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Bomb explodes in Beirut suburb
Today's Headlines
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Arabia
What a spin! Eye on Saudi Maids Reveals Child Abuse
As somebody who lived there for a number of years, I can tell you this is COMPLETE BULLSHIT!! Maids as well as all the labor hand in that shit hole are terrified of even saudi born mosquitos! They will never, ever beat a saudi child because they know that death or torture is to follow!

JEDDAH, 27 March 2005 — Many Saudi families have installed secret cameras in their homes in order to monitor the behavior of their maids. The families are supposedly interested in seeing how the maids treat their children, especially since violence against children is increasing in the Kingdom.

Umm Sultan, a Saudi mother working in the educational sector, has had more than eight maids in the past few years. She has had to change them because of abuse of her children.

She said: "I suspected that my maid was abusing my child when he always ran to me and said he didn't want to be with her." Umm Sultan decided to take a friend's advice and install a camera to see what was going on. She said: "The maid left my child crying for hours while she took a bath or watched TV. When the child was hungry, she took the bottle, shouted at him and then threw the bottle at him. In the end my child cried himself to sleep. I could not watch the tape so I called my husband and showed it to him. The maid was deported the same day."

Umm Sultan's story is generally typical of what the secret cameras reveal.

Maids, on the other hand, strongly object to being secretly filmed. They said it was an invasion of their privacy. An Indonesian maid stated, "Nobody has the right to film me or any other maid. We refuse to have our private lives filmed. I will not agree to being filmed."

Foreign consular offices in the Kingdom have different opinions. Muhammad Salheen, from the Indonesian Consulate, understands the motives that drive many Saudi families to install secret cameras. At the same time, he pointed out: "Just as Saudis are entitled to their privacy, so are maids. Saudis could avoid the stress and violence which may come from their maids by specifying exact work times and rest times. Many maids are driven to violence as a result of stress because of the absence of laws and regulations related to their work."

Ahmad Ali believes that secret cameras are important in every house where there are maids. He described his experience when he discovered that his maid was beating his young child.


He said: "Thank God I discovered how my maid was beating my child, because of secret cameras."

The secret camera business has brought huge profits to stores which sell them. Ahmad Al-Shawi, the manager of a big camera observation company, said the number of Saudi families asking for the service is increasing every month. He said: "Secret camera prices vary. They run from about $550 to $1,300. The price also depends on the size as most Saudi families prefer the smaller ones that cannot be seen or discovered."

Ah, so that wretched abuse that cost a maid several digits was JUSTIFIED, you see, because of the rampant child abuse going on. The religious police must also be thrilled at increased surveillance ....
[http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=61121&d=27&m=3&y=2005]
Posted by: TMH || 03/27/2005 9:26:12 AM || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But of course, Saudis wouldn't even think in looking at the camera while the girl disrobes.
Posted by: JFM || 03/27/2005 9:42 Comments || Top||

#2  Of course not, JFM! We're too busy reviewing all those alleged porn CD's that were siezed earlier this week. This will take a considerable amount of time and towels and baby oil...
Posted by: Shiek Yerbouti || 03/27/2005 10:07 Comments || Top||

#3  They just want to make a video of the manly muslim men raping their maids..... Rape is almost a religous obligation in Islam you see...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/27/2005 10:08 Comments || Top||

#4  Fortuneately, I never had to install cameras to watch our maids - there weren't any. Mrs. Bobby and I raised all three of our little darlings wihtout hired help! Wotta concept!
Posted by: Bobby || 03/27/2005 13:46 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, I've used border colliers who were sometimes too aggressive with the nephews but hey! That's just the way they are.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 13:53 Comments || Top||

#6  The collies or the kids, Ship? heh ....
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 13:54 Comments || Top||

#7  The collies of course! The chillrun run and scream after a few nips on the ankle. Course it makes them easy to mass.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 15:38 Comments || Top||

#8  Have a friend with a Great Pyrenees. Great dog, not a wanderer but she can't let it outside in the early morning and the evenings, because it herds joggers. As in, she comes out front to see 5 or so nervous people standing near her fence - one moves and the Pyr moves in to keep the guys/gals together. I guess it figures the car traffic is dangerous - no sidewalks there - and it needs to protect its funny looking 'sheep'. Heh.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 15:47 Comments || Top||

#9  tt - LOL! That conjures up all sorts of hysterical images for me, lol! Hmmmm. Herds joggers, eh? I'm picturing the Marin Co Massacre... 2 or 3 of these awesome dogs send hundreds of Bay Area joggers off one of the palisades into the icy shark-ridden waters...

Oh, um, sorry. Daydreaming again.
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 16:43 Comments || Top||

#10  LOL! .com except it could never happen. The dawgs would throw themselves in front of the herd to keep them from the cliff. What you want is a Tasmanian tiger.... rats... whers that .jpg? I had it... fooey. Anyway. A cat who hates folks.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 17:12 Comments || Top||

#11  No wait a second.... my sources inform me that a Sheltie would herd them off in a second.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 17:14 Comments || Top||

#12  Ship - Lol - I'm afraid Shelties might explode from all the excitement, heh!
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 17:28 Comments || Top||

#13  TMH, speaking as someone who has employed a number of Asian maids (when living in Asia), I know that abusing young children is a common way for maids to exact revenge for real and imagined abuses on them. I don't condone it but I understand why it happens.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/27/2005 17:50 Comments || Top||

#14  As someone who lived in SA, I'll say that TMH's assertions regards Saudi Arabia are absolutely correct. Perhaps a maid employed in her / his own native locale may be abusive, but you can bet your ass that one in SA would not be - for fear of her / his very life.

Maids and "Houseboys" are commonly terrorized, starved, beaten, and sexually abused by the Saudis, both the males and females -- and there is no escape. Even if they had squirreled away cash to buy a ticket, the "employer" / "sponsor" keeps their passports. You can't run away to the nearest Catholic Church and beg Father DoGood to sneak you out of the country - no one is sympathetic to your plight. No. One. They are no different than indentured servants, who are often "fined" for "misbehavior" and there is no recourse. They are routinely held beyond their agreed contract and routinely paid less than was agreed and routinely charged for anything the employer provides. Those who are "live-in" cannot leave the house, period, without permission. Talk about making a complaint to the Labor Ministry is completely laughable without a company behind you or in large numbers. Top it off with this: The Labor Ministry won't even give you an interview if you don't have a native Arabic speaker to represent you - this is common in all dealings with the Govt... it "makes work" for indolent useless Saudis and other Arabs from the GCC who are not from connected / wealthy tribes. There is no recourse. Asking for trouble would bring it in spades - there's plenty of abuse coming at them from the Saudis, they don't need to, and I say won't, go asking for it.

In the Asian country I've been in long enough to employ domestic help, Thailand, I've neither seen nor heard of any sort of child abuse. I did not have children there with me, so no first-hand knowledge one way or the other. None of my Thai friends with children was financially independent, lol!

In Saudi, it would be absolute suicide. They are already abused and unprotected beyond the wildest dreams of any American or Westerner. To buy into this Bullshit is to be utterly suckered, lol!
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 18:37 Comments || Top||


Bahrain Warns Opposition After Pro-Reform Rally
Bahraini authorities yesterday warned of action against the country's main opposition group after it organized a mass demonstration in defiance of a government ban. Al-Wefaq Society "will face legal measures after it organized an unlawful demonstration" on Friday, Information Minister and State Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohammad Abdul Ghaffar was quoted as saying yesterday. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Sitra, the archipelago's third largest island located south of Manama, in response to Al-Wefaq's call to press for constitutional reforms.

Protesters, defying an Interior Ministry ban, filled the main highway carrying Bahraini flags and chanting slogans demanding change. Organizers estimated the crowd at about 80,000. More than 2,000 women, all dressed in black robes, joined the march. Late Friday, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashed ibn Abdullah Al-Khalifa called for legal action against the organizers for holding the march despite being refused a permit, the BNA news agency reported. Sheikh Rashed said his ministry did not issue the permit due to regional "tension and security threats". But Al-Wefaq leader Sheikh Ali Salman, who led the rally, emphasized that they were keen on protecting civil peace and did not intend to disturb or negatively impact government efforts to attract foreign investment. "Nonetheless we have demands that need to be addressed," he said. Sheikh Salman added that their main demand was to have the National Assembly be fully elected. Currently the assembly, which is composed of two houses and has 80 members, has half its members appointed by the king.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:


Anti-Regime Protests Planned In Bahrain
Bahrain has braced for the prospect of massive anti-regime protests. Bahraini opposition groups plans to stage a series of demonstrations to demand constitutional changes. The groups have been dominated by Shi'ites, who have sought equal rights in the Sunni-led kingdom. Opposition sources said the demonstrations would be led by the Shi'ite-dominated Islamic Wefaq Society, the largest opposition group and accused by authorities of being linked to Iran. They said the first protests would be launched in the Shi'ite-populated island of Sitra in western Bahrain on Friday. "The idea is to unite all the opposition groups in demonstrations that would reflect the protests in Egypt and Lebanon," an opposition source said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
Kilts, Military Uniforms Banned from Cambridge Graduation (Hijab OK)
This is an outrage! Barbarians! Heathens! Saracen-loving Saxon Swine!

Tartan outcry as Cambridge bans kilts
Nick Fielding

CAMBRIDGE University has barred Scottish students from wearing kilts at degree ceremonies as part of a ban on national costumes.
The ban has been introduced because the university says it wants all students to dress as equals. Even members of the armed forces will be prevented from wearing their uniforms.
Heh, the war-mongering mercenaries ought to be glad they can go to Cambridge at all.

Although the regulations apply to kilts, there will be an exemption for religious dress such as Islamic veils.
Naturally.

The ban brought criticism from politicians north of the border yesterday. Jim Wallace, the Scottish executive's deputy first minister — and a Cambridge graduate — made his opinion clear.

"Instead of clamping down, they should be more flexible," he said. "You must be able to combine the best of the traditional, such as gowns and hoods, with something that allows you, if you want to, to wear your national dress. As long as it is still dignified, then this should be allowed."

Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish National party's shadow justice and home affairs minister, said the ban was "petty and very narrow-minded". Bill Aitken, the Conservative MSP for Glasgow, said it was "total and utter nonsense".
Someone needs to conjure up William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.

A spokesman for the university defended the decision on the grounds that graduation regulations had always emphasised that traditional dress should be worn, but that they had not been enforced until now. By traditional dress, the regulations mean trousers and ties for men and skirt-suits for women.
"As a Progressive institution, how can we maintain our principles of academic freedom, open debate, and free expression if khufrs and militarists get to dress any way they like?"

"The arch-druids praelectors (graduation regulations officials) found that just recently the breaches of their regulations have been more prolific and more extreme. They asked if they could allow them to be enforced," said the spokesman.
Will Berkeley transfers be allowed to wear their religious costume of Che t-shirt and tie-dyed jeans?

He added: "The underlying reason for the graduation ceremony is that you become a member of Cambridge University regardless of whether you are a Scottish, a New Zealand or an army one."
If you're an Islamo one, though, you get special consideration.

