UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said there was not a "second to lose" if the world was to save hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur region from starvation and disease. "The region is undergoing the worst humanitarian crisis gripping the planet," Annan said in an opinion piece in the French daily Le Figaro published on Friday. "Without massive and immediate support relief organisations will not be able to continue their work, and hunger, malnutrition and sickness will claim hundreds of thousands of victims," he wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Oh, I'm sure the AU can handle it, Kofi. Relax.
#2
Lol, mojo. It is remarkable how absurd a staged "breathless" story can be. One wonders:
a) precisely where has Coffee been for the last few years - the faux-debate over what constitutes "genocide" took place at least a year ago, with absurd results...
b) what does he mean by "immediate", during Coffee's lifetime, or theirs?
c) "support relief"? Heh. What about the means to defend themselves, Coffee?
The UN-DEAD. Institutional farce, scam-central, kleptocracy, cesspit of mankind.
#4
The region is undergoing the worst humanitarian crisis gripping the planet,"
And what's causing it, Kofi? Who's doing the killing Kofi? What's the underlying problem theme here, Kofi? And everywhere else too? Wanna examine that? Cause there is no ending to the mess without removing the cause. No matter how "massive" the support relief organizations skim is this time around.
#6
Imaginary numbers are complex, CF, heh. Pi is a good choice, except most jihadis do not know pi.
Of course you could set the speed limit to
pi^eieio, which which makes as much sense as Kofi's Plan for Darfur.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/20/2006 10:44 Comments ||
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#7
TW2412, those are silly questions. Everyone KNOWS it's Bush's fault.
#10
I don't see what the fuss is all about. Kofi will do just like the UN did in Rowanda, Bosnia, Serbia, Masadonia, Somalia, Kosovo, Cambodia,etc... they will blame the US and only go in after the killing is over to feed the rebels who have taken over the refugee camps. This is the UN mandate to feed the winner and then put their leader on the human right commission.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/20/2006 11:04 Comments ||
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#11
Wow, that's beautiful, 49. A perfect summation that brings a tear to my eye. A keeper.
Posted by: random styling ||
05/20/2006 11:12 Comments ||
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not a "second to lose"
So why didn't Assnut cut short his holidays when he first heard of the Asian Tsunami? And about Rwanda?
This statement hould be filed under the "Unending Hypocrisy of the UN."
A message addressing North African youth and extolling the virtues of jihad and martyrdom for the Sake of Allah was distributed to a password-protected al-Qaeda-affiliated forum, on May 16, 2006. The author of the piece reminds that the Crusaders and infidel countries acting as agents for the West have decided to enter Sudan under a purported guise of restoring peace and security amongst the citizens of Darfur, when in fact, he believes: many Muslims were killed by the hands of the Americans and the British accomplices under the name of the United Nations, and in fact it is nothing but a striking hand, in the hands of the Christians and the Jews. They use it in any country they want to colonize, take its wealth and kill its people.
For the duration of the message, the author argues for the necessity of jihad against the enemy allegedly seeking to occupy Sudan, citing Quranic verses and the Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad which support fighting for Islam and martyrdom. He emphasizes the rewards that are bestowed upon the martyr and the reverence paid to them by Muslims, and chastises the youth for their past absence in jihad. The author states: Muslim brother, you failed to join the procession for reason that will make you to stand in front of Allah, and might be a curse upon you. You had missed the Afghanistan front, the Chechen front, Palestine, and the Land of Two Rivers, and here the Sudanese front is wide open and Paradise is calling.
The message concludes with a final message entreating youth to jihad: So dear monotheist brother, know that the nation that masters the killing industry, and knows how to die in an honorable way, Allah gives it the good life, and the eternal life in the afterworld. The only weakness is the love of this existing life, and the disinclination of death. So prepare yourselves for a great act, and grave after death, you will be bestowed life.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/20/2006 00:25 ||
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#1
IE "We love death more than you love life".
