Kuwait, a major U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, has banned Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" because it deems the movie insulting to the Saudi Arabian royal family and critical of America's invasion of Iraq, an official said Sunday. "We have a law that prohibits insulting friendly nations, and ties between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are special," Abdul-Aziz Bou Dastour, cinema and production supervisor at the Information Ministry, told The Associated Press. He said the film "insulted the Saudi royal family by saying they had common interests with the Bush family and that those interests contradicted with the interests of the American people."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 12:56 ||
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Just a friendly reminder to Howard, Tony, and all the UK Rantburgers to brush up on some pending civic ordinances.
"Judges would roam the streets and markets accompanied by police to implement and maintain the Islamic public order ... There will also be an emphasis upon boys to have military training so that they can participate in Jihad after they become 15 years old and an emphasis upon girls to learn those subjects such as cooking, managing the household and looking after and bringing up children to train them properly for their roles as mothers in the future." Well, they're not bullshitting us, at least. It's progress, of a sort.
Posted by: Another Dan ||
08/01/2004 5:26:54 AM ||
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#1
These fanatics seem determined to force a final showdown: we either surrender to them, or kill them all.
I vote for the latter.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/01/2004 13:08 Comments ||
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#2
Isn't muhajiroun.com in dire need of being investigated or shut down? The aspirations noted in their article fall well within sedition laws. One would think that merely advocating closure of all British pubs would be enough to rally Britons nation-wide for some serious "political realignment."
#4
Now would they please believe us when we say that this is what Muslims want for the world? We're not making this stuff up - it's coming from the Muslims' own mouths, for Christ's sake!
Posted by: The Doctor ||
08/01/2004 14:13 Comments ||
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#5
Okay, I give up, why are these clowns living in London instead of the middle east? And could you imagine a bunch of Brits marching through some Saudi or Iranian city and demanding pubs on every corner and pork at every butcher shop?
Posted by: Tom ||
08/01/2004 21:31 Comments ||
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A judge ordered four Frenchmen, returned to France after more than two years at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to be kept in jail, judicial officials said Sunday.
"We're done with 'em. You can have 'em back!"
"Oh, merci a heap!"
Authorities here struggled for months to secure their release and are still negotiating the return of three other Frenchmen held at the lockup in Cuba. On Sunday, a judge ordered the four suspects jailed provisionally in France — a decision defense lawyers plan to challenge.
"Hey! Youse can't do that!"
After four days of questioning by investigators, the men were transferred to various Paris-area jails. They were still wearing clothes provided by U.S. authorities on their release — white T-shirts, baggy jeans and white curly-toed slippers tennis shoes, according to lawyers. The ruling followed a decision by anti-terrorism judges to place the men under investigation, a step toward formal charges. They are all being investigated for "criminal association with a terrorist enterprise," authorities said. Investigators suspect they frequented groups that planned terror attacks in Europe. Several of the men confessed to training in military camps where they learned to use explosives and weapons, officials said.
Oui. You might want to look into that, mightn't you?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 1:31:46 PM ||
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#1
Benchellali is the son of Chellali Benchellali, an imam who was arrested in connection with a suspected terrorist network that authorities say was planning attacks on Russian interests in France.
Though daddy and brothers are in jail for planning explosive and chemical attacks in France, what possible threat could sonny-boy pose?
Posted by: ed ||
08/01/2004 14:02 Comments ||
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I wonder how this premtive and unlawful detention will play in the French press? I hate to admit it but it sounds like the French are doing the RIGHT thing. Not ready to embrace the frogs but there is hope for them.
Again? How many times a week do they do this?
An al-Qaida-linked group gave Italy another 15 days to withdraw its troops from Iraq before sending "waves of earthquakes to erase your country," according to a statement sent to an Arabic newspaper Sunday. It was the fourth threat in two weeks against the key American ally. The statement, signed by the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and sent to the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper, followed the expiration of a three-month truce purportedly made in April by Osama bin Laden to European states. "The language of blood is on its way to you. We mobilize all our cells in Rome and all other Italian cities. We give (Premier Silvio) Berlusconi 15 days to pull out from Iraq and after that the blood of all Italians everywhere will be free for us," said the statement, faxed to The Associated Press by the newspaper. "We will send waves of earthquakes to erase your country completely and will burn everything," it said.
I think if I was Berlusconi I'd start rounding up turbans and shipping them someplace else. Like Antarctica.
The statement urged the Italians to remember the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist bombings in the United States and the bombs in Madrid last March.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 1:02:16 PM ||
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#1
Does it really take fifteen days to get all the explosives out of the trunk of the Fiat and into the trunk of MB.
"Omar, we've tried. The Fiat wont start."
"Again Abu? I told you, you must use the Mercedes! You cannot do jihad on the cheap my brother!"
#2
Well, you have the problem of being (1) reactive or (2) preemptive. If you want to win, do not pick No. 1.
Fred, I would not pollute Antarctica with turbans. Maybe South Georgia Island would work. They could learn to eat penguins. Or maybe gulls would like them in the Atlantic between Italy and South Georgia.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 13:48 Comments ||
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I think if I was Berlusconi I'd start rounding up turbans and shipping them someplace else.
