We guessed he'd been turned. Here are the details...
... The Special Immigrations Appeals Commission announced in January that Qatada had lost his appeal to be freed from detention in Belmarsh prison, London, as a suspected terrorist. ... In the mid-1990s, Qatada had a series of conversations with an MI5 officer in which he indicated that he was willing to co-operate with the British authorities in keeping Islamic terrorism off the streets of London. In one interview Qatada is said to have promised to "report anyone damaging the interests of this country". In a later interview, Qatada is said to have insisted that those over whom he had influence were no risk to Britainâs national security, and that he would not "bite the hand that fed him".
The commissionâs ruling reveals: "In his statement, [Qatada] not surprisingly relies heavily on three interviews he had with a member of the security services in June and December 1996, and February 1997. The first of these records his passionate exposition of jihad and the spread of Islam to take over the world. [Qatada] claimed to wield powerful, spiritual influence over the Algerian community in London. He maintained that a decision had been taken in Algeria not to mount operations against the UK. [In the] second interview [Qatada] said he did not want London to become a centre for settling Islamic scores and, in the view of the officer concerned, he âcame the closest he had to offering to assist in any investigation of Islamic extremismâ. He apparently said that he would âreport anyone damaging the interests of this countryâ.
"The third meeting was to restate the officerâs belief that [Qatada] wielded considerable âspiritual, if not operational influence on an extensive number of Islamists of various nationalities and that, as a resident of the United Kingdom, [the officer] fully expected him to use that influence, wherever he could, to control the hotheads and ensure terrorism remained off the streets of London and throughout the United Kingdom.â [Qatada] said that those over which he had influence were no risk to the countryâs security and he would not bite the hand that fed him. It is also recorded that âsurprisingly enough [Qatada] revealed little love of the methodology and policies pursued by Osama bin Ladenâ." The commissionâs ruling further reveals that the security services officer was left with the impression that Qatada had "nothing but contempt for bin Ladenâs distant financing of the jihad". ....
If he was turned, he didn't stay turned. Disposing of double agents usually involves explosives or gunfire, sometimes sharp objects, and for good reasons.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 9:41:36 AM ||
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AN international manhunt has been launched for a Chechen explosives expert who was recruited to join Willie Brigitte in plans to launch a terror attack in Australia. Abou Salah is said to have met Brigitte, a terror suspect deported from Australia last October, at a training camp for militants in Pakistan. Salah has emerged as a key figure in the multinational probe into Sydney's terrorist network.
Australian security chiefs have been told Salah is one of Osama bin Laden's most senior bomb experts, testing new weapons of terror in a Pakistan laboratory. Australian counter-intelligence agents are working with authorities in Pakistan, France and the US to find Salah, whom they believe may provide further clues about the planned Australian bomb attack.
Brigitte told interrogators he had been ordered by Pakistan-based al-Qaeda operatives to meet Salah in Sydney to help him prepare an Australian atrocity. According to the French dossier on the Australian terror threat, Salah and Brigitte were to work with Pakistan-born Sydney architect Faheem Khalid Lodhi to prepare "an attack of great size" in Sydney. The dossier said Salah was also the commander of a series of vast terror-training camps in Pakistan. The Chechen planned to evade the Australian security surveillance net by entering Australia disguised as a Georgian team supporter during the Rugby World Cup, but he was thwarted when Australian Customs officials refused his visa application.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2004 10:10:21 AM ||
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#1
Simply controlling your country's points of entry is an excellent investment in your country's defense. The official who refused this phony visa application perhaps saved Australia millions of dollars.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 11:40 Comments ||
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#2
Wow -- Spot-on, Mike! I empathize with the officials who have to read between the lines with every applicant - it has to be nearly impossible to get it right even 70% - 80% of the time. Such catches as this usually go unreported, of course.
As for the remaining percentage - it certainly would be beneficial if the populace was "actionably" aware and backing up the efforts of the authorities to keep out the Bad Guys -- "Hmmm, the guy in the 10-sizes too tight turban over there doesn't look like yer average Sydneysider..." When / if the "press" ever catches on to the threat and begins to accurately inform Joe Avg, we might have something reliable and less dependent upon the overwhelmed officials at the border being omniscient. My hat is off to these guys.
SYRIA has appealed to Australia to use its close ties with Washington to help the Arab nation shake off its reputation as a terrorist haven and repair its relations with the US. Secret talks between the two nations have been under way for months but have become more urgent as rogue nations reconsider their role in allowing terrorists to thrive, in light of the US determination to take pre-emptive military action. Australiaâs close relationship with Washington, and its much higher profile in the Middle East, have prompted Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa and parliamentary speaker Mahmoud Al-Ibrache to appeal to Canberra to help bring their country back in from a US-imposed diplomatic freeze. Syria has sent a delegation to Australia and has hosted a series of visits by Australian parliamentarians.
Drawing on the British-sponsored return of Libya to the international fold, Australia is demanding that Syria take a tougher role against terrorists, particularly those using the nation as a base for operations into Iraq. Australia also has called on the former Soviet client state to abandon any pursuit of weapons of mass destruction before it returns to the fold. Syria has supported the war on terror but the Bush administration has been sceptical about its commitment, fearing Iraqi weapons of mass destruction were smuggled across the border before the US-led invasion last year.
In November, senior Syrian officials asked a bipartisan Australian delegation led by National Party senator Sandy Macdonald to use Australiaâs influence with the US to achieve a diplomatic rapprochement. Senator Macdonald said yesterday: "Syria is a country that has been a bastard state for nearly 40 years. But the leaders we spoke to in Syria appear keen to make linkages with the West and it sees Australia as having influence in Washington." The overtures to Syria are seen as a response to the Westâs determination to confront rogue nations that may either pose a threat themselves or pass on weapons to terrorists.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer last night welcomed Syriaâs commitment to broadening dialogue with the international community. "We would like to see Syria follow Libyaâs example in making a genuine return to the international community," he said through a spokesman. "But Syria must abandon any effort to attain weapons of mass destruction, act to control the flow of terrorists across its border with Iraq and step up support for the war on terror." He said Australia was considering reopening an embassy in the Syrian capital, Damascus. The embassy was closed in 1999 because of cost-cutting. Syriaâs Melbourne-based honorary consul, Antonios Zyrabi, confirmed to The Weekend Australian last night that Syria wanted Australia to help it come in from the diplomatic cold.
That's what the lips are saying. The hands are doing Hezbollah. Talk is very low-priced.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/27/2004 12:47:25 AM ||
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Interesting development of the Bush Doctrine in action.
Reminds me of how Libya used the UK as a gobetween to come in from the cold...
Hope the Ozzies work something out, so that Bashir Assad can get out of Lebanon, institute democratic reforms in his country, cough up his terrorists and Saddam's WMDs and stop having to buy Depends by the truckload!
Posted by: Jen ||
03/27/2004 1:37 Comments ||
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The Bush Doctrine? That's a joke! Got oil?==We'll ignore the fact that your nationals killed more Americans than the Japanese at Pearl Harbor + we'll let them all get on a plane and leave the US while all flights are shut down! The Congressional hearings about Saudis leaving the US were hysterical-- :"Who was on those flights?---Dunno" Who authorized the flights of Saudi citizens and BIN FUCKING LADEN FAMILY MEMBERS TO LEAVE THE US? Dunno! Yep--the Bush Admin was on top of it--Condi Rice should be charged with treason or incompetence--take your pick
#3
All the Bin Laden's that left the US were interviewed by the Feds before depature and determined to be of no informational value and unconnected with the attacks, plus it would have taken an army division to protect them. You'll have to look elsewhere for a conspirecy.
Condi Rice ought to run for Pres in 2008 if you ask me - she'll get my vote.
Silly me I forgot, its all about oooooiiiiilllll!!!!
#4
Hey Anon, you know who authorized the Bin Laden air lift? The left's newest pal, Richard Clarke. Got it? So by your logic, Clarke should be charged with treason.
and then in the story is this line:
The overtures to Syria are seen as a response to the Westâs determination to confront rogue nations that may either pose a threat themselves or pass on weapons to terrorists.
Someone is deeply misinformed. It isn't the West that is determined. It's the US, Australia, the UK, Italy, Poland and the rest of our "unilateral" coalition. France and Germany aren't in the confrontation business anymore. Canada is on the sidelines.
#9
A small point: the countries with oil SHOULD be the focus. Inevitably, because Dubya has the stones that have been obviously lacking in previous admins, they will be. Because that's where the money is - the money that funds everything from the indoctrination madrassahs to the merc recruiters of boomers to Suha's lifestyle. Syria's role is to 1) provide those functions that state sponsors of terrorism can offer --and-- 2) cannon fodder. These are secondary, symptoms of the oil money disease, and Baby Assad will rapidly cease such activities when the funding dries up. I believe time will prove this shift of focus is, indeed, occurring - against all the odds created by the wholsesale Saudi bribing of Anon's buddies at State, the "Press", and elsewhere. I have no doubt that, when it becomes the front-burner source of direction in the WoT, this change of focus will prove to be the right and decisive move. Then we can talk about such interesting side issues as "How do LLL idiotarians manage to juggle all of their DUmmy talking points?" Rather badly, actually.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 10:42 Comments ||
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Anonymous: "Who was on those flights?---Dunno" Who authorized the flights of Saudi citizens and BIN FUCKING LADEN FAMILY MEMBERS TO LEAVE THE US? Dunno! Yep--the Bush Admin was on top of it--Condi Rice should be charged with treason or incompetence--take your pick
We're supposed to worry about a few Saudis leaving the country when the focus of the effort was to lock it down, prevent more terrorist strikes and prepare for third country efforts to exploit the confusion to launch military strikes against the US (issues include Taiwan and South Korea, potential adversaries include Russia and China, et al, the list goes on and on)? We knew the Chinese and the Russians were indirectly arming terror groups (most of their weaponry were of Chinese and Russian origin) - were these attacks sponsored by the either party to test the readiness of US nuclear forces prior to a first strike? I'm sure glad Anonymous wasn't in charge of our national security - he has no grasp of the range of national security threats our people were scoping out before they decided that it was al Qaeda which had done it, and determined that third countries were too intimidated by American resolve to take advantage of the post 9/11 confusion. Anonymous is just projecting his treasonous or incompetent nature upon Condi Rice.
#12
Sadly, I'm afraid that Rummy will be too old in 2008. The Condi/Rudy ticket sounds good, though. Puts Hillary up against a woman and a New Yorker. Comes down to a choice between BS and brains.
Posted by: Tom ||
03/27/2004 11:58 Comments ||
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#13
A Republican Powell/Rice ticket would really remix American voter blocks.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 12:06 Comments ||
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#14
Anon, You picked the wrong farking place to spew your sewage -- here in Rantburg we think.
It was Clark who authorized the evacuation of the Saudis and Bin Laden's family after 9/11. Yes the same Clark who is now lying before congress in order to sell more copies of his book. The same Clark who sat on his hands for 8 FUCKING YEARS under Clinton/Gore and then expected Bush to do it all in 8 months.
I think lying Clark should be brought up on charges of incompetence - or at least lying under oath.
Oh! I forgot -- he is a Clinton crony so lying to the public is second nature and lying under oath before congress is ok....
#15
SYRIA has appealed to Australia to use its close ties with Washington to help the Arab nation shake off its reputation as a terrorist haven and repair its relations with the US.
