The government of Qatar is paying millions of dollars a year to Al-Qaeda in return for an undertaking to spare it from further attacks, official sources are quoted as saying by the latest edition of The Sunday Times.
The money, paid to spiritual leaders sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, is believed to be helping to fund its activities in Iraq.
The sources said a deal between Qatar and Al-Qaeda was first made before the 2003 invasion of Iraq amid fears that the tiny oil state could become a target.
A senior Qatari government source said that the agreement was renewed in March after an Egyptian suicide bomber attacked a theatr in Doha, killing a British citizen.
"We're not sure that the attack was carried out by Al-Qaeda, but we ratified our agreement just to be on the safe side," said a Qatari official. "We are a soft target and prefer to pay to secure our national and economical interests. We are not the only ones doing so."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2005 1:25:22 AM ||
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#1
Paying extortion,yeah that'll work.Dumbass' to me it would be cheaper and easier(in the long run)to hunt them down and kill them.Must be the Cowboy in me.
#2
Mayhaps they are buying time to get their shite together to deal with the threat or think they can ride it out through payoffs but something tells me they are just plain fools hoping the inevitable will not come to pass. Do they actually think that just because of an "agreement" AQ wouldn't pull the trigger on them when the opportunity arises?
In the post-Sept. 11 world, Karim Mejjati was the perfect undercover al Qaeda operative. The former medical student from Morocco could speak several languages, had many passports and excelled at building bombs. He was also good at avoiding attention as he crisscrossed four continents to organize a wave of catastrophic attacks.
On May 12, 2003, an al Qaeda network that investigators say was put together by Mejjati in Saudi Arabia blew up three residential compounds for foreign workers in Riyadh, leaving 23 dead. Less than a week later, about 3,000 miles away, suicide bombers trained by Mejjati carried out the deadliest terrorist attacks in Moroccan history, killing 45 people in Casablanca.
For the next two years, authorities in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and North America pressed a secret but intensive global manhunt for the French-schooled suspect, fearing that he had set up other al Qaeda sleeper cells that had yet to be activated. Saudi Arabia put him near the top of its list of most wanted terrorism suspects. In Morocco, he was sentenced in absentia to 20 years for the Casablanca bombings. The FBI named him in a global anti-terrorism alert, warning that he was suspected of planning attacks in the United States.
According to investigators, his success in organizing terrorist networks in multiple countries is clear evidence that al Qaeda can still order devastating attacks around the world, even though most of its commanders have been killed or on the run since Sept. 11, 2001.
The search for Mejjati, 37, ended last month in a small town in the heart of Saudi Arabia when he was killed in a gun battle with security forces who stumbled on his hideout. Now, investigators trying to retrace his footsteps acknowledge that they still do not know how many more sleeper cells the well-educated explosives expert may have created.
"They need guys like him in the field in order to remain effective," said Mohammed Darif, a political science professor at Mohammedia University in Morocco, who is an expert on Islamic radicals in the country and has studied Mejjati's background. "He was very valuable for them. They could use him in different places and rely on him to complete the job."
U.S. officials have said that the direct threat posed by al Qaeda's central leadership has diminished and that it has taken on a different role of providing encouragement, but little concrete assistance, to local cells or networks that plan attacks on their own. On Wednesday, in its annual report on global terrorism trends, the State Department said the shift illustrates "what many analysts believe is a new phase of the global war on terrorism, one in which local groups inspired by al Qaeda organize and carry out attacks with little or no support or direction from al Qaeda itself."
But an examination of Mejjati's role in organizing cells in Saudi Arabia, Morocco and possibly Spain -- three of the countries hardest hit by Islamic terrorism since Sept. 11 -- challenges that assumption.
In interviews, security officials in Saudi Arabia said that Mejjati was dispatched from Afghanistan by top al Qaeda leaders in 2002 to help recruit and train a network of cells dedicated to overthrowing the Saudi royal family. Saudi officials said Mejjati served as the general strategist to the network's first chief, Yusuf Ayeri, who reported directly to al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden. Starting with the May 2003 bombing in Riyadh, the network has rattled the kingdom with a series of explosions, kidnappings and beheadings that have taken more than 90 lives and contributed to a global rise in oil prices.
In Morocco, counterterrorism officials said Mejjati provided explosives training to a cell of Islamic radicals recruited from the slums surrounding Casablanca. At first, investigators thought the operation was conceived and planned locally. But a suspect who later divulged Mejjati's name to interrogators led them to conclude that those responsible for the attacks were taking their cues from al Qaeda's top leadership.
Some U.S. and European officials say they believe Mejjati may also have been involved in the planning of the March 11, 2004, bombings of four commuter trains in Madrid in which 191 people were killed and more than 1,800 were wounded, although other investigators disagree. Spanish authorities have not issued an indictment against him. A local cell consisting mostly of Moroccan immigrants is believed to have carried out the attacks, but Spanish investigators have been unable to determine whether they acted on their own or took orders from al Qaeda middlemen such as Mejjati.
The son of a French mother and Moroccan father, Mejjati had a privileged upbringing in Casablanca. He attended an exclusive French-language school and, at his father's urging, applied to medical school in France.
He moved to France in the early 1990s to study, but dropped out of school and became more devout as a Muslim, according to neighbors and relatives in Casablanca. When he returned to Morocco a few years later, he dressed in Afghan-style clothes and wore a long beard, a style that made him stand out in his family's cosmopolitan neighborhood, next to the city's old Jewish sector.
In the late 1990s, he caused a small stir in the neighborhood by loudly berating a young man who had put his arm around his girlfriend in public, neighbors recalled. When visitors came from out of town, he would insist that he and his bushy-bearded male friends sleep in cars on the street while the women stayed in his small two-room apartment. "We thought, well, he's weird, but what can he possibly do?" said one neighbor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he didn't want to antagonize Mejjati's friends or the Moroccan security services. "He was always with strange people, but not to the point where we were worried."
Mejjati married a Moroccan woman, with whom he had two sons, but the family rarely interacted with others. As his sons grew up, Mejjati increasingly spent his time traveling. One resident from his apartment building said he recalled seeing Mejjati only twice after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, though he never suspected that he might be involved in militant groups.
That changed after suicide bombers struck several targets in Casablanca in May 2003, including a Jewish community center not far from Mejjati's apartment. Shortly afterward, detectives began interrogating neighbors about Mejjati and set up a round-the-clock stakeout of the apartment building. Neighbors said the police shadowed Mejjati's wife whenever she left her home and kept up the surveillance until last month, when he was reported killed in Saudi Arabia.
Moroccan officials said they assumed that Mejjati had fled the country before the May 2003 attacks, but were unsure how much time he had spent in Morocco training the suicide bombers. In an interview in March, Moroccan Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa said Mejjati was one of six suspects from the Casablanca bombings who remained at large. He said Mejjati was considered "a big fish," one of the top leaders in the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, a local network that has become increasingly affiliated with al Qaeda.
After the attacks in Casablanca and Riyadh, counterterrorism officials in other countries became increasingly alarmed about Mejjati as well. In September 2003, the FBI issued a worldwide bulletin warning the public to be on the lookout for Mejjati. The notice said he was "being sought for questioning in connection with possible threats against the United States." The FBI also confirmed that he had entered the country between 1997 and 1999.
A U.S. law enforcement agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mejjati entered the United States on at least two occasions during that period, with each stay lasting several months. What he did or where he went during that time is unclear, the official said. "We frankly do not have a lot of information about him, and most of what we do have has come from interrogations," the official said. "We knew he had the proven ability to travel here, and that is what was a particular concern about him."
Other counterterrorism officials said Mejjati, who was fluent in English, could easily blend into Western societies. Neighbors in Casablanca said he spoke French better than Arabic, the native tongue for most Moroccans. Investigators said he also had an uncanny ability to change his appearance. Grainy mug shots of Mejjati released by the FBI show a dark-haired man with a scraggly beard. A wanted poster in Morocco portrays a completely different look: a thinner Mejjati wearing glasses and a red-and-white checkered kaffiyeh, or headdress, with a neatly trimmed mustache and no beard.
Mejjati drew fresh attention in Europe after the Madrid train bombings. Although investigators have not confirmed his presence in Spain, they said he worked closely with a suspected ringleader in the plot, another Moroccan named Amer Azizi, who has been indicted by Spanish officials but remains a fugitive. The investigators said Azizi and Mejjati trained together at militant camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s and are considered top leaders of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group, which allegedly recruited many of the foot soldiers who carried out the attacks in Madrid.
Less than a month after the Madrid explosions, Mejjati's name surfaced again, this time in Belgium. Threatening e-mails sent to several newspapers in Antwerp on April 1, 2004, warned of pending attacks against Jewish targets in the city. The messages were unsigned but contained Mejjati's name in the text and suggested that he had inspired those making the threats.
Belgian authorities said at the time that they did not take the threats seriously, but they became more concerned a few months later when police in a town outside Antwerp arrested a suspected al Qaeda operative named Hussein Mohammed Haski. The arrest set off alarm bells throughout Europe because Haski was known by Moroccan and Saudi officials to be a follower of Mejjati. Several months earlier, Mejjati and Haski, also a Moroccan, joined 24 others on Saudi Arabia's most wanted list, the only two who were not from the Arabian Peninsula. When Haski surfaced in Belgium, some European counterterrorism officials feared that Mejjati was trying to set up another sleeper cell, this time in their back yard.
The search for Mejjati then shifted to Europe, although some counterterrorism officials speculated that he had sought refuge in more remote areas, such as Pakistan, Iran or along the Syria-Iraq border. But Saudi security forces last month unexpectedly came across him in the small town of Ar Rass, about 220 miles northwest of Riyadh. After receiving a tip that some militants were in the area, Saudi police surrounded a building and engaged in a fierce gun battle that lasted for three days, according to the Saudi Interior Ministry.
Saudi officials said they killed 15 militants and captured six others. Only after the shooting stopped did they discover that one of the dead was Mejjati. His teenage son, Adam, was also killed. "He was so good that we had no idea what he was doing," said a Saudi security source who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We had no tangible evidence where he was. The thing we do know is how sophisticated he was and what he was able to set up, inside and outside the kingdom."
This article starring:
al-Qaeda
AMER AZIZI
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
HUSEIN MOHAMED HASKI
al-Qaeda
KARIM MEJJATI
al-Qaeda
KARIM MEJJATI
al-Qaeda in Europe
KARIM MEJJATI
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Mohammed Darif
Moroccan Justice Minister Mohamed Bouzoubaa
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2005 1:22:53 AM ||
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A Yemeni committee will resume talks next week with more than 600 detainees of the Believing Youth group (Al Shabab Al Mumen) in an attempt to convince them to give up their extremist ideas, religious sources said. The five-member Thoughtful Dialogue Committee began its dialogue sessions early last March, but were suspended following an armed rebellion which broke out in the north. "The dialogue with those influenced by the ideas of Shaikh Hussain Badr Al Deen Al Houthi [the slain preacher] and his father, Badr Al Deen Al Houthi, is the only solution to the problem, said Judge Hamoud Al Hetar, committee chairman yesterday.
Meanwhile, Yahya Badr Al Deen Al Houthi, Member of Parliament and son of Badr Al Deen Al Houthi, said that the solution to the rebellion is with the President, Ali Abdullah Saleh. "We appeal to the President to have mercy on my father considering his old age," Yahya told the London-based Al Sharq Al Awsat over the phone from Sweden. He appealed to Saleh to put an end to "killing and detaining of Zaidis", referring to his father's followers. He pointed out that his eighty-two-year-old father is suffering from asthma and other diseases, confirming that he is in contact with him. He said government troops killed four of his 13 brothers and jailed three.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Kuwaiti parliament members Abdul Wahab Al Haroun and Yousuf Al Zalzalah yesterday submitted a draft law in parliament to combat rising religious extremism and related violence in the aftermath of deadly gunfights that hit the country a few months ago. The draft law bans issuing of religious fatwas (edicts) by individuals and calls for setting up of a supreme council for fatwa and religion to be entrusted with issuing fatwas related to modern-day issues. The council is to comprise religious scholars and specialists in scientific and economic fields, the Bill proposed. The Bill bans declaring any individual or group of the society as infidels or non-believers and states that lawsuits on such matters must be filed by the information ministry and not individuals. The Bill proposes stiff jail terms of up to 15 years for individuals or groups who carry arms with the aim to use them against security forces or other people.
The measures target a group of religious extremists which has been issuing fatwas based on their understanding of Islam against their rivals, thus risking social rift in the society. The Bill also bans publications that promote hatred against any group in society or instigating others to kill based on religious interpretations.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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The women's wing of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth will organize a three-day cultural forum for girls in Taif, starting Wednesday, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday. "The forum targets girls aged between 15 and 22 years and aims at creating a new generation having distinguished ideas, habits and relations," said Nawal Muhammad Arab, president of WAMY women's wing in Taif. The forum consists of programs to help the girls identify their objectives, plan for the future, control negative feelings, learn time management and make use of their natural capabilities. The participants will also get training in dialogue, discussion and interaction with others, Nawal said, adding that the participants would be given certificates on completion.
