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Al Qaeda In Iraq: 4,000 Insurgents Dead
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Foreign Command to Direct U.S. Troops
PORTOROZ, Slovenia (AP) - A plan approved Thursday to extend NATO's military control across all of Afghanistan would put as many as 12,000 American troops under foreign battlefield command, a number that U.S. officials said could be the most since World War II. The move is expected to take place in the next few weeks, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

It was not clear how many troops were under foreign command during World War II. A U.S. officer, Gen. James L. Jones, is in charge of the overall NATO force, but the new arrangement would put the U.S. troops under foreign commanders on the battlefield.

The ministers also agreed to provide substantial amounts of military equipment for the Afghan army. "There were in rough numbers thousands of weapons offered up, and I believe probably millions of rounds of ammunition," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters.

NATO-led troops took command of the southern portion of Afghanistan two months ago. This plan would extend their control to the eastern section, which U.S. troops now command.

Plans all along have been for NATO to take over the military in all regions of the country. NATO's takeover of the eastern section had been expected to happen later this fall, switching at least 10,000 American troops from U.S. command to alliance control - specifically that of British Lt. Gen. David Richards. Currently about 2,000 U.S. troops are serving under NATO commanders in other portions of Afghanistan.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  PACIFIC STARS-N-STRIPES > roughly ditto for USA milfors in SOUTH KOREA. Sum - US has confidence in SoKor/SoKor leadership.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2006 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  A plan approved Thursday to extend NATO's military control across all of Afghanistan would put as many as 12,000 American troops under foreign battlefield command, a number that U.S. officials said could be the most since World War II. The move is expected to take place in the next few weeks, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

Not that the Rant community would ever believe any news delivered by MSM as being correct, let's grasp the nuance here. IAW the powers invested by the Constitution [Justices Kennedy and Souter aside] and enacted under Title 10 USC, the ‘Chain of Command’ and authority is unbroken from the President of the United States to that private out there on the field of operations. American leadership at each command transition is the legal authority. American commands at each level coordinate and cooperate with allied commands and commanders, but the legal authority channel is never held by a non-American.
Posted by: Cheath Ununter6466 || 09/29/2006 8:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Interesting situation I wonder who would courts martial a soldier that disobeys an order from a non-U.S. Commander?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/29/2006 17:48 Comments || Top||


Africa North
Tunisia: Muslims Ban French Newspaper For Questioning Islamic Intimidation
The translated op-ed is at the link, so you can get an idea; btw, "Le Figaro" is right-wing only by comparison to the rest of the french msm (only about 60% of its journalists are left-leaning, against 94% for the rest, according to a 2002 poll where only 6% of french journalists voted right of center, and it does host a few sharp conservatives, but only a few).

Follow up
In France, security has been stepped up around a philosophy teacher who has received death threats after writing a critical article about Islam. Robert Redeker, 53, from the south-western city of Toulouse has had his life transformed since his piece was published in the French daily, Le Figaro ten days ago. Since then, he's not taught at the high school were he works and he and his family has been under armed guard and they have been forced to move to a secret location. The Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, has described the situation as "unacceptable".
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/29/2006 11:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And IIRC, it was banned in morocco too.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/29/2006 11:31 Comments || Top||

#2  "Hey, Mahmoud. They say Muslims are using intimidation to get their way."
"Those bastards! Send some of the boys up there to indimidate them into an apology to all Muslims everywhere! If they don't, kill them!"
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2006 11:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Are all Muslims 'Irony Challenged'?
"If you don't quit saying that I'm violent then, by Allah, I'll have to kill you."
Posted by: GK || 09/29/2006 13:10 Comments || Top||

#4  I think his article sums it up perfectly.
Posted by: Penguin || 09/29/2006 13:26 Comments || Top||

#5  One of these days, the asshole media will finally figure out who the baaaaad guys are. Till then, screw them.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/29/2006 13:43 Comments || Top||

#6  security has been stepped up around a philosophy teacher who has received death threats after writing a critical article about Islam

Once Islam achieves a significant foothold in any western country, this is the inevitable result. As Islam becomes more widely practiced here in the US, we'll see the same thing.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/29/2006 14:44 Comments || Top||

#7  We really need to stop protecting journalists from experiencing the consequences of their actions. When enough of them are beheaded, dragged behind trucks or burnt and hung from bridges, only then will they begin to understand that their adoration for all things Islamic may not be the wisest choice after all.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 14:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Sept. 24, 2006: Egypt bans European papers for comments on Islam
Egypt has banned editions of two French and German newspapers, Le Figaro and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, because of articles deemed insulting to Islam, the state news agency MENA said on Sunday.

Under a decree issued by Information Minister Anas el-Feki, the two editions will not be able to enter the country, it said. "They published articles which disparaged Islam and claimed that the Islamic religion was spread by the sword and that the Prophet ... was the prophet of evil," it added.

The edition of Le Figaro, dated September 19, contains an opinion piece on Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by French philosopher and high school teacher Robert Redeker. "Merciless warrior, pillager, murderer of Jews and polygamist -- that is how Mohammad portrays himself in the Koran ... Hatred and violence live in the book by which every Muslim is educated, the Koran," Redeker wrote.

The edition of the German newspaper, dated September 16, contains an article by German historian Egon Flaig looking at how the Prophet Mohammad was a successful military leader. Flaig presents other arguments supporting the view that Islam has had a violent history.


Acting the part of skinless nutjobs in an itching powder factory to a tee.
Posted by: ed || 09/29/2006 22:07 Comments || Top||


Britain
UK: Islamist Who Wants Pope Dead Will Not Face Charges
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/29/2006 16:58 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sigh. It only remains to trot out the old saw:

ALL THAT IS NECESSARY FOR EVIL TO SUCCEED IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.

Although I can hardly qualify Sir Ian Blair as a "good man".
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 18:07 Comments || Top||


Europe
Pigs head dumped outside British Mosque. Predictable veiled threat follows
Police have revealed they were investigating the dumping of a pig's head outside a mosque on the first full day of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The head was found outside the Jamia Mosque in Newport, southeast Wales, on Saturday. The Koran strictly forbids Muslims to eat pork.

"We treat all incidents of hate crime seriously and are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry to identify the offender," said Gwent Police Superintendent Simon Prince on Friday.
ever notice how some events are IMMEDIATELY ruled hate crimes...and others are not?
Nobody at the mosque was available for comment but Sheikh Mohammad Thair Ullah, the chairman of the nearby Shah Poran Bangladeshi Jame Mosque, branded the incident "disgusting" and provocative.
and muslims are INCREDIBLY easily provoked

and now for the requisite, implicit threat:
"There is a good and bad in every community and I believe we have some young fanatics who could take this the wrong way," he said.
I'm not sayin' it's GONNA happen, but ya never know . . .
"It is a very sensitive time for Muslims and since 9/11 we are facing a lot of problems which are unwanted.

