Sudan appears ready to agree to disarm the Janjaweed faster and accept more rebels into its security forces, concessions that meet rebels demands at Darfur peace talks, a government spokesman said Wednesday. Sudanese government Spokesman Abdulrahman Zuma said the concessions, including speedier disarmament of the Janjaweed militia it is accused of unleashing on Darfur civilians, were part of US-initiated changes to a draft peace treaty the rebels had rejected. The government had accepted the initial draft but now appeared ready to accept changes to it.
"Through this so-called American initiative, it seems that the government is going to make some concessions, especially about reintegration and disarmament," Zuma told the Associated Press. US Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick flew to Abuja, the Nigerian capital where the talks are being held, to try to break the deadlock over an African Union-drafted peace proposal. Two Sudanese close to the negotiations said earlier Wednesday they had seen a recast proposal and that it made substantial changes to the initial AU draft.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Pressure matters.
But i'll wait till the deal is signed and implemented to celebrate. Too much can go wrong.
#3
Do you want me to go over there and kick somebody's ass like in my movies? Think it would help?
Posted by: George Clooney ||
05/04/2006 14:05 Comments ||
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#4
no george, I want to you to get some of your fellow hollywoodniks and get them to start focusing on something important like this, instead of the usual garbage causes they go in for.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's opposition Muslim Brotherhood said police detained 23 of its members in Cairo on Thursday as part of a crackdown in response to the group's campaign against emergency law.
A police source said 20 people were detained in the capital for membership of the Islamist group, which makes up the largest opposition bloc in parliament but is officially banned. There was no immediate explanation for the difference in numbers.
Police detained more than 100 Brotherhood members last month and 53 of those remain in detention, an official at Brotherhood headquarters said. "The security forces have launched a large-scale campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood in the recent period because of its activities denouncing the emergency law," the group said on its Web site.
Brotherhood members and activists from secular opposition groups have held several demonstrations in the last two weeks denouncing the two-year extension of emergency law, which they say the government uses to limit political activity.
The secular groups say dozens of their supporters are also in detention. The government says it uses emergency law only to combat terrorism and drug trafficking, and will eventually replace it with an anti-terrorism law.
Polling stations closed in Chad on Wednesday for a presidential election that was boycotted by the opposition and which incumbent Idriss Deby Itno, in power since 1990, was expected to win. The day of voting, which ran from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm (0600 GMT to 1700 GMT), ended without incident despite rebel threats to upset the process.
No turnout figures were immediately available, but participation by the country's 5.8 million eligible voters appeared low, with few people gathering at polling stations in the capital, AFP journalists witnessed. Observers reported seeing more soldiers than voters at polling stations in the capital, N'Djamena. Deby is set to win a third term after the main opposition parties said they were boycotting the election.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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LONDON - Human remains found at a beauty spot in west central England are those of a woman whose body was stolen from a graveyard by animal rights terrorists extremists, police said on Thursday.
Staffordshire Police said the remains were removed Wednesday from Cannock Chase, a sprawling area of woods and heathland, and examined by a pathologist. Dental checks were also carried out. Although further DNA tests are still to be carried out, detectives are satisfied that the body recovered is that of Mrs Gladys Hammond, said a police statement.
The body of Gladys Hammond, who died in 1997 aged 82, was taken from her final resting place in the village of Yoxall, Staffordshire, in October 2004. The desecration caused widespread revulsion across Britain and abroad. The remains were discovered near a remote war memorial on the heath late Tuesday.
Detectives linked the grave robbery to animal rights terrorists extremists waging a long-running hate campaign against her relatives, who ran a farm breeding guinea pigs for medical research in the nearby hamlet of Newchurch. Four animal rights terrorists activists -- described by a judge last month as determined and cold-blooded defenders of their perceived cause -- have admitted conspiring to blackmail the family during the protests. They are due to be sentenced next week.
Officers, including forensic specialists, were still at the scene Thursday and were expected to continue their hunt for clues throughout the day.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2006 10:37 ||
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Dig up human dead. Ya, that will really bring the general public over to your way of thinking....
#2
Dunno, DV, it didn't cause any problems for the jihadis in Spain. They dug up a policeman who had been killed when some other jihadis auto-detonated.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/04/2006 11:00 Comments ||
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#3
Grave robbery and corpse desecration...whatever.
What about the Guinea pigs?
#4
Didn't bring the Spanish people to their way of thinking. No response and wanting to put their head in the sand (just like when the barbarians overran western Rome) but no real support for the slopydopes.
#6
Sorry, DV, but backing down is coming to the terrorist's way of thinking. You're either at their throats or at their feet.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/04/2006 11:58 Comments ||
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#7
They don't care about bringing the general public around. That would be a democratic goal, and these folks aren't interested in that. They're the moral vanguard, you see, and they just need to intimidate anyone who wants to act differently from their inherently superior agenda.
A second man has died following last Thursday's arson attack on a convenience store in south London, Scotland Yard said Wednesday. The victim was named as 31-year-old Hamidi Hamidullah, an Afghan national who worked at the food store in Clapham Road, Kennington, in south London. A Scotland Yard spokesman said a post mortem examination will be held later today.
Co-worker Khizar Hayat was burnt to death when he was trapped in the store following the daylight attack. A 33-year-old man has been arrested by detectives hunting a suspected racist firebomber believed to be responsible for three separate attacks on stores run by Asians in south London over the past three weeks. The arrest was made last Monday at an address in south London. Last weekend police revealed details of two other attacks thought to be linked to that in Kennington which has now claimed two lives.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:03 ||
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Looks like the blacks and paks are intent on civil war south of the river.. Londoners' very own popcorn time!!
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/04/2006 7:41 Comments ||
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LONDON - The British government announced plans on Wednesday to deport virtually all foreign convicts in a bid to defuse a scandal that threatens to damage the governing Labour Partys results in local elections. I think its now time that anybody who is convicted of an imprisonable offense and who is a foreign national is deported, Prime Minister Tony Blair told a raucous parliamentary session on the eve of the polls.
Speaking to the House of Commons, both Prime Minister Tony Blair and his embattled home secretary Charles Clarke insisted that the scandal over foreign prisoners had dated back to previous governments. This system has not worked properly for decades. It is actually working now, Blair told a jeering opposition as he defended Clarke from fresh calls to resign over the release of 1,023 foreign prisoners. We have to work through the backlog of cases which we will do but it is completely wrong to say that this problem was created or begun by this home secretary, Blair said during the weekly Prime Ministers Questions.
Conservative opposition leader David Cameron dismissed Blairs response. People listening to that answer will, frankly, think it pathetic, he said. This scandal has happened on his watch and he cannot run away from responsibility for it.
Clarke unleashed a furor last week when he acknowledged that 1,023 foreign convicts who should have been considered for deportation after serving their sentences were instead released back into the community.
In announcing what Blair called a radical overhaul, Clarke said he would publish a consultation paper by the end of May to set up a new system where foreign criminals should expect to be deported. Clarke added that of the 1,023 prisoners who were released by mistake, 574 cases were being considered for deportation, of which 554 have been completed. In all 446 are to be deported, he said.
Once they exhaust all their appeals to the British courts, then the House of Lords, then the EU Court of Appeals, and doubtless other Euro courts I've never heard of before.
He also disclosed that the number of foreign convicts in British prisons has swelled to nearly 10,000 last year from 5,587 in 1987.
All of whom were named Jacques, Gerhardt and Emilio, right?
However, the Tories seized on the fact that Clarke disclosed that only 32 of the 79 most serious offenders had so far been tracked down. With Clarke saying that deporting another nine has been ruled out, a Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the remaining 38 are still at large.
Saying the government had failed its primary mission to protect the public, the Conservatives specialist on home affairs, David Davis, said Clarkes proposals amounted to bolting the prison door after the prisoners have fled.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Vice President Dick Cheney, in remarks that caused a stir in neighboring Russia, accused President Vladimir Putin Thursday of restricting the rights of citizens and said that "no legitimate interest is served" by turning energy resources into implements of blackmail. "In Russia today, opponents of reform are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade," Cheney told a conference of Eastern European leaders whose countries once lived under Soviet oppression, and now in Russia's shadow.
Cheney's speech blended praise for the progress Eastern European countries have made toward democracy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, with an exhortation to continue on the same path. "The democratic unity of Europe ensures the peace of Europe," he said.
He said Russia has a choice to make when it comes to reform, and said that in many areas, "from religion and the news media to advocacy groups and political parties, the government has unfairly and improperly restricted the rights of the people."
Other actions "have been counterproductive and could begin to affect relations with other countries," Cheney said, mentioning energy and border issues. "No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail, either by supply manipulation or attempts to monopolize transportation," he said. "And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor, or interfere with democratic movements."
It was among the strongest remarks that any U.S. official has made publicly about Putin's leadership style. The Bush administration for the most part has tried to play down, at least publicly, any strong differences with Putin.
Andrei Kokoshin, chairman of a Russian State Duma committee, said he believes Cheney's remarks at the Vilnius forum are subjective and do not reflect the real situation in the former Soviet republics. Cheney's remarks "hardly corresponds to many realities of the political processes that we see on the post-Soviet territory today," he said.
"The United States has to deal with an absolutely different Russia today - a Russia that has restored its real sovereignty in many areas and is pursuing a course on the world arena that meets mainly its own national interests," Kokoshin added.
Russian Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said he believes Cheney tried to discredit Russia in the run-up to a G8 summit scheduled for July in St. Petersburg. "I believe his criticism of Russia for trying to dismantle democracy in our country is absolutely baseless, but I am sure that Cheney expressed the opinion of only part of the U.S. political elite, but not that of the top leader of that country," Zhirinovsky said.
Officials said the remark concerning territorial integrity was meant to apply to Georgia and Moldova, both former portions of the Soviet Union where the administration says Russia is playing an unhelpful role in solving separatist conflicts.
Cheney spoke to the Vilnius Conference, a gathering of leaders from the Baltic and Black Sea regions. The vice president blended his criticism of Putin with a reaffirmation of President Bush's decision to attend this summer's Group of 8 summit meeting in Russia.
Putin will serve as host of the meeting of leaders of the world's largest industrialized nations, and some American politicians have urged Bush not to attend. "We will make the case, clearly and confidently, that Russia has nothing to fear and everything to gain from having strong, stable democracies on its borders," the vice president said.
Any criticism of Russia seemed restrained in contrast to the words Cheney used to describe the political situation in Belarus under President Alexander Lukashenko. He said Belarus suffers under "the last dictatorship in Europe" and that its people are denied basic freedoms. Cheney said he had hoped to meet in Lithuania with Belarus' opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich, but he was recently jailed by authorities in Minsk. "The regime should end this injustice and free Mr. Milinkevich, along with other democracy advocates held in captivity," he said.
Much of Cheney's speech was an exhortation to the people and leaders of countries that long lived under the occupation of the Soviet Union, and a reassurance that the United States will stand with them. "In these 15 years, the Baltics have shown how far nations can progress when they embrace freedom, serve the interests of their people and hold steadily to the path of reform," he said. "Reform is an uneven path, but it is not chaos; indeed, the surest way to invite constant political social and economic upheaval is to reject the hard but necessary choices."
Cheney began his day at breakfast with Yushchenko, and said the United States wanted "to do everything we can to be of assistance in the days ahead." Yushchenko responded by saying that recent "free and fair elections" for parliament and local offices marked significant progress in his country's path toward democracy.
"Probably for the first time, Ukrainian authorities were highly assessed by ... the international community, including the Americans," said Yushchenko.
North Korea heads a league table of the 10 most censored countries, according to a survey by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. All "news" in North Korea is positive, there are no independent journalists, and all radio and television receivers are locked to government-specified frequencies, the CPJ said in a report to mark World Press Freedom Day yesterday. North Korea is followed by:
Burma
Turkmenistan
Equatorial Guinea
Libya
Eritrea
Cuba
Uzbekistan
Syria
Belarus
The survey was based on a variety of criteria, including formal censorship, harassment of journalists, jamming of foreign news broadcasts and restrictions on internet access. "People in these countries are virtually isolated from the rest of the world by authoritarian rulers who muzzle the media and keep a chokehold on information through restrictive laws, fear and intimidation," said Ann Cooper, the CPJ's executive director.
In North Korea, almost all news is supplied by the official news agency, which "serves up a daily diet ...
... which is about the only diet they get...
... of fawning coverage of 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il and his official engagements," the report said, adding that the country's grinding poverty and famines were never mentioned.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
How do they lock a radio? From my own electrical tinking, I am wondering how it can be done. Anyone actually seen such a thing!
Easiest thing in the world when you control the distribution market. Just design the tuner to only receive specific frequencies, either with push buttons or a click knob. If you want to get fancy, you can put filters into the tuner to trap any unwanted frequencies.
I'll bet they are having troubles with black market sets smuggled in from China, I've read there's a big market for video CD players and copies of South Korean shows. Same thing with cell phones. Cracks are opening in their wall.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2006 8:28 Comments ||
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#4
Gee I would thought that the U.S. would rank right up there according the to the LLL Mo0nb@t fever swamp. I thought Bush had an enemies list and had an ongoing war with the First admendment. Now you want me to believe that the fun loving (verry ronry) Dear Leader Kimmy is the censorship king? I feel faint!
