A Web site used by a Chechen warlord to claim responsibility for last month's school siege in Russia has come back online based out of Finland, three weeks after Lithuania shut it down following pressure from Moscow. Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera said on Saturday it was hosting the site, www.kavkazcenter.net, and that there were no grounds on which it could be closed down.
"Nope. Nope. Can't do it..."
Not until something explodes in Helsinki, anyway...
The Kavkaz Center site was used by Shamil Basayev to claim responsibility for the Beslan siege in southern Russia, where more than 320 people, half of them children, were killed. "Our lawyers and police have checked this during the last 24 hours, and there is no content that would allow us to close the (site)," TeliaSonera spokesman Jyrki Karasvirta said. He said according to Finnish law the site could only be shut if it posted child pornography or racist or bigoted content. "We have an agreement with the client, and we have no legal right to close it," he added. Karasvirta said a company owned the site, but gave no further details.
A note posted on the site said it was experiencing serious funding problems and asked readers for financial help or sponsorship. The Lithuanian state security department blocked Kavkaz Center's site on Sept. 18, under pressure from Moscow, shortly after Basayev posted a statement saying he was behind a wave of attacks in Russia. Among those were the school siege, the near-simultaneous downing of two passenger planes and a bomb attack in Moscow. In his statement posted on the site, Basayev also said his violent campaign for an independent Chechnya would continue.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004 1:22:01 AM ||
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"Nordic telecom operator TeliaSonera said on Saturday it was hosting the site, www.kavkazcenter.net, and that there were no grounds on which it could be closed down."
Hmmm...but if every respectable IP provider put your address on their block list on their routers and nothing is able to be transmitted from your IP cause no one is accepting message traffic, the effect will be the same and your other customers would have to find another server to operate from.
Posted by: Don ||
10/10/2004 9:00 Comments ||
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This is how ISPs police their biz - there is, indeed, such a thing as the Internet Death Penalty: when no one will route traffic to you or accept connections from you... as long as they'll police themselves, then no legal beagles need to get involved. But if they don't, if they give the sickos and haters and jihadis and spammers a home, well then, shut the entire company down - and demand action from every country's legilslative and police entities to cooperate - or else. Access can be cut off at any agreed-upon level, even countries.
#4
Oh, ick, TGA, that site is a sick one. Yep, time for a DOS there.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004 13:44 Comments ||
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Germany has actually won the case against American neo-Nazi Gary Lauck for control the domain name, but of course the content will surely be published under a different name.
Would be easier if Neo-Nazis were classified as terrorists.
#6
ya ever notice the guys that like to dress up as Nazis are usually the pasty-faced pussies that got their asses kicked (and never got chicks) that you remember from school? That dweeb is one of them
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 14:09 Comments ||
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Child pornography's out of bounds, but child torture, child slaughter, and targeting more children for torture and slaughter are OK. Love those progressive scandinavians.
Excellent review of North Korea's economics, and the role American and South Korean aid has played in keeping the NKors afloat, from Nicholas Eberstadt at the AEI. Way too long to post here but it's superb.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004 12:00:00 AM ||
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Posted by: Robin Burk ||
10/10/2004 7:30 Comments ||
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Steve White---This is a DYNAMITE paper! I am about halfway through it. The question that is asked in the paper is why hasn't the NORK regime collapsed like the Soviet Union?
The answer seems to be that other countries are propping it up with various forms of aid. One of those countries is of course China. SKor is also in there. But the big surprise is the magnitude of aid given by the USA during the period from 1998 to 2002. It is absolutely unbelievable! I can understand Clinton doing it, but I cannot fathom why the Bush Administration was doing it for 2 years. The Norks have also turned to nefarious enterprises (missiles, narcotics, weapons) to help their balance of trade. The point so far is that our aid was the biggest contribution of any foreign power, and that this aid may have been the thing that prevented the evil regime of Kimmy from collapsing.
If this situation as mentioned in the article is true, then Congress needs to know what this country is doing and some serious ass in the Administration and State needs to be kicked and weeded out of the government. We cannot win the WoT with this kind of enabling mentality.
In the words of the immortal Pogo:
We have met the enemy and he is us.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 15:49 Comments ||
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Thank you Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Madeleine Albright. Without your sagacious policies, North Korea might have collapsed in the 90s.
#3
Can you not see a better way to level the playing field? Get serious, guys. The stupid law is the one which bans the headscarves of the Muslim teachers. All for one and one for all.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
10/10/2004 23:25 Comments ||
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I've ranted against the anti-headscarves laws before, mainly because I see them as the sorts of things that let the French and Germans pretend they're doing something about terrorism while they're taking bribes from Saddam (or the current government of Sudan).
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
10/10/2004 23:37 Comments ||
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The Germans didn't mind making Jewish people wear yellow Stars of David on armbands during WWII. The Vichy French went along with the Germans.
There is a certain numbskullery in both cultures.
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 23:48 Comments ||
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CLARE SHORT, the former cabinet minister, has provoked outrage by describing the cause behind Osama Bin Laden's terrorism as "just". In an interview with a Dubai newspaper, the MP, who resigned from the cabinet after the Iraq invasion last year, makes a fierce attack on the prime minister. However, her most contentious remarks were those in support of Bin Laden's cause. In the interview with the English-language Gulf News, Short said she had been reading a book by a US intelligence analyst that painted a sympathetic picture of the Al-Qaeda chief. "The author says Osama Bin Laden considers it a war, a defensive jihad, because the people in the Middle East are being crushed and destroyed and their resources, their oil, misused and they have got to defend their civilisation and their religion," she said. "So I think the killing of civilians is always wrong, all the Prophet Muhammad's teachings said it was wrong, but I think the cause is just."
Oxygen, please! My breath has been taken away...
Short saw little difference between the actions of British and US troops and terrorists, claiming allied forces had deliberately killed innocent people. "I think all of us should criticise the immoral message of targeting innocent civilians and it's clear the coalition has done that to innocent civilians in Iraq as well," she said. Parts of the interview, in which Short compares Iraqi insurgents to French resistance fighters in the second world war, appeared last week. However, The Sunday Times has now obtained a copy of the full interview. Short makes a strident attack on Tony Blair. "The mood of the cabinet in the build-up to the Iraq war was very worried. People kept saying we must go through the UN and Blair kept saying, yes of course, yes. He gave us a whole series of half-truths and deceptions . . . He gave his word to support (George) Bush and at the same time he misled his party, his cabinet, parliament and country into thinking that he wanted to avoid war." Her comments have been denounced by the Tories, who accused her of encouraging more terrorist attacks. Short was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 10:12:07 PM ||
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Moronic misguided miscreant idiot.
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 22:50 Comments ||
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Yes, that's right, folks. Like a severe case of herpes, Claire Short is back shooting off her mouth about his favorite cause: killing yehuds and fellating Islamofascsts, the New Socialists of the 21st Century.
#4
Sounds like she read Imperial Hubris by "anonymous". It also sounds like she's seriously cherry picking out the bits that agree with her opinion to create her own set of half truths and deceptions.