So true.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/20/2006 11:00 Comments ||
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The author states: Muslim brother, you failed to join the procession for reason that will make you to stand in front of Allah, and might be a curse upon you. You had missed the Afghanistan front, the Chechen front, Palestine, and the Land of Two Rivers, and here the Sudanese front is wide open and Paradise is calling.
...and I wish I could be with you, my brother. But I am needed...ummmmmmmmmmmmmm...back here.
Posted by: The Author ||
05/20/2006 12:30 Comments ||
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#4
Better to die than give up our raiding, banditin', honour killin', and enslavin' - next thing you know, these infidels will have the gall to ask that we work for living, and pay taxes and mortages, and GASP out of our own money yet!? The Horror, the Horror,...
RIYADH - Saudi authorities said on Friday that 15 Saudi former inmates of the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba returned home overnight and that they hoped others would follow soon. Fifteen Saudi citizens who were detained at Guantanamo Bay have been repatriated, landing in the country early Friday, Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said, quoted by the state SPA news agency.
Nayef expressed appreciation for the cooperation of US authorities, adding that Riyadh would carry on efforts to obtain the repatriation of Saudis still held in Guantanamo in the near future, God willing. Officials at Riyadhs King Khaled airport told AFP overnight that the group of former inmates had returned from Guantanamo and were greeted at the airport by family members.
Just don't let them get caught again ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Your limos are right over here, boys. Just to the right of the red carpet...
NEW YORK--As a major importer of Iranian oil, Japan's commitment to nuclear nonproliferation could be severely compromised, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has warned.
In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun here on Thursday, John Bolton asserted that Tehran is seeking to manipulate Japan. He also questioned Tokyo's decision to help develop Iran's huge Azadegan oil field.
"This is what we've been worried about, about Iran's very savvy use of its oil and natural gas resources to apply leverage on countries like Japan and India and China that have large and growing energy demands," Bolton said.
The United States, along with France and Britain, is pushing for tough wording in a U.N. Security Council resolution that could lead to economic sanctions if Iran continues to enrich uranium for nuclear fuel. The other permanent UNSC members, Russia and China, have opposed the draft resolution. The five countries are to hold talks in London in the coming week to seek a solution.
On Wednesday, Iran's ambassador in Tokyo warned Japan against backing a push for sanctions.
Japan, a nonpermanent Security Council member, has offered tepid support to the proposed resolution.
Japan relies on Iran for about 15 percent of its crude oil imports. It has already invested billions of yen in developing Azadegan, which may turn out to hold the world's second-largest reserves of oil.
"Iran is very cynically using the reliance of Japan on Iran for oil--the possibility of the Azadegan oil field and other things--to try to back Japan away from its very principled commitment to nonproliferation," Bolton said.
Without specifically calling for Japan to back away from the Azadegan deal, Bolton questioned the wisdom of moving forward.
"When you're looking at a country ruled by a man like (President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad, who threatens to wipe Israel off the map, and who is pursuing nuclear weapons, it is just good due diligence to say, 'Is this a country we want to invest in?'" Bolton said. Bolton also said the U.S. decision on Monday to restore diplomatic ties with Libya held lessons for both Iran and Japan. He said it showed that options for energy and economic development exist that do not threaten nonproliferation.
"There are all kinds of possibilities, now that economic sanctions are lifted, for exploration and drilling in Libyan oil assets," Bolton said. "I'm sure that's something that Japanese planners are considering."
On Wednesday, Ahmadinejad rejected a European proposal to aid Iran's civilian nuclear program in return for a suspension of its enrichment program. Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful, but the technologies it is developing could have military applications.
Bolton said Iran was trying to draw out negotiations over the European proposal to buy time to advance its suspected weapons program.
But the European effort was worthwhile, he said, if only to "show that we've gone as far as you can go in trying to achieve a diplomatic solution."
