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Cap'n Hook accused of soliciting to murder
Today's Headlines
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Arabia
Kuwaiti Govt Suspends Newspaper Over Content
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Kuwait's Minister of Information Mohammed Abu Al-Hassan has suspended a weekly newspaper for three months because of political content it published, newspapers reported yesterday. Kuwait's Ministry of Information decided to suspend the weekly because it violated a provision of its license to publish only social and cultural news and not political news, Abu Al-Hassan was quoted by Al-Siyassa newspaper as saying.

If Buyabes were told to officially halt publishing for three months, it would be the second time the state has punished him for material he has written in the media. In 2002 Kuwait's Ministry of Information closed his newspaper, Al-Democratia, because of controversial political stories it published, he said. Al-Shaab's third, and latest issue featured a cover story about a questionable Ministry of Defense spare parts contract for the Russian-made infantry fighting vehicle, BMP-2. Also in its second issue, Al-Shaab featured a cover story about the spare parts contract.
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 12:35:01 PM || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


UAE is an oasis of religious tolerance
Our Secret Plan™ is working. The Gulf States become more civilized and Soddy Arabia looks more and more like the intolerant backwater it is.
While for many living in the UAE religious freedom is a well-recognised fact, for many in the West perceptions of the troubled Middle East region may lead them to lump all regional states into one category and thus fail to appreciate or recognise the uniqueness of the UAE as an oasis of tolerance and understanding.
"Pshaw! We wuvs everyone!"
The International Religious Freedom Report for 2004 on the UAE, released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour, of the US State Department, reported a generally amicable relationship among religious groups in society, which contributes to religious freedom. It stresses that UAE government policy continues to contribute to the generally free practice of religion. In late 2001, the Ministry of Planning inquired about religious affiliation in its first federal census. According to a ministry report compiled in 2003, 76 per cent of the total population is Muslim, 9 per cent is Christian and 15 per cent were classified as "other".
Wonder if any Joooos were counted. You know, alive.
The report said that foreign missionaries operate in the country. They have been performing humanitarian missionary work even before 1971. In 1960, Christian missionaries opened a maternity hospital in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi; the hospital continues to operate. Missionaries also operate a maternity hospital in the emirate of Fujairah. An International Bible Society representative in Al Ain distributes Bibles and other religious material to Christian religious groups throughout the country, the report said. There are 24 Christian churches in the country built on land donated by the ruling families of the emirates in which they are located. There are also two Sikh temples and one Hindu temple operating in the country, and another Sikh temple reportedly being built in Dubai.
No synagogue though.
Four emirates are home to parochial, Christian, primary and secondary schools. The emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai have donated land for Christian cemeteries. Abu Dhabi has also donated land for a Baha'i cemetery. There are two operating cremation facilities and associated cemeteries for the Hindu community — one in Dubai and one in Sharjah. Resha is an Indian national and practising Hindu in the UAE. She feels that her community is free to practise their rituals of worship without any hindrance she said in the presence of the government minder. "I believe we are quite free to practise our rituals to an extent. There are no restrictions. The Hindu temple in Dubai is the only one in the UAE and the region and we would like to see bigger and better facilities for our worship naturally," Resha said.
Don't push your luck, Resha.
Professor Dinah Lazor, a Protestant Christian who has been living in the UAE for four years, said: "We have the freedom to worship. In fact, it has been a moving religious experience for me to have the opportunity to worship with so many different nationalities. I am a Methodist but since there is no Methodist Church in the country, I attend a Baptist service as well as a Catholic and Anglican service. "There is information publicly available on churches in the country, there are services available on Sunday evenings and Friday mornings. I did have some difficulty locating the churches at first. The Catholic and Anglican services in Dubai Friday morning are attended by between 12,000 and 13,000 worshippers.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/19/2004 1:03:42 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As you pointed out, this freedom definitely doesn't extend to Judaism. Actually I doubt whether Jews are allowed into the UAE. Especially Jews or other undesirables with Israeli stamps in their passports.

I wonder if they have church bells. Probably not. That might clash with the Moslem call to prayer five times a day.

Posted by: Bryan || 10/19/2004 7:21 Comments || Top||

#2  They are a such an oasis of tolerance, they will be the last Arab country we nuke.
Posted by: JFM || 10/19/2004 9:11 Comments || Top||

#3  Give them some credit. I do. If they allow the free dissemination of info about Christian services and allow Hindu worship when Hindus are considered outright pagans by islam and thus not worthy of life unless they convert, then this is really something.

But I don't doubt that the appearances probably do not reflect the whole reality as is the case in China as well. I also don't doubt that the situation is entirely dependent on the individual who happens to be ruling at the moment and the fact that the UAE is currently stable and peaceful. I don't doubt that if the situation were to change there, then so would this period of tolerance since islam has no mechanisms and structures for maintaining tolerance in times of crisis and stress. Its at those times when muslims, following their prophet's example, turn to a "muslims first' policy and all bets are thence off.

I wonder if a muslim can convert to another religion. Or if a Christian could freely criticize islam. I doubt it. And where oh where are the Jews in all this? hmmmmm?
Posted by: peggy || 10/19/2004 9:59 Comments || Top||

#4  FYI - In the GCC, Gulf Cooperation Council, all of them, it is standard policy to bar entry to any GCC country for anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport. I have 2 valid US passports for this very reason.
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 11:37 Comments || Top||

#5  .com That's interesting. I didn't know you were allowed to have two valid passports. Is one a military or other special type of passport?
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 11:38 Comments || Top||

#6  No. It's not unusual for those who work in the ME to get a second passport especially for the multiple-re-entry stamp for the country you'll be working in - good for the duration of the visa plus a month or two. Your original passport is still valid - and is used, if needed, for when a visa renewal goes awry and takes too long on the "temporary" one. Both are normal standard US blue passports. I needed my original, once, when a new visa was slow being issued. BTW, it's not the State Dept that's so helpful in this regard, it's working for a good US company that has its shit wired tight, is very experienced in international red tape, and has a Wash office of people who can get shit done. Even while the career diplo's are off doing the 3-martini lunches. I worked for such a company this last tour over there.
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 11:47 Comments || Top||

#7  I believe you can do this if you tell State you plan to visit both Israel and a GCC, or similar insanely anti-Joooo, country. Of course, you'll be on your own dealing with the State Dept - and that can suck. Sorry.
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 11:50 Comments || Top||


Britain
London Police Praise Muslim Support in Anti-Terror War
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Britain's Muslim community is providing "considerable support" to counterterrorism agencies, the head of the London police, John Stevens, said yesterday.
Selling out the Boyz, are they? So, what else do you have to say?
Stevens spoke out against targeting any specific community in countering terrorism. There was "much talk of Islamophobia" he told newspaper editors at a conference in the northeastern English city of Newcastle.
"But, really, Lutherans and Unitarians are just as likely to cut people's heads off. Especially the Unitarians, damn them! You just don't hear about it as much..."
He called for distinction between "the actions of a minority and the beliefs of a majority".
"There's a distinct difference between those who believe in cutting off heads and those who actually do it..."
"It is vital to all of us that we maintain the confidence of British Muslims and we challenge every inaccurate perception," he said.
Ummm... I think he got that backward. Shouldn't it be British Moose limbs who should be trying their damnedest to to maintain the confidence of Britons?
Britain has a Muslim community numbering between 1.5 and 2 million. "I cannot give you details of the support that has been given by the Muslim community, but I can say we have had considerable support. That is why I will be running around to the mosques thanking them and encouraging them to give us more," Stevens said.
"Can't toss the bastards in jug unless you can find them, and you can't find them without help from the Mohammedans, 'cuz they regard the rest of us as infidels. So we have to be polite. For now."
Stevens, who as head of the Metropolitan Police coordinates national counterterrorist operations, drew criticism in March last year when he said a terror attack on London was "inevitable". He made the comment while sharing a platform with London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who added it would be "miraculous" if the British capital were to escape attack. The two were speaking soon after the Madrid train bombing. Stevens said that since his comments with Livingstone, calls from the public regarding terrorism had risen from 20 a day to almost 200.
Guess he got people's attention...
The Metropolitan Police had scored successes in the fight against terrorism but could not publicize its achievements, he said. "I would like to climb up Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square and tell the world about our successes, but we cannot do it. It will affect trials taking place at the moment and those taking place in the future," he said. Stevens, who retires in January, defended recent legislation that allows terrorist suspects to be held for up to two weeks without being formally charged. "If it was not for the new legislation, we would not have had the successes we have had, and London would not be as safe," he said. "A balance needs to be struck between allowing people their own individual rights and public safety and it is a massively difficult equation to get right," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 12:18:55 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Some signs they may realise what they've got to lose.
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/19/2004 12:38 Comments || Top||

#2  I understand "considerable support" as being at best one notch above "no support at all." Maybe chatting a bit while sipping a glass of mint tea?

