A group of Saudi religious scholars have signed an open letter urging Iraqis to support jihad against US-led forces. "Fighting the occupiers is a duty for all those who are able," they said in a statement posted on the internet at the weekend. "Resistance is a legitimate right. A Muslim must not inflict harm on any resistance man or inform about them. Instead, they should be supported and protected."
The 26 signatories - some of whom have been in trouble with the authorities - made their appeal to Iraqis only and stopped short of calling on Muslims outside Iraq to join the struggle. They also said Iraqis should not target people from countries whose governments have not taken part in the war. "At no time in history has a whole people been violated ... by propaganda that has been proved false," Sheikh Awad al-Qarni, one of the scholars, told al-Arabiya TV. Other signatories included Safar al-Hawali, Nasser al-Omar, Salman al-Awdah and Sharif Hatem al-Aouni.
Mr Hawali, imprisoned for five years during the 1990s because of his militant views, was once close to Osama bin Laden but has been acting as an intermediary between the Saudi government and al-Qaida elements in the kingdom. In July he reportedly tried to negotiate the surrender of Salih al-Awfi, al-Qaida's leader in Saudi Arabia, but without success. Although some of the scholars have been hostile towards Shias in the past, the statement stressed the importance of a unified Iraq, urging Iraqis to forsake personal, regional or tribal interests for the benefit of the country.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 1:17:07 AM ||
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#1
How lovely that the Sunnis and Shias are becoming friends again after all this time! How wrong were those who said they would under no circumstances find common ground ;-)
Fighter aircraft being produced in China and Pakistan have achieved performance approaching that of the U.S. Lockheed Martin F-16A Block 15 fighter, thanks to the use of sensitive U.S. technologies transferred to China during the Clinton administration. That is the conclusion of a special report published in today's Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily ("Advanced Chinese and Pakistani Fighter Utilizes Illegally -- or Accidentally -- Transferred Sensitive U.S. Technology," November 8, 2004).
The aircraft is the CF-1/JF-17 Thunder fighter [sic -- see Defense Talk and Global Security for more information on the FC-1 "Chao Qi" / JF-17 Thunder] that is being made at Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation in the PRC and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra. Excerpt from headland
Posted by: headland ||
11/08/2004 10:12:10 AM ||
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#1
Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure.
It's the pilot that matters, and our girls are some of the best in the world.
#3
Y'all have often commented how important maintenence is. What are the odds that Pakistan's and China's customers will take meticulous care of their low-priced aircraft? And if they don't/won't/can't take proper care, then who cares what level of technology they initially aquire. Indeed, if they don't maintain, surely that will result more quickly in unflyable aircraft if they start out with the more expensive high-maintenence, high-tech toys?
Newly declassified documents revealed the United States planned as recently as 1998 to drop nuclear bombs on North Korea if the country attacked South Korea. As part of "scenario 5027," 24 F15-E bombers flew simulation missions at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina to drop mock nuclear bombs on a firing range between January and June 1998, the Korea Times reported Sunday. The revelation followed claims by a South Korean lawmaker that the U.S. drew up plans to launch preemptive strikes on key targets in North Korea in 1994. The report also came amid concerns that President George Bush will take a tougher stance with North Korea during his second term. The declassified documents also said the U.S. had kept nuclear weaponry in South Korea until at least 1998, despite officially claiming it had withdrawn all nuclear warheads in 1991 WOW! Seems to me that this is a rather inopportune time for this to come out, but then maybe it'll help...
Posted by: RJB in JC MO ||
11/08/2004 7:44:16 AM ||
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#1
we always have plans - the will to follow through is the problem. Clinton NEVER would've used this plan, and rolling this out now is strictly to revise his history, and polish the Hildabeast's foreign policy/military star for '08
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 8:01 Comments ||
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Democratic spin to try to imply alignment with Bush "security" voters before they start to think of themselves as Republicans? Or pre-election Democratic spin to stir up the anti-American elements in South Korea? I would love to know the path and timing of these "newly declassified" documents.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/08/2004 8:14 Comments ||
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My brother is an 15E driver at Seymour, they practice dropping nukes (and conventional) weapons all the freaking time. I've got gun camera footage of my house (outside charlotte) where he used it as a target! Kind of freaky really, you can see my dog in the thermal sites at one point!
#4
Yawn, we have plans for everything, from nuking North Korea (in case it looked like we were going to be overrun) to invading Canada and Mexico. Some date back 50 to 100 years. I'm sure deep in the bowels of the Pentagon, someone has the task of pulling these out every few years, dusting them off and updating the details. Not that we plan on using them, it's just that you don't want to get caught without one.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 10:00 Comments ||
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#5
War Plan Red called for a tricky untried ambhip assault on Bermuda and the blockading of the mouth of the St. Lawrence to lure out the British Home Fleet.
#6
Franks hit the nail on the head. We have plans (called OPLANS) to use against just about every enemy in the world. These plans would for the basis for an attack if hotilities were to commence. Not to devulge too much but most of them (if not all) have the "Nuclear" option. They are reviewed annual to make sure they reflect changes in political, economic, and Military changes for that plan. I bet some ex Clintonista leaked this to help boost the Dhimis after the third loss in a row.
#8
Years ago I use driller's helper(H2O wells),while south of Tucson A-10's would use the rig as a tar5get.They would come in so low the pilot and I would wave at each other.Assume experience.
#9
There are plans to bomb everything, even France. Long, long ago on an airbase far, far away I used to study plans to use B-52s to drop iron bombs on NorK targets. Everyone thought that as long as you were going to take the time to make the trip, that you might as well do it right and drop something that precluded the need for a second visit. We had plans like that as well.
#10
I doubt this is Dem attempt to look tough. The tone of article is meant to show how evil US is(horror of horrors!the US was going to nuke N.Korea 24 times just because of a little old invasion). Further,the story was started by a S.Korean pol. If there was any meaning to leaking excercise details,it would be a message to both NK and Iran-don't doubt for a second US will go nuclear on your a**.
Posted by: Stephen ||
11/08/2004 14:06 Comments ||
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Plans? Hell, I have books of plans and my boys keep them in safes and study them day and night and revise them every darn day. We have so many plans even the NY Times and CBS are targets.
#12
Plans? Hell, I have books of plans and my boys keep them in safes and study them day and night and revise them every darn day. We have so many plans even the NY Times and CBS are targets.
Terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) are trying to obtain nuclear weapons and will not hesitate to use them, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer warned on Sunday. Speaking ahead of a two-day conference on regional nuclear proliferation starting here on Monday, Downer said although JI was yet to get its hands on atomic weapons, it would not give up trying. "There's absolutely no doubt that terrorists, or at least some terrorists, are endeavouring to get hold of nuclear materials as well as other forms of weapons of mass destruction," he told commercial television.
Commercial teevee reporters don't read Rantburg, else they wouldn't need to be told that.
"We don't have any evidence that for example that Jemaah Islamiyah is trying to do that, but we do in the Middle East that organisations like al-Qaeda are." Downer said it was clear JI had no problem targeting innocent victims as it had in the Bali bombings which claimed 202 lives, including 88 Australians, in October, 2002. "Obviously, any organisation that is prepared to wipe people out, young people enjoying themselves, wipe them out in Bali, is an organisation that wouldn't stop short of using at least some sort of more vicious and more dangerous weapons. I think in the interests of the region and the interest of humanity we need to make a very big effort to stop the proliferation of these systems."
Ozland still has our back. Thanks, mates.
Downer said the conference was a chance to seek common approaches to the treatment of nuclear materials. The conference, likely to be dominated by questions surrounding North Korea's nuclear ambitions, will be attended by government ministers and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei. "This is about getting countries in our region to try to develop common approaches to dealing with questions such as nuclear security, that's the security of nuclear facilities of one kind or another that they themselves have," he said. It was also about finding ways to stop inappropriate exports of material which could contribute to proliferation. Downer said questions surrounding nuclear material in North Korea, Iraq and Iran highlighted the need to develop strong and consistent approaches. "There is absolutely no consensus on how to handle these questions," he said. "There's no consensus in detail how to handle, for example, sensitive exports. There's no consensus on how to handle nuclear materials internally."
First time they're used on us there'll be a real quick concensus, followed by extended paving operations.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 3:25:23 PM ||
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It looked as though after ten days, the brawl within the Palestinian leadership over Yasser Arafat's body and ill-gotten fortune might be running out of mind-boggling maneuvers, when French president Jacques Chirac stepped in. Whereas until now, he had insisted on the whole mess being removed from France tout de suite, Monday, November 8, he saw a way of using the arrival of present and former Palestinian prime ministers, Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) and Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), to pick up points for France and score a few against the US interest. After a consultation with his Middle East advisers, he decided to back Suha Arafat all the way and at the same time reach out to the radical, rejectionist wing of the Palestinian camp - PLO politburo chief Farouk Kaddumi, Arafat's close confidant Hanni al Hassan, Force 17 commander and senior terrorist chief Col. Feisal Abu Srakh, as well as Mohammed Jihad, an important Jordanian Palestinian general... Chirac is so desperate to do anything to raise French prestige at the expense of the US that his gambles, and resulting embarassments are becoming comic.
#2
So is the Arafish and his aquarium, plus bubbler and life support system going on a road show to Egypt or non? More popcorn, please, Barbara. I better go over to the O-club and grab a Guiness and a perrier.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/08/2004 21:56 Comments ||
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There are some people in this world who specialize in making the wrong move at the wrong time. People like Jake.
More bully boyz in turbans, threatening entire nations...
That didn't take long.
A little-known Islamist group has threatened to carry out attacks in the Netherlands following a series of attacks on Muslim buildings there, according to an Internet statement posted on Tuesday. "We command ask you for the last time, and you still have a chance, to stop the attacks on our mosques, schools and the Muslim community in Holland ... before you loose your dhimmi status pay a heavy price," Islamic Tawhid Brigades said in a statement dated Nov. 9 and posted on a Web site used by Islamists. There have been several attacks against Dutch mosques since a film director critical of Islam, Theo van Gogh, was killed last Tuesday by a suspected Islamist militant. A bomb damaged an Islamic primary school in a southern Dutch town on Monday. "We will not stand with our hands tied and we will make the Dutch government and people pay dearly," Islamic Tawhid said in the statement, whose authenticity could not be verified. The group has claimed responsibility for last month's bombings on the Egyptian Sinai peninsula but has not been officially linked to them.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 7:17:33 PM ||
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I may be premature on this, but I think that the battle lines are drawn and this is a skirmish on the coming battle between Europe and Islam (note I don't say radical Islam). The Dutch govt is going to try to finesse this but Islamic communities in Holland will not really cooperate with the govt on getting rid of radicals and terrorists. This show is not one for sitting down and eating popcorn, like the Arafish and Suha. This one is for keeps and we, on the west side of the pond, better be watching closely and taking notes.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/08/2004 21:07 Comments ||
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#2
The Islamists have miscalculated. The Dutch are tolerant and patient but they have a temper too. Their bit has been flipped and now the EUrabians will hear from a Dutch uncle.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 21:14 Comments ||
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#3
The vermin are going to wish that they were dealing with Americans instead.
#4
hard to be tolerant when extremists are killing you and the community among which they conceal won't give em up or condemn them
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 21:34 Comments ||
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"We ask you for the last time, and you still have a chance, to stop the attacks on our mosques, schools and the Muslim community in Holland ..."
Notice that they talk about Holland as if it was not their country. How can people who are born and raised in a country not feel part of it?
