I just moved this to Short Attention Span Theater 'cos that's where all the ceasefire / hudna / peace processor type entries always end up anyway...
... their short attention span being matched with ours, as it were ...
The Hamas militant group, facing a crippling international boycott and unable to meet Palestinians' basic needs, is prepared to accept a plan that calls for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, a Hamas official said Friday, potentially a major concession implying recognition of Israel.
Also a concession that'll be repudiated within the next 24 hours.
However, Hamas' top leaders have not yet responded to the plan. Even if Hamas accepts a two-state solution to the Mideast conflict, it's unlikely it would be able to secure a resumption of Western aid without explicit recognition of Israel.
Oh, sure they will. They just have to wait the Euros out.
The plan was negotiated by top militants from Hamas and the rival Fatah group, who are held in an Israeli prison. The 18-point proposal will be the basis for upcoming talks between Hamas and Fatah, said the Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity because Hamas leaders have not yet gone public with their views.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, who has just returned to Geneva from a two-week trip to Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, has said there is no hope for peace in Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region until the fighting factions are disarmed and demobilized. According to The U.N. high commissioner, peace in Darfur is linked to what happens in southern Sudan adding that the comprehensive peace agreement signed by the Sudanese government and southern Sudanese rebels has raised hopes the country is moving toward stability.
Louise Arbour says southern Sudan is in a state of total neglect adding that the region has no governance and no economic or physical infrastructure after 20 years of conflict. She says it needs to be completely rebuilt. If the promises held out by the southern Sudan peace agreement are unfulfilled, the Darfur agreement is likely to fail. She said. "There is in Darfur, in my view, there is no hope of peace holding if primarily attention is not given to disarmament," she said.
"Southern Sudan is still plagued by insecurity caused by a flood of weaponry and various armed groups, including activities by the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group. I think the most urgent initiative in southern Sudan is a robust disarmament plan which is contemplated by the comprehensive peace agreement."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
No hope, Louise because the UN is hopeless. Steamed straight through SNAFU to FUBAR, where it remains.
China and Russia seem to have Sudan claimed as well as Iran. The team's really carved up a plan to keep all conflicts nicely active by blocking any action.
"peace agreement"? Louise, the situation has escalated so far beyond retrieval by any peace agreements that even you have got to be starting to get it.
#3
so far beyond retrieval by any peace agreements that even you have got to be starting to get it.
she's getting that big influxes of money, jobs and hungry young girls and boys will materialize for their UN peacekeepers. More prestige and authority for her.
#4
UN robust disarmament tend to get more ordinary people killed by leaving them helpless. Dutch troop and Srebenica, the UN Japanese sushi diplomat also help things to mess up - so fast forgotten?
Because, you know, Mogadishu's been such a PEACEFUL place for most of its history ...
Mogadishu residents have been subjected to the worst kind of terrorism for the past six days. Two armed groups have been bombarding each other's turfs with all sorts of weaponry from rocket propelled grenades (RPG) to anti-aircraft machine guns and area artillery shells causing hundreds of deaths and exodus of new internal refugees fleeing from affected areas.
Actually, that's not "terrorism," per se. The two sides aren't trying to terrorize the citizenry into anything. They're just mushrooms. This is a civil war.
Many analysts say the worst is yet to come unless some miracles happen. There's no border between the warring factions and each controls pockets in the city which are surrounded by other pockets controlled by the other. The worst fight Mogadishu witnessed was when late Mohamed Farah Aidid and Ali Mahdi tried to force the other out of the city in 1992. The difference today is there is no green line that separates the two and it is widely believed Mogadishu became the latest USA and Al-Qaeda battlefield. Somalis are fighting but each side is accusing the other of working for foreign interest.
I confess. That was me. Sorry. My bad.
Many Somalis see this war and Mogadishu's other recent clashes as a proxy war between the US and al-Qaeda. Prior to this all-out war, many religious leaders, intellectuals and former government and army officers were assassinated by unknown and often masked gunmen. USA and Ethiopia were blamed by many for the killings of the religious men while Al-qaeda was blamed for other deaths.
Somalis, y'see, are peaceful folk, who never kill each other unless they're under remote mind control...
It is widely known that many faction leaders were being whisked into and out of Nairobi by unmarked private planes and one of those men, talked to the public on many occasions saying, The American government is distributing a lot of money for flushing out Al-Qaeda affiliated men from the capital.
Sounds good to me. Bumping off bad guyz without spending any American lives is a good thing, from where I sit...
Sheik Yusuf Mohamed Siad known as Indha Ade, who controls a good junk of southern Somalia, including the port city of Marka talked to many Mogadishu radio stations and said he met with US officials many times, both in Somalia and in Kenya and was offered five million dollars for handing over non-existent al-Qaeda members to the American authority. Shaik Siad unlike many Mogadishu warlords who took the money and started Mogadishu's current unrest, he refused to be bought. "I don't understand why America is arming these warlords who have been terrorizing Somalia and its capital city for over fifteen years. Is American public better than poor Somalis who are dying in this unjust war?" he said in one of the interviews he gave Mogadishu radio stations.
Lemme think. Yes.
"If America is fighting terrorism, it must not support it in other countries." He said.
I'm hoping we're shoveling money to both sides, with the ultimate aim of killing them all off.
Although he is not a member of the Islamic Courts alliance, Sheik Siad fully supports their cause and he is said to be actively involved in the battle.
"You cannot buy me with your filthy lucre! At least, not for the amount offered."
On the other side of the fence, Mogadishu's most powerful men who have been relinquishing territories to the Islamic courts in the past few months formed a new alliance and claim to be hunting non-Somali Al-Qaeda members who are hiding in some parts of the city. The new alliance lost territories in their first two combats with the Islamic courts. They lost one airport and make-shift sea-port while another airport controlled by strong man, Mohamed Farah Qanyare is cut-off from the rest of the city, rendering it useless. Mr. Qanyare admitted losing a lot of revenue do to the closure of his airport. "The kitchens of twenty-two thousand families were affected by the closure." He said in a radio interview.
My heart bleeds. Do we have any Tums?
Both sides are accusing the other of working for non-Somali foreign interests in order to gain some public support. Somalia has been without a government for the past fifteen years after Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. Subsequent tries for national government did not succeed. The current one is confined in Baydhabo.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Indha Ade, who controls a good junk of southern Somalia,
and proud of it too, he is. Award for accurate reporting!
#2
I think everybody is just fresh out of sympathy for the Somalis, this has been going on for 15 years. everyone wants to win the war for somalia, with such rich rewards(not).
A NEO-NAZI whose ideas were said to be the inspiration for the man who let off a nail bomb in Central London in 1999 has converted to an extremist form of Islam. not that huge a leap, actually
David Myatt, a founder of the hardline British National Socialist Movement (NSM) who has been jailed for racist attacks, has changed his name to Abdul Aziz ibn Myatt. David Copeland, who is serving six life sentences after three people died in his Soho bomb attacks, was a member of the NSM.
Myatt is reportedly the author of a fascist terrorist handbook and a former leader of the violent far-right group Combat 18. But now in his mid-50s and sporting a red, bushy beard he subscribes to radical Islamist views.
In an internet essay entitled From Neo-Nazi to Muslim, Myatt asks: How was it that I, a Westerner with a history of over 25 years of political involvement in extreme right-wing organisations, a former leader of the political wing of the neo-Nazi group Combat 18, came to be standing outside a mosque with a sincere desire to go inside and convert to Islam? These were the people who I had been fighting on the streets, I had swore (sic) at and had used violence against indeed, one of my terms of imprisonment was a result of me leading a gang of skinheads in a fight against Pakis.
In a later interview, Myatt supports the killing of any Muslim who breaks his oath of loyalty to Islam, and the setting up of a Muslim superstate. He describes himself as having been staunchly opposed to non-white immigration into Britain and twice jailed for violence in pursuit of my political aims. like white supremacism, islam is simply a great refuge for the angry and impotent (a wonderful recipe for violence). The difference is that islam has great support from large segments of the population in the west (apologists, self haters, etc)
He added: I spent several decades of my life fighting for what I regarded as my people, my race and my nation, and endured two terms of imprisonment arising out of my political activities.
