#2: I got no problem with the Russians protecting their soil from these jihadi ass clowns. I think it flat sucks that the US goverment does not back total war on these Chechin ass bites. It makes no sense we do not support totally Russia against this scum.
#3: I agree fully FlameBait93268. I think we should cooperate militarily with the Russians. Wouldn't that be awesome? Imagine us truly working together, pooling our resources in Chechenya. We could kick their butts! We could use the Russian conscripts to probe & when contact is made with the enemy they could call in American airpower & spec ops forces. That's my dream anyway...
#1: The move comes after state counterterrorism officials warned hospitals they could be targeted by terrorists immediately following an attack, crippling efforts to treat victims.
This would be another step in the "douple-tap" attacks the jihadis have been using the last few years -- one bomb to draw the police and rescue, second bomb to kill them. Now add a third bomb to kill the doctors.
Anyone still believe we're not in a fight for our existence?
#2: Anyone still believe we're not in a fight for our existence?
Nope, I'm on board.
Try posing that question to Senator Kerry, I'd be curious to hear the answer.
#2: I guess it is time to clean the country. Only while Christian race should stay in this country and everybody else should go back to his native region.
#3:
He applied for political asylum in 1992. Five long years go by. In 1997 his asylum request is rejected. By an amazing coincidence he gets a green card in that very same year, because now he's married to an American citizen. So, he's still here in 2004.
The investigation into this matter ought to include a thorough, critical investigation of 1) the excessively delayed adjudication of his asylum claim, 2) his marriage, and 3) the granting of a green card to him in these circumstances. If the marriage was phoney, then his "wife" should be maximally charged with fraud.
In general, anybody who tries to immigrate by filing a bogus asylum claim should be denied a green card forever even if he does marry a US citizen.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester|| 2004-08-11 07:41
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#4: nice troll, "Nick". Dumf*&k misspelled white, thereby missing all the racial outrage. Back to Moby class for you!
Posted by: Frank G>Frank G|| 2004-08-11 08:35
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#5: Living in the Charlotte area, this is kind of creepy. Good work Officer Maglione! People around here are 'suprised' to think Charlotte could be a target. People need to wake up, Charlotte is not the po-dunk city it was 10 years ago, we're the #2 Financial City in the country. That puts us on the target list.
#6: I'm surprised the ACLU ain't all over this cop for profiling an "innocent" Arabic-looking tourist. Thank God Charlotte's law enforcement isn't in Mineta's chain of command!
#8: Akhtar is also the family name of the guy they caught in Dubai. Maybe Dan Darling can tell us if he was telling the truth when he said he was just making videotapes for family members.
#1: In a close-up, the footage showed a masked militant holding a large knife to the man's throat, the militant chopped repeatedly at the neck, severing the head. A masked militant was then shown holding the head aloft.
They are so out of touch with western thought that they actually think this will scare us. They just can’t comprehend that we are holding back, because the concepts of mercy and goodness are not key to their culture. What a pity for all of the Islam innocents who will be victims when we finally are forced to unleash our might at their expense.
They just don’t get it that the only resolve that they are loosening, is our resolve for restraint..
#2: Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's interim vice president, called on the U.S. troops to withdraw from Najaf.
"Only Iraqi forces should stay in Najaf, these forces should be responsible for security and should save Najaf from this phenomenon of killing," al-Jaafari told Arab TV network Al-Jazeera from London on Wednesday.
Coalition forces said they were operating in the city at the request of the government.
The top health official in Najaf, Falah al-Mahani, said the deteriorating security situation was causing "a real catastrophe" for the health services.
"Ambulances are prevented from reaching the injured people by the clashing parties. Our staff are not able to reach their hospitals. We are paralyzed," he said, adding that the fighting injured 18 members of his staff.
Once again, Iraqi politicians, Kerry-like, jostle for politicial advantage. I guess everyone wants to be the good cop, by saying later on that the mission needed to be accomplished, but that US troops went about it the wrong way. Actually, I shouldn't say these guys are talking like Kerry - it's that Kerry is talking like a Muslim.
