The Taliban are planning a major winter offensive combining their diverse factions in a push on the Afghan capital, Kabul, intelligence analysts and sources among the militia have revealed. The thrust will involve a concerted attempt to take control of surrounding provinces, a bid to cut the key commercial highway linking the capital with the eastern city of Jalalabad, and operations designed to tie down British and other Nato troops in the south.
Last week Nato, with a force of 40,000 in the country including around 5,000 from Britain, said it had killed 48 more Taliban in areas thought to have been 'cleared'. 'They have major attacks planned all the way through to the spring and are quite happy for their enemy to know it,' a Pakistan-based source close to the militia told The Observer. 'There will be no winter pause.' The Taliban's fugitive leader, Mullah Omar, yesterday rejected overtures for peace talks from President Hamid Karzai and said it intended to try him in an Islamic court for the 'massacre' of Afghan civilians.
Since their resurgence earlier this year the Taliban have made steady progress towards Kabul from their heartland in the south-east around Kandahar, establishing a presence in Ghazni province an hour's drive from the suburbs. They do not expect to capture the capital but aim to continue destabilising the increasingly fragile Karzai government and influence Western public opinion to force a withdrawal of troops. 'The aim is clear,' said the source. 'Force the international representatives of the crusader Zionist alliance out, and finish with their puppet government.'
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Hey guys, Infra-red detectors? Temperature differentials? OK I'll keep it simple: warm body on snowy mountainside, very conspicuous. What did they teach you in that Madrassah anyway?
#2
Talk about a target-rich environment for a Spectre : all those great sensors including thermal sights, all that firepower locked to the computer gunsights, and the ability to fly so high above the battlefield that the Taliban only know Spectre is there when they start to die. A few LRRP-style teams out with the new laser targeting sights and GPS targeting handhelds to confirm hostiles, and then Splatter Time!!
#3
Infiltrating from Waziristan won't be a picnic. So few mountain passes. Kabul is a demographic mix. Taliban has always been a Pashto phenomenon. Taliban has a major problem: lying. In the West, most captured Pashtos are very unhappy with their Balochistan based trainers. And Balochis - many of whom are separatists - aren't too pleased with their parasitic guests.
#4
Re: Kabul, although it would not be the only target in the city, the Talibani will almost certainly try to hit the new Afghan national military academy. Many Pashtuns are furious that they do not dominate the student body or faculty there -- it's a representative mix of tribal backgrounds at present.
Killing cadets and faculty there would be aimed at chilling any movement towards an Afghan identity that transcends tribal differences. In the early 1800s, West Point was key to producing professional military officers and national leaders who identified with the U.S. as a nation. The Afghan academy is designed to have a similar effect there. The Talibani hate it -- it's their REAL rival for influence, long term.
#5
I should add that we have people helping the Afghans at the academy. If it were struck, a fair number of US field grade officers might be casualties.
#6
Funny, the writer doesn't indicate whether the Brutal Afghan WinterTM applies to the Taliban. We know that it applies to us, though. I wonder why that is...
#8
Actually, some strut their stuff in the Big Apple. Man, forget about brutal Afghan winters, we're talking NY cabbies and the competition at Westminster Kennel Club. Now THAT's brutal!!
Heh.
Posted by: dog fancier ||
10/29/2006 9:13 Comments ||
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#9
Little thing, reminds me of S*** Dawg. Smart for an Afghan.
/no mo Afghans ever, ever, ever again. Unless they looks like Cookie Dawg.
#10
You gotta remember this is the Guardian. They are full of shit. They would love to see the Taliwhackers win. So they act out their fantasies by writing about them in their rag.
#11
Not a breed I keep either, Shipman. For sighthound, I prefer my Whippets. Smart, wicked fast, fearless (puppies taking on nasty woodchucks that outweigh them), elegant and delightful pets once they get past the puppy stage.
But for sneaky smarts, you can't beat my spaniels. What's not to like about a dog that can open the refrigerator and bring a can of coke / beer on command?
Just keep the meat, cheese and eggs on the upper shelf or in the drawer, or they'll take care of their gratuity themselves LOL.
Posted by: dog fancier ||
10/29/2006 9:38 Comments ||
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#12
Let them fight, die like the porKoranimals they are. It will keep our boys from getting bored.
#13
I can understand how the Taliban would have Displacement Anxiety because of encroaching modernity. No one wants to give up oppressing women, beheading infidels and the like, but the times they are a changing.
I suggest they read my new book published by Appalachian Press: "Hey, who moved my hummus!" It might help them to adjust to their new reality.
#17
lotp: In the early 1800s, West Point was key to producing professional military officers and national leaders who identified with the U.S. as a nation.
we luv you lotp, but...
May I remind you dear that during the war of Northern Aggression such luminary Southern Patriots as Gen. Robert E Lee, Gen. Stonewall Jackson, Gen. A.P. Hill, Gen. Joseph Reid Anderson and about 100+ other West Point trained General officers resigned their commissions to fight like hell for heart and home. [as well as hundreds of other West Point trained officers of course]
Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar has rejected the latest offer of peace talks by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday. Instead, the one-eyed leader with a $10 million US bounty on his head has repeated his threat to prosecute Karzai in an Islamic court for the massacre of Afghans. The infidels of the entire world have gathered in Afghanistan, occupied it and taken the Afghans hostage, Tayyab Agha said by satellite phone from a secret place.
There can be no talks with the Afghan puppet government in the presence of foreign occupying forces. Hamid Karzai and his colleagues should first free themselves from the slavery of foreign infidels and then invite us for negotiations.
Karzai on Friday repeated his offer for talks if the Taliban leadership met several conditions, including ending support from elements in Pakistan and the involvement of foreign fighters. The Taliban will not negotiate in the presence of foreign forces and will continue their armed jihad under Mullah Omars leadership until the ouster of foreign forces, Agha said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I have no idea why Karzai would even play this fool's game.
#3
Good point, Pappy. I just have to wonder whose money he'll be using to buy off anyone who wants to play. The reservoir's running low, so I can only afford to offer one guess, lol. :-)
#4
The key is in the conditions. Sounds like Karzai is thinking ahead to problems in Pakland - make the Taliban choose chaos there or an Afghani home. Divide out the foreigners (Arabs, chechens, related strangers) and relocalize the indigenous gangsters.
QUETTA: Mahmood Khan Achakzai, president of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), on Saturday accused Islamabad of being involved in the armed interference in Kabuls affairs. At a public gathering in Pishin district, Achakzai said that Islamabad was deliberately causing regional devastation by directly interfering in the affairs of the Karzai-led government and supporting armed groups. He appealed to religious Afghan leaders to hold dialogue with Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed to determine whether the acts of interference were jihad or terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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Egypt has moved an extra 5,000 security personnel to its border with the Gaza Strip after an Israeli newspaper said that Israel might bomb tunnels used for smuggling weapons into the Palestinian territories. Security officials said the members of central security force joined a similar number of border guards already deployed along the area known as the Philadelphi Corridor, fearing the possible Israeli operation's impact on civilians living on the Egyptian side of the border.
One Egyptian official told Reuters on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity: "We are following the situation with extreme concern and we have not received any warnings from the Israeli side about this operation." The Israeli army declined to comment on the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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DHAKA - At least nine people died and about 500 were wounded in political riots in Bangladesh on Saturday after the man due to take over as interim leader withdrew just hours before taking the oath. Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zias five-year mandate ended on Friday. Former Supreme Court chief justice K.M. Hasan was to have been sworn in as caretaker leader on Saturday, ahead of a national election due in January.
"To hell with this! I'm outta here!"
A presidential spokesman said during the night that Hasan was too ill to take the oath. Hasan had told the president he was unable to become caretaker leader, he added.
In a statement issued to the local media, Hasan said he had decided to withdraw because major political parties had failed to agree on his appointment. I was prepared to serve on national interest, but the level of mistrust between the political parties has made my position untenable, the statement said. It is best I should stand aside rather than be a hurdle to the political process.
"And, I'm sick." Sounds like he's both sick and tired.
The opposition, citing Hasans past association with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, had accused him of being biased in favour of the government and unsuitable to oversee the election.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Just not enough Hoovers to go around?
Posted by: john ||
10/29/2006 8:52 Comments ||
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#2
How much does the Bangladesh Power Vaccuum weigh?
The Muslim teacher who insisted on wearing a veil in class has been following a fatwa issued personally to her by a Islamic cleric belonging to a hardline sect. Aishah Azmi found herself in the middle of a national row about integration when she took her school to an employment tribunal after it suspended her for refusing to remove the veil in class. Tony Blair joined the debate about the wearing of veils opened by Jack Straw, the Commons leader and supported the schools actions.
Azmi, 24, has maintained that her decision to wear the veil was driven entirely by her personal beliefs, rather than the advice or instruction of a third party. But this weekend it emerged that she refused to take the veil off at school after receiving a fatwa, or religious ruling, from Mufti Yusuf Sacha, a Muslim cleric in West Yorkshire. Her legal team revealed that the advice Sacha issued to Azmi ruled that it was obligatory for women to wear the niqab (face-veil) in the presence of men who were not their blood relatives.
Sacha is one of several hundred Islamic clerics in Britain with the status of mufti, entitling him to issue fatwas based on Islamic law. Although Muslims are expected to follow fatwas, they are not obliged to do so, particularly if they live in a non-Muslim state.
#2
Sacha follows the teachings of the Tablighi Jamaat, a hardline Muslim group, elements of which are suspected by western intelligence agencies of having links with terrorism. The majority of Tablighis are, however, regarded as moderate.
Here we go again:
"It's a fatwah, it's a dessert topping, it's an extremist, it's a floor wax, mmm ... tastes moderate and just look at that shine!"
How much more extremist-in-moderate's-clothing runaround will be needed before nobody takes this moderate Muslim bullshit seriously anymore?
I've already had enough of radical Muslims to last three thousand lifetimes. I'm pretty damn fed up with all this moderate Muslim taqqiya, as well. The only thing that will give me even the least sort of hope is Radical Reformist Muslims taking jihadists out back of the mosque and pumping some slugs into them. When I hear about radical reformers aggressively rehabilitating the morally bankrupt domatic political ideology called "Islam", only then will I have any hope.
#3
Rubbish. She didn't wear the niqab while travelling to her job interview or at the job interview itself. Must have passed men on the way and interviewwed with a male offical at the school.
Only after being hired did she show up with only her eyes visible. Taqiyaa all the time. Church of England school - she planned the controversy from the beginning. And her actions prove it's nothing more than a fashion choice she makes each morning. Else she would have interviewed veiled.
#9
Listening to her being interviewed, she sounds quite the silly cow. Burkha Sheehan, I expect the media to rally round and send her off on demos. Can't you just see the anguish in her eyes. Poor little muzzie.
#10
...she planned the controversy from the beginning.
I doubt that she herself planned it, she doesn't come across as being smart enough. Most likely she is being used as a pawn by someone else. No doubt a large portion of her pay packet is liberated from her for higher uses.
#11
I'll freely admit that I've been spotlighting how often these supposedly moderate Muslims suddenly turn out to bo not-so-moderate. One little question:
With the Mainstream Media dryhumping fawning all over Islam, how many other incidents of blatant Muslim hipocrasy go unreported?
Screw this "moderate" bullshit. Let me know when radical reformers are stacking up dead jihadists like cordwood.
The Maritime Self Defense Force, Japan's navy, held its annual fleet review on Sunday, with destroyers lining the seas and missiles roaring through the air in a major display of this country's military power. More than 8,100 troops and 48 ships -- including Aegis-equipped destroyers and state-of-the-art submarines -- took part in the review, which was held in waters just south of Tokyo.
"Our country's Self-Defense Forces are being called upon to play a more crucial and varied role," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in an address to the sailors aboard the Kurama, a destroyer that served as flagship during the maneuvers.
Abe singled out North Korea as a major threat to Japan,
Abe singled out North Korea as a major threat to Japan, saying its recent ballistic missile test launches and its claim to have exploded a nuclear device on Oct. 9 are "grave and unforgivable."
Though planned well before North Korea's nuclear test, Sunday's review put the Japanese navy's best ships on display, from vessels rigged with the advanced Aegis radar system to new, conventionally powered submarines and high-speed hovercraft capable of quickly putting heavy vehicles or hundreds of troops ashore in difficult-to-reach locations.
"I believe this is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate our readiness," Abe, who assumed office last month, said in his address.
While limited by the post-World War II Constitution to a strictly defensive role, Japan's military is one of the largest and best equipped in the world.
While limited by the post-World War II Constitution to a strictly defensive role, Japan's military is one of the largest and best equipped in the world. Largely in response to the North Korean threat, and concerns over the growth of China's military, it is getting stronger.
Last week, lawmakers began discussing a plan to boost the Defense Agency to a full-fledged ministry, giving it greater clout in budget and policy negotiations. The transformation is expected to come over the New Year's holidays, though it still requires a final vote in the Diet.
Concerns over North Korea have also led Japan to step up efforts to strengthen its missile defenses.
Concerns over North Korea have also led Japan to step up efforts to strengthen its missile defenses. Japan launched its third spy satellite earlier this year, and is rapidly moving ahead on plans to deploy missiles around the country in an ambitious, multibillion dollar missile shield project with the United States.