But his belief is now that: The pure authentic Islam of the revival, which recognises practical jihad (holy war) as a duty, is the only force that is capable of fighting and destroying the dishonour, the arrogance, the materialism of the West . . . For the West, nothing is sacred, except perhaps Zionists, Zionism, the hoax of the so-called Holocaust, and the idols which the West and its lackeys worship, or pretend to worship, such as democracy. awww....is widdle davey jealous cuz the jooooooos are successful...ahd he's not?
They want, and demand, that we abandon the purity of authentic Islam and either bow down before them and their idols, or accept the tame, secularised, so-called Islam which they and their apostate lackeys have created.
This may well be a long war, of decades or more and we Muslims have to plan accordingly. We must affirm practical jihad to take part in the fight to free our lands from the kuffar (unbelievers). Jihad is our duty.
Myatt, who briefly became a monk a monk! is this guy lost or what!?! after his second spell in prison, said that he became a Muslim while working long hours alone on a farm. He grew up in Africa, moved to Britain in 1967 and spent time living in Worcestershire. In July 2000 Searchlight, the anti-fascist magazine, described him as the most ideologically-driven Nazi in Britain, preaching race war and terrorism.
Myatt was the architect of the NSM and was involved in the leadership of Combat 18. He issued a statement in response to the Soho nail bombings saying: Neither myself nor anyone else connected to the NSM can be held responsible for these bombs in any way. That responsibility lies with the person who constructed them, planted them and caused them to explode. Only that person, and God, know the motive behind the attacks.
Myatt said that all bombs are terrible and barbaric, whether detonated by lone bombers, Western governments in Iraq or Zionists in Palestine. how politically selective!
The NSM considered the creation of a revolutionary situation in this country as necessary since it wished to build an entirely new society, based upon personal honour his "followers" would be at each others throats if they ever had any real power. kinda paleo-like, actually., and believed this could only be done by destroying the dishonourable and corrupt society of the present.
However, the NSM neither preached, nor sought to incite, what is called racial hatred. Instead, it strove to propagate the warrior values of honour, loyalty and duty, and make the British people aware of, and come to value, their ancestral warrior culture and warrior heritage.
Myatt said recently that he had given up hope of a breakthrough by the far Right and believed that Muslims were the best hope for combating Zionism and the West. There will not be an uprising, a revolution, in any Western nation, by nationalists, racial nationalists, or National Socialists because these people lack the desire, the motivation, the ethos, to do this and because they do not have the support of even a large minority of their own folk, he said.
If these nationalists, or some of them, desire to aid us, to help us . . . they can do the right thing, the honourable thing, and convert, revert, to Islam accepting the superiority of Islam over and above each and every way of the West.
The London bombings created the perception that mosques require "close attention in the war on terrorism", says the Muslim Council of Britain.
A report on how attitudes towards Muslims have changed said the impression was these places of worship offer extremists a sympathetic ear.
General Secretary Sir Iqbal Sacranie said it was a big challenge to change this unjustified reputation.
The council discussed how to do this at a conference in Manchester.
"In Britain, mosques have enjoyed the same autonomy as other places of worship.
"However, the tragedy of [7 July] spawned new and aggressive thinking in some quarters. These quarters contend that mosques and imams require close attention in the 'war on terrorism'," said Sir Iqbal.
"The perception outside the community is not very favourable. There is negative stereotyping that mosques are somehow related with criminal activity. This is totally untrue. There is no such activity taking place in the mosque."
There are more than 1,000 mosques in the UK, and plans were under way for these to not just be a places of prayer but a focal point for the wider community.
Muslim leaders gathered in Didsbury, Greater Manchester, on Saturday to endorse the new approach.
The report also recommended setting up an advisory body chosen by, and accountable to, the British Muslim community.
Sir Iqbal added that government measures, such as the consultation floated on the closure of places of worship last year, risked alienating mosques further.
Earlier this week, the council joined calls for a public inquiry into the attacks in which suicide bombers killed 52 and injured more than 700.
#3
yes it does. The liberals will believe any lie that gives them cover for washing their hands of the difficult decisions and actions. Easier to stick their head in the sand and believe the beautiful lies.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/13/2006 14:15 Comments ||
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#5
"There is negative stereotyping that mosques are somehow related with criminal activity. This is totally untrue. There is no such activity taking place in the mosque."
Perhaps because it is not considered by the moskks as "criminal"?
#7
Sir Iqbal added that government measures, such as the consultation floated on the closure of places of worship last year, risked alienating mosques further.
"Don't you dare look into what we're doing, or we'll get even more violent."
Anyone else sick of the threats that CONSTANTLY flow from supposedly moderate spokesmen?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/13/2006 16:04 Comments ||
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#8
Yes. Very.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/13/2006 17:07 Comments ||
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#9
The mosques have an image problem? How can that be?
#10
The UK Government should seize them all, bulldoze them, and prohibit the practice of Islam in Britain the same way it prohibits the practice of Thuggee. The message to Muslims should be: "We've had enough of you murdering, seditious bastards. If you want to openly practice your death cult, do it elsewhere--like back in the hellholes your ancestors came from."
Posted by: mac ||
05/13/2006 18:38 Comments ||
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The Afghan pilot forced to fly a hijacked aircraft from Kabul to London has condemned a British court's decision to allow the hijackers to live in luxury in England.
The Afghan pilot forced to fly a hijacked aircraft from Kabul to London yesterday angrily condemned a British court's decision to allow the hijackers to live in luxury in England while he lives in poverty and fear in Afghanistan.
Medhi Syedi, who was threatened with death unless he flew to Stansted airport and who was tortured by the Taliban on his return to Afghanistan, said that the court's decision last week was "disgraceful".
The immigration court ruled that the nine hijackers - who threatened to shoot all 187 passengers on the Ariana Airlines Boeing 727 in February 2000 - could stay in Britain "on human rights grounds" because it would be unsafe for them to return to Afghanistan.
The decision gave the hijackers, whose plea for asylum had been rejected, the right to continue living indefinitely with their extended families in rent-free homes in west London and claiming benefits, as they have for the past four years. The case is estimated to have cost the British taxpayer £37 million so far.
Mr Syedi, by contrast, lives with his family in a house in Kabul that has no electricity or running water and is guarded by armed militia at his own expense. He told The Sunday Telegraph: "It seems human rights are only enforced for hijackers. All of the hijackers should be sent back here. They are not worthy to stay in the United Kingdom.
"The British Government is supporting these hijackers. Where is the justice in that? These men say they are afraid to return because of the Taliban. I say they were Taliban themselves. Otherwise how would they have been able to get their ammunition and explosives on to the plane?"
Mr Syedi, 58, recalled how one of the hijackers, Taimur Shah, pointed an AK47 at him and told him that he would shoot him if he did not alter his course and land at Stansted airport in Essex.
Mr Syedi, who still works as a pilot for Ariana, was astounded at the £37 million cost of the case. "It is outrageous, these men are criminals," he said. "There are three million starving people in this country who could have benefited from a sum like that."
Unlike the hijackers, who brought their extended families on board the aircraft, Mr Syedi did not seek asylum in Britain as his wife and children were in Kabul. "For four days we were on that aircraft, with no food. Then, when I returned to Kabul the Taliban threw me in jail and beat me every day with cables.
"They seized both my houses - together they were worth $70,000 [£37,000]. In all they made me pay $200,000 [£107,000] to get out of jail."
Mr Syedi, a pilot for 40 years, still has aching legs from the beatings and his hands and back are criss-crossed with livid red scars. "The nerves in my legs have been permanently damaged," he explained. "The pain - and the memories of the hijacking - keep me awake at night."
He still needs medical treatment for his injuries but there is a severe shortage of experienced doctors and medicines in Kabul.
