Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi blames 'indoctrination that teaches young people they can kill justifiably'. Countering the assertion of many in American academia, a Saudi official said extremist teachings, not poverty or unemployment, are the root causes of terrorism in the kingdom, the homeland of billionaire Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
Ignorance and poverty may manifest themselves in violence, which is why places like rural Bolivia have high incidences of people killing each other. Terrorism is different from plain old background noise violence: it's cultivated and directed, whether by the KGB or by holy men. It doesn't happen spontaneously.
At a news conference in Riyadh, Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi blamed the spread of terrorism on the "indoctrination that teaches young people they can kill justifiably" and training in Afghan camps, reported Arab News, an officially sanctioned Saudi newspaper. How'bout these pinacles of mooselimb educayshn--madrassas? You reap what you sow.
"I don't believe that terrorist movement has anything to do with unemployment," the minister said. Al-Gosaibi, noting the wealth of bin Laden and his associates, said "I am not aware that somebody has been driven to terrorism simply because he could not find a job." So, do you think he will make the quantum leap to the idea that the culprit may be the Messenger and his merry holy men? They just don't pull the message from their sphinxters.
Posted by: Sobiesky ||
02/13/2005 8:29:50 AM ||
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#2
One thing I always wanted to do, before leaving the Magic Kingdom, was to get a hold of a school curriculum. An American woman married to a Saudi pulled her daughters out of Saudi Public school because she was horrified at the amount of time the teachers spent spreading hatred. The poor woman had to sent her girls to private school in Bahrain because they (and all saudis)are not allowed to attend the International School(American Curriculum) beyond Kindergarden. God forbid that their experience there would contradict what has been drilled into their brains from birth.
#3
LOL. That road sign fits perfectly. What we need is more rain in Riyadh. Maybe then others in the Magic Kingdom would also come to realize the obvious.
#4
I'm trying not to overwork any particular graphic. But the 72 virgins have been idle lately. I don't like that...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 12:42 Comments ||
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#5
Well, he is stating the obvious, but that is quite unusual for a Soddy official [to understate it and look ma, no jooos] . Therefore, he does deserve a flying pig moment, imho.
#7
In the long term, it is less about "teaching", which works off the assumption that these "teachers" just come up with this on their own, and more about their government promulgating a version of Islam that isn't overtly or subtly xenophobic and ultraviolent. The obvious solution is for the Saud family to replace the Wahabbis with Sufis, in a slow, methodical, and determined manner. Start by declaring "factionalism" illegal, denying Wahabbis identification with their cult. 'We are all Muslims, there is no such thing as "Wahabbis" or "Sufis", and to call yourself such is heresy.'
They just haven't been the same since Fox News bought them, have they?
DOHA, Qatar - The US government may view al-Jazeera as little more than an anti-American mouthpiece, yet the journalists who work at the satellite TV station consider it the only free-press bastion in an authoritarian Middle East. And the prospect of being sold to the highest bidder has many deeply worried.
Love to see Rupert Murdoch buy it.
An order by the ruler of this small Persian Gulf country to come up with a privatisation plan for the pan-Arab station - owned by the Qatari government since its start in 1996 - has many wondering who will buy, and what the station will look like in the future. "Our editorial policy is the red line," the station's director, Wadah Khanfar, said in a recent interview. "The moment we feel the privatisation issue will interfere with our editorial policy, the project will be abandoned."
Not everyone is so sure. At the station's headquarters here, many employees have begun expressing fears that privatisation could effectively destroy the station as an independent news source for Arab viewers, said a senior editor, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity. Few details are known about the privatisation plan, or why the Qatari government is pushing it.
Embarrassment?
They've taken a lot of heat over al-Jizzsplat, including Jordan and Soddy Arabia.
The idea has been under discussion for over a year, Al-Jazeera executives say, but gained momentum when this kingdom's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, ordered the government to produce a plan on how to turn the channel into a private shareholding company. Khanfar said a final report on privatisation was recently presented to the station's board of directors. But he would not release details, except to say the board would meet within the next few weeks to discuss it.
"I will say no more!"
It is widely expected the station will be listed on Qatar's stock market, with most shares available for purchase only by Qatari nationals and citizens from Gulf Cooperation Council countries and a minority stake open to foreign investors. Saudis - who already own many of the Arab world's media companies - would be eligible to buy under those rules, as their country is part of the GCC. The station has a wide viewership across the Arab world. But it has also been heavily criticized by some Arab governments, including Saudi Arabia, mostly because - unlike Arab state-run media - it airs the views of local opposition figures and their criticisms of their countries' rulers.
Too bad their investigative reporters aren't as effective as their embedded reporters with the jihadis in Fallujah.
The station's offices have been closed down in some Arab countries, including Iraq. "Pressure has not stopped since Al-Jazeera's foundation," Khanfar said. The network also has been criticized by a number of senior US officials for its coverage of the war on Iraq and for broadcasting videotapes and audiotapes purportedly from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden or his aides. Al-Jazeera says it is merely presenting both sides of the story. In Washington, a State Department official said the US government hasn't been pushing for the station's privatisation, and doesn't have a position on who should own the station. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. But US President George W. Bush's administration has taken issue with the station's reporting, with US officials calling it biased and irresponsible. The Bush administration has on occasion privately called in Qatari diplomats for talks in Washington to try to influence the station's coverage, according to an Egyptian official with knowledge of one such meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The (Qatari) government has been helpful," Khanfar said. "It was under pressure, but it never pressured us. It funded us and took a step back. ... The government is the trustee for the independence of the channel."
What role Qatar's government might play once the company goes public, however, is unclear. The government has said in the past that Al-Jazeera's independence is part of its efforts to introduce political reforms and move toward transparency and democracy. Qatar funds the station with roughly US$100 million (Ã78 million) a year, and Al-Jazeera generates other revenue from advertisements, sponsorship deals, program sales and subscriptions in Europe and North America, although Khanfar said it remains a losing enterprise. "I doubt that there are any 24-hour news channels that are making a profit. We're no different," he said.
The station is believed to have the Arab world's biggest market share, estimated at 35 million people, but also faces de facto advertising boycotts from some countries, including Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's largest advertising market at US$1 billion. "The Saudis won't advertise with us," Khanfar said. "We still have an outstanding account that we haven't been paid for, for over a year."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/13/2005 12:50:02 AM ||
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#1
an independent news source for Arab viewers
HAHAHAHAHA! *snort*
"Independent." Yeah, right.
Independent of decency and honesty, that's for sure.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/13/2005 2:21 Comments ||
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*snicker* There is already a lot of competition out there for Anti-American Anti-Israel news bias.
"The al-Qaeda organisation is to be blamed for terrorism in Kuwait and the terrorists are a small group of isolated individuals, says MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabaei. Speaking to media persons in Beirut on the sidelines of a conference being held by the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), the MP said the wise political system of Kuwait and the strong ties between the government and Parliament are capable of defeating the plans of terrorists. Kuwaiti citizens are united and proved their solidarity during the Iraqi invasion." Stressing Kuwaiti authorities would treat terrorism in its security, political, intellectual, and social aspects, Al-Tabtabaei said "terrorism hasn't left any country untouched. During my speech in the conference I stressed terrorism is not connected to Islam because it has no religion and is an international problem." Terrorism and extremism are everywhere and even on the Internet, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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The interior minister said a jailed terror suspect died of a heart attack and not due to torture, as some lawmakers have suggested, according to remarks published Thursday. Amer Al-Enezi, 29, was captured in one of four shootouts between security forces and suspected terrorists last month. The Interior Ministry has said Al-Enezi died Tuesday of heart failure at a military hospital. The minister, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, told Al-Rai Al-Aam daily that Al-Enezi's death "was not the result of torture as some have alleged." He told the newspaper the coroner's report "will prove" his account.
Walid Al-Tabtabaei, a fundamentalist legislator, filed a question in parliament Wednesday asking whether al-Enezi's interrogators had respected a law that forbids torture. Without addressing the legislator by name, Sheikh Nawaf said accusations that Al-Enezi died of torture were not based on evidence. Police detained Al-Enezi, a former mosque preacher, in a Jan 31 raid on a house in Mubarak Al-Kabir, south of Kuwait City. The Interior Ministry said Al-Enezi, the suspected ringleader, and other detainees were wounded in the raid, but the extent of their injuries was not disclosed.
This article starring:
AMER AL ENEZI
Peninsula Lions
Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah
Walid Al-Tabtabaei
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Diagnosis: Electric shock from batteries attached to his testicles, caused heart failure.
BEIJING (AP) - China has told the United States it will push for a new round of six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear standoff and would be in contact with Pyongyang and other countries involved, the government said Sunday.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing spoke by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday night and told her Beijing stands firm in supporting a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, the ministry said in a statement. ``China will stay in touch with all relevant parties ... so that the six-party talks could be resumed as soon as possible,'' Li told Rice, according to the ministry.
"We try to curb our dog but he is so ... difficult," he noted.
Beijing has hosted three rounds of six-nation talks - which also involve South Korea, Japan and Russia - since the nuclear dispute flared in late 2002.
The North confirmed on Thursday that it has nuclear weapons and said it would stay away from the six-nation talks until Washington changes its ``hostile'' policy toward the country. Pyongyang also demanded one-on-one talks with Washington, but the White House insisted discussions remain within the six-party framework.
China's statement did not specify what exactly Beijing would do to promote a new round of talks. China has thus far resisted U.S. appeals to pressure its reclusive ally, but analysts say the escalating nuclear standoff could spur Beijing to use its leverage to force Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/13/2005 12:14:13 AM ||
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#1
I keep looking for similarities between the Chinese invasion of India, the Chinese invasion of Vietnam, and now. Does the same trigger mechanism still apply? Will the US forces and the Skor army suddenly hold a very dispersed field exercise, deploying Patriot batteries all over the place?