#3: Good. I hope that the Iraqi’s do move in and do it themselves. If the American’s raid the mosque, it will be endless grist for the propaganda mill. If the Iraqi’s do it, that news will be lucky make page A41.
#4: hell it must be nerve racking for everyone on the battlefield in and around Najaf,hope theres a good reason for the delay - like maybe some AC-130's coming into the area for the night,how big is this gonna be , i'm reackoning about 2500marines plus alot of hardware ,flame tanks would be nice and sturmtigers lol,no but seriously how much armour will be cruisin in and what other suprises might the marines have for the Jihadis? i wanna see a thermobaric warhead blow up in that big mosque.could this be the the end of Al-Sadr, could Najaf be levelled,how bads it gonna be for those scummy Jihadis, only time stands in the way of us knowing.Sorry went off on one,MOAB?
#6: YS...how, um, tactical of you. Thanks for bringing the obvious into the discussion. Makes me want to slap my forehead. I like Shep's theory too. Could be a combination of the two.
#1: The Times On Line also carries the story, but there is an annoying registration required.
However the Times carries this extra bit of information the the Guardian censored,
"The pair revealed a visceral antipathy to Jews, evincing an anti-Semitism that, Abu Hakid insisted, was borne out the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with their brother Arabs.
“I don’t know if you have been to Golders Green, it’s full of Jews. We had many chances to go there and kill people. I even had Jewish friends, I could easily have got them home and killed them. I might have got away with it, I might not. But we believe in fighting in the right place.” "
#2: tipper - You comment is another example of the fact that Moslems are not your friend - ever. You may be his friend, but never be so foolish as to think that it's mutual. It's all over the Qu'uran - we ignore this fact at our peril. Your comment made me think of Danny Pearl and how he was so easily fooled because he read the social cues that "told him" he was among rational friendly people, when he was actually amongst killers. We cannot rely upon our social training - assume the worst - the foes now include many who are well-versed in Western ways.
#4: I don’t know if you have been to Golders Green, it’s full of Jews.
Maybe Abu should join the BNP ;)
Move Abu back to 1938, hed fit in well with Oswald Mosely types.
Your comment made me think of Danny Pearl and how he was so easily fooled because he read the social cues that "told him" he was among rational friendly people, when he was actually amongst killers
Yeah, thats happened to Jews before in places were muslims were rarer than hens teeth.
#5: I'm very happy that these guys are being sent out to fight after a mere two weeks using an AK-47. They are sure to be killed, and get their 72 raisins.
#7: Raj - We did, back in WWII (sort of). At least a lot of the Brits felt all our troops plunked down on their island was an "invasion" of sorts. I believe they used to say something to the effect that the only thing wrong the Americans was they were "overpaid, oversexed, and over here." :-p
(guess 2 out of 3 still apply!)
I love the Brits (not including the assholes in this story), but I wish they would rise up and take their country back from the LLL.
#9: B, lemmings is right. At least they are helping the economy of the west, since it cost them money to travel to thier death, and saves us looking for them.
#12: On the bright side, at least Britain has figured out how to export instead of import. So long as they funnel these untrained Islamist rotters into one or another kill zone, its better than seeing Britain fall under Sharia law. But only barely.
#13: "Neither would give his name, but the elder, a confident 23-year-old, used the nomme de guerre Abu Haqid (father of fury)... The younger, quieter man - his 21-year-old nephew -called himself Abu Turab (father of dust, the connotation of death)."
Is it just me or do these names sound like they should be TM'd by Marvel Comics?
#2: Nothing here to indicate it. Typically sparse direct information, just descriptive crap spun per the NYT agenda.
The second sentence is idiotic, since it is dealing with the rebels that will bring stability, not waffling. But, of course, this is the NYT and confusion, hand-wringing, indecision, failure is the message they wish to convey.
