British-led troops are ready to take on the Taliban in Afghanistan, their new commander said Thursday. The UK formally assumed command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Italy today. British commander Lieutenant General David Richards insisted in an interview with BBC radio he had sufficient troops for the task.
The primary role of ISAF is to assist the Afghan Government in establishing security, while the US-led coalition hunts down al Qaida and Taliban. General Richards, whose command includes the 3,300-strong British task force currently deploying in the lawless Helmand province, acknowledged that his mission could bring his troops into conflict with the Taliban. "We will focus on action that actively assists the government of Afghanistan nurture and further develop the consent of the people to their government, particularly in actively improving security and stability," he said.
"ISAF's main effort will be to expand the area in which the government of Afghanistan, international, and non-governmental agencies can safely operate." General Richards told the BBC "There are things we will do that are quite benign, such as ensuring the security of government officials as they move around the country, through to, if necessary, taking on Taliban opponents wherever they may be." He added, "We will be focusing more on spreading the writ of the government and if that means that we come up against, as we almost certainly will, opponents, some are criminals, some are characterised as Taliban but aren't actually, and others are actually Taliban, we will take them on." "None of us are worried about that because at the lower tactical level we will respond robustly to make sure that we do the task and our soldiers' lives are properly protected," General Richards added. ISAF has been responsible for security in the north of the country and is currently moving into the south-west. It will take over from the US in the south-east later this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Tally ho!
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2006 1:56 Comments ||
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Now THAT'S more like it. Common sense, not some glib PC BS.
Western and African diplomats have presented Sudan's government and Darfur rebels with a new peace deal, putting both sides under intense pressure to end a three-year conflict before a midnight deadline. A senior member of a US-led diplomatic team involved in talks between the two sides in the Nigerian capital Abuja, said on Thursday: "A package has been put together and presented to the parties, but there are no takers yet." The diplomat, who requested anonymity, said it was possible the parties would agree to the new peace package at a meeting due to take place at the Nigerian presidential villa but there was no certainty.
The government accepted the African Union's (AU) original proposals on security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing but three rebel factions from Sudan's western Darfur region objected to many provisions. AU mediators have twice put back by 48 hours a deadline for an agreement to allow more diplomatic efforts, now being led by Robert Zoellick, the US deputy secretary of state. The new deadline is midnight (2300 GMT) on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Take the car, take the car
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2006 1:56 Comments ||
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Appears a deadline extension may be in order. Lets give them another 150 years or so.
Three Swedish men have been thrown out of Egypt for mocking Islam, it has been reported. The three Swedes, together with two Norwegians, allegedly shaved their heads and dressed as Muslim pilgrims. They then went to the square in the town of Hurghada, where they walked around a statue chanting the Muslim prayer, "Oh Allah, we obey you," Aftonbladet reports.
They then started taking off their clothes, an act that local media reported provoked uproar among local people. Police then stepped in to arrest the men. "If they hadn't been arrested they would probably have been lynched," Islamic expert Jan Hjärpe told Aftonbladet.
Thank goodness we have experts, I would never have figured that out myself.
Svenska Dagbladet said the men were very drunk and on their way to a toga party. Local prosecutors initially said the men would be charged with mocking religion, a serious crime in Egypt. However, they later decided to release the men, who were immediately put on a plane out of the country for their own safety, Dagens Nyheter quoted a Swedish foreign ministry spokesman as saying.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2006 14:12 ||
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What?! They weren't killed? What an outrage! Obviously, theses kufrs must die, for allan's sake. Oh, well, I guess the Pious Moderate Muslims(tm) will have to burn a few coptic churches instead to avenge that. I mean, any infidel will do, won't it?
#9
Well done boys! Although you have no idea of the danger you put yourselves in, I admire the "touche" at waggling Swede butts in a muslim country to counter the muslim demands placed on you in your homelands.
If there was a women involved, it could have been called a tit for tat.
Major General Ali Al Harthy, the Director-General of Prisons in Saudi Arabia revealed new details about the visit of Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz, the deputy governor of Riyadh, to prisons in the Saudi capital. The visit that lasted 12 hours finished with the pardoning and release of 1000 male and female prisoners.
During a reception held May 2, 2006, to honor the committee for the protection of prisoners, released detainees and their families in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Riyadh, Al Harthy stated that Prince Sattam's visit had ended with the release of 1000 prisoners. In addition, Prince Sattam honored 44 supporters of the committee.
The Director of Saudi prisons said that during the Prince Sattam's visit, the honorary president of the committee "the sum of 25 million Saudi Riyals was paid to aid prisoners and those in need."
Prince Sattam emphasized the importance of re-integrating former detainees into society. He praised the work of the national committee for the protection of prisoners, their goals and the effectiveness of their programs. He also called on society to help and support the establishing of humane and social projects to re-integrate released prisoners.
During the reception, Abdullah Al Muqayran, president of the committee for the protection of prisoners announced the acceptance of Prince Sattam to be honorary president of the committee in Riyadh.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Flushing the johns for Allen
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2006 1:57 Comments ||
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Do you solemnly promise to only kill Jews & Crusaders?
Spring cleaning at 10 Downing...
Prime Minister Tony Blair fired his law and order chief and chose a new foreign secretary on Friday, trying to restore public support in his troubled government after his Labour Party took a pounding in local elections. Home Secretary Charles Clarke, embroiled in a politically damaging furore over the failure to deport foreign criminals, confirmed that Blair had removed him from office. Blair removed Jack Straw as foreign secretary, replacing him with Margaret Beckett, who had headed the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Blair's office said Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who admitted an affair with a secretary, will keep his title. News reports said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw had been transferred to a new position.
#7
How did a guy from Wichita get to be British FM?
Posted by: Cosmic Charlie ||
05/05/2006 10:45 Comments ||
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Question for the UK guys:
I thought the election results could be interpreted as a rightward shift? Why put Beckett in a more important position in response given that she seems to be to the Left of Straw.
As an American I appreciated Straw on Iraq. He disappointed me on Iran but let's acknowledge the good too as the man is now leaving the stage.
The mayor of London is to host a lunch for the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, who called Tony Blair "an ally of Hitler". Mr Chavez will visit the UK from May 14 to 16.
Mr Chavez recently attacked Mr Blair after the prime minister warned that Venezuela "should abide by the rules of the international community" and avoid forming a close alliance with Cuba. Mr Blair's words prompted Mr Chavez, who led a failed military coup in 1992, to retort that it was Mr Blair who had flouted international law by joining forces with the US in Iraq. He also accused Mr Blair of being "nothing but a pawn of imperialism" and of lacking "moral standing".
Mr Livingstone said the UK has much to learn from Mr Chavez, who took power of the oil-rich country eight years ago. He said: "I'll be delighted to host a lunch for President Chavez when he visits our city later this month." He confirmed that Mr Chavez will lunch with Mr Livingstone, but refused to comment on the starry guest list which newspaper reports said included playwright Harold Pinter, U2 frontman Bono, and anti-war campaigner Bianca Jagger.
All the usual bozos.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2006 1:58 Comments ||
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I know Ken Livingstone and Hugo Chavez are going to be drawing funny pictures of the Prophet and publishing them. That is what this lunch meeting ai all about. Some right thinking and acting muslim has to set this to rights. To act kill two birds with one stone so to speak. I think that is the turn of phrase.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/05/2006 5:48 Comments ||
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suprise meter not registering anything? mines not.
An analysis of how the role played by Al-Qaeda in the Caucasus has changed over the years. Compiled by experts from the Institute of Defense and Security Studies (Singapore) and Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies (Israel).
All experts agree that Al-Qaeda's presence in any given region is signified by public beheading of hostages, terrorist attacks on Western targets, and the use of suicide bombers (shakhids).
All this evident is in Iraq. Experts at the IDSS (Institute of Defense and Security Studies in Singapore) say it will all be evident in Afghanistan as well in 2006. They point out that the Taliban wasn't exactly skillful from the military standpoint in the past, but interaction with foreigners enabled them too hone their skills. Some sources imply that Taliban activists are split into of groups 10 to 25 men each, and each group includes an Al-Qaeda member or a mercenary from the Persian Gulf countries who teaches the rest the tactics deployed in Iraq. Coordination of terrorist attacks has improved greatly as a result.
The Taliban started using suicide bombers in late 2005. These tactics were largely unknown in Afghanistan before September 11, because "istishhad" (the eagerness to become a martyr) was alien to the Afghan culture. Not any more.
Beheading hostages is becoming a widespread tactic in Afghanistan. The Taliban is using these executions to emphasize its contacts with the global jihad movement.
All this is essentially absent in Chechnya. Chechen terrorists don't use suicide bombers nowadays (the most recent terrorist attacks of that kind took place in 2004), and don't attack American or British targets. Al-Qaeda leaders don't call Chechnya the third battlefield of the global jihad (after Iraq and Afghanistan). Moreover, Russian secret services have never uncovered any evidence that any act of terror in Russia was organized under Al-Qaeda's direct command.
And yet, the conflict in Chechnya retains its considerable role in propaganda for the global jihad. The Al-Qaeda suicide terrorists who hijacked passenger jets on September 11 had once intended to fight in Chechnya. These days, video recordings of battles in Chechnya are being viewed in Iraq.
In fact, experience in Chechnya is being widely used in other countries. Iraq's first suicide bomber blew herself up on September 28, 2005. Although some extremists had used women in this capacity in the past, it was in Chechnya that women first began blowing themselves up for religious rather than political motives. The first female suicide bomber drove a KamAZ truck loaded with high explosives into the building of a federal forces commandant's office in Alkhan-Yurt in Chechnya in June 2000 - and that incident sparked a series of similar explosions worldwide. Israel's first female suicide bomber blew herself up in January 2002, and two women followed suit in Uzbekistan in March 2004.
However, it is highly unlikely that Al-Qaeda abandoned the actual Chechen front (not the propaganda front) only because of the absence of American military contingent there.
IDSS experts John Harrison and Rohan Gunaratna believe that Al-Qaeda is in decline nowadays. Yoram Schweitzer agrees. He maintains that Osama bin Laden's organization never succeeded in transformation from a group into a movement. Moreover, the second generation of fighters appeared in the global jihad now - from Iraq, Europe, and South Africa - and they pushed bin Laden's Afghani and Bosnian followers into the background. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of the Iraqi Al-Qaeda network, makes an emphasis on this new generation and is practically out of bin Laden's control now.
Bin Laden built his global terrorist network using Afghanistan, and al-Zarqawi is now using Iraq in the same manner. Aware of the fact that a great many Al-Qaeda ringleaders and senior officers are arrested, al-Zarqawi would not mind taking over its cells on the territory from North America to Asia.
Al-Zarqawi has enormously boosted his influence in Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Persian Gulf states. Terrorist web-sites usually post information on al-Zarqawi's operations nowadays, leaving Al-Qaeda as such and bin Laden in the periphery of attention. Using his considerable skills in dealing with media outlets, al-Zarqawi is becoming the symbol of global jihad.
What information is available at this point indicates that emissaries of both structures (Al-Qaeda and al-Zarqawi's network) operated in the Caucasus until recently. Bin Laden was represented in Chechnya by Abu Omar al-Saif between 1995 and November 2005 when he was killed. Al-Zarqawi has been represented since 2002 by Abu Hafs al-Urdani.