#8
We'll see soon if today's Dutch have the tenacity their forefathers had in years of war with the Spanish. They'd see the butchery of Haarlem and Antwerp [then part of community of the Netherlands], but would not yield to an even bigger and stronger force directed from Madrid. I hope their posterity today will reject Mecca as an overlord as well.
Posted by: Don ||
11/08/2004 22:04 Comments ||
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"We will not stand with our hands tied"
No, hopefully, you'll hang by the neck with your hands tied.
Link from Wall Street Journal. It's free to all this week!
Dutch investigators believe the suspects in Mr. van Gogh's killing had contact with extremists in Spain, and that the order to kill Mr. van Gogh may have come from a fugitive terrorist in Spain. Recent investigations in Spain have uncovered links between Islamist extremists throughout Europe. Spanish investigators say they are awaiting information from their Dutch counterparts that could clarify the relationship between a Dutch cell and extremists in Spain and other European countries. Dutch police believe the suspects are part of a group of about 150 Muslim men who have been under observation by a unit of the intelligence service monitoring Muslim extremists in the Netherlands since 2001. Evidence that Mr. van Gogh's death was part of a wider campaign of Islamist extremism emerged over the weekend.
Judge Garzon certainly has plenty of detainees to question...
Results of the US election may end up pushing Norway into the European Union, suggest political analysts, and even Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik is listening. He's long opposed EU membership, but sees a need for more international cooperation.
This was the political cartoon in newspaper Aftenposten after it emerged that George W Bush would be the US president for another four years. The text reads: "...and now I'd like to send a little greeting to all my friends in Europe."
In a meeting with Crown Prince Haakon in the Prime Minister's office this week, Bondevik acknowledged that talks touched on what four more years of George W Bush as president can mean. Bondevik, who's already called for the Bush Administration to show more international cooperation, noted that he worries nonetheless that trans-Atlantic ties may be weakened. Many, he suggested, may see a need for Norway to engage in stronger foreign policy cooperation with the European Union, also in security matters. That, Bondevik acknowledged, may influence his own view on the EU. Norwegians have narrowly turned down EU membership, first in a referendum in 1972 and against in 1994. But the issue keeps coming up, and recent polls have showed Norwegians favoring EU membership.
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Posted by: tipper ||
11/08/2004 9:10:35 AM ||
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#1
It's amusing that as a separate country, they can actually *have* a foreign policy that means something. As a country, they have a military, a foreign office that looks after *their* interests, and rapid response with a minimum of conflicted consensus from bribed leaders of other countries and eurocrats. IN A WAY, it is like a small political faction offering to join a major political party *permanently*, over some issue--they might win a little transitory power, but they lose everything in the process and become taken for granted.
#2
Norway has been supportive in NATO and Iraq. Don't dismiss the importance of voices like theirs unless you are prepared for the US to go it alone economically, politically and strategically.
I for one am not sure we can pull that off, despite our strength right now.
#3
rkb, considering that militarily the EU is a toothless, tabby cat, how can Norway believe that the EU can provide security? There might be some economic benefit to them, but NO military advantage. The only nations that pose military threat to Norway are Russia, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, and Finland. As long as Norway and the US are part of NATO, I think that they are pretty safe.
#4
...he hopes Bush will pay more attention to the United Nations...
I think our eyesight on the UN is working just fine. It is the EU which needs to pay more attention to the UN-not to the divine proclamations, but the meaningless resolutions and spineless inaction. How can the US and the EU work together when they think the UN is fully functional and we have sent it for a detox?
Letâs get real. This is an article from the Norwegian MSM trying to tilt US policy just as the US MSM is telling Bush he has to accommodate the Democrats after whipping them at the polls while at the same time pushing the Norwegians to vote for the EU as a way of punishing the Americans for voting for Bush.
I am happy to listen to what the Norwegians are saying as you suggest, but what is it that you think we should be doing differently after having heard them?
If you think this analysis is credible, how do you expect âthe Bush Administration to show more international cooperationâ? Sign the ICC and Kyoto?
And how should âBush pay more attention to the United Nations, as well as to the troubles i (sic) the Middle Eastâ? Grovel at Arafatâs bedside?
When has the U. S. doubted âthe importance of international cooperation, international law and the danger of going it alone"? But does the importance of international cooperation mean the U. S. can never do what it sees to be right even if it means standing alone?
And when is Europe going to listen to us?
The Europeanâs failure to assume responsibility, even for Europe itself in the Balkans, means that they are a slim reed for the U. S. in international relations. Why does it surprise them that their opinions should carry less weight with us?
And if the Norwegians want to cut off their noses to spitr their face by joining the EU, is that important to us?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 15:01 Comments ||
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France has rejected a U.S.-based Jewish group's call for legal action against one of the country's largest Muslim organisations that it says is anti-Semitic and is linked to the militant Islamist group Hamas. Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin said Paris had proved it was tough on Islamic radicals by questioning about 100 so far this year and expelling 17 of them. But he declined to follow up a call by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre to probe links between the Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF) and pro-Palestinian groups it says collect money for Hamas and to replace the UOIF leadership. "We must avoid stigmatising anyone or jumping to conclusions," he told Europe 1 radio on Sunday. "It's clear the state is being tough, but it's not its role to jump to conclusions."
UOIF Secretary General Fouad Alaoui accused the Centre of wanting to block the integration of Muslims into French society. "I defy anyone to prove the UOIF has anti-Semitic positions," said Alaoui, whose group -- popular with disaffected Muslim youths in France -- is said to be close to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.
"It's all a lie, spread by the Jews!"
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/08/2004 3:16:08 AM ||
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#2
Too bad deadtrainbums.com is not up any more. It would have been educational for this poor chap.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/08/2004 1:24 Comments ||
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#3
We had a total train derailment in the UK a couple of days ago, killing seven people including the driver of a car which had stopped on a level crossing, causing the collision. Suicide, apparently. I haven't heard anyone suggest it might have been a terrorist act, but it's possible, although there are plenty of ways you could derail a train without killing yourself.
#4
We have been getting an incrasing number of train suicides around here lately. Rural crossings and easily walked road beds. I wonder if these idiots ever stop to think of the trauma they put the crew of the engine through. No probably not because its all about them.
#6
What? Never heard of Supertrain? Take one part `Love Boat', one part far fetched nuclear train, and add some `B' list stars, and you'll be rollin' in the ratings. Wrong!
Posted by: ed ||
11/08/2004 10:42 Comments ||
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#7
Wow. Who says Fred Silverman wasn't a visionary?
#9
The laws of Physics will not be denied. Trains don't stop on a dime, and, frankly, running over one loser keeps the rest of the herd off the tracks.
#10
IIRC, back in '88, some idiot tried to body-block a munitions train in California. This was apparently supposed to somehow save Nicaragua from Ronald Reagan. One quick physics lesson later, the idiot was without a pair of legs -- his friends managed to scramble out of the way.
Last I saw of him was on TV, he was in Nicaragua for the 1990 elections. That was the election in which the Nicaraguan people actually got to have a say in who ran their country -- and they threw the Sandanistas out of power. I never did hear what he had to say about that.
Posted by: Pat Phillips ||
11/08/2004 15:58 Comments ||
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#11
I never did hear what he had to say about that.
I'm sure whatever he said they paid no attention. After all, he didn't have a leg to stand on.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 20:46 Comments ||
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#12
*rimshot* - army of steves strikes again
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 21:13 Comments ||
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The Bush administration has failed to recognize that Al Qaeda is now a global Islamic insurgency, rather than a traditional terrorist organization, and so poses a much different threat than previously believed, says a senior counterterrorism official at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the C.I.A.'s Osama bin Laden unit and the author of a best-selling book critical of the administration's handling of the fight against terrorism, said in an interview with The New York Times this weekend that the government "doesn't respect the threat" because most officials still regard Al Qaeda as a terrorist organization that can be defeated by arresting or killing its operatives one at a time.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 12:37:41 AM ||
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since when does the company let it's spooks go public with dirty laudry--this guy needs to stfu and keep it inhouse--he was very effective as head of the ubl unit--NOT--what's next-- mtv real world-cia
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
11/08/2004 5:30 Comments ||
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I seriously doubt that the govt is not treating AQ as a worldwide insurgency. Rantburgers have been able to see that it's a global insurgency just reading the open source articles posted here. Does the term "jihad" ring a bell?
Posted by: V is for Victory ||
11/08/2004 7:10 Comments ||
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I thought the CIA guys had to swear an oath never to tell. And Mr. Scheuer was, subsequent to his book's publication, specifically forbidden to speak publically. So either he needs to be tossed out in the cold right now, or his management does, for aquiescing to this nonsense.
#4
Once you get thru the MSM spin, I think there is a very important message here. "The amount of punishment the C.I.A. has delivered to Al Qaeda since 9/11 would have wiped out any other terrorist organization," Mr. Scheuer said. "But this is an insurgent organization.ââ Is the key statement. He is saying that the CIA is treating AQ like the Euro terrorists orgs, Bader Meinhof, etc - a few dozen members that can be rolled up. Whereas we all know that AQ is like the IRA - a large proportion of the population will moreorless actively support them. Doesn't mean we can't win. Just means we fight them in a different way.
#5
Mr. Scheuer served as chief of the C.I.A.âs bin Laden station from 1996 through 1999 and so knows the history of the governmentâs pre-9/11 efforts against Al Qaeda. He testified before the Sept. 11 commission, but is now critical of the commission for refusing to identify by name any top officials who should be held responsible for failing to prevent the attacks.
like Clinton, Richard Clarke, Sandy Berger (whatever happened to the docs in the dockers?) Mr. Scheuer, George Tenet......
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 8:09 Comments ||
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#6
Mr. Scheuer served as chief of the C.I.A.âs bin Laden station from 1996 through 1999 and so knows the history of the governmentâs pre-9/11 efforts against Al Qaeda
Another way of saying this is: "Mr. Scheuer was fired in 1999 by the Clinton Administration who recognized him as a loose cannon and egomaniac. They realized that, if left in charge of the Al Queda effort, he would get in the way of the other, more well connected loose cannons and egomaniacs in the Clinton Administration."
One of the most vexing and peculiar problems that the imprisonment of people suspected of being terrorists at the naval base here has caused for the Bush administration has been what to do with the ethnic Uighur detainees here. Guantänamo has 22 Uighur (pronounced WEE-ger) detainees, most captured in Afghanistan. They traveled there from their homeland in the Xinjiang Province of China where the mostly Muslim Uighurs have fought a low-level insurgency against Beijing's rule for years.
United States military officials have concluded that at least half of the Uighurs here are eligible for release, but the prisoners have said they do not want to be returned to China because they fear they will be tortured or killed as terrorists. That has sent United States officials scrambling to find a third country willing to accept the Uighurs. So far, several European countries, including Norway and Switzerland, have declined. European newspapers in other countries have reported that their governments have refused as well. Beijing, for its part, has asserted that the Uighurs are terrorists and that the United States should return them to China to demonstrate its commitment to fighting terrorism around the world. A spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry warned last week that relations between Washington and Beijing could be harmed if the United States sent any Uighurs to a third country.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 12:58:05 AM ||
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And exactly why is letting others execute probable terroists a problem?
While I'm not a fan of the Chicoms or their policies, I've noticed the other alummni of Gitmo simply pick up the Jihad where they left off. If someone else is willing to "get their hands wet" and prevent recidivism, I say knock yerselves out, guys.