One thousand South Korean anti-US protesters and farmers have clashed with police as forces moved in to clear two rural townships and pave the way for a new, consolidated, US military base. Protesters wielding bamboo sticks fought on Thursday with police armed with batons and metal shields at several spots in the area, about 70km south of Seoul on Thursday. Scores of protesters suffered injuries in the clash and they said the number will grow.
The confrontation has been brewing for months since about 100 farmers refused to vacate the area where South Korea and the United States agreed two years ago to move the main US military base now in Seoul and several others throughout the country. The number of protesters, many of whom are anti-US military activists, unionists and students, grew sharply on Wednesday night in expectations the government will send in thousands of police and military engineers to evict the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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One of the biggest problems for the US forces in Korea has always been the constant encroachment of squatters onto bases and training areas. Korean squatters are just as assertive and obnoxious as our homegrown varieties.
#3
Hell yes, I agree with them. Get our troops out of there. We've provided largess for waaay too long. Let Kimmie roll over these turds. Once he has the whole peninsula, his balls will stiffen. Then, he undoubtedly will do something extremely foolish with regard to Japan. Japanese will then squash his ass like an elephant smashing a snail. This, then, will also provide a good learning experience for Chinese egomaniacs.
AUSTRALIAN authorities are awaiting a request from East Timor for troops as political tension in the poor nation increases.
Canberra is also preparing to evacuate Australian citizens from the country if another flare-up of violence occurs.
Rumours of a stand-off between the armed forces and national police have prompted many Dili residents to flee the city in recent days.
East Timorese troops had been deployed to the capital's streets to restore security after a week of violent protests.
The riots were sparked after nearly 600 soldiers were sacked when they deserted their barracks complaining of discrimination in February.
At least four people were killed on Friday and about 100 homes and a market damaged, while thousands fled for shelter in seminaries and areas outside the capital.
It was the worst unrest to hit East Timor since 1999, when Indonesian-backed militias killed 1400 after the country broke away from Jakarta, which ruled East Timor for 24 years.
Australia sent a large force to East Timor in late 1999 to restore order, pulling out in 2004.
It is not known how many soldiers Australia would send to East Timor should an official request be made.
Depending on the size of the force, any deployment could also leave the Australian Defence Force overstretched in the wake of recent deployment to the Solomon Islands.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade yesterday updated travel advice for East Timor, warning Australians to reconsider any plans to travel there.
"We advise you to reconsider your need to travel to East Timor at this time because of the high level of communal tension and the potential for politically motivated violence," DFAT said.
"The situation could change quickly and without notice and Australians could be caught up in any violence directed at others. If you do decide to travel to East Timor you should exercise extreme caution."
The department said the areas affected included the Comoro markets, government buildings in the city centre and some beach areas.
"If you are in Dili we advise against unnecessary travel, particularly at night and around locations known to be targeted by demonstrators, including government buildings, Comoro and Taibesi markets and the Tasi Tolu, Becora and Maneluana areas," the travel statement warns.
"You should also avoid any minor disputes or other incidents that may occur as they have the potential to escalate."
AUSTRALIA'S highest ranking Catholic priest has told an American audience the Koran is punctuated with "invocations to violence" and the central challenge facing Islam lies in the struggle between moderate and extremist forces.
Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said reading Islam's holy book was vital "because the challenge of Islam will be with us for the remainder of our lives". In a speech to leading Catholic businesses in the United States, Dr Pell said the September 11 terrorist attacks had been his wake-up call to understand Islam better.
He said there were inconsistencies in claims that Islam was a faith of peace with those that suggested the Koran legitimised the killings of non-Muslims. Factual errors, inconsistencies, anachronisms and other defects were difficult for Muslims to debate openly, Dr Pell said. "In my own reading of the Koran, I began to note down invocations to violence. There are so many of them, however, that I abandoned this exercise after 50 or 60 or 70 pages," he said.
Dr Pell's speech was delivered in the United States on February 4 but only appeared on the archdiocese's website on Wednesday.
#3
Archbishop of Sydney Cardinal George Pell said reading Islam's holy book was vital "because the challenge of Islam will be with us for the remainder of our lives".
Agreed. I did, and it was an eye-opener.
Factual errors, inconsistencies, anachronisms and other defects were difficult for Muslims to debate openly, Dr Pell said. "In my own reading of the Koran, I began to note down invocations to violence. There are so many of them, however, that I abandoned this exercise after 50 or 60 or 70 pages," he said.
The words appear in flames across the screen. "In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate," according to a translation. Then there are images of devastated towns and exploding tanks against a soundtrack of thunder and lightning. The video is said to depict mujahideen tramping through the forest, across mountains and sliding down snowy slopes, to the sound of chanting and verses from the Koran.
Yesterday the jury in the trial of Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, were played the video, allegedly found at his Lakemba home during ASIO raids in October, 2003. Lodhi is on trial in the Supreme Court on four terrorism-related charges. He is accused of planning to bomb a Sydney defence site or the national electricity grid.
Translated from Arabic, the video says: "The religious rite of jihad should be built up in the souls. It should be learnt that jihad is the best thing that man can ever volunteer to do and that volunteering for jihad for the cause of Allah is better than volunteering to perform pilgrimage " Jihad, it says, "is a way to spread the religion and terrorise the enemy, to expand the domain of Islam around the world".
Lodhi's barrister, Phillip Boulten, SC, has told the court that the accused does not believe in "violent jihad", as alleged by the prosecution.
"No, no, certainly not!"
Lodhi denies owning the video, as well as two CDs titled The Lion of Allah - named after the Chechen Commander Khattab - allegedly found at his home.
"Never seen 'em."
Said to be set in the battlefields of Chechnya with close-ups of fighting and men in combat gear in training, the video features Islamic fundamentalist rhetoric.
In other evidence, Lodhi's former boss at Thomson Adsett Architects, Susan Kenny, said he did not need 38 aerial photographs of three Sydney defence sites for his work. However, under cross-examination Ms Kenny said staff had discussed aerial photographs as being a useful tool.
FRANCE could at some stage ask the United States to allow Zacarias Moussaoui to serve his life prison sentence in a French jail, the Foreign Ministry said today. Moussaoui, a 37-year old French citizen of Moroccan origin, was jailed for life by a US jury yesterday for his role in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
France and the United States signed two agreements in the 1980s about the transfer of convicts, and Moussaoui's mother Aisha el Wafi and his lawyer have asked that the Frenchman be allowed to serve his sentence in his home country. "A possible demand for transferring Zacarias Moussaoui could be looked at within this framework," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said at an electronic press briefing.
"But in any case, we have to wait for the American justice system to provide a definitive sentence and to define the conditions of the sentence," he said. He will be formally sentenced today.
Moussaoui's mother, Aisha el Wafi, said her son would be living like a "rat in a hole" and accused France of siding with the United States during the trial. "I feel there is a part of me that is dead, buried with my son who will be buried for the rest of his life, at the age of 37, for things he hasn't done," she said at a news conference in Paris.
Ah, so she's heard of a super-max!
"The whole world knows it now. France knows it too but France prefers to please the Americans anyway."
France provided information about Moussaoui to the United States on condition that it could not be used in a sentence leading to the death penalty, which it opposes.
#2
Moussaoui's mother, Aisha el Wafi, said her son would be living like a "rat in a hole" and accused France of siding with the United States during the trial.
#3
And so it begins, without even the decency of Moussaoui stepping one foot into prison. Sympathy for the Devil
[2] Moussaouis trial has aggravated the fissures between the United States and Europe. France has offered Moussaoui, a French citizen, consular protection.
[3] A living Moussaoui could become the Leonard Peltier of the jihad movement. Moussaoui executed will cause outrage for a moment; Moussaoui imprisoned will provoke outrage for a lifetime.
Posted by: ed ||
05/04/2006 13:40 Comments ||
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#4
You'd think they'd know better than to ask his mom what she thinks. Sheesh.
#7
And have the Frence let him walk after some hostage deal like the Germans did? FOAD and wipe your rear with that treaty since we know only the US would abide by it.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/04/2006 16:26 Comments ||
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#8
"France could at some stage ask the United States to allow Zacarias Moussaoui to serve his life prison sentence in a French jail"
And they'll get him, too - if another Clintoon or other wingnut Dem gets into the White House.
Looks like we've got to keep voting for Republicans. :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/04/2006 17:47 Comments ||
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#9
France will get him. There will be an Arab/French lobby for it at anyone who will listen. Moussaoui is seem as a scapegoat by muslims and the French, a fool. Terribly undeserving of such harsh treatment for the mere "scapegoat" he is. The LLL's will join the fray and off he goes to France pour le temp gentil.
Tripoli expressed its protest against the 12 cartoons of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi published in Bulgarian newspaper Novinar defining them as provocative and improvident, online edition of TV station Al Jazeera comments.
In relation to this the Libyan embassy to Bulgaria handed a protest note to the Bulgarian government. On his part Bulgarias President Georgi Parvanov apologized to the Libyan Ambassador to Sofia Zaher bin Shaaban and assured him it was an isolated case which will not influence the good relations between the two countries, Al Jazeera notes.
Toon rage quickly followed by submissive postures from Euro governments. Anyone see a pattern developing here? When will they make their first big push against an American cartoon? Perhaps Comedy Central's preemptive capitulation deferred the first good opportunity.
#1
If I'm not mistaken, Bulgaria is the home country of the two nurses literally taken in hostage after having been judged guilty for spreading aids in Libya ('coz it's the only way it would appear and spread in Magnificent Libya), along with a paleo doctor IIRC.
So...
- charging innocent people (come on, do you really believe that Dark Conspiracy against libyan kiddies?) and holding them in jail until a reparation (ransom) has been paid by their country, all the while mistreating them (the two women have been tortured, and one even said she had been tortured with dogs, something some people have understood like she was raped by dogs, won't go into that) => OK (hey, you're the Master Religion, after all!)
- publishing cartoons about the loony dictator responsible for this mess, and much, much more, from terror to african countries destabilisation => BAD, you've got to apologize, kufr.
Seems Gaddhaffy was right in his al jizz speech yesterday. Islam will come to europe, victorious.
#2
5 Bulgarian nurses. 2 claimed to have been raped in prison. The Libyan health system reused needles and the infidels were convenient scapegoats for stupid Libyan policies.
Hostages are exactly what they are. The Libyans are demanding a $1 billion per nurse to release them.
Posted by: ed ||
05/04/2006 13:22 Comments ||
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Secret Canadian intelligence documents written in the aftermath of last summer's suicide bombings in London warn that Canada has its own cadre of "homegrown" Islamic extremists.
Just as the four bombers who killed 52 commuters last July 7 were British, Canada is home to militants who are angry about the "oppression" of Muslims and support terrorism, the reports say.
"The attacks in London highlight the threat of 'homegrown' extremism. Canada is home to Islamic extremists, both homegrown and immigrant," says one of the reports by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre (ITAC).
"A small number of extremists in Canada advocate violent jihad in pursuit of their political and religious aims. The reasons for radicalization are varied, and include a general sense of anger at what is seen as oppression of Muslims throughout the world [and] parental influence."
The reports are part of a flurry of intelligence documents circulated by Ottawa in the weeks after the London bombings. Declassified versions were obtained by the National Post under the Access to Information Act.
They reflect the shift in focus of Canadian counterterrorism efforts that has been underway: While in the past Canada's main concern was "homeland" terrorists such as the Sikh militants who bombed two Air-India flights in 1985, today's top security concern is the emerging generation of homegrown extremists.
Unlike the old guard of terrorists, who were immigrants and refugees who brought to Canada the conflicts of their homelands, the new generation consists largely of Canadian-born radical Muslims of various ethnicities, as well as converts who have adopted the extremist interpretation of Islam.
The documents also support recent claims by U.S. counterterrorism officials that extremists are operating inside Canada's borders. The presence of Islamic terrorists in Canada was noted two weeks ago, when the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrests of two Georgia youths.
Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 19, and Syed Haris Ahmed, 21, are accused of travelling to Canada last March for "terrorism-related planning and co-ordination" with local radicals.
The FBI says while in Toronto they discussed terrorist training and plots to bomb U.S. military facilities and oil refineries.
Similar concerns surfaced last Friday, when the U.S. State Department released its annual report on global terrorism, which said, "Terrorists have capitalized on liberal Canadian immigration and asylum policies to enjoy safe haven, raise funds, arrange logistical support and plan terrorist attacks."
Yesterday, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day responded to the report for the first time, saying it concerned the period when the Liberals were in office and "when relations with the United States were strained and less than productive."
He said the Conservatives were taking terrorism more seriously and had allotted an extra $1.4-billion for security in the budget, outlawed the Tamil Tigers and forged "a new spirit of collaboration" with the U.S. on fighting terror.
"This government does not tolerate security breaches and will restore our reputation as a leader and dependable partner in defending freedom and democracy in the world," a statement from Mr. Day's office said. "This new government is clearly determined to take decisive steps to ensure the safety of Canadians against terrorism."
The post-London intelligence reports claim that Canada remains a potential target in the eyes of the al-Qaeda leadership and their followers. "Canada has been named on at least three occasions, most recently in July 2005, by al-Qaeda or its affiliates and is viewed as a legitimate target," the ITAC report says.
Notes another of the reports, "on Nov. 12, 2002, Osama bin Laden specifically named Canada as a nation that he believed extremists should attack due to its participation in the fighting in Afghanistan."
