A senior figure in Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood organisation has argued against non-Muslims holding leadership positions in Egypt, including the presidency.
Anybody got a good definition of the word "oppression"?
Mohamed Habib, the first deputy of the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, said that "if we are to apply the Islamic rule which says that non-Muslims have no guardianship over Muslims, then a Christian may not be president".
That applies everywhere, of course. As soon as a Muslim shows up, y'gotta put him in charge...
Habib was talking to reporters at the group's headquarters in Manial al-Roda on Monday. In a speech outlining the banned but tolerated group's preliminary agenda for the next parliament, Habib said that the rule is the "only exception" regarding restrictions for non-Muslims. Otherwise, they share the same "rights and duties of Muslims".
Right. We've seen that applied in all Muslim countries, too.
But according to Tarek El-Bishri, a respected Islamist intellectual and former judge, the Brotherhood's interpretation of non-Muslim guardianship is meaningless in the modern age.
He's making the assumption that Egypt is in the modern age.
Constitutions and laws - rather than one individual as was the case in medieval times - govern guardianship today "and thus it doesn't matter if the president is Muslim or Christian", el-Bishri told Aljazeera.net
It matters to the Muslim Brotherhood, and they'll probably end up in charge in Egypt eventually.
The Coptic Christian community comprises approximately 10% of Egypt's population of 72 million. The Brotherhood's gains in the ongoing three-stage parliamentary elections â 76 seats - have alarmed Coptic and secular groups in Egypt despite repeated attempts by the group's leaders to allay their fears.
Yeah. We can see how they're going out of their way to allay their fears.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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ALGIERS - Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has successfully undergone surgery for a stomach ulcer at a military hospital in France, the official APS news agency said on Monday. The 68-year-old president of the oil-rich North African state was flown to Paris nine days ago and admitted to Mal-de-Mer Val-de-Grace hospital on the advice of doctors treating him in Algiers.
"Whoa, boss! That's pretty yucky! You oughta have somebody look at it!"
"Whaddya mean, 'Have somebody look at it'? You're my doctor!"
"Yeah, but I ain't a magician!"
APS did not say when the operation took place. Doctors at Val de Grace diagnosed a haemorrhagic ulcer in the presidentâs stomach and decided to operate, APS said.
"It's pretty yucky, Dr. Jean-Pierre! You'll have to operate!"
"I will? I have to?"
âThis surgical act was carried out in excellent medical conditions and, like the post-operational phase, occurred in an entirely satisfactory manner.
"How was the operation, Dr. Jean-Pierre?"
"I'm satisfied!"
"How about the patient?"
"Do we have any bourbon?"
âThe medical follow-up for the head of state has until this moment confirmed that his state of health requires no cause for concern,â the agency said, quoting a medical bulletin released by the presidency.
Something isn't right here; awaiting details.
"Do you concur, M. le Docteur?"
"Why yes, yes I do. I concur."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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CARACAS -- Supporters of President Hugo Chavez vowed yesterday to accelerate Venezuela's shift to a ''new socialism" after claiming victory in elections that were expected to give pro-Chavez politicians all 167 seats in the National Assembly.
Cuz "socialism" has worked so well everywhere it's been tried before
Several of Venezuela's major opposition parties boycotted the vote on Sunday, which had an estimated turnout of 25 percent and is likely to further polarize Venezuelan society.
The country has been deeply divided by the leftist leader's rhetoric, his alliance with the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and his efforts to seize unproductive farms for poor farmers, start state-funded cooperatives, and expand social programs for the poor. ''Silence united Venezuelans," said Gerardo Blyde of Justice First, one of several leading opposition parties that pulled out days before the vote, complaining the voting system could not be trusted.
Official results were still pending yesterday, but internal tallies showed Chavez's party won 114 seats and the remainder went to aligned parties, said Willian Lara, a leader of Chavez's Fifth Republic Movement party. That would give the party the needed two-thirds majority to allow it to amend the constitution. Some lawmakers have said they hope to consider a revision to extend term limits for all offices, including the president.
Especially the president
Current term limits would bar Chavez from running again in 2012 if he is reelected next year.
I won't be holding my breath waiting for those results to come in
Pedro Lander, a newly elected congressman, said yesterday the new National Assembly will aim to ''deepen the revolutionary process more and more." Sunday's election left anti-Chavez parties, some of which long dominated Venezuelan politics, without representation in the run-up to presidential elections in December 2006.
Chavez has accused the opposition of plotting the boycott with US help as part of a larger plot to ''destabilize" the country. Both Washington and the opposition have denied the accusations. The turnout -- lower than in 1998 and 2000 congressional votes -- came despite a government effort to get Venezuelans to the polls. The results pointed to a loss for both camps, said Steve Ellner, a professor of political science at Venezuela's University of the East. He said the opposition's decision to withdraw has left it open to suspicions about its motives at a time when it was faring poorly in public opinion polls.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/06/2005 09:28 ||
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#1
Meet the new socialism, same as the old socialism.
Relatives of men killed in an assault on police in the Caucasus city of Nalchik said in a letter Monday that the violence had been rooted in official repression of Muslims, and accused authorities of beating and torturing the suspects.
At least 139 people died in the brazen daytime assault Oct. 13 on law enforcement offices in Nalchik, the provincial capital of the republic of Kabardino-Balkariya, including the 94 accused attackers, according to official tallies.
Relatives of the men killed during the fighting said the attack had been provoked by relentless official repression of innocent Muslim believers in the region, which is near Chechnya.
âOur sons didnât turn their weapons against the people, they only responded to police violence against them,â said the letter, signed by 62 people and released by the Moscow-based For Human Rights group.
Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev, the purported author of modern Russiaâs deadliest terror attacks, has claimed he was behind the Oct. 13 assault. Basayev said the attacks were carried out by local militants affiliated with the Chechen rebels.
The letter accused local authorities of allowing Basayev and other rebels to freely move across the region. âArenât there traffic police checkpoints on every step?â it said.
The relatives warned that it would be impossible to restore stability in the region without protecting Muslimsâ rights, ending repression and conducting a fair investigation into the Oct. 13 attack.
Their letter said several people were found dead after they were questioned by police after the assault, and that many other suspects were beaten and tortured.
âItâs a genocide of our people, the destruction of Muslims,â the letter said. Officials said they had checked 2,000 people for being involved in the attack and arrested 50.
One of those arrested was Rasul Kudayev, a former prisoner of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. Kudayevâs relatives complained he was severely beaten to extract confessions, and his lawyer told Human Rights Watch that he could not walk without assistance when she saw him in late October.
âAll confessions made by my client and other defendants have been extracted under torture,â said Kudayevâs lawyer, Inna Komissarova, who was later barred by authorities from defending Kudayev.
Another defense lawyer, Larisa Dorogova, also banned from defending suspects, said that officials had launched a rampant campaign to intimidate people in the region.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/06/2005 03:23 ||
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"...said in a letter Monday that the violence had been rooted in official repression of Muslims..."
then goes on to say:
"...local authorities of allowing Basayev and other rebels to freely move across the region..."
Former President Kim Dae-jung yesterday called on the two Koreas to prepare for the first stage of reunification as the next step after resolving the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programs. Kim said the two Koreas should try to find common ground between their respective proposals for state reform on the road toward eventual reunification. His remarks came amid growing speculation that Seoul is preparing for a second inter-Korean summit and that Kim is being considered as the South's special envoy to Pyongyang to break the impasse in inter-Korean ties.
During his recent visit to the North, Shin Ki-nam, lawmaker of Uri Party and the chairman of intelligence committee at the National Assembly, felt the North's "welcoming atmosphere" towards the next round of South-North Korean summit talks. Shin visited the North from Nov. 30 for three day and met the North's No.2 man Kim Young-nam and Rhee Jong-hyuk, vice chairman of North's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.
"I felt that (the North) was willing to develop the South-North relations more and was trying to overcome many difficulties," Shin said. "I could see the North's efforts and willingness to break through various difficulties like the North's nuclear issue and six-party talks."
Local media has speculated that Kim may visit the North again in the coming spring to fulfill the North's offer, which was delivered by Kim Ki-nam, North's high-ranking official, when he came to Seoul in August for the joint festival to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule.
During the forum, Kim, the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, stressed that there must be a normalization of relations between the United States and North Korea before anything else can shape the future of inter-Korean relations. He pointed out that the biggest difficulty for the normalization of relations is the North's nuclear ambitions, and that it should be resolved through the six-nation talks. He said the South does not have the ability to take on the burden of the "broken-down economy" of the North.
"Whether it may take 10 years or 20, a stable process of unification must be pursued based on the principles of the Sunshine Policy of peaceful coexistence, peaceful exchange and peaceful unification," he said.
#1
"the South does not have the ability to take on the burden of [fixing] the 'broken-down' economy of the North" - you know the Commies and Lefties, they have no use for us except for us to support and take care of everything of them, at our unilateral unconditional and undeniable costs and time, "for the sake and name of peace", and while we help them protect and promote their right to destroy us later at their discretion - you know, UNIVERSAL EQUALISM, RIGHTS OF THE MASSES, AND DEMOCRACY = DESPOTISM/WARLORDISM!?
Washington, 6 Dec. (AKI) - The CIA misled Italian anti-terrorism police over the whereabouts of a radical Islamic cleric who had disappeared from Milan a month earlier, according to Italian court documents and interviews with investigators. The Washington Post reports that the urgent message from the CIA in March 2003, saying they had reliable information that Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr - also known as Abu Omar - had fled for the Balkans, set back Italian efforts to track him down by a year.