What I'd like to hear is something like this: "the arrest and indictment of XYZ was made possible by the testimonies of members of mosque ABC" and "the terrorist supporters at the fake charity ABC have been caught thanks to the evidence volunteered by charity DEF".

"Considerable support" means strictly nothing.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 10/19/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll believe it when I see it. I still believe we're going to have suicide attacks in this country, and they are not going to be carried out by Catholics, Quakers or Jews.

He *has* to say they've had 'considerable support' - it's the PC state we live in I'm afraid.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 10/19/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Dumped U-238 found in Russian scrapyard
Edited for brevity.
Russian security services seized two containers filled with highly radioactive material at a scrap yard in central Russia, Interfax news agency said on Tuesday. Radiation levels at the scene in the Volga town of Saratov, where the containers with uranium-238 were discovered, were 358 times higher than normal, Interfax said, citing regional emergency officials. Nuclear officials in Moscow could not immediately confirm the report. Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is usually found, can be theoretically used to make nuclear "dirty bombs."

Interfax said homeless people brought the containers to the scrap yard. It quoted regional nuclear experts as saying officials at the scene had also found an empty container normally used to transport uranium. Uranium-238 is a highly dense and toxic material mainly used in gun ammunition and armor. "That type of uranium looks very much like lead so I would not be surprised if someone had simply mistaken it for it and dumped at the scrap yard," a spokesman for the Russian Atomic Energy Agency said.
"This lead sure is pretty! Look how it glows!"
Posted by: Dar || 10/19/2004 2:45:47 PM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  mmmmmmm luminous
Posted by: Shep UK || 10/19/2004 15:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Depleted uranium, where uranium-238 is usually found, can be theoretically used to make nuclear "dirty bombs."

Er, what? I'm not up on that theory.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 10/19/2004 17:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Hmmm. Depleted uranium-238. I bet a Google search for that turns up all kinds of moonbat crap before you get to the facts. Depleted means it's not to radioactive. Toxic I don't know about but I wouldn't be putting lead and lots of other things in my in my mouth either.

It's as I suspsected. After a Foogle search I went through 2 and a half pages of moonbat junk science before I started seeing real science. this article lays to read what utter crap this article from Ruters is.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 17:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Like SPoD said, BOOLSHEEET!
Posted by: Ptah || 10/19/2004 18:16 Comments || Top||

#5  "But, but it's uranium something or other! That's really really bad, right?"
-Rooters
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 18:19 Comments || Top||

#6  Anyone trying to build a "dirty bomb" from depleted uranium is going to end up getting laughed out of town.

Depleted uranium is called "depleted" because it's just that: depleted. It's the U-238 you have left over after you've removed the U-235 reactor/bomb stuff from naturally occurring uranium, and the main danger from it is that being one of the "heavy metals", it'll screw up your chitlins something terrible if you somehow manage to ingest enough of it.

But it's only slightly radioactive, and the main component of its radiation output is alpha particles, which have little penetrating power. Radiation-wise, it's about as dangerous as concrete.

Steven Den Beste has some good articles on depleted uranium, with more technical info.
Posted by: Dave D. || 10/19/2004 18:41 Comments || Top||

#7  But it's only slightly radioactive
But, but, but... U-238 will stay radioactive practically forever! It'll only lose half its radioactivity in (digs out Rubber Bible) four and a half billion years!
(The same amount of lead would of course remain toxic forever, but that's beside the point.)
It's always possible that the article had the story totally garbled, and the material in question was (a) spent fuel, or (b) DU that had been used to shield a neutron source, thereby becoming Bad Stuff.
Posted by: Eric Wilner || 10/19/2004 19:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Oh man I have to discuss this crap at work...

DEPLETED means the U-235 isotope has been filtered out. It's safer than NATURAL uranium. The average human is more radioactive by an order of magnitude than processed (read DEPLETED) U-238. BAN HUMANS?

It's also safer than lead. It's heavier than lead too, that's why they use it as keel ballast on ships. Imagine the average filthy rich lefty 'expert' (i.e., Theresa Heinz-Kerry) complaining about how awful DU is on a cruise ship....
Posted by: Crereper Angimble7529 || 10/19/2004 19:09 Comments || Top||

#9  If I recall it burns pretty well. Lots of nice radioactive dust to breathe in. Your skin stops alphas nicely, but if the source is inside your lungs already . . .
Posted by: James || 10/19/2004 22:39 Comments || Top||


Russia's Mufti Council urges Muslim unity
Yeah, like that's gonna happen anytime soon.Russia's Mufti Council has called for the unity of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, the Interfax news agency reported Tuesday. Ravil Gainutdin, chairman of the Council of Russia's Muftis, wants Shiite and Sunni Muslims to merge their religious lives in Russia. He told the Second Gathering of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress that he had asked the Russian authorities to allocate some land for a Shiite mosque, Interfax said. "But I pose a question to the Congress: Should we continue making a distinction between Shiite and Sunni mosques? For they share all major Islamic teaching," Gainutdin said.
Right up until Big Mo died, they been feuding about who gets to run things ever since.
"The Russian authorities do everything for Azerbaijanis not to experience problems in organizing their religious lives in their new home, Russia," he said. Azerbaijani Muslims are Shiites while Russian Muslims are Sunnis.
Shareing a mosque would save time, they could just shoot across the room at each other.
Posted by: Steve || 10/19/2004 2:04:10 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Funny how it islam split and the bloodshed ensued immediately after mo's death isn't it. These were the very people who knew him and his teachings the best. These were the best and purest muslims of all muslims. And they started fighting like dogs as soon as the old man was cold.

Yeah that mo and his first followers, proof positive that islam is the religion of peace. Look no further than them to refute that statement and prove that islam was only modified and moderated by wiser and better men than mo once it came into contact with more civilized regions.

There is no way to trace a habit of peace and non-violence back to mo and his first followers. None. He was a desert tyrant with a genius for miltary strategy much like that of other barbarian conquerors. He tried his hand at poetry and shamanism and his synchopants proclaimed him inspired. Synchophants always imitate someone who is a proven winner both to ass kiss and to succeed themselves. With the riches mo plundered his movement really took off but it was all based on lies and greed and flattery and it predictably fell apart once the unifiying force was gone.

Unfortunately for the whole world that didn't happen until a new generation of more naiive muslims were born and raised muslims with all the agression and characteristics of their parents coupled with the unwavering belief that muslim miltary victories of the past proved God's favor for the new universal Arab/Borg tribe. By then it was too late for the idea to disappear and trouble the world no more.

All of islam's early history is perfectly consistent with the theory that mo was not a prophet but just a regular human genius with a penchant to do whatever it took to win and his followers learned their lessons well.