"Look, Fatimah! They gimme this certificate!"
"Wow! What's it say?"
"I dunno. I can't read."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A diplomatic rift between Riyadh and Budapest, which began early this year when Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany allegedly referred to members of the Saudi football team as "terrorists", came to an end yesterday with Saudi Arabia announcing the restoration of full relations with Hungary.
A bit touchy, are we?
Hisham Al-Nahili, a spokesman of the Foreign Ministry, said that Faisal Hashim, Saudi ambassador to Hungary, would shortly return to his position. "Ambassador Hashim is waiting to make a courtesy call on Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the foreign minister, before returning to Budapest," said Al-Nahili. He said that all issues had been resolved amicably and there were no problems between the Kingdom and Hungary. The Saudi ambassador was recalled by Riyadh in February this year in protest over the off-the-cuff remarks made by the Hungarian prime minister on Feb. 2 about Saudi soccer players. Gyurcsany has since apologized for his remarks, once publicly in a radio interview and several times through diplomatic channels. The Hungarian prime minister also apologized in a letter delivered to the Saudi government by Hungarian Ambassador Istvan Tolli in Riyadh. The Hungarian foreign minister also tendered his apology via the Saudi ambassador in Budapest at the time.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair has decided to equip Britain with a new generation of deterrent nuclear weapons, to replace those currently deployed on Trident submarines, The Independent reported on Monday. "The decision (to replace Trident) has been taken in principle very recently," a senior defense source told the daily on condition of anonymity.
A new nuclear deterrent would cost some 10 billion pounds (14.4 billion euros, 18.5 billion dollars), the paper said.
Blair, who is currently campaigning hard for his Labour Party to win a third consecutive election this Thursday, last week said he not yet decided on a new deterrent. "We have got to retain our nuclear deterrent. That decision is for another time," he told the BBC. "But I believe that is the right thing."
The defense source quoted by The Independent said it took an extremely long time to build new nuclear weapons, which is why the decision had to come far in advance of decommissioning the Tridents, expected in 2024.
Britain -- which the source said had to build its own bombs since US law forbade the Americans from constructing nuclear weapons for another country -- has four Trident submarines in service. They each have 16 multiple warhead nuclear missiles with a range of 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles).
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2005 12:34:27 AM ||
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#1
since US law forbade the Americans from constructing nuclear weapons for another country Sigh! Any chance of this law being revoked? At some time in the future it may well be an issue for Japan and even Australia. And if you can't trust the Brits, Japanese and Aussies, who can you trust?
#2
10 bilion pounds for nukes? When their conventional forces are so severly underfunded? Somebodies priorities are out of whack. We need to get closer ties to the UK so they feel comfortable being under the umbrella and don't waste money on nukes. The Japanese have been smatrt in this regard, though the Koreans and Chinese may make them start to pick up a tab too.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/02/2005 6:44 Comments ||
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#5
phil_b:
I don't think it will be necessary. Japan is quite capable of making its own nukes. They're rich enough and have all the technology necessary. Heck, they'd probably be smaller and have a higher J.D.Power quality rating than ours. We'd probably end up buying from them.
Australia is another matter, more for the lack of money to build the infrastructure than any shortage know-how. Maybe they can buy some from North Korea or Iran?
Nothing, it won't be retired until 2024. Quoting the article: "The defense source... ...said it took an extremely long time to build new nuclear weapons, which is why the decision had to come far in advance of decommissioning the Tridents, expected in 2024."
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2005 11:03 Comments ||
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#10
Heck, they'd probably be smaller and have a higher J.D.Power quality rating than ours.
Jackal, that comment is a riot!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/02/2005 11:10 Comments ||
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#11
Our warheads could stand a refresh too...
As for priorities being out of whack, it's always been cheaper to build another hundred nukes than to put another 1,000 tanks into Germany. Cold War economics.
Tony Blair will be forced to resign soon after winning a small parliamentary majority in this week's British election, a rebel politician has said. George Galloway, who was expelled from the ruling Labour Party in October 2003, told Gulf News the Prime Minister has lost people's trust due to the invasion of Iraq. "Dozens maybe scores of his MPs are not going to win because of his lying and I don't think he will last much longer. I think he may be out within the year. I think his majority will be substantially reduced and Gordon Brown will replace him quite quickly," he said on Friday. Galloway was speaking to Gulf News in Bethnal Green and Bow, East London, where he is campaigning to become the constituency's next MP. He is running as leader of a new party called Respect, which calls for an end to the occupation of Iraq, a minimum wage of £8 (Dh56) an hour and the abolition of council tax.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
Article: He is running as leader of a new party called Respect, which calls for an end to the occupation of Iraq, a minimum wage of £8 (Dh56) an hour and the abolition of council tax.
Galloway wants a British minimum wage of $16 an hour. You gotta love it.
#8
BTW, the fundie-loonies are against Galloway cause they want to boycott the election entirely, not out of love for Tony. The seat Galloway is up for in East London has about ZERO chance of electing a Tory, IIUC. A vote for Galloway instead of Oona King cant elect a tory, it CAN elect Galloway - but that wouldnt help the Tories when it came to forming a govt. Its kinda like voting for Nader in the District of Columbia - a vote for Ralph may have been a vote for Bush in Ohio, but it wasnt in DC.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
I don't think the Conservatives are going to win this election.
Thing is that Blair has spent all his political capital with the backbenchers in his party over the last 8 years. All the *real* reforms, like getting the National Health Service in some semblance of order by introducing private capital, have been thwarted by the hard-left in his party. Gordon (financial prudence) Brown, the chancellor, will have to raise taxes to pay for his public spending plans. I do believe that this is the high point of the Labour party, Blair had a chance to bring the Labour party out its hard-left past. He blew it.
The Conservatives should concentrate on putting *real* blue water between them and Labour - for example, a flat tax, a strong defence, re-introduction of real civil liberties (the ones we've had in this country for 800-1000 years), disengagement from Europe, strong borders and privatisation of 'public' services (such as the NHS and the education system). Will they do it though?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/02/2005 14:05 Comments ||
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They might start to think about it when (as seems likely) they lose yet again having spent too much effort trying to out-New Labour New Labour and little effort offering, as you say, a significantly different alternative. Perhaps it's also necessary for the statist Tory Old Guard to relinquish its grip on the party.
In another five years there might be an un-ignorable example set by those Eastern Europeans who have adopted flat taxation.
Howard's early campaign fixation on immigration killed the Tories chances, IMO.
#5
Tony's chances of changing Labour were amply demonstrated by Clinton's permanent changes to the Democrat party in the U. S. Now if only the Torys could find a Bush...
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/02/2005 14:42 Comments ||
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#6
find a bush, oh yeah, thats the ticket. Count on Tony having a Monicagate to dominate the term before Gordon Browns first election. Then count on Gordon Brown being a stiff, wooden campaigner, who fails to directly take on the monicagate, but also avoids talking about economic gains under Labour. You want to find a Tory who will then proceed to win in a squeaker. I dont think even Howard is that bad. :)
#7
The economy should slide into the gutter during the next parliament, given Brown's continuing profligacy. I don't think we'll need a Monicagate to bring down the Labour government next time. The 'economic gains under Labour' are drying up.
Abdullah Modmarov was in the middle of a soccer game when Uzbek police waving their rifles hauled him off the field and arrested the 33-year-old on charges of belonging to an outlawed radical Islamic party. The crackdown on Hizb ut-Tahrir or Party of Liberation has swept through cities and villages across this former Soviet republic, filling prison cells with thousands of observant Muslims or political dissidents imprisoned under the guise of religious extremism. Some belong to the party. Many such as Modmarov say they do not.
Either way, the ban on the group that authorities see as a "farm team" for terrorist organizations like al-Qaida hasn't stopped its expansion across volatile Central Asia, where it wants to overthrow secular governments and replace them by Islamic rule, but through nonviolent means. It is not on the U.S. list of terrorist organization because it eschews violence.
Yet Hizb ut-Tahrir followers as well as the group's opponents, who were interviewed by The Associated Press in four Central Asian states, say the authorities' heavy-handed approach to quash the movement has actually fueled membership in the group and accelerated a leap by many to embrace other Islamic groups that are even more militant than Hizb ut-Tahrir. Ibrahim Mirzajanov, a 21-year-old Uzbek who has spent more than three years in jail for religious activity, said he knows Muslims who used to promote the goal of an Islamic state through nonviolent means when they were with Hizb ut-Tahrir, but now have grown angry. "The more there has been a crackdown, (the more) they have joined more violent militant groups because they want things to happen faster," Mirzajanov told AP. "They are fed up with Hizb ut-Tahrir because they say they have not been able to change anything." Mirzajanov says he studied literature distributed by Hizb ut-Tahrir but never joined the movement.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
ABDULLAH MODMAROV
Hizb ut-Tahrir
ABU MUSAB AL ZARQAWI
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Ahmed Modmarov, a human rights worker
Alisher Khamidov, of the Brookings Project on U.S. Policy Towards the Islamic World
DILYOR DZHUMABAIEV
Hizb ut-Tahrir
DR. IMRAN WAHID
Hizb ut-Tahrir
IBRAHIM MIRZAJANOV
Hizb ut-Tahrir
KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMED
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Rohan Gunaratna
SHEIK TAKUDIN AN NABAHANI
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2005 1:08:51 AM ||
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South Korea on Monday played down the significance of a North Korean missile test the day before, saying it involved a short-range missile without nuclear capabilities and warning against linking the issue to a dispute over the North's atomic ambitions.
North Korea apparently test fired a missile into the Sea of Japan on Sunday, raising new fears about Pyongyang's nuclear intentions just days after a U.S. intelligence official said the secretive Stalinist state could arm a missile with a nuclear warhead.
"The missile that North Korea recently fired is a short-range missile and is far from the one that can carry a nuclear weapon," Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "This isn't a case to be linked to the nuclear dispute."
Concerning reports that Washington warned allies that Pyongyang might be ready to carry out an underground nuclear test as early as June, Song said South Korea had not received such a warning. Song is South Korea's top envoy to the nuclear dispute.
Six-nation talks — involving the United States, two Koreas, Russia, China and Japan — aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions have been stalled since June.
South Korean officials have said they have not detected any signs that Pyongyang is preparing for a nuclear test.
News of the test launch first appeared in Japanese media, which cited U.S. military officials as having informed the Japanese and South Korean governments of Sunday's test launch, which took the missile about 65 miles off the North Korean coast.
Later, White House chief of staff Andrew Card said there was an apparent test.
"It appears that there was a test of a short-range missile by the North Koreans and it landed in the Sea of Japan. We're not surprised by this," Card said on CNN's "Late Edition." "The North Koreans have tested their missiles before. They've had some failures."
In Japan, a Defense Agency official said on condition of anonymity Monday that Tokyo believes the missile only flew an extremely short distance and would not pose an immediate threat to Japan's national security.
The missile is believed to be a Russian-made SS21 with a range of 75 miles, or an upgraded version of the Silkworm, which has a 63-mile range, Japan's national Asahi newspaper said.
On Thursday, Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told the U.S. Senate that the North Koreans knew how to arm a missile with a nuclear weapon — a potentially significant advance for the communist state.
He did not specify whether he was talking about a short-range or long-range missile.
North Korea has test fired short-range missiles many times. In 2003, it test fired short-range, land-to-ship missiles at least three times during a period of heightened tension over its nuclear weapons program.
Sunday's test, however, occurred at an especially worrisome time as the North appeared to have resumed efforts to move forward with its atomic weapons program. South Korean officials said last month that Pyongyang had recently shut down a nuclear reactor, possibly to harvest more weapons-grade plutonium.
North Korea shocked the region in 1998 by test-firing a Taepodong-1 missile over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. The North said it was an attempt to put a satellite in orbit.
U.S. and South Korean officials are more concerned about a possible North Korean test of a Taepodong-2 missile, which analysts believe is capable of reaching parts of the western United States, though there are widespread doubts about its range and accuracy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2005 1:11:45 AM ||
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#1
Yup, they're right. It's no big deal. Let's just move all of our people beyond the range of that puppy and we'll have nothing to worry about. We could rotate them through Iraq/Afghanistan and give some of our other soldiers a rest, or perhaps let some of our Guard go home.
#2
South Korea is sounding a lot like the battered wife making excuses for the abusive husband. When the 911 call is made and the police show up, somebody's going to jail. That, or they stay married until the husband kills her.
#5
Bet the Japanese agreed to raise next year's defence estimate.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/02/2005 12:53 Comments ||
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#6
"The missile that North Korea recently fired is a short-range missile..."