Two years ago he applied to the British embassy in Pakistan for a visa to travel to England for surgery but was turned down. He said: "I called them every day for weeks and eventually a man said to me, 'Stop calling, no one here wants to talk to you'.
"I helped save the lives of those passengers yet no one even thanked me. The British would not even help me to come to England for medical treatment yet they lavish £37 million on the nine terrorists who hijacked an aircraft and threatened to kill all on board. Is that justice?
"My life here is difficult and it is dangerous. Yet these men are given a luxurious life. There is, I have decided, no justice in Britain."
The nine hijackers captured the aircraft as it stood on Kabul runway in February 2000.
Armed with Kalashnikovs, grenades and knives, they said that they had been terrorised by the Taliban and wanted to seek asylum in Britain. They held the pilot and passengers hostage for four days at Stansted, at one stage holding guns to the passengers' heads and threatening to kill them.
All nine eventually surrendered to SAS marksmen and were jailed for five years in January 2002 for hijacking, possessing guns and explosives, and false imprisonment.
Fifteen months later, however, the Court of Appeal ruled that their convictions were unsafe because of an error of law in the judge's summing up, and all were released. The Home Office moved to have them deported, but last Tuesday the Immigration Appellate Authority decreed that they could stay.
The Home Office has indicated that it will appeal against the decision - which will further increase the cost to the taxpayer.
The bill for the hijack includes £2.5 million for the four-day police operation, £135,000 for the SAS marksmen, £18,000 for the £200-a-night rooms and food for the hijack victims in an airport hotel, £100,000 for hotel costs during the initial two-month inquiry, £300,000 for the initial immigration inquiry into asylum applications, £30 million for two Old Bailey trials, including 27 barristers and seven translators, £1 million for appeals against conviction, £120,000 for housing, benefits and education for the nine hijackers and £2.5 million for asylum appeals.
Of the people on the aircraft, 89 returned voluntarily to Afghanistan and 22, including 13 dependants, have been granted asylum. A further 25 are awaiting the outcome of appeals. The Government, including Jack Straw, then Home Secretary, had pledged to send all those involved back.
In the past few weeks the hijackers and their families have moved to secret addresses in west London. Neighbours at their former homes, however, said that the families had a succession of visitors and did not stint on entertaining.
"Because they are accustomed to warmer climes they would keep the central heating on full, even during the summer," one said. "They had expensive music and entertainment systems.
"They loved videos and DVDs. Their favourite was Potato Head Kids, an animated film. They loved it, you could hear it blaring out of the house at all hours of the day and night."
Another said that the families were very particular about their food, buying only organic produce. "They must have spent a fortune on groceries," she said. "Everything was organic and they would sometimes send taxis to collect it."
#2
And there's idiotarian the English law that gave the same rights to burglars as houseowners. You'll be severely dealth with if you hurt armed burglars (who also outnumber you) with "excessive force" in self defense. You're advised to do nothing.
Since blind Blunkett's time an attempt to impose an anti-heresy/offense law in protection of muzzies' special rights is still been mooted.
#3
When a nation's administration of laws are so onerous a burden on it's own law abiding citizens it jepordises the very law itself.
It would be quite understandable if British citizens increasely disobey the law so as to protect themselves from the inequity or revolted against them altogether.
Something btw us former colonists are more familiar with and likely to do.
Radical American thinker and MIT professor Noam Chomsky met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut today and branded the U.S. a terrorist state.
"I think that Nasrallah has a reasoned argument and a persuasive argument that they (the weapons) should be in the hands of Hizbollah as a deterrent to potential aggression and there is plenty of background and reasons for that. So, I think his position, if I am reporting it correctly, and it seems to be a reasonable position, is that until there is a general political settlement in the region and the threat of aggression and violence is reduced or eliminated, there has to be a deterrent. The Lebanese army cannot be a deterrent."
MORE:
"There is a meaning to the word terrorist, in fact you can read a definition of term terrorist is the U.S. code of laws. It gives a very clear, precise, adequate definition of the word terrorist. have been writing about terrorism for 25 years always using the official U.S. definition [of the word "terrorist"], but that definition is un-usable, and the reason is that when you use that definition it turns out, not surprisingly, that the U.S is one of the leading terrorist states, and the other states become terrorist or non-terrorist depending on how they are relating to U.S. goals."
MORE:
"The regional superpower Israel is threatening to attack it [Iran], the U.S. is threatening to attack it. These threats alone are outright violations international law and of the U.N. charter. Iran is in difficulty. Iran has been trying for some years to negotiate settlement but the U.S. just refuses."
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
05/13/2006 12:05 Comments ||
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#2
Bullet. Head.
But that woudl be too merciful. Chimpsky is an academic who things his works in Linguistics makes him an expert on anything else. He's bascially an irrational font of self-hatred, a defeated marxist who is angry at the world.
I feel sorry for him - he is going to be so surprised when he gets to hell. And the hooror that he will face on his deathbed when he looks back at what a bitter wasteland his life is.
#4
Do the leaders of MIT have any idea of just how much Chomsky has debased the image of an institution that the engineering dept took generations to build?
Posted by: ed ||
05/13/2006 13:50 Comments ||
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#5
He must be running for Attorney General in a Democrat primary somewhere.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/13/2006 13:56 Comments ||
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#6
Chimpsky is an academic who things his works in Linguistics makes him an expert on anything else.
There is more and more voices in the field of linguistics that seem to suggest that the whole expert Gnome Chimpsky edifice in Linguistics is build from a pile of turds. As above, so below.
#7
He is worshiped as a god in the US North East, Canada and around the world but is a fool and an antisimite waste of skin.
MIT is a crap school, any place that would keep this poision on hand and spewing and writing his hate for so long is a crap school. They may have been great at one time but the minds of those from MIT that I have encountered are ruined by the Leftist Philosophies they endorse and parrot.
I have a special place in mind for this commie self hating turd Chumpsky.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/13/2006 15:51 Comments ||
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#8
2X4, Chomsky was dead wrong 40 odd years ago about universal grammars and he has been in denial about it ever since.
The weird thing is he has this cult following who take all the accumulating evidence he was completely wrong and use it to try and argue Chomsky was right.
#9
Were I not aware of the evidence, I would expect to find something like Chomsky's universal grammar and it's interesting we don't. It indicates language is a far more recent development than is generally believed.
#10
#4, MIT has been strongly left-wing for at least a generation.
Phil_b, you're half right. The evidence is that Chomsky was wrong about generative grammar. But that does not in the least indicate that language is recent.
(Sorry for the pendantic response but language, meaning and computational understanding of natural human language by intelligent software agents is my doctoral research area.)
#11
lotp, I beg to differ. The capability for language is genetic. Whilst we don't understand the mechanisms that result in how language is expressed, it doesn't alter the fact that it is genetic and all normal human's share the same general capability.
Given we are all descended from the same small pool of common ancestors 80K years ago. Were language as we know it today well developed at that stage I would expect the form of language such as its grammar to be in part hardwired into our genes (Thats what evolution does. It progressive and incrementally improves functions and makes them more efficient through genetic changes) and we all share those genes. The grammar aspect of language clearly isn't hardwired into our genes, which strongly indicates language with grammar is recent - a few tens of thousands of years at most.
#12
Given we are all descended from the same small pool of common ancestors 80K years ago. Were language as we know it today well developed at that stage I would expect the form of language such as its grammar to be in part hardwired into our genes
This discursion is dreadfully off topic, but ... you're confusing the capability for language with specific linguistic mechanisms.
Just to start with, "capability for language" means a lot of different things to different researchers ... by some definitions, birds and most mammals have a genetic capability for language, including syntax, individual names and shared (and evolving) semantic structures.
Those capabilities rather pre-date the genetic bottleneck in Homo Sapiens that resulted from the massive Toba volcanic eruption 75,000 years ago .... and we share the same brain structures that enable those abilities in other animals. What we've evolved in addition -- and this appears also to predate the bottleneck -- is a frontal cortex that goes beyond associative learning and is able to manipulate 2nd order symbols, i.e. the ability to talk about speech, to think about thinking.