A spokesman for the Scottish Tartan Authority, which promotes traditional dress, said: "While we do not know the dress code of the colleges concerned, we would be very disappointed to see a ban on tartan."

A fourth-year male student, who did not want to be named, said: "I'm proud of my Scottish identity and I think this is unfair on Scottish students."


Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/27/2005 4:23:20 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So go as a Scotish tent! Need a little extra room for the crowd but hey! Mo Beer! Tartan Hajibs are the wave of the future.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 17:17 Comments || Top||

#2  Aha! This is the insidious work of the Blancmonges, methinks!

(The first Monty Python show I ever saw - circa 1973)

Within certain societal institutions, academia in this case, the gig is up. PC and Dhimmitude have converged into a super-virus that causes stupidity and twisted rationales. In this case...

"Hey! Let's offend Scotland! They have received enough Dhimmitude, yet!"

"Brilliant! Let's!"
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 17:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Preview is your friend:

"They have not received enough Dhimmitude, yet!"
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 18:39 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Rival Kyrgyz parliaments struggle for power
Two rival parliaments competed for power Sunday in Kyrgyzstan, raising political uncertainty in the former Soviet state days after its leader fled for Russia and his government collapsed amid massive demonstrations. Police and civilian volunteers appeared to have stemmed the looting that raged through Bishkek after demonstrators stormed the presidential headquarters on Thursday and sent President Askar Akayev fleeing to Russia. But disorder persisted in the political sphere, and the country's law-enforcement coordinator, appointed by one parliament, demanded the other body be recognized as legitimate in an apparent split in the opposition.

Some fear the split — and the competing parliaments — could fuel simmering tension and plunge the shaken Central Asian country into deeper turmoil. Both groups — the parliament newly elected in a disputed vote that sparked massive discontent, and the one that lost the election — met in separate chambers over the weekend, each claiming to represent the people. Felix Kulov, a former opposition leader who was freed from jail Thursday, warned lawmakers in the old parliament — led by his own allies — that they should step down. "The new parliament is legitimate and the old parliament's term has expired," said Kulov, who has been placed in charge of law enforcement agencies. He warned the former parliament that "if you get people out, I will take measures to arrest you." Kulov later apologized when Prosecutor-General Azim Beknazarov challenged him, saying: "These are the people who freed you, will you arrest them?"

"I am too tired. I apologize for that," Kulov said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/27/2005 2:22:43 PM || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Kyrgyzstan Sets June 26 Election
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Russia grants asylum to Kyrgyz leader
Russia has granted asylum to Kyrgyzstan's ousted leader Askar Akayev at his request, the Kremlin said on Saturday. "Askar Akayev asked that he be allowed to come to Russia, and this has been granted," the Kremlin's press service said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

It was not clear Saturday evening whether Akayev was in Russia. But Interfax, citing unnamed sources, reported earlier on Saturday that he had arrived in the country. "Akayev arrived during the night from Kazakhstan," the agency quoted one of the sources as saying. Interfax said that it could not confirm the report officially. A radio station in Moscow said that sources close to Akayev had confirmed to it that the deposed leader had arrived in Moscow.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Moscow? Can he not afford Paris like the rest of the retired dictators?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 13:11 Comments || Top||

#2  FUGLY!
Posted by: Omavinter Pheart2664 || 03/27/2005 17:42 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
Glimpse of the world shatters Norks' illusions
Sitting on a bare floor in a chilly one-room apartment, Lee Hae Jon and her younger sister, Hae Sun, struggled recently for words to describe their lives since they clandestinely made their way here from North Korea five years ago. Their mother married a Chinese man and disappeared from their lives without a trace. Since then, a Chinese widow of Korean descent has taken the girls into her apartment and kept them clothed and fed. But for five years, the teenage sisters have not dared to go outside in daylight for fear of being sent back to their country, or worse, trafficked as young brides or prostitutes in this booming Chinese border city.

The sisters try to teach themselves Chinese, using a couple of old textbooks and repeating phrases from television, which they watch endlessly. A crude Hula-Hoop is their only source of exercise, and each knock on the door their only excitement. They never know whether it is help from their caretaker's friends or the police coming to arrest them. "We have no friends, and no future, nothing at all, really," said the soft-spoken older sister, Hae Jon, 17. "But if we stay here, at least we have enough to eat. In our country, we could go for days without eating." Within months, according to an underground network of people who help support the sisters, Hae Jon may be alone. Hae Sun, a shy girl of 13, is dying of kidney cancer and is not permitted to be flown out of the country for advanced care.

The Lee sisters are part of a virtually stateless underground population of North Koreans who have crossed into China along the 877-mile border between the countries and live on the lam in this region. International refugee and human rights groups have estimated their numbers at 200,000 and growing.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/27/2005 4:19:14 PM || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Six million North Koreans to face food shortages: WFP
The UN World Food Programme said Saturday that due to a lack of donations it was going to have to gradually stop supplying rations to 6.5 million North Koreans, and called on Pyongyang to lift restrictions on the distribution of aid. "We're doing our best to mobilize support, but we need more help from the authorities in Pyongyang," WFP Asia director Tony Banbury said in Beijing, following a four-day visit to North Korea. Because its stocks are exhausted, the WFP has already stopped providing vegetable oil to 900,000 old people, and as of this week will have to stop delivering essential nutritional supplements to 600,000 children in creches and nursery schools, Banbury said during a press conference. If nothing was done by the start of May, 1.2 million child and woman would not receive any more "WFP pulses" and a million other people would be deprived of cereals as of June, he said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All the more reason for the North Korean people to overthrow their oppressors.
Posted by: Jonathan || 03/27/2005 0:07 Comments || Top||

#2  It looks like Kimmie-boy-the-baby-killer is eating well....
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/27/2005 0:09 Comments || Top||

#3  This is a perfect opportunity to point out that, after the industrial revolution, ONLY UNDER MARXIST TYRANNIES do whole nations starve.

Apart from that, let them eat juche. We should make any food help (even one bag of rice) conditional on regime change. And send them pictures of well-stocked supermarkets in America and South Korea. Starvation in NoKo is entirely man-made and Kimmie's fault.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 03/27/2005 0:14 Comments || Top||

#4  CHINA<-KIMMIE<-GENERALS<-ARMY<-COMMIE GANGSTERS<-STARVING POPULATION

alot of bad people depend on KIMMIE, killing him wouldn't be enough, everyone's corrupt and brainwahsed with hate and lies, like madras graduates...ignorance isn't a good excuse.

I place the blame mostly on China for the 50+ year conflict, Kim is a bumbling heir, that's only my opinion.
Posted by: Hupereling Wholumble6492 || 03/27/2005 1:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Kimmie can always try feeding his people missile and nuclear bomb parts...
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/27/2005 4:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Six million North Koreans to face food shortages , and now NK has its firt admited bout of bird flu ..
Posted by: MacNails || 03/27/2005 5:11 Comments || Top||

#7  gah *first* , not firt
Posted by: MacNails || 03/27/2005 5:12 Comments || Top||

#8  It's springtime in Korea and time to pick all the wild weeds and fatten up after a rough winter. How do you say thin thin rice gruel in Korean?
Posted by: sea cruise || 03/27/2005 5:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Talk about your bad timing.

...[N]o people had been infected but hundreds of thousands of chickens had been culled and the carcasses burned. Ouch.
Posted by: Rex Rufus || 03/27/2005 5:48 Comments || Top||

#10  Roasted rice paddy rat stuffed with wild spring greens sounds delicious to me and 15 million North Koreans
Posted by: sea cruise || 03/27/2005 6:28 Comments || Top||

#11  hell, let em starve
Posted by: Thraing Hupoluper1864 || 03/27/2005 10:10 Comments || Top||

#12  Let's Schiavo the North Koreans. It's the new morality.
Posted by: badanov || 03/27/2005 10:37 Comments || Top||

#13  Well, we've learned just this past week from the MSM that starving to death is peaceful and serene. At least we know that the Norks won't suffer.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 03/27/2005 13:34 Comments || Top||

#14  food shortages So that what it's called nowadays.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 14:22 Comments || Top||

#15  Happens in Florida too TW. You can't believe what Publix wanted for a small leg of lamb.

and BTW lamb MY A&& hell the bones of a leg of lamb are not normally the size of a Louisville slugger. Just call it mutton and we'll all be happy.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 15:42 Comments || Top||

#16  Normally I don't like lamb much, but we were in the Orkneys a few years ago and had lamb that had just been slaughtered 2 days prior ... raised on the grass there. It was a totally different product than the stuff in the supermarket here.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 15:49 Comments || Top||

#17  You poor, suffering darling, Shipman. Perhaps it's time you just gave up and grew your own, hmm? And it would mow the lawn for you, and you could knit a pair of baby booties from the wool, too!
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 19:55 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Protestors Clash With Riot Police At Australian Detention Centre
POLICE removed at least five protesters following clashes outside the Baxter detention centre in South Australia today. Violence erupted this morning when police in riot gear charged into a crowd of about 200 protesters as they marched on the centre near Port Augusta. Protest kites were flying and a police helicopter was buzzing overheard. Yesterday, seven people were arrested in separate clashes with police in continuing Easter weekend demonstrations.

Today, Australian Democrats Leader Lyn Allison defended the protesters following violent scenes at the complex yesterday. Senator Allison said the demonstrators were outnumbered by police, charged by officers on horseback and forced to camp kilometres away from the detention centre. She deplored the use of violence, but said the clampdown on the protesters was not fair. "Violence is never useful in demonstrations of opposition to government policies, but from what I can gather, the protesters were hugely outnumbered by police - and mounted police at that - and they were charged on one occasion," Senator Allison said on Channel 10's Meet The Press program. "They were forced to camp four kilometres away from the site. All that suggests that we're clamping down on people's rights to protest and that doesn't seem fair to me."

Four people were arrested after police on horseback charged protesters yesterday afternoon, while three more people were arrested last night as demonstrations continued outside the complex. Police said some of the protesters hit police officers and their horses with cricket and baseball bats during a violent clash about 150 metres from the western perimeter fence of the Baxter centre. Two protesters were injured in the confrontation with police.
Posted by: God Save The World || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1 

From commie website. These must be where the Muslim boat people are held who
tried the scam of crashing past Australia's borders on asylum scams. Yes some
are probably deserving but why should Western nations be burdened by the
problems of Muslim nations. Let the Muhammad's cultists sort it out amongst
themselves



Muslim refugees are detained, women and children included, in remote prisons called "Detention Centres". The largest of these centres is South Australia's Baxter Detention Centre or "Australia's Abu Ghraib", as recent
German tourists call it. Baxter Detention Centre "is a chilling sight,
surrounded by barbed wire and towering electric fences humming with 9000 volts. No life can be seen from the outside: all buildings face inwards, and there is only the long, lonely road that winds out from Port Augusta at the remote apex of South Australia's Spencer Gulf, past mangrove swamps and into the vast plain that vanishes into the distant Flinders Range". If it is sobering from the outside, it is so much more when the gates slide shut
behind the asylum-seekers sent there under Australia's policy of mandatory
detention" reported the New Zealand Herald on 22 May 2004. 'It is like a
prison here',
Posted by: sea cruise || 03/27/2005 8:09 Comments || Top||

#2  This is a particularly nasty piece of obfuscation. Protesting is not illegal and if that is all they had done then there would be no problem. However, there is an air exclusion zone over the centre that specifically prohibits kites and helium ballons (for obvious reasons), and the violence erupted when the protestors crossed into a restricted area near to the camp.

