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Chad rebels holding el-Para
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Arabia
Jordanian king visits Saudi to visit ailing defence minister
Jordan's King Abdullah II paid a brief visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday to visit ailing Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the state-run Petra news agency reported.
Came to see how he's doing and dropped off a get well card? I didn't know they were that close.
Prince Sultan, 80, a brother of Saudi King Fahd and third in line to the Saudi throne, underwent an operation on Monday to remove an intestinal polyp and is currently hospitalised at King Fahd military hospital in Jeddah.
Any operation is tricky at that age, assuming it was just for a "polyp". Maybe Sultan will beat his brother to paradise. Or somewhere.
King Abdullah visited the defence minister at the hospital and returned home, Petra said, adding he was accompanied by Prime Minister Faisal al-Fayez.
Both the King and the Prime Minister visited the prince and headed home without seeing anyone else? Sounds like a farewell trip to me.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 12:09:58 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just checked Saudi sites and every turban in the world has sent a get well soon message. They say he's ok, but they always say that till they announce the funeral.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 12:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Oh, here's the hospitals visitors list.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 13:00 Comments || Top||

#3  gotta be a lot of ex-State Dept staff on that list, huh?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||

#4  They say he's ok, but they always say that till they announce the funeral.

1st condolences
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 13:08 Comments || Top||

#5  Will Chainey or Rummy get to go to the funeral?
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/14/2004 16:42 Comments || Top||

#6  Would stinkweed bouquet be an appropriate gesture?
Posted by: Raptor || 05/14/2004 18:41 Comments || Top||

#7  80 years old and third in line for the throne? That's gotta be a tough gig.

Just outta curiosity, who is last in lne, and what's their number?
Posted by: mojo || 05/14/2004 23:01 Comments || Top||

#8  dunno, but you remember the old radio saying:

"Shot to the top o' the charts, like a bullet"?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2004 0:23 Comments || Top||


Britain
Daily Mirror Editor sacked over ’hoax’ pictures
Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan is sacked following pressure over faked photos of soldiers abusing an Iraqi prisoner. The Queen’s Lancashire Regiment earlier told a press conference the Mirror had to apologise for running the pictures and endangering British troops. A statement from the Mirror said it had fallen victim to a "calculated and malicious hoax". The Mirror board said it would be "inappropriate" for Morgan to continue.

Speaking to journalists on Friday morning, Morgan had been bullish, saying he would not resign. But in a news conference in Preston on Friday afternoon, the regiment demonstrated to reporters the aspects of uniform and equipment which it said proved the photographs were fake. Colonel Black, a former regiment commander, said the pictures put lives in danger and acted as a "recruiting poster" for al-Qaeda. The regiment’s Brigadier Geoff Sheldon said the vehicle featured in the photographs had been located in a Territorial Army base in Lancashire and had never been in Iraq. He said the QLR’s reputation had been damaged by the Mirror and asked the newspaper to apologise because the evidence they were staged was "overwhelming".
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/14/2004 1:55:30 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Britons tell Bush of ’Guantanamo abuse’
Two Britons held at the US base at Guantanamo Bay have sent an open letter to President Bush detailing the alleged abuse they suffered there. Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal, held at the base for more than two years, said they were deliberately humiliated. Guards used strobe lights, dogs and loud music - particularly from US rapper Eminem - to extract information, they allege. US military officials at Guantanamo have denied the accusations. "We have never applied any of those techniques," the Associated Press quoted a spokesman for the US mission at Guantanamo as saying.

Mr Rasul and Mr Iqbal said detainees often were forced to go naked as punishment for minor offences, even when female guards were present. They also said they were forced to squat with their hands chained between their legs for hours during questioning. "Soldiers told us ’We can do anything we want’," the men said in the open letter to Mr Bush and members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. They said they were driven to falsely confess they were two figures in an August 2000 videotape that also showed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Mr Rasul and Mr Iqbal are among five Britons released from Guantanamo whom the British Government freed without charge after determining they were not a security threat.
I wondered how long the Tipton Taleban would be able to keep quiet for. Thanks Aunty for giving them the succour of publicity. I must admit that I find Mr Mathers’ music quite terifying as well.
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/14/2004 4:21:21 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  strobe lights, dogs and loud music- sounds like my last visit to a strip club (Many years ago!)
Posted by: Craig || 05/14/2004 11:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Take a number. The line's over there.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 12:17 Comments || Top||

#3  shit man you are still alive....if it were americans held by these asshat they would be dead...humiliated!! so what you deserve it for fighting in a force not affiliated with any soverign govt...in ww2 you would of been shot when found on the battle field not in uniform.
Posted by: Dan || 05/14/2004 13:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Are these the same guys that came forward with some really over-the-top allegations as soon as they were sprung? Their embellished stories were pretty laughable.
Posted by: Anonymous4828 || 05/14/2004 22:33 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Colombia Judge Denies Irish Men's Request
"No corned beef and cabbage for you!"
A Colombian judge ruled Thursday that three Irish Republican Army-linked men cannot leave the country while the government appeals their acquittal on charges of training Colombian rebels how to use explosives, their lawyers said. The men's lawyers asked the judge last month to allow the trio to go back to Ireland because of the dangers they would face in Colombia while their case was appealed. "The appeals process could take years. I've heard of some that go on for seven years," said Eduardo Matyas, lawyer for one of the men, Niall Connolly. Connolly, James Monaghan and Martin McCauley remain in prison but could be released if they paid a $6,500 fine. But with no assurances of protection, they so far have decided to stay in jail.
... where it's safe.
The Irish government has offered to loan the men money for the fines.
... 'cuz if they're bumped off by Colombians then the Irish gummint doesn't have to figure what to do with them if they eventually come home...
Matyas said he was working with the Irish government to see what type of protection they could offer for the men if they remain in Colombia after paying the fine. There is no Irish embassy in Colombia. The Irish men's supporters believe right-wing outlaws or even members of Colombia's security forces may try to kill the men as revenge for their alleged assistance to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Marxist group waging a bloody campaign to overthrow the government.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Kimmie really digs it
From Strategy Page:

May 14, 2004: Going underground has always been considered an excellent way of protecting vital installations. The French had their Maginot Line in the 1930s, and the Nazis had their V-2 rocket factories a decade later. But as marvelous as those underground constructions were in their day, they were overtaken long ago by the hidden world created by the Stalinist rulers of North Korea.

North Korea’s obsession with tunneling was first noticed during the 1950-1953 Korean War. The North’s first ruler, the late dictator Kim Il-Sung, was awed by the efficiency with which American airpower leveled his country. The resulting mania for digging has led to the creation of the current underground network of at least 8,000 sites, including hideaways for the North’s tiny but elusive nuclear arsenal.

I always though Kim looked like a gopher.

The part of North Korea’s underground world that has attracted the most foreign attention has been the tunnels dug by the North Korean Army beneath the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) separating North Korea from the democratic South. Between 1974 and 1990 four tunnels were detected by American and South Korea forces. These tunnels were up to 3,000 meters in length and were capable of infiltrating up to 30,000 troops an hour, including light-armored vehicles and artillery. One tunnel even had a small plaza in which troops could be called into formation. South Korean sources speculate that up to 20 more tunnels may be lying dormant beneath the DMZ.

North Korea’s navy hasn’t lacked for shelter, either. The North has protected its sizable fleet of light surface units and submarines inside tunnels leading directly to the sea. These tunnels are 200-900 meters long and 14-22 meters wide, just the right size for a missile boat or a commando-carrying mini-sub.

More worrying to South Korea’s defenders than buried naval bases are the 4,000 artillery pieces the North Koreans have deployed behind the DMZ. Including 500 long-range rocket launchers and guns that can pound the South Korean capital of Seoul from 50 kilometers away, Northern artillery is heavily dug in with each gun or launcher protected by it’s own individual bunker. All artillery bunkers are concealed on the reverse slopes of hills, where they’re safe from direct observation. A gun can be slid out on rails, fired, and then quickly returned to safety behind the armored doors of its underground shelter. Each gun has its own self-contained ammunition store as well.

As intimidating as the DMZ fortifications are, they’re supplied by an equally formidable subsurface industrial complex. Sketchy details gleaned from defectors and other sources have provided images of this subterranean economy. Some 180 war-related factories have been dug into the rugged mountains along North Korea’s border with China. Included among their number are 35 ammunition factories, 17 artillery plants, four for armored vehicles, five for communication gear, and most ominous of all: eight plants for making chemical and biological weapons.

The landscape around the North’s notorious Yongbyon nuclear complex is almost certainly riddled with tunnels. During the mid-1990s, officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had limited access to some of these tunnels. One visitor was shown a tunnel that was several kilometers long that ran underneath a nearby river. The IAEA official reported that the tunnel was big enough to hold machinery for nuclear power and fuel reprocessing plants.

If another Korean war does break out, the North Korean elite has done its best to insure its collective survival. According to high ranking North Korean defectors, North Korea’s upper crust is dispersed among ten ghettos, all of which are tied together by tunnels, and all the leadership enclaves are in turn connected by secure underground routes to the residence of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Il. Kwang’s 1998 defection also revealed the existence of a 40-kilometer tunnel system encircling the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

By putting so much of their militarized economy underground, the North Koreans have created a gigantic version of the underground fortifications built by the Japanese to defend their island outposts during World War Two. The human cost in taking many of those islands was enormous; the U.S. Marines suffered over 20,000 casualties during the Iwo Jima campaign alone. Invading North Korea would be a far more costly proposition for a potential invader than any Pacific island.

Still, any system of defense must have its weak points and the same must be true of Kim Jong-Il’s shadowy empire of tunnels and caverns. Such weaknesses may be hard to find. The larger North Korean cave complexes are at least 80 meters below ground. The most powerful U.S. smart bomb, the laser guided GBU-25, can only punch down to 30 meters. To counter the shortage of large bunker-buster bombs, American geologists have been poring over old geological survey maps made during the 1910-1945 Japanese occupation of Korea. If fracture points could be discovered in the rock overlaying any potential targets, a well-aimed smart bomb might collapse a bunker’s roof.

But simple sloppiness may also increase the vulnerability of Pyongyang’s troglodyte empire. Many of the factories buried near the Chinese border rely on small to medium-sized hydroelectric plants for power. Modern surveillance technology would easily spot even a small dam. Also coming under the heading of sloppiness is shoddy construction. Many North Koreans are starved for food and motivation due to the decrepit state of their country’s economy and the suffocating political system that accompanies it. So it shouldn’t surprise anybody that many buildings, when finished, are almost unusable. A case in point is the 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang. Completed in 1989, the arrowhead-shaped structure has never been officially opened because of construction defects.

Uninhabitable buildings aside, Kim Jong-Il’s nationwide system of tunnels and caverns is designed to turn any American bombing campaign into an enormous shell game-with the U.S. guessing wrong most of the time. And it’s this high level of uncertainty that, when combined with the small number of nuclear weapons already built by North Korea, helps the nasty regime in Pyongyang stay alive. -- Michael G. Gallagher
Posted by: Mercutio || 05/14/2004 4:21:25 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This clown's the poster boy for paranoia.

arrowhead-shaped structure
Haven't got time to check it now, but I'm pretty sure that's bad Feng Shui. Kimi should have checked with his Chinese buddies before building that one.

Unfortunately, there's no Feng Shui cure for shoddy construction.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 22:41 Comments || Top||

#2  Looks like we'd just have to nuke everything from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats || 05/14/2004 23:46 Comments || Top||

#3  Surface detonating thermal nuclear weapons.

Hmm... the next-gen, burrowing, bunker-buster nukes don't sound so batshit crazy now.
Posted by: Anon666 || 05/15/2004 1:00 Comments || Top||


Death Sentence Upheld in Subway Attack
A Japanese court upheld the conviction and death sentence of former leading doomsday cult member Kiyohide Hayakawa on Friday for his role in four murders and for building a factory that made the nerve gas used in a 1995 attack on the Tokyo subways. Hayakawa, known as the Aum Shinrikyo cult's "construction minister," was convicted in Tokyo District Court in 2000 of killing anti-cult lawyer Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and infant son in 1989. He was also convicted of the 1989 strangling of a young cult member who wanted to leave the group. Hayakawa belonged to the upper elite in the cult, which preached Armageddon was approaching, and some have speculated that he was second in power only to former guru Shoko Asahara. Like several other indicted members of the cult, Hayakawa's defense rested on the claim that he was brainwashed by Asahara.
"Yup. Clean as a whistle. Nothin' there anymore. Saaaay! Is that Shinola?"
Asahara was convicted and sentenced to death in March for the 1995 gas attack on the Tokyo subway, which killed 12 people and sickened thousands, and a series of other attacks and murders. Asahara is appealing.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:46 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Koizumi to Visit NKor
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pack a lunch and don't let it out of your site.
Posted by: Lucky || 05/14/2004 12:23 Comments || Top||


North Korea Calls U.S. Demands at Talks `Humiliating,’ AP Says
North Korea’s delegation to six-nation talks in Beijing said U.S. demands that the communist nation dismantles its nuclear program before seeking aid are "humiliating," the Associated Press said. The U.S. demand "is the kind of humiliating measure that can only be imposed on a country defeated in a war,"
Keep stalling and that’s exactly what will happen.
AP cited Pak Myong, a member of the North Korean delegation, as saying early today in a statement in Beijing. North Korea is willing to "proceed with the six-party process with patience."
North Korea’s patience is not at issue, America’s is.
Our patience isn't an issue at all. We have full granaries so we can be mighty patient. We can talk and talk long as it takes. It's China's patience that is at issue.
The six delegations met as a group and there haven’t been any separate talks between the U.S. and North Korean teams, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday at a briefing in Washington. There is nothing ``particular on progress, or lack thereof, at this stage in the talks,’’ he said. North Korea and the U.S. have been in a standoff since North Korea acknowledged in 2002 it had restarted its nuclear arms program. North Korea wants written guarantees of its security and economic aid in return for ending the program.
Blackmail is blackmail. Zero credibility just isn’t scoring any points for Pyongyang despite all their bluster.
The U.S. wants a complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea’s nuclear program before it considers aid or normal ties. Delegations from the U.S., North Korea, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia are trying to arrange a third round of talks at ministerial level to be held before the end of June.
I’d wager it will take until winter sets in for North Korea’s starving military to finally stage a coup. I don’t think anyone’s going to stay at the negotiating table that long. It may even be necessary to interdict all other arriving foreign aid between now and then as well.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/14/2004 2:56:45 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In agrarian societies June and July are known as the 'hungry months' when the previous year's crops have run out and the current years crops are yet to be harvested.
Posted by: Phil_B || 05/14/2004 6:40 Comments || Top||

#2  You know, I couldn't see them feeling humiliated if they were confident of their position. Humiliation is something you experience when you have lost power.

What's going on, that the NorKs are feeling powerless? Just the loss of face from the train disaster? Or is the famine starting to bite?
Posted by: Mitch H. || 05/14/2004 7:41 Comments || Top||

#3  You think this is humiliating? You want humiliation, Kimmie, we can show you what real humiliation looks like.
Posted by: Mike || 05/14/2004 9:07 Comments || Top||

#4  Anyone catching on to the new Anti-American phrase after Abu-Garib? Oh, dear, I'm humiliated...maybe they can all get together for a class action lawsuit against us and be represented by that f#ck#@g lawyer from France who's repping Saddam. Sounds like he's beginning to see that we'll be pulling some troops out on July 1 and that ridin' the train isn't gonna work anymore!
Posted by: BA || 05/14/2004 10:55 Comments || Top||

#5 
North Korea Calls U.S. Demands at Talks `Humiliating’
The Norks are Arabs? Who knew?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 11:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Re: Humiliation

Hey, folks, can't fault Kimmie for trying. It worked on the congress. I know it is a long shot, but desperate people in desparate times require desparate measures, even though it may be desparately humiliating.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 12:12 Comments || Top||

#7  They're short, they're retarded, they're psychos.
I'd be humiliated too.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 12:26 Comments || Top||

#8  In agrarian societies June and July are known as the 'hungry months' when the previous year's crops have run out and the current years crops are yet to be harvested.

For more insight into the intricacies of how to police food production in true Stalinist style, continue on:

It encouraged farmers to divert production from the agricultural system before the harvest. The sudden drastic reduction in the food ration meant that farmers were given the choice of letting their families starve or secretly preharvesting and saving food to build up family stocks before the harvest was actually taken. Kim Jong Il complained bitterly about this secret preharvesting in a speech (December 1996). One defector said that he had seen reports of the roofs of many farmers' homes collapsing under the weight of hidden grain. The fall 1996 WFP/FAO agricultural assessment acknowledges that half the corn harvest was missing--nearly 1.3 million metric tons (MT). This hoarding began an undeclared war between the central authorities and the individual farmers. According to defector and refugee interviews, soldiers--called corn guards--were dispatched to protect the fields as the harvest matured in an effort to prevent this enormous diversion. However, this command and control tactic failed when farmers simply bribed the soldiers, hungry themselves because of a breakdown in the military distribution system, to join them in the diversion.

NOTE: Those of you with a full stomach may wish to stop here.

Famine-struck N Koreans 'eating children'

August 03, 2003

By Mark Nicol

Cannibalism is increasing in North Korea following another poor harvest and a big cut in international food aid, according to refugees who have fled the stricken country. Aid agencies are alarmed by refugees' reports that children have been killed and corpses cut up by people desperate for food. Requests by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to be allowed access to "farmers' markets", where human meat is said to be traded, have been turned down by Pyongyang, citing "security reasons".

Anyone caught selling human meat faces execution, but in a report compiled by the North Korean Refugees Assistance Fund (NKRAF), one refugee said: "Pieces of 'special' meat are displayed on straw mats for sale. People know where they came from, but they don't talk about it." The NKRAF, an aid body set up in China five years ago which helps to smuggle food and medicines into parts of North Korea off-limits to WFP officials, interviewed 200 refugees for the report.

"If a funeral takes place during the day and the burial is performed that evening, the grave may be dug open and the body stolen before morning," said one refugee. Another witness, named only as Lee, 54, said he feared that his missing grandsons, aged eight and 11, had been killed for food. As he searched widely for them, they boys' friends said they had vanished near a market.

Mr Lee said police who raided a nearby restaurant found body parts. The business's owners were shot. Gerald Bourke, the WFP's representative in Beijing, said it was difficult for his organisation to substantiate the reports of cannibalism as they were unable to get to the markets. "As in any desperately poor country, it is something we might stumble on," he said. "It's not just a problem for us, but also our donors." Because of the food shortages, many people were having to survive on nine ounces of rations a day - less than half the recommended minimum daily intake.

North Korea's ability to feed itself has been hit by floods, deforestation and lack of farm fertilisers and equipment. The WFP says Japan provided 500,000 tons of food aid in 2001, making it the biggest donor, but sent nothing last year. Food aid from America has been cut from 340,000 tons in 2001 to 40,000 tons so far this year. Washington has pledged to send a further 60,000 tons if Pyongyang lifts restrictions on the operations of agencies such as the WFP.

-----------------------------------------

For a "don't worry be happy" view on North Korea, get out a barfbag and read the National Lawyers Guild "Korean Peace Project" article.
Posted by: Anonymous4842 || 05/14/2004 14:06 Comments || Top||

#9  #8: What is with the Nat'l Lawyers Guild? I noted they're based in New Mexico (that would explain some of it). Don't ya love the sarcasm on that link? Remember, UNICEF says the Iraq sanctions after GWI killed 500,000 children! Where in the freakin' world did they get that number (and I would bet the NLG is opposed to GWII, which is ending the sanctions...have your cake and eat it too). And WTF is with their final statement...ya know with all the axis of evil/regime change talk, getting out of the ABT and Kyoto, lil' Kim Jong Il has reason to worry! WTF does Kyoto have to do with Il starving his own people in pursuit of nuclear blackmail? Oh, I see, you oppose all things Bush, so you gotta throw in your $.02.
Posted by: BA || 05/14/2004 14:53 Comments || Top||

#10  I seem to remember seeing somewhere that the National Lawyers Guild is a Communist Front organization. Literal Stalinists.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 05/14/2004 16:43 Comments || Top||

#11  Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with canabilism.
Posted by: Gentile || 05/14/2004 16:42 Comments || Top||

#12  Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with canabilism.
Posted by: Gentile || 05/14/2004 16:42 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Australian terror suspect abused by US captors
An Australian terror suspect held by the US military at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay has been abused by his captors under a policy ordered by high-ranking US commanders, his Australian lawyer said on Thursday. Attorney Stephen Kenny said he could not provide details of the abuse suffered by his client, David Hicks, because of a confidentiality agreement he signed with US authorities. But he said Hicks “has been treated in a manner which I consider to be abusive, a serious violation of his human rights and which constitutes a criminal offence in international law.”
I feel for him...
“The abuse I am speaking about is not simply what I consider to be an abuse by use of stress and duress techniques that are well known in Guantanamo Bay,” he said, referring to reports inmates at the facility were exposed to extreme heat, cold, loud music and bright lights as part of their interrogations.
"We're talkin' plumber's helpers, a weed whacker, and two really hard boys named Bruce and Lance..."
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:17:53 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Take a number. The line's over there.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 12:17 Comments || Top||

#2  What would it take to declare all these ACLU-type lawyers enemy combatants. We could hold them in an undisclosed location. Extreme heat, cold, loud music and bright lights on the so-called lawyers could yield valueable information. Most of these guys are wusses, and wouldn't last long. I am not only talking about Attorney Stephen Kenny (above), I am also thinking of that character in Portland who was in the news last month.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 12:27 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmph. It seems the word "abuse" has been geeting a lot of press lately.

Attorney Stephen Kenny said he could not provide details of the abuse suffered by his client, David Hicks, because of a confidentiality agreement he signed with US authorities. But he said Hicks “has been treated in a manner which I consider to be abusive, a serious violation of his human rights and which constitutes a criminal offence in international law.”

Uh huh. This is an attorney speaking, so always remember that "abuse" in this situation may have a somewhat different meaning than what any otherwise normal person would think.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/14/2004 13:45 Comments || Top||

#4  These various claims of "abuse" are just looking more and more ridiculous. The more people consider this, after the initial shock of the photos, the more they realize these claims are just crap.
Posted by: remote man || 05/14/2004 14:37 Comments || Top||

#5  I've been thinking. Did they steal Hicks' stuffed koala. Poor baby can't sleep without it.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 15:45 Comments || Top||


Gene Simmons Tells Truth, Oz Muslims Seething
KISS bass player Gene Simmons has caused an uproar among Australia’s Muslim community by launching an attack on Islamic culture while in Melbourne.
Of course, if Gene had said that Americans are all fat racists who want to steal all the oil because Pat Robertson tells them to, this Guardian-lite rag’s staff would be using their own tongues to kiss his arse.
The lizard-tongued rock god (an LGF minion?) who is touring Australia with the world’s most enduring glam rock band launched an attack on Muslim extremists during an interview on Melbourne’s 3AW radio - including comments which were labelled inaccurate.
and we all know that labels are always accurate...
"Extremism believes that it’s okay to strap bombs on to your children and send them to paradise and whatever else and to behead people," he said yesterday. The Israeli-born US musician went on to say Islam was a "vile culture" that treated women worse than dogs. Muslim women had to walk behind their men and were not allowed to be educated or own houses, he said. "Your dog, however, can walk side by side, your dog is allowed to have its own dog house... you can send your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff - none of the women have that advantage."
Hey, Islamo women are allowed to beg!
He went on to say the west was under threat. "This is a vile culture and if you think for a second that it’s going to just live in the sands of God’s armpit you’ve got another thing coming," he said. "They want to come and live right where you live and they think that you’re evil." Simmons said the United Nations approach did not work and the west had to "speak softly and carry a big stick".
Maybe Gene could whip their asses with a custom-made popsicle stick.
The radio station today fielded calls from Muslims upset at the comments, including Australian Muslim of the year Susan Carland, who said Australian Muslims rejected extremism and did not fit Simmons’ stereotype.
"We do not generalize or use strawmen, none of us, that’s right!"
Ms Carland said she had two degrees, was doing her honours and "certainly do not walk behind my husband".
And her remarks also characterize the much more numerous women of Afghanistan, Iran, Satanic Arabia, etc.
Chairman of the Islamic Council of Victoria Yasser Soliman said Simmons’ comments were "very unfortunate". "He’s very famous obviously and popular and, as a result, influential," he said.
Projecting moonbat notions of authority and power.
"Mixing the entertainment world with the political and religious world is a minefield."
Hee hee. Nice for a lefty client to finally notice this. Now he should tell Streisand, Moore, Baldwin, Harrelson, Stone, et al.
He said Simmons had begun by talking about extremists but had gone on to vilify the entire Muslim culture.
"Started off talking about bin Laden but went on to villify all terror gangs"
"A number of his claims regarding women and what they are allowed to do and not do are wrong - Islam teaches the opposite," he said.
Red light and siren Goebbels alert.
Simmons had a right to free speech, but this had to be balanced against the damage done to innocent people, he said.
innocent like, say, Nick Berg or that Israeli women and her four little girls? Bite me, whiner-swine.
"I think it would be good for overseas speakers and commentators to be given some sort of advice in regards to our vilification laws here," he said.
Our anti-fascist commentators and speakers are like our guns, moonbat. Molon Labe!
"They leave and go back to where they arrived from, but they leave behind a big mess that we have to live with."
Unlike Islamofascists who create a big mess and stay to play in it.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 05/14/2004 1:26:15 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Simmons' comments are unacceptable! Dogs living in the house is haram! Dogs are the agents of the vile Zionist imperialist American pigmonkey Joooooooooooooooooooooooooooos!!!
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/14/2004 6:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I think I am gonna buy some Kiss CD's.
Posted by: Ol_Dirty_American || 05/14/2004 7:11 Comments || Top||

#3  "live in the sands of God's Armpit"..?