Soon after Pyongyang's nuclear test, Japanese warships were dispatched to the Sea of Japan to monitor activity on the Korean Peninsula. Japan also currently has warships in the Indian Ocean providing logistical support for coalition forces in Afghanistan.
The Diet last week approved an extension of that mission for one more year. (AP)
The U.S. and Japan recently test-launched a SM-3 equipped with an experimental clamshell nosecone, designed by Japan to more quickly release the interceptors kill vehicle. In the standard configuration for previous tests, the SM-3 missile must maneuver to eject the barrel-shaped kill vehicle, a process known as pitch and ditch. The newer nosecone eliminates the need for such maneuvers, which in turn means the kinetic kill vehicle can collide with and destroy its target more quickly.(7)
#3
What will really make a difference is the two X-band radar sites the Japanese are planning : those would cover the entire southern asian zone, as targeting radars for the US land-based interceptors, as well as the SM3s, Patriots, and plane-based lasers. Plus, a few more Aegis pasdestroyers will let the Japanese Fleet put a full-scale interceptor arc around North Korea, just outside the international limit.
#5
Sadly, a much more impressive display than the Canadian Navy's tuna trawler (HMCS Vichy), fire boat (HMCS Hoser), garbage scow (HMCS Moose Bin) and hospital ships (the brand new HMCS Bacon Boy and the venerable HMCS Deserter).
I'm unfamiliar with the site linked here, but the author apparently recently testified before Congress on the US - So. Korea alliance. He links to a number of reports in Chosun that suggest this story is worth tracking for a while. It relates to the recent resignations by senior South Korean officials after the NORK nuclear test. More may be involved than placating the public.
A widening spy scandal surrounding several senior members of the leftist Democratic Labor Party and a U.S. citizen may have led to the resignation of the head of the National Intelligence Service yesterday. Now, evidence has emerged of a direct link between Pyongyangs agents in the South and the violent anti-American protests at Camp Humphreys last May.
Australia's most senior Islamic cleric, Sheikh Taj Aldin Alhilali, has made headlines again with more controversial comments.
In an interview on Arabic radio reported in The Australian, the sheikh praised militant jihadists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He called them men of the highest order for fighting against coalition forces - which include Australian forces - to liberate their homelands.
"Jihad of the liberator of Palestine, that's the greatest and cleanest and highest ... jihad which lifts our heads in pride in south Lebanon," the sheikh said in the October 17 interview.
He told broadcaster Abrahim Zoabi he endorses jihad for liberation. "We are talking about ... jihad of liberating our land, jihad of Muslim Afghanis in their land - that's jihad.
"Jihad of Iraqi Muslims is jihad, but not when Sunnis and Shias are killing each other - that's not jihad."
A defiant Sheikh Alhilali said on Friday he would resign only when the world was "clean of the White House".
He is under pressure to step down after suggesting in a sermon immodestly dressed women invite sexual assault.
Meanwhile, it was revealed intelligence reports warning that Sheikh Alhilali had been linked to extremist groups in Egypt and could pose a threat to Australia were sent to the federal government in 1984 - six years before he was granted permanent residency.
But the documents, which also said military-style weapons were being kept at the Lakemba mosque, were shelved, according to the secret agent who passed them on to Canberra.
The reports came from an Egyptian source considered highly reliable by Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA.
"He was our best agent at the time," the former secret agent told The Australian.
The reports were passed on through the Australian embassy in Cairo then headed by Ken Rogers.
Current ASIO director General Paul O'Sullivan was a senior diplomat at the embassy at the time.
Prime Minister John Howard has urged Muslim leaders to listen to the Australian community when deciding the fate of the sheik.
The board of the Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), which runs the Sydney mosque where Australia's most senior Islamic cleric preaches, met on Sunday night and decided on a plan to deal with the controversy.
"The board has met. We have put together a plan and hopefully we can get ourselves out of this crisis," LMA president Tom Zreika told AAP.
But he declined to reveal the plan, saying it was confidential.
Despite earlier reports to the contrary, no meeting was held regarding the sheik's future.
The sheik has repeatedly said his comments, which sparked a storm of outrage after being translated from Arabic, were taken out of context and he would only quit if it could be proved his sermon was deliberately offensive.
"I am particularly concerned about the views he (Alihali) expressed concerning women," Mr Howard told Macquarie Radio.
"They are quite unacceptable to the mainstream of Australian opinion and if those views had been expressed by a Catholic bishop there would be an absolute uproar."
Mr Howard said he did not have the power to sack the Muslim leader, and could only call on those with power to resolve the issue.
"The responsibility to resolve this matter sensibly rests with the Islamic community," he told reporters in Canberra.
"I don't appoint him, I can't dismiss him.
"And there is no point in people in my position calling for this and that other than to call upon those who have the power to resolve this matter, to resolve this matter in a way that promotes the interests of harmony in our community and promotes the view Islamic Australians are fully integrated into Australian society."
He said the Islamic community must hear what the rest of the Australian community was saying on the issue and asked them to "discharge their obligations as members of the Australian community".
"If this matter is not properly handled by the Islamic community I am concerned that their failure to do so will do lasting damage to the perceptions of that community within the Australian community.
"His remarks were totally unacceptable - full stop."
Mr Howard says the sheik's controversial comments have also tarnished the image of Australian Muslims overseas.
"One of the things that does bother me is that when he goes overseas he carries the title of Mufti of Australia and that represents to the world a view of Australian Islam which I feel very uncomfortable with," Mr Howard told Macquarie radio.
"I feel very uncomfortable, and I don't mind saying it, that somebody holding a responsible religious position in Australia should have expressed the view he did."
Opposition leader Kim Beazley said it was very important the Islamic community took action on the sheik.
"He should go," he said.
"This fellow should go from his status in the Islamic community."
The sheik and the LMA, which runs the Lakemba Mosque, have agreed he take a break from preaching for several months.
Mr Howard said the Labor federal government in the late 1980s took a "blatantly political decision" to keep the sheik in Australia at the time.
News Limited papers have reported that then treasurer Paul Keating and leading Labor figure Leo McLeay demanded in the mid 1980s that immigration minister Chris Hurford grant the sheik residency and were furious when he refused.
But Mr Hurford's decision was reportedly overruled by Mr Keating while he was acting prime minister in the absence of then prime minister Bob Hawke.
It was the second time the party leaders had attempted to intervene on behalf of the sheik, according to Labor sources cited in the papers.
The sheik arrived in Australia in 1982 but did not gain residency until 1990.
"It is so typical of John Howard to be out there saying the Labor party is somehow to blame for Sheik Alhilali's views," Mr Beazley told the Nine Network.
"It would be as sensible as me saying the Liberal Party is responsible for it because I see in one newspaper he came in 1982 (when Liberal Malcolm Fraser was in power).
"The point is what do you about it now - what stand do you take now. That was years ago."
Mr Beazley said immigrants to Australia should have to give an indication they support Australian values, "in this particular case that we regard men and women as equal stakeholders in this society".
A prominent Liberal backbencher says the sheik should be stripped of his permanent residency and kicked out of the country.
Queensland Liberal MP Warren Entsch said he understood the cleric was only a permanent resident, not a citizen, and his invitation to remain in Australia should be rescinded.
"My first reaction is to hell with him," Mr Entsch told reporters in Canberra.
"Having citizenship is an absolute privilege, so is residency, and if he wants to abuse that privilege than he should suffer the consequences.
"I'm not too sure what the legal ramifications are, whether the government has the capacity to do that once it's granted, but I think it's something that should be considered.
"He shouldn't be here."
But Mr Entsch said he had taken heart that the mainstream Muslim community had quickly stood up against the sheik.
He said high-profile leaders were speaking against the cleric and making strong moves to have him step down.
"From what I've heard within the Muslim community they are certainly lining him up to do a lot more than an apology," he said.
"And it's good to see the moderates and more mainstream Muslims in the community actually taking this character on and telling him it's totally unacceptable in this country to be making the statements he is."
Liberal MP Cameron Thompson said the cleric should listen to the groundswell of people in the Islamic community asking him to step down.
"From where I sit he's long outlived his usefulness as an effective leader of that religion," Mr Thompson told reporters in Canberra.
"I think there are many more people who would be more effective in that position ... so I'd like to see something else happening there."
Labor's deputy leader Jenny Macklin said the Muslim community should show leadership and make it clear the sheik's views were not acceptable.
She said the person responsible for rape was the perpetrator, not the victim.
"I think this man needs to be condemned for his lack of moral leadership," she said.
"He certainly should go, from my point of view."
Ms Macklin said Attorney-General Philip Ruddock should actively investigate whether Sheik Alhilali had broken any laws with his comments.
#1
the muslim community would like nothing more than for the Australian government to deport him so they can whine, seethe, and have hysterics over Islamophobia. But as it stands, the Australian government threw it back in the faces of the Muslims and said, you do it. For an entire culture used to blaming everyone but themselves - this produces a problem for them. But.. but...
Bottom line for Aussie Muslims - if YOU can't handle something this egegious and disgusting - then don't complain when everyone says you are barbarians not fit for democracy.
#2
Good point, CO. However, if the Australian Muslim community does not take substantive corrective action, then they really need to slingshot this sick puppy back to his native Egyptian Hell Hole Islamic utopia.
Allowing this shithead to linger on Australian soil will only make things worse in the long run. Assholes like al-Hilali, by dint of their powerful positions, inspire wannabe jihadists with their poisonous rhetoric. The gang rapes stand as glaring proof of what sort of impact this turd already has had.
I would much prefer this rutbag catch a slug, but the next plane out may have to suffice. If anything, should this maggot leave the country on hiatus, they could just quietly lock the door behind him and oblige al-Hilali to go through a comprehensive immigration review upon re-entry. I'm sure all involved will be simply stunned to find out that he has somehow managed not to qualify for readmission.
MUSLIM leaders will decide on the future of controversial Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly tonight. Sheik Hilaly has said he will stand down if he is proved to have been deliberately offensive in his sermon that suggested women provoked sexual attacks.
A meeting of senior clerics and the Lebanese Muslim Association was planned for 9pm (AEDT) tonight at Lakemba Mosque, in Sydney's west, Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Keysar Trad said today. "It is open to clerics who want to go, and they will be mostly from NSW," Mr Trad said.
Sheik Hilaly said he would not be attending the Multicultural Eid Festival and Fair to celebrate the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan at Fairfield today. A spokesman for the sheik said he did not want his presence to take the focus off the festival itself. The sheik was widely criticised last week for comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Hilaly has said he will stand down if he is proved to have been deliberately offensive
since his daughter already said he was just misunderstood and he was only trying to get the old men to encourage women to be modest, I think his defense is established and trial concluded.
#2
Suffice to say that al-Hilali's mere existence is deliberately offensive to all women. You can be sure that this scurrilous cretin probably considers himself God's gift to same.
#3
It'll be three days of closed-doors. Then they'll piously announce they made a decision that won't be popular with the kuffirs couldn't come to a decision, so he stays.
#4
But true gentlemen apologize when they've been inadvertently offensive. They know when they've been deliberately offensive, because it was deliberate.
#5
It won't be deliberately offensive because that's how they think. Who is "they"? Probably a group of five good ol' Muslims from his hometown, all of them male with daughters who have been brainwashed likewise, and all of them steeped in this kind of thinking. Like I said a couple of days ago, he'll get a symbolic slap on the wrist. And if it is even remembered a year later, even that will probably be withdrawn or made moot after they feel they are in control of the situation.
TW: He probably didn't apologize because he didn't think it was deliberately offensive, if offensive at all. Since he's an Imam, you can guess how his judge-jury colleagues are going to think . . . . But we'll see. It's an opportunity for them to show the world what they're made of and it's in their control. If they drop it like I suspect they will, it will be a opportunity for the rest of the world to drop. Kinda makes me wonder if they'll address (1) the idea that men have no hope of self control and are therefore innocent in their decision, and (2) the fact that it's all the woman's victim's fault.
#6
Kinda makes me wonder if they'll address (1) the idea that men have no hope of self control and are therefore innocent in their decision, and (2) the fact that it's all the woman's victim's fault.
Thay already have. They did it when they appointed this rutbag. The above two points you make are long-standing fixtures of Islamic doctrine. This is why this dogmatic political ideology must be wholly reformed or universally banned. No other options.
The following are extracts from Sheik Taj Din al-Hilalys controversial sermon given last month, as independently translated by an SBS Arabic expert.
Those atheists, people of the book (Christians and Jews), where will they end up? In Surfers Paradise? On the Gold Coast? Where will they end up? In hell and not part-time, for eternity. They are the worst in Gods creation.
When it comes to adultery, its 90 percent the womans responsibility. Why? Because a woman owns the weapon of seduction. Its she who takes off her clothes, shortens them, flirts, puts on make-up and powder and takes to the streets, God protect us, dallying. Its she who shortens, raises and lowers. Then, its a look, a smile, a conversation, a greeting, a talk, a date, a meeting, a crime, then Long Bay jail. Then you get a judge, who has no mercy, and he gives you 65 years.