Italian prosecutors say Omar was kidnapped from a Milan street on 17 February 2003 by a group of CIA operatives, who took him to the Aviano US military base in northern Italy, then flew him to the Ramstein base in Germany before flying him on to the high security Tora prison in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. A year later, after being released but placed under house arrest, Omar told his wife and a fellow Egyptian exile in Milan, Mohammad Reda, in phone calls tapped by the Italian police, that he had been subjected to freezing temperatures and electric shocks which left him partially paralysed. He also warned Reda that he and two others were also on the Egyptian government's list of kidnapping targets. Shortly afterwards he was thrown back in prison because of the calls he had made to Italy.
Omar had been under surveillance by Italian police for two years, suspected of having links with terrorist groups and recruiting young people to be used as martyrs in Iraq. His disappearance damaged a major investigation, says Armando Spataro, the leading prosecutor in Milan, because Omar represented a valuable window onto the Islamic underground world. "If Abu Omar had not been kidnapped, he would now be in prison, subject to a regular trial, and we would have probably identified his other accomplices," Spataro said.
In June this year, Italian prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 22 CIA operatives over the kidnapping. It is the first time a foreign government has filed criminal charges against US operatives over their role in a counter-terrorism operation. Last month they signed papers compelling the US to extradite the alleged CIA agents, but Italian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli has still not approved the request, even though this is usually a formality.
Italian prosecutors now believe the kidnap operation was coordinated by the CIA station chief in Rome and organised by officials attached to the US Embassy. Prosecutors say they have no hard evidence that Egyptian or Italian officials were involved in the operation, though Omar claimed two of the men who seized him spoke "perfect Italian". Shortly after the arrest warrants were issued, the Italian government denied any knowledge of the abduction, but current and former US intelligence officials say the CIA informed its Italian counterparts beforehand.
On Tuesday, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted a former CIA officer it referred to only as Mike, as saying the Italian authorities will have been well aware of the abduction, as it was a "bilateral operation".
Italian police tracked down the operatives involved through the signals sent out by their mobile phones, allowing them to pinpoint the agents' movements on a minute-by-minute basis. Several of the phones were said to be the service phones of US diplomatic staff in Rome, and were used to place calls to the US consulate in Milan and a number in Virginia (the US state where the CIA headquarters are located). "Whoever carried out this raid obviously didn't think they were doing anything clandestine, because there is always some kind of relationship with the state where the action is being taken," the former CIA officer observed.
The head of the CIA's substation in Milan, Robert Seldon Lady, is one of the operatives identified as being involved in the operation. Italian investigators found a photograph of Abu Omar on his computer, taken on the street he was seized from 33 days before he disappeared. His wife had deleted all the files on his computer, but on rebuilding the hard drive, police are reported to have found evidence that he had run searches for the shortest route from the Milan street where Omar was kidnapped to Aviano. A list of the luxurious hotels in Milan the agents accused of being involved in the kidnapping stayed in was found in the rubbish bin in his garage.
Evidence was also uncovered indicating that Lady was in Cairo during the two weeks when Omar is said to have suffered the most violent interrogation. Investigators tracked down two airplane tickets showing that he flew to Cairo from Zurich on 24 February 2003, and returned to Italy on 7 March.
Lady, who has since retired from the CIA, has hired an Italian lawyer to get the charges against him thrown out. His lawyer filed a motion saying his actions had "explicit, or at least implicit authorisation from the Italian government," and arguing that the evidence seized from his home was obtained illegally. However, last week, in a written opinion upholding the arrest warrant, Italian judge Enrico Manzi dismissed her claim of lack of proof against Lady, saying the evidence taken from his home "removes any doubt about his participation in the preparatory phase of the abduction."
Posted by: Steve ||
12/06/2005 10:57 ||
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#1
My opinion is that this is part of Berlusconi's reelection campaign propaganda...
Russiaâs foreign minister urged the United States on Monday to take steps to arrest what he said was its declining relationship with Moscow, Reuters reported. We should stop selling air defence systems to the MM?
âWe can come to the conclusion that in the whole complex of our (foreign) relations the weight of existing military and strategic links between Russia and the United States ... will be constantly declining,â Sergei Lavrov said. 's okay with me. We knew you were on the other side any way. Nice to have it in the open. Back to the good old days.
âOf course we will never separate. But drifting away from each other could have irreversible consequences,â he said in his traditional end-of-the-year review published on the ministry web site. Go have a shot of vodka.
He did not specify what exactly was pushing Moscow and Washington apart and said the two countries did appear to have become used to the idea that they had honest differences. A mutual interest in combating terrorism has seen an increasingly warm relationship between U.S. President George W. Bush and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. But Washingtonâs growing influence in regions once under Moscowâs domain and disagreements over several international issues â notably Iranâs nuclear ambitions â have started to tear at the closer ties between the former Cold War enemies.
Lavrov suggested that it was up to the United States to show more commitment to a balanced relationship with Russia. âRussia is ready for team play based on equality, true partnership and mutual respect,â he said. âCooperation should be based on agreed and transparent grounds. What they always wanted and only got from Carter in the Cold War. Till they invaded Afghanistan. Then they found out hell hath no fury...
âWe need a more decisive shift towards partnership in issues concerning the whole spectrum of threats, first and foremost the terrorist threat, and in the sphere of helping our people flourish.â Agreed. When do you plan to clean up your act in Chechnia?
Lavrov urged more cooperation in reforming the United Nations and a speedy conclusion of talks with the United States on Russia joining the World Trade Organization. Russiaâs biggest concern in its relations with the United States and the European Union is U.S. and EU support for peaceful pro-Western revolutions in ex-Soviet states. Tough. You lost the war, remember? Or do we need to teach you that lesson again? Scratch the WTO after all.
Such revolutions have changed governments in Georgia and Ukraine and authoritarian Belarus has been tipped as next. Russia is also concerned about Western pressure on its Central Asian ally Uzbekistan over its violent crackdown on protests in the town of Andijan in May, in which more than 500 people were killed by troops according to witnesses.
Lavrov said that Russia was generally opposed to attempts to export Western-style democracy to ex-Soviet states. And whining is what they plan to do about it. And selling weapons to those regimes the frogs turn down. A winning strategy again.
âWe are convinced that democratic ideals in each country should be realized taking into account history, tradition, level of social and economic development, and proximity to Moscowâ he said. âAny artificial boost to natural social processes leads to destabilization rather than helping democracy.â Democracy is organized destabilisation.
#2
IOW, the Amerikans are beginning to realize 9-11 and Radical Islmaists is actually about SAVING AND EMPOWERING ANTI-AMERICAN EURASIAN COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM. "Natural social processes" > means Cpmmunists-for-Fascism-for-Communism Russia and Russianism/Asianism still desires to dominate the world. Unfortunately for us Americans, the "good old days" of the bipolar Cold War is what post-1989/1991 Russia and the anti-Amer agendists seek to avoid, by any means necessary, by anti-USA global nuke war if need be NLT 2020.
The Belgian security service VS is currently working with the prisons directorate to combat the radicalisation of Muslims in the nation's jails.
VS director Koen Dassen said there is no doubt that prisons are a hotbed for radicalisation, having repeatedly pointed to examples in the Guantanamo Bay prison.
"Jails form a very concentrated environment where extremists come into contact with each other. Moreover, the punishing effect of prisons means some detainees reject society even further," Dassen said.
He said over a period of time this could lead to the radicalisation of prisoners such as in Guantanamo Bay, newspaper 'De Morgen' reported on Monday.
However, Dassen refused to reveal definite details about the anti-radicalisation plan. Instead, he said justice authorities will finalise the plan later this month so that it can be implemented at the start of 2006.
"We must first detect dangerous elements and then draw up action programmes together with the prisons," he said.
An example of prison radicalisation is the convicted killer of Theo van Gogh, the Islamic extremist Mohammed B., who is currently being detained in a Dutch jail.
B. recently succeeded in sending extremist documents out of the prison and has twice been caught for spreading subversive material. His attacks on moderate Islam were sent to Muslims in Amsterdam who further spread the text among the Islamic community.
In Belgium, the case of the convicted Tunisian terrorist Nizar Trabelsi has sparked the concerns of security services. He has achieved cult status among prisoners at the Lantin jail.
However, Dassen has refused to confirm whether the crackdown will allow exceptional search operations. Other sources have said the security service VS can only tap telephone calls to combat radicalism is prisons.
However, proposed amendments by Justice Minister Laurette Onkelinx granting police and justice authorities extra powers have already come under fire.
Criminal law professor Damien Vandermeersch has warned the minister's plans undermine constitutional rights, such as the right to defending oneself in court.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/06/2005 03:27 ||
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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, facing a potential new rift in transatlantic relations, warned European leaders Monday that objections to the U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects overseas could damage efforts to protect their own citizens from terrorist attacks.
Rice embarked on a trip to Europe amid a monthlong furor over alleged secret CIA prisons there and widening suspicions by European leaders and citizens alike that U.S. agencies have adopted brutal tactics in dealing with terrorism suspects.
But in response to a call for clarification from European leaders, Rice was unyielding Monday. She declared that the United States does not torture prisoners or hand them over to governments that do, but she refused to confirm or deny that the U.S. government maintains secret prisons around the world â called "black sites" by critics â to detain terrorism suspects, a chief concern of many of the Europeans.
Rice also staunchly defended the U.S. practice of "rendition" â sending suspects to another country for interrogation, often after arresting them on the streets of a foreign country outside local law.
She said that when U.S. and European officials cooperate in the "two-way street" of counter-terrorism, "we share intelligence that has helped protect European countries from attack, helping save European lives."
It was the most detailed U.S. response to growing world concern and anger over American treatment of detainees that has been fueled by abuses at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, questions about the detention center at the American naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and allegations of abuses elsewhere. But most critics and human rights organizations were unconvinced, citing Rice's statements as evidence of questionable U.S. policies.
Rice's comments came at the start of a five-day trip on which she is likely to be questioned repeatedly by European officials about reports that the CIA has been flying terrorism suspects to eight alleged secret prison sites for questioning. Several European governments, under public pressure to learn whether the United States is violating European sovereignty or human rights standards, are investigating the reports.