#2
Please expand and explain your comment, Anonymoose -- what trigger mechanism are you talking about, and what's this about a dispersed field exercise?
Posted by: trailing daughter of the trailing wife ||
02/13/2005 12:11 Comments ||
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#3
China has a historic claim to North Korea which is linked to its claim to Taiwan.
#4
China should do all the talking. NKor is their creation, not ours.
Anybody know how to say "consequences" in Mandarin?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/13/2005 19:42 Comments ||
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It's in China's interest to stay quiet. Unless of course, Taiwan develops an interest in nuclear reactors for, um, their looming electricity shortage. And Japan starts developing new rockets for their, um, "fledgling" space program. How do you say "oops" in Chinese?
Posted by: Rafael ||
02/13/2005 19:50 Comments ||
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#6
"short-term interruptions" on the pipeline. anyone?
China has failed to heed U.S. warnings to stop missile exports to Iran. U.S. officials said state-owned Chinese defense firms continue to send missile components and technology to Teheran. The officials said that despite repeated warnings the flow of Chinese components and technology has bolstered Iran's medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile programs. "On numerous occasions we have expressed our concern about these entities to the Chinese government and have asked Beijing to subject exports by these serial proliferators to persistent and close scrutiny," Undersecretary of State John Bolton said. "Unfortunately, we continue to see transfers by these serious proliferators of missile-related items to rogue states and outposts of tyranny such as Iran." Addressing a conference in Tokyo on Feb. 8, Bolton identified China's main missile clients as Iran, Libya, North Korea and Pakistan. He said Chinese state-owned firms have been sanctioned for providing ballistic missile technology to these countries, some of them proliferators themselves.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 12:04:59 AM ||
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#1
Bolton is publicly checking off one of the China boxes and clarifying the murky for the brain-dead. Now a chip to play in the EU - China Arms Embargo game.
The acceleration of the polarization in major-player global politics is something to see. If the E3 countries maintain the current course regards the China Arms Embargo, the ramifications for future relations are clear: they're permanently poisoned.
The price tag that must be attached to selling sophisticated Western tech to a country we will face as deadly adversaries, not to mention that China turns around and resells it to the insane regimes of the world, is a situation that can never be rectified, once undertaken. France has lost all credibility and lives in utter delusion, so this is to be expected. But the UK and Germany? They are clearly committing a form of suicide - for purely transient mercenary reasons - and they are fully aware of it. This is some seriously ugly shit. Allies. Yeah, right.
#2
"The only way the French or the Chinese will ever be persuaded to stop providing these WMDs to irrational regimes is for them to experience firsthand the horror of what these weapons can do, forcing them to totally reorder their national prerogatives, as did the Japanese after Hiroshima and Nagasaki."
North Korea on Saturday said the United States was seeking to invade North Korea in order to turn the Korean peninsula into a springboard for its dominance in Asia. Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the Stalinist country's ruling Korean Workers Party, also accused Washington of exploiting "human rights" issues in order to cover up its hegemonic agenda. The comments came two days after Pyongyang said it would no longer engage in multilateral talks aimed at resolving a stand-off over its nuclear programmes, declaring it had made atomic bombs to protect itself against a US attack.
"It is an invariable ambition of the US to invade the DPRK (North Korea) and dominate Asia with the Korean Peninsula as a springboard and establish a global order of its domination," the daily said. "The US has gone arrogant enough to divide countries of the world into this or that category and pursue a hegemonistic and unilateral policy, styling itself the world 'leader'," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Invade NorKieLand? For what? Springboard? To where?
ROFL! Who cares, Kimmie & Co? Your infinite LMS (Little Man Syndrome) is a hugely entertaining and futile tantrum, all spittle and helpless, pointless, powerless puffery - the proverbial tempest in a teacup. Stew, baby, stew.
#2
It's a trick PD. North Korea is worth invading for the intrisic value of the holy mountain and the juche forests. Nork rocks are without equal and the gruel recipes are to die for.
#3
I'd give it an 2 out of 10 except that it was filtered through Pakistan and is thus unreliable. It lost points for the "springboard to dominance" nonsense (though I can imagine a great cartoon) and by accusing Washington of exploiting âhuman rightsâ issues -- a position that seems to actually acknowledge that there are some. No songun, no juche -- but maybe the Pakis just didn't share those with us. At best a 2 in its current form.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/13/2005 13:56 Comments ||
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#4
It was obviously written under the influence of cut White Slag. Disqualified, thus it gets no score.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/13/2005 14:37 Comments ||
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It does have hegemonistic, though... that's gotta be worth a little something.
âIt is an invariable ambition of the US to invade the DPRK (North Korea) and dominate Asia with the Korean Peninsula as a springboard and establish a global order of its domination,
Nah... we just want to give the little guy noogies... that's all.
China has accused Japan of a "severe provocation" after Tokyo moved to take over a lighthouse built years ago by right-wing activists on a small, disputed group of islands in the East China Sea. An unidentified official from the Foreign Ministry's Asian department had made solemn representations to the Japanese over the incident, the ministry said in a statement seen on its Web site (www.fmprc.gov.cn) on Saturday. "Japan's actions are a severe provocation and infringement on China's territorial sovereignty and are absolutely unacceptable by the Chinese government and people," the official said.
"The unilateral moves taken by the Japanese side are illegal and invalid," the official added, echoing a statement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan on Wednesday. The official reiterated China's claims to sovereignty over the islands, known to Chinese as the Diaoyu islands and to Japanese as Senkakus, saying "China has irrefutable sovereignty over all these islands". In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told a news conference on Wednesday that Japan's Coast Guard would take over maintenance and management of the lighthouse, adding that the group who built it had given up their rights to it. Despite growing economic interdependence, bilateral ties have been chilled by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to a Tokyo shrine which honours war criminals along with other war dead. Territorial disputes and a Chinese nuclear submarine's intrusion into Japanese waters in November are other irritants.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Heh. Nibble, nibble. Poke, poke. The ChiComs are receiving their wake-up call - bit by bit - and grumpy got up on the wrong side of the bed. This is getting very interesting.
#2
Perhaps the Chinese leadership should start building an invasion fleet to take over these islands. It is so humiliating to their sensitive natures, and they have nothing better to do.
#3
If they don't like the Japanese now, wait until North Korea's nuclear sabre rattling and South Koreas lefty cowardice combine to force Japan to re-arm, with nukes of their own.
That'll scare the crap out of China. A high tech military power in their own back yard. With plenty of reach into China, via missles, aircraft, and more imporatantly, electronics (spy satellites, radars, and the internet).
#4
OldSpook is dead on - an armed extremely high tech military like Japan on your door step is enough to give any nation pause.
The word is that Japan is a de facto nuclear power. All they have to do is assemble the weapons at this point. All the bits and pcs. are there - have been.
#5
after the missile from NK cleared Japan's mainland they'd be fools not to
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2005 19:49 Comments ||
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Thing is, the Chinese and Koreans (and perhaps the Philipinos) are the ONLY people in the world who are ahead of the US in terms of worrying about a remilitarized, nuclear armed Japan.
Surveys in Japan have in the past shown plenty of the racial superiority doctrine still hold part fo the beleifes of the Japanese as a people, and the martial parts of its society can be easily regrown in such fertile soil, especially under threat. The problem with that is to get the genie back in the bottle before it starts reaching out to grab what it beleives is "due" to Japan as its "right".
So yes this scares the Chinese and eventually the Koreans. But in the long run, it scares the US as well - the ONE opponent we do not want to have to go against is a remilitarized nuclear Japan. And that will temper our foreign policy in terms of playign the "Japan Card" to increase the Chinese urgency and the need to clear N.Korea and the nutbag Kim.
Because if Japan becomes China's worst problem, within a generation it will be a big problem for the USA as well.
#7
If they don't like the Japanese now, wait until North Korea's nuclear sabre rattling and South Koreas lefty cowardice combine to force Japan to re-arm, with nukes of their own.
That'll scare the crap out of China. A high tech military power in their own back yard. With plenty of reach into China, via missles, aircraft, and more imporatantly, electronics (spy satellites, radars, and the internet).
#8
Thing is, the Chinese and Koreans (and perhaps the Philipinos) are the ONLY people in the world who are ahead of the US in terms of worrying about a remilitarized, nuclear armed Japan.
Surveys in Japan have in the past shown plenty of the racial superiority doctrine still hold part fo the beleifes of the Japanese as a people, and the martial parts of its society can be easily regrown in such fertile soil, especially under threat. The problem with that is to get the genie back in the bottle before it starts reaching out to grab what it beleives is "due" to Japan as its "right".
So yes this scares the Chinese and eventually the Koreans. But in the long run, it scares the US as well - the ONE opponent we do not want to have to go against is a remilitarized nuclear Japan. And that will temper our foreign policy in terms of playign the "Japan Card" to increase the Chinese urgency and the need to clear N.Korea and the nutbag Kim.
Because if Japan becomes China's worst problem, within a generation it will be a big problem for the USA as well.
#9
If they don't like the Japanese now, wait until North Korea's nuclear sabre rattling and South Koreas lefty cowardice combine to force Japan to re-arm, with nukes of their own.
That'll scare the crap out of China. A high tech military power in their own back yard. With plenty of reach into China, via missles, aircraft, and more imporatantly, electronics (spy satellites, radars, and the internet).
#10
Thing is, the Chinese and Koreans (and perhaps the Philipinos) are the ONLY people in the world who are ahead of the US in terms of worrying about a remilitarized, nuclear armed Japan.
Surveys in Japan have in the past shown plenty of the racial superiority doctrine still hold part fo the beleifes of the Japanese as a people, and the martial parts of its society can be easily regrown in such fertile soil, especially under threat. The problem with that is to get the genie back in the bottle before it starts reaching out to grab what it beleives is "due" to Japan as its "right".