It's all very simple to do. Let's see, how about getting the hell out of Lebanon, dropping support for groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (to name a few well-known ones), and expelling members of those terrorist organizations from its territory? It seems to me, however, that Syria wants to have its cake and eat it too, to be out from under the terrorism magnifying glass without having to detach itself from the terrorists under its roof.
#17
A Republican Powell/Rice ticket would really remix American voter blocks.
Unfortunately, Powell has not done very well at State. "Wishy-washy" is a polite way of characterizing his less than sterling performance. A Rice/Rudy or Rudy/Rice ticket would be a winner, but Powell carries way too much negative baggage to make a good president/vice president.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/27/2004 14:46 Comments ||
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The Bush Doctrine? That's a joke! Got oil?
Wow. That's such a tired, sorry excuse for political thought I can hardly work up the energy to set Anon straight. Okay. Maybe just a couple swipes with the ol' Clue Bat:
1) Oil is far cheaper to buy than a war is to put on.
2) If we really wanted the oil, we could have taken Kuwait's when we had thousands of troops and tons of materiel in place.
3) Hell, Venezuela's got oil, and it is far closer.
Hopefully one of them made an impression on our latest Anonymous.
Nah... rational thought is never their forte. I am just glad I am not so bound in hatred for someone as to come unglued like that.
He's welcome to go vote Nader. He's the man for a deep thinker like Anonymous.
#21
Good cop, bad cop. "Wellll, I dunno, mate. Them Yanks is crazy buggers, y'know, an' they're all come over keen ta stomp ya into a greasy puddle..."
"Just not with bullets, okay? We're, like, not into explosives and such."
The Madrid bombings which left 190 dead have been blamed on Islamic extremists. Senior US officials said voters had appeased terrorists by rejecting Jose Maria Aznar's government - a key US ally in the war on Iraq. Many Spanish voters said it was Spain's involvement in the war, which went against overwhelming popular opposition, that had provoked the 11 March attacks.
"So if we're nice, they won't bother us, right?"
Mr Aznar's conservative Partido Popular (PP) had been widely expected to win a third term in government. But the train bombings are considered to have provoked a higher turnout in the elections three days later - in favour of the opposition Socialists (PSOE). Mr Zapatero, addressing his party on Friday, dismissed the accusations of appeasement made in the US by Republican congressman Dennis Hastert, among others. He said Spain had lived with attacks by militant Basque separatists Eta for more than 30 years, well before the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US. "We did not discover the ruthless face of terror three years ago," he said. He said claims that his election victory was due to Spanish voters being scared of terrorists were "simply indecent".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2004 12:55:03 PM ||
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"We did not discover the ruthless face of terror three years ago," [Zapatero] said
Nice slap at 9-11, Zappie. However, when you guys got hit with the Islamic variety (who, unlike the ETA, don't call ahead), who rolled over?
#2
Who would have believed that someone like this asshat Zappo could come along and actually make perfidious Jacques Chirac look reasonable and cooperative?
Posted by: Jen ||
03/27/2004 13:15 Comments ||
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How about the way the Beeb disses Hastert (Speaker of the House of Representatives and thus #3 man in the US government) as just a "Republican Congressman"! Jerks.
Security forces in Spain have found an explosives workshop where the bombs used in the Madrid train attacks may have been made, Spanish radio says. Police found traces of explosives and detonators in a house near the village of Morata de Tajuna, 30km south-east of Madrid. There has been no official comment, but the house is believed to be the home of one of those arrested in connection with the attacks. It had been under police surveillance. At least 18 people - most of them of Moroccan origin - have already been arrested in Spain in connection with the bombings. Moroccan authorities have been questioning several people they have detained in connection with the bombings, which killed 190 people. A spokesman for the Moroccan government, Nabil Benabdallah, said the arrests were made in the north of the country, but declined to reveal the precise number of detainees and what they were suspected of.
3-11 follows the same pattern we've been seeing: the hard boyz spend a year or two seeing up their operation, the boom occurs, then the locals, if they're competent, clean up the entire mob. The entire organization, though they don't realize it, is expendable.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2004 12:47:30 PM ||
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expendable, and no virgins for you!
in fact, speaking of virgins, your new cellmate is Joaquin, 6'7" homosexual biker/rapist...good luck, and I wouldn't get on the prayer rug if I was you, mahmoud...heh heh ...if you know what
I mean.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 13:50 Comments ||
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I am curious to see what sort of terms these guys serve, if any.
Europe could be an Islamonuts dream: no death penalty and light sentences, so easy to recruit teams to plant bombs. And when the bombs go off, voila, welcome to the Caliphate.
Posted by: Carl in NH ||
03/27/2004 18:19 Comments ||
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Fred,
You have a point though remember that this is only true if the rest of the cell is slow.
Remember the Doc in Fla who vanished just around the time of 9-11, like the day before, just after the assassination of the Afghan Opposition Leader....
CND
Posted by: Night Driver ||
03/27/2004 23:36 Comments ||
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And Zappo really thinks rolling over like a dog for a good belly-rub is going to appease the terrs.
Tehran Mayor Mahmud Ahmadinejad said here on Saturday the recent decision by Berlin to install a panel with baseless remarks about Iran is a blatant affront to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In a letter, he strongly warned his Berlin counterpart, Klaus Wowereit, to refrain from such insulting measures against Iran. "Tehran municipality is being pressed by the victims of chemical warfare and their families to list the names of the countries in a panel which provided the ousted regime of Saddam with chemical warfare, particularly Germany as the main provider," he added. The Tehran mayor voiced hope the Berlin municipality would relinquish this insulting act before any retaliatory acts happen. Berlin Municipality is slated to install a panel with baseless remarks against Iran in front of Mikonous Restaurant.
You're right. That makes no sense. I wonder what the retaliatory acts will be?
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 10:41:47 AM ||
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#1
This seems to be related (in Mad Mullah thinking) to this and this and, finally, this. You'll have to use "Find on this page" the search string 'mikonous' - or go blind - to make any sense of the letter, I think.
#2
Donnerwetter no mal, Das ist ja ein
schweinerei.
Posted by: Hans ||
03/27/2004 11:58 Comments ||
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I believe the mayor of Tehran is threatining to sue German companies on behalf of Iranians injured by German-made/designed/supported chemical weapons.
#4
The only fitting response is to send a letter back to Tehran chock full of those loooong Deutsche words...the turbans will never make sense of that either.
Posted by: Carl in NH ||
03/27/2004 18:21 Comments ||
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#5
I would respond in the language of the squirrels. Reply with 1 nut and 3 cups.
.... In a speech to the German parliament in Berlin, [Chancellor Gerhard] Schröder said the [anti-terrorism] effort would include work to toughen regulations on deporting foreigners who are considered to be a danger. âTerror suspects and people who pose a danger to society are not welcome in Germany,â Schröder said. The efforts to counter potential threats are already under way. As part of work to create a German immigration law that began in 2001, members of the major opposition parties have also introduced proposals aimed at achieving the goal that the chancellor described on Thursday. Under their proposal, someone could be deported if âfacts supported the assumptionâ that the person could be involved in violent acts. For example, a foreigner living in Germany would be subject to deportation if he had participated in a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 8:44:11 AM ||
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I've always proposed "Frank's Law" which codifies the punishment for being a foreign visitor (legal or, especially, illegal) that causes harm, commits crimes, protests against, or simply unnecessarily annoys the host country, should not just be deported, but in extreme (criminal or asshole actions) cases should be returned to their native countries from 15,000 feet above grade....think wet sacks of cement...
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 14:02 Comments ||
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German police officers raided an apartment in the southern city of Darmstadt after learning that a Moroccan being held by Spanish authorities in connection with the Madrid train bombings had registered the address as his home, German authorities said Friday. .... Interior Minister Otto Schily told reporters that "we have no indication that the attacks in Madrid were planned or even prepared in Germany."
The Moroccan suspect applied for a residence permit to study in Germany but was turned down, Schily said. He had previously studied in Spain. The man "was not someone who was classified as dangerous here," he said. The federal prosecutorâs office said the Moroccan had been registered at the Darmstadt address since October 2003 and appeared to have stayed in Germany for only a few days. The statement gave his age as 28, but provided no name. A man who lives in the Darmstadt building said by telephone that a man and a woman had lived in the targeted apartment for two or three years. He called them "very quiet and very nice." He said he believed from their speech that they were not German, but perhaps from a country that was formerly part of Yugoslavia. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 8:24:35 AM ||
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Spanish investigators believe that they have identified the core group of Islamic militants who carried out the deadly train bombings in Madrid this month and that more than half of those involved are now in custody, a senior Spanish official said Friday. Investigators are still trying to determine who was behind the plot, which was carried out by eight or nine Moroccan extremists who operated primarily in Spain and Morocco, the official said. The assessment came as Spain announced it had provisionally charged another Moroccan in connection with the attacks, bringing to 12 the number of people who have been formally accused of involvement in the bombings on March 11, which killed 190.
The fast-moving investigation has focused on a network of Moroccan extremists that also had ties to Islamic militant cells elsewhere in Europe. Moroccan officials said they, too, had detained several people, while the German police raided an apartment in Darmstadt where one of the Moroccans arrested in Spain this week lived briefly. The Spanish official said one of the major suspects still at large was a Moroccan militant who had spent time in Turkey in recent years and had been sought before the bombings in connection with a Qaeda cell that operated in Spain. A witness who survived the bombings has identified a photograph of the Moroccan, whose name was not disclosed, as someone who had been on board one of the four commuter trains that was destroyed, officials said.
So far, the primary Spanish suspect in the case is a man arrested on suspicion of providing the terrorists with explosives that were apparently stolen from a mine or quarry in the northern Spanish province of Asturias. The Spaniard had previously been convicted on drug charges, officials said, and he was believed to have met a Moroccan in prison who was related to one of the suspects in the bombings. Several of the Moroccans arrested have ties to militants who had been identified in various countries as members of Al Qaeda. Some of those militants have also been blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Casablanca last year that killed more than 40 people, including 12 terrorists. Moroccan officials said they were investigating several people in the country's impoverished north, a region once administered by Spain. They said some had been taken into custody but denied a newspaper report that one of the men had been found in possession of maps of the Madrid train stations that figured in the attacks.
Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan cellphone salesman in Madrid, who was one of the first people arrested in the attacks, may have helped to coordinate the operation but apparently did not directly take part in the bombings, a Spanish official said. Mr. Zougam first came to the attention of French officials in 2000, as they investigated David Courtallier, a French convert to Islam who spent time in Afghanistan and is now being tried on charges of planning terrorist attacks in Europe. After his return from Afghanistan in 1998, Mr. Courtallier visited Islamic militants in London who gave him contacts in Spain and Morocco. Among those he later met were Mr. Zougam in Madrid and another militant, Abdelaziz Benyaich, the French official said. Armed with evidence of contacts between Mr. Courtallier and Mr. Zougam, France urged Spain to detain Mr. Zougam for questioning and to search his apartment in 2000. It was only after pressing the country for a year that French officials succeeded in having Mr. Zougam questioned and his home searched. "The Spanish weren't interested because they had not found evidence of his own involvement in a terrorist cell plotting against Spain," the French official said. Spanish officials said they simply did not have sufficient cause to charge Mr. Zougam.