Diplomatically, U.S. officials and their European allies are eager to avoid another collision like the one that grew from bitter differences over the U.S.-led Iraq invasion in 2003. But it is unclear whether the Bush administration is willing to share information the Europeans are seeking on sensitive intelligence issues, even in private meetings in coming days. At least publicly, Rice said further details were not going to be divulged, especially on the question of the secret prisons.
"Whether or not we engage in certain activities is a matter of classification because they're intelligence activities, so it wouldn't matter what the answer is; I wouldn't comment," Rice told reporters after her morning remarks.
Some European officials have warned that cooperation on a range of issues could be set back if the issue is not resolved. Among European allies, the U.S. government needs cooperation on several security-related issues, such as counter-terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation and the Middle East peace process.
Most Europeans believe the Bush administration has mistreated prisoners, a view that may have been reinforced by White House threats in recent weeks to veto legislation that would ban torture.
Although Rice did not confirm that the CIA has set up secret sites for interrogating prisoners, as the American and European press have reported for the last month, her words left no doubt that the United States sometimes shuttles suspects between countries as they undergo interrogation.
She contended that dangerous and "effectively stateless" terrorists have made traditional criminal or military justice outmoded.
"The captured terrorists of the 21st century do not fit easily into traditional systems of criminal or military justice, which were designed for different needs," Rice said. "We have to adapt."
Critics have accused the United States of using rendition to hand over suspects to countries where harsh treatment is acceptable.
But Rice contended that rendition is warranted where countries can't detain or prosecute suspects or carry out traditional extraditions because of local laws.
"Renditions take terrorists out of action, and save lives," she asserted. She did not name a specific instance in which an incident was disrupted through rendition.
Rice said that France used rendition 10 years ago to take a terrorist called "Carlos the Jackal" out of Sudan to France for trial and imprisonment.
She added that it was up to other governments to decide if they wanted to work with the United States.
She said public debate abroad was healthy, but that she hoped it "also includes a healthy regard for the responsibilities of governments to protect their citizens."
The Sept. 11 attacks have spurred a tougher U.S. posture, Rice acknowledged. "I know what it is like to face an inquiry into whether everything was done that could have been done," she said. "So now, before the next attack, we should all consider the hard choices that democratic governments must face."
Later, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters that "what you heard in public is largely what we'll be saying in private" this week when Rice gives formal replies to European inquiries.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw issued a statement of support for Rice, pointing to her comments that the United States would not breach American laws against torture, and that U.S. policies were built upon the need to fight terrorism.
"All of us work together â within the rule of law â to use every tool at our disposal to deal with the threat of terrorism," Straw said in his statement.
But former Irish President Mary Robinson told Irish broadcaster RTE that the Bush administration remains "ambivalent about what constitutes torture" and has not disclosed whether it is shipping suspects through Ireland.
Other European diplomats have also said in recent days that U.S. officials are not disclosing whether they have transported suspects through their airspace.
Amnesty International, a critic of U.S. detention policies, released records Monday on more than 800 flights in or out of airspace in European countries between 2001 and 2005, counting takeoffs and landings. The flights were by planes believed to be owned by firms affiliated with the CIA or aircraft reportedly used by the CIA.
"Secretary Rice is either misinformed or is part of an ongoing, orchestrated effort by the administration to mislead the American people and the world community," said William Schultz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.
Also Monday, ABC News reported that 11 Al Qaeda suspects held at secret CIA prisons in Europe were transferred because the locations where they had been held were shut down in the wake of media reports investigating the existence of such sites.
In Germany, where Rice landed Monday evening, new Chancellor Angela Merkel is under increasing pressure from her fragile coalition government to get explanations from Rice about alleged CIA flights that stopped in Germany in recent years. The German government Monday confirmed reports that planes suspected of belonging to the CIA made more than 430 overflights or stopovers at U.S. military bases in Germany, including Ramstein Air Base.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/06/2005 03:14 ||
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#1
This all shows how disingenous tha advocates of the "law enforcement" model are.
First, we must only use legalistic means to combat the terrs rather than military ones.
Yet using legalistic means would seem to require renditions and yes, "black" imprisonment for security purposes.
Furthermore, there's the need to minimize the terrs' inclination to take hostages to force release of specific suspects.(After all, they won't always know who we're holding vs. who we've killed.)
Yet, these methods are presented as something sinister as well.
Obviously, what our critics really want from us is nothing more than occasional fuming anti-terr rhetoric and a doormat stance.
#2
Condi ought not coddle the brain-addled burka-baits.
She just needs to put on those boots and give those folks a quick kick in the behind...
The German government Monday confirmed reports that planes suspected of belonging to the CIA made more than 430 overflights or stopovers at U.S. military bases in Germany, including Ramstein Air Base.
Alot more snooty now that the Soviet Red Army isn't occupying 1/3 of your country with tank artillery directed at your pointy little heads, eh?
DUBLIN - CIA aircraft landed at Shannon airport in the southwest of Ireland on 38 occasions in recent years, Irish state radio said on Monday, quoting government data.
Of course, they may have been carrying CIA personnel, freight, pets, or Fred's hardware firewall. But continue ...
RTE said it had received the data about the flights from the government under freedom of information laws.
Shannon, the first airport across the North Atlantic from the United State, is an increasingly important re-fuelling stop for US military planes. Some 268,963 US military personnel passed through Shannon airport in 2005 up to the end of October, compared to 158,549 in the whole of 2004.
There is mounting concern in all the correct liberal and Y'urp-peon circles over reports the CIA ran secret prisons in Eastern Europe and used European airports for clandestine transport flights when transferring terror suspects in a process known as ârenditionâ.
Former Irish president Mary Robinson said more information was needed. âThe words chosen by Secretary of State Rice appear to be extremely carefully framed,â she said.
Well duh, she's the secretary of STATE fer cryin' out loud.
âWhat now constitutes torture in the US? Thatâs a big problem, especially when the acts are carried out outside the US,â Robinson told RTE. âThere are two standards. One is torture within the US, the other is what constitutes torture outside the US.
Niether of which is your concern, frankly, Mary ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Someone help me out here.
Why can't the CIA do stuff in secret? That's s'posed to be their job?
#3
Probably, most of the flights are whiskey runs. My dad, a Navy Flight Surgeon stationed in England in the '50's, made many such whiskey runs to Shannon whilst flying for proficiency (read: collect his flight pay) in a Navy SNB (twin Beech).
#6
Who has to answer the mail and gets their arsss kicked about "secret prisons," it ain't the Klingons. They sit back and laugh while Condi does damage control. Something ain't right.
#7
Thanks all. It's been about 3 months since my last writings. I'm still in TQ doing my thing. It has actually been fairly quiet here. I've come to realize a few things since I've been here so here's a lengthy list for lost time:
1) The media truly focuses on the negative. For instance, we find hundreds of IED's and disarm, destroy, or neutralize them on a daily basis all across Iraq. That almost never gets reported. However, the one that goes off or kills someone gets played ad nauseum. It amazes me how easy the nightly news compounds the bad events as if we were losing the war. Everytime I call home I have to dispell rumors and bullshit precipitated by some ass hole journalist. Yes, mistakes are made as w/any human endeavor. It's not a video game or some silly ass hollywood movie. I hate the zero defects mentality the arm chair quaterbacks back home take on. No matter how much you train and try to do the right thing, shit still happens. No one realizes that for all the hundreds of convoys we run on a daily basis in theater so few bad things actually do happen - it's amazing. If you look at the statistics we're doing real well.
2) I've been here 3 months. I have not seen one MSM reporter. Minus the one from Argentina a month back that I think flew here on accident.
3) We go so far out of our way not to hurt innocent people it goes beyond practicality. I'd like to punch a lot of these human rights pussies in the face who say we don't do enough or don't care about the locals....Idiots. Our ROE is clear. No, I personally could give a fuck about the locals - I don't like their culture and I don't like their society, but, I don't want to hurt anyone's kid or parent on accident. No military folks do. We all have families, we're all human beings. On the same token though, if some 12 yr old points a rifle at me or one of my Marines I will clip them w/out hesitation.
4) Everyone here is behind the mission. We want to do our job and then go home. Pretty common theme. Though I will tell you, close to 10% of my unit wants to stay another 6 months. My take is that we'll be down to company sized elements in 5 yrs out here.
5) This is not Viet Nam, not even close. Heck, not even the same sport. We held a successful Referendum and are getting ready to handle a permanent election. They wrote a constitution and there is no Ho Chi Minh like figures here. The comparisons don't wash no matter how much some fat drunken politicians would like to wax ecstatic about it. BTW, its a matter of time before that socio-path Zarqawi gets clipped, if he hasn't already.
6) Someone put on a VDH article ("Moral War") on the 'burg yesterday. You nailed it. That guy has a command of history and practicality wrt current events most so called elites will never grasp. I love his gig and I'd like to shake VDH's hand just for that article.
7) Most westerners don't understand the tribal nature of the mid-east. We do need to do that better next time around. We also made mistakes in firing all the Iraqi officers and NCO's from the old Army. Patton had the same problem in Bavaria when he was the governor general after WWII. For a lot of people (most westerners can't grasp this) being a Ba'athist was like being a republican or democrat. Not all Ba'athists were blood thirsty baby killers though many should be tried, jailed, or executed for their actions. Some took on that title just so Saddam would leave them and their families alone. I call it a 'lesson learned' out here in reality.
8) War sucks but unfortunately this one was necessary. Hussein needed to be deposed (for violating the UN resolution written in the blood of 299 Americans 17 times over 12 years was enough for me) and we couldn't just leave the place in a vacuum. Cause meet effect.