Posted by: N guard ||
11/08/2004 9:02 Comments ||
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#2
P.S.
If we're going to harrass the Chicoms, there are other, better ways than sponsoring muslim terrorists.
Posted by: N guard ||
11/08/2004 9:06 Comments ||
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#3
Send the Wee-gurs to the PRC and be done with it. We spend more time dinking around with the rights of these captured terrorists than our own citizens. They hang out with terrorists, they should expect to get into trouble.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/08/2004 10:56 Comments ||
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#4
"I have full faith our chinese brethren will treat them with the utmost civility and composure, therefore we are returning them to their disposition"
/heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 11:09 Comments ||
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#5
Send'em packing to the chicoms..if we send them to another country it will send the wrong message to their brethren....want a free ticket to euroland---go on the jihad...anyways I do not think they were on vacation when they were caught if afgan..
Posted by: Dan ||
11/08/2004 16:11 Comments ||
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The United Nation's nuclear watchdog chief said on Monday he was cautiously optimistic over a tentative deal between Iran and the European Union's three big powers regarding Tehran's disputed nuclear program. Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said he still had to confirm details of the agreement, but hoped it included the suspension of uranium enrichment programs in Iran as a sign of good faith by Tehran. "I am told it is still a very tentative agreement, it has still not yet been confirmed," ElBaradei told a news conference in Sydney. "I would hope that this would lead to the desired outcome, which is Iran to suspend processing and enrichment activities and open the way for the normalization of Iran's relations with the international community. What the international community is asking Iran, that at least for now, (is) suspend enrichment activities as a confidence building measure. We are cautiously optimistic we are moving in that direction."
Yeah. Right. Build my confidence.
Iranian and EU officials said on Sunday a deal had been struck between Iran, Britain, Germany and France after two days of talks in Paris that could see Tehran avert U.N. Security Council sanctions over its disputed nuclear program. Under the deal Iran would freeze all nuclear fuel enrichment and reprocessing activities until it has reached a final agreement with the EU over a package of economic, technological and security incentives in return for abandoning potentially weapons-related nuclear activities, the diplomats said. The deal now awaits the go-ahead from Iran's clerical leadership, EU diplomatic sources told Reuters.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 12:40:42 AM ||
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#1
bush wins--the turbans fold-cause-effect--mullahs move from uranium enrichment back to self enrichment as e.u. bribes go to building even bigger mansions in qum
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
11/08/2004 5:37 Comments ||
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#2
I'm not sure I agree, Toluison. The Mullahs, like the Norks, have made -- and not kept -- promises before. I see this more as a way to forestall Bush bringing the whole thing irreversibly before the UNSC.
#6
I think that we will go the UNSC route for window dressing. Powell/Rumsfelt good cop/bad cop show. The real plans and options are already underway. Time is already running short on Bushehr and the U235 concentration sites, as they are already up or soon will be. The MMs are playing a giant game of chicken. It is up to the US and Israel to protect the world from the MM's madness. The EU as EUsual, picks the appeasement option.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/08/2004 11:03 Comments ||
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#7
This loathesome rat Mohamed ElBaradei works hand in glove with the Iranians to delay, delay, delay. One can only imgaine his offshore accounts. It might have a been a "plomo o oro" kind of deal.
#8
Grom,
For that matter, The DNC would be a better organization than the UNSC. Even if only marginally. Heck, NOW couldn't be any worse than the UNSC.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/08/2004 16:08 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra headed to a Muslim-dominated part of southern Thailand on Sunday after promising to act aggressively against militants and illegal weapons they have used in deadly attacks there. "I will have to launch a massive crackdown on weapons," Thaksin said on Saturday in his weekly radio address. "We will use both a soft approach and an iron fist to sweep out these people. Innocent people don't have to fear or worry."
The cause of Thaksin's visit was a ceremony at a Buddhist temple in the southern town of Tak Bai, where 78 detained Muslims suffocated or were crushed to death after being rounded up and piled onto trucks on Oct. 25. The trip is primarily intended to reassure people in the region, a government spokesman said. "The main point of today is not about security," said the spokesman, Jakrapob Penkair. "It's to boost the morale of the people at Tak Bai."
Over the weekend, five Buddhists were shot and killed, the police said. Buddhists are estimated to make up 30 percent of the population in Thailand's three southernmost provinces near the border with Malaysia. Panitan Wattanayagorn, assistant professor at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, who is a security expert on the south, said in an interview with Agence France-Presse that attacks appeared to be increasingly better coordinated and planned. He said the militants included a mixture of groups including separatists, Islamic hard-liners and the disaffected. "People are more randomly selected," he said. "I think the offices and the camps and the high-profile targets are better protected. They have still been attacked, but since September they have switched their targets to softer ones."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 12:42:29 AM ||
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#1
"...and if Iron Fist doesn't work, we'll switch to Tiger Claw..."
Stratfor - An Iranian army commander has announced plans for Iran's largest military exercise to be carried out in western Iran. According to the commander, the exercise will be used as a show of force to deter any threat across Kermanshah, Ilam and Khuzestan provinces. The exercise will involve 12 army divisions as well as "aviation" forces and artillery units.
Operation "Made You Look".
Unfortunately, subscription req'd, so I have no further details.
#2
Iran effort to pull coalition forces from Fallujah?
If Iran crosses the line, it has just provided the US with a clear-cut reason for invading it. I doubt the Iranians are considering an attack on Iraq. This falls under the heading of nice try, but no cigar.
#4
That's one way for Iran to get nukes fast. 12 divisions moved away from the major cities sounds like a compelling target. Go ahead, provoke us.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/08/2004 20:19 Comments ||
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#5
SPoD, that's not exactly true. We may not be able to send some boots over there, but we have MORE than enough convential air power in theater to vaporize their 12 army divisions. The bad thing about divisions, is they are pretty easy to see from 30k feet! How long would it take to sortie from Guam?
Syria recently dismissed it's air force commander, Maj. Gen. Kamal Makhafut, in response to the growing decline in combat capability of the Syrian air force. On paper, the Syrians have about 600 combat aircraft and helicopters. But since the end of the Cold War in 1991, and with it the disappearance of military aid from Russia (spare parts, technical assistance and money), about half of Syria's warplanes have become inoperable. Moreover, there has been no money to buy modern aircraft. The only modern warplanes it has are 20 MiG-29s and 14 Su-27s. But these are not the latest models, and the Syrians are considered completely outclassed by Israel.
Syria has a ramshackle economy, and depends on it's small, and declining, oil production to keep it afloat. Syria ships only about half a million barrels a day ($7 billion a year, or about 35 percent of GDP.) Syria is, like Iraq was, run by the Baath Party (a separate branch from the one recently defeated in Iraq). That means an inefficient, socialist economy that is in decline and run by a hereditary dictatorship (the Assad family.) Most of the government budget depends on oil revenues, and over two thirds of exports are oil. With 15 million people (60 percent the size of Iraq), Syria produces less than a tenth as much oil as Iraq. Fortunately for Syria, they have not been involved in three major wars (like Iraq has) in the past 25 years. The defense budget is less than a billion dollars a year, and that's not enough to keep the armed forces up to date. Most of the equipment is 1970s vintage stuff.
Syria still gets some aid from Iran, because both nations saw Iraq as an enemy. But this aid is now declining, with Saddam Hussein, and his branch of the Baath Party, out of power. Some revenue is also derived from the drug trade that operates in Lebanon. But Syria, which has helped keep the peace in fractious Lebanon for the past fifteen years, is under pressure from the Lebanese, and the UN, to get its 30,000 troops out of Lebanon. Some cash is coming in from Iraqi Baathists who fled Iraq in 2003, but that also brings pressure from the United States to stop supporting terrorism. Syria has long been a safe haven for terrorists, especially Palestinians and Iran backed Shia groups. This is also becoming increasingly dangerous, with Israel threatening invasion, or at least air attacks, if Syria does not stop supporting anti-Israel terrorists.
With its military falling apart and all its traditional sources of foreign aid drying up, the Syrian dictatorship is sliding closer to revolution, and disaster. The public dismissal of the inept air force commander is only one aspect of this looming catastrophe.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 8:44:54 AM ||
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Good , is all i can say . Went to Syria once (2000)just because my plane stopped there (unfortunately) on the way to india , got followed all around the airport by a couple of burly muppets . So i went and purchased a camera and started snapping away at anything that took my fancy including them . At least I gave em something to put in their report . Threw the camera in the bin as I boarded the plane :)
Was the only form of entertainment i could find to do in that shit pit .. ohh apart from to marvel at the sheer number of bomb craters surrounding the runways
WASHINGTON — Iranian and European officials are close to forging a deal they hope will pause the Islamic republic's enrichment of uranium and persuade the president to drop his insistence that Iran's prior violations of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty be referred to the U.N. Security Council. Since, of course, Bush cares so much about what they think.
Iran's chief negotiator on the nuclear issue, Hossein Mousavian, told Iranian TV yesterday that talks at the expert level with envoys from Britain, France, and Germany had reached an agreement. ''We had 22 hours of negotiations,'' he said. ''They were very difficult and complicated negotiations but we reached a preliminary agreement at the expert level.'' "Surrender!" "OK."
If the respective governments engaged in the negotiations agree to the deal, it would commit the European side to eventually supplying Iran with a second light-water nuclear reactor. In exchange, Iran would agree to answer the outstanding questions of the International Atomic Energy Agency, suspend uranium enrichment during those inspections, and return to Russia the spent nuclear fuel from the Bushehr facility that Moscow helped Iran build. Cause, you know, I heard Iran's gonna run out of oil&gas soon.
The deal would also commit Britain, France, and Germany to oppose taking Iran's violations to the U.N. Security Council. A diplomatic source in Washington said yesterday that Europe's impending deal with Iran would make it next to impossible for America to rally the votes to refer Iran's program to the Security Council. What a coincidence!
However, one administration official yesterday said that the president would continue to press for the United Nations as the forum to deal with the Iranian nuclear program. As the president prepares to reshuffle his cabinet for his second term, some of the chief advocates for European engagement with Iran are likely to leave the government. That is (and I've snipped the text about this), Powell and Armitage are out, and the neocons look ascendant, with Blackwill also out. Yay.
The IAEA's board of governors will next meet November 25, when they will likely consider this very question. The State Department has already said it would oppose Mr. ElBaradei in his quest for a third term as director general for the IAEA. The fate of the world may literally depend on replacing this full-of-Qaqaa doubletalker.
Posted by: someone ||
11/08/2004 3:43:04 AM ||
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A dirt track winds from this Kurdish border outpost to the top of a jagged mountain ridge separating Iran from Iraq's northern Kurdish enclave. For years, and with the blessing of Iranian officials, Islamist terrorist groups have smuggled weapons and money into Iraq on this road, many Kurdish intelligence and security officials said. When US special forces and Kurdish peshmerga fighters attacked Ansar al-Islam, an Al Qaeda affiliate, in March 2003, hundreds of its members fled to Iran, the officials said, and have regrouped in several towns just over this border.
There, they continue to train, raise funds, and plan terrorist operations in Iraq, infiltrating operatives across a porous, rocky, high-altitude border that has long been a haven for smugglers and that, in practical terms, is impossible to police, the Kurdish officials say.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 3:29:41 PM ||
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#1
Groups active in Iraq and Iran include:
TAWHID AND JIHAD: Headed by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has proclaimed his allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda. Claimed responsibility for several beheadings and car bombings in Iraq. Believed to be based in the central Iraqi city of Fallujah.