"Muslims are peace-loving people which has been interpreted wrongly to show that we are all terrorists and criminals. That is the impression given by the world's media and politicians which is totally wrong."
So DO something about it. Take to the streets to protest and scream "NOT IN OUR NAME" publicly. Start shaming those in your community who support terror in ANY form. Identify the perpetrators and share their names publicly. Begin a dialogue in your community to understand how islam promotes such behavior, root it out and tell the rest of the world of your progress. Stop blaming others (the west, Jews, etc) for your inadequacies, and ridicule those in your communities who do so. Call me crazy, but I think these are some things they could do that would work....yet I see NONE of this.
Two British mosques were hit by arson attacks in August following the foiling of an alleged plot to blow up US-bound aircraft leaving Britain.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 09/29/2006 12:15 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I guess they must have been late with the vig for the local Jewish mafia.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 17:35 Comments || Top||

#2  Couldna been an RB Ramadan offering.

Hog jowls always been good luck around here.
Posted by: 6 || 09/29/2006 17:39 Comments || Top||

#3  I say the perps should be arrested for littering.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/29/2006 18:06 Comments || Top||


Writer of 'anti-Islam' article gets death threats
SAINT-ORENS-DE-GAMEVILLE, France — A French philosophy teacher was under police protection Thursday after receiving death threats over an article he wrote in a national newspaper that accused Islam of "exalting violence", school and police officials said. Robert Redeker has not attended classes at his secondary school near Toulouse in southern France since September 19, when his opinion column appeared in the right-wing daily Le Figaro. "He received written death threats in the form of emails. On the face of it they were pretty serious," said the lycée's headmaster Pierre Donnadieu. Police confirmed the threat but refused to comment on the protection Redeker is receiving.

Under the heading "In the face of Islamist intimidation, what must the free world do?", Redeker described the Koran as a "book of extraordinary violence" and Islam as "a religion which ... exalts violence and hate". Likening Islam to Communism, he said that "violence and intimidation are the methods used by an expansionist ideology ... to impose its leaden cloak on the world".
In any sort of just world, this would be the occasion for millions in the West to take to the streets, seething and howling, demanding the guilletine for those who would insult our principles of liberty, our freedom of the press, and our dignity as Frenchies or Merkins or Brits.
Posted by: ed || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gee, yet again more threats of death for calling Islam violent. Of course, it's probably radical Christians issuing the threats. Just ask Rosie O'Donnel.
Posted by: AuburnTom || 09/29/2006 0:22 Comments || Top||

#2  I thourght it was a religion of peace and harmony????!!!

Posted by: Cheregum Crelet7867 || 09/29/2006 5:35 Comments || Top||

#3  You were misinformed.
Posted by: Richard Blaine || 09/29/2006 5:47 Comments || Top||

#4  How much more of this shit it going to take before our world grows a collective spine and tells Islam to pound hot sand up it whiney ass?
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 6:21 Comments || Top||

#5  They accuse him of "exalting violence", and they're more than happy to accomodate his wishes.
Posted by: Glulet Unineting6551 || 09/29/2006 7:11 Comments || Top||

#6  ". . .before our world grows a collective spine and tells Islam to pound hot sand . . ."

C'mon Zen, you know the answer to this. The world will never grow a collective spine. Pockets of citizens will or already have and will defend themselves and work on killing the threats to civilization wherever they come from.

The vast majority of all peoples will just go along with whomever has the biggest club. That will be us if we work hard enough.
Posted by: GORT || 09/29/2006 8:55 Comments || Top||

#7  aggressive criticism
Posted by: Thoth || 09/29/2006 10:51 Comments || Top||

#8  Writer of 'anti-Islam' article gets death threats

But, of course. We would expect anything else?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2006 11:32 Comments || Top||

#9  There's a right-wing daily in France?
Posted by: Sheik Yerbuti || 09/29/2006 15:22 Comments || Top||

#10  Protection from a police force which can't protect themselves - how comforting that must be.
Posted by: Duh! || 09/29/2006 15:58 Comments || Top||

#11  There's a right-wing daily in France?

Le Figaro used to be right of center, or even more than that (back in the early 80's, it was the playground for the new right thinkers, and its companion mag was until recently directed by Alain Griotteray, a true blooded-conservative), but now it's an another mainstream newspaper, with the occasional guest op-ed (like in this case), and a few editorialists who dare not to be PC.
Only real right wing newspapers I can think of in France are Présent (catholic), Rivarol and National-hebdo (the more or less FN paper); of course, unlike "big" (fat) newspapers, they get zero subsidies by the gvt, direct (most of french dailies are kept on life support by subsidies) or indirect (IE useless advertising for state monopolies paid as a disguised funding), and are very small business (IIRC, the editorial team at Présent is 9 people, as opposed to 280 or so in all for leftist libération).
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/29/2006 16:40 Comments || Top||

#12  Btw, apparently threats were quite precise, police has located extremist websites where his picture, his workplace, his adress and its location are given, along with a bona fide fatwa to death. See
http://www.objectif-info.com/chroniques/redeker2.htm (french article in which the writer notes the "Arab Policy" AFP's bias, smearing, and comdamnation of this man.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/29/2006 16:45 Comments || Top||

#13  Protection from a police force which can't protect themselves - how comforting that must be.

In the letter published in the linked article above, he complains that despite the threats (serious enough for the DST to be involved, IE counter-intelligence, not just a police matter), he gets no support from the gvt, and has to pay for all the expenses himself, including having to move his family to a new home because the authorities order him so for his own safety.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/29/2006 16:51 Comments || Top||

#14  In the letter published in the linked article above, he complains that despite the threats (serious enough for the DST to be involved, IE counter-intelligence, not just a police matter), he gets no support from the gvt, and has to pay for all the expenses himself, including having to move his family to a new home because the authorities order him so for his own safety.

[cue Twilight Zone theme]

How dispicable to see the French government mistreat a national treasure. Namely, their last remaining citizen with a full grown spine.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 17:03 Comments || Top||


Belgium seeks EU-US negotiations on data privacy
BRUSSELS - The Belgium government said on Thursday that negotiations between the European Union and the United States would be necessary to create common data privacy rules relating to records of banking transactions. Belgium has been at the centre of a controversy since media reports revealed the US Treasury Department had tapped into records of the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) in a search for evidence for terrorism-related activities.

The US searches triggered fears that European laws regarding data privacy were not respected and that banking records could be used for industrial and financial espionage against European companies. ”A legal conflict (between the two jurisdictions) has come to light and it must be resolved through a thorough dialogue with the US,” Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told a news conference.

Verhofstadt said that his government would neither take action against SWIFT nor demand that it ceased complying with requests demands of US authorities.

The Belgian government does not challenge the necessity of transferring private data in the context of the struggle against terrorism, Verhofstadt said.
"No, no, certainly not! We must have rules, strong rules, rules decided over lunch and wine and cheese and desert ..."
Rather, the prime minister argued that the EU and the United States should seek to tackle incompatibilities in their legal systems through talks and possibly a treaty.