Then we have the only quote from the American military: Still, American commanders insisted that they were ready to press ahead if Mr. Sadr fails to surrender. "All indications are that we are committed this time," said Lt. Col. Myles Miyamasu, who commands the First Battalion of the Fifth Cavalry Regiment, the Army unit that took over the fighting in the cemetery on Sunday, relieving units of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit. "There’s a will to win this fight. There are a lot of people we don’t want to let down, including ourselves."
That is fairly definitive - and I'll bet it's the weakest quote they had, so they went with it. Fuck the NYT assholes.
#3: But American commanders, preparing new battle orders, appeared to have deferred for the time being any decision to mount full-scale assaults on the rebels, weighing the consequences for their wider aim of bringing stability to Iraq.
I see nothing wrong with this sentence. The commanders have several options, which include full scale assault,including on the mosque or continuing to use the cemetary as a kill zone, moving in quickly or allowing more time for civileans to depart, going in with more or fewer accompanying Iraqi forces, etc. All of these options have implications for the stability of Iraq, and its not necessarily obvious which ones are to be preferred to that end. None of the options imply not being committed, or not having a will to win. Ergo, the sentence does not contradict the quote.
Pardon if I seem nitpicky, dot com, but Ive followed John Burns since before the war, and IMHO hes one of the best American reporters in Iraq, he was one of the few who made it pretty clear pre-war how much American reporters in Baghdad were censored by the regime, he was one of the few who made clear how well we were doing militarily during the initial "quagmire" panic, etc. Im going to read him through the assumption that we he writes is reasonable, and doesnt represent a NYT line.
"Terror, totalitarian states, and their ways are nothing new to me, but I felt from the start that this was in a category by itself, with the possible exception in the present world of North Korea. I felt that that was the central truth that has to be told about this place. It was also the essential truth that was untold by the vast majority of correspondents here. Why? Because they judged that the only way they could keep themselves in play here was to pretend that it was okay.
There were correspondents who thought it appropriate to seek the approbation of the people who governed their lives. This was the ministry of information, and particularly the director of the ministry. By taking him out for long candlelit dinners, plying him with sweet cakes, plying him with mobile phones at $600 each for members of his family, and giving bribes of thousands of dollars. Senior members of the information ministry took hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes from these television correspondents who then behaved as if they were in Belgium. They never mentioned the function of minders. Never mentioned terror. "
#5: I repeat - the only attribution does not support the pull-back idea, just the opposite. If there is substance behind it, why no quote from the Mil Cmd spokesperson?
Personally, I would like them to simply report what IS going on, rather than speculate - and I assert that without corroboration from someone with a name and a position in the Mil Cmd, it is merely reporter blather, not substance.
Burns might be a fine reporter. He may be a great guy. You may have designs on his person. But this story is contradictory - no?
#6: Posters -- ALL story postings should include the source outlet, whether EFL, the reporter's name (if not staff only) as well as the date / time - especially if it's a reg req'd site - and a login when req'd if not posted in full. Use BugMeNot if you need to - but be complete and help the RB users - one lookup by the poster saves hundreds by the users.
LH -- Here's an AP Breaking News link chock full of quotes - which fairly fly in the face of Burns' wishy-washy limp-dick assertions. It's not stopping, slowing down, calling a hudna or anything of the sort. Even though it's AP, it's actually a NEWS story, full of facts and backup quotes, not a blather piece. I subscribed to the NYT, on and off (since in and out of the US), for more than a decade. I don't want their style of news anymore because they've lost almost all credibility - same for the BBC thing about "Demand a broader view" - unspun that means we'll tell you what to think. Aunty can FOAD, too!
I guess it's just a matter of taste. You can divine the facts from their posts, if you're able, I'll go elsewhere for the facts... and decide for myself what they mean, heh. Mebbe you enjoy the challenge, lol! I've become too curmudgeonly for it, I guess.
#7: The AP story was filed at 8:48 AM EST, this morning. Burns story, to make the AM NYT, would have had to have been filed a good ten hours earlier. Some stories resolve themselves with time. And this story has been changing, and quickly - three days ago Allawi and US authorities were asserting that the violence might be rogue mahdi army fighters acting without Sadrs consent, and Allawi was inviting Sadr into the political process (apparently with US consent). Just yesterday someone here was claiming that the USMC was using the cemetary as a kill zone, to attrit the Sadr fighters, and was ragging on the NYT and Burns for missing that - good thing, since it turns out the USMC was moving THROUGH the cemetary as fast as they could.