- ANSAR AL-ISLAM: Formed in the Kurdish parts of Iraq. Later believed to have incorporated Arab al-Qaeda members fleeing US strikes on Afghanistan. Group had bases along Iranian-Iraqi border that were bombed and attacked by Iraqi Kurdish and US Special Forces at the start of the 2003 Iraq war. Al-Zarqawi is believed to have played a key role in the group after he fled Afghanistan.
- IRANIAN REVOLUTIONARY GUARD: Shock troops of Iran's Islamic Revolution. A well-funded force of 200,000 that is independent of the armed forces and answers directly to the Islamic leadership and not elected officials.
- MAHDI ARMY: Radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's militia, only insurgent group based in Shiite Muslim community, Iraq's largest social bloc.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/08/2004 3:19 Comments ||
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#2
If the bad guys are just across the border, what is to stop a few of our charming Special Forces guys from paying them a little visit? (in their copious free time, I mean)
Associate Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie examined data on terrorism and variables such as wealth, political freedom, geography, and ethnic fractionalization for nations that have been targets of terrorist attacks. Though after the 9/11 attacks most of the work in this area has focused on international terrorism, Abadie said terrorism originating within the country where the attacks occur actually makes up the bulk of terrorist acts each year. According to statistics from the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base for 2003, which Abadie cites in his analysis, there were 1,536 reports of domestic terrorism worldwide, compared with just 240 incidents of international terrorism.
Before analyzing the data, Abadie believed it was a reasonable assumption that terrorism has its roots in poverty, especially since studies have linked civil war to economic factors. However, once the data was corrected for the influence of other factors studied, Abadie said he found no significant relationship between a nation's wealth and the level of terrorism it experiences. "In the past, we heard people refer to the strong link between terrorism and poverty, but in fact when you look at the data, it's not there. This is true not only for events of international terrorism, as previous studies have shown, but perhaps more surprisingly also for the overall level of terrorism, both of domestic and of foreign origin," Abadie said. Instead, Abadie detected a peculiar relationship between the levels of political freedom a nation affords and the severity of terrorism. Though terrorism declined among nations with high levels of political freedom, it was the intermediate nations that seemed most vulnerable.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 8:53:37 PM ||
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#1
Well duh, and to think this guy is a Harvard professor.
What do we learn from these photos that we don't already know? Didn't you know that in battle buildings get busted and people get killed and injured? So one naturally asks, what is the point of showing such pictures? And lots of folks (including me) think it's pure anti-war propoganda.
#6
We did just fine in WW II without AP photographers tagging along with the Axis powers as they killed Allied troops. Tomorrow's headling (watch for it): US Troops Murder AP Photographer!!
World War Two was 60 years ago. Now we're in an age when a photographer in a place like Fallujah can transmit his photographs out to the world. He and the person who wrote the captions are doing their jobs well. Your attributions of their motives are merely your opinions, not shared by most others.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 22:14 Comments ||
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#8
Mike, what's Evian spelled backwards?
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/08/2004 22:20 Comments ||
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#9
Re #5 (Wazzalib): What do we learn from these photos that we don't already know? .... i'ts pure anti-war propaganda.
Do you apply such reasoning to photos taken by photographers in other places and situations in Iraq? What do you learn from a photograph of a car bombing that you don't already know? Is a photograph of a car bombing pure propaganda?
Would you say you are objective or subjective in your thinking about photographs from Iraq?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 22:20 Comments ||
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#10
I'd say you were always eager to ascribe the best possible motives to anti-american people who don't deserve the benefit of the doubt, UN-boy. That makes you suspect in my book. provide evidence, references, footnotes and links to prove otherwise - I'll review your exculpatory evidence at my leisure, later. Ciao, Kofi's bitch Mikey
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 22:24 Comments ||
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#11
Re #4 (OldSpook): "insurgents" not the proper caption. Terrorists is. These are car bombers, theives, kidnappers, murderers (beahdings) and criminals.
Some are terrorists, etc. Some aren't.
Would you seriously prefer to live in an environment where all the journalism would be written with the tendentious vocabulary you're calling for? Would you be happy if AP had annotated these particular photographs with captions calling the subjects "terrorists, car bombers, theives, kidnappers, murderers and criminals"? Would that be better journalism, in your honest opinion?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 22:29 Comments ||
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#12
Re #10 (Frank G): you were always eager to ascribe the best possible motives to anti-american people who don't deserve the benefit of the doubt
Somebody has to be the adult.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 22:31 Comments ||
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#13
Re #8 (Rafael): what's Evian spelled backwards?
What's Msilanruojotohp spelled backwards?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 22:34 Comments ||
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#14
Mike - Those photos were very obviously selected to support anti-war sentiment, you have to be very willfully blind to deny that.
#15
Mike, some of your arguments are adult. but you are unusually pendantic for an adult.
If the AP is an American news agency then they have some obligation to at least attempt to spread what is the truth in this situation . . . these are terrorists, murderers and criminals. Instead, because they cannot be seen as being judgmental they attempt to side with the 'moderates' as much as possible.
Bad news. There is no moderation in war. As an American you can support those who strive to defend you with their blood or you can shut up and not cover the situation at all.
It is stupefying to watch how you, Mike Sylwester, attempt to be an apoligist for those who would destroy us from within, simply because they have lost power. You are a representative, if unawares, of all those who would have us be accepting of that which will kill us, or enslave us, in the end (pick your poison, there are many).
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
11/08/2004 22:42 Comments ||
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#16
Mike: actions have consequences. Words mean things, and all those guards at Trblinca were just doing their jobs too. Theses images and along with their captions should be viewed in the greater context of the AP consistently showing their bias in favor of the Islamo-fascists as well as their anti-Bush sentiments.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/08/2004 22:49 Comments ||
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#17
Re #14 (AzCat): Those photos were very obviously selected to support anti-war sentiment.
I perceive a photojournalist in Fallujah making and transmitting extraordinary photographs of scenes in a city where a large battle is beginning. He personally might be against the USA's actions, but I can't judge that simply from the photographs. A very pro-USA photographer in the same situation might take and transmit the very same photographs.
AP's captions are objective, unless you insist that all the people in the photographs be labeled as terrorists, etc.
It seems that the person here who desires propagandistic journalism the most is you, AzCat.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 22:54 Comments ||
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#18
Re #16 (Rex Mundi): those guards at Trblinca were just doing their jobs too
Whatever.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 22:56 Comments ||
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#19
So here's a sample of "photojournalism":
A boy recovers in a Fallujah hospital after a U.S. airstrike in Fallujah, Iraq Saturday, Nov. 6, 2004, which killed his father and wounded his brother, according to hospital officials. U.S. jets pounded Fallujah early Saturday in the heaviest airstrikes in six months, including five 500-pound bombs dropped on insurgent targets
This is next to a photo of a wounded boy. What does the last sentence in the caption have to do with the boy's injuries other than to imply it was caused by a 500-pound US bomb? How does the photojourno it was five bombs? Is he implying that this boy is an insurgent and that the big bad US is attacking kids?
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/08/2004 22:57 Comments ||
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#20
That should be..."How does the photojourno know it was five bombs?"
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/08/2004 22:58 Comments ||
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#21
Re #15 (Jame Retief): If the AP is an American news agency then they have some obligation to at least attempt to spread what is the truth in this situation
That's what AP is doing with these photographs and with other photographs too. Would you be happier if AP didn't show photographs like these? Do you believe that ignorance is bliss?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 23:02 Comments ||
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#22
Re #19 (Rafael)
Please suggest a better caption. We'll compare AP's caption with yours.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
11/08/2004 23:03 Comments ||
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#23
Ok here it is:
A boy recovers in a Fallujah hospital after a U.S. airstrike in Fallujah, Iraq Saturday, Nov. 6, 2004, which killed his father and wounded his brother, according to hospital officials.
I can give him the benefit of the doubt that it was a US airstrike causing the injuries, and not an RPG falling randomly from the sky.
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/08/2004 23:14 Comments ||
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#24
An even better caption:
A boy recovers in a hospital in Fallujah, Iraq Saturday, Nov. 6, 2004.
All the rest is nothing but propaganda for the other side.
#25
Two quick points:
1. This sort of photojournalism is one of the reasons that the hospital was one of the first places taken in the attack.
2. Expect to see heart-wrenching headlines in the near future about the death of an AP photojournalist who stood a little too close to his subject. (with luck they might even be accompanied by the photo of the 500 pounder just before it explodes)
A US-led attack on the Iraqi Sunni-stronghold will breach the Geneva conventions, writes Tony Kevin. I included the above so we all know what wrote this dribble.... We need to be clear on what is about to happen in the Iraqi city of Falluja, about 64 kilometres west of Baghdad and a key centre of Sunni population in Iraq. This city has for many months held out as a centre of Sunni-based political-military resistance, refusing to accept the authority either of the former US-led occupying authority nor, since July, of the interim Iraqi administration led by the Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi. No mention of the murders, beheadings or other activites of these 'resistors'?
Falluja is now to be brought to heel by overwhelming military power. As I write this, the US attack on the city has begun. The message to Falluja from the US armed forces in Iraq and from Allawi was brutally simple: submit now to Baghdad's authority or face attack.
If Sydney was occupied by Islamic nutbags the Aussies would be saying much the same...
#3
Well, as my grandpa used to say: "You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette." As far as I'm concerned, draining that swamp and collecting the fish at the bottom is the greatest service our military can provide. Freedom (from terror and terrorist) is neither cheap nor easily achieved. God speed to our brave men and women in uniform.
#4
Who is this assclown and what planet/world is he living in/on? I don't feel like registering to find out but this sounds just like the Democrat whinging Moonbat froth we see so often it's identified at as in the first paragraph. This was not exception it just appears to be from Oz not Washington DC.
Falluja can't not and will not remain the headquarters of the killers of hundreds of Iraqi citizen who have commited no crime but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The tribal, religious and civic members of Iraq selected the current quite independent leadership of Iraq. He has ordered this action which has Iraqi troops on the pointy end of the stick. If this whinging asshat can't get a grip on it he can join the rest of the diptards that are planning on killing themselves because Bush won.
These diptards in Falluja could have avoided this by leaving. Now no one is going to leave. I like the idea of gathering all the dead and incenerating the remains so no one can or will morn their useless lives. No pictures. Everything scraped into a big pile and dumped at sea when they are done.
#5
I couldn't find the part of the Geneva Convention that approves of beheading of kidnapped civilians. Hope this wonderfully insightful person is embedded with the insurgents. They might even reserve him a few virgins.
#6
This guy does the ye old moral equivalency trick. Notice that he made no mention of the atrocities committed by Zarqawi and his band of merry men. In fact he refers to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, so he makes the terrorists in Fallujah out to be knights of a righteous cause.
Basically, this guy hates the US and chooses to ignore any atrocities in front of his face in Iraq. Nobody should have the time of day for this LLL asshat and apologist for cutthroat terrorists.
A pox---a proletariat pox upon his body politic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/08/2004 20:07 Comments ||
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#7
Okay, Tony, you think this is Warsaw 1944? Let's try a different set of analogies: 1945 leveling of Berlin, firebombing of Tokyo, nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"The message the siege of Falluja sends is brutally simple: resist us and we will destroy you." Damn right. Tell them, not us.
Posted by: Tom ||
11/08/2004 20:12 Comments ||
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#8
The message the siege of Falluja sends is brutally simple: resist us and we will destroy you.
