National parks in Arizona and other U.S. border states have spent millions of dollars since Sept. 11, 2001, to block terrorists and undocumented immigrants from entering the country, straining park budgets, House Republicans say.
Congress has given the National Park Service about $120 million to beef up security since the 2001 terrorist attacks. But parks have spent more than $21 million more on security, money that otherwise might have been used for maintenance and other needs, according to the House Resources Committee. Parks, including Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, have hired more rangers and built barriers to prevent people from crossing into the United States through federal land.
Some in Congress are worried about how the agency is balancing this new responsibility with its mission of preserving land and hosting millions of vacationers... [Representative Steve] Pearce [R-NM] is particularly concerned that adding to the Park Service's duties will force parks to cut back in other areas, which might cause some visitors to stop coming.
The issue is particularly acute in border parks, including Organ Pipe, where people crossing from Mexico have created hundreds of miles of illegal roads and trails, left piles of trash and threatened rare wildlife, Interior Department officials say.
The problem started in the late 1990s after the Border Patrol began cracking down on illegal immigration in cities. Border crossings shifted to rural areas, including 365 miles of land on the U.S.-Mexico border managed by the Park Service. An estimated 250,000 people crossed illegally through Park Service land in 2001 alone...in 2002 an Organ Pipe ranger was shot and killed by a suspected drug trafficker fleeing Mexican police.
#3
Sign up the local Boy Scout troops to do at least some of the maintenance -- they'd be thrilled to take on the responsibility -- and give them a list of desired improvements for Eagle Scout projects. There are always lads looking for interesting E.S. projects, especially if it involves lots of hammering or pouring concrete in interesting shapes. ;-)
#6
and give them a list of desired improvements for Eagle Scout projects. There are always lads looking for interesting E.S. projects, especially if it involves lots of hammering or pouring concrete in interesting shapes. ;-)
#8
How about we just start shooting the bastards as they come across the border? You wouldn't have to shoot too many before they stop. Singapore doesn't have to execute too many drug traffickers every year because they've established that they will do so whenever they get the possibility. Same thing would operate in our case.
Posted by: mac ||
07/10/2005 21:02 Comments ||
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Saudi Arabia yesterday offered all-out support to Britain in its bid to track down the criminals behind Thursday's London bombings. It also called for joint international efforts to dry up sources of terrorism. "On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and myself, I strongly condemn this heinous crime and express the Kingdom's full readiness to extend whatever help required by our friends in Britain," Crown Prince Abdullah told British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
During a telephone conversation yesterday, Prince Abdullah and Blair reviewed the aftermath of the blasts that claimed several innocent lives. "These acts reflect the cowardice and meanness of their perpetrators, irrespective of their ideologies," the Saudi Press Agency quoted the crown prince as telling the premier. Blair thanked the crown prince and commended Saudi Arabia's bold stand against terrorism.
In a separate statement, Interior Minister Prince Naif also voiced the Kingdom's support to Britain. "It is a crime by all standards and we hope the British security agencies catch those behind the blasts," he said. "We have expressed our readiness to provide them with whatever information we have," SPA quoted the minister as telling reporters in Riyadh. While denouncing the attacks, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said an all-out global battle was required to combat terrorism and called for the cooperation of all countries to stamp out the scourge.
Prince Naif also said that the Kingdom was ready to deal with those Saudis who have gone to Iraq to fight alongside insurgents. "We expect only worse from those who have gone to Iraq," he told reporters. Asked whether the government had any plan to issue a new royal amnesty to help wanted terrorists surrender, Prince Naif said: "The matter of amnesty must be decided by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah." However, he emphasized that those surrendering to authorities would be "given exceptional treatment and their punishment would be reduced."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Nope not under this rock! Maybe this other one here? Nope!
#4
Fine comments from a man that for all practical purposes sponsored this event. Now he talks amnesty for them when they return. How many of these terrorists that have blown up our men and women will get a hero's welcome from this ass when they return?
Posted by: 49 pan ||
07/10/2005 14:08 Comments ||
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#5
fore sum reesen this isa reminden me o.j. and his serch fore em reel killer.
The International Islamic Relief Organization-Saudi Arabia (IIROSA) denounced the barbaric attack that targeted commuter transport in London on Thursday. "The IIROSA strongly condemns this atrocity in one of the most multicultural capitals of the world," said Secretary-General Dr. Adnan Khalil Basha. He expressed his condolences to the families and victims of the multiple attacks. "The world should join hands to fight those who perpetrate such heinous acts," he added. "The IIROSA offers its sympathies to the British government and the innocent victims, most especially to the family members of those who died in the series of blasts," Dr. Basha said.
In Riyadh, Dr. Saleh Al-Wohaiby, secretary-general of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), also condemned the deadly blasts. In a statement sent to Arab News, the secretary-general said: "The heinous crime violates the teachings of the Shariah, which calls for the protection of religion, life, honor, mind and wealth of a person. It was a barbaric and inhuman attack on innocent people." The WAMY secretary-general said bombing innocent civilians has absolutely no place whatsoever in Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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Kuwaiti liberals and women's rights activists slammed Islamists' campaign to attract women voters for the next parliamentary elections saying the members of the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) were the main hurdle in the way of women achieving political rights. The change in attitude by Islamists is a political ploy and they will not be able to draw reasonable number of female votes in these changing circumstances, said a prominent scholar and women's rights activists.
Dr Badria Al Awadi, Professor of International Law at the Kuwait University told the daily Al Watan yesterday that Kuwaiti women are well aware of the fact that ICM never supported women's rights and only played political games in order to achieve their goals. Islamists' campaign for women's votes launched this week has sparked a political debate in Kuwait over whether Islamists will allow their female followers to run for parliamentary seats. "The change in attitude of Islamists shows, to what extent they can go to achieve their personal goals. They will try to create hurdles for women to bar them from exercising full political rights," she added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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BRITAIN could urge Australia to take over its military command role in southern Iraq as it prepares to redeploy troops to fight terrorism in Afghanistan.
John Howard and Tony Blair will discuss the future British and Australian military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan when they meet in London later this month.
Cabinet's national security committee is tomorrow expected to consider options for a fresh Australian troop commitment to Afghanistan on top of the defence force's existing role in Iraq.
"It's ... necessary to make sure that the gains of the past several years are not lost. If there's a way in which we can help, we'll consider doing that," the Prime Minister told the Nine Network yesterday.
Britain will take over command of the NATO forces based in Afghanistan later this year, and is keen to phase down its 8000-strong contingent in southern Iraq by early 2006.
One option under consideration, according to the London Sunday Times, is for Australia to take over the running of the divisional headquarters in southern Iraq, based in Basra.
This could involve an extra 200 to 300 Australian defence personnel in Iraq on top of the 450-strong al-Muthanna deployment and the existing embassy security and coalition forces headquarters detachments in Baghdad.
The Blair Government is preparing to boost its troop numbers in Afghanistan to well over 1000 as Britain takes on a wider security role amid a resurgence of attacks by Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.
The Sunday Times report said Washington was keen for Canberra to take over the command role in southern Iraq should Britain relinquish it.
Australia's al-Muthanna contingent provides security for Japanese army engineers working in the province. It also helps train the Iraqi defence force.
Australian defence sources say a headquarters command role for the force would be "feasible" given the relatively calm security situation in southern Iraq.
"Whether the Government would have the balls to do it is another question," observed one source.
British and other coalition forces have suffered few casualties in the south in recent months compared with the continuing attacks on US and Iraqi security forces in and around Baghdad. But Canberra sources said they were not aware of any new request by British defence officials.
"There has been no inter-government discussion let alone negotiation of such a prospect," Defence Minister Robert Hill said.
The developments came as a British Defence Ministry planning document leaked to the Mail on Sunday added weight to suggestions that Washington and London planned to slash their Iraq troop commitments. The leaked report said Washington hoped to hand over control of security to Iraqi forces in 14 out of Iraq's 18 provinces by early next year, cutting US-led troop levels to 66,000 from 176,000.
Britain for its part had a plan to cut its 8500-strong contingent to about 3000. The document - entitled Options for Future UK Force Posture in Iraq, and marked "Secret: UK eyes only" - said London would need to reach decisions later this year on troop levels.
And it is possible that I might suddenly find myself at the weight and energy level of my wedding day. But the probability isn't high, and it really doesn't count as news until it happens. I do believe the correct term for such idiots is "wankers," yes?
