It is the latest weapon on the front line against the Taliban - the British Army's most powerful-ever sniper rifle, capable of killing with pinpoint accuracy from more than a mile away.
Yesterday the Army showed off its new Long Range Rifle, which has just entered service with combat units in Afghanistan to replace smaller and less powerful weapons. The £11million upgrade programme is part of a "renaissance" of the sniper tradition - which during the Cold War was largely relegated to the sidelines - as modern commanders rediscover the huge value of pinpoint fire from sharpshooters.
The new weapon, the L115A3, fires a heavier bullet to much longer ranges and has a state-of-the-art telescopic sight with twice the magnifying power of the old version. More than 500 are on order from the British manufacturers, Accuracy International.
It fires an 8.59 mm bullet, so it's not a .50 cal, but heavier than the 7.62 mm used previously by the Brits.
Since British forces moved into Helmand Province two years ago to take on the Taliban, demand for snipers has soared and 120 a year are now passing through the specialist training school at Warminster in Wiltshire. One said: "It's a huge step forward. I'll be using the new rifle in Afghanistan this summer.
"It's a little heavier to carry, but the extra power is worth it. The improved telescopic sight can cut through the heat haze, which was preventing us from spotting targets at longer ranges."
Sniping is proving a hugely-important tactic in Afghanistan, where the difficulty of fighting among maze-like compounds and thick vegetation necessitates attacking the enemy at long range. The controversy over so-called "collateral damage" from devastating airstrikes killing innocent civilians adds to the advantages of a pinpoint attack.
A senior officer at the Weapons Support School in Warminster said: "With the new rifle we now expect to be able to engage a target at 1,500 metres. With the old version it was about 1,000 metres. That makes a massive difference. You can keep the enemy at arm's length with snipers. Or you can have several of them firing simultaneously.
"It is devastating for an enemy's morale if a number of their fighters are suddenly shot at the same instant, and they can't even see where the firing is coming from. They tend to withdraw fast."
Training an infantryman to become a sniper can take up to a year, and only the most talented soldiers are allowed even to start the demanding courses. First a candidate must master the technical aspects of shooting, learning to judge the strength of the wind extremely accurately using a variety of clues, and to adjust aim accordingly. Just as importantly a sniper must learn to track his prey, move into position with extreme stealth, camouflage himself perfectly whether in natural cover or a battle-scarred city, and then disappear just as stealthily.
The senior officer said: "There is a long waiting list. Battalions are desperate to send soldiers here for training, and every soldier wants to be a sniper.
"They're held in extremely high regard. This new rifle will make them even more effective."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"Head shot!"
/Unreal Tournament
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2008 6:22 Comments ||
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#2
Reach out, reach out and touch someone . . .
Where did they get that oddball caliber? Who came up with 8.59mm, and why?
Posted by: Mike ||
03/07/2008 9:18 Comments ||
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#3
Calibers dictate the round. It is enigmatic indeed why .01 caliber can have such a night-and-day difference in bullets, but it does.
Amusingly, the Russians always wanted their equipment to be just slightly larger than their enemies. Theoretically, this would mean that they could use the enemy ammo, but the enemy couldn't use theirs.
But practically, it meant that their enemies' ammo would hit dead on, but the larger Russian stuff would be lucky to hit the broad side of a barn.
To make things loopy, different manufacturers using the same diameter bullet will sometimes give it a different caliber *name*, even though the bullets are the same diameter.
For example the .221 Fireball, .222 Remington and .223 Remington all use the same bullet diameter, but the cartridges are different lengths.
NATO gets around different bullet lengths by using the "x" designator. For example the 7.62x51 NATO round.
It helps to be really, really, really anal retentive if you are a bullet designer.
#4
Where did they get that oddball caliber? Who came up with 8.59mm, and why?
IIRC, it's 8.58mm, and its actual name is .338 lapua magnum (US designed, with military use in mind, from the get-go as a step above the universal .30/7,62 calibers), and this is an heavier caliber that has been favored by europeans for some time now (it's the caliber of the standard french army sniper rifle), and is popular with US shooters too.
#5
Some calibers are somewhat special in the accuracy department, and the .338 is one of 'em. Originally there were problems with the brass, that's where Lapua came in. The Lapua brass has both a thickness and hardness gradient that keeps them together under the high working pressures. Nice long range round, could have some use in African hunting, totally overkill for North American hunting...
#7
It's a .338 like their old sniper rifles. The Lapua magnum is an exotic chamber with very subtle differences on the outside. Their round is probably somewhere in between a .338 winchester mag and a .338 Lapua mag.
#8
I've heard of .338 magnum; the metric-to-normal conversion was messing me up. Thanks for straightening me out.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/07/2008 12:44 Comments ||
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#9
338 Lapua.
Best sniper round in the world.
My shoulder knows how damned hard they kick though. Sore when I fired a few at the range courtesy of our rich gun enthusiast who buys such exotic things. The rounds are not cheap, at least not for civilians.
Ballistically, its more accurate a round than the .50 BMG.
And I would not be surprised if they were using the Lapua loading. USSOCOM has been using them for a long time. It is allegedly designed for a headshot at 1000m.
#10
Dakota arms made a cheapo version of a .338 Lapua mag a few years ago called the longbough, it was going for a measley 6,000 USD back in 1998. And it didn't even have any field-time credentials.
The top U.S. military commander in the Mideast says he doesn't expect the Taliban to launch a spring offensive this year. Admiral William Fallon says that, if anything, he expects the military momentum in Afghanistan to continue to swing in the direction of coalition forces.
Fallon told the House of Representatives armed services committee that any spring offensive is going to be carried out by coalition forces. Fallon concedes that while the situation in Afghanistan is still not ideal, he says recent improvements have been encouraging.
The United States plans on sending another 3,200 marines to Afghanistan this year, in part to stave off any uptick in violence that might come with the warmer weather. Fallon says the influx will give Gen. Dan McNeil, head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, the "shot in the arm he needs to really go after ... security, particularly in the south, where he intends to deploy those forces."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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The leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan has urged more Muslims to join and finance the group's war there, saying Western troops are close to defeat. "Your brothers in Afghanistan are waiting for you and longing to (welcome) you," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid said in an audio recording posted on an Islamist Web site. "The time for reaping the fruit of victory and empowerment has come ... The infidel enemy has been badly wounded at the hands of your brothers and is close to its demise so assist your brothers to slaughter him," added the militant leader, speaking with an Egyptian-sounding accent.
U.S. and NATO troops are fighting a fierce insurgency by al Qaeda and its Taliban allies in Afghanistan. A top al Qaeda commander there was killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike in neighbouring Pakistan in January.
In the recording, Abu al-Yazid said Muslim men must not look for permission from "apostate leaders" to join others fighting in countries such as Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, Chechnya, Somalia, Algeria and Iraq.
"Only a loser ... who ridicules himself, disobeys God, and loves the lower life would let jihad down," he said, adding that the fighters needed doctors and electronics specialists in particular.
He argued that joining and financing jihad, or holy war, was a binding duty for every able Muslim man after "infidels" invaded Islamic land. "Only a loser ... who ridicules himself, disobeys God, and loves the lower life would let jihad down," he said, adding that the fighters needed doctors and electronics specialists in particular.
Thousands of Arab Muslims, including Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, went to Afghanistan in the 1980s to help eject the troops of the former Soviet Union and then bring the Taliban to power. The United States led a coalition that invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban after al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, when Taliban leaders refused to hand over bin Laden and his top lieutenants to Washington for trial.
This article starring:
MUSTAFA ABU AL YAZID
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
FREEREPUBLIC > STRUGGLE NEEDS WIVES WILLING TO LET THEIR MEN GO TO HEAVEN. AQ needs milyuhns and ZIlutuhns of MALE EXPERTS, PROFESSIONALS AND SPECIALISTS, ETC. willling to use/give their educated expertise for jihad., + BRAVE WOMEN WHOM LOVE/MARRY THEM???; + COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG > TALIBAN DEFEAT IN THE NW FRONTIER?
IOW, OSAMA MAY "HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT" [John Paul Jones/BONHOMME RICHARD].
Posted by: Shatch Oppressor of the Poles1510 ||
03/07/2008 3:10 Comments ||
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#3
Bombing civilians and importing foreigners who stand out to the locals was so effective in Iraq. These guys must be following the socialist model of repeating the same mistakes over and over again, hoping for a different result.
The United States led a coalition that invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban after al Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, when Taliban leaders refused to hand over bin Laden and his top lieutenants to Washington for trial.
