 rounds for automatic guns. The army also seized some 40 heavy and light rifles, several landmines and large quantities of heroin and cocaine.
Drug smugglers don't usually use anti-tank rockets and landmines, except in Burma...
The army did not specify in a statement the number of people it had arrested in the crackdown on the Brital district, but a local security officer was quoted as saying that seven people were nabbed. The group allegedly operated between Lebanon and Arab countries, the army said, without specifying the countries. It added that the arrests took place with the cooperation of Syrian security services and army intelligence.
It wouldn't have taken place without them, in fact...
Lebanese gang leader Abbas Tleis, 55, was killed Friday in a shoot-out with an army patrol in the same district, the army said, adding that the victim had led a criminal career that ranged from drug trafficking and auto theft to dealing in counterfeit money and murder. His son Hassan, in his 30s, was seriously wounded in the clash and taken to hospital, while another son, Hamad, was detained in connection with an outstanding arrest warrant. It is not known whether the shoot-out and Saturdayâs arrests were related.
I'd kinda guess they are, though...
A Daily Star source within the raiding forces said that the town of Brital, where more than 30,000 people lived, provided shelter for more than 300 wanted men. But the 300 wanted men, along with their relatives, would add up to 2000 people and âwould have given the army a good run for its money had it been engaged in direct fighting with the outlaws,â the source said.
I wonder if they might be practicing for Ein el-Hellhole...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 11:23 pm ||
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CHICAGO - Officials in three states tried on Monday to track down pet prairie dogs believed spreading "monkeypox," a smallpox-like illness not seen before in the Western Hemisphere that may have infected 37 people. Only six of the victims were being treated in hospitals, officials said, and they were expected to recover with bed rest. The disease, caused by monkeypox virus, is not believed to spread person-to-person. But in light of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome scare and an approaching summer season when mosquito-borne West Nile virus was likely to again pose a deadly threat, health officials were moving to attack the newly diagnosed problem.
Stephen Ostroff of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Infection, said there were 33 confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox under investigation. Locally, officials listed more — 22 in Wisconsin, 10 in Indiana and five in Illinois. "We don't know how many animals or humans have been involved and we don't know the scope of the problem," Ostroff told reporters in Atlanta. He said only people with unhealed lesions need to be quarantined and the infection does not appear to be as contagious as smallpox, showing no signs of spreading from person to person. "We do not have evidence of person-to-person transmission, although we are looking at that possibility," said Ostroff. He advised people to consult a veterinarian or local health officials if they owned or had been exposed to a sick prairie dog, rabbit or Gambian giant rat. It is believed the disease spread from Gambian rats imported from Africa as exotic pets. It spread from there to prairie dogs, members of the squirrel family that live in the dry plains from Texas north to Canada and which have been rescued from exterminators for use as pets. Phil Moberly, co-owner of a pet store in the Chicago suburbs where some of the infected prairie dogs were believed to have become infected, said on Monday he had bought the apparently infected rats in question from a breeder in Texas without knowing they were ill. Nice goin', Phil.
Indiana officials say they are trying to track down 31 individuals or businesses believed to have purchased prairie dogs from Moberly's store since April 15. Similar efforts were under way in the other two states. In addition some of the animals may have changed hands during a swap meet in Wisconsin, where most of the cases of illness have been reported. Mark Wegner, a communicable disease expert with the Wisconsin Division of Public Health, said the disease is most likely being spread when people are scratched or bitten while handling the prairie dogs.
Smallpox has been eradicated worldwide and children born after 1980 have not been vaccinated against it. Smallpox vaccinations, however, offer protection against monkeypox, meaning that adults who were vaccinated earlier are most likely to have immunity against it. Children, however, are at risk. In Africa, the mortality rate for young children can be as high as 10 percent.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2003 07:01 pm ||
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#1
Rodants all. Just a rat with his fur rearranged.
The real worry is if someone let's one or more of the little f*ckers loose in the wild. Then it may be "Katie, bar the door!"
Isn't it illegal in some southern states to swap your prairie dog?
#2
Chuck's right and the media hasn't picked up on this, which is that people will just release their prairie dogs and assorted rodents cos they are afraid of catching the disease. If any are infected and its reasonable to assume that some will be then a new disease that looks very good at jumping the species barrier gets into the wild in America. Who knows what will happen then.
Posted by: Phil B ||
06/09/2003 22:49 Comments ||
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#3
Sure it is illegal to turn the little critters loose, but that never stopped the morons who buy them. The three biggest money makers for smuggling are drugs, plants & animals that are prohibited, and guns. Guess which one gets a slap on the wrist? Hey, who is going to put a guy away for 20 years for trying to bring a cuddly little fur ball into the country? I would, but I tend to not have a lot of tolerance for addle brained animal rights type morons. The absolute worst thing you can do to wildlife is to intoduce a foreign species into a habitat. Ask somone form Australia about the bunny problems there.
#4
Great..rats from africa...instead of importing giant african rats, couldn't the pet store just go the local sewer and pick up a few rattus norwegius? It would have saved everyone lots of trouble.
Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, today appeared in court on the first of the two counts of treason he is charged with. Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested on Friday at the end of a week of anti-government protests and accused of inciting human rights and democracy his supporters to overthrow President Robert Mugabe.
But his court appearance today was part of an ongoing trial on charges he plotted to kill Mr Mugabe in late 2001 to spark a coup. Any charge will do, eh Bob?
The case has revolved around grainy videotaped footage purporting to show the MDC leader discussing the possibility of "eliminating" Mr Mugabe at a meeting in Montreal, Canada. He may face a death sentence if convicted.
Mr Tsvangirai is, however, expected to appear later today in Harare's magistrates court on the second, incitement-related treason charge. No time for the hearing had been set but his lawyers and supporters yesterday said they would demand his immediate release.
The MDC leader was held over the weekend at a Harare police station that a high court judge, Benjamin Paradza, who was briefly detained there in February, had complained was lice-ridden. His supporters have threatened renewed protests against Mr Mugabe's 23-year rule if Mr Tsvangirai is not set free. "If our president is not released immediately, the dying regime must brace itself for a long winter of intense but peaceful mass action," the MDC vice-president, Gibson Sibanda, told reporters. Careful of those punks in the white T-shirts, Gib.
The MDC says Mr Mugabe's government is illegitimate and blames it for ruining an economy struggling with high inflation and unemployment and crippling shortages of food and fuel. Mr Mugabe, who insists he won last year's general election fairly, said in an interview last night that he would not retire soon. "As long as there is that fight, I am for a fight ... I can still punch and feel perfectly punch-drunk right now," he told South African television.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2003 06:51 pm ||
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This is from a report last night on "60 Minutes" as reported by Bob Simon and is quite timely given the forced evacuation of the Israeli settlements.
Any comments/rebuttals on Simon's report? Not being a fundamentalist or evangelical, I can't analyze the reporting properly. Was it accurate or was it an example of a journalist interviewing the fringe element and then painting a broader picture? You can't help but notice the segments tendency to tie in the Bush administration.
Selected excerpts below, but read the whole dang thing.
What's the number one item on the agenda of the Christian Right? Abortion? School Prayer? No and No. Believe it or not, what's most important to a lot of conservative Christians is the Jewish State. Israel: Its size, its strength, and its survival. Why?
