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Bush calls for action against Syria
Today's Headlines
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Bangladesh
Tales from the Crossfire Gazette, Weekend Edition
A suspected top criminal in the Dhaka city was killed in a shootout between the Detective Branch of police and his accomplices at Aftab Nagar in Badda early Friday, raising the ‘crossfire’ death toll to 419 since June 2004.
"They're all dead, Jim!"
The victim, Abdul Awal alias Manik, 30, of Baraiara in Jhalakati, according to the police, was accused in 10 criminal cases, including murder, with different police stations in the city and in Narayanganj. The shootout ensued when a DB team took Manik, arrested along with two firearms at Pagla Bazar in Fatulla of Narayanganj on October 13, to Aftab Nagar to recover firearms, and his accomplices opened shots at them, the police said.
"It's the cops! Open random, indiscriminate fire!"
Manik, who was placed on a seven-day police remand on October 14, fell in the line of crossfire and sustained severe injuries in the head as he tried to flee at one stage of the gunfight, claimed the police.
The old sucking head wound trick...
He was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared him dead, claimed the police.
"Another one, Dr. Quincy!"
"Put him over there with the others, Sam! I'm having my breakfast!"
The police said a sub-inspector, Bazlur Rahman, had also been injured in the shootout and admitted to Rajarbagh Police Line Hospital.
"Oooowwww!"
"Wossa motta, Bazlur?"
"I banged my shinbone!"
The DB team recovered a .32 bore revolver loaded with two rounds of bullet and three rounds of used bullet from the spot.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russians Won't Give Bodies to Families
Authorities on Friday refused to release the bodies of men suspected of being involved in last week's deadly assault on law enforcement offices, angering their families who said even accused terrorists deserve a proper burial. Mothers of the suspected militants have held around-the-clock vigils outside the morgue where dozens of bodies were being held by the government. Some residents allege that their relatives had been unfairly identified as participants in the militant raid.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Soak them in bacon fat. Burn them and dump the ashes in the sewer.
Posted by: RWV || 10/22/2005 0:43 Comments || Top||

#2  I am not sure "terrorists" deserve anything resembling a proper burial. Their families can lump it. No one is under any obligation to return them a body. If they don't like it they can move to Pakistan.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 10/22/2005 0:47 Comments || Top||

#3  The underlying story of NALCHIK is rising discontent against Moscow, and the locals being ruled from Moscow by corrupt Putin-oids, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/22/2005 1:04 Comments || Top||

#4  As much as they villified and detested the 'Seditionist' Jesus Christ, he was taken an given a proper burial! Let's see how long it takes for them to put Putin's ass in the ground when he buys the farm!!
Posted by: smn || 10/22/2005 11:47 Comments || Top||

#5  and what is the culpability of the families that nurtured and lived with these bastards? SMN FOAD
Posted by: Frank G || 10/22/2005 12:30 Comments || Top||

#6  What? Russia hasn't copied China and made the families pay for the bullet while the bodies are parted out to paying customers?

How did Putin miss this fine business?
Posted by: 3dc || 10/22/2005 13:14 Comments || Top||

#7  Sometime back I remember to have read over the web about the manner in which an American General tackled Islamic terrorists in the Philippines (during the Second World War-?). In order to discourage Islamic terrorists from vying with one another in getting martyred, he decided that all these terrorists' bodies would be burnt and not buried. For the moslems the body to be buried is very important because they have been told to believe that on the day of judgement all the buried bodies would come alive and meet their GM (God and Messenger). Therefore if President Vladimir Putin has decided not to hand over the bodies of Islamic terrorists to their equally terrorist relatives, it is just fine. Like 3dc says he should rather follow China in selling their body parts and demand the relatives to pay for the cost of these islamic terrorists maintenance.
Posted by: Prof. Alex Wordsmith || 10/22/2005 13:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Unfortunately the tactics of Blackjack Pershing would not deter the modern jihadi. After all how could the post mortem act of a kaffir deny a mujahid jannat?

The most extreme jihadis - the takfiri - like mohammed atta - can eat pork, drink alcohol, consort with prostitutes and have their bodies consumed by flames..

Posted by: john || 10/22/2005 13:51 Comments || Top||

#9  ... angering their families who said even accused terrorists deserve a proper burial.

What part of "NO" don't you understand?
Posted by: Zenster || 10/22/2005 15:39 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Oz wants terror laws before christmas
RESTRICTIONS on terrorist suspects could be imposed before Christmas, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says.

While the Federal Government is working on new anti-terrorism laws, Mr Ruddock said the "control orders" would be used as soon as the legislation was passed in December.
The laws could force people to wear tracking devices, prevent them using the telephone or email, ban them from working and communicating with others, and impose curfews.

Speaking to the Sunday Age from France, where he attending a counter-terrorism meeting, Mr Ruddock said control orders could also apply to people other than terrorists.

"If there is available evidence and the measures are passed, I would expect that competent authorities would move on those matters at the first available opportunity," he said.

"Does that mean it could happen before Christmas? Of course it means it could happen before Christmas."

But Mr Ruddock said he had "no say in relation to operational issues" of the federal police and ASIO.
"We wouldn't be seeking the power if we didn't believe that there were circumstances in which it may be appropriate for it to be used," he said.

"It's quite clear we are aware of people who have trained with terrorist organisations, and you can work safely on the assumption that there are other people who may not have trained (with terrorist organisations) who may be of concern.

"Those are matters in which if there is evidence, appropriate authorities take it to a court and seek the orders."

A new version of the legislation was given to the states on Friday and Mr Ruddock has been negotiating safeguards with the coalition backbench committee.

Prime Minister John Howard wants government MPs to approve the legislation on Melbourne Cup day (Tuesday week) and to have it pass through both houses of Parliament before sittings end for the year on December 8.

Mr Ruddock told the Sunday Age that control orders would give police and security agencies "a better handle on being able to know what people are doing, where they are and what they might be engaged in".

"The control orders enable us to put restrictions on where people might go. It might be a restriction that prevents somebody from travelling interstate.

"If you had people who were going into a rural area and engaging in some form of training, it would be containing their ability to go to regions like that It might be there are certain people you don't want them to talk to."
Posted by: God Save The World AKA Oztralian || 10/22/2005 13:22 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Europe
Bosnian authorities arrest three on terror charges
The Bosnian Interior Ministry Friday confirmed the arrest of three individuals on charges of planning terror operations and possession of weaponry and explosives that were to be used in an attack on a western European embassy. The concerned statement said the three were of Swedish, Turkish and Bosnian nationality and that one of the trio was in the process of initiating a plan to bomb an embassy in a suicide attack using a rigged car.

Bosnian police, the statement said, discovered two locations containing explosives, hand weapons, bomb shells and other such gear belonging to the arrestees. The cell was detected after close surveillance and the identities of the three suspects would not be revealed until all leads are dealt with and followed, lest others involved with the cell get away.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
U.S. General: Iraqi Army Needs More Time
WASHINGTON (AP) - It will take up to two years for the Iraqi army to have the military leadership and supplies it needs to operate on its own, the commander of U.S. forces in Baghdad said Friday.

Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., told Pentagon reporters that the Iraqi security forces are continuing to grow, but their major need is for support systems, such as fuel and replacement parts. ``If we're talking about an army that can pick up and move and go out to the borders to defend the country and be able to sustain operations out in the open for a long period of time, it's probably going to be a year and a half, two years before that system is mature enough to operate on its own,'' Webster said from Baghdad.
That fits with the rest of what we know. The Iraqi troops are getting better at field operations and intel; now they need work on leadership and logistics.
Webster did not specify what impact his assessment would have on U.S. hopes for beginning a withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. ``It's hard to pick a date for sending everybody home because the enemy gets a vote as to when that occurs,'' said Webster. ``We have got to make sure the Iraqi government is capable of standing on its own and that the Iraqi security forces are capable of defending that new constitution.''