Given what we've seen so far in Lawfare, outside of an open admission [which they were kind enough to do post facto on film], they'd likely have beat the rap in some Federal Court ably assisted by the same elements in the legal community that have participating in fighting America to date.
#6
Bring them in from all points. Show how The Lions can crush the Infidels. No, you won't need more docs, cause once that 8.59 mm expoldes yur skull, there won't be anything left to work on.
#8
C2CAM RADIO SHOW > NE INTELLIGENCE NETWORK Guest > argues that a LARGE SCALE TERROR ATTACK(S) INSIDE THE USA MAY OCCUR BY THE END OF DUBYA'S SECOND TERM. Terrorists prob use WMDS this time???
More than 200 lawmakers shouted "Death to the enemies of Islam" during an angry demonstration outside the Afghan parliament protesting the reprinting of a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad in Denmark and an upcoming Dutch film criticizing the Quran.
The lawmakers from the upper and lower houses of parliament chanted and pounded their fists in the air, urging the Danish and Dutch governments to prevent blasphemy against Islam. "We want the world community, the U.N. and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to react against these kinds of activities, and not allow any countries to cause such confrontations and dangerous challenges among Muslim communities," lawmaker Mohammad Saleh Suljoqi read from a statement.
Last month in a gesture of solidarity, Denmark's leading newspapers reproduced a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad after Danish police said they had uncovered a plot to kill the artist, whose drawing was one 12 cartoons that sparked deadly riots across the Muslim world in 2006.
The reprinting triggered another wave of protests in Islamic countries in recent weeks. The Afghan lawmakers were also angered by an upcoming short film by a Dutch lawmaker that reportedly portrays the Quran as a "fascist book."
They demanded that the Afghan Foreign Ministry summon envoys from Denmark and the Netherlands to discuss the matter. They also urged the Danish and Dutch governments to prevent such acts in their countries. On Monday, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta told reporters during a visit to Denmark that he respected differences in cultures, but suggested Danish newspapers abused freedom of expression when they reprinted the cartoons three weeks ago. Spanta said freedom of speech should be used to promote "equality and peace between nations" and to exchange information.
"Freedom of speech must not be used to make a billion Muslims cry."
"Freedom of speech must not be used to make a billion Muslims cry," he said.
Afghanistan is a Muslim nation where criticism of Muhammad and the Quran is a serious crime that carries the death sentence. Tuesday's protest followed a large demonstration Sunday in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif in which clerics and Islamic students burned the Danish and Dutch flags and demanded that the government shut the two countries' embassies in Kabul.
(Garowe Online) - Somalias interim President Abdullahi Yusuf has reiterated his position that al Qaeda terrorists are leading the insurgency to overthrow his Ethiopian-backed government in the capital, Mogadishu. Speaking with a BBC reporter who visited Somalia last week, President Yusuf said terrorists "trained in Afghanistan" and financed by Osama bin Laden are conducting active operations inside Somalia.
The Somali leaders interview came hours after American warships fired missiles into a southern town aimed at killing an al Qaeda-linked wanted fugitive. Yusuf has claimed for years that al Qaeda is active in parts of Somalia, namely in Mogadishu where the Islamic Courts Union took power in June 2006. Although Somalias Islamists repeatedly denied terror links, the U.S. and Ethiopian governments sided with Yusufs claims and cooperated in the military blitzkrieg to oust the Islamists from Mogadishu later that year.
But the Islamists vowed a long and bloody insurgency, which has now entered its 15th consecutive month, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians. Insiders in Mogadishu and other parts of the country say the insurgency includes Islamist guerrillas supported by the international Islamic movement. Insurgent groups such as al-Shabaab have repeatedly stated their ultimate goal of reestablishing Islamic Sharia law across Somalia.
In September 2006, President Yusuf survived a suicide car bomb that killed his younger brother and a dozen others. His former Prime Minister, Prof. Ali Mohamed Gedi, survived three assassination attempts during his three-year tenure.
But groups fighting the government also include clan warriors opposed to the imposition of an Ethiopian-backed, Darod-led government in Hawiye-dominated Mogadishu. The Hawiye and Darod clans have been vying for control of the countrys resources since the eruption of the Somali civil war in 1991. Ethiopian troops are deeply unpopular in Somalia where many see them as the perpetrators of war crimes and supporters of the country's hated warlords. The African Union, which has 2,000 peacekeepers in Mogadishu, has failed to bolster its peacekeeping forces to replace the despised Ethiopian army.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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CAIRO - The Egyptian government summoned the Iranian charge daffaires in Cairo on Thursday to complain about a demonstration that took place outside the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Teheran.
About 100 protesters gathered outside the Egyptian mission in Teheran on Wednesday evening to protest against Israels actions in the Gaza Strip, shouting Death to America and Death to Israel. They burned the Israeli flag. Some carried pictures of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert standing together and smiling, with the words Leave, stooge in Arabic and Farsi.
I can imagine that Hosni was taking the gaspipe on that one ...
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the demonstrators shouted slogans insulting to Egypt and Egyptian policy.
And most everything would be ...
It noted that on the same day Egypt gave Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki an appropriate welcome when he stopped briefly at Cairo airport. Permitting such demonstrations ... amounts to a very negative message for the future and possibilities of developing bilateral relations between the two countries, it said. Conveying political messages by organising demonstrations is an act which should not occur between two states which should be trying to raise the level of relations, it added.
"And we'll reconsider what's 'appropriate' next time you come calling!"
Egypt and Iran have not had full diplomatic relations since soon after the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, but they do maintain small interests sections with low-level diplomats.
Several times in the last five years the Iranians have tried to persuade Egypt to restore relations but Egypt insists that the Iranians first remove a street mural in Teheran depicting one of the men who assassinated President Anwar Sadat in 1981. Egypt also wants the Iranian authorities to change the name of the Teheran street named after the man, Khaled Islambouli.
Egyptos do seem sensitive. Might give someone ideas ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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America needs to work hard to regain the trust of the British public following the Iraq war and the Bush years, a senior adviser to Barack Obama says today.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Samantha Power, who is a key member of the Presidential hopeful's foreign policy team, ...
says anti-Americanism is now "vehement" in the United Kingdom. "A restoration of trust will have to occur between the US Government and the British public," she says. "There is a sense of disappointment but people still want to believe in the USA."
The "special relationship" between Britain and America would, she believes become stronger if Mr Obama won the White House because he would make voters in this country warm to the United States. "Any British leader is harmed domestically in terms of public standing by association with President Bush, the reverse will happen with President Obama. Obama reminds people of JesusOprah the better angels of America."
Mr Obama would also try to heal the divisions between Europe and America, caused by the war in Iraq. "Obama can go door-to-door in Europe and say, 'Look like you I opposed the war in Iraq but what are we going to do together about Al Qaeda?'" *Ding-dong*
"Who is it?"
"O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA! O-BA-MA!..."
"Bloody 'ell!"
The United States must show more respect for international institutions, she adds. "We have to show that we know we can't do it alone. It matters not just intrinsically that we close Guantanamo, it matters because we need to be credible at the UN. You can't be against genocide on a Monday and for water boarding on Tuesday, then on Wednesday show up at the UN." "To show up at the UN you must support Oil for Genocide on a Monday and condemn Israel for building a wall against those who celebrate the holocaust on Tuesday. Make sure to bring plenty of cash when you show up on Wednesday."
Miss Power is the self proclaimed "genocide chick", who won the Pullitzer Prize for her reporting from Bosnia. She plays basketball with George Clooney and is the inspiration for the latest David Hare play.
Punched her ticket all the right ways, did she ...
This auburn haired Irish journalist is a professor at Harvard, the founder of a human rights think tank and was cited by Men's Vogue as one of the most beautiful women in the world. She is also one of Mr Obama's most trusted advisers on foreign policy. The would-be President of the United States texts her with, "O-BA-MA!" "It's Obama, call me" in the middle of the night. Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British Ambassador to Washington has already called on her three times.
Neither she nor Obama have met Gordon Brown or David Cameron. Their main point of contact is Mark Malloch Brown, the Prime Minister's agent provocateur eminence grise in the Foreign Office. "David Miliband seems impressive to me. I am confused by what's happened to Gordon Brown. I thought he was impressive."
In America, Miss Power has been compared to Condoleeza Rice. "I'm nothing like her," she says. "I don't have any conventional political ambition." "I'm simply pro-human . . . like the UN."
Nope, no political ambition at all, that's why she hangs around Senators and works on a political campaign ...