There is the alliance between America and Israel in the war on Islamic terror. But it goes deeper. For Christians who interpret the bible in a literal fashion, Israel has a crucial role to play in bringing on the Second Coming of Christ.
What propels them? Why do they love Israel so much? The return of the Jews to their ancient homeland is seen by Evengelicals as a precondition for the Second Coming of Christ. Therefore, when the Jewish state was created in 1948 they saw it as a sign.
Israelâs conquest of Jerusalem and the West Bank in 1967 also deepened their excitement and heightened their anticipation. And todayâs war between Jews and Arabs was also prophesied, they say. Theyâve seen it all before â in the pages of the Bible.
Ed McAteer believes that the current situation is the beginning of the final battle. âI believe that we are seeing prophecy unfold so rapidly and dramatically and wonderfully and, without exaggerating, makes me breathless.â
According to the Book of Revelations, the final battle in the history of the future will be fought on an ancient battlefield in northern Israel called Armageddon. It will follow seven years of tribulation during which the earth will be shaken by such disasters that previous human history will seem like a day in the country.
And the Jews? Well, two-thirds of them will have been wiped out by now. But the survivors will accept Jesus at last.
âThe Jews die or convert. As a Jew, I canât feel very comfortable with the affections of somebody who looks forward to that scenario,â says Gershom Gorenberg, who knows that scenario well.
Gorenberg is the author of the âEnd of Days,â a book about those Christian evangelicals who choose to read the Bible literally. âThey donât love real Jewish people. They love us as characters in their story, in their play, and thatâs not who we are, and we never auditioned for that part, and the play is not one that ends up good for us.â
âIf you listen to the drama theyâre describing, essentially itâs a five-act play in which the Jews disappear in the fourth act.â
But if that makes Gershom Gorenberg feel uncomfortable, these Christians say itâs only because he doesnât understand how deeply they love him.
âThe Jews need conversion,â says Kay Arthur. âThey need to know that the Messiah is coming. And the Bible tells us whatâs going to happen.â
The Christian fundamentalists believe the only Israelis who are really listening to God are the hard line Jewish settlers who live on the West Bank and Gaza and refuse to move. The Christians trudge up to these settlements as if they were making pilgrimages to holy shrines. Thatâs because they and the settlers share a core conviction.
But many American Jewish leaders who used to shun support from the Christian Right have changed their minds. Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, accepts their support.
âOn this specific issue on this day we come together. And what is the issue? The issue is fighting terrorism,â Foxman says.
That is precisely what the Bush Administration and the Israeli Government have been saying since September 11, that they are allies in the war on terror. But the Christian Fundamentalists go further. They say it is not just an alliance between nations but between religions.
What frightens Alfer is that he hears much of Falwellâs world view reflected in the words of the Bush Administration.
âWhen we hear expressions like âthe evil ones,â this kind of black and white view of good guys, the bad guys,â says Alfer.
But as long as Jews are the good guys in this representation, this is good for the Jews, isnât it?
âItâs not good for the Jews. Itâs not good for the Jews," says Alfer. We have to get God out of this conflict if weâre going to have any chance to survive as a healthy, secure Jewish state."
#1
thanks for the clarification on evangelicals versus fundamentalists - i think there are even finer distinctions than that to be made.
Re alfer however - while there are certainly Israelis who want a Jewishness without Judaism, that is not what i think he was getting it - not getting God out of Israel, but getting God OUT OF THE CONFLICT - ie make it less about whether the bible or the Koran is right, and more about how 2 peoples can live together in THIS world. Which is hard enough - but probably made harder by theologizing the conflict.
#2
I think a better rational for why so many Christians support the Jewish state has to do with the fact that the Holy Sites of all religions were difficult or impossible to get to for other religions when the area was controlled by Jordan. Now they are fairly easily accessible.
#3
Yank - exactly! The Religion of Tolerance⢠would close the Christian sites if they could get away with it. Imagine Bethlehem or Jerusalem in Saudi Arabia? I have no love for these Islamic close-minded bigots, and Israel allows us (Christians) to visit and worship our sites along with theirs.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2003 17:08 Comments ||
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I'm an evangelical; most other evangelicals I know support Israel and the Jews because we're commanded to--to support God's people, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. It has nothing to do with "end times" (which, according to theory, will happen regardless of what we do and not because we push events along).
#5
Some off the Fundememtalist Christian attitudes mentioned here remind me of the one individual, can't remember his name, who is looking in the Dead Sea area for the lost treasures of the Temple because he believes their recovery will hasten the End of Days
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
06/09/2003 19:09 Comments ||
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#6
After thinking about it today some more, I was going to come out and post almost exactly what Anonymous said, but now I don't have to! I think that really sums it up for most of us. For most evangelicals (but not all--my church officially doesn't support this position) the Jewish people are still God's people and we're to support and help them.
Posted by: lkl ||
06/09/2003 21:22 Comments ||
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#7
Hi ho: I'm from the Charismatic/Pentacostal wing of the evangelicals, the ones the fundamentalists hate with a passion...
Every serious Christian bases personal policies on the contents of the Bible. Howeever, the Bible requires interpretation to understand an ancient text enough to apply to a different time and culture. Basing "policy" on bible prophecy is shakey at best, since there ARE so many equally plausible interpretations of deliberately obscure passages.
However, Here's what, in my neck of Christianty, we consider to be the moneyquote from Genesis 12:1-3, which seems to be rather free of any sort of prophetic imagery:
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Pretty unambiguous. We're being theologically pragmatic here: Everyone should be applying the bible in order to maximize their legitimate interests, financially and security-wise. This verse says that support for Jews and Israel is automatically in the best interest of men and nations, since it guarantees the blessings of God. Similarly, persecution of the Jews (and Israel by extension) is the worst thing you could do for yourself.
Evidence? Compare the nations who are the friends of Israel against the ones who oppose it. I can think of only one of the former: The World Hegemon, the Unites States. There are quite a few in the latter group, and they all, in one way or another, are going to hell in a handbasket.
There are many good pragmatic and ethical reasons for supporting the Jews and Israel. The Charismatics/Pentecostals happen to believe that those spring from God's blessings on them, and that this promise represents a means by which the rest of mankind can also enjoy God's blessings. Support Israel, be blessed. Oppose Israel, and be cursed.
Thus, I am apprehensive about the Roadmap: If it leads to long term damage to Israel, Bush is going to catch shit from God. I'm hoping Bush has a plan that may involve short term losses, but long term benefits to Israel.
Christian anti-semitism can be traced to a belief that the Christian Church replaces the Jews as the object and beneficiary of the promises God made to the Jews. The Charismatic/Pentecostal wing believes that the church is a parallel track to salvation that is open to all, Non-jews and Jews, while the Jewish track is open only to Jews.
I disagree where the author of the article states that the solution lies in pulling God out of the Arab/Israeli conflict: The whole problem is deeply rooted in religion and religious concepts. Bush isn't a Jew or a Muslim, but being seriously religious gives him a leg up on understanding the core issues than Clinton, who was only a play-actor.