Webster said the Iraqi government must provide systems for supplying its army, and the U.S. is working with them on that. In addition, he said the U.S. is helping the Iraqi army train front line supervisors on leadership and discipline. He said that while there is a long way to go to get the rest of the Iraqi security forces able to work on their own, they have about 18 battalions now operating in Baghdad with some U.S. support, compared to one battalion in the oldest portion of the city last January.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/22/2005 00:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lol. Of course it will take time. Hell, most of the morons who are demanding immediate gratification are unaware that it took longer to dismantle their once-capable armed forces than the good General is suggesting it will take to stand up decent Iraqi forces. They're doing an excellent job and, to be perfectly honest, they're coming along far faster than I (or many others who know the history of Arab "armies") ever dreamed possible. To the ankle-biters, such as our home-brew morons in the Congress, fuck the fuck off. You are so far out of your element it's hysterical. The likes of Biden, et al, pontificating on military matters is black comedy.
Posted by: .com || 10/22/2005 1:20 Comments || Top||

#2  And when were S.Korean forces ready to stand alone? Or German for that matter. Still there aren't we? When did the wall go down?
Posted by: Glealing Sluper3406 || 10/22/2005 7:51 Comments || Top||

#3  ``If we're talking about an army that can pick up and move and go out to the borders to defend the country and be able to sustain operations out in the open for a long period of time, it's probably going to be a year and a half, two years before that system is mature enough to operate on its own,''

Sounds way overly optimistic. I expect in two years it'll be able to easily contain the bandits, but a mobile field force in 2 years?
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 8:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Shipman: I have just the opposite impression. Right now, the only army other than Israel in the area for Iraq to contend with is Iran. So the general's calculation would be for Iraq to hold its own long enough for the US military to arrive.

From that perspective, the things the Iraqis need are first an air force that can hold off the Iranian air force. They will have to procure this on their own, so it is not a "US dependent" factor.

Hand in glove with this are sufficient AAA resources to take down both Iranian air and especially missiles. Lots of variables, here.

Lastly, they have the difficult problem of both having millions of pilgrims flood into their country, mostly from Iran, yet keeping a lid on Iranian mischief in the South. This is both border patrol and unconventional forces/internal security issues.

Right now, the Iraqi maneuver units are more than capable of taking on two to four times their number of Iranians. However, nobody is talking about the Iraqi artillery capability, which would be key in this situation.

Lots of stuff to do.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/22/2005 11:29 Comments || Top||

#5  He's right on the logistics. If the Iraqis had to depend on the US Congress for their support we'd have... Vietnam.
Posted by: Pappy || 10/22/2005 11:32 Comments || Top||

#6  Iguess they had better start trainingc-130,and helo pilots as well as suppling the aircraft.
Posted by: raptor || 10/22/2005 11:53 Comments || Top||

#7  Let's face it, the troops will stay there until the last day of 'W's presidency. If the American people want the troops out, they're going to have to elect someone who will promise withdrawal upon taking office! I don't see that from either side.
Posted by: smn || 10/22/2005 12:11 Comments || Top||

#8  raptor: actually, logistics transport was one of the first priorities the US established in the Iraqi air force. An unusual concept in the region, we persuaded them that supporting a maneuver division could force multiply it many times over.

We trained the heck out of an Iraqi transport detachment, and when they did their first independent mission, and did it right, we threw a party like they had just had a baby. We wanted them to *know* that this was their bread-and-butter, not fighter aircraft or bombers.

In essence, it is deep re-education, and not an easy lesson, to train an army that they can accomplish more with a shovel, in the proper circumstances, than a sword.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/22/2005 13:17 Comments || Top||

#9  smn - that's known as a "cut and run" (AKA Donk) candidate - a loser
Posted by: Frank G || 10/22/2005 13:20 Comments || Top||

#10  In a strange sense of karma, the constant drum beat by the MSM about US casualties only reinforces the public desire the make sure that the sacrifices were worth it. Meaning that given a choice between a cut-and-run candidate and one to see-it-to-a-finish, the American public is more disposed to selecting the latter.
Posted by: Slolet Ebbailing9500 || 10/22/2005 14:07 Comments || Top||

#11  "If we're talking about an army that can pick up and move and go out to the borders to defend the country and be able to sustain operations out in the open for a long period of time, it's probably going to be a year and a half, two years before that system is mature enough to operate on its own," Webster said from Baghdad.

Interesting. General Webster is talking about the Iraqi army not as a counter-insurgency force, but as a force focused around conventional military operations. That's a step down the road from current concerns.

Off hand, this article doesn't strike me as bad news, but it does seem to fit a general pattern in which everything we do in Iraq seems to take about a year to a year-and-half longer than was apparently originally planned for.
Posted by: Patrick Phillips || 10/22/2005 14:39 Comments || Top||

#12  Iran conventional forces aren't really much of a threat; neither are Syrian.

In reality the only military force in a neighboring country that is capable is Turkey.

The question isn't really when Iraq will be fully capable. The question is how many troops will we be able to withdraw before the 2006 elections. If we can reduce the force by 40k or so, the donks will not be able to use the 'quagmire meme' as effectively with the undecideds.

Posted by: mhw || 10/22/2005 19:47 Comments || Top||


Safehouse destroyed, police station attack thwarted
Coalition forces detained five terrorists and seized a large weapons cache today when they raided a suspected al Qaeda safe house northwest of Qaim, Iraq, military officials reported. The cache consisted of weapons, ammunition, mortars and bomb-making materials, officials said. Intelligence sources and tips from local citizens led coalition forces to the location. Coalition aircraft, using precision guided munitions, destroyed the safe house and weapons cache after coalition forces left the scene.

Elsewhere in Iraq, Iraqi police and coalition forces stopped short a coordinated attack on the Khalis Iraqi police station Oct. 20, in Diyala. One Iraqi police officer was killed and two children were wounded. Shortly after noon, a semitrailer approached the Khalis traffic circle and failed to slow and stop as directed. Guards fired on the vehicle, which then veered to the south. Its payload of explosives detonated when it hit a brick wall, killing a police officer. A short time later, four mortars were fired at the traffic circle, seriously injuring two children in a nearby field. The children were taken to an Iraqi medical facility for treatment. Officials credited the prompt actions of the guards with keeping the truck-bomb from getting closer to the station, where it could have caused extensive casualties.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/22/2005 00:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Defense in Saddam Trial Demands Security
The body of a lawyer in Saddam Hussein's trial was found dumped in the street with two bullet wounds in the head hours after gunmen dressed as security forces took him from his office. A fearful defense team demanded Friday that the trial be delayed or moved out of Iraq.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The olde change a venue trick. Let's move it to where Urdu is the lingua legal.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 8:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Tehran is nice this time of year...
Posted by: Pappy || 10/22/2005 11:38 Comments || Top||