But when it comes to this disaster, who started it? In his literature, writer al-Rafee says: If I came across a rape crime, I would discipline the man and order that the woman be arrested and jailed for life. Why would you do this, Rafee? He said because if she had not left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldnt have snatched it.
If you get a kilo of meat, and you dont put it in the fridge or in the pot or in the kitchen but you leave it on a plate in the backyard, and then you have a fight with the neighbour because his cats eat the meat, youre crazy. Isnt this true?
If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park, or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, then whose fault will it be, the cats, or the uncovered meats? The uncovered meat is the disaster. If the meat was covered the cats wouldnt roam around it. If the meat is inside the fridge, they wont get it.
If the woman is in her boudoir, in her house and if shes wearing the veil and if she shows modesty, disasters dont happen.
Satan sees women as half his soldiers. Youre my messenger in necessity, Satan tells women youre my weapon to bring down any stubborn man. There are men that I fail with. But youre the best of my weapons.
...The woman was behind Satan playing a role when she disobeyed God and went out all dolled up and unveiled and made of herself palatable food that rakes and perverts would race for. She was the reason behind this sin taking place.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Wow. According to al-Hilali himself, that whole tirade was supposed to be about prostitutes and not regular women. Funny how the word, whore, pro, tramp or floozie doesn't show up even once.
Satan sees women as half his soldiers. Youre my messenger in necessity, Satan tells women youre my weapon to bring down any stubborn man. There are men that I fail with. But youre the best of my weapons.
Someone needs to tell al-Hilali that, in reality, he is the best of Satan's weapons ... right before they push a slug into this shitbag's brain.
Remember, this is the Mufti, the grand leader of all Muslims throughout New Zealand and Australia. He's widely regarded as a moderate, just like Sheik Yusuf "Beat Your Wife and Kill All The Jews" Qaradawi. Only a few people are calling for this shithead's ouster and the only ostensible measures being resorted to involve him taking a three month hiatus from preaching. Want to know where he's going? Saudi Arabia, so they can pin a medal on him and cram more shit between his ears. The sooner this asshole assumes room temperature, the better off this whole world will be.
#2
It's all that gawddamned raw meat laying around everywhere. It's on the streets, the parks, the beaches. It's everydamnwhere. It's the meat's fault. Bag it. Get it into bags before anyone catches a whiff of the scent and loses all control. Get the bags shut. Vacuum seal them. Get more bags, there's meat all over this place.
#5
If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park, or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, then whose fault will it be, the cats, or the uncovered meats?
What I can't figure out is why it's the meat's fault in his "sermon" and not the fault of the man who left the meat out. Remember - it's "your kilo of meat" as he says. Then "you" must be responsible. Still no powers of reason in inshallah land, howefver twisted.
If you leave a mountain of dung-covered korans uncovered and the flies get at it, who's fault is it? The dung-covered korans or the flies?
#6
According to al-Hilali himself, that whole tirade was supposed to be about prostitutes and not regular women
all non-muslem women are prostitutes, don'tcha know?
But wait, I see a problem. Didn't his daughter say yesterday that he was just misunderstood because he only said this to a bunch of old men to encourage them to keep their daughters modest? Maybe I dreamed that?
#8
No, Planet Dan. Raping different women is not going to make him understand what rape is. Forcibly sodomizing scantily clad Muslim men could be persuasive, but instead of pushing for more sexual violence, how bout just arguing that point?
#10
If a whole mosque full of dumbass muslims sit there and agree with shit like this, there is no helping them. They are dumbfucks, they should go back to Yemen, or Lybia or wherever the fuck they are from and worry about their women showing their ankles. Good goddamned riddance I say.
#11
Half of Satan's army are women, the rest are sheep, goats, donkeys, and boys.
There's Allan's moral code. If a man lusts, then he is forgiven, whatever happens.
#15
Solution: Target women in hijab for rape. Prove this asswipe wrong
Bzzzzzzt!!! WRONG. As yet, Muslim women remain victims of Islam more than anything else. They get raped enough at home already, thank-you-very-much. Jules is far closer to the crux of things.
Giving some less-than-respectful Aussie prisoners a chance to turn al-Hilali into an obedient prison wife would be far more appropriate in this case. Sadly, the Australian government has effectively declared hands-off of this rather repulsive SOB.
Try to remember that Islam essentially holds women responsible for the vast majority of this world's ills. By extension of the Eden myth shared in common throughout Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, Eve is seen as having led man astray from the word of God. She is the foul temptress and sex is her weapon of choice. Feminine wiles are such that no (Islamic) man can possibly withstand their siren song. For this reason, women are almost completely concealed, the better to prevent Islamic men from being driven mad by their salacious and irresistible lure.
This is why al-Hilali blames all unconcealed women for rape. And make no mistake that he is referring to all unveiled women and not just prostitutes. The translation of his speech reveals not a single reference to whores, merely uncovered meat women. In the patriarchal autocracy known as Islam, women are already treated like so much meat. Whether it is being beaten tenderized at home or bought and sold in arranged marriages the marketplace, they have as little say over their fate as a pot roast.
That is disturbing.
Very disturbing indeed, Clkethel OHlkdj. As you can see, despite there being some talk of censure or reprimand, the overall response by Australian Muslims is the usual Thundering Silence whenever there is a base affront to Western sensibilities. Perish the thought that a single printed cartoon word should offend Muslim sensibilities, however.
Worst of all is how al-Hilali is deemed a moderate. What should we expect from radicals and extremists? More importantly, this sort of vile spewing is accepted as moderate doctrine by antipodal Muslims. That is the most damning thing of all. Finally, the Lakemba mosque where al-Hilali preaches is the recipient of government funding. One can only hope that Australian politicians see the light and cut off all disbursements to this Islamic cesspool.
#16
Thanks, Zen, for adding a male voice to this fight. Every man that joins us strengthens the argument against "deserved rape" and puts in stark relief the difference between Islamic equal rights and Western equal rights.
#17
I appreciate the sentiment, Jules, but no thanks are necessary. There is no such thing as "deserved rape" on the part of any innocent person. That Islam countenances, not to mention decrees it, is sufficient condemnation of this bogus religion all by itself.
Just to forestall those who might want to point out my "prison wife" comments about al-Hilali; This maggoty Mufti is far from innocent. Using his pulpit to ameliorate the guilt of gang rapists makes him deserving of a similar fate. How many women have suffered some of the very worst trauma imaginable because of this loathsome shithead's ravings? Now think of how many young Islamic women that have suffered genital mutilation at the hands of their parents becuse (and I'd bet the farm on this one), this vile cretin more than likely supports female genital mutilation as well.
This one individual is responsible for untold lifetimes of grotesque suffering. The sooner he catches a slug, the sooner this would can heal.
#19
I'll be forthright enough to admit that such a thing crossed my mind as well, but was immediately and resolutely rejected. In the long run it would prove nothing except that senseless brutality is not Islam's almost exclusive domain.
#24
Agreed. Planet Dan is generally a straight shooter. I'm glad he comments here.
HOWEVER. The idea of raping a woman because of her beliefs or the beliefs of the men around her is abhorent. LET'S BE VERY CLEAR ABOUT THAT. It's against everything we stand and fight for IMO.
On a more practical level, do you think this son of a bitch would mind? Other than that his own 'honor' was besmirched of course. Raping muslim women would be about in the same category as keying his new car, so far as one can tell from his spit sermons.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2006 16:53 Comments ||
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#26
Just walked in, so sorry to disappoint lotp by not adding my voice earlier.
For the record, a rapist, whether the victim is bikini-clad or draped like a curtain, should be horse-whipped.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2006 17:44 Comments ||
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#27
lotp-yes, I think Hilaly would mind very much if he were on the receiving end of forced sodomy. Torn perineal tissues and anal fissures, hemorrhoids, and humiliation galore. Big time damage. And quite parallel, psychologically.
#31
No need to preach to the choir, Frank .... but I did notice a singular lack of response to that proposal.
If I'm overly touchy on this issue, forgive me. Years ago I was attacked twice by would-be rapists and a young woman close to me actually was gang raped at a party. It's not a theoretical issue for me.
#32
well, as the saying goes, because I'm equipped with the apparatus to be a rapist don't make me one, any more than your equipment makes you a whore. Repect is a mutual thing, and I get tired of defending myself for the sins of SOME. Capice?
If I have a required level of outrage to respond, then I'll do a macro. I'd think you're grown up enoigh to not have every male on this blog log in with their outrage, right, Jeebus, Robin
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2006 19:27 Comments ||
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Your message is incoherent IMO. On the one hand you want the respect of an assumption that you and others don't condone rape, without having to say that.
OTOH, you assure me that if you HAD a problem with the proposed rapes, you'd say so.
Which is it?
Honestly, I am not looking for a fight. You might note that I did NOT a) redact Planet Dan's comment, b) respond to it when it was posted or c) attack you or him or anyone else here.
I DID think the proposal was worth disavowing openly. I still do.
#35
Having not avowed it, I feel no need to disavow it. But I do think it's pretty disgusting.
I think you're being too hard on Frank, lotp -- I understand his point completely and I think you've twisted his words a bit after your "OTOH".
There's way too much gratuitous Muslim-bashing going on at Rantburg lately. For me, there's a vast difference between advocating bombing a threatening enemy (Iran) and advocating deportion of American citizens solely on the basis of religion or raping women to make a point.
#36
lotp, I hereby disavow comment #4.
Frank's right, however, you ought to lighten up.
When men speak among themselves, they use low dirty statements which are not used in the presence of ladies. It's no excuse, but I'm sure the males here don't mean to belittle the ladies here. It's difficult to talk about Islam without using street profanity.
#37
Or when such flatulence is expressed in a group, we ignore it and the person expressing it. Repetitive behavior is noted and the guilty party is eventually ostracized.
#38
My point was that every RB sporting a penis is not a rapist, by any stretch of the imagination. We should not all have to chime in with said assurances, any more than that every woman should have to say "not a prostitute/slut" for being born with the equipment to be one. Get over your past personal issues or accept the criticism for being a demagogue. Sorry if that pisses you off, but you're wrong. If someone raped my daughter, they'd be lucky if the cops got em first. Don't paint me with that shit. I won't stand for it
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2006 20:40 Comments ||
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#39
We should not all have to chime in with said assurances, any more than that every woman should have to say "not a prostitute/slut" for being born with the equipment to be one
sigh Whatever. I'm not going to get into this. It's obviously a sore spot, and whichever one of us needs to get over old hurts, let's just do it. OK?
The unification of the two German states in 1991 represented the first caesura for the Bundeswehr. At the end of the Cold War in 1989, it had a force size of 495,000, including 218,000 conscripts. Planning for the Army of 2000, begun shortly before unification, still called for 12 divisions with a total of 42 brigades as its starting point.
Since unification, plans were made for four rounds of Bundeswehr reductions between 1989 and 2010, which should create an Army of 250,000 soldiers. Of them, 55,000 should be conscripts in an era when the first conscript generation is already retired. This transformation is supposed to produce a mix of forces, which would include 35,000 as intervention forces, 70,000 intended for stabilization operations and 106,000 conducting support operations. Under this plan, the Army will consist of five divisions and 12 brigades. There will only be six armored battalions left.
How dramatic the Armys transformation really is can be seen in Structure 2010, to be adopted as of 2007. The service will reduce its fleet of main battle tanks from 2,528 to 350, infantry fighting vehicles from 2,077 to 410, artillery pieces from 1,055 to 120 and helicopters from 530 to 240.
Within the Air Force, the same radical reductions are planned. The number of combat aircraft is to be reduced from 451 to 262 in 2015 about 180 Eurofighter Typhoon and 85 Tornado aircraft. There will be three Luftwaffe divisions instead of four.
The Navy has managed, with the exception of the naval fighter-bomber, to retain all capabilities even though it has fewer platforms. In 2006, the Navy takes on a new fleet structure. The current five flotillas will be merged into two operational ones. The main platforms will include about 12 frigates, five or more K130 corvettes, six U212 submarines, fewer than 20 mine warfare units, three task force supply vessels and four tenders, 30 MH-90 helicopters and eight P-3C maritime patrol aircraft. It is an open secret that the three-way split of the Bundeswehr into intervention, stabilization and support forces was a fig leaf for the de facto halving of the Army. Further, many issues are still unsettled. For instance, the Luftwaffes acquisition of a third Eurofighter Tranche is not yet set. The total Eurofighter fleet could fall to between 120 and 140 aircraft rather than the planned 180.
The Italian feminist politician Daniela Santanche has been given 24-hour police protection after her strident views on the Muslim veil drew an apparent death sentence from an imam.
On a television chat show, Santanche, 45, an MP for the right-wing National Alliance party, clashed with Ali Abu Shwaima, the imam of a mosque near Milan.
The veil isnt a religious symbol and it isnt prescribed by the Koran, she said. And in our country there is a law which forbids for reasons of terrorism people going around with masks on.
Shwaima, an Italian national, retorted: The veil is an obligation required by God. Those who do not believe that are not Muslims. Youre an ignoramus, youre false. You sow hatred, youre an infidel.