#2
You know, 9-11 gave us a chance to develop a truly alternative energy policy that could have driven the price of oil down by 50 percent. It would have been costly, but the alternative -- funding Wahabi Islam the world over -- is not exactly cheap. Bush blew it, then, and continues to blow it now. Happy Memorial Day, how far ya drivin?
#3
but, but that wouldnt be in accord with the secret talks Cheney had with the Energy Co.'s early in his tenure.
Posted by: bk ||
05/20/2006 11:15 Comments ||
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I wish we could develop some new tech...rethink the engine altogether. A HS kid invented a lawnmower, using graphite instead of the traditional oil engine, and powered by compressed air. How about nano-tech to supercompress it? Or hydrogen cells, leaving only water as a by-product. Japan is actively researching new technology, out of necessity, and a little encouragement and investment to speed it up makes us all closer to energy independence, leaving these A-holes without a market and their resources totally obsolete. My husband used to joke about turning sand into gold long before Silicon Valley hit it big, and he thinks the graphite engine could revolutionize the world.
#5
Bush blew it, then, and continues to blow it now. Happy Memorial Day, how far ya drivin?
Yeah. Thank God for Teddy and Harry. They've been right on it for as long as I can remember...gosh, ever since Chapaquiddick ol' Teddy's been pushing ethanol based liquors fuels.
#6
Sorry, compressed air is a really lousy energy storage medium.
For many years there have been various plans for some type of Air Engine, the most promising being one "Fueled" by allowing liquid nitrogen to expand to ambient.
All have major hurdles that render them uneconomic, primarily that when air (Nitrogen Etc) expands it's very cold, causing a severe loss of pressure (Huge effeciency loss) a few use the idea of using the ambient air to provide the needed heat while the gasses expand, it works, but very poorly, you have an additional loss due to the fans and radiators (High pressure expanders) the motors to blow ambient air, the extra weight you have to haul around, and the fact that they tend to freeze up and quit working, they work poorly and not at all when the weather is cool, below freezing forget it, it simply does not expand enough to provide the needed pressures.
Losses render the whole idea worthless. But you do get free air conditionong in your car, want it or not.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/20/2006 19:16 Comments ||
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wouldn't it be great if the next great fuel was made from liquified islamists?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 19:55 Comments ||
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North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range ballistic missile that could reach parts of the United States, Japanese media reports said on Friday, but Japan's government said it did not believe a launch was imminent.
I suppose we could perform a live fire test of our ABM system at the same time...
Quoting unidentified South Korean government officials, public broadcaster NHK said satellite pictures showed there have been signs since early this month around a site in northeastern North Korea that pointed to a possible firing in the near future. Analysts have said, though, that development of a multiple-stage version of a ballistic missile that can take payloads deep into the continental United States is years away. Japan's top government spokesman, Shinzo Abe, said he could not comment on specific security issues, but added, "At the moment, we do not believe that a launch is imminent."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/20/2006 00:00 ||
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China has the available manpower and potens reserves to fight campaigns both in Korea as well as agianst TAIWAN - i still believe NORTH KOREA is at best a HOLDING FRONT, meant to divert and tie up South Korean, Japanese, and key US milfors while China's PLA strikes against Taiwan and WESTPAC. Let us also not forget, a US-China shooting war or diversionary front in Asia leaves Mother Cindy's fav Commie Airborne-Commando forces free to give all of its warfighting attention against CONUS-NORAM-ALCAN. * WAR ZONE/BATTLE ZONE Startegy > Nuclearized Take-and-Hold/Active Defense wid priority emphasis on POLITICAL-DIPLOMATIC VICTORY over MILITARY.
Experts fear new conflicts after a study published this week showed most Germans doubt the Western and Islamic worlds can peacefully coexist. Mistrust of the 3 million Muslims living in Germany appears to be growing.
In spite of official attempts to promote dialog among religions, distrust of Islam continues to grow, with 60 percent of Germans expecting tension between traditional German society and immigrants from Muslim countries, according to an Allensbach study commissioned by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
"Germans are increasingly of the opinion that a lasting, peaceful coexistence with the Islamic world will not be possible," the researchers said in the survey, released Wednesday.