Betcha it can reach Seoul... but then, practically everything the Norks have could hit Seoul. Nork schoolboys with spitwads could probably hit Seoul too, come to think on it.
Italian media have published classified sections of an official US military inquiry into the accidental killing of an Italian agent in Baghdad. The 40-page report was censored by the Pentagon before being officially published on Saturday.
Italy has refused to accept the US report's findings and is to publish its own version of events later this week. Details of the official report were published in newspapers on Sunday with censored material restored in full.
Missing text
A Greek medical student at Bologna University who was surfing the web early on Sunday found that with two simple clicks of his computer mouse he could restore censored portions of the report. He passed the details to Italian newspapers which immediately put out the full text on their own websites.
The missing text contains the names and ranks of all of the American military personnel involved (what aszholes!) in the killing of Nicola Calipari, the Italian agent who was given a state funeral and awarded Italy's highest medal of valour.
It also reveals the rules of engagement in operation at the military checkpoint near Baghdad airport which have been contested by the Italian authorities.
The censored sections include recommendations that the American military modify their checkpoint procedures to give better and clearer warning signs to approaching vehicles.
The official Italian report on the incident expected to be published this week will accuse the American military of tampering with evidence at the scene of the shooting.
The Americans invited two Italians to join in their inquiry, but the Italian representatives protested at what they claimed was lack of objectivity in presenting the evidence and returned to Rome.
Relations between Rome and Washington remain tense.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/02/2005 12:04:49 PM ||
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#1
How many US newspapers would have done exactly the same thing?
Posted by: James ||
05/02/2005 13:28 Comments ||
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#2
Allegedly, the censor didn't know how to properly censor text in .pdf format, so all you had to do was use its equivalent of "edit undo". That won't look good on his resume.
#3
Fercrineoutloud, people... is there a problem with making their spies do some work? Do you hafta hand over intelligence on a silver tray with some parsley garnish? Sheesh...
#4
James - to answer your question - The LALA Times, NY Times, and Seattle PI would without a question. Other papers might hesitate - some for a milisecond - some for a miniute or so, and some (too few) just wouldn't.
#5
Isn't this at least the second time the same .PDF screwup has happened? Our side has to do a better job of keeping secrets - very few media outlets will do it for you after you hand them the information.
An inquiry is under way into accusations that a Belgian company sold military material illegally to Iran. On Friday, the daily newspaper Le Soir reported that Finance Minister Didier Reynders is investigating whether a nuclear and military arms embargo on the middle-eastern country was broken. A tele-fax, dated 22 December, was leaked to Le Soir, in which Belgium's customs managers stated isostatic nuclear presses were being sent to Iran. Customs recommended the seizing of the equipment. According to Le Soir's investigation, one nuclear press was certainly sent to Tehran - without an export licence - in January. It was made by Epsi, a firm based in Temse in East Flanders. The company has denied supplying an atomic or military programme, stating it sold a nuclear press to the aeronautical industry, which meant a licence was not necessary. However, Reynders wants to know whether what was sold to Tehran had a "double use".
Posted by: seafarious ||
05/02/2005 8:58:15 AM ||
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Not much new in here for folks who have been paying attention, but an interesting article, especially when edited for all the weasel words coming from TSA:
TSA spokeswoman Amy von Walter disputed the notion that the application and training regimen are unduly burdensome, or that there is a huge backlog of pilots frustrated by the program's requirements. "It's TSA's responsibility to ensure that everyone in the [Federal Flight Deck Officer] program is fit and qualified. Not everyone is appropriate for this role," von Walter said. *snip*
Pilots are taught that their firearms can be used only to defend against a direct attack to the cockpit. Therein lies a major rub for many pilots. Because their law-enforcement authority begins and ends on the flight deck, pilots are required to stow their guns in a locked metal box whenever they're out of the cockpit. *snip*
But the agency is adamant that pilots shouldn't carry firearms outside of the flight deck and have no need for badges. "The cockpit is their jurisdiction. Period. End of story," von Walter said. *snip*
Pilots note that they already deal with immense responsibility and stress and that "if you've given him a 747 to fly, then he can handle a .38," an aviation consultant said. TSA flatly rejects such equivalence. "Being fit to fly a plane does not mean that they're fit to use deadly force," von Walter said. "That's what makes this position unique in law enforcement." *snip*
Adding a measure of confusion to the program is the uncertain future of the TSA, much of which is being dismantled and parceled out to other agencies. Von Walter said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is conducting a review of the department, which will help determine where the armed pilot program will land.
#2
"Being fit to fly a plane does not mean that they're fit to use deadly force,"
Ok....I thought they had to pass all kinds of medical tests before they were allowed in the cockpit in the first place. Probably ones Ms von Walter couldn't pass.
An organization of citizens in California, created last year to support the U.S. Border Patrol, will begin its own Minuteman-style vigil in August, using volunteers to spot illegal aliens in areas around San Diego, organizers said yesterday.
The Friends of the Border Patrol, led by Chairman Andy Ramirez, said 300 retired police officers, military personnel, pilots and other citizens have offered their services for the "FBP Border Watch," which the organization hopes to expand eventually from the Pacific Ocean to the Arizona state line.
The volunteers, Mr. Ramirez said, also include people to patrol the border on horseback and a contractor who has offered to build a base camp for the operation.
"America was built on the spirit of volunteerism and community," said Mr. Ramirez, who previously headed Save Our State, which helped defeat efforts by California lawmakers to authorize drivers licenses for illegal aliens. "Citizens volunteering to defend our nation in time of war and crisis is a time-honored American tradition.
"The American people are looking for ways to bolster Border Patrol numbers," he said. "It's clear they want more agents and secure borders."
The planned California vigil is patterned after the Minuteman Project, during which more than 800 volunteers manned observation posts on a 23-mile stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border east and west of Naco, shutting down a flood of foreigners in the area -- one of the most popular corridors for alien smugglers in the country.
Minuteman founder James T. Gilchrist, a retired California certified public accountant and combat-wounded Vietnam veteran, endorsed the California effort, offering his support and advice -- including the need for law enforcement and military personnel to participate to help "weed people out who do not belong."
Minuteman co-organizer Chris Simcox, a Tombstone, Ariz., newspaper publisher and founder of Arizona's Civil Homeland Defense Corps., has said that "tens of thousands" of volunteers will be ready in October to control illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border from California to Texas.
"We will package up what we've done here and do it again as a multistate border project. We will tell the government to do its job in securing this border or we will shut it down ourselves," he said.
Mr. Simcox also said this past week that the Minutemen are looking to help organize patrol efforts in four states along the U.S.-Canada border -- Idaho, Michigan, North Dakota and Vermont.
"We shouldn't have to be doing this," he said Tuesday. "But at this point, we will continue to grow this operation -- also to the northern border."
Mr. Ramirez said a well-organized and planned operation around San Diego was essential "to ensure the safety of everyone involved, from Border Patrol agents, the volunteers, illegal aliens and even those counterprotesters seeking to disrupt the Border Watch.
"We have asked everyone that they participate with but one intention -- to behave in a professional manner and follow the rule of law," he said.
Advising the California volunteers will be Joseph N. Dassaro, former vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 11,000 nonsupervisory Border Patrol field agents.
Mr. Dassaro, a 13-year Border Patrol agent and head of the council's Local 1613 in San Diego, quit the agency last week, saying a failed bureaucracy and lack of support from Congress and the Bush administration made it impossible for rank-and-file agents to secure the borders.
In a letter to Local 1613 members, Mr. Dassaro called the Border Patrol "one of the most inefficient and misleading agencies in the history of government."
Officially, the Border Patrol was not supportive of the Minuteman Project, saying immigration enforcement was the responsibility of the federal government. It has cast similar doubts on the California proposal.
Numerous rank-and-file agents in Arizona, however, told The Washington Times they welcomed the volunteers and the nationwide attention their project brought to the problem of the porous southern border. August would then be a critical time to put some Minutemen personnel on the Arizona border, to videotape the huge herds of illegals crossing there--diverting from California. Such pictures could be worth a thousand words.
#1
I wonder why a guy named Ramirez would want to lead a Border Patrol. Doesn't he understand he's supposed to have solidarity with illegals? If Boxer finds out about this, he's in big trouble.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/02/2005 16:17 Comments ||
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My guess is that the Minutemen will be hassled non-stop by any and all California law-enforcement. This is Feinstein and Boxer territory and they will push for bad things to happen.
#3
Totally agree, Sgt.D.T. -- As is the norm with the Moonbats, they are praying for trouble - the worse the better. The Minutemen have to show the same calm restraint everywhere that the AZ guys had. They made the ACLU & Friends look like the extremists and fools (that they are) and utterly turned the tables on them. Sweet.
#4
Perhaps, and perhaps not.
SD and Imperial counties are more conservative than than the state as a whole. I think you might see something similar to what we saw here, with some grandstanding politicos slandering them, but the rank and file quietly supporting them.
#5
They'll import the moonbats. Locals, who deal with it and know the score, won't be making a nuisance of themselves. I lived in Del Mar for 3 yrs so I've seen what Frank has described in Sammy Dago.
#6
amen. The SD stretch - ocean to Otay mountains is very difficult now with double and triple fencing. They come in in AZ now, mostly. The BP is peopled with good people doing a thankless impossible task if employer-sanctions are off the table (or not enforced)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2005 20:26 Comments ||
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Earlier this year, Michael Abdelmessih was hired by Manchester Community College (MCC) in Connecticut to teach a noncredit course titled ''Understanding Militant Islamic Fundamentalism.'' As of last Friday, however, Abdelmessih, a Coptic Christian who holds an MS degree in Political Science from Southern Connecticut State University, is out of a job, replaced by a Muslim professor.
That MCC moved so quickly to replace Abdelmessih reveals the disturbing effectiveness that apologists for radical Islam are having in stifling opposing viewpoints on college campuses across the United States. Six students originally signed up to take the course. Two of them were Muslim women serving on MCC's faculty. In an interview with Frontpagemag, Abdelmessih identified one of the women as Fatma Antar and the other as Dianne Hussein.
"Two months ago both faculty members asked Anne Bonney, the director of non-credit courses at MCC, to change the title of the course," Abdelmessih told Frontpagemag. "Bonney explained the situation to me, and we agreed to make some changes in the proposal. Instead of just being a course in understanding Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, it was to deal with Christian and Jewish fundamentalism also. This was due to the personal involvement and exchanges with Anne Bonney and the two Muslim faculty members. I have the original proposal with the changes made by Anne Bonney as my evidence."
Abdelmessih says that by the time he began teaching the course on April 9, 2005, the problems had already began. "My academic supervisor contacted me the week before I started the course and told me she will send police for protection,'' said Abdelmessih.ÃÂ The room assignment was also changed and he was instructed on how to call the police. "This was if I had any problems from the Muslim community or from both Muslim faculty members," he said.
"When I started talking about jihad, I was constantly interrupted because these two faculty members, Fatma and Dianne, claimed that jihad doesn't mean attacking non-Muslims, but means 'protecting Islam' Then, in the middle of the class, in Arabic no less, I received threats from Fatmaââ¬ÂŠand she made it clear that she would 'contact the Egyptian government.' She said, 'believe me, you will not continue this course.'"
And she did not stop there. Abdelmessih says Fatma also threatened his family in Egypt, where Copts are brutally persecuted. He says that Anne Bonney, in turn, told him she feared for his and his family's safety so much that she decided to station campus police at the classroom door to admit only enrolled students. "I asked Fatma in class if she intended to do the course work and homework in the class I had prepared before criticizing the course. She replied, 'No, I'm only here to watch you, '" Abdelmessih said.
"A week later, after the MCC class was over, I went on a trip to Washington, D.C. and while eating dinner was called by Anne Bonney of Manchester Community College,'' he continued. ''I was told I no longer will teach the course because of 'a few grammatical errors in the notes' (Abdelmessih was born overseas) I handed out to students."
Abdelmessih says his academic supervisor told him he would be paid for the course in full per his contract (at taxpayer expense) but not be allowed to teach it. In his place, Manchester Community College was having a Muslim faculty member teach the course. That professor, Colleen M. Keyes, from another community college, is a Muslim convert.
"We all know why I was replaced,'' said Abdelmessih. ''To present a sanitized view of Islamic fundamentalism to MCC students and to prevent any negative academic discussion about terrorism. Aside from violating tenets of freedom of speech, this is a gross violation of academic freedom. I would have taught different points of view in my course and now it will be a cheering section for Islam."
Manchester's administration and Anne Bonney were unavailable for comment.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/02/2005 9:15:35 AM ||
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#1
Think Globally, Ridicule Locally.