Quote of the year.
-Islam, the religion of donkeys and diaperheads.
Posted by: JackAssFestival || 05/14/2004 7:59 Comments || Top||

#4  "They want to come and live right where you live and they think that you’re evil."
Gene would have nailed the point completely if he would have added "and they want you dead"
Posted by: JerseyMike || 05/14/2004 9:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey, Islamo women are allowed to beg!

Not under the Taliban, they weren't. They'd get beaten for being in public without a male.
Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar || 05/14/2004 10:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Now we know what music to serenade the terrorists of Fallujah with.

I want to rock and roll all night, and party every day!
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 05/14/2004 10:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Anyone that can lick their own eyebrows can say whatever he wants to.
Posted by: Doc8404 || 05/14/2004 12:06 Comments || Top||

#8  Alright, Gene Simmons!
Morons like Ditsy Chick Natalie Maine can just lick it up!
Posted by: Jen || 05/14/2004 12:11 Comments || Top||

#9  Wait 'til they find out that Simmons is one of the Jooooooooos!
Posted by: Raj || 05/14/2004 12:32 Comments || Top||

#10  KISS Rocks!

(Willow: Kiss rocks? But who would want to--oh.)
(Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 3)
Posted by: eLarson || 05/14/2004 13:06 Comments || Top||


Europe
Two Turk soldiers killed, 3 hurt by PKK land mine
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 08:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now this is what I call quagmire - after decades of fighting with Kurds, who are Muslims just like the Turks, the Turkish military is still taking casualties on a routine basis.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/14/2004 14:06 Comments || Top||


France, Germany Comdemn Killing of Berg
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:38 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What? You mean CAIR, Saudi, Syria and all those other goons beat us to the mike? I can't believe the Islamofascists beat the "old Europe" (thanks, Rummy for that one) to the punch and condemned it before Germany/France could (although, I take the mideast's condemnation with a grain of salt).
Posted by: BA || 05/14/2004 10:57 Comments || Top||

#2  BA - I take Arabs' condemnation with an entire salt lick. Most of them were upset at the timing of the release of the video, not the murder itself.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 11:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Barbara: I completely agree!
Posted by: BA || 05/14/2004 11:11 Comments || Top||

#4  The Jordanian and UAE condemnation of Berg's butchering was probably sincere in that those are two staunch traditionmal monarchies under al-Qaeda threat, and those monarchs can see their own heads being held aloft by the Zakarwi.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 11:39 Comments || Top||

#5  If you are annoyed by the too little too late pseudo outrage expressed by Old Europe and Arab representatives, you will be shocked, yes shocked, by the equivocation of the UN Secty General regarding decapitation of a civilian and humiliation of unlawful combatants. However, because Kofi was busy shredding oil for food documents, his spokesman issued the following statement on Kofi's behalf:
''The Secretary-General condemned all killings of innocent civilians in Iraq, "as he condemns all abuse of all prisoners and other violations of international humanitarian law," the spokesman said. "


Posted by: rex || 05/14/2004 12:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Rex, sarcasm aside, I'm not a leftie, so I'm NOT shocked, yes, shocked over Kofi's statement.
Posted by: BA || 05/14/2004 13:12 Comments || Top||

#7  I'm truly surprised.... I didn't see a "BUT" in the statements.
Posted by: Mercutio || 05/14/2004 15:26 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Berkely Beauzeau callz for Intifada against America
Posted by: Korora || 05/14/2004 13:57 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Leftist intifada against the United States?

Sounds like a one-legged man in as ass kicking contest.
Posted by: badanov || 05/14/2004 17:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Hey,I resemble that!(LOL)

(right,lower leg amputated)
Posted by: Raptor || 05/14/2004 19:04 Comments || Top||

#3  Raptor, I have no doubts in my mind that you could kick his ass ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 19:08 Comments || Top||

#4  How is it that the "intellectuals" of a country are always the ones to embrace the most destructive and idiotic ideals, be it Communism or Islam or fanatical environmentalism? If they're so damned smart, they'd be able to see what's wrong with those ideas in the first place!
Posted by: The Doctor || 05/14/2004 20:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Doctor - they're not really smart, they're just "anointed" (in their own minds, anyway).

They'd best run their "intifada" in the Berzerkly area, or DC or NYC, or other places where only the outlaws are allowed to own guns. If they try it here, they're going to be in for a fat surprise.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 21:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey,I resemble that!(LOL)

Then you can do what an old friend of mine did, take off the prosthesis and beat the clown with it (and his was a metal one...).
Posted by: Pappy || 05/14/2004 22:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Bazian here was relying a common two-step tactic of those who sympathize with the militant Islamic and Palestinian causes: condemn the violence or terrorism in general, without naming names; then deflect blame to the victim, especially the United States or Israel; or dismiss the danger that terrorism poses.

The DNC modus opperendi as well.

Posted by: Super Hose || 05/15/2004 4:15 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Canadian injured in Saudi attack in coma
A Canadian-born man who was the victim of a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia earlier this month is not expected to recover from his injuries. Thomas Washburn, who used to live in New Brunswick, is on life support in a Texas hospital. The 40-year-old oil worker for ABB Lummus Global was seriously wounded May 1 when gunmen opened fire on the company’s office in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Six people died in the attack. Washburn, who was shot in the neck, was initially paralysed but appeared to be recovering steadily. He was able to move his head and upper body, and he spoke to his family. But on Sunday he slipped into a coma after being admitted to a hospital in Houston on his return to the United States. "The only thing we can hope for is a miracle," his brother, Ken Washburn, told the Canadian Press Wednesday.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) || 05/14/2004 2:46:05 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Steve?
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 16:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Unfortunately, Mr. Washburn has now died.

Another worker for Houston-based oil services company ABB has died from wounds suffered in an attack in Saudi Arabia. Thomas Washburn, from Houston, had been hospitalized since the deadly attack two weeks ago. Four Saudi brothers stormed ABB's offices in Yanbu and killed five Westerners and a Saudi. Several others were wounded, including Washburn. The gunmen were killed by police. After spraying the offices with gunfire, the four men tied the body of one victim to the bumper of a car and dragged him through the streets.
The company released a statement on behalf of Washburn's family thanking everyone for their support. Because of the violence, ABB has since evacuated most of its workers.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/stories/khou040514_mh_washburn.1c0548134.html
Posted by: TS(vice girl) || 05/14/2004 17:01 Comments || Top||


Top Saudi cleric to visit Canada.
Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, the Saudi government appointed imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, will give a series of lectures in Canada next week and attend the Islamic Society of North America conference in Toronto. Al-Sudayyis’s position is one of the most prestigious in Sunni Islam. Thus, his sermons hold significant weight throughout the Islamic world.

The themes of his sermons are characterized by confrontation toward non-Muslims. Al-Sudayyis calls Jews "scum of the earth" and "monkeys and pigs" who should be "annihilated." Other enemies of Islam, he says, are "worshippers of the cross" and "idol-worshipping Hindus" who should be fought. Al-Sudayyis has been consistent in calling for jihad in Kashmir and Chechnya, for Jerusalem to be liberated, and for the "occupiers in Iraq" to also be fought. He often claims that Islam is superior to Western culture.

At the Grand Mosque in Mecca on February 1, 2004, Sheikh Al-Sudayyis called on Muslims everywhere to unite to defeat the world’s occupiers and oppressors. "History has never known a cause in which our religious principles, historical rights, and past glories are so clearly challenged.... The conflict between us and the Jews is one of creed, identity, and existence." He told those listening to "read history," in order "to know that yesterday’s Jews were bad predecessors and today’s Jews are worse successors. They are killers of prophets and the scum of the earth. Allah hurled his curses and indignation on them and made them monkeys and pigs and worshippers of tyrants. These are the Jews, a continuous lineage of meanness, cunning, obstinacy, tyranny, evil, and corruption...."

Al-Sudayyis elaborated on the conflict between Muslims and Jews:

O Muslims, the Islamic nation today is at the peak of conflict with the enemies of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, with the grandsons of Bani-Quraydah, Al-Nadhir, and Qaynuqa [Jewish tribes in the early days of Islam]. May Allah’s curses follow them until the Day of Judgment.

The nation must know that these are people with a disgraceful history and.... They want to establish the Greater Israel with Jerusalem as its capital. They also aspire to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque and build their alleged temple in its place. They want to liquidate the State of Islam and the Koran, and build the State of the Torah and Talmud on its debris. They will get what they deserve from Allah.... Our Al-Aqsa is crying out saying all mosques have been liberated, while I — a great holy mosque — am still being desecrated. Is the aspiration of over 1 billion Muslims to preserve their holy places [to be] considered savagery and terrorism? What a great lie, O Allah, O steadfast brothers in struggler and steadfast Palestine, the land of honor, loftiness, sacrifice, jihad, and bravery. The captivity of our Al-Aqsa in the hands of the tyrants makes us sleepless. May Allah please us with its liberation. Victory is coming soon, Allah willing.

....Here are the flags of victory looming on the horizon. We can smell it. It is crowned by a brave jihad, an intifada, which is still the winning card and the lit candle in the hands of the devout sons of this nation.... O nation of jihad and sacrifice, it is the duty of Muslims to support their brothers in creed in Palestine and elsewhere and to back them with material and moral support. Jihad with money sometimes supersedes jihad with soul, as mentioned in many Koranic verses and the prophet’s traditions.


In a sermon on April 23, 2004, regarding Iraq, Al-Sudayyis stated that "our Muslim brothers in the Iraq of history and civilization are facing another bloody chapter, particularly in the brave, steadfast city of Al-Fallujah." He called on Muslims everywhere to unite "to defeat all their occupiers and oppressors" for the destruction of the enemies of Islam, to support "our mujahedeen brothers in Palestine," and to disperse "the unjust Zionists."

Discussing plots by enemies of Islam, who he identifies as Hindus, Jews, and Christians, Al-Sudayyis delivered a sermon on May 31, 2002, which stated:

Those whom Allah cursed, got angry with, and turned into monkeys and pigs, the tyrant worshippers among the Jewish aggressors and criminal Zionists. Their course is supported by the advocates of usury and worshippers of the Cross, as well as by those who are infatuated with them and influenced by their rotten ideas and poisonous culture among the advocates of secularism and Westernization.... The enemies of Muslims among the atheists insist on their arrogance and aggression against our people and our holy places in Chechnya? The idol-worshipping Hindus indulge in their open hatred against our brothers and holy places...in Muslim Kashmir, threatening an imminent danger and a fierce war in the whole Indian sub-continent?... O Allah, support our brother Mujahedeen for your sake and the oppressed everywhere. O Allah, support them in Palestine, Kashmir, and Chechnya. O Allah, we ask you to support our Palestinian brothers in Palestine against the aggressor Jews and usurper Zionists. O Allah, the Jews have oppressed, terrorized, and indulged in tyranny and corruption. O Allah, deal with them for they are within your power.

According to Sheikh Al-Sudayyis, Islam is superior to Western culture. He told worshipers in Mecca in February 2002: "The most noble civilization ever known to mankind is our Islamic civilization. Today, Western civilization is nothing more than the product of its encounter with our Islamic civilization in Andalusia [medieval Spain]. The reason for [Western civilization’s] bankruptcy is its reliance on the materialistic approach, and its detachment from religion and values. [This approach] has been one reason for the misery of the human race, for the proliferation of suicide, mental problems...and for moral perversion.... Only one nation is capable of resuscitating global civilization, and that is the nation [of Islam].... While the false cultures sink in the swamp of materialism and suffer moral crises...our Islamic nation is the one worthy of grasping the reins of leadership and riding on the back of the horse of pioneering and world sovereignty."

"Read history," Al-Sudayyis stated in another sermon in May 2002, "and you will understand that the Jews of yesterday are the evil fathers of the Jews of today, who are evil offspring, infidels, distorters of [others’] words, calf-worshippers, prophet-murderers, prophecy-deniers ... the scum of the human race ’whom Allah cursed and turned into apes and pigs....’ These are the Jews, an ongoing continuum of deceit, obstinacy, licentiousness, evil, and corruption...."

The concluding supplications of Al-Sudayyis sermons are often filled with statements concerning current affairs. He consistently calls for "Muslims to humiliate the infidels (non-Muslims)," as well as for their destruction. For example, on November 1, 2002, he stated "O Allah, support our mujahedeen bothers in Palestine, Kashmir, and Chechnya and destroy the aggressor Jews and the tyrannical Zionists, for they are within your power." In a June 21, 2002, sermon, Al-Sudayyis gives supplication: "O Allah, support them in Palestine, Kashmir, and Chechnya. O Allah, deal with the Jews and Zionists for they are within Your power. O Allah, scatter their assemblies, make them a lesson for others, and let them and their property be a booty for Muslims."

In another sermon in May 2003, Sheikh Al-Sudayyis condemned what he termed the "serpents" to "spit their venom" by harming the Islamic religion, ridiculing the pious, and blaming the school curricula and religious and welfare institutions. Al-Sudayyis stated: "O Lord, support our brother mujahedeen for your sake everywhere. O Lord, support them in Palestine. O Lord, deal with the aggressor Jews and sinful Zionists. O Lord, deal with them for they are within Your power. O Lord, deal with the enemies of religion and show us the miracles of Your power on them." Also, on July 11, 2003, he stated: "O Allah, support our mujahedeen brothers everywhere. O Allah, help them score victory over the unjust Jews and aggressive Zionists in Palestine. O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. O Allah, destroy them, for they are within your power. O Allah, disperse them and make them prey for Muslims."

According to statements beginning in June 2003 made by Washington D.C. Saudi-embassy spokesman Adel Al-Jubeir, "Hundreds of imams [in Saudi Arabia] who violated prohibitions against preaching intolerance have been removed from their positions and more than 1,000 have been suspended and referred to educational programs." Clearly, this is not the case with Saudi Arabia’s leading imam, Sheikh Abd Al-Rahman Al-Sudayyis, who continues to preach incitement from the most holy site in all of Islam.
Posted by: ed || 05/14/2004 9:13:25 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Can you feel the hate?
Posted by: Lucky || 05/14/2004 12:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Somebody ask this mook if he really wants to start another Crusade, fought with modern weapons. If he answers "Yes! Bring 'em on!" he's too freakin' stupid to live.
Posted by: mojo || 05/14/2004 12:39 Comments || Top||

#3  come on guys ..these asshats want to fight all religions..i say lets give them what they want..
Posted by: Dan || 05/14/2004 12:45 Comments || Top||

#4  Here are the flags of victory looming on the horizon. We can smell it. It is crowned by a brave jihad, an intifada, which is still the winning card and the lit candle in the hands of the devout sons of this nation

It's a brave face, but I still think the Palestinians really screwed the pooch with this "Intifada". If they wanted true, widespread sympathy, they should have gone the passive resistance route.
Posted by: eLarson || 05/14/2004 13:09 Comments || Top||

#5  The themes of his sermons are characterized by confrontation toward non-Muslims. Al-Sudayyis calls Jews "scum of the earth" and "monkeys and pigs" who should be "annihilated." Other enemies of Islam, he says, are "worshippers of the cross" and "idol-worshipping Hindus" who should be fought. . . He often claims that Islam is superior to Western culture.

He just has "issues"

I think the Hindus bother him due to the fact that there are female gods.


Durga


In Parvathi's terrifying aspects, the most commonly worshipped forms are Durga & Kali. These are forms taken by the Goddess in an effort to destroy some form of evil & hence even these forms need not invoke fear, for she is the mother who has risen in anger only to destoy evil forces and provide eternal happiness and peace to her children.

No wonder he doen't like Hindus. 8-armed woman with three eyes riding a tiger. The thought of something like that must go against everything he believes.



Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 14:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Isn't Shiva"Destroyer of Worlds"also a woman?
Posted by: Raptor || 05/14/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||

#7  hmmm looks like a doobie in one of her hands
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 19:14 Comments || Top||

#8  "O Allah, support our mujahedeen brothers everywhere. O Allah, help them score victory over the unjust Jews and aggressive Zionists in Palestine. O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. O Allah, destroy them, for they are within your power. O Allah, disperse them and make them prey for Muslims."

Shut up, you fucking idiot.
Posted by: Dave D. || 05/14/2004 20:04 Comments || Top||

#9  Their people are among some of the most repressed on Earth, they have no regard for anyone other than themselves, they wallow in conspiracy, they're some of the poorest nations on the planet, they haven't come up with anything useful in the last seven hundred years, they inspire hate in their followers, they teach oppression and xenophobic philosophies that rival the Nazis . . . but they're the superior culture.

How can people call the Saudis our friends if they field these kinds of creatures? Let's make his next stop the holiest crater in all Islam.
Posted by: The Doctor || 05/14/2004 20:41 Comments || Top||

#10  There's a followup on lgf. Evidently, he's not coming.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 05/14/2004 22:58 Comments || Top||

#11  well, of course. It's acceptable for others to die for his beliefs, but not him - he's too holy
Posted by: Frank G || 05/15/2004 0:21 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
John Kerry? What were we thinking?
Hat tip to Robert Prather.
By JIM SHEA (THE HARTFORD COURANT)
Dear Fellow Kerry Supporter:

We may have made a horrible mistake.
May?
We may have backed the wrong guy.
May?
Granted, it was difficult to stick with Howard after it became apparent he wasn’t wrapped all that tight,
[Really? When did you first notice?]
but perhaps we were a bit hasty in jumping on the Kerry bandwagon. So far, the Kerry campaign has all the forward momentum of a Dukakis tank ride.
With, hopefully, similar results.
Since sewing up the nomination, the two most memorable things John Kerry has done are go on vacation and have surgery. Recently, he went for a bike ride in Boston - and fell off. You tie that mishap together with the shoulder injury he sustained - riding on a bus - and Kerry’s just a staircase header away from wrenching the Slapstick in Chief title away from Gerald Ford.
Ouch! Heh.
Besides the walking-and-chewing-gum problem, Kerry is also turning out to be quite the gasbag.
[No, really?]
He’s one of those people who if you say nice night to him, he wants to explain the cosmos. I mean, two minutes of listening to Kerry these days and you’re longing for the excitement of a Joe Lieberman foreign-policy speech. The thing is, we Democrats didn’t endorse Kerry because of his intellect;
[Jeez, don’t tell him that - he’ll get upset]
we got behind him because we thought he would go nose-to-nose with President Bush. Now we’re not so sure. Since securing the nomination, Kerry has been whacked around more than Larry, Curly and Moe put together.
Double ouch! LOL
What happened to the "I’m a fighter" thing? What happened to "bring it on?" Gee, I dunno - ask President Bush.
It’s so bad that Kerry has even let the Republicans get away with criticizing his war record.
When and where? Unless you spell "war" "s-e-n-a-t-e v-o-t-i-n-g"
What Kerry is failing to recognize is that everybody is already Tongue Fu
[GREAT description]
fighting and their ads are fast as lightning. And if he doesn’t "bring it on" now, it’s going to be hasta la vista, baby.
Ahhnold’s running for Prez?
The bottom line, fellow Democrats, is this. If Kerry doesn’t show some spunk soon, we should start thinking about nominating someone at the convention who will. Dean - with the right medication -
[Thorazine and Stellazine?]
remains a viable option.

Sincerely, Howard Beale

(Still mad as hell.)
Ooo, somebody’s got a severe case of buyer’s remorse. Unfortunately for him (and others), I think Kerry’s got enough votes to be able to sue the Convention for specific performance and win. August should be fun.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 5:02:51 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fun Barb?

August will be a cry-fest compared to the fall campaign. As I have been saying: 2004 is gonna be soo much fun.
Posted by: badanov || 05/14/2004 17:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Actually, the drug of choice for schizophrenia is Lithbid..

Have you taken your meds today, Mr President? Are we sure we want to press that little red button?

Posted by: Mercutio || 05/14/2004 17:49 Comments || Top||

#3  "Dean - with the right medication - remains a viable option."

Yes! Yes! YES!!! Go, Howlin' Howard! You can do it!!!!! You're a sure-fire winner!

I don't know how much fun the summer's going to be though: I wouldn't be surprised to see violent demonstrations at both conventions.
Posted by: Dave D. || 05/14/2004 17:54 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm backing the security forces, Dave
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 18:42 Comments || Top||

#5  Frank G - I am too, but I also remember the 1968, I think it was, Democratic convention in Chicago.

I don't think the lefties have changed any, except now they'll be in New York attacking the Republicans. And the evil capitalists (meaning the people with small businesses anywhere near the convention). And anyone else who walks by.

I think, however, they're not counting on the NY cops' memories of 9/11.

Oh, yeah - Boston will have problems, too. With the same clowns.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 20:30 Comments || Top||

#6  yes, Barb, but the Chicago cops hadn't lost friends, family to the enemy.... I think their sense of humor at the Giant Bushitler puppets may be diminished
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 21:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh, yeah - the entertainment outside both conventions will probably be more interesting than what goes on inside.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 21:03 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Nick Berg Memorial Page
Posted by: growler || 05/14/2004 14:51 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why enlarge Berg in death? He didn't have the public purpose of Tillman, and was a reckless adventurer who made some horrible choices.
Posted by: Army of Satan || 05/14/2004 15:09 Comments || Top||

#2  its not clear he didnt have a public purpose - some reports have indicated he went with a real ideological goal of rebuilding Iraq. Yeah, he was an adventurer - not everyone is a disciplined uniformed military kinda person.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 15:16 Comments || Top||

#3  It really is nice that his friends and even some people who just met him had such nice feelings about him. And their gesture of putting up a memorial page is lovely. It's not about his Mission in Life-- which was undoubtedly special and unique-- it's just about his Soul and how people who came in contact with it were affected by it. Perhaps he simply inspired them. Or made them feel more creative. Or somehow resonated with some special spiritual niche they had.

"The Soul of Man is a lamp in God's eyes."
Posted by: button || 05/14/2004 15:43 Comments || Top||

#4  I am not going to condemn this man.What ever wrongs he did ,or what ppl think he did.He did not deserve to get his head cut off.
Posted by: djohn66 || 05/14/2004 19:08 Comments || Top||


Feds fine Riggs Bank record $25 million
Riggs Bank has been fined a record $25 million by federal regulators, who say the bank violated anti-money laundering laws in its handling of millions of dollars in transactions in Saudi-controlled accounts probed for possible links to terrorism financing.

The civil fine against the midsize Washington bank, which has a near-exclusive franchise on business with the capital’s diplomatic community, is the largest ever imposed on a financial institution for such violations, experts said. It had been expected.

The Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued the fine in an order made public late Thursday, after weeks of negotiations between Riggs officials and banking regulators.

"Riggs failed to properly monitor, and report as suspicious, transactions involving tens of millions of dollars in cash withdrawals, international drafts that were returned to the bank, and numerous sequentially numbered cashiers’ checks," the office said.

In addition to the now-closed accounts that Saudi diplomats controlled, the order mentioned accounts held by officials of Equatorial Guinea.

The order requires Riggs to make special reviews of its operations and account transactions and give regulators advance notice of any dividend payments to shareholders.

Riggs did not admit to or deny wrongdoing in agreeing to the fine.

Riggs said in a statement it expects to reach an agreement soon with the Federal Reserve on taking corrective actions such as hiring an independent consultant to conduct a review. Its operation in Miami - which Riggs plans to close - will be required by a Fed order to retain an outside consultant to review previous account transactions for possible suspicious activity. The Fed has jurisdiction over bank holding companies.

"Riggs is 100-percent committed to fulfilling all of our regulatory responsibilities and to doing our part to protect the financial system, and we will hasten our efforts toward these goals," the statement said.

The Senate Finance Committee chairman, Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa, has asked the panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks to examine Saudi transactions at Riggs and FleetBoston Financial Corp.

"Riggs Bank deserves every penny of this huge fine," Grassley said Thursday. "Banks have a patriotic duty, not to mention legal requirement, to report suspicious activity. When banks look the other way, they put our national security at risk."

Grassley said members of the bank’s board of directors should be held to account.

The FBI and regulators have investigated, for possible connections to terrorism financing, large cash transactions in Riggs accounts controlled by Saudi diplomats.

Treasury regulators had accused Riggs of failing to comply with a law requiring banks to notify the government of suspicious transactions. The bank also had been classified by the comptroller’s office as a "troubled institution" for not complying fully with a July 2003 consent order under which it agreed to strengthen its anti-money laundering controls.

The designation means the bank must get regulators’ approval for changes in top management and for severance payments to executives who leave.

The bank, with some $7 billion in assets, earned $3.9 million in the first quarter, compared with $5.9 million a year earlier. Annual earnings have not exceeded $25 million since 1999.

Riggs said last month it is pulling back from its foreign operations and the head of the family that controls the bank was resigning from the board of its parent company.

The bank has said it is selling or leaving most of its operations in Britain and closing any embassy business that does not meet guidelines for weeding out suspicious account transactions. Applying the guidelines could bring the loss of about two-thirds of its embassy accounts.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) || 05/14/2004 2:36:01 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Shoulda been $100 million+. $25 mill is walking-around money for Prince Bandar. But good for the feds for seeing this case through. Let's see some more investigations!
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/14/2004 15:04 Comments || Top||

#2  This is big. Let the chips fall.
Posted by: Lucky || 05/15/2004 0:03 Comments || Top||


Berg Met Massoui Friend on Bus in Oklahoma, Let Him Use Computer
When Nicholas Berg took an Oklahoma bus to a remote college campus a few years ago, [he] allowed a man with terrorist connections to use his laptop computer, according to his father. .... Government sources told CNN that the encounter involved an acquaintance of Zacarias Moussaoui -- the only person publicly charged in the United States in connection with the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

According to Berg, his son was taking a course a few years ago at a remote campus of the University of Oklahoma near an airport. He described how on one particular day, his son met "some terrorist people -- who no one knew were terrorists at the time." At one point during the bus ride, Berg said, the man sitting next to his son asked if he could use Nick’s laptop computer. "It turned out this guy was a terrorist and that he, you know, used my son’s e-mail, amongst many other people’s e-mail who he did the same thing to," Berg said.