Both associative reasoning (of the sort that predominates in mammals other than humans) and symbolic deductive reasoning are used in artificial intelligence (whether embodied in i.e. robots or in the form of intelligent agents residing elsewhere). There's a huge and hot and ongoing debate / contest within the AI community as to which approach is more powerful for what kinds of problems -- including computational processing of natural human language.
Okay ... we've diverted this thread enough. I could write a whole lot more on the topic ... and am doing so, in other venues. But I'll spare the good Rantburgers a longer dissertation on the topic ..... ;-)
NBCs medical drama ER included more anti-war speeches last night, as the shows writers killed off a character who used to work as a doctor at the Chicago hospital but has lately been serving as a National Guard medical officer in Iraq. One doctor railed against how the "whole war smell[s]...of right-wing cronyism," while another complained the U.S. was spending "$6 billion a month in a war all the way across the world to kill a few more of the other kids who actually get to make it to their teens!"
Earlier this season, "Dr. Neela Rosgotra" railed against the war in a March 16 episode, as Brent Baker noted in an earlier post on NewsBusters. Her character had married "Dr. Michael Gallant" after Gallant had returned from his first tour of duty in Iraq.
Last night, the truck carrying Gallant and several other soldiers was blown up by a roadside bomb during the first few moments of the show, right after he tried in vain to save a soldier shot in an insurgent ambush. That left the rest of the show for the other characters to complain about the war as they learned of their friends death.
The first big speech came after "U.S. Army Captain Evans" and an army chaplain, "Father Morris," tracked Dr. Rosgotra down at the hospital to tell her that her husband was dead. Captain Evans was later confronted by one of other staffers, "Dr. Victor Clemente," who demanded to know "Hey, was it friendly fire?"
Captain Evans seemed perplexed: "Sir?"
Clemente then began his diatribe: "I mean, how do we know what really happened over there, huh? I mean, doesnt this whole war smell to you a little bit of right-wing cronyism, what with the oil and the multi-billion dollar re-building contracts, huh?"
He began yelling at the bewildered officer: "I mean, do you know what the real psychological warfare is, my friend you coming in here, feeding us a bunch of lies to placate the masses, okay. Tell me about the deficit! Tell me why we had to go over there and kill everybody for democracy! Is that what were doing? Is that what were doing?"
At that point, another doctor and a nurse led Clemente away. As the show progressed, it became obvious that Clemente was having psychological problems or a problem with drug addiction, with the character at one point jumping onto the hood of a taxi cab, ripping off his lab coat and shirt, kicking in the taxis windshield and urinating onto the vehicle.
But the addled Clemente wasnt the only anti-war spokesman. Later in the show, "Dr. Gregory Pratt," who was a friendly competitor to Gallant when they worked together, erupted after dealing with two abused children. The attending physician, "Dr. Luka Kovak," heard Pratt yelling at a medical student. Kovac interrupted: "Hey, whats going on?"
An upset Pratt replied: "Ive got a kid with a busted collarbone. Hes got signs of old rib and humerus fractures, and hes the lucky one. His little brother is in the room next to him in a coma."
Kovac tried to calm him down, asking: "Did you call social services?"
Pratt said nothing, but the med student replied, "Yeah, theyre coming."
Dr. Pratt then launched into his blame America speech: "You know, weve got CTs, MRIs, PET scans, Doppler 4D, ultrasounds, and we still cant save one kid from getting his brains beaten out. Thats right he had to kill his old man because there was nobody else there to help him. I guess that would be too much to ask."
"I mean, because its much better that we spend what is it now? $6 billion a month in a war all the way across the world to kill a few more of the other kids who actually get to make it to their teens!"
Kovac inquired: "Did you tell the police?"
Pratt was disgusted: "What, so they could arrest him? Yeah, because thats the one thing we do well in this country, isnt it? Weve got prison down to a science. Prison and war." He then stalked off.
After Pratt left, Kovac explained to the med student: "He and Dr. Gallant were friends."
It is, of course, an election year. Any guesses as to how much a pair of 60-second anti-war spots on NBC (in primetime) would cost a liberal activist group trying to cultivate public anxiety about the war? That's one way to calculate the value of ER's gift to anti-war activists. Drug addicts and hysterics. Well, at least they picked appropriate spokesman from the anti-war movement.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/13/2006 0:32 Comments ||
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#2
i hate hollyweird, what a bunch of lost in the fog losers. why cant allen strike with a quake right down rodeo and scum blvd? seems to do it regurlary with the nitwits in iran
#3
I haven't watched ER in a while, but I've watched the past three weeks, as they sent Dr. Pratt to Sudan on a humanitarian mission. Last week he almost got killed by a Janjaweed bully, and he had to grab a gun and shoot the Janjaweed dead. He also got to watch the disgusted refugees bludgeon a suspected Janjaweed informant to death, saw the victims of the rapes, saw the orphans.
Of course, he was too traumatized to even mention it back in Chicago this week.
Also, Neela was downright rude to the military casualty unit, (an officer and a really really young Catholic priest), who both looked fairly Aryan with blond hair, blue eyes, and very sharp cheekbones. (Neela is from India and her husband was black). Next week we'll get to attend his funeral...
#4
Sniff sniff, its PEARL HARBOR, i.e. the Failed/Angry Left's declaration of war, all over again. Pre-PH America was young, dumb, and Socialist but just didnt know until FDR weirdly and mysteriously refused to trade with the peace-minded, econ help-less Japanese which of course led to PH ergo America started WW2. Just becuz a Japanese mini-sub was on its attack mission in Hawaiian = International? waters doesn't mean the big meaney, prob Repub? Captain of the USS WARD had to fire on and sink him in violation of International laws. And in the film footage those are AMERICAN DIVE-BOMBERS/FIGHTERS MADE TO LOOK LIKE JAPANESE AIR ATTACKING US BATTLESHIPS AND KILLING US SERVICEMEN, ergo America wiped out ist own Battleships and airfields - t'aint the Japs. at all. The USS Oklahoma capsized the wrong way + the rear battle Mast/Bridge of the USS Arizona is actually for the USS West Virginia/Tennessee, thereby proving the Japs didn't bomb PH like America never went to the Moon let alone walked on the Moon!?
#7
Hollyweird doesn't make TV shows, they make movies. Please make that distinction, as not doing it makes us look like we don't know what we're talking about.
At Our Lady of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church in Corona, Queens, Mary, the mother of God, weeps at the feet of her son in the mural over the altar. Yesterday, Maria, the mother of Sgt. Jose Gomez of the United States Army, wept from her seat in the first pew. May God grant you solace in the pain of your loss, Ms Gomez.
"You, more than anyone, understand the pain of the mother of Christ," the Rev. Thomas Healy said in Spanish to Maria Gomez, whose slender shoulders slumped into the Army officer seated to her right as her husband, Felix Jimenez, wrapped an arm around her. "We are all with you in your pain." Look at the picture, and you'll see a Sergeant First Class.
But she was really alone and she seemed to know it, weeping and staring blankly at her son's coffin in the center aisle. She had brought him to the United States from the Dominican Republic when he was 3. Twenty years later, on April 20, he was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, during a second tour of duty there.
His death came 31 months after his fiancée, Analaura Esparza-Gutierrez, 21, an Army private from Houston, was also killed by a roadside bombing in Tikrit, Iraq. Three springs ago, Sergeant Gomez had proposed to her. Now both were gone.
Yesterday, church and state rose up, each in its ritualistic glory, to honor the brief life and sudden death of Sergeant Gomez. Father Healy tenderly anointed his coffin with incense, and gave the young man his final blessings. The ladies of Corona some in veils filled the pews. Army officers flanked the right side of the church, and a two-star general presented Mrs. Gomez with the purple star and bronze star that President Bush had authorized her son to receive. Doesn't someone who has made the ultimate sacrifice deserve decent editing, even from the New York Times? How low can they go?
