THE thump of helicopters and the sirens of police convoys will be reverberating around the Red Sea port of Jeddah from tomorrow morning. Private jets will soon be standing wing tip to wing tip at the airport. The house of Saud, the largest and wealthiest royal family in the world, whose members rule the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia and control a quarter of the worldâs known oil reserves, is descending on the city in droves. Having buried King Fahd, Saudi Arabiaâs absolute monarch since 1982, in an austere ceremony in Riyadh, the royal family are free to travel again.
Every summer they move their court from the capital to Jeddah. But this time they had to delay for several weeks because of Fahdâs sickness and death. The king finally died early on Monday in a Riyadh hospital at the age of 84. Now that the funeral is over, hundreds of princes, princesses and courtiers in flowing ankle-length robes, embroidered cloaks and traditional Arab headdresses are due to arrive imminently in the port city. With its 20 miles of air-conditioned shopping malls and gleaming glass office buildings, Jeddah has the skyline and commercial trappings of a modern American city. The royals like it, and some of them will now be staying for several months, enjoying a life of spectacular opulence amid the silk couches and gilded rooms of their marble-lined palaces. Those who do not have palaces will be in the luxury hotels that line the coast. Not only will the royal family be glad to escape Riyadhâs searing heat for Jeddahâs more congenial climate. They will be breathing a collective sigh of relief that the passing of Fahd, a critical moment in Saudi history, has gone off without a hitch.
And now the plotting begins in ernest
Fahdâs death was followed by the quick succession to the throne of his half-brother, the former Crown Prince Abdullah. The 81-year-old Abdullah has been de facto ruler in charge of day-to-day affairs for the past 10 years, ever since Fahd suffered a stroke that left him in an near-vegetative state. Though superficially smooth, however, the succession raises uncertainty about the future. Because of oil, any shift in power in Saudi Arabia, a key American ally in the Middle East, may have economic repercussions around the globe.
Stability is vital. This is why presidents, prime ministers, emirs and royals jetted into Riyadh last week to express condolences for Fahdâs passing and good wishes to the new king. Prominent among them were Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales. The show of solidarity among the Saudi royal princes was impressive and intended to demonstrate that all was well in the kingdom. But many experts believe the house of Saud is at a crossroads where it has to reform or die. Power is inherited and the royal family hold all the top government posts and a huge share of the nationâs wealth. The constitution says the crown must pass to the sons of King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud, who founded the Saudi state in 1932, or to their sons. There are at least 5,000 princes and the extended royal family probably numbers many times that. It is estimated it could reach 60,000 in a generation, all living on royal stipends of thousands of dollars a month, which could ultimately break the treasury.
The nominated successor to Abdullah is Prince Sultan, the defence minister. But at 80 he is almost as old as Abdullah and has been ill with cancer. He may not even outlive his half-brother, the king. His lavish spending is notorious even by the profligacy of the Sauds and is so widely known that it is unclear how acceptable he would be to the wider public. His palace is so large, for example, that it has its own fire brigade. âThe succession has been smooth so far, but the future looks rough,â said Simon Henderson, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. âAbdullah has yet to reallocate jobs and we could be looking at two short reigns.â
What happens then is the huge unknown. After Abdullah and Sultan, the next direct descendant of Abdul Aziz is Prince Nayef, the interior minister. But he is a hardline conservative who is unpopular and lacks the common touch. The idea of the throne passing to him is anathema to reformers, and a lack of agreement within the court must explain why Abdullah has failed to name him the crown prince-designate as he should according to custom. Western diplomats do not believe Abdullah intends to fill the post. Nayef is close to the conservative religious establishment who favour quasi-religious rule. He turned down the idea of women voting in recent elections, says there is no cause to discuss any need for women to drive and initially said that the September 11 terrorist attacks on America in 2001 were a Zionist conspiracy.
The betting is that Nayef will be skipped over in favour of Prince Salman. In his late sixties, Salman wields enormous power as the governor of Riyadh. He is highly sophisticated and talks of reform, but also assiduously cultivates the religious establishment. It would then be up to Salman to decide whether the next generation of western-educated princes should succeed. âThat is when it gets interesting,â said a western diplomat. âThere is no obvious logic or justification for deciding who is next.â
Salman has three credible sons, one an astronaut, the first Arab in space. A family feud seems inevitable. Prince Talal, a son of Abdul Aziz, called such a quarrel the âbiggest dangerâ to the royal family.
Arab family feuds involve weapons. Royal arab family feuds involve crew served weapons.
A more immediate worry for Abdullah is how to reform and modernise without antagonising the religious establishment.
Ain't gonna happen.
The Saud family have always used religion to keep the kingdom in check, but militant Islamists allied to Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi Al-Qaeda leader who has vowed to topple the Sauds for their close ties to America, carried out bombings last year that killed many Arabs as well as westerners. As crown prince, Abdullah showed a firm resolve in tackling terrorism. The Saudi security forces believe they have smashed the main Al-Qaeda network responsible for the attacks, killing or capturing 23 out of 26 on their wanted list. But it is acknowledged that the likelihood of further attacks remains high.
Two contrasting faces of the kingdom were visible in Riyadh last week. In Chop-Chop Square, as the plaza where public beheadings are carried out is known, people declared allegiance to Abdullah and condemned any changes that eroded the traditions of Islam. Downtown, however, in Starbucks â which is partitioned into sections for men and for women â a young man was calling for quicker social change and speaking of a need for job creation and education, albeit with continuity. âWe donât want these harbingers of hate, terrorism, intolerance and obscurantism to flourish here,â he said. âThe root to stopping them is education.â
The country is facing a demographic timebomb. With 70% of its population under 21, incomes falling and a soaring birth rate, Saudi society is like a runaway train heading for a crash. With the price of oil shooting to $60 a barrel, Abdullah now has the money to keep it running on the rails, provided he does not waste it. Over the years the monarchies of Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Yemen have all been swept away. But in Saudi Arabia in the past week 3m people have pledged their allegiance to Abdullah. The kingâs supporters see it as a referendum from which the monarchy has emerged with its authority enhanced. The era of royal unaccountability and unlimited wealth seems destined to continue. But after Fahdâs death, no one really knows how much longer the old order can be sustained. At best, Abdullah and Sultan can be expected to reign for 10 years. Then comes the moment of truth.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Jeddah sounds like a target-rich environment to me. Fire for effect please.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/07/2005 4:34 Comments ||
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...Ten years? Feh. Unless we deliver a skull-cracking death blow to Al-Q, one which is so spectacular and so gruesome that generations to come refuse to even speak the name, Nayef and his pals will make their move in a year or two at MOST.
Just my very humble opinion, but very much want to hear others.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/07/2005 15:32 Comments ||
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I mourn all innocents in this battle to the death. I also expect to have to do little mourning. Heh heh - popcorn futures up?