How dramatic! Actually, it is just the same message the Texas Rangers used to send to bandits, train robbers and general miscreants: Y'all behave yourselves, or we'll come and kick your sorry asses. To paraphrase Borges, it's the same situation; only the time, the place and a few proper names have changed. That and the level of armament.
#9
Yo Tony! I know Warsaw. Fallujah is no Warsaw. Now go join the resistance...if you feel so strongly about it.
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/08/2004 20:28 Comments ||
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#10
Personally, I think we're missing our chance. Publicize a program whereby any rabid jihadi madman on earth can apply and get an all-expenses paid one-way FIRST CLASS ticket to Baghdad International Airport. Upon deplaing, he is issued a brand new black terrorist jumpsuit with hood, a shiny new AK-47, and a badoleer of bullets. Then driven by air-conditioned limousine to Fallujah.
Bring in about 50 Boeing 747 loads worth of the most vile scum-sucking terrorists on earth. Put them all in one place. Then carpet bomb Fallujah into serving as the "not so grand" canyon.
I cannot imagine any scenario better than bringing together the diaspora of Alqadadites into one neatly arranged bulls eye, and then vaporizing the nearest fifty grid squares.
I think it'd be a good time to inspire a little bit of awe among the lesser jihadi cockroaches of the world.
#12
"looks like it is about to be blasted out of existence"
Note that we have no evidence of a war crime other than this pompous clown's own claims and suppositions about US intentions and the likely course of events, all of which are strongly contradicted by documented fact and experience.
This thundering moral pronouncement is, in fact, demonizing propaganda willfully and maliciously created for the concious purpose of aiding international terrorism and inciting the murder of Americans. As such, I believe that it is an actual, literal war crime under the precedent established at the trial of Julius Streicher in 1946.
Follow his path, share his fate.
#14
It is still possible that resistance in Falluja will melt away in the face of US attack. While this would be a more optimistic scenario, I think it more likely at this point that the insurgents will fight, because too much is at stake politically for them to accept a bloodless Allawi victory.
Exactly what makes it such an "optimistic scenario" to have the Falluja terrorists "melt away?" Wouldn't it be far better to have them contained in one war zone where they can no longer continue to slaughter innocent Iraqi citizens in droves?
Wouldn't it be far more desirable to have all of these maggots clustered up where a minimum of collateral damage is needed to exterminate so many ruthless killers?
Oh, sorry, I guess Tony is working the other side of the street.
#16
Y'know, I'm getting tired of these rats. Also of AP "journalists" working with the "insurgents". It's time to show these assclowns that if you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas. I think it only appropriate that they be returned to the scene of the "crime" they're accusing us of - from about 50,000 feet, without a parachute. Who knows, one of them might land on an "insurgent" and actually do some good for a change.
It's absolutely hilarious that these jokers can be so holier than thou when their butt's not on the line, but if they get caught in the middle of something 'hot', they scream like stuck pigs. I have no sympathy with any of them. Let them join the enemy they support, and get the same 'reward'.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/08/2004 23:50 Comments ||
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#17
Tony Kevin is an ex-diplomat nutcase that Professor Bunyip has endless fun fisking.
As for "destroying the city to save it". Ah yes, brings to mind Peter Arnett totemic statement, when he pulled the usual leftist trick.
When faced by inconvenient facts, he lied. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" he quotes an unnamed source as saying.
Of course he was referring to Ben Tre ( a town, not a village) which was destroyed by the Vietcong.
#18
Tony Kevin is an ex-diplomat nutcase that Professor Bunyip has endless fun fisking.
As for "destroying the city to save it". Ah yes, brings to mind Peter Arnett totemic statement, when he pulled the usual leftist trick.
When faced by inconvenient facts, he lied. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" he quotes an unnamed source as saying.
Of course he was referring to Ben Tre ( a town, not a village) which was destroyed by the Vietcong.
#19
Tony Kevin is an ex-diplomat nutcase that Professor Bunyip has endless fun fisking.
As for "destroying the city to save it". Ah yes, brings to mind Peter Arnett totemic statement, when he pulled the usual leftist trick.
When faced by inconvenient facts, he lied. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" he quotes an unnamed source as saying.
Of course he was referring to Ben Tre ( a town, not a village) which was destroyed by the Vietcong.
#20
Tony Kevin is an ex-diplomat nutcase that Professor Bunyip has endless fun fisking.
As for "destroying the city to save it". Ah yes, brings to mind Peter Arnett totemic statement, when he pulled the usual leftist trick.
When faced by inconvenient facts, he lied. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" he quotes an unnamed source as saying.
Of course he was referring to Ben Tre ( a town, not a village) which was destroyed by the Vietcong.
#21
Tony Kevin is an ex-diplomat nutcase that Professor Bunyip has endless fun fisking.
As for "destroying the city to save it". Ah yes, brings to mind Peter Arnett totemic statement, when he pulled the usual leftist trick.
When faced by inconvenient facts, he lied. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" he quotes an unnamed source as saying.
Of course he was referring to Ben Tre ( a town, not a village) which was destroyed by the Vietcong.
#22
Tony Kevin is an ex-diplomat nutcase that Professor Bunyip has endless fun fisking.
As for "destroying the city to save it". Ah yes, brings to mind Peter Arnett totemic statement, when he pulled the usual leftist trick.
When faced by inconvenient facts, he lied. "We had to destroy the village in order to save it" he quotes an unnamed source as saying.
Of course he was referring to Ben Tre ( a town, not a village) which was destroyed by the Vietcong.
The Air Force built a weapon so big it was nicknamed ``Mother of All Bombs'' on the eve of the war with Iraq, but MOAB would be dwarfed by a much larger munition now being studied. The proposed Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or MOP, would weigh 30,000 pounds, nearly 40 percent more than the 21,000 pound MOAB - officially Massive Ordnance Air Blast - that never saw combat. ``The reason it's heavier than MOAB is that it has to penetrate a target,'' said Fred Davis, technical director for assessment and demonstrations at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Munitions Directorate.
The Army of Fred strikes again!
MOP would be designed to explode deep in the ground or inside a structure to destroy tunnels and bunkers or topple tall buildings. MOAB, on the other hand, explodes just above the ground. It is a larger version of the BLU-84 ``Daisy Cutter'' that was used during the Vietnam War to blast out helicopter landing zones in jungle areas. The 15,000-pound Daisy Cutter also was dropped during the 1991 Persian Gulf War to clear minefields and more recently to blast caves believed to be hiding terrorists in Afghanistan. MOAB can be against similar targets and structures or vehicles susceptible to surface blast damage. Both also are seen as psychological weapons that can demoralize an enemy. During the next 16 months the Munitions Directorate at this Florida Panhandle base will look at everything from MOP's shape to its guidance. The Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduation Agency is providing $500,000 in initial research money. If the project gets beyond the initial research and development phase, MOP probably won't see its first armed drop until 2006 or later. MOP would have inertial and satellite guidance, just like MOAB, but it would have a more slender shape so it could be dropped from high altitude by a B-52 or a B-2 stealth bomber.
With the B-2, they'll never see it coming.
The Daisy Cutter and MOAB are too bulky to be carried by sleek bombers and must be pushed out of the rear door of lower-flying and slower cargo planes.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 3:18:05 PM ||
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#1
"Good Morning, Tehran!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 15:38 Comments ||
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#2
"No pork or pork by-products were used in the making of this ordnance."
#3
Just think we could do with one of Barnes Wallis's Tallboys equipped with a GPS guidance system. Of couse the only way we'd be able to deploy it would probably be off the Wing pylons of the BUFF although it might fit in the bomb bay
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 16:33 Comments ||
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one of Barnes Wallis's Tallboys equipped with a GPS guidance system.
Cheaderhead, I think that's exactly what they are building. If I'm not mistaken, the B-52 was originally designed to take one of these in the bomb bay. Saw another story some where in the past that this MOP would be designed to fit in the B-2.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 16:45 Comments ||
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The idea about using the Tallboy or its big brother the Grand Slam is you don't have to re-invent the wheel just put a new set of hubcaps on it.
#9
In the case of Iran, I prefer using nukes so as to blur reponsibility...
"looks like your nuclear program had some problems...we don't have any comments on your accusations"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/08/2004 18:07 Comments ||
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52 was not designed to carry it in the bay but outside the bay - sort of like an X2! It don't matter if it is outside or inside - it is a one time delivery ordanance with a speacial need target assigned to it - like a nuke site or a cave or a funny looking steel tower by a river in Europe!
#11
A waste of tax payers money; they won't even use the MOAB in favorable conditions that would save even one of our troops life! Thses weapons are rapidly becoming 3rd tier tools; only deployed in cases of "high probable loss" to our side. Don't expect their use in Iraq, not enough insurgents will congregate in a one mile radius to make it cost effective!
Thing is, showing a willingness to use it in Iraq, plus the effect that such use would provide in terms of visual evidence of the destruction caused might influence the NorK situation in a positive way.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
11/08/2004 20:18 Comments ||
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#16
BAR, Given their experience at Bam, how coule the mullahs prove it wasn't an earthquake?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 20:33 Comments ||
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#17
BAR, Given their experience at Bam, how could the mullahs prove it wasn't an earthquake?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 20:33 Comments ||
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Hmm, the thing would leave a small mushroom cloud. The idjits would think we've nuked them.
Imagine the fun that could be had with the world wide press if the Air Force immediately came out and denied using nukes that leave no radioactivity. "This is as stupid as the earthquake machine we tested, I mean, didn't test in Bam last year."
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
11/08/2004 21:21 Comments ||
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The question is, if a MOP were used on a nuclear site, whether military or civilian, wouldn't the resulting explosion release radiation from the material already on-site? Separate from the non-radiating mushroom cloud that would result when such a large bomb is exploded, I mean. So nobody would believe that we hadn't used nukes, if that is indeed the case.
#21
Nah it aint the radiation so much (although from ground zero that will be significantly in evidence) as the actual double flash, and its seismic signature, thats a unique distinction of all nuclear bombs.
#22
Heh. A MOP would be a dirty bomb as a byproduct of bombing a U235 centrifuge site. That will get their attention, all right. Put a Hex on them [/pun]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/08/2004 21:53 Comments ||
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To: All Bookstores
We the undersigned are shocked and appalled by recent Muslim attempts to stifle circulation of Craig Winn's "Prophet of Doom," by demanding that bookstores stop carrying it and that its publication cease, via the petition "Stop Hatred and Misinformation about the Best of Creation." As firm supporters of First Amendment freedoms, we demand that authors critical of Islam (or any other religion) be given full First Amendment protection. Insofar as the United States of America is founded on a separation of church and state, the charge of blasphemy is utterly inapplicable in US courts. Moreover, Muslims must realize that their religion, however dear it may be to them or however many followers adhere to it, is in no way exempt from being subjected to rationalist critique, as has been the case for centuries with the other major religions.
We are reminded of a number of controversial attempts by Christians to stifle availability of "blasphemous materials," including..."
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is committed to introducing direct democracy in his North African nation, his son Sayef al-Islam Kadhafi said in an interview. Speaking on BBC World Service radio, the younger Kadhafi said that in the wake of regional government elections three months ago, nation-wide polls -- under the gaze of US and European observers -- would be "the next step" and that they would be held "soon". "The Libyan people want to modernise their economy, they want to reform their system, they want to deepen direct democracy," he said. "We will do this through a collective action." "In Libya, next time, everything should be democratic from A to Z. This is the desire of my father. This is the desire of the people." Asked whether his father -- who rules Libya with no formal title -- would contest the presidency, he replied with a laugh: "I think he is going to be the leader, and not president."