While the Left has lost the illegal immigration fight here in OZ, it still burns them as this article clearly shows.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/27/2005 8:26 Comments || Top||

#3  Protest kites

Did they run out of giant puppets? Talk about a low budget!
Posted by: Raj || 03/27/2005 10:13 Comments || Top||


Europe
Conspiracy theories taking hold on Turkish population
The anti-American fervor in Turkey has been of interest in the U.S. media recently. American officials and pundits express concern about the widespread resentment of America evident in the Turkish media and popular opinion as well as even some Turkish bureaucrats and politicians. While they recognize a global controversy exists about the war in Iraq and that anti-Americanism among Turks is not unique, they also identify an odd fact especially pertinent to Turkey: the widespread acceptance of bizarre conspiracy theories about the United States.

However, these conspiracy theories should be viewed in context. Americans should resist taking them personally. This phenomenon is just an example of how the common Turkish mind works. A great many of our people believe conspirators rule the world. Mapping out their plots is a national pastime. This is evident in Turkey's internal debates. Some Islamists, for example, are quite convinced the country is ruled by a cabal of Freemasons and crypto-Jews. Turkish nationalists, on the other hand, believe there is a Western agenda to break Turkey into pieces and that Kurds and libertarian intellectuals are paid agents of this evil scheme. The Marxists believe the drive to join the European Union is the most recent plot of the international, evil bourgeoisie to enslave the Turkish proletariat.

Such bilge has parallels in many other countries, but Turkey has also some indigenous ones. The ultrasecularists, who are also known as Kemalists (because of the cult of personality they created around Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's founding father), believe devout Muslims in Turkey are secretly heading for an Islamic Revolution. Sociologists have repeatedly demonstrated this is pure paranoia, but the "Muslims are coming" hype never calms down. Kemalists are so preoccupied by it they see any Muslim foot in the public square as the first step to theocracy. That's why they do not allow any woman with a headscarf to walk -- yes, literally -- on official grounds. Policemen guard the gates of the universities to shield them from these "tightheads," as they are abhorrently called. Turkey's dreary president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a doyen of Kemalists, doesn't invite parliamentarians whose wives wear headscarves to his official cocktail receptions in Cankaya, his residential office.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/27/2005 4:16:07 PM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And then there's Murat...

Anyway, fascinating reading. Thanks, Darling.
Posted by: jackal || 03/27/2005 21:05 Comments || Top||


Europe's jihadis
The most fanciful park in Paris, and one of the least known, set among the city's poorest immigrant neighborhoods, is the Buttes Chaumont. A craggy mountain rises out of a taciturn lake, and a narrow path leads across what's called the "Bridge of Suicides." Muslim boys trained there last year for holy war in Iraq. Several were in their teens, born and raised in France, and many knew nothing more about guns and bombs than what they'd seen in movies. Some spoke no Arabic. But they heard the call to jihad that was raised by radical Islamist preachers, and they answered it. One died in Fallujah. Three are known to be imprisoned in Iraq, at least one of them in Abu Ghraib. Three others are jailed in France. One blew himself up in an attack on the road to Baghdad airport.

The boys had little impact on the Iraq war. But they represent a growing threat to Europe—and, some studies suggest, to the United States. Over the last three years, starting even before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the Jordanian terrorist Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi and groups close to him developed a sort of underground railroad to smuggle zealous fighters from Europe through Turkey and Syria into Iraq—and home again, if they survived. Now those recruits have been joined by a stream of young Islamists from Western Europe who are making their own way to the battlefield. Some are looking for Paradise as "martyrs," some just for street cred back home and some for serious combat experience in urban warfare. "Those who don't die and come back will be the future chiefs of Al Qaeda or Zarqawi [groups] in Europe," says French terrorism authority Roland Jacquard.

"We're watching very closely," says Gijs de Vries, the European Union's counterterrorism coordinator. "It only takes one or two dedicated individuals to create serious damage." All over Europe, in fact, investigators now face the threat of terrorists who are virtually self-taught, organized in groups with little or no central command and united by their obsession with the jihad against Americans in Iraq. "It has become a battle cry for Islamists around the world," says Michael Taarnby, author of a report on terrorist recruiting for the Danish Justice Ministry. Their most devastating blow to date was not inside Iraq but in Madrid last year, when a gruesome bombing spree killed 191 people in retaliation for Spain's presence in Iraq.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/27/2005 2:24:58 PM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Bad news for EU vote as French prices outpace pay
EFL - requires subscription

French voters were given more cause to be disgruntled with their government on Friday when it emerged that salaries have not been rising fast enough to match price increases in shops.

The disclosure which followed disappointing economic forecasts on Thursday undermined attempts to persuade the French to set aside domestic grumbles and back the European Union constitution in May's referendum.

France's employment ministry said on Friday that an index of salaries rose 0.3 per cent in the final three months of 2004. This was less than the 0.5 per cent increase in consumer prices, excluding tobacco.

The failure of salaries to keep pace with the cost of everyday staples comes amid widespread concern about the purchasing power of the French public.

Anger at the perceived difficulty of making ends meet was one of the factors that propelled demonstrations and strikes across France earlier this month.

The grassroots-level dissatisfaction has threatened to turn the European referendum into a protest vote against the government's stewardship of the economy.

Since the demonstrations, the government has agreed to reopen public sector pay talks. It has announced changes to company profit-sharing schemes, allowing employees immediate access to their money. It has also introduced tax incentives to encourage companies to distribute more profits to staff.

However, the government received a setback on Thursday when Insee, the state statistics agency, said it expected a "return to slowdown" for the French economy in the first half of 2005.

[A] poll of 856 people by the CSA Institute said 55 per cent of those with an opinion would reject the treaty if the vote were held tomorrow. The poll was the third in the past week to show French opponents to the treaty outnumber sympathisers, underscoring Mr Chirac's effort to shore up support. A defeat in the referendum would scuttle the constitution, which requires unanimous approval of all 25 states.

Henri, poll once again - these results didn't come out correctly.


Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 12:08:51 PM || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  excluding tobacco.

The failure of salaries to keep pace with the cost of everyday staples

What? Tobac not a staple anymore?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 13:55 Comments || Top||

#2  French voters were given more cause to be disgruntled with their government on Friday when it emerged that salaries have not been rising fast enough to match price increases in shops.

Err...maybe because French worker productivity hasn't been rising either. 35 hours work weeks. Yep, that's the ticket.
Posted by: Glereger Clugum6222 || 03/27/2005 14:01 Comments || Top||

#3  I think the French are making tobacco runs across the border, where the tax is not nearly so high, therefore the increased price wouldn't have much of an impact of the cost of living.

So, economic reality is hitting France, despite all their lovely and highly intellectual theories? How utterly unsubtle of it!
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 14:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Ze Petit Patrie, she's up a merde creek without a paddle.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/27/2005 14:07 Comments || Top||

#5  Why is this viewed as bad news?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 03/27/2005 14:08 Comments || Top||

#6  It isn't, for us .... heh
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 14:12 Comments || Top||

#7  French voters were given more cause to be disgruntled with their government on Friday when it emerged that salaries have not been rising fast enough to match price increases in shops.

I expect the typical French response - go on strike, trash a McDonald's or two, etc.
Posted by: Raj || 03/27/2005 15:01 Comments || Top||

#8  I have to disagree with #5 and #6. France is a pretty big market for our goods. Nowhere near as big as Canada or Mexico or Britain, but not insignificant like Nepal.

Actually, any country's economy affects ours, at least a little. I grew up in the Detroit area, where many would have cheered a Japanese Depression. The reality wasn't so nice, though.

There's no real difference between a country putting an import embargo on our goods and simply being too poor to afford any. In both cases, we lose jobs.
Posted by: jackal || 03/27/2005 21:10 Comments || Top||

#9  I think you miss the point, jackal. This slowdown in France may cause the French to toss out the EU Constitution and effectively the current strategies in Chirac's and the EU's policies. Policies that would sell arms to Saddam even as he defied his Gulf War I obligations. Policies that would undermine the U.S. by creating a "multi-polar world". Policies like selling arms to the Chinese.

Chirac is very full of himself and has personally undermined us many times in recent years. He would precipitate WWIII for a few Euros and a chance to bash Bush. Good riddance to him, even if French workers and American workers have to suffer a little bit. Chirac's "multi-polar world" could have the whole world suffering in ways that could make an economic slowdown look like paradise.
Posted by: Tom || 03/27/2005 22:02 Comments || Top||


Turkey Ready To Accept U.S. Request Of Incerlik
Turkey has signaled its readiness to allow U.S. use of the Incerlik air force base as a hub for American military operations. The Bush administration has been informed that the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan was ready to agree to an expanded U.S. presence at Incerlik, officials said. They said Erdogan, who would require parliamentary approval, would allow the U.S. military to use Incerlik for missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. "I expect a Turkish government decision on Incirlik very soon," Murat Mercan, deputy chairman of Turkey's ruling AKP party, said. "I don't know exactly when, but very soon." During a panel discussion on Turkey held by the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, Mercan did not elaborate. But Turkish diplomats in Washington confirmed that Ankara has already relayed its readiness to approve the U.S. plan on Incerlik.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who cares? Yeah, I know - I've heard it all. Screw pragmatism in this case. Blow up every Incirlik bldg, burn the underground tanks, level the revetments, and dig up the runways. Leave nothing remotely useful. Utter bullshit and 2 years too late in the bargain from the least reliable ex-ally imaginable. Take that finger, Erdy, and shove it up your ass. Burn in the Islamic fires. Do not call us, ever again.

Luckily, I don't have any strong feelings about them, of course.
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  Concrete poured in all the drains and toilets is kind of a neat trick-fuck, PD.
Posted by: 11A5S || 03/27/2005 0:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Lol! Only if one has no strong feelings, of course. Were it a vindictive act, it would be so wrong.
;-)
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 0:54 Comments || Top||

#4  Well we wouldn't want mosquitos breeding in all that stagnant water after the barracks were abandoned.
Posted by: 11A5S || 03/27/2005 1:30 Comments || Top||

#5  Well we wouldn't want mosquitos breeding in all that stagnant water after the barracks were abandoned.

Why not? We can even send 'em some specimens from around these parts, West Nile and all... :)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/27/2005 4:57 Comments || Top||

#6  And just what do they think will happen when we go after Syria or Iran.For a clue check-out what happen pre-Iraq.That shouild give you an idea about what the Turks will do.
Posted by: Raptor || 03/27/2005 8:33 Comments || Top||

#7  Been there; done that.