Al-Saif of Saudi Arabia was an ideologue rather than field commander. He bears a lot of titles, all of them with religious undertones: legal advisor to Chechen mujahedeen, member of the Shar'ah court, head of the Court of Appeals in Chechnya, etc. Al-Saif's opinion was not valued in the Caucasus alone.
Calling the war in Iraq "the third wave of Crusades against Muslims," al-Saif actually viewed peace as a never-ending battle for the triumph of Islam. He did not really care about regional and cultural differences between Muslims from different countries.
Abu Hafs Al-Urdani is a Jordanian. He represents al-Zarqawi and Chechen diaspora in Jordan. It is common knowledge that "Arab" Chechens have played a major role in the conflict in the Caucasus ever since 1995. The first Foreign Minister of Ichkeria Shamil Beno was a Jordanian Chechen. Zijad Sabsabi, representative of Chechnya in Moscow, was born in Syria.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell was the first to mention al-Urdani's name in his speech at the UN Security Council on February 5, 2003. It was Powell who called al-Urdani an emissary of al-Zarqawi's "terrorist network with Iraqi connections."
When Abu al-Walid was killed in Vedeno in April 2004, Al-Jazeera released a statement of the Majlis al-Shura to the effect that Abu Hafs succeeded to him as commander of foreign mujahedeen in Chechnya.
Abu Hafs of Jordan became the first non-Saudi to command foreign mercenaries in Chechnya. When the school was seized in Bedlam, Abu Hafs was blamed as the sponsor of the operation. By the way, the Federal Security Service also said at first that al-Saif was involved in the Bedlam attack. The investigation, however, failed to uncover any evidence of Al-Qaeda's or al-Zarqawi's involvement in the Bedlam horrors on September 1-3, 2004.
In the meantime, the Jordanian's accession is hardly surprising. IDSS experts say that a new generation of foreign mercenaries is fighting in Chechnya nowadays. Mostly Arabs before 2001, they are mostly Turks and Chechens from Arab countries now.
Al-Urdani's promotion to foreign mujahedeen commander may also mean a shift to new financial sources from Saudi trusts to the funds raised by organizations of Chechen diasporas.
It isn't hard to see that the influence wielded by Abu Hafs and the dead al-Saif is not a match to the influence wielded by Shamil Basayev. How the war in Chechnya should be viewed (as an element of the global jihad or as a war for independence) depends precisely on the latter.
Basayev in the meantime is not exactly logical in his statements.
He denounced any religious motives of his actions in the interview with Babitsky ran by ABC channel in July 2005. "No, this is first and foremost a war for independence for me," he said. "When I'm not free, I cannot live by my faith. I want to be free. Freedom is primary, that's what I think. Shar'ah is secondary."
In an interview with Caucasus-Center.org posted on January 9, 2006, Basayev called the attack on Nalchik "performing the duty to carry out the jihad." "Adopted at the majlis in 2002, the jihad expansion strategy is being successfully implemented," Basayev bragged. He even promised expansion of the hostilities to across the Volga in summer 2006.
Along with everything else, Basayev has been trying since last autumn to incorporate his struggle into the global jihad. The first non-Chechen video became available on Caucasus-Center.org in November 2005, the film was titled "Genocide in Indonesia." Films like that are perfect instruments of recruitment.
The so-called Caucasus Front was established in May 2005, when Aslan Maskhadov was already history and replaced with Abdul-Halim Saidullayev. It was established to organize the hostilities all over the Caucasus including Stavropol and Krasnodar. Gunmen chose guerilla tactic of attacks on military objects only, never on civilian targets. The federal forces all but accepted the rules of the game, responding with police and military measures - merciless raids, use of armored vehicles in towns, and so on. Armored vehicles have not been used in Stavropol on the scope of the operation in Tukui-Mekteb on February 6 since the capture of Budennovsk.
It follows that what gunmen are going is a war for independence on the scale of Chechnya and jihad on the scale of the Caucasus as such.
There is only one explanation possible. Al-Qaeda, the first truly global terrorist network, is putting its interests above interests of local movements. Separatists do not want foreigners attack Americans on their own territory. It interferes with their own struggle for their own political objectives: bargaining with the government, appealing to the international community, etc.
As for Al-Qaeda, its own view on political objectives is quite specific. Its spiritual guru Abdulla Azzam wrote article "Solid Basis" in April 1988 and formulated the group's central principle in it: transformation of the jihad from a means to the end. Azzam was killed, and new leaders of the organization (bin Laden, al-Zawahiri, al-Zarqawi) proved themselves perfect tacticians but weak ideologists. As a result, ideology of the group has not changed these last two decades: liberation of the Islamic world from Western-Jewish colonialism, establishment of a state by the divine laws of Islam.
That is why Al-Qaeda refused to participate in the election in Iraq and declared a war on the government of Saudi Arabia. Triumph in a single country is nothing compared to the global war on Crusaders.
All this doesn't really concur with interests of national-liberation movements. It explains Al-Qaeda's failure to penetrate the regions where local separatists are strong - first and foremost Palestine (even though the importance of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to Islamists is undeniable).
Al-Qaeda attacks Western targets only wherever local terrorists themselves are weak - the way it was in Kenya and Tanzania.
Basayev is not going to give Chechnya over to global jihad zealots just like HAMAS is not going to hand Palestine over to Al-Qaeda. Basayev knows that he is not going to benefit politically or economically from it because for years already his war has been sponsored by Chechen diasporas who find the idea of a Chechen state dearer to their hearts than bin Laden's Apocalyptical ideology.
In the meantime, Basayev is eager to play the part of a "local bin Laden" for the as yet weak but promising Islamic movements of the Caucasus. In fact, he has a serious rival - al-Zarqawi's organization that may soon find itself capable of investing considerable sums in inflammation of the jihad in the Caucasus.
Paradoxical as it may appear, but the tactic of the Russian security structures is objectively playing into the hands of al-Zarqawi and Al-Qaeda. Tough response to the attack on Nalchik makes a political dialogue impossible. It means that the local Islamists have the example of their brothers in Egypt, Algeria, or Morocco to follow as the only option, and the brothers in question recognized priority of the goals of the global jihad.
Question: Is there anything that distinguishes the use of suicide bombers by Al-Qaeda and others?
Yoram Schweitzer, researcher at the "Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies" (JCSS) at Tel Aviv University: Al-Qaeda's suicide bombers work in pairs. It helps terrorists, you know. It offers them support. Al-Qaeda made an emphasis on finding a pair for every terrorist used in terrorist acts including the ones on September 11. Al-Qaeda needs it to prevent would-be terrorists from thinking too much of the suicide they are about to commit. Besides, the pair lessens the discomfort of the isolation needed to keep the terrorist act a secret.
Question: But these are not the tactics used in Chechnya.
Yoram Schweitzer: If you mean the Beslan school hostage siege or the Dubrovka theater hostage-taking in Moscow, these terrorist acts required many more terrorists to be involved - just because of the size of the targets.
Question: Chechnya's suicide bombers are inactive at present. Why?
Yoram Schweitzer: The role of public opinion must be taken into consideration here. I don't think Chechen society supports suicide bombing.
Question: But it's unlikely that Chechen society would support the operation against children in Beslan more than a suicide bombing in Moscow.
Yoram Schweitzer: Correct, but there are also differences between terrorists. For example, Al-Qaeda does not so worry about public opinion as Palestinians. Question: And meanwhile, propaganda materials from Chechnya are found in the possession of European Islamists.
Yoram Schweitzer: There is a difference between Palestinian suicide bombers and European Islamists. Videos of the Chechens' war on the Russians do have a considerable effect on the European youth, that's a major part of their recruitment and training. But the Palestinians do not care as they have problems of their own.
Question: How would you describe Al-Qaeda's presence in the Caucasus?
Adam Dolnik, from the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS) in Singapore: Al-Qaeda does wield ideological and financial influence there, but its influence is not decisive. Basayev and his camp are purely anti-Russian, and the Chechens don't attack Western targets like terrorist groups infiltrated by Al-Qaeda throughout the world.
The absence of further suicide bombings since Beslan (there was but one attempt in Dagestan and even that was thwarted) corroborates Basayev's strategic decision to back Saidullayev's strategy of expansion of the conflict throughout the Caucasus. Should Basayev decide that it doesn't work, he may revert to using suicide bombers again.
There are fewer incidents corroborating foreign mercenaries' presence in Chechnya now, and we do not see Chechen instructors involved in other conflicts.
Question: Chechen guerrillas stopped using Al-Qaeda tactics after Beslan. When do you think Al-Qaeda's interest in Chechnya ebbed?
Reuven Paz, director of Project for the Research of Islamist Movements: I think that Chechnya has never been in the priorities of AQ or a real part of global Jihad. The Arab battalion led by the late Khattab arrived Chechnya in the mid-1990s from Afghanistan or Bosnia, not on orders of AQ. AQ has ideological problem how to view national struggles for independence, such as in Chechnya or Palestine. But, I think the main turning point was in 2003 with the start of the Iraqi Jihadi insurgency. The focus on Iraq, as an alternative arena for Afghanistan, caused AQ to loose interest in the Chechen struggle and in the Russia as a significant target. Arab volunteers went only to Iraq and stopped going to Chechnya. Some Saudi young Jihadi scholars, such as Yousef Uyeri tried to see the Chechen struggle as part of global Jihad. Supporters of global Jihad are circulating videos from Chechnya in Jihadi web sites. But, it seems as if Chechnya, for the time being, is marginal in the strategy of AQ.
Question: Can al-Zarqawi, unlike bin Laden, solve the problem of national-liberation movements Al-Qaeda cannot penetrate?
Reuven Paz: That is correct. Zarqawi, more than AQ/Bin Laden, is willing to be involved in local/national struggles. The fact that he is Jordanian might mean that he will try to contact the Chechens/Arab volunteers the same as in the case of Palestine.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2006 01:11 ||
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Prime Minister John Howard is standing by Australia's top Catholic, as Islamic and other groups question Cardinal George Pell's remarks about the intolerance of the Muslim faith and the Koran's "invocations to violence".
Dr Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, defended comments he made in an address to US Catholic business leaders in Florida in February, which were published this week.
In his speech, Cardinal Pell questioned the tolerance of Islam.
"Considered strictly on its own terms, Islam is not a tolerant religion and its capacity for far-reaching renovation is severely limited," Dr Pell said in the address.
He also said there were "so many" invocations to violence in the religion's holy text that he gave up counting after about 70 pages.
He stood by these remarks, saying the criticisms were "cliches, smokescreens" to distract and divert attention from the real issues.
"Islamic terrorists are not a figment of anyone's imagination and the history of relations with Islam is full of conflict," he said in a statement.
"We need a lot of continuing dialogue, based on truth, history and the current situation.
"I continue to be completely committed to dialogue with Muslims, to supporting moderate forces on all sides ... and recommend that people read the Koran ... and judge for themselves."
Islamic Council of NSW spokesman Ali Roude welcomed Dr Pell's recognition of the need for greater understanding of Islam, but urged him to exercise his leadership more carefully.