The interior ministry, interpreting Shwaimas insults as the equivalent of a fatwa a religious edict calling for her murder swiftly gave Santanche an armed bodyguard. However, Shwaima insisted that he had never pronounced a fatwa, saying that the row over their debate had been artfully created to cast a negative light on Islam. He claimed that he was the one who needed protection, as critics had accused him of backing terrorism and his home address had been published in the newspapers.
Santanche had already created a stir in the Muslim world with her book, Woman Denied, which criticised Muslim womens way of life and argued that they wore the veil only because their husbands, fathers or brothers forced them. The book was denounced by Iranian television and several Islamic websites.
Santanche is used to controversy. Last year she notoriously raised a middle finger to young people protesting at the government of Silvio Berlusconi, the then prime minister; she also proposed a porn tax to be levied on income derived from pornography. On her website she gives an account of the collapse of her first marriage and a guided tour of her home including the bathroom.
In a rare show of unity, Santanches left-wing political opponents are rallying to her support. I want Mr Shwaima to know that threats, intimidation and condemnations are not acceptable in Italy, said Barbara Pollastrini, minister for equal opportunities in the centre-left government. Leaders of Italys Muslim community also expressed solidarity with Santanche. Souad Sbai, who heads the Union of Moroccan Women in Italy, called Shwaima pseudo-religious.
Santanche remains defiant: You dont imagine Im going to give in? If I speak out its because Muslim women have asked me to. Its time to turn our backs on the politically correct, its a question not of religion but of human rights, she told The Sunday Times. Of course she was afraid, she said, for herself and for her family. They now lived with bodyguards round the clock and she had been forced to give up using her bicycle: But what Im going through is nothing compared to the suffering of millions of women who are massacred, trampled on and pelted with stones.
She was stunned to hear her 10-year-old son Lorenzo ask her what condemned to death meant. Perhaps he had heard the expression on the television news, she thought. People talk like this in films, she told him. So were in a film, mummy? Lorenzo asked. Yes, his mother had replied.
I told him that because mummy is in politics, there are some people who dont always agree with her. Having these guards with us just makes everything safer.
#1
This fatass's fatwa is an outright threat of murder. As such, the threatened should be able to trip right on over and blow this f**ker's head completely off. No offense intended.
#2
Do fatwas look anything like Racoons? I'm like sick of those furry fuckups. I intend to kill them all. I plan to start with a tactical nuclear device in my neighbors back yard, then move on to the greenway, using radiation enhanced weapons. Some of your pets, parents, children or spouses may be injured or suffer a horrible death, but you'll thank me later, trust me.
#6
The veil isnt a religious symbol and it isnt prescribed by the Koran, she said. And in our country there is a law which forbids for reasons of terrorism people going around with masks on.
#1
The base assumption of all such "conferences" is that nobody in the muslim world had anything but sweet, sweet love for the US before the invasion of Iraq and if the US would just profusely apologize everything would be fluffy bunnies and baby ducks. (And a special Rantburg raspberry for Aaron Brown, CNN tool.)
Posted by: Jonathan ||
10/29/2006 22:05 Comments ||
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#2
Summit Calls For Moderation in U.S.-Muslim World Relations
I thinks this means that we'll be doing the moderation part and they'll let us.
I think they found Aaron Brown at the end of an exit ramp holding a "Will trash country for food" sign...
Tipping Point for War's Supporters?
In Past Month, Even Stalwarts Have Called for Change in Iraq Policy
Sunday, October 29, 2006; Page A01
All goodfacts here, no 'analysis'. You know, 'Goodfacts' are in, 'Realfacts' are out.
As the fighting in Iraq swerved toward civil war in February, and despite the MSM drumbeat, it still hasn't reached 'full-blown' civil war Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner (R-Va.) expressed "a high degree of confidence" that a new government would take charge and that by the end of the year the conflict "won't be the same."
As October opened, Warner returned from Iraq with a far grimmer assessment. "The situation," he said, "is simply drifting sidewise." His judgment gave voice to Republican doubt that had been suppressed in a campaign season. Lawmakers who had vowed to "stay the course" called for change. One GOP senator declared Iraq "on the verge of chaos." By last week, President Bush was saying he too is "not satisfied" and is looking for a fresh approach.
October 2006 may be remembered as the month that the U.S. experience in Iraq hit a tipping point, when the violence flared and shook both the military command in Iraq and the political establishment back in Washington.
Plans to stabilize Baghdad collided with a surge in violence during the holy month of Ramadan as it always does. Sectarian revenge killings spread, consuming a town 50 miles from the capital. U.S. officials spoke of setting benchmarks for the Iraqi government to take on more responsibility, only to have the Iraqi prime minister call that suggestion election-year grandstanding. Bush compared the situation to the 1968 Tet Offensive -- often seen as a turning point in the Vietnam War but actually when the US broke the back of the insurgency -- and urged Americans not to become disillusioned. "October has been very busy from a standpoint of operations on the ground and certainly back here in Washington," White House counselor Dan Bartlett said.
With Iraq again dominating the national dialogue right before key midterm elections, "there's an expectation in the air that after the election, the partisanship and the politically charged environment will dissipate somewhat and people can start looking for ways to work together on this issue," Bartlett said. You been eatin' Dreamsicles, Boy!
Republicans are anxious about what happens in the meantime; polls show wide discontent. "Republicans are responding to the nervousness of the American people," said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). "People have begun to wonder about the basic premise that the Iraqi people are capable of solving their problems politically." If October does prove to be a turning point for the Iraq war, historians are likely to point to two events, one in domestic U.S. politics and the other in Iraq.
The first was Warner's visit to Baghdad. As the chairman of Armed Services, a stalwart Bush supporter and a pillar of the Republican establishment, he rattled much of Washington with his dour assessment Oct. 5. If events have not improved in 60 to 90 days, he said, the Bush administration should find a new course. While still opposed to a precipitous troop withdrawal, Warner made clear that staying the course is no longer a viable option. Whatever 'staying the course' meant to you
Warner's comments proved to be the starting gun for a race toward an exit strategy. Other Republicans had nursed similar doubts but kept quiet for fear of giving Democrats ammunition in a tough campaign cycle. Warner's remarks freed them to express their own misgivings. Thanks, John. Too bad you're not up for re-election
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from the president's state of Texas, began talking about the need for a different approach in Iraq, such as partition. And how do we do that, Kay? Tell 'em they gotta split up? What happens to the border regions? Choas? You ain't seen nothin' yet. In Virginia, Sen. George Allen, who maintained in September that he would not "second-guess" the war, said that "mistakes have been made, and progress has been far too slow." More Republican candidates called for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to be fired.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), a strong Bush supporter, was struck that Warner's comments echoed those of the ranking Democrat on Armed Services, Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), who has advocated putting more pressure on the Iraqi government. "They reminded me of some of the things Senator Levin has been saying for some time," Cornyn said last week. "We fought to allow Iraqis to control their own future, and I'm a little concerned about our making demands on them as if we are an occupying force."
In Iraq, meanwhile, the key moment was the realization by top commanders in mid-October that sending 12,000 U.S. troops back into Baghdad did not have the calming effect that had been hoped for. Usually reported as a 'failure', not a failure to meet MSM moving-target expectations As Shiite-Sunni tensions erupted in the city, civilian casualties doubled in a matter of months, with 2,660 deaths in September alone.
"Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas, but has not met our overall expectations of sustaining a reduction in the levels of violence," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said Oct. 19, using the U.S. military name for the Baghdad operation. In other words, the U.S. military had played its ace in the hole -- it had asserted itself in Iraq's most important city -- yet had not been able to improve deteriorating security in the capital. So the operation made it worse? Or it helped, but nobody knows how much?
A Marine colonel said he is seeing a major shift even inside the military. "There's a concern now that there wasn't previously," said the colonel, who remains on active duty and is not authorized to speak publicly on political matters. "Folks that took things at face value in the past are asking more questions."
Searching for a way out, Washington has focused new attention on the work of the Iraq Study Group, a panel of well-connected luminaries led by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former representative Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.). Recommendations from the group, once seen as a sop to Congress, are expected in late December or early January and promise to be the first major subject tackled by the members of the next Congress.
People familiar with the group's option papers expect it to recommend either a scaling back of U.S. ambitions in Iraq, making stability rather than democracy the top priority, or, less likely, a slow but steady withdrawal of U.S. forces. And how would either of those be different in the first six months? Then the real civil war would erupt.
In the wake of Warner's revelation and the unchecked violence in Iraq, Bush's language in discussing the war changed markedly. As late as the end of August, he was still describing his policy as "stay the course." But with Democrats pounding away in campaign advertising, saying he refused to recognize the unfolding disaster in Iraq since the invasion , the White House officially jettisoned the phrase this month, saying it did not adequately describe the administration's flexible approach.
"We've never been 'stay the course,' " Bush told an interviewer. The concept will not die that easily, though. On Friday night, Vice President Cheney told reporters traveling with him on Air Force Two that "the United States' ability to stay the course and get the job done is a very, very important piece of business." Couldn't resist, could you?
As congressional Republicans peeled away from the president, the White House grew more isolated. You missed an opportunity to compare it to 1968. Slackers. Debate over a National Intelligence Estimate's conclusion that Iraq had become a "cause celebre" Which is bad? It attracts them to Iraq and troops, rather than Dubuque, and citizens for Islamic extremists and several books critical of the administration's handling of the war kept interfering with the White House message.
Democrats, once deeply divided over the war, Liberman is a former Democrat coalesced around the idea of a phased withdrawal and aired television ads on Iraq in most of the competitive races around the country. Republican candidates, on the other hand, started ignoring Karl Rove's advice to talk about the war. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) told an interviewer that "the challenge is to get Americans to focus on pocketbook issues, and not on the Iraq and terror issue."
Other conservatives grew more skeptical that there is anything the United States can now do to fix Iraq. "I don't know what the new course would be," said Richard N. Perle, former head of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and an early supporter of the war. "The options are extremely limited now. The new course that's necessary is new Iraqi leadership." So why don't we just install a puppet, and get on with it? Where's Chalabi?
The last full week of October gettin' really close to the election underscored the fitful attempts by the White House to get on top of the situation. U.S. officials announced plans for benchmarks for Iraqis to assume more security duties, but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said his government had not agreed to any deadlines. Bush called his second news conference in as many weeks to assure the American public that he is "not satisfied" with the way things are going, while still asserting that "absolutely, we're winning."
Inside the White House, officials were glum, trying just to get through the election in hopes that after the rhetoric fades there might be a chance for both parties to fashion a new approach. "I'm not disparaging new ideas; I'm welcoming new ideas," national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley said in an interview. But, he noted, "no one I know has come up with a silver bullet."
Hadley described the administration's three top priorities: a political agreement among Iraqi sects, enhanced security with Iraqis taking more of the lead and greater international support. "There's an opportunity to try to figure out how to do better," he said. "A lot of it is not a conception issue; it's an execution issue. It's an execution issue for the American government, and it's an execution issue for the Iraqi government."
All the while, in the background was the drumbeat Interesting choice of words of U.S. deaths in Iraq, with October's toll of 98 so far the worst in a month since January 2005. Iraqi forces have recently paid an even heavier price, with 300 troops dying during the month of Ramadan, the U.S. military said.
A series of grim events on the ground in Iraq deepened fears that the nation is sliding closer and closer, and closer, since February [drumbeat] to a full-blown civil war. A battle between two towns -- one Shiite, one Sunni -- on opposite banks of the Tigris River earlier in the month epitomized the factors tearing the country apart. A vengeance killing blamed on Sunni Arab insurgents based in the farm hamlet of Duluiyah prompted a killing spree targeting Sunnis across the river in the predominantly Shiite city of Balad. The U.S. military and residents of both Duluiyah and Balad accused the towns' police of taking part in the killings.
Looking for protection, Shiites in Balad turned not to their elected government or to the U.S. military but to Shiite militias, summoning them from Baghdad. By the time the killing ebbed three days later, at least 80 people were dead. Balad was all but empty of Sunni families, which had lived among Shiites for generations. a lot like what used to be Yugoslavia. Gee, is that significant?
The militias blamed in many of the Sunni deaths belong to two Shiite religious parties that dominate Iraq's five-month-old government. Maliki, a Shiite, has used his position to block U.S. efforts to crack down on militias. Last week he denounced a U.S.-backed Iraqi raid into Sadr City seeking the most notorious of the death-squad leaders. U.S. officials had not notified Maliki before the raid which was conducted by Iraqi Special Forces .
The White House said reports of a rift were overblown, but privately unnamed U.S. officials wondered about the Maliki government's competence. Maliki's comments to Reuters last week underscored a growing divide. "If anyone is responsible for the poor security situation in Iraq," he said, "it is the coalition."
Looming over this deteriorating situation is the fact that, despite the training of 310,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers -- close to the number once thought necessary to ensure security -- those new forces have not brought calm to the capital and the area around it.
Experts disagree whether the past month represents the beginning of the end of the U.S. involvement in Iraq. But there was little question among them about whether it will be remembered as a major turning point. "We are at a real crossroads," said Graham, who sits on the Senate Armed Services panel. "Personally," said James Burk, a military expert at Texas A&M University, "I think the 'experiment' . . . is over."