My vote is for the hard vacuum of deep space. Plenty of room for all the jihadis up there. They can manufacture their own spacesuits with all those supposedly superior Islamic methods.
John Kerry consistently uses the line that he has the ability to convince the French to join with us in adventures such as Iraq. Now if one were to take this man seriously and think about that line, to dissect this sound bite, doesn't it truly beg the question that no one and I MEAN NO ONE is asking. "Then why didn't you?" "Why didn't you help the current President?" "Are you so morally bankrupt that you are willing to allow the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers for political expediency?"
Tell me John, just why did't you ask Chirac to join with President George W. Bush in this noble adventure into Iraq where we freed 25 million tortured souls. If your answer is that you had to be president before Chirac listened to you, doens't that indicate that you lied to the American public about "foreign leaders have personally told me that I need to replace Bush." If it is true that Chirac told you that you needed to be president first, then how in the world can you possibly even want to work with a person like Chirac that is so notably evil; meaning that HE wanted to see American soldiers die also, just like you, to punish George Bush.
Regardless of one's opinion of "how" President Bush got us into the Iraqi War, it has turned out to be a noble undertaking.
Remember, Jed Clampett was just "shootin' at some food when up from the ground came a bubblin' crude." Sometimes, unintended consequences are GOOD!
#1
You make some very good points, Gecko, but the postings in Rantburg are supposed to be factual news.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/01/2004 19:54 Comments ||
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Uh, Mike, you yourself posted a vanity post just last month, so your comment is BS.
Gecko, excellent "Thought for the Day!"
Also, sKerry's policy of getting the French to join us presupposes that they would, which I think is pretty iffy even under a President [*gag*] Kerry.
John Kerry's heavily hyped cross-country bus tour stumbled out of the blocks yesterday, as a group of Marines publicly dissed the Vietnam War hero in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Kerry was treating running mate Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, to a Wendy's lunch in Newburgh, N.Y., for their 27th wedding anniversary — an Edwards family tradition — when the candidate approached four Marines and asked them questions. The Marines — two in uniform and two off-duty — were polite but curt while chatting with Kerry, answering most of his questions with a "yes, sir" or "no, sir." But they turned downright nasty after the Massachusetts senator thanked them "for their service" and left. "He imposed on us and I disagree with him coming over here shaking our hands," one Marine said, adding, "I'm 100 percent against [him]." A sergeant with 10 years of service under his belt said, "I speak for all of us. We think that we are doing the right thing in Iraq," before saying he is to be deployed there in a few weeks and is "eager" to go and serve. The Marines — all of whom serve at nearby Stewart Air Force Base — wouldn't give their names.
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
08/01/2004 09:16 ||
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#1
Kerry got exactly the respect he's earned from our troops: zero.
Watch for Kerry election lawyers this fall, maneuvering to disqualify every absentee military ballot they can get their thieving, stinking hands on.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
08/01/2004 13:02 Comments ||
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Also watch the mainstream media ignore the Post's story. The MSM picks up all other trivial stories and culls the ones that do not fit their agenda. Absolutely disgusting. Saw pics of the encounter on LGF. The person on the left was a fraud, and the Marine on the right was cold, but polite to the part-time senator, IMHO.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 13:58 Comments ||
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Jarhead what is the insight on superior hot and juicy on the uniform of the day?
#4
I checked the Chicago Tribune, SF Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, and the Houston Chronicle with no mention of Kerry or Marine. If President Bush or candidate Bush had a similar incident you could bet the press would make it the number one story for the next 90 days. As a vet I applaud the Marine and his bravery to speak his mind while still on active duty. Commanders don't like troops taking sides in a political debate (one side or the other). However, I think he was right because it was Kerry that tried to include them in his campaign. It would have been different if the Marine had approached Kerry.
#5
The marine resented being a PR tool of Kerry. The marine gave the senator the required respect of the office, and no more. I am sure that Rantburgers could write a great script for the Marine. I had an ex-marine friend of mine that told then President Carter what he though of the Pres as a person after the failed Iran hostage rescue. Needless to say, the Pres got beet red and my friend's career as a marine was truncated.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
08/01/2004 16:55 Comments ||
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The Los Angeles Times is presenting an airbrushed version of the story: "Let's recap. John Kerry tries to get a photo-op with some soldiers, and it backfires, badly, with the soldiers expressing resentment at having been used. But that's not news. Meanwhile, one boy was holding an anti-Bush sign along Bush's campaign trail -- and that's news. Business as usual at the objective and non-liberal L.A. Times."
The L.A. Times also omits this bit: "Edwards and his wife had hearty meals of burgers and fries and shared a chocolate Frosty. Teresa Heinz Kerry pointed at a picture of chili on the menu and asked the cashier what it was before ordering a bowl."
Somehow, I think similar ignorance on the part of a Bush would get more attention -- even if it never happened.