Mr. Zougam had met with Mr. Benyaich in Tangier shortly before leaving Morocco on April 20, the officials say. After the Casablanca bombings, Moroccan officials identified Mr. Benyaich as a senior Qaeda operative who easily moved around Europe on a French passport and plotted terrorist attacks in northern Morocco and France. After the Casablanca attacks, Moroccan investigators searching the home of Mr. Benyaich in Tangier found a cellphone that had been tampered with to make a detonator. They now believe that Mr. Benyaich was the source of the cellphone detonator design used in Madrid. Mr. Benyaich fled to Spain after the attacks and was arrested there late last year. One of his brothers, Salaheddin, was arrested in Morocco and later convicted of helping to plan the Casablanca attacks.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2004 12:09:44 AM ||
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#1
Moroccans--involved in this? But they are staunch US allies bought and paid for as we prop up their joke of a monarchy and people live like animals there--unless they are royalty or visiting French and Spanish tourists--it all comes home to roost
#2
monarchy ?
from the cia world facts book
"Gradual political reforms in the 1990s resulted in the establishment of a bicameral legislature in 1997. "
does not look like a monarchy to me
technically they have a constitutional monarchy, a very very different thing than a simple monarchy. If your not sure what it is, try a history book.
but since you are no doubt too lazy to actually look anything up, I'll give you a hint, the king is not the head of the government.
here is their life expectancy
male: 67.77 years
female: 72.41 years
thatâs pretty high for 'living like animals'
as for us propping the country.. it IS a developing country and receives aid like any other
as of 1995 it the nation receives $565.6 million, a paltry sum ;p Pakistan gets around 2 billion
so the whole coming home to roost thing does not make sense, only way that would make sense is if they were blowing up French buildings, ( they recently gained their independence from the French)
you have to understand, here at rantburg we place a high value on accurate debate, simple rhetoric that works well on your standard lefty site does not fly here, so you have to make sure that everything you say is at least partially grounded in reality.
you have to understand, here at rankburg we place a high value on acurate debate, simple rheutoric that works well on your standard lefty site does not fly here. Anyway stick around :) once you climb the learning curve you will fit in nicely - buh get a nickname!
#7
DCreeper - B- You missed the BIGGIE! Morocco's Mohammed III was the FIRST FOREIGN MONARCH to recognize the Independent United States, and to establish diplomatic relations with the new nation in 1787. The United States and Morocco each issued a stamp in 1987 commemorating the event. The United States has helped the nation of Morocco frequently from time to time, but the relationship has more normally been stormy - at least in part due to the influence of other nations, most notably Britain, France, and Spain.
Hmmm, on further thought, how is that different than today? The more things change...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/27/2004 14:30 Comments ||
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#8
Another historical tidbit along this line... Extremely important to America's survival in the Revolutionary War was the "first" official recognition of American sovereignty by Dutch Fort Oranje on St. Eustatius, which fired its guns in salute of the American Brigantine Andria Doria flying revolutionary colors on November 16th 1776.
Some links --1----2----3-- for this (strangely) uncelebrated act.
#10
Ninety-eight percent of the population belongs nominally to the state-sponsored Greek Orthodox Church. Orthodox bishops have the privilege of granting or denying permission to other faiths to build houses of worship in their jurisdictions.
#15
Freedom house has been around for decades, and was contoversial for pointing out the low civil and political rights not only in the soviet Block but in lefty 3rd world states, and showing how by comparison pro-US states such as in Latin America often were less totalitarian, despite Am Intern and others focusing on them. FH was VERY unpopular among the leftists, and was widely admired by the Reagan admin.
Soros probably likes it cause, FH, like Soros, is interested in democracy promotion in the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
And while Morocco has made major progress by the standards of the Arab world, its not a constitutional monarchy like UK or Spain.
EFL and news
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Reuters) - Prospective Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry challenged key White House adviser Condoleezza Rice on Saturday to testify publicly and under oath before a commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Kerry accused President Bushâs White House of stonewalling the commission by keeping Rice off its public witness list, and of attempting "character assassination" against its own former counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke.
Clarke has sparked a political firestorm for Bush by questioning -- most recently in televised testimony before the 9/11 commission -- his commitment to fighting terror before hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and killed more than 3,000 people.
Rice, Bushâs national security adviser and once Clarkeâs White House superior, has led furious administration denials of the charges in various televised appearances and wants to appear before the investigative commission in private session.
Kerry, the Massachusetts senator cruising toward his partyâs White House nomination this summer, joined a chorus of Democrats arguing that that is not good enough.
"Weâre talking about the security of our country ... and the answer is, profoundly, yes, she should (testify)," he told reporters during a campaign stop in Kansas City.
Noting that Rice planned an appearance Sunday night on CBSâ "60 Minutes" program, the same forum Clarke used to attack Bush last weekend, Kerry added:
"If Condoleezza Rice can find time to do â60 Minutesâ on television before the American people, she ought to find 60 minutes to speak to the commission under oath," Kerry said.
He said Franklin Roosevelt had had no problem cooperating with an investigation of Americaâs unpreparedness for Japanâs attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II, and added:
"This administration has done the opposite -- stonewalled this commission."
Rice has already met privately with the 9/11 commission for four hours. But the White House insists -- as it has done traditionally -- that public, sworn testimony would set a bad precedent for future national security advisers.
It has exercised "executive privilege" under which presidentially appointed "advisers" cannot be compelled to testify before Congress.
Still, the Bush camp is well aware the issue is politically explosive for a president running heavily on a claim to strong wartime leadership, and it responded quickly to Kerryâs jibe.
"John Kerryâs attack on Dr. Rice today is part of the Democratsâ strategy to politicize the work of the 9/11 commission," Bush campaign spokeswoman Nicolle Devenish said. "John Kerry seeks to distract Americans from his own failed ideas for protecting America from future attacks."
In his own testimony before the panel this week, in television interviews and in a book, "Against All Enemies," Clarke accused the Bush White House of making the fight against terrorism a lesser priority than the previous Clinton administration -- in which he also worked -- did. Condi can take care of herself - let her speak and Clarkeâs balls will be in a glass of formaldehyde on the commission exhibit table by lunch
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 10:29:41 PM ||
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See who rules America? Due to censorship we inserted "*", delete them. http://A*DLUSA.com
#4
Kerry is a fool. If he does get Rice to testify publically then it would set a precident for his security advisor if he were to get elected. Plus there is the national security issue of having Rice (the National Security Advisor...) having to answer questions about current national security measures publically.
I think it shows that Kerry would sell our national security out in order to get elected. That doesn't cause a tremor on the suprise meter either.
Last week, I [Daniel Pipes] became a whistleblower. .... I felt compelled to go public when the U.S. Institute of Peace ... the taxpayer-funded organization to whose board President Bush appointed me, insisted on co-hosting an event with a group closely associated with radical Islam. That group is the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy; the event was a workshop that took place â over my strenuous objections â on March 19. Most of CSIDâs Muslim personnel are radicals. I brought one such person in particular, Kamran Bokhari, to the attention of USIPâs leadership. Mr. Bokhari is a fellow at CSID; as such, he is someone CSIDâs board of directors deems an expert "with high integrity and a good reputation." As a fellow, Mr. Bokhari may participate in the election of CSIDâs board of directors. He is, in short, integral to the CSID.
Mr. Bokhari also happens to have served for years as the North American spokesman for Al-Muhajiroun, perhaps the most extreme Islamist group operating in the West. For example, it celebrated the first anniversary of 9/11 with a conference titled, "Towering Day in History." It celebrated the second anniversary by hailing "The Magnificent 19." Its Web site currently features a picture of the U.S. Capitol building exploding. .... Nor is Al-Muhajirounâs evil restricted to words and pictures. Its London-based leader, Omar bin Bakri Muhammad, has acknowledged recruiting jihadists to fight in such hotspots as Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Chechnya. At least one Al-Muhajiroun member went to Israel to engage in suicide terrorism. Al-Muhajiroun appears to be connected to one of the 9/11 hijackers, Hani Hanjour.
USIPâs indirect association with Al-Muhajiroun has many pernicious consequences. Perhaps the most consequential of these is the legitimacy USIP inadvertently confers on Mr. Bokhari and CSID, permitting radicals to pass themselves off as moderates. That legitimation follows an assumption that USIP carefully vetted CSID before working with it. But USIP did nothing of the sort. When its leadership insisted on working with CSID, it explained its reasons: "The CSID is assessed by relevant government organizations and credible NGOs supported by the Administration to be an appropriate organization for involvement in publicly funded projects organized by both the government and NGOs, including the Institute." Translated from bureaucratese, this says: "Others have worked with CSID, so why not us?"
But such buck-passing means that in fact no one does due diligence â each organization relies on those that came before. Once in the door, a disreputable organization like CSID acquires a mainstream aura. Or it does until its true identity becomes clear. Over and over again, branches of the American government have been embarrassed by their blindness to jihadist Islam. .... In the war on terror, it is not enough to deploy the police and the military; it is just as necessary to recognize and reject those who develop the ideas that eventually lead to violence. The American government needs to wake up to those elements in its midst whose allegiance in the war on terror is on the other side.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 10:32:53 AM ||
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I hope Bush appoints Pipes to several more boards soon. Do you think he could bash some Tranzi ass for us?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/27/2004 17:00 Comments ||
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MORRISVILLE, N.C. (AP) - A Navy F-18 fighter jet on a training mission caught fire on the runway of the Raleigh-Durham airport during takeoff Friday, but the pilot ejected, authorities said. The burning plane continued rolling before coming to a stop 250 feet from a passenger terminal.
"Now arriving at Gate 10 ..."
The pilot, Lt. Wesley Baumgartner, was hospitalized in good condition, said Cmdr. Lydia Robertson of the Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet of Norfolk, Va. He was the only one on board; no one on the ground was injured.
Teresa Damiano, a spokeswoman for the airport, said the plane had stopped to refuel. She said the pilot described his plane as swerving and bursting into flames as it headed toward a takeoff runway. The pilot ejected before the plane left the ground - about 1,700 feet down the 7,500-foot runway, she said.
I'll bet that was not fun.
News video showed the plane engulfed in flames, with thick black smoke pouring out. Airport fire crews quickly extinguished the fire.
The plane was assigned to the Strike Fighter Squadron 15 - also known as VFA-15, or the Valions - and based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Va., said base spokesman Mike Maus. Maus said the plane was on a routine training mission. The cause of the crash was not immediately known.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/27/2004 12:11:51 AM ||
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..I saw the footage on CNN earlier this evening. Glad LT Baumgartner made it out in one piece, tho he's gonna be sore for a couple of days. I'm going to guess they'll focus on locked/overheated brakes.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/27/2004 0:48 Comments ||
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A bomb attached to a motorcycle in a hotel parking lot exploded Saturday in southern Thailand, injuring about 30 people, according to police and hospital workers the Motorcycle of Doom⢠makes another cameo appearance
Three of those hurt were in serious condition after the blast in Sungai Kolok, a town on the border with Malaysia, said police Capt. Pibul Wattanatham. The bomb exploded at about 7:30 p.m. in the parking lot of the Marina Hotel, injuring patrons at the Top Ten bar and coffee shop, said Pibul. Most of those hurt were Malaysian tourists, according to a worker at the local hospital. Three southern Thailand provinces are the only ones with Muslim majorities in Buddhist-dominated Thailand. Officials have blamed the violence on Muslim separatists, although no groups have taken responsibility for it. Thai Muslims have long complained of discrimination in jobs and education by the central government. They also say their culture and language are being suppressed. A decades-old separatist movement in the south was contained in the late 1980s, but violence began to resurface two years ago. Malaysian tourists wouldnât be muslim hmmm? Commentary, .com?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 4:53:01 PM ||
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"Malaysian tourists wouldnât be muslim hmmm?"