It's not a bad book, but to say he is sympathetic to bin Laden is a gross distortion. There is a level of understanding of bin Laden in the book not found in much other work about him, but the author is unflinching in his assesment of what needs to be done and who the victor must be.
Posted by: Jack ||
10/11/2004 0:55 Comments ||
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Besides making stupid comments to the press - what is Ms. Short doing these days? Flipping burgers?
The US Democrat presidential hopeful John Kerry has warned that if he wins the Nov. 2 election there will be no reprieve for sidelined Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The United States, like Israel, has refused to deal with Arafat, and Kerry entered the debate late Saturday by warning that if he won next month's election there would be no reprieve for the veteran Palestinian leader. "We have been at this for a long time. Mr. Arafat has proven his unwillingness and incapacity to be able to act as a legitimate partner in the peace process," Kerry said in a Florida campaign rally.
Kerry also said his job as president, if elected, would be to "hold those Arab countries accountable that still support terrorists — Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Aqsa Brigades and others." The Democrat hopeful also praised Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for his "courageous" plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip next year. Speaking two days after bombings at two Egyptian Red Sea resorts that killed at least 34 people, most of them Israelis, Kerry warned that the Jewish state was under attack. "People are trying to continue to create havoc... Israel remains under assault, kids blown up on buses, people sitting at restaurants, trying to live their lives," Kerry said. "I will not give one inch in our efforts to do that," he said.
President George W. Bush has riled US allies in Europe and the Middle East by refusing to deal with Arafat, saying he had links to terrorism and could not be trusted to make peace. On Friday, in the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Missouri, Bush repeated his stern line on the Palestinian leader. "I wouldn't deal with Arafat because I felt like he had let the former president down and I don't think he's the kind of person that can lead toward a Palestinian state," Bush said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 9:06:57 PM ||
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I guess Kerry found out that Arabs are a smaller voting block than Jews and Christian groups that support Israel.
#2
Ooo, Arafish must be shaking in his stinky boots.
NOT.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 21:31 Comments ||
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Kerry is just blowing smoke because of poll figures.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 22:25 Comments ||
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What's Kerry going to do, get really pissed and go to the UN and seek an International test???? And then ask the UN for a nutless resolution?
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 22:47 Comments ||
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Well, he was speaking in Florida -- heavy Jewish vote. Wonder what he has to say in Detroit?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 22:58 Comments ||
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Kerry was sucking up to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Sharpton should stick with Saturday Night Live--he will get a better deal. Kerry=Clinton without the sex. Both extreme leftists. Both stick their finger (index) in the air to see what people want to hear and then say it. Kerry=No principles. Stick your finger (bird) in the air to Kerry-Edwards, vote for "W."
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 23:11 Comments ||
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I'm sure that Kerry has blamed Bush and Republicans at some point for dealing with Arafat. If someone could find footage, it would make a great commerical!
#8
The USA's policy toward the Israel-Palestine issue is rather bipartisan. Whether the President is a Democrat or Republican makes little difference.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
10/11/2004 9:07 Comments ||
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well..tell me, Mike...what does Kerry's voting record say about that?
*snip*
In Washington, Republican Party chief Ed Gillespie criticized Kerry for saying in an interview in The New York Times Magazine that, "We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance." The "place were we were" is what got us attacked, DUMBASS.
He appeared to equate terrorism to ChIraq's behavior prostitution and illegal gambling, saying they can be reduced but not ended. With terrorists, I prefer the analogy to cockroaches. We may not be able to completely eliminate them, but the approach is one of extermination, not toleration.
"This demonstrates a disconcerting pre-September 11 mind-set that will not make our country safer," Gillespie said on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "And that is what we see relative to winning the war on terror and relative to Iraq (news - web sites)." Polite way of saying, "Is Kerry fucking NUTS?" (Note to Ed: Yes)
Hours later, Bush's re-election campaign announced a new television ad that plays off of Kerry's interview comment. "Terrorism ... a nuisance? How can Kerry protect us when he doesn't understand the threat?" the ad says. The campaign said the ad would run on national cable television networks and the campaign's Web site. Heh.
Kerry also blathers on a bunch of racist crap about disenfranchisement, etc., etc. Barf. Read the whole thing if you need your blood pressure raised.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 6:02:27 PM ||
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You can't get any more European than that. The old..."If we close our eyes tight enough and can't see the terrorists standing in front of us, they can't hurt us."
#2
I was just over at the Freep, Barbara and Zulu. There's a thread with a link to Bush/Cheney.com. Kerry's "nuisance" quip is already grist for a new ad.
The link has the transcript up. Can only imagine what the video is going to look like.
Jack.
Posted by: Jack Deth ||
10/10/2004 18:57 Comments ||
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This terrorism-as-nuisance theme emerged in a long article/interview in today's New York Times Magazine (link here) which also contained these blindingly iridescent examples of utter incoherence:
"I think we can do a better job," Kerry said, "of cutting off financing, of exposing groups, of working cooperatively across the globe, of improving our intelligence capabilities nationally and internationally, of training our military and deploying them differently, of specializing in special forces and special ops, of working with allies, and most importantly -- and I mean most importantly -- of restoring America's reputation as a country that listens, is sensitive, brings people to our side, is the seeker of peace, not war, and that uses our high moral ground and high-level values to augment us in the war on terror, not to diminish us."
and
"We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance," Kerry said. "As a former law-enforcement person, I know we're never going to end prostitution. We're never going to end illegal gambling. But we're going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn't on the rise. It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life."
And if that doesn't convince you to keep this friggin' dimwit out of the White House, nothing will.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/10/2004 19:05 Comments ||
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John Fraud Kerry has his head up his ass so far he can't see what is going on.
I get so fed up with his "sensitive" bullshit.
Kerry has not had much success in attracting other countries to his way of thinking.
Soooooo, he equates terrorism to prostitution and gambling and that these things are nuisances. What a dumb fuck. What the hell part of we are in a world wide war against terrorism that he doesn't get. I guess all of it.
I worry that US voters will be duped by der slickness and lies. Some voters are fickle and piss away their vote for some of most damnable reasons.
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 19:38 Comments ||
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We should be sensitive. 3,000 of our brothers and sisters were murdered and the same has been promised to the rest of us. I am very sensitive to that kind of thing. So we should kick ass until the rest of the world gets the idea that that is not the sort of thing one should do unless they wish their 72 virgins sooner rather than later.
Wow, now I feel as sensitive as Alan Alda.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/10/2004 19:45 Comments ||
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Mrs. D, I would say that you have a very sensitive perception of the situation!
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 19:55 Comments ||
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Among other complaints about Kerry's thinking, such as it is: prostitutes and gamblers don't try to impose their behaviours on innocent bystanders by violence. Even organized crime operates within pretty strict parameters, ie the Mob doesn't try to take over the elementary school PTA or undermine the government. I was always given to understand that the Mob are a actually a pretty patriotic bunch -- after all, their ancestors made the Exodus same as us law-abiding folk.
Besides, the argument has always been that the adolescent, naive, stupid, fat, over-aggressive Americans are oblivious cowboys, who by definition are incapable of sensitively listening to their sophisticated, nuanced, cultured elders.