Car explosion in Baqouba kills, wounds 19 Iraqis
Up to four Iraqis were killed and at least 15 others were injured in a car explosion Thursday targeting a US military convoy in Baqouba, 60 kilometers north of Baghdad. Iraqi police sources said today that a suicide bomber was driving the vehicle targeting a US military convoy near Diyala governorate building. The sources indicated that according to the eyewitness, three US soldiers were also killed during the explosion. The Iraqi police and US forces sealed-off the scene while the ambulances rushed the wounded to hospital for treatment.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraqi security announce arrest of 31 suspects
The Iraqi security apparatus announced in a statement Thursday that in cooperation with the Multinational forces 31 suspects were arrested and one terrorist was killed in addition to seizing arms caches in various parts of the northern city of Mosul. The statement added that four arms caches were traced in seperate campaigns in Talafar during 17-19 of this month. On the other hand the multinational forces announced the graduation of 53 fresh Iraqi cadets after closing the combat command group session on the 17th of this month.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Only whacked 1 and captured 31? Wow, either the Iraqis are becoming remarkably professional amazingly fast, or the jihadis have learned the hard way - now surrendering before they get their ticket to Paradise punched.
Posted by: .com || 10/22/2005 1:48 Comments || Top||

#2  "Allahu Ak...I surrender!"
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/22/2005 1:59 Comments || Top||

#3  "Please don't kill me!"
Posted by: Steve White || 10/22/2005 12:01 Comments || Top||


Deputy Chairman of Arab-Kurd Friendship Society in Diyali killed
An unknown militant assassinated Deputy Chairman of the Arab-Kurd Friendship Society in Diyali Shawakt Bader Thursday evening in the city of Baqouba, northeast Baghdad. Police sources said the militants fired four shots at the official while on his way home, killing him instantly.

A booby-trapped car explosion earlier in the evening had claimed the lives of four Iraqis and wounded a number of others in Diyali. Meanwhile, a multi-national forces statement said a US marine had been killed by friendly fire on Wednesday in a base near Mosul. The statement did not disclose further information but said the incident was under investigation.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Another Zark minion bites dust
A statement by the U.S. military said number 3 top aide to terrorist leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and Al-Qaeda military leader in Iraq Firas Al-Dulaimi was killed by coalition forces during a storming operation near the city of Ramadi, western Iraq. It added that some 12 terrorists were killed in the same operation, which took place on October 15.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Here lies the body of Abu bin Kenni - a minion of Zarqawi, a former drummer for Spinal Tap, and wearing a red shirt at the time of his death.
Posted by: DMFD || 10/22/2005 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  a storming operation

It's an armoured swoop thing.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 8:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Do top aids get more virgins?
Posted by: Ol Dirty American || 10/22/2005 12:12 Comments || Top||

#4  Bon voyage, rog.
Posted by: Flaviper Spitch5180 || 10/22/2005 17:32 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Bush to Abu Mazen: The Palestinians Must Start Helping Themselves
The Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas did not get much chance to lay down his usual list of demands and gripes in his talks at the White House with US president George W. Bush Thursday, Oct. 20. Instead, in contrast to the jovial mood of their joint news conference, Bush crushed his visitor’s hopes of a Palestinian state in the foreseeable future. “Not during my term,” the president declared firmly, according to DEBKAfile’s Exclusive sources Washington.

Abu Mazen is described as coming out of the meeting pale and shaken, with nothing to show for his Washington trip. Most of their 45-minute conversation was one-sided. Bush scarcely let Abu Mazen get a word in edgeways, cutting him short several times.

According to our sources, the US president laid down a new set of rules, unfamiliar to the Palestinians. In a word, no one will help the Palestinians if they don’t help themselves – and that goes for me, the US President, too. If you think you can disarm Hamas by letting them take part in elections, go ahead, but you are on your own. We think you are making a big mistake, but we don’t interfere. But there is a price to pay. A regime dominated by terrorists cannot expected to be treated as a democracy.

He reminded Abbas that he was the first American president to envision an independent Palestinian state and make it a strategic goal of his foreign policy, but the Palestinians had not risen to the challenge. He informed Abbas that to achieve statehood, they must meet three categorical conditions:

A. A Palestinian state must live in peace with Israel.

B. Peace alone is not enough. The Palestinians must demonstrate they are capable of being good neighbors.

C. The Palestinian state must be clean of terrorism.

As matters stand now, said Bush, I see no prospect of Palestinian statehood coming into existence before I leave the White House.

The US president said he continued to support the Palestinian leader. However, his terms were the reverse of what Abbas wanted to hear.

1. Final-status negotiations must not begin yet. (This knocked on the head Abbas’ most cherished goal which is to skip the road map preliminaries and jump to the final stage.)

2. Washington is holding back the timeline for progress towards Palestinian independence. (This was a stunning setback for Abbas’ plans and his standing at home.)

3. The Middle East road map for peace will not for now be activated. It will remain on paper as long as Palestinian “armed gangs” are in charge.

Abu Mazen tried to put in a word on Palestinian demands, such as the unresolved status of the Egyptian-Gaza border crossings, a direct, sovereign Gaza-West Bank link, a halt on the Israeli defense barrier and various complaints, but Bush brushed him off, saying he is familiar with the problems and he leaves them to advisers – “Jim Wolfensohn,” or “General Ward.”

He gave some ground on the Palestinian demand for weapons and ammunition to arm their security forces, but said this would have to wait until a new military coordinator takes over from General Ward. The US president said he was still looking for a suitable candidate, a military man with the right intelligence background who worked well with the CIA. He also agreed to raise the granting of more economic concessions with Ariel Sharon.

All in all, the meeting ended without results or decisions.

Outside, when they both faced reporters, President Bush took advantage of a question put by a Palestinian correspondent to drive home his new message. Asked if a Palestinian state would come about during his term as president, he replied: My purpose is to lay the foundations for a state. Whether it comes about or not is not my problem; is up to the Palestinians.

Clearly the US president has taken several steps back from his first concept of Palestinian statehood as a top American policy goal. He is leaving it to the Palestinians to make the running. For the first time, they have been put clearly and firmly on notice that as long as they harbor terrorists, they can forget about attaining their own state.
Posted by: lotp || 10/22/2005 16:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is why I, a life-long democrat, have voted for Bush, continue to support him, and plan to vote Republican for the forseeable future. George W. Bush is a president with principles, and he sticks to them.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 10/22/2005 16:44 Comments || Top||

#2  I'm with you, scooter. Although I consider Bush to be far from ideal & didn't vote for him the first time, I have been impressed by his strategy in the war on terror overall. He identified the most important issue facing this country (the war on islamic fascism), approved a series of concrete steps to deal with it, and got it done in the face of ferocious & patently unfair criticism. Democratic party leaders have responded by distorting his record & smearing his reputation for short term political advantage (as they see it) and the MSM have compounded the problem by misrepresenting almost every aspect of the war. I prefer a president with principles, even when I don't agree with all of them, to the skillful political hackery indulged in by his opponents. Whatever Bush's poll numbers now, he will be seen by fair-minded historians as someone who spent his political capital on a project that truly improved the world and left the USA in a much stronger position to defend itself than when he took office - neither of which can be claimed by many presidents.
Posted by: ryuge || 10/22/2005 17:36 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm tired of all the Bush-bashing and happen to think he is one of the greatest presidents we have ever had. He rarely gets credit for all he does do, and blamed for everything Congress and others are responsible for. I thought the press conference was less than jovial and this explains it very well. A Roadmap to Peace dreamed up by the EU, the UN, Russia, and the Clinton Administration is doomed to fail anyway.
Posted by: Danielle || 10/22/2005 18:13 Comments || Top||

#4  On a more personal note, can you imagine what it must be like to have your heels locked by Bush? He impresses me as somebody who would be scary as hell when angry.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/22/2005 19:11 Comments || Top||

#5  +double damn good.bout damn time.
Posted by: raptor || 10/22/2005 21:06 Comments || Top||

#6  You know, if the pali peoples weren't raised on the tranzi tit they'd do what the Jooooos, the US and other nations have done. You don't need anyones permission to be/declare yourself a state. You just do it.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 21:29 Comments || Top||

#7  You don't get something for nonthing
You can't have freedom for free


Its about time someone told the Palios to grow the fuck up and act like adults. GO BUSH!
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/22/2005 22:04 Comments || Top||

#8  Plain spoken and direct. It seems strange to hear such common sense from a diplomat. Gotta love the man.
Posted by: Grush Tholuger7316 || 10/22/2005 22:52 Comments || Top||


Two Palestinians killed in West Bank
Israeli soldiers have shot and killed two Palestinians in the northern West Bank, Palestinian security officials say. The shootings are the latest of a series of fatal incidents in the past week threatening to unravel an eight-month cease-fire and dash hopes that Israel's pullout from Gaza last month could lead to a resumption of peace talks.