But Dov S. Zakheim, who was a senior Pentagon official under Rumsfeld, said he thinks this is simply the beginning of a new phase in the U.S. effort in Iraq. "Everyone knows that if we leave Iraq, not only will that country have little hope of regaining any form of stability, we will likely destabilize the entire region," he said. So the current turmoil reflects the "recognition in all policy circles that we are about to enter a new phase." Could this be [breathless] balance?
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/29/2006 07:20 ||
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#1
Thank Gawd, we lost.
Back to basics, who's for Aruba?
#2
Great inline, Bobby. I would add that one of the article's authors, Ricks, has a book out ("Fiasco", available for only $27.95 until it hits the remainder tables in about three weeks.) I'm sure that didn't influence his reporting here. He even gives himself a thinly veiled plug with the reference to several books critical of the administration's handling of the war. ("Gee, Tom, any particular books you've got in mind?")
Note also the advocacy words salted throughout the article: grimmer flared surge anxious discontent dour misgivings erupted etc.
Posted by: Matt ||
10/29/2006 9:22 Comments ||
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#5
Thank Gawd, we lost.
Back to basics, who's for Aruba?
Posted by Shipman 2006-10-29 09:13
Hey yea! That's right, they never did find that Natalie what's her name.
* US Casualties: ~3,000 so far AFTER 4yrs of Invasion, Conquest, Occupation of 2 hostile nation/populations. (may I also remind this number is just recentley matching the number of civi's lost on 9-11) I remember my great uncles talk about WW2 battles were they lost 1/2-2/3 of thier units while piling the enemy up 3-4 layer, I wonder what they would call US for losing heart at such historically low losses?
* We finally realized we were at war on 9-11 but before that we were hit multiple times 93' WT, Coe, two Embasies, Somalia, ect.. Today with our offensive war we choose the Battle Field and has so far forced the terrorist to spend most if not all of their limited resources on our two primary battle fields of OUR CHOICE. Did I mention we have in this procedure created 2 new allies with nearly 300k combined auxilary force (thier is no world were our EU wine buddies would send half that number to help US in a war). Oh and did I mention in this adventure a almost unmentioned fact is we went from nearly 0 ground intel on the ME to HUGE on the ground strings in two nations sprouting out & now tied to US.
* Economic: Very simply even including our War Suplementals add it up we are below the 80's peace time GDP/ratio's. And historically speaking NO WAR BONDS, NO WAR TAXES needed as yet. Ecomonmy unaffected, no massive retooling for war needed like WW2 or WW1.
* Human requirement: So far we have held this war tempo with a VOLUNTEER ONLY military. NO DRAFT, no huge portion of population touched we are at something like .05% or something.
* Foreign civilian casualties: Personally for me this is irrelevent I am a unabashed Nationalist that has no qualms about saying I would without thought sacrifise thousands of foreigners for one US citizen (being a US citizen is a honor and any human any type can become a US citizen so yeah we are the cream). But for our beeding heart types lets say the Iraqi loses of 600k are real. How many civilians were lost in Korea, WW2, WW1, hell X civil War around the world Dafur, Samalia, Russia, Columbia, ect...? People forget this is not just a war between US and them this is also a Muslim Civil war between Moderates vs Radicals. If everyone could remember in the begining the reason we chose reform the ME was we beleived the Moderates could control the Radicals if given the chance did anyone think the Radicals wouldd just lay down and accept being dominated by people they considered non-devotes? Historically speaking the civilian casualties are minor and expected and if you use a civil war ratio even more minor historically.
I am so tired of these damm cry babie p*ssies. We need a leader with a sack that will get up their and start presenting this war in a historical prespective and explaining what if we lose prospects. And to call a spade a spade. Sedition is Sedition CNN playing Terrorist propaganda (can anyone imagine what if Xnetwork played Tokoyo Rose in WW2?). Durbin, Kerry, Murtha, all should have had thier "patriotism" questioned hell yeah. The leakers who even when caught are just getting retirement with benefits pink slips WTF last I checked leaking classified info was TREASON just because you transfer that info through 3rd party say a Media outlet, even better if X leaker gave me info and I gave it to X enemy would't I be a accomplice?
It is not time for the US to start rethinking our War Effort it is time for US to get REAL and start fighting this as a WAR OF SURVIVAL that it is. Both externally and INTERNALLY.
To all those on the R who have now gotten weak kneed becuase it wasn't a push over war suck it up we are engaged and no matter what it takes thier is only VICTORY or DEFEAT.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/29/2006 15:54 Comments ||
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#12
Realfacts is from a Babylon 5 show when Sheridan is Delenn and the other heroes of 2264 are being 'deconstructed' 10,000 years later. The real truth of 2264 was being replaced by "Goodfacts". I think the opposite of goodfacts was realfacts.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/29/2006 18:32 Comments ||
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KHAR: A meeting of pro-Taliban tribal militants and elders on Saturday called Osama Bin Laden and Mulla Omar heroes of the Muslim world and vowed joint efforts to fight the enemies of peace in Bajaur Agency.
A jirga of the Mamoond tribe and local pro-Taliban militants in the Umree area of Mamoond tehsil announced that tribal people would protect Pakistans borders. The announcement comes days after the political administration of Bajaur Agency released nine suspected Al Qaeda militants, triggering rumours that a North Waziristan-like peace accord was also likely in Bajaur, which overlooks Afghanistans Kunar province where Osama and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar are suspected to be hiding. We have no links with terrorism. We were peaceful tribesmen and we are peaceful tribesmen today, wanted local Taliban commander Maulana Faqir Muhammad told the jirga. We are not involved in attacks on security check posts nor are we killing security personnel. We are citizens of this country and want its development, he added.
Faqir said the government was responsible for the law and order problem in the tribal areas. He said that Pakistans western border was fully secured when the Taliban were ruling Afghanistan and added that the Talibans ouster in 2001 resulted in a serious threat to the countrys western borders.
He said no one would be allowed to disturb peace in Bajaur Agency. He said that his comrades had no other agenda except to uphold the supremacy of Islam. He welcomed the release of nine Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Muhammadi activists. The organisation is currently banned. He said that jihad against the enemies of Islam would continue. He said that Sharia could only be enforced through practical jihad, and not democracy.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I look forward to the day we can call these people martyrs of Islam.
Henceforth, Muslims in jihad on behalf of Allah, will only use weapons that were invented by Muslims. Disobey my holy command, and you will burn for all eternity in the fires of hell, inshallah.
#3
Here's a good old-fashioned Protestant Fatwa: Anyone who wishes to harm the Children of Israel or the Body of Christ will be destroyed. Those that tolerate both shall be tolerated. Those that embrace either as brother shall be embraced in return. All are welcome to join any group they desire, but all choices have consequences. The consequences for the enemies of Jews and Christians who take up arms against them shall be total destruction, even unto the seventh generation, living and dead.
Now, what are the target coordinates for the NWFP again? Wouldn't want to injure any "innocent civilians"...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/29/2006 17:28 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD: Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan is in a stable condition after being treated for deep vein thrombosis a blood clot in the veins that can occur after surgery, his wife said on Saturday. Last month, Khan, 70, had surgery for prostate cancer, and on Wednesday complained of a pain in his leg, Henny Khan said. She said a team of doctors examined her husband and treated the clot. "He is being treated by his doctors, who are satisfied and say there is no need to worry," she said.
He'll start to take blood thinners to treat the clot, and then he'll have a most unfortunate stumble and fall with a subdural hematoma. Too bad, so sad.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
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#4
Flood his hospital room with hundreds of shapely, scantily dressed "nurses", so he'll blow a cork and croak. He deserves to be where it's really, REALLY hot.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/29/2006 1:55 Comments ||
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#5
In a just world, he would die from neglect and horrible bed sores.
The Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran is specifically exempted from nuclear and missile-related sanctions against Tehran proposed by three European powers, according to their draft resolution seen here Thursday. The draft, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, was crafted by envoys of Britain, France and Germany in consultations with the United States and presented to their Russian and Chinese colleagues late Tuesday.
It calls on UN member states to "take necessary measures to prevent the supply, sale or transfer directly or indirectly from their territories or by their nationals ... of all items, materials, equipment, goods and technology which could contribute to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs."
The states are also asked to take steps to bar "the provision to Iran of technical assistance or training, financial assistance, investment brokering or other services and the transfer of financial resources or services related to Iran's nuclear or ballistic missile programs."
The text also provides for a freeze on assets related to Iran's nuclear and missile programs as well as travel bans on nuclear and weapons scientists involved in those programs.
But in an apparent bid to mollify Moscow, the text specifically stresses that the proposed sanctions "shall not apply to supplies of items, materials, equipment, goods and technology, nor to the provision of technical assistance or training, financial assistance, investment, brokering or other services and the transfer of financial resources related to the construction Bushehr I, where these are being provided directly by the Russian federation."
It also states that the travel bans "shall not apply where such travel, directly between Iran and the Russian Federation, is necessary for the construction of Bushehr I."
Similarly, the assets freeze "shall not apply to funds, other financial assets or economic resources payable to the Russian Federation by Iran, related to the construction of Bushehr I," it noted.
Last month, Russia and Iran officially agreed on a 12-month deadline for completing the controversial Bushehr project, despite earlier pressure from Tehran that the station be completed in half that time.
Delays have plagued the project ever since the two countries entered into an initial agreement in 1995, with US officials pressing Russia to suspend the program.
The Bushehr contract is worth about one billion dollars to Russia.
Western powers suspect Iran is covertly trying to build nuclear weapons.
But Tehran has repeatedly ignored UN Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment, a process which, if extended, can provide the raw material for a nuclear warhead.
It insists that its nuclear program is peaceful and solely geared toward generating electricity.
#5
Nkor's nukes. China plays the long game. Revanchist Russia stands in the background. Radical Islam is at war with the Anglosphere and are supported by whom?
I don't believe the EU is feckless. I believe they are an enemy. Their actions align them with our enemies. I believe that the USA faces the perfect storm.
#6
I believe that the USA faces the perfect storm.
I so very much want you to be wrong, but your words ring far too true to be ignored. The nacent Ballistic Missile Defense network and our huge cache of (still functioning) nuclear weapons may yet prove to be our savior.
It is time for America to overcome any reluctance regarding perceptions of unilateralism. Aside from Britain, Australia and Japan (perhaps Taiwan and Denmark, too), we have no real allies. Our contry needs to begin acting in its own best interest regardless of world opinion.
A world-wide campaign of snuffing the top jihadists would go a long way towards taking the starch out of Islam.
"For 24 years, Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party executed political rivals, Shias, Kurds and anyone else who dared disagree - or even tell a joke about the dictator. A chorus of testimonials, unearthed mass graves and discovered documents now reveal theextent to which Saddam and his Baath Party tortured, maimed, raped and murdered Iraqi citizens. As he faces trial for his crimes, NGC goes inside his reign of terror - with rare videotape that shows Baath Party members carrying out Saddam's brutal laws."
(Saw clips of the torture today on Fox News - disturbing. Kudos to NGC for running it.)
#1
but of course Iraqis would be better off he was reinstalled and Uday/Qusay were dug up and reanimated. "Stability" must be retained
/Donk talking points
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2006 15:58 Comments ||
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#2
but of course Iraqis would be better off he was reinstalled and Uday/Qusay were dug up and reanimated. "Stability" must be retained
Many Iraqi bloggers are whinging the same tune.
and it be muy galling, some if not most Iraqi bloggers are blaming us [coalition] for the sectarian violence in Iraq. heh Like teams of wild horses couldn't stop the thrill killers from killing each other.
I think at this point we should forget the Democracy project altogether, put it on *HOLD* at least, and have friendly Iraqi military units go postal.
A few brutal weeks of absolute blitzkrieg on the offending neighborhoods and towns should do the trick. Marshal Law and any berg or neighborhood exporting terror gets raised to the ground after that.
BAGHDAD Everybody knows the bad news: In September, the lights were on in Baghdad for around four hours a day. One study has Octobers levels so far at 2.4, the lowest since the invasion. A lot of Iraqi public opinion runs on rumors, and those with their ears pricked will tell you that after three-plus years and billions of reconstruction dollars, theres a sneaking suspicion out in town that the U.S., whos been putting men in orbit for four decades, could have had Baghdad twinkling like Times Square years ago if they wanted to. The conspiracy theory goes that the Americans have, insidiously, chosen not to. That theyre keeping Iraqis down, man. Either that, or we just dont care.
So the big question at Saturdays Iraqi media roundtable on electricity, hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Regional Division, was -- translated roughly from the Arabic -- Its been three years and $4 billion. What gives?
Leaning slowly forward to take it was Al Herman, a senior consultant with the State Departments Iraq Reconstruction Management Office (IRMO) who works in Iraq with the Ministry of Electricity on project management and system planning. Herman has rebuilt and rehabbed electricity grids in 36 countries in 30 years -- if he just didnt care, hed probably have retired by now. And if he was evil (colleagues have nicknamed him The Prince of Darkness, but thats just blackout humor), well, hed probably have gotten himself an easier job.
But he sure had an answer.
Nine of the transmission lines bringing power into Baghdad have been interdicted. Blown up. Down and out. If those lines were up and operating, Herman said, Baghdad would have in excess of 12 hours of power per day. The minister and his people have tried on numerous occasions to repair these lines. They keep getting attacked, killed, kidnapped and threatened.