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2005 16:48 Comments ||
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Islamist extremists who have voiced support for terrorism since the bomb attacks in London on July 7 could face charges of treason, it has been confirmed. Attorney General Lord Goldsmith and Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald have discussed possible action that could be taken against three prominent clerics who have appeared on TV in recent days.
The Crown Prosecution Service's head of anti-terrorism will meet senior officers at Scotland Yard within the next few days to discuss possible charges against Omar Bakri Mohammed, Abu Izzadeen and Abu Uzair, the Attorney-General's Office confirmed. It is possible that prosecutors could also seek access to tapes made by an undercover Sunday Times reporter who reportedly recorded members of the radical Saviour Sect praising the bombers who killed themselves and 52 innocent people on July 7 as "the fantastic four".
Possible charges which will be considered include the common law offences of treason, incitement to treason, solicitation of murder and incitement to withhold information known to be of use to police.
Spokesmen for radical Islamist groups are generally careful during media interviews to avoid saying anything which might suggest they approve of violent attacks in the UK. But several have indicated that they regard the use of terror tactics such as suicide bombing acceptable in Iraq or Afghanistan, where local Muslims may feel themselves under threat from occupying forces - including British troops.
Respect MP George Galloway has risked sparking controversy by referring to insurgents fighting British and American troops in Iraq as "heroic". Mr Galloway told the Sunday Herald: "I think the decision the Iraqis have made to resist foreign occupation is a heroic decision. The individual acts carried out by people in the name of resistance may or may not be heroic. Some are undoubtedly heroic. The storming of a military barracks of a more powerful adversary in a classic guerrilla warfare operation is undoubtedly heroic." But he went on: "The bombing of children taking sweeties from an American soldier is clearly not heroic."
Mr Galloway was last week accused by political opponents of risking British troops' lives after going on TV in the Middle East to hail the Iraqi "resistance" for "defending all the people of the world against American hegemony".
Will Islamic Extremist Galloway be one of the first traitors to answer for his crimes?!!
#1
Pity that the UK abolished the death penalty completely in 1998.
Prior to this, it was still the penalty for treason.
Posted by: john ||
08/07/2005 12:21 Comments ||
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Meanwhile, here in the US, Jane Fonda has announced a new bus tour.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/07/2005 13:45 Comments ||
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This is yet another stro,g reason for me hating to live in the wrong side of the pool. I would loooove to go to a Jane Fonda meetings with banners reading "After Vietnamese and Cambodain blood Jane Fonda is thirsty of Iraki blood"; "Jane genocider Fonda", "Jane friend of bin Laden, Saddma and Pol Pot"
#6
Galloway cheers as the hros maim more innocent Iraqis.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/07/2005 16:42 Comments ||
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#7
Treason? That's gonna make the leftys shriek!
Spittle-fest due in 5..4...3....2
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/07/2005 16:53 Comments ||
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The charges may be laid, facts presented, prosecuted in the law courts and, the Judges may let them walk free. These are UK judges after all. Many of them suffer from BDS just as in this country. Too many TRANZIs on the bench.
That is why treason charges are almost never brought anymore, even when it's obvious.
Former British foreign secretary Robin Cook, who quit Prime Minister Tony Blair's government over the Iraq war, has died after collapsing while hiking with his wife on a mountain in his native Scotland. His death was announced by police after Cook, 59, was airlifted by helicopter from Ben Stack in the Highlands following his collapse on the rugged peak during his summer holiday.
Police said Cook, a keen walker, was nearing the top of Ben Stack, a conical mountain that stands 721 metres high, with his second wife Gaynor when he became ill at 2.23pm. An air-sea rescue helicopter was dispatched to take him to hospital in Inverness, where he was declared dead at 4.05pm, five minutes after his arrival in the emergency ward, a spokesman for Raigmore hospital said. Britain's domestic Press Association said it seemed he had suffered a heart attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2005 10:03 ||
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It was Blair's Boys wot done it! They used a swarm of top-secret military UAVs disguised as midges, each packing a full 200 nl dose of digitalin; programmed to attack gnome-like objects.
#5
Thousands and thousands of tiny robot midges? Each with it's killer cargo of salt, penetrating into the very pores of the victim! Yes! Ima with you BullDawg!
An extreme Muslim cleric whose family have been living on benefits in Britain for 20 years says it would not be 'fair' to deport him. Speaking after the Prime Minister announced his clampdown, father-of-seven Sheik Omar Bakri said: "I have wives, children, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law. It would be hard on my family if I was deported."
Since Syrian-born Bakri settled in Britain, he and his extended family have raked in benefits amounting to at least £300,000. He is registered disabled because of an injury to his leg during his childhood, and was recently supplied with a £31,000 Ford Galaxy under the Motability scheme. Bakri, who lives in a £200,000 home in North London, tops up his £250-a-week benefit payments with an extra £50 incapacity allowance.
He has praised the September 11 terrorists as 'magnificent', called Israel 'a cancer' and said homosexuals should be 'thrown from Big Ben'. In January, he declared that Britain had become a 'land of war', and called on Muslims to unite behind Al Qaeda. He has supported suicide bombings and urged his followers to kill non-Muslims ' wherever, whenever'.
He also claimed he has no wish to stay in Britain, but his family would suffer if he was deported. "If they want to change the law and say that people who are here must live within the framework of those rules, then that is fine," said the 45-year-old cleric. "But they cannot punish people by backdating it for 20 years or so. That is not a smart or fair system. Tony Blair should have charged me years ago if that was the case. He did not because I had done nothing wrong." Bakri also claimed he had tried to dissuade affected young Muslims from carrying out terror attacks in Britain, by telling them that under Islamic law it would be wrong to target a country in which they were living.
#4
He openly said he has wives? Isn't that a crime in and of itself?
His house is worth nearly double mine, his car is worth 50% more, all on a quarter of My take-home pay? I think I broke a bone in My foot when I was really young. Can I move there and get some bennies too?
#5
I say deport the whole family - wives, children, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law - as they seem to be reliant on him. Let him tootle off to the walfare office in his Syrian-Government-provided Ford Galaxy each week to collect benefits for them all in Damascus. That sounds fair to me.
#6
Somehow I think Dr Basher Assad's regime will have other plans for this mullah. No Ford Galaxys in his future. A hearse perhaps.
Posted by: john ||
08/07/2005 14:34 Comments ||
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find some unemployed soccer "hooligans", give em big thick sticks, and let em know what this parasite has sucked off the public teat. Supply directions via mapblast or google, trouble removed
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2005 14:45 Comments ||
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#8
Dont u just wanna grab him round the throat and snap his specs..
Posted by: I P Daley ||
08/07/2005 15:00 Comments ||
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#9
Dont u just wanna grab him round the throat and snap his specs..