Don't ask ... it's lower than we can imagine, unfortunately.
His work as an informant began after Oregon FBI agents first contacted him in connection with another criminal investigation.
The foreign-born man was not arrested and began cooperating with a federal investigation into potential terrorist-related activities by other Muslims. His work led to arrests and prosecutions.
That's the scenario played out not only in Lodi last year, but in 2002 in the FBI's investigation into the "Portland Seven," a group of Taliban sympathizers. And it's similar to terrorism investigations throughout the United States since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Naseem Khan, the Pakistani-born informant who infiltrated Lodi's Muslim community, is again expected to be a key witness in the government's second trial of Umer Hayat, a 48-year-old mobile ice cream vendor accused of lying to the FBI about his alleged firsthand knowledge of Pakistani terrorist training camps.
Khan, 32, previously testified that his conversations about Hamid Hayat's "training" referred to his attendance at a terrorist camp. Umer Hayat's defense team argued the reference applied to religious education.
Hayat's first trial ended last month in a hung jury that was split on the two counts. Federal prosecutors announced May 5 they would retry the case, with jury selection scheduled to start June 5. Hayat's son, 23-year-old Hamid Hayat, was convicted April 25 by a different jury that decided he received terrorist training and lied about it.
Oliver "Buck" Revell, a former associate deputy director of the FBI, said informants are often necessary to stop potential terrorists or their friends from aiding America's enemies. Their use as a law enforcement tool grew in the 1950s, he said.
"The use of informants is nothing new," Revell said. "It's just that in the terrorism area, people aren't used to prosecutions absent a violent act, so now the prosecutions are based before the act, before they do anything violent."
Federal officials acknowledge that there were no impending attacks when terrorism-related arrests were made in Lodi; Toledo, Ohio; and Detroit.
Revell said arrests have other functions, though. "It's definitely intended to be a deterrent to specific acts and specific behaviors," Revell said. "If you choose to participate in a criminal enterprise, and if you lie or take some sort of material action that aids and abets, then you've violated the law."
But often, the suspects are arrested on "tenuous charges" based on an informant's reports and conversations, according to Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond, Virginia, law professor who studies terrorism cases.
He said Muslim informants often aren't given specific targets but instead are asked to look for possible suspects. In the Hayats' case, he said the fact Khan was paid roughly $230,000 in wages and expenses raises suspicions about informants' motives.
"You have to wonder when they get $250,000 and a car," Tobias said.
James J. Wedick, a retired FBI agent who worked with the Hayats' defense team, said other veteran FBI agents consider many of the terrorism cases weak. Wedick said informants are taking advantage of many Muslim immigrants' sympathy for other Muslim nations.
"Anybody who joins the bureau for a good case wouldn't work any of these cases for all the tea in China," Wedick said. "I would rather chase a white-collar crook or some violent guy, because there's plenty of them out there, rather than make up a case on these folks.
"They've gone into the Muslim community and found a level of hate there, and instead of trying to understand it,
because it's all about understanding and visualizing whirled peas ...
they've paid some hired gun who has a reason to find someone. And he will get that one person."
Muslims who attended the Hayats' trials said the FBI is actively recruiting other Muslims to look for other potential homegrown or immigrant terrorists.
The FBI's use of Khan in Lodi now has the city's Muslims suspicious of any newcomers. Revell said that's similar to the reaction many Italian-Americans had after the FBI infiltrated the mafia in the 1960s.
"It's an unfortunate aspect, but it's mandatory to penetrate organizations like al-Qaida or the Muslim Brotherhood," Revell said. "In order to do that, they have to send people in who can listen, overhear and report."
Man accused of driving into campus hotspot says he was justified A man charged with trying to kill students at UNC Chapel Hill by driving through a popular campus gathering spot says in a series of letters that he does not deserve punishment.
Mohammed Taheri-azar said in letters answering three-dozen questions from a reporter at the university's student newspaper that he won't plead guilty, as he previously planned, because his attack was justified and he doesn't deserve punishment.
"I aimed to exact casualties from an enemy responsible for thousands of casualties among Allah's followers," Taheri-azar wrote to the Daily Tar Heel.
Taheri-azar is accused of driving a Jeep Cherokee into a crowd of students March 3 at the university and hitting nine people. None had life-threatening injuries.
He has told investigators and reporters he wanted to avenge the deaths of Muslims caused by the U.S. around the world.
Taheri-azar said he has cut himself off from his family in the past year, but his parents visited him several times in Raleigh's Central Prison for three weeks after the attack. He's told them to quit coming, he said.
He said he was born in Iran and has lived in the United States since he was 2. He lived in Charlotte and attended South Mecklenburg High School. His mother is a secretary and interpreter in Afghanistan for a U.S. contractor, he said.
#1
He did it for religious reasons? Then it's ok. First amendment. Emanations, penumbras, suicide pact that sort of thing.
One, perhaps the only, upside of trying these bozos in the civilian court system is that the general population gets to see that they really are that evil.
#3
This young man is a fine ambassador for the muslim people.
A simple effective holding solution is to allow only apostates of islam into the USA from henceforth but the poison of the political correct culture ha seeped in too much and your Administration has not such will.
The United States has again refused the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross (ICRTC) access to terrorism suspects held in secret detention centres, the humanitarian agency said on Friday. The overnight statement was issued after talks in Washington between ICRTC President Jakob Kellenberger and senior officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Mr Kellenberger deplored the fact that the US authorities had not moved closer to granting the ICRTC access to persons held in undisclosed locations, the Geneva-based agency said. Kellenberger said: No matter how legitimate the grounds for detention, there exists no right to conceal a persons whereabouts or to deny that he or she is being detained. The former senior Swiss diplomat said that the ICRTC would continue to seek access to such people as a matter of priority.
The main objective of his annual visit this week was for the ICRTC to be granted access to all persons held by the US in the context of the fight against terrorism, an issue he first raised with the US government over two years ago, the agency said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
If they are not warriors of a legal nation rather terrorists then the ICRC has no business worrying about those non-state actors. They should just STFU!
#3
Is this the same ICRC which kicked the Israeli version out of its membership but keeps in the Palestinian one which regularly has used Red Crescent marked vehicles and facilities to move terrorists and their weapons around?
#4
Just how do they know we have the people they alledge that we do?
Conversation:
ICRC: "We want to look at the holding cells as SooperSekrit Base, you have Hadji Jihadi there and are holding him in secret"
US Intel: (Makes quick phone call) "Sure, come inspect the facility. We dont have a prisoner of war there by that name."
ICRC: "You better be treating him well and stop lying, you are holding him, a leaker in your CIA said you have him!"
US Intel: "OK I'll check on a person by that name, please wait" (goes into other room with a secure phone).
(US Intel comes back into the room an hour later)
US Intel: About Mr Hadji Jihadi? We found him. He left there by and we dropped him off at his home town, with all the rights and treatment he was due under the rules of the original Geneva Convention. We can take you to him now, but you're going to need this. (Hand the ICRC a spatula). You see, he was a convicted illegal combatant and had no rights, so we dropped him off at his village from 30,000 ft out of the back of a C-17. Sans parachute. Is there anyone else you wish to discuss?
US Intel motions for an assistant to escort the ICRC person out once they have finished fainting.
Nepal's reclusive Maoist leader Prachanda is likely to lead rebel peace talks with the government to end a deadly decade-long insurgency, a top guerrilla chief said on Friday. "There's a high possibility our chairman, Prachanda, will head our team," Matrika Yadhav, former rebel commander for the central Terai region said. But other senior rebels may hold preliminary talks before Prachanda becomes personally involved, said Yadhav, who was freed from jail Thursday after the government dropped murder charges against him.