Government sources said Berg gave the man his password, which was later used by Moussaoui, the sources said. The sources said the man who used Berg’s e-mail knew Moussaoui ...

Berg said his son cooperated fully with an FBI investigation into the matter. "He was happy to cooperate, and that was never an issue," he said. He emphasized that the individual was not a friend of his son’s or even an acquaintance -- "just a guy sitting next to him on the bus. Whoever was next to my son was treated with great respect and friendship. Like I said, he knew no dangers from people. The FBI were satisfied with that."
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 05/14/2004 9:14:31 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder if there is more to the story or if indeed the coincidences are indeed just a bizarre twist of fate.
Posted by: B || 05/14/2004 11:08 Comments || Top||

#2  ...What the heck is going on here? Am I the only one who would never let somebody 'just use' his laptop, much less some guy on a bus?...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/14/2004 11:26 Comments || Top||

#3  A wireless connection or was it all offline and then dump?
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 12:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Jeez,... small world, ain't it?
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 12:14 Comments || Top||

#5  Am I the only one who would never let somebody 'just use' his laptop, much less some guy on a bus?

Sounds to me like Nick Berg was one terribly naive individual. And he paid for it with his life.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/14/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||

#6  MK, absolutely right. All of these stories about Berg are so much BS. Who would let a stranger on a bus use their laptop? Also, who would be stupid enough to walk around Iraq alone during an insurrection-- where everyone and anyone would recognize you as being a foriegner.
Posted by: Anonymous || 05/14/2004 15:15 Comments || Top||

#7  So, a naif with an affinity for muslims - or part of an AQ conspiracy - who became a more observant Jew for cover - and effectively fooled everybody, including the FBI, everyone he encountered in Iraq, etc. Then his pals turn on him - but why? did they think he had been turned?

This is getting too Le Carreish even for me, and is confused by a father who apparently wouldnt accept that his son was a religious Jew and an Iraq hawk even if it were so.

For myself, I'll assume Berg was what he claimed to be, until further evidence comes in.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 15:23 Comments || Top||

#8  Wait a minute! They're claiming Berg let the guy use his laptop on a bus? for email? So how did they get online? Where in rural Oklahoma is there wireless internet?

This story is a crock! Berg has to have been lying. Why?
Posted by: Norman Rogers || 05/14/2004 21:07 Comments || Top||


Witnesses at Nichols Trial Saw Another Man With McVeigh at Bomb Site
.... The defense witnesses Thursday included Rodney Johnson, who said McVeigh and another man walked in front of his catering truck two to three minutes before the explosion. Johnson, of Noble, was driving on NW 5 past the Murrah Building. He said he slowed down as the men crossed the street, heading "in a military quick-step" toward a brown pickup.

"They were clearly together," Johnson said. Johnson recalled seeing in his truck’s side mirror the flash of the explosion, "like the sun crashing down." He described how the blast wave rocked the truck and sent things flying past "almost like a hurricane."

Another witness, Mike Moroz, said he gave directions to McVeigh 20 to 30 minutes before the explosion. He said McVeigh was driving a Ryder truck and asked how to get to "5th and Harvey" -- site of the federal building Moroz, of Mustang, was a mechanic at Johnny’s Tire Co., north of downtown Oklahoma City. Moroz said another man was in the Ryder truck.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 05/14/2004 9:32:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Interesting! May give more oomph to Jayna Davis' theory of an Iraqi connection?
Posted by: BA || 05/14/2004 11:19 Comments || Top||

#2  How could these people go thru the planning and execution of bombing the Fed Bldg and not know how to get there? Sounds kinda fishy.
Posted by: DG || 05/14/2004 11:40 Comments || Top||

#3  They wanted to provide fodder for conspiracy theorists.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 05/14/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||

#4 


Conspiracy Thoery?

al-Zarqawi and John Doe #2

Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 13:24 Comments || Top||


Leading academic rejects attempt to redefine Islam
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 08:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Save yourself sometime.The gist of the article:It's America's fault


Posted by: Anonymous4786 || 05/14/2004 8:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Comes as a surprise, doesn't it?
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:42 Comments || Top||

#3  It boggles my brain that this person actually believes what he wrote. It's just more of the same "Everything is America's fault". As long as the Muslim world blames the United States and Israel for all it's problems, faults, and shortcommings theu will remain as they are now. If you don't have the will to better yourself it's very easy to delude yourself into believing your situation is someone else's fault and there is nothing you can do about it. And he calls himself an Academic. Horse-pookey.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/14/2004 9:09 Comments || Top||

#4  Fundamentalism, he pointed out, was never considered an evil in the United States.
That's right asshat, it wasn't until Moongod worshipers started flying planes into buildings. We never had that problem with Christian Fundamentalists, or Orthodox Jews, or Buddists, or Hindu's, none of those are nihlistic deathcults that slaughter innocents - thats reserved for you primitives.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 05/14/2004 9:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Fundamentalism, he pointed out, was never considered an evil in the United States.

Murder always has been.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 11:18 Comments || Top||

#6  So this jackoff is a professer at Columbia. I wonder how much his life would be worth if he said this crap in the NY Times. I'll bet some firefighter/police buddies might find him after he had an "accident".

The use of non-state terrorism goes back well beyond our support of the Contras or the Afghan Mujahadeen. What a bunch of crap.
Posted by: remote man || 05/14/2004 14:50 Comments || Top||


Red Cross Thingy Gives Guantanamo Prison Report
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Take a number. The line's over there.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 12:22 Comments || Top||


CFR Speaker: Rudolph Giuliani - The War on Terrorism
Excerpt:
I'm asked, and have been asked for the last two years or more almost continuously-and usually with the person having the distinct viewpoint who asks it-isn't the world more dangerous now? And, in particular, isn't New York more dangerous, and isn't the United States more dangerous, and isn't the world more dangerous since the attacks of September 11th, 2001? After all, since then we've had, domestically, anthrax attacks, we've had several very, very horrific, horrible terrorist attacks in Bali and in Madrid. We fought a war in Afghanistan, we fought a war in Iraq, and we have the aftermath of it still going on. And we are continuously hearing about terrorist threats here, other places, warnings of all different kinds. And we live under the threat, and maybe the reality, that there will be other terrorist attacks here and in other places, and it's just a matter of when, and can we figure them out in advance, and can we remediate them if they happen? So, to many people, the world is a lot more dangerous than it was before September 11, 2001.

I have exactly the opposite opinion. I believe the world is safer than it was before September 11th, 2001, and I believe it's safer in very realistic ways-in ways that it wasn't before that. And let me see if I can explain to you why. It doesn't mean the world is perfectly safe, and it doesn't mean that we're at the level of safety that we should be at, but we're certainly better off than we were when we didn't know or didn't appreciate. The whole terrorist movement, for many people now as they look at it, almost seems like it started on September 11th, 2001. Terrorism was going on in the world on major levels for a very long time before September 11, 2001. The world was no more dangerous on that day or the day after than it was the day before or the week before or a month before or a year before, or several years before September 11-or even longer than that. I trace-and you can do this different ways-I trace the modern terrorist movement to the attacks on the Israeli Olympic team at the Munich Olympics, because if you need a starting point for analyzing it, that could probably be the best starting point. And that was when? That was in 1972.
Quite a good discussion. Read the whole thing.
Posted by: Super Hose || 05/14/2004 04:04 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  excellent read. I wish he would be given a bigger role to play than what he has now.
Posted by: B || 05/14/2004 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  B, I think that, currently, he is the sixth man for the GOP. If Cheney keeled over tomorrow, you could insert Giuliani without a credibility loss. Some would say, "Do it today. Cheney is a liability."
I disagree. Cheney is vital. The Giuliano card can only be played once. In his current capacity he can stump with any GOP candidate nationwide.
Posted by: Super Hose || 05/14/2004 15:02 Comments || Top||

#3  Damn, pretty good analysis for a biped. I'm a liking giuliano he reminds me of me when i was a baby in the pod.
Posted by: Shamu || 05/14/2004 16:50 Comments || Top||

#4  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Faisal the Goyem TROLL || 05/14/2004 19:41 Comments || Top||

#5  Rudy doesn't babble--he makes good sense clearly and cogently.
Go, Rudy, Go! We love you!
Posted by: Annie Moose || 05/14/2004 19:43 Comments || Top||

#6  troll report....
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 19:44 Comments || Top||

#7  by the way Faisal, dipshit.....Giuliani is Catholic...you're not even a decent troll. Inadequate in all ways.....let me guess, Arab?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 19:45 Comments || Top||

#8  Rudy could've gone back further than Munich to the 1968 murder of Bobby Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan.

Unlike a lot of infamous assassins (and would be assassins) in our history, Sirhan wasn't a love lorn nut or a frustrated job seeker. Sirhan's diaries make it plain that he was upset with Kenndy's "support" of Israel in the '67 war. The murder was overtly political.

The LLL in this country ignore that as well as the communist sympathy of Oswald because it gives the Right wingers some credibility.

I'd love Rudy for Senator of NY, VP, or even Prez someday. A Good Man!!!
Posted by: JDB || 05/14/2004 20:38 Comments || Top||

#9  'Jewliani' and his babbling....
Posted by: Faisal the Goyem || 05/14/2004 19:41 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Islamic Suspects in Malaysia Claim Abuse by Muslim Police
Alleged members of an al-Qaida-linked extremist group jailed in Malaysia were routinely stripped naked, slapped, kicked and subjected to sexual abuse by police interrogators, according to a human rights document obtained by The Associated Press. Security officials have said the questioning produced information about plots by Jemaah Islamiyah to bomb U.S. and other Western interests in Singapore and other extremist operations in Southeast Asia. Information also was gained about Malaysia's role as a meeting point for senior al-Qaida operatives involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, the officials said. Malaysia routinely shares intelligence about Jemaah Islamiyah with Washington and in 2002 let the FBI question a key al-Qaida suspect at a prison camp. There has been no allegation the FBI was involved in any abuses in Malaysia, although some rights activists have questioned whether the U.S. government turns a blind eye to mistreatment of terror suspects by its allies in exchange for information.
Who are we to impose our western beliefs on a muslim country?
The abuse allegations are contained in a report seen by The Associated Press this week. The report was compiled by the government's human rights commission from prisoner complaints relayed by lawyers and rights activists.
And their words can't be questioned
The commission said it did not investigate the claims and only forwarded the document to police officials, who have repeatedly denied condoning mistreatment of prisoners.
"Wasn't us, nope."
Unlike the scandal involving abuses at U.S. detention camps in Iraq, there is no independent corroboration of the Malaysian charges such as photographs or testimony from non-detainee witnesses.
See, now this is how you're suppose to run a detention camp.
The activist group Human Rights Watch says it will release a report Wednesday on abuses of Malaysian terrorism suspects. Malaysia is holding about 100 people at the Kamunting prison camp under a security law that allows indefinite detention without trial. About 70 of those are alleged Islamic militants, many of them suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah. Malaysian officials allege the suspects threatened national security by vowing to wage holy war to create an Islamic super state in Southeast Asia. Some are accused of involvement in plots to bomb targets in neighboring Singapore.
Well, they did issue ppress releases taking credit for pretty much everything.
The bomb plots allegedly were masterminded by a militant known as Hambali, an Indonesian suspected of leadership roles in both al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah and blamed for attacks that have killed more than 200 people the past four years.
Who is safe in a US run prison......snicker
AP previously reported claims of abuse by some Islamic militant suspects detained in Malaysia, but the document obtained this week gives a broader and more detailed look at the alleged mistreatment. Thirty-one of the detainees signed a complaint that was lodged with the government's Malaysian Human Rights Commission in January. The prisoners list 57 types of abuse they claim to have been subjected to after their arrests. Some detainees produced sketches of mistreatment they allegedly suffered.
Sorry, no video, no story.
The complaints range from verbal attacks and denial of religious freedoms to long periods of solitary confinement and physical abuse and humiliation. "I was forced to strip ... and a chief inspector called his friends into the room to watch me, then they all laughed at me," one detainee, Sulaiman Suramin, wrote in a letter that accompanied the complaint. "I was forced to masturbate," he wrote. "They threatened to pull out my fingernails if I refused."
Ah, the old ways still can't be topped.
At least once, Sulaiman wrote, he was forced to stand on one leg with one arm extended for 20 minutes while interrogators peppered him with questions. Another time, "I was forced to lift a dustbin that had a lot of cigarette ash and other rubbish. I was then ordered to put my head into the dustbin and sniff the ash and say 'I am stupid' many times," he said.
Yawn, is that all?
Other detainees charge they were routinely slapped, kicked and spat on during interrogations. One said his beard was set afire. Some said they were forced to perform demeaning tasks such as massaging interrogators' feet. Police threatened to arrest their wives if they did not provide information, the prisoners allege. Several detainees claim they were forced to sleep on plywood planks and denied pillows or mattresses.
Plywood? Hell, in my day, we slept on rocks and we were damm glad we had that much. Kids today!
A spokesman for the national police, Jamshah Mustapa, said Friday that he had not seen the commission's document. "But if there are such complaints lodged with us, we will investigate," Jamshah said. "We do not condone this kind of thing. It is unethical. It is also not effective."
See, he's a professional. Did you notice his lips didn't fall off?
The head of the commission, Hamdan Adnan, confirmed the report obtained by AP was the document filed with the commission. He said it was forwarded to police months ago, but "we don't know what happened to it."
Maybe they used it to light that guys beard on fire.
Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim country of 25 million people, has been a staunch critic of the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But its advocacy of a moderate version of Islam and a security crackdown that helped hobble Jemaah Islamiyah has won personal praise from President Bush.
Well, no wonder they're being attacked.
The U.S. State Department, however, noted in its annual human rights reports that the security law under which militant suspects are being held is one of several that undermine Malaysia's commitment to human rights. All the detainees are being held on two-year orders signed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The orders are based on police recommendations reached after a 60-day investigation period that follows arrests, a time when suspects are denied access to families and lawyers. No suspect has ever been charged in court, and the complaint document claims the police information in the detention orders was fabricated.
"lies, all lies"
Among the complainants is Yazid Sufaat, a former Malaysian army captain accused of helping top al-Qaida operatives - including two Sept. 11 hijackers - when they visited Malaysia in 2000. He is alleged to be a close associate of Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin. Yazid charges he was confined to a small cell and barred from reciting the Quran for three weeks. He said he also was forced to pray wearing short pants, which goes against Islamic norms.
Gee, isn't Malaysia a muslim country? Thought so.
A U.S.-trained chemical engineer, Yazid was arrested in December 2001 as he returned from Afghanistan, where officials allege he was working on a fledgling chemical weapons program for Osama bin Laden. He was briefly interrogated by FBI agents in 2002 who reportedly found him to be untruthful and uncooperative.
I feel sorry for poor Yazid.....no, that was just gas.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 3:06:45 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Islamic Suspects in Malaysia Claim Abuse by Muslim Police

Stop the madness!

Will Moslem on Moslem violence ever end? Horreurs!
Posted by: Zenster || 05/14/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#2  There may have been abuse, but there was no Humiliation™, so what is the big deal?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 18:12 Comments || Top||

#3  Let's not forget that the captured al'Qaeda training manual tells them to claim they were abused even if they weren't.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 05/14/2004 23:08 Comments || Top||


Malaysia Deports Suspected Terror Leader
Malaysia deported a suspected leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group to Indonesia on Friday, and he was immediately arrested there for questioning about his possible links to the organization. The surprise announcement that Mohammad Iqbal Abdul Rahman had been sent back to his native country appears to resolve a dispute between Malaysia, which wanted to expel him because of alleged terrorist activity, and Indonesia, where authorities had previously said they had no reason to detain him.
"What the hell would we do with him?"
Indonesia's national police chief Gen. Dai Bachtiar said Iqbal had been arrested in Jakarta when he arrived on a flight from Malaysia. He was being held at the Jakarta police headquarters on charges of forging identity cards, but police will question him over alleged terrorism links, Bachtiar said. The deportation was announced in a High Court hearing, where lawyers and family members had expected him to appear to fight a government order withdrawing his Malaysian permanent residency status and declaring him an unwanted immigrant. "I have instructions to inform this court that Mohamed Iqbal Abdul Rahman was deported from Malaysia this morning," government lawyer Fadzillah Begum told the court. "He was deported to Jakarta."
"Next case!"
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 7:36:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sung to the Scottish folksong
"What shall we do with a drunken sailor?"

What shall we do with Mohammed Rahman?
What shall we do with Mohammed Rahman?
Stick him in a hole and let him lay there
On a hot spring morning!

Was he attached to high explosives?
Was he attached to high explosives?
Call out the bomb disposal experts
On a hot spring morning!

How can we be sure he confesses?
How can we be sure he confesses?
Call in the Baghdad prison guards now
On a hot spring morning!
Posted by: Oge_Retla_2004 || 05/14/2004 11:23 Comments || Top||

#2  i still prefer "feed 'im to the sharks 'till the bones is floatin'" for his fate myself...
Posted by: Querent || 05/14/2004 12:42 Comments || Top||


Al-Qaeda financed Green Beret killing
Police arrested a suspected Muslim militant who arranged for al-Qaida funds to finance bombings in the Philippines — including one that killed a U.S. Green Beret — a new government report said. The money bought explosives, speedboats and rifles, according to the confidential report seen Friday by The Associated Press. Khair Mundus, who was arrested last week, funneled at least $89,000 from al-Qaida militants in Saudi Arabia to Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani, the report said. Mundus, 40, stayed in Saudi Arabia from 1996 until last year, purportedly for an Arabic-language course, and helped seek funds from al-Qaida for the Abu Sayyaf, the report said. It said he was arrested in southern Zamboanga city but not been formally charged.

The report said Mundus allegedly told interrogators he arranged the transfer of funds to Khadaffy Janjalani from 2001 to last year through local bank accounts under aliases. The money was used to buy M14 rifles and a 90mm recoilless rifle, two speedboats and explosives for bombings, it said. One bombing killed a Green Beret, Sgt. 1st Class Mark Wayne Jackson, and three Filipino civilians outside an army camp in Zamboanga on Oct. 2, 2002. Other attacks that month hit two department stores in Zamboanga, killing seven people, and a bus terminal in southern Kidapawan city, killing seven, the report said. Another Filipino militant raised money among Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia that was used to buy telescopes and a GPS device used in the 2001 abduction of 20 people from a resort, the report quoted Mundus as telling the military.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/14/2004 1:23:40 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Al-Qaeda/Abu Sayyaf financing network shut down
Police said Friday it has arrested a suspected militant who arranged for al-Qaeda funds to finance bombings in the Philippines, dzMM reported. Khair Mundus, who was arrested last week in Zamboanga City, funneled at least $89,000 from al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia to Abu Sayyaf Group leader Khaddafy Janjalani, police said. Police said Mundus, 40, first worked for Abdurajak Janjalani, the Abu Sayyaf founder killed in a gunfight with police in December 1998. Khaddafy and Abdurak Janjalani were brothers. Last month, another suspected militant Jordan Abdullah was arrested after a paper trail showed he allegedly hid terror funds from al-Qaeda in his bank accounts. The money allegedly was also used to fund the Abu Sayyaf's terror activities.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/14/2004 1:21:55 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN sees signs Iran may have tried to make bomb-grade uranium:
VIENNA: UN atomic energy inspectors see a pattern of radiation contamination in Iran which could indicate attempts to enrich uranium to bomb-grade level, diplomats close to the agency said as it waits for a report from Iran on its nuclear program.
What a surprise! Not the uranium, the fact that the UN reported it.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 9:05:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now's the time Iran gets to say "Go away or we shall taunt you a second time," eh? Can't believe these guys (UN that is) are so blind. BTW, I read elsewhere that now SUDAN is in charge of the Commission on Human Rights! How much longer can we take this BS from them?
Posted by: BA || 05/14/2004 11:09 Comments || Top||

#2  The UN. Like the blind carpenter who picked up his hammer and saw.

Perhaps the only good coming out of UNScam will be that it forced the UN to drop the dime on Iran to divert attention from the scandal.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 05/14/2004 11:15 Comments || Top||

#3  UN sees signs . . .

Hans Blix had his glasses perscription changed.
Now he can see "Stop", "Merge", and "Next Exit" on the New York freeways. Those SIGNS were blurry before.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 11:57 Comments || Top||

#4  I think the most believable sign is the current Israeli silence about the whole thing..... or is that the sound of jet engines warming up?
Posted by: Mecutio || 05/14/2004 15:40 Comments || Top||


Syria frees 200 Kurds
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 08:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That was stupid. Sanctions must be starting to work quickly.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 05/14/2004 11:24 Comments || Top||


Hezbollah and Hamas blast murder of Berg
EFL
Two Islamic facist terrorist militant groups, Hezbollah and Hamas, issued strongly worded condemnations Thursday of the videotaped beheading of an American civilian in Iraq.
OMYGOD
In a statement faxed to the Associated Press, Hezbollah called the 26-year-old Berg’s killing an ’’extremely brutal and cruel’’ act. ’’I condemn this brutal act and sympathize with the family of the slain American man, who I consider a victim of the wrong U.S. policies in the region,’’ said Osama Hamdan, Hamas’ representative in Lebanon, denouncing both Berg’s killers and President Bush.
Posted by: Dragon Fly || 05/14/2004 7:58:43 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Funny, Dragon Fly. Did you make this yourself or did it come off the Onion....WAIT...It's not on the Onion. Maybe....

Whoa!
Posted by: Sean || 05/14/2004 11:17 Comments || Top||

#2  This is Hezbollah and Hamas way of calling Berg’s murders idiots, in an IslamoPig twisted way. All that news about the prisoners is now considered nothing compared to what happened to Mr. Berg. And now T.V. America emotions have now shifted back to understanding the kind of sub humane enemy we are fighting.
Posted by: John Long Hair || 05/14/2004 12:53 Comments || Top||

#3  ??????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/14/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#4  muck - that was a dumb thing to do....
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 13:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Muck,
I don't understand your comment. I also don't understand your link. So I take it you don't understand? Please help me to understand.
Posted by: John Long Hair || 05/14/2004 13:54 Comments || Top||

#6  im just liking the stretch look.john im just linking that for i wish that evry day is cinco de mayo. :)
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/14/2004 16:10 Comments || Top||


Syria Calls for Dialogue With US
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:56 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The policy of imposing sanctions on Arab countries cannot be conducive to stability in the region, but will increase tension,” warned the head of the alliance.

“It is Israel and the government of (Ariel) Sharon that should be subjected to sanctions because of their ongoing attacks against the defenseless Palestinian people and continuous violations of international norms and laws,” Attiyah said, urging Washington to reconsider its decision.


Impotence? Desperation? Bluster? Feelings of Impending Doom?

Too bad, so sad. Goodbye, Bushar Assad.
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 11:06 Comments || Top||

#2  maybe the Syrians can get some good deals set up with the French, Russians and Germans in order to keep them afloat.
Posted by: B || 05/14/2004 11:09 Comments || Top||

#3  Syria - "We want the sanctions lifted."

US - "No."

There's your dialog twits.
Posted by: Doc8404 || 05/14/2004 15:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Sure, we'll have a "dialogue" with you, Syria.

You tell all the terrorists and assorted crazies to get out now and stay out, and hand over all Saddam's WMD's you've got hidden (he ain't coming back, fool), and we'll say, "That's a good start."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 20:36 Comments || Top||

#5  [sound of phone ringing] Hello. Who is it? [Click noise] [sound of dial tone] dialog over

Posted by: Anonymous4828 || 05/14/2004 22:54 Comments || Top||


Syrian President Rejects U.S. Sanctions
We ran this yesterday, too...
A defiant President Bashar Assad said Thursday he wouldn't bow to U.S. demands to expel Palestinian militant groups and criticized new U.S. sanctions against Syria, disputing charges that his country has weapons of mass destruction and is allowing foreign fighters into Iraq. In a meeting of about 90 minutes with American editors, Assad offered no fresh proposals to spur talks on the stalled Middle East peace process - including Syrian attempts to regain the Golan Heights - saying the United States has made it clear that its No. 1 priority is Iraq and not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"I have no more to say!"
Still, Assad recognizes that he will eventually need the United States' help in any future negotiations to win back the territory Syria lost to Israel in the 1967 Mideast war. "Of course, we cannot abandon our occupied lands and the United States has an important role," Assad said. "They say this is not now a priority for them so we cannot agree on these points." Repeating criticism of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Syrian leader appeared resigned to the fact that American forces will be in Iraq for some time and stressed the importance of preserving the territorial integrity of the Arab country. An eventual U.S. withdrawal "could be this year, next year, 10 years," the Syrian leader said. "This can be worked out once I stop sending my hard boys across the border the integrity" is assured. Assad has previously called for an American withdrawal "as fast as possible" and a principal role for the mendacious United Nations. President Bush imposed sanctions Tuesday that ban all U.S. exports to Syria except food and medicine and forbid direct flights between Syria and the United States. The penalties came as a response to allegations that Syria was supporting terrorism and undermining U.S. efforts in neighboring Iraq. Bush signed the order under a law that Congress passed by an overwhelming vote late last year. Assad attempted to play down the issue of the sanctions.
"A mere flesh wound!"
"Syria will continue to live its daily life but we will continue to be always open" for dialogue, especially on the Middle East and Iraq, the Syrian leader said. U.S.-Syrian trade amounts to $300 million annually, and Syrian officials have repeatedly said the sanctions will have little economic impact. The European Union is already ignoring the sanctions and sending a high-level trade delegation to Damascus this weekend.
But of course they are.
Syria hosts murderous Palestinian terrorist militant groups such as Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which have carried out numerous suicide bombings and other deadly attacks on Israelis. Assad's government regards them as legitimate groups fighting Israel's occupation of Palestinian land. Syria is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist-sponsoring countries. Assad said Thursday "there are no leaders" of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Syria, but only political spokesmen who came to Syria after being expelled by Israel.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
The true Hamas leaders, he said, are in the Palestinian territories, including two recently killed by Israel. Referring to Hamas thugs members in Syria, Assad said: "If you ask them to go, where could they go? To hell? They have to go back to their land and Israel would could put them in jail. ... We don't expel people."
And more's the pity.
The United States also has accused Syria of failing to stop guerrillas from crossing its border into Iraq. Assad's government maintains it is trying to stop fighters from crossing into Iraq but cannot completely control its long border with its eastern neighbor. Syria has asked the Bush administration for evidence of infiltrators, Assad said.
How 'bout their heads?
Assad said he's still committed to reform but that it will come slowly because of regional instability and the reluctance of some in his society to change. Asked if he sees free elections in Syria one day, he said, "Definitely. Definitely. We're going to change."
"Yep, one day we'll change. I don't know which one yet, but it'll be one day, I'm sure."
Assad said the instability in Iraq affects Syria. He said there was a history in the 1980s of Iraq sending saboteurs into Syria and that even today there is smuggling of arms from Iraq to Syria and vice versa. "This is dangerous for Syria. This is the natural result of building democracy the lack of a state in Iraq."
Posted by: Steve White || 05/14/2004 12:11:18 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Come back here," called the Black Knight. "I'll bite your knees off!"
Posted by: Seafarious || 05/14/2004 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  "Someday, son, all this will be yours..."