Yes there are many big problems in the world, and as individuals we are generally too small to address them as a whole. But you can chip away at important bits around the edges, by going on campus and shouting down these screech monkeys at Manchester Community College. These Islamists are no different than any other bunch of Leftists: unaffiliated, decentralized individuals or small groups, doing local "actions" that a) when added together with many other decentralized, individual actions forms a seemingly larger movement, and b) gives the appearance to regular folks that the issue is too big to do anything about locally, as an individual.
The individuals perpetrating these actions MUST be shouted down, derided, ridiculed, and called out. Allowed to shout and seethe and make angry demands, without adequate levels of contradiction from the public (THATâS YOU AND ME), these Leftists and Totalitarians get emboldened and call for ever increasing levels of compliance and subjugation from us. Stop looking on in horror at the âmarch of the Leftistsâ and DO something about it. NOW. It is up to YOU, as individuals, to take back your universities and communities from those who work in little local groups to destroy it. Don't leave it to professor-peer groups. Don't leave it to the university administration. Don't leave it to the students who are either Leftists already, or young adults who just want to get through this craziness and somehow get an education.
DON'T LET THEM SCARE YOU! THEY AREN'T RIGHT, THEY ARE SIMPLY LOUD AND ON THE OFFENSIVE. Take on the local Leftist scumbags. Go to your local campus and make sure they âgetâ as good as they are âgivingâ. I've been fighting fire with fire by shouting down and calling out Chief Yakking Ward Churchill in personal demonstrations on the University of Colorado, Boulder campus, being published in the Denver area newspapersâ Opinion Pages, and sending e-mails directly to the University President, Chancellor, Regents, and Colorado State Senators. Is he gone yet? No. Has he been suspended? Not yet. Have I failed? Hell no! I have, IN PERSON, put in the faces of the responsible university authorities that these freaks are not going to be tolerated, and pushed down their throats that employing these scum, and allowing intimidation of reasonable educators, the Regents, Chancellor, President and professorship of any given University WILL be held accountable for allowing these radicals to flourish in their midst (they didnât like my in-your-face methods, but told me my protest message had been a topic of discussion in Regent meetings. I told them I donât like leftists calling for the death of my family from their campus, and Iâll stop my protests when they jettison cancerous parasites like Churchillâ¦). Little by little my point is being made, and heard.
Does protesting sound too silly for a reasonable adult? Are you too busy to be bothered to get in the faces of University administrators today where your children will be educated tomorrow? Are you too embarrassed to go to meetings of the administration and, to their faces, demand action against these freaks? Then look in the mirror and see who is REALLY allowing the expansion of the power of Leftist scumbags in America.
#3
The best way to get to the people responsible for the Leftist indoctrination rampant on America's campuses is ---- financial.
1) Don't donate - and send the Chancellor a letter saying so, and why.
2) Don't send your kids there - pick a school that shows some balance.
3) For public institutions, write your politicians and newspapers and complain about how your tax dollars are being mis-spent.
4) When you see a college doing the 'right' thing (e.g. Widener University with it's scholarships for children of soldiers KIA), send THEM the funds you would normally donate to higher education, and tell them why. Word will spread.
Do NOT sit idly by.
The United States Congress is demanding the right to hear from two investigators who quit the United Nations inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal because they felt that it was too soft on Kofi Annan.
Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota who chairs the Senate Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations, has ordered his staff to subpoena Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan to testify.
The two Americans resigned from the UN inquiry last month after the panel, led by Paul Volcker, was said to have rejected two drafts that they had written that were highly critical of Mr Annan, the UN Secretary-General.
Mr Volcker, a former head of the US Federal Reserve, has telephoned the chairmen of three congressional committees investigating the scandal in an effort to prevent them issuing subpoenas. The UN insists that the investigators are protected by diplomatic immunity. Diplomatic immunity? They're both Americans, being subpoenaed by the US Congress. What diplomatic immunity could they possibly have?
#2
Diplomatic immunity? Theyâre both Americans, being subpoenaed by the US Congress. What diplomatic immunity could they possibly have?
That's what I don't get. As far as I'm concerned, the only way a US citizen can get diplo immunity is if the US grants them diplomatic status. We haven't for these jokers, so it doesn't apply.
If the UN thinks they can grant someone diplomatic immunity, without regard to citizenship or legal issues in their native land, then what they're really saying is "you can never prosecute us, our agents, or anyone who knows too much".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/02/2005 14:14 Comments ||
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US citizens don't get diplomatic immunity from US laws, at least as I understand it.
Even if these people have diplomatic immunity granted by the UN, we can declare them "persona non grata" and expell them from the US. They can either find another home, or stay in the US and be subject to US laws. As far as I'm concerned we should revoke the diplomatic immunity of ALL UN diplomats/employees. We can let them stay, but IF they do so, they're subject ot US law.
Posted by: Ralph ||
05/02/2005 15:10 Comments ||
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Mr. Volcker should be treated as part of the problem. His intention from the beginning was to protect Annan from any serious investigaton of OFF.
#5
Spot-on, Grunter. He wasn't selected for his good looks - he was "family" to the entire Maurice Strong cabal. An excellent choice, at first, because it put the US dogs off the scent for quite awhile... but tireless people like Claudia Rossett kept looking and the banking and board connections revealed the sham of his "investigation" and the conspiracy of his selection. I hope the entire lot, Strong, Power Corp, all of his Tranzi Scams, the Annans, the UN, Volcker, Sevan, Park, et al go down in flames - er, go to prison, assets confiscated.
#6
UN officials routinely get diplomatic immunity and this extends to UN conference participants. A situation that has long bothered me because unlike a state it is difficult to see how redress can be exacted with the UN.
Lets say a diplomat is shown to be involved in terrorism, there are many sanctions that can be taken to punish the diplomat's country starting with expelling diplomats, thru trade sanctions and freezing bank accounts to bombing their capital. The state is rightly held accountable for the actions of its diplomat and that diplomat is normally accountable to the laws of the home country and the country can generally avoid sanctions by charging and punishing the person.
But what happens if the person involved in terrorism is a UN official? I can guarantee the UN will say we are not responsible. How can we sanction the UN? In addition unlike a diplomat from a nation state the UN officer is not subject to any laws since he is also immune to prosecution in his home country and the UN itself has no laws against terrorism, rape, murder, fraud bribery or anything else. A UN diplomat, officer or attendee at a conference and there are many thousands of them are completely above any national law. In theory they are accountable to the ICC, but it has never charged anyone associated with the UN and almost everything we consider a crime is not a crime at the ICC since there is a very limited body of international law pertaining to individual acts.
I find it particularly galling when Annan or some other UN functionary talks about international law when they are exempt from the laws that apply to the rest of us irrespective of our nationality. Hipocracy thy name is the United Nations.
A case of polio has been detected in Indonesia, World Health Organization officials said today, indicating that an outbreak spreading from northern Nigeria since 2003 had crossed an ocean and reached the world's fourth-most-populous country. hello Islam!
The virus, found in a village in Java, is most closely related to a strain that was found in Saudi Arabia in December, they said, and the most likely explanation is that it was brought back either by an Indonesian working there or by a pilgrim who went to Mecca in January. again....
Indonesia's last case was in 1995, and it is now the 16th country to be re-infected by a strain of the virus that broke out of northern Nigeria when vaccinations stopped there, then crossed Africa and the Red Sea. along with the Koran, the gift that keeps on giving
Officials recommended that Indonesia immediately vaccinate five million children on the western end of Java, including the capital, Jakarta, to control the virus. The country began planning such a drive last week, they said.
Indonesia has more Muslims than any other nation, and polio is now found almost exclusively in Muslim countries or regions. now go figure....the Imam told us about the Jooooo shots with the poison in them
Many people from northern Nigeria to the Pakistan frontier have resisted getting polio vaccines because of persistent rumors that it is a Western plot to render Muslim girls infertile or to spread AIDS. (Paradoxically, after several states in Muslim northern Nigeria halted vaccinations in 2003, it was purchases of Indonesian vaccine that finally convinced wary imams and politicians to drop their opposition, because it came from a Muslim country.)
With each new case, the W.H.O.'s goal of eradicating polio by the end of this year slips farther away. Its emergency response fund is virtually depleted and the agency has begun pleading with donors for help controlling new outbreaks in Ethiopia, Yemen and other very poor countries.
At the disease's low point, in early 2003, it was endemic in only six countries: Nigeria, Niger, Egypt, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.
The current case was found in an 18-month-old boy in a village in Sukabhumi province in West Java who became paralyzed in mid-March, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, coordinator of the polio eradication campaign for the W.H.O.
Genetic typing, just completed in Bombay, India, clearly shows that the original source of the strain was northern Nigeria, said Dr. David L. Heymann, the W.H.O. director general's representative for polio eradication.
Comparison to databases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta shows that is about 99.2 percent similar to a strain circulating in Saudi Arabia and 99.1 percent similar to a strain in Sudan, suggesting that it came from Saudi Arabia, "but they're so close that it's a hard call," Dr. Aylward said.
Dr. Christopher P. Maher, chief of technical support in the W.H.O.'s polio division, visited Sukabhumi last week and found that the child had no family members who had traveled to polio-endemic areas, but other families had members who went recently to Saudi Arabia as guest workers or pilgrims.
Other cases of paralysis in the village "are very hot - they clinically look like polio," Dr. Aylward said.
That suggests widespread circulation, since only 1 case in 200 produces paralysis. Confirmation takes time because each requires two stool samples taken at least 24 hours apart and then chilled, shipped to a qualified laboratory and grown out for days or weeks before testing.
But vaccination should start as soon as possible, the officials said. Reaching five million children "doesn't sound like 'targeted' vaccination," Dr. Aylward conceded, "but in a country of 250 million, it is."
Only 75 to 80 percent of Indonesia's children get routine polio vaccinations, he said, and some areas have better coverage than others. Indonesia is a large chain of islands, and parts of it, including northern Sumatra, are in rebellion against Jakarta's rule. When polio gets into war-torn areas, as it has in Sudan and Ivory Coast, it can become much harder to eliminate.
Until recently, the country also lacked a polio emergency plan that provides for vaccinating at least half a million children within four weeks, going house to house.
Still, Dr. Aylward said, "I'd rather take the virus on in Indonesia than in a Sudan or a Yemen or the Horn of Africa, where you've got less than 50 percent baseline coverage."
Many countries stopped vaccinating or cut back substantially when they eliminated polio in the 1990's.
"We're paying a penalty for that now," Dr. Aylward said.
During the 11 months it took until northern Nigeria began vaccinations again, the disease spread across Africa from Guinea on the Atlantic Coast to Sudan on the Red Sea. One case was found as far south as Botswana. Some outbreaks have been contained quickly, but those in Sudan, Ivory Coast and a new one in Yemen all appear to be spreading faster than vaccinators can head them off.
The infection routes followed African highways that skirt the southern edge of the Sahara Desert and ferry routes on the Red Sea.
The disease was found in Jidda and Mecca in Saudi Arabia late last year, and polio eradication officials said in February that they feared the annual pilgrimage could spread it around the world.
In 1988, when polio was endemic in 125 countries, the annual assembly of national health ministers, meeting in Geneva, declared their intent to eradicate polio by 2000. That target was missed, but a $3 billion campaign had it contained in six countries by early 2003.
Sad but fitting end to a seventh century dead religion?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2005 9:59:47 PM ||
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For years, Thai authorities acted as if international terrorism was someone else's problem, even after bomb attacks in Bali, Jakarta and Manila brutally exposed the threat to the region. Suddenly, the government has changed tack, and mobile phone operators find themselves caught in its new enthusiasm for security.
From May 10, the government wants Thailand's four mobile phone operators to start registering the identity of people buying prepaid SIM cards, the so-called subscriber identity module that identifies a phone to its network. That means collecting data on close to one million people a month.
The impetus for this initiative apparently came from a series of bomb blasts in Thailand's mainly Muslim southern provinces, where security forces face an insurgency. The bombs were mostly detonated by cellphones, Thai authorities say.
Every time a bomb goes off, the government closes down local cellular networks in case the bombers have planted a second device designed to hit security forces or rescue services rushing to the scene of the first.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who built a family-run telecommunications empire, which includes the biggest of Thailand's cellphone operators, says he is confident that registering SIM card holders will solve the problem of bombers using mobile phones.
But the registration idea makes some people who are not crooks or wannabe terrorist bombers unhappy.
Thailand is not the first country to register prepaid customers. Switzerland introduced registration last year after it found that Al Qaeda had members used prepaid Swiss cards to make calls from Pakistan and Afghanistan. Swisscom, the country's leading phone company, was uneasy about the extra work, although it only had to contend with about 1.9 million prepaid subscribers.
In Thailand, where the authorities eventually want all prepaid sub- scribers registered, the number now totals 21.5 million people and is growing at a rate of about 20 percent a year.
The phone companies say they are supportive of the initiative in principle but see a host of potential problems. It is not clear how much data the government wants them to capture or what requirements customers must fulfill.