Look, Burns aint Edward R. Murrow - hell, Edward R Murrow probably wasnt the legend "Edward R. Murrow" - and everyones free to follow the sources that work for them - but it bugs me when we dont seperate out the wheat from the chaff, the John Burns' from the Maureen Dowds'.
#8: Touche' - I certainly don't equate this piece with Dowdism, heh, that would be truly cruel! Dowdy is the stupidest US twit excuse for a reporter / writer I've ever read. And she's a featured NYT columnist. Nuff said? Lol!
I agree it's moving fast. What irks is that this operation has been ongoing for days and for Burns to imply, as he did quite clearly, that there was some lull with re-think going on, is dead wrong and running the story without corroboration was disingenuous. I'll shift the blame for such outright deceptive tactics to the editorial staff, if that helps! The piece is shit, however, from the POV of truth - and nothing assuages that fact. I just watched the Fox report and the ass-kicking proceeds apace.
No sweat, bro - you can read the NYT and pick 'n choose what makes sense (like I said - you may enjoy the challenge, heh) and I'll get my news elsewhere!
#9: to get back on topic, it DOES seem like the decision has been made to finish Sadr off, and to do it as quickly as possible, while trying to avoid major damage to the shrine. Civilians evactuated, effort to surround the shrine. Cut them off from supplies - is there water available in the shrine? Then go in with light weapons, or maybe even just non lethals - gotta watch out, dont want a Waco where the tear gas gets set on fire. Sistani seems to have left to keep his hands clean of Sadrs fate. Im not sure about Jaafaris angle - he cant really think Iraqi forces can handle this alone - so is it a backhanded way of pressing for negotiations, or is just positioning himself for future political rivalry, not expecting to be taken seriously?
#13: BTW - the Fox report wasn't just reporters - it was a Jarine Colonel (IIRC) who told the story himself and said we're ready, we have all the firepower we need, and this is it.
'It was unclear whether the assault would involve raiding Najaf's holiest site, the Imam Ali Shrine , which would infuriate Iraq's Shiite majority. The military said the insurgents are using the golden-domed shrine in Najaf's old city as a refuge and the governor has given U.S. forces permission to raid it.
Marine Major David Holohan, an executive officer of the 1st Battalion 4th Marines in Najaf, told FOX News that the American troops are taking their cue from the Iraqi forces, "who obviously know best what to do to defeat al-Sadr."
"We have enough firepower and training and equipment to deal with al-Sadr," Holohan continued. "There's really do doubt on our end ... as soon as we're given the signal to go" they'll strike.
Holohan said the people in Najaf have been supportive of the mission to root out the militia and actually have been "somewhat dismayed" that more hasn't been done sooner.
"The people in the town, they really want us to go forward," he said.
But Holohan clarified that it's al-Sadr's militia that's the target, not the cleric himself.
"We are going after the militia and the signal we're trying to give is, 'fight us and we'll destroy you,'" he said. "They're trained and they make us work a little harder to defeat them … it's not light and it's not easy but they're not capable of defeating us," he added.'
Earlier Wednesday, the Marines said they were training Iraqi security forces in preparation to launch a major assault to root out the fighters. But later, a Marine commander said the offensive was postponed. No timeframe was given. "Preparations to do the offensive are taking longer than initially anticipated," U.S. Marine Maj. David Holahan. "It doesn't matter now, they know we're coming."
#18: yeah, but wapo actually managed to quote a 1st Cav officer
The people will tell you they want it to end," said Army Lt. Col. Myles Miyamasu, a battalion commander in the 1st Cavalry Division's 5th Regiment, which hurried from Baghdad on Thursday to reinforce the Marines. "They're ready for this to be over."