Re-building this place is hard, dirty, and gritty work. It's not pretty, clean, or easy. I'm not a huge GWB fan but at least he stated that up front and has the grapefruits to stay the course. I'm sick of people taking weak pot shots at the prez, he's got bigger balls then clinton, kerry, & carter combined. Yes, I disagree w/him on immigration and the environment but I think he sees the big picture down the long hiway of Iraq. I don't want my kid here in 20 yrs un-fucking this place when we can do it now. (He can go kill North Koreans if he has to.) Look at Japan/Germany in 1945. Fast forward 60 years and look at our trading partners. I believe Iraq could be a similar success. However, I'm not sure if the average instant gratification 3 second attention span dufus back home thinks about posterity and that 2,100 dead now (though tragic) may stop ten times that many from being killed 20 yrs from now.
9) Fuck Cindy Sheehan. We're all volunteers lady, quit using your son's death for your lame political pulpit. He lived and died a warrior, have the decency to honor him as such. I know she's grieving and I pray for for her soul. I can't imagine losing my little boy but she disrepects his free choice to live like he wanted to w/her charades. I'd come back from the grave and choke the dog shit out of my folks if they pulled that shit.
I could go on all day but you get the drift. Anyways, I'll try to write back again in the next couple months. Hopefully you got something out of my ranting & I didn't insult your intel's too bad. Bottomline, your Marines here are in pretty high spirits and we're fighting the good fight, I'm so proud of my lads here I can't begin to say. Take care and have a great Christmas!
#8
Why can't the CIA do stuff in secret? That's s'posed to be their job?
There's a Republican in the White House. The CIA cannot stand that.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
12/06/2005 8:51 Comments ||
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#9
Whiskey, beer, and fun loving red headed Irish women. Why not stop there? Especially if you're going to the land of Burkas.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/06/2005 13:25 Comments ||
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#10
Mrs. Robinson will be singing a different tune if they force us out, and the Islamofuks take over forcing her to wear a burka and stay inside her house or be shot.
MSM fubars the story on this end too. Our families, friends and the gen public support our men and women in the services. Even on the left coast, I run into patriots every day, at the post office i run into strangers mailing APO goodie packs all the time etc.
thanks again
Posted by: Red Dog ||
12/06/2005 14:21 Comments ||
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In accusations about American troops reminiscent of what the young John Kerry said to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, the senator and 2004 Democratic presidential nominee told CBS "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer there was no reason for U.S. soldiers to continue "terrorizing" Iraqi children.
"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the â of â the historical customs, religious customs," Kerry said Sunday. "Whether you like it or not ... Iraqis should be doing that."
Kerry called for a withdrawal of 20,000 troops following the Iraqi elections and a shift of activity to Special Forces troops and Iraqi military personnel. The senator from Massachusetts also said if he had it to do over again, he would no longer vote to authorize war in Iraq, accusing the administration of exaggerating the evidence for invasion. He voted for the invasion before he voted against it.
"What I'm saying today is that this administration hyped the evidence, took every opportunity to go down a course that they wanted to go down, and that they did not judiciously parse or share with the Congress doubts that their own intelligence agencies had which they saw and we did not, and that means they misled us and misled the nation," he said.
#1
Kerry has no business talking about U.S. soldiers, or anybody elses soldiers. Anyone who admits, and is evidently proud of the fact he dispatched a wounded enemy combatant with a .45 is total kak. He wouldn't make a pimple on the ass of the lowest ranker who ever served.
#2
Nothin' says PRESIDENCY, or CO-PRESIDENCY [VPOTUS Hillary] than empowering, and surviving, any "American Hiroshimas", espec nuke casualty-intens 9-11's aimed at taking out Dubya & Co., the GOP and the GOP Congress. LIMITED NUKE WAR OVERSEAS vv IRAN-KOREAS-TAIWAN, etc. just wets the Clintons' Commie Power lips more.
#3
Besoeker, that's pap ("anyone who admits and is evidently proud"). Remember the wounded could-have-been-a-bomber who a Marine dispatched in Fallujah?
Here's something that's more accurate about Kerry's problem -- he said that, "Iraqis should be" "going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the â of â the historical customs, religious customs."
(A stitch-together of the actual quote.)
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
12/06/2005 21:45 Comments ||
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Via Drudgereport.com; url may chg as develops
Statement by Kerry spokesman David Wade: 'Ken Mehlmanâs filthy and shameful lie about a decorated combat veteran is disgraceful. Political hack Ken Mehlman and draft dodging, donut eating Rush Limbaugh have something in common. Neither of them know anything about how to make American troops safe. John Kerry will continue to speak out about how to succeed in Iraq and protect brave American troops'...
sounds like it may have struck home....no word if Terayza will let Lurch speak on his own
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2005 20:05 ||
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Well, perhaps he can advance his career by running for President ... of France.
Anti-war activists furious with Sen. Hillary Clinton are vowing to bird-dog her everywhere she goes, starting with a swanky Manhattan fund-raiser tonight. Clinton's letter last week clarifying her position on Iraq - which included rejecting a timetable for withdrawal - fanned the anger of some war opponents, who decided to launch a campaign against New York's junior senator.
"We're calling it Bird-Dog Hillary," said Medea Benjamin of the peace group Codepink.
"I'm so mad at her," said Nancy Kricorian, Codepink's New York City coordinator. "We will dog her wherever she goes. Woof." Kricorian's group and several others plan to show up tonight at Crobar in Manhattan, where former President Bill Clinton is the top draw at a fund-raiser for his wife. The idea is to have protesters tail the senator around the state and the country in hopes of persuading her to oppose the war. Protesters from the group interrupted a Clinton speech Saturday in Chicago and an unrelated group demonstrated at her appearance Friday at a Democratic fund-raiser in Kentucky. Codepink is also organizing a bigger rally for Dec. 20, when Clinton heads to San Francisco for a bar association benefit and an interview session with Jane Pauley. Although she criticized President Bush's handling of the war in her letter, her no-timetable stance particularly peeved the activists.
"Anti-war" activists have abnormally high levels of peevishness. It must be a glandular thing.
"Stop waffling, and let's work on bringing the troops home," said Bill Dobbs of United for Peace. Dobbs and Benjamin predicted Clinton or any Democrat would lose a White House bid in 2008 if they run on a pro-war platform. Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said Clinton has little to fear from anti-war activists, as long as she looks deliberative. "The right wing and the left wing both want to move her to the left. She can't let them do that," Sheinkopf said.
With an attitude like that, Mr. Sheinkopf won't be a Dem consultant much longer. The Deaniacs will drive him out. He's making way too much sense.
Clinton's office stood by her letter yesterday. "In her letter, Senator Clinton laid out a thoughtful explanation to her constituents of her position on Iraq," said spokesman Philippe Reines.
#2
Dobbs and Benjamin predicted Clinton or any Democrat would lose a White House bid in 2008 if they run on a pro-war platform.
Or if they run on an anti-war platform. The democrats ought to have had a pretty good shot at the WH in 2008. It's not like W will have the kind of coat tails RR gave his dad. But the insanity of Dean and what one can imagine coming out of the 2007 primaries is going to turn the country off to whomever the donks nominate. And it's not like the Murtha's will leave and sane youngers will rescue the party from them. They are looking more and more like the Whigs all the time.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/06/2005 10:11 Comments ||
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#4
Or by 2008, W's coat tails could be monumental.
I think we are finally starting to see the President fighting back, perhaps he has finally realized he simply can't make the left like him and this is his last term. If the trend of the past few weeks continues, by the time 2008 gets here the conservatives will be totally fired up.
Posted by: Evil Elvis ||
12/06/2005 12:32 Comments ||
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#6
Much as I hate to say it about Hilly, if you've got Medea Benjamin pissed at you, you're doing something right. That broad's a big-time commie propagandist from way back. She never met a socialist utopia she didn't like.
#9
I'm not surprised that's where their skulls would be.
Posted by: W. Jefferson Clinton ||
12/06/2005 15:51 Comments ||
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#10
thing is, IMHO, if Hildabeast thought she could still win, she'd be right there with the Code Pinkos. She's feinting to the center only because her Macchiavellian assessment tells her she has to - it's all a charade
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2005 15:56 Comments ||
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#11
"That broad's a big-time commie propagandist from way back. She never met a socialist utopia she didn't like."
Which one? The only difference between Hillary Clinton and Medea Benjamin is that one is a clever, conniving, patient commie bitch and the other is a stupid, impulsive, clueless commie bitch.
But they're both commie bitches.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
12/06/2005 16:06 Comments ||
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#12
thing is, IMHO, if Hildabeast thought she could still win, she'd be right there with the Code Pinkos. She's feinting to the center only because her Macchiavellian assessment tells her she has to - it's all a charade
Exactal. She has a well tuned political ear and good pollsters.
#19
Bill Clinton's own comments and wafflins has effectively destroyed any legacy and credibility, or claims thereof, Hillary andor the Dems can get from Darth Stainious, and hiding between nation-wide MSM-spreadt "Hillary = Good Girl = All Men are Bad ergo elect Hillary" isn't doing it for her. Neither will her fellow Lefties attacking her. Hillary and the Dems have nothing for 2006 and 2008 save the MSM, AND NEW 9-11's, i.e. [GOP-blamed] AMERICAN HIROSHIMAS, where Hillary and the Dems will rule because they "survived" and had "warned" America about the consequences of Dubya's and America's "Fascist Socialist" policies, NOT TO BE COMPARED TO PEACE-LOVING, DO-DID-NUTHING, "WE TOLD YOU SO" INNOCENT GOP-BULLIED ANTI-COMMUNIST COMMUNIST SOCIALISM, the "Other" Repub Fascist Rightist Conservative Nationalist anti-Socialist, etc. Socialism. REST ASSURED ITS YOUR FAULT AND ONLY YOURS YOU DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY REALLY MEANT WHEN THEY LIED TO YOU, AND JUST BECAUSE AMERICA IS A REPRESENTATIVE AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY DOESN'T MEAN ITS THE JOB OF THE WAFFLIN, DIALECTIC, POLICRATIC, POLITICALLY CORRECT/DENIABLE, HYPERCORRECT/DENIABLE, GOVERNMENTIST POL JOB TO TELL YOU WHAT THEY MEAN, OR THAT ITS YOUR FAULT, OR THAT YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS!? Its NOT the Dems or Pols fault no law exists in America that prevents them from telling the people or the voters the truth of anything.
WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain said he won't compromise on his proposed ban on the use of torture on prisoners. He's insisting on his language that no person in U.S. custody should be subject to "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment." McCain said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he's met several times with the president's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, on the issue.
While he won't compromise on the torture language, McCain said he and Hadley are in discussions "about other aspects of this to try to get an agreement." He didn't elaborate.
#1
Keating Five McCain takes the moral high road (to massive crotchsniffing from the MSM newshounds.....)
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2005 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
McCain is still carrying baggage from Viet Nam POW days.
He caved to torture and has never recovered his sense of self respect.
(Note how McCain burst out in anger at Jeff Sessions when he dared to
question a soldier's testimony about a single alleged incident of torture.
How dare an anyone question an individual soldier's legitimacy!)
He admits in his own book that torture was successful on him.
Now John McCain has gone to bed with the high minded elites
of the LLL, MSM and the EU who believe they are high priests
of ethics, virtue and morality and are the sole protectors of the ignorant people.
The net result of their tortured thinking is that the professional soldier
is not an independent, noble individual capable of acting responsibly on his own,
but one who must be hedged in all around by rule and regulation
to the point where the individual ceases to exist.
That is why I love George W Bush my President and Commander in Chief.
Because he believes in you the individual that you can do it alone
and he wants you to be the best and all that you can be independent of him.
He is not going to hold you on a leash.
The good soldier lives to be a good soldier and the bad soldier dies a bad soldier/terrorist.
In the end George understands God is the Judge.
We must show our soldiers and our Commander in chief that we believe in them
and we support them to get the job done.
The hypocrisy is extreme. What the terrorists do is not important.
What is important is to tie the hands of the good soldier
so that in the end evil prevails and in the case of the EU that America loses.
Because the real evil is not the terrorist, but evil America herself,
that proud and independent nation.
#3
I watched Kerry first and McCain second on TV last Sunday. Kerry was incoherant. McCain, although I don't like his domestic policies and I believe he distorts facts to fit his views of things, was critical of Murtha and Kerry, saying Murtha is blinded by emotion at our soldiers dieing andit brings back harmful memories of Vietnam and he essentially said Kerry doesn't have the backbone to stay in Iraq and win. I really think he knows what would happen if we withdraw too soon and he doesn't want to have wasted all the American and Coalition lives lost so far. Otherwise he can go blow a dead bear.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/06/2005 7:47 Comments ||
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#4
The hypocrisy is extreme.
Well, it IS McCain you're talking about here Kid. Hope I don't have to vote for him in 08.
#5
McCain is still carrying baggage from Viet Nam POW days.
Precisely... Understand what he says in that context. We must do what we must do. Panties on the head isn't torture. McCain's beating at the hands of the VietCommies was...
#6
This is what Bill Scher says about McCain.
In turn, we are better able to see through McCain's shtick: appeal to Dems and independents with candor (like yesterday on Meet The Press, when he chided Paul Wolfowitz for claiming the war would pay for itself with Iraqi oil), and with a few liberal positions such as campaign finance reform, higher fuel efficiency standards and opposition to torture.
But on the biggest issue of them all, the overall direction of our foreign policy, which affects the safety and stability of America and the world, John McCain is as right-wing as they come.
His potential to lure Dems and independents into unwittingly voting for a continuation of our disastrous foreign policy course is what makes him the most dangerous man in America. In 2000, people like me weren't even thinking about foreign policy, and McCain's attacks against Clinton and Gore's "feckless, photo-op foreign policy" were shrugged off. 2008 will be a different story, and we must make sure that all voters know what McCain really has in store for us and the world.
It's becomming ever more clear that the Democratic Party is the Anti-War At All Costs Party. That is the one issue the Liberal Left will never accept.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/06/2005 13:40 Comments ||
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#7
Hey, this is just the intro to the main event - The Unintended Consequences Show!
No "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment." to any person in US custody?
#9
McCain is a great American, a poor Republican, and a terrible conservative. Just another example of the zero tolerance idiocy that is sweeping the nation.
#10
POW as politican/hero are one of the more bizare legacies of Vietnam. I'm trying think of any Pols who made it big by being a POW during WWII? Anyone?
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/06/2005 18:04 Comments ||
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#12
When we just shrugged and gave up the fight for "Term Limits" several years ago when the issue first emerged, we gave up the Country. Now, only the demented, seething with hatred, Leftists can conjur up the gumption to carry on. But Hey, "When you smell that badly, there's no other recourse". Thanks to the MSM, even some of our own kids have turned on us. At 58, I'm healthy, fit and comfortable. I don't need the stress, but anarchy in the U.S. is upon us. I want to get it jump-started so we have the chance save OUR kids before the ultra-elites get eaten by their own. This is tough. I have always been a street-legal responsible man, Dad, husband, vet, DOD senior exec. I'm pissed.
The first witness to testify in the trial of Saddam Hussein gave evidence today of a massacre in an Iraqi village despite a walk-out by the defence team and impassioned tirades from the former Iraqi president.
Ahmed Mohammed Hassan al-Dujaili, a 38-year-old from Dujail, the town where gunmen tried to kill Saddam in 1982, described the killings and his imprisonment afterwards, including the moment he saw a human flesh grinder in an intelligence headquarters in Baghdad.
Over interjections from Saddam, Mr Hassan gave his version of the events surrounding the massacre of 148 people from the Shia village of Dujail in 1982 after an attempt on the former dictator's life.
Saddam and seven of his former deputies are on trial for the massacre. All eight men could face the death penalty if convicted.
Mr Hassan, a former member of the Shia Dawa party, which was behind the assassination attempt, told the court he and his family were seized after the attack on Dujail and interrogated under torture.
Mr Hassan said he was taken to an intelligence base in Baghdad run by Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddamâs half-brother and one of his co-defendants.
"I swear by God, I walked by a room and... saw a grinder with blood coming out of it and human hair underneath," Mr Hassan told the court. As he spoke, Barzan, sitting behind Saddam in the dock, interrupted, shouting: "Itâs a lie!"
"My brother was given electric shocks while my 77-year-old father watched," Mr Hassan continued. "One man was shot in the leg ... Some were crippled because they had arms and legs broken. My brother and I were in the same prison for four years, just a few feet apart, but we would not see each other."
Earlier, Mr Hassan testified to the mass arrests of residents and the murder of his neighbours in 1982, giving names of those who were killed and listing those he recognised from Saddamâs forces in village. He said that the Government forces entered Dujail after the foiled attempt on Saddam's life, opened fire, and imposed a curfew, before intelligence personnel carried out night-time house-to-house searches.
From the dock, an angry Saddam interjected: "Were you there?"
"Yes, of course I was there," shot back the witness, before the judge appealed for calm. "A friend of mine ... was tortured. He was actually killed in front of me and I saw that," Mr al-Dujaili said.
He added: "At 2:30 I heard a knock on the door. Security services came in and I can tell you who was killed and who is still alive. People who were arrested were taken to prison and most of them were killed there.
"They took us with them and they put us inside the car. We were taken to an area full of security services, intelligence services, party officials. The scene was frightening. It was mass detention, mass arrests. Women and men."
Again an angry Saddam shouted into the court room - "You havenât given me pen or paper? How can I write down my ideas and notes?" - before the witness continued with his harrowing account. "I saw corpses and bodies of our neighbours. They were martyred. Some of them, we couldnât even recognise their bodies," he said.
Mr Hassan described seeing Barzan in Dujail on the day of the attack in July 1982, wearing red cowboy boots and blue jeans, and carrying a sniper rifle. He said Saddam was there as well, and related an episode involving a boy of 15.
"Saddam said to him, âDo you know who I am?â" recounted Mr Hassan, adding that when the boy answered "Saddam", the dictator picked up an ashtray and hit him on the head.
The testimony of Mr Hassan, who appeared in full view of the court, although some other witnesses were masked by a screen because of security fears, followed more chaotic scenes at the trial in a heavily-guarded courtroom in Baghdad's Green Zone. So far the court has held just two brief sessions after two adjournments.
This morning Saddamâs defence team stormed out of the court and then returned 90 minutes later to challenge its legitimacy. The walkout was lead by Ramsey Clark, a former US Attorney General who is representing Saddam, and Najeeb al-Nauimi, a former justice minister of Qatar who joined to Saddamâs defence team last month.
The lawyers questioned the legitimacy of the court and demanded better protection. Two lawyers for Saddam's co-defendants have been murdered in recent weeks and a third was shot in an ambush.
At one point, a bearded and neatly suited Saddam interrupted the wrangling to shout: "How is it legitimate when it was set up under the occupation?" The fallen tyrant then bellowed: "Long live Iraq. Long live the Arab nation. Long live Iraq."
Behind him, Barzan called out: "Long live Saddam." He added: "Why donât you just execute us and get this over with?"
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/06/2005 03:28 ||
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Behind him, Barzan called out: "Long live Saddam." He added: "Why donât you just execute us and get this over with?"
Should'a been done when he was comming out of the hole!!
#2
The sooner that worthless piece of kak is executed the better we'll all be. My fear is he'll still be alive in well 5 years from now. Feed him into the tree trimmer immediately.
#3
Beesoker - That would not work, like a dirty bomb, Saddam goo spread about would contaminate the area for 50000 years. Bury him alive in a toxic waste dump. That area is already polluted...