I think Kerry is overcompensating for the anti-American nonsense his boarding school chums recited to torment him.
#8
I just had the pleaure of mailing in what I am sure will be one of MANY ballots that will defeat this idiot at the polls. This suit is empty and should not even be elect dog catcher let alone a US Senator! I think they have become our house of lords with everything that is bad about them and none of the good.
#9
Here's a definition of "nuisance" I just Googled: "One that is inconvenient, annoying, or vexatious; a bother: Having to stand in line was a nuisance. The disruptive child was a nuisance to the class."
When have terrorists of any type been a nuisance? I don't think the British ever considered the IRA annoying. What about the Israelis? I'm sure they look at the problems over there as being simply inconvenient. (Sarcasm.)
I hope no one ever looks at terrorism as a nuisance. What the hell is wrong with this guy? He's scary. He plans on fighting a sensitive war against the future nuisances. Riiiight.
A powerful "old guard" faction in the Central Intelligence Agency has launched an unprecedented campaign to undermine the Bush administration with a battery of damaging leaks and briefings about Iraq.
In that case they should be tossed. I no more want the CIA involved in politix than I want the Army involved in politix. Maybe less...
The White House is incensed by the increasingly public sniping from some senior intelligence officers who, it believes, are conducting a partisan operation to swing the election on November 2 in favour of John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, and against George W Bush. Jim Pavitt, a 31-year CIA veteran who retired as a departmental chief in August, said that he cannot recall a time of such "viciousness and vindictiveness" in a battle between the White House and the agency. John Roberts, a conservative security analyst, commented bluntly: "When the President cannot trust his own CIA, the nation faces dire consequences."
It means it's time to dismantle the CIA and replace it with something else...
Relations between the White House and the agency are widely regarded as being at their lowest ebb since the hopelessly botched Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by CIA-sponsored exiles under President John F Kennedy in 1961. There is anger within the CIA that it has taken all the blame for the failings of pre-war intelligence on Saddam Hussein's weapons programmes. Former senior CIA officials argue that so-called "neo-conservative" hawks such as the vice president, Dick Cheney, the secretary of defence, Donald Rumsfeld, and his number three at the defence department, Douglas Feith, have prompted the ill-feeling by demanding "politically acceptable" results from the agency and rejecting conclusions they did not like. Yet Colin Powell, the less hardline secretary of state, has also been scathing in his criticism of pre-war intelligence briefings. The leaks are also a shot across the bows of Porter Goss, the agency's new director and a former Republican congressman. He takes over with orders from the White House to end the in-fighting and revamp the troubled spy agency as part of a radical overhaul of the American intelligence world.
Goss had better bring them to heel with a tight choke chain immediately. We don't need a praetorian guard in this country...
Bill Harlow, the former CIA spokesman who left with the former director George Tenet in July, acknowledged that there had been leaks from within the agency. "The intelligence community has been made the scapegoat for all the failings over Iraq," he said. "It deserves some of the blame, but not all of it. People are chafing at that, and that's the background to these leaks."
Chafe and be damned. The CIA has no place in internal American politix. It's an agency of the government, not a driver...
Fighting to defend their patch ahead of the future review, anti-Bush CIA operatives have ensured that Iraq remains high on the election campaign agenda long after Republican strategists such as Karl Rove, the President's closest adviser, had hoped that it would fade from the front pages. In the latest clash, a senior former CIA agent revealed that Mr Cheney "blew up" when a report into links between the Saddam regime and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the terrorist behind the kidnappings and beheadings of hostages in Iraq, including the Briton Kenneth Bigley, proved inconclusive. Other recent leaks have included the contents of classified reports drawn up by CIA analysts before the invasion of Iraq, warning the White House about the dangers of post-war instability. Specifically, the reports said that rogue Ba'athist elements might team up with terrorist groups to wage a guerrilla war.
When I went to work for the agency I worked for, I signed numerous non-disclosure statements. Whenever I got a new access, I signed non-disclosure statements. When I had my 5-year-updates, I signed non-disclosure documents. I guess those apply only to us guys working at the peon level.
Critics of the White House include officials who have served in previous Republican administrations such as Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA head of counter-terrorism and member of the National Security Council under Ronald Reagan. "These have been an extraordinary four years for the CIA and the political pressure to come up with the right results has been enormous, particularly from Vice-President Cheney. "I'm afraid that the agency is guilty of bending over backwards to please the administration. George Tenet was desperate to give them what they wanted and that was a complete disaster." With the simmering rows breaking out in public, the Wall Street Journal declared in an editorial that the administration was now fighting two insurgencies: one in Iraq and one at the CIA. With just 23 days before the country votes for its next president, both sides are braced for further bruising encounters.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004 1:15:33 AM ||
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That's it. I call for a PURGE.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/10/2004 1:21 Comments ||
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If these sacks of skin can't shut up and get on with their jobs and quit attacking their boss Mr Bush by not keeping their mouths shut perhaps a bit of wet work will convince them. I don't care a whit that they don't like the heat. Seems to me they have been steping on their own meat. STFU and do your job or go to jail or worse. If it's known who these larpos are lock them up. Supporting Kerry on company time is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.
Posted by: Sock Puppet on the Road (to Doom) ||
10/10/2004 2:05 Comments ||
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They've crossed the line when they put politics and the agency ahead of thier oath to "uphold and defend".
The CIA is filled with careerists who dicked things up in Iraq, and blew it in 9/11, blew it in previous missle attacks during Clinton against Afghanistan, etc.
Its time the CIA was disassembled, and its functions assigned to the military for "direct operations", and the NSA/NRO for satellite stuff, and new part of the FBI to handle state-side counter-terr, and a revamped service along the lines of NSA except focused on HUMINT. And that agency would be along side rather than "first among equals" that the CIA is now.
Somone needs to break some heads over ethere at CIA and have them stand up, take the balme for the errors and gross mistakes, and get the ball rolling for reform, including firing the desk-bound pencil pushers who came to command during the 90's and dont know squat about running anything other than political ops. Bring back some cold-war guys who know how to manage an agency that is in a fight against a determined clever opponent - and promote some of the guys with filed experience now in the Stans and other regions.
Get rid of the residue of middle managers brought to senior positions from 91 thru 2001.
Its either that or have the CIA become completely ineefective and politicised.
In the face of that sort of insubordination, disloyalty, and seditious behavior by people inside th agency, we probably have no other resort than to tear the agency apart and rebuild it from the ground up. Look at NSA in the late 70's to early 80's for an example of how to do that.
#5
We, fuckwit Thriger? You're not American, asshole, and thus you have no say in the matter. In fact, given your silly mishmash, it's entirely likely you're either DhimmiSpanish (or similar SocialistScumTwit) or part of a Target-Rich Society. In the former, you're on your own and fucked... In the latter, we'll be seeing you real soon. Smile for the satellites, K?
#6
Fighting to defend their patch ahead of the future review, anti-Bush CIA operatives have ensured that Iraq remains high on the election campaign agenda long after Republican strategists such as Karl Rove, the Presidentâs closest adviser, had hoped that it would fade from the front pages.