Swift Chief Executive Leonard Schrank said his company would support talks between the EU and the United States. ”We wholeheartedly support calls for US and EU authorities to work together to develop an improved framework to reconcile data privacy protections with today’s pressing security concerns,” Schrank said in a statement.
"Would you guys just leave us alone?"
EU data privacy officials expressed concern on Tuesday over the US searches but said they would not make recommendations on actions that the EU should take until November.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's to respect? You're the spineless leftover dregs of ancient peoples. Luckily, we've bred out your genetic influence. Drop the absurd pretenses, you're not our peers.
Posted by: .com || 09/29/2006 2:15 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Sampling of Drudge Headlines
At the top:

Carter: Bush has brought U.S. 'international disgrace'...
Clinton: 'Incalculable Damage Done'...
Stone: 'I'm ashamed for my country'...
Woodward: Bush concealing level of Iraq violence...



at the bottom:

Rogue Squirrels Attacking People in California...

who says Matt doesn't have a sense of humor.....8p
Posted by: Gleatch Sholuger3204 || 09/29/2006 15:26 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Slap on wrist for gun-toting Wahhabi Imam in NY
The former head Islamic chaplain for the state prison system was sentenced Thursday [9/23/2006] to a year of home detention by a judge who said he deserved leniency on a gun charge. Warith Deen Umar will be permitted to leave home for work, medical care and religious services. ... [having] pleaded guilty to a gun charge after admitting he waved an empty shotgun at an angry tenant who struck him at a Bronx building he owns. He also owned a .22-caliber rifle and four shotgun shells.

The government charged Umar with gun possession, saying he was not allowed to have one because he had been convicted in 1971 of possession of a dangerous weapon.

A 2/5/2003 article in the Wall Street Journal
Over a quiet dinner at an Indian restaurant in upstate New York, Warith Deen Umar offered his views of Islam and the Sept. 11 attacks. The hijackers should be honored as martyrs, he said. The U.S. risks further terrorism attacks because it oppresses Muslims around the world. "Without justice, there will be warfare, and it can come to this country, too," he said.

During a long and extraordinary career, he has had an unusual opportunity to spread these ideas. For about 20 years until he retired in 2000, Imam Umar -- the title means prayer leader -- helped run New York's growing Islamic prison program, recruiting and training dozens of chaplains, and ministering to thousands of inmates himself. "Even Muslims who say they are against terrorism secretly admire and applaud" the hijackers, he wrote in an unpublished memoir. The Quran, he said, does not condemn terrorism against oppressors of Muslims, even if innocent people die. "This is the sort of teaching they don't want in prison," he said. "But this is what I'm doing."

The NY Post article goes on to say:
Umar was banned from state prisons shortly after the [preceding] article was published in 2003 despite his assertion that his comments were taken out of context and that he never said the terrorists were martyrs or honored them. The judge said he considered the article and two others cited by prosecutors "unreliable for sentencing purposes."
That judge is "unreliable for sentencing purposes."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/29/2006 13:23 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The government charged Umar with gun possession, saying he was not allowed to have one because he had been convicted in 1971 of possession of a dangerous weapon.

A 2/5/2003 article in the Wall Street Journal

Over a quiet dinner at an Indian restaurant in upstate New York, Warith Deen Umar offered his views of Islam and the Sept. 11 attacks. The hijackers should be honored as martyrs, he said. The U.S. risks further terrorism attacks because it oppresses Muslims around the world. "Without justice, there will be warfare, and it can come to this country, too," he said.


Another abject failure to connect dots the size of Rhode Island.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 15:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Next time, let's hope the "angry tenant's" packing too...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2006 15:05 Comments || Top||

#3  I wonder what the sentence would have been for a white Baptist truck driver with a 35 year old weapon possesion rap.
But that's almost besides the point - waving an EMPTY shotgun around in a Bronx rental building could easily qualify someone for a Darwin Award.
Posted by: Glenmore || 09/29/2006 17:59 Comments || Top||

#4  From the WSJ article
Imam Umar -- born Wallace Gene Marks and later known as Wallace 10X

I'd like to to see the route from the Indian Restaurant in Upstate NY from the WSJ article to the the building he "owns" in the Bronx in the Post article. Money he had a usual crash house in between trips

Did he sign the lease Wallace 10x?

Posted by: Zeke 42x || 09/29/2006 21:53 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Canadians criticise Musharraf's remarks
OTTAWA: Canadian opposition leaders on Thursday criticised President Pervez Musharraf for accusing Canadians of whining over their casualties in Afghanistan, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservatives refused to join in the condemnation. Liberal party leader Bill Graham said he was "very surprised" to hear Musharraf diminish Canada's loss. "This is not whining," he told reporters outside the House of Commons. "This is about establishing the fact that Canadians are risking their lives and putting their blood into the country of Afghanistan. It's an honourable thing that's being done."
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We are risking our troops against the common enemy Pakistan ISI and its support of militants.I would say most militant/extremist worldwide have contacts with the ISI.The Religious parties are keeping him in power.
In UK a major Court case is going on with a British born muslim being head of a conspiracy to bomb nightclubs.He had to stop his defense re his Pakistan visits because his family was getting threats from the ISI if he mentioned their contacts.
Posted by: Cheregum Crelet7867 || 09/29/2006 5:47 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Judge Allows NSA Wiretapping Program to Continue for 7 Days
DETROIT — The federal judge who struck down President George W. Bush's warrantless surveillance program on Thursday allowed the government to continue the program, but only for another week as it seeks a further postponement from an appeals court.

U.S. Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit ruled on Aug. 17 that the surveillance, which targets communications between people in this country and people overseas when a terrorist link is suspected, violates the rights to free speech and privacy. She had also said it violates the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government enshrined in the Constitution.

The White House says the surveillance is a key tool in the fight against terrorism that already has helped prevent attacks.

The Justice Department asked Taylor to allow the program to continue until the Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issues a final ruling on the legal issues, which could take months. Taylor on Thursday denied that request, but gave the government a seven-day reprieve while it seeks a stay from the appeals court pending that court's final ruling.

Justice Department attorney Anthony J. Coppolino argued that a stay was warranted based on Bush's opinion that the program is vital to national security. "Your injunction, as far as we can see, was the first time in history that foreign surveillance has been enjoined during a time of war," he told Taylor. If the surveillance stops, the nation would be at greater risk of a terrorist attack, he said.

Taylor told Coppolino she could not grant the indefinite stay because "there is no likelihood" that her ruling will be overturned. She said granting it would allow "irreparable harm" to continue against the plaintiffs, a group of journalists, scholars and lawyers who believe their overseas contacts are likely targets of the surveillance.
No likelihood? That's amazing chutzpah even for a judge.
"However, the harm to the public would indeed be irreparable and great if events do unfold as predicted" by the government, she said in granting the additional seven days.
How nice of you to recognize that.
Taylor previously had delayed enforcement of her ruling until Thursday's hearing. However, she appeared to chide the administration when she noted that Coppolino did not mention any "attempt at compliance" in his arguments.

The American Civil Liberties Union brought the suit in Detroit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs because they believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets. Many of them said they had been forced to take expensive and time-consuming overseas trips because their contacts were no longer willing to speak openly on the phone or because it would be unethical to ask them to do so when the confidentiality of those conversations could not be guaranteed.
Journalists, scholars and lawyers are having contacts with al-Qaeda operatives?
The ACLU argued Thursday against an indefinite stay, but did not oppose a short-term one.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Taylor told Coppolino she could not grant the indefinite stay because "there is no likelihood" that her ruling will be overturned.

Lol. That's some case of terminal arrogance you're sportin...

She said granting it would allow "irreparable harm" to continue against the plaintiffs, a group of journalists, scholars and lawyers who believe their overseas contacts are likely targets of the surveillance.