As for these calls for unity. Its all hot air and will never come to anything except knives at each others throats.
Posted by: peggy || 10/19/2004 15:25 Comments || Top||


Nukes Will Not Be Used
Following the Beslan tragedy last month, Russian officials began threatening to attack Chechen rebel sympathizers and representatives abroad. Last week, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who was attending a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Poiana Brasov, Romania, said that Russia would launch pre-emptive strikes against terrorists worldwide, but would stop short of using nuclear weapons.

Hours later, the first "pre-emptive strike" occurred in London. The homes of exiled Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev and former Federal Security Service officer Alexander Litvinenko were attacked with Molotov cocktails. Zakayev is the chief representative of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov in the West. Litvinenko has in the past accused the FSB of carrying out the 1999 bombings of Moscow apartment buildings in order to create a pretext for invading Chechnya and of plotting to kill Boris Berezovsky. Zakayev, Litvinenko and Berezovsky have been granted political asylum in Britain.

The arson attacks damaged property, but no one was injured and no arrests have been made. Boris Labusov, the official spokesman for the Foreign Intelligence Service, or SVR, ruled out any SVR involvement. Technically, Labusov may be telling the truth, but the SVR is not the only branch of Russia's intelligence services operating abroad. In Qatar, two officers of the General Staff's Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, were convicted for a car bombing in February that killed former Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper || 10/19/2004 3:01:46 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What a strange article. It's point is that Russia says it will retaliate against terrorists up to but not including nukes. Then it tries to sell the idea that the Russian's first "pre-emptive strike" was with Molotov cocktails!?? *snicker* Me thinks the idea of Beslan revenge seems a bit more *ahem* logical.

Zakayev, Litvinenko and Berezovsky have been granted political asylum in Britain. For heavens sakes, why????

very strange piece.
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 3:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Nice strategy:

"We will destroy you, but not with any of the 5,000 nukes we have on hand. We have spoons. Spoons are enough for you."
Posted by: beer_me || 10/19/2004 3:25 Comments || Top||

#3  If they even suspected the Breslan atrocity and did nothing to stop it I hope some does use a spoon to remove their eyes and then scoop their brains out. Death to all the %&*@ing Chechen terrorsits and anyone who supports or has supported them.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 5:46 Comments || Top||

#4  The obvious question is how do you terrorize the Muslim terrorists? They know how to reach civilized peoples without spending great sums of money. How do we reach them? One way would be to track down their families and lay into them. Example: Zarkawi murders right and left and hacks off people's heads. His people slaughter 30 at a clip with car bombs. Yet his family lives an undisturbed life in Jordan.
Posted by: dennisw || 10/19/2004 6:06 Comments || Top||

#5  No reports of these Chechens having their homes firebombed in the UK press? Bulldog - hear owt? This is precisely why we have a system of political asylum - to prevent barbaric acts being perpetrated against individuals should they return to their own country. Being a force for good in the world makes me proud to be British.
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/19/2004 6:19 Comments || Top||

#6  aherm...
Posted by: Howard UK || 10/19/2004 6:19 Comments || Top||

#7  Howard? You got something in your throat?

Well I am pretty sure the old KGB knew how to terrorise terrorists. If I recall it did entail using influnce over the lives/body parts of close relations. In Zarkawi's case he is a pathological murderer/sociopathic murder and would not likely be effected by such a series of actions.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 7:07 Comments || Top||

#8  Howard read the Grauniad with his tea this morning.
Posted by: Mickey Silvester || 10/19/2004 8:11 Comments || Top||

#9  #7 SPoD, how'bout body parts of Zarqawi himself. Do you think that may resolve this matter adequately?
Posted by: Conanista || 10/19/2004 8:34 Comments || Top||

#10  I'm glad Kery has not volunteered to take nukes off the table. Probably because he hasn't thought of it.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/19/2004 9:55 Comments || Top||

#11  Dennisw: “Example: Zarkawi murders right and left and hacks off people's heads. His people slaughter 30 at a clip with car bombs. Yet his family lives an undisturbed life in Jordan.”

Yes, I don’t understand it. The US may be too squeamish for a “mafia” approach at this stage of the WoT, but other world players aren’t. Even individuals could seek revenge against Zarkawi’s family.

Perhaps his family is closely monitored in the hope that they will lead to Zarkawi.


SPOD: “In Zarkawi's case he is a pathological murderer/sociopathic murder and would not likely be effected by such a series of actions.”

Perhaps Zarkawi wouldn’t be affected but I’d be willing to give it a try. It might deter other potential terrorists. Or it might make family members more willing to restrain or report their relatives.
Posted by: Anonymous5032 || 10/19/2004 11:00 Comments || Top||

#12  A muslim rat out another muslim. Rat out a muslim family member. Not going to happen.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 11:48 Comments || Top||

#13  Fair enough SPoD, then the Russians should ice his family and friends. Whether they go further than that (friends of friends, cousins etc) is up to them.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 10/19/2004 15:38 Comments || Top||

#14  "I'm coming out. I see anybody and I'm gonna kill him. Any son-of-a-bitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only gonna kill him, I'm gonna kill his wife and all his friends and burn his damn house down. Nobody better shoot!"
Posted by: John Simmins || 10/19/2004 16:43 Comments || Top||

#15  Seeing this discussion reminds me of something I've wondered about since 9/11: If the Mafia (in all of its guises and forms) has the power that it pretends to have, why hasn't *it* taken action against Islamofascists where governments and civillians have lacked the willpower to do so?
Posted by: Crusader || 10/19/2004 19:16 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
N. Korea Says Talks Way to Resolve Dispute
North Korea's No. 2 leader has told China that his country still regards six-nation talks on the dispute over its nuclear program as the best way to reach a solution, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday. Chinese leaders were lobbying Kim Yong Nam, who arrived in Beijing Monday on an official visit, to restart stalled talks on U.S. demands for his country to give up its nuclear ambitions. Participants missed a September deadline for a new round because North Korea refused to take part. On Monday, Kim met his Chinese counterpart, Wu Bangguo, who told him that a settlement was the "common wish" of the international community. Kim responded "in the strictest terms that the position of (North Korea) concerning the six-party talks is unchanged — that is, to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula through the six-party talks," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said at a regular briefing.
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 8:50:21 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  JFK loses another one. At this rate, by Nov.1, Kerry will be campaigniing on, "But I was too gonna do it better! All those foreigners are spoil sports!! Stop being so mean to me!!!"
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/19/2004 10:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Whoops! This time 'twas I that put in the extra 'i'. It is, of course, 'campaigning '.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/19/2004 10:52 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Deranged Dhimmi Carter re-writes history


Hardball (ha ha!) with Chris Matthews

*snipped (intro and leading question from the Chrisco Kid)

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about—this is going to cause some trouble with people—but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force, do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?

CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we've fought. (emphasis added)
Oh. My. God. How could a former Commander-in-Chief be this ignorant? Every school child should know that more that more than 600,000 Americans died in the Civil War and more than 400,000 in WW2. Other than American combat deaths, figures on fatalities during the Revolution are hard to come by, but historians agree that they were fewer than 30,000, counting civilians and all combatants, and probably little more than half that.
Even if Carter's absurd contention about the Revolution were true, how is this the worst only "up until recently"? Is he trying to pull a Zinn/Goebbels Big Lie and suggest that the present war is the bloodiest in our history? In no time at all, lefty professo-liars and NEA drones will probably be telling their students exactly that, and using Carter as a source.
It gets worse:


I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.

Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial's really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.

I think in many ways the British were very misled in going to war against America and in trying to enforce their will on people who were quite different from them at the time.