The report lists 20 major terrorist plots disrupted in Europe, some of them the work of homegrown cells. They include plans by the Hofstad gang in the Netherlands to bomb the Dutch parliament, the headquarters of the security service and the Schiphol airport.
Meanwhile, a 46-page RCMP intelligence study also warns of the potential for an attack in Canada, calling al-Qaeda "a significant threat to Canada and Canadian interests."
Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan "may provoke retaliatory terrorist attacks in Canada as well as further attacks in Afghanistan," it says.
It adds, "The war in Iraq has resulted in an increase in the operational tempo of al-Qaeda and its sub groups. Disrupted and successful attacks have occurred against some coalition countries and their interests, including Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany among others.
"Coalition interests in Canada continue to be at risk of attack. Furthermore, with greater Canadian participation envisioned in the rebuilding of Iraq, we may see Canadian interests in the Middle East attacked as well."
The RCMP report, titled Project Sentry, is dated May, 2004, but was only recently declassified.
#2
Mother Cindy's Commie Airborne still adheres to the strategem of attacking where US-Allied forces are not - wid CHINA in East Asia and Pacific, that means TAIWAN and other weak nations; wid America it means CANADA and MEXICO-LOWER AMERICAS, mostly Canada since we're already aware of Chinese ventures in Mexico + the lower/South Americas, Panama Canal and Cuba.
EFL: ADX Florence is generally home to between 400 and 500 male prisoners. About 22 percent of inmates have killed fellow prisoners in other correctional facilities; 35 percent have attempted to attack other prisoners or guards. As a result, most individuals are kept for at least 23 hours each day in solitary confinement. They are housed in a 7-by-12 foot (3.5-by-2 meter) soundproofed room, built behind a steel door and grate. The remaining free hour is spent exercising alone in a separate concrete chamber. Prisoners rarely see each other, and inmates' only human interaction is limited to that of the prison guards. Religious services are broadcasted in from a small chapel.
Most cells' furniture is made almost entirely out of poured concrete, including a desk, stool, and bed covered by a thin mattress. Each chamber contains a toilet that shuts off if plugged, a shower that runs on a timer to prevent flooding, and a sink missing a potentially dangerous tap. Rooms may also be fitted with polished steel mirrors bolted to the wall, an electric light, a 13-inch black and white television, and a cigarette lighter. Windows in rooms are small, set high up in the wall, and point towards the sky, confusing the prisoner as to his specific location within the complex.
The prison as a whole contains countless motion detectors and cameras, 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors, and 12 foot high razor wire fences. Laser beams, pressure pads, and attack dogs guard the area between the prison walls and razor wire. The facility is built into the side of a mountain, and visitors and prisoners enter through the same heavily-guarded tunnel.
Many have argued that the psychological effects of long-term solitary confinement can be devastating. Prisoners may suffer from hallucinations, anxiety, problems with impulse control, and self-mutilation. In addition, confinement may encourage anger and rage, resulting in further violence. Depression may set in, with prisoners becoming extremely lethargic, losing memory, and refusing to exercise.
Prisoners have complained about excessive steps taken by guards and officials in these types of facilities to control inmates. Constant surveillance and random searches at the whim of prison staff can be humiliating, and their frequency may be used as methods of intimidation and sleep deprivation.
The maximum security facility at Marion, Illinois, which is the model ADX Florence is based on, has been denounced by Amnesty International for violating the United Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
#3
"Many have argued that the psychological effects of long-term solitary confinement can be devastating. Prisoners may suffer from hallucinations, anxiety, problems with impulse control, and self-mutilation. In addition, confinement may encourage anger and rage, resulting in further violence. Depression may set in, with prisoners becoming extremely lethargic, losing memory, and refusing to exercise."
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/04/2006 13:18 Comments ||
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#4
Shit. Hit "Submit" instead of "Preview". Meant to continue:
In other words, it destroys the soul without destroying the body. Within a few years, he'll be crazy as a shithouse rat.
Is there supposed to be a downside to this?
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/04/2006 13:20 Comments ||
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#5
yeah, it'll take him that much longer to get to hell and realize the 72 virgins was a lie..D'oh!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2006 14:31 Comments ||
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#6
When I heard life I was hoping for a Supermax, I heard them places drive men insane. :)
#7
My thought.
Pen him up with a hunded hogs, yep the real ones.
Shut the door, do not feed the hogs, check back in a month or so.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/04/2006 14:50 Comments ||
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#8
File him next to the gerbils.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/04/2006 15:06 Comments ||
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#9
Is this not a form of torture ? To me it would be. I would choose death rather than this kind of pointless consiousness. I would allow my imagination to go wild and create a whole society of imagined roommates. And go mad.
Compared to this, the electric chair is a carney ride.
#12
About 22 percent of inmates have killed fellow prisoners in other correctional facilities; 35 percent have attempted to attack other prisoners or guards.
Maybe he's on death row anyways, tee-hee!
Posted by: BA ||
05/04/2006 22:15 Comments ||
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#13
What a TERRIBLE place, I feel so ... bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!
#14
Any bets on how long it takes him to take a shiv in the kidneys? The inmate that shanks him becomes a minor celebrity and gains mucho pen cred methinks, or, I've just been watching too many Oz re-runs.
Spared execution, Zacarias Moussaoui is expected to live out his life in a rogues' gallery in a modern, maximum-security federal prison designed to hold the worst of the worst. Moussaoui's likely destination is known as USP Florence ADMAX. Located 90 miles south of Denver, it houses terrorists, a madman bomber, a murderous abortion foe, an FBI mole, a New York mobster, street-gang drug killers and white supremacists.
His new neighbors at the high-security prison known as "Supermax" will include shoe-bomber Richard Reid, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Al Qaeda terrorist Ramzi Yousef. Like them, Moussaoui will be a fading memory, doomed to "rot away," as a defense witness said in urging jurors to deprive the terrorist from his dream of martyrdom by execution.
Since opening in 1994, Florence ADMAX has become the state-of-the-art Alcatraz for the most violent and escape-prone prisoners. There are 399 inmates in the prison, which has a capacity of 490 and is run by a staff of 298, said Krista Rear, Florence ADMAX spokeswoman. Most prisoners lead lonely lives, confined in 7-by-12 foot cells for 23 hours a day. In their one-hour recreation period they remain isolated in chains. "Inmates at the ADMAX right now do not have any physical contact with each other whatsoever," Rear said.
Their cells are their lives. Each inmate has a concrete stool, desk, bed and television stand. Each gets educational and religious programming on a 12-inch TV.
Can I pick the channels? Lifetime, Lifetime Movies, Oxygen, We, CSPAN and MTV. He'll be begging for a bedsheet and a shower rod.
They eat alone in their cells, their meal trays slipped through a door slot.
"What? Pork chops again?"
For Moussaoui, the confinement could be deadly. Experts say inmates who are mentally ill, especially those who are schizophrenic as Moussaoui is said to be, find it hard to survive the loneliness of solitary confinement.
Two weeks ago, Lance Vanderstappen, 26, a member of the Soldiers of Aryan Culture serving 25 years, hanged himself in his cell using a bedsheet.
Rear said Moussaoui, like other prisoners, would be given a thorough psychological and physical exam upon arrival at Florence. He then would take up residence in a neighborhood of the notorious. They include 1993 World Trade Center bombers Mohamed Sadeek Odeh and Khalfan Khamis Mohamed; abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph, and FBI mole Robert Hanssen. There also are Anthony Casso, onetime underboss of the New York Luchese crime family; Luis Felipe, former head of New York's Latin Kings street gang; and Oklahoma City accomplice Terry Nichols. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was at Florence before going to Terre Haute, Ind., for execution in 2001.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2006 09:21 ||
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#1
especially those who are schizophrenic as Moussaoui is said to be, find it hard to survive the loneliness of solitary confinement
May his yard time coincide with that of the white supremacist inmates.
#5
I hope his cellmate is a very lonely man. A very large, very lonely man. A very large, very lonely man with anger management issues.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/04/2006 12:35 Comments ||
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#6
"Solitary" means solitary. There are NO cellmates, no community showers, no chance to talk to another person except the guards, and they usually don't answer.
What's really a kicker is that just across the highway from SuperMax in Florence is one of three Colorado Veterans's communities.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/04/2006 14:04 Comments ||
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#7
"For Moussaoui, the confinement could be deadly. Experts say inmates who are mentally ill, especially those who are schizophrenic as Moussaoui is said to be, find it hard to survive the loneliness of solitary confinement."
Awwwwwwwww.
Ain't that just too bad. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/04/2006 17:48 Comments ||
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#8
I'd liek to see film of it when he finally collapses in on himself, now that he will have no-one to threaten or sneer at. Without an outside thing to offload his hatred and insecurity onto, he'll fall inward on himself, fast enough to cause a sonic boom. It'll probably sound like a sub being crushed at depth as the bulheads give out and all the life is snuffed out.
No need to give him any access to the Koran or any other material - those are thigns given to people whom the prison system is trying to reform. This one we are trying to punish. He should get nothing other than stale unflavored nutrition shakes and high fiber bland crackers.
#9
would be nice if someone accidently (and repeatedly) gave him Saturday Orthodox Jewish services on the TV instead of his regularly scheduled Animal Plnet
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2006 21:59 Comments ||
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#10
Frank,
Shabbat services are never broadcast anywhere. That would break Shabbat rules. Nice thought, however.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/04/2006 22:20 Comments ||
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#11
Benny Hinn. 24 hours a day. It'll scare the piss out of him...
Zacarias Moussaoui's family in France blame the British for what happened to a once-carefree youth.
They trace the great change in Moussaoui's life to the moment the 23-year-old arrived in Britain in 1992, to attend a business studies course at South Bank University, after graduating in engineering in Perpignan in southern France.
Until then, his family and friends agree, the young man had been full of smiles. He had gone to bars and drunk beer and had a French girlfriend, with whom he ultimately shared a flat. The couple even won a dance contest.
He vowed to make his fortune in London and after a few months managed to get a place to study for an MA in international business studies. But in the ultra-tolerant atmosphere that existed in London before the September 11 attacks, such "wayward" young Muslims were exactly the material being sought by radical Islamists.
Young men like Moussaoui were fed into the machine and emerged as hardline religious terrorists, primed for slaughter. His mother, Aicha al-Wafi, who along with her husband was born in Morocco, has echoed the complaints of the French counter-intelligence service, the DST, accusing the British authorities of being far too permissive in the years before 2001.
"I would say that England is responsible for many things because it allowed this fever to spread around the country," she told the Canadian television channel CBC. "These young people go to England, and then they scream hatred and vengeance in front of mosques. They let the fever spread." His brother, Abd-Samad, agreed: "I believe that Britain has fed a snake at its bosom, and has been bitten by the snake.''
The statements clearly contain some truth. But during his trial the court heard that Moussaoui had a "violent and unstable" childhood in France, spent large amounts of time in orphanages, saw his mother beaten by his father, a boxer, and was rejected by his girlfriend's family as "a dirty Arab".
Both his sisters later were to suffer from schizophrenia and his father remains heavily sedated in a psychiatric hospital in Nanterre. Psychologists say the family has a history of mental illness going back at least four generations.
Whatever his reasons, Moussaoui began to attend Brixton mosque and was quickly drawn into a group of young extremists, including the "shoe bomber" and former mugger, Richard Reid.
He attended speeches by Abdullah el-Faisal, a Jamaican convert who studied in Saudi Arabia and was banned from the mosque after calling for the murder of Hindus, Jews and Americans.
He moved into a flat in Brixton which he shared with David Cortellier, who was later convicted in France of assisting terrorism.
Increasingly at odds with the moderate religious elders in Brixton, the group moved to Finsbury Park mosque, where they listened to the radical outpourings of Abu Hamza, the hook-handed preacher ultimately jailed for seven years this February for inciting murder and race hatred. They also heard the preachings of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian-born zealot who is facing possible extradition to his homeland. At some point during this period, Moussaoui was "turned".
He took a terrorist training course in Afghanistan in 1995 and then went to Chechnya, the war-torn Russian province which has become a training ground for jihadists.
By 1998 he was back in Afghanistan and then returned to London. The following year, the DST asked MI5 to watch him.
But he was not considered an experienced terrorist. After his arrest at a flight training school a month before the September 11 atrocities, the British were asked for information by the FBI and CIA on five occasions.
There was no response until two days after the attacks, when the British said they had new information indicating that Moussaoui attended al-Qa'eda camps. America's September 11 commission noted: "Had this information been available in late August 2001, the Moussaoui case would almost certainly have received intense and much higher-level attention."
#2
AG - they do have a point - we have been far too tolerant of Islamists seeking sanctuary in the UK. Guess 9/11 was a wake-up call. Not sure if we've fully got it yet tho'...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
05/04/2006 7:14 Comments ||
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#3
"Psychologists say the family has a history of mental illness going back at least four generations."
How many generations to get back to the seventh century?
'Everybody's crazy except you and me, and sometimes I'm not so sure about you.' - who said that?
#7
Until then, his family and friends agree, the young man had been full of smiles. He had gone to bars and drunk beer and had a French girlfriend, with whom he ultimately shared a flat. The couple even won a dance contest.
Dancing, drinking beer and French whores were his downfall? Strange, never effected any of the rest of us in a similar manner.