The previous via Instapundit.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
08/01/2004 17:34 Comments ||
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Via Captain Ed via Patterico: While Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and his running mate, John Edwards, and their families were having a "lite" lunch at Wendy's in the Town of Newburgh Friday, drumming up local support right after the national convention in Boston, their real lunches were waiting on their bus. A member of the Kerry advance team called Nikola's Restaurant at the Newburgh Yacht Club the night before and ordered 19 five-star lunches to go that would be picked up at noon Friday. Management at the restaurant, which is operated by CIA graduate chef Michael Dederick, was told the meals would be for the Kerry and Edwards families and actor Ben Affleck who was with them on the tour. The gourmet meals to go included shrimp vindallo, grilled diver sea scallops, prosciutto, wrapped stuffed chicken, and steak salad.
#8
I wonder if the Marine soldiers kept one hand on their wallets. Kerry has got to find a way to pay for his half trillion dollar increase to the federal budget deficit based on his proposed plans and initatives.
Posted by: Capt America ||
08/01/2004 19:52 Comments ||
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#9
I think that Kerry actually believed that the Marines would feel honored that he deigned to talk to them and would enthusiastically participate in his photo-op. In his own mind, he is already the Commander-in-Chief and the troops should bow down before him. This should serve as a warning to politicians that Marines have a well-developed BS detctor.
From The Council on American-Islamic Relations
On Friday, July 30, the Southern California office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) will hold a news conference to outline concerns about allegations that a local Muslim is being threatened with deportation as "pressure tactic" to gain information about an Islamic charity. ....
Abdel-Jabbar Hamdan, a 44-year-old resident of Buena Park, Calif., was detained on Tuesday, the same day that several former officials of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) were arrested for allegedly funneling charitable donations to Palestinian militants, a charge they consistently deny. Hamdan's family and attorney say the 24-year U.S. resident, who has six U.S.-born children, is being told he and his wife will be deported unless he offers information in the HLF case. ....
"Our legal and immigration systems should be used to punish criminals and protect our borders, not as psychological thumb-screws to extract information," said CAIR-LA Communications Director Sabiha Khan. Ban Al-Wardi, Hamdan's immigration attorney, said her client has cooperated fully with federal officials on three separate occasions and has offered any and all information he has on the HLF case. Al-Wardi is also president of the ADC-LA/OC [American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee]. ...
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/01/2004 8:31:08 PM ||
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I call for the Feds to cease this pressure and deport him immediately. I think we have one too many 44-year old former Holy Land Foundation we need in this country.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/01/2004 21:49 Comments ||
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By JENNIFER C. KERR, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - The federal government warned Sunday of possible terrorist attacks against "iconic" financial institutions in New York City, Washington and Newark, N.J., saying a confluence of intelligence over the weekend pointed to a car or truck bomb.
Specifically, the government named these buildings as potential targets:
_The Citicorp building and the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) in New York City.
_The International Monetary Fund (news - web sites) and the World Bank (news - web sites) buildings in Washington.
_The Prudential building in Newark.
"The preferred means of attack would be car or truck bombs," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in a briefing with journalists. That would be a primary means of attack."
The government said the new intelligence indicated the meticulous planning of al-Qaida. He identified explosives as the likely mode of attack, as opposed to a chemical or biological attack or a radiological "dirty" bomb.
Ridge said the government's threat level for financial institutions would be raised to orange, or high alert, but would remain at yellow, or elevated, elsewhere.
Ridge said it would be up to New York City officials to decide whether to move to the highest level, red. The city has remained on orange since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The threat potential remains through the Nov. 2 elections, Ridge said.
The secretary said the government took the unprecedented step of naming specific buildings because of the level of specificity of the intelligence. "This is not the usual chatter. This is multiple sources that involve extraordinary detail," Ridge said. He said the government decided to notify the public because of the specificity of detail it had obtained.
Ridge acknowledged that protecting these buildings, located in heavily populated areas, would require additional security measures, especially because thousands of cars and trucks travel through these cities daily.
"Car and truck bombs are one of the most difficult tasks we have in the war on terror," Ridge said.
Local and state officials were notified earlier in the day and Ridge said new security procedures were already being implemented.
The government provided a wealth of detail that it had picked up in the past 36 hours, but a senior intelligence official described it only on condition of anonymity. The official described "excruciating detail" and meticulous planning "indicative of al-Qaida."
The official said the intelligence included security in and around these buildings; the flow of pedestrians; the best places for reconnaissance; how to make contact with employees who work in the buildings; the construction of the buildings; traffic patterns; locations of hospitals and police departments; and which days of the week present less security at these buildings.
To illustrate the level of detail obtained, the official cited these examples: midweek pedestrian traffic of 14 people per minute on each side of the street for a total of 28 people; that some explosives might not be hot enough to melt steel; and that the construction of some buildings might prevent them from falling down.
The official said he had not seen such extraordinary detail in his 24 years in intelligence work.
A White House spokeswoman, Erin Healy, said the intelligence on the threat is "very new, coming in during the last 72 hours."
"The president made the final decision today agreeing with the recommendation of Secretary Ridge to go ahead and raise the threat level in these select areas," Healy said.
This was the first time the color-coded warning system had been used in such a narrow, targeted way, Ridge said at a news conference at department headquarters.
"With this kind of information comes action," Ridge said. "This is sobering news."
This step will "bring protective resources to an even higher level" and alert industry employees to be extra vigilant, he said. Actions to tighten security around the five buildings he specifically named are under way, Ridge said.