I think Sayef plans on being president and the election results are already fixed.
Libya emerged from the diplomatic cold -- and shed its reputation as a sponsor of international terrorism -- when it renounced the development of weapons of mass destruction last year. The younger Kadhafi predicted an economic boom for Libya in the construction, oil and tourism sectors, saying: "Libya in the next few years will be the biggest workshop in the world." But he criticised European Union policy towards North Africa, saying Brussels was wrong to separate the nations along the south shore of the Mediterranean from the rest of Africa. He also said that if Europe wanted to stem the tide of illegal immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa via Libya, it should do more "to create jobs and fight unemployment" in the region.
The EU can't seem to create jobs and fix unemployment at home, why do you think they'd be able to help you?
"It is not by sending us four wheel drive (vehicles), helicopters and night vision equipment" that the problem can be resolved, he said. "We have to bring opportunity from Europe ... and then we can prevent (migrants) from crossing the Sahara and crossing the Mediterranean towards Europe," he said.
Gee, that sounds familar, doesn't it?
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 11:05:28 AM ||
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The Kadhafis are going to discover what the Soviets learned with the Helsinki Accords - a pretense of virtue for reasons of propaganda can lead you by stages into a compromised situation where you either have to start living up to those virtues, or explain yourself to an enraged audience.
By all means, encourage them in their pretend show-elections. Slightly opened doors can blow wide open with the right gust of wind.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
11/08/2004 11:47 Comments ||
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Their economy must really suck if Europe is a land of opportunity.
Want your children to be good readers? Read to them. Or let them read to you. Educators recommend adults and children spend 20 minutes a day reading to one another. These recommendations are from Stephanie Youngerman, educational services supervisor with the Boise School District.
Grades K to 3
"Magid Fasts for Ramadan," by Mary Matthews. An interesting look at an Egyptian Muslim family's celebration of Ramadan through the eyes of 8-year-old Magid.
"Crow Boy," by Taro Yashima. In a small Japanese village, Chibi, the main character, is an outcast at school because he is different from the other kids. This memorable story is about a situation all children experience sometime .
Grades 4 to 6
"Celebrating Ramadan," by Diane Hoyt-Goldsmith. This picture book for older readers follows devout Muslim Ibraheem, a fourth-grader living in New Jersey, through the holy month of Ramadan and Eid (the holiday that follows).
"Skeleton Man," by Joseph Bruchac. Steeped in Mohawk lore and tradition, this story is contemporary both in its setting and its celebration of the enduring strength and courage of Native American women.
Grades 7 to 12
"19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East," by Naomi Shihab Nye. Haunting and evocative poems about the Middle East and about being an Arab American living in the United States.
"Flame (Farsala Trilogy)," by Hilari Bell. Adventure, mythology, politics, military tactics, and intrigue combine in this sweeping fantasy that draws its underpinnings from ancient Persian poetry and the relentless march of the Roman army.
Want more ideas?
Oh, I think we've got the idea, Steph. Thanks.
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 10:11:29 AM ||
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Isn't that sweet. Meanwhile, let's find out what Saudi and American muslim school students are learning. http://www.textbookleague.org/121musm.htm The religion of Islam is the true religion and any other religion is false. The religion of Islam is high and triumphant over all [other] religions. . . . There shall be no requital against a Muslim for [murdering] an infidel, nor against a freeman for [murdering] a slave. . . . there is no bond that binds [Jews], except for a corrupted religion. . . . [Jews] resemble a donkey that carries big books but does not benefit from them at all. . . It is forbidden for a Muslim to be a friend of one who does not believe in God and his Messenger [i.e., Muhammad]. . .
#4
I can't figure which is more improbable, that someone like Stehie would be working in Idaho or that an Idaho paper would publish such an article without calling for her dismissal. After all, I thought everyone in Idaho was a Nazi...Oh, now I'm starting to understand.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 17:31 Comments ||
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And here in NY....Crescent School, 835 Brush Hollow Road, Westbury, NY...teacher Yahiya Emerick, also publisher of textbooks for muslim children that contain anti-Christian, anti-Jewish statements. "Mercy to Mankind" and "What Islam is All About"...detailed by Larry Cohler-Esses, NY Daily News, March, 2003.
Yahiya Emerick has an essay on Daniel Pipes' website, www.danielpipes.org, "How to Islamicize America"...
Posted by: jawa ||
11/08/2004 21:00 Comments ||
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#6
Puleez,spare me the horseshit!!! Dump the PC crap.
#7
Welcome to the world of modern juvenile literature. Multicultural and 'realistic'. Write a story about a 12-year old womyn-of-color and budding artist living with a divorced crack-addict mom, and who makes friends with a homeless old lesbian mystic. You'll have a contender for a Newberry Award.
The evidence is piling up that Islamic radicals are motivated more by sermons and television news, than anything else. As a result, there is not one al Qaeda, but hundreds of informal groups, brought together by the shared belief that Arabs in particular, and Moslems in general, have gotten a raw deal from the infidels (non-Moslems), and it's Gods will for the faithful to hurt the infidels as much as possible. Rather simplistic, but that just makes it easier to understand. However, the leaders, and followers, in these many small terrorist groups vary enormously in their backgrounds. Most of the leaders are college graduates, compared to five percent of the adults being college grads in most Moslem nations. These many leaders tend to attract a lot of less well educated followers. In fact, these guys are often illiterate, or recruited from prisons, urban slums or isolated rural populations. European countries have noted this, and now increasingly keep Moslem convicts separated from one another, to reduce terrorist recruitment possibilities.
The terrorist leadership, with a few exceptions (like the September 11, 2001 attacks), do not actually carry out suicide attacks. That's what the cannon fodder ex-cons and illiterate guys are for. Fortunately, most of the terrorist cells get caught long before they can put together a workable plan. That's because few of the graduates of the Afghanistan al Qaeda camps are still actively involved. Many of the Afghan grads apparently grew out of their terrorism phase, or simply decided that sort of thing was not for them.
Or they are dead, don't forget that.
The "Afghanis" are the ones who received training in OPSEC (Operational Security, how to keep terrorist activities being discovered by the police.) These are the ones who are not getting caught. The college grads without the OPSEC training are not stupid, in fact most are trained in science and engineering and have access to al Qaeda's training documents (on CD or downloaded from the net.) But it's one thing to read about how important it is to keep your mouth shut and avoid the police, and to have someone hammer it into you during classroom work.
US military have refresher training on a yearly basis to keep people aware. Plus, just being a college grad doesn't mean you're smart. Sometimes all it does is make you think you are smarter than everyone else.
Most terrorist cells are formed from people who previously knew each other, often from among people they met at a mosque. Usually it's a mosque with religious leaders who preach hatred of infidels and the need for good Moslems to fight back. Counter-terrorism agencies have learned to keep an eye on these mosques, and the result has been many arrests, and many more people put under surveillance. The job is made easier by the habit of the terrorist wannabes to live together and act suspiciously like terrorists or criminals. In the United States, over 10,000 American Moslems were interviewed by the FBI in 2004, and many more by state and local counter-terrorism officials. These interviews uncover who is eager to be a terrorist, and who the suspects hang out with. That there have been no terrorist attacks in the United States since 2001 is no accident.
Even in Saudi Arabia, one of the most intensely Islamic nations in the world, terrorists can't help spending too much time with each other, often in the same neighborhoods or even mosques. The Saudi police have killed one leader of al Qaeda, in Saudi Arabia, after another in the past year. As a consequence, the new leaders get younger, less experienced, and easier to catch. It's reached the point where Saudi public opinion is beginning to be sympathetic of the terrorists once more. This, however, will quickly change once more once another terrorist attack occurs.
Another problem the new terrorists cells have are increased border controls brought about by fear of terrorists. Not just in the United States, but world wide. While the larger number of checks is mostly catching common criminals and illegal immigrants, it is noting the movements of suspected terrorists, and disrupting the movements of these men. But with all this, there is still the very real problem of terrorism being very popular among young Islamic men. In Thailand, increased violence in the Moslem south has created a growing number of terrorist incidents. Most of these are obviously improvised acts, but there is the fear that more carefully planned, and deadlier acts might be in the works. This can be seen in the Spanish train bombings earlier this year, and the September massacre in Beslan, Russia. Indeed, investigators have discovered that the Beslan operation involved as many as 65 people directly. That included 49 who were killed in or near Beslan, three who were captured and 13 who escaped. The Chechens, however, have long specialized in large, elaborate operations involving dozens of terrorists. It's something of a tradition in the Chechen community, these large operations, with plenty of people brought up knowing how to cooperate in covert operations in areas where they speak the language and have contacts (usually other Chechens). That's unique, in most other cultures, small groups of inexperienced men improvise, and usually get caught.
Growing up in the former USSR under the watchful eye of the KGB may also have taught them something about OPSEC.
The problem is that, some of these terror cells are going to succeed. The number of Islamic terror groups that have managed to carry out attacks has been small, considering that millions of young Moslems have eagerly sought to do something destructive. Most of the violence is concentrated in places like Israel, Chechnya, Pakistan, Kashmir and Iraq. In all those cases, there are other causes of the violence that have nothing to do with Islam.
Yes, but Islam is one thing they all have in common.
International terrorism, and terrorists, are another matter. This world wide violence has largely been a flop. But as terrorists have long pointed out, you only have to get lucky once to have an enormous impact (in the media, at least).
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 9:20:01 AM ||
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The terrorist leadership, with a few exceptions (like the September 11, 2001 attacks), do not actually carry out suicide attacks. Thatâs what the cannon fodder ex-cons and illiterate guys are for.
For years I've been calling them "brains" and "mules". Killing the brains limits the effectiveness of the mules, though it might not make them less violent.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/08/2004 10:18 Comments ||
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"What are we going to do today, Brain?"
"What we do every day, Pinky. Try to take over the world!"
Posted by: Steve ||
11/08/2004 12:08 Comments ||
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(2004-11-05) -- After Yassir Arafat's final death, Palestinian officials said today that tradition will determine the location of his final resting place.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has not yet agreed to the funeral plan or location, but Palestinian authorities said they expect no roadblocks since many of their other heroes have had similar ceremonies.
"Chairman Arafat will be placed in a Tel Aviv city bus and driven to a crowded market," said an unnamed spokesman for the Hamas social services agency. "There we will conduct the traditional scattering of his fragments. According to protocol, no friends or family will attend this ceremony."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed his sympathy to the Palestinian people.
"I have grieved each time Chairman Arafat has died," said Mr. Annan, "and I know the last death will be even harder to take than the previous ones. But I'm comforted that he will go to his rest according to the custom of his people."
Posted by: Steve from Relto ||
11/08/2004 9:05:37 AM ||
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"Oh, no! Now only Paul's left!" /think about it.
Arab Liberals Petition the U.N. to Establish an International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Terrorists
On October 24, 2004, the liberal Arab websites www.elaph.com and www.metransparent.com published a manifesto written by Arab liberals, in which they petition the U.N. to establish an international tribunal which would prosecute terrorists, as well as people and institutions, primarily religious clerics, that incite terrorism.(1)
The idea to petition the U.N. with this request was raised by the Jordanian writer and researcher Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi in early September 2004, in response to the fatwa issued by Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi - one of the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood movement and one of the most important religious authorities in Islamist circles - which called for the abduction and killing of U.S. citizens in Iraq.(2) The idea was developed and written up by Al-Nabulsi, Tunisian intellectual Al-'Afif Al-Akhdhar, and formerIraqi Minister of Planning Dr. Jawad Hashem. Lots more in the link
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/08/2004 6:00:01 AM ||
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I prefer the Bush doctrine. It has an end point.