#8
Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah (obviously) and that the Messiah is the savior for all of mankind. There is a debt of honor that christians owe Jews, to love them, to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to witness for the truth of Jesus. Antagonism between the two has historically been more economic than religious, (the usual crap between ethnic groups) with the exception of the supremecists (white-power and hyper-Talmudists). Because most serious christians love Israel as a guardian of their heritage, they don't understand why American Jews would be largely atheistic and even hostile towards Christianity. They have also, as the article states, been more consistently pro-Israel than many American Jews. Even to the point of not criticizing Israeli policies (even the bad ones) Anti-Israel sentiment from christians, is usually from the liberal (nominal) wing or the ultra-fundo wing. Both of which are viewed with suspicion by the serious crowd. (Read: they don't believe they are christian. Christianity is a matter of a heart relationship with God, NOT a position paper)
Posted by: Scott ||
06/10/2003 0:08 Comments ||
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#9
Hey, this is a hot button!
My 2 cents worth is that there are some pretty extreme people within just about every religion, usually with their own personal agenda, which if successful, would result in the extreme people in charge of a new order. My thought is that any of them would make the earth a pretty miserable place (mainly because it would be a reflection of their own warped personality).
Unfortunately, this seems to be the human condition.
#10
Falwell
Farrakahn
Different skunks,same stink.
It is my understanding(yes I am Born Agin)that Christ's primary reason for coming to Earth was to establish a way for non-Jews to have a relationship with God and trough this relationship to partake of God's forgivness and access to heaven.
DAMASCUS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has criticized the United States for not inviting Syria to a Middle East summit last week, saying Washington was delaying any peace talks between his country and Israel. President Bush met some Arab leaders in Egypt last Tuesday to drum up support for an internationally backed Israeli-Palestinian peace plan or "road map." Damascus, an old U.S. foe, opposes the plan. And wonder why they weren't invited? Ask Yasser... it's because you're both irrelevant
The European Union's incoming president, Italy, called on Monday for a similar road map between the Israel and the two Arab neighbors still to make peace with the Jewish state — Syria and Lebanon. "Give us back the Golan and we'll think about trimming back on attacks"
Assad, who held talks with the Italian foreign minister in Damascus, said he did not know why Syria's concerns were not on the table when Bush met leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Bahrain before talks with the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers. "The summit was concerned with the Palestinian track and the 'road map'. I think the Syrian track for them (United States) now has been delayed. We don't know why, but for now it's not on the table," Assad said in comments aired by Dubai-based Arabic television channel al-Arabiya Monday. something about your duplicity, participation in active terrorism, intransigence, and disrespect...other than that...
Some Arab leaders at the summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh had raised the issue of the Golan Heights, Syrian land which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East War, Assad said in the rare interview, to be aired in full later. "I don't think they needed Syria to be there, whether because Syria is not connected to this (road map) issue or because of Syria's non-conformity and non-agreement with these ideas in the first place. We have a different view." See....you DID know why
Damascus has criticized the road map as an attempt to end a 32-month-long Palestinian uprising for statehood, ignoring what it says are Israel's "terror" policies against Palestinians. The plan calls for reciprocal steps leading to the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005 and was crafted by the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. France says it wants another "road map" to be drawn up for Israel and it neighbors, a call echoed by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini whose country takes over the rotating EU presidency next month. thanks France.....A-Holes
"There should be a road map for Syria and Lebanon. The mechanism of forging the map would be the core of a study between European nations, Syria and Lebanon... Of course we will also talk to the United States," Frattini told a news conference in Damascus after meeting Assad. The Italian news agency ANSA quoted Frattini as saying: "Importantly, I found that... Assad was open to negotiations and without an anti-American slant." Washington has accused Syria of sponsoring "terrorism," in part through support for anti-Israeli militant groups and of giving refuge to officials from Iraq's ousted government. Damascus denies the charges.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2003 12:45 pm ||
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#1
oops - missed a highlighted comment in the middle
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2003 16:19 Comments ||
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Getting spam from people who want to sell me spam filtering software.
I hate that nearly as much as I hate the messages that tell me to just click on the attachment so I can infect my machine with whatever virus they've copied from wherever it is they copy those things.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 11:56 am ||
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#1
additional hint: never click on their link to be removed from that mailing list. All that does is tell them there is an active email account at the address so they can sell it to other lists. Ergo - notice my email: Fsmokey@Nospam.cox.net keeps the email bots from sifting and getting the right email adddress. Spam sucks
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2003 12:34 Comments ||
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#2
My suggestion is to use a free email service, e.g. Hotmail or Yahoo, and not your normal home or work address, which I only give out to a select few people.
Many of the spammers are on to the tricks like including "no spam" or writing out the email address, e.g. "joe dot blow at hotmail dot com", and have included the more common in their filters, so it's not 100% foolproof.
Posted by: Dar ||
06/09/2003 13:15 Comments ||
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#3
Instead of "filters", I meant to say "parsers".
Posted by: Dar ||
06/09/2003 13:17 Comments ||
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#4
http://friedspam.net/
Posted by: mark ||
06/09/2003 14:17 Comments ||
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#5
You might consider planting a bot-trap at the top of your site. Not every bot abides by the robots.txt restrictions.
#7
Glenn - What do you define as a false positive...email you wanted to recieve but didn't, (and how do you know IF YOU DIDN'T SEE IT!?) Hows are you doing on false negatives...spam that creeps by and still slimes your inbox?
HARARE - Zimbabwe police arrested a second key opposition leader Monday on fresh treason charges in connection with protests against President Robert Mugabe last week, police said. Welshman Ncube, Secretary General of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was picked up by police earlier on Monday, said police spokesman Andrew Phiri. "We can confirm that we arrested him this morning. We are questioning him on two counts. One of contempt of court and the other of treason," Phiri told Reuters. "It is possible that he might spend the night in jail and will appear at the Magistrate's Court (on Tuesday)."
"If he can still walk, of course..."
MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai was arrested on the same charges last Friday. Tsvangirai, MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda and Ncube are all also currently on trial for treason for allegedly plotting to kill Mugabe in 2001, and could face the death penalty if convicted. Or the death penalty in jail
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2003 11:47 am ||
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New York Times, so read at your own risk. EFL.
WASHINGTON â Senator Larry E. Craig of Idaho is blocking the promotions of more than 850 Air Force officers, including young pilots who fought in Iraq and the general nominated to bail out the scandal-plagued United States Air Force Academy, in a rare clash between the Pentagon and a senior Republican lawmaker. Mr. Craig's price to free the frozen promotions now awaiting final Senate approval? Four C-130 cargo planes for the Idaho Air National Guard. If you'd like to call the good senator, the number is (202) 224-2752.
Pentagon officials express outrage that for more than a month Mr. Craig has single-handedly delayed the careers of hundreds of officers and stymied important Air Force business for a handful of parochial planes. They are vowing not to give in to his pressure. Calling the move blackmail, one senior military official said, "If we say yes to this, Katie bar the door." The official, like others contacted for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution from the senator. And both statements, door and retribution, are true.
But Mr. Craig contends that the Air Force has reneged on a promise made seven years ago to station a squadron of eight C-130's at Gowen Field, an Air National Guard base in Boise, his spokesman said. There are now four C-130's and another training aircraft based there. "This is a problem created by the Air Force that can be easily solved by the Air Force," Will Hart, the spokesman, said. Except that we need the planes elsewhere.