Recall the parliamentary approval was the sore thumb pre-invasion.
Posted by: Dennis Kucinich || 03/27/2005 9:50 Comments || Top||

#8  Yup. And a lot of secular Turks are pissed at the consolidation of influence by the Kurds in Iraq. They were the ones that eventually killed having us come in from the north 2 years ago.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 9:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Forget the Turks. We don't need to give them more jobs and income, we don't need to give them any more leverage over our operations, and we don't need to offend our friends the Kurds. Let the Turks spend their time kissing up to the EU -- they deserve each other.
Posted by: Tom || 03/27/2005 18:43 Comments || Top||

#10  We have lots of possible bases in Iraq we can use. We may be getting some in Syria [wink, nudge] or Lebanon soon. If we need some in the northeast, well, how about Armenia?
Posted by: jackal || 03/27/2005 21:14 Comments || Top||

#11  I still like the idea of Greater Kurdistan which would include eastern Turkey, part of Syria, northern Iraq and western Iran.
Posted by: SR-71 || 03/27/2005 21:57 Comments || Top||

#12  Better to have the Turk on our side, however unreliable, than against us. Some of you extremists seem to forget that.
Posted by: gromky || 03/27/2005 23:43 Comments || Top||


International-UN-NGOs
Depressed Annan close to quitting over UN scandals
EFL, Nuggets
KOFI ANNAN, the United Nations secretary-general, is said to be struggling with depression and considering his future. Colleagues have reported concerns about Annan ahead of an official report this week that will examine his son Kojo's connection to the controversial Iraqi oil for food scheme.
Depending on the findings of the report, by a team led by the former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, Annan may have to choose between the secretary-generalship and loyalty to his son.

American congressional critics of the UN are already pressing him to resign over the mismanagement of the oil for food programme, and even his supporters have been dismayed by the scandals on his watch, including the sexual abuse of children by UN peacekeepers in Congo. One close observer at the UN said Annan's moods were like a "sine curve" and that he appeared near the bottom of the trough.
believe it when I see it - we better have an alternative ready when it happens
Posted by: Frank G || 03/27/2005 12:23:24 PM || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rumsfeld.
Posted by: Matt || 03/27/2005 13:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Trump.
He understands the value of abandoned real-estate.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 13:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Rush Limbaugh
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/27/2005 14:04 Comments || Top||

#4  Sec.Gen.Rummy.Me like.
Posted by: Raptor || 03/27/2005 14:09 Comments || Top||

#5  Mr. Annan has aquired his depression the hard way: he earned it. He actively led the U.N. to the point where destruction is about the only option left. The values and behaviours his son learnt at his feet have likely permanently destroyed the lad's career and reputation. I'm afraid I cannot sympathize, and I don't think the farmer's apology to the pigs will make everything all right this time.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 14:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Rummy for SecGen and Bolton for US ambassador. Now that's a great ticket!

I'd say Cheney, but he needs to run in 2008.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 14:12 Comments || Top||

#7  Nah! This job calls for a specialist. I nominate "Chainsaw Al" Dunlap. As he proved at Sunbeam, he can cook the books just like the best of 'em in the U.N. and still manage to drive the whole thing into the ground.
Posted by: Tom || 03/27/2005 16:25 Comments || Top||

#8  I believe it is Asia's turn next. Alexander Downer the Australian Foreign Minister has been mentioned in the past as the next UN SG. If you think the UN is salvageable he would be a good choice - hard nosed and tells it like it is.
Posted by: phil_b || 03/27/2005 16:51 Comments || Top||

#9  That'd be better than Rummy and equally reliable. But Kofi should have to sweaat it out till 2006.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 03/27/2005 16:52 Comments || Top||

#10  LOL Tom! Of course. We need a specialist here for failing cartel... lol!
Posted by: Sperry un Hutchenson || 03/27/2005 19:17 Comments || Top||

#11  Depressed Annan close to quitting over UN scandals

How close is he, and what will it take to push him over the edge???
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/27/2005 22:27 Comments || Top||

#12  At the risk of repeating myself (from yesterday):

JUMP, YOU WORTHLESS BASTARD!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 03/27/2005 23:02 Comments || Top||

#13  Barbara----Your statement is cruel, heartless, mean spirited..............and so delightfully on the mark.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/27/2005 23:47 Comments || Top||


Iraq oil report will fault Annan over son's work
A key report on the Iraqi oil-for-food programme next week is expected to clear UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan from personal wrongdoing but fault him for ignoring his son's work for a firm that sought a UN contract, The Wall Street Journal said on Friday. Paul Volcker, the former US Federal Reserve chairman appointed by Annan to investigate corruption in the programme, is due to issue an interim report on Tuesday that will focus on whether the secretary-general influenced the bidding process in the UN-administered programme, which ran from 1996 to 2003.

A big problem for the secretary-general is expected to be the actions of his son Kojo, who worked in West Africa for the Swiss firm Cotecna Inspection, S.A., which received a lucrative contract from the United Nations for Iraq in early 1999. The Journal said Annan would be faulted for not paying attention to conflicts of interest involving his son, Kojo, who used his father's name and position for personal gains while with Cotecna. At the same time, the panel is expected to conclude there is no evidence Annan rigged the UN's procurement system or exerted undue influence over contractors or ever sought financial benefits, said the Journal, quoting people familiar with report's conclusions. Annan's new chief-of-staff, Mark Malloch Brown, had earlier told reporters, "We believe on Tuesday the secretary-general will be exonerated of any wrongdoing, but like you we have to wait for the report." But he said Annan's son had admitted that "he misled his father."
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All very fine and dandy, but what about other aspects of the debacle known as Oil-for-Food? What about Goo-fi's buddy Benon Sevan?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/27/2005 4:55 Comments || Top||

#2  When's the rap duo with 50 Cent, Kojo?
Posted by: Raj || 03/27/2005 10:16 Comments || Top||

#3  They all need to be exposed. It's like surgery for a bad infection: expose it to air and sunlight, cut away the rotted tissue and inject a massive dose of antibiotics.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 10:22 Comments || Top||

#4  It's like surgery for a bad infection: expose it to air and sunlight, cut away the rotted tissue and inject a massive dose of antibiotics.

Wrong.

It's time to 'Schiavo' them.

Doncha know surgery is not the only answer any more? Now you can deny them food and water.

Let's apply this 'new' medical principle to the UN.

SCHIAVO their ass!
Posted by: badanov || 03/27/2005 10:35 Comments || Top||

#5  Can I leave the MS light on?
Posted by: Shipman || 03/27/2005 15:44 Comments || Top||

#6  no
Posted by: Frank G || 03/27/2005 16:02 Comments || Top||

#7  Such anger. Here. Have a book Frank. You're now only 499,000 from world dominatinon. Look for me new catalog.
Posted by: Sperry un Hutchenson || 03/27/2005 19:19 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
US reaching out to Syrian opposition
The Bush administration is stepping up contacts with the Syrian opposition amid concerns that unrest in Lebanon could cause wider instability, administration officials said on Saturday.

Senior U.S. officials involved in Middle East policymaking met in Washington on Thursday with prominent Syrian Americans, including political activists, community leaders, academics and an opposition group.

"White House officials were present," said a White House official who confirmed the meeting took place.

Representatives from other departments, including State and Defense, took part.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with the Washington Post published on Saturday that the administration was reaching out to as many people as possible on developments in Syria and Lebanon.

Administration officials want to ensure that the U.S. government is prepared in the event of a sudden political upheaval.

The Post reported that the administration was reaching out because of growing concerns that unrest in Lebanon could spill over and suddenly destabilize Syria, which borders four countries pivotal to U.S. Middle East policy -- Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey.

"What we're trying to do is to assess the situation so that nobody is blindsided, because events are moving so fast and in such unpredictable directions that it is only prudent at this point to know what's going on," Rice told the Post.

"So we're going to look at all the possibilities and talk to as many people as we possibly can," Rice said.

U.S. officials denied the meeting was meant to coordinate efforts to oust the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Post reported.

"That would be a monumental distortion," a senior State Department official was quoted as saying.

The official said the meeting discussed support for reform and change in the region, including Syria, and "how we can help that and work with people in the region and Syria to support that process."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/27/2005 4:24:09 PM || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And the contacts with the Iraqi "opposition" turned out SO well.
Posted by: gromky || 03/27/2005 23:54 Comments || Top||


Closing a window into Iran
In its scramble to marshal resources for gathering intelligence on Al Qaeda and Iraq, the CIA shut down a spy ring it was operating in South America that was providing a rare glimpse of the activities of Iranian militants and intelligence networks, according to a former agency official involved in the operation.

The program, which had taken five years to assemble, penetrated Iranian intelligence operations in South America and succeeded to the point that several of the CIA's informants were taken to Iran for religious training, the former official said.

But the operation was dismantled by CIA officials who were skeptical of its value, the former official said, and who were under growing pressure to redeploy agency funds and personnel from South America and other regions seen as less crucial than the nation's expanding war fronts.

Iran's intelligence service has been active in South America for decades, officials said. The decision to pull the plug on the CIA-run program came in 2002, after President Bush had declared Iran part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea, but before the administration made confronting Iran over its nuclear program and its support for terrorist activities a top priority.

The agency has struggled to obtain reliable intelligence on Iran. The official who was involved in managing the spy ring said it was among the few successes the CIA had had in recent years.

"I believe now if we're forced to go back into Iran, we're going to be starting from near zero," the official said, referring to intelligence on the Islamic regime. The Bush administration has recently endorsed European efforts to negotiate with Iran to dismantle its nuclear enrichment program, but has not ruled out the possible use of military strikes or covert operations.

Further, the official said the South American operation had put the CIA in position to learn of plots by Iran and elements of Hezbollah, which were linked to attacks against Jews in South America during the 1990s.

"I will not say we stopped a terrorist act but will say we were in close enough that had one been planned, we would have had that opportunity," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

CIA officials declined to discuss details of the operation, but disputed the suggestion that the agency had sacrificed a successful or potentially valuable program.

A CIA spokesman said the agency "did not stop or scale back any worthwhile clandestine collection effort against Iran as a result of a realignment of agency resources in support of the war on terrorism or intelligence collection efforts in Iraq."

Former CIA officials also defended the agency's decisions, while acknowledging difficult choices in the last four years as the agency was stretched to its limits by U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. The former officials said many programs were curtailed or killed as the CIA "surged" from one conflict to another.

"We faced some really tough budget issues, and we had to do some tough prioritization on some things," said James L. Pavitt, who retired last year as head of the CIA's clandestine service.

Pavitt said that he could not discuss specific operations and that he was not familiar with the South American venture. But he expressed skepticism that a high-value program — particularly one that was aimed at gathering intelligence on Iran — had been axed.

"The fact of the matter is that anything that had genuine merit that was of critical import, we would have struggled but found a way to continue," Pavitt said. "If it was of marginal input or import, it would have been looked at harshly."

He added: "That's not to say that there weren't some mistakes made, things stopped that should have been kept."

Several current and former officials said that South America, Africa and Europe were areas where CIA operations were particularly vulnerable to cuts.

Stations in South America and Africa were sometimes left so threadbare that the agency had to resort to what one former high-ranking official called "circuit riding." The term refers to a practice in which stations and bases in certain regions are all but shuttered, with agency operatives visiting periodically to meet with sources and make payments.

"We borrowed from Peter to pay Paul," said the former high-ranking official, who left the agency last year and spoke on condition of anonymity. Because of the agency's intelligence priorities, he said, "you're going to take more people out of Paraguay than you are out of Moscow or Beijing."