#8
It seems to me that his trouble started when he started hanging around the mosque. So, it was Islam that caused him to go astray. Better burn all the mosques now.
#9
HowardUK is right. Once again, it's a case of "speaker of a truth" and "the truth itself," and the family determining that the British were too lenient on Islamic extremism does not necessarily make the latter false. (Emphasis on 'necessarily', in a 'p therefore q' way.)
#13
Yeah, and if the Brits had cracked down on the extremists who Moussaoui's mom blames, and had done so before 9/11, she would have squealed 'racism', 'islamofobia', etc.
Whether she likes it or not, truth is that mom Moussaoui had a hand in turning this guy into the animal he is. Oh, and by the way mom, what about all the radical filth spewing from the mosques of France at the same time??? Sheesh!
#19
"I would say that England is responsible for many things because it allowed this fever to spread around the country," she told the Canadian television channel CBC. "These young people go to England, and then they scream hatred and vengeance in front of mosques. They let the fever spread."
FGS - islamic mosques spewing hatred and jihad are now the fault of infidels not taking them down? YJCMTSU.
At least, she recognizes that the phobes at the mosque are a problem, so are the mosques. Can we take them out - is that what you are saying Mommy?
#20
TW nails it. I believe she is asking us to take down the mosques in England. I'm sure Blair would like to hear that. If she wasn't muslim, I'd almost think she was schizo....but I believe the religion's affected her logic/thinking.
Posted by: BA ||
05/04/2006 22:11 Comments ||
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Lee Ielpi didn't hide his disappointment Wednesday after the federal jury verdict that put Zacarias Moussaoui in prison for life for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"I felt all along he should get the death penalty, but if it's life in prison with no possibility of parole, then he'll rot in prison where he belongs," said Ielpi, whose firefighter son, Jonathan Ielpi, 29, died in the south tower of the World Trade Center.
"Because he's not getting the death penalty, he may not be as big a martyr as he wanted to be," said Ielpi, a retired firefighter who is vice president of the September 11th Families' Assn. "But there are people who will use him as a martyr anyway."
Jonathan Ielpi's mother, Anne, said she wanted prison authorities to make Moussaoui's days miserable. When "he's allowed out of his cell, I want them to put him in the regular cellblock with all the other prisoners and let them take care of him," she said.
Not every survivor of those who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks thought the jury was wrong to reject the death penalty.
"Life in prison is the verdict I would have preferred. I don't believe in capital punishment. I'm not a vengeful person," said Karen Tartaro of Bridgewater, N.J., whose husband, Ronald, 39, died on the 93rd floor of the north tower. "I don't think we should make him into a martyr. Doing that would not make the world a better place. Probably, under the circumstances, this is the best."
Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles "Chick" Burlingame III, 51, of Virginia was the pilot on the flight that hit the Pentagon, said she was disappointed. "But I accept the verdict as a fair one reasonably arrived at," she said.
She was concerned, however, when she learned that at least three of the jurors thought that Moussaoui should not be executed because he knew little about the attacks. She said most of the hijackers had limited advance knowledge, adding that the little Moussaoui knew would have been enough, had he told authorities, to prevent the attacks.
Lee Ielpi said he was satisfied that the justice system worked, despite the verdict.
"We've sent the message that we're going to find these people and put them through the process, and we're going to eliminate terrorism," he said. "We're a very tough nation. We will persevere and we will prevail."
During the trial, Abraham Scott, whose wife, Janice, died in the Pentagon, thought Moussaoui deserved to die. But when the verdict came, he told the Associated Press that the jury "made the right decision."
"I didn't change my mind," he said. "I still support the death penalty, but on the other hand I wholeheartedly support the decision of the jury."
Alexander Santora's position shifted the other way. His son Christopher was a firefighter who died in the New York attacks. Santora said he had wanted Moussaoui sentenced to life imprisonment, but changed his mind when the Al Qaeda conspirator showed no remorse in court.
Santora said Moussaoui was guilty. "A bullet in his brain would have been a just reward."
Patricia Reilly lost her sister, Lorraine Lee, when the planes were flown into the World Trade Center. She was angered by the jury's decision to spare Moussaoui.
"I feel very much let down by this country," Reilly said. "I guess in this country you can kill 3,000 people and not pay with your life. I believe he's going to go to jail and start converting other people to his distorted view of Islam."
Christie Coombs of Abington, Mass., said she did not think a death sentence would have changed anything. Her husband, Jeff, died on American Airlines Flight 11 in New York.
"It wasn't going to bring my husband back," Coombs said. "It wasn't going to make any of these people that died walk through their doors and make their families happy."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/04/2006 03:14 ||
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Troops have marched through the streets of the western Indian city of Baroda following several days of riots. Six people have died since Monday after clashes broke out following the demolition of a Muslim mausoleum. According to the authorities, the demolition is part of a campaign against illegal structures.
Baroda is located in Gujarat which has a history of religious tension and the city's Muslim residents allege that the police have been slow to react. "I have no faith in the local police," one resident, Ismail Davar, said. "They were standing as spectators when my shoe shop was gutted last night," he is quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
State authorities say they have posted extra security forces in sensitive areas across the state. "Security has been beefed up in five sensitive districts in Gujarat and paramilitary forces have been deployed in heavy numbers to thwart any possibility of violence," Amit Shah, Gujarat's home minister, told the Associated Press.
The Baroda police chief said the city is peaceful for now. "Some incidents of stray violence and arson have been reported in areas where Hindus and Muslims live together," said police chief Deepak Swaroop.
On Wednesday, the state authorities asked for additional forces from the federal government. Earlier, police imposed a fresh curfew on parts of the city after the charred remains of a body was discovered. The victim was allegedly attacked by a mob and burnt to death.
"Dr. Quincy, we got an extra-crispy one for you!"
Police firing
On Monday police opened fire on Muslims protesting against the demolition of the mausoleum. They said they had tried to control the crowd with batons and tear gas before they were forced to open fire. At least 18 people were injured and 38 arrested.
Local residents say the mausoleum was a Sufi shrine which was at least 200 years old. But the authorities have rejected allegations that police were acting against the Muslim community. "This is not the only incident of an anti-encroachment demolition," Mr Swaroop told the Associated Press. "Many temples have also been pulled down, and no particular religious structures were targeted.
"Local Muslims were informed well in advance and they had agreed to the shrine being removed," he said.
Gujarat has a history of religious tension - in 2002 more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslim, were killed in riots which broke out after a fire in a train claimed the lives of 59 Hindus.
#1
How come these muslims don't protest when the house of the prophet mohammed is bulldozed ?
Or when one of the oldest mosques in Arabia is simarly destroyed?
Or the grave of the prophet's mother is bulldozed?
Very strange.
Or is it that this isn't really about muslim shrines, this is about muslim supremacy?
It is ok to destroy the graveyard of the companions of the prophet, of his family , in Arabia but it is not ok to destroy or even move the grave of some anonymous muslim in India.
In Arabia it is ok. In India, riot and kill people in response.
Because in India (and elsewhere) the presence of these structures is taken as a sign of muslim supremacy. To remove one is to imply that Islam will not supplant all other religions, to admit that Islam will not conquer the world.
Posted by: john ||
05/04/2006 16:40 Comments ||
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LAHORE: Reporters Without Borders on Wednesday welcomed the news that five Internet Service Providers (ISPs), including Paknet, had unblocked blogspot.com (also blogger.com). The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had banned the blog service in February because bloggers had posted cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (may his drip clear up peace be upon him).
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI - Indias top military strike force backed by aircraft were practicing lightning attacks aimed at slicing arch-rival Pakistan in half in the event of actual war, officials said on Wednesday. The manoeuvres are being held in stages and they will culminate on May 19 in a theatre of 10 to 15 square kilometres (about four to six square miles), Indian army spokesman Colonel S.K. Sakuja told AFP in New Delhi.
The mock battles, codenamed Sangha Shakti (Joint Power), involve more than 40,000 soldiers from Indias 2nd Strike Corps which accounts for almost 50 percent of the million-plus armys cross-border strike capability, Sakuja said. He said the three-week exercises were being conducted near Pakistans borders in northern Punjab states Jullandhar district.
Military commanders said India had alerted Islamabad in advance about the exercises as part of a bilateral military accord.
"Hey guys! Watch what we can do to you!"
The spokesman said a mixed compliment of transport and strike aircraft of the Indian Air Force were backing Sangha Shakti, one of the biggest wargames in recent years on Pakistans militerised borders.
On Wednesday, the 2nd Strike Corps, backed by troops from the armys 14th Rapid Division, practiced dry runs with T-90 Russian battle tanks in Punjabs deserts with temperatures reaching 42 Celsius (107 Fahrenheit). This will put to test our 2004 war doctrine to dismember a not-so-friendly nation effectively and at the shortest possible time but since my statement is not politically-friendly I would not like to be identified, a commander told AFP.
"Don't mention my name, but here's the plan ..."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2006 19:27 Comments ||
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#7
Yeesh, that Karl Rove, evil mastermind(tm) has been busy between this and getting Paki-waki listed just above Afghanistan as a failed nation-state. And, here I thought ol' Karl was in a new role, lol!
Posted by: BA ||
05/04/2006 22:03 Comments ||
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The nation had trust and confidence in the operational preparedness, professional capability and dedication of the Pakistan Navy, President Pervez Musharraf said during his visit to the Naval Headquarters on Wednesday. He reiterated that no effort would be spared to enhance the defence capabilities of the Navy to safeguard the nation's frontiers. The president said that the government would continue to support and strengthen the maritime sector. "All requirements of the Navy would be met on a priority basis to bring it on par with the modern navies of the world," he said. He congratulated the Pakistan Navy for being the first regional Navy to take over the command of the coalition task force, CTF-150. Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Rear Admiral Mohammad Shafi gave the president a detailed operational briefing on the role of the Navy in the emerging regional maritime scenario.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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The United States wants direct access to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and President Bush, in his recent visit to Pakistan, told President Pervez Musharraf that US experts want to question the detained scientist, said BBC security correspondent.
Speaking at a television programme on Wednesday, BBC security correspondent Gordon Correra was commenting on a Pakistan Foreign Office statement, which said that the Dr AQ Khan case had been closed and that there would be no further investigation into the matter. He said that such a statement by the Pakistani Foreign Office was an attempt to sweep things under the rug. "But this raises a very difficult question for Pakistan - how a chief scientist was able to leak nuclear secrets to countries like Iran and Libya," Correra said. He said that Khan supplied nuclear material and designs to Iran and the US wanted access to Dr Khan because only he could explain the history and purposes of Iran's nuclear program. "The question everyone is asking is that did Khan sell nuclear weapons designs, because only the answer to this question will explain whether Iran was after nuclear weapons or not," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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A government spokesman dismissed on Wednesday a report that listed Pakistan as one of the worlds most unstable countries, slamming it as a shoddy piece of political propaganda masquerading as intellectual research.
And I dismiss all reports of my corpulence and sloth as similar shoddy pieces of political propaganda masquerading as empirical observation.
The Failed States Index complied by Foreign Policy magazine, in conjunction with the Washington-based Fund for Peace think-thank, ranks Pakistan in ninth position, one place ahead of war-torn Afghanistan. Pakistan has gone up the list from last year, when it was placed at number 34. Sudan tops this years list.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Oops I think someone's damaged Pakland's self-esteem...
#6
#1, Paki guys self esteem is an euphemism for big ego(gained from their pure religion). See that outside of Pakiland in East Asia where they keep to themselves with noticeable aloofness from locals. If an aphorism may be translated as racism, so be it.
#10
It's ye olde "It's not a bug, it's a feature!" defense.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/04/2006 12:13 Comments ||
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#11
This is simply intolerable to the Pak psyche.
"Failed"? When India is rising? This was not how it was supposed to be.
It was India that was supposed to break up soon after partition. Pakistan was to be rising power.
South Korean delegations actually visited it to learn how a modern developing state was run.
The Indian actor Nasruddin Shah (guy who played Captain nemo in the horrible League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) is visiting Pakistan now.
Know what they asked him? Did he believe in the Two Nation Theory.
Sixty years after partition they seek affirmation that their state should even exist.
Pakistan was to be at least the equal of India.
To have it not just far behind India but in the failed state category is to negate all what Pakistan was created for.
Posted by: john ||
05/04/2006 17:37 Comments ||
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#12
See above on slicing and dicing and Pashtun seething.
The government has decided to stop funding seminaries because of their lack of transparency in spending, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday. Sources said the federal government had not been getting reports from provincial governments on how the funds given to them for the Madarassa Reforms Project were being spent. The federal government gave provincial governments Rs 495 million to distribute among registered madarasas, but utilisation reports were not provided because of which further disbursement was stopped, sources quoted an Education Ministry document as saying.
The government has failed to implement the Rs 5.1 billion Madrasa Reforms Project over the last five years because of differences between the education, religious affairs and interior ministries over handling madarassas. The Religious Affairs Ministry opposed the Prime Minister Secretariats decision to form a Madarassa Reforms Board under the chairmanship of Federal Education Minister Javed Ashraf Qazi to restructure religious seminaries. The government succumbed to pressure from madarassa representatives and handed the project to Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq - replacing Ashraf Qazi. However, funding for the project comes from the Education Ministry.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
No more wooden Kalashnikovs for recess periods...... buggers!