BAGHDAD: Former Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Hamza Al-Zubaidi, who was one of Saddam Hussein's most senior deputies in the early 1990s, died in US detention last week, the US military said on Monday. Zubaidi, on the US military's list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis during the war, died at a US military hospital on December 2, said Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq. The US military issued a statement about the death of an individual on Saturday, but did not refer to Zubaidi by name.
Another successful prayer for sepsis.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Where do you reckon they'll bury him so I can go and crimp one off on his grave.
Posted by: Al Dajjal ||
12/06/2005 6:38 Comments ||
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#2
How many virgins ya get for dying peacefully in a hospital bed of natural causes?
DUBAI: Saudi billionaire Prince Dillweed Alwaleed bin Talal branded on Monday US policies in Iraq a âfiascoâ but said American troops should not pull out any time soon due to the perilous security situation. âClearly, the United States misunderstood the ballgame completely in Iraq... yes, itâs a fiasco,â he told an Arab media forum in Dubai.
Gee, we sure changed things there dramatically, unless you're the kind of guy who likes being fed into a shredding machine ...
âIraq is a very complicated country and I am not sure the policies of the United States are actually good for Iraq.â Alwaleed is a nephew to King Abdullah, a global investor and a prominent figure both inside the kingdom and internationally. But Alwaleed said ending the US occupation of Iraq - a demand of several Arab governments - would not fix the problem. âIn the short term, the United States canât leave at all, it cannot withdraw (troops) for the sake of the Iraqis. It can only do so when Iraq is ready.â
One US mistake in Iraq was allowing hundreds of newspapers and several television stations to be set up, he said.
The nerve of letting non-billionaires speak up.
âRight now, the last thing Iraqis need is so many voices quarrelling through the media. This is not the time for the luxury of having so many TV channels and 200 newspapers, you canât impose US democracy in Iraq,â said Alwaleed, who owns stakes in US media conglomerates such as Time Warner Inc. and News Corp.
We may not be imposing 'US democracy', but we're imposing a lot more democracy than Iraq had before. Wanna see us try it in neighboring countries?
In a newspaper interview published on Monday, Alwaleed said he would not invest in Iraq now due to the chaos gripping the country and advised other entrepreneurs to do the same. âYou donât go and invest when you have civil strife, when you have a country thatâs disintegrating, when you have war and killings,â he told the Saudi daily Arab News. âIraq is dangerous for any investor to go there. Almost every investor who went there lost his shirt. I will only go to stable countries.â
So says the traveling investor. Iraq has plenty of capital -- first, an industrious people, second oil. They'll manage nicely once the insurgents die settle down.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
American troops should not pull out any time soon due to the fact that they are killing all of our homegrown Islamo-fascist goons for us perilous security situation.
#3
Saw a docu(FOX news)on the good things going on in Iraq.One of the items discussed was Iraq's booming stock market.Trading was enthusiastic ,and bullish(if I understand the term).
Just in from Fox
TAMPA, Fla. â A former Florida professor was acquitted on a key charge Tuesday that he helped lead a Palestinian terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel.
In one of the biggest courtroom tests yet of the Patriot Act's expanded search and surveillance powers, the jury acquitted Sami Al-Arian of eight of the 17 counts against him, including a charge of conspiring to maim and murder people overseas.
The jury deadlocked on the others including charges he aided terrorists.
Al-Arian, a former University of South Florida computer engineering professor, wept after the verdicts and his attorney, Linda Moreno hugged him. He will go back to jail until prosecutors decide whether retry him on the deadlocked counts.
Co-defendants Sameeh Hammoudeh and Ghassan Zayed Ballut were acquitted of all charges against them.
Another, Hatem Naji Fariz, was found not guilty of 24 counts and jurors deadlocked on the remaining eight.
#1
Note the mistrial on 8 counts, which means they can retry Sami on those counts (also note that he's still in prison). Not good, but not an unmitigated disaster.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
12/06/2005 17:17 Comments ||
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#2
They'll try him again and he'll be acquited and then it will be a more expensive unmitigated disaster. This is an unmitigated disaster. The law enforcement model has failed.
#5
Cromotch has it right. If your take is that the law enforcement model doesn't work... then why is this really that surprising and shockworthy?
LGF reacted a lot worse to this, with fratricidal remarks between the "sky is falling" types and some of the more sensible guys -- at least one of them a (former?) deputy district attorney.
I'd rather take notice of how many are going down outside of this...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
12/06/2005 21:36 Comments ||
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Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in remarks published Monday that he would support a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear program, the first time an Israeli leader has openly called for military action against the Islamic republic. Netanyahu's comments, made in the heat of a campaign for leadership of the hardline Likud Party, drew criticism from rivals, who accused him of playing politics with the country's security. Israeli leaders have repeatedly identified Iran as the biggest threat to Israel and dismissed Tehran's claim that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. Iran's announcement Monday that it plans to build a second nuclear power plant is likely to heighten the Israeli concerns.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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Hokay then....Dolphins to the surface!
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2005 0:12 Comments ||
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#2
Y'know, I'd bet the Kurds would be rather happy to allow them a refueling stop somewhere around Arbil - it would serve well enough as a midpoint if they entered Northern Syrian airspace from the Med. Got all those bunker busters sorted by now, I'd bet. I can hear the Kurds, surprising CENTCOM to no end with it's new secret air forces, requesting that call sign Black Hat Buster be allowed to conduct operations unimpeded by MNF, heh. Then they would disappear back to their secret bases. Yeah, that's the ticket. Hey, it's not like the Syrians would be stupid enough to get in the way of a massive Israeli strike package with heavy cover both ways - they might decide to make it a two-fer.
Aip Hidayat was a devout Muslim, but showed no signs of fanaticism. He did not force his younger sister to wear a headscarf, chastise friends for skipping prayers or get into fiery debates about the US war in Iraq.
Yet the 21-year-old became the seventh person to carry out a suicide bombing in Indonesia, something many said was inconceivable just a few years ago.
His mother says al-Qaeda-linked terrorists recruited her eldest son as a foot soldier for their "holy war," poisoning his views on Islam so he would take part in triple suicide bombings on Oct. 1 that killed 20 people in Bali.
"They used him," Siti Rokayah, 40, said quietly, sitting on a straw mat in a cramped two-bedroom hut. Photographs of a smiling and carefree Hidayat were scattered before her.
"I hope whoever did this to my son will be arrested and punished," she said.
Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but most people here practice a moderate form of the faith.
Still, militant Islam appears to be gaining a strong foothold, with five deadly attacks targeting Western interests since 2002. More than 240 people have died, many of them Indonesians.
The secular government has responded by launching its first-ever campaign against hardline interpretations of Islam -- something it shied away from doing in the past for fear of being seen as subservient to the US.
"What is happening is that today we arrest 10 people, but the ideology continues and the extremists can recruit 50 more people," Vice President Yusuf Kalla said, calling on Islamic leaders and politicians to help change that.
For emphasis, he showed the Islamic activists' videotaped confessions of Hidayat and the two other Bali bombers, some of them laughing and saying they expected to go to heaven the next day.
"Not just me, but the clerics too were shocked," Kalla said.
The Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network first emerged in the early 1990s with the goal of creating an Islamic state across Southeast Asia. But it has been reinvigorated by US foreign policy in Israel and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In the past the group relied heavily on a handful of Islamic high schools that are committed to jihadist principles. Now the group appears to be turning to people like Hidayat who, at least outwardly, showed no militant tendencies.
"They see themselves as fighting a new world battle. ... They say, we can attack civilians anywhere, just as Americans attack Muslim civilians all over the world," said Nasir Abbas, a key JI operative until his arrest in 2003 on immigration charges.
"Some of these young men don't have a deep knowledge of Islam and can easily be brainwashed into militancy," said Solahudin Wahid, vice chairman of Indonesia's largest Islamic organization Nadhlatul Ulama.
"They are easily tantalized. Now it's our turn to teach them. Islam is not like that. Muslims are not allowed to attack if not attacked themselves," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/06/2005 03:18 ||
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A National Police plan to fingerprint all students of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) across the country as well as their alumni has irritated the head of a major Muslim organization. Northwestern UniversityNadhlatul Ulama (NU)'s East Java chapter head Ali Maschan Moesa said that he was annoyed with the plan as it put Islamic students under suspicion, and presumed they posed a danger to state security. "To tell you the truth, I feel very insulted since all NU members fully support the country's sovereignty," Ali told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
"Humiliated, even. And you wouldn't like me when I'm humiliated."
The plan to collect fingerprints from Islamic students was one a police strategy to anticipate terrorist acts in the nation, which has seen a series of deadly bomb attacks over the past several years committed by militants, some of whom studied in Islamic boarding schools. Vice President Jusuf Kalla has approved the plan saying that the police would merely be collecting data for future use, although there has been speculation that the country's most wanted man, Noordin M. Top, might be hiding in one of the boarding schools.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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"...fingerprint all students of Islamic boarding schools..."
Make it squishy brain prints and we're gettin' somewhere!
A group allied with Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels threatened Monday to force the military and "traitors" from the country's Tamil-dominated northeast if violence continues against the ethnic group there. The statement from the Trincomalee Tamil Peoples Consortium followed a weekend of violence during which a Muslim mob beat two Tamil men to death in the northeastern city of Trincomalee. "The day when paramilitaries and traitors must run away from our land is not very far," the group said in its statement, carried on the rebels' official Web site. "When the anger of the Tamil people at these lowly acts bursts out, we warn that the traitors will be forced to run with the Sri Lankan military from our land." Sri Lankan troops and police stepped up security Monday following a spate of attacks blamed on the Tamil Tigers that killed 12 people over the weekend, a military official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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In August 2004 South African Defense Minister Patrick "Terror" Lekota and his Iranian counterpart, Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, met in Teheran to discuss an expansion of mutual cooperation between the two countries, especially in the domain of defense. Lekota's visit to Iran was the first such visit by a South African defense minister since the Iranian revolution in 1979.