#12
Ship -
My first car was an LTD Eliminator with the 429CJ engine - but for getting one's jihadi ass outta town and away from the cops, you can't touch a 401 equipped Javelin with the Trans-Am package. Trust me on this.
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/07/2005 20:15 Comments ||
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Send him packing back to Syria. Then send all the rest of the Muslims in Britain back to wherever they came from, along with all their British-born relatives. Britain's welfare rolls will breathe a great sigh of relief and the likelihood of another terror attack will drop exponentially.
Posted by: mac ||
08/07/2005 20:21 Comments ||
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BEIJING (AP) - Envoys to deadlocked North Korean nuclear talks will take a recess, the Chinese government announced Sunday after a record 13 days of meetings failed to bring agreement on a joint statement meant to guide future negotiations. The talks were scheduled to resume Aug. 29. A senior Chinese diplomat, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, warned that even after talks resume, "I can't say for sure that we will reach agreement." The decision was announced after chiefs of delegations from the six governments met Sunday in a final attempt to agree on a joint statement of principles to guide future talks aimed at persuading North Korea to disarm. Wu announced the suspension to reporters gathered on the lawn outside the building where the talks took place. Governments taking part in the talks include the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
"During the recess, the six parties will report to their respective governments and study ways to solve the differences. And they are supposed to maintain contact and consultations during that recess," Wu said. Wu also issued a chairman's statement that said the six parties "reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner and agreed to issue a common paper to this end." U.S. envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill had said he hoped to use the meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, to discuss how to speed up negotiations.
The dispute erupted in late 2002 after U.S. officials said the North admitted violating a 1994 deal by embarking on a secret uranium enrichment program. Pyongyang later withdrew from the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The North claimed in February that it had nuclear weapons. Pyongyang says it will not give up such weapons until Washington discards its "hostile policies" toward the North, removes any nuclear threat from the Korean Peninsula and normalizes relations with the country's Stalinist government. The North also wants aid in exchange for freezing nuclear development, and then more for dismantling the program. Washington wants to see it verifiably dismantled before providing any rewards.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Same old shit. Just like the Viet-Nam talks. They are stalled on deciding on a joint satement of what they will talk about??? This is typical communist style dealy tactics, nothing but crap and a waste of everyones time. I say we should give ol Kim what he wants, lots of nukes, or just one over his house and then the North Koreans will finally be free.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/07/2005 11:46 Comments ||
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BEIJING (AP) - Envoys to deadlocked North Korean nuclear talks will take a recess, the Chinese government announced Sunday after a record 13 days of meetings failed to bring agreement on a joint statement meant to guide future negotiations. The talks were scheduled to resume Aug. 29.
Comes as a surprise, huh?
A senior Chinese diplomat, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, warned that even after talks resume, ``I can't say for sure that we will reach agreement.''
Ya don't say.
The decision was announced after chiefs of delegations from the six governments met Sunday in a final attempt to agree on a joint statement of principles to guide future talks aimed at persuading North Korea to disarm.
Wu announced the suspension to reporters gathered on the lawn outside the building where the North Korean delegates were grazing talks took place. ``During the recess, the six parties will report to their respective governments and study ways to solve the differences. And they are supposed to maintain contact and consultations during that recess,'' Wu said. Wu also issued a chairman's statement that said the six parties ``reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner and agreed to issue a common paper to this end.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Yup, just issue a paper. Right. That'll fix it. Works every time...
#2
It will never happen. Nex they will argue on what type of paper. The NK govt only understands brute force. They don't care if we embargo them and starve their people to death. They will understand predator flights over the palace.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/07/2005 11:49 Comments ||
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COALITION troops should be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2006 to remove one of the biggest provocations for the country's terrorists, a former Australian military chief says.
Peter Cosgrove, who retired as head of the Australian Defence Force in June, has tipped the end of next year as an ideal time for foreign forces, including Australians, to get out of Iraq. "I think we've got to train the Iraqis as quickly as we can and to a point where we take one of the focal points of terrorist motivation away, and that is foreign troops," General Cosgrove said in a candid interview on ABC television's Enough Rope program. "When there is an adequate Iraqi security force, foreign troops leave ... Iraq."
Asked how quickly that should happen, he said: "Well I figure that if we could get that done by the end of 2006 that would be really good."
Australia has 1370 troops in Iraq, including the recent deployment of 450 soldiers to the southern province of Al Muthanna. Prime Minister John Howard has vowed Australian troops will not be withdrawn before their work is finished.
General Cosgrove said Australia is fighting the war against terrorism in "the only way we can" while preserving the maximum amount of civil liberties for the community. "When 9/11 happened we were tackled off ... a high building by terrorists and we were in free fall with them. We can't climb back up," he said. "We can't restore previous to 9/11. We're in a situation now where there is an overt, obvious, manifest phenomenon of global terrorism or networked terrorism." General Cosgrove's son, Phillip, was injured in a bombing while serving with Australian troops in Baghdad.
The former ADF chief, who led an infantry unit in Vietnam, said coalition forces face a very different conflict in Iraq. "Certainly a different sort of a war to the one I was involved in in Vietnam where we were out and hunting through the jungle and all that sort of thing," he said.
"(In Iraq) our soldiers are required to be enormously alert, but passive, so ... there's something unique about what they do which I think is to their great credit."
General Cosgrove cited the American prisoner abuse scandal at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail as a low point for coalition forces. "I couldn't believe that an element of the US armed forces would be involved in an improper way like that looking after detainees," he said. "I can understand that you don't mollycoddle people who are detained for one reason or another but that's light years away from maltreating them."
Torturing prisoners, he said, is not acceptable in any circumstances. "You don't descend to (that) level. You've lost if you ... maltreat people.
"Whatever we do, whatever we gain from people, we've got to do so in a way which leaves our morality, our integrity intact." Blah blah blah......
Posted by: God Save The World ||
08/07/2005 11:29 ||
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Article: Torturing prisoners, he said, is not acceptable in any circumstances. "You don't descend to (that) level. You've lost if you ... maltreat people.
I find it amusing how some military figures lean left in order to get some respect from the glitterati. The problem is that the glitterati may respect that individual a little more, but the military is still thought of as the scum of the earth. The fact is that the enemy will only have won when they impose sharia on our home territory and start killing infidels who won't convert. When will we have won? When Muslims start massacring these individuals out of fear that we will start massacring Muslims at large if they don't.
#2
He's not seriously spouting the idiot meme that the presence of coalition troops in Iraq is a reason for terrorism, is he? I follow the parental angst angle - fine, we get it, but that's about the dumbest meme of all - they were terrs before Iraq, they will be terrs ever after. They make up shit for kafr MSM consumption daily and only an MSM dupe could possibly fall for that ancient discredited brainfart. There's no there there.