The instinctive response of a significant portion of the rich world's intelligentsia to the murder of innocents on 11 September was anything but robust. A few, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, were delighted. The destruction of the World Trade Centre was 'the greatest work of art imaginable for the whole cosmos,' declared the composer whose tin ear failed to catch the screams.
Others saw it as a blow for justice rather than art. They persuaded themselves that al-Qaeda was made up of anti-imperialist insurgents who were avenging the wrongs of the poor. 'The great speculators wallow in an economy that every year kills tens of millions of people with poverty, so what is 20,000 dead in New York?' asked Dario Fo. Rosie Boycott seemed to agree. 'The West should take the blame for pushing people in Third World countries to the end of their tether,' she wrote.
Article continues
In these bleak days, it's worth remembering what was said after September 2001. A backward glance shows that before the war against the Taliban and long before the war against Saddam Hussein, there were many who had determined that 'we had it coming'. They had to convince themselves that Islamism was a Western creation: a comprehensible reaction to the International Monetary Fund or hanging chads in Florida or whatever else was agitating them, rather than an autonomous psychopathic force with reasons of its own. In the years since, this manic masochism has spread like bindweed and strangled leftish and much conservative thought.
All kinds of hypocrisy remained unchallenged. In my world of liberal London, social success at the dinner table belonged to the man who could simultaneously maintain that we've got it coming but that nothing was going to come; that indiscriminate murder would be Tony Blair's fault but there wouldn't be indiscriminate murder because 'the threat' was a phantom menace invented by Blair to scare the cowed electorate into supporting him.
I'd say the 'power of nightmares' side of that oxymoronic argument is too bloodied to be worth discussing this weekend and it's better to stick with the wider delusion.
On Thursday, before the police had made one arrest, before one terrorist group had claimed responsibility, before one body had been carried from the wreckage, let alone been identified and allowed to rest in peace, cocksure voices filled with righteousness were proclaiming that the real murderers weren't the real murderers but the Prime Minister. I'm not thinking of George Galloway and the other saluters of Saddam, but of upright men and women who sat down to write letters to respectable newspapers within minutes of hearing the news.
'Hang your head in shame, Mr Blair. Better still, resign - and whoever takes over immediately withdraw all our forces from Iraq and Afghanistan,' wrote the Rev Mike Ketley, who is a vicar, for God's sake, but has no qualms about leaving Afghanistan to the Taliban and al-Qaeda or Iraq to the Baath party and al-Qaeda. 'Let's stop this murder and put on trial those criminals who are within our jurisdiction,' began Patrick Daly of south London in an apparently promising letter to the Independent. But, inevitably, he didn't mean the bombers. 'Let's start with the British government.'
And so it went on. At no point did they grasp that Islamism was a reactionary movement as great as fascism, which had claimed millions of mainly Muslim lives in the Sudan, Iran, Algeria and Afghanistan and is claiming thousands in Iraq. As with fascism, it takes a resolute dunderheadedness to put all the responsibility on democratic governments for its existence.
I feel the appeal, believe me. You are exasperated with the manifold faults of Tony Blair and George W Bush. Fighting your government is what you know how to do and what you want to do, and when you are confronted with totalitarian forces which are far worse than your government, the easy solution is to blame your government for them.
But it's a parochial line of reasoning to suppose that all bad, or all good, comes from the West - and a racist one to boot. The unavoidable consequence is that you must refuse to support democrats, liberals, feminists and socialists in the Arab world and Iran who are the victims of Islamism in its Sunni and Shia guises because you are too compromised to condemn their persecutors.
Islamism stops being an ideology intent on building an empire from Andalusia to Indonesia, destroying democracy and subjugating women and becomes, by the magic of parochial reasoning, a protest movement on a par with Make Poverty History or the TUC.
Again, I understand the appeal. Whether you are brown or white, Muslim, Christian, Jew or atheist, it is uncomfortable to face the fact that there is a messianic cult of death which, like European fascism and communism before it, will send you to your grave whatever you do. But I'm afraid that's what the record shows.
The only plausible excuse for 11 September was that it was a protest against America's support for Israel. Unfortunately, Osama bin Laden's statements revealed that he was obsessed with the American troops defending Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein and had barely said a word about Palestine.
After the Bali bombings, the conventional wisdom was that the Australians had been blown to pieces as a punishment for their government's support for Bush. No one thought for a moment about the Australian forces which stopped Indonesian militias rampaging through East Timor, a small country Indonesia had invaded in 1975 with the backing of the US. Yet when bin Laden spoke, he said it was Australia's anti-imperialist intervention to free a largely Catholic population from a largely Muslim occupying power which had bugged him.
East Timor was a great cause of the left until the Australians made it an embarrassment. So, too, was the suffering of the victims of Saddam, until the tyrant made the mistake of invading Kuwait and becoming America's enemy. In the past two years in Iraq, UN and Red Cross workers have been massacred, trade unionists assassinated, school children and aid workers kidnapped and decapitated and countless people who happened to be on the wrong bus or on the wrong street at the wrong time paid for their mistake with their lives.
What can the survivors do? Not a lot according to a Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He told bin Laden that the northern Kurds may be Sunni but 'Islam's voice has died out among them' and they'd been infiltrated by Jews. The southern Shia were 'a sect of treachery' while any Arab, Kurd, Shia or Sunni who believed in a democratic Iraq was a heretic.
Our options are as limited When Abu Bakr Bashir was arrested for the Bali bombings, he was asked how the families of the dead could avoid the fate of their relatives. 'Please convert to Islam,' he replied. But as the past 40 years have shown, Islamism is mainly concerned with killing and oppressing Muslims.
In his intervention before last year's American presidential election, bin Laden praised Robert Fisk of the Independent whose journalism he admired. 'I consider him to be neutral,' he said, so I suppose we could all resolve not to take the tube unless we can sit next to Mr Fisk. But as the killings are indiscriminate, I can't see how that would help and, in any case, who wants to be stuck on a train with an Independent reporter?
There are many tasks in the coming days. Staying calm, helping the police and protecting Muslim communities from neo-Nazi attack are high among them. But the greatest is to resolve to see the world for what it is and remove the twin vices of wilful myopia and bad faith which have disfigured too much liberal thought for too long.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 01:15 ||
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#1
Wow. He must've duct-taped his head before he sat down to write this piece. Oh, and he prolly took half a bottle of aspirin, too, or maybe a month's supply of methadone.
*applause*
Regards his audience - who he correctly refers to as suffering from "the twin vices of wilful [sic] myopia and bad faith" and rather charitably describes their perverted mindset, against a solid wall of readily available facts, as "resolute dunderheadedness" -- I can only say that he's had an epiphany, but how many will listen? A few? Many? Hell, he's probably endangered his position at alG with this, unless he's now to become their token "conservative" - as they would stupidly define the term. Regardless, it was a brave and honorable act - and he did it publicly. Well done, Nick.
The desire to maintain a view, regardless of the overwhelming weight of contrary facts, is obviously a very powerful force. It is a direct challenge to both the intellect and integrity - and the number who fail to set aside their dreamworlds for reality is disturbing. We see them around and amongst us - those who will go to their graves still insisting, for example, that law enforcement is the right response to the Muzzy campaign for dominion or that America is a danger to anyone except those who seek her ruin - seeking a thousand shades of gray in which to hide their most cherished illusions. 'Tis the danger of mixing your world view with your personal identity, it seems. They seem dully unaware how foolish and shallow this reveals them to be. Nick is not such a fool, nor is he shallow. I worry that these self-deluded dolts, those who can't part with their "position", will take some or many of us down with them. Otherwise I'd happily let them stew and fall in their time. They define fuckwits, IMO. Willful fuckwits.
So, we have Nick Cohen, now, to add to Chris Hitchens and a few others - exemplary models of liberals with a brain, able to adapt as information and events burn through the fog - thus worthy of surviving, the brass to think autonomously and put aside the comfortable for the true, and the personal integrity to follow through publicly. Pretty good shit, there, gentlemen. Since I came from the feel-good zone, myself, awhile back I know it wasn't easy. Welcome, Nick. You and the others now threaten the lesser among your previous tribe - and your words will bring these trolls and fools and tools out in hateful force.
The only plausible excuse for 11 September was that it was a protest against America's support for Israel. Unfortunately, Osama bin Laden's statements revealed that he was obsessed with the American troops defending Saudi Arabia from Saddam Hussein and had barely said a word about Palestine.