He said workers at those buildings should get guidance from security officers at each site and remain alert as they go to work.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge (search) raised the threat alert level Sunday for the financial sectors in Washington, D.C., New York and northern New Jersey. At a press conference intended to update Americans about protective measures being put into place in response to threats from Al Qaeda (search), Ridge said three targets have been specifically threatened: The World Bank and IMF in Washington, D.C., the Prudential Building in Newark, N.J. and the New York Stock Exchange. (Emphasis added.)
Officials said that in the last 24 to 36 hours, intelligence operatives have received very specific information showing that Al Qaeda has done very detailed surveillance on targets. It was not immediately known what intelligence was leading the government to consider such action, officials suggested that Al Qaeda may possibly use car or truck bombs. New York City Police did not comment on any intelligence, but they urged extra security precautions at various city buildings.
Law enforcement officials say that Al Qaeda planned to send terrorists across the Mexican border in to the United States to conduct suicide attacks in the city. The attacks could come between now and Election Day. Republicans are planning their national convention in New York between Aug. 30 and Sept. 2.
New York's status has remained at orange, indicating the second highest risk of terrorist attack, since Sept. 11, 2001, and a change to red would not mean dramatic changes in the city, said a Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. However, a threat on financial institutions could have the impact of depressing stock trades on Wall Street on Monday, allowing terrorists to impact the U.S. economy.
Washington and elsewhere are on yellow alert, or elevated status of risk; that is in the middle of the five-color scale.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/01/2004 15:00 Comments ||
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#2
Regretably I'll be surprised if "something" doesn't happen between now and the November elections.
I certainly hope I'm wrong, but it'll probably happen. :(
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
08/01/2004 15:02 Comments ||
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#3
People, people people.
Al Qaeda is having a hard time even holding a damn wedding let alone a complicated and coordinated terrorist attack.
Al Qaeda is knocked back on its heels, sports fans. Osama won't even spring for a damn video camera.
They will more likely attack Europe, but I think they will have a hard time here.
As I have said in previous posts: One rolling stop, one second of forgetting to switch on the headlights at night, one pissed off stripper demanding payment for the lapdance she just gave, and an operaiton can come unraveled. They can't miss once.
Holmes! How do you do it?
Despite its periodic crackdowns on the terrorist network, Iran has served as a refuge for Al Qaeda operatives suspected of plotting attacks in Europe and the Middle East and of playing a central role in the Iraqi insurgency, European investigators say. Investigations in France, Italy, Spain and other countries since the Sept. 11 attacks point to an increasing presence in Iran of Al Qaeda figures, including suspected masterminds of this year's train bombings in Madrid and last year's car bombings of expatriate compounds in Saudi Arabia. But Iran's complex politics and secretive policies have made it difficult to determine the nature of any relationship between Iranian officials and the terror network, investigators say.
The potential ties between Iran and Al Qaeda drew attention last month with the release of the final report of the Sept. 11 commission. The U.S. panel found that eight of the hijackers had traveled through Iran but did not produce much evidence of an Al Qaeda-Iran alliance before the 2001 attacks. What concerns Western law enforcement officials, however, is the post-Sept. 11 menace posed by the terrorist group, including its involvement in Iraq and deadly attacks in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:47:28 PM ||
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#1
Wow. I'm shocked! Whooda thunk it?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/01/2004 19:23 Comments ||
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#2
Yes, this does line up with the 800 other reports on this topic. Iran is a roach motel.
Posted by: Capt America ||
08/01/2004 19:43 Comments ||
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#3
Let's go easy here -- this is actually helping Bush make the case against Iran. It's a big "well duh" for Rantburgers, but it's an education for Bush-bashing Dimocrats.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/01/2004 20:21 Comments ||
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#4
Too bad the Dims have their fingers in their ears singing "la-la-la," Tom.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/01/2004 20:27 Comments ||
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#5
You're right, facts haven't influenced them yet.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/01/2004 20:30 Comments ||
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#6
It's interesting to note where this latest information originates:France, Italy, Spain and other (European?) countries. But not to worry, Kerry will repair relations with Iran if he becomes president. But Kerry's e-mail to the Mehr News Agency, and published in the Tehran Times, wasn't clear how he would do this. Through the Revolutionary Guard or the intelligence service or the Grand Council of Mullahs or elected politicans? First Kerry will have to find out who to surrender to. (That's the what he learned growing up in France isn't it?)
Enough questions about Iraq already. Someone needs to ask Kerry what he would do about the growing threat from Iran.
#7
If Kerry wins, he can lead us all in conversion to Islam. That should satisfy the Iranians, Osama, and Jacques ChIraq. It will also scare the hell out of Kimmie.
Posted by: Tom ||
08/01/2004 20:57 Comments ||
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#8
The Dems are happy to hear all about al-Qaeda being in Iran, since they think that this somehow bolsters their case that the invasion of Iraq was wrong (we all know better).
Of course, if GWB actually proposed to do something about the turbantops, the Dems would quickly -- nay, instantaneously -- change their tune.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/01/2004 21:31 Comments ||
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#9
During the Dems little reinvention in Boston, the majority of speakers acted like 9-11 never even happened. No wonder the enemies of America favour Kerry-Edwards.