"We welcome (Dr) Pell's personal efforts to understand Islam but we caution him to avoid making statements that he cannot support with evidence, and that which is likely to reinforce tensions and disharmony within Australian communities," Mr Roude said.
Mr Howard said he knew for a fact that Cardinal Pell has been "a strong proponent of good relations between Christianity and Islam".
"I think any kind of analysis that somebody makes from his position, and he brings a great intellect to the analysis he makes ... I'm quite sure he is not trying to be unhelpful," Mr Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting.
Mr Roude called on Dr Pell to spread a message of love and understanding, and not of fear and hatred "in a climate full of mistrust (and) instability brought about by organised fear-mongering".
Peace, respect and understanding were the foundations laid by Pope John Paul II for interfaith dialogue, Mr Roude said.
"We reiterate the need to continue our life's journey of dialogue and engagement so that extreme views of any sort do not gain prominence in driving a wedge between all of God's creations," he said.
#3
"We welcome (Dr) Pell's personal efforts to understand Islam but we caution him to avoid making statements that he cannot support with evidence, and that which is likely to reinforce tensions and disharmony within Australian communities," Mr Roude said.
What did he say that he cannot support? He tried to count the calls to violence in the Koran -- that's evidence. He found so many he gave it up as akin to counting grains of sand on a beach -- that's evidence.
What really pissed this guy off is that someone read the Koran and didn't start bowing to Mecca.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/05/2006 9:29 Comments ||
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#3 How about: reading the Koran while not being in a reverent frame of mind = capital crime.
#5
The difference is reading the Koran and not having it "read" to you.
Read it and it is to weep. What the muslims get, is the version read to them. It's what the Mullahs say. Rmember that the madrassas do not teach the kids to read the Koran. They teach them to recite something in a language they do not understand and then tell them what they have "read" and add their interpretations to that.
Pell is on subject. Roude is dissembling. And playing the islamist taqiyya game.
#2
Bravo to the Archbishop for tweaking both their noses.
That being said, I wonder if anyone has ever done a side-by-side comparison of the Bible and the Koran, listing three catagories of violence: historical, approved, and demanded; and what approved and demanded violent acts they share in common?
Historical violence can be rationalized by the "That was then, this is now" argument.
Approved violence can also be rationalized as violent acts that have no religious punishment, but may be criminally sanctioned by the government.
However, demanded violence, that is ordered by God, cannot be rationalized. It flies in the face of social and secular order, and forces religion into one of two positions: either they will commit violent acts in the name of God, or they renounce what their sacred text says God demands of them.
This is where push comes to shove, and where Judaism and Christianity are superior to Islam. Only the former are willing to say that they refuse to carry out Bibical edicts to violence as ordered by God.
But also that they will punish those among them who *do* carry out those demanded acts of violence.
This is a critical point. If, for example, a Christian kills an avowed witch, in any (well, non-African) Christian country, other Christians will still convict them of murder and send them to prison. There is no passivity to violence committed because of an edict, a commandment by God.
So what does the list, the side-by-side comparison of the Bible and the Koran say?
Posted by: Mike ||
05/05/2006 11:20 Comments ||
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#4
Anonymoose, a distinction should be made between Judaism and Christanity: Judaism is a state religion, and restricted to a specific set of people descended from a specific persion. We can tell because the commandments given on Sinai include requirements for what armies should do and not do during war, treatment of aliens, provision of aid for the poor, mandates on business and the king, and formulation of judicial standards. On the other hand, Christianity restricts itself to individuals and the Church, with nary a bit of advice or counsel to Governments AS the government. Government officials, of course, are bound to Church teachings AS INDIVIDUALS. By virtue of their office as government officials, they have duties and powers that exceed those of ordinary citizens: as an example, executing punishment on evildoers and levying taxes are cited as specific government duties by Paul, and nowhere in the New Testament are such rights given to individual Christians. I know this is an argument from silence, but I am an adherent of the principle of "Where the Bible speaks, we speak, and where it is silent, we are silent." Almost all abuses by Christians can be traced to believing they replaced the Jews, and thus were required to obey Israel's civil laws as outlined in the Torah.
Now, I want to distinguish between God-authorized force and God-excuse-based force: Your assumption that God mandated force is to be renounced assumes there is no God, and thus all such mandates come from man. I disagree. There are times when God authorized the use of force, and there are times when people use force CLAIMING that it was from God: King Ahab tried to convince King Jehosaphat to help him in a war, and the man of God prophesied defeat, while all the false prophets prophesied victory.
My point is that when you carefully look at all the times when God mandated violence against an enemy, He went through a prophet AND gave authoritative miracles and signs to back it up. He was AWARE of the possiblity of false prophets urging war or peace in His name, and thus gave signs that would convince the cautious that God was indeed the instigator of the command. If you are going to take literally the invasion of Canaan by the Hebrews, then you have to take literally the Crossing of the Jordan and The Fall of Jericho as the validating signs. If you're going to take literally the assertion that Elijah had the Prophets of Baal killed, then you have to take literally the miracle of the drenched altar annihalated by fire from God before the assembly as the authorizing miracle.
This was SOP with the Jews, and the Pharisees were not condemned for demanding a sign from Jesus. They were condemned for not accepting the signs that God, through Jesus, elected to do, and the one who DID accept them at face value was Nicodemus, was commended.
The Koran neither presents nor records any such miracles from God that would authorize Mohammed as his prophet. With the Jews, the miracles came BEFORE the War. With the Koran, the promised victory AFTER the War is the justification FOR the War. I.e. the only way to know, before fighting the war, if God approved of the war was to fight it anyhow. If this sounds like twisted thinking, well it's par for the course for Arabs if you haven't noticed by now.
I should finally point out that Christianity does have some capability for violence built into the scriptures, but they've been suppressed and it takes a bit of teasing out to find them. However, they all have one thing in common: They are all miraculous, and involve no physical human intervention. Based on my study, I would certainly denounce anyone who claimed to act for God if he shotgunned an Abortionist, and I would never lift a hand physically against an Abortionist, even if I heard "God" audibly tell me to physically kill him. However, it is a different ball game altogether if, at a distance and without physical intervention, I miraculously struck the abortionist blind for two weeks after God tells me he gave me miraculous powers to stop him. YOU might not like it, and you may denounce it, but I would suggest that you think twice before going beyond that.
#6
Ptah: In all fairness, Christianity is rather split on whether Jesus was to be Messiah, King of the Jews, or else he was the start of a new religion, one disabused of much of the holy covenants of the past. However much it may claim to be both of these things, by all appearances, they are mutually exclusive.
While there are covenants that apply to all mankind, there are others that are uniquely Hebrew. In this there is some agreement between Judaism and Christinity in that Jews would say that Christians are not part of the Mosaic covenant; and these same laws, statutes and judgements were refuted in Christianity.
So, for this reason, properly, Christians should disavow the Mosaic period entirely from their Bible--it doesn't apply to them. They have no cause to cherry pick from the laws of the Hebrews and say that those things also apply to them.
Unfortunately, this leaves important parts of the old covenant or testament understated, such as the Noahide covenant, which do apply to all persons, as the prerequisite to the new testament, most of which is justifications for Jesus and multiple interpretations of his ideas, coupled with exotic predictions of the future.
And yet this is academic to what Christians and Jews *do*, as compared to Moslems. There are large numbers of Christians who would be inclined to violent acts just as do Moslems, except that for their purposes they refuse to carry out what they think are the commands of God.
There are many Christians, for example, who strongly believe that homosexuality is a mortal sin, and yet *they* won't either kill homosexuals themselves, or tolerate those who do. Perhaps they accept the notion that punishment for such a religious offense is done in heaven, after life.
How it is rationalized doesn't really matter, the important thing is that it *is* rationalized, so that not just inaction and refusal are the norm, but also condemnation of those who *do* carry out "God's laws".
You made a fine analysis of Christianity, as to what it should be; but in practice, very, very few have such an understanding of Christianity as yours.
The same grace should go to Islam, in either direction, that is, while some Moslems incorrectly interpret the Koran to encourage violence and repression, others might eventually do as Christians do, and while holding somewhat distorted beliefs about their religion, neither participate nor condone violent acts.
#7
The Christian view on government regulations can be summed up in the words of Christ Himself:
Redde Caesari quae sunt Caesaris....
Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars, render unto God that which is God's.
"n all fairness, Christianity is rather split on whether Jesus was to be Messiah, King of the Jews, or else he was the start of a new religion, one disabused of much of the holy covenants of the past."
Actually the theology is both: He is King of the Jews - the fulfillment of the old covenant and the beginning of the new.
Remember the original covenant began between Abraham and God - when God put himself in a blood covenant with the nation that woudl bceom Israel (read the passages about the lamp passing between the split halves of the animal sacrifices - that represents both agreeing thier blood should be shed to break the covenant).
Christs death was the blood that fulfilled the original covenant between God and Man from Abraham. So he was the Messiah (the King of the Jews), in that he freed them from their bondage to God as a matter of covenant, and established a "new and everlasting covenenat" that is open to any individual that declares himself into it by way of belief in Christ Jesus.
So its not either-or, its both.
Christians are still bound by the basics of the law (Mosaic Commandments) in terms of morality, but the picky-points of governance are suspended by fulfillment of the covenant in Jesus' offering of blood and death on the cross.
After all the 4 pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Chruch include the 10 Commandments as the basic law - as specified by Christ. And ignore the other laws that Christ made an exmaple of: chasing the money changers out of the temple, working on a sabbath if needed (he "worked" miracles which scandalized the Pharisees), etc.
So there is a fairly complete theology behind all this and its not nearly as divisive as some would want to make it.
To address you question abotu homosexuality, most mainline Christian denominations believe homosexualtiy to be prohibited as an activity, and thus a sin. After all, Christ instructs men to cleave only unto his wife, and the wife only unto the husband, and homosexual relationships are not included in this - thus those participating in those activities are wrong, just the same as sex outside of marriage is wrong between a man and a woman. Where some Chrstian deonminations go off the raisl is that they forget to "Hate the sin, heal the sinner". From there you get dangerously misguided people whocan warp thigns into hate (Fred Phelps for example).
There's a huge amount of theology on this, includign Pope John Paul II's "Theology of the Body", which will likely be studied about and written about for generations.
Not saying any of you have to believe it, just presenting the viewpoint of the Church as I know it from my catechesis.
As for the Archbishop - I simply say "He must ahve read the Koran".
I have. And he's right - its hate filled with incitement to violence repeated throughout it.
The EU Free Movement Directive, entered into force this week.
..
"Free movement of workers has been a major success particularly in the UK. But this directive will undermine member states rights to deport criminals, to control their borders, and control access to benefits for people from other member states who are not working. This is a big mistake, not just because these changes are bad in themselves, but because in the long run they will undermine public support for free movement of workers."
...
#6
Negroponte wants his own guy, in all probability. Goss and his people may have been too much of an embarrassment. Going after Pillar was one thing, alienating almost the entire agency another. Youve got to pick your targets, and be smooth about it. From what I can gather, Goss was not.
Bolton may not get this, but dont worry, it wont go to a liberal of any sort.