The spy ring in South America targeting Iran was an early casualty.

Because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, and the country is considered a "denied" territory by the CIA, the agency has had to undertake other means to gather intelligence on Tehran. In places with large Iranian populations, such as Los Angeles, the CIA has sought to recruit immigrants who still travel to Iran or have relatives there.

The South American operation relied on a network of South American nationals who had been placed on the CIA payroll after having attracted the interest of suspected Iranian intelligence operatives in the region.

"They were in touch with Iranians of interest, Hezbollah, and they were just ripe to being recruited [by the CIA] and 'run' in some way," said the former agency official involved in the operation.

Iran and its spy service, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, have long had a significant presence in South America. U.S. intelligence officials said the region's lax border security and active trade routes were attractions to an Islamic republic eager to use illicit means to acquire technology and materials that the country could not otherwise get because of restrictions on trade with the United States and other nations.

Iranian "trade delegations" travel extensively through the continent, officials said.

"Most check in through Bogota, spend time in Colombia, and travel to Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Chile and the tri-border area" shared by Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay, the former CIA official said. The tri-border area is home to a large Shiite Muslim community.

Hezbollah, the militant, Iranian-backed Islamic organization, also has a significant presence in South America, officials said. The organization, which is a potent political force in Lebanon, is considered by some experts to be among the most dangerous terrorist groups in the world.

Iran and Hezbollah are believed to have used South America as an operational and recruiting base for at least two decades. Iran was suspected of involvement in devastating attacks in the 1990s, including the 1994 bombing that killed more than 80 people at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires and a 1992 attack that destroyed the Israeli Embassy and killed 29 people in that city.

Some experts believe that Iran and Hezbollah could use recruits in South America to penetrate the United States.

"They're looking for converts, operatives," said Mike Scheuer, a former CIA counter-terrorism official. "If you can convert an Argentine to be a Shia Muslim, he's not going to look like a Shia, and it's going to be much easier to get into the U.S. with an Argentine passport than from Ghana or Egypt or somewhere else."

Over a period of several years, the CIA assembled a group of South American informants who were in contact with Iranians there. "We dangled our people out there and the Iranians recruited us," the former official said.

Some were seen as valuable by the Iranians because of their business or government contacts, the former CIA official said.

Others "were not viewed as the brightest and were not politically connected, but were there to carry out an operational need, be it a procurement or a terrorist operation," the former official said. "They were like the goons that were going to get tasked."

A number of the informants increasingly gained the trust of the Iranians they were in contact with, to the point that several were taken to Qom, a holy city in Iran, for religious study, the former official said.

The program was seen as a valuable source of information on Iranian procurement efforts in South America, Hezbollah cells in the region, and the methods and activities of Tehran's intelligence service.

"We saw technology transfers, money transfers, false documents," the former official said. "I don't know whether it would have been good for internal intelligence inside Iran. But given that Iran is such a tough nut to crack, it was amazing to me how successful this was."

The program survived CIA funding cuts in the late 1990s when there were hopes for a thaw in relations between the United States and Iran, but the CIA's stations in South America banded together to provide continued funding.

"Then 9/11 happened and I was just told to shut it down," said the former CIA official. The agency's informants, who had been operating under false identities, were "dropped without protection."

The former official who described the operation retired from the agency last year and cited frustration with the decision to close the South American program as a reason for discussing it.

The official discussed the matter in telephone interviews, expanding on an account first provided to the KNBC television station in Los Angeles. Other CIA officers vouched for the source's credibility and confirmed the official's role in South America.

The demise of the South American operation underscores the triage-like environment at the agency in recent years, former officials said.

The post-Sept. 11 mobilization was the first in a wave of taxing deployments. In both Afghanistan and Iraq, the agency began by seeking volunteers from its stations around the world and in the United States. Such efforts quickly proved inadequate, officials said, and the agency resorted to a series of "drafts."

"Each division had to cough up a number of bodies," said Lindsay Moran, a former CIA case officer who left the agency in 2003.

At first, stations in various regions were instructed to send at least one case officer, but subsequently, there were demands for more people.

"In Afghanistan, they were a little more discerning about who they sent over, mainly special operations guys and guys with military backgrounds," Moran said.

As the buildup for war in Iraq got underway, "we had this situation where the job really wasn't done in Afghanistan, and they started pulling people back from Afghanistan and sending them to Iraq."

After Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was toppled, the agency continued to send people to its Baghdad station even as the environment became so dangerous that they were sometimes unable to leave their secure compounds.

"One colleague [in Baghdad] wrote me and asked me to send the whole series of 'Sex and the City' because she had nothing to do," Moran said.

Other agency officials defended the deployments but acknowledged that the agency's presence on other continents had been significantly eroded.

To meet the enormous demand for case officers in Afghanistan, in Iraq and at agency headquarters, the CIA relied on a combination of reducing its forces in certain areas — particularly South America and Africa — and rehiring large numbers of agency retirees.

A former high-ranking CIA official involved in deployment decisions said the agency at various times had to redeploy as many as 1,000 people, including case officers, analysts and support staff.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/27/2005 2:13:09 PM || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


Lebanon will accept UN probe on Hariri
Lebanon will accept an international commission to investigate the assassination of former premier Rafiq Hariri if a decision to form such a panel is taken by the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hamoud said Saturday. "Lebanon agrees to the creation of an international commission of inquiry if the Security Council takes such a decision to uncover the truth in the assassination of Rafiq Hariri," Hamoud told reporters.

Hamoud was speaking following a meeting here with the ambassadors of three permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, China and Russia. Ministry sources said he would also meet this week with envoys from the other two permanent members, France and the United States. A UN report issued Thursday was sharply critical of an investigation carried out by Lebanese security services into the February 14 assassination of Hariri, determining that it "has neither the capacity nor the commitment to reach a satisfactory and credible conclusion." It called instead for an independent international commission to take over the inquiry.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


US Discusses 'Weakening' Syria With Dissidents
US officials held an "unpublicized" meeting with exiled Syrian dissidents in Washington to discuss ways of "weakening the Syrian regime," a pan-Arab newspaper reported yesterday. The Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper said US officials who attended the meeting on Thursday included Elizabeth Cheney, deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, and John Hanna, an official in the office of her father, Vice President Dick Cheney. The paper said Elizabeth's office confirmed the meeting, which was also attended by Pentagon and National Security Council officials, and comes at a time when the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is under mounting US pressure to end its grip over neighboring Lebanon. Cheney's office, however, refused to give details.

Participants on the Syrian side included Farid Al-Ghadri, a US-based businessman who heads the Reform Party of Syria, Zuhdi Al-Jasser, Mohammad Khawam, Muwaffak Bunni Al-Marjeh, Hussam Al-Dairi, Salma Al-Dairi and writer Bassam Darwish. Asharq Al-Awsat said the dissidents lobbied for a policy of regime change in Syria, whereas the administration officials focused on ways of weakening Assad's government. The two sides also discussed the possibility of "holding to account" current and former Syrian officials for "committing crimes against the Syrian people."
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fella in the hat looks to be a Sememble.
Posted by: Sperry un Hutchenson || 03/27/2005 19:20 Comments || Top||


Lebanon security chiefs urged to quit
Lebanon's opposition has urged the country's Syrian-backed security chiefs to resign to make way for an international inquiry into the killing of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. "It is not possible to carry out a just, serious, clear and transparent investigation if the heads of the agencies remain in their place," leading Druze and opposition figure Walid Jumblatt told reporters at his mountain residence in Beirut on Saturday. "We warned against a security state over and over."

A UN fact-finding team said in a report released on Thursday that Lebanon's inquiry into al-Hariri's 14 February killing was seriously flawed and called for an international investigation, long a demand of the opposition that holds Damascus and the security services it backs responsible. But the report said even an international inquiry was unlikely to carry out its tasks satisfactorily while the Lebanese security chiefs stayed.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:


Lebanese Opposition Blames Syria for Blast
A bomb blast set off huge fires in a mainly Christian suburb of Beirut on Saturday, injuring five people in the third such attack in eight days. Opposition leaders blamed Syria, saying Damascus hoped to sow fear as it withdraws troops from Lebanon. The latest attack, targeting an industrial area in Beirut's northeastern Bouchrieh area, raised tensions another notch in Lebanon, which has been gripped by political turmoil over Syria's presence since the Feb. 14 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri.

A 55 pound bomb was placed between a car and a furniture factory, said Lebanon's police chief, Maj. Gen. Sarkis Tadros, citing an explosives expert. The blast destroyed nearby cars, shattered windows and left a crater that was 3 feet deep and 10 feet wide. A Lebanese woman and two Indian workers were injured, as were two civil defense workers working on extinguishing the fire that engulfed at least six buildings, security officials said. "They must love us — we got it twice in a week," Bouchrieh mayor Antoine Gebara told Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. He was referring to last Saturday's explosion in the nearby predominantly Christian neighborhood of Jdeideh that injured nine people. Five days later, another bomb blast killed three people near the port city of Jounieh, Lebanon's Christian heartland.

Witnesses said the blast on the eve of the Easter holiday occurred three hours before Catholics were to head to a midnight Mass. The motive behind the latest attacks wasn't clear, but Lebanese opposition leaders have blamed Syrian security agents and pro-Damascus Lebanese authorities for trying to show a need for Syria's military presence in Lebanon in the midst of a Syrian troop withdrawal. Each attack has targeted Christian, anti-Syrian strongholds, raising fears of the return of the sectarian violence that plagued Lebanon during the 1975-90 civil war. "They (Syrians) think they can destroy Lebanese national unity this way. But the Lebanese will remain steadfast till infinity," exiled Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun told Al-Arabiya TV. Aoun said the situation calls for "changing the security organizations related to Syria. This can't be delayed."
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Lebanese officials reject UN's 'unjust' report
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Opposition sees vindication in UN report
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Sunnis: "Jews Have No Rights, Holy Places in Jerusalem"
Denying participation in a talked-about conference of the three monotheistic religions on sacred rights in Al-Quds (occupied East Jerusalem), Al-Azhar said on Sunday, March 27, that Jews have no religious rights whatsoever in the holy city. "There is nothing called sacred rights in Al-Quds," Sheikh Fawzi El-Zefzaf, chairman of Al-Azhar's Interfaith Dialogue Committee, told reporters. "Al-Quds is a Palestinian right that should be given back to the Palestinians," he stressed. Mohammad Abu Ghadir, professor of Hebrew in Al-Azhar University, agreed. "Excavations and geological research have proved that Jews didn't have any right to claim sacred places in Al-Quds," he said. "Israeli archeologists didn't even manage to prove that the "wailing wall" is part of the so-called Temple of Solomon," Abu Ghadir added. "Unfortunately, the world mistakenly believes that Jews do have sacred sites in Al-Quds like Muslims and Christians because of Israel's heavy media campaigns that distorted historical facts."

Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni authority in the Muslim world, categorically denied that it will take part in the reported conference. "Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Mohammad Sayed Tantawi has not received any invitation of that kind," an official source said. He underlined that Al-Azhar's stance remains unchanged as it rejects talks with Jews over Al-Quds "because it is a very thorny issue that has not been yet resolved" on the political arena. Sheikh El-Zefzaf said his committee has not got the faintest idea of such a meeting. Some media reports suggested that preparations were underway to organize a conference grouping Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders on the religious rights of each faith in the holy city.