Its my ball and you can't play with it. I think a lot of this is defending their territory from invasion by any overseeing or unified agency that might be created. And if they think Kerry will be their friend, well tell me where I can get some of that happy smoke too
#8
I wonder how many CIA personnel are like State Department personnel, on the US payroll when on active duty protecting the interests of the Saud family and in retirement on the Saudi dole. I doubt many in Ops are, but I'll bet a whole boatload of analysts and the types who do this political leaking are.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
10/10/2004 9:46 Comments ||
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Many came through during the late 80's, 90's, when they botched the fall of USSR. Intel gathered previously from personal contacts shifted to intel from satellites and sigint, more of a NSA-type work. They've lost their expertise and focus and are circling the wagons rather than accept, adapt, and overcoming their faults. Clean house
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 10:06 Comments ||
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I'm with Frank. Clean house.
November 3d.
And in State, too.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 10:11 Comments ||
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When Colin Powell resigns after the election, I wanted to see him replaced by Donald Trump. Not that Trump would be good interacting with other nations. I just wanted him to serve for about two months. He could walk around the state department building saying just two words to every employee he met. Perhaps Bush could start him at Langley.
Posted by: A Jackson ||
10/10/2004 10:29 Comments ||
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#12
I've said it before in other posts, Dems could have taken Bush to the woodshed if they wanted to. Bush should have fired the top 3-5 tiers of CIA, FBI and State in the weeks following 9/11. The lesson of getting it right the first time would have gotten through, despite the deluge of lawsuits and MSM whining. Then Bush should have appointed to the top positions personnel who didn't owe their allegiance to the system, but to the nation and its president in a time of emergency. Should have, could have, didn't.
William Casey did not reform CIA, he merely used its assets to complete his mission for the president, much to the chagrin of the old line CIA. Casey just ignored them.
Mrs Davis, CIA in Saudi Arabia aren't like State, that is, wholly bought and paid for. They are like CIA in a Soviet state, operating on rumors and state pronouncements without independent information sources of their own, and unable to cultivate them because the Saudis are technically "allies."
And for SECSTATE when the hopelessly overrated and outmanned Powell resigns? Alan Keyes. What fun that would be!
#13
The self-promoting Vince Cannistraro was well known for his proclivity to surround himself with yes men. Check his comments in a google search. You will be surprised at the depth of his ignorance.
#14
I concur - if Bush has any glaring weakness, its being too "loyal" to people who failed in their jobs.
He should have demanded Tenet's resignation a week after the first planes hit. And continued on down the line until the heads of the failed parts of the CIUA were all relieved of duty.
We are now paying the price - leaks of calssified information for political purposes are despicable - and show that the CIA is has too many who are political opportunists determine to play the blame game instead of loyal Americans who are trying to do whats best for the nation.
#15
Laurie Mylroie wrote a book "Bush vs. the Beltway" about the war of the old guard -- those non dot connecting schmucks -- at CIA and State being conducted against Bush.
But first read the book by former CIA field officer Robert Baer -- not a conservative -- "See No Evil" about the nature of the CIA. Their capabilities in the field are about nil. They have been destroyed by the bureaucratic cancer which infects the top layers of the agency.
And to see how the agency got to where they can't find their arses with both hands, read Bill Gertz's "Breakdown".
#17
being too "loyal" to people who failed in their jobs.
One would hope that Bush, having been badly screwed by George "Slam Dunk" Tenet, will be a lot less inclined toward loyalty from here forward.
Let's see if he starts to clean house Nov. 3. Get rid of the arabists at State in the process.
#18
After the grand Election Day Victory the Bush White House shall need to place a rather substaial order for the following items to be shiiped to American inteligence service(s) Ajax, Comet, Spic and Span, Formula W-409, Fantastik-04, Lysol Plus Bleach, Tilex scum remover, Windex, 'new'-Pledge and order real heavy on the Raid for those real tough, leftover, lurking pests which maybe hidding in the back offices.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/10/2004 14:58 Comments ||
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#22
if Bush has any glaring weakness, its being too "loyal" to people who failed in their jobs.
Yet another fault of following the New Testament ... I often get the feeling that the president -- no offense to believing Christians -- is too much of one, or at least he's still got too much "love" and not enough "wrath" ... if I were president, here's what the next DCI's initial meeting would look like:
It's simple. You work with me, I will help you. If you try your best but come up short, I will fight to help you to do your job. But if you betray me or undermine me -- I will END your career. And that of your wife. And that of your children. I will hound you onto death, I will RUIN you and your entire family, so that you may be an example for Directors to come.
Dismissed.
So, how was that?[/preening]
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
10/10/2004 22:16 Comments ||
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#23
republican do not represent America
this scum full of complexes and mental insecurity are the clowns of the planet and will be make irrelevant. time is come ,we will go against this bastard that cause 1000 soldiers to die for no reason
Lawmakers Saturday approved a $447 billion 2005 defense spending bill as Congress pushed forward with final actions before adjourning for the elections. Attempting to complete work so members can return to their states and districts to campaign, the House and Senate approved a 3.5 percent pay raise for military personnel and expanded health care for reservists. Also included is $25 billion for operational costs in Iraq and Afghanistan. In addition, the measure kills a $23 billion leasing contract between Boeing Co. and the Air Force for refueling tankers. However, the Air Force can still buy 100 of Boeing's 767 aircraft for such purposes after the completion of studies.
In separate action, the House approved without dissent a $32 billion homeland security funding bill after days of political breakdown concerning a controversial extension of federal milk subsidies that Northeastern senators wanted included in the final bill. The proposed 2-year, $2.4 billion extension of the subsidy benefiting small dairy farmers was opposed by Western lawmakers whose dairy constituents tend to be larger farmers and left out of the final bill by GOP leaders. The Senate is expected to approve the bill sometime in the next few days.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004 12:22:16 AM ||
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Several slouching Muslim rebels spring to attention as visitors approach the makeshift meeting room in a corner of their camp. Inside, Al Haj Murad's bookish appearance and gentle voice belie his status as the head of the Philippines' largest Muslim militant group and one of the country's most powerful men. "We are solid," he says during an interview with Reuters, expressing certainty that he has the full support of his at least 12,000 fighters.
Shows of unity are more important than ever for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as it returns to peace talks with the government after a three-year break and tries to shake off allegations that its camps are a training ground for militants. But deepening divisions within the MILF between moderates and Middle-East influenced radicals could turn out to be one of the biggest obstacles to ending the 30-year-old conflict. The risk is that the MILF may splinter if its leadership signs a peace deal that falls short of the long-cherished goal of independence for Muslim-majority areas, leaving southern Mindanao island stuck in conflict and poverty. "I think the MILF is having a lot of trouble in their own ranks," said Zachary Abuza, a professor at Boston's Simmons College and an expert on the Mindanao conflict. "There's growing radicalism within the MILF that's scaring the older generation. At the same time the general population their constituency is getting really war-weary."