*snipped (no challenge from Matthews)
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/19/2004 8:30:05 PM || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So implicitly Peanut thinks that the president most comparable to W is George Washington. I'm down with that, as I think my son would say.

You can just imagine Peanut counselling Washington on the banks of the Delaware in December 1776.:

"General, this is rash. We must first seek permission from Ye Olde United Nations. Besides, those are crack German troops over there, and all you've got are stupid, provincial Americans who don't even have passports. At least let me speak to their commander and tell him we intend to attack. Where are you going, General?"

Or you could imagine that famous non-painting: "Kerry Hesitates to Cross the Delaware" or "Kerry Crosses the Delaware Halfway."
Posted by: Matt || 10/19/2004 20:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Worse about his ignorance than that he was a former CinC is that he is a graduate of the Naval Academy. Presumably America's wars were covered in the curriculum.

Certainly the worst war in total blod spilled was the civil war but the worst proportionately was King Philip's War
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/19/2004 20:52 Comments || Top||

#3  I think he is basing his statement on the fact that every, single American who fought in the Revolutionary War died.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 10/19/2004 21:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Like all the people in the cemetary?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/19/2004 21:03 Comments || Top||

#5  Dead people live in the cemetary, Mrs. D. Heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/19/2004 21:18 Comments || Top||

#6  Good point, Moose.
Maybe Peanut Boy is evaluating this according to the percentage of survivors at some point during his own lifetime.
When Carter was born, in 1924, there were still a few veterans of the Mexican War (1846-48) alive. There were still thousands of Civil War vets at that time (59 years after Appomattox, about comparable to our present relationship with WW2). The last Civil War veteran, John B. Salling (age 113), didn't pass away till 1959, btw.
That left only the Revolution and the War of 1812 with 100% death rates in 1924. Carter, historian that he is, probably knows that there were more participants in the Revolution, so naturally it qualifies as the bloodiest once the percentage tie causes the determination to accede to absolute numbers.
That completes tonight's lesson in looney left logic.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/19/2004 21:23 Comments || Top||

#7  "Dead people live in the cemetary, Mrs. D. Heh heh."

And in Philadelphia, they even vote. Several times in each election, if they can.
Posted by: Dave D. || 10/19/2004 21:37 Comments || Top||

#8  Unnecessary, was it, Jimmuh?
Imagine this:
Could Lord Randolph Churchill really have married Jenny Jerome of New York if she had been a subject commoner rather than a citizen of a foreign country? I think not. He would have ended up with some thin-blooded girl of his own station, their son would have been a feeble-minded inbred fop rather than Winston Bloody Churchill, noone could have rallied the Brits against Hitler in 1940, and nazis would rule the world today.

Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/19/2004 21:45 Comments || Top||

#9  I am not up on my British History - and I will certainly not even pretend to be since there are British folks here who probably know much more in their pinky then I know in my whole body but...

Wasn't England a monarcy during the revolutionary war? What is all this talk about the British Parliment?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/19/2004 22:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Dementia seems to have set in early for Jimmuh.
Does anyone else remember this amazing gaffe from Carter's Presidency?

Jimmy Carter delivered a memorable oration at the funeral of former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Hubert Horatio Humphrey in 1978.
"One of our nation's greatest leaders," Carter momentously declared, "was Hubert Horatio Hornblower..."


Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 10/19/2004 22:08 Comments || Top||

#11  Parliament was around, and had been for hundreds of years. It had the power to levy taxes, and since none of the colonies had representation in Parliament, they thought they could fund the government on the backs of the Americans.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 10/19/2004 22:10 Comments || Top||

#12  CF, Britain was a Monarchy but you don't think the German on the throne paid for it, do you? That was what parliament was for, to raise money for the external conquests of the king in such a fashion that there would not be an internal revolt; mainly by cutting the members of parliament in on the king's action, which led to the joint stock company, but that is another chapter.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/19/2004 22:14 Comments || Top||

#13  For accuracy's sake, these "totals" figures are from Volume III (ppg 1040) of Shelby Foote's Civil War trilogy:

Dead: 623,026
Wounded: 471,427
----------------
1,094,453

"Approximately one out of 10 able-bodied Northerners was dead or incapacitated, while for the South it was one out of four, including her noncombatant Negroes." - Foote

And that was a family squabble, American-style.
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 22:22 Comments || Top||

#14  Carters brain must be rotting. Chris Mathews should have called him on that. The bloody war the US fought is bull shit too. It is no wonder I quit watching him years ago.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 22:23 Comments || Top||

#15  Great image, Fred! :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/19/2004 22:31 Comments || Top||

#16  Thanks for the clarification.

I now remember that the 'Taxation without representation' thing was about the colonies not having any representation in parliament.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/19/2004 22:46 Comments || Top||

#17  Don't forget that Carter set up the current world Jihad by letting a mad Mullah (supported by France) overthrow the Shah of Iran and then kidnap our people without doing anything but sulking in a Rose Garden. Jimmy boy has no right to say anything. He is at FAULT!

Then he setup the Afganistan Islamic fight against Russia with no exit plan to take care of the fanatics afterwords. (Granted afterwords was Bush 41 but by then Islamic Jihad was well trained and nasty.)
Posted by: 3dc || 10/19/2004 22:48 Comments || Top||

#18  I hope to one day leave a fragrant reminder of my take on Jimmy's tenure as Pres and Ex-Pres....hopefully on his grave. He's shit all over America his grown life and I just want to return the favor - call it editorial opinion
Posted by: Frank G || 10/19/2004 22:51 Comments || Top||

#19  The title of this post is about Carter rewriting history, but he's not the only one. The following quote is from the Hardball transcript: "When you look back on when 50 Americans were taking hostage by the Iranian so-called students, you must have thought about this so many years and so many times since then. Have you ever thought of a way you could have ended that? Could going to war have worked or that just would have been a holocaust? Do you ever think through alternative ways of approaching that horror which may have cost you the presidency?"

I listened to the show and what Matthews actually said was "Arab" students. I was yelling at my radio "No wonder you guys did such a lousy job on Iran! Don't you know that Iranians are not Arabs?"
Posted by: Tibor || 10/19/2004 23:13 Comments || Top||


Alternate History: If Bush had not invaded Iraq
Hat Tip: Instapundit

Democrat Presidential nominee John Kerry delivered a speech today condemning President Bush for failing to invade Iraq in the follow-up of military action against the Talaban and Al Qaeda in Afghanastan. "Leaving this tyrant in power in contravention of numerous United Nations resolutions is unconscionable," Kerry told the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "He has left available a base of operations and a source of supply and money."

Kerry went on to criticize the war against terror as "stalled" while the real threat to America, "Saddam Hussein's Iraq goes untouched." Kerry said, "People are murdered daily in Baghdad and throughout the country. Rape rooms are a tragic reality. Torture chambers are full as Saddam's sons carry out their sadistic impulses on the helpless and hapless victims of this regime. President Bush has done nothing as this brutal dictator takes the money from the Oil for Food to build palaces while his people go without food...

...more...
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 6:16:19 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
Rights Group, UN Denounce Gaza Crimes
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 12:14:39 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Roth called the destruction gratuitous, saying the army was retaliating for the killing of five soldiers on the patrol road along the border.

Doesn't sound "gratuitous" to me.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/19/2004 12:21 Comments || Top||

#2  Cry me a frickin' river.
Posted by: mojo || 10/19/2004 13:32 Comments || Top||

#3  The military mind-set “is based on the assumption that every Palestinian is a potential suicide bomber and every home a potential base for attack.” Sounds like sound military strategery. Amen Mojo! I aint weeping for the Paleos.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 10/19/2004 14:36 Comments || Top||

#4  For a second, I thought this had something to do with those three Americans killed by a Gaza roadside bomb last year.