"What, the curtains?"

"No, not the curtains you silly twit! The land!"

(And the ever popular)

"Help! Help! I'm bein' repressed!"
Posted by: mojo || 05/14/2004 2:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Assad "rejects" the sanctions? If only it were that easy, Asshat.
Posted by: Mercutio || 05/14/2004 15:42 Comments || Top||

#4  exactly. I don't think W asked whether Syria accepted the sanctions. What a dipshit
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Assad said the instability in Iraq affects Syria. He said there was a history in the 1980s of Iraq sending saboteurs into Syria and that even today there is smuggling of arms from Iraq to Syria and vice versa. "This is dangerous for Syria."

Assad seems to understand the strategy better than most LLL
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 05/14/2004 0:30 Comments || Top||

#6  An American embargo won't do much. An Iraqi embargo would be very inconvenient for Assad, but would probably be harmful to Iraq as well. The new government will have to decide whether it wants to be subverted.
Posted by: Anonymous4828 || 05/14/2004 0:48 Comments || Top||

#7  Or the new government (once it finds its feet) could decide that turnabout is fair play. They could host "Radio Free Damascus" for example. Come to think of it ...
Posted by: Steve White || 05/14/2004 1:07 Comments || Top||

#8  "Come back here," called the Black Knight. "I'll bite your knees off!"

Monty Python. Although the Arab mindset is more like ealier in the sketch.

" I cut your arm off! "" It's just a flesh wound. "
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 1:34 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Nicholas Berg, Abu Al-Zarqawi, Zacarias Moussaoui & Chemical Weapons
... The story of Berg and his gruesome death took an unexpected turn Thursday, when it was revealed that Berg met Zacarias Moussaoui in 1999, an accused al Qaeda operative who may have been connected to the September 11 attacks on America. What few have yet commented on is the fact that Moussaoui and Zarqawi may be directly linked by common associates and an interest in chemical weapons. Even more disturbing is the possibility that Moussaoui may be linked to one of Zarqawi’s terror cells in London.

Berg was questioned by the FBI after it was discovered that Moussaoui had used his password to access University of Oklahoma computers. Berg attended college at the University; Moussaoui went to flight school in Norman, OK. According to some media reports, the two met on a bus. ...

.... ongoing investigations suggest Moussaoui is connected to Nicholas Berg’s killer, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. .... Before Moussaoui came to the U.S., where he is suspected of having plotted terrorist attacks on behalf of al Qaeda, he lived in London. While there, he attended the Finsbury Park Mosque, which officials have connected to radical Islamic activities. Richard Reid, the al Qaeda "shoe bomber," attended the same mosque, whose spiritual leader was Sheik Abu Hamza al-Mazri. ...

Moussaoui is also connected to the specter of a chemical attack. According to his indictment, he was in possession of a computer disk "containing information related to the aerial application of pesticides." Other reports indicated that Moussaoui’s laptop computer contained information about crop dusters. According to the indictment, investigators are uncertain what Moussaui was doing on the University of Oklahoma computers, which he apparently accessed using Berg’s password. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 05/14/2004 8:43:05 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Before Moussaoui came to the U.S... he attended the Finsbury Park Mosque... whose spiritual leader was Sheik Abu Hamza al-Mazri

Stranger and stranger. Just knew Cap'n Hook had to be in there somewhere. Was Berg set up? Apparently , according to CBS, the two men(Moussaoui & Berg) knew each other!?
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/14/2004 9:34 Comments || Top||

#2  This thing is getting curiouser and curiouser.
I am beginning to believe Berg may have been either a CIA or Mosaad operative.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 11:00 Comments || Top||

#3  BigEd - I can't imagine either the CIA or Mossad being that stupid. This guy didn't act much like he had any spy training. Or clues.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 11:03 Comments || Top||

#4  He was deep undercover. Nobody would suspect a Jewish American with an Israeli passport stamp wandering Iraq by himself......riiiiggghhttt
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 11:27 Comments || Top||

#5  Hide in plain sight?
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 12:05 Comments || Top||

#6  How strange...if this is a coincidence, it takes the cake.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) || 05/14/2004 16:46 Comments || Top||

#7  As I pointed out a couple of days ago, the facts fit him being a wannabe Jihadi.
Posted by: Phil_B || 05/14/2004 17:48 Comments || Top||

#8  BigEd: Hide in plain sight?

This isn't a James Bond movie, where the protagonist goes around finding out information by talking to people. The reality is that the walking-around technique really doesn't work in police states like Iraq (which is still in the grip of various well-funded militias - think of each as a Mafia-style organization tens of thousands strong) - there are people watching the people you talk to, especially when you're a foreign-looking outsider who doesn't speak the local language. And there is a good reason for Iraqis to pay attention - there are bounties on the heads of foreigners in Iraq.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 05/14/2004 18:21 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Jihad Unspun: Door of Innovation Open to Mujahideen to Mistreat POWs
From Jihad Unspun
.... Husayn ibn Mahmud wrote that something must be done to deter the aggressors from continuing to perpetrate such crimes [mistreatment of prisoners]. “Those are prisoners of war,” Husayn ibn Mahmud wrote, “and the Mujahideen also have prisoners of war, and they are obliged to do something to the Americans so as to force them to think a million times before they venture to carry out [abusive] activity. The Mujahideen cannot do what the Americans have done because it is prohibited by our religion – prohibited in and of itself – and anyway this would not affect them because they generally accept such behavior. They do such things voluntarily, with no one forcing them to, and with no shame. Stripping people naked and sodomizing them are ordinary matters for them, things to which they are accustomed. But there are things that the Mujahideen can do, such as slitting the throats of some of the prisoners with knives, and broadcasting their pictures and names. This should be done by video files on the World Wide Web and not on the news media that the Americans control. It should be announced that these actions are merely to avenge our brothers and sisters in Abu Ghurayb prison. The door of innovation is open to the Mujahideen in this matter.”....

One AP press report indicated that Berg had an “Iraqi in-law” living in the Mosul area, a man who had been married to a now-deceased sister of Berg’s. ....

The first news publication in the world to point to Berg’s Jewish identity was the Zionist Yediot Ahronot, published in occupied Palestine. Given that Zionist activity has been frequently reported particularly in the northern regions of occupied Iraq (where Mosul is located), it is reasonable to wonder whether the Zionists in Tel Aviv might not have other relevant information on Nick Berg that has not yet been disclosed....

On 7th March, 2004, just three weeks before the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, an ’enemies’ list of anti-war groups and individuals was posted on the Free Republic forum. It began: "Here you are, FReepers. Here is the enemy” and listed "Michael S. Berg, Teacher, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, Inc." Just seven days after "Michael Berg" and "Prometheus Methods Tower Service" had come up on that Iraq war ’enemies’ list, his son Nick Berg returned to Iraq under the business name of Prometheus Methods Tower Service. Within two weeks of the list being posted, Nick Berg --back in Iraq on his final fatal trip -- was reportedly detained in Mosul at an Iraqi police checkpoint. .... But a more likely reason is that by then authorities in Iraq had discovered that a ’Berg’ of Prometheus Methods Tower Service was in the country, and issued a detention instruction to Iraqi police because they misidentified Nick Berg as an antiwar activist entering Iraq to work for the ’enemy’. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 05/14/2004 10:19:24 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Islamic Jihad Leader Sadly Unhurt in Gaza Missile Strike

Fri May 14, 2004 07:40 PM ET

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli missiles struck the Gaza office and home of Islamic Jihad’s top leader early on Saturday in a failed bid to assassinate him, apparently in retaliation for the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers this week. Witnesses said helicopter gunships fired eight missiles at the targets, wounding at least eight Palestinians, but officials of the militant group said Mohammed al-Hindi had safely fled the area.
We know where you live ...
The attempt on al-Hindi’s life followed Israel’s assassinations of the two senior Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks. The missile barrage came hours after two Israeli soldiers were killed by Hamas militants in a refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip in the latest in a series of ambushes that has dealt the Middle East’s mightiest army its worst blow in two years.
Forgive any sort of dismissive attitude but 13 troop fatalities hardly represents having "dealt the Middle East’s mightiest army its worst blow ..." Now, as to (literally) decapitating strikes against Yassin and Rantissi, those most likely resemble really devastating blows. Hamas has been reduced to offering amnesty (har-dee-effing-har-har) to all Israeli collaborators. Such a collapse of efficacy is far more telling to anyone who understands the real meaning C³.
Helicopters first fired three missiles into an Islamic studies center housing al-Hindi’s office and then targeted his home in another part of the densely populated city with five missiles, witnesses said. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Islamic groups sworn to Israel’s destruction, are the driving force behind a campaign of suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis during three and a half years of conflict.
No mention (of course) about the triple amount of Palestinian casualties. No unbiased reporting here, no-siree Bob.
Hamas claimed responsibility for killing six soldiers in a troop carrier on Tuesday during a raid in Gaza City, and Islamic Jihad said it was behind a similar bombing that killed five servicemen on Wednesday. Polls showed deepening support in Israel for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza pullout plan, now stalled by hard-liners in his own rightist party, as this week’s losses reminded Israelis of the high cost of the hard-to-defend Gaza settlements.

The Gaza violence has also raised concern among Israeli military planners that Palestinians have adopted the tactics of Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas that eventually ended Israel’s occupation of south Lebanon in 2000.
Maybe some more air strikes in Lebanon are in order.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/14/2004 9:26:56 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I know that Israel wants to limit collateral damage to the absolute minimum, but maybe the building needs a JADAM to ensure that they do not have to go back again for a strike. The Paleo terrorists need to know that being around one of their leaders is certain death.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 22:49 Comments || Top||


Three dead in fresh Gaza clashes

Friday, 14 May, 2004, 18:02 GMT 19:02 UK

Heavy clashes in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza have left two Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian dead. The army said the soldiers died from sniper fire as they were helping a Palestinian woman, rejecting militant claims of an attack on their vehicle.

The Palestinian man was killed in a missile strike on the refugee camp. The fighting followed the razing of at least 10 homes by army bulldozers in the camp, as details emerged of Israeli plans to demolish hundreds more. The UN criticised the demolitions, describing them as a catastrophe.

Differing accounts

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade said it carried out an attack on an Israeli military vehicle that killed two Israeli soldiers and also injured two others. The Israeli army’s account was different. "One soldier left a house in Rafah to come to the help of an elderly Palestinian woman who was carrying heavy bags of food and was felled by bullets fired by Palestinian snipers," a spokeswoman said.

"Shortly afterwards, our forces came to the assistance of the soldier and another soldier was killed by bullets while two more were wounded." The incident brings to 13 the number of Israelis who have died in the Gaza Strip this week. They include six soldiers whose body parts were kept by Palestinian militants before being returned following Egyptian intervention.

Referring to this incident, Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz accused Palestinian militants of using United Nations ambulances to transport the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in clashes in the Gaza Strip. Mr Mofaz described this as a violation and said the UN should comment on it. There has been no reaction from the UN. Palestinians have denied the allegations.

’Legitimate defence’

A 27-year-old Palestinian, Akram Abu al-Naji, died on Friday when an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles into Rafah refugee camp. Reports speak of panic-stricken residents holding onto personal belongings and waving white flags at approaching Israeli forces. An official from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office called the demolition of houses in the camp a "legitimate defensive measure".

"[It] aimed at ensuring better protection for our soldiers who shouldn’t remain as sitting ducks and at preventing the smuggling of weapons, mortars, rockets and tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip," the official told AFP. Israel controls a 9km (five mile) strip of land between the refugee camps of southern Gaza and the Egyptian border. It is often the scene of fierce confrontation between Palestinian gunmen and the Israeli army.

’Catastrophe’

The Palestinian Authority called on the international community to prevent the demolitions. Paul McCann, a spokesman for the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees, condemned the policy and warned of a deepening crisis. "It’s impossible to believe that every one of these houses shelters militants or the entrance to a tunnel," Mr McCann said.
Yeah, but there’s also the snipers, Qassam rocket and mortar launches, weapons manufacturing sites ...
Mr McCann said he doubted Israeli Radio reports that Israel would assist the Palestinians in finding new homes for those made homeless. "Israel has so far been taking the view that it is not responsible for humanitarian issues inside the Palestinian territories," Mr McCann said.

The BBC Jerusalem correspondent says Israel has suffered its worst military losses for two years, and the issue of withdrawing from Gaza has become the central political question. A poll in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot suggested a sharp rise in support for Mr Sharon’s plan for a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. Some 71% of respondents said they now approved of a pullout, compared with 62% on 4 May.
EMPHASIS ADDED
Since the UN continues to be so "unhelpful" towards the Israeli cause, perhaps it’s time to blow their ambulances off the road. The pronounced favoritism shown by the UN is one of the most morally bankrupt features of their organization. Well ... besides the "Food for Oil Program" and the seating of Sudan on the "Human Rights" panel and the World Bank corruption and Rwanda and ...
Posted by: Zenster || 05/14/2004 8:40:13 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
UK troops kill 16 after ambush
British troops have fought off three ambushes in southern Iraq, leaving 16 insurgents dead, the UK military says. Two soldiers were hurt but their wounds were not described as life threatening. The battle came after insurgents attacked a British convoy 18 miles south of the town of Amarah with rocket propelled grenades and small arms.Reinforcements had to be called in during the fire-fight which also wounded one man and led to the capture of another. The convoy drove through the first ambush but was attacked a second and then a third time. The British military are describing the incident as a significant blow to the militia in the area of Amarah.
Posted by: Lux || 05/14/2004 5:40:55 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does it seem to anyone else that the supplies of experienced, trained insurgents are dwindling rapidly? A lot of recent attacks, while involving heavy trading of fire, have come out 24-0, 16-0, etc. Our troops are good (so are the Brits), but I'm getting the impression we are HEAVILY outscoring the bad guys in kills - I like that
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 19:12 Comments || Top||

#2  Rule Britannia!
Posted by: JDB || 05/14/2004 20:40 Comments || Top||

#3 
UK troops kill 16 after ambush
Well, it's a start....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 20:56 Comments || Top||

#4  UK troops kill 16 after ambush

PRISONER ABUSE!!!

Oh ... wait, they took no prisoners.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/14/2004 21:54 Comments || Top||

#5  A pro-active way to solve that problem...
Posted by: Pappy || 05/14/2004 22:39 Comments || Top||

#6  Can't even get an ambush right?

These guys are waaaay below 'moronic'
Posted by: Bulldog || 05/15/2004 13:07 Comments || Top||

#7  Well done brits!
Posted by: Evert V. in NL || 05/15/2004 13:09 Comments || Top||


Africa: Subsaharan
Christians Leave Nigerian City as Riot Rages
Christians chased out of their homes by Muslims during bloody riots in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano boarded buses to leave town as fresh clashes broke out on Friday. Rioting Muslim mobs have burned and hacked to death hundreds of people, mostly Christians, since Tuesday in reprisals for the slaying of hundreds of Muslims in central Nigeria 10 days ago. "People are saturated with fear, especially today being Friday, so they are leaving," said Adamson Gbangange, from Gombe in eastern Nigeria, as he boarded a bus out of Kano. Clashes erupted again in the Badawa district of Nigeria’s second largest city on Friday, hours after the end of Muslim Friday prayers, aid workers said. Several blood-soaked victims bearing head wounds arrived at Kano’s main hospital.

More than 10,000 Christians, many hungry and penniless, camped in police barracks across the city to escape rampaging youths armed with knives and petrol. "There are so many people that our 20 bags of rice cannot even give them one meal," said Reverend Andrew Ubah, the head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kano. At least 1,000 Nigerians have probably died in religious fighting across the oil exporting country in the last two weeks, although officials decline to provide credible death tolls. Ubah estimated that 1,000 people had been killed in the Kano riots alone, while hospital workers spoke of hundreds dead. The official death toll stands at 30.

An aid worker said she saw three truck loads of corpses delivered to Kano’s main hospital. "On Wednesday evening they brought in two trailor loads of bodies. There was one trailer load the previous day. A lot of people were killed. I think it is even more than 600," said the medical worker, asking not to be named. Nigerian authorities routinely underestimate death tolls from religious violence in the belief the true figures could spark reprisal attacks. Heavy security was visible in other main cities across the oil exporting nation to prevent the violence spreading.

The riot erupted on Tuesday after thousands of Muslims marched through Kano protesting the killing of hundreds of fellow Muslims in the remote farming town of Yelwa in central Nigeria 10 days ago. Christian and Muslim tribes have been feuding over land around Yelwa for several years, but the conflict escalated dramatically last week. Muslim survivors of the Yelwa massacre said they buried 630 corpses after a commando-style attack by Christian militia, while a senior policeman speaking off the record said hundreds were killed. Authorities have maintained a death toll of 67.

Police reported renewed fighting near Yelwa in Plateau state on Friday, although they had no information on casualties. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, on a visit to the central region on Thursday, berated religious leaders, accusing them of stoking hatred and revenge. Christian and Islamic leaders in Plateau state were detained briefly by the State Security Service on Friday and asked to apologize to Obasanjo for questioning his commitment to restoring peace. The head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Plateau state Yakubu Pam refused to apologize and said he had never incited violence. Nigeria’s population of 130 million people is split roughly equally between Muslims and Christians. At least 6,000 people have been killed in religious violence in northern Nigeria since democracy returned in 1999.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) || 05/14/2004 4:37:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maybe a system of "aparthied" in some countries or regions of the world might not be a bad thing if the racist overtones of the South African system and our own "Jim Crow" laws could be avoided.
Posted by: cheaderhead || 05/14/2004 17:23 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Strategists call for Israeli strikes against expanding WMD threat
This is a statement of the obvious of a strategy that Israel needs to pursue, but laying it out publically through a report must serve as a warning to arabs and the Black Turbans in Iran that saber rattling and threatening destruction of Israel with WMD will result in the agressor’s utter destruction. Enumerating it is sobering, or it should be. It is like the Cold War redux, ME style.
Leading strategists in Israel have proposed preemptive strikes against the expanding threat posed by weapons of mass destruction arsenals in the Middle East.

A report, entitled "Israel’s Strategic Future," called such strikes an option in preventing the formation of a WMD coalition. The report said the Jewish state has been threatened by a biological or nuclear first-strike that seeks to exploit Israel’s small space and high population density.

"To meet its ultimate deterrence objectives – that is, to deter the most overwhelmingly destructive enemy first-strikes – Israel must seek and achieve a visible second-strike capability to target approximately 15 enemy cities," the report, presented to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said.

The report marked the last phase of Project Daniel, sponsored by the Ariel Center for Strategic Studies, part of the College of Judea and Samaria. The contributors to the report included [Res.] Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Ben-Yisrael, the former director of research and development at Israel’s military and Defense Ministry, Middle East Newsline reported.
The report also urged the Israeli military to reduce the priority assigned to conventional warfare without impairing its superiority over any enemy coalition. The report said Israeli strategy must be revised to address the expanding threats from what it termed terrorism and long-range WMD attacks.

One option, the report said, would be to target an enemy WMD regime.

"The tools for preemptive operations would be novel, diverse and purposeful; for example, long-range aircraft with appropriate support for derived missions; long-range high-level intervention ground forces; long-endurance intelligence-collection systems; long-endurance unmanned air-strike platforms," the report said.

"Ranges would be to cities in Libya and Iran, and recognizable nuclear bomb yields would be at a level sufficient to fully compromise the aggressor’s viability as a functioning state. All enemy targets should be selected with the view that their destruction would promptly force the enemy to cease all nuclear/biological/chemical exchanges with Israel."

The report called on Israel to operate a multi-layered ballistic missile defense system as well as establish a second-strike capability. Such a missile defense should include a Boost Phase Intercept capability as well as enhanced real-time intelligence acquisition, interpretation and transmission.

The report said that despite the prospect of a WMD attack, the principal existential threat to Israel was a conventional war mounted by a coalition of Arab states along with Iran. But such a war, the report said, could be facilitated by the development of WMD and result in nonconventional weapons strikes against the Jewish state.

"Irrespective of its policy on nuclear ambiguity vs. disclosure, Israel will not be able to endure unless it continues to maintain a credible, secure and decisive nuclear deterrent alongside a multi-layered anti-missile defense," the report said.

The report said advanced weaponry would enable Israel to reduce its defense expenditure while enhancing effectiveness and lethality in conventional warfare. The report cited the need for increased weapons range, precision, warhead efficiency; electronic warfare, reduced infrared and radio frequency signatures.

The report also stressed the need for real time tactical and strategic intelligence within a command, control, communications, computer and intelligence [C4I] system. The technologies cited to combat strategic threats included ballistic missile defense, early-warning satellites, combat unmanned air vehicles and deep-strike forces.

"There is no operational need for low-yield nuclear weapons geared for actual battlefield use," the report said. "There is no point in spreading – and raising costs – Israel’s effort on low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons given the multifaceted asymmetry between Israel and its adversaries."
Israel is going for the BIG HIT, forget tactical nukes. Events would unfold so fast that a BIG NUKE may be all there is time for.
Israel must also maintain its policy of refusing to acknowledge nuclear capability, the report said. The report said such a policy should be revised in the future if an enemy state turns nuclear.

The report asserted that the development of an Arab and Iranian nuclear weapons program required 20 years while that of a long-range missile would need 12 years. But once development is completed, the report said, the production and acquisition of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles would entail a short process. Any country could build an arsenal of 100 atomic bombs within four years of the assembly of its first nuclear weapon.

"Israel will have to maximize its long-range, accurate, real-time strategic intelligence," the report said. "Israel will have to maximize the credibility of its second-strike capability. Israel will have to develop, test, manufacture and deploy a BPI [Boost Phase Intercept] capability to match the operational requirements dictated by enemy ballistic missile capacities -- performance and numbers."

The report also called on Israel to deploy recoverable and non-recoverable stealth UAVs to suppress enemy air defenses, electronic warfare, intelligence-gathering and strikes. The military was also urged to develop a second-strike land or sea nuclear capability.

To finance such an effort, Israel must cooperate with the United States, make better use of U.S. military aid and eliminate obstacles to U.S.-Israel defense trade. One option was for Israel to consider revising its defense strategy to account for an expanded U.S. military presence in the Middle East.

The report urged Israel to seek U.S. cooperation for a joint BPI project, something the Defense Department has refused. Another option was for the United States to "participate technologically and financially in Israel’s multi-layered missile defense efforts as fully as possible."
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 4:12:34 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think that Israel is better suited to continue their activities within their borders with limited excursions into Lebanon. We need to continue to nail down the proliferation sources. I think they can handle the nuclear threat at a time of their choosing but they are going to be living within chem bio attack range for the forseeable future so they would be smarter only to strike if an American administration takes over that is ambivalent to proliferation.
Posted by: Anonymous4828 || 05/14/2004 16:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Let's just say it. Israel is considering a first strike nuclear force.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 17:04 Comments || Top||

#3  A counter-argument I've heard is that it would only inflame a nationalism that would hurt the democratic anti-mullah movements ...
Posted by: Edward Yee || 05/14/2004 18:26 Comments || Top||

#4  and those movements are oh, so successful to date...Israel has no alternatives to winning - EVERY BATTLE, EVERY WAR
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 18:58 Comments || Top||

#5  "There is no operational need for low-yield nuclear weapons geared for actual battlefield use," the report said. "There is no point in spreading – and raising costs – Israel’s effort on low-yield, tactical nuclear weapons given the multifaceted asymmetry between Israel and its adversaries."

This says it all. Mutual Assured Destruction is one of the few concepts Islamist mullahs might conceivably understand. One hit on Israel results in a glassed and Windexed Middle East. 'Nuff said.

A counter-argument I've heard is that it would only inflame a nationalism that would hurt the democratic anti-mullah movements ...