Sounds like pure speculation, no? Unless their "contacts" are jihadi scumbags... And, if it's actually "irreparable", then why issue any stay at all? Bullshit.

If her original asinine decision isn't tossed out on its ass, then the entire "justice" system needs to be scrapped to ensure that Taylor and all of the like-minded assholes are removed from power. This falls under Presidential powers and these seditious traitors have to be taken out of the loop before they waste any more resources and do even more harm. Her decision was laughed at by her peers, but I don't find anything about it funny.
Posted by: .com || 09/29/2006 2:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Isn't she that Carter appointee?
Posted by: 3dc || 09/29/2006 9:28 Comments || Top||

#3  And of course the right-to-privacy and the right-to-commit-treason of journalist and lawyers trumps the right to life itself of thousands of future victims....

At least according to this black-robed-prince...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 09/29/2006 18:19 Comments || Top||


Senate OKs Detainee Interrogation Bill
Noted late yesterday.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Thursday endorsed President Bush's plans to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects, all but sealing congressional approval for legislation that Republicans intend to use on the campaign trail to assert their toughness on terrorism.

The 65-34 vote means the bill could reach the president's desk by week's end. The House passed nearly identical legislation on Wednesday and was expected to approve the Senate bill on Friday, sending it on to the White House.
Funny, 33 Democrats voted against but didn't have anything to say.
The bill would create military commissions to prosecute terrorism suspects. It also would prohibit some of the worst abuses of detainees like mutilation and rape, but grant the president leeway to decide which other interrogation techniques are permissible. The White House and its supporters have called the measure crucial in the anti-terror fight, but some Democrats said it left the door open to abuse, violating the U.S. Constitution in the name of protecting Americans.
Specter made noise about this but voted 'yes' in the end. So did Lieberman which will keep the DU crowd seething.
Twelve Democrats sided with 53 Republicans in voting for the bill. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., in a tough re-election fight, joined 32 Democrats and the chamber's lone independent in opposing the bill. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, was absent.
Remind me, what did we get in return for helping Chafee win his primary election?
By mostly party-line votes, the Senate rejected Democratic efforts to limit the bill to five years, to require frequent reports from the administration on the CIA's interrogations and to add a list of forbidden interrogation techniques.

The overall bill would prohibit war crimes and define such atrocities as rape and torture, but otherwise would allow the president to interpret the Geneva Conventions, the treaty that sets standards for the treatment of war prisoners.
Somebody has to do the interpreting since the GC is rather vague. Having a president responsible for issuing the rules and regs means we'll know who to hold accountable.
Under the bill, a terrorist being held at Guantanamo could be tried by military commission so long as he was afforded certain rights, such as the ability to confront evidence given to the jury and having access to defense counsel.

Those subject to commission trials would be any person "who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents." Proponents say this definition would not apply to U.S. citizens.
Which is as it should be: if you're a citizen you have rights under the Constitution. That's why it was proper -- and necessary -- to try Johnny Jihad in an American court. But foreigners fighting American soldiers in hostile actions aren't entitled to the protection of American courts, and this bill explicitly says so.
The bill would eliminate some rights common in military and civilian courts. For example, the commission would be allowed to consider hearsay evidence so long as a judge determined it was reliable. Hearsay is barred from civilian courts.
There were other standards attached as well concerning how the evidence was obtained, and how judges determine reliability. This is more narrow than it sounds.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Serving Glazed Chicken to Gitmo detainees verus Amer Hiroshima(s) andor Amer Holocaust, ergo the Glazed Chicken is clearly the worst threat above and beyond all threats to America.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2006 0:41 Comments || Top||

#2  The "Nay" votes:
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dayton (D-MN)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Wyden (D-OR)
Posted by: Darrell || 09/29/2006 14:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Specter voted 'yes'......haha, I'd like to think that my call to his office made all the difference, but I'm not that weird. This is the result of Americans standing together. We can enjoy more of these victories if we take the necessary actions. Congrats, everyone.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/29/2006 15:27 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Kashmiri groups call for mercy on death convict
Political parties in Indian held Kashmir have called for clemency for Kashmiri national Mohammad Afzal Guru, who is facing hanging on October 20 for his role in the December 13, 2001, Indian parliament attack.

Both anti and pro-India parties have opposed the death penalty to Afzal. Various anti-India political parties held demonstrations in Srinagar on Wednesday, while pro-India parties like the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and the local unit of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) have also opposed the sentence. The political parties in Srinagar believe that Afzal's death would raise tensions in Kashmir and thereby affect the peace process. Mehbooba Mufti, president of the PDP, said that she had asked the Indian prime minister to pardon Afzal. CPI-M leader Mohammad Yusuf Tarigama has sought an appointment with President APJ Abdul Kalam to seek a presidential pardon for Afzal. "All I am going to tell the president is that his (Afzal's) hanging will vitiate the peace process and will cause more bloodshed," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Kashmiri national"?! Since when is Kashmir a nation?
If hanging might vitiate the peace process, then shoot or behead Mohammed, makes no difference to the rest of us.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 09/29/2006 0:19 Comments || Top||


Hizb offers to stop operations if troops repositioned
The Hizbul Mujahideen said on Thursday that "there was no sense" in the Ramzan ceasefire, and offered to "stop its operations" in Jammu and Kashmir if army troops in the state moved to the position they were in before the outbreak of militancy.

"There is no sense in a Ramzan ceasefire. It means that there will be no violence for only a month, but for the rest of the 11 months, forces will continue with their killings and so will militants," Hiz chief Syed Salauddin told a Muzaffarabad news channel. "So if the government is sincere, they should withdraw their forces to the pre-1989 position as a good gesture and we will stop operations ... I assure you," he said, and backed a long-term ceasefire in the state.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In other words, he wants a return to the days when minibuses roamed Srinagar, their conductors shouting 'Pindi!, 'Pindi!, picking up local boys and carrying them to terrorist training camps across the border in Rawalpindi. Srinagar was a no go area for Indian forces, with the insurgent groups running the show.

Posted by: john || 09/29/2006 15:35 Comments || Top||

#2  ...and we will stop operations ... I assure you,"

Yeah, if ya can't trust this guy, who can you trust...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2006 15:44 Comments || Top||


No Taliban in Quetta, say governor and CM
QUETTA: Balochistan Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani and Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yousaf on Thursday dispelled the impression that Quetta had transformed into a Taliban headquarter. Dismissing what they called "baseless allegations" levelled by Afghan authorities and the coalition forces in Afghanistan, both Ghani and Yousaf committed to fighting Taliban and Al Qaeda till their complete elimination from the world.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well I'm sold.

Be sure to make a nice grid pattern. Take pix from the shuttle for the history books.
Posted by: .com || 09/29/2006 2:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Make no mistake the word needs to get out in mass media that Pakistan and its ISI henchmen are along with Iran the main threat to the West!!!!