There are potential legal snags as operators also have legal obligations not to disclose customer information. And there appear to be different views in government about who should hold and maintain the customer data provided.
Nor is it clear what the government wants to do about foreign cellphones roaming around Thailand - whose fees provide a high-margin source of revenue for Thai operators. One report suggests that visitors would have access to roaming only after registering, an inconvenience for business visitors and the more than 10 million tourists visiting Thailand every year.
"I told them if they are going to be tough about that they could scare away tourists and business people because everyone will think we have a war on," said Athuek Asvanund, vice president and group general counsel for True, which operates a mobile phone service under the TA Orange brand.
There are some potential benefits to the operators, telecommunications analysts point out. Companies will get more client data with which to refine their marketing strategies.
Some security experts doubt the move will be helpful. Registration will not stop bombers from using stolen SIM cards or mobile phones or phones from other countries to detonate bombs or from using false identities to buy them. Moreover, although mobile phones are among the more efficient devices for detonating bombs, courtesy of their digital technology and the quality of the network, there are plenty of other handy gadgets that will do the job, including remote garage door openers and family walkie-talkie sets - anything with a wireless signal.
"What they are doing is spending a lot of time and effort doing something that ultimately may be neither useful or effective," said John Wideman, Thailand country manager for the security consultancy ArmorGroup Asia Pacific. "There are just too many ways around it."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2005 1:13:58 AM ||
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#1
It's rather remarkable how many reasons people can come up with to stop a good move in the WoT.
"Won't be 100% effective" - okay, true. Nothing is. Perhaps Mr Wideman would be happy if the next cellphone detonated bomb took out his family. We'll all pretend it would have been one that the registration system couldn't have prevented. That should make it all better.
"They could scare away tourists and business people..." As if there's anyone on the planet with the means to vacation in TL that doesn't know about the asstard Muzzy terror acts down South? Or that there are businesses that don't know? On it's face, it has the ring of the cash register... under any level of real analysis, Mr Asvanund's statement is utterly stupid.
I would note that the average jihadi has an IQ hovering around comfortable room temperature. Sure there are a few smarter ones, but they're getting picked off too - so the talent is likely stretched thin and averaging near dumb as a rock. And this will continue to get better as time goes on.
Not doing what you can reasonably do to prevent terrorist acts is the real issue. When someone has the stones to stand up and do something constructive, perfect or not, they should be supported, not nibbled to death by the ankle-biters who have personal interests to defend, at the expense of higher safety for all. IHT seems to be down on the ankle level, since they closed with the asshat quotes. Brilliant.
#2
Like a number of countries in SEA, everyone in Thailand has a government issued identity card that they are required to carry and present in various circumstances. So presenting evidence of identity is not the issue it would be in some countries. I don't know how easy these cards are to fake, but tightening up security is achievable and desireable for a host of reasons if fakes are widespread. And BTW the stolen SIM argument is a complete red herring. Telecos block stolen SIMs. The only ones they can't block are - you guessed it - anonomous prepaid SIMs.
Iran is planning to mount a staunch defense of its nuclear energy program at an international conference beginning today and will insist on rights to the same technology afforded to all members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a senior Iranian official said in an interview yesterday.
The high-level counteroffensive, to be led by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, comes in anticipation of a tough speech the Bush administration is preparing to give today calling for international measures against Tehran unless it gives up sensitive aspects of its nuclear program.
M. Javad Zarif, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, said his country's efforts are peaceful and well within its rights. Kharrazi, who will address the gathering tomorrow, will spend much of this week discussing the issue with diplomats from around the world.
The White House decided several days ago to send a mid-level delegation to the United Nations, where diplomats will review ways to strengthen the nonproliferation treaty. But efforts were underway late yesterday to persuade Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to deliver the U.S. address today. U.S. officials did not rule out raising the profile of the delegation but said it would be difficult for Rice, who returned Saturday from Latin America and is scheduled to accompany President Bush to Europe tomorrow.
Conference organizers had hoped the crises with Iran and North Korea would remain in the background this week. But the hardening rhetoric and actions on all sides indicate the tensions are escalating and probably would dominate the forum.
Diplomats from more than 180 countries will spend the next month reviewing the treaty, which gives nations broad access to nuclear energy technology in exchange for pledges to forgo nuclear weapons. The deal, signed in 1970, also includes a commitment by the five original nuclear states -- the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia -- to eventually eliminate their stockpiles.
The treaty is considered one of the most successful arms-control agreements ever. But the basic bargain is often cited as its greatest flaw because countries can peacefully get a pathway to bomb-building and then leave the NPT without penalty, as North Korea did two years ago.
And although the NPT is credited with slowing the spread of nuclear weapons, it has not stopped proliferation altogether or led to the eliminations originally envisioned. Pakistan, India and Israel have not signed the pact, and there are fears that more countries could opt out. Several solutions have been offered to address the flaws, but there is no consensus on any. Delegates who have been preparing for the conference for more than a year still have not agreed on an agenda for the meeting.
As a result, the conference, which takes place every five years, is mired in turmoil and comes as tensions are gathering over Iran and North Korea. Yesterday, North Korea, which is now believed to have the means for at least six nuclear weapons, unnerved its neighbors with a missile test in the Sea of Japan. Over the weekend, Iranian officials said they could end a suspension of their once-secret nuclear energy program unless there is some progress in talks with Europe meant to resolve concerns about the country's growing nuclear capabilities.
U.S. officials, who discussed the White House's strategy, said they did not believe this conference would end with any agreements and instead braced for confrontation and criticism. Bush last week chose harsh language to describe his frustration with Tehran and Pyongyang. North Korea responded by calling Bush "a philistine whom we can never deal with."
The U.S. speech, which will be delivered to conference delegates today, focuses heavily on Iran and North Korea "in very tough language," said one U.S. official, who agreed to discuss the details on the condition of anonymity. The speech will also go over proposals Bush made in February 2004 but will not offer any new ideas about how to deal with growing nuclear crises and will avoid mention of a dozen nuclear commitments the United States signed on to, along with other nations, at the previous review conference in 2000.
Those commitments, which focus on nuclear disarmament, have become touchstones for nonnuclear states that say the United States is not honoring the treaty's main purpose of eliminating nuclear weapons.
But the Bush administration said the 2000 commitments, which did not focus on terrorism, a changed Middle East or a nuclear black market, are not relevant in a world altered by the attacks on the United States a year later on Sept. 11, 2001.
Most critics of the administration's position agree that some of the commitments are outdated and say the unilateral decision to walk away from a set of ideas adopted by consensus weakens the treaty and the U.S. position.
"If the conference fails and the U.S. is seen as the reason for that failure, it is going to be much harder for the United States to get the international cooperation it needs to deal with Iran, to deal with North Korea and to deal with all the other issues we are concerned about," said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Cirincione said U.S. research into new nuclear weapons and new uses for nuclear weapons, coupled with a refusal to ratify a treaty banning nuclear testing, has led countries to doubt the U.S. commitment to the treaty. He said the United States must lead by example if it expects others to sustain their pledges.
But the Bush administration has rejected that argument.
"This notion that the United States needs to make concessions in order to encourage other countries to do what is necessary to preserve the nuclear nonproliferation regime is at best a misguided way to think about the problems confronting us," Stephen G. Rademaker, assistant secretary of state for arms control, said in congressional testimony last week.
Rademaker, who was named to lead the U.S. delegation to the conference, said the United States would use the meeting to focus on Iran's alleged noncompliance with the treaty and North Korea's withdrawal from the agreement.
European officials have been concerned about U.S. aims at the conference, saying a toughly worded speech or narrow focus on Iran could inflame rather than alleviate tensions at a sensitive time in their negotiations with Tehran. "The last thing we want is an inflammatory speech from either side," one senior European official said.
Zarif said Iran plans to be firm on its rights under the treaty despite the suspicions. "An attempt to make compliance the central issue of this conference is a smoke screen designed to conceal the fact that there were decisions taken at the previous conference, and adopted by consensus, for disarmament," he said. "We know our rights."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2005 1:18:41 AM ||
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Howler Of The Day:
European officials have been concerned about U.S. aims at the conference, saying a toughly worded speech or narrow focus on Iran could inflame rather than alleviate tensions at a sensitive time in their negotiations with Tehran. "The last thing we want is an inflammatory speech from either side," one senior European official said.
FRANKFURT — Two leading Germany magazines reported on Saturday that a company is under suspicion of selling weapons technology to Iran. Der Spiegel said the company is suspected of delivering rocket-building technology to Iran as far back as 2002.
Focus weekly magazine identified the company in question as being called Tira and said its deliveries were intercepted by the intelligence agents of an ally in late 2004 in the Middle East. Both Spiegel and Focus said the German technology was intended for use in Iran's Shahab, or Shooting Star, medium-range missile programme that can carry a nuclear warhead and reach Israel and various US military bases in the region.
On Friday federal prosecutors said they were investigating a manager from a defence company in the eastern German state of Thuringia, who had been briefly detained and later released. They identified the man only as 64-year-old Peter K.
Calls to the prosecutors in Karlsruhe went unanswered on Saturday, although they refused on Friday to comment on further details. They said the man held a responsible position at the firm suspected of delivering "vibration test machines" to foreign countries.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2005 12:28:48 AM ||
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When we find out about these sales we should kill the management of the companies. They might get the message then. Otheriwse they just keep doing it. Germany is a repeat offender.
#2
Surely there are applicable export laws. If the goods sold violate the law, burn the bastards running the company. Same goes for any company anywhere. Period. Full stop. This is where our "accommodation" of Pervy and the World's Most Fucked Up Country" (tied with Somalia for the honor, IMHO) - think Khan and the point is clear - makes me ill and very pissed off at our own Govt.
If they don't, put Germany on the Terrorist Supporters list and start cutting every tie we have as fast as possible. Period. Full stop. If they don't take Iran's nuke program seriously, not to mention what they've promised to do with the first one they can deliver, then we should take steps to make it a bit clearer how we view supporting terrorists. I would think that Germany would've had its fill of being part and parcel to killing Jooos wholesale. That has been my impression for the last 50 yrs - and one reason why I always cut the German people some slack, though I find Schroeder and Fischer reprehensible.
The temptation is to make this all very complicated. It's not, actually. Either prove you're a good guy by doing the right thing when the choices are presented, or be bunched over in the corner with the bad guys. You can NOT have it both ways.
#4
Of course there are applicable export laws. But in reality they only apply to a company that's not connected, and they all seem to be connected. More like the Japanese approach than the American one, y'see.
#5
German firms helping Iran now. German firms helped Iraq in the 90s and early 2000s.
Belgian firm helping Iran now (see elsewhere in RB).
I think a lot of shipments should start having "problems".
Posted by: too true ||
05/02/2005 13:42 Comments ||
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The distance from Iran to Germany is less than 2000 miles. The Sahaab4 (TaePongDong1 variant) and Shahab6 (TaePongDong2 variant) have ranges from 1800-2700 miles with a nice 1 ton payload. Congratulations on helping the Iranians build their outdoor German incinerators.
Posted by: ed ||
05/02/2005 13:58 Comments ||
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Secretary General of Lebanese Communist PartyKhaled Hadadeh on Sunday called for bolstering the existing Syrian-Lebanese relations and finding a mechanism to activate and strengthen these relations. During a celebration organized by the party, Hadadeh vehemently criticized moves and interference of foreign ambassadors in Lebanon in Lebanese interior affairs warning against dangers of schemes aiming at striking the Lebanese national resistance.
"Yes! Schemes, I tell you! Nefarious schemes, hatched in back rooms, by foreigners tha we don't know!"
"Return of the Syrian forces from Lebanon doesn't mean end of the Syrian-Lebanese relations," Secretary of Syrian National Social Party's Politburo Qasem Saleh said, stressing that those relations are governed by History, Geography and joint ties.
Historically, Syria's never had good luck trying to control Lebanon directly.
During a joint political symposium with Hizbollah and Amal Movement, Saleh called for protection of the national unity and civil peace in Lebanon as well commitment to the resistance option as a base in facing the aggression. For his part, member of Amal Movement Politburo Mohammad Ghazal stressed that the international pressure put on Syria and Lebanon aims at damaging the existing relations between Syria and Lebanon and disarming the resistance. Meantime, the responsible of Hizbollah Politburo Hasan IzzEddin said: " The resistance army is Lebanon's strength deterring the Zionist occupation and we have to enhance our ranks and abilities and shoulder our responsibilities to face what is coming in the future."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Hard-line Iranian politicians called on the government yesterday to sever all diplomatic ties with Britain in a rapidly escalating row over the opening of a new airport serving Tehran.
"Yeah! Throw 'em out! Occupy their embassy!"