Al-Haram Al-Sharif was the first Qibla (direction Muslims take during prayers) and is the third holiest shrine after Al Ka'ba in Makkah and Prophet Mhuhammad's Mosque in Medina, Saudi Arabia. Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra'a and Al Mi'raj (the night journey from Makkah to Al-Quds and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad).

Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 7:12:59 PM || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I would solve it once and for all with several tons of TNT placed and detonated in the dome of the rock leaving nothing but a pile of rubble. Said rubble to be carted off to the desert to a secret site in the middle of the night where it would be ground into fine dust and then spread in the ocean.

These Islamist assclowns are johnny come lately fools who have some retarded claim to this crap hole on the temple mount established to justify the lie that is Islam. I assert that Christians and Jews are the only rightful claimants to anything anywhere in Jerusalem. Islam is a foreign and alien death cult totally unconnected to Jerusalem.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom || 03/27/2005 20:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Not that logic is their strong suit, but I'd love to hear this clown explain how Christians could have sacred sites in Al-Quds Jerusalem if Jews don't. Jesus was in Jerusalem to worship at the Jewish holy places.
Posted by: VAMark || 03/27/2005 20:21 Comments || Top||

#3  I say we let the Muslims visit Jerusalem the same way the false prophet Mohammad did -- in their deluded dreams.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/27/2005 20:32 Comments || Top||

#4  Isreal really needs to just take over the Temple Mount, while at the same time allowing Muslims to continue prayers like they always have. Only difference would be it's under different management. I mean, what are the Arab Nations going to do with us in Iraq and Isreal able to kick their asses by themselves anyway. Wailing wil ensue, yes, but it will subdue with the right PR campaigning.
Posted by: Charles || 03/27/2005 20:35 Comments || Top||

#5  “There is nothing called sacred rights in Al-Quds,” Sheikh Fawzi El-Zefzaf, chairman of Al-Azhar's Interfaith Dialogue Committee, told reporters.

And there ya have it, folks. Right from the head dude of the Interfaith Monologue Dialogue Committee. What a joke!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/27/2005 21:07 Comments || Top||

#6  A few more speeches like that and muslims will be banned from Jerusalem, the Al Aqsa mosque returned to its former state as the Templar Stables, and the Dome of the Rock razed to make room for the Third Temple. And if the Sunnis try and do anything about it, their dead will be stacked like cordwood.
Posted by: RWV || 03/27/2005 21:19 Comments || Top||

#7  SPoD has it right. Then say to the ass hats, "What holy places?" Israel should have done it in 1967. They were the first conqueror in Jerusalem not to destroy other religions' sites.

tick, tick, tick...
Posted by: SR-71 || 03/27/2005 21:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni authority in the Muslim world, is an ass who needs to be reminded that Jerusalem was Jewish for well over a thousand years before Mhuhammad got other ideas. If that's the way the highest Sunni thinks, then Muslims should be banned from Jerusalem and the Palestinian "refugees" should be relocated to the Sunni Triangle.

Any future Muslim-initiated Israeli war is going to be brutal compared to the last, for surely the Israelis have now learned that they will only have peace by obliterating their enemies.
Posted by: Tom || 03/27/2005 22:19 Comments || Top||

#9  I agree. Turn it into the third holiest site in the Mediterranean Sea.
Posted by: BH || 03/27/2005 23:25 Comments || Top||

#10  One Project Plowshare harbour coming up! Where do I send the bill?
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/27/2005 23:45 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Fisk to speak at Berkeley middle school
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/27/2005 18:28 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Oh baby, wotta load! Thx, AC! This is classic Moonbat Dogma For Sale, lol! I can hear the pitch...

"Is your life empty? Devoid of meaning? Have you burned all the bridges with your family because you're a drug-addled moron? Do you need approval? Do you want to be accepted for who you are?"

"Well then, step right up! We've got causes to match up with any dysfunctional, disaffected, disturbed bottom-dwelling asswipe!"

"For mere pennies per day, you can attend our Official Rent-a-Fool Lecture Series - and find the cause that's right for you!"

"Once you have sampled our Moonbat Specialties, we're sure you'll latch onto a winner - and become a Happy Tool, marching around and making Pink Tanks and Giant Puppets - and scoping out the other 'progressive' (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) tools we've assembled - gender specificity optional."

"So sign up today! Find YOUR reason for living!"

Or not - try Drano...
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 19:39 Comments || Top||

#2  How have the mighty fallen! In the old days, say before the Iraqi election, Mr. Fisk would have filled an auditorium in a name university. His speaking fee would have been substantially more, as well.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 20:01 Comments || Top||

#3  I wanna go to the faculty cocktail/pizza party with Fisk and Ward Churchill...
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/27/2005 20:06 Comments || Top||

#4  It seems that the arch-fiend, the distilled essence of Goebbels, Quisling, and Streicher in their purest form, is conducting another reconnaisance of his favorite target.

Nevertheless, if Fisk shows up in your community, please extend him every courtesy due a distinguished visitor, show our tolerance and enlightenment by listening patiently to his dissident but beautifully expressed views, praise him afterward for his sagacity and moral vision and ensure that he is the center of attention at the tasteful gathering of cognoscenti that will surely follow. Then beat him up.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 03/27/2005 23:30 Comments || Top||


Michael Schiavo's Live-In Gal
Michael's spelling problem: Big-a-me

Jodi Centonze, 40, is Michael Schiavo's live-in girlfriend, mother of their two children, 1 and 21/2 years old.

Centonze occupies a peculiar role in the national debate over Terri Schiavo - in the middle of it, but never a public part of it.

"She wants to stay out of it," said her brother, John Centonze. "She says this is not about her, it's about Terri."

Yet she has been anathematized, her name invoked as a key reason why Schiavo, 41, should not control his wife's fate. Outside Terri's hospice, protesters hold signs that say, "Michael don't plan the wedding yet, we still have hope!" and "Arrest Mike for bigamy."

Schiavo has moved on, his opponents say, and should give Terri back to her parents. "Remaining married to him is an embarrassment," said David Gibbs III, the lawyer for Terri's parents. He tried unsuccessfully to get Terri a divorce last month, accusing Schiavo of "open adultery."

Schiavo's opponents have directed much vitriol toward Jodi Centonze, threatening her life and her two children. In dozens of letters mailed to the couple's Countryside home, some critics have called her a whore and her children bastards, relatives say.

Through it all, Centonze has remained quietly by Schiavo's side. She was there long before the television cameras, before Terri's condition became a national obsession.

Jodi Centonze has visited Terri, shopped for her, washed her clothes, relatives say. She has accepted her role as the other woman, and believes Michael Schiavo has enough room in his heart for both, relatives say.

"She knows she was not his first choice," said one of Schiavo's friends, Russ Hyden of Gainesville. "But we don't always get to choose."

After all, he wasn't her first choice, either.

Posted by: Captain America || 03/27/2005 4:41:40 PM || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But we don’t always get to choose."

What rubbish - you can always choose to have nothing to do with a man who's already married. She chose - and chose poorly.
Posted by: Raj || 03/27/2005 17:17 Comments || Top||

#2  After all, he wasn’t her first choice, either. *snicker*
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 20:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Jodi, think about this before you and your illegitimate kids go to sleep tonight...

Guess what happens to a relative of Michael when they end up on a feeding tub?
Posted by: anymouse || 03/27/2005 20:12 Comments || Top||

#4  ..and chose poorly.

Weird. As of this moment, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is playing on USA. :)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/27/2005 21:24 Comments || Top||

#5  . . . and believes Michael Schiavo has enough room in his heart for both, relatives say.

Oh, that's a good one. Who among us Rantoholics is willing to try that one out on dear wife?
Posted by: Doc8404 || 03/27/2005 22:58 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks & Islam
Al-Qaeda's strategy until 2020
In light of this issue's report on the Idarat al-Tawahhush and its view on the secondary importance of Afghanistan in al-Qaeda's global struggle, a further window into al-Qaeda's strategic thinking is provided by a Jordanian analyst Bassam al-Baddarin. Writing on March 11 for the Arabic language daily al-Quds al-Arabi, his article 'Al-Qaeda has drawn up working strategy lasting until 2020,' puts together from the assorted writings of al-Qaeda's 'strategic brain' Muhammad Makkawi, what appears to be a coherent long-term strategy. It seeks to explain the series of events since September 11 2001, the events in Afghanistan and Iraq, and potentially beyond.

The subject of al-Baddarin's study, Muhammad Ibrahim Makkawi, is better known as Sayf al-Adel. He was a colonel in Egyptian Special Forces before joining with the mujahideen in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invasion. At the 1998 foundation of World Islamic Front against Crusaders and Jews (the full, official title for al-Qaeda), Sayf al-Adel was granted a pivotal role in military training, and subsequently headed the military wing, succeeding Abu Hafs al-Masri to become number three in al-Qaeda after Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri.

Al-Baddarin identifies from Sayf al-Adel's writings a core thesis explaining events — a regional war against the Americans. It aims at opening the jihadist triangle of terror, beginning with Afghanistan, passing though Iran and southern Iraq, and ending with southern Turkey, southern Lebanon and Syria. The first, achieved, step in this strategy was to regionalize the struggle with the United States. In this, the events of September 11 constituted the first step: dragging the United States into the Arab region in preparation for an extended war of attrition. Al-Qaeda knew in advance that the quick and inevitable response would be a comprehensive attack from the super-power against Afghanistan, but that this would play into their hands by provoking another giant — the Islamic Nation — and forcing it to wake up from its slumbers. In what appears a parallel with Abu Bakr Naji's theory in "The Management of Barbarism," al-Baddarin sees in al-Qaeda's writings on the web a fore-knowledge of the course of events, that in a pre-prepared program "it sacrificed the Taleban Movement and transferred a large number of its fighting strength outside Afghanistan, to Iran and Iraq." This was to keep pace with the shift by Washington of the theatre to an even more comprehensive confrontation in Iraq. "Indeed al-Qaeda had seen this in advance 
 Therefore, Al-Zarqawi and his comrades left for Iraq and remained quiet in the north" until coming to fruition "through the well-known declaration of allegiance between al-Zarqawi in Iraq and bin Laden in Afghanistan." In this manner, al-Baddarin concludes, "it can be said that al-Qaeda's strategy until the year 2000 (sic for 2020) turned its second page." All that remains are "the Syrian and Lebanese dossiers, and finally the Iranian dossier." This last is an inevitable strategic and tactical target for US military presence in the region. As to Washington's strategic preparation for this, al-Baddarin states, "al-Qaeda leaders say that the U.S. Administration has defined five objectives: ending the Palestinian intifada; controlling Lebanon's Hizbullah; effecting the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon; promoting the success of the Iraqi election process; and securing the oil fields in the Arabian Gulf region and maritime crossing points." The upshot of this costly, dispersed U.S. strategy is the draining of the superpower's military resources.