Posted by: Cheregum Crelet7867 || 09/29/2006 5:37 Comments || Top||


Deal will block Taliban: Kasuri
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursihd Kasuri defended a truce between the Pakistan Army and pro-Taliban tribesmen aimed at stopping cross-border raids in Afghanistan, saying its goal was to prevent support for the Taliban and should be given a chance to work. He said the government would give the truce a few months. "The government can now ask the tribal elders to honour the agreement," Kasuri said. "What we do not like is finger-pointing," Kasuri said. "Yes, it's a difficult situation. You make it worse by finger-pointing. Let's accept this difficult situation. Let's cooperate. It's in our common interest," he said.
He has to be a diplomat; no one else can say stuff like that without their lips falling off.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Hasnt attacks risen threefold since this agreement????!!!
Posted by: Cheregum Crelet7867 || 09/29/2006 5:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Yeah, but they're blocked.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 9:06 Comments || Top||


North Waziristan deal will be replicated in South: Orakzai
NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai said that if the treaty signed with tribal elders of North Waziristan proved successful, similar treaties would be signed with tribes in other agencies.

In an interview with Murtaza Solangi of the Voice of America, Orakzai said the Pakistan Army was present in the Kurram, Khyber and Mehmand agencies and there were no reports of armed men crossing from those areas into Afghanistan. He said that there had been some reports from Bajaur of stray crossings and due notice had been taken of this. "We are using back-channel diplomacy to deal with the situation," he added. He said the current conflict was mainly confined to south and east Afghanistan where Pashtuns were settled, living under age-old tribal traditions that emphasised decision-making through consensus.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Must have a different definition of "successful". But hey, of course we trust the ISI's word - how could anyone doubt it?
Posted by: .com || 09/29/2006 2:30 Comments || Top||

#2  All part of ISI central planning.
Posted by: 3dc || 09/29/2006 9:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Sounds like a good opportunity to detach NWFP, North and South Waziristan and Balochistan from Islamabad.
Posted by: ed || 09/29/2006 10:05 Comments || Top||


Musharraf, Karzai shake hands with Bush, not with each other
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
UN torture investigator fears abuse with new US law
GENEVA - The UN torture investigator charged on Friday that a new US law for tough interrogation of terrorism suspects would deprive people of the right to a fair trial before independent courts and could lead to mistreatment. Manfred Nowak, United Nations special rapporteur on torture, regretted that the bill ignored UN rights bodies which have said US interrogation methods and prolonged detentions violate international law. The Senate gave final approval on Thursday to the bill, a day after its passage by the House of Representatives. President George W. Bush is expected to sign it into law very soon.

“I am afraid that with the new law, the interrogation methods will not really change. Bush has said that harsh interrogation methods will continue and that is my concern,” the Austrian law professor said in a telephone interview.

The UN Committee against Torture and UN Human Rights Committee have found the US interrogation methods are unlawful and expressed concern at arbitrary detentions. “The bill does not take into account substantive criticism from our side ... It is not the signal that I would have expected the US government and Congress would make in order to try to comply with our recommendations,” Nowak said. The bill sets standards for interrogating suspects, but with complex rules that rights groups say could allow techniques that border on torture such as sleep deprivation.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve || 09/29/2006 09:01 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Let's give him two months at Gitmo and see what he thinks.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 09/29/2006 9:16 Comments || Top||

#2  Only if he's forced to live and eat with what the guards get.
Posted by: Cheath Ununter6466 || 09/29/2006 9:19 Comments || Top||

#3  How long will this go on, before we start taking care of terror facillitators?
Posted by: gromgoru || 09/29/2006 9:31 Comments || Top||

#4  Can we torture the UN?
Posted by: DarthVader || 09/29/2006 9:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Perhaps I can direct Mr. Manfred Nowak to real torture: Boy slave 'crucified' by Sudanese Muslim

It's not that hard to find Mr. Brody. All you have to do is stop averting your eyes whenever a musselman comes into view..
Posted by: ed || 09/29/2006 9:37 Comments || Top||

#6  P.S. What does the UN Human Rights Committee have to say about slavery? Apparently not a peep when muslims enslave blacks. Obviously, from the lack of outcry, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination does not consider slavery to be within it's domain.
Posted by: ed || 09/29/2006 9:46 Comments || Top||

#7  Todays UN crossword:

3 across, "a donkey", 3 letters.
Hint: "Kiss my ___"
Posted by: mojo || 09/29/2006 10:41 Comments || Top||

#8  Maybe Manfred and Dick Marty can hook up for a few and cry in their beer...
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2006 11:07 Comments || Top||

#9  I am just wondering what their position is on sawing off the heads of prisoners? How about forcing someone to "convert" at the point of a gun? I'm just asking here.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/29/2006 11:23 Comments || Top||

#10  Hundreds of thousands from Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Darfur could not be reached for comment on the UN’s concern about the US handling of terrorists.
Posted by: Omomoger Ulavins7202 || 09/29/2006 12:05 Comments || Top||

#11  Elsa: [to Indy] I'll never forget how vonderful it vas.
Professor Henry Jones: Why thank you. It was rather wonderful.
Elsa: [Kisses Indy] Zat's how Austrians say goodbye.
Colonel Vogel: Und zis is how ve zay goodbye in Germany, Dr. Jones.
[Punches Indy]
Indiana Jones: I liked the Austrian way better.
Professor Henry Jones: So did I.
Posted by: Matt || 09/29/2006 12:14 Comments || Top||

#12  You lost me at "UN"
Posted by: Gir || 09/29/2006 12:55 Comments || Top||

#13  I think that all the UN personnel should be forced to pay their outstanding parking tickets or be forcibly removed from NYC.
Posted by: RWV || 09/29/2006 14:30 Comments || Top||

#14  So ah, where is the UN's voiced fears over Moohamhead's teachings regarding cutting our heads off?
Posted by: Icerigger || 09/29/2006 17:48 Comments || Top||


Iraq
WND: Bin Laden loses Iraqi Hearts and Minds
Posted by: Super Hose || 09/29/2006 00:12 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  well since so many want us gone and think that we cause more trouble than we are worth: lets go home and see how long it takes for them too slip mor einto anarchy: see how many buildings and public works get finished: let the kurds create their own state and take their oil with them
Posted by: sinse || 09/29/2006 7:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Amen, brotha.
Posted by: eltoroverde || 09/29/2006 11:53 Comments || Top||


Crucial Iraq police academy "a disaster"
BAGHDAD, Iraq — A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, federal investigators have found.

The Baghdad Police College, hailed as crucial to U.S. efforts aimed at preparing Iraqis to take control of the country's security, was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed "the rain forest."

"This is the most important civil security project in the country — and it's a failure," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an independent office created by Congress. "The Baghdad police academy is a disaster."
Even the fiercest defender of our efforts in Iraq, and I'm one of them, has to be outraged by this. Politics as usual doesn't work in a war zone; the Parsons people should be flogged and the Corps of Engineers personnel assigned to 'oversee' the construction should be fired.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gosh, sounds like building contractors after Hurricane Andrew.
Posted by: gromky || 09/29/2006 0:34 Comments || Top||

#2  Gosh, sounds like building contractors after Hurricane Andrew.

Sounds more like the buildings after Hurricane Andrew.

Were they building on sand? It can be done but you have to prepare the area properly first. I find it hard to believe the Army would screw something up this bad without help from some civilian contractor who promised way more than they could deliver. I'd sure like to see what sort of oversight mechanism they had in place. I'll bet a dollar to a dime they were too busy building something else to bother to even stop by and check things from time to time. Didn't they even see if the ground was being prepared properly? Who his suppliers were? Inspect his supplies and his construction methods?