Britain and Canada issued warnings on Friday to travelers to avoid using the Imam Khomeini International Airport, which opened on Saturday, due to concerns the runway may be unsafe. Iranian transport officials rejected the travel advisories and said the airport and runway had been inspected and approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Hard-line politicians ignored the dispute over safety and focused their ire on an alleged request by London that the name of the airport, dedicated to the founding father of the 1979 revolution Ayatollah Khomeini, be changed. "If Britain does not apologize to Iran we will break all ties with that country and expel Britain's ambassador," said Hamid Reza Hajibabaei, a member of Parliament's presiding board.
"Ardeshir! Round up some hard boyz! We're gonna hold us a demonstration!"
"If true, we should ... not allow any British nationals to enter our country and we should naturally cut economic ties with that country," agreed Hossein Shariatmadari, editor in chief of the hard-line Kayhan newspaper. The British Embassy in Tehran rejected the accusation as "nonsense". "We have never requested that the name of the airport be changed," said Charge d'Affaires Matthew Gould. "Our only consideration is for the safety of the runway."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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I only have 3 words for you, runway denial munitions.
#2
Previous Rantburg assessments of IKIA functionality available here. Perhaps Airbus could use it to practice "touch and go" landings for the new A380.
#5
the hardhats are a little tightly wound IMHO for them to be civil engineers. Where are the pocket protectors? Poseurs
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2005 11:14 Comments ||
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We have some, um, interesting clients up here, too. We are an interesting engineering firm, too. However, weird and off the wall, we are not flakey. The fellows in the pic are flakey with a great deal of money. Let them find an engineering firm and country that will kiss their collective asses be a better mesh, for instance, Frawnce.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/02/2005 11:29 Comments ||
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we should ... not allow any British nationals to enter our country and we should naturally cut economic ties with that country
because we're gonna be in deep kimchee soon and this way we can blog THEM off and save face before they drop us
Posted by: too true ||
05/02/2005 13:39 Comments ||
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Hard-line politicians... focused their ire on an alleged request by London that the name of the airport, dedicated to the founding father of the 1979 revolution Ayatollah Khomeini, be changed.
How about they change it to "Dead Maniac Ripped Out Of His Coffin By His Psychopathic Followers International Airport"?
Still the funniest funeral I have ever seen...
It has been more than a decade since the U.S. Navy has needed to prepare for undersea warfare against a capable submarine force. Since the Soviet collapse some 15 years ago, the chief undersea threat shifted to diesel-electric submarines operated by rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. These boats were of limited range and were relatively easy to track due to the need to regularly approach the surface to snorkel for air to run the diesel engines to recharge the propulsion motor batteries. The advent of Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) has changed the equation. AIP allows these submarines to run their diesel engines submerged using stored oxygen in a closed cycle. Another form of AIP permits the submarine to operate its electric motors on energy produced by fuel cells. On October 28, 2004 the Swedish government accepted a U.S. Navy proposal to lease an AIP-equiped submarine and its crew of 25 for anti-submarine warfare training, which will begin the early part of this year.
The AIP-equipped Gotland-class submarine, one of five in Swedish service, will be stationed at the United States Naval Base at Point Loma in San Diego, and will be involved in training exercises in both the Pacific and Atlantic. Officials expect the information gained in the training operations to enhance American sonar technology and to lead to the establishment of a solid bank of operational experience versus AIP-equipped subs. Rear Admiral Donald Bullard, Director of Readiness and Training for Fleet Forces Command, said, "This will vastly improve our capability to conduct realistic, effective antisubmarine warfare (ASW) training [and further]... our efforts in developing coalition ASW tactics, techniques and procedures."
The U.S. Navy is concerned that "rogue" states and terrorist organizations will acquire this capability because it is far less expensive to build and operate diesel-electric submarines with the AIP system than nuclear submarines. Countries that operate AIP-equipped submarines include Sweden, Germany, Greece, Italy, Pakistan, and Russia. The Spanish Navy has funded a three-part process of researching and developing AIP systems for its new S-80 submarines, four of which are scheduled to be commissioned between 2005 and 2014. These submarines are expected to cost some $650 million each.
Over the past decade, the U.S. Navy has experienced a marked decrease in ASW training missions including those in shallow, crowded waters. It is in these "littoral" waters where the threat was most clearly manifested. The Straits of Hormuz, crowded with supertankers, thousands of smaller craft, shallow waters, reefs and wrecks, is the chokepoint a hostile navy could easily block, cutting the flow of oil dramatically. The tight and the underwater noise generated by the immense traffic severely diminish the effectiveness of advanced sonar systems.
Vice Admiral Bernard "Bud" Kauderer, a member of the JINSA Board of Advisors, said, "the decline in ASW coincided with the end of the Cold War. The greatest threat posed to the U.S. in submarine warfare was the USSR, which at its peak reached up to 300 subs, both diesel and nuclear. There was no other force that comprised a significant threat to our Navy. There are other capable forces, but they're very small. The decline of the USSR paralleled the decline in our focus on ASW. Instead, our naval forces became more involved in strike warfare. ASW is an art that needs to be practiced." For example, in 2002 during the biennial RIMPAC, exercises involving the navies of the U.S., South Korea, Canada, Japan, Chile, Peru, and Australia, an Australian Collins-class diesel-electric submarine was able to score multiple kills against two U.S. Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarines.
With the former Soviet submarine fleet largely left to rust at their moorings, ASW had not been a large concern until recently, when AIP submarines became more operationally effective and relatively easy to obtain. Only Swedish naval personnel will operate the Swedish ship, but there will be a handful of U.S. Navy researchers onboard to study the different features of the submarine. Kauderer said that Swedish submarine's operations would most likely begin with basic exercises in which the U.S. mission will be to locate the sub and then become more complex to the point where the Swedish sub will be used against an entire carrier strike group, consisting of one carrier, destroyers, cruisers, and one nuclear attack submarine.
Admiral Vern Clark, Chief of Naval Operations, has strongly stressed the need for an improvement in ASW. He has overseen the establishment of three new programs to further the training of sailors: Fleet ASW Command, based out of San Diego; Task Force ASW, based out of Washington, D.C., which will study ASW and come up with a plan to better the training of sailors; and the Program Executive Office for Integrated Warfare Systems at Naval Sea Systems Command, which is in charge of researching, developing, and acquiring new technology to assist in ASW. The three are responsible for studying current ASW training exercises, capabilities, and weaknesses, and recommending different options for improving upon them. New operational techniques and new technology, some which had not been tested before, were to be put to use during an exercise called "Undersea Dominance '04," These exercises involved many different types of ships. Admiral Clark, as reported by The Navy League of the United States quoted Clark in their October 2004 issue of Sea Power as wanting to "fundamentally change ASW operations away from individual platforms - ship, submarine or aircraft - to a system with the attributes of 'pervasive awareness, persistence and speed, all enabled by technological agility.'"
The newest class of U.S. nuclear-powered attack submarines, the Virginia-class, is being equipped with improved stealth capabilities and the most advanced ASW and combat control systems. Another characteristic of the new submarines is the reduced magnetic signature to allow it to operate more closely to mine fields in littoral waters. The lead boat of the class was commissioned on October 23rd, 2004 and there are eight more under construction with additional orders on the way.
Edited for brevity.
A tiny cry rose from among corpses as Iraqis soldiers dug through the wreckage of a minibus caught in the rampage of suicide bombings that shook Baghdad on Friday. The soldiers followed the wail to two slumped passengers, one headless and the other burned beyond recognition. They gently lifted up the bodies to find 8-month-old Sajjad Hassan, bloodied but alive, spared from the blast by the bodies of his dead mother and grandmother. This scrap of life among so much death inspired hope in the soldiers at the scene, in the doctors who treated the shocked infant, in the stranger who cared for him overnight and in the father finally reunited with his son on Saturday. Sajjad's family and rescuers attributed his implausible survival to the will of God, a miracle on a day of destruction.
Posted by: Dar ||
05/02/2005 2:08:39 PM ||
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One must presume the God in question is Allah. And it must be His will that the bombers succeeded in this attack and His will that those innocents killed should die. Allah is certainly a prickle fick.
Islamic extremists of the Salafyist variety have posted a very explicit threat to launch a wave of terrorist attacks against Sweden. The threats were posted on a number of known Islamist forums and are accompanied by rather lurid graphics including the following:
#2
My wife is Swedish (legal immigrant) and she is slowly changing her socio-liberal views, especially since we learned last year that they built a mosque across the street from her childhood home in Stockholm. Her parents had to move from it because of the crime.
#6
Glenmore, that's right on the edge of what's acceptable here. No one here should support genocide in any form. Musing what the world would be like if another ethnic/religious group had died in the Holocaust comes real close to supporting that sort of genocide.
We don't do that here.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2005 19:29 Comments ||
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Cabinet minister Natan Sharansky resigned Monday to protest the planned Gaza withdrawal, which he called a "tragic mistake" that will encourage Palestinian violence and deepen the rift in Israeli society. Sharansky, a former Soviet dissident who was minister for Diaspora Affairs and Jerusalem, served in Cabinets during the past nine years and repeatedly criticized Israeli prime ministers for what he said was their mishandling of negotiations with the Palestinians. In his letter of resignation to Sharon, obtained by The Associated Press, Sharansky wrote that he opposes making unilateral concessions to the Palestinians. "As you know, I was opposed to the disengagement plan from the outset, on the basis of my deep belief that every concession in the peace process made by the Israeli side must be accompanied by democratic reform on the Palestinian side," Sharansky wrote. He told Israel Army Radio that he considers the disengagement plan "a tragic mistake that exacts a high price and also encourages terror."
The Paleos are already drawing up their plans to peacefully administer their new territory loot and plunder evrything they can get their hands on and then crank up the seethe-o-meter to ultramax.
Sharansky immigrated to Israel in 1986, after serving a decade in Soviet prisons. While celebrated abroad, he remained a relatively marginal figure in Israel. He never attracted a large political following and continues to speak in strongly accented Hebrew. By contrast, he won praise from Bush for his recent book "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror." A hero to world Jewry for his dissident activities in the 1970s, he was included on Time magazine's recent list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Bush, who invited Sharansky to the White House in November, has said Sharansky's book summarizes his feelings about the need to spread democracy around the world. In the interview with Army Radio, Sharansky drew a parallel between his years in the Soviet gulag and Israeli politics. "In order to fight for your ideals, you are sometimes ready to go prison, you are sometimes ready to go into politics, and you also have to be ready to conclude this phase and to look forward," he said. He said he would remain active in Sharon's ruling Likud Party, which has been torn by the Gaza withdrawal, with many legislators and leading activists opposed to the plan. "We now have a very strong position within Likud," Sharansky said, referring to the party rebels. Sharansky did not attend Monday's weekly Cabinet meeting. Sharon told ministers at the start of the meeting that he regretted Sharansky's decision. "I want to express my appreciation to Natan, not for his letter, because I would be very happy if he were to continue in his post," Sharon said. Cabinet Secretary Israel Maimon said the resignation would take effect Wednesday.Since Sharon announced a year ago that he wants to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, several Cabinet ministers have been fired or have quit in protest.
Posted by: seafarious ||
05/02/2005 9:10:20 AM ||
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Cabinet minister Natan Sharansky resigned Monday to protest the planned Gaza withdrawal, which he called a "tragic mistake" that will encourage Palestinian violence..
Ahh, but Sharansky is missing the silver lining: after the withdrawal, when the Paleos begin their spasms of violence anew, no one, not even the Arabs, will have any standing to complain when the Israelis whack the Paleos down hard.
#3
Bomb-a-rama said after the withdrawal, when the Paleos begin their spasms of violence anew, no one, not even the Arabs, will have any standing to complain when the Israelis whack the Paleos down hard.
#7
I fail to see how staying in Netzarim and the other Gaza settlements helps Israeli security. Indefensible hostages. Even if Abbas were helping not at all, this would be a logical strategy, to shorten lines of defense and concentrate force. That Bush is rewarding it with affirmation that the green line wont be the final border, and a generally strong relationship, adds to its desirability. As does improvement in Israeli diplomatic and trade ties. IF it also incents Abbas to continue moderation, and strenghtens him against Hamas and IJ, thats all to the good - but its NOT necessary to justify the withdrawl.
Reg Required so posted in full. Hattip the Agonist Tall buildings and outdoor cafes are tempting targets for terrorists. So may be the hamburger in your bun — or the bun itself. America's food supply is vulnerable to attacks that might not be as dramatic as a bomb but could have explosive consequences for the economy and public confidence, scientists and law enforcement officials agree.
Many of them will convene this week in Kansas City for the first international symposium on "agroterrorism." They will talk about how easily diseases can be used as weapons against crops or livestock and how best to prevent an outbreak.