#20: It sounds like the Marines are using Najaf as an Isolated Arena/Free Fire Zone. Inviting Tater and his local yokels to come in and get their asses waxed. Time and time again.
Eventually, I'd like to see a Jimmy Dean's Sausage factory springing up from the city's rubble.
Just to let them know that we care.
Posted by: Jack Deth>Jack Deth|| 2004-08-11 18:28
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#21: They got the Marines AND the "First Team" (First Cav) in on 'em? God help 'em. They're ph00ked, they just dont know it yet.
#2: A 23 year old and his 21 year old nephew - fuggin hillbillies. I'm sure the UK press will be catching up with the families in a couple of days.. can't wait to see the remains coming home in a cigarette packet. Repatriation time..
#3: They got Hillbillies in the U.K.? Oh my bad, Now I remember where most of those folks in Kentucky originally came from long ago. Some of them were my Mothers antecedents but they all moved and became "okies" I don't think her family was much into wedding first cousins like these clowns. I think they should be brought home and put on trial if they survive long enough. They prolly are not "angles or saxons" claiming to be born in Iraq as they do.
#4: "The elder Briton told the newspaper: "It is our country and there are invaders here."
I would take this as a renunciation of their British citizenship. What say, Bulldog? AFAIC any Islamist in the West is an invader and we should treat them like this pair want to treat our soldiers.
#5: "The elder Briton told the newspaper: "It is our country and there are invaders here."
I would take this as a renunciation of their British citizenship. What say, Bulldog? AFAIC any Islamist in the West is an invader and we should treat them like this pair want to treat our soldiers.
#2: Note to Everyone: This is how MEMRI reports are created - all caps. If you had followed the link you would know this. If you've never been to MEMRI before, which is apparent, then you are way behind the curve.
Do not blame the poster. If YOU want to retype the reports, then do so.
#3: An alternative that might not produce perfect results but would certainly take the poster more time would be to copy the text to word processing software, I hate to use the name of the Devil's software, and change the case to sentence case.
#4: MrD - Lol - your idea sounded good so I tried it on this article... it utterly failed - all lowercase after change to Sentence Case - lol - I guess the Word team didn't quite catch all the probable inputs, eh?
Interesting. I 404 on the link. When I go to MEMRI and look at this it shows up:
Question: "How serious is Iranian penetration into Iraq?"
Sha'lan:" Iranian penetration is extensive and unprecedented since the establishment of the Iraqi state. The Iranians have entered the crucial junction points of the country as a whole and established many intelligence and military positions in Iraq. We have begun dealing with this matter in a way both subtle and exacting. The prime minister, the foreign minister, and I all make our voices clear against Iran's blatant intervention in Iraqi affairs, which is a dangerous precedent. They admit to having spies in Iraq, whose task is to undermine the social and political situation. The Iraqi people, however, are immune to this."
First things first:
My apologies Friendly Advice! You are right!
Now I have to figure out when they awitched to mixed. I was blocked from MEMRI in Saudi and a friend who introduced me to the value of the site watched it for me and sent me emails of their best articles - all caps. I just accepted that was the price of the info.
So when did they change? I've looked all over their site and everything has been properly formatted in mixed case - so they cleaned up with some program. It's certainly a helluvalot better! But I'm perplexed - and I don't save emails forever so I haven't a trail to see when the change occurred. Sigh.
Now Mercutio can explain the broken link and, I guess, the all-caps of this post.
#1: "The Israelis have recently tried to increase their missile capability and we will also try to upgrade our Shahab-3 missile in every respect," the ISNA students news agency quoted Shamkhani as saying last week.
Interesting to note that Iran's response to an "increase" in Israel's missile capability (the Arrow II is a defensive missile) is to attempt to increase their missile's offensive capability.
#8: Real time flight telemetry is one of the most crucial data feedbacks during design and test of new missile technology. Perhaps we need to position an offshore cruiser group and simply blow any Iranian missile launches out of the sky after lift off.
I'd much prefer just crippling Kargh Island and starving out the mullahs, but aborting their launch vehicle tests for them would sure stunt any progress.
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