Both sides have given conflicting accounts, and it wis unclear whether the fatalities are a result of one or two separate incidents. Palestinian witnesses say troops opened fire on unarmed protesters who threw stones at an Army jeep, east of Tulkarm, a town in the northern West Bank, killing an 18-year-old youth. Medics say the youth died immediately of his wounds.

But an Israeli military spokesman says soldiers have shot at gunmen who fired first at the troops and damaged a military vehicle. The spokesman says soldiers later found one body near the scene, but believed they had shot two armed men. Palestinian officials say Israel has informed them of the second fatality but that they have not yet identified the body.

A spokesman for the Yasser Arafat Brigades, an offshoot of the militant wing of the mainstream Fatah movement, says Israel had killed one of its members in Tulkarm. The same group has claimed responsibility for gunning down three young Jewish settlers on a road near the West Bank city of Bethlehem last week. The latest deaths mean three Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops since Thursday when soldiers shot dead a Palestinian man who threw a firebomb at an Israeli car in Bethlehem. The Bethlehem shooting came amid spiralling tensions since the killings of the settlers last week for which Israel has retaliated by restricting Palestinian traffic on many West Bank roads and stepping up military patrols.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  well i got the joke..on the second thought tho, mods plz delete it. tx
Posted by: Red Dog || 10/22/2005 4:19 Comments || Top||

#2  I get called on the carpet for pointing out a snafu,but this is allowed to stand.
Whats-up with that?
Posted by: raptor || 10/22/2005 11:55 Comments || Top||

#3  ?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/22/2005 13:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Palestinian witnesses say troops opened fire on unarmed protesters who threw stones at an Army jeep, east of Tulkarm, a town in the northern West Bank, killing an 18-year-old youth. Medics say the youth died immediately of his wounds.

[Emphasis Added]

If they're throwing rocks, they are not "unarmed." Too bad the Palestinians are just too f&*king stupid to understand the concept. A little more chlorine for their genepool, if you would, Jeeves.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/22/2005 15:16 Comments || Top||

#5  guess I missed the joke - throwing stones at armed men = get what you asked for.
Posted by: Frank G || 10/22/2005 15:28 Comments || Top||

#6  LOL Frank you missed the entire Night Before Christmas linked to a non-link. I didn't get it, but Red Dog is known cool. I missed something.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 19:11 Comments || Top||

#7  Two Palestinians killed in West Bank

"It" didn't *translate* well...the brain to finger thingy.

/and visions of sugar plumbs danced in his head.
Posted by: Red Dog || 10/22/2005 19:28 Comments || Top||

#8  :>
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 21:35 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Syria claims to have arrested hard boyz, uncovers plot
Syria has arrested a group of radical Islamist militants who planned to launch attacks inside the country, state television said on Friday.

The state-controlled TV channel did not give any details but said the confessions of the arrested men would be aired on Saturday.

Damascus says its security forces have clashed with militants in recent months during raids to arrest them.

The authorities say they have also tightened the noose on suspected Arab Islamists, arresting dozens and extraditing scores to their home countries, including Saudi Arabia.
The Bush administration has complained that Syria is not doing enough to halt the flow of men and money to the insurgency in Iraq.

One group accused by the Syrian authorities of planning attacks -- the Jund al-Sham, or Soldiers of the Levant -- has been linked by some terrorism analysts to al Qaeda leader's in Iraq, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/22/2005 00:09 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hey, the Calphate includes Syria doncha know?

Babby Assad is on really dangerous ground now.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 10/22/2005 0:45 Comments || Top||

#2  If so much death and despair weren't the result it would be utterly hilarious to watch Assad further wedge himself so firmly between Mr. Rock and Mr. Hard Place.

One can only hope he dies just as slowly as he is apt to relenquish power.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/22/2005 17:05 Comments || Top||


Bush calls for action against Syria following Hariri investigation
President Bush called on the United Nations yesterday to meet urgently to consider taking action against Syria after a U.N. investigation implicated top officials in the regime of President Bashar Assad in the assassination of Lebanon's leading reformer.

In a sign of the sudden escalation in tension between Syria and the international community, Britain yesterday called on the world body to consider punitive sanctions on Damascus. The Security Council is expected to meet Tuesday to consider possible actions for two new resolutions, according to U.S. and U.N. officials.

Bush called the detailed U.N. investigative report into the Feb. 14 killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri "very disturbing" and asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to immediately convene the foreign ministers of the 15 Security Council members to "respond accordingly" to its allegations.

"The report suggests, strongly suggests, the politically motivated assassination of Prime Minister Hariri could not have taken place without Syrian involvement," Bush said, speaking in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.

En route to Alabama with British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, Rice told reporters that the international community must "demand accountability" from Damascus. Intense diplomatic discussions are expected to continue through the weekend among U.S., British, French and Russian officials to broker a consensus behind potential punitive action, according to U.S. and U.N. officials.

Ideas under discussion range from a ban on Syrian international flights and trade limitations to an embargo on goods that can be used for military purposes, according to Western officials familiar with the diplomacy who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Envoys are also considering demanding that Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, require those named in the report to help in the investigation -- or take action himself against them.

At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said pursuing the investigation is the first priority for the Security Council. "In the absence of serious Syrian cooperation on substantive matters, the mission can't get to the ultimate truth," Bolton said. "That is what it seems to me the focus [of] the U.N. Security Council should be. . . . We need to look at other steps to obtain Syrian cooperation."

The United Nations may lay out a series of steps Syria must take over a limited time, giving it an opportunity to more fully cooperate with investigators, Western envoys said. Secretary General Kofi Annan has extended the investigation, conducted by German prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, through Dec. 15. But a senior U.S. official involved in the diplomacy said discussions are still "in their infancy."

The Bush administration has already heavily sanctioned Syria under the provisions of anti-terrorism laws, the Patriot Act and the Syria Accountability Act. Although no options have been taken off the table, the State Department emphasized yesterday that Washington is looking for a united international response. "We seek peaceful, negotiated diplomatic solutions," said spokesman Adam Ereli.

The report stirred drama yesterday as it became clear that a key passage had been edited at the last minute and that the names of Assad family members and Syrian officials had been deleted from the version released publicly.

The original report, which became public yesterday, included allegations that two family members and three top intelligence and security officials plotted the bombing of Hariri's entourage as it drove through Beirut, killing him and 22 others.

The document, compiled after a four-month probe by Mehlis, named Gen. Assef Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law and the head of Syrian military intelligence, and Maher Assad, the president's younger brother. A witness told Mehlis's commission that the two men and the three others decided to kill Hariri two weeks after the passage of U.N. Resolution 1559 in Sept. 2004. The resolution, co-sponsored by the United States and France, called for an end to Syria's nearly three-decade-long occupation of Lebanon.

The original version of the report cited a witness who claimed that the five officials -- including Hassan Khalil, Bahjat Suleiman and Jamil Sayyed -- met several times in Damascus, including at Shawkat's office, over the next several months to complete the planning. The final meeting was in Shawkat's home less than two weeks before the attack, it said.