Farms generally are wide-open places with minimal security. And feedlots concentrate thousands of animals together. That is a perfect opportunity for contagious disease. "It would be a catastrophe if someone happened to drop some foot-and-mouth or something out there," said Terry Handke, whose Atchison County, Kan., feedlot can fatten about 4,000 head of cattle.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: phil_b ||
05/02/2005 7:31:01 AM ||
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Migrant workers and illegals from Mexico harvest what % of our crops? More than 50%, I'd guess. Are these workers screened and vettede individually? Doubt it.
How long until AQ figures out that their best chance for slaughtering Americans on our home turf comes from infiltrating the waves of illegal immigrants pouring across our open southern border?
#2
Mechanized harvesting occurs for all but labor-intensive fruits and veggies that are damaged/bruised easily....gotta be 30% max - my guess...
We also are importing a lot of food (fruits and veggies) off season from Chile, et al. More to the point, the possibility of E. Coli infection is a bigger worry, and actually does happen..
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2005 11:10 Comments ||
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Time for subsidized reactive armour on the John Deeres. And loan guarantees for the John Deeres nighttime bunker. USDA built minefields around the stratgic peanuts fields.
A top Ahmadiyya leader yesterday said that Jamaat-e-Islami, a key component of the ruling coalition, is the brains behind the countrywide Khatme Nabuwat movement to ban the sect. "Originated in the undivided India, Jamaat is trying to establish the ideology of its leader Syed Abul Ala Moududi to brand us non-Muslim," said Prof Meer Mobashwer Ali, Ahmadiyya Nayeb National Amir. He also claimed they have evidence that a neighbouring Muslim country has been using its agencies to incite hatred towards the Ahmadiyyas in Bangladesh.
"Moududi's ideology, which became Jamaat's principles in Pakistan, had succeeded in creating situations that led to violence against Ahmadiyyas, and grabbing state power and implementing sharia law there," Prof Mobashwer told the media in an interview yesterday. "They are following the same ideals here in Bangladesh to attain the same goal." The Ahmadiyya leader noted that the recent atrocities on the Ahmadiyyas are part of a design plotted by a top leader of Islamic Oikya Jote, who wants to drive a hard bargain with the BNP in the next parliamentary election. Continues Prof Ali: "Bangladesh is not Pakistan where the fundamentalists succeeded in labelling us as non-Muslims. Our country came into being on the basis of a liberal cultural heritage having no room for bigotry."
The Ahmadiyya issue has been put forth to jeopardise the very base of the nation, he said, adding, "Our people are not orthodox, they are rather simply pious and moderate." He criticised the major political parties for not lending the Ahmadiyyas support during the recent spate of attacks on them, and said, "No major political party stood by us fearing loss of votes, although none of them ideologically supports violence against any particular sect." "Ours is a non-political, peace-loving, and totally religious community. We seek help of Allah and Allah only for our safety, security and protection. We believe that we are close to Allah and He will never fail to glorify his ardent followers."
BDNEWS, meanwhile, reported yesterday that Prof Mobashwer had claimed to have evidence that Pakistan has been using its intelligence -- Inter Services Intelligence -- through its high commission in Dhaka to help bigots run the anti-Ahmadiyya campaign. The news agency, however, said Pakistan High Commission Press Minister Sajida Iqbal Syed 'dispelled the allegations and said the Pakistan mission has no involvement with such activities'. "Pakistan does not believe in interference in other country's internal affairs," BDNEWS quoted Sajida as saying.
Pakistan High Commission Press Minister Sajida Iqbal Syed
Prof Meer Mobashwer Ali
SYED ABUL ALA MUDUDI
Khatme Nabuwat
Islamic Oikya Jote
Jamaat-e-Islami
Khatme Nabuwat
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/02/2005 4:11:00 AM ||
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Prof Ali: "Bangladesh is not Pakistan where the fundamentalists succeeded in labelling us as non-Muslims. Our country came into being on the basis of a liberal cultural heritage having no room for bigotry."
The claim that Banglahesh was founded on the basis of a liberal cultural heritage is quite an overstatement. Within a few years of its founding there were already atrocities on a massive scale. In 1971 the govt conspired with jihadist groups to intensify the atrocities (against non mainstream moslems and especially non moslems). One site, maintained by an Islamic apologist who nevertheless has a sense of guilt about the atrocities (he calls it genocide) which has info on this is:
The International Khatme Nabuat Movement, Bangladesh (IKNMB) has threatened to lay siege on the Ahmadiyya Complex in Shyamnagar on June 1 if the cases filed against the Khatme Nabuat leaders are not withdrawn. The threat came from the central leaders of Khatme Nabuat at a religious function in Shyamnagar on Tuesday night where they strongly protested the cases filed by two Ahmadiyya members on Tuesday. The Khatme Nabuat leaders demanded withdrawal of the cases by May 30, otherwise they will lay siege on the Ahmadiyya Complex at Jyotindranagar in Shyamnagar. They said they were falsely implicated in the cases. IKNMB's Nayeb-e Amir Noor Hossain Nurani, other leaders Maulana Abdul Khaleq, Maulana Abdul Maled Al Madani and Mufti Hafizur Rahman, among others, spoke at the function chaired by Maulana Ehsanur Rahman. The IKNMB Satkhira unit also declared a month-long agitation as part of their campaign against Ahmadiyya sect. It held a rally and brought out a procession in the district town yesterday morning.
The IKNMB leaders at the rally criticised a section of national dailies for running a series of "false" reports on IKNMB. They also threatened journalists of dire consequences for the anti-IKNMB reports. Religious bigots of IKNMB on April 17 attacked the Ahmadiyya community, injuring over 50 people including women and children, and looted at least 10 houses at Sundarban Bazar of Shyamnagar upazila.
This article starring:
MAULANA ABDUL KHALEQ
International Khatme Nabuat Movement, Bangladesh
MAULANA ABDUL MALED AL MADANI
International Khatme Nabuat Movement, Bangladesh
MAULANA EHSANUR RAHMAN
International Khatme Nabuat Movement, Bangladesh
MUFTI HAFIZUR RAHMAN
International Khatme Nabuat Movement, Bangladesh
NUR HUSEIN NURANI
International Khatme Nabuat Movement, Bangladesh
International Khatme Nabuat Movement, Bangladesh
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
05/02/2005 4:06:35 AM ||
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The US has named Bangladesh based Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI-B) as a "terrorist group" with links to Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
According to The Daily Star, the US State Department has in a report titled "Country Reports on Terrorism for 2004" listed the group in the list of "selected terrorist groups".
The report mentioned HUJI-B's leader Shauqat Osman and the group's suspected involvement in an attempt on Sheikh Hasina life earlier last year. The group has also been accused of masterminding explosions at cultural programmes as well as maintaining affiliations with Pakistani militant groups who all maintain contacts with the al-Qaeda.
"The mission of HUJI-B, led by Shauqat Osman, is to establish Islamic rule in Bangladesh. HUJI-B has connections with Pakistani militant groups Harakat ul- Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI) and Harakat ul-Mujahidin (HUM), which advocate similar objectives in Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir. These groups all maintain contacts with the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan. The leaders of HUJI-B and HUM both signed the February 1998 fatwa sponsored by Osama bin Ladin that declared American civilians to be legitimate targets for attack," the paper quoted the US report as saying.
"HUJI-B was suspected in the assassination attempt in July 2000 of the then Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The group may also have been responsible for indiscriminate attacks using improvised explosive devices at cultural gatherings in Dhaka in January and April 2001," the report added.
The report said that the group was also maintaining many camps in the country, with most of the recruits coming from madrassas in Bangladesh. "The group operates and trains members in Bangladesh, where it maintains at least six camps. Funding of the HUJI-B comes primarily from madrassas in Bangladesh. The group also has ties with militants in Pakistan that may provide another funding source," the report further added.
It said that though Bangladesh supported the global war on terror, various factors like weak institutions, porous borders, limited law enforcement capabilities, and debilitating in-fighting between the two major political parties, were undermining its ability to ability to combat terrorism. Also the country's long practice of moderate Islam was increasingly under threat from extremists, who were offering an attractive breeding ground for political and sectarian violence. "Endemic corruption, poverty, and a stalemated political process could further contribute to the type of instability and widespread frustration that has elsewhere provided recruits, support, and safe haven for international terrorist groups," the report said, adding that "there was an increase in political violence" using explosives in 2004.
This article starring:
SHAUQAT OSMAN
Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami
Sheikh Hasina
Harakat ul- Jihad-I-Islami
Harakat Ul-Jihad-I-Islami
Harakat ul-Mujahidin
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2005 1:26:50 AM ||
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Once the cheerful leader of a school singing group, Ehab Yousri Yassin underwent a drastic change a few years ago, mingling with Islamic extremists, talking only about religion and forcing his sisters to wear head-to-toe veils. Residents of this impoverished city on Cairo's northern outskirts provided insights into the 24-year-old's life Sunday, a day after security officials said he blew himself up while jumping from a bridge in central Cairo during a police chase. The explosion killed Yassin suspected of involvement in an April 7 suicide bombing in a crowded Cairo bazaar and injured seven others, including four foreigners.
Less than two hours later, police claim, one of Yassin's sisters and his fiancee, enraged by his death, opened fire on a tourist bus carrying Austrians before killing themselves. The tourists escaped injury, but two Egyptians in the area were wounded.
Police cracked down hard, arresting 200 people in massive security sweeps Saturday and Sunday in two areas just north of Cairo, including the neighborhood in Shubra el-Kheima where Yassin and his sisters grew up. Yassin's friends and relatives were held for questioning in Saturday's violence and suspected connections to local terror networks.
Police played down the attacks as the work of amateurish militants, but political opposition groups and security experts blamed Egypt's controversial decades-old emergency laws, saying they created an oppressive environment that breeds violence and extremists like Yassin.
Yassin grew up in the crowded streets of Ezbet al-Gabalawi, a Shubra el-Kheima district. People said he was a polite and happy leader of a school singing group before adopting hard-line Islamic views about four years ago. "He forced his sisters to wear the Islamic veil and had gone too far into Islamic extremism," said one of Yassin's friends, Tamer Sayyed. "Yassin started to quarrel with his father and criticize others for subjects they used to talk about, instead of speaking about Islam. That made his friends decide to distance themselves from him."
Muna Rashad, a pharmacist who worked for 16 years close to the apartment building in which Yassin's family lived, said her initial surprise at hearing the news faded when she recalled how Yassin and his sisters had changed. "(Yassin) was good, smiling and behaved well when he used to come to buy medicine and talk to me, but he changed later when he used to mingle with Islamic fundamentalists coming to visit him from the other neighborhood," Rashad said.
Asked why Yassin turned to extremism, Rashad blamed the death of his mother a few years ago and the city's poverty. "Poverty kills the brain," she added.
Yassin and fugitives Ashraf Saeed Youssef, 27, and Gamal Ahmed Abdel Aal, 35, were sought for planning the April 7 suicide bombing that killed two French tourists and an American. Police said they captured Youssef and Abdel Aal on Saturday before chasing Yassin onto a highway overpass, where he jumped off, detonating the bomb that injured seven people, including an Israeli couple, a Swedish man and his Italian girlfriend. Some witnesses reported seeing a bomb or a bag being thrown from above before the explosion occurred.
Soon after, police said Yassin's veil-wearing sister, Negat Yassin, and fiancee, Iman Ibrahim Khamis, shot at a bus carrying tourists near the historic Citadel site in retaliation for Yassin's death.
Police and the government-guided Al-Ahram newspaper had said the bus was carrying Israeli tourists, but Austrian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Silvia Neureiter confirmed Sunday that 44 Austrians were on board.
Yassin's sister then shot and fatally wounded her companion before killing herself, police said. At the shooting scene, bystanders said police killed at least one of the armed women, conflicting with accounts they committed suicide. Many were shocked by the involvement of women, who are not known to have carried out past attacks in Egypt.
Two militant groups claimed responsibility the Mujahedeen of Egypt and the al-Qaida influenced Abdullah Azzam Brigades. Neither claim's authenticity could be verified.
In response to the attacks, the U.S. Embassy issued a warning on its Web site Sunday advising American citizens "to avoid tourist areas in Cairo until the threat environment becomes clearer."
Authorities said they do not regard the spike in terror attacks as a return to the violence that plagued Egypt during the 1990s. Saturday's drama, they said, resulted from the government crackdown on a small militant cell it says carried out the April 7 attack. But the opposition Al-Ghad Party said the violence was the result of the "environment of oppression and depression," a reference to the emergency laws the country has lived under since 1981. Opposition groups are demanding President Hosni Mubarak revoke the laws, which he claims are in place to fight terrorism.
Mohammed Mahdi Akef, leader of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, condemned the attacks but said they were a "reaction to the injustice" Egyptians are suffering under a heavy-handed government empowered by emergency laws.
Egyptian security experts urged the government to dispose of its emergency laws and draft specific anti-terrorism measures. "The core of the problem (prompting the violence) is political, therefore, keeping the emergency law active for security reasons yields negative results on the political scale," said Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic groups.