Sigh. If so, I'm glad he's gone. I hope the fishing (in the Moonbat speaking circuit) is lousy.
It's not about getting it done fast, parent or not - ALL of those people have parents you git, it's about getting it done right - this is Gulf War II for a fucking reason, Pete old boy. Now have some tea and a nice lie-down - and STFU.
THE head of Australia's nuclear energy agency has called on the owners of an internet satellite program to censor images of the country's only nuclear reactor.
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation executive director Ian Smith said he would ask internet search engine Google to remove the Lucas Heights reactor from its Google Earth program. The online program combines satellite images with aerial photographs and maps to let users zoom in on almost any building in the world.
While Google Earth "censors" the White House with blocks of colour over the roof and the nearby Treasury Department and Executive Office buildings, anyone with a computer and web connection can use the free program to see aerial shots of sensitive Australian sites such as the Lucas Heights reactor, the secret US spy base at Pine Gap, outside Alice Springs, and Parliament House in Canberra.
The satellite image of the Lucas Heights facility, on a 70ha site 40km southwest of Sydney's CBD, clearly shows the layout of the buildings and carpark.
"We're going to ask Google to take it off," Dr Smith said.
"It doesn't stop somebody who's determined to get the information getting it, but having it on the internet just makes it so much more readily available. We don't want to provide any easy assistance to anyone who wants to interfere with the site."
Dr Smith said the Lucas Heights facility was clearly visible from the road, or from commercial aircraft flying overhead and noted Google's image was about two years out of date.
"The question comes down to, if you put it on the internet, does it go to Pakistan or Afghanistan and make it easy for them?"
Despite the construction of a new reactor and a five-year, $36million security upgrade announced in last year's federal budget, Dr Smith admitted that trespassers could enter the site "if they really want to".
"There's a small area near the middle of the site which is quite secure, but the bulk of our site isn't all that secure," he said.
"We don't have the guarding or the hardware to stop someone from getting in to the site if they really wanted to."
Dr Smith said ANSTO liaised with intelligence agencies to assess threats and met global security standards for storing nuclear materials.
Frenchman Willie Brigitte was deported from Australia in 2003 over an alleged plot to bomb the Lucas Heights reactor, which uses small amounts of uranium to manufacture medicines and for scientific research.
A Google spokeswoman defended the technology, noting the images were six to 18 months old and not detailed enough to zoom in on people. "The same information is available to anyone who flies over or drives by a piece of property," she said.
DigitalGlobe, the US company which sold the Lucas Heights photos to Google, said it did not censor any of its images.
"Although we are very sensitive to the concerns voiced, we are not required to seek permission to image areas around the world," spokesman Chuck Herring said.
Mr Herring said US law banned his company from selling to individuals, organisations or nations - including Iran and Cuba - on the US's "denied party" list. "When we sell it to Google, how they disseminate it over the internet is really up to them," he said.
A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock downplayed the security threat posed by web-based imaging. "Australian government security agencies are aware of such sites and the information available on them and factor them into their assessments of threat," he said.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
08/07/2005 11:33 ||
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I don't know if this will do any good as environmentalists have pix on their websites. Those images would still be accessable. And, don't forget about internet archive sites, anything removed today still has up to a 10 year "legacy".
THE New South Wales Government has expanded its public hospital records surveillance system to combat a potential bioterrorist threat. Premier Morris Iemma today announced the Public Health Real Time Emergency Department Surveillance System (PHREDSS), currently operating in 23 hospitals in the Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong areas, had been expanded to include nine additional emergency departments. PHREDSS links hospital records for analysis by public health officials of trends in symptoms and disease.
Mr Iemma said it had so far been successful in detecting a rise in party drug use, a community-wide gastrointestinal outbreak between March and September last year and influenza patterns during the winter season. "This system provides early warning of epidemic activity that could signal the introduction into NSW of SARS or biological agents such as smallpox or other diseases that might result from a bioterrorism incident," he said.
PHREDSS could detect trends up to seven days faster than existing GP and pathology lab-based systems, Mr Iemma said. The $1.3 million expansion will extend PHREDSS to hospitals in the Blue Mountains and Central Coast regions, as well as Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
08/07/2005 00:00 ||
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CRAWFORD, Texas â The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who is holding a roadside peace vigil near President Bush's ranch shares the same grief as relatives mourning the deaths of Ohio Marines, yet their views about the war differ.
"I'm angry. I want the troops home," Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., who staged a protest that she vowed on Sunday to continue until she can personally ask Bush: "Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?"
You had best stop wallowing in his blood to make political points if you care a dman thing about what your son the Marine sood for and went over there for. As for why he went there - Go look at Cherenkovs site. Plus, he was a Marine, and fighting is what Marines do when the US is at war.
People like this need to be slapped back into reality.
Sheehan was among grieving military families who met with Bush in June 2004 at Fort Lewis, near Seattle, Wash. That was just two months after her son, Casey, was killed in Sadr City, Iraq, on April 4, 2004... Sheehan, who formed a group called Gold Star Families For Peace ... has spoken out against the war across the nation
She's been wallowing in her son's blood to make political points for over a year. DESPICABLE!
I wish I could go down there and confront her and maybe wise her up to how slimy her act is.
Lady, I buried 2 teenaged kids last year that I have known since they were cub scouts. They were fantasic young men - the sort that this nation need in the future to lead it. But their lives were cut short doing what they signed up to do: fighting in war as a US Marine, for the nation. I do not dishonor them by trying to make political ahy off their deaths.
Wars mean people die. You need to f**king grow up and realize that the world is a dangerous place, and its not a fair place. Peopel who do not deserve to die, do die in a war. Ask the families of flight 83 or the Twin Towers people. Ask any servicemember.
Death in war is a fact, and thats one of the things EVERYONE that volunteers to serve has in mind: that your life might be taken for a greater cause. The unfortunate aspect of this particular war is the best ones like your son are out there while dregs like you and your liberal friends try to drag the nation down behind them.
I felt immense sorrow when I heard of each of those young Marines I knew had died. I cried. One of them was a kid who my son looked up to, and whom we went scouting and camping with. It still hurts today. But rather than lash out at people and dishonoring their memory, I simply pray for the rest of their souls, and do everything I can to try to win this thing, so there will be no need for us to be over there any longer - and a free and open Iraq is a very important achevement in changing the socities of Islam that produced the terrorists who started this war on us back on 9/11 and before.
Your actions guarantee more death, more destruction, and a cowardly & craven retreat from the world that will draw islamo-fascism inside our borders again and produce more 9/11's - or worse yet, the grind that ISrael faces with bombs and gunmen in all corners of their nation.
You need to wake the hell up, look at the world as it is, be proud of your Marine who was doing what he signed up to do when he died, and look more how to solve things by truly supporting the troops instead of rolling in your dead son's blood to make a political show.