Division in the MILF helps explain why it has found it so difficult to address international concerns about its links with militant groups such as Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiah. Analysts say individual commanders may have kept links with the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah, blamed for a string of attacks in Southeast Asia, including the 2002 bombings of nightclubs on Indonesia's Bali island, without the leadership's permission. Despite expressing confidence in his group's unity, Murad voiced concern that the older generation may not be able to control a younger, more radical breed of MILF fighter for much longer. "What we are afraid of is that the younger generation will replace the older generation of leaders and because they are more involved in the war, the possibility of them turning radical is very, very high," he told Reuters on Saturday.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004 1:10:08 AM ||
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Pointing to Lebanon as a stable exception in a troubled neighborhood, President Bashar Assad has suggested an end to Syrian intervention in Lebanon would lead to chaos there. Assad, addressing a conference of expatriate Syrians in Damascus on Saturday, rejected accusations his country seeks to dominate its smaller neighbor. He described a U.N. resolution calling for Syrian troops to pull out of Lebanon "blatant interference" in Lebanon's internal affairs. "We have no interest in such domination," Assad said.
On Sept. 2, the U.N. Security Council narrowly adopted a U.S.-French resolution calling for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon and the election of a new Lebanese president according to the constitution. The following day, apparently under Syrian pressure, Lebanon's parliament voted to extend President Emile Lahoud's term until 2007, beyond the constitutional maximum in defiance of the U.N. resolution. Assad said the resolution had nothing to do with extending Lahoud's mandate and was "ready a long time ago."
The aim of the U.N. resolution, he said, was to damage Lebanon-Syrian relations and put pressure on both countries. Assad said Lebanon and Syria were two of the most stable countries in the region, suggesting a Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon would destabilize that country. "Do they want to throw this region, with no exception, in the heart of lava inside the volcano?" he asked. Opposition groups in Lebanon long have called for an end to Syria's dominance and interference in domestic affairs. Although Assad said Lebanon has no natural resources to be coveted, the country remains strategically important for Syria as a playing card in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Assad also denied what he said were media reports that Syria has held secret peace talks with Israel, saying his country wants to negotiate publicly with the Jewish state. It was not clear what reports he was referring to. "For us, the peace process would never be anything but public," he said. He said if the Israelis prefer to hold secret talks, they are "thinking that the negotiations are a crime or a disgraceful act." Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has rebuffed Assad's offers to resume talks, saying Syria must first expel militant Palestinian groups based in Damascus and rein in Hezbollah guerrillas along the Lebanon-Israel border.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004 1:26:06 PM ||
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Exactly what can be expected in a society as self-destructive as the Islamofascist Paleos. I wish I were shocked at the "moral equating" of the author. The problem is solely with Islam, and especially how the Paloestinians have perverted their society with joo-hating being the end-all and be-all of their society. They are just reaping a whirlwind of their own making.
One side accuses Palestinian gunmen of using children as human shields, a cruelty so callous as to have no equal. And one side accuses Israeli soldiers of trigger-happy indifference, methodically felling the very young with deadeye abandon. But there is a third truth here on the unspeakably mean streets of the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza. It speaks not so much to the sickening concepts of Israelis or Palestinians spending children as if they were mere shekels, but rather to a notion even more horrifying — that the social order here has broken down so completely that the children are simply spending themselves.
As of yesterday, there were 18 children among the confirmed toll of 94 Palestinians killed since Sept. 28, when Israel's tanks rolled into northern Gaza in a massive invasion to staunch the flow of rockets flying toward the civilians of Israel proper. Whether by helicopter gunship fire, the missiles of unmanned military drones or the periodic tank shells that pierce the eastern side of this compressed cinderblock city of 106,000, Israel is not only getting its man, it is getting a boy hovering fatally close to the action.
A "nookie brides for jihad" campaign has been launched by Islamic militants in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, intimidating local families into offering their daughters to foreign fighters waging war on America and its allies. A fundamentalist group, the Islamic Council of Mosul, has written letters to residents in western parts of the city, which is near the Syrian border, demanding that the name of every girl is put on a list. The register is held at the Al-Mahmood mosque whose imam, Zinad al-Jaburi, boasts that he has married off three of his daughters to Syrian terrorists. "These people are heroes they have come to Iraq and want to make their new home here," he said. "Marrying local women ties them to us and our families."
According to local residents, Mr al-Jaburi has threatened his followers with death if they do not respond to the letters distributed at his mosque, which place a religious obligation on recipients. "Join your daughters to our Syrian brothers who have come to help Iraq," they read. "Allah says you must marry your daughters to good men. We ask each honest father that lives in Mosul city to support the project in order to be a real Muslim and achieve the glory of the holy Koran."
The first Syrian man to be married at the mosque was killed soon after during an ambush on American troops. Shihab Rifaie, who was purportedly in Mosul dealing in imported second hand cars, married an 18-year-old called Sara whose father had put her name on the mosque list. Her family refused to talk about their late son-in-law but a neighbour, Yunis Lilou, said: "I am too astonished for words that these people would make their daughters marry a suicide terrorist. We must control the situation and destroy this movement." Local police say they are aware of the forced marriages but are unable to tackle the problem because of the culture of fear perpetuated by the foreign jihadists. Families have been torn apart over the marriages, with fatal consequences. At the end of last month, a 24-year-old local man, Ayad Mazher, killed a young Syrian fighter who had won the agreement of his father to marry his sister, Sarhan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 10:34:26 PM ||
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The suicide bombings in Sinai have triggered a wave of conspiracy theories in Egypt, where many believe Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Jews were behind the attacks. Several Egyptians interviewed over the past few days on Arab satellite stations said they did not believe Muslim terrorists were capable of launching such massive attacks. Most interviewees agreed Israel was the only beneficiary of the bombings and claimed once again that the Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington. Egyptian journalist Nabil Sharif Eddin said numerous conspiracy theories about Israel's alleged role have flourished. "Analyses based on conspiracy theories are spreading not only on the level of the man on the street, but also among political and intellectual circles," he said.
General (Ret.) Muhammad Abdel Fattah Omar, a former senior official with the Egyptian Ministry of Interior, which is responsible for the country's security services, was one of the first Egyptians to accuse Israel of masterminding the attacks. "In each operation, we should first try to find out who benefits from it," he said. "Israel is the only party that benefits from the Sinai attacks. The Israelis and their agents are the only ones who are able to enter this area without difficulty."
University professor Salwa Hussein vehemently defended the conspiracy theories as a "historic fact." She explained: "The Arab world lies in the heart of the globe and if its power continues to grow, the Arabs will control the other countries as was the case with the Islamic state... Today the conspiracy against Islam is continuing and even spreading."
Abdullah al-Ashal, a former top official with the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said he had no doubts that Israeli hands were involved in the bombings. "Israel's ultimate plan is to bring Egypt to its knees and eliminate its regional role," he told the IslamOnline Web site. Ashal, who served as assistant foreign minister, went on to claim that by pointing a finger at al-Qaida, Israel was seeking to include Egypt in the US-led war on terror.