#8
This is a very bad sign. This indicates that Goss is either incapable or unwilling to continue to clean house and get the CIA back to what it was originally intended to be. Either reason is not good for the American people. I hope Bush can find someone as mean and nasty as John Bolton to run the CIA. Maybe the guy that's in charge of NSA can come over and clean house.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/05/2006 15:01 Comments ||
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#9
I can't believe Goss would have gotten involved in anything at the Watergate. I suspect he just got fed up with the internal Klingon bureaucracy. I also smell a bit of Ponte here, and that ain't so very good.
#10
Hmmm, wonder Rummy could clean house there. And wouldn't that make the liberals freak. Actually, I'm interested in hearing who OldSpook recommends for the job as I think he'd have a better sense of who might be best for it.
#11
A few weeks ago, there were hints one of Goss's deputies and friend was implicated in the Cunningham bribery scandal. Could be more to that story.
Posted by: ed ||
05/05/2006 15:13 Comments ||
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#12
Maybe the guy that's in charge of NSA can come over and clean house.
Stephen Hadley, a Rice protege. His name occured to me to. Not sure if he has the bureucratic skills for this, but there could be plenty worse choices.
Hmmm, wonder Rummy could clean house there.
LOL!!! Well it least it would get him out of DoD :) I cant say as Id mind. Though it would bring up all kinds of issues with defense Intell. Anyway Negroponte would never stand for it.
#15
FormerSpook is suggesting To avoid that, President Bush should consider the appointment of an experienced intelligence manager who could move into the job quickly and seamlessly. IMO, one of the few men who could do that is the current Deputy Director of National Intelligence, General Mike Hayden. General Hayden isn't a CIA veteran, but he was extremely effective as Director of NSA for more than five years. During his tenure at Ft Meade, he reformed and reshaped that agency, clearing out bureaucratic deadwood, and boosting agency morale.
At a critical juncture in its history, General Hayden just might be the right man for the job.
#16
You know, it occurs to me that the agency probalby does need a disciplinarian to whip it into shape. Finding someone with those characteristics who will also be acceptable to the Dems will be hard.
Thankfully, there is someone who fits both of those qualities: the junior senator from New York...
Posted by: Phil ||
05/05/2006 15:29 Comments ||
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#17
General Hayden would be a superb pick as well.
Goss resigned because he's burned out - and they are trying to set him up for a scandal. The CIA old-boys war against the Bush administration continnues from within the IG office apparently. When your internal "police" unit goes rogue, you're cooked. I'd say chop up CIA, hand the parts to DoD (DIA, SOCOM), NSA, NRO, NGO.
#24
Oh and one other thing: Goss may be able to file and enter the sentorial race in Florida. To undercut ol' hatchetface who will lose the general election. Goss can beat Nelson.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/05/2006 17:42 Comments ||
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#26
OS's option makes one wonder if that has been the plan from the start. Create the DNI to act as the central control/clearing house. Then carve up CIA and distribute the operational parts to the relevant existing agency, leaving only an open source analytic unit at Langley. Have all final analysis and Presidential briefings done by new staff units at DNI.
#28
I don't believe Ponte got the purse strings to the agency. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty certain it's still the way it was prior to the establishment of the DNI.
#29
FoxNews says Gen Hayden is the "front runner" for the job.
I would feel about 100x better if the CIA WAS dismantled and the operations and sensitive bits moved into other, military-run, agencies. There's politicization there, too, but it seems to be under far better control among serving personnel. Disgruntled retirees are obviously another matter.
#30
Start by defunding the IG shop big time and installing a military Director. I hope Goss passed on the results of all those recent polygraphs to a responsible steward.
#31
Yes, indeed. Wouldn't the periodic polygraph report being a most interesting read. One can only guess how many "failed" or "inconclusives" they've got roaming the halls. Time for that organization to undergo an enema.
#32
I would feel about 100x better if the CIA WAS dismantled
I'd be happy if they simply decided they were on OUR side. Or maybe not. I realize they are in a tough business and people tend to remember mistakes like missing the collapse of the fUSSR, but the CIA doesn't seem to exactly have a reputation for success.
CIA chief Porter Goss abruptly resigned on Friday after less than two years on the job, and President George W. Bush thanked him for his candid advice during a time of transition.
Neither man explained why Goss was leaving and no replacement was announced.
The CIA fell under a newly created director of national intelligence as part of reforms enacted after intelligence failures related to the Sept. 11 attacks.
Hes led ably, Bush said as he sat next to Goss in the Oval Office of the White House.
Goss said he believed the CIA was on a very even keel, sailing well.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/05/2006 14:37 Comments ||
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#2
Either they got some bad political dirt on Goss, or he is a walking dead man from some disease.
The $64 question is if Bush will replace him with an even meaner hatchet man, to really scour the agency; or if he will give up and let them have one of their own Eli schoolboys to return to business as usual.
#3
There is some speculation that he's involved with the Duke Cunningham scandal (bribes, hookers, etc). Otherwise, he apparantly was taking fire from inside the Agency while Czar Negroponte was absorbing a lot of his authority. Either way, the next CIA director nomination will allow the feeding frenzy on Iraq pre-war intel to continue.
#5
Not Franks. Definitely not Franks. The confirmation hearings would be nothing but an extended investigation of who planned what in regard to the Iraq occupation, the force size question especially. Cant believe the admin wants that now.
I bet there are other military candidates, though.
#6
I think Rudy Guliani's name will get thrown around.
But probably should be a military person to bring some credibility and discipline. Not sure about Franks being qualified but he is aggressive and understands how to use intelligence info. His book says good things about the agency people he worked with.
I know little about the agency but I have been impressed by people I know who have worked there. However, over the last few years I have been very, very unimpressed by people like Larry Johnson, Valerie Plame, Mary McCarthy, Michael Scheuer and the guy McGovern who heckled Rumsfeld yesterday. Their behavior, which includes criminal leaking of secrets, makes me think the organization is unreformable and needs to be broken up. There seems to be no discipline and no sense of aggressiveness towards our enemies. We need people who accept that they do not make policy and follow lawful orders regardless of how they feel.
The unmitigated gall of the people who failed to notice the AQ Khan network and clearly had little understanding of what Iran and Iraq -- 2 or our biggest enemies -- were up to.
ROCKVILLE, Md. -- During his opening statement, John Allen Muhammad said he'll use "quantum physics, immaterial evidence and material evidence" to prove he's not the Washington-area sniper.
This will be entertaining in a sad, perverse way.
Muhammad is acting as his own attorney in his trial in Rockville, Md. He's charged with shooting six people in Montgomery County, where the October 2002 series of killings began and ended.
Muhammad told jurors Thursday that he was a distraught father who had come to the D.C. area to look for his children, who had been placed in the custody of his ex-wife, in a custody dispute.
The 45-year-old defendant spoke in a clear voice, quoting Plato and the Bible. And he repeatedly described his accomplice, 21-year-old Lee Malvo, as his son. Maybe he used quantum physics to shoot backwards in time?
#2
"Quantum physics and immaterial evidence"? At first I thought this was Scrappleface...
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/05/2006 12:24 Comments ||
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#3
Servo: Guys, why is it so hard to accept the fact that time is not an immutable forward progression, but a factor in a space-time model of relativistic causality and determinism. Huh? Guys! Hello! A couple of cattle these two. Okay. Here, I'm gonna demonstrate, okay? Watch. Me. Closely. Alleyoop! Crow: Hey, wait, where'd he go? Joel: I dunno, he just... Servo: I'm over here, guys. Joel and Crow: WHOA! Crow: I hate when ya do that! Joel: But Servo, that's fantastic! That's amazing! Servo: It's physics, Joel. Plain and simple. You just exist in one observable region in phase space, and then zip! Ya simply realign your point of origin, ya see? Crow: He does this to me at night. Scares the hell outta me.
#7
Right after the "Quantum Physics" Defense he will probably invoke the unbeatable "Chewbacca Defense". This is all so predictable now.
Cochran: Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, Chef's attorney would certainly want you to believe that his client wrote "Stinky Britches" ten years ago. And they make a good case. Hell, I almost felt pity myself! But, ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!
Gerald Broflovski: Dammit!
Chef: What?
Gerald: He's using the Chewbacca Defense!
Cochran: Why would a Wookiee, an eight-foot tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of two-foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense! But more important, you have to ask yourself: What does this have to do with this case? Nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case! It does not make sense! Look at me. I'm a lawyer defending a major record company, and I'm talkin' about Chewbacca! Does that make sense? Ladies and gentlemen, I am not making any sense! None of this makes sense! And so you have to remember, when you're in that jury room deliberatin' and conjugatin' the Emancipation Proclamation, [approaches and softens] does it make sense? No! Ladies and gentlemen of this supposed jury, it does not make sense! If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit! The defense rests.
The more certain you are of his location the less certain you are whether he shot the gun, the more certain you are he shot the gun, the less certain you are of his location, i.e. you can never prove he shot the gun at the location of the death, ergo not guilty, q.e.d.
#15
Sniping defenseless, unarmed innocent, hard working people coming out of Home Depot or standing next to a gas pump is one of the most hanus acts I can think of. They should both be EXTERMINATED. The thought of US tax dollars feeding and housing them is absolutely repugnant.
Reports that Bahraini Guantanamo detainee Juma Al Dossary tried to commit suicide in March have been confirmed by lawyers. The lawyers received a letter written by Al Dossary on May 1, which was dated March 8, which, they said, clearly expressed Jumas intent to end his own life and the fact that he believes there is no possibility for freedom or happiness other than in death.
Clearly he still has a grasp on reality ...
It is believed that Juma made an attempt to slit his own throat on March 11, 2006.
"Dang it Tyrone, you know you don't just leave a razor sitting in a cell like that!"
"Yessir, sorry sir."
"Next time you put it directly in his hand and tell him how awful his life is. You got that, soldier?"
"Yessir, sorry sir."
Explaining the delay in receiving the letter, the lawyers said, The letter was not reviewed and cleared by the US government until shortly before it was sent to us. We understand that Al Dossary tried to kill himself by cutting his throat on March 11, three days after this letter was written.
Expressing concern over Al Dossarys fate, lawyer Joshua Colangelo-Bryant said, We cannot express adequately our concern that Juma will continue to harm himself, and that he might well succeed in killing himself.
Why gorsh, that would be ... be ... be ... terrible, wouldn't it?
#1
A BAHRAINI detained in Guantanamo Bay has tried to kill himself for the 13th time, by cutting his throat, it has emerged.
Juma Mohammed Al Dossary, 32, has been incarcerated in infamous prison camp for more than four years, along with fellow Bahrainis Salah Abdulrasool Al Balooshi, 24, and 41-year-old Isa Abdulla Al Mubati.
Boy, you ain't tryin hard enough. And nobody likes a quitter...
Ten Chicago area Muslim men filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal government Thursday alleging their quest to become U.S. citizens is being delayed because of their Islamic faith and male gender.
The Syrian, Moroccan, Jordanian, Pakistani and Egyptian natives have no criminal records, but they have been waiting one to four years for the government to make a decision on their applications, Midwest Immigrant & Human Rights Center attorney Chuck Roth said. Some of their wives applied at the same time and have since received their U.S. citizenship.