In the courtly world of the Senate, Mr. Craig's hardball tactics have angered and frustrated even some of his Republican colleagues, including Senator John W. Warner of Virginia, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee and has tried to mediate the dispute. The committee approved most of the promotions weeks ago. Under a Senate practice intended to encourage consensus, any senator can block action indefinitely and anonymously on a nomination, promotion or legislation. These secret holds are used frequently by senators of both parties to express displeasure not necessarily with a nominee but with an administration's action or policy. But military promotions are typically whisked through the approval process without objection. But in recent years, the anonymous holds have proliferated to the point where some senators are pushing for new guidelines to identify any senator who delays a nomination or promotion. The Senate Rules Committee, now led by Mr. Lott, has scheduled a hearing on the issue for June 17. Mr. Craig's action has been felt throughout the Air Force, from young captains and majors to its senior ranks, where the promotions or new-job nominations for more than two dozen generals are in a holding pattern with no end in sight. I'm snipping the specific benerals and jobs.
Military officials say to give in to Mr. Craig now would only invite more holds from other senators. "We obviously can't operate like that," another senior military official said. "Idaho is a great state, but we can't put more planes in there without taking them out of somewhere else." Why after seven years Mr. Craig is exercising his Senate prerogative now to delay these promotions is a bit of a mystery. The planes have not been a pressing concern for most of his constituents. "It's not something people here are tapping their fingers over, waiting for them to show up," said Lt. Col. Tim Marsano, spokesman for the Idaho National Guard. Even the Idaho Guard isn't upset about having four planes instead of eight.
Mr. Hart would say only that "Senator Craig's record of overwhelming support for the military speaks for itself" and blamed the Air Force leadership for disclosing his hold "as some sort of strategy to renege on promises made to Senator Craig." Translation: he's mad because he got caught.
A buildup of the guard forces could help shield Gowen Field from a new round of military base closings scheduled to be decided in 2005. Increasing the number of C-130's at the field could make it a less attractive installation to close, defense officials said. Gowen's C-130's returned in January from a tour in Oman, where they supported operations in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. Ah ha. Light dawns.
Several states are organizing committees to defend their military bases, which provide jobs and lucrative Pentagon contracts to local communities. "What a lot of people are trying to do is extort such-and-such a service at such-and-such a base to BRAC-proof their base," one senior defense official said, using the acronym for the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, which would recommend such closings. As for Mr. Craig, defense officials say their arguments have so far fallen on deaf ears. "We've tried to explain the facts of life to Senator Craig that the Air Force is getting smaller, not bigger," one official said. Gen. John W. Handy of the Air Force, the head of United States Transportation Command, which controls all transport aircraft, met with Mr. Craig in Washington on May 23 to broker an end to the stalemate, but apparently to no avail. Said one defense official, "Craig is essentially saying, pound sand." Wonder if the good voters of Idaho can be mobilized to tell Mr. Craig the same?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2003 11:34 am ||
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#1
Damn, but I hate pork politics. By the way, whatever happened to the base closing commissions? We should continue to push for and embrace these even if in our backyards. I was out this morning to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center which used the decommissioned Lowry Air Force Base (for history nuts, this is where Ike recuperated after suffering a heart attack while out in Denver). I vividly remember ultra-dove Pat Schroeder fighting tooth and nails to "save" Lowry from closing - to no avail. But, lo and behold, it is now an impressive new research hospital and an economic boon to the city of Aurora.
#2
You have to wonder which bunch of crooks wrote these stupid rules in the first place.
Posted by: Douglas De Bono ||
06/09/2003 13:30 Comments ||
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#3
Hmm Maybe Senator Craig should get the Jesse Helms award for petty political machinations (blackmail). Something about old white guy Republicans when they don't get their way.....
Posted by: Not Mike Moore ||
06/09/2003 13:50 Comments ||
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#4
The Admiral-Select stationed in Senator Lott's fine State of Mississippi is currently on hold pending a Congressional investigation. It is believed that Lott has a personal favorite for the position.
You have to wonder Craig is creating a justification for Lott to review the rules.
#5
Now that Senator Byrdbrain's heard about this will West Virginia will be getting a new name? Kleagleland? Byrdistan? The mind boogles.
Politicians really do suck.
#6
thanks to all for the fairness of including this
- but to remain thoroughly fair myself, i must point out that this is peripheral to the war, the pilots will eventually get their promotions, and that Al - Qaeeda, not Larry Craig is the enemy.
#7
Senators using cheap stunts for getting their base bennies in their districts is something for peacetime. We are at war and this is not a cheap stunt. This is an outrage and Senator Craig should realize that he may face the nation's and the voter's wrath and will be kicked out on his ass doing dirty dealings like this.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/09/2003 20:17 Comments ||
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I have to agree with Fred. The decision to decentralize and suburbanize the US in the the 1950's one one of the smartest things we've ever done. Look at how little SARS tranmission we've had in this country versus dense, urban China. Compare also the target value of the World Trade Center vs. twenty or so ten-story suburban office towers. As weapons become more powerful and easier to build, concentration of bases makes less and less sense. Twenty whackjobs infected with monkeypox wandering around twenty Walmarts just outside the twenty largest bases would just about shut done the US military right now due to the subsequent quarantines.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Israeli troops began dismantling an uninhabited West Bank settlement outpost Monday, taking a first step toward meeting part of its obligations under a U.S.-backed peace plan. The outpost is one of dozens dotting isolated hills in the West Bank whose removal is called for by the ``road map'' to Palestinian statehood by 2005. However, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon - facing growing opposition from his constituents - has been evasive about whether he would remove all outposts targeted in the plan. This one sounds like the free space on the bingo card.
After settler leaders refused to remove the outpost themselves, soldiers moved in and tore down the empty trailers at Newe Erez South outside the Palestinian town of Ramallah. Settlers did not resist. ``We won't lay a hand on soldiers. They're our brothers,'' settler leader Yehoshua Mor-Yosef said. But, he added, ``if we are evacuated, we'll return the night after and establish 10 new outposts.'' Meanwhile, Palestinian Pseudo Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was struggling to implement a key obligation under the plan - reining in anti-Israeli violence. Abbas said Monday he would not use force against militant groups under any circumstances, despite their stated determination to derail the peace plan with attacks on Israelis, including two weekend shootings that killed five soldiers. In other words, he won't rein them in. Oh well, we tried.
Abbas defended himself against complaints at home that he has been too conciliatory to Israel, including in a speech at a Mideast summit last week, and that Israel has given little in return. In his first news conference since taking office April 30, Abbas said he has coordinated every move with degenerate terrorist leaderYasser Arafat - a barb at the veteran leader who has said the summit yielded no achievements. Abbas reiterated his condemnation of violence, including Sunday's shooting attacks. ``We must do our utmost to end the bloodshed,'' he said. "Well, short of actually having us disarm Hamas, that is."
Neve Erez South appeared to be the first of over a dozen Jewish settler outposts the military plans to remove in coming days. Army commanders met Monday with settler leaders, gave them a list of outposts - 14 of them, mostly uninhabited, according to press reports - and asked them to remove the sites voluntarily. Settler leaders said they would not cooperate, but would not use violence in confronting soldiers. Neve Erez South consisted of two empty trailers, the Israeli settlement watchdog group Peace Now said. The outpost is about 200 meters from another settler enclave where several families have been living in shipping containers for the past three years, the group said. Doesn't sound like much of a life.
Sharon, a major settlement builder in his career, said Monday he was determined to carry out the peace plan despite opposition from his own supporters, including activists from his Likud party who booed him at a convention Sunday. ``It wasn't easy,'' Sharon said. ``Yesterday, at the Likud convention it was even harder, but this is the policy I have decided on and I will implement it.'' Hey Abbas, this is called "leadership." You might take a lesson.