#4
I am tired of the pathetic excuse of 9/11 coming of injustice in the world and of Palestine being the only one in the world. Injustices far gretater there were in Afghanistan, in Soudan or in Kurdistan all perpetrated by the Arabs/Islamists. With that logic jets should have crashed on Mecca, Medina and Ryad.
9/11 wasn't causedc by injustice but by an ideology who sees Muslims in general, Arabs in particular and specially Arabians as HerrensVolk while the others are untermenschen and can be put to death whenever the herrensvolk need the space. Just like the Jews in the death camps but also like it would have happenned to Slavs if Hitler had won. That is why according to Bin Laden Palestine is a horrible crime, not having Arabs ruling the world is an abomination and that is why it is legitimate to treat Afghans (Muslims) ted as inferiors, that is why it is legitimate to gas Kurds (Muslims) whenever the HerrensVolk want their oil and that is why it is legitimate to rape, enslave and exterminate Black Soudanese be they Christian and animist like in the South or Muslims like in Darfur
#5
I actually had hope for this dolt until I got to the "only plausible excuse." I'm trying to come up with a plausible excuse for that sentiment. I'll have to get back to you.
A clue? Nah. Half of a clue at best.
*golf clap*
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
07/10/2005 7:50 Comments ||
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#6
I didn't read the "only plausible excuse" paragraph as some of you obviously have. It is the first of three paragraphs that first set up the deluded argument / point of view, and then demolishs it with the stark fact that follows in the rest of the paragraph. He does this with 9/11, Bali, and East Timor - sets up the cherished meme (the willful delusion), then destroys it with factual statements from the Islamist actors themselves that completely undercut the delusion, show it for what it is. He could have added others, but the three made his point quite well. If we listen to what the islamists actually say, self-delusion becomes non-operative.
I think he has come around. I think the 9/11 paragraph is being misread.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/10/2005 8:31 Comments ||
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#7
a moment of clarity, but he can't let go. His whole sense of worth depends on the fact that he and his dinner party friends could see what the peasants could not. To let go means to give up his power and turn in his VIP pass. There is no wizard behind the curtain, he's just a smuck like all the others. He probably wrote the first half, and then after a good night's sleep, the moment wore off.
Still, I like this line as it means that this man no longer owns the day: In my world of liberal London, social success at the dinner table belonged to the man who could simultaneously maintain that we've got it coming but that nothing was going to come
#8
Whiskey, you may be right. What this reminds me of is what it is like after the death of a loved one. That complete and total understanding of what is truly important in life, and an ability to see things in a clear light, free of petty grudges, money and other mortal cares.
It's life changing, but it quickly wears off as life gets back in the way. At the time, you think it will change the way you live your life, but in truth, you have to make a real effort to hang onto that moment of wisdom.
I feel the appeal, believe me. You are exasperated with the manifold faults of Tony Blair and George W Bush. Fighting your government is what you know how to do and what you want to do, and when you are confronted with totalitarian forces which are far worse than your government, the easy solution is to blame your government for them.
and
There are many tasks in the coming days. Staying calm, helping the police and protecting Muslim communities from neo-Nazi attack are high among them. But the greatest is to resolve to see the world for what it is and remove the twin vices of wilful myopia and bad faith which have disfigured too much liberal thought for too long.
I think he's catchin' on.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2005 9:21 Comments ||
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#10
I didn't read the "only plausible excuse" paragraph as some of you obviously have. It is the first of three paragraphs that first set up the deluded argument / point of view, and then demolishs it...
That's the way I read it, too. Unfortunately, the author's writing style invites misinterpretation.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/10/2005 9:48 Comments ||
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#11
Mike, the synonyms for "plausible" that came to mind when I read it were "valid", or maybe "persuasive." It seemed more like he was critiquing the justification for the actions, not the actions themselves. After re-reading the comments of that waste of skin Stockhausen, I was not in a charitable frame of mind.
Posted by: Darth VAda ||
07/10/2005 10:04 Comments ||
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#12
Dan Darling has a good followup to Cohen's article, here. RTWT, as they say...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/10/2005 10:27 Comments ||
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#13
I no more care what the excuse was for 9/11 or 7/7 than I care what the excuse was for Pearl Harbor. A war of aggression is being waged against our countries and our culture by a homicidal sixth-century blood-feud culture that needs to be exterminated. If the Islamic communities in the west can not or will not rout out the festering barbarians among them, then they will all be damned.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/10/2005 10:56 Comments ||
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#14
notice the sense here is that he sorta sidesteps the pali terror. as if THAT terror and murder is ok...it's this OTHER terror and murder the left is wrong about.
#15
Scheuer, who headed the CIA's bin Laden unit for nine years, sees a different way out -- through U.S. foreign policy. He said he resigned last November to expose the U.S. leadership's "willful blindness" to what needs to be done: withdraw the U.S. military from the Mideast, end "unqualified support" for Israel, sever close ties to Arab oil-state "tyrannies."
He acknowledged such actions aren't likely soon, but said his longtime subject bin Laden will "make us bleed enough to get our attention." Ultimately, he said, "his goal is to destroy the Arab monarchies."
Anybody care to explain to me the difference between Scheuer's idea of a "solution" and bin Laden's definition of victory?
Ummmm.....Scheuer's way is our way and...
Waitaminute, I think Dan is on to somehting!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2005 15:21 Comments ||
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#16
#14 - I just realized this a few days ago. Israel's been fighting this war since 1948, but even after 1979, or 1993, or 2001, no one else realized the connection.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2005 15:24 Comments ||
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#17
Israel has actually been fighting this war since the 1920's. But let's not quibble. ;-)
LORD STEVENS, the former Metropolitan police chief who retired earlier this year, said last night that the London bombings were almost certainly masterminded by British-born terrorists.
He said last weekâs bombers would not fit the stereotype of a fanatic from a village in Afghanistan or Algeria.
âThey will be apparently ordinary British citizens; young men conservatively and cleanly dressed and probably with some higher education. Highly computer literate, they will have used the internet to research explosives. They are painstaking, cautious, clever and very sophisticated.â
Stevens said intelligence officers believed that up to 3,000 British-born or British-based people had passed through Osama Bin Ladenâs training camps, some of whom returned home to become potential Islamic terrorists.
He said at least eight other separate terrorist attacks had been foiled in the past five years. At times up to 1,000 undercover officers had been working on one anti-terrorist operation.
Sometimes, for no apparent reason, someone believed to be planning an attack would simply disappear from the scene.
âWhy? Where did they go? What happened? We might never find out. It could be incredibly draining,â he wrote in a column in the News of the World.
âItâs important to realise that there are not just the four terrorists who planted the bombs in this cell. There will be a support network of some sort behind them. They will have helped house and conceal the bombers, covered their tracks, helped in the manufacturing of the devices and in the repeated reconnaissance of the targets.â
The prime minister was warned last year that the war in Iraq might be responsible for thousands of young British Muslims turning to extremism.
The grim warning was contained in a personal briefing paper on âYoung Muslims and Extremismâ, which has been leaked to The Sunday Times.
The paper, part of a Whitehall-wide effort to combat home-grown terrorism, identifies the key grievances driving Muslimsâ militancy as anger at Tony Blairâs decision to wage war in Iraq and resentment at the deprivation suffered by Muslim communities.
The research claims Al-Qaeda has âactively recruitedâ young Muslims in schools, universities and prisons. It reveals that the authorities have built up a clear picture of the âterrorist career pathâ, which may be behind last weekâs attacks.
Sir John Gieve, permanent secretary at the Home Office, summarises two distinct types of terrorist in a letter to Sir Andrew Turnbull, outgoing head of the civil service.
âBritish Muslims who are most at risk of being drawn into extremism and terrorism fall into two groups: a) well educated, with degrees or technical/professional qualifications, typically targeted by extremist recruiters and organisations circulating on campuses; b) underachievers with few or no qualifications and often a non-terrorist criminal background â sometimes drawn to mosques where they may be targeted by extremist preachers and in other cases radicalised while in prison. â
Saajid Badat, a former Gloucester grammar school pupil who planned to detonate a shoe bomb on an aeroplane, fits the description of the highly educated terrorist. He was âradicalisedâ while living as a student in London and travelled to Afghanistan to train as a terrorist. He was convicted of terrorism offences earlier this year.
Members of the second group of potential terrorists are poorer and far less educated. They are âtargeted by extremist preachersâ and are often drawn in by a charismatic person.