The Muslim Brotherhood organization issued a statement in Cairo in which it accused the Mossad and Jews of planning and carrying out the attacks. The group said the attacks were designed to divert attention from Israel's "brutal massacres" against the Palestinians and the "barbaric attacks by the American occupation forces in Iraq."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 9:24:00 PM ||
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Security forces in Mauritania have arrested a prominent Muslim leader for allegedly backing a failed coup in the West African country. Shaikh Muhammad al-Didaw was the latest in a string of detentions of activists who have publicly called for national conciliation among political forces in the country, Aljazeera's correspondent said on Monday. Head of the Mauritanian Islamist Movement (MIM), al-Didaw's arrest follows those of fellow members Jamil Wald Mansur and Mukhtar Musa. Sources close to the government said all three were taken into custody in the city of Roso on the border with Senegal after being linked to a failed coup masterminded by Captain Salih Wald Hanana.
At least two attempts to oust President Muawiya Wald Taya have been made in the last 15 months. In August, Mauritanian troops were confined to barracks in the capital, Nouakchott, after unconfirmed reports of a foiled putsch. An opposition deputy and a human rights lawyer on 10 August said there was talk of more than a dozen army officers having been arrested at the time. The apparent attempt to kill the president took place at the airport as he was leaving for France. There was no official confirmation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 9:17:11 PM ||
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Ethiopian-backed warlord Abdullahi Yusuf was elected Somali president by lawmakers yesterday, according to an unofficial tally, in the 14th attempt in a decade to restore government to the lawless African country. Yusuf won 185 votes cast by parliamentarians meeting as an electoral college in neighboring Kenya, against 76 for opponent Abdullahi Addou, in a third and final round of voting, according to a Reuters tally of results that were read out one by one by officials. If the result is confirmed Yusuf will head a transitional federal government (TFG) that will attempt to shepherd the broken country of up to 10 million to elections under a new constitution in five years' time. Somali lawmakers voted for the new president for their anarchic Horn of Africa state in an election held in Nairobi. Three of six Somali presidential candidates who qualified for the second round in yesterday's election pulled out of the race moments before the start of the ballot. "I am pulling out of the race and I will support anyone who is elected. That is democracy," Salat, who won just 15 votes in the first round, told the packed stadium.
Interesting definition...
Salat's administration never managed to exert authority beyond a few pockets of the Somali capital, Mogadishu. "All my life I have worked for a united Somalia and it is for that reason that I am withdrawing," Barre, half brother to Somalia's last president, the late Mohammed Siad Barre, toppled in 1991, said on announcing his withdrawal. "For the sake of the Somali nation I give up my desire to be president," was Hussein Ado's valediction.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 9:02:08 PM ||
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October 10, 2004: The Islamic terrorists who planned the attacks on the Egyptian beach hotel at Taba missed one important detail, the place was particularly popular with Israeli Arabs. About a third of those killed or missing were Israeli Arabs. That, plus the deaths among the Egyptian staff of the hotel, mean that about 40 percent of the dead and injured were Moslem. That, plus the Egyptian loss of jobs for several years, as Israeli tourists stay away, get the Islamic terrorists more ill will in Egypt, and the Arab world in general. The war on terror is a war of public opinion, as well as bombs and bullets. Islamic bombs have been killing a lot of Moslem women and children lately, and that does not go down well in the Islamic world.
The Egyptian police are already rounding up the usual suspects, including twenty Bedouins, suspected of supplying the ton of explosives. Bedouins have been smuggling, and operating on the edges of society, for centuries. Criminals and terrorists will go to Bedouins for what they cannot get legitimately. Israeli and Egyptian police are working together on the investigation, another development that is unlikely to please those behind the bombing.
Posted by: ed ||
10/10/2004 3:51:45 PM ||
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#1
get the Islamic terrorists more ill will in Egypt, and the Arab world in general
Awwwwww. Ain't that just too bad.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 21:39 Comments ||
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Insurgent networks across Iraq are increasingly trying to acquire and use toxic nerve gases, blister agents and germ weapons against U.S. and coalition forces, according to a CIA report. Investigators said one group recruited scientists and sought to prepare poisons over seven months before it was dismantled in June. U.S. officials say the threat is especially worrisome because leaders of the previously unknown group, which investigators dubbed the "Al Abud network," were based in the city of Fallouja near insurgents aligned with fugitive militant Abu Musab Zarqawi. The CIA says Zarqawi, who is blamed for numerous attacks on U.S. forces and beheadings of hostages, has long sought to use chemical and biological weapons against targets in Europe as well as Iraq.
An exhaustive report released last week by Charles A. Duelfer, the CIA's chief weapons investigator in Iraq, concluded that Saddam Hussein destroyed his stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the early 1990s and never tried to rebuild them. But a little-noticed section of the 960-page report says the risk of a "devastating" attack with unconventional weapons has grown since the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq last year. The Bush administration, which went to war primarily to disarm the Baghdad regime of suspected illicit stockpiles, has not previously disclosed that the insurgent groups that have emerged and steadily expanded since Hussein's ouster are trying to develop their own crude supplies of such deadly agents as mustard gas, ricin and the nerve gas tabun. Neither of the two chemists who worked for Al Abud had ties to Hussein's long-defunct weapons programs, and Duelfer's investigators found no evidence that the group's poison project was part of a "prescribed plan by the former regime to fuel an insurgency."
For now, the leaders and financiers of the network "remain at large, and alleged chemical munitions remain unaccounted," the report says. It adds that other insurgent groups are "planning or attempting to produce or acquire" chemical and biological agents throughout Iraq, and says the availability of chemicals and munitions, as well as sympathetic former Iraqi weapons scientists, "increases the future threat." The discoveries are separate from several attacks this year involving chemical munitions, the report says. In May and June, insurgents used old chemical-filled artillery shells, left over from Iraq's pre-1991 stocks, in three roadside bombs. Partly because of the age of the weapons, no chemical injuries were reported. In all, U.S. forces have recovered 53 decaying chemical-filled shells or artillery rockets that apparently were looted from unguarded ammunition bunkers or other sites.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004 3:20:08 AM ||
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#1
incorrect amounts of the precursors and inadequate processes
Sounds like somebody is trying cookbook recipies. Fortunately the sort of person that would be able to sucessfully produce a militarily useful quantity and deploy it effectively can usualy find more productive employment elsewhere. Given the problems these guys have with plain old explosives (Is it the red or the blue wire, Ahmed?) the thought of adding (insert favorite persitant agent here) is for me distressing only because of the numbers of potential (relatively!) innocent bystanders involved.
Still, its good that our side got ahead of the curve here. NBC suits are uncomfortable to operate in.
Posted by: N Guard ||
10/10/2004 8:01 Comments ||
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#2
Another factor is that chemical and bio-weapons are the other two legs of the WMD 'triad'. The US has the option to respond in kind whenever WMD are used against itself or its allies.
I'm under the impression that the US has eschewed chemical and bio-weapons. If so, that leaves one other kind of weapon, and the US has quite a few of them.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/10/2004 8:42 Comments ||
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#3
The US has no bio weapons. The US has been destroying chem weapons stocks under the Chemical Weapons Convention and all stocks are supposed to destroyed by 2007. The US may be behind schedule (extensions are in the treaty) since we may be pacing destruction of our stocks with the FSU's stock destruction. The FSU is behind schedule.