The version of the report distributed at the Security Council Thursday night excluded the names, referring only to senior Lebanese and Syrian officials.

Mehlis told reporters yesterday that the names were deleted after he learned his work was going to be made public. "No one outside of the report team influenced these changes, and no changes whatsoever were suggested by the secretary general or anyone at the U.N.," Mehlis said.

Syria's ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustapha, charged yesterday that the probe was based on "tales, innuendos" and did not contain a single substantiated piece of evidence that could be used in a court of law. "It is based on political attitudes, not fact," he said in an interview. "We ended up with a political report" laden with loopholes, contradictions and "shady testimonials" from witnesses who were not credible, he added.

Bolton dismissed the denial from Syria as "ridiculous."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Doesn't much matter how close the report lays the blame to Assad's doorstep - everyone knows and gets it. It will take another chunk out of Kofi's ass if it is proven he watered it down by removing names. It's funny - he suffers from the same massive stupidity that the Ba'athists did: terminal arrogance.

What would be the likely consequences if Syria simply dissolved into its component parts, I wonder, with the tiny minority Ba'athists who've ruled for so long being run out on a rail - or shot in the back as they flee. No more Ba'athist (Nazi) strongholds - anywhere... and Syria gone without firing a shot, imploded. They did it to themselves - over a Leb politician.

And Kofi and the UN-DEAD doing the same to themselves with example after example of lies, corruption, and incompetence. Seems as though Dubya doesn't really have to go after them, either - they'll shoot themselves between the eyes without any assistance. Every event that comes to it is mishandled, mangled, muffed, and grossly manipulated - with only the hardcore Tranzis unable to see that this is one very dysfunctional disaster in progress.

And Hezbollah moves to the center-ring...

I love the smell of M.E. instability in the morning...

Ch-ch-ch-changes... Turn and face the strange...
Posted by: .com || 10/22/2005 1:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Dot. I'll bet you anything you like --- there will be no adverse consequences for Kofi. Not from this, and not from anything else he did, or might yet do.
Posted by: gromgoru || 10/22/2005 5:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Look up Assad ... its a bird ... no its a plane ... no its a... yes it is a plane after all .... strange looking plane, sort of V-shaped ... pssst ... "It's called a B-2 bomber, asshat!"
Posted by: Uleating Wheagum6743 || 10/22/2005 16:31 Comments || Top||


Times Online: UN office doctored report on murder of Hariri
The Times UK Online Edition article on the various editions of the report. Apparently they used Microsoft Word to write it, but made use of the "keep track of previous drafts" sort of features. Via LGF and Stephen Den Beste.
...The confidential changes were revealed by an extraordinary computer gaffe because an electronic version distributed by UN officials on Thursday night allowed recipients to track editing changes...But the furore over the doctoring of the report threatened to overshadow its damaging findings. It raised questions about political interference by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary- General, who had promised not to make any changes in the report. One crucial change, apparently made after the report was submitted to the UN chief, removed the name of President al-Assad’s brother, Maher, his brother-in-law, Assef al-Shawkat, and other high-ranking Syrian officials...The deleted names represent the inner core of the Syrian regime. Maher al-Assad, President al-Assad’s younger brother, is a lieutenant-colonel and head of the Presidential Guard. He is known for his quick tem- per and six years ago was said to have shot his brother-in-law, General Assef Shawkat, in the stomach during an altercation...
My Grandmother shot me once... ONCE...
...At a press conference yesterday Herr Mehlis insisted that Mr Annan had not pressurised him into making changes. “No one outside of the report team influenced these changes and no changes whatsoever were suggested by the Secretary-General,” he said.
Well, it's kinda obvious that this wasn't the case. The question is, how much of this "technical error" was intentional, and if so, whose idea was that? Finally, I thought I'd note that this was talked about here yesterday.
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Kofi must go, the scum sucking dog.
Posted by: Captain America, esq || 10/22/2005 0:05 Comments || Top||

#2  This is classic. Wonder if we can get similar originals from Volcker.
Posted by: JSU || 10/22/2005 1:27 Comments || Top||

#3  con artist caught again, expect Kofi to forge ahead bloviate while hang wringing over starving Africans, war in the ME, and give us more flu money.
Posted by: Red Dog || 10/22/2005 4:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Dan Rather and Mary Mapes are working at the UN?
Posted by: doc || 10/22/2005 5:19 Comments || Top||

#5  No, no doc. They received the MS Word docs, but didn't create them [or authenticate them]. Which is why CBS could never uncover this 'news'. It takes real skills, analysis, and talent. Something that is in way short supply in MSM. Intelligence is finite, there are just more people around today, and way too many in MSM.
Posted by: Glealing Sluper3406 || 10/22/2005 7:59 Comments || Top||

#6  That and the ability to click on menu items in a word processor will do the trick.
Posted by: Ol Dirty American || 10/22/2005 10:45 Comments || Top||

#7  "Intelligence is finite"

So true. Too bad disingenuous stupidity isn't.
Posted by: .com || 10/22/2005 10:49 Comments || Top||

#8  This is really quite a brilliant move. I'm too risk averse to be a betting man, but I will indulge myself in predicting that the Secretary General's position is safe and secure.
Posted by: Curt Simon || 10/22/2005 12:12 Comments || Top||


Lahoud rejects UN inquiry claim
Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud had no contact with a suspect named by a UN inquiry into the killing former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, the presidential office said on Friday. "The press office in the presidential palace categorically denies this information, which has no basis in truth and is a part of pressure campaigns against the president," it said in a statement. UN investigators reported on Thursday that a suspect had called Lahoud minutes before a truck bomb killed Hariri and 20 other people in Beirut in February.

"It is a damning report for President Lahoud and his top aides. He must accept the consequences and resign," said MP Elias Atallah, who is allied to the movement headed by Hariri's son Saad which commands a parliamentary majority.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan-Pak-India
US troops burned bodies in Afghanistan because “they stank”
WASHINGTON - US soldiers burned the bodies of two Taleban fighters in Afghanistan because villagers had not claimed them a day after they were killed and the bodies “were bloated and they stank,” a US magazine reported late Friday, citing soldiers who were present at the incident.
They didn't smell so good before they got waxed, either.
Australian television talking out of its ass reported on Wednesday that soldiers had burned the bodies of two suspected Taleban militants and afterwards used the incident to insult villagers and try to provoke them into attacking US-led coalition troops.

The incident has prompted a US military investigation into the alleged desecration of the corpses, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention on human rights. It also further clouds the United States’s reputation, already tarnished by the sexual humiliation of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and allegations of mistreatment of “war on terror” inmates at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Funny, the reporter forgot to mention the Taliban's reputation on human rights in the above paragraph. Must have slipped his mind ...
According to the article published on Time magazine’s website, a US army platoon was sharing a rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan with the bodies of the two fighters. “The Taleban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier and in the 90 degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence,” Time reported, citing soldiers who were present.
"Damn LT, them boys is gettin' ripe!"
"Yeah, yeah, Tyrone, what do I look like, a magician?"
Earlier, Lieutenant Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual. But the villagers refused — probably because the dead fighters were not locals but Pakistanis, said one US Army officer, the magazine said.
You mean the Taliban fighters were Paks? Who knew?
The magazine said it was then that Nelson took a decision that could jeopardize his career. “We decided to burn the bodies ... because they were bloated and they stank,” Time reported, citing a soldier.

The incident, captured on film by Australian photojournalist Stephen Dupont and aired on Australian public broadcasting channel SBS, unleashed world outrage from all the usual left-wing sources, while the rest of the world hardly noticed.