Bush will win..any bets? Good odds..:)
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
08/01/2004 23:23 Comments ||
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"The Iranians play a double game," said a top French law enforcement official who, like others interviewed, asked to remain anonymous. "Everything they can do to trouble the Americans, without going too far, they do it. They have arrested important Al Qaeda people, but they have permitted other important Al Qaeda people to operate. It is a classic Iranian style of ambiguity, deception, manipulation."
Iran's leading academic dissident Hashem Aghajari was freed on bail on Saturday after two years in jail facing the death penalty for telling Iranians not to follow their clerical leaders like "monkeys". Students took to the streets in violent protests in 2002 after the history lecturer, who lost a leg in the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, was sentenced to hang for blasphemy. "I hope there will come a day when no-one goes to prison in Iran for his opinions, let alone be sentenced to death," Aghajari, speaking through his tears, told reporters outside his apartment in north Tehran.
That'll be after the last ayatollah's been hung...
His joyous family handed out confectionery and orange juice to journalists. Long-haired Aghajari, 47, beaming with delight, embraced close friends gathered outside home. His lawyer Saleh Nikbakht said one of the reformist's friends had met the bail of 970 million rials ($113,000). He added that more than 160 well-wishers, including academics and clerics, had offered to help pay the sum.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:41:01 PM ||
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From The Sun Online
... Fatma Adam, 20, wept softly as she revealed she had become a victim of the Janjaweed militiamen laying waste to whole villages in orgies of murder and looting. ... Traumatised and homeless, farmer's wife Fatma said they raided her village at dawn — and began "killing, killing, killing". She said:
At least 15 men were shot dead and our homes were burned. Then they started rounding up the young women, fifty of us. I thought we were all going to be murdered. But they put us in a truck and took us to their base. Then for three days we were kept in locked rooms and raped again and again at gunpoint. I lost count of the number of times they did it to me. They were like animals. My baby son was with me but they didn't care. I was too terrified to resist as I knew they would think nothing of killing me. One girl who fought back was shot dead and four others from my village are still missing. ...
Fatma was finally released and found husband Ahmed, 30, had also survived the raid, despite suffering a terrible beating. The couple — nursing their eight-month-old son — struggled to a feeding centre near the desert town of Tawila. ....
Zakia, from a village near Tawila, revealed:
More than 5,000 Janjaweed came and swarmed on our village like locusts. They killed at will, burned and raped and took everything from our homes. My grandfather and uncle were shot dead and my husband Musa is still recovering from burns and a head injury.
... Asha Mohammed's two year-old son Adam has not stopped crying since the pair stumbled exhausted into the feeding centre. The mother, 25, from the northern village of Tarny, said: "Forty men and six women from my community were killed. ...
Tormented Zobaida Mohammed can still hear the screams of her six-year-old brother as militiamen burned him alive. She is constantly haunted by the shrill sound of Ahmed shrieking as the dreaded Janjaweed attacked her village. Student Zobaida, 22, wept as she told of the massacre near Tawila last month. She sobbed:
Ahmed was playing near our home. We were bombed without warning by planes and helicopters raked everything that moved with machine-gun fire. People were dying all over the village and Ahmed ran into our house to hide as the Janjaweed rode in on horses and camels and set the building on fire. I heard him screaming, turned and saw the building alight. I knew he couldn't get out and the screaming just didn't stop. I still hear him now in my dreams.
Other survivors of the attack told how whole families were chained together and set alight as a lesson to others who were forced to watch. Teacher Ismail Mohammed, 38, said militiamen butchered two fleeing pregnant women during an attack on Kurma, near Al Fasher — then knifed their unborn children. He said:
It was an unbearable thing to see. These women just fell behind in a stampede through the streets to escape. Refugees at Abu Shouk endure 110°F heat by day and swarms of malaria-carrying mosquitos at night.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/01/2004 11:35:41 PM ||
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From Rolling Stone magazine, an article by Osha Gray Davidson
... The new classified military documents offer a chilling picture of what happened at Abu Ghraib -- including detailed reports that U.S. troops and translators sodomized and raped Iraqi prisoners. The secret files -- 106 "annexes" that the Defense Department withheld from the Taguba report last spring -- include nearly 6,000 pages of internal Army memos and e-mails, reports on prison riots and escapes, and sworn statements by soldiers, officers, private contractors and detainees. The files depict a prison in complete chaos. Prisoners were fed bug-infested food and forced to live in squalid conditions; detainees and U.S. soldiers alike were killed and wounded in nightly mortar attacks; and loyalists of Saddam Hussein served as guards in the facility, apparently smuggling weapons to prisoners inside. ...