Huh. Silly me.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/19/2004 16:22 Comments || Top||


U.N. Official Implicated in Iraq Scam
Posted by: ed || 10/19/2004 09:55 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Article was from Oct. 7. I didn't look at the date. But it does give a good summary and mentions that the US has "13 secret lists kept by the Iraqi Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan and the Oil Minister". Expect sh!t to hit the fan. And in that vein, from today:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/story.jsp?story=573217
American prosecutors are preparing charges against Benon Sevan, the former head of the United Nations oil for food programme, who has been accused of accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks from Saddam Hussein's regime.
Posted by: ed || 10/19/2004 10:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Only one?

Half the freakin' UN should be behinds bars.

In Iraq.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/19/2004 11:59 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll be back at 7 to check... aw hell. Never mind.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/19/2004 18:15 Comments || Top||

#4 
Under the terms of the U.N resolution establishing the program, Iraq maintained the right to determine who got contracts for oil being exported and the humanitarian goods being imported and to determine market prices.

This was the basic problem. This provision should also be in mind, though, when thinking about the subsequent culpability of UN officials. The decisions about who would participate in the program and might thus be bribed were made by Iraq, not by UN officials.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 10/19/2004 23:05 Comments || Top||

#5  blameless, of course, helpless naifs, led astray by the not-so-evil Saddam. Of course...

my work here is done, I'll return tomorrow to check on the evidence Mikey S. supplies (along with footnotes...
Posted by: Frank G || 10/19/2004 23:13 Comments || Top||

#6 
One of the main reasons I support our invasion of Iraq is that the UN sactions were ineffective and were quickly becoming more ineffective. These relevations add weight to our understanding of that ineffectiveness.

I think it's a mistake, though, to attribute that ineffectiveness primarily to insinuations that UN officals were personally corrupt. It's a mistake to imagine, for example, that the food-for-oil program was somehow intentionally sabotaged by Kofi Annan so that his son could enrich himself in corrupt consulting work. That's just a fantasy and a smear.

The main reasons that the UN was not able to maintain an effective embargo on Iraq were that the the UN's cohesion, capabilities and will were too weak for such a long-term embargo.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 10/19/2004 23:13 Comments || Top||

#7 
Frank G, couldn't you have waited 12 more seconds for my reply?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 10/19/2004 23:14 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran Ready to Negotiate Enrichment Halt Length
Bush is up a little more in the polls, is he?
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 12:32:12 PM || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Arafat implies Kerry endorsement
Edited for brevity.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat is hoping John Kerry wins the presidential election in November, several Palestinian leaders told WorldNetDaily. Arafat deputy and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told WND in an exclusive interview that while "we do not involve ourselves in internal American politics," at the same time "our region has been sliding deeper and deeper into chaos because of certain policies over the past few years, and this needs to change." While he would not directly endorse Kerry, it was clear Erekat was implying the PA wants a change in White House leadership: "If things continue the way they are, if certain policies toward our region are maintained in the years to come, there is going to be a lot of violence on both sides."

A prominent Arafat aide who asked that his name be withheld spoke to WorldNetDaily from Arafat's battered Ramallah compound. "The president [Arafat] is frustrated with Bush's policies," he said. "The president [Arafat] thinks Kerry will be much better for the Palestinian cause and for the establishment of a Palestinian state." Also today, PA Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said the future of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is unsure if George W. Bush is re-elected to office, and he complained the U.S. presidential election was stalling the Middle East peace process.
Like I needed any more reasons to vote for Bush.
Posted by: Dar || 10/19/2004 2:25:37 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Pity we don't have a source other than WND, otherwise I'd run with it ...
Posted by: Elmuling Sneth6118 || 10/19/2004 14:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Considering his last political endorsement was for Saddam Hussein as Emir of Kuwait, 1990, I wouldn't be happy to hear this if I was Kerry......
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 10/19/2004 15:41 Comments || Top||

#3  A reason why Kerry needed to get to South Floridy to shore up the Jewish vote, perhaps?
Posted by: eLarson || 10/19/2004 16:30 Comments || Top||

#4  Expect the turnout to be heavy in Ramallah.
Posted by: Shipman || 10/19/2004 18:36 Comments || Top||

#5  SondraK has an exclusive of Arafat eagerly preparing for a Kerry victory...
Posted by: Dave D. || 10/19/2004 18:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Is he one of the "foreign leaders"?
Posted by: Ol_Dirty_American || 10/19/2004 19:22 Comments || Top||

#7  JFnK. Yasshole's ticket back to the big time.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/19/2004 19:35 Comments || Top||


UN NEEDS $200M FOR PALESTINIAN REFUGEES
Wossa motta? Running low on ammunition?
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 12:51:56 PM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Ask the billionare Arifatass, Annonasshole or Kerry/terrisa wackjob for the dough. All other purse strings here are closed, you corrupt fucks...
Posted by: mmurray821 || 10/19/2004 13:02 Comments || Top||

#2  Ask George Sorros.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 13:17 Comments || Top||

#3  How many times do we have to say it-as long as Palestinians help and adore suicide bombers, they scratch out sympathy for their plight in the US. Clean up your act, Palestine.
Posted by: Jules 187 || 10/19/2004 13:20 Comments || Top||

#4  Jules - their "plight" is of their own making (with help from their brother Arabs).

Even if they were to clean up their act, I'd still have zero sympathy.

When they learn to love their children more than they hate Jews, they will have peace. And with peace comes the opportunity for prosperity.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 10/19/2004 13:35 Comments || Top||

#5  The agency said that despite the appeal, the international community has not met UNRWA's financial needs over the last few years.[snip] So far, 43 percent of the $209 million required for 2004 has been obtained.

The world has noticed. The Palestinians may continue to get verbal support, but they've already lost considerable real support. I suspect that between the decrease of official UNRWA donations on the one hand, the cut-off of monies from Saddam Hussein on the other hand, and the shut-down of so many Muslim charities on the third hand, real financial support for the Palestinians has dropped by something like 75%.

Consequences can be such an uncomfortable thing.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/19/2004 13:36 Comments || Top||

#6  Things are getting better, securitywise, in Israel because the Paleos source of cash is drying up. The UN will just set things back. Actions--->consequences thing. If Kofi can cough up $200 million, he ought to do something about Darfur besides talk about it over lunch.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/19/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Nope. Absolutley nothing registering on the sympathy meter.

Why doesn't Annon just reach into his pocket and give back some of the money he stole from the UN oil for food program??


Posted by: anymouse || 10/19/2004 13:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Cueing up Mike S in 5...4...3...2...
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 13:40 Comments || Top||

#9  Chump change for the oil ticks. Let them pay for their own failures.
Posted by: BH || 10/19/2004 13:42 Comments || Top||

#10  Yeah, somehow I don't see a bench clearing brawl to grab the check for this one.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/19/2004 14:08 Comments || Top||

#11  Sorry UN (actually, no), but go find it somewhere else.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/19/2004 15:06 Comments || Top||

#12  What? Is Sura (Arafat's wife) running out of 'shopping money' again?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/19/2004 15:08 Comments || Top||

#13  Tap tap tap - nope, nothing.