Some 56 percent of Germans said they believed a "clash of cultures" already exists, partly a result of recent incidents that received a large amount of media attention, according to the survey's authors Elisabeth Noelle and Thomas Petersen.
Germans less willing to show tolerance to Muslims
The case of a Berlin "honor killing," a quarrel over two Bonn students who wore burkas to school and discussions concerning increasing schoolyard violence among immigrant children have all made headlines in the German press recently.
"In view of the diffuse feeling of being under threat, and the suspected intolerance of Islam, the readiness of Germans to show tolerance to the Muslim faith is sinking," Noelle and Petersen wrote.
Germans' esteem for Islam has been falling since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, with 83 percent of the 1,076 Germans questioned in the survey agreeing with the statement that Islam is driven by fanaticism. That amount was 10 percent higher than two years ago. A majority, 71 percent, said they believed Islam to be "intolerant," up from 66 percent.
When asked what they associate with the word "Islam," 91 percent of respondents connected the religion to the discrimination of women, and 61 percent called Islam "undemocratic." Eight percent of Germans associated "peacefulness" with Islam.
Willing to limit freedom of religion
About 40 percent of Germans queried were willing to limit the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of religion if constricting the practice of the Muslim religion would lead to fewer violent Muslims choosing to live in Germany. Over half of those who took part, 56 percent, agreed with the statement, "If some Muslim countries forbid building churches, then it should be forbidden to build mosques here."
There was one result amid the responses that improved the mood of those working on intercultural dialog: two-thirds of Germans said they believed Islam does not pose a threat, but that radical, politically motivated individuals are behind extremist acts.
The survey's authors wrote that "there is a pattern of polarization" widening the gap between Germans' feelings of their own situation and "the others," which could be the "beginning of a spiral of conflict."
"Since the end of the World War II, the German population has had a particular aversion to conflict," Noelle and Petersen wrote. "But in regards to Islam, the fronts are obviously getting harder."
Posted by: john ||
05/20/2006 13:10 ||
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#1
In related news, Floridians mistrust of alligators grows.
#4
Germans have a track record of how they treat a population they don't like. Muslims oughtta rethink their arrogant aggressiveness, they may just get what they ask for
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 15:48 Comments ||
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well said, Frank. There is a limit to allowing bad behavior in polite society. Unfortunately, those recently unfrozen from the 7th century haven't grasped that concept yet.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said he will personally make sure Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk carries out the wishes of parliament in the matter of former congresswoman Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Radio Netherlands reported on Friday. However, the prime minister refused to comment on Verdonk's stance during Tuesday night's parliamentary debate about her decision to revoke Ms Hirsi Ali's Dutch nationality.
A large majority of congressmen adopted a motion demanding the minister reconsider her position. Congressmen pointed out that it has been known for some time that Ms Hirsi Ali used a false surname and date of birth on her asylum application. They also argued that the law offered Ms Verdonk sufficient leeway to make exceptions.
In the past few days, Ms Verdonk's actions also raised eyebrows among her colleagues in the cabinet. Prime Minister Balkenende had clearly been caught off guard, and Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm expressed his surprise at Ms Verdonk's rapid decision regarding Ms Hirsi Ali's nationality. Balkenende has also withdrawn his preference to continue ruling with the Liberal (VVD) if his Christian Democrats (CDA) retain power after the 2007 election.
Did they mean to say Dutch Ex-Lawmaker or were they being cute? AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A Somali-born former member of parliament who resigned this week after admitting she lied on her asylum application 14 years ago will stay in the Netherlands until her citizenship is reviewed, her spokeswoman said Friday.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in her apartment in The Hague under orders from her lawyers not to speak to the media or appear in public, said the spokeswoman, Ingrid Pouw.
She remains under constant police guard, as she has been for several years since receiving death threats for speaking out against Islamic radicalism.
Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk said Hirsi Ali's naturalization was invalidated by her lying about her name and birth date, but she acceded to demands by parliament to reconsider the ruling. That process could take several weeks, and Pouw said Hirsi Ali would stay until then.
Hirsi Ali acknowledged fabricating her application, saying she feared retribution from her family when she fled to the Netherlands in 1992 to escape an arranged marriage.
But she said she had confessed the lie publicly years before, even though Verdonk claimed she had not been aware of it.
Hirsi Ali previously had been offered a position with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, in September, according to AEI President Christopher DeMuth.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said Thursday she would be welcome in the United States.
In addition to her Dutch naturalization problems, Hirsi Ali must leave her apartment in The Hague by Aug. 27, after her neighbors sued the Dutch government last month and alleged that her presence endangered the neighborhood.
Hirsi Ali's free-market VVD Party named Laetitia Griffith, a former member of parliament now serving on Amsterdam's city council, to fill Hirsi Ali's parliament seat. Griffith, 40, was born in the former Dutch colony of Suriname and immigrated legally to the Netherlands in 1987.
#1
It isn't Ayaan's presence that endangers the neighbourhood, it's the islamist nutbars that are trying to kill her. Wrong end of the stick as usual for the PC idiots.
Praises the Wanted Al-Qaeda-Linked Yemenite Sheikh Al-Zindani
Dr. Salah Sultan is president of the American Center for Islamic Research (ACIR), a non-profit organization registered in Ohio and located in Columbus. On his website, he asserts that the main purpose of the ACIR is to "serve Allah (God) in the best way possible through the principles laid out in the Quran and Sunnah," to address misconceptions and extremism, to build bridges with non-Muslims, and to provide fatwas. [1]
Dr. Sultan, who has been called "one of America's most noted Muslim scholars," [2] is signatory to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) 2005 fatwa against terrorism, [3] and is a former professor and president of the Islamic AmericanUniversity in Michigan. [4] He is president of the American Institute for Religious and Cultural Studies, and active in the European Council for Fatwa and Research (headed by Islamist sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi [5] whom he calls "our great scholar" [6] );the Fiqh Council of North America; and the International Association of Muslim Scholars. [7] He previously served on the board of directors of Islamic AmericanUniversity, and on the Muslim American Society Board of Trustees. [8] Dr. Sultan's resume states that he also serves on the board of trustees of the International Union for Muslim Scholars, and is a member of the Council of Indian Scholars and of the Association of Scholars in Germany. [9]
According to his website, [10] Sultan is an elected member of the Shura Board of the recently founded International Association of Muslim Scholars in London (IAMS), and has written over 20 books, including Muslim Participation in the American Elections. [11]
Sultan lectures frequently at the Islamic Society of Greater Columbus, on topics such as the priorities of Islamic work in the U.S. and the role of Muslim men and women in the U.S. [12] According to a calendar on Dr. Sultan's webpage, over the past year he has lectured in Washington, D.C.; New Jersey; Detroit; Dallas; San Diego; Montreal; Cairo; Kuwait; Bahrain; Qatar; and Jeddah, Medina, and Mecca in Saudi Arabia. He has also spoken at the MAS Youth Center Convention Center in Queens and Brooklyn, New York; the Bronx Muslim Center in Bronx, New York; the Union of Imams Minneapolis in Minnesota; the Omar bin Khatab Mosque and the Bethel Road Mosque in Columbus, Ohio; the Al-Huda and ICB Mosque in Boston; the Dearborn Mosque in Dearborn, Michigan; the Islamic Fiqh Council of India in New Delhi; and the European Council for Islamic Rulings and Research in Istanbul. [13]
According to his online resume, Sultan's "vision" is: "To live happily. To die as a martyr." [14]
Sultan currently attends Columbus State Community College in Ohio; previously, he worked at the Islamic Center of Greater Worcester in Massachusetts and at the Islamic Open University in Washington, D.C. [15]
On May 17, 2006, Dr. Sultan appeared on the Saudi Prince Walid bin Talal-owned Al-Risala TV channel. [16] In his appearance on Al-Risala TV, Dr. Sultan praised Yemenite sheikh Dr. Al-Zindani, who has been categorized by the U.S. government as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" because of his loyalty to Osama bin Laden and his support of Al-Qaeda. [17] According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Al-Zindani "has a long history of working with bin Laden, notably serving as one of his spiritual leaders. In this leadership capacity, he has been able to influence and support many terrorist causes, including actively recruiting for Al-Qaeda training camps." [18]
In March 2006, Al-Zindani appeared on Yemenite TV at a Hamas fundraiser. [19] TO VIEW THIS CLIP, VISIT: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1086.