So yes this scares the Chinese and eventually the Koreans. But in the long run, it scares the US as well - the ONE opponent we do not want to have to go against is a remilitarized nuclear Japan. And that will temper our foreign policy in terms of playign the "Japan Card" to increase the Chinese urgency and the need to clear N.Korea and the nutbag Kim.
Because if Japan becomes China's worst problem, within a generation it will be a big problem for the USA as well.
The leader of a new Pentagon espionage unit has resigned his position, shortly after public disclosure that the Defense Department is expanding into clandestine operations traditionally undertaken by the CIA. The Strategic Support Branch and its departing leader are controversial among the elite special operations forces assigned to work with them on high-risk intelligence missions overseas, some of whom aired complaints in a Jan. 23 Washington Post story about deficits in the training and performance of the unit's officers. Defense officials with firsthand knowledge said the unit's leader, reserve Army Col. George Waldroup, surprised his staff in the first week of February with an announcement that he was stepping down immediately.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, subordinates said, is pressing ahead with plans for independent Pentagon intelligence operations around the world. The Post disclosed last month that Rumsfeld has reinterpreted U.S. law to grant him broad authority to dispatch clandestine teams into friendly and unfriendly nations, whether or not conventional war is in prospect. Designed to help cure what Rumsfeld described as his "near total dependence on CIA," the Strategic Support Branch gathers intelligence alongside newly empowered forces from the military's Joint Special Operations Command.
In Congress, the House and Senate intelligence committees have held closed briefings in the past two weeks with senior defense officials, including Undersecretary for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone. In sometimes heated exchanges, witnesses said, members of both parties complained to Cambone about learning from a newspaper account that the Pentagon created a new espionage team more than two years ago, using funds "reprogrammed" from congressional appropriations. Members of Congress also asked about Pentagon legal theories under which defense personnel could conduct "routine" and "traditional" operations without notifying Congress.
Can't go around Congress, boys.
Republicans, in public, have said Cambone's answers reassured them, and chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees have expressed support for the program. "I asked very direct questions and got answers to those questions that are satisfactory to me," said Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.), a former Air Force officer who chairs the subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence.
On the condition of anonymity, two Republicans said Cambone did not adequately answer some of the questions about the plans, legal basis and operations of the Pentagon's new intelligence arm. One Republican committee member said Rumsfeld is rushing to create independent capabilities before the arrival of a director of national intelligence, a position created by Congress in December to oversee the 15 U.S. intelligence departments and agencies. Democratic colleagues echoed that sentiment.
In news briefings late last month, defense officials stressed that funding for the unit in its current form was approved by Congress in the 2005 budget, and said they had no intention to evade congressional oversight. They said confusion had arisen about the program because the name of the effort had changed over time. They also emphasized that the Pentagon was working cooperatively with the CIA in developing the program, not trying to bypass it.
During the same week, defense officials said, Jacoby began asking subordinates to account for reported deficiencies in the new organization. Waldroup announced his departure a few days later.
Meanwhile, the DIA has stepped up a recruiting campaign for candidates with "outstanding foreign language skills" and "a background in hard science or special operations." "You are the unseen and hear the unspoken," said one advertisement placed in the Army Times and other newspapers with large military readerships. "You could be anybody, anywhere. You are Intelligence. Be DIA."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/13/2005 12:30:33 AM ||
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More WAPO crap. The real story, buried under a headline meant to look like a shake up, a lead in meant to look like a Rumsfeld power-grabbing conspiracy and a resignation by Waldrup that is meant to imply discontent. Yet none of those things pan out if you bother to read far enough:
In news briefings late last month, defense officials stressed that funding for the unit in its current form was approved by Congress in the 2005 budget, and said they had no intention to evade congressional oversight. They said confusion had arisen about the program because the name of the effort had changed over time. They also emphasized that the Pentagon was working cooperatively with the CIA in developing the program, not trying to bypass it.
It's like reading the Globe or Enquirer. Headline: JONBENET'S MOTHER CONFESSES!! And then you open it up and it's a picture of her coming out of a confessional booth and a short bit about her joining a new church.
#2
So right, 2b. As usual, the MSM misses the real story in its zeal to attack the administration. Obviously, something important is going on here, but what is it? The article doesn't tell us.
The guy is a reservist. He was probably brought in as an outsider to shake things up ala Wild Bill Donovan. So was he incompetent as the article implies, or was this a case of the institution closing ranks on an outsider and forcing him out? And why am I sitting here asking these kinds of J-school 101 questions instead of the reporter and his editor?
Iran rejected a European demand to stop building a heavy-water nuclear reactor that provides a simpler way of extracting weapons-grade fuel, and it warned the United States on Sunday "not to play with fire" by repeatedly threatening Tehran. Iran has indicated previously it will keep its heavy-water reactor, but Sunday's announcement that it will not replace it with a light-water reactor was the clearest statement yet of its nuclear plans and represented a hardening of its position. Both plants in question can be used to enrich uranium, a critical part in nuclear programs, but the extraction of weapons-grade material from a light-water reactor is more difficult. Uranium enriched to low grades is used for fuel in nuclear reactors, but further enrichment makes it suitable for atomic bombs.
The statement underscored the unresolved differences between Iranian and European negotiators, who are continuing their talks over Iran's nuclear program even as the United States escalates its criticism of Iran. Earlier this month, President Bush accused Iran in his State of the Union speech of being "the world's primary state sponsor of terror" and pursuing nuclear weapons. Although Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said a military strike against Iran was "simply not on the agenda at this point," Bush has said his administration would not rule out any option. On Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi reiterated previous statements by top officials that Iran would not tolerate any acts of aggression, particularly from the United States. "Rice and other U.S. officials are aware of Iran's capabilities." Asefi told reporters at a news briefing. "During the talks with the Europeans, we told them in clear terms to tell their American allies not to play with fire, and the Europeans clearly got our message." Iranian President Mohammad Khatami last week warned that Iran would turn into a "scorching hell" for any possible attackers... Precognition?
#3
The scenario:
1 Iran will reject the EU demands.
2. The EU will counter with additional requests and suggestions, but not realy Demands, per se.
3. The MMs will continue to play Mindf**k with the EUs as they continue this negotiation charade.
4. THe MMs will continue with their plan, which involves getting Bushehr on line to produce plutonium for a bomb that will mount on a missle, and will continue U235 enrichment program for a Uranium bomb.
4.5 The US may go to the UNSC for the hell of it to see if it will be Saddam Redux 2005.
5. The US will keep on clando ops and intel gathering for war plans. This will keep the MMs looking over their shoulders.
That is how I see it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/13/2005 21:54 Comments ||
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4.75 When the UNSC chokes, the U. S. Congress cuts financial support of the U. N. to zip.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/13/2005 22:18 Comments ||
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The US may go to the UNSC for the hell of it to see if it will be Saddam Redux 2005.
That would be a waste of time and effort. There's no question it would be.
Interesting not only becuase it shows Kurds in Iran are getting restless, but also it indicates serious infrastructure problems. Tehran, Feb. 13 - Thousands of people flooded the streets of Mahabad (northwest Kurdistan province in Iran) this morning, clashing violently with State Security Forces after days of gas, water, and electricity interruptions. According to local residents, household gas has been cut off in the town for the past four days, electricity has been out for more than 24 hours, and water was repeatedly cut off for several hours at a time over the past day. Protestors gathered in front of government offices, complaining that there was extreme shortage of bread as bakeries could not provide them during the energy blackout.
Temperatures in Mahabad have reportedly dropped to as low 15 degrees below freezing over the past few days. The demonstration quickly turned into a mass rally and youths set fire to banners and poster celebrating the 26th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the monarchy and brought to power Iran's turbaned clerics, residents reported.
SSF agents, plainclothes police, and members of the Bassij (Iran's paramilitary police) attacked the demonstrators with clubs and batons, arresting at least ten individuals, as residents shouted slogans against the Iranian regime. Eye-witnesses reported that at least two plainclothes policemen were injured during the ensuing clashes.
PARIS — France wants complete compliance with a UN resolution that effectively calls for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, the president's office said yesterday after a meeting between President Jacques Chirac and the special UN envoy to Lebanon. Lebanese parliamentary elections set for May "represent a step that the international community will be very sensitive to," Chirac's office said.
I'll give the Froggies a "B" for effort on this one.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/13/2005 1:02:01 AM ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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#1
France used to control Lebanon and a lot of people there speak french.
Of course France's real power still is within spitting distance of zero.
#7
TGA, are you saying that was a result of the French as opposed to the Lebanese? Anybody who was ruled by the frogs had to overcome a great impediment to achieve anything.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/13/2005 8:51 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Don't be silly, being ruled by the Frogs was wonderful compared to being ruled by Arabs.
TGA's right: Beirut was the "Paris of the Middle East" for its cosmopolitan beauty and ways. They had a lot of tension there (1958, anyone?), but having the Paleos move in set off the final wrecking of the country.
Let the French work to clean Lebanon out and rehabilitate it. It's about all the Froggies can handle :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/13/2005 12:24 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Pretty much any place the Paleos move into turns to a $%#@ hole. Have any guesses about how any Paleo state is going to look?
Lebanon would be fine if it kicked the Paleos out and killed off the Iranian wannabe trogs off.
Hizb Allah — the Islamist resistance group based in Lebanon — has denied it was attempting to wreck the Israeli-Palestinian truce. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, the group's Deputy Secretary-General Shaikh Naim Qassim also said that disarming its fighters as demanded by a UN resolution, was not possible "now or in the future". Qassim termed baseless reports that Hizb Allah was trying to recruit Palestinian resistance fighters to derail the latest peace efforts in the Middle East. "They show the existence of an Israeli cell working to spread such ideas before Israeli actions to destroy the truce by repeated aggressions against the Palestinians," he said.