âSuch individuals are encouraged to maintain a low profile for operational purposes and do not develop the network of associates or political doctrines common to many other extremist Islamists,â states the paper. Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber who was caught in 2001 on a flight to America, is in this group.
The report says potential terrorists range from âforeign nationals naturalised and resident in the UK mainly from north Africa and the Middle Eastâ to âsecond and third generation British citizens whose forebears mainly originate from Pakistan or Kashmirâ.
It also identifies a group from âliberal, non-religious Muslim backgroundsâ who converted to Islam in adulthood: âThese converts include white British nationals and those of West Indian extraction.â
The paper added that some young Muslims felt âisolated and alienatedâ as a result of âperceived Islamophobiaâ and they perceived âbiasâ in the way new counter-terrorism powers were being used by the police to stop, detain and arrest people.
Work has been carried out across Whitehall studying the socioeconomic disadvantage which blights Muslim communities. According to the data, Muslims are three times more likely to be unemployed than the population as a whole; 52% of them are economically inactive (the highest of any faith group) and 16% have never worked or are long-term unemployed. This is blamed on a lack of education: 43% of Muslims have no qualifications.
An analysis carried out by an official at the Department for Work and Pensions, and revealed in a related document, said: âThe key to engaging this group (Muslims) in a positive way is, obviously, by reducing discrimination and promoting integration.â Officials also judged that some Muslims had difficulty in reconciling their âIslamic identityâ to living in a multicultural society and regarded mainstream Muslim organisations as âsell-outsâ.
The analysis of Muslim extremism was intended to find ways of averting terrorism and officials drew up a âhearts and minds strategyâ designed to win over disaffected Muslims.
In a letter to senior Whitehall officials, first highlighted by The Sunday Times last year Turnbull, the cabinet secretary, wrote: âThe first pillar of the governmentâs counter-terrorism strategy, Contest, is prevention.â
Gieve replied in a letter marked ârestricted policyâ: âWe need . . . to address the roots of the problem which include discrimination, disadvantage and exclusion.â
The plan included giving Muslims a greater role in public life, new legal rights and schemes targeted to help them out of poverty. Religious anti-discrimination laws have since been introduced, as have special Islamic mortgages and government-backed accreditation schemes for imams.
However, when the bombs exploded last Thursday the first pillar of the governmentâs terrorism plan collapsed. Officials are now wondering whether Operation Contest can be revived and what can be done to stop more young Muslims becoming the enemy within.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 01:04 ||
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#1
Regards the twitters who attended the training camps... How romantic and daring and pious, eh? Yeah, right.
Regards the touchy-feely "Plan", sheesh, these "officials" meet the criteria for dangerous dolts. That they seem to want to revive a total failure is pure malfeasance, on a criminal level. Social-engineering by Govt is the most obviously failed idiocy - and most cherished dream of the nitwits of Moonbatia. They'll get us all killed, yet. They're sure as hell trying.
Hey, how about offering night basketball -- or death. There, that makes just as much sense. Maybe a lot more.
#2
Work has been carried out across Whitehall studying the socioeconomic disadvantage which blights Muslim communities. According to the data, Muslims are three times more likely to be unemployed than the population as a whole; 52% of them are economically inactive (the highest of any faith group) and 16% have never worked or are long-term unemployed. This is blamed on a lack of education: 43% of Muslims have no qualifications.
#3
How much education does it take to become a street sweeper? Or a trashman? Or to scrub graffiti off the walls? The local Mulsim communities could put their zakat money to good use by hiring their unemployed for these kinds of starter jobs, and improve their neighborhoods at the same time. Then, too, the lads would be too tired at the end of the day to spend much time plotting the next big boom.
#7
The prime minister was warned last year that the war in Iraq might be responsible for thousands of young British Muslims turning to extremism.
Correction:
The MSM & Arab media's anti-US slanted portrayal of the war in Iraq might be responsible for thousands of young British Muslims turning to extremism.
The press has indeed been instrumental in aiding the enemy by distorting the news through their own Anti-Bush political lenses in hopes of helping their political allies to the detriment of the nations and people.
#8
I think we ought to investigate whether AQ has eshewed WMD development and instead sunk all their R&D into time travel technology which allows them to train youths disgusted with Tony Blair's Iraq policy in training camps that previously closed during the initial invasion of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 17:05 Comments ||
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#9
that hurt my head, Dave
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 19:15 Comments ||
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#10
..sorta like my posts, SH used his tin keyboard!
Posted by: Red Dog ||
07/10/2005 19:25 Comments ||
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Gradually a picture is starting to build up. There was no lone suicide bomber. There was no one terrorist acting on his own. The probability is that the worst terrorist attack in Britain was carried out by at least a four-person cell using synchronised explosive devices attached to timers.
And Britain might not have been the only target. There is evidence that atrocities were also being planned in Italy and possibly in Denmark.
Article continues
Such knowledge will not cheer the 100 senior police officers, drawn from forces across the world, who this weekend descended on the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in London in a bid to share intelligence on the attacks.
But it will help the intelligence agencies start to obtain a clearer idea of what they are up against - and who they are looking for.
The unprecedented meeting of the world's senior police officers will be chaired by the Metropolitan Police's Assistant Commissioner, Andy Hayman, the man who is heading the investigation into the London bombings.
'You can never over-estimate the value of a briefing from overseas partners,' Hayman said yesterday. 'We wanted to be joined up because this type of terrorism affects the world.'
Officers from 32 countries including France, Italy, Australia, Israel, America, the Czech Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United States and Switzerland are attending the summit. They also include a delegation from Spain, whose officers are hoping to share knowledge gleaned after the Madrid bombings.
One security source said: 'We learnt after Madrid that it is important to get a scrum down early on and swap information.'
The emergency meeting comes after Italian police yesterday arrested 142 people as part of an anti-terror operation in Milan, which was launched almost immediately after the London attack. One and a half kilograms of explosive were recovered in raids involving more than 2,000 Carabinieri and directly aimed at boosting security at underground stations in the city.
Later it emerged that an unknown al-Qaeda group, which last week claimed responsibility for the London bombings on a website, had threatened Italy and Denmark with similar attacks, although its credibility has been questioned.
Meanwhile, in Dubai a group claiming links to al- Qaeda also revealed in an internet statement that it was behind the London attacks. 'A group of mujahideen from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades delivered one blow after the other in the infidels' capital, the capital of the English,' said the statement signed by the group. It is the third such claim by different groups.
Yesterday police revealed that, contrary to earlier reports, the bombs on the underground had not occurred over a 30-minute period as had been previously thought. There had been speculation that this meant a solo bomber could have placed the devices on the tube trains.
But after analysing technical data provided by the London Underground, the police confirmed the three devices detonated within moments of each other.
'We can clarify the position that the three bombs exploded almost simultaneously,' said Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick.
'Maybe that lends more towards timing devices than people actually with the bombs manually detonating. But we are not ruling out either possibility,' Paddick said. He declined to comment on whether a timer had been found at the scene of one explosion.
Privately, intelligence experts say they now believe the London Underground data suggests at least four terrorists were at work last week. The fact that the type of explosives used was not hand-made, but small 10lb commercial high explosives, probably linked to a timing device, suggests a level of sophistication and financing.
MI5 is combing through its files and is believed to be focusing on almost 100 suspects who could have carried out the operation.
Meanwhile experts at Qinetiq, the government's former research agency, are to begin creating computer simulations that will show the locations of where the bombs were planted and the directions of the blast.
Their work has been made all the more crucial by the revelation that the CCTV system on the Number 30 bus had not been working since June. The broken camera is bound to cause consternation over the condition of the 6,000 CCTV cameras installed on the underground. Around 500 officers are now helping to scrutinise the footage.
Yesterday forensic experts continued to pore over the sites of the four bomb blasts. The government's Forensic Science Services agency has removed thousands of samples to its laboratory in Birmingham and several Metropolitan Police facilities in the capital for processing.
But the forensics work is hampered by the grim conditions in the Piccadilly underground system, located 500 metres from King's Cross. The tunnel near Russell Square in London's Bloomsbury district remains unsafe in the immediate area around the blast. Engineers are concerned that the crucial steel lining that strengthens the tunnel, which has been bored through clay, may have been ruptured in the blast. They are currently considering a plan to drag several carriages down the track to obtain access to the wrecked first carriage in the train where the bomb went off. It is believed that more than 20 bodies are still trapped in the wreckage.
A specialist team of senior police officers, coroners and medical experts is now trying to ensure that the bodies are correctly identified.