Local media reported earlier this week that the rebels had already chosen a three-member negotiating team but the names did not include Prachanda, a former school teacher whose name means 'fierce one.' The reports said Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who led an earlier failed round of peace discussions with the government, would head the talks, accompanied by two central committee members. Mahara "may be a member of the team as he's our spokesman but it's not true he will lead the team,' said Yadhav.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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Preliminary investigations into the death of Pakistani student Amir Cheema in Germany show that he committed suicide, German Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Gunter Mulack told a press conference on Friday.
"You were hoping, though, weren't you?"
"No, actually we were counting on it. Now we'll have to figure out how to stand down the rent-a-mob and see if Flammable German Flags 'R' Us has a bulk goods return policy. They're in trouble if they charge us a restocking fee, by Allan..."
Cheema was found dead on May 3 in pre-trial confinement in Germany. Dr Mulack said that results of the autopsy conducted on Wednesday (May 10) confirmed that "no traces of physical torture or external influence including the use of chemicals were found on Cheema's body". He said that "internationally renowned director of the Berlin Institute of Forensic and Social Medicine carried out the autopsy in the presence of two Pakistani officials, who also inspected the prison cell". He said, however, that the final autopsy report would be received within the next few days and would be conveyed to Pakistan. Another German Embassy official said that Berlin had been silent on the death because it was "uncommon and against the German traditions to speak on an issue which is under investigation".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Won't change Pakistan's islamo nuts from insisting he was tortured to death and is a true martyr hero. Oh brave cheetah of islam. let the riots begin.
Is the United States behind efforts to break Iraq into tiny pieces, and are there Iraqi officials helping them do it? According to this op-ed article from Iraq's Arabic-language Azzaman newspaper, many in the country believe the fix is in on splitting the country apart, the only question being whether there will be 3 states, 10 states, 50 states ...
#1
Tip to Iraqis: If the our democrats are for it, it's sure to get millions of people killed. If they are calling for it - it means that someone thinks there is a pot of money that can be created in the name of motherhood and apple pie from which they can tap into and to siphon off the top.
Actually a positive development in principle, but will the remaining funds find their way to the work sites, or will they just go to different politically-connected corporate executives? Or am I too cynical?
Partial termination of Parsons Global Services, Inc., hospital contract announced
BAGHDAD, Iraq The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division, announced that the Joint Contracting Command-Iraq and Afghanistan partially terminated the contract with design build contractor Parsons Global Services, Inc., due to insufficient progress and associated escalating costs which are expected to exceed available funding for the renovation of eight remaining hospital projects across Iraq. The renovation effort for these eight remaining hospitals will be completed with current program funds and construction continues uninterrupted as the contracts were immediately re-awarded by JCC-I/A directly to the onsite Iraqi firms as fixed-price contracts.
The eight hospital renovations will continue without interruption and be completed by Iraqi contractors with current program funds under the supervision of the U.S. Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division. Iraqi companies continue to demonstrate the willingness and capability to take on much of this type of work, said Col. Joseph Phillips, GRD Chief, Public Affairs Office. We are working with many outstanding Iraqi contractors who want these contracts to help rebuild their country. In fact, we are executing more and more direct contracts with Iraqi companies across the infrastructure sectors we are working.
The remaining projects -- 70 percent -- are slated to be awarded by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and JCC-I/A to Iraqi-owned businesses. IRRF funding was appropriated by Congress to help jump start the rebuilding of Iraqs neglected infrastructure. Under Saddams three decades of rein, the nation spent little or nothing on repair, rehabilitation or new infrastructure construction. Thanks to the gift of the American people, IRRF reconstruction funds are being spent to repair and build capacity in: electricity; public works and water; oil; and facilities and transportation, Phillips said. From schools and police stations to water treatment plants and communications systems, GRD is working closely with our Iraqi partners to improve Iraqs infrastructure.
As of May 5, GRD has 3,699 total planned projects representing a construction cost of $6.19 billion. Nearly 3,500 projects have started ($5.21 billion), 764 are under construction at a construction cost of $2.56 billion, and a total of 2,732 have been completed at a construction cost of $2.65 billion.
Aljazeera reports that a small Shia Islamist party has said it is pulling out of talks on forming a new Iraqi government, complaining of US interference. The withdrawal of the Fadhila party on Friday, part of the predominantly Shia United Alliance bloc, may help to end a struggle over the important post of oil minister. A spokesman told Aljazeera that the party was withdrawing because it felt the selection of ministers was being dictated by personal interests, not national unity. "We will not return to the negotiating table, and we have announced our final position. We withdraw from the formation of the government, and we will stay in parliament to express the voice of the people," Sabah al-Saadi, a party spokesman, said on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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Bosnian Defense Minister Nikola Radovanovic on Friday admitted that quantities of Bosnian weapons were sold to Iraq in 2004 and 2005 but affirmed that these weapons were sold under legal commercial contracts and through US companies. Radovanovic made the remarks to KUNA, while commenting on reports by Amnesty International, which said that weapons from Former Yugoslavia States, including Bosnia were found on the Iraqi market.
The minister said the Bosnian authorities had sold the surplus of weapons it possessed, with the knowledge of NATO forces command in Bosnia. He noted that 200,000 Kalashnikovs and other machineguns and around one million ammunition pieces for these weapons were sold on the basis they would be sent to the Iraqi army. He pointed out that the United States has bought weapons and ammunitions from Bosnia and other East European countries which had Soviet-made weapons, to be sent to Iraq and other allied countries which had Soviet weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Two policemen were injured and 10 people were arrested Saturday in a demonstration protesting Israel's controversial separation barrier, police said.
Hundreds demonstrated in the Arab West Bank neighborhood of al-Ram north of Jerusalem. The police officers were injured when demonstrators hurled stones at them.
Police called the demonstration attended by both Israelis and Palestinians illegal.
The Israeli government began building the barrier in 2002, about two years after renewed violence erupted in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
The barrier separates Israel and Palestinian territories in the West Bank. In some areas, the barrier is a fence; in others, it takes the form of a concrete wall.
As it travels through al-Ram, it is a towering concrete wall running down the center of a major road.
Israel says it is building the barrier to thwart Palestinian terror attacks. The Palestinians say the barrier amounts to an illegal land grab of Palestinian territory because it does not match the line of Israel's border with the West Bank before the 1967 Six-Day War.
The barrier route is expected to figure heavily into what will be Israel's future border with the Palestinians along the West Bank.
HAMAS would be toppled quickly if it gave concessions to Israel because nobody has the right to give up even a grain of sand that belongs to Palestine, prominent Islamic scholar Dr Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi said in his sermon yesterday. However, he added that the Arabs and Muslims could have a truce with Israel.
Speaking on the fatwas (edicts) drawn up by the two-day Muslim Scholars Gathering for the Support of Palestine held at the Ritz Doha, Qaradawi called upon Muslims around the world to give Zakat and alms to the besieged Palestinians.
The Palestinian teachers who have not been paid for months deserve to receive Zakat, Qaradawi said, adding that Muslims should also donate amounts accruing from bank interest to the Palestinians.
He called upon the Arab and Muslim peoples to put pressure on their governments to refuse the orders of the US. We are not slaves to the Americans, we would like our rulers to say no to America, he said.
The scholar also stressed that Palestine is a property of Islam and not owned by a specific person. If the present generation retreated, the coming generations will still have the right to liberate Palestine, he said while stressing that if it were not for the political borders, millions of young people would flood into Palestine for jihad.
A Qatari youth told me that he and 30 others plan to leave for Palestine for jihad, Qaradawi said.
Regarding the banks blocking aid transfers to the Palestinian Authority, Qaradawi said such banks should be confronted and boycotted. People should go to these banks and tell their officials that they will withdraw their deposits.
He also exhorted Palestinians to stop internal fighting. Palestinians blood should be saved for the fight against Israel and fighting among Palestinians should be prohibited, he said while calling upon Muslims around the world to help them in their ordeal.
In the sermon at the Omar Ibn al-Khattab mosque in Khalifa city, al-Qaradawi said Islam has successfully overcome hard times, Muslims have ended the presence of the Crusaders who unleashed a bloodbath when they invaded Jerusalem.