You're merely another whiney assed member of the "Me" generation - spoiled brat, you're only concerned with your politics and how things affect you (as evidenced by your quote that Bush "ruined your life"). You need to sit down, shut up, learn that the world is not fair and that life sometimes is a big shit sandwich, and finally grow up. You're 48, you have no excuses left.
I'm not. I only wonder where such men as her son come from and what they will have to say at the time of their eternal reunion.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/07/2005 19:47 Comments ||
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#4
Think he signed up in part as a way to show her that she was a total assclown? I have a feeling this pinhead woman was like this before his tragic death. A death thats tragic because he was the kind of person that make this counrty great and we need him yet. Totally unlike his mother who is a person we can do without.
#5
Yup. Still makes me wonder if she knew his father's name.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/07/2005 20:32 Comments ||
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#6
Vacaville is a stones throw from Berkley and all the other polution that infects our country. I wonder ehy they (MSM) bother giving her ink knowing that Bush will never answer her idiotic question. Never mind I answered my own question.
#7
That nutty old broad needs to take her Paxil, and shut up. It is delusional to say that the Prez was "jovial" when he had a private meeting with family who sufferd service deaths. Drudge just played a recording of the old burka-envious b***h talking on the Clinton News Network ranting bullshit about how Bush misbehaved. I hope some of the other families come forward, and call her on her lies.
#8
Now Drudge is reading from an interview from right after the meeting with the Prez June 24, 2004, where she said Bush was sincere, and sympathetic, and "a man of faith".
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian leaders rejected a European proposal designed to calm Western fears their nuclear program could be used to develop weapons, saying Saturday the offer failed to recognize Iran's right to enrich uranium for peaceful uses.
Germany accused Iran of being "confrontational."
Really? How could you tell?
It and France predicted that unless Iran backed down, the matter would go to the U.N. Security Council for consideration of sanctions. The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is meeting Tuesday to discuss that possibility.
"The European proposals are unacceptable," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told Iranian state radio. He said the primary reason was the failure to allow Iran to produce enriched uranium, which is a fuel for atomic reactors that generate electricity but also can be used to make nuclear bombs. "We had already announced that any plan has to recognize Iran's right to enrich uranium," Asefi said.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Iran was taking a "confrontational course" and warned that the rejection would put Iran's nuclear program before the Security Council.
In remarks released by broadcaster ARD, Schroeder said it was up to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, to decide the next step. "One has to expect that it (the IAEA) will put it before the Security Council, if Iran doesn't come round," Schroeder said in an interview broadcast Sunday.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy urged the Iranian government to reconsider. "I beg plead for the leaders to take the time to examine the proposals with care," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2005 00:43 ||
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#1
Bet the Euros never saw that coming, did they?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/07/2005 11:25 Comments ||
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#2
Y'know, I do wonder about that... Sometimes Straw & Co seem at least that stupid. He, in particular, has amazed me, at times, with his utterly moronic statements, topping Blair by miles in the socialist / Moonbat toady high jump games. Blair should've dumped him at the last election - wait, can he dump him? Is Blair "in control" of who is in his "cabinet"? Or is he stuck with a rotating collection of party-selected Moonbats? If so, another real-world example of how that squirrelly-assed system prevents progress.
Tony (UK), if you're still with us, can you clarify for me?
#3
Been away for a week .com, but I'll do my best :)
The PM can do more or less what he likes with his cabinet, but he still has to keep the party happy, which can lead to him putting some real 'tards in place (one Peter Hain comes to mind, and several of his 'token' appointments). Teflon Tony is very good at confounding the party though and there's really noone who can take his place. Brown is supposed to be taking over once TT steps down (the infamous restaurant agreement), but his economic 'miracle' is unravelling faster than a cheap jumper, and his standing is not as high as it was. Straw is known as a Rottweiler, but a lot of the legislation they want to push through is stymied by EU abominations such as the 'Human Rights Act', so he's a bit neutered really.
RBers should always remember that this Labour government is very definitely socialist, with all that entails, even with all Blairs' machinations to give it a veneer of respectability.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/07/2005 12:16 Comments ||
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#5
Straw a Rottweiler? I'm working on wrapping my mind 'round that one, heh. Statements he's made in this EU3 dance have been, well, simply vapid Pollyanna silliness. Maybe that's just his assigned role... But I've been astonished by several of his public pronouncements on Iran, Iraq, NATO, and the EU Constitution, too. Hmmm. I had come to see him as loonier than "TT" by a good margin - and seeming to act semi-autonomously - now I'll have to go back, re-read, and see where I missed the boat on Straw. Hmmm. Thx, I appreciate the take from up close!
#6
Straw's behaved re: MM's as if they have some polaroids of him doing unseemly acts
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2005 13:43 Comments ||
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#7
This new Iranian president is a hardcore that is way over the top. The Euro's have been doing all they can to keep these worthless talks going offering anything and everthing. The old Iranian pres was willing to buy time and play the footsy game the Euro's love so. This guy just aint with that and dont mind saying so. I saw a article the other day were at a press conference a reporter asked him about the nuke program he simple answered "what concern is it of yours" then the other reporters followed all got the same none of your buisness type answers. No PR at all. I gotta laugh I dont blame him but it is making our job a hell of a lot more easy. The EU this time are just going to look like the PUNKS they are after the Iranians punk them out at these negotiations. From what I have read on this last proposal after the one with all the benefit packages was turned down was that the Euro's countered with a just garantee to us that the nuke program will not be used for weapons purposes & it looks like the Iranian pres again denined.
#8
So what country is providing all the required builing supplies and engeneering support to build a plant that can produce U235? We should go after that country with trade sanctions and destroy them and the businesses that are supporting this.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
08/07/2005 15:17 Comments ||
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#9
Straw was always seen as 'the hard man' for when Blair needed things done. In this palaver he's as much use as a chocolate teapot - perhaps they have videos as well FrankG!. I've not been following anything much about these Euro proposals because it's pointless - the EU are not going to get Iran to stop their enrichment process or anything else they want to do.
Everyone in this little farce is trying to ignore the 800 lb gorilla sitting in the corner, the US, and are also resolutely ignoring the Israelis, who have a real interest in what's going on.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
08/07/2005 16:31 Comments ||
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#1
I guess I'm just not seeing how this will promote a peaceful end. I don't see the Palies giving up anything, and they certainly haven't had any control over the extreme groups still killing Israeli's. I think they secretly applaud it. I feel bad that putting their country in higher state of danger to satisfy the UN and others is a bad choice.
Posted by: Jan ||
08/07/2005 18:19 Comments ||
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#2
Once the Israelis are out of Gaza, they are no longer an 'occupying power', which changes the rules.