But if Mr Obama wins the Presidential race she is likely to remain a powerful force. "I'd do anything he asked me to do. It's not about working for the next President of the United States, it's Obama. If he ran General Motors I'd be working for him."
#3
Followed by the Standard Obama Disclaimer: Didn't mean a word of it.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2008 7:07 Comments ||
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#4
There comes a time when you have say, "If that's what it takes for you to think better of me, I don't care for your opinion anymore."
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/07/2008 8:29 Comments ||
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#5
Somebody should tell Samantha there is no UK anymore. It's just a province in the EU. So there won't be much special about the relationship. Their choice, not ours. Though we didn't provide them any real alternative, but that's water over the bridge.
#6
Miss Power is the self proclaimed "genocide chick", who won the Pullitzer Prize for her reporting from Bosnia. She plays basketball with George Clooney and is the inspiration for the latest David Hare play.
This auburn haired Irish journalist is a professor at Harvard, the founder of a human rights think tank and was cited by Men's Vogue as one of the most beautiful women in the world. She is also one of Mr Obama's most trusted advisers on foreign policy. The would-be President of the United States texts her with, "It's Obama, call me" in the middle of the night. Sir Nigel Sheinwald, the British Ambassador to Washington has already called on her three times.
Neither she nor Obama have met Gordon Brown or David Cameron. Their main point of contact is Mark Malloch Brown, the Prime Minister's agent provocateur eminence grise in the Foreign Office. "David Miliband seems impressive to me. I am confused by what's happened to Gordon Brown. I thought he was impressive."
I don't know whether to pray or vomit.
Maybe I'll do both...
Posted by: Sally Field ||
03/07/2008 9:16 Comments ||
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#8
Most Working class/middle class in uk have no problem with USA.Just the Lefties like Galloway and Tony Benn who feel sorry for the so called oppressed paleos/muslims who hate us infidels anyway!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
03/07/2008 9:21 Comments ||
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#9
Frankly, I don't give a flying shit what the leftist government thinks of us. In fact, the more they scream, the more I know we are on the right track.
The answer is of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.
#10
The Telegraph musta left before she got to this part...
Earlier, clearly rattled by the Ohio defeat, Ms Power told The Scotsman Mrs Clinton was stopping at nothing to try to seize the lead from her candidate."We f***** up in Ohio," she admitted. "In Ohio, they are obsessed and Hillary is going to town on it, because she knows Ohio's the only place they can win.
"She is a monster, too that is off the record she is stooping to anything," Ms Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.
Ms Power said of the Clinton campaign: "Here, it looks like desperation. I hope it looks like desperation there, too."You just look at her and think, 'Ergh'. But if you are poor and she is telling you some story about how Obama is going to take your job away, maybe it will be more effective. The amount of deceit she has put forward is really unattractive."
Ms Power's comments reveal how the inexperienced Obama campaign is coming under increasing pressure from a battle-hardened Clinton camp that saw Ohio as its last chance to save its candidate.
#13
why is it only americans need be concerned with out image --- how about this obama -- how are you going to repair the euros image in the us?
scew 'em all..let em sink further into their welfare state -- espescially now since they have to contend with the euro exchange
Posted by: dan ||
03/07/2008 11:14 Comments ||
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#14
Aren't these the same Rocket Scientists who thought the Brits celebrated the Fourth of July?
#15
I hate to inform our dear British friends that we Yanks don't give a rip about your public opinion. Our opinion is that you all better get your house in order and crack down on your Muzz infiltrators while you still have a chance. Your support of Paleos over Israelis really inspire our confidence. If you think we're going to carry water for you again, forgeddaboutit.
#16
They're getting quite good at this. Well, at least they're getting quite expierienced at it...
LONDON - An adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama apologized Friday for telling a Scottish newspaper that rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is "a monster."
Samantha Power, a foreign policy adviser to Obama's presidential campaign and Pulitzer Prize winner, was quoted in remarks she later attempted to retract as saying in The Scotsman newspaper that Clinton was stooping to low tactics to recover ground in the race to win the party's presidential nomination.
Power issued a statement Friday in which she acknowledged the comments but said she "deeply regretted them."
"It is wrong for anyone to pursue this campaign in such negative and personal terms," she said in the statement. "I apologize to Senator Clinton and to Senator Obama, who has made very clear that these kinds of expressions should have no place in American politics."
Obama's spokesman Bill Burton said in an e-mail: "Senator Obama decries such characterizations which have no place in this campaign."
WASHINGTON - A Barack Obama adviser has resigned after calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster."
A campaign official told The Associated Press Friday that Samantha Power's resignation is effective immediately.
Power told The Scotsman that Clinton is a "monster" who will stoop to anything to win. She tried to make the remark off the record, but the Scottish newspaper printed it anyway. She apologized in a statement and the campaign decried the remark.
...and that's not even the part that pissed me off. But, whatever works...
WASHINGTON - A former adviser to Barack Obama, who resigned Friday after calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster," said Obama may not be able to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within a year as he has promised on the campaign trail.
Power's comments about Iraq came in an interview with the BBC. She said Obama's position is that withdrawing all U.S. troops within 16 months is a "best-case scenario" that he will revisit if he becomes president.
"He will, of course, not rely on some plan that he's crafted as a presidential candidate or a U.S. senator," she said. "He will rely upon a plan an operational plan that he pulls together in consultation with people who are on the ground to whom he doesn't have daily access now, as a result of not being the president."
Obama has actually shortened his original 16-month commitment to say he'll end the war in 2009. Obama advisers say President Bush's plan to draw troops down to 15 brigades this year means Obama could complete the removal in a year.
In Mississippi, Clinton questioned the Iraq comments based on Obama's public statements.
"He has attacked me continuously for having no hard exit date, and now we learn he doesn't have one, in fact he doesn't have a plan at all," Clinton told reporters while campaigning in Mississippi. Her campaign sent out a fundraising appeal based on the Power's resignation.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said Obama's plan to draw down approximately two brigades a month upon becoming president is "a rock solid commitment."
"He has been and will continue to be crystal clear with the American people," Plouffe told reporters in a conference call.
Plouffe noted that one of Clinton's military advisers, retired Gen. Jack Keane, said last week that she would not remove troops immediately upon taking office.
Keane told The New York Sun, "I have no doubts whatsoever that if she were president in January '09 she would not act irresponsibly and issue orders to conduct an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of the consequences, and squander the gains that have been made."
Clinton said Power's comment on Iraq is reminiscent of Obama's senior economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, telling Canadians privately that the debate over free trade in Ohio had was "political positioning" and not an indicator of policy plans. The description appeared in a Canadian government memo, but Goolsbee and the Canadian Embassy later said Goolsbee never suggested Obama's public and private positions are different.
Recent reports in Canada said an official in the Clinton campaign also gave Canada back-channel assurances that her harsh words about the North American Free Trade Agreement were for political show. The campaign denied the report.
Clinton said the two instances suggest "he keeps telling people one thing, while his campaign tells people abroad something else. I'm not sure what the American people should believe."
No matter which one of these two clowns wins, what a disappointment all those moonbats are in for. But it's not like they aren't used to it...
#25
In the clips that I have seen of the Wilders' film, both Blair and Bush are attacked for dhimmism. John McCain's views are closer to those of the average Brit, than are B Hussein O's.
I'm happy to see that McCain has chosen to sit back and let the Dems self-destruct.
Fort Lewis officials are alerting soldiers and their families to avoid the Tacoma Mall between noon and 5:30 p.m. March 15 because of a planned anti-war protest at the commercial center of Pierce County.
Mall officials are preparing accordingly.
Local protest groups have announced their intention to "shutdown" the Tacoma Mall, specifically the military recruiting station in the commerical tower located on the north side of the property. The building does not fall under mall management. Calls for protest claim the groups want to "make it impossible for business as usual to continue as the Iraq War approaches its fifth year."
"We are aware of their intensions to protest," the mall's Marketing Director Sarah Bonds said. "We do not allow potests on our property." The mall plans to notify protesters of that policy when they arrive and take other measures as needed, she said, noting that the mall will be meeting with police and security officers to develop detailed plans to handle the protest in the coming days.
Military officials warn that protesters plan on distributing anti-war and anti-military literature as well as confront local recruiters or interact with soldiers, family members and civilians who appear to be military affiliated.
Recent protests against the war at the Port of Olympia have been marked by increased levels of violence, the military alert reports. The Port of Olympia protesters are some of the most violent in the US, and there is a good chance that they will attempt property destruction or to goad teenagers into attacking either military personnel or the police.
#1
But they support the troops! Don't you dare question their patriotism!