Muslims also achieved a dual victory against the invading Tatars, one a military victory and other a moral one when they embraced Islam, he said, stressing that this was the first time in history that the invaders had embraced the religion of the invaded nation.
Regarding what he labelled as Zionist colonisation, Qaradawi pointed out that relations between Muslims and Jews had been good till the appearance of Zionism. Jews had lived among Muslims for centuries and been treated better than anywhere else. But they turned against Arabs and Muslims with the advent of Zionism and wanted to colonise Palestine as settlers.
The Jews mistakenly claim that Allah has given them Palestine as their homeland, which is untrue. Allah has never ordained that people should be deported from their homes to be replaced by strangers, Qaradawi said.
He said Islam will prevail because the darkest hour is that which comes before the dawn.
This islamofascist was invited to spread his islamo imperialistic hatred in Londonistan by Red Ken and also to speak in Kuala Lumpur, M'sia:
`Non-Malays living in the vicinity of mosques in Kuala Lumpur hear this call to arms against the non-Muslims through high-pitches
megaphones` http://mggpillai.com/print.php3?sid=2049&pda=0
- even some muslims themselves protested his message then.
TEHERAN - Iran will give 300 light and heavy vehicles to the cash-strapped Hamas-led Palestinian government for municipal use, state television reported on Friday. The report did not say how the vehicles will be delivered, as no goods can enter the Palestinian territories without passing through Israel, Irans arch-enemy.
And they're too big to fit through the tunnels.
The announcement also did not say whether the gift is part of Irans pledge of 50 million dollars in aid.
The gift was announced during a visit to Iran by Palestinian transport minister Ziad al-Zaza. By expanding economic and industrial ties with the Palestinian government we are aiming to alleviate the problems emanating from severe sanctions, Iranian Industry Minister Ali Reza Tahmasebi was quoted as saying. Iran plans to set up a vehicle assembly line, cement factory and other infrastructural industries for the Palestinians.
Because the Paleos are just pining to work on building their country, you know.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/13/2006 00:03 ||
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#1
They might fit through the tunnels if it is an after US strike delivery.
#2
"Iran awards Hamas government 300 IDF targets vehicles"
ROFL. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/13/2006 0:41 Comments ||
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#3
The report did not say how the vehicles will be delivered, as no goods can enter the Palestinian territories without passing through Israel, Irans arch-enemy.
Can't they bring them in from Egypt to Gaza?
The Iranians will sell them the spare parts, though.
BANGKOK, May 13 (Bernama) -- Acting Thai Prime Minister Chidchai Wannasathit said that the Thai government has no objection to the setting up of an Islamic party to represent Muslims and serve as a centre to gather opinions of the Thai Muslims in the southern provinces.
He told the local media that Muslims had the right to pursue their political goal as long as it comes under the legal framework.
"All Thais are free to be involved in politics, but whether the proposed party would be able to solve the southern conflict is yet to be seen," he said when asked to comment on a report that a group of Muslim leaders and academicians are planning to set up a Muslim Party to represent over four million Muslims in the country, especially in the restive southern provinces.
Chidchai also said that it was not true that the southern conflict was due to race problem, adding that the assumption does not work in Thailand as Thai people are able to live in harmony and care regardless of races.
The party, likely to be called Ruam Thai Muslim or United Thai Muslim, is expected to be launched within two months but may not be able to contest the coming general election which was ordered by the Constitution Court on Monday.
Highly-placed sources involved in the setting up of the party had told Bernama that several people were working on drafting the party's constitution and policies, adding that its formation could not be completed in time for the general election which was expected to be held in July.
On Monday, the Constitution Court declared the April 2 election as invalid and ordered a fresh poll.
They are hoping that the new party would be able to attract support from Muslims in view of the current political situation, especially in the Muslim-majority provinces in south like Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, Songkhla and Satun where there are 22 parliament seats.
In the 2005 general election, the ruling Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party could only win one seat while in the April 2 election that was boycotted by main opposition parties including the Democrat which are strong there, re-elections were ordered in many places after TRY candidates standing alone failed to secure the required 20 per cent votes to be elected.
More than 1,200 people have died in violence in the southern provinces. Insurgency in the provinces erupted again in January, 2004, after decades long silence by militants fighting for independence from the central government.
Officially, there are four million Muslims in the 64-million country, of which 82 per cent are living in the south while large Muslim population are also living in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
Will Iran 'back away from the cliff's edge' in its confrontation with the United States? This op-ed article from China's State-controlled Beijing News warns Iran that so far, it's gamble with the U.S. over its nuclear program may have worked, but, 'In the long run, actions taken by a weak country that merely looks strong are not always going to work.'
#1
The U.S., as the world's sole superpower, has followed its own global strategy since the end of World War II - and with few exceptions, it has never flinched when a strategic benefit was at stake.
An interesting perception by a Chinese author writing for a Chinese audience.
#3
Somehow, I don't think this is representative of the Chinese perception of this issue. With large investments in Iran, China has stymied our attempts to contain the situation diplomatically and even encouraged Iran through trade deals and arms sales.
#4
If the ChiComs know one thing, it's propaganda for U.S. consumption.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/13/2006 12:57 Comments ||
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good graphic in the story for you to grab, Fred
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/13/2006 13:06 Comments ||
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#6
Perhaps it is exactly because of those investments, trade deals and arms sales that China wants to talk Iran into backing away from the brink. The Iraq thing hasn't worked out too well for the Oil for Food recipients.
KUWAIT CITY - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said in Kuwait Friday his country accepted in principle the idea of allowing its neighbour Lebanon to open an embassy in Damascus. This matter is acceptable in principle, Muallem told a press conference in response to a question whether Damascus was prepared to accept a Lebanese diplomatic mission.
This will happen at an appropriate time and circumstances, the Syrian minister said after talks with his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Mohammad Al Sabah.
France, the United States and Britain on Friday formally submitted a draft resolution in the United Nations Security Council urging the establishment of formal diplomatic ties between Lebanon and Syria and a demarcation of their common border. Syria and Lebanon have never exchanged ambassadors since their independence.
Muallem however criticised the latest UN draft resolution, saying it could obstruct efforts underway to normalise relations between the two countries. We believe that the issue of relations between the two sisterly nations, Syria and Lebanon, should not be internationalized, he said.
"We're just like sisters, why, there's not a difference between us!"
What the UN Security Council intends to do could obstruct efforts underway to purify the atmosphere between Syria and Lebanon. The new draft, which Western powers hope to see adopted in the coming week, also calls on Damascus to take measures to prevent further movements of arms into Lebanese territory in line with previous UN resolutions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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The European Union will insist on Monday that Iran suspend all uranium enrichment despite Tehrans demand that some be allowed for research goals, according to a draft declaration obtained by Reuters on Friday. The EU Council calls on the Iranian authorities to cooperate fully with the IAEA, suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, said the declaration drafted for EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday.
Tehran said on Thursday that a proposal being drawn up by European states on its nuclear programme must allow Iran to enrich uranium for atomic research and development purposes. Diplomats said the EU3 states of Britain, France and Germany could meet on the margins of the Brussels talks to discuss a new package of incentives and sanctions designed to lure Iran back to the negotiating table.
The foreign ministers declaration gave no details of that package but stated, The EU would be prepared to support Irans development of a safe, sustainable and proliferation-proof civilian nuclear programme if international concerns were fully addressed and confidence in Irans intentions established. The United States said on Thursday that it would not hold direct contacts with Iran and insisted that sanctions must be part of a new carrots-and-sticks offer being drawn up by major powers to curb Irans nuclear activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh, dear!
The dreaded tranzi Strongly Worded Letter.™
Whatever will Iran do?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/13/2006 0:34 Comments ||
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#2
MadMoud has already rejected any attempts by the West or anyone to limit Iran's attempt to enrich uranium - the best the West will likely get is Iran halting at a higher-than-neeeded/admitted level of uranium enrichment dual-usable for both domestic energy + suffic explosive yield-CEP's for nuke devices.