#3
Whether they acknowledge it themselves or not, it's another expression from the Arab world that they cannot (be expected to) clean up the mess in their own houses. It's nice of these folks to publicly oppose terrorism, but it's not the outside world's responsiblity to police for the Arabs. If young men are crawling out of their deranged states to attack us, it's a military matter. And we get to decide how to respond. The policing's their job.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 7:34 Comments ||
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#6
The liberals don't get it although these are Arab liberals. Blatant display of naivete or "Can't we just get along" mentality. I prefer the Bush doctrine too Bulldog.
#7
Unfortunately if the UN took on the job they would end up prosecuting Israelis for operating checkpoints while ignoring the clergy who incite suicide bombing.
The BBC has received at least 500 complaints, after its broadcaster said she "started to cry" when Arafat departed his ruined PLO headquarters in Ramallah for a hospital in Paris. Barbara Plett, BBC's Middle East correspondent, reported on a BBC Radio 4 program last Saturday her impressions of the sickly Arafat's departure. "When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound, I started to cry," she said. The Sunday Telegraph, reporting on the controversy caused by her remarks, noted, "The fact that a Middle East correspondent has such sympathies will fuel claims of BBC bias towards the Arabs." Righto! A historical rerun of this BBC dame's reporting concerning Jews & Arabs would VERY interesting.
BBC sources were quoted as saying that Plett realized that her words were a "misjudgment." Oh, the wordsmith's of spin
Plett's broadcast displayed her strong sympathy for Arafat, though among what she called his "obvious failings," she listed "his ambivalence towards violence." She was likely referring to the thousands of murders attributed to him and his men, earning him the commonly-used title, "father of modern-day terrorism." Plett also noted Arafat's "use of corruption [and] his autocratic way of ruling," but then said, "During those black days in Ramallah, he was a symbol of Palestinian unity, steadfastness, and resistance." She later added, "Throughout his years of revolution, peace, and uprising, the Palestinian leader has been an enduring national symbol." An editorial in the Telegraph stated, "Ms. Plett's flood of feeling is just the most overt and recent manifestation of a pro-Palestinian bias endemic within the BBC. As a publicly-funded organization, it should remember that it is not paid to take sides. As things stand, however, we might conclude that Mr. Arafat's culpable 'ambivalence towards violence' is echoed by our national broadcaster." The Telegraph Bodyslams the BBC!
Danny Seaman, the director of Israel's Government Press Office, responded sharply. "This is a clear example of the problem that Israel has been facing for years," he told Ynet, "and that is the lack of balance in BBC reports... BBC never displayed feelings like that towards Arafat's victims." DITTO!
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/08/2004 5:18:08 AM ||
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Well everyone knows how I feel about the BBC. It's state funded anti-US propaganda organ of the multinational socialist movement. So this doesn't suprise me in the least. I have altogether quit listening to the BBC or watching news on BBC America.
That the BBC has a pro terrorist anti civilization ( pro Paleo anti Israel) bias has been true for years. Why should this suprise us?
#2
Sock, you ain't the only one. But, no matter how much you prepare for it and expect it, nothing prepares you for the real thing. Read it and weep:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3966139.stm
#7
I think Barbara Plett covers Israel for the BBC when Orla "Bride of Skeletor" Guerin is too busy to churn out the propaganda. From what I've read and heard of Babs so far, Orla's still worse.
#8
They should at least make this bitch take the public busses from now on.
For me, it was probably the siege.
I remember well when the Israelis re-conquered the West Bank more than two years ago, how they drove their tanks and bulldozers into Mr Arafat's headquarters, trapping him in a few rooms, and throwing a military curtain around Ramallah.
I remember how Palestinians admired his refusal to flee under fire. They told me: "Our leader is sharing our pain, we are all under the same siege."
#11
Everytime I write them I tell them I hope their headquaters is the victim of "militant suicide bombers."
It doesn't take any effort to use their forms to screw with them. I have put some pretty vile but non vulgar stuff in them. If they gfet a big enough pile of them tehy might be forced to rethink their multinational socialist spin on every article they do.
#16
Christiane Amanpour from CNN wasn't much better. She said something to the effect that Palestinians wouldn't have gotten this far without Arafat. She was right of course.
BTW, watching post-election CNN (since that's all we can get here), you can see that they've gone absolutely berzerk about Bush's re-election and the assault on Fallujah. Especially Paula Zhan. All she needs is a black jihadist banner behind her. And possibly an AK propped up beside her.
Posted by: Rafael ||
11/08/2004 22:10 Comments ||
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Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was poisoned by Israel, one of his advisers said Sunday. (What took these bastards so long in attempting to lay blame at Israel's door for this 75 year old terrorist health problems? If Israel really wanted Mr. Ara-Terrorist dead, it could have been undertaken a long time ago.
The option is being seriously considered by the PA, which has sent blood samples to the US and Germany to confirm or rule out the option, he said. Arafat suffers symptoms similar to those of former PFLP military leader Wadi'a Hadad, he said. How old was Wadi Hadad? Not 75 like the Camel.
Hadad was poisoned in the late 1970s by a close aide who was allegedly recruited by the Mossad, the adviser said, although the official reason for his death was cancer. "It took Hadad eight weeks to die... he also entered a coma", he said, "Unless they find an antidote, Arafat will die," he added.
I'm sure the Paleo biomedical community is working on one ...
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/08/2004 3:45:10 AM ||
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Who really gives a damn who poisoned him if they did? Palestians surrounding arafatwa are more likely to poison him. Just count your blessings no matter from whence they come!!!
#7
"Medical observers note that a low blood platelet count is a sign of a weakened immune system, and indeed last week there were reports of a complete collapse of Arafat's immune system. Other than the ruled-out cancer, the low count could be attributed to bleeding ulcers, colitis, liver disease, lupus, or HIV. It is believed that ulcers and colitis have already been ruled out."
"I just called the microphone monitoring center to ask about the 'Fedayee,'" Arafat's code name, explained Munteaunu. "After the meeting with the Comrade, he went directly to the guest house and had dinner. At this very moment, the 'Fedayee' is in his bedroom making love to his bodyguard. The one I knew was his latest lover. He's playing tiger again. The officer monitoring his microphones connected me live with the bedroom, and the squawling almost broke my eardrums. Arafat was roaring like a tiger, and his lover yelping like a hyena."
Pacepa wrote: "The report was indeed an incredible account...of homosexual relationships, beginning with his teacher when he was a teen-ager and ending with his current bodyguards. After reading the report, I felt a compulsion to take a shower whenever I had been kissed by Arafat, or even just shaken his hand."
#8
Not yet convinced that it couldn't be poisoning or that it must be AIDS. Still, how funny that they jump to the conclusion Israel would have poisoned him, when there are plenty of Palestinians who are motivated enough to do it; hell, it could even have come from some weird kind of environmental poisoning in that locked up compound, couldn't it?
18 children who witnessed horror in Russian town will be guests of the City of Ashkelon.
Thirty-eight residents of Beslan, including 18 children who survived the school carnage in the town, arrived this (Sunday) morning at the Haifa Port and will be guests of the city of Ashkelon in the next three weeks. The initiators of the visit, city mayor Roni Mahatzari and Moshe Mano of "Mano Shipping", have expressed hope they would be able to provide their guests with three weeks of great experiences that would hopefully help them deal with their tragedy. On Monday, the children will be examined at the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon and will then commence their journeys across Israel. They will be staying at the French Vacation Village in Ashkelon.
According to Mahatzari, "As a nation that has so much experience in dealing with terrorism, I believe we have something to offer countries such as Russia regarding the treatment of children who are victims of terror". Head of the Beslan delegation, Allan Dubayev, said that the town of Beslan would like to thank the City of Ashkelon and all those who were involved in bringing the children to Israel. The connection between Beslan and Ashkelon began in the beginning of September. After the atrocious attack perpetrated by Chechnya rebels left 330 adults and children dead, Mahatzari wrote a letter to his counterpart in which he had offered to host children who were victims of the attack. The City of Ashkelon, the Even Ezer Foundation and the Organization of Olim from the Caucuses financed the trip.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
11/08/2004 3:24:59 AM ||
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There are the White Flags, the Green Battalions and the Holders of the Black Banners. There's Mohammed's Army and, not to be outdone, Mohammed's Second Army. The Lions of God and the Harvest of Resistance are recent arrivals. Shadowy new militant groups crop up almost weekly in Iraq, with names that sound like rejected rock bands and with cadres of masked gunmen posing for video cameras. While some really are hardened guerrillas responsible for brutal attacks, many are amateur copycats. The proliferation of these militant groups is yet another frustration for American and Iraqi intelligence experts struggling to figure out exactly who the enemy is. "To what extent each of these groups turns out to actually be a serious threat varies on the goals of the groups and what they profess," said Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad. "Even if they are seen only once, we take great care in ensuring that we do everything we can to protect our forces and deny them access to inflict damage, take hostages or further their goals."
The explosion of Sunni Muslim start-up cells has led to dueling claims of responsibility for the same attacks, confusion over who's holding foreign hostages and a trend in militants emphasizing on camera that they're "the real Iraqi resistance." In July, a group calling itself the Salvation Movement formed solely to discredit and hunt down a rival group linked to the al-Qaida terror network. After drawing headlines worldwide, it disappeared as quickly as it emerged. "It's really quite a big problem," said Sabah Kadhim, spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry. "If you and I wanted to make some money, we could think of a name, record a video and be on al Jazeera the next day."
Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite TV channel that reaches millions of viewers in the Islamic world, is still the medium of choice for militants. While the station won't release figures, al Jazeera receives far more tapes than it airs - partly because producers are more cautious these days about providing a forum for groups that are here today, gone tomorrow. Militants have since turned to Web sites and fliers to get their message out. "We have our own ways, born from experience and knowledge of the terrain in Iraq, in ascertaining whether they are mainstream groups or not," said Jihad Ballout, spokesman for al Jazeera. Ballout and others familiar with militants' claims emphasized that two or three established terror networks are still behind most of Iraq's mayhem. The best known are the Kurdish-based Ansar al Islam and al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, led by Jordanian terror suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and recently allied with Osama bin Laden.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 1:05:58 AM ||
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Staying power is everything.
Posted by: Gen Shipman Leon Brigade Army of the Panhandle ||
11/08/2004 7:40 Comments ||
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When I see these new groups on TV, I laugh, but I get disgusted because they are ruining our picture in front of the world. They try to use fiery names, names that mean a lot to Iraqis, but I know they donât represent us
Bingo. What we have here is a society under stress, and the kids are trying to both rebel against their parents and establish their idenity. For an amusing comparison, consider the antics of P.J. O'Rourke during his "Balto-cong" days.
Posted by: N guard ||
11/08/2004 9:13 Comments ||
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#3
Actually, this is a published tactic, read their manuals and jihad spiels--change names often, keep the enemy confused as to actual numbers, strength, purposes. In the end, they're all jihadofascists, anyway, and full of hot air. The way to prevent another terror attack in America isn't to obsess over their bulletin boards, but to kill them in their own lands before they even get started.