The plaintiffs, including the Council on American Islamic Relations' Chicago office, agree the government must conduct background checks on all potential citizens. But they say Muslim men, more than any other group, have their cases delayed too often with no explanation.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Marilu Cabrera said 99 percent of background checks are resolved within six weeks and 80 percent within three. "Until we get clearance from the FBI, for national security reasons, we cannot grant citizenship," she said.
#1
When did citizenship become a right? Deport their demanding asses as enemy aliens.
Posted by: ed ||
05/05/2006 8:18 Comments ||
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#2
But they say Muslim men, more than any other group, have their cases delayed too often with no explanation.
I hope ICE is that efficient, but I doubt it. Based on everything I've heard about immigration, it's set up to be a shakedown racket for immigration attorneys who grease the palms of ICE officials to grant citizenship. Discovery should be interesting.
#4
ISTR that four years is a stunningly short time for naturalization.
Besides, who cares? I sure don't.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/05/2006 9:30 Comments ||
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#5
Don't care much on their behalf, but I do on ours. If they're dirty, they shouldn't have been allowed to hang around for four years while the investigators figure it out. If they're clean, process them and find something better to do.
#6
Gee, since just about every terrorist attack in the last 30 years has been committed by muslim men between the ages of 17 and 35, why in the world would the FBI want to more closely scrutinize citizenship applications from muslim men? Crazy.....
#7
What kind of visas are the here on? Have they expired? If so, let them wait out this court ruling with their Syrian, Moroccan, Jordanian, Pakistani and Egyptian friends back in the "old country".
September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life in prison rather than execution because some jurors saw him as a minor player in the plot, a juror told The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The juror described Moussaoui as a "despicable character" but said he believed Moussaoui embellished his role in the plot. "He wasn't necessarily part of the 9/11 operation," the juror told the Post. "His role in 9/11 was actually minor."
Moussaoui, an admitted al Qaeda member and the only person convicted in a U.S. court for the September 11 attacks, was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison with no possibility of release. He pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy in connection with the deadly hijackings.
The juror told the Post he was one of three people on the panel who wrote a "mitigating factor" on the verdict form, saying that Moussaoui, 37, had "limited knowledge" of the September 11 plot. "He may have been part of a parallel operation, a second wave of attacks but he wasn't anywhere close to flying a plane on 9/11," the juror said.
He also told the newspaper that a number of jurors questioned whether "the death penalty is really an appropriate punishment for lying." The newspaper said the man spoke anonymously because he did not want to be harassed if his name were revealed.
Members of the jury were deeply moved by testimony from victims' family members but believed they had to put aside their emotions and disgust for Moussaoui and "focus on the law," the juror was quote as saying. He would not divulge the jury's final vote, the Post said.
The juror told the Post that the hardest parts of the two-month trial were his nightmares about Moussaoui and testimony from the relatives of September 11 victims. "It was very difficult to hear. It was like attending one funeral after another for days on end," he said. "But we had to move beyond our own emotions and really focus on the law."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2006 01:29 ||
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#1
The wrong "miners" getting buried
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2006 2:00 Comments ||
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KARACHI - Pakistani police have arrested two Islamist militants suspected of planning a suicide bomb attack that killed a US diplomat and three others outside the US consulate in Karachi in March, an official said on Thursday. We have got some encouraging leads from both of them. They belong to a jihadi group and were the main planners of the consulate attack, Salahuddin Haider, a spokesman for the provincial Sindh government, told Reuters.
The attack took place on March 2, the eve of a visit by President George W. Bush to Pakistan, and police at the time had said they suspected Islamist militant groups opposed to President Pervez Musharrafs support for the US-led war on terrorism.
It sure wasn't the Samoans.
Haider said he could not release the name of the suspects, but termed the arrests as a major breakthrough.
The attack was well-planned, with the driver of a white Toyota Corolla packed with explosives ramming the diplomat David Foys vehicle just metres from the US Consulates main entrance. The blast also wounded 52 people.
A senior police official, who asked not to be named, said investigators had found a link between the arrested militants and an al Qaeda-linked Pakistani militant group operating in the troubled tribal region of Waziristan. We are also sharing information with the FBI, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) President Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Thursday said that legislators in the national and provincial assemblies of the religious alliance would resign from their seats at the climax of the MMA's anti-government movement.
"Yup. We're all gonna walk out one last time! That'll fix 'em, by Gum!"
Addressing lawyers at Awan-e-Adal, Qazi Hussain said the MMA had started its anti-government campaign from Thursday (May 5) by holding a public meeting in Quetta. He demanded the government hold fresh elections supervised by an independent election commission and said the MMA would accept the government if it comes to power after holding transparent elections. Qazi Hussain urged lawyers to participate actively in the MMA's anti-government campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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LAHORE: An unidentified boy was killed in a shootout with the police at Montgomery Road, Qilla Gujjar Singh on Thursday. According to the police, a police team was patrolling the area and they signalled three suspected boys riding a motorcycle without number plates to stop.
"Pull over, lads!"
The motorcyclists opened fire at the police
"Take that, coppers! [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]"
who were compelled to retaliate.
"Take that, ya little brats! [BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]"
As a result, one of the boys suffered serious bullet injuries
"Ow!"
and died instantly
"Rosebu—!"
but his companions managed to escape.
"Cheeze it!"
The boy's body was taken for autopsy.
"Paging Dr. Quincy!"
Police recovered two shutter guns pistols from the spot and are investigating.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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The Punjab government sent the authorities in 10 districts a list of 33 religious seminaries last week to monitor for involvement in sectarian activities, sources told Daily Times on Thursday.
Sources said that the seminaries suspected of involvement in sectarian activities were in Lahore, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Bahawalnagar, Jhelum, Rawalpindi and Attock. District police officers (DPOs) and DCOs of the district have been directed to warn the administration of these seminaries to refrain from sectarian activities, and act against them if they were found involved in such activities, sources said. Sources said that the seminaries, 10 of which are in Lahore and four in Khanewal, belonged to both the Sunni and Shia sects. The government directed DCOs and district police officers of the 10 districts to warn the administration of the seminaries on the list to abstain from any sectarian activity, sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Nepal's Maoist rebels have agreed to hold talks on ending their decade-long insurgency, clearing the way for the release of hundreds of jailed fighters. The interim cabinet announced an indefinite ceasefire on Wednesday and removed the terrorist tag from the Maoists to try to kickstart talks and bring peace to the impoverished Himalayan nation. The Maoists, who called their own three-month ceasefire last week, agreed on Thursday to discussions on ending the revolt in which more than 12,500 people have died.
It is the third time that the government and rebels have called a ceasefire at the same time and tried to start peace talks, but on previous occasions negotiations broke down and the country was plunged back into conflict.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Human Rights Watch (HRW) has warned that the possibility of a return to massive sectarian violence in Gujarat must be forestalled with prompt action by government authorities. In a report released on Thursday, the watchdog group said recent anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat have left six dead and have coincided with violence in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir, where militant groups massacred at least 35 Hindus on April 30 and May 1. It urged the Indian government, the state governments of Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir, and the Pakistan government to take all steps possible to protect religious minorities in the two regions. "These incidents show the extreme vulnerability of religious minorities in different parts of India," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Instead of allowing this violence to deepen religious hatred, the authorities should launch an immediate, thorough and transparent investigation to ensure that those responsible are prosecuted and punished." HRW said police and prosecutors at the national and state levels should launch criminal investigations and initiate appropriate prosecutions against the perpetrators and organisers of the attacks in Gujarat.
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05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
And here I thought 'sectarian violence' was only found in Iraq!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/05/2006 7:53 Comments ||
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GENEVA - Human rights groups on Thursday sharply criticised methods used by Washington in its anti-terror drive, as the UNs anti-torture body began its first examination of the United States since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The United Nations Committee against Torture began hearing evidence from non-governmental organisations behind closed doors on Thursday. The 10-member panel of human rights notables such as Syria, Zimbabwe and Algeria legal experts was due to cross-examine a large US delegation including officials from the State Department, the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security in a public hearing starting Friday. This is going to be the very first time that the United States is going to be held internationally accountable for its record since the fight against terror began in 2001, Jennifer Daskal, an advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told journalists.
Strangely, Jennifer had no information on holding North Korea accountable.
The Committee regularly reviews the record of the 141 countries that have ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, which bans torture and cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.
The US government last appeared in a regular cross-examination before the committee in 2000, well before it implemented tougher and controversial measures to detain and interrogate terror supects. The US government is not only failing to take steps to eradicate torture, it is actually creating a climate in which torture and other ill-treatment can flourish -- including by trying to narrow the definition of torture, said Curt Goering of Amnesty International.
Amnesty said it had submitted a report to the panel describing how official US statements opposing the use of torture under any circumstances contradicted its practice. Human Rights Watch highlighted US government memos in 2002 and 2004 that redefine torture and notably slammed the use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique in which the prisoner is made to feel he is drowning.
Individuals have been court-martialled back in the 19th century (in the US) for their use of waterboarding, yet US officials continually refuse to state publicly that waterboarding is torture, Daskal said.
Other issues expected to come under scrutiny include US detention policy. Daskal said the Committee has asked Washington in preliminary written questions to disclose all detention centres where terror suspects are being held.
To which the appropriate response will be, 'none'. And try proving otherwise.
The hearing of the United States is due to continue Monday. The Committee is scheduled to release its findings at the end of its overall session on May 19.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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We should just ignore this sort of effete, impotent BS and refuse to participate in or even acknowledge the existence of these propaganda exercises.
#3
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are now in the same leauge as ANSWER. Totally bogus orgaizations. Perhaps they should take a clue from the International Red Thingy if they are actually concerned about prisoners treatment which in truth they are most certainly not.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/05/2006 6:04 Comments ||
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They must have found out about the poker games and smokers at the Watergate. Can't anyone be discreet in this town?
#5
This is going to be the very first time that the United States is going to be held internationally accountable for its record since the fight against terror began in 2001, Jennifer Daskal, an advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, told journalists.
Man, I'l bet this makes Jennifer wetter then Niagra Falls...
FORT BENNING, Ga. A former lieutenant in Saddam Hussein's army on Friday will become the first Iraqi to graduate from the Army's Ranger School, a 61-day training ordeal that pushes soldiers to their physical and mental limits in forests, swamps and mountains.
"I have a big, huge faith in the future of Iraq and that's why I'm here," said Capt. Arkan, who was identified only by his first name to protect him and his family back home.
Arkan, 25, a lieutenant in the Iraqi army in Baghdad at the time of the U.S.-led invasion, said he felt no animosity toward the United States when bombs began falling on the city in March 2003.
"It was a situation you expect from war," he said. "They were fighting Saddam Hussein, not the people. They came for the people. You have to take these matters professionally."
He will graduate Friday with 185 classmates, including students from Moldova, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Georgia and Greece.
Col. Clarence K.K. Chinn, commander of the Ranger Training Brigade, said training international students has been a tradition since the school's founding in 1950.
"Once an officer gets training in the United States, there's a loyalty toward this country," he said. "We want to build and strengthen our military alliances. What happens with the politicians is a separate matter."
The Ranger training is designed to simulate the stress and deprivation of combat. In the first week, students must adjust from normal sleep patterns and three meals a day to an hour or two of sleep a night and two Army ration meals a day, plus almost constant physical training.