#3
Expect heavy revision over the weekend. By Monday the final draft will read, "We demand that Iran develop no more than 500 fission and 300 fusion weapons over the next 10 years...."
A new PLO representative presented his credentials to Lebanese President Emile Lahoud yesterday, the president's office said, becoming the Palestinian organization's first envoy to the country in 13 years. Abbas Zaki replaces Shafiq Al-Hout, who resigned from the mainstream Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993 in protest over the Oslo peace accord with Israel. Lahoud's office said in a statement that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas empowered Zaki to lead talks between Palestinian factions in Lebanon and the Beirut government. No date has been set for the talks, which will tackle Palestinian pleas to improve the living conditions of refugees in 12 squalid camps, and Lebanon's demands to disarm pro-Syrian factions based outside the camps. PLO's office in Beirut was shut down in 1982 after the Israeli invasion and the subsequent evacuation of Palestinian politicians from Lebanon.
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Syria has rejected televised confessions by two Hamas activists arrested in Jordan who said they had received military training in Syria. "I completely deny the authenticity of this," Walid al-Mualem, Syria's foreign minister, told a news conference in Kuwait on Friday when asked about the militants' confessions aired on Jordanian state television on Thursday. "We care for Jordan and ties are constructive between Syria and Jordan," Mualem added.
The exiled leadership of Hamas is based in Syria. Jordan said on Wednesday that it had arrested 20 Hamas activists last month who were part of a plot to stage attacks in the kingdom. On Thursday, two of the suspects said on Jordanian television that they were recruited by operatives from the Palestinian militant group's Damascus-based leadership. The television showed rocket launchers that it said were part of an uncovered Hamas arms caches. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the confessions. Independent lawyers and rights groups say many confessions by political detainees are extracted under duress.
Hamas has repeatedly denied accusations that its members are involved in arms smuggling to Jordan from Syria and refuses to join a committee set up by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to investigate the case with Jordanian officials.
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USM professor shares personal insights into an often misunderstood religion and culture
BRUNSWICK Seventh-graders at Brunswick Junior High School saw their textbooks spring to life Thursday when University of Southern Maine professor Mahmud Faksh talked about the religion of Islam and the importance of understanding it.
Social studies teacher Felicity Beede invited Faksh to supplement her classes' annual study of the Byzantine and Muslim empires. After looking for someone to give a firsthand account, Beede heard of Faksh from another USM faculty member.
"I enjoy teaching this unit, but I think that Islam and Muslims are often misunderstood by our culture, so hearing about Islam from an expert, an 'insider,' is a powerfully positive thing for these students and me," she said.
Faksh, originally from Aleppo, Syria, said he has been teaching in Maine for more than 20 years but he still hasn't traded his soft Arabic accent for a rougher Maine one.
"We were all really hoping he would have a cool accent," Jacklynn Reynolds said afterwards.
While his accent doubtlessly caught his young audience's attention, the content of his presentation held it during his hour-long presentation. Faksh started by outlining Islam's historical relationship to three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
"All these are a sequence like a chain," he said, noting that the three religions all had Abraham in common.
Despite Islam's well-known roots, Faksh said as recently as 30 years ago, Westerners still pegged Islam as "an exotic" religion. But now, he said, with 6 million adherents in the United States alone, Islam is one of the fastest-growing religions worldwide.
"You will find some of your neighbors, if not now then in the future, will be Muslim," he said.
He defined the terms "Muslim," "Islam," "Quran," which are central to the Muslim faith as well as terms like "Mohammedan," which Westerners began to call Muslims in the Middle Ages. Muslims view the latter term as derogatory.
Faksh also explained the five major pillars of Islam, listing them as faith, prayer, fasting, tithes and pilgrimage, and the religion's three major institutions of religious law, the prophet Mohammed's succession and struggle for God's sake, or jihad.
Students then asked questions such as "Does everybody fast during Ramadan?" and "Are there more sects besides Shiites and Sunnis?" and "What if you're at work when it's time to pray?"
Faksh answered all of them, not venturing into his personal beliefs but emphasizing the importance of learning about other religions.
"Nowadays, you'll find all across the world that God has come back to a prominent place in public and private life," he said. "If you don't know anything about the other person, how in the heck are you going to negotiate?"
While Beede's students already knew much about Islam before Faksh's talk, some came away with an even better understanding of the religion. Seventh-grader Audrey Cross said she was surprised to learn Islam was a fast-growing religion and that Indonesia rather than an Arab country held the largest Muslim population.
"I liked the fact that he was not opposed to other religions," classmate Tabbi Waite said of the guest speaker.
"They were terrific," Beede said of her students after the talk. "I was very proud of their comportment, their respect and openness, their intelligent questions, their ability to serve as ambassadors for our school, our town, indeed our nation."
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.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, who has just returned to Geneva from a two-week trip to Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, has said there is no hope for peace in Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region until the fighting factions are disarmed and demobilized. According to The U.N. high commissioner, peace in Darfur is linked to what happens in southern Sudan adding that the comprehensive peace agreement signed by the Sudanese government and southern Sudanese rebels has raised hopes the country is moving toward stability. 
Mogadishu residents have been subjected to the worst kind of terrorism for the past six days. Two armed groups have been bombarding each other's turfs with all sorts of weaponry from rocket propelled grenades (RPG) to anti-aircraft machine guns and area artillery shells causing hundreds of deaths and exodus of new internal refugees fleeing from affected areas. 
A NEO-NAZI whose ideas were said to be the inspiration for the man who let off a nail bomb in Central London in 1999 has converted to an extremist form of Islam.
Radical American thinker and MIT professor Noam Chomsky met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut today and branded the U.S. a terrorist state. 
NBCs medical drama ER included more anti-war speeches last night, as the shows writers killed off a character who used to work as a doctor at the Chicago hospital but has lately been serving as a National Guard medical officer in Iraq. One doctor railed against how the "whole war smell[s]...of right-wing cronyism," while another complained the U.S. was spending "$6 billion a month in a war all the way across the world to kill a few more of the other kids who actually get to make it to their teens!"
A man charged with trying to kill students at UNC Chapel Hill by driving through a popular campus gathering spot says in a series of letters that he does not deserve punishment.
The United States has again refused the International Committee of the Red 
Nepal's reclusive Maoist leader Prachanda is likely to lead rebel peace talks with the government to end a deadly decade-long insurgency, a top guerrilla chief said on Friday. "There's a high possibility our chairman, Prachanda, will head our team," Matrika Yadhav, former rebel commander for the central Terai region said. But other senior rebels may hold preliminary talks before Prachanda becomes personally involved, said Yadhav, who was freed from jail Thursday after the government dropped murder charges against him.
Preliminary investigations into the death of Pakistani student 
BAGHDAD, Iraq The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region Division, announced that the Joint Contracting Command-Iraq and Afghanistan partially terminated the contract with design build contractor Parsons Global Services, Inc., due to insufficient progress and associated escalating costs which are expected to exceed available funding for the renovation of eight remaining hospital projects across Iraq. The renovation effort for these eight remaining hospitals will be completed with current program funds and construction continues uninterrupted as the contracts were immediately re-awarded by JCC-I/A directly to the onsite Iraqi firms as fixed-price contracts. 
Will Iran 'back away from the cliff's edge' in its confrontation with the United States? This op-ed article from China's State-controlled Beijing News warns Iran that so far, it's gamble with the U.S. over its nuclear program may have worked, but, 'In the long run, actions taken by a weak country that merely looks strong are not always going to work.'
Syria has rejected televised confessions by two Hamas activists arrested in Jordan who said they had received military training in Syria. "I completely deny the authenticity of this," Walid al-Mualem, Syria's foreign minister, told a news conference in Kuwait on Friday when asked about the militants' confessions aired on Jordanian state television on Thursday. "We care for Jordan and ties are constructive between Syria and Jordan," Mualem added.