Posted by: ed ||
10/10/2004 12:40 Comments ||
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THE ISRAELI government has ordered Mossad, the foreign intelligence service, to make the hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists its main priority after last week's Red Sea attacks that killed at least 33 people, most of them Israeli tourists. As rescuers pulled more bodies from the wreckage of the hotel, Dan Arditi, Israel's counterterrorism chief, urged tourists still in Egypt to come home, warning that the attacks on Thursday "don't lessen, even in the slightest, the risk that this will happen again".
The order to Mossad to turn its attention from Palestinian groups to Al-Qaeda was given by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, after Israeli intelligence sources said the size of the blasts suggested they were the work of Osama Bin Laden's network rather than Palestinian suicide bombers. Confirmation may be provided by fingerprints taken from bomb fragments and DNA obtained from the remains of the suspected bombers. Arditi had urged Israelis on September 9 to avoid the area because of indications of an imminent terrorist attack. His warning appeared on the front pages of the country's main newspapers on the eve of the Jewish new year. "This time Al-Qaeda hit our back yard," said a security source. "If we don't focus on them, next time it will be Tel Aviv. After four years of intifada we've succeeded in containing the Palestinian terror, but now we're facing a much more ruthless enemy we can't ignore any more."
It is not the first time Al-Qaeda has gone after an Israeli target, or that Sharon's government has vowed to take it on. The group claimed responsibility for the car bombing in November 2002 of an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan port of Mombasa that killed 14 people, including three Israelis. After that attack Sharon summoned Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, and ordered agents living undercover in Saudi Arabia and Yemen to hunt down those responsible. Almost two years later the perpetrators remain at large — a reflection, according to the security source, of the agency's concentration on combating Palestinian operations.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004 1:17:45 AM ||
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#1
THE ISRAELI government has ordered Mossad , the foreign intelligence service, to make the hunt for Al-Qaeda terrorists its main priority after last weekâs Red Sea attacks that killed at least 33 people, most of them Israeli tourists
Al Qaeda's done f*cked up. I wouldn't want to be anywhere near an Al Qaeda guy when MOSSAD gets them in their sights.
#6
Finally! Bush may be tied up in politics and requiered Alliances, but Isreal isn't. I wonder if Mossad will be working to give info to Delta Force and SAS in Iraq?
Posted by: Charles ||
10/10/2004 14:19 Comments ||
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#7
after last weekâs Red Sea attacks that killed at least 33 people, most of them Israeli tourists.
#8
Israeli's going after Black September thugs worked. No recidivism by terrorists--no tendencies to do further harm. Works for me.
Posted by: John Q (Citizen) aka John QC aka JQC ||
10/10/2004 19:49 Comments ||
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#9
Charles,I think it will be other way around.If the Israelis are serious I would expect Guantanamo to be hosting "guest" interrogators soon.It would be one of those classic good news/bad news deals.Good news is Israelis might be willing to send people into Syria,Iran,etc to kill Al-Q leaders.Bad news it will feed European belief WOT is all about Israel.
Posted by: Stephen ||
10/11/2004 0:48 Comments ||
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The first warnings filtered into the offices of Israel's Shabak security service last January. Terrorists were plotting to carry out an attack on Israeli tourists in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, where luxury hotels and bungalow resorts overlook the Red Sea. But the details were scant and, as often occurs with intelligence, only partly accurate. The reports referred to a shooting attack that would be staged by Palestinians with weapons smuggled from Gaza into Egypt. It wasn't until September, eight months later, that the information veered in a different direction. New intel pointed to an upcoming attack by "international jihad"—the term Israeli intelligence uses for Al Qaeda and related Islamic groups—according to a source familiar with the reports.
Israeli security officials now believe that Al Qaeda, using Egyptian operatives, probably carried out the twin attacks at the Taba Hilton and a second resort last week, killing 33 (with at least a dozen people still missing). If they're right, one likely result will be a more aggressive Israeli campaign against Osama bin Laden's network. Already, Mossad considers tracking the group one of its two main objectives (preventing Iran from getting a nuclear bomb is the other). "To protect Israelis, we have to be active in many places around the world," one senior official said. "We have to be very alert and very patient."
So do the perpetrators. Their preparation—gathering intelligence, smuggling up to 2,200 pounds of explosives and recruiting bombers—probably lasted a year or more, according to the same source. Though Shabak issued a warning Sept. 9 urging citizens to avoid Egypt, nearly 20,000 Israelis had been vacationing in Sinai the day of the blast. Now officials are wondering if they should have closed the Taba border altogether. "The terrorists would probably have just waited a few weeks and then carried out the attacks," says Boaz Ganor, who heads the International Counter-Terrorism center in Herzliya. "In fact, I wouldn't exclude the possibility that when Israel issued the warning, the terrorists may have waited."
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004 1:08:18 AM ||
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Dramatic new details of France's secret dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime have emerged as part of a fresh corruption investigation into alleged illicit oil deals. Three executives of France's largest oil corporation have been charged in Paris over claims that they funnelled millions of dollars through a Swiss company in order to bribe officials to gain oil deals in Iraq and Russia. The disclosure will embarrass President Jacques Chirac
... always assuming he's capable of being embarrassed...
as it follows on from claims last week by the Iraq Survey Group that Saddam indirectly paid French politicians and individuals to gain support for lifting UN sanctions and influencing French policy. The ISG's claims were dismissed by Chirac as politically motivated.
In the Nineties, French oil companies Total and Elf-Aquitaine won the rights to develop the $3.4 billion Bin Umar project and the vast Majnoon field in southern Iraq. Total, which acquired Elf, had been unable to exploit these fields while the UN trade embargo against Iraq was still in place. US hawks have accused France of opposing the Iraq war in order to protect its vast oil interests in the country. The three Total executives, arrested after raids on the firm's French headquarters on 29 September, have all been charged with complicity in the improper use of corporate funds. French investigating magistrate Philippe Courroye, who has been probing these payments since 2002, is examining the movements of funds between a Total subsidiary in Bermuda and a Swiss company, Teliac SA. The Swiss firm is alleged to have served as an intermediary for some $20 million in payments by the oil group into offshore accounts in the Bahamas and Cayman Islands between 1996 and 2001. Courroye has not given any details of what oil deals the alleged bribes were linked to. Total's former head of operations, Jean-Michel Tournier, is alleged to have told the French authorities the company used the Geneva-based firm to pay bribes to 'certain beneficiaries' in return for gaining access to reserves in Iraq and Russia.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
10/10/2004 1:03:08 AM ||
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#1
What's new? Anyone who has ever worked off-shore and had to compete with the French know how the game works. We have FCPA and it is prosecuted firmly. The French have French Inc. which invests in government back assistance to every deal made including advancing bribe (baksheesh) money. Whenever I see the French in play (look at the telcom deal in Costa Rica)I know someone will get rich whether they win or lose.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/10/2004 10:16 Comments ||
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The quid pro quo in Elf's case for decades was kickbacks to political slush funds for French pols of both major parties. The state helps (Total) (Elf) (Aribus) (Alcatel) (Bouygues) (Renault) win contracts, and these firms send back political contributions through one of their many complex holding company entities.