Under the road map, Israel has to dismantle dozens of outposts established since Sharon came to power in March 2001. According to Peace Now, there are 102 outposts with about 1,000 residents, including 62 outposts built since Sharon took office. Sharon never promised explicitly to remove all 62 and has acknowledged he has differences with the United States on the issue. His aides have said a distinction would be made between outposts considered legal and illegal, suggesting there would be less than full compliance. The degree of resistance to the removal of isolated outposts will show how much of a fight settlers will put up in the event of a final peace deal, in which Israel would have to remove larger settlements. About 220,000 settlers live in 150 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, the lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 war and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.
In the first stage of the peace plan, the Palestinians are required to disarm and dismantle militant terrorist groups that have killed hundreds of Israelis in the past 32 months of fighting. Palestinian terrorist militias have said they will not halt attacks on Israelis, and last week announced they are stopping contacts with Abbas on a cease-fire. The militants said Sunday's shootings, including a rare joint attack by three militias on an army outpost in Gaza, are meant to underscore their determination to derail the peace plan. Four soldiers were killed in the Gaza attack, and a fifth in an ambush in the West Bank city of Hebron later Sunday. Abbas said Monday that he will not order a crackdown on the militias under any circumstances because he wants to avoid getting whacked civil war. ``There is absolutely no substitute for dialogue,'' Abbas said, adding he still believes the armed groups would change their minds. Who's more delusional: Abbas or the followers of Rachel Corrie. Discuss.
Abbas did not elaborate. However, Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Egyptian intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, is working to restart cease-fire talks. Suleiman presided over previous truce efforts earlier this year. Abbas said Monday that he is pressing ahead with the peace plan. In veiled criticism of the militants, Abbas said: ``The suffering of the Palestinians should not be dealt with by murdering children incitement. It needs real solutions.'' However, there was no sign of compromise. Palestinians will not ``surrender to the pressure exerted by Israel and the United States of America,'' Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a Hamas leader, said Sunday. ``We are unified in the trenches of resistance.'' Stay put in that trench Abdel, whilst I fire up the 'dozer.
There has been widespread grumbling among Palestinians that despite Abbas' moderate speech, Israel has not reciprocated. Palestinians had expected a quick easing of an Israeli travel ban and the lifting of other restrictions. However, the closure has remained in effect, in part because of renewed attacks by militants. That "cause and effect" disconnect is still there, Fred. Hasn't budged a millimeter.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2003 11:19 am ||
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israel has acted - freeing prisoners, and demolishing an outpost - and had suspended curfews until this last attack.
Now its time for Abbas to act.
I understand why Abbas would prefer a Hamas ceasefire over taking them on. But I have not yet heard from Abbas or anyone else what incentive Hamas has for a ceasefire. No carrot - if peace goes forward, they become less relevant. No stick - Abbas doesnt appear to be threatening them with anything.
NEVE EREZ, West Bank - Israel began on Monday an operation to remove settler outposts in the West Bank under a U.S.-backed "road map" to peace affirmed at a Middle East summit last week, an Israeli military source said. "The evacuation of the illegal settler outposts has begun," the source said. A Reuters television cameramen said army tractors dismantled the uninhabited settler outpost of Neve Erez near the West Bank city of Ramallah, destroying two caravans. It was not immediately clear how many of the some 60 settler outposts established in the West Bank without Israeli government permission would be uprooted. Israeli media reports estimated about 15 would be scrapped. Once again making it seem, to the Palis, that killing leads to appeasement. This is just sad and wrong.
Posted by: growler ||
06/09/2003 11:17 am ||
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What? And the Rachel Corrie Brigade was not there to stop the tractors! I'm outraged.
Eight executive board members of the former ruling party in the Central African Republic (CAR) were arrested on Sunday as they held a meeting in the capital, Bangui, Communication Minister Parfait Mbaye told IRIN.
When somebody named Parfait speaks, I always believe him...
Those arrested included the former minister of state for communication and MLPC second deputy chairman, Gabriel Jean Edouard Koyambounou, the former MLPC secretary-general and Patasse's special adviser, Joseph Vermont Tchendo, and the former minister of education, Andre Ringui. Since the coup, all three men had been hiding in the Nigerian, Chadian and Japanese embassies, respectively. Former Prime Minister Martin Ziguele is still hiding in the French embassy, together with several other former ministers.
"Don't let them get us!"
"These people go out of embassies and organize subversive meetings to destabilise the regime," Mbaye said. He added that all the eight MLPC leaders were held in a Bangui police station.
We assume they're waiting for a shipment of blindfolds and cigarettes to arrive...
A local daily newspaper, "L'Hirondelle", reported on 23 May that mercenaries linked to Patasse had launched a rebellion in the country's eastern provinces, allegedly with political support from MLPC leaders in Bangui.
Here we go again...
In March, Patasse, who is in exile in Togo, announced that he would form a movement, the Front de Liberation du Peuple Centrafricain, with the aim of removing Bozize from power.
And reinstalling himself...
The Sunday arrests of the MLPC officials were the first, by Bozize's administration, since the coup. The MLPC, which is represented in the transitional government and council, has complained on several occasions of harassment by the new administration. In April, Bangui's state prosecutor froze the bank accounts for 26 former ministers.
I can see why they'd regard that as harrassment. But maybe they wanted the national treasury back?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/09/2003 10:42 am ||
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So where is the outrage over this?
Cannibalism is increasing in North Korea following another poor harvest and a big cut in international food aid...
[snipped, rerun from yesterday] Note that they don't mention the biggest reason, the brutal NK government.
The WFP says Japan provided 500,000 tons of food aid in 2001, making it the biggest donor, but sent nothing last year. Food aid from America has been cut from 340,000 tons in 2001 to 40,000 tons so far this year. Washington has pledged to send a further 60,000 tons if Pyongyang lifts restrictions on the operations of agencies such as the WFP. Yup, it's our fault that they are eating their children.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 10:31:39 AM ||
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MONROVIA - French military helicopters evacuated Americans and other foreigners from the besieged capital of Liberia at dawn Monday, ferrying them out of embassy compounds to a ship in the Atlantic. The evacuations to the French navy ship came as Liberian soldiers reported more fighting on the western edge of the city, and explosions sounded in the distance. Helicopters left first from the white-walled, barbed-wire-topped compound of the European Union, on a hillside overlooking the ocean, which houses European diplomatic staff. The aircraft then touched down at the neighboring U.S. Embassy compound, collecting about 100 Americans who had gathered overnight. EU forces stood guard with heavy weapons as aid workers, ducking against debris from the twirling blades, ran down a rocky hillside and climbed into the aircraft. ``We can't work, and we had to leave,'' said Isabelle de Bourning, of French aid group Medecins sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, running for the helicopter. ``I hope it will be quick.'' I admire what your group does, Izzy, but you shouldn't count on getting back in there any time soon.
A total of 91 foreign residents were evacuated from the compound, said David Parker, acting head of the EU mission in Liberia. They included foreign staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross and U.N. agencies. Lebanese families, who make up much of the merchant class of West Africa, also were flown out from the European compound en route to the French ship Orage, which planned to sail to neighboring also enflamed in civil war Ivory Coast. Frying pan into the fire!