Security trumps a lot in Baghdad. And as far as infrastructure targets go, the transmission towers and wires that bring power into the capital make fairly juicy ones. Theyre exposed. Theyre pretty fragile. A tower, Herman explained, is easy to find, easy to knock down and not too hard to put back up. The bad guys can demonstrate their disruptive abilities, keep MoE manpower tied up and keep Baghdad dark without, say, taking out an entire power plant which would make it spectacularly obvious that they, and not U.S. or Iraqi incompetence, are to blame for the lights being out.
Its a game of cat and mouse, Herman said. Were hoping over the next few months that we will be able to repair most of these lines and get them up and operating. And we need the help of all Iraqis in keeping them up and operating.
But theres more to the story than violence. Baghdad is also short on power because the rest of Iraqs population is enjoying levels of electricity its never seen before.
Electricity and politics do tend to function in tandem. A light switch may not care whos flipping it, but the way infrastructure is distributed in a nation is a pretty reliable sign of where, well, where the power lies. Under Saddam Hussein, the lights in Baghdad were on all day and night. Favored Baathists were even allowed air conditioners and satellite TVs. Outside the capital? They got the scraps.
But just as the new Iraq constitution has devolved much political power away from the capital, reconstruction efforts have focused on making sure the spoils of power are spread around too. So even as demand for electricity those now-legal air-conditioners and satellite TVs, and the momentum of consumerism has risen steadily since the invasion, three-quarters of Iraqis have twice as much power as they did before the war.
Under Saddam Hussein, Baghdad pulled its power away from the rest of Iraq. Weve gone to a policy to try and equitably distribute that power across the country, Army Col. Jon Christensen, GRDs electricity sector director, said. So now, outside of Baghdad, they have gone from zero in some cases, up to twelve or fourteen hours of power a day.
Overall, the GRD has started 520 electricity-related projects and completed 220 of them so far. The peak generation capacity of Iraqs nationwide network is now 4,500 megawatts -- still short of the goal of 6,000 megawatts, but higher than the pre-war levels of 4,200. And much better-distributed, by much better equipment.
Unfortunately, said the colonel, Baghdad has paid the price for that.
So whats next? In the short term, Col. Christensen focuses his smaller projects in specific areas after they have been cleared by Baghdad Security Plan operations moving as quickly as possible to take advantage of the drop in violence after an operation moves through (and trying to demonstrate to citizens that U.S. and Iraqi officials have more on their minds than checkpoints and house searches). And Herman has plans to harden the transmission towers, along with other measures, to make the weak links of Baghdads power chain a little harder to snap.
But the longer-term vision, Herman said, is for IRMO and the MoE to spend 2007 putting Baghdad on its own power footing, with more generation and more facilities in the so-called Baghdad Ring, so that theres no chain to break. We dont want the over-reliance on the grid that Baghdad has now, he said.
As with just about everything else the U.S. is trying to do in Iraq, IRMO, USAID and GRD are fast turning the job of building, maintaining, and fueling an Iraqi electricity system worthy of the 21st century over to the Iraqis. GRD expects to complete its remaining 300 construction projects in the next year or two. USAID, after contributing 1,292 megawatts of generation (half from new plants and half from rehabilitated ones) to this point, will devote its efforts for the next few years to training Iraqi workers and contractors to maintain and repair modern turbine generation systems that they havent seen before. Although Herman likes what hes seen in the MoE and its engineers so far.
When they go out and repair transmission lines, they do a marvelous job, even compared to what we do in the United States. They are actually quicker at recovering from blackouts than we are in the United States, he said. They have experience in this.
The future, the Prince of Darkness said, looks brighter. But bringing twenty-four hours of power to all 18 provinces will take anywhere from $20-30 billion over the next seven years, and with the U.S. no longer budgeting for new construction, that money will have to come from the Iraqis.
Even if the security situation were to improve overnight If you can promise me no one will come and blow up the transmission lines, I can promise you well get power into Baghdad, Herman said at one point -- Iraqis who may have expected miracles when the U.S. arrived in March 2003 are going to have to settle for the best we can do in the time weve had. In the reality we found here.
What you need to understand, Herman told the journalists, is that the $4 billion that we have spent on electricity here in Iraq in the three years has done nothing more than what I would call kick-starting the system.
You dont rebuild an electric system as bad as this one was, in a short period of time.
Turns out electricity in Iraq is pretty much like, well, like everything else in Iraq. Held hostage in Baghdad. Better in the rest of the country. A long way and a lot of work from reaching first-world standards, but all in all, far from hopeless. Yet rapidly proving that even the mighty Americans will need the Iraqis to finish the job.
Heck, it took us almost a decade just to put a man on the moon.
#2
I believe there is also a huge amount of local power generation - families and neighborhoods buying power from local diesel generators. This stuff is off the grid and doesn't get counted in stories like this. But at the same time it's a bigger factor in the daily lives of most Iraqis than is the national grid.
October 29, 2006: While the Kurds of northern Iraq have been independent of the Iraqi government since 1992, they have not yet created a regular army. What they do have is a light infantry force, the Peshmerga. These troops have received some military training, from their own, and American, trainers. The Pershmerga can, at the moment, keep the Arab Iraqis out, but the organization is more a security force and jobs program, than an army.
Although officially a united force, the Kurdish gunmen are split into two main groups, and many smaller clan and party organizations. Each of these smaller entities can lay claim to "their boys (and girls)." The Peshmerga is co-ed, with about ten percent of the 80,000 on the payroll being women. The pay isn't great, but it helps assure the loyalty of active duty fighters to their paymaster (usually a tribal leader or politician.)
While the Kurdish troops are, on average, more reliable and effective than their Iraqi Arab counterparts, their leadership is still more traditional than professional. The Kurds have many of the same leadership problems that their Arab brothers to the south have. There's nepotism, corruption and a lot of officials who are more concerned with getting rich, than with getting their job done right.
The Kurds know that they will more likely achieve their goals (staying autonomous, getting control of the northern oil fields and the cities of Mosul and Kirkuk) through negotiation, rather than armed force. But the average Kurd is getting tired of the corruption and inefficiency of their leaders, despite the need for unity in the face of threats from Arabs and Turks.
Iraq has 2 military academies. One, near Baghdad, was the traditional academy under Saddam and has been revamped based on the UK's Sandhurst . The other is at Zahko in Kurdish territory and it has a distinctly West Point flavor. It is built on what had been a Peshmerga training ground and reports are it is doing well.
Look to Zahko to provide Kurdish political as well as military and social leaders over the next 10-20 years. The Kurdish-dominated university at Salahaddin has been getting applicants from all the neighboring countries to study there, too. With a little support, the Kurds are going to succeed in the transition from fighters to a prosperous and stable society.
By the way, the Afghans looked at Sandhurst, France's St. Cyr and some Asian academies before deciding to model their own new academy on West Point. One of their reasons for doing so was the role that West Point played at the time of its founding (1802) and in subsequent decades in producing leaders who identified with the nation as a whole rather than their state, religious group or ethnic background. It won't happen overnight, but with time it can happen there too.
#1
Also, the USMA trained leaders who almost succeeded in enforcing the secession of a sizeable part of the U.S., something the Kurds are already thinking about...
#2
But it was also those same leaders who after the war mostly reconciled with their classmates and set a public example of reconciliation across the country.
If you've ever been to USMA, you may have seen Reconciliation Walk. It's one of the most quietly moving places on the academy grounds.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military has begun looking more closely at shooting attacks on troops in Iraq to establish whether they are carried out by snipers, according to a spokesman. The change reflects concern over an insurgent video-CD that appears to show a series of shooting attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces in Baghdad by a purported sniper brigade from the Sunni militant Islamic Army.
The video, which Reuters has seen, was handed out in Sunni parts of western Baghdad last week as a "gift" to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. It shows 28 separate attacks, several of them involving precision shots to the head. Narrated by a man described as the brigade "commander" and subtitled in English, it claims the marksmen use a training manual written by a retired U.S. Army Special Forces officer. "Ultimate Sniper", written in 1993 by Major John L. Plaster, is freely available through online bookstores. It was updated this year "for today's Global War on Terror", according to www.ultimatesniper.com, which calls it the bible of sniping.
Spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver said the U.S. military was aware of the video. He said the military was taking unspecified steps to reduce the possible new threat and had begun to examine killings by small arms fire in greater detail. "We are being more specific in trying to hone in on sniper tactics," Garver said.
U.S. casualty reports list three killings by sniper fire in Baghdad this year, all since July, and 24 by small arms fire, 10 of them in October.
The 28-minute propaganda video opens with musings from a black-masked man identified as "Juba, the Baghdad Sniper". Reports of a lone sniper nicknamed Juba prowling Baghdad surfaced last year. The new footage shows the man adding another "kill" to a list of 37 hits on a piece of paper on a wall.
The "commander", however, says the Islamic Army now has "a fair amount of snipers" with the steady hand and eagle eye required for the task. "The idea of filming the operations is very important because the scene that shows the falling soldier when hit has more impact on the enemy than any other weapon," says the "commander", whose face is obscured.
Garver said he had not seen the video, called "Juba Returns". He said sniping was "another threat that we have to worry about" but questioned whether all the attacks were the work of accomplished sharpshooters. "They could be a lucky shot with a good rifle," Garver said. "Having a scope does not necessarily qualify you as a trained sniper."
The U.S. military does not require units to attribute killings specifically to sniper fire, although some do. According to the Web site www.icasualties.org, which tracks the official casualty toll in Iraq and Afghanistan, 38 U.S. troops have been killed by sniper fire in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003, seven of them this year. Deaths attributed to unspecified small arms fire total about 230, including 80 this year.
The video says the brigade's main weapon is the Tabuk sniper rifle, which was produced in Iraq from a Yugoslav design. It uses standard Kalashnikov rounds and probably has a range of 500-600 metres (yards), according to arms Web sites which describe it as more of a marksman's rifle than a sniper rifle, which is designed to be accurate beyond 800 meters (yards).
#1
Stupid,
"Sniper" (Definition)A person who shoots from a long distance away.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/29/2006 11:51 Comments ||
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#2
During the Civil War both sides figured the best way to deal with a "sniper" was to fire a couple of rounds of canister in the direction the shots came from. Most of the sniping occured between 100 and 200 yards. Langer ranges were verified, though , as when General John Sedgewick was killed at a distance of 800 yards.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/29/2006 12:56 Comments ||
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#3
General John Sedgewick was killed at a distance of 800 yards
Aw, hell that's BS, a sniper couldn't hit an elephant from up there
#5
Maybe a sniper. But military snipers combine months of training, with thousands of rounds sent down range. These guys are idiots, if they are snipers, they were snipers before the invasion.
This article illustrates a couple of things. First, re-building progressed in Iraq until ethnic identities became important. Second, preventing ethnic conflict is impossible when the polarization is near total. I wonder if the Iraq setbacks are attributable to our unwillingness to toss the Clinton sermon against "ethnic cleansing?" Maybe realpolitick dictates implementing the tri-partite divisions that have only been hinted at. One problem is: Sunnis are in position to choke off Shiite pilgrimages to Karbala. Another: revenue sharing is a problem in federal states; and most Iraq oil is in Kurd and Shiite majority areas. Another: the Saudis will never accept advancement of Shiite power, without a bloody fight through their surrogates. Still, Partition appears to be the best bet.
A FEW months ago Saab al Bour was a showpiece town where Americans were building schools and fixing the water and electricity supplies. Even the Shiites and Sunnis rubbed along.
The dusty settlement of sand-coloured brick buildings six miles northwest of Baghdad is now a ghost town, shorn of its residents by Iraqs relentless sectarian wars. They took to the road when mortars, 15-20 a day, started crashing into the town, fired by Sunni extremists targeting the Shiites.
Sunni neighbour turned on Shiite neighbour in a struggle that eventually drove out 90% of the original population of 30,000.
Before I set out for Saab al Bour yesterday, I had been assured that it had been pacified. Our two UH-60 helicopters flew low out of Baghdads fortified green zone, swooping over the capital, its once-crowded arteries devoid of traffic.
We banked over flat stretches of baked earth and a few patches of green and came in low to a wasteland in the middle of the town, guided by grey smoke rising from two armoured cars that had been sent ahead to secure the landing. This did not look like a pacified town.
American soldiers in desert camouflage uniforms leapt out of the helicopters to set up a perimeter, 6ft apart, around us. Crouching, M16s perched on their shoulders pointing out in a circle, they eyed the mud and sand brick houses suspiciously. Only a mangy yellow dog moved.
Within half an hour of my arrival Apache helicopter gunships filled the sky, firing on insurgents just the other side of a canal with loud blasts of their cannons.
In the towns police station, sandbagged and covered with camouflage netting, Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Thompson sat with two members of the local council. The police were supposed to be there to brief us, but they had been called to an incident. Later one policeman told me the incident was an attack on their commanders home and they had rushed to help.
This is just a microcosm of the problems besetting Iraq. The town of Saab al Bour had been quiet when the American army, backed up by Iraqi soldiers, was based there. It sits on the edge of Anbar province, a Sunni stronghold. Shortly after the soldiers handed over to the Iraqi police at the end of last month, the fighting began.