Should the Paleos start launching things over the fence, the Israelis will launch heavy attacks.
#4
Once the Israelis are out of Gaza, they are no longer an 'occupying power', which changes the rules.
Not for Israel, they don't. Lebanon is a prime example -- they pulled back to the UN-declared lines, and the terrs decided that wasn't quite enough.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
08/07/2005 19:42 Comments ||
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#5
I get the impression that the pullback was not intended to "promote a peaceful end," but make their territory more defensible during the inevitable battles to come.
Posted by: James ||
08/07/2005 20:48 Comments ||
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#6
Less ground to cover? I understand the principle, but ...
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
08/07/2005 23:04 Comments ||
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India choose KPS Gill, a ruthless Sikh Policeman, to deal with the Khalastani terrorist movement in the 1980's. He broke the back of Sikh militancy. His police did what the Indian army could not do. This article is a whine from a human rights activist. It is a sobering look at what is necessary to crush militancy.
Human rights activists allege the police picked up thousands of young menâsome confirmed militants, some sympathisers and many innocentsâfrom across the state, killed them in cold blood and despatched them as unidentified corpses to various crematoriums across the state. There were more weighed down in canals and rivers. No one knows how many disappeared in this manner. However, 2,097 illegal cremations, pertaining to just three crematoriums in Amritsar districtâDurgyana Mandir, Municipal Committee and Tarn Taranâhave been confirmed by a CBI investigation.
Posted by: john ||
08/07/2005 11:36 ||
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#1
These are actually pretty traditional methods for dealing with insurrectionists. He understood the fact that when you have to resort to these methods, the terrorists haven't won - the reality is that they're about to be wiped out. Some innocents will get caught up in the dragnet, but the cancer that the terrorists represent will have been removed from the body politic.
#2
At first the terrorists targetted the families of policemen, in an attempt to dissuade them from action.
Gill's policemen responded by kidnapping the family members of the suspected kidnappers. Some were "vanished". The terrorists soon stopped targetting police families.
Posted by: john ||
08/07/2005 14:02 Comments ||
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#3
The terrorists soon stopped targetting police families. Takes all the fun out of it doesn't it?
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2005 10:07 ||
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#1
Sounds like they are blowing smoke out it. Ironically, the federalism and anti-federalism arguments were microscopically examined both at the founding of the US, and re-examined during the Articles of Confederation discussions and later, in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. However, the Sunnis ignore the real issues and concentrate on such a petty view of things as to be laughable. "Federalism means we can't rule over everybody anymore--NO FAIR!!! (sniff, sniff)."
BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 -- The U.S. ambassador to Iraq pressed the country's Shiite Arab majority on Saturday to respect the rights of women and minorities as political parties worked toward a draft constitution that has stalled on issues that include the role of religion.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a statement about equal rights after a meeting with unspecified Iraqi religious leaders. "I assured them that the United States believes strongly that the Iraqi constitution should provide equal rights before the law for all Iraqis regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion or sect," Khalilzad said. "There can be no compromise."
Discussion about the extent to which Iraq's constitution should follow Islamic law have fed fears by some that the Shiite-led governing coalition will impose a strict interpretation of Islam. Iraqi political leaders were scheduled to meet Sunday to seek agreement on outstanding constitutional issues, including the role of religion and the extent of federalism.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2005 00:40 ||
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U.S. military seizes letter it says was intended for al-Zarqawi
A letter apparently written by a rebel leader to terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi decries the insurgency's leadership in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, a hotspot in the war.
Security forces seized the letter last week in a raid on a safe house that netted arrests and other items. Task Force Freedom, based in Mosul, issued a copy of the letter and a statement about it Saturday.
The letter, from an insurgent named Abu Zayd, who calls himself "emir of Farming reform battalion on the west side," cited the incompetence of Mosul's emirs and the disobedience of other people in the network.
It discussed "the noticeable decrease in the attacks carried out by the mujahideen" and said that suicide bombings seem to be of more "quantity and not quality."
The letter writer said that collaboration among insurgent leaders is lacking and that "Muslim money" was being squandered on "petty expenses, cars and phones."
He also wrote that "foreign fighters endure 'deplorable' conditions, including lack of pay, housing problems and marginalization."
The letter offer solutions, including replacing the emirs, forming "new symbiotic battalions with diverse experience," and "resolving the housing problem."
"Be attentive to the jihad in Mosul and pursue its development, because the fall of Mosul in the hands of the mujahedeen is possible, and because it relieves the pressure off the other cities such as al-Qaim, Tal Afar," the letter said.
Qaim is in western Iraq near Syria, and Tal Afar is near Mosul.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/07/2005 00:31 ||
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#1
Bitch, bitch, bitch....
The freakIslamos are sinking fast. And it ain't gonna get any better.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/07/2005 0:37 Comments ||
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#2
oooooh, a little disgruntled are we?
This is very good news
Posted by: Jan ||
08/07/2005 0:48 Comments ||
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#3
Farming reform battalion At a guess this means kicking out Kurdish farmers.
#4
You think is disgruntled soldier's complaints will be aired in the NYT? Nah, I wouldn't think so either. Now if it had been a National Guardsmen from Arizona...
Better put a watch on Kathleen Soliah. This could go domestic in a hurry. I wonder if Pinch Sulzburger has a daughter in college? Better keep an eye on her too.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/07/2005 9:54 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A letter allegedly written by an insurgent to the head of Al-Qaida in Iraq complained of the lack of leadership in the northern terrorist cell in Mosul, according to excerpts provided by the U.S. military Saturday. The letter, written to Jordanian leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by a fighter calling himself Abu Zayd, was discovered by U.S. forces during a raid on an insurgent safe house in Mosul on July 27, the U.S command said. During the raid, six suspects were detained.
He complains that the Mosul leadership of the Al-Qaida in Iraq branch is incompetent, lacks training, and does not collaborate. The letter's authenticity could not be independently verified. The letter also criticizes "the lack of diversity in the attacks, and the unwillingness to go after the centers and headquarters especially when they are easy targets, and being content with sending suicide bombers after armored vehicles." Also on the list of complaints: "squandering the Muslims' money on petty expenses, hookers, cars and phones."
He ends with the warning that al-Zarqawi need to "be attentive to the Jihad in Mosul and pursue its development." Otherwise, "the fall of Mosul in the hands of the mujahedeen is possible, and because it relieves the pressure off the other cities such as Qaim and Tal Afar."
His complaints echoed similar concerns raised in a letter written by a terrorist cell leader who fought in Fallujah and discovered during a raid in Baghdad in May, the military said. Earlier this year, U.S. troops arrested several key al-Qaida leaders in Mosul, including the head of the branch. Al-Qaida in Iraq is led by al-Zarqawi and has claimed responsibility for numerous bombings, kidnap-slaying of foreign diplomats, beheadings of U.S. and other foreign hostages and suicide attacks.