The immediate question on the above is how much of these strategic theses of al-Qaeda actually predate events, or whether they constitute a 'moving target' that takes as much from the unfolding of events as it purports to steer them. The one concession to the unpredictability of human events is al-Zarqawi's narrow escape from being traded by Saddam Hussein in return for averting the invasion — interpreted by Sayf al-Adel as God's intervention to save the group. The role of Iran in this program is also insufficiently clarified, as al-Baddarin himself states, and would imply "a certain [long distance] patient deal, still unknown 
 convincing Iran of the benefit in the end would be on two tracks: getting rid of Saddam and controlling Iraq, and then moving on to confronting the Americans." Even so, the article is thought-provoking as a serious and intelligent attempt at weaving together the strands of information floating on the web into a coherent whole. As such it is eagerly being consumed on the jihadi forums.
This article starring:
ABU BAKR NAJIal-Qaeda
ABU HAFS AL MASRIal-Qaeda
Jordanian analyst Bassam al-Baddarin
MUHAMAD IBRAHIM MAKKAWIal-Qaeda
MUHAMAD MAKKAWIal-Qaeda
SAIF AL ADELal-Qaeda
SAIF AL ADELWorld Islamic Front against Crusaders and Jews
World Islamic Front against Crusaders and Jews
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/27/2005 4:33:01 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LMAO this is such utter BS
Posted by: Damn_Proud_American || 03/27/2005 17:06 Comments || Top||

#2  what appears to be a coherent long-term strategy.

...to the Arab mind, perhaps.
Posted by: Raj || 03/27/2005 17:19 Comments || Top||

#3  al-Zarqawi’s narrow escape from being traded by Saddam Hussein in return for averting the invasion

So......No link between Saddam and al-Queda, Hmmmmm?
Posted by: Brett || 03/27/2005 19:59 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Foreign fighters on the rise
Foreign fighters who have entered Iraq in recent months are making up a growing percentage of insurgents battling US troops and the country's fledgling security force, a senior US military commander said Sunday.

In an interview with CNN, General John Abizaid, the commander of US Central Command which covers Iraq, said that while most of the insurgents appear to be Iraqis, "the percentage of foreign fighters over the past several months seems to have increased."

He also said the insurgents' ranks likely include "former Baathist criminals."

"It seems to be pretty well established that they tend to cross over from Syria, although we know that there have been some infiltrations from the Saudi border, there have been some from the Iranian border," Abizaid said.

"The Syrians are not doing everything we've asked them to do," Abizaid said, adding that Syria's intelligence services are not being aggressive enough in dismantling "facilitation cells" inside Syria.

Asked for an update on the ongoing US manhunt for Iraq's most wanted insurgent, the Al-Qaeda linked Jordanian Abu Masab Al-Zarqawi, Abizaid said Al-Zarqawi's followers were certainly operating in western Iraq.

"I think ... you well understand that a big military organization like the US military are pretty good at pressuring the (insurgent) networks, and that is what we're doing.

"A single manhunt is a difficult thing. Over time, we keep finding out more and more about his organization, we take more people out of it, and his time is running out," Abizaid predicted.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 03/27/2005 2:01:38 PM || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Foreign fighters who have entered Iraq in recent months are making up a growing percentage of insurgents

Does this mean the number of locals fighting the new regime has dropped, or more foreigners have joined up?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 20:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Foreign fighters who have entered Iraq in recent months are making up a growing percentage

Sounds like the latter, TW, although the former could be true too. The key graf is Abizaid saying "The Syrians are not doing everything we've asked them to do."

Getting nervous in Damascus, Assad? Oh, and about those bombings in the Christian part of Lebanon, you might want to keep in mind that Gen. Abazaid is a Christian Arab who studied for a time in Amman Jordan (still has friends there) and served in Lebanon w/ the UN Observers.

He's got your number, boy.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 20:22 Comments || Top||

#3  I think its a misleading headline and the reporter is an idiot. The commander said "the percentage of foreign fighters over the past several months seems to have increased."

That simply means that the percentage of foreign fighters have increased - not that the numbers has increased (as the title suggests).

Kind of like if there were 100 people there - ten of which are american (10%). 90 are killed including 2 americans leaving 8 americans (or 80%) and two non-americans (20%). This idiot reporter would report that there are more american fighters.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/27/2005 20:38 Comments || Top||

#4  I guess everyone has noticed that Mathematics and Logic are not strong suits among the LLL Moonbats... Same can obviously be said for the MSM, Turks, Arabs, et al...

It's prolly a common genetic predisposition thingy. Got it? Better herd goats or go the "liberal arts" path...
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 20:52 Comments || Top||

#5  It's from the Turkish press. For a while I thought it was from the Beeb, but checked the link. 'Nuff said.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/27/2005 21:10 Comments || Top||

#6  Foreign fighters who have entered Iraq in recent months are making up a growing percentage of insurgents battling US troops and the country’s fledgling security force, a senior US military commander said Sunday.

Not a problem. They can die too, like the ones that came before them.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 03/27/2005 22:33 Comments || Top||

#7  I thought MSM were LLL moonbats.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 03/27/2005 23:07 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Fazl gloats over religion column victory
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) said on Saturday that the restoration of the religion column in new passports was a big victory for it and the people of Pakistan. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, MMA secretary-general, told Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) official Maulana Gulzar Ahmad Gul in Hasilpur on the phone that the government was not sincere in resolving the Balochistan issue. Fazl, who is also the JUI ameer, said the crisis could only be resolved through political dialogue, not by force. He said the MMA would not compromise on President Pervez Musharraf's army post, the restoration of democracy and the supremacy of the Constitution. He said the military would have to limit itself to safeguarding Pakistan's borders, leaving politics to politicians. He said that General Musharraf wanted to make the Islamic Republic of Pakistan secular to please its foreign masters through "enlightened moderation", adding that people would not allow him to do so. Fazl feared that the government might hand over Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to the United States to prolong its tenure. He said the US was trying to attack Iran after invading Afghanistan and Iraq, adding that such moves would be resisted by Muslims. He said the government would not be allowed to let the US use Pakistani soil to attack Iran.
This article starring:
Abdul Qadeer Khan
FAZLUR REHMANMuttahida Majlis-e-Amal
GULZAR AHMED GULJamiat Ulema-e-Islam
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fazl, who is also the JUI ameer, said the crisis could only be resolved through political dialogue, not by force.

Horsepuckey. You could count on one hand the number of problems in the Arab world that were resolved through 'political dialogue'.
Posted by: Raj || 03/27/2005 10:09 Comments || Top||

#2  Ahhh, but this is Pakistan, Raj, and they aren't Arabs, merely Muslims.... so it is theoretically possible that they might maybe solve the problem through 'political dialogue.' I'd put the likelihood down in the single digit percents, perhaps even digits to the right of the decimal point, but still. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 13:00 Comments || Top||

#3  This country is ripe for takeover.
Posted by: Sperry un Hutchenson || 03/27/2005 19:12 Comments || Top||

#4  "#3 This country is ripe for takeover."

LOL! That is such an amazingly flexible statement - my compliments! Lessee... Possible interpretations... Hmmmm...

I'm thinking really hard, lol, but once this image flashed into my mind, well hell, I just can't seem to get past it: a really really big smokin' hole - all sorta glassy and shimmery in the moonlight. It's so shiny, yet not a towel to be seen.
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 19:21 Comments || Top||


US plans to make India 'world power'
Tightens the Pak turbans, doesn't it?
The US unveiled plans late on Friday to help India become a "major world power in the 21st century" even as it announced moves to beef up the military of Pakistan. Under the plans, Washington offered to step up a strategic dialogue with India to boost missile defence and other security initiatives as well as high-tech cooperation and expanded economic and energy cooperation. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has explained to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the Bush administration's outline for a "decisively broader strategic relationship" between the world's oldest and largest democracies, a senior US official said. "Its goal is to help India become a major world power in the 21st century," said the official, who asked not to be named. "We understand fully the implications, including military implications, of that statement."

He did not elaborate but noted that South Asia was critical, with China on one side, Iran and the Middle East on the other, and a somewhat turbulent Central Asian region to the north. Rice discussed the US-India plan with Prime Minister Singh during her Asian visit earlier this month but it was not revealed to the public. The US proposal culminates efforts to repair relations strained by India's May 1998 nuclear tests. Bush was inviting Prime Minister Singh to visit him in July in Washington and the US leader would also like to travel to South Asia later this year or early next year, he said. The strategic dialogue will include global issues, regional security matters, Indian defence requirements, expanding high-tech cooperation and even working toward US-India defence co-production, the official explained. The US, he said, was prepared to "respond positively" to an Indian request for information on American initiatives to sell New Delhi the next generation of multi-role combat aircraft. "That's not just F-16s. It could be F-18s," he said. Beyond possible sale of fighter planes, the US is ready to discuss the more fundamental issue of defence transformation with India, including transformative systems in areas such as command and control, early warning and missile defence, the official said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  '...sell New Delhi the next generation of multi-role combat aircraft."
For a minute there I thought they were talking about the F-22.
Posted by: Raptor || 03/27/2005 8:24 Comments || Top||

#2  And golly gee willacres, only a passing reference to China. If you ask most educated Indians you meet, they will tell you that they consider Pakistan to be a gnat and that almost all of their guns are pointed towards China. And the US Army let the Indian army know that they need a serious upgrade to be a contender, as their A-1 priority; which "military man to military man" probably scared the pootwaddle out of them.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/27/2005 10:55 Comments || Top||

#3  Via LGF: Soddies move to strengthen ties with India.

Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/27/2005 11:37 Comments || Top||

#4  Raptor, how could Lockheed sell your namesake aircraft overseas when they can't even convince the Congress to buy it for our AF. The number of F-22's to be bought for us have dropped from 750 to less than 180 and is headed towards 130. Sell India the F-35 JSF and Pakistan can rest easy since they will never be delivered.
Posted by: RWV || 03/27/2005 11:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Security Council seat next???

The Indians who've settled in the US have, by and large, been successful here and are letting the family back home know that they can worship, do business and feel comfortable here. That's undoing the decades of pro-Soviet bias for many Indians, as is our war against the Islamacist terrorists. The Saudis want to sell India oil, which it needs, but don't have much more to offer.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 11:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Is this supposed to be some kind of compensation for selling out to Pakistan? (Betcha there was a quid pro quo on Bin Laden in that deal. It is a strategy that is lethally clumsy and devoid of ethics.) We should be building trust with India-let's see America make the commitment in the headline materialize and put us back on track.
Posted by: jules 2 || 03/27/2005 12:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Soddies move to strengthen ties with India?

the same Soddies that in another post broke up an illegal Hindu shrine and expelled the worshippers?
Posted by: Frank G || 03/27/2005 12:02 Comments || Top||

#8  Ummm...yes. Also the same flavor of Islam (Sunni) that is currently demanding a 7% share of all revenue from the Taj Mahal on the basis that they have "determined" that there are Moose limbs buried on the property, and as a gravesite, the Moose limbs have authority. The committee that runs the Taj has until March 31 to provide an answer...
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/27/2005 12:16 Comments || Top||

#9  I'll help em answer:

"Fuck Off"
Posted by: Frank G || 03/27/2005 12:19 Comments || Top||

#10  Here's a link to the story in Dhimmiwatch.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/27/2005 12:21 Comments || Top||

#11  Jules, the Indians already have planes that can outmaneuver and outshoot the F-16 under some circumstances. It's not an obvious sellout to Pakistan, although it makes for dramatic headlines.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 12:22 Comments || Top||

#12  good link Emily - how about disinterring the muslim graves and giving the remains to the Waqf - after charging them for all the costs of doing so.
Posted by: Frank G || 03/27/2005 12:28 Comments || Top||

#13  This is a little reminder to Musharref that he hasn't secured Bush, but must continue to work to ensure American support and aid. Very important, given that he just gave in to his radicals on the religion column issue.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 13:06 Comments || Top||

#14  I think India is making India into a wolrd power. All those software engieneers, modernized military, a huge educated populace, and the largest democratic nation in the world.