This too closely parallels the traditional "humiliation" arguments. Of late, merely enjoying a good meal seems to "humiliate" Arab sensibilities. What sort of Israeli stance is there that would avoid inflaming Arab nationalism whilst still maintaining a sufficiently puissant threat?
Posted by: Zenster || 05/14/2004 21:47 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Sadr warns rival Shiite group against siding with US
Shiite Muslim radical leader Moqtada Sadr warned a rival Shiite faction Friday not to side with the US-led coalition in Iraq against him and his Mehdi Army militia.
Don’t cave on me now, guys!
He also took a swipe at the Najaf-based Shiite religious hierarchy for keeping quiet as US troops "defile" the sanctity of holy cities like Najaf and Karbala. "I wonder what has happened to the Badr Brigade," Sadr told worshippers at the main weekly Muslim prayers in this Shiite shrine town, referring to the militia of the Iran-backed religious party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
Maybe they all decided that continuing to breathe is a really, really good thing.
"They were the most supportive of my late father and his fight against the dictator Saddam (Hussein). "They must watch out so that they are not sucked into my own America’s plot to incite fighting among Shiites," Sadr warned. Unlike Sadr, SCIRI’s leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim sits on Iraq’s US-installed interim leadership and has declined to join his armed campaign against coalition troops in Shiite areas of central and southern Iraq.
When you’re farting through silk it’s difficult going back to burlap.
The firebrand cleric also condemned the "traitors who willingly execute the orders of the occupation forces" and criticized the Shiite religious authority for its inaction during his conflict with the coalition. "The sanctity of our holy cities is being defiled by me and no one is coming to aid us or support us," Sadr told his followers. He made no direct comment on Friday’s six-hour battle between his militia and US troops in nearby Najaf, in which at least 10 of his militiamen died, but vowed that his forces would be victorious over their enemies.
Victorious = Pushing up the daisies
"The spilling of your blood in this blessed land is the beginning of your extinction victory, good [sic] willing," said Sadr. He said that the United States would "pay dearly for its plan to exterminate Muslims and Islam in Iraq and worldwide." The head of the Badr Brigade, Abu Hassan al-Ameri, was among a group of Shiite leaders who travelled to Najaf earlier this week in a bid to convince Sadr to step back from a showdown with US troops in Najaf.
We already paid dearly enough on that bridge. It’s your turn now, Moqtada.
Sadr snubbed their efforts Wednesday, vowing to fight and die a martyr. Also in a move aimed at squeezing the religious hierarchy further, he said he would only disband his militia if the top clerics gave the order. The office of the senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has issued just one statement on the crisis, calling more than a month ago for a peaceful resolution to the standoff and for the sanctity of holy cities to be respected.
Not to worry, if the top clerics don’t issue any orders, our generals will.
His office has refused to comment on Friday’s events in Najaf. Sadr’s fighters seized control of Najaf in early April and have been digging in with heavy weapons on a hill overlooking Bahr al-Najaf, where about 2,500 US soldiers are camped in the desert. In Tehran, Iranian and Iraqi Shiite leaders warned the United States Friday that the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala were "red lines" not to be crossed.
Those lines are "red" only because Sadr’s idiot militia keeps bleeding all over them.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/14/2004 3:37:34 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The office of the senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has issued just one statement on the crisis, calling more than a month ago for a peaceful resolution to the standoff and for the sanctity of holy cities to be respected. His office has refused to comment on Friday’s events in Najaf.
Pretty lonely being Hakuna Moktada these days.
Posted by: Sludj || 05/14/2004 15:54 Comments || Top||

#2  I can't imagine we'd let his fighters dig in with heavy weapons on a hill overlooking our troops - sounds like a B2 strike just waiting to happen, or just plain BS
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 16:08 Comments || Top||


Fox: U.S. Tanks Charge Into Central Najaf
I dont know if this article is a repost, if so feel free to delete, but i found this quote:

"An office that belongs to Al-Sadr close to the Imam Ali shrine took small arms fire, according to a man who answered the telephone there. The man said he believed the shots came from rival Shiite groups opposed to al-Sadr’s presence in the city. Al-Sadr spokesman, Qays al-Khaz’ali, however, denied that supporters of rival Shiite groups attacked al-Mahdi Army militiamen or any al-Sadr offices."

Uhmmmmm.... Interesting.
Posted by: Evert V. in NL || 05/14/2004 2:48:06 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You want me to look? Man, I'm talkin' t'you from under my desk! Are you crazy.

All I hear now is a lot of tanks. 'Bunch of people speaking English. Americans are swarming the streets.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 15:31 Comments || Top||


UN tussle looms over command of forces
Washington made clear yesterday that it will not countenance losing control of Iraqi security forces after the handover of power on June 30, setting the stage for a new tussle at the United Nations Security Council. With many details of the transition still to be worked out, a diplomatic wrangle is under way with France and Russia urging that a new UN resolution has to give the post-handover Iraqi government more powers than Washington would like. Michel Barnier, the French foreign minister, is on his way to America to lobby Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, and the Bush administration to allow Iraq’s transitional leaders to refuse if US commanders order Iraqi troops into battle.

Condoleezza Rice, America’s national security adviser, made clear, however, that that is unacceptable. "We believe strongly in the unity of command," she said. Speaking to newspaper correspondents, including The Telegraph, she expressed confidence that a resolution could be reached "fairly soon" and that it would reaffirm the role of a multinational force until the Iraqis can take over. She added: "They are obviously not yet in a position to do that." Given the size of the American forces, she did not think there would be any argument that after June 30 America would be in command of the coalition forces, including the Iraqis. There had been no disagreement about that in the UN resolution covering the current mission and "I would expect that there would be no disagreement in the future". She sought to play down claims by leaders of the anti-war group of nations that America is allowing for only a figleaf of Iraqi sovereignty. "I am just stating a principle here. We will work to see what kind of an arrangement we need. I am sure we will work out something that recognises the sovereignty of Iraq but also recognises the need to be effective."

Diplomats are waiting for Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN envoy for Iraq, to complete his proposals for the transition before they can finalise a resolution. Ms Rice is hopeful of a resolution "sooner rather than later". She said it was very important for the UN "to have spoken in unity about the importance of the transition in Iraq" before June 30. But diplomats are uncertain that the resolution can be completed before June 30 and Russia is suggesting a two-step process. A first resolution would endorse Mr Brahimi’s government and a second would deal with more long-term issues. Previously coalition commanders had feared that their soldiers might lack legitimacy after June 30 and face prosecution for their actions. Britain and America now say they are confident their forces are covered by the existing resolution, but Italy and other nations are believed to be concerned about their forces’ status. One of the other sticking points is believed to be calls by France and Germany for a deadline, possibly for the end of 2005, for the withdrawal of a multinational force.
Posted by: tipper || 05/14/2004 1:05:29 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She sought to play down claims by leaders of the anti-war group of nations that America is allowing for only a figleaf of Iraqi sovereignty.

It's all really quite simple: no pay, no play. If these "leaders" of the anti-war nations have complaints, well, that's just too damn bad.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/14/2004 14:24 Comments || Top||

#2  Why should we begin caring what the French Foreign Minister says or thinks now? This is just another case of a few lilliputians trying to bring down Gulliver. Doesn't work when he is awake and pissed off.
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 14:48 Comments || Top||

#3  I think our goal is for the Iraqi security forces to wait until we leave teh country before they open up on us. Some of them are acting aginst us already.
Posted by: Anonymous4828 || 05/14/2004 17:05 Comments || Top||

#4  ESAD
Posted by: mojo || 05/14/2004 22:30 Comments || Top||


Holiest Shi’ite Shrine Seen Damaged After Battle
The absolute, bar none, quintessential, one and only holiest of holies holed.
Aides to militant Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr blamed U.S. tank fire on Friday for three small holes that appeared in the vast gilded dome of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrine, the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf.
If they were small holes, it couldn’t have been our tanks.
Qais al-Khazali, Sadr’s chief spokesman, showed the damage to journalists after six hours of heavy fighting in which U.S. armor advanced for the first time onto sacred ground in its confrontation with Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia. The holes, high above the ground, were on the side of the dome facing Najaf’s vast cemetery, where U.S. tanks stormed in to attack guerrilla positions hidden among the tombs.
Were the holes caused by projectiles inbound or outbound?
But it was not possible for Reuters correspondents at the scene to determine when or how the damage was caused.
Coulda been vermin
My guess is woodpeckers. Destructive little creatures...
The U.S. commander in the region, Major-General Martin Dempsey, repeated that his forces were trying to avoid damaging holy places. Such action would risk inflaming religious passions among the 60 percent of Iraqis who follow the Shi’ite faith. The damaged shrine is dedicated to Imam Ali, the 7th century Muslim leader whose descendants founded the Shi’ite branch of Islam. There was also fighting close to other important Shi’ite shrines in the holy city of Kerbala, 50 km (30 miles) away. About 250 Sadr fighters paraded before the Imam Ali mosque during a lull in Friday’s battle chanting "Long live, Moqtada!." Khazali renewed promises of retribution against the U.S. forces that he said had crossed a "red line" onto sacred ground. "There are no red lines left now that the Imam Ali shrine, our holy of holies, has been violated," he said.
Good. Let’s hope CJTF 7 feels the same way.
Next time don't use it as an ammo dump...
Sadr’s militia, who rose up against the U.S.-led occupation across Shi’ite southern Iraq, have been under increasing pressure from the U.S. military onslaught and from irritation among rival Shi’ite leaders anxious to end the fighting.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 05/14/2004 11:44:44 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Coulda been vermin

Well al-Sadr does resemble a Marmoset.





Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 11:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Probably termites, the 105mm type. Their tough on those old buildings. Should have been condemned by the authorities a year ago.
Posted by: DG || 05/14/2004 12:07 Comments || Top||

#3  About 250 Sadr fighters paraded before the Imam Ali mosque during a lull in Friday’s battle chanting "Long live, Moqtada!."

That's right, boys. I'll bet he lives longer then you. You'll realize that when it's too late.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 12:12 Comments || Top||

#4  DG - Actually the Iraqi Boxing coach for the Olympics is an American named, Maurice "Termite" Watkins. Punching holes is not as far fetched as you think. Yeah-off topic, but an amusing coincidence to the remark.

Coach Termite
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 12:19 Comments || Top||

#5  The mood I'm in...I'd love to see every mosque in the Middle East blown to pieces just on the principle that they're breeding grounds of hate and murder.
Posted by: Jen || 05/14/2004 12:20 Comments || Top||

#6  The problem is that Sadr is the one who violated the mosque.

Did they show the reporters the stockpiles of arms and ammuniations they stored in the 'Holy Shrine'?

About 250 Sadr fighters paraded before the Imam Ali mosque during a lull in Friday’s battle chanting "Long live, Moqtada!."

Sounds like one of those Carny 'target shoot' games. "Step right up folks! Hit three and get a stuffed toy!"
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/14/2004 12:27 Comments || Top||

#7  Looks like Muqty's boyz hit the shrine, while firing at a US convoy in the cemetary. Muqty is now taunting Hakim's Badr Brigades for not helping him, while there are reports (denied by Sadr spokesmen) that local Shiite militias are firing on Mahdi army positions. Meanwhile US troops are doing their jobs decisively.

Looks like we are seeing the culmination of our strategy - cut a deal in Fallujah, to put pressure on Sistani, while slowly building up force near Najaf to give Sistani room to maneuver. Then Sistani denounced Muqty, and has so far winked at aggresive US military action. Which is now taking place.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 12:30 Comments || Top||

#8  I frankly don't give a rat's ass if it was us or not
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 13:06 Comments || Top||

#9  Aides to militant Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr blamed U.S. tank fire on Friday for three small holes that appeared in the vast gilded dome of Shi’ite Islam’s holiest shrine, the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf.

Is there any specific reason that infidels should actually give a rat's ass about holes in a mosque's roof?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/14/2004 13:07 Comments || Top||

#10  Time for CSI:Najaf to get the ballistics info.
Posted by: eLarson || 05/14/2004 13:11 Comments || Top||

#11  We've only hit mosques when there were hostiles in them - in Karbala we pretty much demolished one, apparently. Ive seen nothing indicating that Muqtys boyz are inside the shrine of Ali, and if they were i think the coalition would be letting us know. And our guys tend to be rather more accurate with their fire than the hostiles. So my a priori, without knowing anything about the dimensions of the hole, etc is that the hole was made by muqtys boyz.

And it doestn matter a WHOLE lot - i think at this point most Shiites will blame Muqty for starting the whole thing. But it would certainly help if this is Muqtys fault and not ours.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 13:13 Comments || Top||

#12  Intelligence sources indicate large weapon caches under the Wall of Solomon. I'm keeping my eyes on this price. We need to raze it to the ground.
Posted by: Faisal the Goyem || 05/14/2004 13:16 Comments || Top||

#13  Gotta be RPG fire that hit the dome, since for a tank to hit it the barrel would have to be aimed UP. I'm not even sure that tanks would be far enough back for a shot from where they were fighting. And since it is close, quarter fighting with buildings obstructing a clean line of sight to the Mosque, this means Sadr harmed the shrine. Afterall, a Depleted Uranium shell makes more than a tiny hole. Remember when the Baghdad hotel was hit? That wasn't a small hole. Even more questionable is the journalist having to be shown the damage. If the US had caused the damage wouldn't the Iraqi's, not loyal to Sadr, have already said so?
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 13:21 Comments || Top||

#14  Next thing ya' know, Muqta will be "humiliated" and say so on TV to get to our Congress' heartstrings! Sorry ya goon, once you fire from a place of worship, it becomes a target. In fact, I can't believe that Rummy and Bush have fought such a PC war to this point.
Posted by: BA || 05/14/2004 13:22 Comments || Top||

#15  It isn't easy to tell what kind of ordinance made a hole; however by getting outside and inside dimensions, substance traces, its easy to rule out certain types of ordinance.
Posted by: mhw || 05/14/2004 12:59 Comments || Top||

#16  MHW: The AP said the holes were small. They would take a hole the size of a softball and say " The US has blown a hole right through the Imam Ali Mosque ". Can you imagine how small these holes would have to be for the AP to call them small?
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 13:57 Comments || Top||

#17  I wonder if this is a Duke of Glouchester situation - "See how I am bewitch'd; behold mine arm is, like a blasted sapling, wither'd up", where the damage has been there for a while. If it has to be pointed out to people standing at street level, it might have occurred from all sorts of things - "happy fire" damage, for instance.

I just noticed the other day that somebody put a rock or a bullet through a stained glass window in the church across the street from my apartment. I couldn't tell you when it happened.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 05/14/2004 14:06 Comments || Top||

#18  Important that we offer any special construction material and equipment needed for repairs to Sistani as well - That would be good PR too.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 14:12 Comments || Top||

#19  Hmmmm. I find myself wondering if it takes more or fewer holes to fill Imam Ali moskkk compared with Albert Hall...
Posted by: .com || 05/14/2004 14:12 Comments || Top||

#20  oooooo.... A Day in PD's Life
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 14:16 Comments || Top||

#21  Sadr's lads are famous for firing their guns into the air, maybe that's where the holes came from. The only reason these structures are still standing is due to exceptional restraint shown by American troops. If we were going to "hole" their sacred mosques, it would be as in "smoking hole in the ground" and not some minor rooftop damage.

For Sadr to whinge about damage to the Imam Ali mosque while he continues to desecrate it on a daily basis though his military occupation is like Pete Rose complaining about his lifetime ban from baseball management. Both are delusional.
Posted by: Anonymous4842 || 05/14/2004 14:40 Comments || Top||

#22  The Pete Rose analogy is mine.
Posted by: Zenster || 05/14/2004 14:48 Comments || Top||

#23  Now, people don't get me wrong. I do not advocate blowing up a Mosque that is Holy^6 power.
But suppose for a moment that we model the event, you know, conduct a scientific experiment to see what would happen in real life.

Here is what I am going to do. First I get a stick. Lesse, oh here is one in the yard. A nice 2x4 3 ft long. Next I will go out and give that big yellojacket nest across the street under the eave a big wack with the aforementioned 2x4. My trusted surveyor will have his yellow notebook ready, along with binoculars to take notes. Be back in a while and will report the results and the aftermath. Don't go away.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 14:49 Comments || Top||

#24  Important that we offer any special construction material and equipment needed for repairs to Sistani as well - That would be good PR too.

theyve shot holes in Sistani? hmmm.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 14:52 Comments || Top||

#25  Paul - I'd suggest you gas the yellowjackets before doing anything else - the Russians say it works, almost too good, sometimes
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 14:55 Comments || Top||

#26  Four holes, each approximately 30 centimeters (12 inches) long and 20 centimeters (8 inches) could be seen on the golden dome of the Imam Ali mosque, burial place of Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib, the Prophet Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law and Shiites' most revered saint.

Militia members blamed the Americans for the damage, but Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said al-Sadr's men were probably responsible: "I can just tell you by the looks of where we were firing and where Muqtada's militia was firing, I would put my money that Muqtada caused it."
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 14:58 Comments || Top||

#27  "Holy"? Says who?
Posted by: Army of Satan || 05/14/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#28  Four holes, each about 12 inches long and 8 inches wide, were visible on the golden dome of the Imam Ali mosque. They appeared to have been caused by machine gun fire.

Militia members blamed American forces for the damage, but Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt (search), the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said al-Sadr's men were probably responsible: "I can just tell you by the looks of where we were firing and where Muqtada's militia was firing, I would put my money that Muqtada caused it."

At a news conference in Baghdad, Kimmitt pointed to a map of Najaf and said that a U.S. convoy might have been fired on from a cemetery as it moved near the shrine. If so, those rounds could have hit the shrine, he said.

"If our forces were coming down this road and were being shot at from the cemetery from north to south, ... go ask Muqtada who put that hole in the shrine," Kimmitt said. "The coalition does not yet have ammunition that can shoot to the north and then turn around and head south."
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 15:13 Comments || Top||

#29  Frank & Paul...according to my Mom it's also good to wait until dusk when all the black pajamas yellowjackets with their Stingers are actually back in the nest. That's when the gas/eight-iron would probably work best.

And Paul, I'd like an extra pair of binocs, a lawn chair, and a bowl of popcorn, please.

Posted by: Seafarious || 05/14/2004 15:20 Comments || Top||

#30  Liberalhawk found my misplaced modifier. Ouch.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#31  Liberalhawk found my misplaced modifier. Ouch.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#32  AMATEURS.

I think a 2-gallon of gasoline + match would work wonders against a hive like that.

That, or a pound of semtex.
Posted by: Anonymous4021 || 05/14/2004 15:27 Comments || Top||

#33  I was just thinking of the imagery of wacking a nest and loosening all that hostile anger bottled up inside. I was well clothed and covered, taped up with duct tape and did it once when I was in high school. I did not know that those yellojackets were shi'ite! No injuries, but after that little stunt, I learned to use RAID.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 15:31 Comments || Top||

#34  Gen. Kimmett said "If our forces were coming down this road and were being shot at from the cemetery from north to south, ... go ask Muqtada who put that hole in the shrine." "The coalition does not YET have ammunition that can shoot to the north and then turn around and head south."

I love the use of "yet."
Posted by: Tibor || 05/14/2004 15:34 Comments || Top||

#35  Tibor:
We'll be getting the reverse-course ammunition soon, in a shipment that includes the first Zionist(R) Death Rays(TM).

Watch CAIR make a big deal about this, complaining that we don't respect Islam and all that . . . when THEY were firing on US and hit their own damn building.

On the other hand, maybe Islamic physics are different than normal physics . . .
Posted by: The Doctor || 05/14/2004 15:45 Comments || Top||

#36  1258: Mongols sack Baghdad. Abbasid Caliphate ends.

That's when Islamic physics became different than normal physics. It was the fault of Kublai Khan (1215-1294), buddy of Marco Polo.

See : Conspiracy Thoery.

Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 16:01 Comments || Top||

#37  Big ed, im not usually a grammar cop, you just gave me this image of GIs using construction equipment and materials to fix up the Grand Ayatollah. Good thing I wasnt drinking coffee at the time.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 16:09 Comments || Top||

#38  Yeah, I didn't see the thing about the eight by twelve inch holes until after I made that comment. "Happy fire" isn't likely to make holes that big, unless some burly, jolly guy is doing it with a 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

The size of the holes make me more suspicious that it might have been one of our guys. 50mm can carry a good long distance, and I could easily see somebody a few miles off accidentally letting off a burst in the wrong direction in an ambush or a fluid firefight.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 05/14/2004 16:39 Comments || Top||

#39  I live in yellow jacket heaven. I give 'em one
chance to convert (and they never do) then it's Mr.Fire the weed killer.

I've been bad stung more than once.... but I so do enjoy killing those bastards. Opps! Don't tell.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 16:59 Comments || Top||

#40 
Gen. Kimmett said ... "The coalition does not yet have ammunition that can shoot to the north and then turn around and head south."
"But we're working on it. Hopefully it will be ready by Christmas."
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 05/14/2004 22:00 Comments || Top||

#41  "Are you guys sure that this place is #1, numero uno, the ne plus ultra Shi'ite shrine? 'Cause I seem to remember last week it was a bus-stop in Basra where Big Mo caught a camel one time, or some shit like that..."
Posted by: mojo || 05/14/2004 22:42 Comments || Top||


Sex and the single prison guard...
Iraq's feared Abu Ghraib jail was one big sex romp - sometimes by candlelight with an audience watching, U.S. troops said yesterday. Sex and alcohol were commonplace, and soldiers frequently set up candlelit rooms for voyeuristic sex shows, said a soldier who served at the notorious prison. "There were lots of affairs. There was all kinds of adultery and alcoholism and all kinds of crap going on," said Dave Bischel, a National Guardsman with the 870th Military Police unit, who returned home from Abu Ghraib last month. "There was a bed found in one of the abandoned buildings. There was a mattress on the ground. They had chairs all circled around it and candles all over the place," said Bischel, adding the chairs were "obviously for an audience." The soldier said the X-rated liaisons at the prison were made easier by its maze-like layout and that other troops frequently turned a blind eye to what their pals were up to. "One of the female soldiers supposedly had sex in a gang bang," said Terry Stowe, an MP from California. "From time to time, things like this would happen."

News of the shocking sexcapades in the controversial lockup come as a friend of disgraced reservist Lynndie England lashed out in her defense yesterday, saying tapes of her having sex in the prison were personal to her and the boyfriend with whom she is "in love." Congress members, who viewed shocking new pictures of abuse in the Iraqi jail, said England appeared in a sicko video having sex in front of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and that she was snapped in graphic sex acts with other U.S. soldiers. But one family friend insisted the racy reservist had sex only with her boyfriend, Spc. Charles Graner - one of six others from the 372nd Military Police Company facing charges for the abuse - and that the pair are "madly in love."
"Yeah! An' she's got the witnesses to prove it!"
He said the X-rated tapes had been taken from their foot lockers. "We are all amazed by this. She only had sex with him," said Kenny Flanagan, who has known England since childhood.
"Who ya gonna believe? Us? Or some lyin' piece of videotape?"
The pregnant England, who is now stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., met Graner, 35, a divorced father of two, shortly before the pair's Maryland-based unit was posted to Iraq. Graner is charged with overseeing numerous abuses of Iraqi prisoners, and appears in several photos with the young private, leering at humiliated Iraqi captives. Another soldier involved in the scandal, Spc. Jeremy Sivits, told Army investigators Graner would mock the detainees and brutalize them, The Los Angeles Times reported last night. In one incident, he allegedly punched a detainee so hard, he knocked him unconscious. "His eyes were closed and he was not moving," Sivits was quoted as saying. Afterward, Graner shook his fist and said, "Damn, that hurt," the report says.

Sivits, who the paper said is expected to plead guilty at a court-martial proceeding next week, also disputed England's claims that she was ordered to pose for the snapshots that shocked the world. One picture showed her holding a naked Iraqi man on a dog leash, and in others, she is shown making thumbs-up signs in front of a pyramid of naked Iraqi men and pointing at the genitals of a naked prisoner. Sivits said England was "laughing at the different stuff that they were having the detainees do." He also shot down her claim that the soldiers were ordered to abuse the prisoners, and said Graner warned him not to tell higher-ups about how they were being treated. "Our command would have slammed us," Sivits said.
And now they're about to do just that...
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 10:29:38 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The command structure completely failed in this brigade.

From the 1-star in charge all the way dow the the Sgt that was the squad leader, there better be a whole pile of "Dereliction of Duty" Courts Martial lined up, or at a minimum, Article 15 proceedings.

Clean house. Starting with the Unit Commander.


Then build a temporary prison nearby in a tent city, and dynamite Abu Ghriab.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/14/2004 11:14 Comments || Top||

#2  He also shot down her claim that the soldiers were ordered to abuse the prisoners, and said Graner warned him not to tell higher-ups about how they were being treated. "Our command would have slammed us," Sivits said.

this could be very important.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 11:17 Comments || Top||

#3  this could be very important.

In sentencing.

You'll have a hard time convinving me Karpinski didn't know what was going on nor did everybody inbetween.

Line 'em up. Drum 'em out.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 05/14/2004 11:20 Comments || Top||

#4  How big was the prison? How many guards were there? Karpinksi may have been negligent (and BTW, some folks on the intell side may also have been negligent) but its not clear at this point that anyone above Sgt Graner knew.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 11:23 Comments || Top||

#5  but its not clear at this point that anyone above Sgt Graner knew????

It seems to me that if it was only as high as Grainer, then some of the junior officers were derelict in that they should have been performing periodic "surprise" inspections. The fact that it was occuring in the middle of the night means those officers were not very disciplined.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 11:33 Comments || Top||

#6  LH: Read my posts from yesterda for the answers.
Posted by: 11A5S || 05/14/2004 11:40 Comments || Top||

#7  BigEd. Exactamundo. None of the company grade officers were getting their sorry asses out of bed at 0200 to inspect. If Graner et al knew that they might be checked, none of this would have ever happened.
Posted by: 11A5S || 05/14/2004 11:41 Comments || Top||

#8  What, the NCO's didn't know? Or knew and didn't tell the officers? How could these perverts keep this quiet for what appears to be months and the Pentagon couldn't keep the photos under wraps?