#1
Partitioning of Iraq requires clearing the Sunnis out of the Sunni Triangle south of Baghdad and relocating Shiites from north of Bahdad (in order to get contiguos areas).
#2
Oh yes, the great ethnic polarization issue. Fact is, we are turning over major areas in Iraq to Iraqi Army units every week now. The Iraqi National Police that have been purged by the US and retrained are not only standing and fighting, they are taking the fight to the enemy in many sectors. The major issues with ethnics seem to be the police units that everyone in Europe was screaming about integrating with Sunnis and militias : they are still operating as thugs and cowards.
So the police are enabling ethnic conflict? In the article, writers note that peace ended when security was handed to the police. Given the President's openness to new strategies, what do you think will work?
#4
Snease - I don't mean to enter this argument one way or another. But you said, "In the article, writers note that peace ended when security was handed to the police."
lol! It's a timesonline article. Why should we put any stock in what their writers wrote?
#6
Besides, I thought that the insurgents and anti-Americans all over the world were saying that as soon as we left things would calm down. That we were perpetuating the insurgency simply by being there.
#7
I just had an odd thought.
Unload a truckload of new rifles on one side of town, unload a truckload of ammo on the other side of town to fit the rifles, leave town and set up a perimeter.
Anyone fleeing town and unarmed gets put in a holding camp (Comfortable and well supplied)
Anyone fleeing town armed is turned back into town, shoot if they don't go back in.
Wait.
When the shooting dies down, encircle the town and slowly advance, anyone with a gun is killed, anyone unarmed goes to the holding camp.
When you reach the center of town, gather up all the guns, what's left of the ammo, release all in the holding camp and leave town.
Problem solved, no insurgents.
Repeat at the next troublesome town.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/29/2006 12:07 Comments ||
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#8
It would also raise the intelligence level, Remember the old saying "Killing the weaker third is always good genetics"
Substitute "Dumber and more violent" for "Weaker" and the thought is still the same.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/29/2006 12:12 Comments ||
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#9
O Lost! The time of the tomato is sliced thin! Woe! The darkness of the mountain clans peels a cheap potatoe. Cheap bastard soup for all.
Forget it, your all gonna die, or dance.
Posted by: Abu Thomas Wolfe ||
10/29/2006 12:23 Comments ||
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#10
What I am saying is that this is a Times online article : there is no news that is good that cannot be spun as bad. The Iraqi Police are not available to talk to the bloody reporter since they are off FIGHTING the bad guys, not running away as before. However, since they were not there to speak to the Grand Poobah of the press, the situation in Iraq is going to hell -- at least according to the article. You see, police are there for the convenience of the reporter, not to actually do their job. And the IP are getting Apache fire support from the US, instead of being left on their own, but that is a bad thing because it is evil American weapons killing the local "resistance fighters". How many cops in the US would love to have Apache backup when they get into a gun battle with gang-bangers - but since it is in Iraq and it isn't all bumblegum and lollipops, the world is ending.
Also, the Europeans were screaming back in 2003 when the US insisted on deBaathification of the police forces in Iraq : "You are getting rid of all the experienced people!!". So in sectors under European allied control, the US permitted the reconstituting of the police forces with Baathists in place. Then the ethnic militias started crying and got rolled into those police forces, as well. Now, we and the Iraqi National Goverment are having to go back in and deBaathify and purge the ethnic militias back out of the police forces, to stop the death squads and cutdown on the corruption. So listening to our European allies resulted in 1 step forward, then 2 steps backward on the police : we are now having to do the purging that they failed to do, with their "kinder, gentler" approach to counter-terror/counter-insurgency. Which has added 3 more years to the whole damned cycle.
After a hastily arranged video conference with George Bush, Iraq's prime minister said Saturday that the U.S. president promised to move swiftly to turn over full control of the Iraqi army to the Baghdad government. A close aide to Nouri al-Maliki said later the prime minister was intentionally playing on U.S. voter displeasure with the war to strengthen his hand with Washington.
Hassan al-Suneid, a member of al-Maliki's inner circle, said the video conference was sought because issues needed airing at a higher level than with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. Al-Suneid said the prime minister complained to Bush that Khalilzad, an Afghan-born Sunni Muslim, was treating the Shiite al-Maliki imperiously. "The U.S. ambassador is not (L. Paul) Bremer (the former U.S. administrator in Iraq). He does not have a free rein to do what he likes. Khalilzad must not behave like Bremer but rather like an ambassador," al-Suneid quoted al-Maliki as saying.
The remarks were the fourth time in a week that al-Maliki challenged the U.S. handling of the war. The ripostes flowed from an announcement by Khalilzad on Tuesday that al-Maliki had agreed to a U.S. plan to set timelines for progress in quelling violence in Iraq. Al-Maliki's anger grew through the week until on Friday, al-Suneid said, the prime minister told Khalilzad: "I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq."
After Saturday's talks, White House spokesman Tony Snow said of al-Maliki: "He's not America's man in Iraq. The United States is there in a role to assist him. He's the prime minister he's the leader of the Iraqi people."
#3
My personal feeling is that Maliki's adviser is talking through his hat. Khalilzad is Bremer - he holds in his hands the ability to deliver Iraq back to the Sunnis. It is this ability that has kept the Shiite leadership cowed and in check.
BEIJING -- China and Iraq are reviving a $1.2 billion deal signed by Beijing and Saddam Hussein's government in 1997 to develop an Iraqi oil field, Baghdad's oil minister said Saturday.
Officials will meet next month to renegotiate the agreement over the al-Ahdab field, said Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani. He was wrapping up a three-nation tour to secure investment for Iraq's oil industry. "If agreement is reached very quickly then I expect them to start working right away," al-Shahristani said at a news conference.
This might be a reasonable deal. The Chinese will pump cash into the country; perhaps having another paying customer will calm the south down a little.
State-owned China National Petroleum Corp. signed the al-Ahdab deal in the midst of U.N. sanctions that barred direct dealings with Iraq's oil industry. Beijing was waiting for sanctions to end when the U.S. invasion in 2003 overthrew Saddam's government. The new Baghdad government courted Beijing because Chinese producers have been willing to invest in Angola, Sudan and other countries considered too dangerous or politically isolated.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
My feeling is that a lot of money is changing hands under the table. This was one of the big mistakes Bush made. Instead of reworking the country like Truman did to both Germany and Japan, he listened to people who urged him to let Iraqis start running things immediately.
#2
Actually this could prove interesting for the Iraqi situation, since the Chinese have never hesitated to put several thousand troops on the ground to protect the oil fields that they develop. And believe me, the Chinese give less than a f**k about human rights and all that jazz when it comes to protecting the fields, the pipelines, and the shipping terminals. They will do whatever is necessary to extract information from someone that they feel is threatening their interests, up to and include harvesting organs from living awake individuals.
#6
Also, the Chinese make compatible spare parts for most of the Iraqi Army's ex-Soviet equipment. This could be a twofer for both sides : oil and parts sales for the Chinese, oil field development with security as well as spare parts for the Iraqis.
GAZA CITY: Seated on her doorstep in Gaza City, Narem puffs discontentedly on a cigarette, then sighs: "We used to be dancers and singers. Now we are nothing." In Europe, they are called Gypsies or Roma. In Gaza, they are called the Nawar, a people with an ancestral tradition of song and dance who have been scattered for centuries throughout the Middle East.
But here, the rise of Islamist doctrine that accompanied the start of the second Palestinian uprising six years ago has sounded the death knoll for the Nawar way of life, pushed them into begging and rendered them second-class citizens in a society regulated more and more by rigid rules.
"Our life was among the best. We wore the most beautiful dresses, we ate the best dishes. We sang Umm Kalthum, Abdel-Halim Hafez during marriages and celebrations. We were free," says Narem, 35, quickly throwing a scarf to cover her dark, flowing hair whenever a car passes. "We didn't learn in schools, but in the home. With us, you begin to sing and dance while still a child," she says. "My mother danced, my grandmother before her and my great-grandmother also."
For decades, the Nawar wandered from city to town in the Gaza Strip and the wider Middle East, showing off their singing and dancing.
But the eruption of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, led by Hamas, changed all that. "The extremists burned and closed all the clubs. They said it was haram, forbidden that girls dance and sing," Abu Mohammed says, dressed in his worn, faded long robe. "Our ancient life has vanished into thin air and it will not come back."
After the start of the second intifada, cinemas in Gaza were shut or burned down, sale of alcohol banned, bathing suits replaced by long-sleeved shirts and pants, and Nawar performances no longer welcomed. "What can we do now, fly away? No, so we beg in the bazaars," says Narem, saddened by the happy memories.
Despite the difficulties, the Nawar do not want to leave. They have been on this land for centuries and consider it their home. ... then they came for the Gypsies, so I posted this article at Rantburg ...
#1
"We used to be dancers and singers. Now we are nothing."
Yeah, I've seen 40 in the rearview mirror myself. Still the old standbys work. Women, dawgs, chillrens, ducks, acid, outboard motors, acid, dawgs with outboard motors, cameras, high explosives, etc.
#2
Within a week of Hamas' electoral victory, there was talk of imposing jizya on non-Muslims living in Gaza and the West Bank. Meanwhile, in Iraq and the Palestiniaa-controlled territories, Arab Christians are voting with their feet, leaving their homelands for more tolerant countries.
#4
"For decades, the Nawar wandered from city to town in the Gaza Strip and the wider Middle East, showing off their singing and dancing.
"Our ancient life has vanished into thin air and it will not come back."
So, Miss Narem, if I understand you correctly, you're saying all this islamist shit is not really as tolerant as the Masters of Taqiyya would like for those of us in the West to believe?
Yet, you don't have the courage to do anything about it except to sit there and feel sorry for yourself.
I'd like to watch you dance. I'd like to hear you sing. Allow me to suggest the Nawar get off their collective asses and make some positive changes in your society. Start by telling anyone who will listen (which excludes the BBC, Rueters, UPI, and AP, NYT, WaPo, and LAT) the unvarnished truth. Start telling the world the oppression/repression, poverty and sickness in the Gaza Strip (and West Bank) does not come from Tel Aviv and Washington. It comes from islam and the apologists for islam in the EU and UN.
The peoples of the West Bank and Gaza Strip are a wrecked people not because of the jews and Great Satan, but because you (?) and your neighbors are muslim. When are you going to admist the truth?
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/29/2006 16:01 Comments ||
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#5
The Roma are not muslim, including this tiny group. They are a tiny minority with long-ago roots in India who have not exactly been welcomed in most of the places where they've travelled since then. Spain, Italy, Germany, the eastern European countries, for example. The Nazis sent them to the death camps. The Communists did the equivalent.
These are small family groupings. Their chance of surviving after a critical article quoting them got any publicity is ... now where did I put that magnifying glass??
#6
Their chance of surviving after a critical article quoting them got any publicity is ...
I did a google search on "Nawar Gaza", and the article has been picked up by several publications, including the Gulf Times.
According to this article, there are about 1000 Nawar in Gaza. The scattered Roma tribes in the ME tend to adopt the religion of their locals, at least nominally. Interestingly, at least before the 2nd intifada, Gaza Nawar would travel to Israel to beg.
The fact that the article appears in the Gulf Times as well as the Daily Star is a curious thing. The theme appears to be: before Hamas took over, we had parties, singing, and belly dancing, now that Hamas is calling the shots (more or less), the kill-joys (controlled by Tehran) are in charge.
In the greater scheme of things, this piece seems more anti-Hamas, and by extension, more anti-Iran than it is pro-Gypsy.
#7
The Arabs are starting to be very frightening of the Iranian Janissaries, aka Hamas. Those in power are making noises to point out how drab and unpleasant life can be if Hamas/Iran takes over, trying to prepare the locals for some political manueverings in the future.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas hopes to beef up his loyalist forces with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) troops stationed in Jordan, Palestinian officials said, as rival factions bolstered their ranks in anticipation of a feared civil war.
Israel has objected in the past to letting members of the Jordan-based Badr Brigade enter Palestinian areas. But with clashes intensifying between Abbas' Fatah Party and forces loyal to the Palestinians' militantly anti-Israel Hamas government, Israeli officials said they would consider allowing them in, the Palestinian officials said. My advice is let them in and issue them with extra ammo.
Palestinian officials did not say how many Badr forces Abbas hopes to mobilize. What is most important to him is that he would command their loyalty as head of the PLO.
Abbas, elected separately last year, is nominally the supreme commander of all seven Palestinian security branches, and most security personnel were hired by Fatah, which controlled the Palestinian Authority for more than a decade. But after Hamas swept Fatah out of office in January elections, it set up a militia of its own, which now numbers 5,700 armed men, and has announced plans to recruit an additional 1,500 forces in the West Bank, Fatah's stronghold.
The rival security forces have clashed frequently in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks as political tensions between the two sides grow. The violence has left more than a dozen dead and stoked fears of a bloody showdown.
The threat of heightened unrest led Palestinian officials from both sides to increase police presence on Saturday. In Gaza, police in blue-and-white camouflage uniforms deployed around the parliament building, and in the West Bank town of Ramallah, security personnel were posted outside parliament, the Prime Minister's office and the Education Ministry.