At the conclusion of the meeting the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on bilateral cooperation. Israel's Channel 1 reported that the understanding included an arrangement for South Africa to sell uranium to Iran, a claim rejected by the SA Ministry of Defense. The ministry, however, would not comment on the particulars of the Memorandum of Understanding, nor would it say if Iran had made a request to buy uranium from South Africa.
Professor Hussein Solomon, Director of the Center for International Political Studies at the University of Pretoria, believes that South Africa's nuclear assistance to Iran revolves around three issues: The first is that South Africa intends to create its own civilian nuclear program and, to the extent that Iran is prevented from developing its own ostensibly civilian nuclear program, Pretoria feels that it might negatively impact South Africa's plans. "Personally I think if this is true it is stupid on account of the historical record of Teheran's lies as well as the volatility of the Middle East region vis-a-vis Southern Africa. In addition people who threaten to wipe other countries off the map should not have nuclear weapons," Solomon told The Jerusalem Post in an e-mail exchange from Pretoria.
The second issue is that South Africa may also be interested in resuscitating the old Non-Aligned Movement bloc with players like China, and possibly even Russia and Brazil, to counter perceived US hegemony and unilateralism. Indeed, China and Pakistan have also made overtures to Iran, which point to destabilization and undermining of US positioning in the region.
Finally, Solomon believes that there have been stronger relations developing for some years between the Iranian elite and the ruling African National Congress elite. "This will grow stronger as SA searches for more energy resources," Solomon said.
South Africa has a domestic nuclear energy and research program as well as large natural deposits of uranium. During the apartheid era South Africa had a covert nuclear weapons program that developed at least six nuclear warheads, along with a variety of missiles and other conventional weapons.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/06/2005 11:44 ||
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Answer B:The second issue is that South Africa may also be interested in resuscitating the old Non-Aligned Movement bloc with players like China, and possibly even Russia and Brazil, to counter perceived US hegemony and unilateralism. Indeed, China and Pakistan have also made overtures to Iran, which point to destabilization and undermining of US positioning in the region.
Answer C:that there have been stronger relations developing for some years between the Iranian elite and the ruling African National Congress elite. "This will grow stronger as SA searches for more energy resources,"
While an admittedly careless use of the term "elite", both B and C are correct. The SA arms industry has much to gain as well. The Armscor G-5 and G-6 towed howitzers were a big hit in both Iraq and Iran in the early 1990's. The "New Government of Unity" (ANC) toyed with idea of dismantling the nasty old Aparthied defense industry, but after a quick look at the books and some encouragement from friends, mentors, and advisors in the FSU, decided to not only retain, but expand the customer base with the caveat and meaningless promise "arms would not be sold to countries that threatened war with their neighbors." I think we might as well get over it, the West has few friends in Africa, north or south.
#2
Answer D is nobody else is likely to invest or deal with either country despite their massive mineral/oil wealth because of their idiot governments (threatening neighbors, threatening white farmers).
#4
The bitterly sad and totally disgusting commentary is while the US was tied up elsewhere during the "Cold War" the South African Defense Force (SADF) defeated Castro and his thugs in Angola and elsewhere in Africa. From a non-trivial historical perspective, the SADF, Kewi's, Ozzies, and Rhodesians lost a significantly disproportionate number of men supporting the allies during WWII as well. We, along with the frigging Poms, have forgotten all that of course. Instead of helping SA and thanking them for their sacrifices and keeping Castro out of Africa, we've aligned ourselves with the kaffir tribalists, wagged our fingers and embargoed both Rhodesia and South Africa for their white Aparthied regimes (government). Any notion of civilization has long since vaporized from Rhodesia and the same is taking place further south. As for the muzzie alliances currently being made by SA and the ANC we have no one to blame but ourselves. Had we supported a few white men, all this would have never taken place.
#7
What is really sad is that the ANC and Mandela actually acted like they had a brain back in 1994 when they were given power by the SA political establishment. Unfortunately, Mbeki is a total loser and seems intent on destroying what is left of the developed parts of South Africa.
TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian military transport plane crashed into a 10-story apartment building in the suburbs of the capital Tuesday, killing at least 119 people, according to state media and Tehran's mayor. Police said wreckage from the plane also hit a gasoline station.
All 94 passengers and crew of the plane were killed, Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told The Associated Press. Tehran state radio said that of the building's residents, 25 people were killed and 15 were injured. Firefighters managed to put out the fire in the building, which was damaged and charred but still standing. The plane's wreckage was scattered around the building, which police cordoned off.
"It was like an earthquake," said Reza Sadeqi, a 25-year-old merchant, who saw the plane hit the building. "The force of the crash threw me about 3 meters (9 feet) inside my shop. "I felt the heat of the fire caused by the crash. It was like being in hell," he said.
The C-130 aircraft struck the building while trying to return to Tehran's Mehrabad airport, state television reported. The building is in the Towhid residential complex, a series of high-rise apartment buildings for army personnel. Thousands of people gathered at the crash site. Many screamed for fear that their relatives had been killed.
The plane, which belonged to the army air force, carried 84 passengers and 10 crew members, Iranian television reported. The official Islamic Republic News Agency said the passengers were journalists who were going to cover a military maneuver in southern Iran.
The flight had taken off from Mehrabad airport en route to Bandar Abbas, a port city in southern Iran. The plane crashed due to a technical failure as it was trying to return to Tehran and make an emergency landing, the television said.
The Iranian government has denied the presence of al-Qaeda in the country. "No al-Qaeda leader can currently be found in the Islamic Republic," Ali Larijani, the secretary of the High Council of National Security of Iran and the man behind the foreign policy of the new Iranian government, has said. "All the members and leaders of al-Qaeda who took refuge in our country, following the American bombardment of Afghanistan, have been indentified and returned to their countries of origin," said Larijani, who is also Iran's chief nuclear negotiator.
Arab and Western sources, contrary to what Ali Larijani has stated, are convinced that many of the leaders of the terrorist organisation are still present as refugees in Iran, where they continue to reside thanks to the protection of Islamic militia and certain extremists groups close to the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who came to power after the June presidential elections.
The same sources speak of the presence in Iran of the eldest son of the Osama bin Laden, Saad, as well as al-Qaeda's spokesperson, Suleyman Abu Gaith, and the Egyptian, Saif al Adel, one of the United States' most wanted terrorists who is believed to be a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda.
Contrary to what Ali Larijani has stated, in August of 2004, the Iranian minister of intelligence of the previous government of Mohammad Khatami had admitted to the presence in Iran of many al-Qaeda leaders whose arrests and trial were imminent. However the then minister of intelligence refused to provide a list of the al-Qaeda members in Iran.
According to a 2 December report by the Israeli Debka Net Weekly website, al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and and running new terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/06/2005 03:10 ||
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"...Khatami had admitted to the presence..."
Harboring or Holding?
If conditions were right, Saif al-Adel might net a few MEK.
Iran plans to construct two more nuclear power plants despite international concern over its atomic programme, a top official said Monday. Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said he did not expect the plan to affect upcoming nuclear talks with Europe. "We plan to construct two more nuclear power plants. We will do it through an international tender. It is part of meeting our electricity needs, it is not a secret issue," Larijani told a news conference.
Earlier Monday, state-run television reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Cabinet ministers had decided Sunday night to build a reactor in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. Previously, Iran has said it would build a second power plant at Bushehr, where its first nuclear reactor is due to begin generating electricity in 2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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Yes, yes, yes Itzhak, I have added Khuzestan to the priority target list, no problem, now we go to temple.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reshuffled the security services. Officials said Ahmadinejad has ordered a purge of Iran's security agencies, military, police and other government departments. They said that in most cases the president has installed officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to replace civil servants appointed in the 1980s.
On Nov. 30, Ahmadinejad appointed IRGC deputy chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr as deputy interior minister. Under the appointment Zolghadr would be responsible for the security forces and police. "The Revolutionary Guards will help the government to assure lasting security in the country and the presence in governors offices takes us in this direction," IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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"a push here, rumor there, whispered conspiracies - from which disarray begins"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/06/2005 0:22 Comments ||
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DUBAI - The son of slain Lebanese premier Rafik Al Hariri accused Syria on Monday of trying to influence a UN probe into the murder, saying he never met a Syrian man who claimed to have been bribed to testify against Damascus.
No! Reeeeeeally?
Witness Hosam Taher Hosam appeared on Syrian state television last week and accused Lebanese officials, including Haririâs son Saad, of a scheme of threats, bribery and torture to induce him to falsely implicate Syria and said the initial findings of the UN inquiry rested largely on his lies. Asked about Hosamâs testimony, Saad Al Hariri told a media forum in Dubai: âThere are people who have interest in trying to take the investigation to another level ... I never met him, I never had (any) connection with him. Definitely there were no bribes given to anybody in the investigation. He came to the commission freely and he then went to Syria freely...this is propaganda and part of the media campaign that some people are starting to undermine the (UN) commission.â
And what part of that do you find surprising?
UN investigators started questioning five Syrian officials in Vienna on Monday over Haririâs killing in Beirut, diplomatic sources said. Syria, which denies any role in the murder, agreed after guarantees from permanent UN Security Council member Russia that the officials could return to Damascus afterwards.
Guesses as to how many of the have have heart attacks or helicopter accidents?... Ooooh! Ooooh! Wonder what the chances are that one of them will be murdered by Lebanese? Or Zionists?