Islamic tradition requires the bodies of Muslims to be washed, prayed over, wrapped in white cloth and buried, if possible, within a day. Under the Geneva Convention, the disposal of war dead “should be honorable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged.”
Since it wasn't possible, they did something different.
Time noted that one US officer in Kandahar had “pointed out that the Taleban and Al Qaeda never show any qualms about defiling the bodies of dead Afghan or American soldiers.”
Well yeah, but that's different.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/22/2005 00:15 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Iff true our warriors are off the hook, as US warriors are gener allowed to burn or otherwise effectively dispose of bodies deemed a severe health risk.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/22/2005 1:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Only folks upset about this are already either terrorists scum, their supporters or journalistic scum. Nothing to see here.
Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom || 10/22/2005 2:56 Comments || Top||

#3  US troops burned bodies in Afghanistan because “they stank”

They smelled bad enough before they were dead...
Posted by: RG || 10/22/2005 3:19 Comments || Top||

#4  Steve, your inline strike outs, says it best.

Australian television talking out of its ass
from all the usual left-wing sources, while the rest of the world hardly noticed.

It's all right out of the old lefty playbook,
BFD..So F***ing what if some, [mind you] dead Taliban [7th century murdering throwbacks]were fired up in flames?

..The 5th columnist will Wank, the Seething will Seethe and all over the net the Clueless will Cry. LOL. SOS, different day.
Posted by: Red Dog || 10/22/2005 3:36 Comments || Top||

#5  Under the Geneva Convention, the disposal of war dead “should be honorable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged.”

The locals didn't want to do it, so it wasn't possible. End of phuquing story.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/22/2005 3:58 Comments || Top||

#6  another molehill hyped into a mountain while they ignore the real story going on around them.
Posted by: Grush Tholuger7316 || 10/22/2005 4:30 Comments || Top||

#7  Under the Geneva Convention, the disposal of war dead “should be honorable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged.

Under the Geneva Conventions you have NO rights when you don't respect them.
Posted by: JFM || 10/22/2005 6:23 Comments || Top||

#8  Should have read: under the Geneva Conventions you have NO obligations when the enemy doesn't respect them. None with the living: ie you can shoot them if say you caught fighting out of uniform (a thing who endangers civilians) and none with the dead: feed them to swines.
Posted by: JFM || 10/22/2005 6:29 Comments || Top||

#9  I asked the droid and it said that's how you dispose of Jawas. Good'nuff for me.
Posted by: Glealing Sluper3406 || 10/22/2005 7:52 Comments || Top||

#10  Oh no! It's another Meat Lie, shame of a nation. This is better than napalming the Vietnameese girl. Great opportunity for kooks everywhere.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 7:55 Comments || Top||

#11  This willful misrepresentation of the actions and motives of our soldiers being made and repeated in our own press in war time has truly outraged me.

I'm all for First Amendment rights but I'm so pissed off that any 'responsible' Westerner would countenance such lies...

I hope that Aussie journalist breaks his back in forty pieces. Propagandist scumbag.
Posted by: JDB || 10/22/2005 9:33 Comments || Top||

#12  This is how one makes his bones in the "journalism" trade - by trading, and treading, on the bones of honorable men.

The nest reeks - as did these rank Muzzynutz... sigh, so much trash to be taken out. I favor the formation of bounty hunter / asshat killer teams, myself. Think of them as shock treatment, chlorine for the gene pool. Or lifeguards, if you prefer.
Posted by: .com || 10/22/2005 10:00 Comments || Top||

#13  Detailed update here
Posted by: tipper || 10/22/2005 10:34 Comments || Top||

#14  Why does anybody care what happens to terrorist bodies. They don't care what happens to anybody elses lives or bodies?
Posted by: 3dc || 10/22/2005 10:42 Comments || Top||

#15  MSM cares.

They care because their allies in the field are dropping like fllies. The MSM media cares because they mourn the deaths of enemy combatants as they mourn live Americans.

The MSM loves dead Americans. They really can't distinguish between Americans and our armed enemies until someone dies, then they mourn the bad guy.
Posted by: badanov || 10/22/2005 10:46 Comments || Top||

#16  Let me see if I get this right:

MSM is upset and throwing its usual swishy fit because our guys burned up some skanky-smelling dead Jihadis, right? However, there is no prohibition against the use of flamethrowers or naplam against "live" Jihadis, right?

See: Fire When Ready
Why we should consider using flamethrowers in Afghanistan.
By Scott Shuger
Posted Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2001, at 10:49 AM PT

There aren’t any news cameras trained on the caves of Afghanistan, but you can still watch U.S. soldiers battle an enemy hiding in underground tunnels and bunkers: Go rent Sands of Iwo Jima. The 1949 John Wayne classic incorporates actual combat footage of Marines attacking Japanese forces ensconced, à la the Taliban, in caves and other fortified underground positions, many of them linked by tunnels. On the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, the central command post was 75 feet below the island’s volcanic rock. On nearby Okinawa, the Japanese fought from several belts of caves and bunkers as well as from thousands of ancestral tombs. What was the weapon that enabled the Marines to take the fight in and down to an enemy this entrenched? As you can see in the movie, it was the flamethrower, which shoots a column of splattering fire that can penetrate viewing slits and air ducts and even kill around corners.

Recent news reports have said that Osama Bin Laden has access to caves that are electrified, multistoried, and steel-fortified. So we’re prepared to use flamethrowers to clear them out, right? On several occasions, President Bush has said of the terrorists, “We’re going to smoke them out of their holes.” But why settle for smoke when there’s fire?

Well, there’s a little problem. That John Wayne movie is about the only place you can see flamethrowers these days because the U.S. military doesn’t have them anymore. Though flamethrowers were in use as recently as the Vietnam War, none of our service branches has any in their inventory now. (None of the experts and old Army hands interviewed for this story knew exactly when they were eliminated.) The field manual used by the Army and Marines states that “flame is a valuable close combat weapon” that can be “used to demoralize troops and reduce positions that have resisted other forms of attack,” but the manual dropped detailed descriptions of flamethrower tactics in the early 1990s...

Nevertheless, the United States has never officially sworn off flamethrowers. And there’s no good reason that it should.

They are not banned by the generally accepted rules of warfare. The Army’s Judge Advocate General School—which speaks for the legal branch of the Army—has concluded that fire weapons, including flamethrowers, are not illegal per se or by treaty, and the Army and Marine Corps field manuals flatly state that “their use is not a violation of international law.” ...

Posted by: Jim Marrs Nail File || 10/22/2005 11:12 Comments || Top||

#17  How many bodies were burned on september 11th? In Bali? In the streets of Iraq everyday from their suicide bombs? On the buses of Israel? And on and on and on...

The fact that we're even responding to this is embarrasing.
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 10/22/2005 12:13 Comments || Top||

#18  I've become convinced that the sole purpose the Geneva Conventions serve in modern days is to abuse the United States. We've been fighting an enemy who openly violates them, who *proudly* state their intention to violate them, but we're supposed to follow the strictest provisions even when the Conventions themselves say otherwise.

The Conventions are dead. It's time we admit it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/22/2005 12:34 Comments || Top||

#19  Ahem:

When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.


And also:

The Tyrone was growlin’ like dogs over a bone that has been taken away too soon, for they had seen their dead an’ they wanted to kill ivry sowl on the ground...I do not wondher they was on the sharp. ’Tis a shameful sight! Whin I first saw ut I wud niver ha’ given quarter to any man north of the Khyber—no, nor woman either, for the wimmen used to come out afther dhark—Auggrh!
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 10/22/2005 13:12 Comments || Top||

#20  -"...they stank"

Nuff Said.

If these countries are going to join the present millenium, their going to have to learn to stop smellen like ass.