Blue and white 'camouflage'? What are they blending in with, the sky?
Ramallah: A close aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday the Palestinian economy was close to collapse and urged the Hamas-led government to deal with the crisis. The comments by chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, a member of Abbas's Fatah, highlighted a growing power struggle between the rival Palestinian groups.
Erekat said evidence for the scale of the economic problems came from research by his own office, the Negotiations Affairs Department. "This economy is on the verge of collapse," Erekat told reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "The figures are extremely critical. The government must move to deal with this unprecedented crisis."
The news wasn't all bad: Erekat assured Abbas that they could still afford guns and ammo.
Erekat said Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was projected to fall to $2.9 billion in 2006 from $4.04 billion in 2005. "We are revealing these figures on how the economy is collapsing not to score points but to deal with the crisis," he said.
How in the world do the Paleos generate $2.9 billion in GDP? No industry, little agriculture, total basket case economy, completely dependent on handouts. I don't see it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
a cry for help - Saeb's looking ahead and the Escalade payments are looking tight
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/29/2006 0:04 Comments ||
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#6
Soon we will find out how mother Islam deals with crisis. My guess is that they will kill anyone considered non-essential. That and eating all the dogs, cats, rats, and insects they can find should relieve the pressure for a time.
CAIRO - Egypt has tightened security at its border with the Gaza Strip, the official MENA news agency said Saturday, amid press reports Israel plans to bomb the area to destroy tunnels being used for arms-smuggling. The security forces have deployed along the entire border... following threats by Israel... to drop smart bombs in the Philadelphi corridor, the agency said, referring to a strip along the border from which Israeli troops withdrew a year ago.
The security deployment was to protect Egyptians living in the border area, MENA added.
"Because the Paleos get a little weird, if you know what we mean."
Egyptian newspapers Saturday published reports which had earlier appeared in the Israeli media that Israel planned to drop bunker-busting smart bombs in the Philadelphi corridor to destroy tunnels it says are being used to smuggle high-grade weapons into the Gaza Strip from Egypt.
That got their attention.
An army spokesman in Jerusalem refused to comment on in-camera remarks made by the chief of staff.
"No comment. Go away."
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Why? I doubt the Egyptian government cares one way or the other about the existance of the tunnels. Are the soldiers human shields? Keep the Paleos out? Keep the Isralis from bombing? Keep the Paleos from martyring themselves? How would soldiers "protect" Egyptians in the area? In case an overpressure down one of the tunnels makes several of their houses collapse? :-)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is failing to counter Islamist online propaganda that could propel militancy into the next generation, experts say.
From the Middle East, Asia and Europe, Islamists have built an expansive Internet library of sophisticated texts on the ideology that underpins violence against the West and other enemies, analysts and intelligence officials said. "It's a steady, stealthy indoctrination aimed at creating a whole new generation of jihadists. And scandalously, it is unopposed," said Stephen Ulph, who studies the Islamist Web for the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington think tank.
Oh thank goodness for an expert to tell us what to think.
E-books and online pamphlets, with titles such as "39 Ways to Serve and Participate in Jihad," encourage the growth of home-grown militant cells across the world, including in such Western countries as Canada and Britain, the experts believe.
U.S. intelligence is reluctant to mount an effective counteroffensive by recruiting Islamic experts from overseas to rebut and even ridicule Islamist authors, according to experts and U.S. officials. "Anything exposing the West as a supporter would destroy Islamic opposition to the jihadis," one intelligence official on condition of anonymity. "We are completely out of luck with the Muslim world, across the board."
#3
Are my eyes playing tricks on me or do I see the mufti holding in his grubby little cat like paws what appear to be two front page editions of the Defender-Scimitar & Times Picayune each displaying a photo of uncovered meat possessed of igraa?
Posted by: Mark Z ||
10/29/2006 13:40 Comments ||
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#4
Photoshop is a wonderful thing...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/29/2006 17:53 Comments ||
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(2006-10-28) Under pressure from the U.S. to disarm in the wake of this summers war with Israel, Hezbollah announced today that it would spin off its political and social service units to focus on its core business the development and distribution of terror.
In a corporate news release, CEO Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said, Over the years, our success has lead us into several brand extensions like politics, health care and education. But Im afraid these have become distractions, and weve allowed other terror groups to steal market share while we fiddled around with negotiations and public relations. We need to get back to our core beliefs and focus on becoming world class in our niche.
The announcement comes as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice again called on Hezbollah to fulfill the terms of the U.N.-brokered cease fire with Israel by laying down weapons and becoming a legitimate part of the political process in Lebanon.
However, Mr. Nasrallah rejected the idea, saying its ridiculous to think we should change our tactics after all these years. Our enemies are so primitive that they still settle their differences with discussions and documents. Theyre diplomatic fanatics. You cant negotiate with animals like that.
Iran replaced its air force chief and a key Cabinet minister Saturday, state-run media reported without giving the reasons.
The country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed Gen. Ahmad Mighani as the new air force chief to succeed Gen. Karim Ghavami, who held the post for two years, state television said.
The report did not elaborate or give any reason for Ghavami's replacement, which came earlier than expected.
A U.S.-trained pilot, Ghavami commanded military maneuvers in September when Iran's air force tested a new air defense system, fighter planes and laser-guided bombs.
The change came ahead of a Persian Gulf naval exercise next week in which the United States and five other countries are participating.
Also Saturday, Iran's official news agency said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was replacing Mohammad Nazemi Ardakani as head of the Ministry of Cooperatives, which is an economic department that supports cooperative companies.
"Mr. Ardakani has been an effective and good colleague in the administration, but we decided to employ him in a different post," the agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. He did not elaborate.
The report said Ardakani was being replaced by Mohammad Abbasi, a legislator and former chancellor of a university in northern Iran.
It was the second change in Ahmadinejad's Cabinet in nearly a month. The minister of social affairs was replaced in September.
It was the second change in Ahmadinejad's Cabinet in nearly a month.
He keeps this up, he will rival Stalin and Saddam for paranoid distrust of his subordinates. Of course those two had reason to fear and so, perhaps, does Ahmadinajad.
TEHRAN -- Iran has rejected as "Zionist propaganda" charges by Argentine prosecutors that Tehran and the Shiite militia Hezbollah were behind the 1994 bombing of a Jewish charities office in Buenos Aires, media reported Friday. "Iran rejects the claims by ... the Argentine prosecutors," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini was quoted as saying. "The new Zionist propaganda is done with political intentions, and the negative fabrication aims to spread division between the Iranian and Argentinean people," he said.
"It wants to divert the anti-Israeli atmosphere among Argentinean public opinion from the Zionists' aggression against Lebanese and Palestinian people," Hosseini added.
On Wednesday, Argentine prosecutors charged Iran and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah with the 1994 attack on AMIA (the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association) that killed 85 people and injured 300. They demanded an international arrest warrant for then-Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and six other top Iranian officials at the time of the attack, and a former Hezbollah foreign security service chief, Imad Fayez Moughnieh.
I'd love to see the Argies, or better yet Interpol, get their hands on these rat-bastards but it won't happen.
AMIA, supported by Israel and the United States, had long accused Iran of organizing the attack and getting Hezbollah to carry it out. Those accusations, based on intelligence gathered by the secret services of Argentina, Israel, and the US, have been consistently rejected by the Iranian government and Hezbollah.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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BEIRUT - The European Unions foreign policy chief said on Saturday he had told Israel to stop its jets flying over Lebanon, echoing an earlier call by France. Im coming from Israel to tell you that I talked with the Prime Minister (Ehud Olmert), I talked with the Minister of Defence (Amir Peretz) and made very, very clear ... that this has to stop, Javier Solana told reporters at a news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. We want to have (UN) Resolution 1701 applied by everybody.
You and what army?
Israeli jets have routinely flown over Lebanon since a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas ended on Aug. 14 in a UN-brokered ceasefire. Israel later said its combat planes would continue to fly over Lebanon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Holy Crapola. Don't tell me the French section of Unfulfilled is threatening to shoot down the IAF again. Please...don't tell me. And you Solana, you little pissant, STFU.
#6
Hense the sale of SAMs to Lebanon. Too bad they are export models and Israeli counter measures defeat them with ease. Enjoy the noise Hezbullah warrior of god, each time you hear it go by is a flight that did not end you life.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/29/2006 11:30 Comments ||
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#7
We want to have (UN) Resolution 1701 applied by everybody.
OK, Solana, you first. Stop the flow of arms into Lebanon and I'll bet a dollar to a dog turd the Israelis would be happy to stop wasting their time, money, and energy on overflights.
Which makes me wonder: Has Israel blown up any arms smugglers, or are they just watching for some reason?
Women of the veil need not be assaulted while going about town because they've already been raped at home.
Once again, "moderate" Islam shows us, one and all, how thankful we should be that the mainstream Muslim world is not extremist. I fail to see how it could be any worse, but that's just me.
MODS: Would you please consider reposting this article in tomorrow's issue of Rantburg. Too many people are asleep already and this is a vital adjunct to the ongoing discussions about uncovered meat al-Hilali.
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.
The Taliban are planning a major winter offensive combining their diverse factions in a push on the Afghan capital, Kabul, intelligence analysts and sources among the militia have revealed. The thrust will involve a concerted attempt to take control of surrounding provinces, a bid to cut the key commercial highway linking the capital with the eastern city of Jalalabad, and operations designed to tie down British and other Nato troops in the south.
Fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Omar has rejected the latest offer of peace talks by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday. Instead, the one-eyed leader with a $10 million US bounty on his head has repeated his threat to prosecute Karzai in an Islamic court for the massacre of Afghans. The infidels of the entire world have gathered in Afghanistan, occupied it and taken the Afghans hostage, Tayyab Agha said by satellite phone from a secret place.
QUETTA: Mahmood Khan Achakzai, president of the Pakistan Oppressed Nations Movement (PONM), on Saturday accused Islamabad of being involved in the armed interference in Kabuls affairs. At a public gathering in Pishin district, Achakzai said that Islamabad was deliberately causing regional devastation by directly interfering in the affairs of the Karzai-led government and supporting armed groups. He appealed to religious Afghan leaders to hold dialogue with Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Qazi Hussain Ahmed to determine whether the acts of interference were jihad or terrorism.
DHAKA - At least nine people died and about 500 were wounded in political riots in Bangladesh on Saturday after the man due to take over as interim leader withdrew just hours before taking the oath. Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zias five-year mandate ended on Friday. Former Supreme Court chief justice 
MUSLIM leaders will decide on the future of controversial Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilaly tonight. Sheik Hilaly has said he will stand down if he is proved to have been deliberately offensive in his sermon that suggested women provoked sexual attacks.
KHAR: A meeting of pro-Taliban tribal militants and elders on Saturday called Osama Bin Laden and Mulla Omar heroes of the Muslim world and vowed joint efforts to fight the enemies of peace in Bajaur Agency. 
ISLAMABAD: Nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan is in a stable condition after being treated for deep vein thrombosis a blood clot in the veins that can occur after surgery, his wife said on Saturday. Last month, Khan, 70, had surgery for prostate cancer, and on Wednesday complained of a pain in his leg, Henny Khan said. She said a team of doctors examined her husband and treated the clot. "He is being treated by his doctors, who are satisfied and say there is no need to worry," she said.
BAGHDAD Everybody knows the bad news: In September, the lights were on in Baghdad for around four hours a day. One study has Octobers levels so far at 2.4, the lowest since the invasion. A lot of Iraqi public opinion runs on rumors, and those with their ears pricked will tell you that after three-plus years and billions of reconstruction dollars, theres a sneaking suspicion out in town that the U.S., whos been putting men in orbit for four decades, could have had Baghdad twinkling like Times Square years ago if they wanted to. The conspiracy theory goes that the Americans have, insidiously, chosen not to. That theyre keeping Iraqis down, man. Either that, or we just dont care.
October 29, 2006: While the Kurds of northern Iraq have been independent of the Iraqi government since 1992, they have not yet created a regular army. What they do have is a light infantry force, the Peshmerga. These troops have received some military training, from their own, and American, trainers. The Pershmerga can, at the moment, keep the Arab Iraqis out, but the organization is more a security force and jobs program, than an army. 
Ramallah: A close aide to President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday the Palestinian economy was close to collapse and urged the Hamas-led government to deal with the crisis. The comments by chief negotiator 
CAIRO - Egypt has tightened security at its border with the Gaza Strip, the official MENA news agency said Saturday, amid press reports Israel plans to bomb the area to destroy tunnels being used for arms-smuggling. The security forces have deployed along the entire border... following threats by Israel... to drop smart bombs in the Philadelphi corridor, the agency said, referring to a strip along the border from which Israeli troops withdrew a year ago.
BEIRUT - The European Unions foreign policy chief said on Saturday he had told Israel to stop its jets flying over Lebanon, echoing an earlier call by France. Im coming from Israel to tell you that I talked with the Prime Minister (Ehud Olmert), I talked with the Minister of Defence (Amir Peretz) and made very, very clear ... that this has to stop, Javier Solana told reporters at a news conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. We want to have (UN) Resolution 1701 applied by everybody.