Berlin, 4 May (AKI)j - The German government handed over a "large amount" to the kidnappers of two German engineers held hostage in Iraq for over four months and set free on Tuesday, Iraq's ambassador to Germany, Alaa al-Hashimi, has alleged. "Regarding the payment of a ransom, I don't know, but I assume it was a large amount of money," the ambasssador told German's ARD public television network, stressing that the Iraqi government had played part in the men's release. Germany's foreign minister, Franz Walter Steinmeier has refused to divulge any details on the release of Thomas Nitzschke, 28, and Rene Braeunlich, 32, who arrived at the German capital, Berlin's Tegl airport on Wednesday, looking pale and exhausted but apparently in good health. "We are very happy to be alive," said Braeunlich.
However, al-Hashimi's claim is likely to trigger further debate on the wisdom of paying for the release of hostages. While the official policy of Britain and the United States is that Western governments should refuse to negotiate with kidnappers, Germany, France and Italy are believed to have paid million dollar sums for the release of kidnapped nationals. It quickly became apparent that a criminal gang that had seized Nitzschke and Braeunlich, who were kidnapped outside their workplace on 24 January near Baji in northern Iraq. At the time of the men's capture, there was speculation that Germans were being targeted, because Berlin, unlike Washington or London, paid ransoms.
"Genius, Holmes! How do you do it?"
A month before the two engineers were kidnapped, German diplomats admitted the government had paid five million dollars for the freeing from captivity of a German woman working in Iraq, Susanne Osthoff. According to a report by the German weekly magazine Focus, Nitzschke and Braeunlich's kidnappers had demanded a 12 million dollar ransom for their release.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2006 08:58 ||
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I need to rustle me up a few Germans. Just paid taxes you know.
Posted by: ed ||
05/04/2006 9:37 Comments ||
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thanks Dieter!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2006 9:49 Comments ||
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just another successful Islamic charity fundraising event.
The US government has called on Iraq's neighbours to respect the country's territorial sovereignty, with Turkey massing troops along its border with northern Iraq. General Bekir Kalyoncu, a Turkish military officer, said on Tuesday that Ankara reserved the right to enter Iraqi territory to pursue separatist Kurdish rebels based there. "If the conditions arise, Turkey will use its rights as any sovereign country," he said.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, urged Turkey in late April to refrain from unilateral action against Iraq-based Kurdish separatists, calling instead for renewed trilateral co-operation to fight the threat.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Bad neighborhood.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/04/2006 1:51 Comments ||
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Turkey screwed us twice. Tell them if they enter Iraq they face the US.
Israel's new government is drawing up a blueprint for dividing the holy city of Jerusalem a once inconceivable notion giving the Palestinians nearly all the Arab neighborhoods while holding onto Jewish areas and disputed holy shrines.
Otniel Schneller, an architect of the plan, described it in interviews this week with The Associated Press, giving the clearest picture yet of how Israel plans to separate from the Palestinians, abandoning most of the West Bank.
"We will not divide Jerusalem, we will share it," he said.
Most of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods would go to the Palestinians, he said. "Those same neighborhoods will, in my assessment, be central to the makeup of the Palestinian capital ... al-Quds," Schneller said, calling Jerusalem by its Arabic name.
Israel would keep Jerusalem's Old City with its shrines sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians alike an unacceptable plan to Palestinians, particularly if carried out unilaterally.
Still, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert determined to draw Israel's final borders by 2010, likely without waiting for Palestinian agreement, a division of Jerusalem looks realistic for the first time.
The plan reflects a sea change in the thinking of most Israelis, who once considered sacrilegious the idea of abandoning any part of the holy city.
Since Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War, Israelis had been in broad agreement that the city could never again be divided. But after five years of intefadeh bloodshed, Israeli voters swept Olmert's Kadima Party into office in March 28 elections on a platform to separate from the Palestinians for the good of the Jewish state.
A plan to divide Jerusalem was first brought up in 2000 peace talks but failed to materialize. Schneller a Kadima lawmaker is reviving that plan with his blueprint. But he cautioned that the ideas are still in the planning stages, require international backing and that there's no clear timetable for carrying them out.
Under the plan, which would be executed unilaterally if efforts to resume peace talks fail, Jerusalem's Old City, its holy shrines and the adjacent neighborhoods, would become a "special region with special understandings" but remain under Israeli sovereignty, said Schneller.
The Old City and the adjacent "holy basin," which includes the predominantly Arab neighborhoods of Silwan and Sheik Jarrah, would fall on the Israeli side of the separation barrier Israel is building in the West Bank, another Israeli official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because plans are not final.
The plan also calls for moving the barrier westward. That means much of East Jerusalem would no longer be cut off from the West Bank and most Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem could become part of a future Palestinian state on the eastern side of the barrier, the official said.
The United States has long held the position that "borders and Jerusalem and all final status issues ... ultimately have to be decided in negotiations between the parties," U.S. Embassy spokesman Stewart Tuttle said.
But Washington is not likely to oppose unilateral Israeli pullouts from the West Bank.
Olmert's plan involves dismantling dozens of Jewish settlements in the West Bank with tens of thousands of people and moving them to larger settlement blocs in the territory that Israel hopes to hold onto under a final peace deal.
Israel has said it will give the Hamas-led Palestinian government time to agree to international demands to recognize Israel, accept past peace deals and renounce violence. More than a month into its rule, Hamas has rejected the demands, Israel has cut off all ties with what it has labeled an enemy entity, and it appears increasingly likely the Jewish state will draw its borders on its own.
"The continuation of the scattered settlements throughout the West Bank creates an inseparable mix of populations that will threaten the existence of the state of Israel as a Jewish state," Olmert told parliament as he presented his government Thursday.
If necessary, he said, "we will also act without the Palestinian Authority's agreement to reach an understanding that will first and foremost be based on the correct definition of Israel's borders."
That's a position hotly rejected by the Palestinians, who say the result will be a truncated territory on which it will be impossible to build a viable state.
"President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to accept any unilateral steps and rejects any provisional solutions," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior spokesman for Abbas, a moderate who wields considerable power as president even though Hamas controls the parliament and Cabinet.
Under Olmert's plan, the 460-mile West Bank separation barrier will roughly serve as the border, with some alterations. The barrier, as envisioned now, puts some 9.5 percent of the West Bank inside Israel, including Jewish settlement blocs and other areas Israel considers to be strategically important.
Schneller, himself a West Bank settler, would not say which settlements or how many settlers would be evacuated under Olmert's plan although he said it would be fewer than the 70,000 settlers Israeli media had speculated.
Schneller said Israel plans to hold on to two main settlement blocs near Jerusalem, Maaleh Adumim and Gush Etzion, and the large Ariel settlement bloc jutting deep into the West Bank. Israel also plans to hold on to the Jordan River Valley as a security border. Settlements on the eastern side of the barrier, including Schneller's, will likely go. Why? Why? Are they mad? Is there any reason whatsoever for them to nurture this asp in their breast?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2006 22:10 Comments ||
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Methinks Israel is letting the PA and extremist Muslim terror orgs hang themselves, as the Pals. can no longer run and hide behind the skirts of the UNO. The PA's only other alternative is to WILFULLY devolve into a future peon province of the future nuclearized Iranian ME-Global empire - iff the Pals, truly want to be democratic and sovereign and independent of any other Muslim nation or society, they gotta work wid Israel and America.
Tzipi Livni keeps foreign ministry and is acting prime minister.
Elder statesman Shimon Peres is minister for Negev and Galilee development and regional economic ties.
Avraham Hirschson is finance minister,
and former Shin Beit director Avi Dichter, internal security minister.
After Defense passed to Labor, cough cough cough worse then donks..
Shaul Mofaz becomes transport minister and Dep. PM, and takes charge of strategic dialogue with foreign governments.
Meir Sheetreet building and housing plus the Israel Lands Authority;
Haim Ramon Justice;
Ronnie Bar-On Interior:
Zeev Boim Immigration and Absorption;
Gideon Ezra Environment, and Yaakov Edry liaison between government and Knesset.
Olmert has also put Dalia Itziks name forward for Knesset Speaker.
Ultra-religious Shas is absolved from support government policy on the removal of Jewish locations on the West Bank under its accord with Kadima.
Under the Labor-Kadima accord, Amir Peretz takes defense,
Yuli Tamir education,
Benjamin Ben-Eliezer national infrastructure, Shalom Simchon agriculture,
Ophir Pines Culture, Sports and Jerusalem Affairs,
Yitzhak Herzog tourism
and Eitan Cabel minister without portfolio in charge of the Broadcasting Authority.
Shas winds up with four portfolios: party leader Eli Yishai - industry, trade and labor, communications and two ministers without portfolio,
Ariel Atias Meshulam Hanahri, one of whom will take office in the prime ministers office as director of religious services.
The Pensioners list have health and senior citizens affairs.
The four parties of the Olmert coalition command a total of 67 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Negotiations continue with the second ultra-religious party, Torah Judaism, and left-wing Meretz.
Jerusalem, 4 May (AKI) - Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday unveiled some of his new government's top policy priorities including the permanent incorporation within Israel of the major Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Olmert said Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank last year was a prelude to the core plan - moving tens of thousands of settlers from enclaves scattered throughout the West Bank, to settlement blocs located closer to the pre-1967 war Green Line border.
"The achievements of the [Jewish] settlement movement in main concentrations will forever be an integral part of the sovereign state of Israel, along with Jerusalem, our united capital," Olmert told the Knesset parliament. "I, too, like many others, dreamed and wished that we could safeguard all of the territories of the Land of Israel for ourselves, and that the day would not come when we would need to give up parts of our land."
"Only those for whom the Land of Israel burns in their souls, know the pain of the concession, the farewell to the land of our forefathers," said Olmert. "Even if the Jewish eye fills with tears, and the heart is torn, we must safeguard the principle - we must keep a solid and stable Jewish majority in our state."
Olmert described the disengagement from Gaza as the first, vital step towards consolidating Israel's borders, which he described as a "convergence plan". A solution would have to be found, to guarantee the security of the inhabitants of isolated Jewish settlements spread out over Judea and Samaria, which, Olmert said, "creates an intermingling of populations which is impossible to separate, and which endangers the state of Israel as a Jewish state."
Posted by: Steve ||
05/04/2006 08:52 ||
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The bluntly speaking former Mossad chief, a key adviser to former prime minister Ariel Sharon who supported harsh retaliation against Palestinian terror, is a supporter of the Iraq War who issues dark warnings about the dramatic increase in Europe's Muslim population. So, there were more than a few puzzled looks at a meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations last week when Halevy spoke out about the need to engage Hamas.
Twice he warned his audience that "we'll be seeing things we have not seen before," a seeming allusion to potential talks between Israel and Hamas.
Halevy, who was touring the United States to promote his book, "Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis With a Man Who Led the Mossad," advocated talks with what he described as this the "deathly enemy of Israel" as part of a broader strategy to "sup with the devil" and forge allies within the fundamentalist camp. Having retired in 2003, Halevy now heads Hebrew University's School for Strategic and Policy Study. He pointedly blasted Israel for insisting that Hamas first recognize the Jewish state as a precondition for any discussion.
"The shoe is on the other foot," he said. "We should recognize them first while holding them [to] account."
Halevy stressed that Hamas quickly dissociated itself from Osama bin Laden after the Al Qaeda leader made statements supporting the group in a video aired last week. In an obvious departure from official Israeli rhetoric, Halevy asserted that the two groups were "entirely different" and that Hamas's focus was merely a national and a territorial one.
"We might see some things that are in the offing," he said without elaborating. "I think some Hamas leaders are ready to bite the bullet and Israeli officials should just stop making statements."
He expressed support for Sharon's vision of establishing provisional borders and reaching a long-term interim agreement instead of pressing for a permanent solution.
Halevy, who did not support the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and has claimed that Israel did not disengage but is still essentially in charge of the area, said that Sharon probably decided to follow his unilateral course when he realized that Israel's efforts to separate itself from other Middle Eastern issues, most notably the war in Iraq, proved impossible.
"When you realize this, you have to cut your losses, and this is what we did," Halevy told the audience. "We'll continue down this path to maintain our existence and our partnership with the U.S. and Europe."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/04/2006 03:23 ||
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He means engage, like military style and fire for effect, right?
#2
Halevy, who was touring the United States to promote his book, "Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis With a Man Who Led the Mossad," advocated talks with what he described as this the "deathly enemy of Israel" as part of a broader strategy to "sup with the devil" and forge allies within the fundamentalist camp. Having retired in 2003, Halevy now heads Hebrew University's School for Strategic and Policy Study. He pointedly blasted Israel for insisting that Hamas first recognize the Jewish state as a precondition for any discussion.
"The shoe is on the other foot," he said. "We should recognize them first while holding them [to] account."
Bloody idiot. Israel, time and again, has given concession after concession, only to be stiffed time and again. I am fed up with people who are patently too stupid to learn from history, or are wicked by hiding that history. This guy can go f*ck himself with a harpoon for all I care.
#3
I read it as "anything that gets Hamas to back down," be it firing for effect where you can and working out something where you can't (fire for effect -- yes, people, there is such a thing).
#5
"I think some Hamas leaders are ready to bite the bullet and Israeli officials should just stop making statements."