Arkan's weight dropped from 180 to 160 pounds the first week. "There's no walking in this school. You're running all the time," he said.
Arkan said an important motivator for him was being the first Iraqi selected for the school. Another Iraqi soldier is in a class that started Monday and others are expected to follow.
"You're not coming over here as a regular infantry captain," he said. "You're coming to represent your country. For me, I think I've done very well."
One of Arkan's classmates said his war experiences in Iraq were helpful.
"We were impressed with the amount of knowledge he had about combat, something a lot of us did not have," said 1st Lt. Bryan Brokaw, 23, of the Arizona Army National Guard. "We all asked him questions."
Some of Arkan's Green Beret classmates practiced their language skills by greeting Arkan in Arabic, Brokaw said. Are Green Berets and Rangers now the same?
With the collapse of Saddam's regime, Arkan's military career ended abruptly, but he promptly signed up when Iraq's first new Army battalion was formed in July 2003, he said.
He was selected to attend an officers' course at Fort Benning's Infantry School in 2004 and went on to graduate from the Army's Airborne School, also at Fort Benning, in 2005. Then he returned to Iraq until he reported to the Ranger school earlier this year.
Arkan said he's uncertain of his assignment upon his return.
"As for the terrorist groups, their days are numbered," he said. "God willing, everything is going to be good."
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/05/2006 17:38 Comments ||
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No, Special Forces soldiers may attend Ranger School but they are not the same. Ranger school is 8 weeks. Special Forces training can take from 6 months or more depending upon their specialty. The training of an SF medic can take a year or more. Rangers however, are now a component of the Special Operations community. A welcomed addition, most would say.
#10
Some of these foreign graduates go on to rise to prominence. Susilo Bambam Yudhoyono graduated from US Army Ranger School the same year I did - 1976 (although not the same class) - now, 30 years later, he is President of Indonesia (and I'm a lowly small businessman in Bangkok).
#12
First comes airborn training - till you get that you're just a leg. (And "Air Assault" is judt a leg on a string, ask anyone with jump wings, heh).
Rangers are what most do before they go to the Q course for SF. Most officers go there after IOB or similar. Many enlistees go there straight from airborne school right after boot+infantry basic.
But rangers are nto SF nor are SF Rangers (anymore).
Different MOS. Different Missions, different training. But eveything a Ranger learns is needed by an SF operator.
This will be entertaining. Wonder if a Paleo strike includes demonstrations with large puppets?
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian government employees will go on strike on Saturday over the non-payment of salaries by the cash-starved Hamas-led government, their union announced on Thursday.
Civil servants will stage a two-hour walkout from 8:00 am to 10:00 am (0500 GMT to 0700 GMT) to protest against the non-payment of cheques since March.
Then they'll return to their non-jobs at the Gaza airport.
The Palestinian Authority employs more than 160,000 people, half of whom work as thug-boyz for the security services, although the strike order affects only those in civilian jobs.
The total wage bill runs in excess of 120 million dollars a month and affects the livelihoods of around one million people, or a quarter of the population in the Palestinian territories.
Assuming the Paleo population is that large, which it prob'ly isn't.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Strike or no strike, they do about the same amount of work. Actually, marching around carrying protest signs would probably result in a net increase in Paleo GDP, since somebody has to make the signs.
#2
This is a clear indication the monetary squeeze play is working. Now we will see if the Diploweenies have the intestinal fortitude to see it come to fruition. Predictably there will be some manufactured public seethe-fests blaming all the usual suspects. Accompanied by the shrill denunciations from the typical hand wringers and teeth-gnashers. The internal brawls will assuredly increase consumption of Orville Redenbacher's finest maze. However, they must be willing to accept that as a result, portions of a culture spoon-fed on violence and collective guilt will inevitably lash out past their borders. But in the end, even a delinquent child accepts the wisdom of an allowance withheld for misbehavior. Of course, thats provided the parents recognize that capitulation will only ensure continued misconduct.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2006 18:40 Comments ||
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Civil servants will stage a two-hour walkout from 8:00 am to 10:00 am (0500 GMT to 0700 GMT) to protest against the non-payment of cheques since March.
For two hours said civil servants will not pretend to work. After 10:00 am the pretend work is back on again.
Donations to the Palestinians must be transferred in a "clear and legitimate" way not secretly Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar said after meeting Arab League officials in Cairo. His visit came a day after Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appealed to Arab leaders to stand up to the United States, whom he accused of imposing a blockade on the Palestinians. Haniyeh also called on Palestinian bankers to "show the necessary patriotism".
"Or we'll kill you."
Zahar took a hard line against banks who refuse such transfers, saying the Palestinian government "will not deal with" banks that refuse to "ensure the money transfers". He said a delegation from the Palestinian finance ministry was meeting Arab League officials in Cairo to study "suggestions and alternatives" for fund transfers. Options include transferring the money through funds set up by the World Bank to channel foreign aid to the Palestinians. Zahar also said the Palestinian cabinet is studying a 2002 Arab League peace plan that calls for full recognition of Israel in exchange for a return to pre-1967 war borders.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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Since Hamas has no money, I wonder how much weight the threat not to do business with a bank carries.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas is ready for "immediate negotiations" with Israel and urges its new government to abstain from any unilateral action in the West Bank, a spokesman said Thursday. "President Abbas has expressed the readiness of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) to resume immediate negotiations with Ehud Olmert's new Israeli government to implement the roadmap and establish a Palestinian state," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP. Abu Rudeina said Abbas would oppose any unilateral measures planned by Israel in the occupied West Bank seeking to redraw the borders of the Jewish state by leaving large parts of the territory and holding on to key settlements.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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The Palestinian president says he intends to hold a referendum on any peace deal with Israel, sidestepping the Hamas-led government. Speaking before the swearing-in of the new Israeli government on Thursday, Mahmoud Abbas told the Israeli daily Maariv that Tel Aviv should not be deterred from renewing peace talks with the Palestinians despite Hamas's control of the Palestinian Authority. "We should not miss this opportunity," he said. "It is my intention to bring the results of the negotiations [with Israel], if and when they end, to the Palestinian people in the form of a referendum, and to give the Palestinian people the right to decide."
Hamas has not suggested a referendum directly, but it said in March that "the question of recognising Israel is not the jurisdiction of one faction, nor the government, but a decision for the Palestinian people".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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The Israeli parliament has approved a new coalition led by Ehud Olmert, who is determined to separate from the Palestinians and annex the largest settlements on the West Bank. The vote of confidence on Thursday in Olmert's four-party coalition and 25-member cabinet followed four weeks of intense coalition talks. Olmert's centre-right Kadima party won a March 28 election and now dominates the government. The cabinet line-up was approved by 65 votes to 49 of those deputies present following a keynote address by Olmert, a speech by the leader of the right-wing opposition Benjamin Netanyahu and a fiery debate from lawmakers.
The coalition includes:
Kadima: led by Olmert, the new prime minister. The centre-right party has 29 seats. It was founded in November by Ariel Sharon, the former prime minister who suffered a massive strike in January and has been in a coma since. The party is dominated by breakaways from Sharon's former right-wing, nationalist Likud party, along with some from the moderate Labour and academics.
Labour: a centre-left party led by Amir Peretz who is now the new defence minister. Labour, with 19 seats, favours compromise with the Palestinians to reach peace and promotes a quasi-socialist domestic agenda.
Shas: led by the new industry and trade minister, Eli Yishai, with 12 seats. The ultra-Orthodox Jewish party represents Jews of Middle Eastern and North African origin and is hawkish towards the Palestinians.
Pensioners: led Rafi Eitan, the new pensioners minister. The party was the surprise of the March election. It won seven seats. It wants to gain rights for Israel's elderly.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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It has been a rough few days. Steaming up the eastern coast of Japan, Cmdr. Joseph Deleon's guided missile frigate has been tossed around on heavy seas and the younger sailors, back from five months ashore, are feeling seasick. Grounded by high winds, the helicopter pilots are watching movies in the ward room.
The primary mission is hunting submarines. But the Gary, like the U.S. Seventh Fleet to which it belongs, is also a showcase of American power in a region fraught with crises -- North Korea, Taiwan, terrorism and piracy.
It is also a region whose security profile is being changed by the rise of China and a major realignment of U.S. forces, and by the prospect of Japan breaking out of its 60-year pacifist mind-set and playing a greater defense role.
The fleet's 40-50 ships, 120 aircraft and roughly 20,000 sailors and Marines have an area of operations that spans the Pacific and Indian oceans, 52 million square miles (135 million square kilometers) from the international dateline to the east coast of Africa. It's a region that accounts for more than US$220 billion (euro174 billion) in trade with the United States, 98 percent of which moves by sea.
The consequences of a war in these waters are obvious -- global economic meltdown.
With major outposts in Japan, South Korea, Guam and the Diego Garcias in the Indian Ocean, the fleet has a reach and deterrent force that other nations can only envy.
As the Gary makes its way through the Tsugaru Straits between Japan's main island and Hokkaido on its way to exercises with the South Koreans, the flagship of the fleet, the USS Blue Ridge, is 3,000 miles (4,830 kilometers) away making port calls in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The centerpiece of it all, the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, is at the fleet's home port in Yokosuka, just south of Tokyo, undergoing repairs.
But in the Pacific, calm waters can turn rough very fast.
Just a few days' journey away from the Gary is North Korea, openly hostile, claiming nuclear might and technically still at war with South Korea. Then there's Taiwan, a U.S. ally which China claims as a renegade province, to be recovered by force if necessary.
To the south, the Malacca Straits, one of the world's most important trade routes, are infested with pirates. Terrorism is rife throughout much of southeast Asia; territorial disputes begin up around the Siberian coast and work their way down to well below the equator.
Taking a short break in his quarters just below the bridge on the Gary, Deleon refuses to single out any specific hotspot as a primary concern.
"We have countries that we are monitoring, that we are aware of," he said. The rest, he suggests, is classified.
Some facts speak for themselves, however. With the decline of the once mighty Soviet navy, most of the subs the fleet is tracking are now Chinese.
With its physical size, 1.3 billion people and swelling economy, China casts a lengthening shadow as it establishes itself yet again as a power to be reckoned with.
But where is it going?
Some experts believe that while the Soviet Union was primarily a military rival and Japan an economic one, China could emerge as the first country with the potential to challenge the United States on both fronts.
Its economic growth, fanned by robust exports and investment, is expected to be 8.9 percent in 2006. China is now the world's second largest consumer and third-largest importer of oil. And this year, its foreign currency reserves reached US$853.7 billion (euro675.2 billion), topping Japan's to become the world's largest.
Clyde Prestowitz, a former U.S. trade negotiator, notes that China and India have a combined 230 million people considered "highly skilled" -- not far off the entire population of the United States.
"It's true these are poor countries on average, but these are big populations," he said during a recent visit to Tokyo. "We've been talking about globalization for a long time, except half of the population has been out. Now they're in."
Much of Asia already depends on the Chinese economy to fire growth, and China is widely credited by economists with pulling the region out of the financial crisis of the 1990s.
So, according to Prestowitz, the rise of China isn't what the developed countries should fear.
"What we should fear is its failure," he said.
But as China's economy has grown, so has its military.