Probably, with 60%-65% odds, according to Islamonline.net.
I only went thru Malaysia once - a long layover (about 5 hrs) in KL's new airport... so I'm no Malaysin authority... On the TL side of the border, I've followed the Bangkok Post and The Nation Newspapers (English) stories and watched the Thais go from the silly "bandits" description to finally telling the truth: they're Islamists. TL's culture makes it hard for them to call a spade a spade, but they're finally there. It's painful to watch them try to figure out how to combat Islam's BS (translation: "suppressed" means they demand change, and it hasn't been given freely) -- for Islam on Mahathir's side, hey, it's just Islamic Business As Usual: violence against any and all who don't fold on demand.
Someday the Thais will get serious. Thaksin (Toxin, IMHO) isn't worth warm spit regards anything except lining his own pockets and playing Huey Long styled populist politics. Others may disagree and / or know more.
#2
I met a Malaysian guy recently who grew up Christian in the part of Malaysia bordering Thailand. He told stories about the abuse and discrimination he and other Christians would get, even as children on their way to school.
Oh, and now he is a successful executive with a major high-tech firm in Singapore. So, concentrating on getting a good education, overcoming discrimination and becoming successful *can* be done, but I doubt the madrassas are geared for that alternative...
Posted by: Carl in NH ||
03/27/2004 18:40 Comments ||
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#3
I'm pretty sure you're right .com, sad to say - the faithful don't matter in the big picture, hmmm? I can't imagine that a majority of the Malay tourists weren't muslim - fodder
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 18:51 Comments ||
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#4
I've been to Malaysia at least a hundred times. Its a one dollar bus ride for me. The Thai border towns are well know for their red light attractions and are frequented by both muslim malays and non-muslim chinese as well as ex-pats. Its 50/50 whether the injured Malaysians were muslims or not.
Iran has inaugurated a plant for processing uranium ore into gas, a step prior to enrichment of uranium, in the central city of Isfahan, Iranian nuclear officials said Saturday. The Uranium Conversion Facility began operation "some time ago," a senior official at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on condition of anonymity.
Not that the IAEA knew.
The nuclear facility in Isfahan, 250 miles south of Tehran, converts uranium ore into gas, which is destined for enrichment at a nuclear plant in Natanz. Iran suspended enrichment last year under strong international pressure over the aims and dimensions of its nuclear program. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are scheduled to arrive in Iran later Saturday.
"Fatima! You and girls step lively now, we want a re-e-e-ally good show!"
The Atomic Energy Organization official said the inspectors would visit the conversion facility in Isfahan as well as the enrichment plant in Natanz, 200 miles south of Tehran. Mohammed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has said Iran needs to take many steps before the U.N. agency can give its nuclear program a clean bill of health.
Is this one of them?
ElBaradei, who plans to visit Iran early next month to encourage it to be more transparent, hopes to present an assessment of Iran's nuclear activities to the IAEA board of governors in June 2007. Iran has repeatedly denied concealing any illegal nuclear activity.
You don't have to conceal it if the inspectors are determined not to notice...
After the IAEA rebuked it this month, the Tehran government barred the inspectors for two weeks. Their scheduled return Saturday will be their first visit since then.
ElBaradei couldn't find his hind end with either hand, and he's going to find the nuke program in Iran?
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/27/2004 11:58:46 AM ||
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ElBaradei has no intention of stopping Iran's program. No doubt he finds it intensely disappointing that Pakistan hasn't yet used its nukes on any infidels, and he's betting the mullahs won't let him down.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
03/27/2004 12:18 Comments ||
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#2
Lol! Watching the Black Hat Foreign Policy in action and ElBaradei's management of the IAEA is almost as good as a Snidely Whiplash vs. Dudley Doright episode! Of course, it would be nice not to be playing the role of darling Nell tied up and lying across the railroad tracks...
#4
N 38°40'0" E 47°0'0"
Uh, Hyper, Tomahawks use Universal Transverse Mercatur (UTM) coordinates, to five digits (0.1m accuracy). I'm sure the United States already has them, and somewhere, probably aboard several seagoing vessels and a half-dozen aircraft, a missile already has them cranked into it's tiny little brain (computer technology being what it is today, I'm sure there are HUNDREDS of targets planned into each warhead, awaiting a specific activation for a specific target). Once the Man decides it's time to stop talking and start DOING something, Isfahan's Primary Industry will take a "hit" - literally.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/27/2004 15:37 Comments ||
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#5
I'm sure there are HUNDREDS of targets planned into each warhead,
You are incorrect. My bus is Mecca bound. We are hardwired. We will not fail you. We are menuverable. We are not human. We will explode and become energy. Thank you for this mission.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/27/2004 23:52 Comments ||
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#8
I think the public American policy towards should be simple. It should be to keep homeland security twice as tight as the most secure EU member country. When the explosion happens, all US citizens can yell, "OLE" simultaneously.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/27/2004 23:59 Comments ||
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To Proceed: I want to make clear in this message many facts that the Jews and Christians are trying to hide behind Musharraf, the most treacherous is the Jews.
"They got big noses, y'know..."
The first fact is that this war is a Crusade. America doesn't want Pakistan to be strong. America does not want a strong Muslim nation. Musharraf has killed too many in Afghanistan. The most important issue for him is to stop the jihad in Kashmir to allow the US to go there and kill the Muslims.
"They're there now. They're disguised as Hindoos. But you can tell, 'cuz they got them shifty little eyes."
The second fact is that Musharraf wants to kill the Muslim and Taliban from behind the Arabs, Uzbeks and Turkmen, to wage jihad against the Afghans because of the Qabaail (ie tribesmen in of Waziristan) are killing many Brits and US. America has ordered Musharraf to kill them and they enter house from house to kill them. He forgets that in their history they help the Muslims. Allah has said the Muslims are one brotherhood. Musharraf has given too many Mujahideen and helpers of Muslims to the US and the FBI who then send them to Guantanamo. We ask all Muslims to fight under the Flag of Islam and the people of
Pakistan must follow Shariah and finish with the Musharraf government. They have to help to the Qabaail.
A Measage To The Qabaail: You must help your Taliban brothers. How can you give your brothers to the American agents? We know that you are zealous for Muslims.
"If you don't, we'll kill you..."
A Message To The Pak Army: Musharraf has put you in a bad place in Afghanistan. He takes from you your nuclear weapons and now leaves you to fight the Qabaail. Do you want the US to take Islamabad?
"You go take those nukes back and nuke the hell outta Qabaail!"
The reality is that Musharraf is treacherous. You need to make people on fire for jihad and tell the Muslims that it is haraam to help the kuffar. Those who take this way are kuffar because they want to follow the dunya and Allah will put him in hellfire.
"Yup. He's gonna be a roaster. No doubt about it."
O Muslims in All Places: Be firm and have patience. The believers fight in the way of Allah and the disbelievers fight for toghoot. Indeed the camp of kuffar is weak.
Mmmmmm! Toghoot! My favorite!
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2004 11:10:48 AM ||
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Folks,
My daughter in law is paranoid and my wife is a big mouth with little brain. She never listens and gets into a rage every time I have tried to put forward a rational thought. Did I explain what Yamen is all about?
Has anyone told them that Kerry is Jewish? Wonder how they feel about the choice of Bush or a Jew?
Posted by: B ||
03/27/2004 12:58 Comments ||
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#4
"Qabaail" is Arabic for "tribals;" the tribal peoples of Waziristan.
Posted by: mary ||
03/27/2004 15:26 Comments ||
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#5
except now "Qabaail" is Arabic for dead meat with no mudhuts
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 15:37 Comments ||
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#6
I haven't fought for good toghoot since freshman year in college and we were down to our last bowl and it was too late to go score some more.
Posted by: Carl in NH ||
03/27/2004 20:16 Comments ||
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#7
Carl (in N.H.) you didn't go and use any mustard base on that toghoot did ya? Good Americans (like yourself surly) take toghoot only with a spicey tomato(e) base.
BTW weird google.... Tohoot observatory and the Leonid showers.... hmmmm.
Local officials have denied reports that a group of armed men is living in the border area between Sindh and Balochistan at Marri Hills.
"No, no! Certainly not! They're... ummm... simple, but well-armed woodcutters."
More than 200 Talibs men armed with automatic weapons have reportedly taken up position in the border area near Mari-Hill in the Tumman Buzdar territory. They are reportedly collecting food and weapons and have offered jobs to locals. Reliable sources said the group of men has constructed tunnels and trenches and hide whenever law-enforcement agencies are near. District Police Officer Deharki Muhammad Aftab Halipota denied the reports, saying that families were living in the area and police were watching them to make sure they did not do anything illegal.
"Ain't no law against diggin' a few tunnels..."
âGossips have spread the news that some Taliban or Al Qaeda men took refuge in the border area of Punjab at Marri Hills near the Jacobabad Air Base, but there is no truth to these rumours. The fact is that about 200 families took refuge in the Marri Hills and they belong to the Nawab Kher Bakhjsdh Marri group,â he said. Political official Ikramullah Khan added that, âSome activists of Balochistan National Movement moved to Tumman Buzdar two or three months ago but law-enforcement agencies forced them to leave. Now they have come back again with their other relatives and friends. They moved to this area with the consent of the Tumman Buzadar and their activities are not unlawful.â
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2004 8:25:53 PM ||
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See who rules America? Due to censorship we inserted "*", delete them. http://A*DLUSA.com
Arab foreign ministers agreed Saturday to provide Palestinians funding for the next six months to keep the Palestinian Authority operating, the Algerian foreign minister said. Eleven ministers from the 22-member Arab League met to try to work out the language of a statement that reflects how the summit will give a new push to the Arab peace initiative adopted at an Arab summit in Lebanon in 2002. The Palestinian ambassador, Mohammed Sobeih, told The Associated Press that US$50 million per month was needed in the next six months to fund the Palestinian Authority and pay for its employees. The foreign ministers sought Saturday to find a way to revive an Arab peace initiative to Israel and despite Syrian opposition because of the assassination of sheikh Ahmed Yassin. The statement was expected to be included in the final communique of the two-day Arab summit that begins Monday. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa gave no indication of progress when he met Saturday afternoon with reporters. The press conference was postponed for two hours because of what officials said was an unspecified "emergency meeting." However, Tunisian activists said the delay was to keep journalists away from a downtown demonstration by about 1,000 opposition and human rights groups demanding press freedoms in this country.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2004 7:34:18 PM ||
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That's fine, I suppose. Let Arabs pour their own money down the Philistine toilet.
#5
The arab league will do anything, pay any price, to keep the paleshitians from coming to their countries. muslims are the lowest form of life on the planet. The most ignorant, gullible, stupid group of people too.
How else can you explain their ability to convince young men that if you blow yourself up, you can spend eternity screwing 72 virgins in paradise? How important can their cause be, when they themselves won't blow themselves up for it? How stupid can someone be to fall for this bullshit??? arabs are also the world's biggest hypocrites.
#6
Regarding the Virgins, are you supposed to keep them as such, and if so, what is the point? And if not, you get a week or so of jollies before they are all deflowered, and it is right back to your average ghetto ... bunch of naughty, perhaps even pregnant little misses ... Heaven?