The daily meetings of the newly formed Identification Commission will take place at an undisclosed military site in central London, where a temporary mortuary has been set up.
Led by Westminster coroner Dr Paul Knapman, Scotland Yard's senior identification manager, Detective Superintendent Jim Dickie, and Home Office pathologist, Rob Chapman, the commission will be supported by a team of hundreds of police staff and other experts, many of whom have experience of major terrorist attacks or natural disasters, including the devastating Asian tsunami on Boxing Day.
The commission will oversee a painstaking and complex identification process using fingerprints, dentistry and DNA to conclusively identify the victims. Experts said that it may take weeks to identify some of the bodies. Police are currently checking the details on their Holmes missing persons database.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 00:44 ||
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Lord Nazir Ahmed, a member of the House of Lords, has said that anti-Muslim crimes have begun in the United Kingdom in the wake of bombings in London.
Why, that's quite a coincidence. There was just a wave of anti-British crimes that seem to have been perpetrated by Moose limbs...
Speaking from London via phone in a private TV channelâs programme, he said that unidentified people threw a homemade bomb in a mosque in Leeds.
Now, don't go blaming the non-Muslims for that. You have no evidence, do you?
He said although British Prime Minster Tony Blair had said in his address to the nation after the incident that the majority of the Muslims were against terrorism, hardline political parties such as the British Nationalist Movement were trying to exploit the situation to advance their agenda of racial hate. âI am afraid that many of our men, women and girls would be subjected to disgrace and manhandling after these incidents as the first day after these bombing was a day of shock and the second day was a bit calm, but now severe hate crimes are imminent,â Lord Nazir said.
Hmmm... I'd say Britons probably need an equivalent of al-Muhajiroun to look out for their interests, wouldn't you, Lord Nazir?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#4
Lord Nazir Ahmed, a member of the House of Lords, has said that anti-Muslim crimes have begun in the United Kingdom in the wake of bombings in London.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday it is crucial to address terrorism's underlying causes, which he identified as deprivation, lack of democracy and ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Thursday's bomb attacks on London demonstrate the pressing need for world leaders to tackle problems like poverty, he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. He said leaders had taken on some of those issues at the G-8 summit of the world's wealthy nations in Scotland this week.
I'd call the deprivation and the ongoing conflict in the Muddle East the result of the lack of "democracy" â which, as I keep repeating, is in reality shorthand for freedom to tell your local holy man to go to hell, rather than the mere freedom to vote the way your local Gauleiter tells you to...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Poverty, tyranny, and repeated attempts to kill all the Joooos aren't root causes they're symptoms.
#2
So, we are playing the 'root causes' game. How about the largest acumulation of unearned wealth (in the ME) in the history of the world. Solution, take it away from them. Or, far too many unemployed young men (both in the ME and European cities) with nothing better to do than hatch plots. Solution, cut off their welfare benefits.
#3
It must be a schizophrenic thingy to be Tony. He knows, beyond a shadow of doubt, that the touchy-feely stock "causes" (e.g. poverty and, lol, "deprivation") are lies, so he tosses in "lack of democracy", like there's a Minimum Recommended Daily Amount, lol. Poor socialist, trapped between the Moonbats, Tranzis, "ists", and common sense. That extra $50Bn for Africa, which the US declined to contribute to (Thank You Dubya), for example, is money down the rat hole and Tony knows it. As for the "ongoing conflict" he's just making bones with his fools with the Paleo dementia - and that wart on the end of the tail has wagged the dog for far too long, already. I figure he's not really a total idiot, he's just stuck, like a fly in the web of BS his party peddles. Sucks to be him.
#5
Spot on .com - he's an infuriating person, he knows that aid money just ends up being pissed away, and yet he can't do the truly honourable thing and say that because the moonbats in his party will have a hissy fit.
He does the right thing; stands by America, is deeply involved in Iraq and recently (and to the intense chagrine of the French) has said outright that the CAP (and by implication, all subsidies) leads to distortions and inefficiences. In the case of the CAP, it kills lots of Africans too. But, he comes up with total shite as well; engendering a culture of 'respect', fiddling in the the rights and freedoms of the people, bending over backwards to keep the EuroWeenies happy and destroying institutions that have been around for centuries. In the case of the latter, this is one of the reasons we haven't explicitly needed a written constitution - it was all there, but distributed. Blair is dismantling the bits, and making it a lot easier for this country to become a police state.
He's just mouthing the standard litany of the left, the envy-brigade; take money from those who have it (never mind that they've earnt it - and it's their wealth-creating skills that make civilisation work), give that money to those who you feel need it (preferably Africans and thereby expunge your own feelings of guilt at being an evil ex-colonialist), it's all our fault and if only we could throw enough money at the problem, everything would be alright.
Has there ever been a politician that has treated the people as adults? I mean told people the hard truths; small children do die and in shitty countries they die younger, there are people out there who will kill you simply because of who you are, the world does not owe you a living, nature is red in tooth and claw, will kill you soon as look at you and there is no appeals process.
I am so friggin' tempted to make a special order of 1000 of those 'make poverty history' wristbands that are being bought up and add a few words to them '- become a capitalist'. Damn the stupidity of these people! We've got the mightiest engine the world has ever seen for eliminating poverty and these moonbats think it's the problem!
I remember a quote from a long time ago (70s I think), which I initially attributed to Vidal Sassoon (the hairdresser! - can that be right?) which sums it up for me "Capitalism works, it just doesn't work for enough people".
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
07/10/2005 6:09 Comments ||
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#7
"Has there ever been a politician that has treated the people as adults?"
Reagan did a fairly good job of that. But other than him, no; not in the fifty-odd years I've been around.
Part of the problem is that an increasing number of adults don't want to be treated as adults. Over here, we've now got two full generations of Americans who were raised on Sesame Street and we're awash in Leftists who are simply overgrown children, angry that the real world didn't turn out to be the way Big Bird promised them it would be.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/10/2005 8:53 Comments ||
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#8
Bravo!
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/10/2005 8:54 Comments ||
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#9
Bravo, Tony! Bravo, Dave!
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/10/2005 8:55 Comments ||
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#10
so true, Dave D. I think the biggest fear of the granny left here is growing up. Baby Gloomers are terrified that if they stop raging against the machine, then they are admitting they are old. It's kind of like wearing sensible shoes with a dancing gown - it means you're old or handicapped and beyond caring.
#11
I don't think it's fear. It's laziness and narcissistic self-absorption.
All lunches should be free; they were in pre-school, weren't they? There should be a playground monitor on hand at all times to make sure I get my turn and to make sure the other children always play fair and to make sure there are no bullies and that everybody is nice to everybody else and that no one calls me names and to wipe my little nose when I get the sniffles and...
And that's your typical Leftist's view of government: the Cosmic Playground Monitor.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/10/2005 9:35 Comments ||
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#12
he's gotta say this crap or Cherie won't put out
*shudder*
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 9:58 Comments ||
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#13
the Cosmic Playground Monitor. lol! That's a keeper. Actually - I think you are right. Self-reliance v/s Nanny State. Unable to handle it themselves, they used to run tell the playground monitor.
#19
"...terrorism's underlying causes...deprivation, lack of democracy and ongoing conflict in the Middle East...."
This is a dangerous delusion to promote to the international community. It will allow terrorism to grow by diverting our energy towards a false enemy.
When will the actual demographics about the status, wealth and education of terrorists be covered in the media? This strawman needs to be burned down.
But, just for the sake of argument, exactly what forms would his suggestion to "address" the root causes take? More talk? (That was a such a winning plan with forcing Saddam to abide by UN resolutions and it seems to really be making progress with Iran.) An apology from the West for our sins, (met, of course, with silence from Islam, which is perenially unable to speak about any sin in its own history)? Negotiations (translation: "give terrorist groups what they want and they'll change their tune about blowing us up"--surely he's not suggesting that?) Coddling--in the form of legal double standards and lurching policies to the detriment of the West and the favor of Islam?
Were we so lucky as to suddenly manifest Utopia through Blair's approach, how exactly would leaders remove evil from the hearts of every person in the Caliphate of Terrorism who deprives their neighbors not only of what they have, but of their lives? How would we motivate potential martyrs who seem to never have considered in their grand Allahu Akbar hysteria that God might want them to live and work for the preservation of life? Is PM Blair really suggesting that by fixing poverty, the terrorist acts of twisted and wealthy jihadis will vanish into thin air?