He said Hizb Allah propounded a Palestinian right to resist Israeli occupation of their land, by which the group usually means both Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip that the Israelis seized in the 1967 war. "When we speak of support, it is moral support that does not interfere in Palestinian daily life," Qassim said. Qassim said Hizb Allah hoped the European Union would resist US pressure to put the group on a list of terrorist groups. "That, in my belief, would harm the EU's credibility in the Middle East because it would make its position unacceptable — it would be the same as the American position, which is hated in the Arab and Islamic world," he said. Qassim also said disarming Hizb Allah fighters was not up for discussion. "Hizb Allah's arms are the arms of resistance taken up for the Lebanese people and they liberated the south and will liberate the Shebaa Farms and confront the Israeli danger that is crouching over the region," he said. "Giving up these weapons is not on the table."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 12:05:41 AM ||
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Link ||
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#3
That is a full blown Fascist's salute. That leaves no question about where Hizbolla is on the political spectrum. Iran will do anything it can to harm Israel. Iran could care less about the Palestinians they are just tools to attack Israel that is all.
Great news! Syria releases some wrongfully accused men from prison...
Authorities on Saturday released 55 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood who had spent up to 20 years in jail, a human rights group said.
Oh. Maybe not such great news.
The Human Rights Association in Syria(!) issued a statement welcoming the releases and urging the government to free "all political prisoners and detainees and stop detentions outside the law."
"Well, all the bloodthirsty Sunni ones, anyway."
Those released were 46 Syrians, five Palestinians, two Lebanese, an Iraqi and a Tunisian, said Anwar al-Bunni, a lawyer and human rights activist. Al-Bunni said all were charged with belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Syria banned in 1982 after the late President Hafez Assad cracked down on a violent anti-government insurgency blamed on the brotherhood. No further details were available. Syrian officials were unavailable for comment.
"Tehran told us we can say no more."
The 55 prisoners had spent from three to 20 years in jail and their release followed the Dec. 7 freeing of 112 political prisoners, the largest single amnesty in three years. Since succeeding his late father in 2000, Bashar Assad has released hundreds of political prisoners, but also cracked down on pro-reform and pro-democracy activists, showing that his administration will tolerate dissent only to a certain limit.
MILWAUKEE - John Treslley shakes his head in awe when he thinks about his 20-year-old son driving a Hummer through the minefields of Iraq. "I wish I had half the guts he has," Treslley, 47, says in a whisper.
Back in 1977, when Treslley was that age, the notion of military duty never crossed his mind. The draft ended in 1973, and two years later, so did the Vietnam War. "I was busy in those days playing football, drinking lots of beer and chasing women," says Treslley, a pilot and former game farm operator in Hayward, Wis.
All across America, thousands of parents like Treslley, baby boomers with no military experience of their own, are watching anxiously as their children head off to war. Most are proud. Some are angry, either at their children for taking on such a potentially dangerous mission or at the military for recruiting their sons and daughters. Nearly all say they are scared. For many, frankly, they just don't get it.
#1
He's 47 and part of the "anti-war generation"? Jeebus, MSM, do the farging math. I'm 47, and Saigon fell my senior year in I was in high school. The draft had ended. Virtually all our troops had been pulled. What war was I anti?
Posted by: Dr August Balls of Nice ||
02/13/2005 18:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
He's 47 and part of the "anti-war generation"?
Maybe the anti-war generation followed the AARP's example, and lowered the qualifying age?
#3
I saw your Head Comix cover pic, Fred, with Mr. Natural. Sheeh! Brought me back to my Berkeley daze in the sixties that I would rather forget, heh heh. Flakey Foont, the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers with Fat Freddie's cat sh*tting in his headphones, the Checkered Demon, Captain Pissgums, Ruby the Dyke (twist them grips, goils!). I found a couple of Zap comics in my old papers a few months ago. Originally thought they were funny. Well, they were, but they were gross. Threw em away.... And Paul Krassner was one twisted and perverted writer (the Realist, IIRC). No wonder the LLL is so loonie. They cut their teeth on that twisted sh*t. I got out with me life....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/13/2005 20:01 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Threw em away....
Nooooooooooooooooo!
Posted by: Roman Haruska ||
02/13/2005 20:06 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I thought that they would probably we worth money now, but, sigh, they were SEARED, I say, SEARED onto my mind. I needed to get away to a quiet place.....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/13/2005 20:08 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The left glomms together everyon born between 1945 and 1964 as "Baby Boomers". Ans automatically associates them with the hippes and vietnam as the "main events" in their lives.
Problem with that is basically anyone born from 56 onward know little if anything about the vietnam war becuase it as practiucally over before they came of age (1974).
So its much more realisitic to group the 1940-1955 into the "bommers", and the 56-76 into a differnt group.
Demographics show the "Pre-Gen-X" (The Gap as they are sometimes called) is not only a larger than the boomers, most know little of Hippies and less of Vietnam, considering it happened when they were small children up to teenagers. This grouping if FAR more cohesive interms of similar views and political positions than is the pre-1955 group is (their teen early 20's were in the middle of Vietnam and the hippie age, as opposed to the "gap" group who came after all that was done).
Demographics show that this generation of roughly 31 to 49 year olds is far larger, more influential economically, more conservative, more religious and patriotic than the boomers. Perhaps that is why the liberal social science peopel and MSM want to split them in half and roll them half in to GenX and halfinto the Boomers - it hides a HUGE group ofg peopel that cannot be lumped with groups that are identified as "basically liberal".
After all THAT generation, the "Gap" generation, was the one the filled and staffed the Volunteer Military through winning the Cold War and provided the backbone of the miltiary (privates, lower NCOs and Captains) for the first Gulf War and "peackeeping" of the 1990's (and now staff the senior positions in the War On Terror military), and drove huge technical innovations (The PC, Etc) and economic growth in the 1980's and 1990's, and the resurgence of Conservatism, starting with Reagan (when most of them politically came of age) in their early adulthood.
Don't read the MSM labels - they are dead wrong - and mislead you because they deliberately ignore and distort the Gap generation's record.
The Boomers never did ANYTHING to merit all the attention they got - indeed they got us involved in Vietnam the wrong way, miscalcualted in the cold war, the "war" on poverty, etc, and voted in Nixon and Jimmy Carter and creeping socialism in the US. And they gave us the inflated late 1960's, and the recession bound 1970's thru the early 1980's. The Boomers (truly defined) should be a generation cursed by all others for thier selfishness, short-sightedness and deliberate idiocy.
The Greatest Generation and the Gap Generation are ones we owe for our position today, the Greatest winning WW2 and giving us the boom of the 50's and early 60's, the Gap winning WW3 without a shot and innovating our way into the booming from the mid 80's and 1990's.
Tomorrow we will owe those kids and young people who are now shaping the world post 9/11, the children of the Gap Generation - I call them the "Bravest Generation" - because the ones that are out there astound me with their guts on a day to day basis, be they in military, or in the business world.
(This of course discounts the professional malcontents in places like Berkely and the Ivy League who have not yet seen through their distorting and lying Boomer prof's like Churchill in Colorado).
#7
true OS - was '59 - too late for the draft and too early for registration
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2005 20:41 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Problem with that is basically anyone born from 56 onward know little if anything about the vietnam war becuase it as practiucally over before they came of age (1974).
The nightly recitations on the evening news of the numbers of dead and wounded for both sides always stood out. I was just a kid when I heard the names "DMZ", Hanoi, Saigon, Cambodia, Pathet Lao, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. And I was a teenager when Saigon finally fell. I wouldn't know all the details until much later, but I never forgot what I saw or heard on the news.
#9
OS, Every President you mentioned was from the "Greatest" Generation. In none of the dates you mention were the boomers in control of anything, including their libidos. Blame the boomers for Clinton and the '90s, but the "Greatest" Generation was in charge of Viet Nam and Watergate and Carter, not the boomers.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/13/2005 22:16 Comments ||
Top||
#10
I was born the day Marilyn Monroe died. I agree with OS that I have nothing to do with those born 1946-58. (I say '58 because they would remember Kennedy being shot. Arbitrary point.)
Although I don't think you can blame the Great Society on them, since it was laid down in 65-66. Or, for that matter, most of the idiocy of the 70s. Sure, they voted for those the people who did that damage, but they were not boomers themselves, but were mostly members of the "greatest generation." (Obviously, some of them weren't so great.)
The Generation that is most interesting is the one from 1924-1943, the Silent. This was the first generation in the nation's history to have no one be elected President of the United States. They were empty suits who failed to pick up the ball when the exhausted "Greatest" Generation started dropping it in the '60s. Had Reagan not been elected President, Every GG president would have been a loser, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush I. Not a stellar cast.
As for the GG winning WWII, The FDR generation and the Eisenhower generation may have had something to do with that too. No doubt most of the people shooting, getting shot at and dying were from that generation, no doubt. But they didn't win the war alone.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
02/13/2005 22:33 Comments ||
Top||
#12
I grew up on Long Island, NY. I joined the Navy just after HS graduation in 1974. What I do remember was that I was only one of a handful to enlist. I remember my guidance counselor telling me that I was "ruining my life". Military haircuts were rare for men. I was stationed in Norfolk, VA. It was the Carter-era military. College co-eds would have nothing to do with you. Many junior enlisted sailors were on food stamps. Reagan did amazing things in revitalizing the respect, professionalism, and stature of the military.
#13
Mrs Davis - who were the ones that protested the war and provided the "Useful Idiots" for Lenin's spawn? They may not have set the policy, but they certainly damanged the US in terms of their actions.
And BAR, you are unusual - I know people of your age, and in 1969, they were all about the moon walk and the space program, not about the casualty lists on the evening news.
Its not about what happened, but what were the pivotal events of thier early lives that defines the generations - the Greatest won WW2 - they came of age and fought and won. The rank-and-file, they came home, went to school, rolled up their slevves and worked, buidling the interstates, the booming housing markets, and the initial parts of the Computer Age. Eisenhower and conservatism are enigmatic of the payoff of the Greatest Generation. Their payoff phrase: New Fontier.