Speaking of UN - if you want to look at relevance:

India should have France's permanent seat at the UN as the worlds largest democracy.

And Japan should have Russia's becuase they are far more important to the world's economy.

Let France and Russia share an EU seat.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/27/2005 13:22 Comments || Top||

#15  Too True: Are you talking about the IDF?

It's an interesting plane, I wish Clinton hadn't sort-of derailed the program by putting an embargo on India...
Posted by: Phil Fraering || 03/27/2005 13:31 Comments || Top||

#16  No, I was thinking about the mock combat exercise last year that put US pilots in F-15Cs (under restricted engagement rules) up against the Indians in MGs, Sukhois and Mirages.

Granted, the USAF pilots were handicapped by the rules of that exercise, but given that Pakistani pilots aren't likely to become aces quickly, I think the Indians could probably hold their own handily.
Posted by: too true || 03/27/2005 13:52 Comments || Top||

#17  Takes 500,000 books to becomes a WorldPower. But! A regional power is only 85,000 books.
Posted by: Sperry un Hutchenson || 03/27/2005 19:13 Comments || Top||

#18  SuH - Sorry, I must differ. Books alone do not a WorldPower make... gotta have a flag and an anthem and other spifficities. The spiffier the better, of course. Oh, and you hafta belong to the UN & ICC & ready to sign Kyoto, too, but then that's no problem -- unless you're a Representative Republic and a nation of laws. That might keep you out of the UN and give you the good sense not to sign onto the other two.
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 19:27 Comments || Top||

#19  In the late '80s Mr. Wife told me that 70% of Indians were "economically uninvolved," i.e. not part of the money-using economy. (This really put a crimp in his efforts to develop new & improved consumer products for sale over there.) I assume the numbers are somewhat better now, but can any of you clever Rantburgers give me something more precise? Thanks!
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/27/2005 19:42 Comments || Top||

#20  "Also the same flavor of Islam (Sunni) that is currently demanding a 7% share of all revenue from the Taj Mahal"

Good luck prying the Taj Mahal from the Hinduooos. The Hindooos are not going to care what Amnesia Intl. thinks. The Hindooos will kill any Mooselimb that tries a coop attempt on the Taj Mahal. The Hindoos and Mooselimbs live peacefully and in close proximity to each other in the major cities of India. This is due to the fact that if, just one Hindoo dies at the hands of a Mooselimb in a hate crime, The Hindooos will kill at least 20 Mooselimbs and their families. The Mooselimbs have tried to mess with the Hindoos before and paid a heavy price.
Posted by: Poison Reverse || 03/27/2005 20:13 Comments || Top||

#21  I think India is making India into a wolrd power. All those software engieneers, modernized military, a huge educated populace, and the largest democratic nation in the world.


Speaking of UN - if you want to look at relevance:

India should have France's permanent seat at the UN as the worlds largest democracy.

And Japan should have Russia's becuase they are far more important to the world's economy.

Let France and Russia share an EU seat.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/27/2005 13:22 Comments || Top||

#22  I think India is making India into a wolrd power. All those software engieneers, modernized military, a huge educated populace, and the largest democratic nation in the world.


Speaking of UN - if you want to look at relevance:

India should have France's permanent seat at the UN as the worlds largest democracy.

And Japan should have Russia's becuase they are far more important to the world's economy.

Let France and Russia share an EU seat.
Posted by: OldSpook || 03/27/2005 13:22 Comments || Top||


Govt's writ will be enforced in Balochistan, says PM
Yeah. They're going to dump the religion column, too.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz reiterated on Saturday that the government's writ would be enforced in Balochistan. Talking to Jam Muhammad Yousuf, the Balochistan chief minister, Aziz said that maintaining law and order in the province was the government's duty that would be fulfilled at any cost. Aziz and Jam Yousuf discussed security situation in Balochistan and reviewed the provincial government's performance. The recent visit by parliamentarians to Dera Bugti was also discussed. According to a press statement, the prime minister observed that Balochistan had been gifted with rich mineral resources, which need to be exploited for the benefit of the local people and development of the country. The PM also met Raza Hayat Hiraj, the minister of state for parliamentary affairs.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Allawi tells Shia clerics to stay out of politics
Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Saturday Shi'ite Muslim religious leaders should stay out of politics, an unprecedented public criticism of the powerful clergy. "Thrusting the religious establishment into daily political affairs could distance it from its guiding role and disrupt relations between the political forces, which could create an imbalance," his National Accord Party said in a letter sent to Shi'ite and Kurdish politicians. "Everyone must agree on the role of the religious leadership in the interim period," it said. State-owned al-Sabah newspaper published the letter.

Public criticism of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shi'ite cleric, is almost unheard of in the country. It could deepen a political crisis sparked by the failure so far to form a government after the Jan. 30 elections. The criticism comes as Kurdish and Shi'ite parties, which between them have the two-thirds majority needed to form a government, are struggling to decide on a cabinet and top jobs. Sistani, who lives in the holy city of Najaf, has never met Allawi, a secular Shi'ite. The Iranian-born cleric backed a Shi'ite list that won a majority in parliament. Sistani approved of Allawi when he became interim prime minister in June, Shi'ite politicians say, but now endorses Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a religious Shi'ite, as the bloc's candidate for prime minister.

Despite assurances by the Shi'ite bloc that it supports multiparty democracy, concern has been growing that Iraq could slide toward Islamic rule and become less tolerant. Sistani's aides have said he does not want an Iranian-style Islamic state. Last week, Shi'ite Islamist militants attacked a group of male and female university students having a picnic together in Basra, provoking an outcry from secular parties. Allawi's relations have been uneasy with the Najaf seminary -- where Sistani is based -- and with Islamists in general. Health Minister Alaadin al-Alwan, an ally of Allawi, left Iraq several weeks ago after Islamists threatened to kill him for sacking Islamists in the ministry, officials said. The prime minister's secular stance and opposition to firing en masse former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party helped him win 40 seats in the 275-member parliament.

Both the Shi'ite and Kurdish blocs have been trying to persuade Allawi to join a new government, but he has refused, saying new guidelines are needed on how to treat Baath party members and militias that have sprung up in postwar Iraq. "The Debaathification commission needs to abandon randomness and adopt legal ways to punish the criminals and allow the rest to participate in rebuilding," the letter said. "A national unity programme requires shunning collective punishment and creating a mechanism for those who are not represented in parliament to participate in writing the constitution and the political process," said Allawi, referring to the Sunnis. That minority community, which enjoyed power under Saddam, a Sunni, won only 17 seats in parliament after a widespread boycott of the elections.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Religion column decision marks start of govt defeat: JUP-N
The restoration of the religion column in machine-readable passports is a major defeat for rulers in the face of public pressure, said Gen (r) KM Azhar, the secretary general of Jamiat Ulema Pakistan-Noorani (JUP-N). "Soon, the anti-government movement by religious parties will compel Gen Pervez Musharraf to step down from power."

"We (the religious parties) will not sit idol [sic] till Gen Musharraf is ousted from the corridors of power. We gave Gen Musharraf a respectable way out but he violated his promises by not doffing his uniform by December 31, 2004," Azhar told Daily Times on Friday. "Gen Musharraf is working for American interests. This is unacceptable to religious and patriotic Pakistanis," he said, adding that the situation in Balochistan had been created as a result of protecting American interests in Gwadar. Azhar said that the main objective of religious parties was to depose Gen Musharraf and restore the Constitution. "The restoration of the religion column was a minor demand," he added.
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Anti-Musharraf grand alliance: ARD to form committee to discuss terms with MMA
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That many in one place at the same time?

They'll be able to open a Dry Goods store.
Posted by: .com || 03/27/2005 0:04 Comments || Top||


Cancel passports without religion column: MMA
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:


Balochistan issue: Govt likely to amend constitution
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Abu Zuhri: We enter the PLC for the sake of reform
The Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, spokesman in Gaza Strip, Sami Abu Zuhri, has affirmed that Hamas will participate in the upcoming legislative elections for the sake of reforming the Palestinian political system and eradicating corruption rampant in the PA institutions. In a massive rally held in the Nusseirat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip to commemorate the first anniversary of the martyrdom of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, Abu Zuhri said, "there are leaders who sacrifice their souls and blood for Palestine, while others monopolize, corrupt, and tamper with the capabilities of the Palestinian people. Thus, we decided to participate in the election in order to change this situation and to put things in the right place and manner".

He emphasized that Hamas has gained a wider popular base after the martyrdom of its great leaders, citing the latest victories in the municipal and students' elections in Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Commenting on the calming down, Abu Zuhri said that "it came to serve our people's interests and our prisoners who are languishing behind Israeli bars. Furthermore, we have to calm down for a while in order to continue along the path of Jihad". "Rest assured that we shall never forsake our guns and our resistance at any cost, this is our pledge and this is our strategy and we shall defend our lands until the liberation of all Palestine", he emphasized. "We are strong enough to confront any Israeli aggression, and we always have the right to defend our people and lands. Trust Hamas 
 and trust that it will always preserve the Palestinian national interests and constants", the Hamas spokesman underscored.
This article starring:
SAMI ABU ZUHRIHamas
SHEIKH AHMED YASINHamas
Posted by: Fred || 03/27/2005 00:00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:



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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.
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Meet the Mods
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Steve White
Seafarious
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2005-03-27
  Bomb explodes in Beirut suburb
Sat 2005-03-26
  Iraqi Forces Seize 131 Suspected Insurgents in Raid
Fri 2005-03-25
  Police in Belarus Disperse Demonstrators
Thu 2005-03-24
  Akaev resigns
Wed 2005-03-23
  80 hard boyz killed in battle with US, Iraqi troops
Tue 2005-03-22
  30 al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Islam captured at Baladruz
Mon 2005-03-21
  Three American carriers converging on Middle East
Sun 2005-03-20
  Quetta corpse count at 30
Sat 2005-03-19
  Car Bomb at Qatar Theatre
Fri 2005-03-18
  Opposition Reports Coup In Damascus
Thu 2005-03-17
  Al-Oufi throws his support behind Zarqawi
Wed 2005-03-16
  18 arrested in arms smuggling plot
Tue 2005-03-15
  Commander Robot titzup in prison break attempt
Mon 2005-03-14
  Abdullah Mehsud is no more?
Sun 2005-03-13
  1 al-Qaeda dead, 5 Soddy coppers wounded


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