Posted by: Mike ||
03/07/2008 9:02 Comments ||
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#2
Oh to be im Olympia on that day. I would make up an excuse to go to the mall. I think this is all part of their "Winter Soldier II" thingy. Can't wait to hear those sad sad stories.
#8
This movement in America has got to be shut down. Bezerkley, Times Square, now Olympia....
Angers me to no end.
How about suggesting to the mall management to do the following, a recipe for successful dispersing of stupid protestors:
Mash decayed entrails and spoiled remains along with skunky bits, add some cougar urine (works good keeping away the deer) then spray down all of the surfaces of the area in question where the protestors will be.
Just sayin'
Posted by: Jan ||
03/07/2008 12:25 Comments ||
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#9
The pure illogic of anti-war demonstrators becoming increasingly violent.
These are not peaceniks, they are lost impotent followers who happened to find themselves in an anti war group.
#11
It's not that they're anti-war. They're just against this country winning a war.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/07/2008 13:42 Comments ||
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#12
ION, REDDIT > INDYBAY.com > CALIFORNIA - INTERN LONGSHOREMEN AND WAREHOUSEMEN UNION [ILWU] has demanded that Dubya = USA end the war in Iraq-ME or will shut down major West Coast Ports on May 1, 2008.
Also on REDDIT > CNN [Video]- USA TRAINED 911 HIJACKERS; + REDDIT/WAFF.com POster Thread > USA IN CIVIL WAR/HEADED TOWARDS CIVIL WAR???
Pray tell, do the above by chance refer to a certain PENN STATE STUDENT, US ARMY SOLDIER-ENGINEER, US ARMY OFFICER, US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, etc. - what does PAULA "MY DADDY SAYS KICKING A COCONUT IS AN ACT OF WAR + MOM'S FAULT" ABDUL REMEMBERETH???
According to the Financial Times, the UK MOD is set to announce that they will give the new tanker contract to a consortium led by EADS/Airbus, with their new A330 tanker. This is compared to the Boeing BAE consortium with the 767 (the same as the USAF).
The award of this contract is beleived to have been for a number of reason (other than operational) such as the severe delay on many other BAE projects (Astute SSN, Eurofighter, Nimrod (maritime patrol), and Brimstone ( battlefield attack weapon). ALso of concern is the controversy with the USAF order of the 767 tanker, which led to the redignation of the Boeing CEO Phil Condit.
And no doubt, the Airbus consortia giving excellent rates in order to come into the market (similar to the low rates Lockheed gave to the RAF as C-130j launch customer). BAE will not be too upset, as they produce 20% of the A330, and Rolls-Royce prouce the engines (as they do for the 767).
The A330 will be up to 16 new build airframes, and 4-5 used airframes, compared to the all used (Ex British Airways) 767 offer.
Interestingly the RAF has a history of using tankers no other nation uses (Victor, Tristar, VC-10), and using ex Briish Airways Aircraft (Tristar and VC-10). May have been missed during the weekend screwballapalooza, but is continuing to make our local/state news. Personally after eurocopter and a380 I wonder about this as anything other than a deal to make a deal but since Britain is voting (?) as to whether to be themselves or a pininsula of a pininsula I leave that open. Also, Airbus has been in Wichita for a number of years manufacturing. -first post so mods, suggestions if any please-
AoS: thanks for the post and good job. For all who post, always check the article for inappropriate line breaks, etc., it makes our job easier.
#2
Actually theres a very good chance they chose the Airbus offering because the USAF just told Airbus they were going to buy 179 or so A330 based tankers to replace the KC-135.
#3
Boeing was supposed to be debriefed by the USAF today as to why they lost; i just checked the on line Seattle Times and they have no new info about that, but they did offer two interesting and probably related tidbits: expect another delay in the 787 and the Boeing Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing Chief is retiring ( 5 years early).
the UK tanker contract was undoubtedly slated to be a 'hanger-on' to the USAF one. they have probably negotiated favorable prices based on quantity.....(disclaimer: this is pure speculation on my part)
#4
This just showed up on the Seattle _PI's aerospace page: looks like Boeing may appeal.
Boeing tanker debriefing over
The Air Force has finished briefing Boeing on why it came up short on the tanker competition.
Boeing says it has "significant concerns.''
Here is the latest just issued by Boeing.
Boeing: Uncertainty About Process Remains After Air Force Tanker Debrief
ST. LOUIS, March 7, 2008 - The U.S. Air Force has completed a debriefing
for The Boeing Company [NYSE:BA] during which acquisition officials
sought to explain why they selected a team of Northrop Grumman and the
European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) for a contract to
replace aerial refueling tankers.
The debriefing on Friday came one week after the Air Force's surprising
announcement that it had chosen the Northrop-EADS team over the Boeing
KC-767 tanker offering.
"We spent several hours with Air Force leaders, listening and probing,
all in an effort to better understand the reasoning behind their
decisions," said Mark McGraw, Boeing vice president and program manager
of the KC-767 tanker. "While we are grateful for the timely debriefing,
we left the room with significant concerns about the process in several
areas, including program requirements related to capabilities, cost and
risk; evaluation of the bids and the ultimate decision."
"What is clear now is that reports claiming that the Airbus offering won
by a wide margin could not be more inaccurate," said McGraw.
Boeing officials said that they will take the next few days to evaluate
the data presented and will give serious consideration to filing a
protest.
"Our plan now is to work through the weekend to come to a decision on
our course of action early next week," said McGraw. "It will be a very
rigorous and deliberative process to ensure we're balancing the needs of
the warfighter with our desire to be treated fairly. For decades Boeing
has been recognized as a defense company that never takes lightly
protests of our customers' decisions."
#5
If Boeing were smart (heh), they'd sit down, figure out how they lost and come back in the next competition. Remember folks, the tanker contract is being done in three parts, and we just did part 1.
Next time, Boeing: use the 777 as the base plane, and make sure your total life-span costs for the plane slide under the A330.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 18:11 Comments ||
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#6
See also PR NEWSWIRE/US NEWSIRE > A [USA]GOVERNMENT THAT WORKS AGZ ITSELF HAS NO DEFENSE -THE EADS TANKER CONTRADICTION. USA-USAF awarding tanker contract to EU consortium well-known from resorting to illegal subsidies harmful to US interests???
#8
Boeing got sand bagged by the Air Force. They were told the Air Force wanted a KC-135 replacement and cargo capacity was not important. So they submitted the B767 vs the A330 which cost 1/3 more. Otherwise Boeing would have submitted the B777 since both airframes were considered.
Posted by: ed ||
03/07/2008 22:33 Comments ||
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Authorities to Gain Fast and Expansive Access to Records
Several thousand law enforcement agencies are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence system through computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police information to fight crime and root out terror plots.
As federal authorities struggled to meet information-sharing mandates after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, police agencies from Alaska and California to the Washington region poured millions of criminal and investigative records into shared digital repositories called data warehouses, giving investigators and analysts new power to discern links among people, patterns of behavior and other hidden clues.
Those network efforts will begin expanding further this month, as some local and state agencies connect to a fledgling Justice Department system called the National Data Exchange, or N-DEx. Federal authorities hope N-DEx will become what one called a "one-stop shop" enabling federal law enforcement, counterterrorism and intelligence analysts to automatically examine the enormous caches of local and state records for the first time.
Although Americans have become accustomed to seeing dazzling examples of fictional crime-busting gear on television and in movies, law enforcement's search for clues has in reality involved a mundane mix of disjointed computers, legwork and luck.
These new systems are transforming that process. "It's going from the horse-and-buggy days to the space age, that's what it's like," said Sgt. Chuck Violette of the Tucson police department, one of almost 1,600 law enforcement agencies that uses a commercial data-mining system called Coplink.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
This promises to be an utter nightmare for a simple reason. Local police should be able to use such toys, but should not be allowed to directly modify them.
It should have information clearinghouse nodes for them to submit data. Very high security nodes. With something comparable to "surety" for data entry.
Right now, there is a terrible problem at the local law level with cops misusing the existing databases to do things like spy on ex-wives and celebrities. They have no more self control than an equivalent number of truck drivers.
The potential for "authorized" abuse is enormous, and that is before even considering "unauthorized" or hacker attacks. Every villain and government on the planet is going to want a back door to this system, and will be able to get one. Organized crime will have a field day.
And heaven help us all if they figure out some way of accessing the FBI's high security criminal databases.
#2
Data feeds are NOT real time and are secured. All submissions have MULTIPLE audit trails. Law enforcement officials are not permitted to act on info in the repository without contacting the originating agency.