This is Debka so salt to taste, but it doesnât take a genius to figure out that coordinated bombing get the attention and the results as in Madrid. EFL
No sooner had the tens of thousands of mourners dispersed after the ceremonies and demonstrations of strength marking the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin last Tuesday, March 22, in an Israeli missile attack, when a thousand Hamas top and middle-ranking activists dived underground. Since then, known Hamas operatives have maintained perfect telephone silence, their relatives are in the dark about their whereabouts and contacts are maintained only through trusted couriers. This situation presented the Hamas command center in Damascus with the problem of communicating urgent instructions to the men on the ground in the Gaza Strip â urgent for two reasons:
1. Although Abdel Aziz Rantissi made a show of bending the knee to Khaled Mashaal, head of the Hamas Damascus command center, Mashaal knows he must assert his authority without delay and set the pace of coming in events in the Gaza Strip before the local leadership grabs the initiative.
2. Hamas, Hizballah and al Qaeda agents maintain day-to-day exchanges based on a delicately balanced intelligence and logistical give and take. Mashaal and company will not allow anyone in the Hamas Gaza command to upset the balance of this relationship.
A way therefore had to be found for Hamas, Damascus, to impose its will on Hamas, Gaza. The method finally hit on was to take to the airwaves. Friday, March 26, therefore, the Hamas liaison man in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, who managed the Mishaal-Rantisi compromise, was interviewed on Hizballah Radio Nur. On the assumption that the Gaza contingent in hiding were listening in case of coded messages, Hamdan addressed the Hamas âmilitaryâ wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qasseem Brigades, directly â not in code but in plain language. DEBKAfile monitored his statement, as follows:
âThe lone suicide martyr method has scored great achievements, but now, as we stand at the threshold of a decisive stage, we must resort to a tactic that brings us the desired results. Ideally, we would round up 70,000 to 80,000 martyrs and have them blow themselves up simultaneously in the enemyâs urban centers and so finally vanquish him. But that is not realistic. One tenth or even one hundredth part of that number should suffice to inflict a shock on a strategic scale. I therefore tell you not to hurry to exact revenge. We have to be sure our assault is concerted and perfectly orchestrated. Donât waste resources and manpower on small operations. No one is pushing you. Take all the time you need and then pick a date and hour that are most advantageous to our project.â
The good news is the fence around Gaza has been extremely effective at keeping boomers out. So Hamas need to solve the how to get people acroos the fence problem first.
Hamdanâs words freely translated are a directive from Damascus HQ to Muhammed Deif, commander of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam, to muster an army of several hundred suicide killers to reach the hubs of Israeli cities and blow themselves up at the same moment. The Damascus Hamas command reckons that, even if not all the massacres come off, Israel will not be able to withstand a shock and casualties of the magnitude projected
They think Israel's Spain. My guess is that the effect would be the opposite, with the Paleos being expelled from both West Bank and Gaza. And the magnitude of the attacks would kill — for a couple weeks, anyway — world support for the Paleos. They'd be committing mass suicide.
This escalation fits in well with the intelligence gathered by Americans and Israelis on the spreading base of anti-Israeli terror from the double suicide attack carried out in Ashdod shortly before the assassination of Sheikh Yassin which caused the deaths of 10 Israeli port workers. Their experts conclude the attack was the work of Hizballah aided and abetted by al Qaeda.
Mass casualties invites massive retaliation. You heard read it here first.
A senior US intelligence official is quoted as saying: âThe soldiers were members of Hamas. But the overall planning, the way the shipâs container was prepared, the weapons used and the level of advance intelligence invested in the attack all bear the marks of the two Islamic terrorist groups. We can expect many more combined terrorist assaults of this kind in the future.â Al Qaeda shoe bomber Richard Reid who failed to blow up an American airliner on December 22, 2001, learned how to pack explosives in his shoes while visiting Hamas activist Nabil Aqal at his home in the Jebaliya refugee camp of the Gaza Strip. This fact was not brought out in the US court that sentenced him to life imprisonment. Israel too kept quiet about this connection, mainly so as not to embarrass Mohammed Dahlan, then head of the Palestinian Gaza Strip preventive security apparatus, who could not have avoided knowing about the al Qaeda visitor. He was not the last, the two British Muslim bombers, Assif Muhammad Hanif and Omar Khan Sharif, who bombed Mikeâs Place on the Tel Aviv promenade on April 30, 2003, also spent time with Hamas hosts in the Gaza Strip prior to their hit. Their real assignment was to bomb the US embassy a few doors away from the bar but they found it too well protected. American, British and Israeli security forces have conspired to keep this quiet. I think Debka is right about Hamasâ intention, but I doubt they have the capability to match it.
#3
I believe some of the premature bombers demise has been caused by cell phone activated signals. The young boy who was caught last week narrowly missed being blown up. It is reasonable to assume the Israeli's know this and have been effective so far in detonating these devices prematurely. That being the case then the Paleos know it too and thus co-ordinating a massive suicide bombing becomes so much more difficult. If not it will be a 4th of July boomer parade.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
03/27/2004 22:29 Comments ||
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#4
800 suicide bombers? Hamas doesn't seem to have a problem organizing rather static things like infrastructure, but a fluid concept like a suicide bomber corps, a single action, would strain their logistics in such a way, Hamas could well be put out of business.
That is a lot of activity taking place, and it doesn't seem to be that it would escape notice once the planning commences.
Perhaps IDF could play a little rope a dope with these folks to encourage them to shoot their wad on this one idea. Nothing more devastating in the world than a broke Hamas jihadi, unless its a self exploding/broke Hamas jihadi, from standoff range.
Seems to me that if they could have mounted such a massive attack they would have tried it already. It is also possible that this announcment comes on the heels of a cash infusion from somewheres. ( Shoddy Arabia? Iran? ) Or it could also be a call for cash from their supporters.
Posted by: A Jackson ||
03/27/2004 23:26 Comments ||
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#6
If you rig a computer program to dial every Palistinian phone number in sucession, we could call the result the gand finale of the Road Map.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/27/2004 23:54 Comments ||
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#7
If this is true, then either this Maashal guy is a retard or Israel controls him because his instructions are both unrealistic and idiotic.
Unrealistic because Hamas simply can't get that many bombers through the green line. Idiotic because with that many bombers, at least a few of them will boom prematurely and give the whole thing away.
Crushed Emotions: A Tribute To Sheik Ahmed Yassin
A poem by Albert M. Jabara
Roses are red, violets are blue
Oâ Death! This poem is for you.
George W. Bush and Ariel Sharon
Have more guts than you.
Young soldiers, Israelis and Americans
Dethroned you in Palestine;
Wiped you out in Iraq;
Crushed you in Afghanistan. Which is more than I can stand!
Return lives
Taken without your command
And throw their killers in hell.
Show compassion and love!
You joined Sharon and AshcroftâŠ
You fell in love with Condoleezza⊠By the shores of Gitche Gumee
By the shining Big-Sea Water
You were tricked with Colinâs charm⊠That old black magic Rumsfeld cast his spell on youâŠ
Young Bush pushed you aroundâŠ
You didnât even fight back.
What kind of Death are you? Be ye proud?
Look at brains crushed
Inside stiff sculls;
They donât bleed.
They throb; they pulse.
They resurrect.
Look at hearts drop to bellies
Looking for exit
To leave tormented bodies
Sprayed with bullets.
The dying is refusing to die
Under U.S. or Israeli Decree. And poems are made by fools like me
You stand by and do nothing!
God gave you a mission
To be wise and just.
You violated
Your Lordâs laws.
Dignity Rapists
Rape entire nations;
They donât allow prayer
Over the dead.
Itâs time you disowned
Your black rope, Kafiah and Cane.
Jeans and cowboy hat,
Boots and U.S. flag--
Is a better outfit for you.
Young George wonât argue with that.
This too rules you out as a terrorist.
Arabs hide behind U.S. diplomats
Totally naked
To prove theyâre not terrorists.
Is it possible, you joined the killers
To prove, you too are not, a terrorist?
Save your joy and laughter:
Invading ships will sink
By force of sea Mammals. I must go down to the seas again
Invading soldiers will perish
By a lightening strike.
Fighter planes, tanks
And rocket launchers
Will remain parked
Until rust eats them. Only this and nothing more.
The Middle East will earth back
To China, its natural Mother
With a promise not to return
To Arabia ever again. Quoth the raven: Nevermore!
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 7:27:03 PM ||
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See who rules America? Due to censorship we inserted "*", delete them. http://A*DLUSA.com
Not quite sure what this means, but it wont do the Arabs reputation for being (un)able to reach and stick to agreements any good.
A summit of Arab leaders due to begin next week was postponed late Saturday because of unspecified disagreements, officials said. Arab leaders had hoped to use the conference, which was to begin Monday, to relaunch a peace initiative to Israel, and to submit their own proposals for political reforms. However, a preliminary meeting of Arab foreign ministers revealed deep differences over both issues; and Israelâs assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin on Monday provoked widespread outrage in the Arab world, making it politically risky to pursue a peace initiative. A spokesman for the Tunisian foreign Ministry, Hatem bin Salem, told reporters "there are disagreements," but did not elaborate.
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has vowed that he would "eliminate" al-Qaeda and said that the terror network's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was on the run.
Oh, come on, Perv. You and whose army?
Musharraf spoke during an interview with ABC News, one day after an audio tape â attributed to Zawahiri â urged Pakistan's military to support al-Qaeda and sweep Musharraf from power. "Now as far as if he's taunting me well, I would like to say that I'm going to eliminate all of them," Pakistan's leader said, referring to Zawahiri and al-Qaeda loyalists. "I mean, Zawahiri is on the run. For heaven's sake, it's just one tape. Let's not get excited," Musharraf said on Saturday. "It's very clear we'll eliminate them, and the tribal elders are cooperating," he added.
Define "clear"...
Define "cooperating"...
The call was made in a tape broadcast by the Arab Al-Jazeera television network late Thursday and attributed to Al-Qaeda deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri in a recording described by US intelligence as "probably authentic." The tape called on Pakistan's military to "not obey orders" and overthrow Musharraf's administration, which it calls a "traitor government." Pakistan's military and government have poured scorn on the tape.
... while the MMA are looking at each other, saying "Yeah! We should do dat!" and tightening their turbans.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2004 5:37:56 PM ||
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It gives the whole thing a new meaning. TURBAN WARFARE............
Posted by: B ||
03/27/2004 23:19 Comments ||
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Lesee, Perv has vowed to obliterate al Qaeda and al Qaeda has vowed to obliterate Perv. How nice to see this touching exchange of such dedicated vows.
Mebbe if Perv hadn't turned a blind eye while their beloved Khan was peddling Pak nuke technology to all comers and their madrasahs were churning out murderous Taleban fanatics, he wouldn't have to so be worried about litte red dots appearing on his shirt.
Hark! Is this a real live moderate Muslim? At least he seems to have gotten a clue. Just the first paragraph. Please read the whole thing.
By Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of alt.muslim.com 3/25/04
I have to admit that Iâve been taken aback with the level of anger surrounding the killing of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Muslims both inside and outside of Palestine seem genuinely shocked - shocked, I tell you! - that Israel would dare to take out the spiritual head of Hamas in such a dramatic and bloody manner. And the loudest cries seem to be coming from those who well aware of, and have no problem with, Yassinâs ideology of the use of violence - including suicide bombings against civilians - as the "only way" to liberate Palestine. The very genuine grievances suffered by Palestinians seem to have nurtured an illogical expectation that both sides are bound to different rules of war, that somehow, if a Palestinian leader calls for young men to blow themselves up among Israeli civilians, a retaliation in kind against that leader is unacceptable. Of course, Iâm told by friends that Israel should have instead arrested Yassin and given him a fair trial if they thought he had blood on his hands. I can only shake my head at the cognitive dissonance. Do these people think that the Muslims of old, after losing a battle, would protest indignantly to the victors? Yasin and Hamas declared war on Israel, an obviously stronger adversary, and they got war in return. Did they really expect a lawsuit instead?