U.S. Ambassador John Blaney and a coterie of Marine guards, U.S. special forces and security contractors planned to remain behind at the American embassy, U.S. authorities said. The European Union, which operates the water plants for this war-ravaged city of 1 million, now crowded with refugees, also planned to keep a core staff here as long as possible, Parker said. Liberians, residents of a nation founded by freed American slaves in the 19th century, came out of their shacks and watched silently as the helicopters flew back and forth across the seascape. The French-led evacuation was being coordinated by E.U. and U.S. Embassy officials because most countries only have honorary counsels in Liberia. Many embassies closed at the start of Liberia's bloody 1989-96 civil war and never reopened. The evacuation had been planned at least since the weekend, when rebels fighting to oust stark raving loonie Liberian President Charles Taylor made two pushes into the city outskirts. Liberian forces and local radio reported more fighting on the west side at dawn, as the evacuations began. Explosions sounded occasionally from that direction. Pro-Taylor militia fighters raced through the city in jeeps with mounted cannons and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Stores were shuttered and most gas stations closed. "Fill 'er up, check the oil, and replenish the RPGs. Do you have an ATM here?"
Thousands of terrified civilians were on the move, heading for the city's eastern suburbs. Others bundled mattresses on their heads and rushed back to the U.S. Embassy complex, where Americans refused them entry during weekend fighting. Late Sunday, Liberian government soldiers claimed to have beaten back the latest rebel advance into the capital, driving insurgents deeper into the swamps behind the St. Paul's river bridge marking the city's western entrance.
That's too bad...
The rebels' drive against Taylor gained momentum Wednesday, when a joint U.N-Sierra Leone court charged him with war crimes for allegedly aiding Sierra Leone rebels in their vicious 10-year terror campaign. By Sunday, Taylor controlled little of the country outside of the capital.
And that's good...
The rebels' leader told The Associated Press on Sunday that insurgents will fight their way into the capital unless Taylor yields. ``We want the international community to ask him to step down so as to avoid bloodshed,'' the chairman of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, Sehon Damate Conneh Jr., said in Rome, where he met with the Catholic Sant'Egidio Community, which mediates world conflicts. Rome? What a good revolutionary commander he is.
``If Taylor doesn't step down, we would go in.'' Taylor vowed in an interview with the AP on Saturday to keep the city. He directed Sunday's fighting from a white-walled compound in the city's main port on the Atlantic Ocean. The port is on the city's west side, and apparently is the rebels' immediate objective. Government defense officials said Sunday that rebels made their latest raid across the St. Paul's River in dugout canoes, bypassing the bridge.
Dare we hope that the world will be rid of Chuck within the next day or two?
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/09/2003 10:13 am ||
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Mr Taylor, please step down. Go to Cuba, write a book. Call it 'It Takes a Massacre to Raise a Village'.
Posted by: International Comunity ||
06/09/2003 11:50 Comments ||
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He can always come back to Boston and pump gas. Wait a second, he has a jail cell at Plymouth County Jail waiting on him here. But that might be preferable to what he's looking at over there.
#5
It's not over yet: Heavy fighting between government forces and fighters of the LURD rebel movement continued during the morning on the western outskirts of the city. Forces loyal to President Charles Taylor moved in heavy artillery as they tried without success to dislodge LURD fighters from the Duala Town suburb, about eight km from the city centre. Fighting died down after mid-day, but residents said they saw LURD fighters moving through the swamp that borders Monrovia to the north, to open a new front on the eastern side of the city. Relief workers in neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire who were in radio and telephone contact with colleagues in Monrovia later reported an outbreak of shooting in the eastern suburb of Paynesville. Police ambulances meanwhile ferried a steady flow of dead and wounded government soldiers and militiamen from the front line to Monrovia's John F Kennedy hospital and another medical facility at the executive mansion, the official residence of the president. Officials refused to give details of casualties.
LURD is trying to flank government troops. Sounds like it all depends on who has the most troops, Charles can't defend every place at once if his troops are bled dry. If LURD punches through, it's every man for himself.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 15:45 Comments ||
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Ptah, you may be kidding but you are completely correct. The US could do the world a lot of good with such measures. Stay out of the fighting ourselves, but donate a JDAM or two to well known targets. Let the Rebels take the credit.
The FBI was draining a municipal pond Monday in a search for evidence of the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, a city spokeswoman said. ``They are draining it,'' said Nancy Poss, the city spokeswoman. She had no further details, and said the city would issue a statement later Monday. Guess the EPA granted the permit.
Mayor Jennifer Dougherty said last month that FBI agents had discussed with city officials a plan to drain the spring-fed pond. It was among the first of about a dozen that divers searched in December and January. The FBI's Washington field office did not return a call Monday seeking comment. Hope they got some really big pumps, it hasn't stopped raining all spring back east.
The Post reported that items recovered from one of the ponds searched over the winter included a clear box, with holes that could accommodate gloves to protect the user during work, the Post reported. Also recovered were vials wrapped in plastic. For protection against airborne bacteria, a person could put envelopes and secured anthrax powder into the box, then wade into shallow water and submerge it to put the bacteria into the envelopes underwater, some involved in the case believe, the Post said. Afterward, the envelopes could have been sealed inside plastic bags to be removed from the underwater chamber. Sure, nobody would have noticed someone standing in a pond for hours doing this.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 09:54 am ||
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Frank G: You would get it if you knew the FBI's recruitment profile: All-American kids, not a blemish on their record, eager, patriotic, optimistic. In other words, probably not the type to get inside a criminal's head or think outside of the box. I'm sure a few oddball's do sneak in, but they as the Japanese say, "The nail that sticks out gets hammered in." Without the creative destruction that business and military organizations experience, the culture gets more and more refined throughout the years until it becomes so homogenous that it's useless.
#3
Update: The FBI was draining a pond Monday in a search for evidence of how anthrax-laced letters were assembled in the deadly 2001 attacks, drawing work crews with heavy equipment to a municipal forest to begin the work. The city said the FBI had hired an engineering firm to drain the one-acre pond, which holds about 50,000 gallons of water, in the municipal forest that is part of the city's water supply system. It said the work was expected to take three to four weeks. A roadblock kept nonresidents out of the wooded area, which contains hiking trails. From the air, about a dozen workers could be seen around the pond, and a backhoe appeared to be digging a channel for water.
No pumps, just a good old fashioned ditch. At least the contractor understands KISS.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 15:24 Comments ||
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#4
Did they find any Northern Snakeheads in there, while they were at it?
#6
Several points here:
1)Why do the work in a public place like a municipal pound?
2)Water in most lakes and pounds ussally isn't all that clear making fine,delicate work difficult.
3)Wouldn't the persons bathtub have been a better place to work all around(that KISS thing,don't ya know)?
To the echo of gunfire, French troops began patrolling Bunia, the north-eastern capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, yesterday, leading the first joint-European military intervention in the most violent theatre of Congo's war. Some 50 French soldiers padded through the suburbs, deserted and smoking after a battle between the rival Hema and Lendu tribes on Saturday. The patrols followed a show of French strength late on Saturday, when an advance guard of 100 special forces occupied Bunia's main road for an hour, sparking an angry confrontation with the incumbent Hema militia, the Union of Congolese Patriots. "It was an important gesture," said the colonel commanding the French force, who asked not to be named. "I wanted them to know that we control this route, and we will use it as and when we want. "Nobody gestures like us French!".
"Today was different. I told my men to be less aggressive, to keep their guns lowered... Our mandate is very clear: it tells us to protect civilians and to respond to any aggression with the appropriate force." Another important gesture, perhaps?