Law enforcement officials and congressional staffers said numerous letters claiming responsibility for the Times Square explosion arrived at Capitol Hill offices Thursday. Investigators said the letters included a picture of a man standing with his arms wide apart in front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Station stating "Happy New Year, We Did It."
Law enforcement officials said they do not know if the man in the picture is connected to Thursday morning's blast. They said the letter, which included a somewhat lengthy manifesto, was signed with a name. Officials stressed no suspect has been named and no one is in custody at this time.
May we assume that's a temporary situation?
Capitol Police put out a statement late Thursday, "The U.S. Capitol Police and the FBI are working together to investigate letters received by various members of Congress. There is no established connection between these letters and the NYC Times Square incident this morning. The investigation is ongoing...more details as they become available."
Law enforcement and congressional sources told WNBC the letters sent to the Washington offices of several U.S. Representatives contained a photo that is now being compared to the images captured by video surveillance cameras in Times Square. One congressional staffer who saw the letter said it included a photo showing a white man who appeared to be in his 30s with red hair. The staffer said the man, whos face was clearly visible, was standing in front of the military recruiting offices in Times Square.
The source said the letters had a Los Angeles return address. However, the staffer said it was not possible to determine if it was genuine. The staffer said a Capitol Hill policeman who came to get the letter said, "We think this is the guy."
The small bomb caused minor damage to the New York military recruiting station before dawn Thursday and police were searching for a hooded bicyclist seen on a surveillance video peddling away. The small explosion around 3:40 a.m. Thursday caused minor damage but no injuries at the station on 45th Street.
Times Square was shut down as police looked for a suspect, who was possibly riding a bicycle. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said officers have recovered a bicycle from the trash on 38th Street while searching the area. The bike was in good shape, Kelly said.
The blast appears to have been caused by a small, powdered device that shattered the glass facade of the recruiting station. Sources tell WNBC that the expolsive powder is believed to be low grade and not very sophisticated. The FBI and NYPD have launched a joint investigation into the incident and are examining evidence collected at the scene.
Law enforcement officials are looking into whether the bomber is the same person who threw explosive devices at the British and Mexican Consulates in the early morning hours in the past couple of years. In October, witnesses told police they saw a man on a bicycle throwing a small black powdered device at the Mexican Consulate in Midtown. In May 2005, a similar incident also occurred at the British Consulate building. No one was hurt in either of those two incidents.
"In 2005, 2007, dummy hand grenades were used and the explosive, black powder, was put into those grenades and that caused the explosion," Kelly said. "Here, it may be similar powder — we still have to determine that. But it was placed in an ammunition box. That was the carrier for the explosive. There was no grenade."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like we have a nut on the loose.
Good news is we have his picture, but why isn't it on every TV in the country?
Goddamned cops and their limp pecker fear of being helped by us common civilian scum.
NEW YORK -- WNBC.com has learned that NYPD and FBI officials are now revisiting an incident that occurred along the Canadian border last month because they are concerned there might be a connection to the Times Square explosion. Four men trying to cross the border tried to flee the checkpoint when Canadian officials tried to question them, investigators said. Two of the men got away, officials said.
The men left behind a backpack with photos of various New York City locations including Times Square, according to sources speaking on condition of anonymity. One of the photos included the military recruitment center, officials said.
As a precaution, NYPD outreach officers last month went to various New York City businesses, including the Times Square recruitment center, to investigate if there had been any recent threats. No threat information was known at the time. But after this morning's explosion, FBI, NYPD and other agencies are now reaching out to Canadian authorities to try to learn more about the men. One law enforcement official described two of the men as being "anarchist-types" and not terrorists.
Oh lawzy. An anarchist IS a terrorist!
He stressed there is nothing to link the border incident to the explosion or the Capitol Hill letters at this time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Viet Nam era draftees that fled to Canada. Finally coming back to stick it to The Man. Kind of pitiful actually, like those Japanese guys they find hiding in the jungle on some island where it is still World War Two...now and forever more.
#2
To steal a lefty meme - all made possible by the atmosphere of hate and intolerance created by the MSM. Hate speech comes home main streamed.
Of course we all knew this was coming. If and when the usual suspects in the media are tagged for their efforts to 'incite the mob', they'll hide behind various self rationalized and justified rhetoric which they would not give an ounce of credit to if the proverbial shoe were on the other foot [as demonstrated in the NYT coverage of the Duke debacle].
#3
IIRC the border crossing incident happened on the Quebec/Maine border. There are a TON of Moroccans, Algerians and other Mooselimbs in Montreal and area. No terrorists here, no sirree. Perhaps the odd anarchist, maybe, perhaps but certainly no terrorists. (snark)
Kabeer wala (AsiaNews) His name is Altaf Husain and he is an 80-year-old man. He was arrested by police in Kabeer wala for desecrating the Quran, a crime which is punishable with life in prison according to the Pakistan Criminal Code.
The elderly man belongs to the Ahmadiyya, a Muslim religious movement condemned as heretical in 1974. With perhaps as many as 3 million followers, especially in Punjab, the Ahmadi community has suffered from harassment and persecution.
According to police, a student saw Altaf Husain rip pages out of a Quran last Monday and throw them on the ground. When he shouted at him to stop, the old Ahmadi ran off. You are wasting good toilet paper!!!
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) has refused to support the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) nominee for the office of Balochistan chief minister, sources told Daily Times on Thursday.
The MMA emerged as the second largest grouping in the Balochistan Assembly after the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) in the February 18 polls. The religious alliance has eight seats; the PML-Q 21 seats; the PPP eight seats; and the Balochistan National Party-Awami (BNP-A) six seats in the provincial assembly.
The sources said that the PPPs Syed Khursheed Shah met Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani of the MMA on Wednesday night at Parliament Lodges and sought their support for Aslam Raisani for the office of Balochistan CM.
The MMA leaders declined Shahs request and asked him to explore other options for any bilateral cooperation in the province, the sources said, adding that the MMA was in contact with the PML-Q and the BNP-A to form a coalition government in Balochistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Meanwhile, at the Lair of the Elders...
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) The council of world leaders launched by former President Nelson Mandela is sending a three-person team to help ease tensions in the troubled Middle East, the organization known as The Elders said Friday. ...and, as always, if any of your Elder force are caught or killed, Flaming Michelins will disavow any knowledge of your actions.Good luck, Jimmy.
Former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and former Irish president Mary Robinson will visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia from April 13-21. Maybe they're gonna bore them into peace talks...
Launched last year to celebrate Mandela's 89th birthday, the group of 12 world leaders is dedicated to fostering peace and resolving global crises. Think Nellie would've been happy if Branson had just gotten him a coupla hookers? Aw, geez. I didn't think that crazy rich white man was actually expecting me to have to do anything...
Annan noted his recent mission to Kenya in which he mediated a power-sharing agreement in the country's disputed presidential election."I have just completed an intense and grueling negotiation in Kenya and learned that conflict is easier than peace, but persistence makes peace possible," said Annan, adding that he was "acutely sensitive to the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in the mind of many in the Middle East." Easy there, Kofi. Don't tear a rotator cuff patting yourself on the back over that Kenya thing. I'll bet that ain't over yet...
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who chairs The Elders, appealed to the Israelis and Palestinians to stop the "cycle of violence." I read to you now from from The Elders Book of Snappy Answers and Tired Cliches...
Tutu said he condemned "unequivocally the dastardly" attack Thursday by a Palestinian gunman on a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem that killed eight Israeli students. He also "equally vehemently" condemned the deaths of civilians in the recent Israeli offensive on Gaza. The campaign, in which more than 120 Palestinians have been killed, targeted militants who have been barraging southern Israel with rockets. What about the rockets, Des? Or are you all condemnationed out?
"Peace will not come from the barrel of a gun, as we learned in South Africa," he said. "Peace will only come when the inexorable cycle of reprisal provoking counter reprisal, ad nauseam ends. When the inalienable rights of all, Israeli and Palestinian, are recognized and respected." I notice you're skipping this one, Des. Maybe you can stay back at headquarters and sign off on their expenses, which I'm sure will be a vital part of this mission...
#1
Watched American Chopper last night and the boys went to South Africa and toured a game farm; there was a bust on Nellie in the courtyard. And also alot of elephant poo. seemed the poo actually had a use ( fertilizer)
#2
The Christian faith is about REDEMPTION = SAVING FROM SIN/EVIL > in a way, I hope former POTUS CARTER is successful in salvaging his legacy, as long for its for the right or proper reasons. For that matter, ditto for fellow former POTUS BILL CLINTON.