The Boomers came of age wiht the War and Hippies being the big influences. They protested and spit on soldiers, hated thier own government, and got politicians like Jimmy Carter held up as heroes. The rank and file wanted wage and price controls (from Nixon), and the "war" on poverty that fueled inflation. They innovated little other than to react weakly - Carter's sweater is more a symbol of their political acts, and the failure in Iran (Hostages and failed rescue) and Afghanistan (Soviet invasion) are the culmination of thier loud demanding liberal political stance. Their payoff word? Malaise.
The Gap Generation: Ronald Reagan, the wall coming down and the first Gulf War (and the rehabilitation of the military in the eyes of the public) are the big events in this genrations growing up. The innovations of the PC, and the widespread acceleration of communications and computing are the hallmarks of this generation - they laid down the internet, won the cold war, and even their worst blunder was a comparatively lesser (Clinton compared to Nixon/Carter). Their word: "Freedom"
I say this as a "Boomer". The Gap Generation is unheralded, but should be seperated from the Boomers: the formative events are far different, and the results speak for themselves.
#14
The left glomms together everyon born between 1945 and 1964 as "Baby Boomers". Ans automatically associates them with the hippes and vietnam as the "main events" in their lives.
Problem with that is basically anyone born from 56 onward know little if anything about the vietnam war becuase it as practiucally over before they came of age (1974).
So its much more realisitic to group the 1940-1955 into the "bommers", and the 56-76 into a differnt group.
Demographics show the "Pre-Gen-X" (The Gap as they are sometimes called) is not only a larger than the boomers, most know little of Hippies and less of Vietnam, considering it happened when they were small children up to teenagers. This grouping if FAR more cohesive interms of similar views and political positions than is the pre-1955 group is (their teen early 20's were in the middle of Vietnam and the hippie age, as opposed to the "gap" group who came after all that was done).
Demographics show that this generation of roughly 31 to 49 year olds is far larger, more influential economically, more conservative, more religious and patriotic than the boomers. Perhaps that is why the liberal social science peopel and MSM want to split them in half and roll them half in to GenX and halfinto the Boomers - it hides a HUGE group ofg peopel that cannot be lumped with groups that are identified as "basically liberal".
After all THAT generation, the "Gap" generation, was the one the filled and staffed the Volunteer Military through winning the Cold War and provided the backbone of the miltiary (privates, lower NCOs and Captains) for the first Gulf War and "peackeeping" of the 1990's (and now staff the senior positions in the War On Terror military), and drove huge technical innovations (The PC, Etc) and economic growth in the 1980's and 1990's, and the resurgence of Conservatism, starting with Reagan (when most of them politically came of age) in their early adulthood.
Don't read the MSM labels - they are dead wrong - and mislead you because they deliberately ignore and distort the Gap generation's record.
The Boomers never did ANYTHING to merit all the attention they got - indeed they got us involved in Vietnam the wrong way, miscalcualted in the cold war, the "war" on poverty, etc, and voted in Nixon and Jimmy Carter and creeping socialism in the US. And they gave us the inflated late 1960's, and the recession bound 1970's thru the early 1980's. The Boomers (truly defined) should be a generation cursed by all others for thier selfishness, short-sightedness and deliberate idiocy.
The Greatest Generation and the Gap Generation are ones we owe for our position today, the Greatest winning WW2 and giving us the boom of the 50's and early 60's, the Gap winning WW3 without a shot and innovating our way into the booming from the mid 80's and 1990's.
Tomorrow we will owe those kids and young people who are now shaping the world post 9/11, the children of the Gap Generation - I call them the "Bravest Generation" - because the ones that are out there astound me with their guts on a day to day basis, be they in military, or in the business world.
(This of course discounts the professional malcontents in places like Berkely and the Ivy League who have not yet seen through their distorting and lying Boomer prof's like Churchill in Colorado).
#15
Mrs Davis - who were the ones that protested the war and provided the "Useful Idiots" for Lenin's spawn? They may not have set the policy, but they certainly damanged the US in terms of their actions.
And BAR, you are unusual - I know people of your age, and in 1969, they were all about the moon walk and the space program, not about the casualty lists on the evening news.
Its not about what happened, but what were the pivotal events of thier early lives that defines the generations - the Greatest won WW2 - they came of age and fought and won. The rank-and-file, they came home, went to school, rolled up their slevves and worked, buidling the interstates, the booming housing markets, and the initial parts of the Computer Age. Eisenhower and conservatism are enigmatic of the payoff of the Greatest Generation. Their payoff phrase: New Fontier.
The Boomers came of age wiht the War and Hippies being the big influences. They protested and spit on soldiers, hated thier own government, and got politicians like Jimmy Carter held up as heroes. The rank and file wanted wage and price controls (from Nixon), and the "war" on poverty that fueled inflation. They innovated little other than to react weakly - Carter's sweater is more a symbol of their political acts, and the failure in Iran (Hostages and failed rescue) and Afghanistan (Soviet invasion) are the culmination of thier loud demanding liberal political stance. Their payoff word? Malaise.
The Gap Generation: Ronald Reagan, the wall coming down and the first Gulf War (and the rehabilitation of the military in the eyes of the public) are the big events in this genrations growing up. The innovations of the PC, and the widespread acceleration of communications and computing are the hallmarks of this generation - they laid down the internet, won the cold war, and even their worst blunder was a comparatively lesser (Clinton compared to Nixon/Carter). Their word: "Freedom"
I say this as a "Boomer". The Gap Generation is unheralded, but should be seperated from the Boomers: the formative events are far different, and the results speak for themselves.
#16
The left glomms together everyon born between 1945 and 1964 as "Baby Boomers". Ans automatically associates them with the hippes and vietnam as the "main events" in their lives.
Problem with that is basically anyone born from 56 onward know little if anything about the vietnam war becuase it as practiucally over before they came of age (1974).
So its much more realisitic to group the 1940-1955 into the "bommers", and the 56-76 into a differnt group.
Demographics show the "Pre-Gen-X" (The Gap as they are sometimes called) is not only a larger than the boomers, most know little of Hippies and less of Vietnam, considering it happened when they were small children up to teenagers. This grouping if FAR more cohesive interms of similar views and political positions than is the pre-1955 group is (their teen early 20's were in the middle of Vietnam and the hippie age, as opposed to the "gap" group who came after all that was done).
Demographics show that this generation of roughly 31 to 49 year olds is far larger, more influential economically, more conservative, more religious and patriotic than the boomers. Perhaps that is why the liberal social science peopel and MSM want to split them in half and roll them half in to GenX and halfinto the Boomers - it hides a HUGE group ofg peopel that cannot be lumped with groups that are identified as "basically liberal".
After all THAT generation, the "Gap" generation, was the one the filled and staffed the Volunteer Military through winning the Cold War and provided the backbone of the miltiary (privates, lower NCOs and Captains) for the first Gulf War and "peackeeping" of the 1990's (and now staff the senior positions in the War On Terror military), and drove huge technical innovations (The PC, Etc) and economic growth in the 1980's and 1990's, and the resurgence of Conservatism, starting with Reagan (when most of them politically came of age) in their early adulthood.
Don't read the MSM labels - they are dead wrong - and mislead you because they deliberately ignore and distort the Gap generation's record.
The Boomers never did ANYTHING to merit all the attention they got - indeed they got us involved in Vietnam the wrong way, miscalcualted in the cold war, the "war" on poverty, etc, and voted in Nixon and Jimmy Carter and creeping socialism in the US. And they gave us the inflated late 1960's, and the recession bound 1970's thru the early 1980's. The Boomers (truly defined) should be a generation cursed by all others for thier selfishness, short-sightedness and deliberate idiocy.
The Greatest Generation and the Gap Generation are ones we owe for our position today, the Greatest winning WW2 and giving us the boom of the 50's and early 60's, the Gap winning WW3 without a shot and innovating our way into the booming from the mid 80's and 1990's.
Tomorrow we will owe those kids and young people who are now shaping the world post 9/11, the children of the Gap Generation - I call them the "Bravest Generation" - because the ones that are out there astound me with their guts on a day to day basis, be they in military, or in the business world.
(This of course discounts the professional malcontents in places like Berkely and the Ivy League who have not yet seen through their distorting and lying Boomer prof's like Churchill in Colorado).
#17
Mrs Davis - who were the ones that protested the war and provided the "Useful Idiots" for Lenin's spawn? They may not have set the policy, but they certainly damanged the US in terms of their actions.
And BAR, you are unusual - I know people of your age, and in 1969, they were all about the moon walk and the space program, not about the casualty lists on the evening news.
Its not about what happened, but what were the pivotal events of thier early lives that defines the generations - the Greatest won WW2 - they came of age and fought and won. The rank-and-file, they came home, went to school, rolled up their slevves and worked, buidling the interstates, the booming housing markets, and the initial parts of the Computer Age. Eisenhower and conservatism are enigmatic of the payoff of the Greatest Generation. Their payoff phrase: New Fontier.
The Boomers came of age wiht the War and Hippies being the big influences. They protested and spit on soldiers, hated thier own government, and got politicians like Jimmy Carter held up as heroes. The rank and file wanted wage and price controls (from Nixon), and the "war" on poverty that fueled inflation. They innovated little other than to react weakly - Carter's sweater is more a symbol of their political acts, and the failure in Iran (Hostages and failed rescue) and Afghanistan (Soviet invasion) are the culmination of thier loud demanding liberal political stance. Their payoff word? Malaise.