In March last year, Beijing announced it was increasing its defense budget 12.5 percent, to about US$29.9 billion (euro23.7 billion), twice as much as in 2000.
That figure is generally considered an underestimate. It excludes key areas, such as foreign weapons procurement and support for its nuclear stockpile. The actual budget could be two to three times higher.
"China will not threaten anyone," its latest national defense policy statement said. "China needs a peaceful international environment to develop itself ... China will never pursue expansion and hegemony."
The Pentagon sees it differently.
"China does not now face a direct threat from another nation," it said in a report last July. "Yet, it continues to invest heavily in its military, particularly in programs designed to improve power projection. ... In the future, China's leaders may be tempted to resort to force or coercion more quickly to press diplomatic advantage, advance security interests or resolve disputes."
#1
Article: So, according to Prestowitz, the rise of China isn't what the developed countries should fear. "What we should fear is its failure," he said.
Prestowitz is a nutjob. He portrayed Japan as this big threat during its boom years back in the 1980's, even though it was an American ally, and now he's downplaying the Chinese threat despite the fact that China has fought significant border wars with India, Russia and Vietnam, not to mention annexed Tibet.
The way I remember the CALEA spec... a random %20 of voice calls and all dial up data get vectored to your local FBI office.
Since broadband is data... I would assume all broadband including my typing of this message will get vectored to the local FBI office. Since VOIP (vonage etc..) is broadband 100% of it would seem to go too.
Tell your local file sharing guru (KIDS) that everything they up or download will be copied too. (Bittorrent etc..)
State domination of Iran's media has been undermined in recent years as Iranians increasingly turn to the internet and satellite TV channels run by Iranians abroad.
Viewers with satellite dishes can tune into a host of channels run by expatriate Iranians, with 20 of them based in California alone, mostly in the Los Angeles area. Although possession of a satellite dish is technically illegal in Iran, the ban is only sporadically enforced.
Some of these exile stations are explicitly opposed to the government in Tehran, but most simply offer Western-style entertainment and talk shows that are not available on state-run TV.
They also offer a distinct take on the news, as state TV will not broadcast anything critical of the ruling establishment.
A profusion of news websites and blogs is matched only by the government's efforts to control cyberspace.
After English, Farsi is now one of the most widely-used languages in the "blogosphere". There are said to be over 100,000 active weblogs by Iranians. Even politicians, including one former vice-president, have got in on the act.
The government has responded by taking action against individual bloggers, as well as trying to filter and block access to websites it objects to.
Officials have spoken of plans to set up a "national" internet, effectively an intranet, enabling them to have more effective control of access to the wider, global internet.
There has also been an explosion in the number of news websites, many of them associated with the conservative end of the political spectrum.
Within Iran, the broadcast media are firmly under state control. No private channels are allowed. The state broadcaster runs eight TV channels and eight radio networks, plus a number of provincial and international channels.
Its director-general is personally appointed by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Some foreign films and documentaries are shown, but most TV programmes are domestically produced, covering a wide range of genres, but with a noticeable absence of musical entertainment and videos.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made known his opposition to the use of "banal and Western" music and the need to promote Islamic values.
The quality of the presentation has improved in recent years, with state-of-the-art graphics and slick studio sets. But all female presenters still wear the traditional chador, or head-covering, and there are regular breaks to broadcast daily prayers.
Even the occasional mildly satirical programme attracts the ire of the conservatives.
This recently prompted a defeated presidential candidate to try and set up a TV channel broadcasting out of Dubai. But the plan fell through after strenuous pressure from Tehran.
The newspaper industry burgeoned in the 1990s, especially under the first presidency of Mohammad Khatami (1997-2001), and there was a short period of relative press freedom.
But the judicial authorities stepped in and forced the closure of over 100 publications, many of which took a more liberal or reformist line.
More recently, the authorities have tended to take action against individual journalists rather than publications. In November 2005, Reporters Without Borders called for an end to the harassment and intimidation of journalists.
The press freedom watchdog said that at least 10 journalists had been interrogated and advised not to write articles critical of the government. In particular, they were warned against writing about sensitive issues such as Iran's nuclear programme.
Newspapers also face difficulties because of falling readership and a decline in advertising revenue. Although editions of popular sports dailies may sell over a million copies, political dailies have a circulation of a few hundred thousand at most.
The difficulties facing the Iranian media are illustrated by the recent case of a young female journalist on a provincial newspaper.
Searching the internet for material for an article for the health pages, she copied and pasted something about AIDS from the weblog of an expatriate Iranian.
Unfortunately, this was a satirical piece which made unflattering comparisons between AIDS and the deceased leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini.
The paper has since been closed, its director jailed, and the young journalist is still in prison awaiting trial.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2006 02:03 ||
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Regime change in Iran is necessary for the Kurds to obtain their rights, according to the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran. The Kurdish opposition group, led by Mustapha Hedjri, has intensified its activities in recent months, as Tehran is increasingly under international pressure because of its nuclear program. As part of its campaign against the Iranian regime, officials visited European capitals last week, including London, where they sought to publicize their concerns.
Asharq al Awsat met Secretary-General Hedjri who said Europe Unfortunately, cares more about its interests in Iran and not the rights of the Kurds. On the use of armed force to oust the current regime in Tehran, Hedjri said, All means, with the exception of terrorism are permitted to achieve this objective. But, for the time being, we have not engaged in armed confrontation.
With Iraqi officials accusing Iran of bombing Kurdish targets inside their territory, the Kurdish leader said, According to the information at our disposal, Iran and Turkey have mobilized their troops on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan but we dont have details about the number of troops. Tehran and Ankara, Hedjri added, both target the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its leadership in Turkey . The two countries have been coordinating their operations against the PKK for some time and were waiting for the climate to improve in order to carry out this military operation because the mountainous terrain makes it difficult during winter. On his partys relations with the PKK, banned in Turkey, the Kurdish leader said, We have no relations with them. They are not close to us. They operate on the other side of the border.
As long as the clerics remained in power in Iran , Hedjri said, minorities will not be granted their full rights. This, he added, is why regime change was a priority for the Kurdish group. If the US and Europe ascertain that Iran has nuclear weapons, they will change the regime in Tehran.
The Islamic Republic approaches the issue of minority from a security angle only. All those who demand their rights are accused of being agents of the US and Israel . Since the Kurds in Iraq obtained some of their rights, the Iranian regime has tightened its control over us.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2006 00:00 ||
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A Pentagon research team monitors more than 5,000 jihadist Web sites, focusing daily on the 25 to 100 most hostile and active, defense officials say.
The team includes 25 linguists, who cover multiple dialects of the Arabic language and provide reports on events sparking anger on extremist Web sites, Dan Devlin, a Pentagon public diplomacy specialist, said Thursday. The researchers, for instance, focused in November on the backlash caused by the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Devlin testified to Congress as part of a briefing on how terrorists use the Internet.
Extremist propaganda is most often used to recruit jihadist fighters and supporters between the ages of 7 and 25, the officials said. But "we've seen products that are aimed at ages even lower than 7," testified Pentagon contractor Ron Roughhead. His company wasn't identified, for security reasons.
According to the briefing, al-Qaida has advertised online to fill jobs for Internet specialists, and its media group has distributed computer games and recruitment videos that use everything from poetry to humor to false information to gather support. The media group has assembled montages of American politicians taking aim at the Arab world.
"This crusade _ crusade _ crusade _ is going to take awhile," President Bush says in one video, edited to make him repeat the word "crusade" six other times.
The officials said they are hoping to give a version of the briefing eventually to all U.S. soldiers in Iraq and the broader region.
The goal is "to help train U.S. forces deploying to Iraq on radical Islam and the need to respect Arabic and Muslim culture," said House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich.
Also Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee discussed legislation that would go after al-Qaida's more private communications using Bush's warrantless surveillance program.
The committee broke without voting on several bills to govern the controversial program, which allows the National Security Agency to monitor _ without court warrants _ terror-related communications between the U.S. and overseas.
Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., has introduced a bill that would require the administration to get approval for the surveillance from a secretive federal court every 90 days. He circulated a possible modification to his proposal late Wednesday that Democrats suggested would give the government more flexibility to conduct surveillance.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., asked Specter to postpone consideration of any bill until she and other lawmakers get more information on the program from the administration. "We cannot fairly consider legislation," she wrote Specter.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2006 01:57 ||
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So is anybody trying to make sense of those weird jihadist postings on Usenet?
You know,
"Ali slinks darkly while Sally mows the infidel shirts." ... Merdad pines for money and finds solace for his yoni in Eva.
...
Several developments in recent weeks have underscored the nature of the threat from international terrorism the latest audiotapes from Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, the videotape from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaida in Iraq, the deadly explosions in the Egyptian Sinai, and the increasing sectarian violence in Iraq, capped by the assassination of the sister of Iraqs new vice-president.
Terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, author of two books about Osama bin Laden, and fellow at the Washington-based New America Foundation, told Carol Castiel of VOA News Nows Encounter program, that the audiotape message from bin Laden confirms the continuing threat from al-Qaida. Despite the ouster of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan and the capture of several high-level operatives over the last few years, al Qaida remains a strong recruitment tool for terrorists.
James Phillips, foreign policy specialist at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, suggested that bin Ladens most recent message still resonates with the Muslim world, as evidenced by the bombing in the Sinai peninsula just one day after its release. Mr. Phillips suggested that one of the reasons that bin Laden has not yet been found is that he enjoys much popular support, even though the highest levels of the government in Islamabad have been cooperating in the fight against terrorism. Peter Bergen agreed that both bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are probably now hiding in Western Pakistan.
Mr. Phillips noted that in his videotape last week, al-Zarqawi had denounced democracy in Iraq as a kind of rotten fruit and had threatened to strike at people who joined the Iraqi security services. Mr. Phillips suggested that it might be a harbinger of things to come and that his group may start to focus on neighboring Jordan and on Israel.
Peter Bergen agreed, adding that al-Zarqawi in his videotape might be revealing a desire to enter politics and not just be about violence. James Phillips expressed doubts that in the short run the establishment of a government of national unity would have much effect on the Iraqi insurgency, but in the long run it might help to diffuse some of the militancy of the Sunni opposition.
Noting the passing of a series of political milestones, such as the capture of Saddam Hussein, the death of his two sons, and the three democratic elections, Peter Bergen urged a measure of skepticism regarding the power of the new government to tamp down the Iraqi insurgency. He said he doubts the wisdom of a rapid U.S. military withdrawal, describing that scenario as snatching an unqualified disaster from the jaws of an enormous blunder. And worst of all, it would provide al-Qaida with exactly what it wants and would hand central Iraq to the jihadists on a plate.
However, the indiscriminate killing of Muslim civilians, as evidenced in the Sinai bombings and in Iraq on a daily basis, might ultimately backfire on the international terrorists. Both analysts agreed that in the long run, such tactics are likely to repulse moderate Muslims, inducing them to take a stronger, more vocal stand against the extremists.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2006 01:47 ||
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Bergen is such a quid
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2006 2:11 Comments ||
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Sada al-Jihad, The Echo of Jihad, a periodic publication electronically distributed via the Internet and featuring articles concerning general mujahideen news from several regions, was recently issued in its April 2006 release. Within the 45-page magazine, authors discuss the relative importance of Islamic scholars versus mujahideen, the danger of jihadist groups joining government, the importance of security for these groups survival, and recent operations and media happenings of mujahideen in Chechnya, Waziristan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In addition, an article relating prisoner stories from Guantanamo Bay and another discussing the importance of jihad are prominently featured in this issue.