#3
So let me guess. The "elders" go somewhere, and complain about the food, and how their children never call, and how young people today are disrespectful, and that they just don't understand that noise that they call music these days.
#4
Scene: The Lair of the Elders, later that same night!
MANDELA: Jimmy, you're back!
CARTER: Yes, no thanks to you! Did you really think I wouldn't figure it out, Joe?
MANDELA: Joe?
CARTER: Did you think I wouldn't notice that all the assignments I get from headquarters are to active combat zones? You're trying to get me killed! Admit it!
H/T HotAir
The leader of the Shi'ite Sadrists in Iraq, Muqtada Al-Sadr, has announced in a letter to his followers that he is stepping down from his position, distancing himself from people, and focusing on his studies.
He explained that he was doing so because he had failed in carrying out his father's will to liberate Iraq from the occupation and turning its people into believing Muslims.
He wrote that the continuation of the occupation, the many who were distancing themselves from the true path, and their turning to politics and affairs of this world had motivated him to sequester himself from human society, in order to carry out his obligation to Allah and not to add sin to the crime.
Al-Sadr called on his men to obey the committee for managing the affairs of the Sadrist movement and all Sadrist institutes, and its representatives that bear the name of the Office of Al-Sayed Al-Shahid which is named after his father, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadeq Al-Sadr, murdered in 1999 by the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
#4
Pretty much open season on the remainders now...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/07/2008 13:32 Comments ||
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#5
I'm with Doc. Just when was this letter written? Too scared to announce his death so he's off to meditate in a cave is the explanation for why he's never heard from again. Except on paper, of course.
#7
My bet? After his followers prostrate themselves and beg and plead with him to return to them...well...okay. Then he goes to the Iranians ans sez, "see how powerful I am. My people won't let me leave" and ups the price. But don't think we've seen the last of him.
Unless of course he just some kind of manic depressive schizophrenic amnd ends up hanging himself with a bedsheet. Some of his statement makes it sound like too much Allah has eaten his brain...
#8
Well, this puts a knife in the left's predictions of Mooky firing up the murder festival.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/07/2008 13:52 Comments ||
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#9
See, we told you the surge isn't working!
Posted by: Nancy and Harry ||
03/07/2008 14:04 Comments ||
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#10
He explained that he was doing so because he had failed in carrying out his father's will to liberate Iraq from the occupation and turning its people into believing Muslims.
IF I made a public statement, carried in all the newspapers, that some Middle Eastern country "X" wasn't really Moslem and they were all just faking it there would be more hue and cry than you've ever seen, fatwas pulled out of all the various mullah's nether regions calling for my death...
Moqtada al Sadr just said that about Iraq because mothers aren't being forthright enough about throwing their infants onto US bayonnets. And noone's even pretending to be insulted.
Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, the mutawa are using blurry understandings of islamic law to perpetuate a fundamentally unislamic caste system... remember that woman whose marriage was anulled by her brother after her father's death, who was then imprisoned? Well, Guess How In Accord With Islam that really is.
#11
Night-Of-The-Living-Dead's Al Gore producing junk science movies and a comatose Mooky writing a retirement letter. I tell you, the world's a better place since loser politicians went into entertainment and loser entertainers went into politics. What next? Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan throwing an kazoo concert for world peace?
#14
Darrell, Jummy and Kofi have volunteered to help negotiate the Israeli surrender to Hamas already!
Jerusalem Post 3/5
Nothing like watching a senile anti-Zionist and a world class thief trying to impress the Nobel committee...Sadr's 'retirment' is being upstaged.
Sounds to me like hes going on the predicted Ayatollah Fast-track. Either that or he's pursuing other career opportunities that will allow him more time to spend with his family.
#18
Maybe next time we see him hes 50 lbs lighter and hes shilling for Slimfast, replacing Tony Orlando as the next "I was a frickin slob but look at me now" celebrity endorsement.
#20
HMMMM, IMO only Sadr's personal faith-obligations may indeed be one part of his rationale for this, but I believe the more correct reason is the CONCLUSIVE OUTCOME OF "OBAMA VERSUS CLINTON" + NEED FOR RADICAL ISLAM TO HAVE TIME TO REGROUP/REBUILD + TIME FOR IRAN, ETC. TO DEV THE "ISLAMIST BOMB".
Despite recent violence, IMO the focii of Radical Islam is gener OUTSIDE OF IRAQ-ME, AT LEAST FOR THE DURATION OF "OBAMA VERSUS CLINTON" IN THE USA. In the absence of a major or sigificant ISLAMIST-ONLY battlefield victory agz the US-Allies, i.e. USA ANDOR ISRAEL, ANY HOPE FOR SAVING THEIR GLOBAL JIHAD-OWG AGENDA IS VIA AMER HIROSHIMA OPTIONS, GREAT POWER CONFLICT, + MUTUAL DESTRUCTION, any of which bears exclusive significant risk for the Islamist agenda vv collusory NON-ISLAMIST/MUSLIM "Great /Regional Power" partners agz the USA-Allies. IMO, RADICAL ISLAM NEEDS TO PROTECT THEIR OPTION FOR INDUCING THE USA IN MULTI-FRONT REGIONAL CONFLICTS WID HIGH POTENTIAL FOR GREAT POWER CONFRONTATION.
Also, DIVINE/QURANIC PREMISES FOR ISLAMIST JIHADISM > many in Radical Islam, includ in top Leadership, will prob not wish to link themselves, Islamism, Islam, or Allah, etc. in any failure or defeat of their jihad.
The determinative outcome of "OBAMA VERSUS CLINTON" + "ISLAMIST/IRANIAN BOMB" will tell us iff Sadr's "retirement" is indeed permanent.
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Powerful Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who has not been seen in public for months, issued an unusual statement on Friday explaining his absence to his followers and admitting splits in his movement.
"I swear that I live with you and among you. I am a part of you. I will not change this unless death separates us," he said in a two-page statement bearing his personal stamp.
"I will always be here in spirit! It'll just be hard for you to see me!"
Sadr, who rarely issues statements, acknowledged that his followers were wondering where he was and that his absence "could be a reason for depressing them." He did not say though when he might return to public view.
His absence comes at a time when his movement is locked in a battle with rival Shi'ite factions for political control of oil -producing provinces in southern Iraq. Scores of his followers have also been arrested by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Sadr, who commands a large following among young and poor Iraqi Shi'ites and has one of the largest blocs of legislators in parliament, has not been seen in public since attending a religious ceremony in the holy city of Kufa on May 25, 2007. In December, a senior aide to Sadr, Salah al-Ubaidi, said the young cleric was taking advanced Islamic studies in a bid to earn credentials that would allow him to issue decrees.
Sadr's statement was issued two weeks after he extended a ceasefire by his Mehdi Army for another six months. Many members of the militia have openly questioned the decision, fearing they will be targeted by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Sadr, who the U.S. military believes is in Iran, said he had chosen to isolate himself to concentrate on his studies. He also wanted to distance himself from groups that had splintered from his movement and developed their own political agendas.
"Many whom we believed were good followers are not listening to or obeying the instructions of their religious leaders and they are involved in political conflicts," he said in a rare admission of trouble within his movement. "Many followers have split from me for many reasons, some of them want to be independent. This does not mean there are not loyal followers," he added.
The U.S. military has in the past questioned how much influence Sadr exerts over his movement, with different "rogue" factions turning to criminal activity or continuing to launch attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces despite the ceasefire.
Sadr, who has sought to portray himself as a nationalist leader, withdrew his ministers from the government over its refusal to set a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal. "The continued presence of the occupiers ... pushed me to take this isolation. It is a way to express my protest at what is going on," Sadr said.
BAGHDAD - Some 2,000 US soldiers are being withdrawn from Baghdad as part of a planned reduction of US forces in Iraq, the US military said on Thursday. The 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, was part of the extra 30,000 soldiers sent last year to stop savage sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims that had threatened to tip the country into a civil war. I can state that (they) are leaving and there is no replacement brigade combat team coming in, US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Stover told Reuters.
Good work, guys! Outstanding job and kudos to the 82nd!
Since the 30,000 troops became fully deployed in mid-2007, violence has dropped by 60 percent, prompting General David Petraeus, the US military commander in Iraq, to announce that five of 20 brigades would be pulled out by July 2008.
There are more than 150,000 US troops in Iraq, with about 34,500 deployed in the Iraqi capital. The drawdown is expected to cut the overall total by about 20,000. Last November, the first brigade, totaling about 3,000 soldiers, was sent home from Iraq without being replaced.