Hariri, a member of parliament and his fatherâs political heir,
Keep in mind that Leb is an hereditary oligarchy...
urged Syria to avoid procrastinating and cooperate with the UN investigation. âThe problem is between Damascus and the international community, nobody commits a crime and is above the law. We need to close this chapter quickly not to make it a political issue.â
"Before they kill me!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/06/2005 00:00 ||
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December 6, 2005: It is believed that, on December 1st, a CIA Predator UAV fired two Hellfire missiles that killed Abu Hamza Rabia, one of the top half dozen (sometimes called the ânumber 3 manâ) al Qaeda leaders. Rabia was a key associate of al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zarqawi, and had been responsible for two attempts on President Pervez Musharraf. This strike, which took place in Pakistan, means that bin Laden and Abu Musab Zarqawi will have to find their third person for that slot in a period of seven months (Rabiaâs predecessor, Abu Faraj Farj al-Liby, was captured in May). This is not the first time that a CIA Predator has scored a kill â in November, 2002, a CIA Predator killed Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, the mastermind of the attack on the USS Cole as he and five other al Qaeda operatives were driving in their car.
This new vacancy in senior leadership positions reflects one of al Qaedaâs growing problems. As top-echelon elements of al Qaeda are killed, incapacitated, or captured, the talent pool dries up. Already, al Qaeda has been hobbled by attacks in Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Indonesia which have killed far more Moslem civilians than intended non-Moslem targets. As a result, al Qaeda has suffered a string of defeats as those who would have supported them instead drop a dime.
This has led to all but one of al Qaedaâs original Saudi leadership ending up either dead or in custody. The new al-Qaeda structure is composed of members that are primarily in their 20s. These twenty-something terrorists do not have the experience or training of their predecessors. In Jordan, only Lawrence Hamid Rashid Muhanna is still at large. Al Qaedaâs senior leadership has remained somewhat intact, but many of their on-scene operators are being captured or killed. Al Qaedaâs murder-suicide bombings kill off the operatives who manage to pull them off, another way the talent pool is depleted.
The other concern for al Qaeda is that eventually, taking out (killing or preferably capturing) people like Rabia and al Liby means that eventually the really big fish (Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri) will have to start talking one way or another. Talking means that there is a better chance for the American intelligence community to provide actionable intelligence. The depletion of al Qaedaâs talent pool also means that ineffective leaders like Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who tenure as head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has led to the alienation of Iraqi Sunnis and Jordanians due to attacks that have primarily killed Moslems, cannot be replaced.
I wouldn't call him "ineffective", he's just out of control and doesn't care about public opinion.
What is happening to al Qaeda is similar to how the United States has pursued the drug cartels (most notably, the Medellin drug cartel) and the Mafia families (like John Gottiâs Gambino family). This sort of operation takes time (for instance, it took six years to convict Gotti after he ascended to the head of the Gambino family in 1985, and four years of concerted effort to kill Pablo Escobar after he ordered an airline bombing in 1989). As the talented leaders go (either by being killed or captured and kept on ice in places like Guantanamo Bay), al Qaeda will similarly be reduced to impotence.
Posted by: Steve ||
12/06/2005 10:30 ||
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As the talented leaders go (either by being killed or captured and kept on ice in places like Guantanamo Bay), al Qaeda will similarly be reduced to impotence.
Not if the ACLU-types have anything to say about it.
#3
Now, How did I know this article was NOT in the Times?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/06/2005 19:32 Comments ||
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#4
I don't think Rabia's #3. That's usually the miltary head, now Saif al Adel, who is a guest of Iran, along with much of the rest of the AQ princelings.
Posted by: ed ||
12/06/2005 19:45 Comments ||
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For a man reputedly at the forefront of Al Qaeda's global terror operations -- with one finger in plots to target America and another in attempts to assassinate Pakistan's president -- Hamza Rabia kept a remarkably low profile.
The Egyptian wasn't on the FBI's list of the world's 15 most wanted terrorists, nor had he made Pakistan's most wanted list. In fact, there had been little public mention of Rabia before he was apparently killed last week in an explosion at his tribal hideout.
US officials haven't confirmed the death, despite claims by Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, that he is ''200 percent" sure Rabia died. Yet officials in Islamabad and Washington have been quick to agree that Rabia's demise would be a major blow to Osama bin Laden's terror network, saying he ranked in the top five of its hierarchy.
US national security adviser Stephen Hadley described Rabia as Al Qaeda's head of operations, adding in an interview with ''Fox News Sunday" that ''we believe he was involved in planning for attacks against the United States."
How could a man so powerful, in such a critical position, escape attention for so long?
Skeptics are demanding more information about Rabia's role in alleged plots, and pointing to what they see as a troubling trend in Pakistan and the United States of hyping counterterrorism successes that may not be as big as claimed.
''He may be a serious planner that has been lurking in the shadows, but I would like to see more evidence of his terrorist credentials before saying he's a particular number in the hierarchy. I think these are relatively low-level operators," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College, referring to Rabia and his associate, Abu Faraj al-Libbi, who was captured in Pakistan in May.
Pakistan says both men had a hand in twin attempts to assassinate Musharraf in December 2003.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the Associated Press that Rabia was Al Qaeda's No. 5 leader. Two US counterterrorism officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitivity, said he was possibly as high as No. 3, just below bin Laden and his lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri.
But Paul Wilkinson, chairman of the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, said Rabia appears to have been more of a ground commander, not a key international terror mastermind.
''There have been so many people suggested as the No. 3 in Al Qaeda that I would not go along with that, though he is clearly a valued member of the hierarchy," he said. ''We can't really say that he will be a major loss in terms of planning because he didn't have a profile in that area."
Almost nothing of Rabia's background is known publicly.
Three Pakistani intelligence agents told AP yesterday that he came to the country from Afghanistan in 2003, and that he is believed to have largely remained in the tribal regions of North and South Waziristan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of their work.
Rabia is said to be Egyptian, but Pakistani and American officials have not said where in Egypt he is from, nor whether he was wanted by authorities there. One Pakistani intelligence official said he is believed to have been in his 40s.
While Hadley said Rabia was linked to plots against the United States, US and Pakistani officials haven't given specifics and it's not clear how long Rabia had been an Al Qaeda member.
Even Rabia's apparent death is murky.
Tribesmen recovered the remains of what appear to be a US Hellfire missile from the wreckage of the house where Rabia reportedly was killed Thursday near Miran Shah, in the tribal North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan. The metal pieces bore the designator ''AGM-114," the words ''guided missile" and the initials ''US."
But Pakistani leaders insisted yesterday that Rabia and three others died in an accidental explosion while making a bomb. Washington has declined to confirm any involvement in the attack, though an NBC television report, citing unidentified officials, said a US drone launched the strike. It wasn't even clear whether Rabia's body has been recovered.
Pakistani officials wouldn't say whether they have Rabia's body, saying only that DNA tests and communication intercepts confirm he is dead. Karachi-based Dawn newspaper, citing officials it did not identify, reported his body had been retrieved by associates from outside Pakistan.
Ranstorp said he feared the story was being touted in Washington and Islamabad for political reasons. The two countries are allies in the war on terrorism, both with a stake in showing their uneasy partnership is bearing fruit.
''I think it is a legitimate question to ask whether this guy was really such a big fish," he said. ''There has been an unending cavalcade of faces that roll by of people who supposedly represent a clear and present danger to [US] national security, and all this deflects attention away from the incredible failure of the war on terrorism to capture bin Laden or al-Zawahri."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/06/2005 03:16 ||
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"I think it is a legitimate question to ask whether this guy was really such a big fish..."
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.
A senior figure in Egypt's 
Former President Kim Dae-jung yesterday called on the two Koreas to prepare for the first stage of reunification as the next step after resolving the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear programs. Kim said the two Koreas should try to find common ground between their respective proposals for state reform on the road toward eventual reunification. His remarks came amid growing speculation that Seoul is preparing for a second inter-Korean summit and that Kim is being considered as the South's special envoy to Pyongyang to break the impasse in inter-Korean ties.
DUBLIN - CIA aircraft landed at Shannon airport in the southwest of Ireland on 38 occasions in recent years, Irish state radio said on Monday, quoting government data.
WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain said he won't compromise on his proposed ban on the use of torture on prisoners. He's insisting on his language that no person in U.S. custody should be subject to "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment." McCain said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he's met several times with the president's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, on the issue.
BAGHDAD: Former Iraqi prime minister Mohammed Hamza Al-Zubaidi, who was one of Saddam Hussein's most senior deputies in the early 1990s, died in US detention last week, the US military said on Monday. Zubaidi, on the US military's list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis during the war, died at a US military hospital on December 2, said Lieutenant Colonel Guy Rudisill, spokesman for detainee operations in Iraq. The US military issued a statement about the death of an individual on Saturday, but did not refer to Zubaidi by name. 
DUBAI: Saudi billionaire Prince 
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in remarks published Monday that he would support a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear program, the first time an Israeli leader has openly called for military action against the Islamic republic. Netanyahu's comments, made in the heat of a campaign for leadership of the hardline Likud Party, drew criticism from rivals, who accused him of playing politics with the country's security. Israeli leaders have repeatedly identified Iran as the biggest threat to Israel and dismissed Tehran's claim that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes. Iran's announcement Monday that it plans to build a second nuclear power plant is likely to heighten the Israeli concerns.
A National Police plan to fingerprint all students of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) across the country as well as their alumni has irritated the head of a major Muslim organization. 
A group allied with Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels threatened Monday to force the military and "traitors" from the country's Tamil-dominated northeast if violence continues against the ethnic group there. The statement from the Trincomalee Tamil Peoples Consortium followed a weekend of violence during which a Muslim mob beat two Tamil men to death in the northeastern city of Trincomalee. "The day when paramilitaries and traitors must run away from our land is not very far," the group said in its statement, carried on the rebels' official Web site. "When the anger of the Tamil people at these lowly acts bursts out, we warn that the traitors will be forced to run with the Sri Lankan military from our land." Sri Lankan troops and police stepped up security Monday following a spate of attacks blamed on the Tamil Tigers that killed 12 people over the weekend, a military official said.
Iran plans to construct two more nuclear power plants despite international concern over its atomic programme, a top official said Monday. 
DUBAI - The son of slain Lebanese premier 