The Gap Generation: Ronald Reagan, the wall coming down and the first Gulf War (and the rehabilitation of the military in the eyes of the public) are the big events in this genrations growing up. The innovations of the PC, and the widespread acceleration of communications and computing are the hallmarks of this generation - they laid down the internet, won the cold war, and even their worst blunder was a comparatively lesser (Clinton compared to Nixon/Carter). Their word: "Freedom"
I say this as a "Boomer". The Gap Generation is unheralded, but should be seperated from the Boomers: the formative events are far different, and the results speak for themselves.
Have Iraqis voted for a dictatorship?
The election should be seen as a manifestation of power that Ali Sistani wields on the Shiite population of Iraq. His decree, making it a religious obligation for Shiite Muslims to vote, was responsible for the huge turnout.
The Sunnis, recall, imposed a religious obligation not to vote. My own agnostic position would have been to vote if you care about the future of Iraq, but there aren't many (acknowledged) agnostics in Iraq, a country where religious obligations are more important than they are in Western countries.
The Shiites recognise that the US occupation is a historic opportunity. If they are disciplined and patient they will rule Iraq. Their principal opponents will be quashed by the US itself. Is it the old Leninist: kto kvo?; who (rules) whom?
It's also a basic principle of representative government. If you've got a majority, you're going to have a proportionate input in how things are done.
The Bush administration is under the false impression that the elections in Iraq have heralded the era of democracy in Iraq and thus justify the Bush pre-emption doctrine. What, it seems, they cannot see is that the US has just facilitated a major transfer of power in the Arab World from Sunnis to Shiites.
In a majority Shiite country that's been ruled (not governed) by Sunnis...
Thanks to the US the Arab Shiites will now control Baghdad the jewel in the Islamic crown after a millennium. They did not rule over Baghdad even under the glorious Fatimid dynasty (909-1171) that governed Egypt, North Africa and Syria but had only a tenuous hold over Baghdad, briefly under the Buwayhid tribal confederation, before the Turkic Seljuks invaded and captured the city with help from the Abbasids... Actually, US foreign policy is rooted on a type of enabled inclusivism, which was propped with the intent of eliminating terrorism and Islamic revolution (inqilab), by forcing both the Seculars and Islamists to submit to democratic choice. Reality dictates that when faced with the socio-economic results of their social idiocy, most Muslims point their inherently fanatic fingers at the Seculars (an extinct group in de-Baathist Iraq, and near extinct elsewhere among the slaves-of-allah). Ergo: US facilitation of Islamofascist successes in quasi-democratic process, legitimates that global-genocidal ideology. On Sept. 11, 2001, over 19,000 Islamofascists polluted Egyptian jails. Last I heard, State Dept. clerico-centrist inclusivism has enabled half of that scum to pollute Egypt's streets (if not the streets of Baghdad). I respect the democratic choice of Iraqis, as much as I respect the choice of the Germany majority that once favored Nazism: zero, zip, nada. The problem with Islamofascists is: their lives.
That's a dissertation on theory. When you actually have to make and implement policy you've got to use the materials that're actually available, rather than import theoretical participants. Iraq is a mostly Arab, majority Shiite country, period. There's no way to change that, short of mass deportations like the Assyrians used to do, and setting up colonies of Americans to alter the demographics. So you've got to look at the materials at hand and try to figure what you can do with them.
In the immediate aftermath of Sammy's deposition, the U.S. established al-Khoei as its preferred Shiite holy man. He was quickly bumped off by al-Sadr. SCIRI, the Hakim family business, was seen as an Iranian tool and we went to work on co-opting them. The Bad Guyz have attempted to counter that by bumping off al-Hakims, but luckily there are more of them than there were al-Khoeis. Rather than dismantling MKO, we've kept it in existence to use as a tool against the black hat ayatollahs in Iran. We've done a fairly delicate diplomatic and political dance with Sistani and his handlers, and we've thumped al-Sadr because he's nakedly controlled by the Iranians.
You're making the assumption of a monolithic Shiism, which doesn't apply, not even within Iran. You're also discounting the historic antipathy between the Arabs (to include the Semitic pre-Arabs) and the Iranians (to include the ancient Elamites). Those are all political tools, that are being used by people who're hopefully smart enough to use them. You're looking only at military operations, rather than at the diplomatic picture, which is the more important.
We can't have a policy in the Middle East that doesn't involve Arabs and Muslims. Period. That applies whether you like Islam or not. You have to make all the fine differentiations among the players. If it were not for the advent of Khomeiniism in Iran, the natural Western alliance would have been with the Shiites and Sufis. What we're trying to do now is break off the "friendly" Shia of the Najaf school and isolate the adherents of the Qom school. The Najaf school isn't the one pushing for clerical rule, though I'm sure they expect to have rather more clerical influence than we'd prefer.
Posted by: IToldYouSo ||
02/13/2005 12:53:24 AM ||
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#1
The Sunnis would certainly know about dictatorships; they've been connected with one for what, 40 years?
I know my nanoviolin must be around here someplace....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/13/2005 11:45 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Sunni control of Iraq originated from a Shiia boycot of British attempts to form a government in the 1920s.
#4
Does anyone here remember any Iraqi voters saying they were standing in line to vote and possibly get killed because the imam told them to? Me neither.
#5
The Sunnis listened to their own Mullahs and stayed home when they should have been voting. They may have not liked the new game, but by boycotting the vote they threw away any influence in their future, except for the charity (if any) of the Shiites. Like one RBer said, "Payback's a bitch." The oil is in the north with the Kurds and in the South with the Shiites. They will bargain and horsetrade. The Sunnis (ex Saddamites) will be on the sidelines watching the action. Hopefully Iraq can work through things without Iran helping the local terrorists too much. My big worry is that Iran will keep stirring the pot to destabilize Iraq. The MMs need something for them to seriously chew on that will get their attention.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/13/2005 20:30 Comments ||
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#6
Maybe the DEmocrats should copy Sistani's strategy of "Get out the Vote" next time?
Unfortunately the DemocRats don't seem to know how to get out the vote with anything but sheer hatred for the other side. And I don't think that was Sistani's "strategery."
And now with Mad Howie in charge of the Dems....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/13/2005 21:14 Comments ||
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Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims won nearly half the votes in the nation's Jan. 30 election, giving the long-oppressed group significant power but not enough to form a government on their own.
The Shiites likely will have to form a coalition in the 275-member National Assembly with the other top vote-getters — the Kurds and Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list — to push through their agenda and select a president and prime minister. The president and two vice presidents must be elected by a two-thirds majority.
The Shiite-dominated ticket received more than 4 million votes, or about 48 percent of the total cast, Iraqi election officials said. A Kurdish alliance was second with 2.175 million votes, or 26 percent, and Allawi's list was third with about 1.168 million, or 13.8 percent.
"Until now there is no estimation regarding how many seats the political parties will get, when the counts are final the number of seats will be divided according to the number of votes," commission member Adel al-Lami said.
Elsewhere Sunday, insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy and a government building near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving at least four people dead, hospital workers said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops were also killed while trying to defuse a roadside bomb.
Of Iraq's 14 million eligible voters, 8,456,266 cast ballots for 111 candidate lists, the commission said. That represents a turnout of about 60 percent, several points higher than the predicted 57 percent.
"This is a new birth for Iraq," commission spokesman Farid Ayar said.
The figures also indicate that many Sunni Arabs stayed at home on election day, with only 17,893 votes — or 2 percent — cast in the National Assembly race in Anbar province, a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim insurgency.
In Ninevah province, which includes the third-largest city, Mosul, only 17 percent of the voters participated in the National Assembly race and 14 percent voted in the provincial council contests.
A ticket headed by the country's president Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, won only about 150,000 votes — less than 2 percent. A list headed by Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi took only 12,000 votes — or 0.1 percent.
Parties have three days to lodge complaints before the results are considered official, the election commission said.
Also Sunday, gunmen assassinated an Iraqi general and two companions in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. The attack occurred as Brig. Gen. Jadaan Farhan and his companions were traveling through Baghdad's Kazimiyah district, an Iraqi police officer said on condition of anonymity.
A claim of responsibility for the attack in the name of al-Qaida quickly surfaced on a Web site that often posts statements by Islamic militants. The claim described the brigadier general as a senior commander in the Iraqi National Guard and the guard commander at Taji camp, an American facility about 15 miles north of Baghdad.
There was no way to verify the claim's authenticity.
Meanwhile, U.S. hopes for a larger NATO (news - web sites) role in Iraq suffered a setback when German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Sunday rejected calls for the alliance to protect U.N. operations there. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) also ruled out a U.N. security role.
In the battle just north of Mosul, insurgents fired on the convoy in Al-Qahira district, leaving at least four people dead and two wounded, doctors at the Al-Jumhuri Teaching Hospital said.
Insurgents also fired a rocket at the governor's building in Mosul, killing one woman and one man, as well as injuring four others, officials at the hospital said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops were killed on Mosul's airport road while trying to diffuse a roadside bomb, police said.
NATO's role in Iraq has been limited to a small training mission in Baghdad and logistics support to a Polish-led force serving with the U.S. coalition. Iraq war opponents led by France and Germany have prevented the alliance developing a wider role, and have refused to send their own troops, even on the training mission.
Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, said his country would not veto a NATO decision to do more, if it was backed by the other 25 allies. But he insisted "we will not be sending soldiers to Iraq."
Fischer emphasized German efforts to help Iraq in other ways — through military and police training outside the country, economic aid and debt relief.
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02/13/2005 9:34:49 AM ||
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Wotta surprise!
(NOT)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/13/2005 11:42 Comments ||
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#7
Louisian has another unit in Iraq. One of the companies from the 1st Battalion 23rd Marines is from Louisiana (the rest of the battalion is from Texas). The 1/23 is a Marine Reserve infantry battalion that has been deployed in Anbar province since last September. They're scheduled to come home in about 6 weeks.
#1
".....in predominantly Muslim countries with secular traditions, such as Turkey, Senegal and Mali, roughly seven-in-ten respondents completely agreed that religion should be kept separate from government policy. In the U.S., significantly fewer (55%) expressed that view."