And how did the photos leak out right during the height of combat? I'd love to see those guys swing from the yardarm.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 05/14/2004 11:48 Comments || Top||

#9  #3, I'm not sure Karpinski could find the john without a map, much less find out what was going on. I saw her on TV & she was whining that the nasty people at Abu Ghraib wouldn't salute or take her orders seriously 'cause she's a girl ...

I know some outstanding female Army officers who would have put up with that sh*t for about minus 3 seconds before they would have drug those soldiers and their junior officers into line. Actually, they would call in the officers first, and when those guys had a thorough enough tonguelashing, they in turn would go down to get their units in order.

In fact, two of the battalions under Karpinski have been stellar, by all reports, because the LtCOLs who ran them held them to proper standards.

West Point cadets are taught that there are 4 answers you can give when a superior questions your behavior:

Yes, sir.
No, ma'am.
I don't know, sir.

and ...

NO EXCUSE, MA'AM.

I know 22 yr olds who take more personal responsibility for their actions than Karpinski seems to be doing. Pfah.

#1, I'm with you on the cure here.
Posted by: True, true || 05/14/2004 12:47 Comments || Top||

#10  interesting points, all.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||

#11  Personal anecdote: one of my ex-employees, "Amy", a mid -30's woman who was a Captain in the Army and was a company commander of an MP unit prior to leaving the Army to prep for medical school (which she's doing now). Great woman, easy to work with, fun, gentle --

-- and sandpaper for a tongue if you crossed her. And the sort of air of authority, integrity and responsibility about her to back up every word.

Knowing Amy, she would have been up at 0200, and 0400, and every hour in-between, and would have made short work with the likes of Garner and England. Their asses would have been in shape or outta there.

As I said, great woman. Personally I wouldn't cross her. Nope, nope, not me, nope, never.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/14/2004 13:33 Comments || Top||

#12  So this Abu Ghraib story is turning into a gigantic orgy story with some forced iraqui players?
Posted by: Anonymous4602 || 05/14/2004 13:36 Comments || Top||

#13  Memo: To Junior Personnel, Female-types
From: Sgt Mom
Re: Respect From Your Male Peers
Ladies, if you want to get the reputation for being the town bike, there is no faster and more effecient way to do it than to conduct your sexual life with the same personnel as your work life.... especially if cameras are involved.
And now you have an international reputation--- your parents must be so proud.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 05/14/2004 13:47 Comments || Top||

#14  what happened to mhw's comment?
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 13:55 Comments || Top||

#15  I think we can all agree here that Lynndie England is one seriously messed-up, low-class strumpet.

She'll probably end up working as one of Bill Clinton's interns.
Posted by: Mike || 05/14/2004 14:49 Comments || Top||

#16  "Then build a temporary prison nearby in a tent city, and dynamite Abu Ghriab". from OldSpook That's a really important thing to do. I always thought it was weird that the US was using Abu G.

Yeah, Sgt. Mom--and her child is going to be really proud of "mommy " too.

I would dearly love to give whiny Karpinski a talking-to. (Or maybe Steve White's ex-employee "Amy" could do the honors.) If you can't take the heat, get the heck outta the kitchen!

Anybody wondering why Kerry is to quick to defend the orgy kooks? Hmmm. Lots and lots and lots and lots of pics. Leaked at a critical juncture in the WOT. Hmmm.
At least GW and Rummy turned it on its ear! Ha!
Posted by: ex-lib || 05/14/2004 17:50 Comments || Top||

#17  Yes, sir. No, ma'am. I don't know, sir.
and ... NO EXCUSE, MA'AM.


Navy, it's "I don't know, but I'll find out."

Old Spook is right. Regardless of whether they checked up or not, were in the same prison or ten miles away, it's still the chain-of-command's responsibility. (I was going to use 'leadership', but there wasn't, and isn't, any).
Posted by: Pappy || 05/14/2004 23:45 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Shiite Muslim family murdered at home in Pakistan
A family of six Shiite Muslims were found murdered at their home in Pakistan’s eastern city Lahore early on Friday, police said. “Six people including a one-year old girl were shot in the head,” police chief of Lahore city Tariq Saleem Dogar told AFP. “The motive appears to be sectarian.”
Oh, it's Friday, is it?
The attack is the latest bloodshed against Shiites, a minority among Pakistan’s Sunni-dominated 140 million Muslims, in recent months. Last Friday a suicide bomber killed 14 Shiite worshippers at a mosque in southern port city Karachi. The family ran a primary school for Shiites in Lahore’s dense low-income neighbourhood of Mughalpura. Anti-Shiite slogans were scrawled across the walls of their home. Rival Sunni and Shiite fanatics have been killing the followers of each others’ communities for some two decades in Pakistan. A lull in sectarian violence immediately following the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan has been replaced by an upswing in sectarian killings since last year, with Shiites bearing the brunt of attacks. The violence has claimed an estimated 4,000 lives. Officials have linked radical Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) to Friday’s blast in Karachi, which sparked violent protests from Shiites that left one person dead.
Posted by: TS(vice girl) || 05/14/2004 9:20:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ahh, the Religion of Peace.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 05/14/2004 10:24 Comments || Top||

#2  So what are the charges? 6 counts of first degree sectarian?
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 12:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmmm... looks like Lashkar's CIA masters are at it again.
Posted by: Faisal the Goyem || 05/14/2004 13:21 Comments || Top||

#4  where is that puke gentle? muslims cannot commits acts like this..dumbass
Posted by: Dan || 05/14/2004 15:16 Comments || Top||

#5  Did the murderers shout, "Allah Akhbar", while the pulled the trigger pointed at the infant's head.

Yeah, God is truly great!
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 15:36 Comments || Top||

#6  A few years back in 1996-7 when one of the leaders of the Laskhar Malik Ishaq was caught paying his cell phone bill, the credit card belonged to a US company (not naming any) with no credit limit!
Posted by: Faisal the Goyem || 05/14/2004 17:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Oh that reminds me... killing infants? only IDF pussies do that... and all that are under them...
Posted by: Faisal the Goyem || 05/14/2004 17:20 Comments || Top||

#8  i could use one of those credit card about now.
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/14/2004 17:24 Comments || Top||

#9  That's right Faisal. The CIA gives corporate AMEX cards to all of its jihadi stooges. OBL was recruited by the Mossad when he was a student in Lebanon as is well known. The real kicker is Arafat. Neither Mossad or CIA -- he's actually working for the French in a back-channel double cross. Don't tell anyone. Head's will roll, if you get my drift.
Posted by: 11A5S || 05/14/2004 18:27 Comments || Top||

#10  Now,now Dan.You can't leave out antiwar,that just wouldn't be right.
Kinda funny isn it,that we don't hear from these to fools anymore.
Posted by: Raptor || 05/14/2004 18:28 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Explosions and fighting in holy Shiite city of Najaf
Explosions and fierce clashes broke out in the holy Shiite city of Najaf Friday between US forces and militiamen loyal to firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr said.
So much for us observing holy friday's.
At least three US tanks were seen in a cemetery about one kilometre (less than a mile) from the holy Imam Ali Shrine and militiamen were seen fanning out across the area. Heavy black smoke was seen rising from the cemetery and the sound of heavy guns was heard. US helicopters hovered over the area as armed black-clad men veiled with scarves were seen running inside the sprawling cemetery, northwest of the city centre.
That's handy, they can plant them where they fall.
Gunfire and loud explosions were also heard coming from an area south of Najaf known as Bahr al-Najaf, where about 2,500 US soldiers are camped in the desert. The fighting comes one day after Najaf's new police chief Ghaleb al-Jazairi accused militiamen of "terrorising" residents and asked them to leave.
Guess they didn't listen.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 9:08:35 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The fighting comes one day after Najaf's new police chief Ghaleb al-Jazairi accused militiamen of "terrorising" residents and asked them to leave

Does that make this a police action? I have to admit that the go slow approach has yielded unexpectedly good results both in Najaf and Fallujah. Snipers and blockades are guaranteed to reduce enthusiasm for both martyrdom and jihad.
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 10:33 Comments || Top||

#2  The holy city of Najackoff just got allot holier.
Posted by: Annie Moose || 05/14/2004 17:53 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Libya renounces arms trade with WMD states
TRIPOLI: Libya has decided to renounce all arms trade with states accused of weapons of mass destruction proliferation, in a measure covering North Korea, Syria and Iran, the foreign ministry said, a foreign news agency reported on Friday. "Libya has decided to renounce all weapons purchases from countries which are not signatories to the MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime) and which Tripoli views as favouring the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," it said in a statement.
"Plus the odds of their providing long term technical support don't look promising."
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 9:01:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Mofaz: Palestinians transported remains in UN ambulances
Defense minister Shaul Mofaz told reporters that Palestinians had used United Nations and Red Cross ambulances to transport body remains to areas under their control. Visiting soldiers at an army base in the southern Gaza Strip, Mofaz said he expected UN Sec.-Gen Kofi Annan to address the issue. UNWRA spokesman Paul Mccann replied that his organization has no information on the use of its ambulances to transport body remains. "We will be pleased to receive more concrete information and proof."
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:44:47 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Pleased to receive more... proof."

That's the UN saying, "we don't know if the Philistines are using UN equipment in the commission of their crimes - but we definitely HOPE they are!!! Nothing would please us more.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 05/14/2004 13:21 Comments || Top||


Hamas says to amnesty collaborators if...
The Islamic resistance movement Hamas announced Sunday that it will issue an amnesty to all Palestinian collaborators with the Zionists if they hand themselves up and reveal information. "If you reveal information to us, we pledge not to harm you or reveal your identities and protect yours lives and will never inform your families about your past collaborations." Hamas said ina communique issued on Sunday. The communique called on all Palestinians who collaborate with the Zionist entity to take advantage of this opportunity. "We call on you to think about your families and children as well as thinking about the penalties you will have to endure if you continue to collaborate with the Zionists, that's why we urge you to cease this chance," the communique said.

Meanwhile, Hamas representatives said that they convened recently with a number of Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officials and agreed that the PNA security apparatuses will alone deal with the collaborators and their penalties. The issue of Palestinian collaborators arose in the wake of the assassination of Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel-Aziz Rantisi by the Zionist terrorists on March 22 and April 17 respectively. The Hamas movement had immediately said that the Palestinians who collaborate with the Zionist intelligence services play key roles in providing information about Palestinian representatives and contribute to their assassinations. About 83 Palestinians accused of collaboration with the Zionist enemy have been killed in the Palestinian territories (1968) since the outbreak of the Intifada in September 2000.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:33:08 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  desperation?
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 10:27 Comments || Top||

#2  More of a Darwinian process of natural selection. Anyone who is dumb enough to accept their offer doesn't live to reproduce.
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 12:57 Comments || Top||

#3  ...it will issue an amnesty to all Palestinian collaborators with the Zionists if they hand themselves up and reveal information.

And if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell to you...
Posted by: Raj || 05/14/2004 13:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Bwahahahaha - let the paranoia reign!
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 13:04 Comments || Top||

#5  The Islamic resistance movement Hamas announced Sunday that it will issue an amnesty to all Palestinian collaborators with the Zionists if they hand themselves up and reveal information. "If you reveal information to us, we pledge not to harm you or reveal your identities and protect yours lives and will never inform your families about your past collaborations."

Nothing but pure, unadulterated bullshit. A big steamy pile, at that.

Meanwhile, Hamas representatives said that they convened recently with a number of Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officials and agreed that the PNA security apparatuses will alone deal with the collaborators and their penalties.

"Penalties"? I wasn't aware that alternate penalties existed other than outright execution without benefit of a fair trial.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/14/2004 13:24 Comments || Top||

#6  Good deal. Where do I sign?
I trust you, Mr. Hamas guy. You're not like the others.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 14:30 Comments || Top||

#7  Dey goan gib us fool amnistee, den?
Posted by: Shuda staid w/J. Wales || 05/14/2004 17:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Heh, kind of like some Evil School Marm:

"Who did it ? Fess up and you won't be punished !"

Posted by: Carl in NH || 05/14/2004 20:48 Comments || Top||

#9  Outlaw Josey Wales reference: EXCELLENT!
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 21:25 Comments || Top||


Abu Annas threatens the Zionists with ‘special’ revenge for killings
Oh, no! Not... special revenge!
For Abu Annas, a young military leader of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, revenge against the Zionist criminals for assassinating its top two chiefs within weeks is only a matter of time. But Abu Annas, insists that a "suitable" response is brewing. "The more delayed the response, the more special it will be," he says. "As soon as Hamas is ready, you will hear the news and it will shock the world."

Abu Annas appears relaxed. Dressed in casual civilian gear, his face is free of the trademark black mask of a Hamas fighter. Born and raised in Gaza, the 27-year-old has risen through the ranks to become a leader of the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades within Gaza City. Although he denies the Zionists targeted killings have damaged Hamas, Abu Annas concedes the frequent lockdowns by the Zionists in Gaza have hurt attempts to develop a more sophisticated model of the Qassam rocket, a device designed by the Brigades. "The closure we have these days has negatively affected developments," he admits, "but we are working day and night to develop new things to liberate our land." "There are around 1,400 Ezzedin al-Qassam members in Gaza City alone," says Abu Annas, explaining that each leader commands a network of 120 members, and each network is made up of cells which have at least five to seven members.

Abu Annas's involvement with Hamas began during the first Palestinian uprising (1987-1993) at the age of 14, finding in the group what he describes as a kind of acceptance akin to "a child being held closely by its mother". Eight years on, outraged by the ongoing Zionist occupation and deeply affected by the death of a close friend, he decided to join the Brigades. "I realised that blood is the only thing which can get me my rights as a Palestinian," he says. For Hamas, this means only one thing: "liberating" by force all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, in other words the destruction of the evil Zionist entity.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:30:29 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I doubt that Hamas could do anything to 'shock the world'. The world has seen the evil that is the Islamists. Their depravity knows no bounds. Nothing they do would suprise us anymore.
Posted by: AllahHateMe || 05/14/2004 9:38 Comments || Top||

#2  have hurt attempts to develop a more sophisticated model of the Qassam rocket, a device designed by the Brigades

Tripoli has a prefecture in Haifa but I doubt that includes Gaza.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 9:49 Comments || Top||

#3  sounds like Abu Annasshole is asking for a whacking just on general principle. Their little science fair "shoot and scoot" rockets are pathetic....
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 10:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Abu Annas, watch the skies - keep looking. Hear the rotar blades yet fucktard?
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/14/2004 10:16 Comments || Top||

#5  And when Abu Annas is popped like a pimple, Hamas will threaten Double-Secret Revenge.
Posted by: eLarson || 05/14/2004 10:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Abu Annas appears relaxed. Dressed in casual civilian gear, his face is free of the trademark black mask of a Hamas fighter.

Oh no! ZORRO revealed!

The more delayed the response, the more special it will be

Gee - He still talking with his advisors about that decoder ring Osama sent him.

Eight years on, outraged by the ongoing Zionist occupation and deeply affected by the death of a close friend

What? My friend was not shooting at the Isralei troops. He was just examing a gun he found in the trash. You know, I mean there could have been an address on it so my friend wanted to return it to its rightful owner.

Watch the movie, "Apocalypse Now", jerk. As the Israleis wont play music of Wagner, you will hear the "Darth Vader" theme from Star Wars coming from the armed copters. The death star arriveth.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 11:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Abu Annas's involvement with Hamas began during the first Palestinian uprising (1987-1993) at the age of 14, finding in the group what he describes as a kind of acceptance akin to..

Hahahahaha, he must've been mercilessly picked on by his fellow teens so he seeks "acceptance" in some gang. What a LOSER.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 05/14/2004 13:29 Comments || Top||

#8  hmmm...

Hamas is an evil organization that has proven time and time again that it has the means, and the will to carry out unspeakably horrible acts of murder and torture...

...A leader of this group has declared that an especially evil act is in the making...

conclusion: Maybe he's lying, but based upon their track record, I think that Israel just needs get medieval on their asses, right now, yeah?
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm || 05/14/2004 17:53 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Berg execution video a Hoax
The Wonderful World of Conspiracy, courtesy Hamas...
By Taahir - HamasOnline admin
a part of the info source is credited to Al-Jazeera

The alleged Berg execution is a hoax. To explain this stance we take a closer look at the events happened around that time. The U.S. like always needs to divert attentions when they get negative attention, during Monica Lewinski scandal the U.S. decided to bomb a Afghanistan and Sudan for no reason and without any prove that they where behind any anti-U.S attacks. When the U.S. stocks dropped the U.S. went to war with Iraq and in the past there are numerous examples of same thing happening over and over again.

This time with the rape and abuse pictures and video's from Iraqi prisons and streets the criminals in the Whitehouse again needed to divert the negative attention they where receiving from around the world. We will put some strange things down to support the stance regarding authenticity of the video.
- Nick Berg was wearing an orange jumpsuit – just like US prisoners wear.

- Berg was last seen alive on 10 April, when his father Michael Berg believes he was killed - two weeks before the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal broke in the world's media. (Tape claimed the execution was retaliation for Iraqi prisoner abuse).

- The body is completely motionless even as the knife is brought to bear – not so much as an instinctive wriggle.

- It is natural that when the throat artery is cut, it would cause a significant amount of blood. But little emerges and when the head was raised – not a drop of blood is seen to fall.

- Additionally, some have pointed out that his last email on 6 April to his family stated he wished to return home as soon as possible – yet the FBI claim he refused an offer of help to get home. (In the wider press, FBI involvement has also generated much discussion as to why Berg was really arrested and detained for two weeks in Mosul.)

- A US newspaper claims an official familiar with the case knew that FBI agents had interrogated Berg, but had left him for two weeks because he was in Iraqi - not American - custody.

- The Jordanian accused of the beheading Berg is himself believed to have been killed in March, according to two Islamic groups.
An eight-page leaflet circulated this week in Falluja, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in the Sulaimaniya Mountains of northern Iraq during a US bombing. But even if it was the Jordanian, his face is so well-known that "why would he bother to cover it?"

Now you perhaps still think that the U.S. would never execute one of its own. Then you should ask yourself the question why the U.S. invaded Iraq knowing it had no WMD like it is proven now to the whole world. This led to the death of more then 700 invaders of U.S. nationality alone. The U.S. needed to boost its support to continue this unjust war for its evil agenda. It should be no surprise if later in the future when these Zionist controlled regimes (republicans and democrats) of the U.S. have fallen and are replaced with independent and free government it comes to light that the Pentagon has secretly awarded Nick Berg a medal for "his" sacrifice for the sake of the evil agenda of the current U.S. regimes. If you want to know where the killers are, then you dont have to look further then Washington DC, U.S. The Americans have brought such cruel sadistic regime down on them selves. How many lies should a government tell before the Americans even TRY to open their eyes.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:22:54 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred...you need to get off the Crack!
Posted by: Mustang || 05/14/2004 9:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Fred's just reporting; it's Hamas that needs to get off the crack.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 05/14/2004 9:20 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the the DNC should worry they their talking points some EXACTLY like Hamas and vice versa! Note to Hamas: Your Days are numbered!
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/14/2004 9:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Note to Hamas: How's that Org Chart coming? Might wanna use a dry erase board, since a reorganization happens every time the Apaches fly...heh heh
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 10:12 Comments || Top||

#5  Once again GWB is misunderestimated. I think he has amply demonstrated that he's not going to re-run the Clinton playbook.
--
The U.S. like always needs to divert attentions when they get negative attention, {Like, I am soooo sure}
during Monica Lewinski scandal the U.S. decided to bomb a Afghanistan and Sudan for no reason and without any prove that they where behind any anti-U.S attacks.
Posted by: eLarson || 05/14/2004 10:27 Comments || Top||

#6  This is the closest these moonbats will ever come to admitting that they screwed the pooch bigtime. Hamas is upset because the Berg beheading and their attempt to ransom the bodyparts of IDF soldiers marks them as beyond the pale and drains away the precious little support they had in the nonmuslim US. They know that they are in the crosshairs and their hours are numbered.

Note to Hezbollah: You're next.
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#7 


It is not true. al-Qaeda did not kill the Zionist American.



I have just been hire as spokesman for Hamas. How am I doing?

Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 12:09 Comments || Top||

#8  I think we should execute every arab in the world and shit down their throat. This is the only way we normal people will ever have peace in the world. Hitler was wrong with the jews it should have been the barbarian scumbag muslims. We should first occupy the middle east, take all of the oil, then turn it to glass.
Posted by: Anonymous4839 || 05/14/2004 12:41 Comments || Top||

#9  sound like murat get reporter job.
Posted by: muck4doo || 05/14/2004 12:44 Comments || Top||

#10  Hey BigEd, LOL!

There is something hysterically similar between the image you posted and the final sequence of "Animal House" when Kevin Bacon is screaming to the panicked crowd, "Remain calm! all is well!. Not to make light of the situation, but it's been a harrowing week, so If anyone can post the two pictures together it might be good for a much needed smile or two.
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm || 05/14/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||

#11  Al J also wants to its readers to believe that Berg was killed by the Mossad

Link
Posted by: mhw || 05/14/2004 11:18 Comments || Top||

#12  that aside, let me say this to Mr. Hamas copywriter spokesman:

Listen here buttercup, believe me when I say that the last thing you want is for America to open it's eyes. Back in 1941 a Japanese Officer commented after the attack on Pearl Harbor, "I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant." 4 years later the ruling government of that ancient country was declared a topic for the history books, never to rise again - and yet Japan today is greater than it ever was. As for the Germans, they may be pains in the asses these days, but they ain't the '1,000 year Reich".

We were exhausted after WWII and wanted to go back to sleep, but the Soviets wouldn't let us close our eyes, and so for the next 40 or so years we faced off against the cruelest dictatorship the world has ever known, and in 1991 they went the way of the dodo as well.

For the next 10 years, we did go back to sleep, and the world now is infested with your particularly putrid type of vermin. But as long as we could cut deals in our sleep, or while any passion our leader could muster was instantly spent upon his interns and their dresses, we could keep our eyes closed, which is why you were allowed to gain the footholds, virtually unopposed, that you did.

But you got too cocky, and mistook our deep slumber for death, and on 9/11, like the rabid rats that you are, you thought it would be nice to finish the job you started in 1993.

Then we woke up again, and like the Japanese, and the nazis, and the Soviets, there is just a greasy stinking smear where the Taliban used to be, and Saddam Hussein's dreams of parking his golden throne in Jerusalem ended up in a filthy little hole. When we finally opened our eyes, your murderous leaders ended up on the receiving end of a very, very accurate missile.

You want awake? Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm || 05/14/2004 13:47 Comments || Top||

#13  Whew! Sorry gang, but hey, the sign on the door here does say RANTburg!
Posted by: Dripping Sarcasm || 05/14/2004 13:51 Comments || Top||

#14  #13 - No worries. Very well put in #12.
Posted by: eLarson || 05/14/2004 14:14 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Mosque blast toll increases to 20
Three more victims of last Friday’s mosque blast succumbed to their injuries in two private hospitals, increasing the death toll to 20, medics said on Thursday. Two of the victims, Dr Asad Abbas (45), an eye specialist, and Agha Ali Haider (40) succumbed to their injuries in Liaqat National Hospital. The third victim, Syed Ali Rizvi, died in Patel Hospital. Dr Abbas and Mr Rizvi were residents of Rizvia Society while Mr Haider lived in North Nazimabad. Nihal Zaidi, one of the blast victims, died at Aga Khan Hospital on Tuesday. According to Allama Hasan Turabi, leader of the Shia Ulema Council, two of the injured were in critical condition at a private hospital.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:14:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghans firing into Mohmand Agency
The political agent for Mohmand Agency said on Thursday that some areas of the agency had come under fire from the Afghan side in the last few days. Political Agent Sahibzada Muhammad Anees said the Afghan government’s stance was that these were acts by Afghan individuals or groups and Kabul had nothing to do with the firing.
"They were cleaning their rocket launchers and they went off by accident. Sorry. Didn't know they were loaded."
Talking to journalists from the Tribal Union of Journalists, at the agency headquarters Ghalanai, Mr Anees said the firing did not cause any casualties or loss to property. The political agent said the overall law and order situation in the agency was satisfactory. He said an arbitration committee had been formed to settle a marble dispute between two groups according to tribal customs. Mr Anees said all development schemes under the Annual Development Program (ADP) in the agency would be completed in time.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:11:50 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
US Military Policeman Describe Abuse of Prisoners
When a fresh crop of detainees arrived at Abu Ghraib prison one night in late October, their jailers set upon them. The soldiers pulled seven Iraqi detainees from their cells, "tossed them in the middle of the floor" and then one soldier ran across the room and lunged into the pile of detainees, according to sworn statements given to investigators by one of the soldiers now charged with abuse. He did it again, jumping into the group like it was a pile of autumn leaves, and another soldier called for others to join in. The detainees were ordered to strip and masturbate, their heads covered with plastic sandbags. One soldier stomped on their fingers and toes.

"Graner put the detainee’s head into a cradle position with Graner’s arm, and Graner punched the detainee with a lot of force, in the temple," Specialist Jeremy C. Sivits said in his statements to investigators, referring to another soldier charged, Specialist Charles A. Graner Jr. "Graner punched the detainee with a closed fist so hard in the temple that it knocked the detainee unconscious. He was joking, laughing,like he was enjoying it. He went over to the pile of detainees that were still clothed and he put his knees on them and had his picture taken." ....

The soldiers knew that what they had done was wrong, Specialist Sivits told investigators, at least enough to instruct him not to tell anyone what he had seen. Specialist Sivits was asked if the abuse would have happened if someone in the chain of command was present. "Hell no," he replied, adding: "Because our command would have slammed us. They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on, there would be hell to pay."