Egypt on Sunday again rejected accusations that it was harbouring a secret nuclear programme, saying that its transparency could not be faulted. "The Egyptian nuclear programme is clear, known and announced," presidential spokesman Magued Abdel Fattah told reporters. "Nuclear sites in Egypt have been subjected to inspections (by the International Atomic Energy Agency)," he added, saying that Egypt's latest inspection was just a month ago and it underwent another three months ago. "Egypt applies the principal of total transparency ... What has been written in certain media is just an attempt to pressurise international employees into not saying on," he added.
The accusations stemmed from a report in the French newspaper Liberation, citing unnamed Western diplomats, that the now dismantled Libyan nuclear programme "had Egyptian links." Liberation said the charges were reaching IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei who it said stood accused by some diplomatic missions of using his influence to put the brakes on the agency examining the issue. Egypt's ambassador to the UN atomic agency had last week blasted the report as "totally baseless". Egypt is believed to possess two small nuclear reactors used purely for research purposes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 12:43:35 AM ||
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Liberation said the charges were reaching IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei who it said stood accused by some diplomatic missions of using his influence to put the brakes on the agency examining the issue.
After Libya let the cat out of Egypt's bag, ElBaradei's protestations vis assisting the nuclear arming of Islamic nations amounts to nothing more than just another turd floating in d'Nile. Like Kofi Annan, whether ElBaradei's agenda is intentional or not, his acts amount to nothing less than treachery on a criminal level.
Egypt is believed to possess two small nuclear reactors used purely for research purposes.
Which are only driven to church on Sundays whilst wearing tennis shoes.
#3
Bush is already quietly pushing to oust ElBaradei, hence his protestation Friday that his comments had been misinterpreted -- he and the Bush admin get along just fine. I think if it could be shown that yet another nuclear program slipped under El Baradei's radar (whether by commission or omission), his chance for a third term would be as solid as Hans Blix's to be rehired as chief weapons inspector. That this showed up in Liberation, one of the many mouthpieces of the French government, to my mind decreases El Baradei's chances significantly.
#5
El Baradei's an Egyptian physicist; the odds that he would be unaware of an Egyptian nuclear program are slim to none.
I have no doubt he's been using his time in office to boost the jihadi bomb projects. Should one go off, and he survives the aftermath, he should be executed for crimes against humanity.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
11/08/2004 10:27 Comments ||
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#6
ElBaradei was in charge of the Egyptian nuke program in the early 70s.
Wife is fighting Palestinian officials for assets, Arab TV reports Ramallah, West Bank -- The wife of Yasser Arafat was locked in a bitter dispute with Palestinian officials over the fate of his vast secret fortune as the Palestinian leader lay apparently near death in a French hospital, according to a report on the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera. Arafat's secret assets have been estimated at anywhere between $200 million (Forbes magazine) and $6 billion (U.S. and Israeli intelligence). Forbes listed him ninth in its ranking of the world's wealthiest heads of state -- even though he is a ruler without a country and many of his people are refugees. Nice work, when you can get it.
In Paris, the struggle over Arafat's hidden millions threatened to overshadow his final days. His wife, Suha Arafat, hopes to steal inherit at least part of his fortune. But, according to Al-Jazeera, Palestinian leaders demand that it be handed over to the Palestinian people. The assets are managed in a complex network of bank accounts, holding companies and stocks whose details are known only to his closest confidant, financial adviser Mohammed "The Golden Goose" Rashid.
Suha Arafat has access to some of the money, but apparently even she does not know all the Swiss account numbers ins and outs of the secret accounts. Al-Jazeera reported that she asked Rashid to make out a list of Arafat's assets and that he refused, saying he would report only to the highest bidder Palestinian Authority. According to Al-Jazeera, Arafat had written a will leaving at least some of his embezzled fortune to his wife and their 9-year-old daughter Zahwa, but other reports said Arafat has no will, leaving most of his fortune in the hands of Rashid.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Zenster ||
11/08/2004 12:19:42 AM ||
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What?! You mean that they are NOT going to give each Palestinian a few thousand dollars? Quelle suprise!
And almost all of it from the pockets of the Europeans.
And what have they got to show for their money? NOTHING. Isreal is still alive and thriving. The Euros' surrogates haven't managed to finish the job, in spite of billions thrown their way.
Now their money will either go to the Swiss banks that hold's extravagant Parisian lifestyle, not the impoverished Paleos in general.
Bwhahahahahahahahah!
Life is good. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/08/2004 16:40 Comments ||
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#6
Not millions, Zenster - billions.
Hey, Barbara, I just post what the headlines say. You'll note my far more cynical take on things located within the trailing headline brackets. Arafat is just another insatiable vampire in the vein (tee-hee) of Marcos. Drinking his people's blood by the gallon while they stagnate.
That the Palestinians were willing to adulate this monster while he held back any collective progress into the 21st century is an almost fitting punishment for how they continue to embrace terrorism. Please note that I said, "almost."
All of the Palestinians being condemned to centuries of wandering, homeless among the Arab nations would barely make a dent in their mass karma. The rudderless state Arafat both imposed during his reign and will now leave them in is indicative of just how demagnetized their societal moral compass is. They richly deserve it.
SINGAPORE - India is willing to look at all options to resolve its long-running dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, the Financial Times on Monday quoted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as saying. India has been cool to Pakistani proposals made through the media to end the dispute over Kashmir that has caused two of the three wars between the two nations. New Delhi has said it would not carry out such public peace negotiations. But, while he repeated India's demand that Pakistan end cross-border infiltration by Kashmiri rebels, Singh told the FT in an interview India was ready to look at ideas put forward by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. "As long as Pakistan remains committed (to ending cross-border terrorism), we are willing to look at all possible ways of resolving all outstanding issues, including on Jammu and Kashmir," Singh told the paper. "I think we are willing to look at all options to think about a new chapter and a new beginning."
Singh said he would like to hear more about Musharraf's suggestions, which include demilitarising Kashmir and looking at options for its future including independence, joint control or some for of U.N. control. Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil, visiting India's only Muslim-majority state, said on Saturday he was ready for unconditional talks with separatist leaders, and had no objection if they wanted to visit Pakistan before talks were held.
Most Kashmiri separatists, who have either not been given passports or have had them impounded by Indian authorities, cautiously welcomed the offer. Moderate separatist leaders held two rounds of talks with the Indian government this year, for the first time since the insurgency broke out in 1989. But the talks stalled after Singh's Congress-led government took power in May, as New Delhi diplomats pushed the long-held line that Kashmir was an integral part of India.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
11/08/2004 12:10:02 AM ||
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Details about Saddam Hussein's aversion to telephones and how he ruled Iraq are emerging from thousands of pages of U.S. intelligence. In one January 1991 audiotape acquired by the CIA's Iraq survey group, Saddam makes obvious reference to weapons that have apparently since disappeared. "I want to make sure that ... the germ and chemical warheads ... are available, so that in case we ordered an attack, they can do it without missing any of their targets?" he asked.
He apparently developed an aversion to telephones following the Gulf War. By his own account, he used a phone only twice in the past 14 years, for fear of being pinpointed for U.S. attack. Investigators also learned Saddam personally approved the list of foreigners and foreign firms eligible for secret oil allocations as part of the U.N. oil-for-food program. "This is a very cagey guy," said a U.S. official with access to debriefing transcripts. The Christian Science Monitor said at his upcoming trial, the new Iraqi government will likely portray him as not so much a cartoonish tyrant as a detail-oriented executive, a strongman personally responsible for the evils and excesses of his regime.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
11/08/2004 3:06:23 PM ||
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EFL Cheesecake at link
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left here Sunday for a three-day visit to The Hague to attend the fifth India-European Union Summit aimed at promoting their growing ties to a strategic level. Minister of Foreign Affairs K. Natwar Singh, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, National Security Adviser J.N. Dixitand other senior officials are part of the Prime Minister's entourage. During the annual summit which opens on Monday, the two sides will endorse a document on "strategic partnership" that India's Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said "marks the culmination of a journey of cooperation which began many years ago."
The Prime Minister welcomed on Sunday the strategic partnership agreement that India will sign with the European Union (EU) at the summit, saying the move was a recognition of India's growing stature and influence. Â "We warmly welcome this development," he said in a statement before departure for the Dutch city. According to Indian Foreign Ministry officials, strengthening cooperation in combating terrorism will be a "priority area" underthe India-European Union Strategic Partnership that will be signedby the Indian Prime Minister and EU leaders at the end of the summit.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
11/08/2004 1:15:53 PM ||
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For years India's "strategic relationship" was with the Soviet Union. With them gone, the EU's the next best thing. So, no surprise here. Although, when the Chinese dragon starts to roar, I hope they don't expect too much help from the EU.
AFP NEW DELHI: Israel is likely to sign a deal to supply spy drones worth $230 million to India soon, officials said Sunday. State-owned Israeli Aircraft Industries will also supply military surveillance hardware for the unmanned aircraft which will be jointly produced in India, defence ministry officials said. "We are quite close to signing a deal," a highly-placed official said. They said the offer includes 50 Eagle-Heron Israeli drones which have a range of 1,000 kilometres (620 miles), can stay airborne for more than 24 hours and cruise at an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,575 metres).
India, which treated Israel like a pariah for decades, has forged close military links in recent years. It is acquiring two Phalcon Airborne Early Warning Systems worth a billion dollars and will jointly produce a long-range missile from the Jewish state. what does India or Israel need with a long-range missile?
#4
China.. Folks India and China also share a border. They trade gunfire from time to time as well. This map shows that it's that touchy area with Pakistan. India has a reason to want to be able to reach out and touch someone. IMI is just taking advantage of that.
#5
I can see India and Israel working together on a long-range missile. The Israelis had a missile in the mid-1980's that would reach Baghdad with a nuke. I have no idea what they have now, but I wouldn't be surprised if they could hit any target they wanted to. The deal with India would give Israel a place to launch their satellites from, having lost South Africa.
If India can pacify the Assam region, plant missile silos from Bombay to Assam, China would have a screaming fit, but couldn't do anything about it. There are about ten or twelve countries that fear China - an alliance of convenience between them is not impossible. Can you see a military cooperative alliance between Pakistan, India, Burma, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea? China would have heart failure!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/08/2004 13:54 Comments ||
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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.
Terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and 
The Bush administration has failed to recognize that Al Qaeda is now a global Islamic insurgency, rather than a traditional terrorist organization, and so poses a much different threat than previously believed, says a senior counterterrorism official at the Central Intelligence Agency.
One of the most vexing and peculiar problems that the imprisonment of people suspected of being terrorists at the naval base here has caused for the Bush administration has been what to do with the ethnic Uighur detainees here. Guantänamo has 22 Uighur (pronounced WEE-ger) detainees, most captured in Afghanistan. They traveled there from their homeland in the Xinjiang Province of China where the mostly Muslim Uighurs have fought a low-level insurgency against Beijing's rule for years.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was poisoned by Israel, one of his advisers said Sunday. 
Egypt on Sunday again rejected accusations that it was harbouring a secret nuclear programme, saying that its transparency could not be faulted. "The Egyptian nuclear programme is clear, known and announced," presidential spokesman Magued Abdel Fattah told reporters. "Nuclear sites in Egypt have been subjected to inspections (by the International Atomic Energy Agency)," he added, saying that Egypt's latest inspection was just a month ago and it underwent another three months ago. "Egypt applies the principal of total transparency ... What has been written in certain media is just an attempt to pressurise international employees into not saying on," he added.