Much more at link. But I couldnât resist his closing paragraph.
Yassinâs death makes it clear that violent opposition to the occupation will ultimately fail. The tactic of suicide bombing should be buried along with him. If we are to see real progress towards the restoration of Palestinian rights rather than a march towards self-destruction, then Palestine will need more Rachel Corries and fewer Sheikh Yassins.
#4
mhw - LOL! Mirrors my experience: Normal conversation in progress, seemingly open minded, discussing issues, blah blah blah then we trip some trigger and *bam!*, like a steel trap door slams shut and the Evil Joooos! mentality appears in full raging spittle mode. Completely blows you away. I think you could just call 'em "zoids" and leave it at that! 8-)
#6
Why Are Muslims So "Shocked & Awed" By Yassinâs Assassination?
It's usually the extremeists who are most suprised when their own tactics are turned against them. They never figure on anyone else having a bigger set of ostiones. Violent @ssholes are always amazed when someone cold-cocks them for being such jerks.
"Jen, only when and if he is ever properly elected will I then be grudgingly obliged to address him as you wish I would. His intentional blurring of the separation between church and state while simultaneously attempting to constitutionalize discrimination gets nothing but scorn from me.
Thank goodness we live in a country where we can disagree on this matter. Please know that you indeed have the privilege to dislike me for what I say, that is entirely your right. Understand one thing though, I don't do this to intentionally anger or offend you or anybody else.
As a proud American I cannot abide the White House's ham-fisted tampering with both the duties of executive office or our beloved constitution. Whatever proper intransigence might be shown for terrorism (as is demanded of all worthy commander in chiefs) still in no way confers any right to enshrine religious commandment as constitutional law, especially not in a nation wholly founded upon secular ideals. This is what he's attempting and my own ethicality demands that I consider it to be nothing less than malfeasance of office. Hence my scorn."
Oh, Dumpster, you're a treasure.
What a load of juicy bullshit.
He IS the duly elected President of the United States, fucktard. Proof that all else you may say is at the very least suspect, if not outright total fucking bullshit. You're full of shit.
Your notion that he is "constitutionalizing discrimination" is truly insane. Proof? You're full of shit.
You provide no proof of any "ham-fisted" actions - or anything even remotely associated. You're full of shit.
As an atheist, I know he has not done anything that hasn't been done before for the last 30 years to "enshrine religious commandment as constitutional law". I most certainly would've noticed. You're full of shit.
The phrase "my own ethicality demands that I consider it to be nothing less than malfeasance of office" is so utterly asinine and disingenuous as to be breathtaking. You couldn't prove any aspect of that charge if your worthless life depended upon it. You're full of shit.
It is clear that you're one thoroughly conflicted and fucked up induhvidual - and given your comments, so anti-Bush that you'd remove him from office if you could. You obviously think President Gore is being denied his constitutional rights. You're fucking insane. It is not unreasonable to presume you will vote against Bush, therefore, so you are in league with the enemy - there is no sane RBer who could possibly believe Skeery would be worth warm spit in the Wot - your pathetic little aside about Commanders in Chief notwithstanding. You are unbelievably amazingly self-defeatingly massively full of shit.
#8
The Muslims I knew are completely schizoid on things like this. They say Yassin was evil and doesn't represent Islam then two sentences later they say he really wasn't trying to ispire murder then a few sentences later its a condemnation of Israel and the US. Actually I guess schizoid doesn't cover it, its more like trizoid.
Not exactly a WOT article but i just foud this on my harddisk, and decided to post it, I still think its f****** funny.
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL ||
03/27/2004 11:39:51 AM ||
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Y'know, if he'd just headed for Seattle or San Francisco, he could have melted into the "homeless" community and we'd have never found him.
Cop: "Sure, you're Saddam Hussein. And I'm the Easter Bunny. Now beat it!"
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
03/27/2004 13:51 Comments ||
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You're right, OG. Last summer we stopped at a restaurant in a Colorado resort town. There was another diner there who was a dead ringer for Saddam, but no one mentioned it to him. he just blended in.
Pakistan's military badly wounded a senior al-Qaida leader, who is now hiding out in the country's western tribal area, a military spokesman said Saturday. Al-Qaida commander Tahir Yuldash â also known as Tahir Yuldashev â had been mentioned earlier as one of two possible "high-value targets" cornered when Pakistan's military began a sweep of South Waziristan on March 16. In a statement, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said only that recent intelligence indicated that Yuldash was severely wounded and in hiding in western Pakistan.
... which is a fairly large area, of course.
Sultan said the sweep operation has been successful, with more than 50 suspected militants killed and 163 captured. Pakistani forces also suffered casualties, though Sultan refused to release figures until the operation is over.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2004 11:09:12 AM ||
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It's been awfully silent re: Zawahiri lately. No further reports about if he escaped - and no firm denials that he hasn't been captured either.
Silence is usually a good sign in cases like this. It makes me hopeful.
Posted by: B ||
03/27/2004 12:47 Comments ||
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"Hey Tahir, looks like you got gutshot! Is that painful? I bet it is, from the groaning sounds....It don't smell good neither...."
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 15:19 Comments ||
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I agree B they are doing a khaleed sheikh mohammed with zawahire.
#4
One goatfat poultice for our favorite Major General of Doom.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/27/2004 15:57 Comments ||
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"Hey Tahir, looks like you got gutshot! Is that painful? I bet it is, from the groaning sounds....It don't smell good neither...."
Frank G, Gutshots really stink, a horrid smell of shit and bile and blood mixed together, plus they really get good if they have been out in the sun for a while. Flies seem to really like gutshot stiffs though, like a buffet line (or pile). Probably hurts likle hell, the massive nerve bundle from the lower extremities would be bathed in ackey-pooey.
#7
I still think the simple (tho pretty fair light infantry) woodcutters have laid a pretty good whipping on the Pakis. If the Pakis can hang in their with the D-9 and do serious we will make your life a living hell they may yet have a chance, we'll see.
Militants including al Qaeda fighters under siege by Pakistani forces on the Afghan border have agreed to release 14 government men captured at the start of fighting 12 days ago, a negotiator said on Saturday. "We have managed to persuade them to release all the kidnapped people. They will be here some time today or early tomorrow," said tribal elder Malik Waris Khan Afridi, speaking in the western town of Wana.
The face-saving gesture's been made...
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2004 10:14:43 AM ||
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Saddam Hussein was finally betrayed by a relative who was one of his closest bodyguards, a BBC programme reveals. Panorama reports that after eight months on the run, the hiding place of the ousted Iraqi leader was given away by an aide known as "the fat man". The programme, to be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday, says Mohammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit gave away the secret after being arrested and interrogated. ... Mr Musslit was a loyal lieutenant of Saddam Hussein. He was one of the people who accompanied the Iraqi leader as he fled Baghdad in a white Oldsmobile, as US troops entered the city on 9 April 2003. But Panorama will reveal that he was quickly broken by interrogators after being captured in Baghdad, and led American troops to his boss just hours after being arrested in December. After his arrest, Mr Musslit was flown to Tikrit where he was interrogated. He was then made to point out the remote farm where Saddam Hussein was hiding.
The 600 American soldiers there found nothing in the farm buildings, but discovered Saddam Hussein hiding in an underground passage. But because he did not willingly offer the information, the man who led the Americans to Saddam Husseinâs secret bunker near his home town of Tikrit will not benefit from the $25m reward that was on offer. A senior US commander, Major General Ray Odierno, denied the source had been tortured but told the programme that he was "a shady character", adding that he believed "the US treasury gets to keep the money."
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 10:01:33 AM ||
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Lol! Ooooo, Panorama reports - be still my beating heart! Prolly "tortured" him with a big plate of hummas, schwarma, and falafel...
Give him the $25M? Obviously, and even Panorama will have to admit this, he didn't do it voluntarily - so nah, I don't think I wanna give him any of my tax dollars as a reward for getting himself bagged.
An official said the army had completed 75 percent of the work involving demolition of houses of suspected militants. "They would leave the area the moment they demolish the remaining targeted houses there," the official said. A senior Afghan intelligence official with connections in the area said that about 300 homes had been destroyed, and close to 200 people arrested. Of those, 60 are Afghan refugees, the official said, and 17 are foreigners.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 9:06:21 AM ||
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From Jihad Unspun
In South Waziristan, the US client Pakistan continued its operation against Zalikhel and Yargulkhel tribes on a smaller scale yesterday, with âonlyâ 28 homes destroyed however the destruction of more homes is scheduled. ... Secretary to Governor for Security Brigadier (Retd) Mahmud Shah told reporters that the fighting has been suspended as the local elders of tribes discuss among themselves how to resolve the issue. He said that 52 elders of different tribes were meeting, including some members from Zalikhel tribe. He said that due to the extensive amount of demolitions that are scheduled, more bulldozers are being called from all over the country. ....
Flatten them all. No skin off my fore.
The Pakistan army, in a confidence building measure, opened two roads leading to the area and allowed ambulances and doctors along with medications to enter. The Pakistani army is no longer releasing threatening statements as it was previously. It appears that they have now realized that the Mujahideen are well prepared for battle and are opting for the negotiations table.
The mujahideen have decided they own that corner of Pakland, rather than Pakistan. They're assuming the Pak government will eventually go away and leave them to play with their guns and explosives and subvert people, while keeping other interested parties from leveling their mud forts and killing them. There's a very good chance they're correct.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 8:52:03 AM ||
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So where are the members of the Order of St. Pancake, who should be protesting and blocking this grievous action by the Pak army?
(*sounds of clanking grousers on broken brick*)
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/27/2004 11:46 Comments ||
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair was right. It was "strange" to be in Libya. Firstly because of the Arabian nightmare setting of tents, camels and security men. But also because Muammar Gadhafi's remarkable switch from leader of a rogue state with a secret nuclear weapons program to an Arab president apparently eager to cooperate with the West raises and leaves unanswered curious nagging questions. President Bush has been quick to claim the great Libyan turnaround as one of the welcome by-products of the Iraq war. Gadhafi does not want to be the next Middle Eastern maverick to mess with the U.S. Marines, goes the Bush administration's argument.
But it couldn't possibly be that, could it?
But European sources who know Gadhafi say he is less concerned about the U.S. threat than the threat from Osama bin Laden.
Naturally...
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul Rahman Shalgam told British reporters with Blair Thursday that Libya had pushed Interpol in 1998 to issue an international warrant for the arrest of the Saudi-born militant leader, but Interpol failed to take action. Shalgam said Libya had done this after bin Laden had organized an attempt on Gadhafi's life because he was not a true Muslim. Shalgam's claim was remarkable because the Libyan regime has in the past always denied the periodic reports of assassination attempts against the leader. But the purpose was to show that Gadhafi shared common cause with the United States and its allies in the fight against terrorism.
Once the decision's made to get on board, the number of reasons for it multiplies...
In reality, bin Laden's organization al-Qaida has tried more than once to assassinate Gadhafi, on one occasion actually wounding him in the arm and leg. Islam is the official religion of Libya, but although Gadhafi has shown public signs of increased devotion of late, the regime is essentially a secular state. Gadhafi regards Islamic fundamentalism -- which he calls "political Islam" -- as a threat to his control. Whenever it has shown signs of surfacing in Libyan schools and the university, it has been firmly suppressed.