They still think they can play the sympathy card and get away with it - I think too many people have seen the 9/11 celebratory videos, the UN ambulances being used to ferry gunmen, the photographers standing next to Hamas pricks and Arafats bloody red binder still hasn't moved!
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 10/19/2004 15:19 Comments || Top||

#14  bet the fuckwit mainland europe appeasers will stuff thier pockets with fresh jihadi funds, kill arafat and his red binder of doom!
Posted by: Shep UK || 10/19/2004 16:00 Comments || Top||

#15  I say that Arafish and Co get not even a chance of funding until some independent and reputable auditor, say Arthur Anderson Co. goes over the Red File and publishes a report of its findings for potential donors.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/19/2004 16:22 Comments || Top||

#16  Maybe Kofi can Trick or Treat for UNICEF this year.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis || 10/19/2004 18:26 Comments || Top||

#17  Alaska Paul, your sense of humor is so dry are you sure you're not British? Arthur Anderson might be the only company who could make the books add to what Arafat wants, but their credibility died with the book-cooking of the Clinton 90's.
Posted by: RWV || 10/19/2004 20:56 Comments || Top||

#18  Part of me is. Me great-great grandmother was named Lillie Coolie and came from England. When I was a kid of 9 yr I memorized Bernard Miles' monologue Over the Gate. And don't forget Billy and Toggie. Also Me and Old Charlie. Always liked that kind of humour.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/19/2004 21:29 Comments || Top||

#19  bet you still know them too... ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 10/19/2004 21:47 Comments || Top||

#20  I 'ear ole Billy Collets dead, across at Ivinghoe, Aston. Last Friday 'e died. I reckon they'll miss 'im over there. They don't grow 'em like ole Billy every day.'E cut a 'ole in 'is gas mask so 'e could get 'is pipe through.

One of my favorite parts.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/19/2004 21:51 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Turabi Faces Trial in Plot to Overthrow Government
Reuters • Agence France Presse
Jailed Sudanese Islamist Hassan Turabi will face charges in court for trying to topple the government, a high-level security source said yesterday. Turabi, formerly a close ally to President Omar Hassan Bashir, was arrested at the end of March this year after his party was loosely linked to a plot by a group of military officers to topple the government. He was later moved into a safe house outside Khartoum but went back to Kobar prison in Khartoum last month after the government said his opposition Popular Congress party had conspired to assassinate top leaders and blow up strategic places in Khartoum on Sept. 24.

The sources said the security services had now completed the investigation into the plot and would be presenting the case to the courts. "We are going to take them to court. We have finished our investigation and the police are now trying to get the case in front of the court for more than 60 of them," the source said. "Turabi, he's now also inside the case." The source said all would face charges of trying to topple the government. "There's strong evidence against his people. He will also stand in front of the court," the source added. The government has said it would take legal action against the party, which could lead to it being banned.
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 12:30:06 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Shaath Wants Active UK Role in Mideast
"Y'see, this thing with the Merkins, that ain't workin' out. They got this idea — Allan knows where! — that Yasser's a congenital liar and a crook. So we should dump the Merkins and deal with the Brits, 'cuz they're so much more reasonable and honest and they ain't caught on yet."
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 12:27:17 PM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Origin of Al Qaeda - (from Al Qaeda Without Al Qaeda)
hat tip to Glenn
Al Qaeda sort of evolved in Pakistan, where Arab money (mostly from Saudi Arabia), American weapons and Pakistani permission and organization, came together to form a support base for the "jihad" (holy war) against the Godless Soviet communists in Afghanistan. When the Russians got tired of fighting Afghans, and left in 1987, the Arab money and American weapons disappeared as well. Afghanistan quickly degenerated into civil war, and most of the Islamic radicals went home. There they found a hostile reception. Strong Islamic radical groups in Egypt were crushed. Osama bin Laden was driven out of Saudi Arabia. Islamic radicals were not welcome in any Islamic country.

Then things turned around in Afghanistan, when Pakistan had decided to use Islamic radicalism for their own ends. First Pakistan backed Islamic radicals intent on driving India out of Kashmir. Then Pakistan decided to end the Afghan civil war by getting behind a movement by Islamic conservatives. This was the Taliban. First formed in Pakistani refugee camps, and armed by Pakistan, the Taliban swept into Afghanistan and defeated all the other factions. The Afghan people were fed up with the warlords fighting over who would control the country, and saw the Taliban as heavily armed religious fanatics who were at least honest (in an Islamic way.)
Snipped from a great article by Jim Dunnigan (see source). It sets out as clearly as possible how important Pakistan has been to the development of Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorism in general (hat tip to Paul Moloney for making this clear to me a while ago). Know your enemy: the ISI.
Posted by: Spot || 10/19/2004 10:51:10 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  good article. It makes clear what I think isn't necessarily clear to the general population. That AQ is not really supported by the leaders of Arab nations. It scares them because in it's quest for a caliphate, it threatens their own authority. Each guy wants his own kingdom, and unless he gets to be THE caliphate (which they can't all be) they are no longer interested in AQ other than what it can do to further their own, personal agenda and battles...like Pakistan's against Kashmir, Sadaams against the west, All Arabs against the jews, etc.
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 11:53 Comments || Top||

#2  There was a great article in the comments section of Belmont Club by John Loftus talking about the formation of Al Q saying that it stemmed from a confluence of the Mulsim Brotherhood in Egypt with the Nazis. They were then used by the Brits to control the Israeli terrs in Palestine. They then went to SA where they received the wonderful added influence of the Wahabi cult. The US then used them for the fight in Afghanistan. It is a fascinating piece.
Posted by: remote man || 10/19/2004 19:14 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Economy
BUSH UNDER SPECULATIVE ATTACK
President Bush's enemies have found a new way to attack him -- through the online financial markets. There have now been four separate "speculative attacks" on the market in futures contracts on Bush's re-election probabilities traded online at the Dublin-based website Tradesports.com. These futures are real-money "bets" placed by thousands of traders around the world on whether George Bush will be re-elected. For the last several months the futures have been a reliable leading indicator of where conventional polls are heading, and they've received increasing mainstream media attention.

The attacks involved massive sell orders placed by a single individual -- the same individual all four times -- according to a spokesman for Tradesports. Each attack caused a massive temporary drop in the price of the Bush re-election futures. The most recent one, last Friday at about 1:30 EDT, whacked the Bush futures from a price of 54 (indicating the market's estimate of a 54% probability of Bush's re-election) all the way down to a price of 10 (indicating a 10% probability) -- in just eight minutes. Six minutes later the futures were back to 54. That's the equivalent of an 8000-point crash in the Dow Jones Industrial Average -- followed by an 8000 point recovery, all within 14 minutes.

What could be the attacker's motive? Obviously, it can't have been to maximize profits. Even if Bush loses the election and the futures position pays off, the attacked would make more money by being patient and selling at 54 instead of 10. In fact, when the futures snapped back to 54 when he was done selling, every contract he'd sold at 10 showed an immediate 44 point loss.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper || 10/19/2004 10:11:09 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Buy low - Sell high!

Best darn strategy there is against Soros. I have been watching this all week and I have done the same thing. I put 100 shares at $10 also. Good way to make a little old profit on this wanker.
Posted by: Jack is Back! || 10/19/2004 10:21 Comments || Top||

#2  "The ends justify every legal means possible."