That mandate appears unlikely to end the war in Bunia, which has claimed 50,000 lives so far, and is only one of a dozen micro-conflicts raging in eastern Congo, stirred by four years of anarchic occupation by Rwandan and Ugandan forces. As fighting raged around the main UN compound on Saturday, grenades and bullets swept over the heads of several thousand refugees. At least three people were injured, yet the French troops remained at their barracks, two miles away. Their mandate, the colonel said, did not allow him to intervene. "If civilians are being massacred, we have to stop it. But if there are just a few civilians killed in fighting between armed groups, that's not our job."
So if you only kill civilians a few at a time, it's OK.
The French troops arrived in Bunia on Friday to secure the town's decrepit airport in advance of a 1,400-strong European force sent to pacify the area in preparation for the arrival of Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers in September. The French soldiers are not allowed to reveal their names or regiment, but their accents - including one trooper's thick Scottish brogue - suggested they include many from the Foreign Legion. How about looking at their uniforms, or is that too easy?
It remained uncertain yesterday when the main force will arrive, or which European countries would contribute. Britain, Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Germany all expressed an interest after a massacre last month exposed the way Bunia's existing 700 Uruguayan peacekeepers were outnumbered. Five British military planners reconnoitred Bunia on Friday, but it is not known what role any UK troops would play. If you are smart, you'll stay as far away from this disaster as possible.
Posted by: Steve ||
06/09/2003 09:41 am ||
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"If civilians are being massacred, we have to stop it. But if there are just a few civilians killed in fighting between armed groups, that's not our job."
#3
I'm a bit torn on this story. While I completely agree with all comments above, I do think there is some worth in having troops ready and available to prevent mass genocide, no matter how big the basket case.
It takes time and organization to waste several thousand innocent people. It's probably a useless gesture in the long run, and I don't want our troops to risk their lives on such a half-baked effort. But if these troops are able to nip-in-the-bud the organization and logistics required to carry out a mass murder, then more power to them.
#4
The key is whether these French troops, and the other "peacekeepers", actually take sides. If they don't, if they follow the UN logic that everybody is wrong, this will be a quagmire (love it when that applies to the French). Pick a side, guys, and wipe out the enemy.
Posted by: R. McLeod ||
06/09/2003 18:24 Comments ||
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Meanwhile, "The French intervention on behalf of the UN in Congo will be short-lived and localised and will have a negligible impact on tribal conflict, according to a French military briefing paper obtained by the Guardian"
In otherwords...small, short and pointless. A typical French military action.
#6
"If civilians are being massacred, we have to stop it. But if there are just a few civilians killed in fighting between armed groups, that's not our job."
Anybody have any idea what the Frogs consider a massacre?
What is the break-point that would cause the posturing Frogs to do something(10,20,100 people)?
lets see,20 people/dayx365=7300people.
Wonder if that qualifies?
Is there any doubt in anybody's mind the uselessness of the UN?
EFL
Abbas said Monday that he will not order a crackdown on the militias under any circumstances because he wants to avoid civil war. "There is absolutely no substitute for dialogue," Abbas said at his first news conference since taking office April 30, adding he still believes the armed groups would change their minds. Can't even call this guy a "Paper tiger",at least a "Paper tiger" looks like a tiger.
Posted by: raptor ||
06/09/2003 09:33 am ||
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Abbas just plain doesn't have the capability to affect Hamas.
OTOH, Israel has been targeting them strongly for the last several months. Quid pro quo?
#2
whilw one hopes these are just words, and abbas will eventually hit Hamas, it does seem he may be too soft for this job.
Of course it would help if Arafat were out of the picture.
look at the sequence of events - 1. summit to which arafat not invited. 2 Arafat criticizes peace initiative. 3. terrorists, including Al aqsa martyrs brig, kill israelis.
doesnt seem like connecting the dots should be too hard, eh?
#3
Can you repost the link? I guess Arafat is still in charge. If you look real close, you can see Arafat's lips move when words come out of Abbas' mouth.
#6
I think he'll find the Israelis disagree: targetted killings of the higher-ups in IJ, Hamas, and Al-Aqsa are certainly a substitute for a dialogue that the other side(s) refuses to attend
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2003 11:43 Comments ||
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It may seem like nothing to most people, however, Abbas has been basically truthful. If he says he won't do anything involving force, he won't. This is a looked upon by the Israeli govt as a big improvement from Arafat (who would say he was doing something and wouldn't or would tell the Euromorons one thing, tell Reuters another, Al Jazeera yet another).
#8
If Abbas weren't too soft for the job, he wouldn't have it.
Posted by: Matt ||
06/09/2003 12:36 Comments ||
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Can you really believe that a man that trained (and led) terrorists is now afraid to use force? He won't use force because he doesn't want peace. If the PALs really wanted peace, suicidehomocide bombers would be a myth and not a reality. I still think we need to hit the 'reset' button on the Arabs.
#10
My analysis is that Abbas likes power, He also knows that Arafat will wack him when he can. He also know that if he tries to surpress Hamas, et al, he may not have enough troops to do it, especially if Arafat sits out the conflict.
Abbas is playing to the US and EU as our new candidate for high muckety muck of the PA. If Israel takes out Hamas, he won't weep. He'd like to see an arrangment where he ends up in power and Arafat, Hamas, and the other gunnies suffer unfortunate martyrdom.
Great Article about the money trail and how it reaches from Saudi Arabia to Berkeley. But I thought this was the most interesting snippet. Al Shamal Islamic Bank was founded in April 1983, and according to a 1996 State Department Fact Sheet, Osama bin Laden invested $50 million in the bank. Al-Fadl, in the same 2001 trials regarding the East African embassy bombings testified that Al Shamal Islamic Bank was the only bank in which bin Laden kept his funds, and that bin Laden paid all the members of his terrorist network through this account. WOW! That must have made somebody's investigation a whole lot easier!! Put all his eggs in one basket, did he?
According to the lawsuit briefing, during a post 9/11 hearing, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee testified that "Al Shamal Islamic Bank operations continue to finance and materially support international terrorism and that there are indications that Osama bin Laden remains the leading shareholder of that bank." I didn't know that your remains could continue to hold stock :-)
Posted by: Becky ||
06/09/2003 09:07 am ||
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bada - boom *rimshot* ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2003 11:39 Comments ||
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Well if anybody can smell out money, it's lawyers.
(AP) - Iran admitted Sunday it failed to inform U.N. authorities that it imported a small quantity of uranium 12 years ago but said that failure did not violate the international Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Iran's nuclear energy chief, also urged the International Atomic Energy Agency to widely publish the report it released to member nations last week on Iran's nuclear program. The Bush administration accuses Iran of wanting to build a nuclear bomb and wants the U.N. agency to declare Iran in breach of the treaty. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Peaceful purposes. Uh-huh. Sorry, we lost our "gullible" sign a while backâŠ.
Posted by: Katz ||
06/09/2003 09:13 am ||
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They're just preparing to do god's work. And there'll be the devil to pay.
North Korea has warned publicly for the first time that it is ready to develop nuclear weapons. A commentary carried by the official news agency in Pyongyang said it would build a nuclear deterrent to counter the threat from the United States, "unless the US gives up its hostile policy". North Korea said its aim in developing such weapons was not to blackmail others, but to reduce spending on conventional military forces and improve the lives of its people.