Plus some other interesting stuff from Pew, which isn't exactly a neo-con hotbed. (The Pew Trust gives a lot to NPR, e.g.)
GAZA CITY: Israel has agreed in principle to return all the Palestinians it expelled from the West Bank, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said yesterday. Erekat said no time-table has been set for the repatriation.
About 55 Palestinians were expelled to the Gaza Strip and Europe. Some were exiled after a month-long siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002.
Oh right, those guys, the respectful ones who trashed the church.
Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, confirmed the deportees would be allowed to go home, but he had no time-table for their return. "We promise that they won't be arrested upon their return," Gissin said. 'We are freezing all proceedings against them as long as they refrain from terror activities."
I hope they have the GPS devices implanted.
The men spoke after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas met with deportees in Gaza City. "Today, we received good news that an agreement was reached with the Israeli side to allow us to return to our cities... each to his home, each to his city, within a short period of time," said Ghanem Sweilem, who was exiled from his home in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus more than two years ago.
*Hamas last night said it will honour a de facto truce it agreed upon with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas before he declared a ceasefire with Israel, but will wait to see how Israel conducts itself before deciding on an official cessation of hostilities. Its leader Mahmoud Zahar said after Hamas leaders met Abbas that the group is "committed to what is called 'quietness'" until it sees whether Israel stops military activities, halts its targeted assassinations, and discloses according to what criteria Palestinian prisoners will be released.
The targeted assassination thing being most important to the Hamas bigs.
Following his meeting with Hamas, Abbas proceeded to a meeting with the Islamic Jihad militant group. Before that meeting, a Jihad leader said the faction wanted to hear from Abbas whether there were "guarantees and obligations" before deciding about a cease-fire.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/13/2005 12:21:29 AM ||
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Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, confirmed the deportees would be allowed to go home, but he had no time-table for their return
I'd like to think that the Israeli's are learning to speak the political language of their Arab neighbors...but I know it's just wishful thinking on my part.
Algeria's leading opposition Islamic party will back a general amnesty aimed at ending more than a decade of rebel violence if an emergency law restricting political activity is lifted, media reported yesterday. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has called for an amnesty to end the conflict, which has killed an estimated 150,000 people and almost destroyed Algeria in the 1990s. The amnesty, which is expected to be put to a referendum later this year, is expected to include rebels and security forces but no details have yet been given. "The general amnesty will not have an effect if the state of emergency is not lifted," said Abdallah Djaballah, leader of the main legal Islamic party El Islah. He said the long-running conflict would not end unless democracy was strengthened.
In 1992 militants started a rebellion after the army canceled legislative elections a now banned Islamic party was set to win, plunging the North African nation into near-civil war.
Djaballah's support for an amnesty is important as he is seen as the voice for the moderate Islamic movement and is expected to be influential on undecided rebels on whether or not they lay down their arms, analysts say.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 12:18:14 AM ||
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Jailed Sudanese politician Hasan al-Turabi will be released soon once the government ends a state of emergency, Sudan's foreign minister said in remarks published on Saturday. Sudan has been under a state of emergency since 1999, a measure which allows the government to detain people without charge. The government promised to end emergency law after a peace deal signed in January to end a civil war in the south. Al-Turabi, a former ally of President Umar Hasan al-Bashir, was jailed last September after the government accused his party of attempting a coup and of involvement in a separate rebellion in Sudan's western Darfur region, which started two years ago. Foreign Relations Minister Mustafa Usman Ismail told the pan-Arab daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Sudan would release al-Turabi and all political prisoners as emergency laws were lifted. "Now we are moving to a stage in which we will lift the state of emergency and not use any exceptional laws. When we reach this stage then Dr al-Turabi, certainly, and all those remaining will be released," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 12:09:51 AM ||
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Hamas promised on Saturday to maintain a de facto truce and, in a major policy change, not to retaliate immediately for any Israeli violence while it weighs Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's ceasefire with Israel. "Hamas's position regarding calm will continue unchanged and Israel will bear responsibility for any new violation or aggression," Ismail Haniyah, a senior leader of the militant group, told Reuters after talks with Abbas.
"And Rooters will continue to report my words uncritically..."
But in a new understanding with Abbas, Mahmoud al-Zahar, another Hamas leader, said the group would consult with the Palestinian Authority before responding to Israeli military action that fell short of "incursions and assassinations." The arrangement appeared to be aimed at preventing the kind of eruption of violence that occurred on Thursday when Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group launched mortar and rocket barrages at Jewish settlements in Gaza after troops killed a Palestinian. Abbas told Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group, which also agreed to the deal, that "no faction should be allowed to respond on its own to any Israeli violation," a Palestinian official said.
And it's driving the hard boyz crazy. No gun sex for weeks now!
Both groups, which had largely abided by a de facto truce over the past several weeks, said they needed more consultations before reaching a final decision on the ceasefire he brokered with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a summit on Tuesday.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A statement in the name of the al-Qaida in Iraq (terror group posted Saturday on the Internet accused Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera of trying to win U.S. favor by reporting false information about an attack the group had claimed responsibility for.
"Lies! All lies! Al-Jazeera is a very untrustworthy organization...take our word for it!"
The statement, which could not be immediately verified, related to a Friday bombing outside a Shiite mosque in Balad Ruz, 45 miles northeast of Baghdad, that killed 12 people as worshippers left prayer services. News reports suggested the mosque was targeted. But the group led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed the target was actually a nearby Iraqi National Guard convoy.
"See! It was our bomb! But Mahmoud the idiot put it by the mosque of the infidel Shia instead of in the path of the infidel lackey dogs. And the infidel Al-Jizz twisted our words. We just can't get good help these days, by Allan! What's a terror org to do?
"After we posted a statement (claiming responsibility) ... we found that Al-Jazeera tried to alter the facts and attributed to us (something) we didn't say," said the statement that appeared on an Internet site used as a clearing house for extremist Islamic material. "We didn't say in our statement that we targeted the mosque, but that we targeted the infidel guards, and we hit them directly." It also accused Qatar-based Al-Jazeera of falsifying the report in a bid to "flatter the Americans" and interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's government.
"We bought 'em fair and square! They should stay bought!"
U.S. officials have been critical of Al-Jazeera's coverage of the war in Iraq, and Iraq's interim government closed the station's offices in August after accusing it of inciting violence. Al-Jazeera editor-in-chief Ayman Gaballah defended his station, saying it relied on reports from news agencies operating inside Iraq. "No one will issue a statement saying they are happy with our reporting," he said.
"Why's ev'rybody always picking on me?"
Posted by: Seafarious ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Good Stuff, I hope terrorist and Al-jazeera continue to mistrust each other.
The two electoral powerhouses representing Iraq's Shia and Kurdish communities are poised to clinch the countr's two top jobs, with results from the landmark January 30 polls expected any time. "Looking at the partial results, it appears that the Sistani list will have more than 50 percent and that Kurdish parties will come second," said Sunni politician Saad Abdel Razzak. "They should therefore share the posts of president and prime minister between themselves."
Partial results announced on Monday showed that the Shia coalition backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani had obtained 2,244,237 out of 4,366,843 votes counted, or 51.4 percent of ballots cast. It could even improve this score when the rest of the polling stations in remaining Shia-dominated southern provinces are counted, securing around 140 out of the National Assembly's 275 seats. Meanwhile, a very high turnout in the northern Kurdish areas also guarantees the joint ticket formed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) a strong presence in parliament and plum posts in the government. With 1,075,534 votes, the Kurds are emerging as the second political force in the country, ahead of the Iraqi List of incumbent prime minister, Iyad Allawi. More counting in the Kurdish province of Arbil should ensure the Kurdish bloc retains its edge on challengers and secures around a quarter of all seats in parliament.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Gee... looks like the Sunni's only managed to pee in their *own* punchbowl. looks now they will have to drink it down.
Parade, a weekly magazine, has included President Pervez Musharraf among the "world's 10 worst dictators", a listing it published last year as well.
Well, that's certainly an authoritative source...
Parade, which gets distributed with every newspaper delivered to an American home or sold on the street or at a newsstand at weekends, says about the Pakistani leader, "Two years after seizing power in a military coup that overthrew an elected government, Gen Pervez Musharraf appointed himself President of Pakistan. He recently agreed to step down as head of the military, then reversed the decision, claiming that he was best suited to unite Pakistan's contentious political and military elements. 'The country is more important than democracy,' he said. Pakistan has endangered the world by spreading nuclear technology. Last year, it was discovered that Abdul Qadeer Khan, head of Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, has been selling nuclear technology to North Korea, Libya and Iran. As for civil liberties in Pakistan, a woman who has been raped may present her case only if she can produce four Muslim men who witnessed the attack."
Two who were on the list last year — Fidel Castro of Cuba and King Mswati III of Swaziland — have failed to "make the grade" this year. President Musharraf was not on the list last year. The No 1 dictator on the list is Kim Jong II. "Dishonourable Mentions" this year include Lexander Lukashenko of Belarus. The Parade list was compiled in consultation with Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, Amnesty International, and Reporters Without Borders. Parade's contributing editor, David Wallechinsky, who put the list together will soon be publishing a book entitled 'Tyrants: the world's 20 worst living dictators'.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Hu Jintao, Prince Abdullah and Pervez Musharraf are worse than Cuba's Castro and Venezuela's Chavez? You gotta love it.