Soros has become what he loathed. What an evil man!
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/19/2004 10:37 Comments || Top||

#3  Jack Is Back...beat me to the punch. Heh, heh....good for you!
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 10:48 Comments || Top||


Africa: Horn
Eritrea and Sudan in war of words
"Yer ugly!"
"Yer mudder wears combat boots!"
"You got a FONNY ASSENT!"
Eritrea has accused Sudan of trying to assassinate President Isaias Afeworki and of government terrorism. Meanwhile, Sudan's security chief, Saleh Gosh has accused Eritrea of wanting to topple the Sudanese government by supporting rebels. Sudan's National Democratic Alliance opposition movement has its headquarters in Eritrea. In recent years, relations between the countries have been strained and their border has been closed since 2002. Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed said Sudan "continues to step up its attempts to disrupt peace and stability in Eritrea and the region by pursuing its process of government terrorism an assassination attempts against the president".
There's stability in the region? Who knew?
But Mr Gosh said Eritrea was supporting Sudanese rebel groups which have set up bases in Eritrea. Intelligence officials, he said, had seen camps belonging to the Darfur rebel groups in Asmara with the help of the Eritrean army. "We believe the Eritrean army is involved in all these campaigns in the east," he told Reuters news agency. Such comments are disseminated "for a diversion from domestic problems", Mr Ali Abdu said in his statement. Large numbers of Eritreans live in Sudan and last month Sudan granted asylum to 60 Eritreans who arrived on a hijacked plane from Libya.
Things must be pretty bad to move to Sudan.
Posted by: Steve || 10/19/2004 8:52:56 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Israel-Palestine
Team of Egyptian Doctors Examines Arafat
A team of Egyptian doctors examined Yasser Arafat after he suffered from fever, nausea and a stuffy nose, an aide to Palestinian leader said Tuesday. The health of the 75-year-old has been a subject of intense speculation in recent years, in part because of the tremor in his lips and hands, considered as a possible symptom of Parkinson's disease. Last year, Arafat suffered from gall stones, and his aides denied rumors he had stomach cancer.
We were all hoping so hard...
An Arafat's aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said despite the current flu-like symptoms, Arafat has observed the dawn-to-dusk fast of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which began Friday. Arafat no longer has fever or nausea, but the stuffy nose remains, his aide said. Arafat felt strong enough Monday to preside over a three-hour meeting with members of his Fatah movement. Arafat caught his cold last Tuesday, while walking in the windy courtyard of his Ramallah headquarters, the aides said. That evening, Arafat felt nauseous during dinner, couldn't finish is meal and went to bed early, the aide added.
"Look out, Saeb! He's gonna hurl!"
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 8:54:19 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  so there is an upside in the flu-shot shortage.oh please,

oh please, oh please! Hell awaits you, Mr. Arafat.
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 10:02 Comments || Top||

#2  That evening, Arafat felt nauseous during dinner, couldn't finish is meal and went to bed early, the aide added.

The Jews poisoned his food! The Jews tainted his water supply! The Jews fouled the air with an infectious agent!!

AAAAIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 10/19/2004 10:39 Comments || Top||

#3  To properly examine Arafat, try dissection.
Posted by: ed || 10/19/2004 12:59 Comments || Top||

#4  "Drat! He's using some kind of shielding or jamming device. Moshe, increase power on the Zionist Death Ray machine, and we'll burn through it."
Posted by: Mike || 10/19/2004 13:43 Comments || Top||

#5  I know he hasn't yet, but can you die from "ugly"?
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/19/2004 13:57 Comments || Top||

#6  tu - ROFLMAO!!! Madeleine Halfbright, Helen Thomas, Yassir, Dear Leader... no, I think the evidence is against it, lol!
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 14:02 Comments || Top||

#7  ed,

The French looking AraFART, after dissection.


Posted by: Poison Reverse || 10/19/2004 15:40 Comments || Top||

#8  My former boss the plastic surgeon used to say, "Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone."
Posted by: Seafarious || 10/19/2004 15:44 Comments || Top||

#9  Suha should look so good.

Posted by: Desert Blondie || 10/19/2004 15:45 Comments || Top||

#10  "I want a second opinion!"

"Ok - you're ugly, too."
Posted by: mojo || 10/19/2004 15:56 Comments || Top||


Peres: Extremists May Try to Kill Sharon
Goes to reinforce my opinion that some of them have been living around Paleostinians for too long. It's starting to rub off.
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 8:53:02 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  but it also says something for the courage and pragmatism of Arik Sharon. I seriously think he may be the most misunderstood man in the world.
Posted by: Liberalhawk || 10/19/2004 9:46 Comments || Top||

#2  like they haven't tried before.
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 10:03 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Karzai Team Believes Victory 'Secure'
Posted by: Fred || 10/19/2004 8:51:24 AM || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Smaller Maoist groups looking to unite
Five splinter groups of the Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist will meet either in Andhra Pradesh or Orissa in January 2005 to discuss unification, said Kanu Sanyal, one of the leaders of the naxalbari movement. Addressing a rally after unveiling the statue of the late naxal leader Tarimela Nagi Reddy at Anantapur town in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday, Sanyal said that the revolutionary parties would come together on a single platform at an all-India conference to chalk out an action plan for launching a fight against the central and state governments for their anti-people policies. The participants will also discuss plans to unite all revolutionary parties into one 'CP-ML' unit at the central level.

Sanyal, a close associate of Charu Mazumdar, the founding father of the naxalbari movement that originated in West Bengal in 1967, said that armed struggle was the only means to achieve the revolution to purge the anti-people policies of the government. He said there was no difference between the policies of the National Democratic Alliance and the United Progressive Alliance; both were serving their own interests. The septuagenarian leader accused them of adopting anti-farmer policies instead of solving the problems of farmers and agricultural labourers. The naxal parties will in particular target the central and state governments for promoting the policies of the World Bank and for pandering to multinational corporations, Sanyal said. He said that revisionists were posing a threat to the communist movement in the country. Nagi Reddy's dream would come true only if all revolutionary parties work unitedly for people's welfare, he said.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/19/2004 1:37:30 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Colloseum scene from Life of Brian immediately springs to mind. But that's comedy - this is tragic stupidity and the greed of men. Nothing revolutionary about it.
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 2:50 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Iraq Said to Decline Muslim Peacekeepers
Iraqi government officials and commanders of the U.S.-led military coalition killed a proposal by Saudi Arabia for a Muslim peacekeeping force in Iraq, the White House said Monday, citing concerns over who would be in charge. Responding to reports in two newspapers, spokesman Scott McClellan said the interim Iraqi government in Baghdad had "some real concerns" about having troops from a neighboring country inside Iraq. "The multinational force commanders also had some concerns about forces operating outside the chain of command," the White House spokesman said. Most of the multinational force commanders are Americans, as are the majority of forces. Newsday and the Los Angeles Times reported Monday that President Bush rebuffed what the newspapers called a plan that would have helped the United Nations organize elections in Iraq. Attributing the account to unidentified Saudi and Iraqi officials, Newsday said Crown Prince Abdullah and other Saudi leaders had lobbied Bush to approve the plan for a force of several hundred troops from Arab and Muslim countries to protect U.N. officials in Iraq.
I'll bet the UN workers on the ground are relieved.
Abdullah discussed the idea with Bush in a 10-minute telephone conversation July 18 after meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Newsday said. The force would have been controlled by the United Nations instead of by U.S. commanders. The initiative died last month despite acceptance by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan because the Muslim and Arab countries refused to work under U.S. command, Newsday said. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Monday he did not know if there was ever a "concrete proposal" for a Muslim force to protect U.N. officials. He said the Saudis floated the idea with the U.S., Iraqi and other governments. "I think we said, 'We'll see what happens to it,'" Boucher said. "Certainly we are happy to discuss this with people, but I am not sure it ever got as far as saying that there was actually a group of troops ready to deploy under certain conditions or circumstances. "It never really got off the ground," he said.

Last June, the Security Council authorized a separate U.N. protection force and Annan said governments would be asked to make contributions to it. Postwar Iraqi officials have long been cool to the idea of Muslim troops from neighboring countries but are open to troops from Muslim countries in North Africa and probably would accept troops from Pakistan, as well.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/19/2004 1:28:05 AM || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well all I can say is "ain't just too stinking bad."