In the files, prisoner after prisoner at Abu Ghraib describes acts of torture that Taguba found "credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses." The abuses took place at the Hard Site, a two-story cinder-block unit at the sprawling prison that housed Iraqi criminals and insurgents, not members of Al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations. In one sworn statement, Kasim Mehaddi Hilas, detainee number 151108, said he witnessed a translator referred to only as Abu Hamid raping a teenage boy. "I saw Abu Hamid, who was wearing the military uniform, putting his dick in the little kid's ass," Hilas testified. "The kid was hurting very bad." A female soldier took pictures of the rape, Hilas said.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/01/2004 9:04:08 PM ||
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It still keeps coming back to Graner and his circle. The officers, from what we know, failed to maintain control and stop what was happening, but they don't appear to have ordered or approved what was happening.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/01/2004 21:24 Comments ||
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I think you're probably right, Robert, but I am still waiting for the guards' testimony at the trials.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
08/01/2004 23:22 Comments ||
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#3
No worries. According to most Rantburg participants, none of this is *really* torture, it's merely "hazing". Whoever disapproves of it must *clearly* be a terrorist-sympathizer. To call what happened at Abu Ghraib "torture" also firmly puts you in the terrorist-sympathizer category.
Let's btw have a few more sarcastic references to "panties on heads" so as to imply that nothing worse than that ever happened.
#4
Do you have any solid proof that something worse than that ever happened?
Posted by: Rafael ||
08/01/2004 23:38 Comments ||
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#5
All this concern over terrorists. Where was the outcry for the butchered and burned Americans some of which just might have been 'liberals' although the enemy could care less only when it comes to altering national elections (Spain) and soon the USA.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
08/01/2004 23:42 Comments ||
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#6
Criminal behavior is criminal behavior. Period.
And all evidence points to Graner and his gang, not to systematic abuse, nor to the chain of commande - excepting that the chain of command was neglegent and shoudl be forced to resign for allowing this kind of crap to happen on thier watch.
As for the prisoners, these are not choirboys we are talking about - they are rapists, murderers and others that Saddam dumped on society in his attempt at Gotterdammerung.
And Ari, if you think this makes us the bad guys, whom do you think the Iraqis would prefer - us, who are prosecuting these criminal guards (and I note that none of them died nor were they permanently injured), or Saddam and his sons, who would have fed these mooks to the shredders, after he was done with electrocuting their gentials, amputating tongues and ears, etc?
#7
That being said, Old Spook, Aris and his pals on the Left like the Dimocrats and the EUroweenies need to know that these few soldiers who stepped out of line at Abu Ghraib represent a small and virtually lone instance of malfeasance in a War where we, as embodied by our troops, have done much good and been a benevolent influence for positive change in Iraq and Afghanistan!
#8
And might I add that I'm sick of our resident Lefties (you know who you are!) using the Abu Ghraib abuses as a stick to beat the rest of us that support what we're doing over there!
No, all this concern over people bungled in Abu Ghraib, and which we mostly don't have a clue whether they were guilty or innocent.
But thanks for making my exact point.
"and I note that none of them died nor were they permanently injured"
Some would say that anal rapes do count for more than temporary injury. Some would even call them "torture".
"As for the prisoners, these are not choirboys we are talking about - they are rapists, murderers and others that Saddam dumped on society in his attempt at Gotterdammerung."
The twilight of the gods? I'm not sure how you feel Nordic mythology fits into Saddam's attempts.
And do you have actual proof that no single innocent was tortured? Because I only have your unsubstantiated claim that they were all rapists and murderers.
And Ari, if you think this makes us the bad guys
Which "us" is that? The apologists of torture? Yeah, I think it makes you bad guys. I think it makes you twisted blackhearted villains, prime examples of Nazi foot-soldiers. Too willing to accept the subhumanity of those that is convenient for your consciences to view as subhuman, too willing to presume their guilt without any real evidence I've seen that indeed all of them are guilty. Too willing to deny, then to excuse.
If by "us" you mean a wider "you", perhaps encompassing your whole nation, that's your mere imagination that's talking. I would need to be a nationalist in order to blame your whole nation for the actions at Abu Ghraib.
#10
Aris, enough talk about whatever happened in the Iraqi prison. The morons in question are being charged and tried while the radical Islamic enemy continues butchering innocents people world-wide.
What about the Islamists blowing up churches and slaughtering Iraqi's by the hundreds?
The bad guys are even lurking in your nation awaiting orders .....let's hope it's not where you reside.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
08/02/2004 0:52 Comments ||
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#11
What pure bullshit, Aris, and what wasted, pointless "outrage."
(BTW, do you, for your part, have *proof* of anal rape and/or real torture at Abu Ghraib? Because I haven't seen any.)
Don't you have anything better to do with your time?
This trumped-up "issue" was dealt with weeks, if not months, ago, and you and Mike Sylwester are the only ones keeping it alive over here at RB like Frankenstein.
Even the Leftist press left it like a turd in the punch bowl and have moved on.
#12
It just does not seem credible to me that this beast Graner and his gang could have done all this without at least a fair degree of acquiesance from the chain of command. Graner and England, for example, could not have had anything to do with the bad food and miserable living conditions.
Brig. General Karpinski, imho, is arm-pit deep in this. My impression of her, drawn from her interviews and the statements in the Taguba report, is of a sinister and destructive person rather than simply a naive bungler operating out of her element. In civilian life, Karpinski is in the business of conducting "motivational training" seminars for junior exectives. These reportedly involve "stressing" the trainees in ways that would qualify as hazing, if not unlawful abuse, under other circumstances. This kind of behavior has a fair number of apologists and advocates in the business community.