Salah Sultan: "The film 'The Siege,' starring Denzel Washington, portrayed the Muslims in a very bad light. They are shown calling for prayer, performing the ablution, praying, and then planning multiple bombings - a government building, a security agency, the FBI, a bus carrying young men and women, adults and children. They bombed shops.
"The film came out in April 1999. It paved the way for 9/11, since it was filmed in Brooklyn, New York. The truth is that immediately after 9/11, I said people should view these events in the context of 'The Siege,' because these events were identical.
"This scenario... I still believe to this day... This scenario still baffles me. I share the view of many Americans, French, and Europeans, who say that 9/11 could not have been carried out entirely from outside [the U.S.] - by Muslims or others. The confessions by some people could have been edited. But even if they were not edited, I believe that these people were used in a marginal role. The entire thing was of a large scale and was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world, and to get American society to agree to the war declared on terrorism - the definition of which has not yet been determined.
"The U.S. remains the only country to determine who is a terrorist, and what is the definition for terrorism, and it can pin it on anyone. The most recent instance is the case of Dr. Al-Zindani, who has been accused of terrorism, even though he is known worldwide for his refinement, virtue, and broad horizons."
#1
Oh, look! Another moderate exposed as not a moderate! It's like a freaking plague!
Why didn't his community expose his immoderate views? Why do we have to hear about this from MEMRI and not the Muslims in Columbus?
Easy answer: Because the Muslims in Columbus don't disagree.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/20/2006 15:07 Comments ||
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Article: Dr. Sultan, who has been called "one of America's most noted Muslim scholars," [2] is signatory to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) 2005 fatwa against terrorism
Did he say he was against bin Laden? Apparently not. He's against terrorism because in his view, Americans are terrorists. Right down to the baby girl who died with her parents on 9/11.
An Egyptian who has twice been jailed under Canada's controversial security-certificate process, repeated in Federal Court yesterday that he is not a terrorist and that his only conversation with a senior al-Qaeda operative was over a cup of tea.
Mahmoud Jaballah, a biology teacher and father of six, is undergoing another hearing on the reasonableness of a security certificate -- signed by two federal government ministers -- that has resulted in his imprisonment since August, 2001.
Mr. Jaballah was first arrested in the mid-1990s, but later released when a Federal Court judge quashed the certificate. Yesterday, he acknowledged that he had met an associate of Osama bin Laden, Ahmed Said Khadr who was killed in Afghanistan by Pakistani forces in 2001, but said it was an innocent meeting. Mr. Jaballah said that Mr. Khadr's in-laws helped his wife buy groceries when Mr. Jaballah and his family first came to Toronto as refugees and that he and Mr. Khadr drank tea together. He also testified that he had seen Mr. Khadr at his mosque.
Mr. Jaballah's lawyer, John Norris, also probed his client about an Interpol alert that suggested he was part of a terrorist organization called Egyptian Al-Jihad. "The Egyptian government tends to exaggerate things . . . ," he said.
Mr. Jaballah testified that Egyptian authorities had once arrested -- and later released him -- on inaccurate evidence that he was plotting to kill the country's minister of the interior.