I guess Iraq and the US couldn't see allowing troops from the bankrollers of foreign jahidi and a source of jahidi into Iraq to help stir the pot even more. Thanks but no thanks.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 10/19/2004 2:54 Comments || Top||

#2  As I recall, Saudi forces were found to be thoroughly infiltrated by Al Quada members and sympathizers. We don't need more of that kind of thing in Iraq, thenkyewveddymuch. Let them concentrate on cleaning their own houses, before they dirty ours.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/19/2004 3:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Incredibly stupid idea. Perfect response. This is the third or fourth time this shit has come up - Jordan made such an offer a month or so ago, just after a couple of their UN "contributions" went apeshit and murdered some unarmed US troops in Bosnia - shouting "Allahu Ackbar". Never heard how "The Hashemite King" resolved that little mistake, come to think of it. Stupidity must move in circles, since it gets repeated so often. The good thing is that Allawi isn't stupid.
Posted by: .com || 10/19/2004 3:14 Comments || Top||

#4  Some Iraqi has a bit of sense. What a load of BS.
Posted by: beer_me || 10/19/2004 3:32 Comments || Top||

#5  CP Abudllah has never been a friend of the US, or any non-Islamic govt for that matter. Over the past years and most recently in the "terrorist" attacks on Western residential and office facilities in the Kingdom, there were nearly direct ties back to SANG units (weapons, vehicles and uniforms-guard rosters, etc).

No thx Abdullah.
Posted by: RN || 10/19/2004 7:18 Comments || Top||

#6  The Arab/Muslim Mindset:

Ahmed: We are always accused of not helping our Arab brethren in trouble.
Mahmoud: True.
Ahmed: We should change this perception.
Mahmoud: How.
Ahmed: We'll offer to intervene in Iraq to protect UN officials.
Mahmoud: Err....
Ahmed: Don't worry, the Americans will never accept the proposal.
Mahmoud: How so?
Ahmed: Because we'll stress that we will not accept US command over our forces. They wont want us to come in under those conditions. They'll reject the proposal.
Mahmoud: And next time we are criticised for not helping our Arab brethren we can point out that we tried but were rejected!
Ahmed: You catch on fast, Mahmoud.
Posted by: Bryan || 10/19/2004 7:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Iraq doesn't need any more bossy foriegn arabs who's leaders will play mind games and may never leave even if asked.
Posted by: Cromorong Chomble7321 || 10/19/2004 13:37 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
The role of Pakistan's Shias in the War on Terror
From the South Asia Analysis Group. EFL
The Taliban rule in Afghanistan from 1994 to October 2001, particularly after it captured Kabul in September, 1996, saw the large-scale massacre of the Shias belonging to the Hazara tribe, carried out by Al Qaeda and Pakistan's Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) and its militant wing, the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ). Angered over this, the Shia community refrained from participating in large numbers in the anti-US demonstrations which were organised in different parts of Pakistan by the Sunni religious organisations in protest against the US military strikes against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan post-9/11. Since the beginning of 2003, there have been indications that sections of the Shias have been doing their own hunt for Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, his No. 2. It was reported that the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (KSM), who had allegedly orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US, at Rawalpindi in March 2003, was made possible by intelligence provided by some Shias in Quetta, Balochistan, where he was living before fleeing to Rawalpindi. The SSP and the LEJ retaliated by massacring a large number of Shias of the Hazara community in the Quetta area in July, 2003.

The Shias retaliated by helping the Pakistani authorities in the arrest of Massob Arooshi, described as the nephew of KSM, on June 13, 2004, following an unsuccessful attempt to kill the Corps Commander of Karachi on June 10, 2004. According to the "Daily Times", the presitgious daily of Lahore, a Shia cleric from Gilgit working in Karachi tipped off the police about the presence of Arooshi in the house of Abbas Khan. The paper said that it was another Shia cleric, who had tipped off the Police in March last year about the presence of KSM in Rawalpindi. The SSP and the LEJ retaliated against the Shias through a suicide bombing at a Shia place of worship in Sialkot in Punjab on October 1, 2004, resulting in the death of 30 Shias. The Shias retaliated on October 7, 2004, by attacking with a car bomb a religious function organised at Multan in Punjab by the Sunni members of the SSP and the LEJ to observe the first death anniversary of Azam Tariq, the head of the SSP, who was assassinated last year allegedly by a Shia gunman in Islamabad. Forty Sunnis were killed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 10/19/2004 1:12:07 AM || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Its good to know that our guys have local partners in the hunt.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/19/2004 2:51 Comments || Top||

#2  The level of Al Qaeda's fanaticism is so extreme, they create enemies everywhere.
Posted by: V is for Victory || 10/19/2004 7:58 Comments || Top||

#3  Even the most die hard Islamist leader recognizes that AQ and their ilk are a threat to everyone (regardless of religion) that doesn't agree or at least support the AQ brand of radical Islam.

Self preservation is a strong motivator toward eliminating threats to your power and your life.
Posted by: RN || 10/19/2004 8:09 Comments || Top||

#4  The Shias started well by trying to work within the system when they can, with the radicals finally turning to illegal means when the Paki government proved unreliable and unsupportive. Seems to be the case in Iraq too: Bush Sr. screwed the pooch with them when he didn't send in the choppers when they revolted against Saddam.
Posted by: Ptah || 10/19/2004 13:25 Comments || Top||


Bills passed in Pak Assembly amid boycott by opposition
That worked well, didn't it?
The National Assembly on Monday passed the anti-terrorism bill and the contempt of court bill after the opposition walked out of the house in protest against the president's uniform. Opposition members chanted slogans before their walkout. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, who was in his chamber during the opposition's protest, came to the house after the walkout. A small number of treasury members, who were left in the house after the opposition's walkout, adopted the two bills, one to regulate the exercise of powers of courts to punish for contempt of court and the other amends the Anti-Terrorism Act 2004 by voice vote.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 10/19/2004 12:59:08 AM || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:


Karzai leading in Afghan polls
PESHAWAR, Oct 18: Afghan President Hamid Karzai continued to maintain his lead over his rival candidates in the presidential elections. However, his overall gain shrank to a little over 60 per cent in the 21 per cent votes counted till Monday.

According to preliminary results posted on a website of Joint Electoral Management Body of Afghanistan, of the total 1,682,090 votes counted by 18:13 Afghanistan's Time, Mr Karzai had polled 1,030,447 votes, that is 61.3% of the total valid votes. Though still comfortably placed to win the required over 50 per cent votes, Mr Karzai's overall lead has dropped from the previous 79 per cent last week against his close rival and former cabinet colleague, Younus Qanooni.

So far 20.9% of the votes have been counted. Mr Qanooni was trailing way behind with 315,672 votes polled in favour or 18.8%. Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum was trailing at third position with 139,480 votes or 8.3% of the total votes counted so far.
The link has numbers for each of the candidates, if you're that much of a political junkie.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/19/2004 12:54:53 AM || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is so exciting :-) I wonder whose tally will be finished first: U.S. or Afghanistan.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/19/2004 2:54 Comments || Top||

#2  tw....****nervously****lol!
Posted by: 2b || 10/19/2004 12:48 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2004-10-19
  Cap'n Hook accused of soliciting to murder
Mon 2004-10-18
  Iraqi cops take down Kirkuk "hostage house"
Sun 2004-10-17
  Soddies wax AQ shura member
Sat 2004-10-16
  Fallujah Seeks Peace Talks if Attacks End
Fri 2004-10-15
  Alamoudi gets 23 years
Thu 2004-10-14
  Caliph of Cologne Charged With Treason
Wed 2004-10-13
  Soddies bang three Bad Guyz
Tue 2004-10-12
  Caliph of Cologne extradited to Turkey
Mon 2004-10-11
  Security HQ and militiamen attacked in NW Iran
Sun 2004-10-10
  Libya Arrests 17 Alleged al-Qaida Members
Sat 2004-10-09
  Afghanistan: Boom-free election
Fri 2004-10-08
  al-Qaeda behind Taba booms
Thu 2004-10-07
  39 Sunnis toes up in Multan festivities
Wed 2004-10-06
  Boom misses Masood's brother
Tue 2004-10-05
  Sadr City targeted by US forces


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