Western intelligence agencies believe North Korea has had nuclear weapons programmes for several years and may already have a small number of bombs. Monday's statement was the closest North Korea has come to acknowledging the programme, and was seen as part of its on-going attempts to win diplomatic and economic concessions from the US. The statement, carried by KCNA, said that, if the United States did not give up its "hostile policy", North Korea would have no choice but to opt for a nuclear deterrent. North Korea's administration has previously only made this threat privately while in talks with American officials, although it has repeatedly stressed that it maintains the right to a nuclear programme.
However, it did hold out the prospect of a deal with Washington. It said that, if the United States gave up its hostile policies, the North would resolve its concerns about the nuclear programme. North Korea views Washington as "hostile" because, although the US has stressed that it wants a peaceful resolution to the crisis, there has been discussion of sanctions or even a naval blockade if diplomacy does not work. Washington has also not ruled out a military strike against a country it has labelled part of an "axis of evil".
The US is currently trying to build a coalition of regional powers to help rein in North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The issue dominated talks this weekend between the leaders of Japan and South Korea. Junichiro Koizumi and Roh Moo-hyun agreed on the need for multilateral talks to seek a peaceful solution to North Korea's nuclear threat. North Korea is insisting on bilateral negotiations with the United States. But the two East Asian leaders demonstrated slightly different approaches, with Japan's prime minister voicing readiness to take action and Mr Roh emphasising dialogue.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
06/09/2003 05:24 am ||
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Let me guess....next rationale is: "to meet Kyoto treaty goals, we had to reduce the size of our mechanized forces by developing more nukes"? The Greens'll be on their side for that one
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/09/2003 16:15 Comments ||
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We're eating our babies, but our nuclear arsenal is still on track.
YAY!
At least they have their priorities straight.
Forces loyal to Mauritania's president killed a rebel leader who was attempting to stage a coup in the west African country and ended the mutiny, the editor-in-chief of an independent newspaper told CNN. Early Sunday, in violent street battles, government loyalist forces killed Col. Lamine Ouhd Ndeiane, the army chief who was leading the rebels, said Mohamed El Kouri of the newspaper Inimish al-Watan. Shortly after Ndeiane was killed, the coup attempt collapsed and rebel soldiers were arrested, El Kouri said.
Large people with moustachios and truncheons are doing painful things to them at this very moment...
Eighty people died in the fighting, which began at 1:15 a.m. Sunday and ended about 18 hours later. About 50 of the dead were rebels, 12 were loyalists, and the rest were civilians, he said. After the rebels were defeated President Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya returned to the presidential palace and appointed a new army chief, Col. Eli Mohammed Vall, who was the director of the national police.
Presumably in the presence of his predecessor's corpse...
The coup attempt began when rebel troops attacked the presidential palace with intense gunfire and tank shells. The rebels used tanks which Saddam Hussein donated to the country in 1994, El Kouri said, and managed to take over the presidential palace. Loyalist forces armed with anti-tank weapons managed to destroy eight rebel tanks during the battle.
Kinda symbolic, isn't it?
Update, from Middle East On-Line...
Residents of Nouakchott celebrated in the streets Monday after the government announced it had crushed a bid at the weekend to oust President Maaouiya Ould Taya. "Viva Maaouiya, viva Maaouiya," shouted residents as they drove through the city centre blasting their horns, after fresh fighting that had broken out at dawn in the northwest African city fizzled out.
That's Mauretanian for "Hurrah, hurrah!"
The government had announced overnight that the attempted coup had been put down in this pro-Western Islamic republic. But fighting broke out anew early Monday between Ould Taya's backers and mutineers who had holed up at the headquarters of the gendarmerie. Monday's fighting broke out when government forces opened fire on mutineers as they tried to slip out of the gendarmerie building at 6 am. It continued for about four hours.
Until they were all dead?
At the end of the morning, Communication Minister Hammoud Ould Mhamed went to the offices of the state-run media and told staff that the coup had been put down and broadcasting could resume.
"Fun's over. Back to work, all of you."
The abortive coup had been launched amid heightened tensions in the country, where the pro-Western government has launched a crackdown on Islamic militants. A government minister has singled out Salah Ould Hnana, a former colonel sacked from the Mauritanian army, as the mastermind of the coup. Ould Hnana was said to have worked with accomplices in army tank units and the air force to launch the abortive bid. Moustapha Ould Bedredine, head of the opposition Union of Forces for Progress (UPF) said he thought the coup bid was the product of "internal discontent within the army. The putschists probably thought the "current political climate was favourable to their plans," he said.
"Yar, Ould! The ould man's gettin' slow. 'Tis time he wuz gone, and we had our share!"
Early last month, police here carried out some dozen raids on Islamist groups accused by the government of having "terrorist intentions" and being linked to international fundamentalist movements. Dozens of suspected Islamic extremists were arrested. At the same time, about a dozen activists from Mauritania's Baathist movement, said to be close to the regime of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, were arrested. Nine have since been given suspended three-month suspended prison sentences for setting up a banned organisation.
So it's a thorough housecleaning, and those being swept out weren't happy about it. With the coup behind him now, though, Ould taya's clear to clamp down on them even harder, if it pleases him.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
06/09/2003 04:42 am ||
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#1
Am I the only person on the face of the planet to have never received either money or weapons from Saddam? Dammit, what's wrong with me? I can be evil, really, I can.
#2
apparently taya had been close to saddam, then had a falling out, and in a reversal (fit of pique?) taya established relations with Israel, only 3rd arab country (after Egypt and Jordan)to do so.
#3
I can't be the only one who had never even HEARD of this country before. Well, I guess his little falling out with Sadaam and recognition of Israel put him on the map...in bold letters no less.
Mauretania's (as a geographic area) has actually been around since pre-Roman times. I think they've changed religion since then, but other than that I don't think that much has changed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/09/2003 10:15 Comments ||
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#5
and its only marginally arab. According to CIA world fact book, only 30% identify as "Maur" (arab/berber) 40% are mixed maur and black, remaining 30% are black. Both Wolof, an African language and Arabic are official languages. While "maur" dominate, its not as bitter as in Sudan - perhaps cause most Wolof speaking blacks are muslims, unlike Sudan where non-arab blacks are mainly animists or christians.
#6
To put this little fiasco in perspective, Mauritania shares a border with Algeria, Morocco/Western Sahara, Mali, and Senegal, and isn't that far away from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Ivory Coast. I think we all can remember, from our daily reading of Rantburg, something about rebels and uprisings taking place in most (if not all) of these countries over the last few months.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/09/2003 10:51 Comments ||
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#7
Fred and Becky -- the term Mauretania (with an "e") has been around since pre-Roman times -- but in those days it refered to kingdom in modern Morocco. The modern state of Mauritania emerged as a portion of French West Africa in 1960; it has no relationship with the ancient kingdom. Several other new African countries chose "classical" place names that that originally referred to other areas. Thus the original kingdom of Ghana was in modern Mali, just as the original Benin was in Nigeria. Many black Mauritanians, by the way, remain in slavery.
#9
Anyone else old enough to remember the map of Africa back in the 1950's. Simplicity reigned: French colonies shaded one color, British colonies another color, Portuguese yet another color, and the Belgian Congo smack in the middle. Then came SUEZ 1956, and the colonial spell began to break down. U.S. supported the heathens at that time and look where it got us...
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