Sounds a lot like the retoric surrounding Arafat a number of years ago. It's perfectly clear to anyone with half a brain that Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, could care less about the pawns they call Palasinians. They keep using these people as fodder in an vain attempt to destroy Israel.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/04/2006 12:56 Comments ||
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Hamas could reciprocate Israeli moves toward peace if the Jewish state agreed to withdraw from all lands occupied in 1967 and acknowledged Palestinian rights, the groups political leader Khaled Mashaal said in Damascus yesterday.
They've painted themselves into a corner and now they can't get out. The world, even the Euros who supported them before, are expecting them to act like a government, but they don't know how to be anything but revolutionaries. At this point they're demanding the other side surrender before negotiations start.
Reacting to the statement, Israeli President Moshe Katsav reiterated that talks with the Palestinian government could not commence unless Hamas renounced violence, recognized the Jewish state and interim Palestinian peace deals with it.
As a government, they're bound to adhere to the agreements previous governments have made or formally renounce them. If they renounced them, all the concessions that have come their way and that's been an unending stream are pissed away and they'll have to start from scratch.
If Israel withdrew to the 1967 borders, including Jerusalem, acknowledges the right of return, lifts its siege, dismantles the settlements and the wall and releases the prisoners, then it is possible for us as Palestinians and Arabs to make a serious step to match the Zionist step, he said.
That "serious step" would be to enter talks with them, to allow what they kept to be negotiated away.
Among the absolute deal-stoppers are the return of Jerusalem and the 'right of return'. Any Israeli president who gave in to that would be removed from office the same day, and any Paleo big who didn't get those things would be shot by his own bodyguards.
Mashaal, who is in exile in Syria, told a packed auditorium at Damascus University that there was no chance for a compromise unless Israel fulfilled such conditions and because it was unlikely to do so in the near future, the Palestinians had no option but to resist occupation. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told reporters in Gaza that ending the occupation and returning Palestinian rights was a condition for any cease-fire or peace agreement.
Meaning they intend to continue Armed Struggle, but without renouncing their diplomatic gains. They can maybe do that, if the Euros cave on the financing end, but not if they turn out to be vertebrates.
What do we have to talk about with them? Katsav told Israels NRG Maariv website. They do not recognize our right to exist and are unwilling to talk to us.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Isn't that picture of meshaal missing a half macdonalds soft drink carton in his hand?
#3
your analysis of this ploy is right on. Israel gave the PA its existence in return for recognition of Israel, and renunciation of terrorism. ANY further concessions (and, with Olmert, I dont view a withdrawl to the fence as a concession) can come only as part of an end to the conflict. Instead Hamas is asking for the maximal concievable PA position (67 lines, split Jerusalem, etc) in return for only recognition of Israel and end to terror. What will they want for an end to the conflict? The Galillee? Haifa?
#4
If Israel withdrew to the 1967 borders, including Jerusalem, acknowledges the right of return, lifts its siege, dismantles the settlements and the wall and releases the prisoners, then it is possible for us as Palestinians and Arabs to make a serious step to match the Zionist step, he said.
#5
Not lying at all, just another day at the souk. Give me everything, thing we can start to get ready to discuss the form of the table and why you should buy it from friend of mine.
Gunmen from Palestines Fatah movement on Wednesday announced the formation of a 2000-strong militia designed to counter new police forces loyal to the Islamist Hamas government.
I've always found forming a militia to be the best solution to most problems, too...
Another milita? What was wrong with Force 17 and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade?
The creation of such forces has intensified fears among many Palestinians of violence between feuding factions that could destabilise a chaotic security set-up.
Popcorn! Getcher popcorn right here! Peanuts! Popcorn! Crackerjacks!
Eighty men drafted from disparate Fatah cells jumped over burning tyres and performed other drills in the Gaza Strip, where internal tensions have mounted since Israeli forces and settlers withdrew last year.
Seasoned troops in the civilized world don't spend quite so much time jumping over burning tires...
Hamas crushed Fatah, owing allegiance to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, in January elections, only to be shunned by the West after taking power. The aid cut-off that followed has deepened poverty in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, spreading rancour that has erupted into street battles.
The rioting, fist fights, face-making, moustache cursing, and shootouts haven't helped, either...
Saeed Seyam, the interior minister and a senior Hamas official, last week mobilised 3000 new paramilitary police in what he called a move to crush lawlessness and oust Palestinian squatters from evacuated Jewish settlements. But some in Fatah suspected that the move was intended to consolidate Hamas's power and control over dwindling Palestinian resources.
No! Reeeeeeeaaaally?
"We formed the new force in a challenge to the force Hamas had formed and which we regard as illegal," Al-Muatasem Billah, a spokesman for the new Fatah militia, told Reuters on an impromptu military training ground in the Rafah refugee camp. "We do not wish to clash (with Hamas-led police), but if it happens, we will not stand handcuffed," he said as gunmen took aim and fired at targets in the distance.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Perhaps the civil war is in Paleo town rather than Iraq....media?
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/04/2006 1:53 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
05/04/2006 9:40 Comments ||
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AAMB not enough? AAMB isnt loyal to Abbas, Dahlan, et al. Its defied them for some time, its only diff from Hamas is over religion. Looks like a 3 sided battle - Abbas, Dahlan and the other members of the "Pals who know cause and effect" group, the secular crazies (AAMB) and the Islamist crazies (hamas and PIJ) Abbas/Dahlan were counting on the sec forces outnumbering the Hamas "militants" Since Hamas is trying to take over the sec forces, Abbas/Dahlan need to counter by having their own militia.
Basically everyone is mobilizing as much force as they can.
#6
Can't we just set aside some very large area, maybe somewhere in either Iraq, Afganistan, or the surrounding area, Move all civilians out (Bribe them with having the Corps of Engineers build them new, modern, mortgage free homes) and then just herd all the baddies into the now deserted area.
Seal the borders and watch. Make no effort to deprive them of any weapons, let them take anything they want and can afford inside with them. Supply clean drinking quality water, but no electricity. Provide a "Trading Post" at points around the border, allow ahything to be traded EXCEPT, Weapons, Ammo, Poisions (Etc).
Inform them that they can do anything they want inside the area, but try to leave and die.
Kinda reminds me of the stories I read about the Warsaw Ghettos, but for deserving murderers, not just hated Jews.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/04/2006 21:18 Comments ||
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The new Palestinian prime minister has charged the US with blocking money to pay 165,000 of its public sector workers.
My heart bleeds. Or maybe it's the chili.
Ismail Haniyeh told a news conference on Wednesday that the Hamas-led government had raised money, but so far has not found a way to get it into the Palestinian areas. "We have given alternative suggestions and plans, including what has been reported about sending the lists of the employees to the Arab League to have a direct transfer to their accounts," Haniyeh said, but "we even faced American pressure to prevent the direct transfer".
Good for us.
Haniyeh appealed to Arab leaders to face up to the Americans "to stop the siege imposed on the Palestinian people and to stop the political blackmail against the government". He also called on Palestinian bankers to "show the necessary patriotism". Banks have been hesitant to handle funds for the Palestinian Authority for fear of US sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Imagine that, banks more worried about doing business than being a pain in the ass.
The amount of accessible oil worldwide could eventually be increased by roughly 30 percent with the help of new drilling, imaging, and oil extraction technologies, including the use of microbes, say MIT researchers. Theoretically, this number could be even higher; in a best-case scenario, the amount of oil that could be produced would double.
On average, using current techniques, about two-thirds of the oil in an oil field gets left behind, says Richard Sears, a vice president at Shell International Exploration and Production, Houston, TX. "The fundamental problem is basic physics. It's not like the oil is in big tanks. We produce oil from rock -- sandstone. The oil is actually held in the very small spaces between the grains of sand. The problem is, when you try to move that oil out of the rocks, because of the size of the spaces, you end up with a layer of oil coating the insides of the rocks." About one-third of the oil in fields will always be inaccessible. That leaves one-third that could be recovered with new technologies -- which is equal to the amount that would have already been extracted.
Getting all of this oil out would be extremely ambitious, but Robert van der Hilst, earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences (EAPS) professor at MIT, says much smaller gains would still be marked improvements. Increasing the percent of oil harvested from worldwide oil fields by even one percentage point would be the equivalent of adding a new oil-producing region as productive as the fields in the entire North Sea, he says.
To a certain extent, getting more oil out of existing fields is a question of economics. Oil, which resides underground in porous rock, can be forced out by injecting water, steam, or carbon dioxide, but these methods bring added costs that limit their use. If oil prices stay consistently high, these methods will be employed more than they are now, Sears says.
But significantly increasing oil recovery will require new technologies. At the top of the list are better oil field imaging techniques, says Nafi Toksöz, an EAPS professor at MIT. Improved imaging can help oil companies find and tap areas in an oil field that have become surrounded by water, and so cut off from oil wells, he says. It can also improve the effectiveness of existing methods such as using water or steam to extract oil.
As it is now, water pumped into a field, for example, might start to cut a channel through the oil, and so, rather than pushing oil out, would simply enter through an injection well and flow out through an extraction well in the place of oil. Better understanding of the dynamics of an oil field through imaging at regular intervals can help engineers know where best to inject water and steam, and how to control the pressure to prevent channels from forming.
A senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards warned this week that any strike against his country by the United States would be met with a severe missile attack against Israel. History suggests, however, that Tehran's most menacing threat is its vow to carry out retaliatory terrorist strikes against American interests around the world.
In comments last week, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Tehran would "give a double response to any strike."
"The Americans should know that if they launch an assault against Islamic Iran, their interests in every possible part of the world will be harmed," said Khamenei, who has the last word on security and foreign policy issues in Iran.
Indeed, the mullah regime does boast a record of international terrorist action spanning from Lebanon to Saudi Arabia to Europe to South America, and could reactivate its sprawling network of operatives in the event of American military strikes against its nuclear facilities.
Iran has not been linked to major terrorist attacks in the past decade. But the regime's vow to strike back, combined with media reports of Iran's training of suicide bomber squads and renewed ties with senior terrorist operatives, has fueled concern that Iran might attempt to hurt more than American interests in the Gulf or in neighboring Iraq.
"Iran is very capable of carrying out several deathly terrorist strikes," said Daniel Benjamin, a counterterrorism official at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. Benjamin is now a senior fellow at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies "If they are in a retaliatory mode, the constraint that they had in the [past] decade would not be there anymore."
In addition to using Iranian government intelligence services and paramilitary forces like the Revolutionary Guards and the Bassijis, Tehran could preserve some deniability by acting through proxies, first and foremost Hezbollah in Lebanon.
"Iran has multiple options for employing terrorism," said Paul R. Pillar, the recently retired top CIA official in charge of the Middle East. Pillar is now a visiting professor at Georgetown University. "Their own operatives, particularly in the Revolutionary Guard Corps, constitute one such option. Allies and surrogates would be another. Premier among those is Hezbollah, which retains its close alliance with Iran and probably would still retaliate on behalf of Tehran even though it is far more self-sufficient now than it was when Iran helped to organize it in the 1980s."
In 1983 Hezbollah bombed the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241, and in 1996 Saudi Hezbollah, allegedly directed by Iran, bombed Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 U.S. soldiers. The Clinton administration retaliated for the Khobar Towers bombing by exposing Iranian intelligence operatives around the world, prompting Tehran to stop targeting Americans, according to a 2004 report in USA Today recently confirmed in an article by former American antiterrorism officials Richard Clarke and Steven Simon.
Germany accused Iran of fomenting an attack on Kurdish opponents in the early 1990s; Argentina accused the country of ordering the bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994. Argentinean investigators have long argued, and Israeli officials recently acknowledged, that the attack, which killed 85 people, was retaliation for an Israeli operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In recent years, several reports of Iranian casing of Jewish institutions have emerged in Britain and in Canada, and senior Israeli officials have raised concerns repeatedly that different terrorist groups were planning attacks against Jewish targets. No indication has emerged that Iran or Hezbollah was involved in strikes in recent years against Jewish sites in Tunisia, Turkey and Morocco, which were blamed on Al Qaeda and affiliated groups.
In addition to its network of intelligence cadres posted at worldwide embassies, Iran has a footprint in the United States. In recent years, Iranian diplomats working for the United Nations mission in New York City have been expelled for allegedly casing the subway and other potential targets; Iranians have been deported on visa violations because of their ties to various Iranian security services. Moreover, several alleged Hezbollah operatives have been arrested, most prominently members of two smuggling rings in North Carolina and Michigan.
This past March, nine men were arrested in the Detroit area for reportedly smuggling cigarettes, Viagra pills, toilet paper and baby formula. That same month, FBI director Robert Mueller told a Congressional panel that his agency busted a Hezbollah smuggling ring that had operatives cross the Mexican border to carry out possible terrorist attacks inside the United States. Terrorism experts estimate that Hezbollah raises $20 million to $30 million a year through criminal activities in America.
Michael Rubin, an Iran expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute who recently worked for the Pentagon, said that Hezbollah could easily use those networks to carry out terrorist attacks.
Last week, the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that eight fundamentalist Islamist groups had received large sums of money in the past month from Iran's intelligence services as part of a project to strike American military and economic installations across the Middle East, as well as the interests of British, Arab and Muslim allies. The paper, which is owned by Saudis, cited a senior source in the Iranian joint chief of staff as describing a series of visits by leaders of groups in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as by the heads of Hezbollah cells in the Persian Gulf, Europe and North America. The article also described weapons shipments to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and to Hezbollah, and contended that about 80 operatives underwent training to carry out suicide operations from the air and undersea. According to the source, in case the American military attacks continue, more than 50 Shehab-3 missiles will be targeted against Israel. Revolutionary Guards would be given the go-ahead for more than to allow more than 50 terrorists cells in Canada, the United States and Europe to attack civil and industrial targets in those countries.