The evening began with Staff Sgt. Ivan L. Frederick II casually telling Specialist Sivits to join him where the detainees were held. They escorted the detainees from their holding cells and piled them up. "Graner told Specialist Wisdom to come in and `get him some.’ Meaning to come in and be part of whatever was going to happen," Specialist Sivits told investigators, referring to Specialist Matthew Wisdom. "A couple of the detainees kind of made an ahh sound as if this hurt them or caused them some type of pain when Davis would land on them," he said. Sergeant Javal C. Davis responded by stepping on their fingers or toes, Specialist Sivits said, and the detainees screamed.

The platoon sergeant standing on a tier above the room heard the screams and yelled down at Sergeant Davis to stop, surprising the other soldiers with the anger in his command, Specialist Sivits said. But within two minutes, the platoon sergeant left, and the soldiers resumed the abuse.

"Next Graner and Frederick had the detainees strip," Specialist Sivits said. "Graner was the one who told them to strip in Arabic language." The detainees hesitated. Specialist Graner and Sergeant Frederick took them aside and instructed them again. Specialist Graner told them to sit. "I do not know what provoked Graner," Specialist Sivits said, "but Graner knelt down to one of the detainees that was nude and had the sandbag over his head" and punched the detainee unconscious. ....

Sergeant Frederick was standing in front of another detainee. "For no reason, Frederick punched the detainee in the chest," Specialist Sivits said. "The detainee took a real deep breath and kind of squatted down. The detainee said he could not breathe. ... Frederick and Graner then tried to get several of the inmates to masturbate themselves .... Staff Sergeant Frederick would take the hand of the detainee and put it on the detainee’s penis, and make the detainee’s hand go back and forth, as if masturbating. He did this to about three of the detainees before one of them did it right."

"After five minutes, they told him to stop. Specialist Graner then had them pose against the wall, and made one kneel in front of the other, Specialist Sivits said, "So that from behind the detainee that was kneeling, it would look like the detainee kneeling had the penis of the detainee standing in his mouth, but he did not. Specialist Sabrina Harman and Private England "would stand in front of the detainees and England and Harman would put their thumbs up and have the pictures taken." ....

He [Sivits] described another night when a dog was set upon a detainee, and another when a detainee was handcuffed to a bed. "Graner was in the room with him," he said. "This detainee had wounds on his legs from where he had been shot with the buckshot." Specialist Graner, he said, would "strike the detainee with a half baseball swing, and hit the wounds of the detainee. There is no doubt that this hurt the detainee because he would scream he got hit. The detainee would beg Graner to stop by saying `Mister, Mister, please stop,’ or words to that effect." ...
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 05/14/2004 8:11:16 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If true, and there is no reason to doubt it, this Graner guy is one f*cked up dude. The difference between us and them, that the lefties and arabs don't understand, is that those guilty WILL BE PUNISHED! Whereas if it was mooslims doing this to Americans, they would be celebrated as heroes. See the difference? One thing that gives me hope is, from most polls, the Iraqi's trust us to deal with the problem appropriately. Fuck the euro's and the rest of the world. Those people have absolutely NO RIGHT to judge us. Punish the guilty, then let's get back to work fixing Iraq.
Posted by: AllahHateMe || 05/14/2004 9:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Specialist Sivits was asked if the abuse would have happened if someone in the chain of command was present. "Hell no," he replied, adding: "Because our command would have slammed us. They believe in doing the right thing. If they saw what was going on, there would be hell to pay."

Well, there goes all the left's conspiracy theories about the officers being involved. Not that they'll believe any of it, of course, because they never let go of their lies.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 05/14/2004 9:32 Comments || Top||

#3  Whether the officers were involved or not, they had the duty to know what was going on. Officers (and senior NCOs) need to supervise their commands.
Posted by: Spot || 05/14/2004 10:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Looks like there was no on-site supervision. I'll bet everybody was smartly dressed and the floors were polished when the higher ups came calling. Sivits is reported to be going to plead guilty, I'll wager others will follow as well. This is why they are starting the court martials at the bottom and working up.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 10:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey, uh, whatever happened to "Don't ask, don't tell?"
Posted by: eLarson || 05/14/2004 10:28 Comments || Top||

#6  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Antiwar TROLL || 05/14/2004 11:45 Comments || Top||

#7  whatEVER
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 11:58 Comments || Top||

#8  Antiwar, you're such a Useful Idiot, believing everything the NYSlimes throws your way.
You know what makes me FURIOUS? The beheading of American JEWISH civilian Nick Berg.
These prison abuses are nothing in wartime.
Nothing.
You just hate America and Americans and are looking for an excuse to do so.
Posted by: Jen || 05/14/2004 12:00 Comments || Top||

#9  The prison torture makes me FURIOUS

And feeding people into shreders, cutting off ears and tongues, raping daughters and wifes in front of husbands and brothers, gasing people, etc. etc. doesn't?

Antithought you are moron! Not to mention devoid of morality and rational thought.
Posted by: Phil_B || 05/14/2004 12:04 Comments || Top||

#10  don't feed the trolls!
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 12:15 Comments || Top||

#11  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Antiwar TROLL || 05/14/2004 12:28 Comments || Top||

#12  Take a number. The line's over there.
Posted by: tu3031 || 05/14/2004 12:30 Comments || Top||

#13  FOAD, Antiwar.
Berg knew what he was doing and was even offered a plane ride out of there.
Those soldiers, who were out of line BTW and are being disciplined and punished, never physically harmed those Iraqi prisoners.
And if we hadn't liberated Iraq, under President Bush, Iraqis who had done *nothing* would be murdered, hideously and truly torutured, fed into shredders, raped and buried in a mass grave.
And why? Some for nothing more criminal than saying they didn't like the tie Saddam was wearing.
Posted by: Jen || 05/14/2004 12:31 Comments || Top||

#14  Jen, et al -

Antiwar is a member of the BUT party, formerly known as DEM.

Those are the people who subscribe to this:
The execution of Berg was horrible, BUT we have to downplay it, and keep harping on the Baghdad prison abuse scandal, with the help of our willing stooges in the media, so we can get John Kerry elected.
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 12:36 Comments || Top||

#15  Spot -- absolutely. That's why the officers all the way up to bridage command have received GOMORs. Their careers are dead; they'll never get another promotion and if they stay in the reserves, they'll get crap assignments forever.

The only reason they aren't facing courts martial is there's no evidence they're guilty of anything but negligence.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 05/14/2004 13:15 Comments || Top||

#16  The prison torture makes me FURIOUS Do soldiers really need a Geneva Convention before they know not to strip someone and then torture them physically and psychologically???? US admin sounds sorry people now know about it but not sorry it happened.
Posted by: Antiwar || 05/14/2004 11:45 Comments || Top||

#17  Picture this you are naked cold and have been beaten. Put yourselves in the place of those Iraqis in prison with those bastard soldiers. Picture yourselves humiliated beyond belief STILL think its no big deal. Jen if your friend Dubya did not invade Iraq maybe Mr Berg would be still alive today.
Posted by: Antiwar || 05/14/2004 12:28 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
US says terrorist threat in Pakistan is still high
In other news, the Pope's still Catholic and bears remain fond of outdoor plumbing...
The United States on Thursday said that the terrorist threat to US and western interests in Pakistan “remains high” due to tensions along the Afghan border and instability in the Middle East and Iraq and urged US citizens to boost security measures. In addition, the US embassy in Islamabad warned that already high anti-American sentiment in Pakistan could rise and said western embassies and consulates throughout the country, as well as places where foreigners gather, might be “high priority” targets for terrorists. More generally, it said that recent bombings in Quetta, Karachi and Gwadar and sectarian and political violence were evidence of Pakistan’s volatile security situation. The embassy “advises that the threat of terrorist activity in Pakistan, including against American or western targets, remains high,” it said in a notice to US citizens.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:00:20 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
12 Palestinians killed in Rafah in Israeli raids
Twelve Palestinians were killed on Thursday in Israeli raids on Rafah in the Gaza Strip after a second deadly strike on the army in as many days. Israeli helicopters pounded the Rafah refugee camps along the border with Egypt in southern Gaza, where five soldiers were killed on Wednesday when Palestinian militants fired an anti-tank missile at a military convoy. The strike which killed the crew of an armoured personnel carrier (APC) came a day after six troops were killed in another APC, which was blown up as it carried out an incursion in Gaza City. The ambushes, which inflicted on the Israeli army its heaviest losses for a two-day period since fierce fighting in the northern West Bank town of Jenin in April 2002, were both claimed by the Islamic Jihad group. A first overnight raid on Rafah left seven Palestinians dead and a second Israeli strike killed four more.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 7:51:30 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Central Asia
Islamabad, Dushanbe to Step Up Anti-Terror Efforts
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Arab Media Accuse US of Exploiting Berg Murder
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Many Arab media also downplayed the Berg’s murder. While pictures of Berg appeared on inside pages of most Arab newspapers, the editorials continued to focus on the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq
Editorials that did comment on the killing strongly condemned it, but those were mainly found in the English language newspapers across the region."

It's the Arafat method writ large
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 8:00 Comments || Top||

#2  The cynicism of muslims is bottomless!
Posted by: Anonymous4617 || 05/14/2004 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  How does the saying go? Don't take a knife to a nuclear fight? If the Islamofanatics want to get into a war of images over atrocities - who do they think is going to win that battle?

These guys may be violent and ruthless, but that's about all they are. If they didn't have the complicity of our LLL and media, this war would already be over.
Posted by: B || 05/14/2004 10:06 Comments || Top||

#4  Their true belief - stop whinning, he was an infidel.
Posted by: Sam || 05/14/2004 10:45 Comments || Top||

#5  B-
Your comment reminds me of nothing so much as that priceless scene in 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark', where the Arab swordsman does that fancy twirling, and Indy drops him with his .45 on the spot.
Except this time, Indy's packing a Minuteman III...

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 05/14/2004 11:15 Comments || Top||

#6  While pictures of Berg appeared on inside pages of the New York Times the Boston Globe most Arab newspapers, the editorials continued to focus on the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq

Notice any difference? Me either....
Posted by: Raj || 05/14/2004 12:51 Comments || Top||


Al-Sadr Delivers Anti-American Sermon
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:38 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This story didn't answer a question I have. If he's no longer holed up in the holy city surrounded by his militia, why don't we just nab him and turn him over to the Iraqi's to let them kill him? Seems they'd be happy to oblige.
Posted by: B || 05/14/2004 7:45 Comments || Top||

#2  Saw another report somewhere that the US had the place surrounded but he slipped through. It's just like the hunt for Saddam, we only have to get lucky once.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 10:30 Comments || Top||

#3  im still not sure we want to nab him, would much rather he fled the country, but doesnt look like hes cooperating.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 11:21 Comments || Top||

#4  The Iraqi's should deal with him at home. Be a great real life episode of Law and Order.
Posted by: Mr. Davis || 05/14/2004 11:22 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine
Israeli Army Begins Bulldozing Houses
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Israel Radio said the military planned to demolish hundreds of buildings in the camp. The army refused to comment.

D-9 to the rescue!
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 7:52 Comments || Top||

#2  Ship,"D-9 to the rescue",that would make a great parody of the Black Oak Arkansas song"Jim Dandy to the Rescue"

Go,Jim Dandy,go!
Go,Jim Dandy,go!

Go,d-9,go!
Go,d-9,go!
Posted by: Anonymous4786 || 05/14/2004 9:19 Comments || Top||

#3  Make that "D-90", it scans better.
Posted by: mojo || 05/14/2004 12:32 Comments || Top||

#4  On the Palestinian side, one man was killed in a missile strike and a second when an explosive device blew up prematurely. Eight Palestinians were wounded, two of them seriously.


I LOVE it when that happens...
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 12:45 Comments || Top||

#5  [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted]
Posted by: Faisal the Goyem TROLL || 05/14/2004 17:34 Comments || Top||

#6  Lol. Well keep your fingers crossed Frank baby... because the IDF body count seems to be increasing these days :-)..... lets see what's in store for Shabbath ;-)
Posted by: Faisal the Goyem || 05/14/2004 17:34 Comments || Top||


Three Missiles Fired at Rafah
Israeli helicopters fired three missiles toward the Rafah refugee camp Friday, and witnesses reported that several people were wounded. The target was not immediately clear. Israel has been operating in the camp since Wednesday, when a homemade Palestinian rocket fired from Rafah hit an Israeli armored personnel carrier, killing five soldiers inside.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 7:33:14 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
U.S. Soldiers Attack Targets in Najaf
Backed by helicopters, American tanks charged into the center of this holy city on Friday and shelled positions held by fighters loyal to cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who launched an uprising against the U.S.-led coalition last month. Explosions and heavy machine gun fire rocked Najaf neighborhoods for hours, and bands of militiamen with assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar tubes roamed the city of dun-colored buildings. Smoke billowed from blasted buildings. Al-Sadr's office close to the sacred Shrine of Imam Ali took small arms fire Friday, according to someone who answered the telephone there. The man, who refused to give his name, said he believed the shots came from rival Shiite groups opposed at al-Sadr's presence in the city.

Residents said al-Mahdi gunmen blocked all roads close to the Imam Ali shrine, barring entry to all except those with special militia badges. Civilians scurried for cover, leaving many streets empty as the call for Friday prayers rose from loudspeakers at mosques. Some families left their homes on foot to seek refuge. Arab television stations reported that an aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, had urged U.S. forces and al-Sadr fighters to leave Najaf.

The U.S. attack represented a strongest U.S. push yet against al-Sadr, whose forces fought intense battles with American forces this week in another holy city, Karbala. The intensifying battles have eclipsed efforts by Iraqi political and tribal leaders to seek a peaceful solution to the confrontation ahead of a planned transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30. Much of the fighting in Najaf happened in the city's vast cemetery, a maze of footpaths and tombs that offers ample hiding space for militiamen armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Several tanks rumbled into the cemetery, known as the "Valley of Peace" and thought to be the world's largest. A hotel in the city center where many international journalists were staying was hit by gunfire, which ruptured the rooftop water tank and blew a hole the size of a soccer ball on the ledge. Several rounds struck rooms but there were no injuries. Al-Mahdi fighters entered the hotel briefly and claimed someone had fired at them from the roof. American troops moved along main roads in the city near the Imam Ali shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam. U.S. helicopters and a jet fighter flew over the city.

In Baghdad, al-Sadr's aides called on Shiites in the capital to travel to Najaf to reinforce the militia there. In the southern city of Amarah, an al-Sadr representative, Farqad al-Mousawi, warned Iraqi police and civil defense corps members that they risked assassination if they helped American soldiers fight the al-Mahdi militia. Al-Sadr's representative in Nassiriyah, Sheik Aws al-Khafaji, threatened attacks on coalition forces there, most of whom are Italians.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 07:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Its about time that we carry the fight to the enemy regardless of collateral damage to the local environment. It's not like they are going to "hate us a bit more" - what are they going to do - shoot a tied-up Italian, or slit the throat of a tied-up American, or hang some civilian contractor bodies off a bridge?

We should just switch all selector switches to "rock and roll" and "let the games begin".

Allah can sort them out at his end.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 05/14/2004 8:07 Comments || Top||

#2  I think we chipped the paint on the main mosque in Najaf (Islams 567th holiest site).
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 05/14/2004 9:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Al-Sadr's representative in the southern city of Basra, Sheik Abdul-Sattar al-Bahadli, said he would form suicide squads against coalition forces and urged residents to register for such duty, starting Saturday.

Not the act of someone who thinks he's winning. Note how they want local residents to "register for such duty" rather than booming any of their blackshirts.
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 10:47 Comments || Top||

#4  ...barring entry to all except those with special militia badges.

Any bets those badges are gonna start showing up on ebay soon?
Posted by: Pappy || 05/14/2004 13:01 Comments || Top||


Danish medics: We saw Iraqi victims of UK troops’ prisoner abuse
Two Danish Army medics have come forward to report that they witnessed Iraqi prisoners brought to a military clinic after being beaten by British troops, Denmark’s defence ministry said. Defence minister Soeren Gade said that the unnamed medics were alleging that one of the two Iraqis died as a result of injuries sustained in the incident in September last year.

The Ministry of Defence in London said the report appeared to refer to an incident which has already been subject to an investigation by the Royal Military Police (RMP). In that case, father-of-two Baha Mousa died in custody, allegedly after being beaten by members of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment. The results of the RMP inquiry are currently being considered to determine whether legal action should be brought, and the MoD was unable to comment on them, said a spokeswoman. The Ministry was seeking further clarification from Copenhagen to ensure that the latest allegations were dealt with appropriately, she added. Mr Gade said the incident was reported yesterday to defence officials in Denmark by an army lawyer in Basra, in UK-administered southern Iraq. According to her report, the two unidentified medics were working at a British field hospital. They said they saw two Iraqis being brought to a British military hospital in Basra "after having been exposed to brutal treatment during an unauthorised interrogation in the field by a British unit". The report has not been released and the nature of the injuries was not announced. There was no elaboration on the suggestion that one of prisoners had died.
Posted by: Bulldog || 05/14/2004 4:51:25 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This comes out conviently after the photo's of Brtish soldiers abusing Iraqi's are proven to be fake. Keep trying to live the myth, Gade.
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 8:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Denial.

Do you think that one incident of fake photos in one incident means that every accusation is fake? Do you think that every abuse needs to have been photographed to be real?

And the moronic talk about the "convenient" timing reminds me of the equally moronic conspiracism of some of the Arab press about the timing of the Nicholas Berg video.
Posted by: Aris Katsaris || 05/14/2004 9:14 Comments || Top||

#3  Do you think that every abuse needs to have been photographed to be real?

No, but solid evidence would be nice. You know, names, dates, units, etc. Right now all we have is a vague accusation.

Let the RMP investigate; they'll do what needs to be done.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 05/14/2004 9:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Denial.

Hardly. The saying goes "Timing is everything". The fact that these medics came out now is way too convenient. The burden of proof is on them, not the soldiers.

I'd also like to know why they waited so long, exactly where they were stationed, and what their affiliations to political groups are. Could they be telling the truth, yes. However, pointing the finger then hiding doesn't even come close to credible.

More importantly, how did they know the name of the "victim"? How do they know it was a Illegal interrogation when they were at the field hospital? Do you think the soldiers came out and said " Hey, we need this man, Baha Mousa, looked at before he dies. We beat the shit out of him during interrogation without telling our commanders. Oh, and could you not tell anybody what I just said? "

As for the Berg video, there was never a doubt that was real. The evidence was upfront, the people who killed him were upfront, and the body which was left near US HQ in Bagdad, along with the HEAD, was upfront. There in no "convenient time" for savages, but there is for well-educated European medics.
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 13:51 Comments || Top||


'How can we tell friend from foe?'
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/14/2004 04:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fred - please remove if been up here before - oh and abridge the title if you would be so kind!
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/14/2004 4:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Done.
Posted by: Fred || 05/14/2004 8:09 Comments || Top||


Russians eager to work in Iraq despite dangers
A Russian company whose employees in Iraq have twice been targeted by kidnappers says its employees are willing and eager to work there, despite the danger....Interenergoservice is building a power plant outside Baghdad....On Monday, 100 of the remaining 340 Interenergoservice employees took a charter flight out of the country. A company spokesperson said there’s no shortage of people willing to take their places....Russian companies have a billion dollars worth of reconstruction contracts in Iraq.
I wouldn’t have posted this except that the billion $ reconstruction bit came as a surprise.
Posted by: Rafael || 05/14/2004 2:41:48 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Much of the power production equipment is hard to repair without design knowledge. For example: the main generators and boiler feed pumps are multi-stage high speed turbines that require precise repairs or they will fail catastrophically. Large pumps, transformers etc. could be reverse engineered but not in the volume necessary to get a full power production facility up and running quickly.
Posted by: Super Hose || 05/15/2004 3:31 Comments || Top||


Africa: North
Chadian rebels holding el-Para
A rebel group in Chad says it is holding one of North Africa's most powerful terrorists and wants to turn him over to the United States or any of its allies.
How much you want?
But negotiations to do so have bogged down over reluctance to offend the government of Chad by dealing with the rebels. "Everybody's kind of at an impasse," said a United States Department of Defense official familiar with the situation.
Sell him to Mauretania, and we'll buy him from them.
The Movement for Democracy and Justice in Chad, which is fighting the military-backed government of President Idriss Déby, says that on March 16 it seized Amari Saifi, an Islamic militant with ties to Al Qaeda. The rebel group, known by its French initials M.D.J.T., said it had been trying since then to get someone to take Mr. Saifi off its hands, but that no country had been willing to enter rebel-held territory without the backing of the Chadian government. "They are procrastinating on purpose," Brahim Tchouma, the group's representative for external affairs, complained during an interview in Paris on Thursday. He said he had talked to the United States, Germany, France, Algeria and Niger in hopes of finding a solution.
I've got about $20. Can I have just a piece of him?
$20 gets you a hand, though it's self-service.
For years, Mr. Saifi has operated with impunity in a sparsely populated zone stretching from Mauritania to Chad, recruiting militants and buying weapons for his comrades in Algeria. He built a strong support network in the region, American military officials said, marrying the pre-pubescent 14-year-old daughter of a Mauritanian tribal sheik and buying loyalty from local officials in Mali. His presence in the region was one of the catalysts for an expanding American program to rally regional governments into a loose alliance to fight terrorism. As part of that effort, the United States tracked Mr. Saifi this year from Mali across Niger and into Chad, where he was attacked by Mr. Déby's forces. Mr. Saifi and more than a dozen other Salafist Group members escaped that attack, abandoning their vehicles, which reportedly held much of the German ransom money.
I hadn't heard that part. I hope the rebels are using it for something worthwhile, like buying beer and renting hookers, instead of pissing it away on arms and ammunition...
They fled on foot, and Mr. Tchouma said that within days an M.D.J.T. patrol had picked up Mr. Saifi and nine of his followers. The rebels later found seven more members of the group. A senior official of the rebel group named Muhammad Togou, reached by satellite phone, said the two groups of captives were being held in two different ravines in the mountainous Tibesti region of northern Chad. He said Mr. Saifi, his lieutenant, known as Bilal, and a third senior member of the group were being held separately under tighter security in a school building. Mr. Togou described Mr. Saifi as a large man, about 6 feet 3 inches tall with long, curly hair and a moderate beard.
Sounds like a description of Vlad Tepes...
He said Mr. Saifi was dressed in "Afghan clothing" and did not have any identification on him when he was caught. He said that he was carrying a satellite phone and an address book filled with names and telephone numbers, however, and that he eventually disclosed his identity.
I'll borrow some money. I want that address book...
Of the men captured with Mr. Saifi, four were Algerian and five were Nigerian, Mr. Togou said. The seven men captured later were all Algerian, he said. According to the rebels, one of the Algerians has identified himself as Abu Abdallah. That information raises the possibility that he could be a bombmaker of that name who was trained by Al Qaeda and is known as a follower of Mr. Saifi.
Sorry. I can't afford him, too. You'll have to sell him to Charles or Dan...
A senior United States Defense Department official said Thursday that the Chadian rebels' account was being taken seriously. "Everything we know, looking across the full spectrum of capabilities, gives us the belief that Al Para is still alive," the official said of Mr. Saifi. Western diplomats in Chad and Algeria also said the rebel group's claims were credible. The problem now is how to retrieve Mr. Saifi and his associates without risking lives or causing unnecessary diplomatic damage to the region's already delicate, multilateral counterterrorist cooperation.
You can use my car, if you have to...
American marines are expected to arrive in Chad within weeks to train government soldiers in counterterrorism techniques. Some diplomats said sending a team into rebel territory was dangerous because there was no guarantee that Mr. Saifi and the Chadian rebels were not working together to set an elaborate trap.
Which diplomats? Admiral Akbar?
Mr. Saifi has already shown that taking hostages can be lucrative. But the greater obstacle is dealing with the M.D.J.T. without the cooperation of Mr. Déby's government, which wants the West to regard the rebels as terrorists on par with the Salafist Group. The situation is all the more difficult because Chad has already made sacrifices in supporting America's campaign against terrorism: six of its soldiers died in the fighting with Mr. Saifi's group in March. "The guy has just done you a great favor, and now you're going to deal with his best enemy?" the Defense Department official asked, explaining one reason the rebels have had trouble finding a taker for their offer.
See my idea about Mauretania, above. That's why God made third parties...
Various solutions have been proposed to break the stalemate, including suggestions that the rebel group leave Mr. Saifi and his associates secured some place in the desert where the Chadian military or forces from a neighboring country could pick them up. But the group is reluctant to give away its prize without some political, if not material, gain. "They're looking for a quid pro quo," the Defense Department official said. "It's somewhat of a Sahara version of eBay."
Maybe you could give them something a little less fungible than cash? How about a new car?
Posted by: Dan Darling || 05/14/2004 1:30:07 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It's somewhat of a Sahara version of eBay."

How long bfore Saifi goes up on the actual eBay? Potential bidders want to know.
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 8:11 Comments || Top||

#2  We could take up a collection on Rantburg and buy him ourselves. Then we can make a video and...
Posted by: Spot || 05/14/2004 9:44 Comments || Top||

#3  We have all the talent we need right here. Old Spook can question him, Fred can evaluate the data, Alaska Paul can transport him and stake him out for a hungry bear, and I can shoot and edit the video.
Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 10:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Afte OS gets finished the bears gonna look pretty good.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 11:54 Comments || Top||

#5  I could loan him my laptop. I do it all the time!
Posted by: Lucky || 05/14/2004 11:54 Comments || Top||

#6  Already got the back seat out of the plane, so I can secure him to the deck with a cargo net and floor tiedowns. And the Army of Steve can document the whole thing so Kofi feels warm and fuzzy.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 12:07 Comments || Top||

#7  why would you carry him inside the plane?
Posted by: Frank G || 05/14/2004 12:16 Comments || Top||

#8  when your done send him to us, we could always use his carcass for target practice.....
Posted by: Jarhead || 05/14/2004 12:39 Comments || Top||

#9  As a medic, I'll make sure he remains alive and without visible injury during and after questioning. I can't vouch for anything though if Frank G gets his way on transport.