Members of a new Somali parliament, which is sitting in Nairobi, vote on Sunday to elect a president.
Hell of a lot safer than Mogadishu.
It is the culmination of two years of talks in the Kenyan capital, aimed at ending more than a decade of lawlessness in Somalia. Optimism about the future for the country is tempered by the knowledge that there have been numerous recent failed attempts to restore stability. The parliament is made up almost entirely of thugscroniesbrutes clan leaders and warlords. There are perhaps three or four favourites among the list of 28 presidential candidates. At one point there were more than 70 prospective leaders but that number was cut dramatically when candidates had to put up a non-returnable $2,000 bond.
We could have done that in the Dem primaries this year and made a bundle. Except I don't think Kucinich could have paid up.
The 275 MPs, which were nominated in August, say they are hoping to find a democratic future for their country. Somalis are hoping that a new administration under a new president and prime minister will set them on the road to peace and stability, but there have been more than 6,254 a dozen failed attempts to restore order in Somalia since 1991.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004 12:27:40 AM ||
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Islamic militants seeking to install a Taliban-style regime in northeastern Nigeria attacked a police convoy, killing three officers and abducting a dozen, police said Saturday. Borno State police chief Adewale Ajakaiye said the militants attacked a convoy on Friday carrying 60 policemen as the motorcade struggled in deep mud at Kala-Balge, a village some 125 miles northeast of the regional capital, Maiduguri. The radical sect known as Al-Sunna wal Jamma, or "Followers of Mohammed's Teachings" in Arabic, comprises mainly university students who want to create a Taliban-style state in Africa's most populous nation — home to 126 million people.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 12:16:05 AM ||
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ABOARD THE USS JOHN F KENNEDY: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met 18 of his counterparts on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf yesterday to reassure them on US strategy for Iraq after saying more troops may be sent in for the January elections. The meeting on board Kennedy drew ministers from new Nato member countries from eastern and central Europe and former Soviet republics that have contributed troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as their counterparts from Iraq, Bahrain and Qatar. Rumsfeld flew to the Kennedy from Bahrain shortly after arriving from Washington. He said Washington was trying to find countries to provide troops.
The ministers also heard General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, in a video teleconference from Baghdad laying out his plan for retaking control of Iraq's violence-torn provinces that includes Baghdad and Al Anbar.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004 12:11:22 AM ||
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#1
Hi Steve, Mark Espinola here.
For over a week when I click 'comment' each time goofy sounding names display, such as 'Threang Ulereting1662', Glising Glaviter4997, Wholutch Omusing8119, or Glosing Chang5397, to name just four. Is this normal?
Glising Glaviter4997
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
10/10/2004 8:44 Comments ||
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#2
I think it's part of Fred's anonymous poster code. If you enter something in 'Your Name' a cookie should be set on your machine. Check that it's still there, or reenter your details when you post again.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/10/2004 8:47 Comments ||
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#4
Tony is correct -- Fred changed the randomization scheme for anonymous posters. Partly because it was getting tough to tell the difference between "anonymous6083" and "anonymous6084" (think of the Welsh soldiers in Zulu), but also because it allows us to have some fun.
And what's wrong with "Glising Glaviter"?
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2004 13:59 Comments ||
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#5
What? Those ain't real people? I just thought they was European or sumptin'.
#6
Mark---actually Fred developed an algorithm for generating poster names using the language of the Orcs.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 22:32 Comments ||
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#7
I had the same thing happen. Just assumed I was assigned a different name at random. Thought it had something to do with "scrubbing" my computer. A. Bungfodder is John Q. Citizen.
Posted by: A. Bungfodder ||
10/10/2004 22:54 Comments ||
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Saddam Hussein saw his life as an unfolding epic narrative, with retreats and advances, but always the same ending. He would go down in history as the glorious Arab leader, as the Saladin of his day. One thousand years from now, schoolchildren would look back and marvel at the life of The Struggler, the great leader whose life was one of incessant strife, but who restored the greatness of the Arab nation. They would look back and see the man who lived by his saying: "We will never lower our heads as long as we live, even if we have to destroy everybody." Charles Duelfer opened his report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction with those words. For a humiliated people, Saddam would restore pride by any means.
(Is it possible to provide access to some reliable posters so these insects can be sprayed almost on the spot? I know I asked already, but I ask again. I would be willing to pitch in.)
FYI: People can get you IP off your posts. That in turn can be traced back to a particular login at a given time, based on RADIUS logs. And that in turn will yield a phone number or DSL connection. And that in turn will give a name and street address.
You keep this asenine juvenile bhavior up, you're going to get a visit one of these days.
Ohfergawdsake. What the hell did you think was gonna happen? A nice, big group hug?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2004 12:07:09 AM ||
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Link ||
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#1
What did you expect, Fred? The MSM can't possibly approve of anything that might help Bush.
Or be good for the Oppressed Brown People.â¢
But on Saturday, Afghans who braved the threat of violence to cast ballots were just happy to vote.
"I am old, but this vote is not just for me. It is for my grandchildren," said Nuzko, 58, a widow who stood in line at a Kabul voting station. "I want Afghanistan to be secure and peaceful."
That's the bottom line. That's the real story. I'm just surprised the MSM reported it at all.
It must be killing the Lefties.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 0:13 Comments ||
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#2
Don't forget to place blame where it belongs: the UN idiots are the ones that screwed up the ink in those precincts.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/10/2004 0:46 Comments ||
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#4
Mickey Kaus calls it the Feiler Faster Principle. So, last week before the debate, there were a lot of negative news affecting Bush - Bremer remarks, Rummy on Al-Queda/Iraq, Duefler report, etc. But consider a week closer to the election you get - Afghan elections (who'd have tought eet?), Howard wins big-time, NYT cover story on Kerry's wealth and blue blood upbringing that he is trying to disguise, etc. Look for Bush to move up in the polls this week.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/10/2004 9:52 Comments ||
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#6
it's AP - WTOP doesn't do foreign reporting on their own
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/10/2004 13:35 Comments ||
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#7
A friend of mine who doesn't "do" the Internet told me something the other day that I'm still laughing about. He said he'd learned over the years what the initials "AP" stood for: "A$$hole Product". I can't find a thing anywhere online that would truly contradict him.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/10/2004 20:44 Comments ||
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#8
With the exception of me, and you guys put the AP handle on me.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/10/2004 22:21 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
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.
Dramatic new details of France's secret dealings with Saddam Hussein's regime have emerged as part of a fresh corruption investigation into alleged illicit oil deals. Three executives of France's largest oil corporation have been charged in Paris over claims that they funnelled millions of dollars through a Swiss company in order to bribe officials to gain oil deals in Iraq and Russia. The disclosure will embarrass President Jacques Chirac 