Stover said the 2,000 soldiers of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team based in northeast Baghdad were also in the process of returning home after a 15-month tour. They included support and service staff as well as combat troops. For operational reasons he could not say whether other US soldiers or Iraqi forces would fill the gap left by the departing brigade.
But there were plans to withdraw another brigade from the Baghdad area as part of the planned cutback, he said, giving no details of when that would take place. Plans are fluid, he said. The (US militarys intent) is not to give back any part of the city that our soldiers have paid a high price for.
Petraeus and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates have said there should be a pause after the planned drawdown is completed in mid-2008 to assess the situation. That would leave about 140,000 US soldiers in Iraq. On Wednesday, Major-General Mark Hertling, commander of US forces in northern Iraq, warned that further troop withdrawals would have to be halted unless Iraqi authorities moved faster to create jobs and improve basic services over the next six months.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Love your families and get some rest before the next round. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen!!
To defuse the threat from Gaza militants to Israel and President Bush's Mideast peace program, the U.S. has decided that the ends justify the means.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is considered a terrorist group by Washington. U.S. law forbids official contacts. Nonetheless, the Bush administration is giving quiet support for Egypt's attempt to broker a deal with Hamas for a truce in Gaza. Under this approach, which U.S. officials and Mideast diplomats confirmed, Hamas would halt rocket attacks from Gaza. Israel would agree not to launch the kind of military incursions that nearly wrecked the U.S.-sponsored peace talks last weekend and would ease its blockade of Gaza. "It's better to have a stable situation right now than to have Hamas doing what Hamas was doing, which was pulling the thread," a senior U.S. official said Thursday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive policy shift that gained momentum when Mahmoud Abbas, the U.S.-backed Palestinian president, canceled peace talks to protest the deaths of more than 120 Palestinians in the Israeli assault.
Any progress is tenuous, as seen Thursday with the fatal shootings by a Palestinian gunman at a library of a rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem. It was the first major militant attack in the city in more than four years.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, after NATO meetings in Brussels, was asked about Egyptian-brokered truce talks. "I talked with the Egyptians and we fully expect the Egyptians to carry out the efforts that they said they would carry out to try to bring calm to the region, to try to improve the situation in Gaza," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Never mind yet another hudna with one group while the rest keep shooting off kassem rockets. A full and permanent (eg until God/Allah's Judgement Day) surrender to, and peace treaty with, Israel by signed by every single Palestinian -- so that no new splinter groups can be formed to reconstitute the war -- is the only acceptable solution.
#4
Our leaders in DC are fucking insane.
Posted by DarthVader 2008-03-07 10:07|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
I'd personally rather not slander the insane or mentally ill for which we can find pity, by wrongly comparing them to "our leaders in DC." If I may, the word you are searching for is TREASONOUS!
A senior Israeli defence ministry official on Thursday denied that Egypt was mediating truce talks between the Jewish state and Hamas.
It is false to say that there are negotiations under Egyptian mediation, Amos Gilad, a political aide to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, told public radio. The comments came a day after moderate Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said that Israels main ally Washington would get involved in intense efforts underway in Egypt to strike a ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians. He said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - who paid a two-day visit to Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories this week - was involved in the efforts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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The Palestinian Hamas movement hailed a deadly attack on a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem on Thursday night as "heroic," without claiming responsibility for the strike that killed eight. "This heroic attack in Jerusalem is a normal response to the crimes of the occupier and its murder of civilians," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Another spokesman, Taher al-Nunu, blamed the attack on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and the Israeli government. "We have warned before about the responsibility of the escalation in Gaza and warned of Palestinian anger," Nunu said.
Hundreds of Palestinians poured into the streets of Gaza City as news of the attack at a west Jerusalem yeshiva spread, firing automatic rifles into the air in celebration. Several more hundred people likewise celebrated in the northern town of Jabaliya, which has borne the brunt of deadly Israeli military strikes over the past eight days that have killed more than 130 Palestinians in Gaza amid a sharp escalation of violence in and around the impoverished territory.
This article starring:
SAMI ABU ZUHRI
Hamas
TAHER AL NUNU
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Thursday condemned an attack on a Jewish religious college in Jerusalem that killed eight students. "We condemn this attack carried out in Jerusalem against a religious school," his office quoted him as saying in a statement. "We condemn all attacks against civilians, be they Palestinian or Israeli."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Thursday denounced the "shocking" shooting at a school in west Jerusalem and said the only way to honour the memory of the eight dead was to promote peace. "The reports tonight of killings at a seminary in Jerusalem are shocking," Miliband said in a statement.
He added: "The only way to honour the memory of those who have died is to build a Middle East free from the power of the gun through a political process in which the peaceful majority drive out the murderous minority."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
a Middle East free from the power of the gun through a political process in which the peaceful minority majority drive out the murderous majority minority."
#4
The eight seminary students were killed because they didn't have weapons to protect themselves against their murderer. Foreign Secretary clearly believes that is the appropriate situation -- Jewish children baring their necks to killers. Sanctimonious, antisemitic ass!
Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives met with Egyptian intelligence officials in the Egyptian city of El-Arish yesterday to discuss the possibility of opening the Rafah border crossing and of reaching a truce with Israel.
After the meeting, Ayman Taha, Hamas' spokesman in Gaza, said that Hamas was open to a tahadiyeh - a temporary cease-fire - on condition that it be bilateral.
In addition to an end to Israeli military operations, Taha said, Israel must also lift the blockade on Gaza. Khader Habib, who headed the Islamic Jihad delegation at the meeting, said that Israel must also agree to a comprehensive cease-fire in the West Bank that includes an end to arrests of suspected militants.
Israel opposes such restrictions. The Hamas delegation was headed by Mahmoud Al-Zahar.
Taha said that Hamas is open to having members of the presidential guard of the Palestinian Authority stationed at the Rafah border crossing, on condition Hamas be allowed to vet the list of personnel.
Taha added that the organization would also agree to the redeployment of European observers at the border as long as they lived in the Strip or in Egypt and not in Israel.
Senior IDF officers met with their counterparts in the Palestinian preventative forces in the West Bank yesterday to discuss ways to maintain calm in the territories following Friday prayers at the mosques.
Amos Gilad, who heads the Defense Ministry's military-foreign affairs bureau, is to meet in Cairo with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein on Sunday to discuss arms smuggling from Egypt to Gaza via the Philadephi Route as well as new border crossing arrangements at Rafah.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON - Targeted financial sanctions have been effective in isolating Iran, causing a painful situation for Teherans leaders and raising questions about the Iranian administration, a US Treasury official said on Thursday.
Have an 'accident' at an Iranian oil refinery and now you have something ...
Iran has found itself increasingly isolated from the international financial system as banks around the world decide that maintaining their Iranian clientele is not worth the risk of unwittingly facilitating (weapons) proliferation or terrorism, Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey said in remarks prepared for delivery to an American Bar Association conference in Miami.
That self-imposed isolation combined with the Iranian regimes mismanagement of their countrys economy is beginning to generate a debate about the wisdom of the current regimes policies, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Apparently not painful enough...I mean, look at Gaza if you wanna see how much pain people can endure in the name of Islam. Sanctions are a limp wristed approach that will never work against dangerous and determined enemies like the Mad Mullahs. It will only make them contemptuous of us and strengthen them in their conviction that we will never do what is really necessary which is to bomb the hell out of them.
#2
Apparently not painful enough...I mean, look at Gaza if you wanna see how much pain people can endure in the name of Islam.
Apples and oranges. Persians aren't Paleostinians.
Sanctions are a limp wristed approach that will never work against dangerous and determined enemies like the Mad Mullahs.
True, if it were the only 'weapon' used and only targeted against the mullahs. Do some research and see who controls the economy.
It will only make them contemptuous of us and strengthen them in their conviction that we will never do what is really necessary which is to bomb the hell out of them.
I bow before your obvious and superior military prowness.
#2
Editor: "A Treatise Exonerating the Nation of the Pen and the Sword from the Blemish of the Accusation of Weakness and Fatigue? Ayman, baby, it doesn't quite roll off the tongue"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/07/2008 5:49 Comments ||
Top||
Salah Al-Din Brigades Spokesman on Al-Jazeera Calls on Muslims to Bomb, Burn Down Danish Embassies and Kidnap Danish Ambassadors to Slaughter Them at Muhammad's Tomb
"Burn Down the Offices Of The Newspapers That Affronted Our Prophet... Bomb Them so Body Parts Go Flying, and With These Body Parts, Allah Will Quench the Believers' Thirst for Revenge"
Abu 'Abir: "We will not allow them to deride our Prophet, and we will wait for no one to take the appropriate measures in response to this crime against Islam, the Muslims, and our Prophet. We will redeem our Prophet with our lives. Oh servants of the cross, we have let everything you did to our nation pass. But for your abominable deed against our Prophet, oh hostile and infidel Denmark, you will pay a heavy price, Allah willing. Oh Messenger of Allah, accept our apology. Denmark has spoken heresy.