I am not British, but I think if I were and my country had just gone through the London attacks, the gory reality of the London aftermath would push me a bit more towards practicality. Sadly, Tony still is carrying the EU banner--"an inflex of money will remove evil from the hearts of men; the problem is a physical deficiency, not a spiritual one. "
#20
It's kind of ironic that the same folks that always accuse us Yanks (not to offend any Southerners, but that what them furriners call us all) of being such rabid materialists... always assume that handing out big chunks of money will solve all the world's problems. I wonder if hard core Euro socialists sit awake at night thinking, "Marx was a materialist, but the Americans are even bigger materialists, but they reject Marx, but Marx said that materialism would displace spiritualism (the opiate of the people!), however the americans are sumpremely spiritual... Damn! I need some more absinthe."
Give them a REPUBLIC, a nation of individuals holding all the rights and only ceding the minimum to government. Keep the government at bay and you dont have fundamentalists or fascists or socialists or any "-ists" with any ability to force others into doing something they reuse to do.
We've lost sight of that. The US is NOT a democracy (although with Kelo, et al, is creeping that way), it is a Consitutional Republic of Laws. We just happen to use democracy to structure our republic. And thats starting to fray as people lose sight of the reasons for a republic in their worship of "democracy", subsuming liberty and freedom to the goddess democracy and the largess of a confiscatory government.
#22
Seems to me the root cause is religion. Specifically, there's a bunch of people convinced the whole world should worship their moon god, and another bunch of people who don't want to do it. The first group believes in using deadly force to get their way. And some of the second group believe in using deadly force to refuse to go along.
#23
Sooner or later, we're going to have to face the unpleasant truth that the real root cause of Islamic terrorism is... Islam. Not some radical offshoot of Islam like Wahhabism, or whatever lunatic variant the Iranian Mad Mullahs follow-- but Islam itself. All of it.
Bruce Thornton, over at Victor Davis Hanson's website, has a sobering essay on this, Jihad Is Knocking. It's worth reading.
I've supported Bush's and Blair's "Islamic Democracy Initiative" from the beginning. And I still do, because I think someday we're going to need to be able to say, "We tried. We really, REALLY tried to show these people the way."
But I no longer have much hope that it's the answer. Islam is not going to change-- at the very least, to the point where "submission to the will of God" no longer means "submission to the will of man"-- until it's staring down the barrel of a BIG gun and facing its own imminent extinction.
As Frank would say: let's start fryin' 'em up.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/10/2005 16:04 Comments ||
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#24
:-) with a little ginger and pepper
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/10/2005 18:23 Comments ||
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Dunno why the scare quotes from Roooters, it bloody well was a revolution.
(Reuters) BISHKEK - The former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan held presidential elections on Sunday that the West has urged should be free and fair to add legitimacy to a new leadership installed after a âPeopleâs Revolutionâ in March.
Acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a 55-year-old former prime minister under Akayev who later joined the opposition and played a leading role in the protests, is widely viewed as the frontrunner in the race of six candidates.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2005 00:41 ||
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#1
One man's revolution is another man's disorder.
After more than a year of stalemate, North Korea agreed Saturday evening to return to disarmament talks late this month and pledged to discuss eliminating its nuclear-weapons program, according to senior Bush administration officials.
The agreement was reached during a dinner meeting, with the Chinese as the hosts, that included Christopher Hill, a former American ambassador to South Korea who has recently become the lead United States negotiator to the talks, and Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea's deputy foreign minister, according to a senior administration official traveling here with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The official Korean Central News Agency also issued a statement from Pyongyang announcing the talks would resume.
While the North Koreans have pledged many times before to return to the six-party talks - the United States, Japan, South Korea, China and Russia also sit at the table - this is the first time they have actually set a date: the week of July 25.
The Chinese have offered to be the hosts of the discussions, and "all the parties have agreed," said a senior administration official traveling with Ms. Rice, who did not want to be identified because Ms. Rice had not yet made a formal announcement. Ms. Rice, who is beginning a four-nation tour of Asia, and Li Zhaoxing, the Chinese foreign minister, plan to announce the agreement on Sunday morning.
American officials were clearly trying to lower expectations. "Frankly," one of the administration officials said, "we just don't know" what will come of the talks, if they do take place as promised.
The long-awaited return to negotiations carries considerable diplomatic perils on all sides, and would take place just as three European nations are scheduled to conduct talks with Iran about giving up critical elements of its nuclear program.
American officials say North Korea's economic situation has continued to deteriorate, and they hope to use that as leverage in the coming talks. To increase the pressure, the Bush administration has put in place plans for a series of coercive actions - crackdowns on North Korean shipments of drugs, counterfeit currency and arms - that would probably be accelerated if the negotiations made no progress.
"We've made it clear they can't just come back and lecture us, like the last sessions," a senior administration official in Washington said. "Either they get on the path to disarmament, or we move to Plan B."
But President Bush's options are also limited, officials acknowledge. China has been unwilling to participate in any economic embargos. Military action to halt North Korea's declared efforts to build its nuclear arsenal has been ruled out as too risky, and virtually impossible while American forces are tied up in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bush has been resisting pressure from China and South Korea to improve an offer to the North Koreans he made in June 2004. To avoid failure at the talks, he may have to decide whether to make explicit concessions, including the promise of eventual normalization of relations with a nation that just two months ago he said was run by a "tyrant" who puts dissidents in "concentration camps."
In interviews in Washington in recent days, officials have said they fear three major stumbling blocks to an agreement. The first is the question of whether North Korea is willing to negotiate away all elements of its nuclear program. The Bush administration is still sharply divided over whether North Korea would fully cooperate. True disarmament would include turning over any existing nuclear weapons, dismantling the plutonium-manufacturing facilities it has acknowledged - centered at a huge nuclear complex at Yongbyon, north of the capital - and leading inspectors to what the United States charges is a second, secret nuclear program.
That second program, American officials have charged, uses uranium technology provided by A. Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist who set up an illicit nuclear network and made more than a dozen trips to North Korea.
"He's said a lot about what he sold them," a former intelligence official said recently, "and the president isn't going to reach any agreement that doesn't involve turning over all of that, too." But North Korea, after initially seeming to acknowledge its uranium program when presented with the charges in 2002, has now denied its existence.
The second probable stumbling block is timing, American officials say. North Korea does not trust the United States to deliver on its promises if it gives up its nuclear program first. Mr. Bush has said publicly that he does not trust Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader.
The third potential problem is verification. North Korea has never allowed inspectors to move freely, and threw out the International Atomic Energy Agency on New Year's Day 2003. A result is that American officials are uncertain where the North may be hiding elements of its program.
But South Korea has been pressing to make a deal, and its unification minister, Chung Dong Young, met last month with Kim Jong Il and offered him a package of new aid, including much-needed energy assistance, if North Korea returned to the talks and agreed to disarm, American officials have said.
The senior administration official in Beijing said Saturday that he believed that offer was important and helped bring about the agreement to resume talks. He added that the United States did not agree to any incentives beyond the offer made at the last six-party talks, in June 2004, though he called South Korea's offer "compatible with ours." That fits a previous American strategy of allowing its allies and China to offer more incentives, even while Mr. Bush refuses to budge with American concessions.
Over the last several months, North Korea set numerous conditions for returning to the talks, including turning them into regional disarmament negotiations. North Korea made that demand after it, on Feb. 10, declared for the first time that it was in possession of nuclear weapons, a statement American intelligence officials say they cannot confirm - but assume to be true.
The senior administration official said the North Koreans made no such demand on Saturday in return for restarting the negotiations.
Discussions on setting a date began last week when another North Korean official, Li Gun, held a meeting with Joseph E. DeTrani, a State Department official, and diplomats from Japan and South Korea, on the sidelines of an academic conference in New York. The United States had given Mr. Li a visa, clearly to encourage such a discussion.
There, the senior administration official said, Mr. Li told Mr. DeTrani that North Korea was ready to return to the negotiating table and wanted to set up a meeting to discuss the date and the scope of the talks. After that, Mr. Hill, who is assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, flew to Beijing for Saturday's dinner just before Ms. Rice's arrival.
The North, American officials said, was looking for face-saving ways to resume talks. So South Korea urged Mr. Bush and his aides to stop characterizing the North Korean leader as a "tyrant" or repeating Ms. Rice's phrase that the country was an "outpost of tyranny."