He also denied allegations from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that he fought and trained in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Yemen. He said that in the early 1990s he travelled to Pakistan to work as a school teacher.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/20/2006 00:13 ||
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Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called a proposal to make English the official language "racist" on the Senate floor yesterday. "This amendment is racist. I think it's directed basically to people who speak Spanish," the Democrat said during the already tense debate over immigration reform.
Moments later, the Senate approved the measure on a 63-34 vote. Virtually all Republicans were joined by 11 Democrats to approve the largely symbolic amendment. Immediately following that vote, the Senate approved a second amendment, declaring on a 58-39 vote that English is the "common and unifying language."
Such proposals enjoy overwhelming support among American voters. A poll by Zogby International earlier this year found that 84 percent of Americans say English should be the official language of government operations. The same poll found that 77 percent of Hispanics agree. And it's a bipartisan issue, according to the poll, which found that 92 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats approve making English the country's official language.
Mr. Reid's charge of racism caused a stir of whispers in the Senate chamber and gallery, and Sen. James M. Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who offered the amendment, was clearly offended. As Mr. Reid continued his floor speech, an aide passed him a note on a folded sheet of yellow legal paper. After reading the note, the Nevada Democrat tried to clarify his remarks.
"Even though I feel this amendment is unfair, I don't in any way suggest that Jim Inhofe is a racist," Mr. Reid said. "I don't believe that at all. I just believe that this amendment has, to some people, that connotation -- not that he's a racist, but that the amendment is."
It's certainly not the first time that Mr. Reid has used stark language in the debate over immigration. "Our federal wallet is stretched to the limit by illegal aliens getting welfare, food stamps, medical care and other benefits without paying taxes," he said in 1993. "These programs were not meant to entice freeloaders and scam artists from around the world."
Earlier this year, Mr. Reid confessed on the Senate floor that his anti-immigrant fervor "mostly lasted about a week or two" before his wife brought him around to the more open position he holds today. But nearly a year after his "freeloaders" statement, Mr. Reid was on the Senate floor criticizing immigrants again and worrying about their cultural impact.
"We must reduce the annual admissions of legal immigrants to more moderate levels in order to provide for a better country -- both environmentally and socially -- in the years to come," Mr. Reid said, according to a June 16, 1994, report by States News Service.
When Mr. Inhofe took to the floor yesterday, he didn't address Mr. Reid over his charge of racism but did defend his proposal. "I think it's an insult to Hispanics to say that we are not going to have English as the national language because you're not capable of operating and speaking and succeeding in a country like this," he said. Stepped on a landmine, this time. Arrogance and mindless partisanship. Stand there, sweating like the pandering pig you are, sputtering backpeddling drivel to no avail, all alone in the spotlight, and die.
#1
We revolted from England, lots and lots of us originally came from England, the worlds business language is English, hey time to step up and learn English although learning Spanish wont hurt us either.
Posted by: bk ||
05/20/2006 9:36 Comments ||
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#2
Nothing against Harry Reid, but that picture looks like one you see when a guy gets nailed in an internet kiddie porn sting. I don't in any way suggest that Harry's into internet kiddie porn. I don't believe that at all. I just believe that this picture has, to some people, that connotation- not that he's into internet kiddie porn, but the picture makes it look like he is.
#3
Homer Simpson: "Oh Why do I have to learn english? I'm never going to England!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 10:09 Comments ||
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#4
I am Hispanic and a legal immigrant. I do not feel targeted. Part of the culture of any country is its language and if one comes to this country to live permanently that means learning and using the language of that culture. All other immigrants, except mexicans, understand that, why can they not?
#5
To Reid, and his co-kooks,the proposal *is* racist. You can't keep the 'minorities' dependant on you if they learn english and get ahead in the world.
Lets face it. If you only speak a non-english language in america you are at a severe disadvantage - and that is exactly where the democrats and race-baiters (Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, etc...) want you to be - dependant on them to provide all your needs and speak in your name.
#8
All other immigrants, except mexicans, understand that, why can they not?