"We in the Al-Nasser Salah Al-Din Brigades declare, in light of the recurrence of this grave incident, which was permitted by the Jewish, Crusader, infidel Danish authorities:
"First of all, we call upon the Islamic nation to rise up, and not make do with a futile economic boycott, in the face of this affront to our honorable Prophet. We call upon them to drive out the Danish embassies and ambassadors from the lands of the Muslims, and to expel them from the Muslim countries. They should take serious and immediate action to burn down the offices of the newspapers that affronted our Prophet, and to bomb them, so that body parts go flying, and with these body parts, Allah will quench the believers' thirst for revenge."
"Oh Nation of Islam, Oh Nation of Muhammad, Your Prophet Has Been Derided"
"Second, we call upon the Arab rulers, who are supposedly Muslim, and whose birth certificates indicate that they are Muslim, to advance their armies, and to take [appropriate] official stances, in defense of our Prophet Muhammad. Oh nation of Islam, oh nation of Muhammad, your Prophet has been derided. They must immediately declare that they will sever relations [with Denmark], recall their ambassadors, and cut off all their economic ties.
"We say to the leaders of the Arabs and the Muslims: Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? By God, if anyone in some remote corner of the world affronted you, you would mobilize your armies in order to wipe him off the face of the Earth. This should be all the more true, oh Arabs, when it comes to those who affront your honorable Prophet." [...]
"Oh Nation of Islam, We [Found] that This Offense [of Publishing the Cartoons] Constitutes a Systematic Policy"
"Third, we once thought that the publication of the offensive cartoons in the past reflected the personal opinion of one crippled Dane. But, oh nation of Islam, we were surprised to find out that this offense constitutes a systematic policy. Therefore, from here, from the frontier land, we demand that all the infidel Crusader Danes on this pure frontier land leave the countries of the Muslims. We have not heard any of you condemn these crimes against our Islamic belief. What good are your voices [of condemnation] anyway, when your stupid prime minister has the audacity to support and defend these cartoons? Therefore, we call upon you once again to leave our Islamic countries immediately, and especially the frontier land of Palestine."
"We Call Upon Muslims All Over the World to Bomb The Embassies, Kidnap Danish Ambassadors, and Kill Them [at] the Tomb Of The Prophet"
"Fourth, we call upon the Muslims, mujahideen, and monotheists all over the world to pursue any of the pigs who drew or helped publish the offensive cartoon, and to slaughter them immediately on the threshold of the tomb of the Prophet. I love you, oh Prophet of Allah, like I love my father and mother. I swear by Allah if we get our hands on them, we will show them no mercy.
[...]
"We call upon Muslims all over the world to bomb the embassies, to kidnap Danish ambassadors, and to kill them on the threshold of the tomb of the Prophet.
"Oh nation of Islam, this is our Prophet. This is not about Palestine. You may have sold out the Al-Aqsa Mosque, but will you sell out the Prophet Muhammad too? If you're selling - we're buying. We will sell our souls cheaply to redeem even his honorable shoe, and to redeem the shoe of any Muslim on the face of this Earth."
Shawn Sage long dreamed of joining the military ... and becoming a Marine. His foster parents, as well as his social worker, supported his decision to enlist early [into the Delayed Entry Program].
But last fall, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner dashed the foster teen's hopes of early enlistment for Marine sniper duty, plus a potential $10,000 signing bonus. In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Childrens Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didnt approve of the Iraq war, didnt trust recruiters and didnt support the military.
I tried. I said, `Please. I begged. He tried, he said, `Please and begged, Sage said. But she refused.
Mackel said she denied delayed enlistment to an eager Navy recruit as well, Medrano said. She expressed concern that recruiters treat recruits like another warm body, he said. She said, `All you care about is your numbers.
She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear. She said she didnt want him to fight in it.
The judge said she didnt support the Iraq war for any reason why were over there, said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office.
Despite being denied [by the judges capricious act], he still shows up for USMC physical training. The judges name is Marilyn Mackel. From the LA Superior Court Website you can find the contact info, including her phone number at her office.
AoS note: we at Rantburg do not encourage uncivil contact. If you decide to call, be respectful as you express your opinion.
#1
And if you are too lazy to hit the web and search:
MACKEL, MARILYN
Commissioner
Edmund D. Edelman Childrens Court (Dependency)
Dept 402
(323) 526-6402
Be polite. No bad language.
But be firm in telling her a judge is not supposed to inject her ignorance, prejudice and unreasoned bias into another young persons choice to serve his/her country.
Information courtesy of LASuperiorCourt.org's search engine.
#2
Although she practiced business litigation in Orange County before she became a bench officer, the Mississippi native said she has had a longstanding interest in criminal justice and juvenile law.
A graduate of Bennett College, a historically black womens school in Greensboro, N.C., she was a social worker in foster care in New York City. She later worked as a probation officer while earning a masters degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York.
Mackels law degree is from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. After graduation, she taught criminal justice at the University of the District of Columbia and had her own practice in the nations capital.
#3
"It just felt like, wow. I even told Shawn, I said, `Dude, it feels like we've been burned at the stake at the Salem witch trial.' She just had some kind of animosity toward military personnel."
If that doesn't work, wait 'til you turn 18, sign up, and mail the judge a postcard from boot camp. And another from Fallujah. Come back on leave and drop by the courthouse in full Class A uniform, just to say hello.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/07/2008 10:55 Comments ||
Top||
#5
He did one better. He suggested a law that requires only the consent of foster parent OR social worker. And its either or - they both must say no to veto the enlistment. No judge and her prejudiced ignronace and political axe-grinding, and abusing some poor kid to make her political hay and hatred.
And it looks like it will pass - thanks to heavy Republican shaming of the Dems in the land of fruits and nuts.
#8
I would guess that since this particular decision was based on the judge's personal bias and apparently nothing else, it should be rather easy to have the case heard by another judge.
#9
And definitely file a complaint with the state bar association. To me, it's grounds for disbarment as it's a clear case of personal bias and the judge has no legal basis for the ruling.
#10
As if changing the law will matter. This bitch was honestly "ruling" from the bench -- her whims outweighed all else.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
03/07/2008 13:45 Comments ||
Top||
#11
I like Mike's idea. Living well is the best revenge. The young man should do well in the Marines, and come back to Commisioner Mackel's hearing room in full Class A uniform.
Just to be an inspiration to the other kids there that day. And he would be.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/07/2008 14:19 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Will the day come when we take our country back from sanctimonious bitches like this hack of a judge?
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.
It is the latest weapon on the front line against the Taliban - the British Army's most powerful-ever sniper rifle, capable of killing with pinpoint accuracy from more than a mile away.
The leader of al Qaeda in Afghanistan has urged more Muslims to join and finance the group's war there, saying Western troops are close to defeat. "Your brothers in Afghanistan are waiting for you and longing to (welcome) you," 
More than 200 lawmakers shouted "Death to the enemies of Islam" during an angry demonstration outside the Afghan parliament protesting the reprinting of a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad in Denmark and an upcoming Dutch film criticizing the Quran.
CAIRO - The Egyptian government summoned the Iranian charge daffaires in Cairo on Thursday to complain about a demonstration that took place outside the Egyptian diplomatic mission in Teheran.
America needs to work hard to regain the trust of the British public following the Iraq war and the Bush years, a senior adviser to Barack Obama says today.
Law enforcement officials and congressional staffers said numerous letters claiming responsibility for the Times Square explosion arrived at Capitol Hill offices Thursday. Investigators said the letters included a picture of a man standing with his arms wide apart in front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Station stating "Happy New Year, We Did It."
The Palestinian Hamas movement hailed a deadly attack on a Jewish religious school in Jerusalem on Thursday night as "heroic," without claiming responsibility for the strike that killed eight. "This heroic attack in Jerusalem is a normal response to the crimes of the occupier and its murder of civilians," Hamas spokesman 
WASHINGTON - Targeted financial sanctions have been effective in isolating Iran, causing a painful situation for Teherans leaders and raising questions about the Iranian administration, a US Treasury official said on Thursday.