The enforced silence may have helped. The Korean Central News Agency, which speaks with the government's voice, said Saturday, "The U.S. side clarified its official stand to recognize" North Korea "as a sovereign state, not to invade it and hold bilateral talks within the framework of the six-party talks."
At the dinner in Beijing, the senior administration official said Mr. Hill, a veteran of the Balkans negotiations, promised that "everyone is equal; we will respect each other." On the plane to Beijing on Friday and Saturday, Ms. Rice reiterated a statement she has been making for months that she recognized North Korea as "a sovereign state." She did not repeat her "outpost of tyranny" characterization.
On Saturday, a senior South Korean official, speaking in Seoul, said, "The North Koreans said that they regard the United States' recognition of their sovereignty and reassurances that it won't invade or attack them as a withdrawal of the previous 'outpost of tyranny' remark."
The official added: "They recently received humanitarian assistance from South Korea, which was supplemented by the United States with 50,000 tons of food. It's not a big amount, but it was significant. These factors gave North Korea a certain amount of room to come forward."
At the same time as Washington offered tokens of respect, the senior Bush official said the administration also expected the North Koreans to dismantle all of their nuclear energy programs, even though they say some are intended to provide nuclear energy, not weapons. Allowing any nuclear development programs in place would leave a danger of proliferation, the official said.
The United States has ended its support of a program to build two nuclear power plants, designed to be unusable to produce weapons fuel, in North Korea that was part of a failed 1994 agreement between the North and the Clinton administration. The construction was halted two years ago, and the United States may suggest conventional power reactors instead. Mr. Bush has been criticized by Democrats and even some members of his own party who have said he has wasted time in the North Korea negotiations by refusing to negotiate directly, as the North Koreans had demanded. Mr. Hill's dinner meeting was the closest approximation of a direct negotiation to date, though former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had a brief discussion on the sides of a meeting with a North Korean official several years ago.
While Secretary Rice knew as she flew to Beijing that the dinner between Mr. Hill and Mr. Kim was planned, she was not at all certain that an agreement would be reached, the administration official said. Speaking to reporters on the flight, Ms. Rice said she was "prepared to hear what the Chinese are prepared to do" to persuade the North Koreans to return.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
07/10/2005 00:47 ||
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#1
The Chicoms are the enablers. The NORKS will give nothing but they do want meals and perdiem for the negotiators. The talks are designed to wear down the will of the US.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/10/2005 20:27 Comments ||
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#2
"...But President Bush's options are also limited..."
NYT reporters have no imagination.
Posted by: Neutron Tom ||
07/10/2005 21:11 Comments ||
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SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced a reshuffle of his key intelligence and security staff on Sunday, including the appointment of a foreign affairs specialist as the head of the nationâs chief spy agency. Howard said Paul OâSullivan, a deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and adviser on his staff, would take over as director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
Australia had been without an ASIO director general since former head Dennis Richardson was appointed in May as Australiaâs next ambassador to the United States. But Howard moved quickly to install a new chief spy after Thursdayâs deadly bomb blasts on the London transport system. âHeâll do a first-class job, heâs got the right balance of foreign affairs experience, intelligence background ... but also having worked at the very highest level of government,â Howard told Nine Network television.
Nick Warner, who headed Australiaâs emergency response team sent to Baghdad after Australian Douglas Wood was taken hostage by insurgents, was also elevated to Howardâs staff. Warner has a high profile in the South Pacific region after after winning respect as the leader of an intervention force sent to restore order in the lawless Solomon Islands two years ago.
Howard, who said he had spoken to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and attended a church service for victims on Sunday, said it was possible transport security measures could be tightened after Tuesdayâs meeting. âI donât rule out a further strengthening of security measures,â he said. âI cannot credibly guarantee there will not be an attack on our soil, itâs a sad reality that we are a target,â he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2005 00:44 ||
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You talk oâ better food for us, anâ schools, anâ fires, anâ all:
Weâll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Donât mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widowâs Uniform is not the soldier-manâs disgrace.
For itâs Tommy this, anâ Tommy that, anâ âChuck him out, the brute!â
But itâs âSaviour of âis countryâ when the guns begin to shoot;
Anâ itâs Tommy this, anâ Tommy that, anâ anything you please;
Anâ Tommy ainât a bloominâ foolâyou bet that Tommy sees!
Last stanza of a Rudyard Kipling poem; Tommy being, of course, the stereotypical British soldier.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2005 08:56 ||
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#1
Anâ Tommy ainât a bloominâ foolâyou bet that Tommy sees!
And when our own Tommies come home from Iraq, Afghanistan, and wherever else they are, I don't think they're going to be voting for the lying bastards who are denigrating their efforts.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
07/10/2005 9:52 Comments ||
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#2
That was one of my points, Dave. Some of the folks claiming to support our military are just biding their time to "chuck 'em out, the brute!".
Missed you yesterday in D.C. Maybe next time?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2005 18:24 Comments ||
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#3
Some of our Tommys are back already. The 2006 election is going to be fascinating.
#4
The "lying bastards" aren't worried about Tommy because there aren't enough to swing an election and they were going to vote for the other guys anyway. What the LBs haven't considered is what happens when Tommy decides to run for office.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
07/10/2005 19:05 Comments ||
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Firebrand Christian former Gen. Michel Aoun said yesterday he would reconsider his decision not to participate in Lebanonâs first government since the pullout of Syrian troops after a three-decade presence. Negotiations with Prime Minister-designate Fuad Siniora, who has been attempting to form a government since June 30, collapsed last week after Aounâs Free Patriotic Movement insisted it be given the Ministry of Justice to put in place reforms and an anti-corruption drive. âAfter (Sinioraâs) decision to revisit talks and consider the composition of the cabinet ... we have returned to the principle of participation,â Aoun told reporters after a meeting with his movement. âWe hope that this situation will speed up the formation of the government because Lebanon needs a responsible regime and we cannot regain time lost. I hope that the government will be formed rapidly and that we will participate in it,â Aoun said.
âThere are several questions still up in the air. We have examined the principle of returning to participation, but many things must be discussed away from the media.â Aoun did not say whether Siniora has promised his party the Justice Ministry. That is a demand that the Future Movementâs Saad Hariri, who heads the biggest bloc in Lebanonâs 128-member Parliament with 37 seats, had deemed âimpossible.â
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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Needs to be p.49-ed.
Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf's June 25-26 unscheduled trip to Saudi Arabia has raised many an eyebrow in Islamabad's diplomatic circles, where it is believed the visit was meant to seek the assistance of the kingdom to circumvent the ongoing International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) investigations into reports that the Saudis might have purchased nuclear technology from Pakistan. The speculation goes that Musharraf aimed to chalk out a joint strategy on what stance the two leaders should adopt to satisfy the IAEA and address its concerns.
Saudi Arabia is under increasing pressure to open its nuclear facilities for inspection as the IAEA suspects that its nuclear program has reached a level (with Pakistani cooperation) where it should attract international attention. The pressure has also come from Europe and the United States, which want Riyadh to permit unhindered access to its nuclear facilities.
Well before the IAEA probe began, the US had been investigating whether or not the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, sold nuclear technology to the Saudis and other Arab countries. Acting under extreme pressure from the IAEA, the Saudi government signed the Small Quantities Protocol on June 16, which makes inspections less problematic. However, the US, European Union and Australia want it to agree to full inspections. The Saudi stand is that they will agree to the demand only if other countries do so, including Israel.
International apprehensions that Saudi Arabia would seek to acquire nuclear weapons have arisen periodically over the past decade. The kingdom's geopolitical situation gives it strong reasons to consider acquiring nuclear weapons: the volatile security environment in the Middle East; the growing number of states (particularly Iran and Israel) with weapons of mass destruction; and its ambition to dominate the region. International concerns intensified in 2003 in the wake of revelations about Khan's proliferation activities. The IAEA investigations show that Khan sold or offered nuclear weapons technology to Saudi Arabia and several Middle Eastern states, including Iran, Iraq, Libya and Syria.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Look. Bush's sensitivites are a bit to much to stomach.
Why isn't there a massive wetworks or contract let to remove the nutcase branches of the Saudi Royal Pig Sty?
There are 5000 primary and 50,000 secondary royals. Assume 10% matter!
That means 500 primary and 5,000 secondary tits up.
Its reasonable!!!
Why isn't it being done?
#2
Who wants to bet that the Sods haven't just out and out bought complete bombs from the Paks? Why buy all that expensive tech and knowhow when you have enough money and pull that you can just buy the final product. Others have commented how incompetent and featherbedding the Sods are. What makes anyone think they could run a fuel cycle and weapon production line either by themselves or by importing enough Pak or other foreign experts?