Posted by: Steve ||
08/07/2005 00:00 ||
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Very long, puts Osama in the Dir Valley with trips to Peshawar and Quetta. Also notes some of the problems in trying to get him. I don't know if this article is good or total nonsense.
#1
Seriously, a man with severe kidney disfunction who needs frequent hospitalization and dialysis, is not a prime candidate for long term survival. You'll note that virtually everything from the top leadership is from Zawahiri, and Mr Big hasn't been heard from for quite some time.
#2
I read the article earlier (if it's the one at Worldnet daily; sounds like it is, and I don't feel like checking) and it contradicted itself in places; it gave as proof that OBL was _not_ in Waziristan or Wana the (imperfect but not noted as such in this article) operations there in 2004 by the Pakistani Army that didn't find anything, but then turns around and says he won't be "found" in Dir by the Pakistani Army because their soldiers believe it would be wrong to betray him to the Americans...
BTW, did they ever find that sort of "evil overlord grade" underground fortress at Tora Bora?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/07/2005 0:27 Comments ||
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#3
Oh, one final note on the subject of WND: we may all be blown up tomorrow, but August 6 has come and gone and we haven't been blown up yet.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
08/07/2005 0:30 Comments ||
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#4
Sorry but I gave up on Joseph Farah's bullshit years ago. Even a broken clock is right a day. Kinda like WND.
#6
On Sept. 11, 2001, the Pakistan terrorist entity was subject to a US embargo, and was almost out of foreign currency reserves. Musharaf held power by a thread after he led the catastrophic terror war in Kargil. The only thing that saved Mushy and his pig pen country was: US aid. The US government's decision to ally with one of the two gutter entities with Taliban ties (the other being the Saud tyranny), enabled mass harborage of al-Qaeda, notwithstanding the occasional show arrest. Currently, jihadist parties top voter polls in the terror entity. GWB should have chosen a scortched earth campaign against Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies, but instead chose to Americanize the terror entity's
"Pakistan in depth" policy. When indulged, terrorists take license. When subsidized, terrorists escalate terror.
Posted by: Vlad the Muslim Impaler ||
08/07/2005 3:40 Comments ||
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#7
> Seriously, a man with severe kidney disfunction who needs frequent hospitalization and dialysis, is not a prime candidate for long term survival.
I'm pretty sure that his kidney problems are more an urban legend than reality, unfortunately.
#8
He has very bad nobby stiles from sittin on all those rocks. He has to pop to Peshewar for some anasol once in a while, then he will be out in the open.
Posted by: Kent Mccord ||
08/07/2005 5:10 Comments ||
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#10
I think its nonsense. Predator are not that good. Dir Valley is hardly off limits. $25 million is a lot of money, enough to overcome many people's religious beliefs even if the did belive that ObL is some great religious scholar.
#11
Same here, 2b. A man with his immense ego surely would have found time to make an al-Jizz video by now, shouting Allah this and Jihad that. It's been what, 3 1/2 years now?
#12
Wasn't there an audio tape a couple of months ago?
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/07/2005 11:12 Comments ||
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#13
PeriotenalCavo could keep the olde boy ticking over if he does have a kidney complaint. Getting rid of the waste in a socially conscious manner is a bit of a pain tho.
#14
I read this article last night. I didn't know what to think except for one thing that scares me. This article states that Muslims consider Bin Laden to be the Muslim messiah. If this is the case, we've got to take him out. IMO, Binny being considered a Muslim messiah is more dangerous than the terr that he commits.
I hope trolls don't show up on this thread. I really interested in reading a solid debate on this thread from expert RB's on this matter.
#15
I believe our own Dan Darling said the kidney story was bunk - IIRC
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2005 13:56 Comments ||
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#16
There were reports of him receiving dialysis inside a Pak military hospital in Rawalpindi canonment (headquarters of Pak army).
He probably lives in a mansion in Rawalpindi, guest of a Pak ISI General.
One pak fear is that the US will lose interest if he is caught and the money supply from the US treasury will dry up.
Posted by: john ||
08/07/2005 14:40 Comments ||
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#17
"Megaton bombs" ?
Please
Megaton bombs were dropped at the rate of 260 a day to ferret out the terrorists.
Posted by: john ||
08/07/2005 14:43 Comments ||
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#18
I don't recall what Dan said about the dialysis story.
I will note that, for patients with end-stage renal failure receiving hemodialysis (in English, people with kidney disease at the end of their rope getting dialysis via cleaning of the blood), the stated mortality is 10% per year of treatment. It's possible for people to be on dialysis long-term, and I've seen a number of patients like that, but very often problems crop up -- especially infection -- and they die. This is one of the reasons why the kidney docs push so hard for transplants; while transplant patients certainly have their set of problems, the mortality per year is substantially lower.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2005 18:40 Comments ||
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#20
By most accounts, bin Laden is situated in that part of the world where one can buy body parts on the street. If all he needs is new kidneys, no doubt that was taken care of long ago.
BAGHDAD - Iraqâs leaders will attempt to break the deadlock on a new draft constitution in a national conference here on Sunday amid signs that Iraqâs Kurds are unwilling to compromise on their demands for autonomy.
Yep, here comes the deal-breaker.
Iraqi Kurds have rejected suggestions the country should be proclaimed an Islamic state in the new constitution and refused to compromise on the incorporation of oil-rich Kirkuk into their autonomous northern region.
Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqâs autonomous Kurdistan, assured Kurdish MPs that he would insist on federalism and retaining the Kurdish peshmerga militia when he meets Iraqi leaders to discuss the constitution Sunday in Baghdad. âWe will not accept that Iraqâs identity is Islamic,â Barzani told the autonomous Kurdistan parliament in Arbil on Saturday.
He also rejected suggestions that Iraq be termed an Arab nation. âLet Arab Iraq be part of the Arab nation -- we are not,â the Kurdish leader said.
Good for him. Stand tall.
Barzani arrived in Baghdad late Saturday to participate in the national conference Sunday. âThis is a golden chance for Kurds and Kurdistan - if we donât do what is important for Kurdistan, there will be no second chance. We will not make our final decision in Baghdad, the Kurdish parliament will decide,â he said.
The emergency meeting of the Kurdish parliament had prompted a two-day postponement of the national conference to break the constitutional deadlock. The deadlock revolves around federalism, the official languages of the new Iraq, the relation between religion and state, the rights of women and the future of Kirkuk. âThere are many things which need more discussion and dialogue,â said the regional parliamentâs speaker, Adnan Mufti, a senior official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Mufti said the Kurds would be ready to endorse the charter âif everyone thinks like us -- that the new constitution should be for all Iraqis.â
Kurds are determined to make good on proposals laid out in the countryâs interim law, signed in March 2004, that this policy be reversed and Kurds returned to the city. âWe believe the new constitution must uphold (the interim agreements made over Kirkuk) and nothing less -- we want normalisation,â Mufti said.