Finally, it is worth noting that a high percentage of the worst offenders are reservists who work as prison guards in civilian life. This leads me to wonder just what the hell is going on in the prisons of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
In a step seen by Russian experts as a new development in the Chechen struggle against the Russian federal forces in the independence-seeking republic, Chechen gun-makers invented a new weapon. In a video tape posted on the Chechen fighters website Thursday, July 29, President of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI), Commander-In-Chief of CRI Armed Forces Aslan Maskhadov and Amir of Islamic Brigade of Martyrs 'Riyadh as-Salihiin' (Gardens for the Righteous) Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris (Commander Basayev) have presented the new weapon to the Chechen troops. Lom 30 (Lion 30) was invented and manufactured by the Chechen fighters and is being distributed among all fronts and direction of CRI Armed Forces, they said.
Lom-30 uses ammunition from Russian automatic grenade launcher AGS-17. The new Chechen weapon has high mobile characteristics (weighs 6.5 kg) and an effective range of fire, up to 2 km. It is a kind of handheld grenade-launcher, which is capable of eliminating enemy manpower and destroying light vehicles at a distance of 14 to 2,000 meters. Moreover, the new weapon can now be used to hit low-flying targets, according to the site. Maskhadov and Commander Abu-Idris said the model has virtually been put on the production line, but did not specify where the new weapon is manufactured.
Maskhadov also announced that Chechen gun-makers are now developing other types of weaponry as well, which will soon be provided to the Chechen troops. The new Chechen weapon has raised fears among the Russian military circles as it would pose threats to the Russian forces in the war-torn republic. Lom 30 will enable the Chechen fighters to easily hit the Russian targets, according to a Russian expert who declined to be identified. Another Russian expert said the new weapon will be used by the Chechen fighters to target buildings and cars due to its light weight, urging the Russian special units to find as fast as possible the manufacturing place of the weapon.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
08/01/2004 3:50:48 PM ||
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#1
It slices! It dices! It's a floor wax *and* a dessert topping! It weighs 14.3 pounds! But otherwise it is a single shot version of the AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher.
Dubbed a "Russian Taliban" by local media Ruslan Odizhev still cannot believe he is free after years in the United States' Guantanamo prison camp and a troubled relationship with Russia's security forces. Back home in Russia's Kabardino-Balkaria republic near Chechnya the 30-year-old, shorn of the beard and Afghan clothes he lost in transit, reflects on a saga that saw him caught in one of the most controversial incidents of the 2001 overthrow of Afghanistan's Taliban leadership. When he was arrested by US forces in November 2001, Odizhev was being held by US-backed Northern Alliance forces at the notorious Qala-i-Jhanghi fort near Mazar-e-Sharif.
That's where they stuffed the thugs they captured at the siege of Konduz...
He had been captured and held there after seeking refuge in Afghanistan from a clampdown in his southern Russian homeland where mass arrests of young people had occurred following a series of attacks in 1999 that left some 300 people dead. Odizhev, a Sunni Muslim of the southern Caucasus' Kabard ethnic group, had attracted Russian authorities' attention after returning from a period of study in Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and then joining a radical community led by local imam Musa Mukozhev. In 2000 he was detained by Russian security forces and suffered two weeks of ill treatment before being released. "I knew that I had to leave Russia I was accused of everything, of supporting the Chechen rebellion," Odizhev said.
"Me? Oh, certainly not!"
Odizhev is vague as to what he did after arriving in Afghanistan where he was not initially welcomed by the Taliban, who suspected him of spying and before his capture by the Northern Alliance. But he insists he was not involved in fighting.
"I did odd jobs. Worked as a bouncer in a mosque for awhile..."
His arrest by US forces in one sense was lucky. He was only injured during the violent suppression of an uprising at the fort while hundreds of other inmates died an incident that rights campaigners say British and US forces have yet to adequately explain their role in.
That was when the Bad Guys decided to un-surrender. "Rights campaigners" are waiting for us to forget what actually happened.
But he was soon experiencing torture and torment behind the Guantanamo prison camp's sun-baked walls on the island of Cuba, Odizhev says. "They beat us up, took our Koran away from us, broadcast the US anthem many times a day, even during prayers," Odizhev told AFP in Kabardino-Balkaria's capital Nalchik.
"They put ladies' underwear on our heads!"
Eventually, as Washington came under pressure to end the legal limbo of hundreds of foreign inmates held at Guantanamo, Odizhev was transferred to Russian custody this spring. A commitment by Russian authorities to pursue criminal proceedings against him and six other Guantanamo inmates evaporated after they had spent four months at the White Swan prison in the Caucasian town of Pyatigorsk. All seven were released on June 22, angering US officials who say they are still pursuing the matter. "We obtained assurances that there would be a trial," a US embassy official in Moscow said under condition of anonymity. "We are continuing to seek clarifications about this case." Russian prosecutors retort that they have no grounds to prosecute the men.