But you know, things in the US aren't all that great even though they work with the blessing of much firmer ground than you'll find there. Seems more and more like the job got contracted out to some overconfident ignoramus who thought he'd make a quick buck but hopefully will find himself in some serious hot water real soon. Along with those who were supposed to be overseeing the work.

And where did that $75M go? To the US economy or the Iraqi? You'd think the Iraqis could build it for a few million, so I'll bet most of it went to workers and suppliers here in the US and if the work was done in good faith it's probably lost.
Posted by: gorb || 09/29/2006 2:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I smell pilferage. It is common practise in the Third World for public construction administrators to use building materials for their own homes. As for the lack of oversight, that is what you get when you throw money at problems. Iraq police recruits are so poorly paid that the temptation to accept infiltrator' money is strong.

My theory is that forcing regime change in Iran, will cause a dry up of Sunni funding from some of the House of Saud, who would have no cause to face down Shiites. Bush will have to play the Sunni card, and it should work. Otherwise the Sunni-Shiite killing spree will never end.

Ahmadinejad is prisoner to belligerent rhetoric. We won't see his innocuous smile for much longer.
Posted by: Snease Shaiting3550 || 09/29/2006 2:27 Comments || Top||

#4  No doubt floggings are in order. Prison, too. Make mismanagement and laziness hurt. Bad. As for pilferage (no doubts here) and the other contributing factors, we're dealing with Arabs. If you don't know that this fact sufficiently covers the topic, then you don't know Arabs. A joke I heard in S.A.: all deals made with Arabs are round - they cut every corner.
Posted by: .com || 09/29/2006 2:36 Comments || Top||

#5  all deals made with Arabs are round - they cut every corner.

I'm confident they could find corners to cut on a perfect sphere.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 5:56 Comments || Top||

#6  Parsons probably delegated the task to a local Iraqi subcontractor. You can do that in European countries. You can do that in most of East Asia, including even in China (sure, they'll pocket some of it, but the building will go up, and it will remain standing). But you can't do that in an Arab country.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/29/2006 6:25 Comments || Top||

#7  This should all be tracable, so let's stop complaining and pick up the responsible parties.
Posted by: wxjames || 09/29/2006 9:40 Comments || Top||

#8  Why don't we just kill the assholes that are giving us all the trouble in Iraq? I don't understand why we have been pussyfooting around for years now. We know who they are, but for some reason lack the balls to grab the bull by the horns and send in the marines.
Posted by: Clereque Ebberemp1305 || 09/29/2006 15:30 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel backs off plan to kill Nasrallah
Israel has quietly backed off its plan to assassinate Hezbollah's leader because of the international condemnation that his killing would create, the Israeli daily Maariv reported Friday.

During the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah that ended Aug. 14, Israel had targeted Hassan Nasrallah for assassination, security officials said, according to Maariv. Nasrallah went underground, though he repeatedly recorded videos from his hiding place that were broadcast on Lebanese television.

When the war ended, the army recommended that the efforts to kill Nasrallah be called off because his assassination would lead to international criticism of Israel and would ignite an even more violent war, Maariv reported. However, the government declined to call off the hunt, the newspaper reported.

Nasrallah emerged from hiding on Sept. 22 to address a massive rally in Lebanon celebrating Hezbollah's fight against Israel. Israel army officials determined they could assassinate him with an airstrike during the rally, but dozens of bystanders also would be killed, Maariv reported.

The government decided an airstrike was not worth the risk, and accepted the army's recommendation that it should abandon efforts to kill Nasrallah for the time being, the newspaper reported. However, the government did not make a formal decision regarding Nasrallah. Israeli government spokesman Miri Eisin declined to confirm whether Nasrallah had been a target or if he no longer was being pursued. "We've always said that any terrorist should feel that his activities put him under our eye," she said.
Posted by: ed || 09/29/2006 09:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In other news, Israel has announced its dissolution. Arrangements are being made to find its 4.5 million Jewish inhabitants residence in the U.S., Europe, and Australia.
Posted by: Perfesser || 09/29/2006 9:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Dolts! They could've neither confirm or deny that, even if they do. Perhaps Omelette just wanna look good to the "international community"(that's natuarlly quite in vain).
Posted by: Duh! || 09/29/2006 9:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Didn't Sharon have Arafat in his crosshairs at one time? And did he not live to regret that he did not pull the trigger? 50 calibre sniper rifle would be the way to do it. You know good and well that Nasrallah would take a shot at any Jooooo he could get in his sights.
Posted by: Sleaper Thraviter2776 || 09/29/2006 10:45 Comments || Top||

#4  A great way to draw him into the open!
Posted by: jim || 09/29/2006 13:35 Comments || Top||

#5  If Israel does not have the moral integrity to snuff a genocidal maggot like Nasrallah, then they abdicate all right to attack Iran. The two are indistinguishable and must be treated as such. Israel should have blown Arafat away decades before his long-delayed demise and any further waiting to cap Nasrallah will have the same net result, more dead Jews.

If anyone watched Nasrallah on the "Obsession" video, I'd like them to tell me that they did not think of Adolph Hitler as they watched this maggot spew more bilious vomit to his adoring masses.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 13:56 Comments || Top||

#6  fuck international bitching
Posted by: sinse || 09/29/2006 14:13 Comments || Top||


Hamas ministers may step down to secure power deal
A new Palestinian cabinet of "technocrats" could ease the crippling Israeli and international blockade of the existing Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, a senior minister has suggested. Sameer Abu-Eisheh, the acting Finance Minister and Planning Minister in Ismail Haniyeh's increasingly beleaguered administration, said that one option was for Mr Haniyeh and his cabinet to step down in favour of a non-aligned ministerial team of independent experts.
Is 'technocrat' the preferred term for a terrorist who can also do something else?
The cabinet was ready to form a "national unity" government under Mr Haniyeh if it could be agreed, he said, and added: "There are alternatives. The technocrat government, for example, is an option. Nobody ruled it out." Dr Abu-Eisheh who, though sympathetic to Hamas, is not a member and said he was not speaking for the faction, said such a government would "make it easier" for the international community to start lifting the blockade.

Fatah and Hamas remain in deadlock over talks designed to bring in the "national unity" government as a means of easing a blockade which has left Palestinian Authority employees without salaries for six months. In Gaza, hundreds of Palestinian police and security officers, some firing rifles into the air, upturned rubbish bins, burnt tyres and broke up concrete slabs to block Gaza City's main roads in protest at the delays in salary payments.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What's a "technocrat" in Gaza? A guy who knows how to use a light switch?
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2006 11:41 Comments || Top||

#2  LOL! Damn that was cold Tu.
Posted by: 6 || 09/29/2006 17:42 Comments || Top||


Palestinian civil servants get 340-dollar advance
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian civil servants who have received practically no pay for the past six months were on Thursday paid a 340-dollar advance each, officials said.
If the civil servants are owed money, why is this called an 'advance'?
Interim finance minister Samir Abu Eisheh told a news conference that 1,500 shekels (340 dollars) had been paid into civil servants’ accounts and that the money could be withdrawn from cash machines by afternoon.