This article starring:
ABDULLAH AZZAM BRIGADES
Mujahedeen of Egypt
ASHRAF SAID YUSEF
Abdullah Azzam Brigades
Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic groups
EHAB YUSRI YASIN
Abdullah Azzam Brigades
GAMAL AHMED ABDEL AAL
Abdullah Azzam Brigades
IMAN IBRAHIM KHAMIS
Abdullah Azzam Brigades
MOHAMED MAHDI AKEF
Muslim Brotherhood
NEGAT YASIN
Abdullah Azzam Brigades
Mujahedeen of Egypt
Muslim Brotherhood
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2005 1:10:23 AM ||
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I'm not sure what new info is revealed by this, but I read the findings and it seems clear cut that the Italian driver was at fault and by his own admission 'panicked'. I'm not surprised the Italians are unhappy about the report. It puts the government in a difficult position about something they would prefer not to be investigated too closely.
Posted by: phil_b ||
05/02/2005 12:26:25 AM ||
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On-topic...
Slowly the BS comes unraveled. I had no doubt, now or before, and I'd wager almost none here did either, that the Sgrena version of events was a total fabrication. It was flawed on so many levels it boggled. That Berlusconi even entertained it for 10 seconds, much less pandered to the Commie trash in Italy by putting up an outraged front, makes him a total write-off. A gutless turd worthy of zero further notice.
#3
The Malkin article (and the links to Austin Bay and Blackfive) demonstrate clearly that the Italian media is as depraved and craven as our own. The info also clearly show what an asstard Kevin Drum is, in no uncertain terms. Might be good therapy to let him know here what you think of his collaboration with the terrorists and the Italian commies. He worked so hard on the story, he deserves to hear from us, one and all.
#6
Calm down ya'll Berlusconi is dangling on a tight rope. I suspect he knows all too well that the tragedy was caused by the driver and turned on the US by the commie writer. But it's a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' scenario.
If he sides with the truthful US version, he will lose part of his nationalistic political base. The alternatives to Berlusconi are not too promising, time to cut some slack here.
The unfortunate aspect is that the commie writer's version is allowed to get any credibility. But the most unfortunate reality is that precious few Italians bravely wave the red-white-and-blue.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/02/2005 7:38 Comments ||
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#7
When someone opens the gates to the barbarians, I don't want to be told to calm down. I want to be told our government will deal with this bit of perfidy the way it should be.
F*ck calming down and f*ck the people who placed this document on the internet.
#8
The report is worth a read. Most of the idiots getting whipped up over this accident couldn't wait to digest even a few of the facts before unloading on the soldiers. A point of interest in the report is fact that the italians involved did not give sworn statements to investigators about the events whereas the soldiers did. That is a very important thing to consider.
I'm not an expert on intel or dezinformatsiya but I seriously doubt that our military is not covering its tracks in this matter, or that they would release anything sensitive. Any report made available online must be full of redirects, misdirects etc.
KATHMANDU - The Nepalese government has ended the three-month detention of the communist party leader, who was placed under house arrest when King Gyanendra seized power in February, family sources said on Monday. "The government released Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal from house arrest late Sunday evening," said Saroj Kumar Nepal, the leader's brother.
Couldn't they have just transferred him to a prison cell?
The king sacked the four-party coalition government in February for failing to control a Maoist insurgency that has claimed more than 11,000 lives.
The NCP-UML is one of the coalition parties in the sacked government headed by Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2005 12:18:41 AM ||
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ISLAMABAD — Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi left Pakistan yesterday after a two-day visit in which he lifted a seven-year freeze on yen loans and agreed to a plan to develop ties between the countries. Koizumi held wide-ranging talks with President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday, conveying Tokyo's concern over nuclear proliferation after revelations about an illegal nuclear network run by Pakistan's top scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.
At a joint news conference with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Koizumi said he had told President Musharraf that "Japan has been striving for elimination of nuclear weapons and for nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. In return, President Musharraf expressed his view, and said he does understand that position of the government of Japan, and that in the future both two countries should be able to work jointly in the same direction."
Chiba said President Musharraf reassured Koizumi that the nuclear proliferation that had taken place was an "individual action" without the involvement of Pakistan's government or military, and that tight controls were in place to prevent its recurrence.
"How tight?"
"Um, tight as the turban on my head."
"Hokay."
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2005 12:26:24 AM ||
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KARACHI: Police arrested three men and confiscated over two tonnes of hashish on Sunday from an oil truck in Karachi, said Karachi police official Sanaullah Abbasi. Elsewhere, troops uncovered a large stash of morphine. The 2,100 kilograms of hashish were hidden in specially built chambers, said Abbasi, adding that the operation was made at a roadblock after a tip-off. He said te truck driver and two other men were arrested and will be formally charged after an investigation, while a fourth man escaped. Meanwhile, paramilitary troops confiscated 1,100 kilograms of morphine found in a dry riverbed in Baluchistan province near Afghanistan, said Frontier Corps spokesman Lt Col Rizwan Malik. No one was arrested, Malik said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 11:03:24 PM ||
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Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) had exploited the religion column issue, and that even Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia did not have the religion column in passports. Sheikh Rashid said the MMA had disappointed the people who voted it to power. He accused the religious alliance of ignoring the public's problems and fanning "non-issues' to play with their emotions. "Islam is our religion, our identity and our way of life but those who exploit Islam for their vested interests are not capable of running the state's affairs," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Twenty-five prisoners were injured in a clash between two groups of prisoners in Central Jail-I, Sukkur, on Sunday. The prisoners freely used iron rods, sticks, and stones. The jail administration called the Frontier Corps and the police who brought the situation under control after two hours. According to the jail administration, the clash took place between the groups of notorious bandits Kamal Fakir Shaikh and Allah Jurio over which group would keep a boy, Majeed, in their barracks.
"Aaar! He's a comely lad! We'll keep 'im!"
"He's our true love! We're keepin' him!"
"Youse don't need him! Youse got the melon!"
"We ate the melon! We're keepin' him!"
After the disturbance was quelled, prisoners of the two groups were sent to the "bund ward." Some of the injured were Kamal Fakir Shaikh, Anwar, Umer Shaikh, Shahzado, Dil Murad, Shah Mir, Allah Jurio Jatoi, Amanullah and Zahid Shah. Jail Superintendent Ashiq Bozdar said eight prisoners were seriously injured and they had been admitted to the jail hospital and doctors from Civil Hospital Sukkur been called for their treatment.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Any chance that the boy, Majeed, would be deemed adequately punished, and released?
PUNJAB University students and teachers have described the preaching of jihad by fundamentalists in the university as a challenge for President General Pervez Musharraf's 'enlightened moderation' and a failure of the Punjab governor and university administration. Javed Kasuri, a commander of a militant group named Hizbul Mujahideen (HM), preached jihad to PU students in the Sultan Tipu Hostel last Friday. The Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, arranged the lecture. The HM, one of the major militant groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, is also associated with the JI.
"Youse can't prove dat! Da witnesses are all dead!"
Kasuri invited the students to a lecture on the ideology of the HM, but instead criticised secular groups. The IJT claimed that it was a 'simple' and 'routine' lecture about the life and character of the Prophet (Peace be upon him). Kasuri is a former head of the HM Pakistan chapter and is currently a member of the HM supreme council.
Do they even pretend that the Kashmir jihad's an indigenous thing anymore?
Teachers and students believe that the IJT have the right to propagate their ideology, but not in universities. They said that students should be allowed to complete their studies without any bias so that they may analyse all ideologies themselves. They said that the PU Hall Council was not fulfilling its responsibility to curb these elements in the hostels. Professor Dr Mugheesuddin Sheikh, PU Hall Council chairman, was not aware about the lecture.
"I was... ummm... out of town at the time."
However, a significant number of university teachers and employees, including hostel wardens and superintendents, are associated with the IJT. Lt Gen (r) Arshad Mahmood was appointed PU vice chancellor by former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif in 1999 to curb political elements in the university. Though he failed in the task, Lt Gen (r) Muhammad Akram khan, appointed vice chancellor of the University of Engineering and Technology by Sharif, rooted out all such elements. Government College University, Lahore, College for Women University and Kinnaird College do not have the presence of any political parties on campus, but the IJT has a stronghold in the PU.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered to mediate for peace in the Middle East during his first official visit to Israel yesterday. The Turkish premier, who triggered a diplomatic crisis last year by accusing Israel of engaging in "state terrorism", said the two countries needed to show a united front in the global war on terror by attacking its root causes.
And no doubt he expects everybody to forget the "state terrorism" crack and pretend he's an honest broker...
Following talks late yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Erdogan and Sharon expressed confidence that the visit would help move the Middle East peace process forward. "I came here to contribute to the peace process in the Middle East," Erdogan said at a joint press conference with Sharon. "I believe this visit will certainly help the creation of a positive atmosphere in the Middle East and will allow the advance of political processes and, with God's help, we will reach peace," said Sharon. Sharon said he believed Turkey could play a role in helping the Palestinians economically following Israel's withdrawal of all troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip this summer. "Turkey has the capacity to help the Palestinians after the redeployment in the economic field," he said, suggesting that Ankara could contribute by building power stations, desalination plants and high-rise buildings to house refugees in the territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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#1
ROFLMAO!!!
First Tsar Putty, now Yippie. WTF?
Must be International Moron Reputation Rehabilitation Month.
#3
But I've seen where they'll stay - the new Wynn hotel. Boggle doesn't cover it. Ya gotta wonder why folks don't figure it out - all those lights, all that opulence, and all that luxury - the money has to come from somewhere... Lol, suckahs!
#5
Oh, and Hitler copied this Turkish mass murder when he made the Jewish Holocaust. His famous comment was "who remembers the Armenians?"
.............
SENATOR RUDY BOSCWITZ, R-Minn. (CR-Senate, 4/25/84, p. S4852): When Hitler first proposed his final solution, he was told that the world would never permit such a mass murder. Hitler silenced his advisers by asking, "Who remembers the Armenians?"
#6
Debka offers a different perspective on the sudden attention of the Turks:
DEBKAfileâs political sources reveal that the real purpose of Turkish leaderâs sudden arrival was a request to Sharon to intercede with top Bush administration levels to ease Washington-Ankara relations strained by dispute on US policy in Iraq, especially on Kurdish question
Don't know what it is with muslims and cause and effect. Most Westerners would have realized that deliberately sabotaging the US invasion of Iraq by denying passage to the 4th ID would not generate an invite for a weekend in Crawford.
#9
RWV - Nor do their ham-handed (eat it, Muzzies, lol!) threats about crossing the border, yadda3. Fucking nitwits. Blow it out your stacking swivel, as an old Mstr Sgt of mine used to say.
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.
A Yemeni committee will resume talks next week with more than 600 detainees of the 
Kuwaiti parliament members 
The women's wing of the 
A diplomatic rift between Riyadh and Budapest, which began early this year when Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany allegedly referred to members of the Saudi football team as "terrorists", came to an end yesterday with Saudi Arabia announcing the restoration of full relations with Hungary.
Tony Blair will be forced to resign soon after winning a small parliamentary majority in this week's British election, a rebel politician has said. 
FRANKFURT — Two leading Germany magazines reported on Saturday that a company is under suspicion of selling weapons technology to Iran. Der Spiegel said the company is suspected of delivering rocket-building technology to Iran as far back as 2002.
Secretary General of 
Hard-line Iranian politicians called on the government yesterday to sever all diplomatic ties with Britain in a rapidly escalating row over the opening of a new airport serving Tehran. 
Police arrested three men and confiscated over two tonnes of hashish on Sunday from an oil truck in Karachi, said Karachi police official Sanaullah Abbasi. Elsewhere, troops uncovered a large stash of morphine. The 2,100 kilograms of hashish were hidden in specially built chambers, said Abbasi, adding that the operation was made at a roadblock after a tip-off. He said te truck driver and two other men were arrested and will be formally charged after an investigation, while a fourth man escaped. Meanwhile, paramilitary troops confiscated 1,100 kilograms of morphine found in a dry riverbed in Baluchistan province near Afghanistan, said Frontier Corps spokesman Lt Col Rizwan Malik. No one was arrested, Malik said.
Federal Information Minister Sheikh 
Twenty-five prisoners were injured in a clash between two groups of prisoners in Central Jail-I, Sukkur, on Sunday. The prisoners freely used iron rods, sticks, and stones. The jail administration called the Frontier Corps and the police who brought the situation under control after two hours. According to the jail administration, the clash took place between the groups of notorious bandits Kamal Fakir Shaikh and Allah Jurio over which group would keep a boy, Majeed, in their barracks. 
PUNJAB University students and teachers have described the preaching of jihad by fundamentalists in the university as a challenge for President General 
Turkish Prime Minister 