The vast majority of Afghanis agree
Posted by: Eric Cartman || 10/22/2005 15:26 Comments || Top||

#21  Islamic tradition requires the bodies of Muslims to be washed, prayed over, wrapped in white cloth and buried, if possible, within a day.

Yeah, sure .. you betcha ... we'll get right on this, just as soon as we're finished with much more vital tasks, like plucking our nose hairs. Any soldiers wasting valuable field resources and time on duty to perform these last rites would be compromising the safety of their squad. Cremation is a sh!tload more honorable than the treatment our battle fatalities receive at the hands of these maggots. They and all the whiners squawking about this can go f&%k themselves.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/22/2005 15:30 Comments || Top||

#22  I believe Christian tradition didn't involve theft, urinating and defecationg in a church, drinking and defacing christian icons....


note the worldwide condemnation of the Paleos who occupied the Church OF THE NATIVITY! Fucking MSM couldn't care less. What if I took a dump on the black rock?
Posted by: Frank G || 10/22/2005 15:37 Comments || Top||

#23  What if I took a dump on the black rock?

I'll take, "Who Gives A Sh!t?" for $1,000, Alex.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/22/2005 15:42 Comments || Top||

#24  Damn skippy DPA
Posted by: Ol Dirty American || 10/22/2005 15:48 Comments || Top||

#25  As I recall, Frank, Israel was blamed for the desecration in the Church of the Nativity... because they had allowed the Palestinians to get themselves besieged there.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/22/2005 20:01 Comments || Top||

#26  TW said: "Israel was blamed"

No need to go any further, TW. That says it all. About anything.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/22/2005 20:11 Comments || Top||

#27  How 'bout feeding the Abu Ghraib dogs? No one is thinking about the dogs.
Posted by: Captain America || 10/22/2005 20:21 Comments || Top||

#28  Have things changed that much since I was in the Army? Back then, it was SOP to burn shit!
Posted by: FeralCat || 10/22/2005 22:55 Comments || Top||

#29  people: the MSM will ALWAYS be like a rabid dog biting the hand that feeds it and fawning on our enemies UNTIL the following changes:

In the MSM you win awards, prestige and kudos based on whether your article embarrassed the government and caused measurable policy change.

The MSM awards judges are impressed by this as a measure of the influence of the press and a sign they are doing their 'watchdog' job properly.

You can only do this by being critical and forcing your own side in to a hole.

You can NOT do this by exposing the Taliban (though at great risk to yourself like those women journalists who , before the war, hid cameras under a burqa and went in there to film the attrocity that was Sharia law) or other enemies.

You do not win awards for that type of journalism though it takes infinitely more guts and is presenting a hard-won truth to the public at the risk of the brave journalist's life. Many die in the process.

No the walkley awards and other media awards are judged by boffins whose most easy course of judging is to reward the famous stories that changed society (for the worse) by embarrassing the government.

Campaign to change the awards system (which leads to promotions pay rises and respect) and you will change the journalistic culture. I know, I'm a journo.
Posted by: anon1 || 10/22/2005 23:04 Comments || Top||

#30  good post. Thanks.
Posted by: Grush Tholuger7316 || 10/22/2005 23:46 Comments || Top||


Hizb chief killed in Kashmir
Army soldiers surrounded the Khari Forest area early Friday after receiving a tip-off that Abdul Hamid, a commander of the Hizbul Mujahedeen group, was hiding there. Hamid and a soldier were killed in the ensuing gunfight, said army spokesman Col DK Badola. The forest is in the Doda district, 180 kilometres north of Jammu. Security forces were scouring the area to flush out any other rebels, Badola said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Excellent..allah sends earthquake to flush them out and Indian army finishes the job..

btw, photo from recent russian-indian anti-terrorist exercises..
Check out the Indian soldier second from right..

link to photo
Posted by: john || 10/22/2005 12:13 Comments || Top||

#2  The photograph of the "second from right" is that of a soldier following the religion called Sikhism. The Sikhs are brave and theirs is a martial breed. The Sikhs were/are the sword arm of the Hindus. Sikhs are great patriots and hard working people. While an Islamic Terrorist is a coward specializing in killing unarmed unsuspecting civilian population, a Sikh is brave and chivalrous. There are thousands and thousands of Sikhs who have sacrified their lives fighting Islamic terrorists for hundreds of years. During the time of the Islamic tyrant Aurangzeb's rule he sent his islamic terrorists to Kashmir to convert the Hindus over there at the tip of Sword. The Hindus asked for six months time to consider embracing islam which was granted by the tyrant. The Hindus ran towards the Ninth Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur Singh for succour. On May 25, 1675 they prayed to the Guru and said: "Our lot has become unbearable. You are rightly known as Hind ki Chader or Champion of the Hindus. We have been given six months' time in which to make our choice between Islam and death. That period is about to end...We have come to you for help, guidance and protection. O Champion of the Hindus!" The Guru said, "OK, tell these savages if they can succeed in converting me and my disciples, then you would all convert to Islam". Aurangzeb took it as a challenge and brought forth the Guru and his five disciples to his court in Delhi. "The Guru was tortured for three months at Sarhind. He was left fettered and chained and detained in prison. He was then despatched to Delhi, shut up in an iron cage. He was left there, in that iron cage, fettered and chained. No one was permitted to see the Guru. Aurangzeb did not succeed in frightening the Guru and thought up a plan to kill the Guru's close disciples by painful tortures, prescribed in the Unholy Koran, meant for the infidels. Thus, three of the Guru's disciples, Bhai Mati Dass, Bhai Sati Dass and Bhai Dayala were slaughtered by the Mohammedans at Aurangzeb's orders and Aurangzeb's minions brought the news of their terrible torture and ultimate death to the Guru.

It is very instructive for the ignorant Hindus, Sikhs [and Christians] to know what indeed the Koran specifies! One was murdered by immersion in boiling water contained in a huge cauldron; the other was sawed alive with his hands tied to two posts on either side. And the third was bundled up in cotton, soaked in naphtha and then ignited. Please read the following ayats from the Koran so that you have a feel for the tenets formulated in a so called Holy Book:

XXII/19-22: These twain (the believers and the disbelievers) are two opponents who contend concerning their Lord. But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads (like they had done with Guru Arjan Dev)...

LXXVI/4: Lo! We have prepared for disbelievers
manacles and carcans and a raging fire.

LXIX/30-37: Take him and fetter him and then expose him to hell-fire and then insert him in a chain whereof the length is seventy cubits...

And there are more, many more in the Koran, a veritable Manual for murder and mayhem. However, the Guru remained calm and undaunted. Then the executioner came and severed the Guru's head. This dastardly act took place in Mughal India during Aurangzeb's reign. On the same spot was erected the Shishganj Gurdwara, a holy spot for all Hindus and Sikhs today!"