Long seething queues quickly formed outside ATMs at various banks in the West Bank political capital Ramallah, an AFP correspondent said.
Someone explain to me how an ATM machine survives on the West Bank.
The more than 160,000 Palestinian Authority employees have received practically no pay since March, as a result of the suspension of direct Western aid and the refusal of banks to transfer Arab donations to government coffers.

Most civil servants have been on an open-ended strike since September 2 to protest against the non-payment of their salaries.

The head of the office of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the advances had been transferred by the Palestinian Authority presidency thanks to aid money from Arab and Muslim countries that somehow slipped through the borders.

Rafiq al-Husseini told reporters that the presidency, controlled by the so-called moderate Fatah party, had Thursday released 65 million dollars to pay the advances, pensions and benefits for the families of “martyrs and prisoners”.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  She a-hollerin' about the front rent, she'll be lucky to get any back rent.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 09/29/2006 8:46 Comments || Top||


'Fighting terror is like fighting crime, not another army'
"Fighting terror is rather like fighting crime, not like fighting another army," Vice-Premier Shimon Peres told a London think tank on Wednesday in a speech urging a strategic re-thinking of Israel's military and economic priorities. "Neither force nor diplomacy can resolve the long-standing tensions in the region as peace would come through sustained economic growth," Peres told the Royal Institute for International Affairs (Chatham House).

"When it comes to peace, I believe that we tried using strategy and diplomacy too much and did not use economy enough," he continued. "The war with Hizbullah has ushered in a new style of military conflict in the Middle East, one the IDF is unprepared to fight." The Lebanon war was "a new confrontation in the military sense," Peres told the London foreign policy think tank, with "terrorists equipped with missiles and rockets."

This new style of warfare had changed "the nature of military confrontation from being territorial to becoming ballistic. It wasn't anymore a struggle for land or to win another piece of territory, but really trying to kill as much as you can without entrenching themselves on the land itself," Peres said. And, "it came as a surprise to us."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  With thinkers like this, no wonder the IDF floundered in Lebanon. If the country doesn't find new leaders soon, then God help Israel.
Posted by: RWV || 09/29/2006 0:32 Comments || Top||

#2  HHHHHHMMMMMMM, "Like Fighting Crime" eh - GUAM'S K57.com/Radio Show > received an alleged UNCONFIRMED news report that an "AL-QAEDA CHIEF" has called on all Muslim or sympathetic WORLD NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS, DESIGNERS, DEV + SPECIALISTS, etc. to work together in the name of Islam and dev NUCLEAR WEAPONS/DEVICES FOR THE DEFENSE OF MUSLIM NATIONS FROM AMERICA, INCLUDING FOR A POTENS NUCLEAR ASSAULT/ATTACK ON THE USA IFF NEED BE. Would John Gotti, AL Capone,... New York Commission, etal. nuke their own???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2006 0:36 Comments || Top||

#3  Dementia, when a mind is a terrible thing to lose
Posted by: Captain America || 09/29/2006 1:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Buggered metaphor alert. Certainly, it's not like fighting another army, but that doesn't make it like fighting crime. No doubt this brain fart will be parroted by the domestic cretins. He even looks like Carter.
Posted by: .com || 09/29/2006 2:39 Comments || Top||

#5  Fighting terrorism is not like fighting crime. Fighting terrorism is like fighting a vermin infestation. You don't just wound rats and hope they won't come back.
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 6:09 Comments || Top||

#6  I liked your disease analogy, Zenster. Particularly the infectious variety. Quarantine it, and blast with antibiotics until long after the symptoms have abated, to ensure that nothing has the opportunity to mutate and develop resistance. Then incinerate everything that might have been contaminated. Develop a vaccine, and aim for total eradication.

May Islam go the way of polio.

Posted by: exJAG || 09/29/2006 6:30 Comments || Top||

#7  Ahh grasshopper. But fighting Islam is like fighting "the black plague".
Posted by: newc || 09/29/2006 7:20 Comments || Top||

#8  May Islam go the way of polio.

In a huge and absolutely tragic irony, Islam is directly responsible for the biggest outbreak of polio in decades. The only solace lies in how Islam is eating its young. I still pity the children who will be crippled for life by the untrammeled idiocy of their elders.

Sharia vs. polio in Nigeria

AP reported that the rejection of the polio vaccine by a polio-ravaged Nigerian state was due to anti-American sentiment and conspiracy theories. That is true, but it is also true that these fears are being stoked by the local Islamic authorities: "But fears mounted last year after Datti Ahmed, a Kano physician who heads a prominent Muslim group, the Supreme Council for Shariah in Nigeria, said polio vaccines were 'corrupted and tainted by evildoers from America and their Western allies.'"

Polio left Dauda Abdullahi with twisted limbs, unable to walk. But he refuses to allow his children to be immunised against the disease that crippled him three decades ago.
"Only Allah can save us. I don't trust medicine," the 42-year-old roadside shoemaker said.

Immunising toddlers with mouth drops has reduced the number of polio cases from 350 000 children annually in the 1980s to fewer than 800 worldwide last year. Yet the virus is spreading again from Nigeria, where UN officials say a third of the world's cases are the result of a vaccine boycott.

Amid rising Muslim-Western tensions worldwide, Nigeria's Muslims are heeding allegations that the vaccine is a US plot to spread Aids or infertility.

Since October, three northern Nigerian states have banned door-to-door vaccinations until they are satisfied the vaccines do not contain harmful substances.

"Since September 11, the Muslim world is beginning to be suspicious of any move from the Western world," said Sule Ya'u Sule, speaking for the governor of Kano, one of the states where the vaccine is banned. "Our people have become really concerned about polio vaccine."

Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 16:03 Comments || Top||


Olde Tyme Religion
Girl rejects boy – he starts riots that burn 18 churches
Nigerian catastrophe triggered when Christian brushes off Muslim's 'advances'

An investigation has revealed that the Muslim riots that destroyed 18 Christian churches, 20 homes owned by Christians and dozens of Christian shops in the Nigerian city of Dutse happened after a Christian girl rejected a Muslim boy's advances.

As WND reported earlier, the riots erupted after the boy accused the girl of "blasphemy" to the prophet Muhammad. Now word comes from Voice of the Martyrs that the investigation shows nearly 5,000 Christians were displaced and 40 Christian shops destroyed in the capital city of Jigawa state.

"After an Islamic young man made several unsuccessful advances on Jummai, a female Christian, he angrily reacted by calling her a fake Christian who follows a 'useless Jesus,'" the VOM report said. "Jummai responded by telling the boy he followed a 'useless prophet – Muhammad'," the report said. "Furious, the Muslim boy raised alarm through the town by proclaiming that a Christian lady blasphemed Muhammad. She was quickly taken to the local police station where she was kept in custody to diffuse the potentially volatile situation."

After several hours, the Muslim returned to the police station with a "militant band of friends" and incited them to attack police by alleging the woman wasn't being punished after her "insult" to Muhammad. At least six Christians were injured in the resulting riots that destroyed churches, homes, vehicles and shops, officials said.

The government ended up imposing a nighttime curfew and deploying soldiers in tanks and trucks to deter further mayhem, officials said.