The national conference is due to report back by August 12, and Iraqi leaders have insisted they are on track to complete a final draft for debate by parliament by August 15 ahead of a referendum in mid-October.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2005 00:02 ||
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#1
What? Something about Sharia law the Kurds aren't warming up to?
But, the grand muckity muck, Sustani, wants Islamic law to prevail. Just like it does with their neighors, the Islamic Regime of Iran.
Posted by: Captain America ||
08/07/2005 0:46 Comments ||
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NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania - This desert nationâs new military strongman has assured politicians that no member of the 17-man junta that seized power this week will stand in elections they say will take place in less than two years.
"Unless the people need me, of course."
Ahmed Ould Daddah, a top politician who heads the opposition Rally of Democratic Forces, said coup leader Ely Ould Mohamed Vall made the pledge during a meeting Saturday with heads of more than 30 political parties in the capital, Nouakchott. Vall also promised that elections would be held after a âtransition period that will not last longer than two years,â Ould said.
And if you can't believe an African military thug who's just seized power, who can you believe?
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2005 00:00 ||
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I'm still waiting to see what these birds do before passing judgement. Remember the big things they noted about el dictator: he had diplomatic relations with Israel, he was strongly anti-Islamist, and he had the support of the African Dictator's Union. At this point, the ball is in their court.
NEW DELHI - Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan on Saturday agreed to notify each other before testing any ballistic missiles and to set up a hotline between their foreign secretaries, they said in a common statement. In a bid to prevent an accidental nuclear exchange âIndia and Pakistan have agreed to pre-notify each other before any missile test and have also agreed to set up a hotline between the foreign secretaries,â they said.
"Hello, Perv? Yep, it's me. Lissen, remember the pre-notification arrangement? You do? Great, great. Lissen, I'm giving you pre-notification. You've got, um, 60, no wait, 55 seconds, to get out of your house before our 'test' missile vaporizes it. No, 50. You still there?"
Indian Foreign Ministry senior official Meera Shankar said both sides had agreed âto operationalize the hotline between the two foreign secretariesâ and upgrade an existing military hotline by September.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Will they get big red phones like the one that's in Commissioner Gordon's office?
#2
I figure the Indians are most partial to their own Military Academy (naturally) and after that Sandhurst, but perhaps we can persuade a few more to matriculate at the USMA. It would be a good thing for all.
This is bad according to the NYT, of course, since it's bad for us to be there, bad to leave, bad to stay, natter natter natter ...
NEW YORK - The top US Middle East commander has outlined a plan that would reduce US forces in Iraq by some 20,000 to 30,000 by next spring, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
Citing three unnamed of course senior military officers and Defense Department officials, The Times said that the assessment by Gen. John Abizaid, the head of the militaryâs Central Command, was contained in a classified briefing given to senior Pentagon officials last month. The plan was in line with Gen. George Caseyâs remarks in a briefing late last month with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that Washington hoped to reduce US forces in Iraq sharply within the next year.
âI do believe that if the political process continues to go positively, if the developments with the (Iraqi) security forces continue to go as it is going, I do believe we will still be able to make fairly substantial reductions after these elections -- in the spring and summer of next year,â Casey, the US commander in Iraq, told Rumsfeld on July 27.
However, Abizaid added the caveat in his assessment that it was possible that the Pentagon might have to keep the current levels of some 138,000 US soldiers in Iraq through 2006 if security and political trends do not favor a withdrawal, The Times said.
President George W. Bush has consistently refused to set a date for withdrawal from Iraq, reiterating on Wednesday that the timetable, âdepends on our ability to train the Iraqis, to get the Iraqis ready to fight.â
The number of troops is expect to increase temporarily in December to about 160,000 troops, achieved through overlapping the normal rotation of incoming forces and those who have finished their tours, to provide security for elections to a new National Assembly, scheduled for Dec. 15, The Times said.
âGeneral Abizaid has consistently understood that if conditions on the ground warrant it, a smaller coalition footprint could bolster self-government in Iraq,â said Lawrence Di Rita, the chief Pentagon spokesman.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/07/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
New York Times - the nagging wife of the world. It spends years haraunging the military and president to get out and as soon as it even thinks about it they start to blame them for cutting and running. These days I put more stock into the Enquirer than I do the NYT, and trust me, that's not much. It is truly amazing that their board members don't grasp the loss of value that has been squandered in "goodwill". It's like watching a nervous breakdown what's going on there.
#2
That's rehashed news from last month. Sooner or later MSM are going to be right, like with Bin Laden's and Zarqawi's death or any other stories based on speculations.
#3
Dr. White, as a moderator, you should be concerned about the credibility of the links established here. I'm surprised to see you lowering the credibility of the Burg by using sources like the NYT.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
08/07/2005 9:42 Comments ||
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#4
I don't know why people are always bashing the NYT. Scrappleface and The Onion make up stuff all the time and nobody gives them crap about it.
#7
Scrappleface and teh Onion are right more often than the NYT - it's a credibility thang. Oh yeah, and they don't pay MoDo for her hyperadolescent rants against all men
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2005 14:12 Comments ||
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#8
But Scrappleface is at least believable. Come to think of it, The Onion is believable, too, if you are the Beijing news service.
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.
Every summer they move their court from the capital to Jeddah. But this time they had to delay for several weeks because of Fahdâs sickness and death. The king finally died early on Monday in a Riyadh hospital at the age of 84. Now that the funeral is over, hundreds of princes, princesses and courtiers in flowing ankle-length robes, embroidered cloaks and traditional Arab headdresses are due to arrive imminently in the port city. With its 20 miles of air-conditioned shopping malls and gleaming glass office buildings, Jeddah has the skyline and commercial trappings of a modern American city. The royals like it, and some of them will now be staying for several months, enjoying a life of spectacular opulence amid the silk couches and gilded rooms of their marble-lined palaces. Those who do not have palaces will be in the luxury hotels that line the coast. Not only will the royal family be glad to escape Riyadhâs searing heat for Jeddahâs more congenial climate. They will be breathing a collective sigh of relief that the passing of Fahd, a critical moment in Saudi history, has gone off without a hitch. 
An extreme Muslim cleric whose family have been living on benefits in Britain for 20 years says it would not be 'fair' to deport him. Speaking after the Prime Minister announced his clampdown, father-of-seven 
BEIJING (AP) - Envoys to deadlocked North Korean nuclear talks will take a recess, the Chinese government announced Sunday after a record 13 days of meetings failed to bring agreement on a joint statement meant to guide future negotiations. The talks were scheduled to resume Aug. 29.