Posted by: DO ||
07/10/2005 11:50 Comments ||
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#3
DO,
There has been much informed speculation to just that. The Saudis financed the Paki A-bomb and speculation is that they got warheads in return. The Chinese designed, Pakistani built bombs would make a nice little payload for the Saudi's Chinese built DF-3 ballistic missiles (2500km range).
Posted by: ed ||
07/10/2005 12:37 Comments ||
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#4
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia recently signed a 1.2 billion dollar agreement for sale of tanks, armored vehicles and trainer aircraft.
This is a very strange deal. Why would Saudi purchase a billion dollars worth of Pak assembled Chinese weapons when they have the best tanks - American made M1s lying unused in storage?
Well, this equipment would not be used for the Saudi military. It would equip a Pakistani armored brigade based in the kingdom.
This raises another question: Why host a Pak brigade? Sadddam is gone and a single Pak brigade hardly deters Iran or Israel.
A billion dollars for Pak troops? Why?
One very strong possibility is the Paks are needed to protect something in Saudi. Something belonging to Pak and transferred to Saudi but under Pak command and control.
Nukes.
Pak missiles would provide Saudi with deterrent capability and provide Pak with a launch site far from Indian strike aircraft.
Posted by: john ||
07/10/2005 16:30 Comments ||
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LOS ANGELES [AP] - The U.S. military has agreed to release an aspiring American filmmaker who had been detained in Iraq since May, when potential bomb parts were found in a taxi he was riding in, his lawyer said Saturday...
A hearing had been scheduled Monday, but the family's attorney, Mark Rosenbaum, said Saturday that the military had agreed to release Kar and his Iranian cameraman, Farshid Faraji, from a military jail in Baghdad. He said State Department officials informed him Saturday that Kar would be released. Kar's aunt, Parvin Modarress of Los Angeles, said an official at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad also called her to say Kar would be released and needed her to wire money.
A spokeswoman for the military in Baghdad and a spokesman for the State Department in Washington said Saturday they had no information about developments in the case.
JERUSALEM â The forced evacuation of Gaza Strip settlements will begin on August 17, a senior Israeli official said yesterday, giving a starting date for the first time, and settlers who ignore orders to leave by that deadline will suffer some financial losses.
The senior official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said settlers who leave before the August 17 deadline will get a better financial package, including special government grants and aid programmes that can help them resettle. However, he said all settlers are entitled to the same basic compensation, regardless of their departure date.
Before the August 17 deadline, Israeli troops will go from house to house in settlements marked for demolition and inform residents that their presence is illegal and that they must leave, the official said, confirming Israeli media reports.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/10/2005 00:36 ||
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#1
So now the Paleos will show restraint and the Islamofastshits will cool their rage and the arab street will reduce their seething. Pretty soon, all will be peace and harmony.
Don't hold your breath. Bet on the wall.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/10/2005 9:24 Comments ||
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QUETTA: Three people were reportedly killed and 20 were injured in festivities incidents of violence during by-elections in Qila Abdullah on Saturday. Some reports also said that at least one person was killed and four injured in the violence. Sources said that two groups exchanged heavy fire and law-enforcement personnel could not control the situation. Firing continued at Jangle Pir Alizai polling stations till 7pm. Qila Abdullah district is situated some 90 kilometres north of Quetta, near the Pak-Afghan border.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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John Garang, the former rebel leader who spent 21 years fighting the Khartoum government, was sworn in as first vice president yesterday, pledging to promote the unity of the country a day after nearly 1 million people welcomed his return to the capital. Garang took the oath just after President Omar Bashir signed an interim constitution that promises broader freedoms for Sudanese and brought an end to the state of emergency that has been in place off and on since 1989.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has begun recruiting members for a security force to protect his new administration, despite angry opposition from powerful warlords in his Cabinet, officials said yesterday. "It (recruitment) is officially starting today all over the country," said presidential spokesman Yusuf Ismail Baribari. "It is a friendly force that will protect the civilians and embark on social needs such as road construction and water supply."
Recruits will be screened and trained before they are enlisted in the police force, prisons or the army, he said. Yusuf's Transitional Federal Government marks the 14th attempt to re-establish government in lawless Somalia since 1991, when a coalition of warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and the country descended into anarchy. Formed after peace talks last year, the faction-riven interim administration was initially based in Kenya. Yusuf returned to Somalia on July 1, basing his government temporarily in Jowhar, 90 kms (56 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, which remains too dangerous. He has said he will recruit and train militiamen to defend his government pending the arrival of regional peacekeepers. But warlords in Mogadishu, some of them government members, have threatened to attack Jowhar if Yusuf takes troops there.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Recruits will be screened and trained
Screenedd for what? If it's having been involved in armed groups, just about the only acceptable candidates will be children under the age of twelve, and a few women.
#2
But warlords in Mogadishu, some of them government members, have threatened to attack Jowhar if Yusuf takes troops there. - Is there no end to partisan politics?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
07/10/2005 21:47 Comments ||
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At least three of the five militants who attacked a disputed religious shrine in Ayodhya were Afghan or Sudanese nationals. The other two could be either Pakistani or Indian, investigators said yesterday. Initially, it was assumed that the attackers, all of whom were killed by the security forces, were from Jammu and Kashmir or Kashmiris from Pakistan. A police team from Jammu and Kashmir that was invited by Uttar Pradesh police to help in the investigation concluded that the language spoken by three of the militants was either Pashto or Arabic.
Kashmir police officers initially played Kashmiri language tapes and asked Rehan, the driver, if that was the language he had heard them speaking. He replied in the negative. The police then played some tapes in Arabic and Pashto and Rehan said they sounded like the language he had heard. âFrom the facts gathered from Rehanâs statement, it is presumed that three out of the five terrorists were either (from Afghanistan or Sudan) while two were Indians or Pakistanis,â a police source told IANS. While Rehan could easily follow the Hindustani (a mixture of Urdu and Hindi) spoken by two of the militants, conversation carried out by the other three was unintelligible to him. He also confirmed that the two who spoke Hindustani appeared to be quite fluent in the language spoken by the other three.
Police have found nothing incriminating against Rehan in whose vehicle the attackers had arrived at the site, but he will remain in detention for a while, a top officer said. âSo far, the investigation agencies have found nothing against Rehan, but being one of the only two witnesses who saw the militants, he is an important source,â Uttar Pradesh police chief Yashpal Singh said. âIn any case, we cannot take any chances and he has to be kept under watch for sometime,â Singh added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/10/2005 00:00 ||
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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.
Saudi Arabia yesterday offered all-out support to Britain in its bid to track down the criminals behind Thursday's London bombings. It also called for joint international efforts to dry up sources of terrorism. "On behalf of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and myself, I strongly condemn this heinous crime and express the Kingdom's full readiness to extend whatever help required by our friends in Britain," Crown Prince Abdullah told British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The 
Kuwaiti liberals and women's rights activists slammed Islamists' campaign to attract women voters for the next parliamentary elections saying the members of the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) were the main hurdle in the way of women achieving political rights. The change in attitude by Islamists is a political ploy and they will not be able to draw reasonable number of female votes in these changing circumstances, said a prominent scholar and women's rights activists.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday it is crucial to address terrorism's underlying causes, which he identified as deprivation, lack of democracy and ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Thursday's bomb attacks on London demonstrate the pressing need for world leaders to tackle problems like poverty, he told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. He said leaders had taken on some of those issues at the G-8 summit of the world's wealthy nations in Scotland this week.
Firebrand Christian former Gen. Michel Aoun said yesterday he would reconsider his decision not to participate in Lebanonâs first government since the pullout of Syrian troops after a three-decade presence. Negotiations with Prime Minister-designate Fuad Siniora, who has been attempting to form a government since June 30, collapsed last week after Aounâs Free Patriotic Movement insisted it be given the Ministry of Justice to put in place reforms and an anti-corruption drive. âAfter (Sinioraâs) decision to revisit talks and consider the composition of the cabinet ... we have returned to the principle of participation,â Aoun told reporters after a meeting with his movement. âWe hope that this situation will speed up the formation of the government because Lebanon needs a responsible regime and we cannot regain time lost. I hope that the government will be formed rapidly and that we will participate in it,â Aoun said.
QUETTA: Three people were reportedly killed and 20 were injured in 