Then don't ask for any more.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:28:30 PM ||
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A commitment by Russian authorities to pursue criminal proceedings against him and six other Guantanamo inmates evaporated after they had spent four months at the White Swan prison in the Caucasian town of Pyatigorsk. All seven were released on June 22, angering US officials who say they are still pursuing the matter.
Any takers that Russia will ever connect the dots between their own release of these conspirators and the misery in Chechnya?
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Friday he was opposed to a Saudi proposal to send an Arab or Muslim force to strife-torn Iraq. "Arab or Muslim forces should be sent only if the occupation forces pull out and are replaced by forces authorised by the United Nations," said Gaddafi in comments published by the Jana official news agency. "Otherwise the (Arab and Muslim) forces would also become occupation forces," he added. US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday said he welcomed the Saudi proposal of dispatching Arab or Muslim troops to Iraq to serve either as part of the US-led multinational force or separately. Iraqi radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr and Sunni Muslim religious elders on Friday rejected the Saudi proposal. "I advise all countries that want to help Iraq, not to send forces here," said Sadr in a sermon at Friday prayers in the main mosque in Kufa, south of Baghdad.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:26:17 PM ||
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The Jamaat-e-Islami will stage a long march to Islamabad with the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal if the government decides to send troops to Iraq, the Jamaat's Majlis-e-Shoora decided at a meeting in Mansoora on Saturday. The council also decided to call demonstrations throughout Pakistan on August 6 to express solidarity with the Iraqi people.
The ones the Bad Guys are booming? Or the ones doing the booming?
The shoora said the party's future strategy would be announced at its annual public meeting in October at Minar-e-Pakistan. MMA leader and JI Punjab President Liaqat Baloch, speaking at the concluding session of the meeting, said that the components of the MMA were "at daggers drawn" with the military and civil establishment over their "ineffective national and foreign policies" that were putting Pakistan's integrity at stake. He said the repeated military interventions in government had weakened democratic institutions and put a question mark on the future of democracy in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:17:56 PM ||
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A purported Islamist group in Iraq has warned that any Muslim troops sent to the country will be considered "occupation forces," in an implicit threat they will be attacked, Al-Jazeera television reported pm Saturday. The "Battalions of the '20 revolution, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq" announced "it would consider any foreign forces, be they Arab or Islamic, occupation forces," Al-Jazeera said. It gave no further details, but a spokesman at the Al-Jazeera said the warning had come in a statement received by the Doha-based satellite news channel.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 2:13:59 PM ||
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Sudan stepped back Saturday from rejecting a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding it disarm Arab militias responsible for atrocities in Darfur, as France deployed troops and aid along Chad's border with Sudan to help hundreds of thousands of Darfur refugees.
"Never mind."
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the resolution passed a day earlier did not go beyond commitments Sudan already made in early July to U.N. chief Kofi Annan to rein in the militias. "If we look closely at this matter, we will find out that there is no reason to reject the resolution as it doesn't contain anything new, anything other than what already has been signed on in the agreement with the United Nations," Ismail told reporters. The resolution gives the Sudanese government 30 days to act against the militias, known as the Janjaweed. International and humanitarian officials say Sudan has failed to honor its pledges to crack down on the Janjaweed.
So they gave 'em another month...
After the Security Council passed the resolution, Sudanese Information Minister El-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik said his country rejected the resolution, which "does not conform with the agreements signed between the government and the United Nations." Asked about Malik's statement, Ismail said: "The Cabinet is the only body charged with responding to the resolution."
"Don't pay no attention to him. His turban's too tight..."
After a Cabinet meeting on Sunday, the government will issue its definitive response, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/01/2004 1:43:45 PM ||
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An emotional Rudy Giuliani yesterday lashed out at the director of the Bush-bashing film "Fahrenheit 9/11," saying, "I don't need Michael Moore to tell me about Sept. 11th." Giuliani, billed as "America's Mayor" for his handling of the terror crisis almost three years ago, took aim at the flabby filmmaker during a GOP rally in Boston just hours before John Kerry accepted the Democratic presidential nomination. "I lived through it," Giuliani told a reporter who had asked him if Moore's blockbuster documentary would push Bush out of office, as some pundits have suggested. "I saw too much pain, too much suffering," the ex-mayor said.
Though Giuliani hasn't seen Moore's controversial documentary — which has grossed over $100 million — he dubbed it "pure propaganda, propaganda for political purpose and for profit." Giuliani then ripped into Democrats for treating Moore like a "rock star" at the convention. While Moore was given no official role at the convention, he has been treated like a celebrity at many events — and even sat in ex-President Jimmy Carter's box Monday night.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/01/2004 3:39:02 AM ||
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#1
The best insult I've yet read about that Anti American pig called him a "Massive Masticating Michigan Manatee.
Some people just have a way with words.
#3
I'd pay good money to see a meeting between the Michigan Managee and Giuliani.
Giuliana would obliterate him verbally. (He could probably take him out, too.)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/01/2004 15:00 Comments ||
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#4
What imagery that J Mike and Barbara conjur up.
Can you imagine the Mayor punching the big bag of wind in the wrong right place? MM would whiz around the room like a deflating toy balloon.
I understand that Moore's next project is a film featuring his tips on personal hygiene, grooming, and physical fitness.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