It is too sad that Sikhs are being mistaken for Moslems and are being attacked in the West. Sikhs are the reason why Islamic terroists could not convert rest of India to Islam even though they were its rulers!
Posted by: Prof. Alex Wordsmith || 10/22/2005 13:12 Comments || Top||

#3  What I meant was look at the ferocity.. I almost pity the jihadi who comes up against him...
Posted by: john || 10/22/2005 13:44 Comments || Top||

#4  PAW - "Sikhs are being mistaken for Moslems"

By whom? You write as if none of us has a clue who the Sikhs are. I can say that's complete crap. And I would never mistake a Sikh for a Muzzy, nor can I think of many who might - just the few usual fact-challenged types. Where did you get this idea, anyway? You don't know much about Rantburg, methinks. Nice story, but no one was confused, except you, it seems.
Posted by: .com || 10/22/2005 14:09 Comments || Top||

#5  A few Sikhs were attacked immediately after 9/11 IIRC.
Posted by: lotp || 10/22/2005 14:31 Comments || Top||

#6  a few will always be ignorant, and commit ignorant acts. Perhaps CAIR would publish ads demonstrating the differences so Sikhs aren't unfairly attacked? Didn't think so....
Posted by: Frank G || 10/22/2005 14:43 Comments || Top||

#7  Anyone with even remote knowledge of the enlightened Sikh faith could never conflate it or its followers with Islam or Muslims.
Posted by: Zenster || 10/22/2005 15:50 Comments || Top||

#8  starting with "courage"
Posted by: Frank G || 10/22/2005 16:07 Comments || Top||

#9  Sikhs are pretty much the polar opposite of Muzzies, I'd say.
Posted by: .com || 10/22/2005 18:00 Comments || Top||

#10  Sihks and Hindus are our allies in this war. They brook no quarter.
Posted by: Remoteman || 10/22/2005 18:35 Comments || Top||

#11  I didn't know that bit of Sikh history -- thank you, Professor. I'll have to look up the follow-on history, to discover whether the challenge of the Sikh guru and his followers had any impact on the Muslim conversion process... or progress. I rather suspect that it didn't, just as the various treaties with the American Indians simply slowed the progress of the Westward expansion, rather than stopping it. And of course, the presence of all those lovely AmerInd girls ensured that the offspring of the many single, male pioneers were descended equally from the displaced peoples, resulting in a significant proportion of the U.S. population (the exact percentage being left as a research problem for the student ;-]) claiming one or more Native American ancestors. Not bad, considering that somewhere between fifty and ninety percent of the native inhabitants of the Americas died in the plagues that inadvertantly spread following the various landing of the Spanish (sailors then not being known for their personal health and hygiene).
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/22/2005 20:50 Comments || Top||

#12  then
?
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 21:24 Comments || Top||


Two Lahore blast suspects arrested
MULTAN: Police arrested two men on Friday in connection with the bombings that killed nine people and injured 15 in Lahore last month, and alleged that they had collaborated with a RAW agent. One of the arrested is from the Kalpar clan of the Bugti tribe, and is accused of collaborating with an agent of the Indian intelligence agency. "We are confident about the connection between the (Kalpar) tribesman and the RAW agent," said a police official.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Nuggets from the Urdu Press
UN Charter is against Islam
According to the daily Pakistan, an organisation called the World Islamic Forum held its session in Lahore and decided that the UN Charter should be changed because it was against Islam. Maulana Isa Mansuri and Zahidul Rashdi put out a memorandum that they would present to the UN to ask it to change the charter and put Muslims inside the Security Council according to their population in the world. They also asked the UN to allow atomic power to all states and give veto to the Muslim states.

Indian clerics threaten Sania Mirza
According to Khabrain, Indian Muslim-born tennis star Sania Mirza was warned by the clerics of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind that she will have to wear a shalwar in place of her shorts to play tennis in future or they will take action against her. On this, the Indian government increased Ms Mirza’s security. She said that she was determined to play in Calcutta but she did not comment on the clergy’s threat to stop her from playing if she did not play in a shalwar.

Imran Khan on Qazi Hussain Ahmad
Speaking at the inauguration of Asghar Khan’s book, Imran was quoted in Jang as saying that Qazi Hussain Ahmad will not be successful in his movement against the government because the people in the army who used to back him are no longer backing him now. He said Pakistani foreign minister talking to the Israeli foreign minister was like sticking a knife in the back of the Palestinians.

America will ask for more!
Quoted in the Nawa-e-Waqt, ex-foreign minister Agha Shahi said that if Pakistan went on bowing before America’s tough conditions, they will only be increased. To appease India, the US had set aside its own laws and this it did to oppose the increasing Chinese influence on the region. He said that Pakistanis should stop asking the US to arbitrate between India and Pakistan. He said that international affairs turned on power; and military power was the only thing that counted.

Law minister slaps waiter
According to Khabrain, federal law minister Wasi Zafar said that he merely called the waiter loudly at a hotel, which felt like a slap but he had not actually slapped him. The news which earlier appeared in the press stated that he had slapped a waiter on the face. Mr Zafar stated that the waiter had brought his meal late, upon which he had protested while the waiter kept saying that he had not brought his meal late. Earlier, Mr Zafar had watched his son brutally beat up a passenger at the Karachi airport.

Eve was born of Adam’s rib!
Writing in Khabrain, Azam Sultan Suhrawardi stated that the clerics of Lahore had condemned the lecture of Pakistani scholar Dr Riffat Hassan, which said that there was no mention in the Quran of the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib. The clerics said that if a fact became accepted by Muslims down the centuries, it becomes truth and anyone denying it was apostate.

Stuffing the parliament in Afghanistan
Columnist Hamid Mir wrote in the Jang that talking to an Afghan leader in Kabul, he discovered that the old Jamiat Islami of Ustad Rabbani had split on the vote to President Karzai. Yunus Qanuni split from Rabbani and created his own party and was in the process of sending 150 of his own candidates to the 149-seat Volesi Jirga in the September 2005 elections in Afghanistan. Qanuni was being funded by Iran to ensure that the coming parliament is biased against President Karzai, who has no party of his own. Hamid Mir was told that judges in Afghanistan were appointed after payment of money by the judges, which the judges later made up through corruption.

NGOs and Musharraf
Writing in the Nawa-e-Waqt, Ataur Rehman stated that Musharraf had embraced the liberal and enlightened intellectuals and NGOs when he came to power. These liberal enlightened intellectuals were once supporters of the Soviet Union but now they had become slaves of the United States because of the money they received from it. After Musharraf gave them shelter, these NGOs threw away their caution and revealed their total slavery of the US. Now Musharraf was angry with the NGOs and their enlightened ladies, while Pakistan’s secular intellectuals looked like the lost sheep of Israel who didn’t know their direction.

Jews in Pakistan
According to Prof Adil Najam writing in the daily Pakistan, there was a Jewish synagogue in Karachi which was destroyed in 1960 to make place for a plaza. There was also a Jewish graveyard looked after by a Jewish lady. This graveyard was also destroyed to make place for a plaza. The Jewish lady was promised an apartment in the plaza after its completion but she never got it and vainly tried to approach the government to help her. The Jews left Pakistan in great misery after 1947.
Posted by: Fred || 10/22/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Jews left Pakistan in great misery after 1947.
Yes, they did and it's getting worse.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/22/2005 8:07 Comments || Top||

#2  put out a memorandum that they would present to the UN to ask it to change the charter and put Muslims inside the Security Council according to their population in the world. They also asked the UN to allow atomic power to all states and give veto to the Muslim states.

ROFL! I guess they don't understand how the concept of the Security Council.
Posted by: Grush Tholuger7316 || 10/22/2005 23:01 Comments || Top||



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Sat 2005-10-22
  Bush calls for action against Syria
Fri 2005-10-21
  Hariri murder probe implicates Syria
Thu 2005-10-20
  US, UK teams search quake rubble for Osama Bin Laden
Wed 2005-10-19
  Sammy on trial
Tue 2005-10-18
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Mon 2005-10-17
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Sun 2005-10-16
  Qaeda propagandist captured
Sat 2005-10-15
  Iraqis go to the polls
Fri 2005-10-14
  Louis Attiyat Allah killed in Iraq?
Thu 2005-10-13
  Nalchik under seige by Chechen Killer Korps
Wed 2005-10-12
  Syrian Interior Minister "Commits Suicide"
Tue 2005-10-11
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Mon 2005-10-10
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Sun 2005-10-09
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