#13
So when does the Parade list of the 10 Best Dictators come out?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/13/2005 14:26 Comments ||
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#14
Musharaf is a lying scumbag. Three months after attending a sham "peace" summit with India, he launched a surprise attack on the mountain regions of the Indian province of Kashmir. He labeled the nuclear proliferator, Khan (who was hand delivered nuclear information from Paki employees of the Atomic Energy Commission and other foreign agencies) a "state hero," and did nothing when Khan delivered WMD technology to North Korea and the Persian Islamofascist entity. Mushy's Pakistan Muslim League party slavishly shares power with the terrorist' Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in Punjabi occupied Balochistan, and jointly carried out a moment of silence in the provincial assembly when a Paki terrorist was justly executed for slaughtering 2 CIA employees on American soil. The US-Paki alliance is an insult to American dead. Its time to finance Sindhi, Balochi independence movements to enable them to break free from the Punjabi terrorist entity.
#16
With Musharaf we had to make a deal with the devil in order to get into Afghanistan. We also have to have enough "in" with somebody in charge in order to have a handle on Pakistani nukes so they do not fall into the hands if Jihadi nutcases. Musharaf is a scumbag, but we have to deal with him. The alternatives are pretty bleak. Kinda like rollerskating in a gravel pit. It ain't too pretty a process.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/13/2005 18:47 Comments ||
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#17
Musharaf we deal with because we slept through the 1990's. Bills come due - and this is how we are paying the bill for ignoring Afghanistan [where Pakisatan set up the Taliban] (except for a few cruise missles) and Pakistan in the 90's.
Yes its ugly, but its what we have to do, at least for now.
#18
Musharaf we deal with because we slept through the 1990's. Bills come due - and this is how we are paying the bill for ignoring Afghanistan [where Pakisatan set up the Taliban] (except for a few cruise missles) and Pakistan in the 90's.
Yes its ugly, but its what we have to do, at least for now.
#19
#6 Perv may not belong among the 10 Worst Dictators but he is certainly among the 10 Best Dressed Dictators. Very smart uniform. I can't wait to see Joan & Melissa Rivers interview him on the red carpet at this year's Dickie Awards.
THIS POSTER MUST BE FROM A BANANA REPUBLIC
#20
Musharaf we deal with because we slept through the 1990's. Bills come due - and this is how we are paying the bill for ignoring Afghanistan [where Pakisatan set up the Taliban] (except for a few cruise missles) and Pakistan in the 90's.
Yes its ugly, but its what we have to do, at least for now.
The government has decided to compile a computer database of the personal profiles of militants of Kashmiri origin. Sources told Daily Times that the profiles would detail the entrants' birthplace, family background, sources of income, parent militant organisation and current militant organisation. The sources said the compilation of the record would begin next month and take three to four months to complete. The government has already started compiling a database of militants of Pakistani origin, the sources said. The purpose of these lists is to keep track of the movements of militants across the country, the sources added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 ||
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A special army investigation team has taken Captain Hammad, the prime suspect in the gangrape of a female doctor at Sui, and five other army personnel into custody after finding fresh evidence, sources said on Saturday. Sources said three used condoms had been found in the doctor's room and DNA tests showed that they were used by one man. DNA tests of the hair found from the doctor's room showed that they were from different people, sources said, adding that some stains were also found on the pillow of her bed.
Sources said that all army personnel in custody including Capt Hammad would have to undergo DNA tests after which the doctor would be called to identify the rapist, Online reported. Major General Shaukat Sultan, the director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), confirmed that Capt Hammad was in custody. "He (Capt Hammad) was taken into custody a few days before," the ISPR DG told Daily Times, adding that he was being investigated.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 00:00:00 ||
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If those other Army guys at the gang rape testify against him, the Captain might even get sent to prison.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
02/13/2005 0:34 Comments ||
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The architect of assassinating Palestinian insurgents has been selected to head Israel's domestic intelligence service. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has appointed Yuval Diskin the new director of the Israel Security Agency. Diskin, 49, the youngest chief of Israeli domestic intelligence and security, was the initiator of the policy of identifying and targeting Palestinian insurgency operatives in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The policy, encouraged by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, led to the assassination in 2004 of much of the Hamas leadership. "It's an excellent choice," former ISA director Yaakov Peri said. "This was a relative rapid promotion." Officials said the challenge of the incoming ISA director would be to ensure internal security while renewing cooperation with the Palestinian Authority. They said Diskin and most ISA commanders have opposed Sharon's decision to release Palestinian inmates convicted of murder as well a military withdrawal from West Bank cities.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2005 12:01:36 AM ||
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Heh.
Works for me!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/13/2005 0:38 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.
Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi blames 'indoctrination that teaches young people they can kill justifiably'. Countering the assertion of many in American academia, a Saudi official said extremist teachings, not poverty or unemployment, are the root causes of terrorism in the kingdom, the homeland of billionaire Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.
"The al-Qaeda organisation is to be blamed for terrorism in Kuwait and the terrorists are a small group of isolated individuals, says MP Dr 
The interior minister said a jailed terror suspect died of a heart attack and not due to torture, as some lawmakers have suggested, according to remarks published Thursday. 
China has failed to heed U.S. warnings to stop missile exports to Iran. U.S. officials said state-owned Chinese defense firms continue to send missile components and technology to Teheran. The officials said that despite repeated warnings the flow of Chinese components and technology has bolstered Iran's medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missile programs. "On numerous occasions we have expressed our concern about these entities to the Chinese government and have asked Beijing to subject exports by these serial proliferators to persistent and close scrutiny," Undersecretary of State John Bolton said. "Unfortunately, we continue to see transfers by these serious proliferators of missile-related items to rogue states and outposts of tyranny such as Iran." Addressing a conference in Tokyo on Feb. 8, Bolton identified China's main missile clients as Iran, Libya, North Korea and Pakistan. He said Chinese state-owned firms have been sanctioned for providing ballistic missile technology to these countries, some of them proliferators themselves.
North Korea on Saturday said the United States was seeking to invade North Korea in order to turn the Korean peninsula into a springboard for its dominance in Asia. Rodong Sinmun, the official daily of the Stalinist country's ruling Korean Workers Party, also accused Washington of exploiting "human rights" issues in order to cover up its hegemonic agenda. The comments came two days after Pyongyang said it would no longer engage in multilateral talks aimed at resolving a stand-off over its nuclear programmes, declaring it had made atomic bombs to protect itself against a US attack.
China has accused Japan of a "severe provocation" after Tokyo moved to take over a lighthouse built years ago by right-wing activists on a small, disputed group of islands in the East China Sea. An unidentified official from the Foreign Ministry's Asian department had made solemn representations to the Japanese over the incident, the ministry said in a statement seen on its Web site (www.fmprc.gov.cn) on Saturday. "Japan's actions are a severe provocation and infringement on China's territorial sovereignty and are absolutely unacceptable by the Chinese government and people," the official said. 
The leader of a new Pentagon espionage unit has resigned his position, shortly after public disclosure that the Defense Department is expanding into clandestine operations traditionally undertaken by the CIA. The Strategic Support Branch and its departing leader are controversial among the elite special operations forces assigned to work with them on high-risk intelligence missions overseas, some of whom aired complaints in a Jan. 23 Washington Post story about deficits in the training and performance of the unit's officers. Defense officials with firsthand knowledge said the unit's leader, reserve Army Col. George Waldroup, surprised his staff in the first week of February with an announcement that he was stepping down immediately.
Iran rejected a European demand to stop building a heavy-water nuclear reactor that provides a simpler way of extracting weapons-grade fuel, and it warned the United States on Sunday "not to play with fire" by repeatedly threatening Tehran. Iran has indicated previously it will keep its heavy-water reactor, but Sunday's announcement that it will not replace it with a light-water reactor was the clearest statement yet of its nuclear plans and represented a hardening of its position. Both plants in question can be used to enrich uranium, a critical part in nuclear programs, but the extraction of weapons-grade material from a light-water reactor is more difficult. Uranium enriched to low grades is used for fuel in nuclear reactors, but further enrichment makes it suitable for atomic bombs. 
Hizb Allah — the Islamist resistance group based in Lebanon — has denied it was attempting to wreck the Israeli-Palestinian truce. In an interview with the Reuters news agency, the group's Deputy Secretary-General Shaikh Naim Qassim also said that disarming its fighters as demanded by a UN resolution, was not possible "now or in the future". Qassim termed baseless reports that Hizb Allah was trying to recruit Palestinian resistance fighters to derail the latest peace efforts in the Middle East. "They show the existence of an Israeli cell working to spread such ideas before Israeli actions to destroy the truce by repeated aggressions against the Palestinians," he said.
MILWAUKEE - John Treslley shakes his head in awe when he thinks about his 20-year-old son driving a Hummer through the minefields of Iraq. "I wish I had half the guts he has," Treslley, 47, says in a whisper.
Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims won nearly half the votes in the nation's Jan. 30 election, giving the long-oppressed group significant power but not enough to form a government on their own. 
Jailed Sudanese politician 
Hamas promised on Saturday to maintain a de facto truce and, in a major policy change, not to retaliate immediately for any Israeli violence while it weighs Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas's ceasefire with Israel. "Hamas's position regarding calm will continue unchanged and Israel will bear responsibility for any new violation or aggression," Ismail Haniyah, a senior leader of the militant group, told Reuters after talks with Abbas. 
The two electoral powerhouses representing Iraq's Shia and Kurdish communities are poised to clinch the countr's two top jobs, with results from the landmark January 30 polls expected any time. "Looking at the partial results, it appears that the Sistani list will have more than 50 percent and that Kurdish parties will come second," said Sunni politician Saad Abdel Razzak. "They should therefore share the posts of president and prime minister between themselves."
Parade, a weekly magazine, has included President Pervez Musharraf among the "world's 10 worst dictators", a listing it published last year as well.
A special army investigation team has taken Captain Hammad, the prime suspect in the gangrape of a female doctor at Sui, and five other army personnel into custody after finding fresh evidence, sources said on Saturday. Sources said three used condoms had been found in the doctor's room and DNA tests showed that they were used by one man. DNA tests of the hair found from the doctor's room showed that they were from different people, sources said, adding that some stains were also found on the pillow of her bed.