A few weeks ago, London's Sunday Times reported that firebrand Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had held a January meeting in Damascus with the Lebanese commander of Hezbollah's overseas operations, Imad Mugniyah, the man generally assumed to coordinate the group's terrorist attacks. The topic was reportedly to discuss retaliation against Western targets in the event of any strike by the United States on Iran's nuclear facilities, the article stated, citing American and Israeli sources. The same paper had earlier reported that the Revolutionary Guards had trained 40,000 suicide bombers to strike in Britain and the United States if Iran's nuclear facilities were attacked, and also cited a Guard official as saying that 29 Western targets had been identified.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/04/2006 03:23 ||
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Executing terrorist attacks across the U.S. might be temporarily satisfying for Iran's current government, but it would prove ultimately (like within a few weeks,I suspect)... unwise.
Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmad Fatfat said Tuesday that his country has asked neighboring Syria to remove military posts within its territories.
Speaking to newsmen after a security meeting held here and chaired by Prime Minister Fuad Al-Siniora, he said the meeting was held to discuss the dismantling of the Syrian posts and the governor of Bekaa, Antoine Suleyman, was asked to start immediate talks with governor of the suburbs of Damascus and and ask him to remove the sand berms that were placed in "Jird Ersal" and "Ras Baalbek" areas. Lebanon, Fatfat added, will also ask for the dismantling of a few military positions set up by Syrian border guards within the Lebanese territory. Syria has ended its 29-year military presence in Lebanon in April 2005.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:07 ||
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Asking nicely is all well and good, but they'll have to throw in a couple of under-the-table ponies to get Baby Assad's attention.
May 3 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel will use a visit to the U.S. starting today to stress that her government stands united with President George W. Bush in efforts to halt Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program.
Merkel, 51, will address the annual meeting of the American Jewish Committee in Washington tomorrow. She'll express in "clear terms" that international consensus on action is the "right approach" to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms, Karsten Voigt, the German Foreign Ministry's adviser on U.S. relations, said in an interview yesterday. "Germany is already playing an integral role in the Iran diplomacy," said Voigt, 65. Merkel's meeting with Bush "is important for the course of action and should help clarify the next steps."
Merkel, who took office in November, is making her second U.S. visit in less than four months as she attempts to improve relations, which hit a post-World War II low under her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder. Merkel's stress on unity with Bush contrasts with Schroeder's refusal to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Thar's that consensus word again
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/04/2006 1:55 Comments ||
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How many divisions does the Chancellor have?
Posted by: ed ||
05/04/2006 10:11 Comments ||
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#3
Well, they are one of the prime suppliers of technology to Iran. Just stopping that would be a big contribution.
Tehran, Iran, May 03 Iran said on Wednesday that the Gulf region was no longer safe for the "enemy" and that the people of Iraq had rejected the United States' political model for their country.
Yeah, yeah, 'sea of fire' and all that, we're impressed.
"The Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman are the hunting ground for the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. If any [foreign] force with any military might tries to maneuver in this region, it will not be out of range of our armed forces and weaponry", Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said.
Not noticing that the Iranian military units also aren't out of range of various forces and weaponry ...
In April, Irans Revolutionary Guards held naval war-games in the Persian Gulf, which they said served as a warning to the U.S. and Israel. "The Persian Gulf is no longer a safe place for our enemies", Pour-Mohammadi said. "Our enemies can not tolerate this situation", the radical Shiite cleric added.
"Oh I'm so afraid! Oh hold me Mahmoud!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Maybe its just me, but iff that is indeed Musty's photo, he doesn't look too happy or confident -reminds me of the sad- and famished-looking soldiers and diplomats vv North Korea's Kimmie.
#6
They need to pick a fight with us to bolster thier hold over their country. They have faield at everything, destroyign the economy, society and education systems there, and hamstringing the military.
The need us to attack so they can point a blame finger at us instead of them.
I say we ignore them until we are ready to do a full up alpha strike on the leaderhip and command and control of the RG, then tell the Iranian Army to step in and we'll help them ditch the mullahs. Otherwise its slice and dice time as the Arabas around Basra and Hormuz cut loose (they are already doing terrorist style bombings in Iran), and the Kurds goe apehit on them in the north. Iran will cease to exist as it is now and end up 3 smaller countries. And the Mullahs will be stuck int he middle part minus their poil ports, pipelines and part of their oil fields.
But logic aside, it woudl sure be fun to have a prediator orbiting and nest time these yahoos open their yap, a hellfire pays a suprise visit to the press conference.
Posted by: ed ||
05/04/2006 7:18 Comments ||
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#12
They need to pick a fight with us to bolster their hold over their country. They have failed at everything, destroying the economy, society and education systems there...
Is that diplomatic enough for the State Dept? I'd love to hear Dr. Rice speak that kind of thing publicly each time Iran rattles their saber.
#14
Superb analysis Oldspook. "Ignore" (Igy) the 'spoon banging' little bastards and squeeze their economic packages. It appears to be working in Cuba, North Korea, and lately many locs in Africa. If they are such advanced, stand-alone societies, I'm sure they'll never miss our involvement in their squalid internal affairs.
All the Russians would have had to have done was just tell us to get out of their North Atlantic, or they were gonna kick our ass, and I betcha the US Navy would have turned tail right there, and the Cold War would-a been over.
#18
They said this about 20 years ago as I remember. Led to Operation Praying Mantis. They didn't say much after that.
And just think, Jaundice Boy. Our new toys are even bigger and better...
The bilge rat got the whole Arrrr Quiver by gawd up in his Liver!
Blood'n'Guts!
Posted by: billy rubin ||
05/04/2006 14:40 Comments ||
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#20
"Master Chief, we're heading into waters now claimed by the Iranians. But we intend to dispute that claim. So this time will be different."
"In what way, sir?"
"We're going to need to find someplace on this ship to erect a yardarm. And a good, long, strong one, too. Along with some appropriate, fresh-oiled hemp rope. Good quality stock."
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2006 21:56 Comments ||
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#25
Re #20: 'Moose, Any self-respecting Master Chief would have corrected his officer in that the Navy uses 'line,' not rope. Especially a blackshoe.
But the thought described is wunnerful/grin/
With no clear sign the United States can win UN support for sanctions against Iran, the Bush administration said on Tuesday it could work instead with like-minded nations to punish Tehran for its nuclear programmes. The United States, which has its own sanctions on the Islamic republic, is lobbying for the United Nations Security Council to impose international sanctions on Iran but faces resistance from veto holders Russia and China. If for whatever reason the council couldnt fulfil its responsibilities, then I think it would be incumbent on us, and Im sure we would press ahead to ask other countries or other groups of countries to impose those sanctions, US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told a House of Representatives government reform subcommittee.
Under sharp questioning from Democrats who said President George W Bush appeared intent on war with Iran, Bolton dismissed as fiction news reports that US covert forces were in Iran. He said Bush was focused on diplomatic remedies. I think we are going to move ahead very quickly with our Chapter 7 resolution on Iran, and have consultations quickly, Bolton told reporters after returning to UN headquarters to meet with French and British diplomats. The draft would be shown to Security Council members within a day or two he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Will say again SPACEWAR/SPACEDAILY.com quotes US officials as inferring that North Korea loses up to US$20.0Milyuhn every four weeks it does not return to the Six-Party talks - surely the OMB and GAO can find something in the Milyuhns to take away from MadMoud. Thats one heck of a tax rebate the pols can give US citizens for Xmas this year.
#4
If for whatever reason the council couldnt fulfil its responsibilities, then I think it would be incumbent on us,
Oooh, I love it when Ambassador Bolton speaks his mind. Makes chills run up my spine, it does. (And probably the rest of the Security Council feels the same way!)
Hizbullah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pledged on Tuesday to maintain strong ties with Iran, saying that the Islamic Republic has always supported Lebanon's people and resistance and only worked for Lebanon's benefit. Speaking during a farewell ceremony held in honor of Iran's Ambassador Massoud Idrisi, Nasrallah said that the U.S.-Zionist scheme in the region, which seeks to provoke sectarianism, was "the last arrow in the quiver of the U.S. and the Zionists."
Nasrallah said that after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of U.S. hegemony, the U.S. administration was forced to fabricate a new public enemy, a process that was facilitated by the revolution in telecommunications and creation of world-wide media outlets. The only entity that qualified, he said, was Iran, "considering its power, energy and history." Nasrallah said Iran and Lebanon must overcome the dangerous scheme together, as well as any conflict within Lebanon, "or else the religion and the party is just doing a big, decisive favor to the U.S.-Zionist project."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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It's only fair, Naz. You stay bought and we'll keep sending the checks...
Britain, France and the United States introduced a new UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday that could trigger sanctions against Iran unless it abandons uranium enrichment, despite objections from Russia and China. The text does not contain any sanctions but threatens to consider "further measures as may be necessary" to ensure Iran's compliance, a veiled way of saying the Western allies would attempt to enact sanctions if Tehran remained defiant.
Even though the League of Authoritarian Nations will still be against it.
It also calls on all nations to exercise vigilance in preventing the transfer of materials and technology "that could contribute to Iran's enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and missile programmes". The resolution is under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which makes it legally binding. It gives Iran another chance to comply with the council's demands prior to a deadline that has not yet been decided.
It just gives them more time to do what they've set out to do.
A Chapter 7 resolution allows sanctions or even war to enforce compliance but a separate resolution would be required to activate either step.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Do you feel a draft in here?
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/04/2006 1:58 Comments ||
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further measures as may be necessary is stronger language than I had expected at this point.
I would have expected no explicit refer to sanctions, to minimize the likelihood of a veto.
Troubling thought - France WANTS Russia and China to veto, so they dont have to go through with sanctions. US wants Russia and China to veto, so we have a rationale to use military measures. Hmmmm.
Saudi Cleric Nasser bin Suleiman Al-'Omar: 'America is Now Disappearing From the Hearts... Whereas Islam is Growing Even Within America'; 'Whoever is Familiar With the Sunna and Hadith Knows That a Battle Against the Enemies of Allah Awaits on the Horizon, in Which the Muslims Will Be Victorious'
On April 19, 2006, Saudi Islamist cleric Sheikh Dr. Nasser Al-'Omar appeared on Al-Jazeera delivering a lecture on jihad. In it, he said, "The Islamic nation now faces a great phase of jihad," and added "There are places where jihad is proper - Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir, and the Philippines." He also told his audience that the U.S. was "disappearing" - echoing his statement on Al-Majd TV on June 13, 2004 that "America is collapsing," and that Muslims "must be patient."
In November 2004, Dr. Al-'Omar made headlines as one of the 26 signatories of a fatwa supporting the Iraqi resistance. On December 17, 2004, he explained, in an interview for the PBS program Frontline, why he was opposed to eliminating anti-Western and antisemitic teachings from Saudi schoolbooks. [1]
According to a March 13, 2006 Reuters report, Al-'Omar hosted a reception for a Hamas delegation, led by Khaled Mash'al, in Riyadh on March 12, 2006. The report also stated that according to Al-'Omar's website (www.almoslim.net, hosted in Canada [2] ) the reception was also attended by prominent clerics and Islamists - some of whom had served prison terms for their suspected support of Al-Qaeda or for criticizing the Saudi government. [3]
The following is the transcript of excerpts from the lecture by Sheikh Dr. Nasser bin Suleiman Al-'Omar, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 19, 2006. TO VIEW THE CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1122.
It is followed by the transcript of his appearance on Al-Majd TV, which aired on June 13, 2004.
TO VIEW THE CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=118.
"[A] U.S. Congressman... Said: 'The 21st Century is the Century of Islam, Which Will Offer an Opportunity for Peace in the World'"
Dr. Nasser bin Suleiman Al-'Omar: "Listen to this report, which was submitted by the American intelligence to the American officials, regarding the religion of Islam, which some think is defeated or weak today. According to the report, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. Muslims will soon become one-third of the world's population. Conversion to Islam increased significantly following 9/11.
"In addition, U.S. Congressman John Morlan [sic] said: 'The 21st century is the century of Islam, which will offer an opportunity for peace in the world.' There is no doubt that it is Islam that will bring peace, and not the U.N., America, Russia, or anyone else."
[ ]
"How Can You Call Upon Us to Abolish the Clash of Civilizations, While America Violently Attacks Muslims... in All Corners of the World?"
"What do the people who call for coexistence with the West say? They call for the abolishment of the so-called 'clash of civilizations.' How can you call upon us to abolish the clash of civilizations, while America violently attacks Muslims in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in all corners of the world?
"What the Jews are doing in Palestine... Look at what is happening in Palestine. How can anyone claim coexistence with such people is possible? This contradicts the Koranic verse: 'They will not stop fighting you until they turn you back from your faith if they can.'"
[ ]
"Thirty years ago, some of the brothers who are still alive recall the pan-Arabist and Ba'thist slogans. The voice of Islam was barely heard in Palestine. What is happening now? A great transformation. After all the peace plans, the recurrent betrayals, and so on, Hamas, which has raised the banner of jihad, along with all its brothers in Palestine, won these elections, which stunned the whole world.