"Firm" in Libya is the same thing as "painful."
But bin Laden's differences with Gadhafi are more personal than religious. In the late 1980s, bin Laden wanted to move his base of operations from Sudan to Libya. There were at the time -- and from all accounts there still are -- some Libyans in al-Qaida, but when bin Laden's desire was conveyed to Gadhafi, the answer was a flat refusal. Still, Islamist fighters with ties to bin Laden began dribbling into Libya and settling in Benghazi. The sources say it was British intelligence that first warned Gadhafi of the nest of Islamic fundamentalists building up in Libya's second largest city. In 1989, Libyan troops clashed with the newcomers in fierce streetfighting. A Western correspondent who was there at the time recalled Friday that the fighting lasted a couple of hours. Then the Islamists retreated to an apartment building near the center of the city. The Libyans brought up tanks and destroyed the building.
Good thing they weren't holed up in a mud-walled fort. They'd still be there...
The survivors were lined up in the street and shown to a few foreign journalists. Then they were taken away and Libyan sources said they had been executed.
Muammar has a much better handle on being a dictator than Perv does. But he has been at it longer, even if he never did get promoted...
As Gadhafi has seen the al-Qaida network grow -- and bin Laden remain elusive despite coalition efforts to capture him -- he has increased his vigilance and sought closer ties with Western countries that could offer protection. Gadhafi was the first foreign leader to send condolences and to offer to share intelligence on al-Qaida with the Bush administration a day or so after the Sept. 11, 2001, twin attack on New York and Washington.
Pretty quick on the uptake, isn't he? His prompt condolences in the 24 hours following 9-11 took me by surprise...
But the White House was not ready to do business with the Libyan leader. Among the inhibiting factors were Gadhafi's well known and well documented past support of terrorism, and the long-drawn settlement negotiations over the sabotaged PanAm jet that crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland. Still, United Press International has learned that Secretary of State Colin Powell sent a formal but personal reply to Gadhafi -- the first communication with the Libyan in years. Powell thanked him for his condolences and offer of help and promised to contact him further if his assistance were required. There was also a cryptic sentence about how relations would be better if an outstanding issue could be settled -- a reference to the Lockerbie settlement.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2004 12:14:10 AM ||
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Gadhafi looked around and realized if he threw his lot in with Binny, he would be boomed anyway. Protection money does not buy protection. Maybe Gadhafi ought to invite the new Spanish honcho to Libya and teach him some fundamentals of basic survival before Spain goes totally down the septic tan.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/27/2004 1:43 Comments ||
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Mr Al Aqsa Paul--down south we have a saying--"We don't have a dog in this fight!" --which is what the Europeans are now realizing--watch for a terrorist attack in Italy, Britain, then in Poland next. The governments that backed this insane war will be thrown out of office--hopefully like the nutz that started the war in our (name) country--you know--the ones that lied us into it
#3
Anonymous, that's Grand Mufti Al-Aska Paul you're addressing. A fatwa be upon your head.
I encourage you to read Rantburg for a few days before declaring that we don't have a dog in this fight. The dog brought the fight to us 2.5 years ago, and it is a fight we must win, and win convincingly. Hopefully you'll comment some more, and I hope you pick a new handle...way too many nonny mouses scurrying around here!
#5
- There's no connection between Iraq & the WOT.
- Countries w/ troops in Iraq will be bombed.
- Bombed countries will withdraw from Iraq to avoid terrorism.
One of these statements is false - can the left find it ?
Posted by: John C. Lately ||
03/27/2004 8:35 Comments ||
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Anon,3,000 dead,and 2 major structures say they started this fight.
It doesn not matter when,sooner or later all of Euorpe will be invovled.It is the Jihadist often expressed aim to conguer and convert/enslave all of the world.Ther Euro's can deney it all they want,but it will happen,it is just a matter of time.
Do you honestly believe that these terrorist will stop at anything less?
#7
I think the correct transliteration is Grand Mufti Al-Asqa Baal.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 11:30 Comments ||
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Anonymous---Get a new handle, get a grip, and get educated, my Son Daughter Person Friend acquaintenance. The Islamists are just like cancer cells: they will attack the weak cells of civilization and will eventually kill the host. Look all over Africa. It is happening now. Check out the middle eastern states. Look all over the world where they are setting up shop. Ya wanna be a dhimmi who lives at the pleasure of these psychopaths, or do you want to remain free? Freedom is not free.
Now go educate yourself and come back and tell the folks what you found, and I will forget the fatwa I cooked up for ye.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/27/2004 12:00 Comments ||
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#9
The governments that backed this insane war will be thrown out of office--hopefully like the nutz that started the war in our (name) country--you know--the ones that lied us into it
Hey DumbStuff, you think Kerry and Dean won't lie to you to get a job? Get over yourself! I don't buy into other coalition or American voters being threatened/blackmailed by Al-Qaida attacks like Spain did.
Several United Nations agencies may be forced to cut back or end humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip because of Israeli restrictions on their movement into and out of the territory, a U.N. statement said Friday. Most of the 1.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are partly dependent on aid handouts, and stopping shipments there would be a disaster.
Gee. That's too bad. What happened?
Israel has prohibited vehicles belonging to the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies from crossing the Erez checkpoint into Gaza for the last three weeks, and staff must go through on foot. Food shipments through Karni, the only commercial crossing point in Gaza, have also been obstructed. Israel's deputy U.N. ambassador, Arye Meckel, said the mission in New York had received no complaints. He said the issue didn't come up during a meeting this week between Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, or meetings he had this week with the U.N. envoy to the Mideast and the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. "It would be a better idea, if the U.N. has any complaints, that they come to us before they go to the press," Meckel said. "Without having received any complaints nevertheless, if there are any restrictions they must be based on the security situation there."
Something about the Paleos opening the gates of hell. Again.
The restrictions appear to be part of stepped-up security in the West Bank and Gaza amid an Israeli offensive before a possible withdrawal from Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2004 11:51:11 PM ||
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"can't hear your complaints over the Qassam rockets exploding down the road, sorry"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2004 10:13 Comments ||
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Um guys....doesn't Gaza have it's own coast and a border with Egypt? Why does the UN have to go through Israel?
Oh, right, they don't do camels.
Posted by: Alan ||
03/27/2004 11:32 Comments ||
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Maybe if they ask real nice, they can use the tunnels...
After the ashura blasts in Iraq (killing 271) and Pakistan (killing 47) on 2 March 2004, Muslims all over the world decided to blame it on an unnamed âexternalâ enemy. Grand Ayatollah of Iraq Sistani blamed the killings on the Americans and most Iraqi Shias beating themselves on the head in anger were not sure how to interpret a phenomenon that has been linked to Islam in history. In Pakistan, PTV did a survey among middle citizens comprising college and university lecturers and other professionals, on the night of March 3, and revealed most of them as Pakistanis in denial about sectarianism and blaming the âexternalâ enemy for the killings â the West in general and America in particular. The most repeated formulation was that âMuslims canât do it to Muslimsâ since a Muslim killing a Muslim is at once removed from the pale of Islam. Yet there is a religious party in Pakistan that declares sectarianism as its creed quite openly. Other religious parties are sectarian in a less overt way.
Reactive killing as desperate response: The ashura killings in Quetta are an extension of the Hazara killings of last year. The Hazaras were struck twice and they lost around 50 people. Pakistan blamed India but the Shias were pointing clearly to the three well known sectarian militias and some quite respectable clerical leaders of Pakistan. When nothing was done and more Shias were killed at the Pakistan space agency Suparco in Karachi, someone hit back in a desperate gesture and shot dead MNA Maulana Azam Tariq, leader of the anti-Shia religious party, in Islamabad. There have been many occasions in the past when the killings spiked because the state simply did not respond. The year 1988 was one such year. The Kurram Agency Shias were massacred, the Shia in Gilgit were massacred, and the Shia leader Ariful Hussaini was shot dead in Peshawar. Within the week, General Zia died mysteriously in a plane crash.
Pakistan was always mildly sectarian. It became more so after General Ziaâs Islamisation and imposition of articles of Islam on which there is a Shia-Sunni difference of opinion. Jihad magnified the schism manifold, facilitated by money that came from Saudi Arabia and Iran. It should be noted that this money did not start the killings; it simply helped the two sides do the killings more efficiently. One should however look at the sociological side of the problem more closely and examine the crystallising role of the state in the exacerbation of the sectarian problem.
It all began in Jhang: The Jhang district in southern Punjab has a total population of 2.8 million out of which 25 percent are Shia. (This is also the âguesstimateâ about the total Shia population in Pakistan.) Half the population of Jhang are refugees from East Punjab who filled the vacuum created by the transfer of the non-Muslim majority of the district to India in 1947. The Shia are divided among the refugees and the locals. So are the Barelvis, the locals among them integrated into Shia rituals and therefore at peace with them. Most clerics in Jhang sought their careers in baiting the Ahmedi community of Rabwah which fell in Jhang district, but the Deobandis among them also began to take on the âlow-churchâ Barelvis and the Shia too, starting 1950. The Shia power is represented by the strong Shah Jewna feudal landlords who are also divided into two hostile factions. Sunni feudals contesting assembly seats against the Shia feudals have played their role in strengthening the sectarian clerics. The refugee Arain youth has arisen in the district as the most virulent sectarian and jihadi element over the years. The most remarkable figure to arise in this environment was Maulana Haq Nawaz Jhangvi (1952-1990) who founded SSP in 1985, not a little assisted by the intelligence agencies spearheading General Ziaâs plan âto teach the Shias of Jhang a lessonâ.
Rise of Haq Nawaz Jhangvi: Iraq and Saudi Arabia funded SSP while the Shia were reactively funded by Iran. The politics of this funding culminated in 1989 when the Saudis ousted the Iranian jihadis from the Afghan interim government with the help of the ISI. Jhangvi, a khoja graduate of a Deobandi seminary in the city, was vice-president of the JUI in Punjab till he became too big for the party. He acquired power by first attacking the Ahmedis, then the Barelvis. His hold on the administration increased over time till everyone with political ambition had to fund him. His denunciation of the Shia called for the apostatisation of the Shia on the order of the Ahmedis next door; it was followed by a similar denunciation of Imam Khomeini. Funding for him came from the marketplace, from businessmen and drug-dealers looking for protection. Jhangvi had put together a strong organisation of criminalised youth mostly from the muhajir Arain community from East Punjab. He was eventually to die in the violence he had done much to instigate. Sheikh Yusuf who funded the SSP was known to have used its thugs to hurt and kill his own business rivals, somewhat like the use made of Sunni Tehreek in Karachi by a Memon businessman. In 1992, the new deputy chief of SSP Maulana Azam Tariq tried to tame the thugs under Riaz Basra who had killed an Iranian diplomat in Lahore to avenge Jhangviâs murder. Zahab tends to think that Azam Tariq had later nothing to do with Riaz Basraâs Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, but she is wrong there. He tried his best to prevent a Lashkar thug from being hanged in the Iranian diplomat case. Riaz Basra, killed in a âpolice encounterâ, was buried by him in a Sipah Sahaba flag.