Jarhead -- can you find his heart at 500 meters or should I tape a small piece of white paper onto his chest?
Posted by: Steve White || 05/14/2004 12:41 Comments || Top||

#10  This is too good to pass up!

All - Do we draw lots to see who gets to hold up . . .
Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 13:47 Comments || Top||

#11  why would you carry him inside the plane?

He would die of below zero degree tempatures. And the bears don't like stiff meat.
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 14:13 Comments || Top||

#12  Re: Frank's mentioning of external transport.

1. It is inhumane.
2. It is too much drag.
3. If he gets loose, he could interfere with the control surfaces.
4. He would clash with my dark blue, powder blue, and silver paint scheme.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 14:28 Comments || Top||

#13  But really, it's just 2.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 16:39 Comments || Top||

#14  No, it's all the above, Shipman, except No. 1.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 05/14/2004 18:14 Comments || Top||

#15  I just want to watch,can I please.Can I?
Posted by: Raptor || 05/14/2004 18:33 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
'Beheading' website shut down
The Internet site that first posted footage of militants in Iraq beheading American civilian Nicholas Berg has been closed down. The graphic images of the 26-year-olds death prompted shock and outrage the world over. They also prompted thousands upon thousands of people to log on to the Internet, so they could see for themselves the entire event in all its horror. The video was stored on a computer server belonging to a Malaysian web hosting company, Acme Commerce Sinderium Berhard. The server had been leased to the creators of the site, alAnsar.biz. They were the first to put the film on the net and they are thought to have links to Al Qaeda.
Too bad, I'd want every American to see this four, five, six times.
Posted by: Steve White || 05/14/2004 12:26:19 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Steve, this dovetails with Internet Haganah shutting down all those jihadi sites.

A casualty of the cyberwar I guess.
Posted by: badanov || 05/14/2004 0:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Too bad, I'd want every American to see this four, five, six times.

You're joking, right? Reading descriptions is gruesome enough, but I heard just the audio of when they started cutting Bergs head off.

I will NEVER forget that scream. I have absolutely no desire too see the actually video.
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 1:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Other videos like this existed long before this one. It's a Chechen tradition. I haven't seen this video, but I bet the decapitation was done in the same way that another Russian captive had his head cut off by Chechens: holding down the head with a foot and using a sawing motion. The video of the Russian PoW was even shot close-up, enough to see facial expressions. It's one of these things that you don't need to see ever again.
BTW, there's gotta be a Chechen connection to Zarqawi. Chechnya is only a hop-skip away via Iran to Iraq.
Posted by: Rafael || 05/14/2004 1:45 Comments || Top||

#4  #4 Just about everyone I've talked to has seen some part or the whole video. I was studying for finals and by time I got to log on it seems that the video has been removed from all web sites. Can the video be accessed?
Posted by: Anonymous4830 || 05/14/2004 1:59 Comments || Top||

#5  Yet another victory for al-Qa'ida. The vermin were protected by the delicate sensibilities of civilized people. As far as I am certained the hooded vermin who hacked off Berg's head are indistinguishable from the hooded vermin in Abu Ghraib prison. The US military personnel who abused and humiliated and inflicted a little pain on the vermin are HEROES who acted heroically.
Posted by: Garrison || 05/14/2004 2:26 Comments || Top||

#6  The video shows Berg on his side and the method described by Rafael is the same except the foot on the head.
Posted by: rich woods || 05/14/2004 2:59 Comments || Top||

#7  At the begin of the war there where pictures much more gruesome, who does still remember that Iraqi kid who lost his limbs and whole his family?

But go ahead bunch of weepers, feel the victim, soon the Johnnies will take another shamefull exit a la Vietnam anyway.
Posted by: Murat || 05/14/2004 3:24 Comments || Top||

#8  It took 9 years for the Us to take a shameful exit à la of Viet Nam IIRC (against 7 for the french), there is still some margin. Anyway I doubt Turkey would appreciate such a terrible mess next door.
I remember the kid, though his name eludes me - I have trouble remembering arabic names-, mainly as a footnote I must confess (not too proud of my selectivity) but he was evoked here, how he got help from an hindu?, got prosthetics from the USA?, was finally adopted by a foreigner, a canadian or something, perhaps a physician?, I can't recall. I also remember the heartless exploitation of his tragedy by antiwar groups ("we've come to dis-arms Iraq"), a bit like you're trying to do here. What's happening to you today, you seem grouchy? Turkey lost a soccer match?
Posted by: Anonymous4134 || 05/14/2004 4:44 Comments || Top||

#9  I was just thinking along similar lines, Anonymous4134: has Murat been dumped lately, or what? He's not the happy camper we used to know.
Posted by: Bulldog || 05/14/2004 4:55 Comments || Top||

#10  there's gotta be a Chechen connection to Zarqawi. Chechnya is only a hop-skip away via Iran to Iraq.

According to the Beeb, after Afghanistan, Zarqawi was apparently chosen for greatness by AQ and his squad of jihadis were packed off to fight in Chechnya without him - not sure if the timings fit personally..
Posted by: Howard UK || 05/14/2004 5:11 Comments || Top||

#11  If anyone really, really wants to see the video again, it can be found here:

http://www.ogrish.com/index2.htm

Best Wishes,
Posted by: Traveller || 05/14/2004 5:26 Comments || Top||

#12  Some troll has hijacked our Murats handle.
Posted by: Shipman || 05/14/2004 7:49 Comments || Top||

#13  Thanx Traveller, just looked at it. Stark reminder of what we're up against - evil.
Posted by: Jarhead || 05/14/2004 7:52 Comments || Top||

#14  Go here: http://www.620ktar.com/leibo/cr/berg.aspx
Posted by: Anonymous4833 || 05/14/2004 8:35 Comments || Top||

#15  Some troll has hijacked our Murats handle.

No, Murat was always a troll. Remember his fervent belief that the Kurds had to be behind the bombs in Istanbul? Remember how upset (to put it mildly) he got as more evidence piled up that he was wrong?

Murat's a bigot, always has been. He's just having trouble covering it up anymore.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 05/14/2004 9:27 Comments || Top||

#16  I downloaded and watched it last night. It hurt like hell, but I hope many more people can steel themselves to do it. Our enemies do NOT want us to see this. This is the sh*t that is going to finally wake people up.
Posted by: Cthulhu Akbar || 05/14/2004 10:29 Comments || Top||

#17  I just re-watched the video. I just noticed that the guy who starts the beheading is not the guy who finishes it and holds up the head. The guy who finishes the job is wearing a white diaper. The guy who starts the job is wearing a black one. The hand off is not shown, but the clock does skip a minute or so at the end. Also, if you believe the clock in the video, there is a 10 minute jump just as they push him over onto the ground and start sawing on him.
Posted by: Zpaz || 05/14/2004 12:51 Comments || Top||

#18  Cthulhu Akbar -
Our enemies do NOT want us to see this.

C.A. - The cabal : (CBS/CNN/NBC/ABC) Doen't want us to see it. It crimps the Kerry for President agenda.

The audio has been heard.

Pesky Hannity played the audio several times on his radio show, including for Sens Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman, yesterday.

John Ziegler (KFI-Los Angeles) played it twice, though it was at 10:15PM and 12:45 AM.

I also heard Michael Savage played it, though his egotism annoys me so I rarely listen to him.

Posted by: BigEd || 05/14/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#19  Perhaps they didn't want the world to see them have to struggle with a thoroughly bound prisoner. And they didn't want to show the sawing action and the would-be executioner saying "Hey, I'm tired. Little help?"

I can't say as I'll mourn the day I hear that little pus-bag Zarqawi is killed or captured. I'd bet on the former. Nice gut shot.
Posted by: Anonymous4840 || 05/14/2004 13:03 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Annan Seeks End to Darfur Crisis in Sudan
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged Sudan's president to act immediately to end the crisis in his country's western Darfur region, where fighting has displaced about 1 million people and killed thousands, a U.N. spokesman said Thursday. In a letter, Annan asked President Omar el-Bashir to maintain a humanitarian cease-fire, disarm militias, and allow humanitarian workers and African Union observers to quickly deploy throughout Darfur, associate spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
"Else I shall send you a strongly worded letter."
The letter, sent Wednesday, was not made public. But Dujarric said it asked el-Bashir to follow up on concerns raised at a U.N. Security Council meeting last Friday by the acting U.N. human rights chief, Bertrand Ramcharan, and the head of the U.N. World Food Program, James Morris, who recently returned from a visit to Darfur. Ramcharan told the council that Sudanese forces were helping Arab militias drive black Africans out of the region. But he stopped short of blaming the government for what he described as widespread atrocities and "repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity" in the region.
That would have forced him to mention Rwanda, and that's rather painful for Kofi.
U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland and human rights groups have denounced what they called a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur - a claim denied by the Sudanese government.
"Lies! All lies!"
The Security Council put Sudan on its agenda last month. Diplomats said council members want to give the Sudanese government time to finish negotiating an agreement with rebels in the south, but would not rule out sanctions or even deploying an international force if the situation in Darfur doesn't improve.
"Send for the mighty Uruguayans!"
Posted by: Steve White || 05/14/2004 12:21:39 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
State Dept: U.S. will leave Iraq if asked
The State Department, as usual, inhabits an alternate reality in which they believe they have a clue and are in charge.
U.S. and coalition forces will leave Iraq if asked to do so by an interim Iraqi government, a State Department official told the House Thursday. During occasionally combative questioning by bipartisan members of the International Relations Committee, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman said that the United States would respect the wishes of a newly sovereign Iraq even if it meant withdrawing troops before Iraqi general elections are held in 2005. The sovereignty handover is scheduled for June 30. Grossman repeatedly insisted that he did not believe such a request would be made by the new Iraqi body. The notion that coalition forces would take marching orders from Iraqis was challenged by a military representative testifying before the committee. Lt. General Walter L. Sharp of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that U.S.-led multinational forces were authorized under U.N. resolutions to operate in Iraq at least until a permanent constitutional government was elected.
Posted by: RWV || 05/14/2004 12:06:58 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rumsfeld should resign, and Powell should take his place.

.
.
.

Then put Rumsfeld in as Secretary of State with a mandate to clean out that cesspool.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/14/2004 0:19 Comments || Top||

#2  A cabinet shuffle! Good one.
Posted by: Rafael || 05/14/2004 0:26 Comments || Top||

#3  I work for the state Dept and there are a lot of leftys here.

Im here, so Im taking on the cesspool.
Posted by: JackAssFestival || 05/14/2004 8:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Fire his ass!

JAF,I hope you have hip wadders and a well made sh#t shovel.
Posted by: Anonymous4786 || 05/14/2004 9:13 Comments || Top||

#5  I miss the point of the furor. We ARE giving back sovereignty on July 1, arent we?

And really what is the likelihood that a govt made up of Pachachi, Talabani, Chalabi, etc would ask us to leave?
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 05/14/2004 10:00 Comments || Top||

#6  JAF - good luck to you.
Posted by: B || 05/14/2004 10:01 Comments || Top||

#7  As I have said a few days ago on another thread, I think we should pull ALL our GI's out of Sunni/Shiite Iraq effective July 01 or no later than Dec. 31 that's for sure and instead build a huge military base in Kurdistan.

As a gesture of goodwill and to help the Shiites and Sunis with getting their electoral and judicial process up and running, I think we should offer the services of the all the experienced folks at the State Dept. and the ACLU, sans GI body guards of course, so the latter can better "connect" with the famously decent and peaceful hearts and minds of the Iraqis that we are told about 24/7.

However, JAF, you have allergies to dust and camel dung, so alas, you can't go to Iraq with your fearless state dept.leadership...you'll need to stay with us stateside and continue taking your Allegra & Flonaise.

Michael Savage was brilliant this week, btw. Anyways, yesterday he mused aloud that if the Sunnis' and Shiites' new sovereign government came under the influence of terrorists, big deal, it would present a wonderful opportunity for us to deal with Iraq once and for all, the way military folk are trained to do. We could then declare war on the new nation of Iraq and blast them all to Allah-no more putting our boots on the ground and trying to figure out who is an innocent Iraqi and who is a bad Iraqi.

I rather like Savage's idea, and it ties in nicely with my thoughts about moving out to Kurdistan to protect our long standing allies, the Kurds.

The Shiites and Sunnis are hopeless. Two days ago,on the Glen Beck show it was reported that after news of the decapitation of Berg came out, 1000 Iraqis took to the streets [in Baghdad? wherever, I can't remember the city]to march in protest over the barbarism of Berg's murder. People...what is wrong with this picture...we "liberated" 24 Million+ Iraqis and they can barely scrape up as many people to march on our behalf as we have had GI's and contractors killed working on their behalf? Let's get our military [and our military dogs] out of this ungrateful Sunni/Shiite hellhole, and position ourselves in Kurdistan and wait...dum, dee, dum, dum...it shouldn't take too long, especially if State Dept. and the ACLU are there to help, like they helped us...
Posted by: rex || 05/14/2004 13:50 Comments || Top||

#8  I think that LH has hit the nail on the head. The State Department is acting in concert with the Administration not against it. The coalition needs to cease being an occupying force. We will be in the conflict zone at the pleasure of the a sovereign Iraq. Our troops and treasure will once again be ours to give as we choose and theirs to accept and reject as they choose. The new government will certainly understand that our support for it will be based on its policies, but that the US and UK can politically not afford for the new government to fail, utterly.
Posted by: Super Hose || 05/14/2004 15:37 Comments || Top||

#9  If our military base is in Kurdistan, which has great deposits of oil and gas btw, if the new Sunni/Shiite sovereign nation shows signs of failing and coming under Al Queda influence, we formally declare war on Iraq and crush it.

I guess I see little difference between Shiites and Sunnis sitting on their hands and letting Al Queda infiltrate their neighborhoods and kill GI's and civilians as opposed to the terrorists themselves. By the inaction of Sunnis and Shiites, they are collaborateurs with those who carry through murderous actions.

Other optimistic posters still see hope for a democracy in Iraq, that if we stay in Iraq for another 100 years or so, just maybe maybe more than 1000 Iraqis will march in protest 100 years from now when an American is decapitated.

I say let the Shiites and Sunnis do their sovereign nation thingey, which is doomed anyways-having Sunnis and Shiites co-operate on anything except killing infidels is asking a bit much-then wack their failed gov't big time.

By being based in Kurdistan, we will not even have to grovel for military landing rights from Turkey or Kuwait or Saudi Arabia-our rocket launchers will be based in the general vicinity already.

Trying to win over hearts and minds of Sunnis/Shiites is a waste of our military's energy and GI's lives and our tax dollars. Look how successful our efforts have been with Syria and Iran. How many years later and all that foreign aid and education at least under the Shah re: Iran, and they hate us today as they did 50 years ago.

I'm weary of fighting an undeclared social worker's war in Iraq while we're letting in Muslim immigrants to the USA holus bolus through legal and illegal immigration, who ultimately despise us anyways once they get here.

The State Dept. is posturing in an attempt to put a happy face on our being unwelcome occupiers. State is working with Admin. and that means what exactly??? I can't say I have been thrilled about the way the WH has been acting lately with PC rhetoric and actions with regards to all the peaceful Iraqis schtick and bully boy tactics and cave ins in Fallujah and Najhif not to mention the recent public apology for POW "atrocities" of naked pee-pee photos, even though the USA never fully ratified Protocol 1 and II in 1977 that would have beefed up Geneva Conventions III and IV and given POW status to unlawful combatants among other things, as Jimmy Carter, Arafat, and the Red Cross had hoped. Ronald Reagan nipped that nonsense in the bud. Even though the unlawful combatants are not covered by Geneva Convention III and Protocol I, our WH and Congress agree with the left that these insurgents are covered as "civilians" by Geneva Convention IV? Say what? The fix is in, folks, and we'll be paying reparations up the wazoo because neither the WH nor Congress did not stand its ground. Senator Frist was still jammering into a microphone about the horrors of POW humiliation on the day after Berg's decapitation was announced. The fix is in. Get our GI's to Kurdistan no later than Dec. 31. No one's "home" to support them on those days whenever the Arab Street is miffed.
" POWs, The Geneva Conventions and the Second Gulf War" (March 2003)

Posted by: rex || 05/14/2004 16:41 Comments || Top||

#10  The article link buttons did not work for me the first time round, so here's the link to the article "POW's, the Geneva Conventions and the Second Gulf War" March 2003
http://www.ciss.ca/Comment_GulfWarPOWs.htm

I include it for those who are interested in reading what our Geneva Convention obligations are to Iraqi insurgent POW's -not much-except for whatever we think is humane. Torture lite is okay. Neither the USA nor Iraq, for that matter, ratified the 1977 Protocols I and II of the Geneva Conventions.

My point to quoting this is that I think the WH could have said we will investigate and punish behavior unbecoming to our internal military code, and not grovel with reparations and mea culpa breats beating. I see it as a bad sign that elected politicians of both parties caved as soon as they heard Arab Street was upset. Too much State Dept. influence on the WH for my liking.



Posted by: rex || 05/14/2004 17:36 Comments || Top||


Berg offered a ride home by US but refused it!
The U.S. government warned Nicholas Berg (search) to leave Iraq and offered him a flight out of the country, a month before his grisly beheading was broadcast on an Al Qaeda (search)-linked Web site, officials said. ... (April 10 or so) an American diplomat offered to put him on a flight to Jordan, State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said. But Berg told the diplomat he "planned to travel overland to Kuwait and would call (his) family from there," Shannon said. ... Two e-mails he sent to his family and friends show he traveled widely and unguarded throughout Iraq, an unsafe practice rarely done by Westerners. Shortly before Berg’s disappearance, he was warned by the FBI that Iraq was too volatile a place for unprotected American civilians and that he could be harmed, a senior FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday.
Looks like his Dad owes Bush an apology. WOnder if he has enouhg class to direct his bile at those really responsible - the ones who sawed his son’s head off with a knife.
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/14/2004 12:04:42 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Leftists love to talk about class, I guess becuase they have so little of it.
Posted by: badanov || 05/14/2004 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Please correct my horrid typos (reversed characters and the Shift key pressed a split second too long).
Posted by: OldSpook || 05/14/2004 0:17 Comments || Top||

#3  C'mon. Don't be bashing his dad. At least give him a mourning period. I saw Yahoo news this morning trumpeting the "Dad Blames Bush and Rumsfeld" headlines but it was too silly and sad to worry about.

Yes we know the anti-War types are spinning this but it's weak and transparently ridiculous and could not possibly harm Bush or Rumsfeld. "He died for their sins" was so over the top that it rendered the whole story absurd.
Posted by: John in Tokyo || 05/14/2004 1:10 Comments || Top||

#4  What was more absurd was the fact that the family sued for his release from custody John. How long after Bergs release was he kidnapped? If you look at it the way his father is, the family is more responsible than Rumsfeld and Bush.
Posted by: Charles || 05/14/2004 1:26 Comments || Top||

#5  A mourning period for decent human beings does not entail raving and foaming at the mouth like Howard Dean, algore or Teddy Kennedy. Mr. Berg is either mentally ill and should not be blamed for his idiocy, or he is just one more partisan democrat giving aid and comfort to the enemy as he craves face time on the talkingorifice shows as he seeks to whore his son's corpse as he greedily lusts after a BOOK/MOVIE deal. Screw 'em. Demented or goosestepping for his party, I have no respect, sympathy or compassion for such a creepy, little myn.
Posted by: Garrison || 05/14/2004 2:37 Comments || Top||

#6  I would offer another diagnosis other than mental illness, or idiocy. Here is a father who has outlived his son. Here is a father who was ambushed with news of the video by AP reporters. You and I may disagree with the form his overwhelming grief is expressing itself, but I see it as grief, understandable in light of the circumstances. So I will give him a pass.

I ain't going to be listening to him, but I am not going to condemn him while he is burying his son.
Posted by: Anon || 05/14/2004 4:26 Comments || Top||

#7  A mourning period for decent human beings does not entail raving and foaming at the mouth

IT does if you are a member and strong supporter of ANSWER -- nor is whoring your son's dead body for your political gain.

The father has exhaused what would be acceptable for someone in grief/mourning and is now using his 'grief' as an excuse for his behaviour.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 05/14/2004 9:02 Comments || Top||

#8  on the local Denver Fox News broadcast last night they said that Zacarious Moussoui had once used Berg's email address. They didn't give anymore info other than that.

Has anyone else heard a similar thing?
Posted by: Yosemite Sam || 05/14/2004 9:58 Comments || Top||

#9  Here is the story:
According to Berg, his son was taking a course a few years ago at a remote campus of the University of Oklahoma near an airport. He described how on one particular day, his son met "some terrorist people -- who no one knew were terrorists at the time." At one point during the bus ride, Berg said, the man sitting next to his son asked if he could use Nick's laptop computer. "It turned out this guy was a terrorist and that he, you know, used my son's e-mail, amongst many other people's e-mail who he did the same thing to," Berg said.
Government sources said Berg gave the man his password, which was later used by Moussaoui, the sources said. The sources said the man who used Berg's e-mail knew Moussaoui, now awaiting trial on federal charges that could bring a death sentence. But the sources would not disclose details of how the men were connected.

Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 10:37 Comments || Top||

#10  if you are a member and strong supporter of ANSWER

Funny you should mention that, I was just reading Sgt. Stryker's blog:
I find it particularity interesting when I found this name:

Michael S. Berg, Retired Teacher
on an ANSWER website titled Signers for Statement supporting Cuba against Bush's attacks. In case you were wondering Nick Berg's father's name is Michael S. Berg and he just so happens to be a retired teacher.




Posted by: Steve || 05/14/2004 11:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Michael S. Berg, Teacher, Prometheus Methods Tower Service, Inc., West Chester, PA
is listed as a signer on another International Answer petition:
End colonial occupation from Iraq to Palestine and everywhere!
Posted by: ed || 05/14/2004 12:14 Comments || Top||

#12  I still feel for Nick's family, but how much idiocy was he raised on?
Posted by: eLarson || 05/14/2004 13:14 Comments || Top||

#13  No one should have to die like Nick Berg died. And no one should have to go through the pain of burying a murdered child. And the people who murdered Nick Berg are monsters following an evil creed that must be wiped from the face of the earth-- completely and permanently.

That said, it's looking more and more like neither Michael Berg nor his son possessed so much as an ounce of common sense. The kid wanders around Iraq alone, with no bodyguard(s) or other protection; does so against State Department advice; refuses repeated offers to get him out of Iraq safely; and his father bitches that the government didn't do enough to protect him? Jesus Christ, WTF were they supposed to do for him, force him aboard a US-bound plane at gunpoint??????

I hate to sound callous, but if it weren't for the fact that this kid met his fate at the hands of Muslim murderers, he'd be an obvious candidate for a Darwin Award.
Posted by: Dave D. || 05/14/2004 13:41 Comments || Top||

#14  Nick Berg was an idealistic, confident, ambitious young American man, and it sounds to me like an apple that fell far from the tree. He was in Iraq trying to improve the lives of people who lived there and make a buck while doing so. Perhaps he didn't make the smartest decisions in terms of logistics and security, but I prefer to concentrate on the legacy of Nick, rather than the venom spewed by his appeasenik, lefty father.

I can't believe a father would politicize the death of his own child so quickly. Nick died based on the choices he made in his own life, careless (or courageous?) as they may have been. Unfortunately, his sad relic of a Vietnam protestor father has become intent on making Nick a martyr to ANSWER's socialist and appeasement cause. Disgraceful behavior. RIP Nick.
Posted by: mjh || 05/14/2004 14:04 Comments || Top||

#15  It would appear my assessment of Mr. Berg as a "creepy, little myn" holds. As for Nick, if I were a Jewish man traveling widely in a war zone where civilians are the preferred game and a Jew a prize trophy for the Islamo-nazi terrorists who shrink from men toting firepower, I suppose I might be carrying a copy of the Koran and what has been alleged to be anti-Semitic literature. Or, perhaps, Nick did not fall far from the tree -- his father -- afterall. If Nick turns out to be a collaborator of the Jihadist, I shall be affected differently by the recalled images I keep from the viewing of his beheading.
Posted by: Garrison || 05/14/2004 14:44 Comments || Top||



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In no particular order...
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Two weeks of WOT
Fri 2004-05-14
  Chad rebels holding el-Para
Thu 2004-05-13
  GSPC's Hassan Hattab was executed
Wed 2004-05-12
  Abu Qatada authorized 3/11 bombers' mass suicide
Tue 2004-05-11
  American beheaded by Zarqawi
Mon 2004-05-10
  IDF nabs loaded Paleo hermaphrodite
Sun 2004-05-09
  Kadyrov boomed in Chechnya
Sat 2004-05-08
  Tater offers reward for British as sex slaves
Fri 2004-05-07
  Oregon Man Arrested in Spain Bombings Probe
Thu 2004-05-06
  Georgia reclaims Adzharia
Wed 2004-05-05
  Tater boyz thumped in Karbala
Tue 2004-05-04
  Turkey suspects trained in Pakistan, intended to attack Bush
Mon 2004-05-03
  Turkish Police Detain 16 24 People
Sun 2004-05-02
  Paleos kill Mom, 4 kids
Sat 2004-05-01
   Americans killed in suicide attack in Saudi Arabia
Fri 2004-04-30
  Fallujah deal imminent?

Better than the average link...



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