[ ]
"Is the America of today the America of yesterday? Twenty or 30 years ago, many of our sons were dazzled by America, believing it to be the country of democracy, justice and liberty. Is that the reality today?
"What liberty are they talking about, when America acts violently in all corners of the world, in Iraq, Palestine, Chechnya and Afghanistan?
"What democracy? It did not come to our countries for the sake of liberty and democracy. What did they do when Hamas won the elections? Where is their democracy? Where is their liberty?"
[ ]
"25,000 Have Converted to Islam Every Year Since 9/11"
"America is now disappearing from the hearts, within America itself and elsewhere, whereas Islam is growing even within America, my brothers. Islam is making steady progress in America. 25,000 people have converted to Islam every year since 9/11, and an even larger figure was mentioned in The New York Times."
[ ]
"As for the casualties in Iraq - brothers, America is now in a predicament. You follow the media. America is looking for a way out. Yes, I am aware of the harsh reality. I am aware of what is happening to our Muslim brothers in Iraq, and I'm referring especially to the Sunni Arabs, against whom all have conspired, and who have been deserted by their closest friends.
Nevertheless, according to the statistics, the number of American and allied casualties during the last pilgrimage month - and this figure came from one of the news agencies, and I've checked it with several of Iraq's religious scholars, who confirmed it... There have been more than 40,000 American and Western casualties in three years.
"Do not believe the American reports. According to America it had around 2000 casualties, but in fact, the casualties number 40,000 or more."
The Americans are Dumping Their Casualties in the Tigris and Euphrates, and Iraqi Clerics Have Asked Me for a Fatwa about Eating the Fish
"By Allah, a number of Iraqi religious scholars came to me, and said: 'We have a problem.' What was the problem? They said: There have been so many American casualties that they loaded them on trucks and threw them away in the desert. But because the number of casualties was so high... The Iraqi scholars were asking me for a fatwa. They asked me to issue a fatwa on the following question: 'Because there were so many casualties, the Americans began to throw them into the Tigris and the Euphrates. The fish have eaten from the flesh of the American and have gotten fat. Are we permitted to eat these fish or not?' Yes. This is the truth, brothers.
"If they report about three operations in Iraq - in reality there are no fewer than 60-70 operations every day."
[ ]
"The Islamic Nation Now Faces a Great Phase of Jihad"
"The Islamic nation now faces a great phase of jihad, unlike anything we knew 50 years ago. Fifty years ago, jihad was attributed only to a few individuals in Palestine, and in some other Muslims areas. Following the events of Afghanistan, the nation has embraced jihad. Young and old, men and women - everyone is talking about jihad.
"Whoever is familiar with the Sunna and the Hadith knows that a battle against the enemies of Allah awaits on the horizon, in which the Muslims will be victorious. This is confirmed by the reliable hadiths, as well as by reality.
"But some young people wish to expedite this, and because of their love for jihad, get involved in things that are not jihad. As I've said, all these minor battles, which took place in certain Muslim countries, only delay the victory. This diverts the strife and calamity into the lands of the Muslims, instead of aiming them directly at the enemies.
"Yes, there are places where jihad is proper - in Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir, and the Philippines. There are many places where jihad is undoubtedly proper."
Al-'Omar in Al-Majd TV Interview, June 13, 2004
"America is collapsing from within. Where are America's principles of justice and democracy? Ask Sheikh Suleiman. Is America now, with its reputation and status, the same America of 30 years ago - the source of hope for many people?
"Islam is advancing according to a steady plan, to the point that tens of thousands of Muslims have joined the American army and Islam is the second largest religion in America."
[ ]
"Today, America is defeated. I have no doubt, not even for a minute, that America is on its way to destruction. But as Ibn Khaldoun said, just as it takes decades for nations to rise, it takes them decades to collapse. They don't collapse overnight.
"Because Communist Russia opposed reality, it collapsed immediately. America may not collapse this way. It will be destroyed gradually. America will be destroyed. But we must be patient." Why not? Time is indeed working for them, given present rules.
#3
One more reason why we need a spaceplane that can drop rocks from orbit. Each time some idiot says something like this we drop a bowlingball. First one two miles from Mecca, next 1.5 miles from Mecca. 1 mile. They'd probably think they were meteors as god aimed in closer and closer.
#4
"In addition, U.S. Congressman John Morlan [sic] said: 'The 21st century is the century of Islam, which will offer an opportunity for peace in the world.' There is no doubt that it is Islam that will bring peace, and not the U.N., America, Russia, or anyone else."
Does he mean Jim Moran? Or did he just pull this out of his ass?
Either way, it wouldn't surprise me.
#9
25,000 people have converted to Islam every year since 9/11, and an even larger figure was mentioned in The New York Times."
Not exactly skyrocketing in numbers are we, old Sooodi dood? At this rate, it'd take 40 years just to add 1 million people. Heck, it'll only take 40 years to add 1 million people to my home county outside Atlanta at the current rate we're going. Numbers don't exactly make me scared there, boyyyyyy! To become 1/3 of the CURRENT world population (assuming it's 6 billion and assuming they are 1.2 billion currently), would only take, what, 32,000 years at that rate? Of course, I imagine we'd have long destroyed Islam as a whole if they keep up their shenanagans, long before the year 34,006, lol! Beginning to realize that math is not exactly their strong suit over there!
Posted by: BA ||
05/04/2006 22:24 Comments ||
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Beginning to realize that math is not exactly their strong suit over there!
-especially since they gave up algebra in like the 6th century.......
Posted by: ed ||
05/04/2006 09:12 ||
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unbelievable. If only the world could find the same outrage that it found for gitmo. But no, the fussy, prissy people won't say a word, being that they are and always were a bunch of cowards.
#2
Nothing like departing on a mission already compromised even before you have left home base. Now what are the odds of twelve assassins making it past every spook in Europe?
#3
If these loony tunes are basing in Iran as implied wouldn't this be an act of war on Denmark by Iran? Couldn't Denmark that invoke article 5(?) of Nato to respond?
I'm not looking for a reason to take out Iran.....no really.......I'm really not......nope just sayin' ;^)
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Sudan appears ready to agree to disarm the Janjaweed faster and accept more rebels into its security forces, concessions that meet rebels demands at Darfur peace talks, a government spokesman said Wednesday. Sudanese government Spokesman Abdulrahman Zuma said the concessions, including speedier disarmament of the Janjaweed militia it is accused of unleashing on Darfur civilians, were part of US-initiated changes to a draft peace treaty the rebels had rejected. The government had accepted the initial draft but now appeared ready to accept changes to it.
Polling stations closed in Chad on Wednesday for a presidential election that was boycotted by the opposition and which incumbent Idriss Deby Itno, in power since 1990, was expected to win. The day of voting, which ran from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm (0600 GMT to 1700 GMT), ended without incident despite rebel threats to upset the process. 
A second man has died following last Thursday's arson attack on a convenience store in south London, Scotland Yard said Wednesday. The victim was named as 31-year-old Hamidi Hamidullah, an Afghan national who worked at the food store in Clapham Road, Kennington, in south London. A Scotland Yard spokesman said a post mortem examination will be held later today.
Vice President Dick Cheney, in remarks that caused a stir in neighboring Russia, accused President Vladimir Putin Thursday of restricting the rights of citizens and said that "no legitimate interest is served" by turning energy resources into implements of blackmail. "In Russia today, opponents of reform are seeking to reverse the gains of the last decade," Cheney told a conference of Eastern European leaders whose countries once lived under Soviet oppression, and now in Russia's shadow.
North Korea heads a league table of the 10 most censored countries, according to a survey by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. All "news" in North Korea is positive, there are no independent journalists, and all radio and television receivers are locked to government-specified frequencies, the CPJ said in a report to mark World Press Freedom Day yesterday. North Korea is followed by: 
One thousand South Korean anti-US protesters and farmers have clashed with police as forces moved in to clear two rural townships and pave the way for a new, consolidated, US military base. Protesters wielding bamboo sticks fought on Thursday with police armed with batons and metal shields at several spots in the area, about 70km south of Seoul on Thursday. Scores of protesters suffered injuries in the clash and they said the number will grow.
AUSTRALIA'S highest ranking Catholic priest has told an American audience the Koran is punctuated with "invocations to violence" and the central challenge facing Islam lies in the struggle between moderate and extremist forces.
The words appear in flames across the screen. "In the name of Allah, the merciful, the compassionate," according to a translation. Then there are images of devastated towns and exploding tanks against a soundtrack of thunder and lightning. The video is said to depict mujahideen tramping through the forest, across mountains and sliding down snowy slopes, to the sound of chanting and verses from the Koran.
Troops have marched through the streets of the western Indian city of Baroda following several days of riots. Six people have died since Monday after clashes broke out following the demolition of a Muslim mausoleum. According to the authorities, the demolition is part of a campaign against illegal structures.
The nation had trust and confidence in the operational preparedness, professional capability and dedication of the Pakistan Navy, President Pervez Musharraf said during his visit to the Naval Headquarters on Wednesday. He reiterated that no effort would be spared to enhance the defence capabilities of the Navy to safeguard the nation's frontiers. The president said that the government would continue to support and strengthen the maritime sector. "All requirements of the Navy would be met on a priority basis to bring it on par with the modern navies of the world," he said. He congratulated the Pakistan Navy for being the first regional Navy to take over the command of the coalition task force, CTF-150. Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Rear Admiral Mohammad Shafi gave the president a detailed operational briefing on the role of the Navy in the emerging regional maritime scenario.
The United States wants direct access to Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and President Bush, in his recent visit to Pakistan, told President Pervez Musharraf that US experts want to question the detained scientist, said BBC security correspondent.
A government spokesman dismissed on Wednesday a report that listed Pakistan as one of the worlds most unstable countries, slamming it as a shoddy piece of political propaganda masquerading as intellectual research. 
The government has decided to stop funding seminaries because of their lack of transparency in spending, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday. Sources said the federal government had not been getting reports from provincial governments on how the funds given to them for the Madarassa Reforms Project were being spent. The federal government gave provincial governments Rs 495 million to distribute among registered madarasas, but utilisation reports were not provided because of which further disbursement was stopped, sources quoted an Education Ministry document as saying.
Berlin, 4 May (AKI)j - The German government handed over a "large amount" to the kidnappers of two German engineers held hostage in Iraq for over four months and set free on Tuesday, Iraq's ambassador to Germany, Alaa al-Hashimi, has alleged. "Regarding the payment of a ransom, I don't know, but I assume it was a large amount of money," the ambasssador told German's ARD public television network, stressing that the Iraqi government had played part in the men's release. Germany's foreign minister, Franz Walter Steinmeier has refused to divulge any details on the release of Thomas Nitzschke, 28, and Rene Braeunlich, 32, who arrived at the German capital, Berlin's Tegl airport on Wednesday, looking pale and exhausted but apparently in good health. "We are very happy to be alive," said Braeunlich.
Jerusalem, 4 May (AKI) - Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday unveiled some of his new government's top policy priorities including the permanent incorporation within Israel of the major Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Olmert said Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank last year was a prelude to the core plan - moving tens of thousands of settlers from enclaves scattered throughout the West Bank, to settlement blocs located closer to the pre-1967 war Green Line border.
Hamas could reciprocate Israeli moves toward peace if the Jewish state agreed to withdraw from all lands occupied in 1967 and acknowledged Palestinian rights, the groups political leader 
Gunmen from Palestines Fatah movement on Wednesday announced the formation of a 2000-strong militia designed to counter new police forces loyal to the Islamist Hamas government.
The new Palestinian prime minister has charged the US with blocking money to pay 165,000 of its public sector workers.
May 3 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel will use a visit to the U.S. starting today to stress that her government stands united with President George W. Bush in efforts to halt Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program. 
Tehran, Iran, May 03 Iran said on Wednesday that the Gulf region was no longer safe for the "enemy" and that the people of Iraq had rejected the United States' political model for their country.
With no clear sign the United States can win UN support for sanctions against Iran, the Bush administration said on Tuesday it could work instead with like-minded nations to punish Tehran for its nuclear programmes. The United States, which has its own sanctions on the Islamic republic, is lobbying for the United Nations Security Council to impose international sanctions on Iran but faces resistance from veto holders Russia and China. If for whatever reason the council couldnt fulfil its responsibilities, then I think it would be incumbent on us, and Im sure we would press ahead to ask other countries or other groups of countries to impose those sanctions, US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told a House of Representatives government reform subcommittee. 
Hizbullah's Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah pledged on Tuesday to maintain strong ties with Iran, saying that the Islamic Republic has always supported Lebanon's people and resistance and only worked for Lebanon's benefit. Speaking during a farewell ceremony held in honor of Iran's Ambassador Massoud Idrisi, Nasrallah said that the U.S.-Zionist scheme in the region, which seeks to provoke sectarianism, was "the last arrow in the quiver of the U.S. and the Zionists."
Britain, France and the United States introduced a new UN Security Council resolution on Wednesday that could trigger sanctions against Iran unless it abandons uranium enrichment, despite objections from Russia and China. The text does not contain any sanctions but threatens to consider "further measures as may be necessary" to ensure Iran's compliance, a veiled way of saying the Western allies would attempt to enact sanctions if Tehran remained defiant.