Voice of the Martyrs also said Aderemi Ogunmola was one of the Christians who was caught in the violence, and was captured by the Muslim militants to be beaten and slashed. They doused him with gasoline but he fled before he could be killed. Rioters also ransacked the Christ Apostolic Church and while Pastor Adeyinka was trying to flee in his car, they stopped him and burned his car as he escaped.
Rest at link.
Posted by: ed || 09/29/2006 08:56 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another example of why i hate muslims!!!!!
Posted by: Cheregum Crelet7867 || 09/29/2006 9:10 Comments || Top||

#2  These people just need to stick with their goat herds.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 09/29/2006 9:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Licensed for violence like none others.
Posted by: Duh! || 09/29/2006 9:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Oh yeah, way to impress the ladies...
Posted by: Thoth || 09/29/2006 10:48 Comments || Top||

#5  I guess muslims don't worry about rage in the Episcopalian Street.
Posted by: RWV || 09/29/2006 11:12 Comments || Top||

#6  Religion of peas.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 09/29/2006 11:25 Comments || Top||

#7  Furious, the Muslim boy raised alarm through the town by proclaiming that a Christian lady blasphemed Muhammad.

And then they burned down 18 churches.
This young man has a definite future as a "Prominent Muslim Cleric". Maybe even...an "Islamic Scholar"!
Posted by: tu3031 || 09/29/2006 11:28 Comments || Top||

#8  Any charges for the boy? Inciting a riot?
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087 || 09/29/2006 12:23 Comments || Top||

#9  Is there any way this message can get to Nigeria?

"Hey Nigerian Muslims--- to hell with your pedophilic, psychopathic, bloodthirsty, rapist, demon possessed Mohammed."

You want 'blashphemy'? How's that.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 09/29/2006 12:24 Comments || Top||

#10  After an Islamic young man made several unsuccessful advances on Jummai, a female Christian, he angrily reacted by calling her a fake Christian who follows a 'useless Jesus,'"
Shouldn't the young man be punished under Sharia law for blaspheming the Prophet Jesus? The Qur'an (Al-Baqarah, 2:285)says 'We make no distinction between one and another of His Messengers.' A beheading seems appropriate.
Posted by: GK || 09/29/2006 13:34 Comments || Top||

#11  Just another spate of enforcing dhimmitude. HIV/AIDS will eventually kill most of them, if they don't kill each other first.

Jigawa state

Must ... refrain ... from ... making ... noxious ... comment. Make ... it ... up ... to ... Satan ... later.
[/Bart]
Posted by: Zenster || 09/29/2006 15:08 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Philippines wants to blacklist Islamic group
The Philippine government wants the US and the United Nations to blacklist a small group of Islamic converts, considered the country's most dangerous militants because of their financial backing and familiarity with Manila and other key cities, an anti-terror official said Thursday. The Philippines doesn't yet have a list of outlawed terror groups, but if it did the Rajah Solaiman Revolutionary Movement would definitely appear on it, said Ric Blancaflor, director of the government's Anti-Terrorism Task Force, adding that Manila will cooperate with any governments that plan to ban the group.

The movement, believed to have about 30 members, has been linked to a number of terrorist attacks in the Philippines, including a February 2004 bombing that gutted a ferry, killing 116 people. It has been hurt by the arrests of its leader and other members but could still plot attacks, Blancaflor said. The group has collaborated with the more well-known Abu Sayyaf, based on southern Jolo island, and Jemaah Islamiyah, a regional network allied with al-Qaida, in staging attacks and organizing terrorist training in the southern Mindanao region. It also has links with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a large group fighting for self-rule in the south, Blancaflor said.
Posted by: Fred || 09/29/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ask Blancaflor why the MILF is NOT on the list. This is just crap. The MILF bring in these and other groups, provide them cove and remain free to do as they please.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 09/29/2006 15:21 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
"No Halt To Atomic Plans" ; Ahmadinejad
Karaj, 29 Sept. (AKI) - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday Iran will not abide by international calls and halt sensitive nuclear work "even for a few minutes." Speaking in Karaj, 40 kilometres west of Teheran, the president said:"My government is determined to continue pursuing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." Ahmadinejad spoke one day after a meeting between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani did not lead to an agreement on uranium enrichment suspension - though the two parties said they had "come to some positive conclusion."

"Even if they ask for a one-day halt (of uranium enrichment), our answer would be, we won't do it," Ahmadinejad told thousands of people gatherd in Karaj.
We believe you. Apparently the EU is hard of hearing
The Iranian president added that "the US and its allies wanted Iran to suspend enrichment in order to force a permanent halt, because they were opposed to any progress in the Islamic world." "Europeans have asked Iran to suspend enrichment during negotiations, citing technical problems, but we rejected their demand," he also said.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain - plus German, also involved in talks on Iran's nuclear programme, have offered Iran a package of incentives in return for a suspension of uranium enrichment. Tehran however refused the offer presented on 6 June by Solana and later ignored a UN 31 August deadline threatening it with sanctions if it did not stop enriching uranium.
Posted by: Steve || 09/29/2006 08:35 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  My government is determined to continue pursuing nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."

He's telling the truth here. What he means by "peaceful purposes" is that one he eliminates all Jews, establishes a caliphate and brings all non-muslims to the sword or dhimmi status and he is in charge, then his world will be peaceful.
Posted by: anon || 09/29/2006 14:40 Comments || Top||

#2  Indeed. For the muslim, "peace" is something that follows the successful outcome of war. Without war there cannot be peace - muslims can't comprehend the idea of living peacefully, as others do. So here, Amadinnajacket does indeed mean his purpose for nukes is war and the "peace" that he believes will occur once all the infidels are dead or dhimmified. Well, all the joooos anyway.

His "peaceful purpose" lies on the farside of the war he intends to start the process.
Posted by: Shuns Uleating3851 || 09/29/2006 16:49 Comments || Top||

#3  The US-West either accepts a nuclearized Radical Iran, or it does not - as with the Commies + Secualar Socialists, ARMISTICE = STALEMATE = "TOLERANCE", etal. is only for the USA-West, and means the USA-West dies later once the strebgths of its enemies is renewed.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 09/29/2006 22:25 Comments || Top||



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Fri 2006-09-29
  Al Qaeda In Iraq: 4,000 Insurgents Dead
Thu 2006-09-28
  Taliban set up office in Miranshah
Wed 2006-09-27
  Insurgent Leader Captured in Iraq
Tue 2006-09-26
  Somali Islamists seize Kismayo
Mon 2006-09-25
  Omar al-Farouq killed in Basra crossfire©
Sun 2006-09-24
  Norway detains Pak, two others
Sat 2006-09-23
  'Bin Laden is dead' claim French secret service
Fri 2006-09-22
  Pak clerics demand Pope's removal
Thu 2006-09-21
  Death sentence for al-Rishawi
Wed 2006-09-20
  Meshaal threatens to murder Haniyeh
Tue 2006-09-19
  Close shave for Somali prez in assassination boom
Mon 2006-09-18
  Afghan boomer targets crowd of kiddies
Sun 2006-09-17
  Mujahideen Army threatens Pope with suicide attack
Sat 2006-09-16
  Somali cleric calls for Muslims to hunt down and kill Pope
Fri 2006-09-15
  Muslims seethe over Pope's remarks


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