The magazine opens with a short editorial written by Abu Hajer al-Lubnani, which caustically tells of those the lies spread by simpletons that Usama bin Laden and Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri are guilty of killing Abdullah Azzam, citing American and Jewish television channels as sources. Anyone who places faith in these channels, according to Abu Hajer, is guilty of helping the Crusaders.
Other articles, such as: Though Ye Make Mock of Us, Yet We Mock at You, by Abu Fahr, and Our Flesh is Heard, contain inspirational rhetoric for the mujahideen in particular and jihad in general. The latter article describes the merits of Islamic scholars and the importance of education, compared to the necessity of jihad: Scholars usually sit [passively] and do not fulfill the duty of Jihad for the sake of Allah and of protecting the sanctum of religion as Allah has commanded them; and there are Mujahideen who wage Jihad without knowledge, and they spoil more than they correct, and do more damage than good. However, the situation today is such that jihad is an individual duty, rather than education, and thusly, gives the mujahid greater importance.
The article, Circumstances Enabling Survival of Jihadi Organizations, written by al-Mutaz Billah, emphasizes the critical importance of a security cover for a jihadi organization to prevent infiltration by spies of a hostile country or a different group. Al-Mutaz states: The downfall of the majority of jihadi organizations was due only to this issue. He also quotes Saif al-Adl, an al-Qaeda chief, in this regard. Likewise, the piece titled: The Security Principles and Guidelines of the Muslim Mujahid, provides 26 qualities a mujahid should maintain, besides how he should act. These include: pure intention, knowledge in the field, stealth, capability of expressing thought clearly, and critical thinking.
Another article, The Mujahideen in the Peninsula - Pain and Hope, laments the absence of Saudi mujahideen media, be it video, audio or written word, believing that such is an important issue for every mujahid group or organization. It states that media bears crucial importance in allowing people to know the Mujahideen, in explaining to them the path that they follow and in rejecting slander, accusations and lies. The author urges for the resumption of Saudi jihadist publications, and advises to separate those specializing in media from participating in military operations due to security concerns.
A piece about three stories from prisoners in Guantanamo Bay alleges that American guards at the detention facility have been demonstrating respect for Usama bin Laden, converting to Islam, and being threatened with deployment to Iraq for this conversion. Also, another article, What Benefit?, openly questions what good can come of Hamas as a government administration, and for Islamic parties joining government, in general. It states: Throughout the history of Islam, there were many sects, groups, men and peoples whose aim was to help religion, and they might have been devout to Allah almighty in this desire Yet they did not achieve what they sought because the path that they followed does not help religion.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2006 01:42 ||
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#1
This article doesn't mention full page glossy ads for expensive curly toed slippers, the "Your Horoscope" section, or the crossword puzzle in the back.
Personally, I hate going to the dentist's office and finding nothing but three year old issues of "Echo of Jihad" in the waiting room.
The makers of combat video games have unwittingly become part of a global propaganda campaign by Islamic militants to exhort Muslim youths to take up arms against the United States, officials said on Thursday.
Tech-savvy militants from al Qaeda and other groups have modified video war games so that U.S. troops play the role of bad guys in running gunfights against heavily armed Islamic radical heroes, Defense Department official and contractors told Congress.
The games appear on militant Web sites, where youths as young as 7 can play at being troop-killing urban guerillas after registering with the site's sponsors.
"What we have seen is that any video game that comes out ... they'll modify it and change the game for their needs," said Dan Devlin, a Defense Department public diplomacy specialist.
Devlin spoke before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, at which contractors from San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp., or SAIC, gave lawmakers a presentation that focused on Iraq as an engine for Islamic militant propaganda from Indonesia to Turkey and Chechnya.
SAIC has a $7 million Defense Department contract to monitor 1,500 militant Web sites that provide al Qaeda and other militant organizations with a main venue for communications, fund-raising, recruitment and training.
The sites use a variety of emotionally charged content, from images of real U.S. soldiers being hit by snipers in Iraq to video-recordings of American televangelists including Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell making disparaging remarks about Islam.
The underlying propaganda message, officials say, is that the United States is waging a crusade against Islam in order to control Middle Eastern oil, and that Muslims should fight to protect Islam from humiliation.
One of the latest video games modified by militants is the popular "Battlefield 2" from leading video game publisher, Electronic Arts Inc (ERTS.O) of Redwood City, California.
Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, said enthusiasts often write software modifications, known as "mods," to video games.
"Millions of people create mods on games around the world," he said. "We have absolutely no control over them. It's like drawing a mustache on a picture."
"Battlefield 2" ordinarily shows U.S. troops engaging forces from China or a united Middle East coalition. But in a modified video trailer posted on Islamic Web sites and shown to lawmakers, the game depicts a man in Arab headdress carrying an automatic weapon into combat with U.S. invaders.
"I was just a boy when the infidels came to my village in Blackhawk helicopters," a narrator's voice said as the screen flashed between images of street-level gunfights, explosions and helicopter assaults.
Then came a recording of President George W. Bush's September 16, 2001, statement: "This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while." It was edited to repeat the word "crusade," which Muslims often define as an attack on Islam by Christianity.
Two militant videos were also pointed out to lawmakers including one called "Lion of Falluja," the city in Iraqi's violent Anbar province that has long been seen as a symbol of militant resistance.
Critics of the U.S. video game industry have long blamed the products for violence among American teenagers in civilian society, including high-profile shootings at public schools.
SAIC executive Eric Michael said researchers suspect Islamic militants are using video games to train recruits and condition youth to attack U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2006 01:40 ||
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Need to get Gottlieb to build an easy play five ball pinball machine suitable for the desert sands.
(2006-05-03) As the news broke that 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui had escaped the death penalty, al Qaeda leader Usama Bin Laden released an audiotape declaring that he had decided, as a goodwill gesture, to commute the death sentences of the 3,000 victims of 9/11.
We are grateful for the charity shown to Zacarias, our would-be martyr, by the Great Satan, said Mr. Bin Laden, using the traditional term of endearment for the United States. Therefore, I have retroactively issued orders for the hijackers to avoid colliding with the buildings and to return the planes to the control of their crews. May Allah, the merciful, be praised.
#1
It might be just me, but Scrappleface seems more page 3 listing. The April Fool factor on otherwise legit report tier does tiresafter a while as a joke.
If it is just me, my apologies. I'm not against a bit of fun.
Valerie Wilson, the former Central Intelligence Agency officer whose identity was publicly disclosed three years ago, has agreed to sell her memoir for a little more than $2.5 million, according to people involved in the bidding process for the book.
The book, whose working title is "Fair Game," is scheduled to be published in the fall of 2007 by Crown Publishing, an imprint of Random House. Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of Crown, said the book would be Ms. Wilson's "first airing of her actual role in the American intelligence community, as well as the prominence of her role in the lead-up to the war."
Ms. Wilson, he added, "has been this mysterious woman at the very eye of a major storm, and the concentric circles keep widening."
Ms. Wilson's name first appeared in a column by Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist, in 2003, spawning a full-scale Washington scandal that ensnared several government officials and journalists. The special prosecutor assigned to the leak case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has already brought perjury and obstruction of justice charges against I. Lewis Libby, the former chief of staff for Vice President Dick Cheney, stemming from his investigation, and the inquiry continues. Karl Rove, the presidential adviser, recently testified before the grand jury in the case.
Joseph C. Wilson IV, Ms. Wilson's husband and a former diplomat who was a critic of the Bush administration's handling of intelligence in advance of the invasion of Iraq, called the leak a smear campaign by the White House in retaliation for his criticism. Mr. Wilson had gone to Niger to investigate whether Saddam Hussein's regime had tried to buy uranium, but found no evidence that it had. His own book, "The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies That Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's C.I.A. Identity" (Carroll & Graf), was published in 2004.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/05/2006 20:45 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
British-led troops are ready to take on the Taliban in Afghanistan, their new commander said Thursday. The UK formally assumed command of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Italy today. British commander Lieutenant General David Richards insisted in an interview with BBC radio he had sufficient troops for the task. 
The mayor of London is to host a lunch for the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez, who called Tony Blair "an ally of Hitler". Mr Chavez will visit the UK from May 14 to 16.
Reports that Bahraini Guantanamo detainee 
KARACHI - Pakistani police have arrested two Islamist militants suspected of planning a suicide bomb attack that killed a US diplomat and three others outside the US consulate in Karachi in March, an official said on Thursday. We have got some encouraging leads from both of them. They belong to a jihadi group and were the main planners of the consulate attack, Salahuddin Haider, a spokesman for the provincial Sindh government, told Reuters.
LAHORE: An unidentified boy was killed in a shootout with the police at Montgomery Road, Qilla Gujjar Singh on Thursday. According to the police, a police team was patrolling the area and they signalled three suspected boys riding a motorcycle without number plates to stop. 
The Punjab government sent the authorities in 10 districts a list of 33 religious seminaries last week to monitor for involvement in sectarian activities, sources told Daily Times on Thursday.
Nepal's Maoist rebels have agreed to hold talks on ending their decade-long insurgency, clearing the way for the release of hundreds of jailed fighters. The interim cabinet announced an indefinite ceasefire on Wednesday and removed the terrorist tag from the Maoists to try to kickstart talks and bring peace to the impoverished Himalayan nation. The Maoists, who called their own three-month ceasefire last week, agreed on Thursday to discussions on ending the revolt in which more than 12,500 people have died.
GENEVA - Human rights groups on Thursday sharply criticised methods used by Washington in its anti-terror drive, as the UNs anti-torture body began its first examination of the United States since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Donations to the Palestinians must be transferred in a "clear and legitimate" way not secretly Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar said after meeting Arab League officials in Cairo. His visit came a day after Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh appealed to Arab leaders to stand up to the United States, whom he accused of imposing a blockade on the Palestinians. Haniyeh also called on Palestinian bankers to "show the necessary patriotism".
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas is ready for "immediate negotiations" with Israel and urges its new government to abstain from any unilateral action in the West Bank, a spokesman said Thursday. "President Abbas has expressed the readiness of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) to resume immediate negotiations with Ehud Olmert's new Israeli government to implement the roadmap and establish a Palestinian state," Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP. Abu Rudeina said Abbas would oppose any unilateral measures planned by Israel in the occupied West Bank seeking to redraw the borders of the Jewish state by leaving large parts of the territory and holding on to key settlements.
The Israeli parliament has approved a new coalition led by Ehud Olmert, who is determined to separate from the Palestinians and annex the largest settlements on the West Bank. The vote of confidence on Thursday in Olmert's four-party coalition and 25-member cabinet followed four weeks of intense coalition talks. Olmert's centre-right Kadima party won a March 28 election and now dominates the government. The cabinet line-up was approved by 65 votes to 49 of those deputies present following a keynote address by Olmert, a speech by the leader of the right-wing opposition Benjamin Netanyahu and a fiery debate from lawmakers.