In the words of Zahab, Jhang succumbed to a very complex patchwork of conflict: âFeudals versus the emergent middle class, Shias versus Sunnis, local Shias versus muhajir Shias, local Sunnis versus muhajir Sunnis, Shia local and muhajir Syeds versus lower class muhajir Sunnis, local Sunni Sheikh baraderi versus Arain Sunni muhajir baraderi, plus competition for dominance within the Sheikh baraderi. The local- muhajir conflict can also be analysed in terms of a conflict between two dominant castes, Sheikh versus Arainâ. Jhangâs main contribution was SSP which served as the mother of all the Deobandi militias fighting the wars in Afghanistan and Kashmir. In Jhang, at least the rise of the SSP is located in a complex sociological matrix, but outside of Jhang, from Quetta to Kurram Agency and Kohat, to the Northern Areas, it is located firmly within the ideological paradigm of Pakistan and its logical progression towards a hardline Sunni state.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
03/27/2004 12:10:02 AM ||
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Ummm... No. When all us infidels have been slaughtered, they're going to kill each other. Not that it'll matter to us.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2004 11:00 Comments ||
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The year 1988 was one such year. The Kurram Agency Shias were massacred, the Shia in Gilgit were massacred, and the Shia leader Ariful Hussaini was shot dead in Peshawar. Within the week, General Zia died mysteriously in a plane crash.
An interesting suggestion.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
03/27/2004 11:02 Comments ||
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The Pakistani government on Friday denounced a taped statement apparently made by a senior al Qaeda figure urging the country's army and populace to revolt, and officials insisted they would continue the military operations that have stirred unrest in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas. "We condemn this statement in the strongest possible terms. It is aimed at creating instability and dividing the Pakistan nation," said Sheik Rashid Ahmed, the minister of information. "Those who claim to be defending Islam are actually working against it."
They don't particularly care about Islam. It's the power that they want, and Islam's the mechanism. It's the brownshirt bully-boy mentality writ large.
Meanwhile, a coalition of Islamic political parties formally allied with Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, staged protests in five cities, calling the president a traitor to Islam and demanding a halt to the army operations in the South Waziristan tribal area, where nearly 100 people have been killed in the past two weeks.
That would be the MMA. They're a lot more closely allied with the Bad Guys than they are with Perv.
"Musharraf, you are killing innocent children and women, but don't forget that a bullet can also kill you," warned one Islamic cleric at a rally of about 4,000 men in Rawalpindi, a major city 15 miles from the capital.
Sounds like a death threat to me.
The protest was peaceful, but demonstrators burned and kicked effigies of Musharraf, also the chief of Pakistan's army, and carried posters calling him a dog and a traitor.
Doesn't sound peaceful to me.
Musharraf, who survived two assassination attempts in December, has since moved more aggressively against Islamic radicals. The protracted military confrontation has kindled widening political opposition, including a walkout by members of the national parliament Thursday, the Islamic party protests Friday and scattered attacks on military targets across the tribal region that hugs the border with Afghanistan.
They do the walkout thing at least twice a week and Qazi's always got people in the streets for one thing or the other. Gives the rubes something to do, and they always pass the collection plate.
Military officials have held off further attacks for the last three days while tribal elders tried to negotiate the release of hostages and the surrender of foreign and local Islamic fighters hidden inside heavily guarded village compounds. So far, the initiative has not produced results.
Nor will it.
On the other hand, officials said Friday that recently formed tribal armies had begun punitive actions such as house demolitions against families who refused to cooperate with military authorities or had been involved in recent attacks. At Friday's rallies, speakers accused Musharraf of being a slave to anti-Islamic U.S. policies, called for his resignation and said he was pitting Pakistani troops and tribesmen against each other at his peril. Some tried to stir religious emotions by invoking the death of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the Palestinian militant leader assassinated by Israeli forces this week. "The time has come for us to stand up like Sheik Yassin, not to take orders from America, but to stand up against the evil forces who would destroy our world," said Ghulam Sabiba, a Kashmiri Islamic leader and member of the five-party Islamic coalition that has been both Musharraf's critic and his negotiating partner. Some opponents of Musharraf have charged that the Waziristan operation was hastily arranged to please U.S. officials when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell visited here last week. The Bush administration has repeatedly praised Musharraf for carrying out the raids, and it has rewarded his government by dropping economic sanctions imposed after nuclear tests in 1998 and a military coup in 1999.
But Pakistani officials, answering the criticism by Islamic groups, insisted Friday that they were only trying to rid the tribal areas of pernicious foreign extremists and were acting in the national interest rather than at Washington's behest. "Pakistan does not need to take orders from anyone," Rashid Ahmed said late Friday. "Our troops are fighting foreigners, not tribesmen. Our war is against terrorists, and we won't allow anyone to use our soil for such actions." If anything, he suggested, the government waited too long to attack, after repeated amnesties gave militants the opportunity to reinforce themselves.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2004 12:02:52 AM ||
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See who rules America? Due to censorship we inserted "*", delete them. http://A*DLUSA.com
The casualties suffered by the Pakistan Army in the ongoing military operations in South Waziristan rose to 43 on Friday when bodies of eight missing soldiers were found by members of a pro-government tribal Lashkar (force). Naib Subedar Sajid and the seven soldiers had gone missing when militants ambushed their military convoy near Sarwakai Tehsil on March 22. Government officials on that occasion had confirmed that 12 soldiers were killed and 24 sustained injuries in the ambush. But the news about the missing soldiers was withheld for days. Corps Commander Peshawar, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain, told The News that the mutilated bodies of the eight soldiers were found by the Mahsud tribal Lashkar and delivered to the authorities. "These were cold-blooded murders. This is the 'Jihad' that those terrorists are waging. Those giving 'Fatwa' against the Army and in support of such killers should do some soul-searching," he charged. According to the corps commander, the soldiers were overpowered after their vehicle went down in the ambush. "The terrorists executed our troops after taking them prisoner. But I donât know when our men were murdered," he said.
Apparently the Islamic heroes tied their hands behind their backs and "had some fun with them" before murdering them.
Saying that he becomes emotional when it is an issue concerning his troops, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain said it would not have mattered much if they had died in action. "I am going out to perform the Namaz-i-Janaza of my martyred soldiers. I have attended the funerals of many soldiers while serving in the Northern Areas but the Namaz-i-Janaza today is more painful on account of the circumstances in which these soldiers were murdered," he explained. Tribal sources said the soldiersâ bodies were found from the foothills of the Kunda Ghar near the Gharezai village in the Sarwakai Tehsil. Members of the Mahsud tribal Lashkar had gone to the area to collect information about certain suspects involved in the March 22 ambush on the military convoy when they were informed about the presence of the bodies near the hills. They brought the bodies in a tractor-trolley to Sarwakai and handed them over to the political administration. There were also reports that the soldiers were slaughtered after being captured.
Twelve Frontier Corps militiamen had also gone missing during an encounter with the militants in Kalosha village near Azam Warsak on March 18. Subsequently, the militantsâ commander Nek Mohammad claimed in an interview with The News that he was holding the 12 militiamen along with two tehsildars, Matiullah Burki and Mir Nawaz Marwat. Until then, the government had listed the 14 men as missing.
So now the turbans only have four hostages?
In fact, government officials were claiming that the two Tehsildars had taken refuge with some sympathetic tribesmen and were looking for an opportunity to return to Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan. The militants have refused to release the 2 Tehsildars and 12 Frontier Corps personnel despite the appeals of at least two tribal Jirgas, one comprising elders from the Zalikhel sub-tribe to which Nek Mohammad and other most wanted tribal fighters belong and the other made up of former parliamentarians and prominent elders representing six tribal agencies. Instead, the militants want the government to release the 160 people who were apprehended during the military operation in Azam Warsak area, withdraw troops from the affected localities, compensate the families whose homes were demolished and facilitate the return of the thousands of displaced households.
Through the Jirgas, the government has demanded surrender of Nek Mohammad and his four accomplices, namely Sharif Khan and his brother Nur Islam, Maulvi Abbas and Maulvi Aziz. It has also demanded expulsion of all non-Pakistanis from the area. In view of the seemingly uncompromising stand of the two sides, hopes for a breakthrough in the peace talks were fading and fears of another round of bloodletting were growing. Following the failure of the latest Jirgas, leading Ulema had gathered in Wana to make another bid for peaceful solution of the dispute. The jirga of the clergymen is expected to travel to the militantsâ hideouts near the border with Afghanistan today to talk peace and prevent bloodshed. Tribesmen in South Waziristan felt the militants were more likely to listen to the Ulema than to the tribal elders because they have the same anti-US worldview and sympathise with each otherâs cause. A number of Ulema in the NWFP and Punjab have also issued "Fatwa" (religious edict) in favour of the militants and against the military operation in South Waziristan.
Maulana Abdul Malik, the pro-MMA MNA from South Waziristan, and former North Waziristan parliamentarian Maulana Deendar, were among the Ulema who have already reached Wana to join the Jirga. Other Ulema were also on their way to Wana to take part on the peace mission. Meanwhile, Corps Commander Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain told The News that the search operation by his troops in the Azam Warsak area would most likely conclude today. "This would accomplish our mission to deny a safe haven to the terrorists. We have flattened their hideouts, seized their arms and ammunition and communication equipment, and dispersed them into small groups. We would now start winding down the operations but the cordon off the troubled area by the Army and Frontier Corps troops would continue. We donât want them to return to their strongholds again," he stressed.
Given any thought to hunting down the small groups and killing them? Wotta military genius.
Encouraged by the relative peace in Wana and its surroundings for the last few days, a number of families were seen returning to their homes on Friday. But households were reportedly moving out of the Azam Warsak area due to fears of the next round of fighting. Pamphlets in Pashto threatening those opposing the al-Qaeda and Taliban and their local supporters with dire consequences were found in circulation in Sarwakai and Ladha in the Mahsud tribeâs territory in South Waziristan on Friday. Announcements with similar messages were made on loudspeakers fitted on vehicles by Taliban look-alikes in Spinkai Raghzai area the day before.
It's not the government that's in charge in South Waziristan, and the hard boys aren't even being polite about the fact anymore.
In the neighbouring Tank district, a walk was staged on Friday to criticise the civilian casualties and suffering and demand an end to the military operation in South Waziristan. The participants of the walk carried placards in support of their demands. It was organised by the south Waziristan Development Organisation, the Tribal Union of Journalists, the Pakistan Human Rights Organisation, FATA, the Tank Press Club and the local associations of the lawyers and traders. A memorandum comprising demands of the participants was presented at the offices of the District Coordination Officer, Tank and the Political Agent, South Waziristan. The guards at the latter office refused to let the protesters in or accept the memorandum.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
03/27/2004 12:00:50 AM ||
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They just found 'em eh?
I wonder how they know if a given tribe really is pro-goverment
U.S. forces tracked down Saddam Hussein in Iraq last year with information provided by a captured bodyguard, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday night. Saddam's capture in an underground hideout of his hometown of Tikrit in December came after U.S. forces had captured the bodyguard in Baghdad and flown him to Tikrit, the BBC said. The network identified him as Mohammed Ibrahim Omar al-Musslit in its television show "Panorama," set to air Sunday.
Thus signing his death warrant. Nice going, BBC.
Asked about the BBC claim, U.S. Central Command spokesman Dan Gage said: "Central Command is unable to confirm the report." In a statement Friday, the BBC also said it interviewed the American army officers and soldiers who tracked down and caught Saddam. The military has said that it gained some information into Saddam's whereabouts from an individual soldiers arrested and interrogated.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/27/2004 11:40:52 PM ||
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does captured muscle get the reward?--maybe he ratted him out for 25 mill and removal of battery wires connected to his testicles
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
03/27/2004 0:49 Comments ||
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