TMH, If you're Hispanic, would you tell me if you think I'm wrong. They think it's their country. They're taught that in school. They are unique in being the only only westernized country we've conquered and from whom we've seized land. They're jealous of us showing what can be done with the land that they have not done and cannot do. And half the time, they aren't immigrants, they're commuters. They don't have the same sense that they've left their own country because it's so easy to go back. So why learn the language when the guilty gringos will learn yours?
#9
Interesting enough, this is more a states issue rather than a federal one outside the conduct of administration or commerce. For the record, New Mexico [47th to enter the Union] has retain duel 'official' languages since statehood.
What this all fails to address are royal decrees by various princes federal judges directing the use of multiple languages in the conduct of official business. Some judge will simply rule any of this 'unconstitutional' give the opportunity and since Congress is absolutely cowardly in correcting actions like that, it will stand. The pols will play the same old game that "see, we tried, but we weren't allowed to play". They'll smile and do nothing. This is another "Boys we got to do something about this to protect our phoney balony jobs."
#10
I am Hispanic and a legal immigrant. I do not feel targeted. Part of the culture of any country is its language and if one comes to this country to live permanently that means learning and using the language of that culture. All other immigrants, except mexicans, understand that, why can they not?
Several reasons:
!) Learning a new language as an adult is hard. I know Mexicans that have gone to night school for several years trying to learn English. They are making progress, but slowly.
A good friends parents emigrated from Germany after WII. They were bright and motivated and still it took them decades to become fluent in English. At that time the emigrants clustered in German-speaking enclaves.
Most of the Mexican illegals are not bright and not educated. Even when they want to learn they cant. (There are also bright, educated Hispanic emigrants. These are the people that most elites personally know. My guess is that is why many elites favor open borders. Peoples views are formed from their personal experiences.)
2) In the past, the mass media was almost entirely in English. TV and movies played a role in assimilation. Today there is Spanish radio, TV, and movies. That furthers the development of separate cultures within the same nation.
In a similar manner, there is a separate Spanish business community centered in LA and Miami.
3) Multiculturalism that promotes non-white, non-Western culture over traditional American culture. Identity politics increases the problem. Groups such as ANSWER stroke the flames to push their own agendas. (Of course anti-immigration groups have their own agendas and do their own inciting.)
4) The Spanish-speaking community is large and growing. The majority of the new births in California are by Spanish-speaking mothers.
There is such a strong Hispanic presence in the US today that I expect the US will become a bilingual nation. There are many Spanish words that are part of mainstream American culture. English language cartoons are introducing Spanish phrases to US kids. That makes it far easier for those children to pick up Spanish. The same occurs on Spanish TV where English phrases are regularly used within the Spanish dialogue.
I support making English the official national language. Having English as the official language means that emigrants who speak neither English nor Spanish only need to learn English to live anywhere in the US. Also where would the legal line be drawn if other languages were to be given the same official recognition as English? Would street signs, voting information, government information have to be printed in all the languages of the world? (Im not comfortable with this type of slippery slope argument, but Ive seen how this plays out in our legal system.)
#12
So the Dim Bulb of Searchlight Nevada thinks that all the non-white immigrants only speak Spanish? I know some immigrants originally from Vietnam and China who only know "Taco Bell Spanish" like most other Americans.
They don't think this is racist in the least. If anything, all of this attention to Spanish language ballots and governmental business has made them madder. They think that if the Mexicans can have everything in their native language, there's no damn good reason they can't have a ballot in Vietnamese or Szechuan. It seems kind of, well, racist to them that they aren't afforded the same privilege.
Wonder how the Senator from Nevada would weasel around that....
#14
ROFL, DMFD. I think that deserves a coffee alert!
Posted by: random styling ||
05/20/2006 13:51 Comments ||
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#15
Reid, the DemocRat (but I repeat myself), is the racist.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/20/2006 13:54 Comments ||
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#16
I've got a neighbor who came here before the 1986 amnesty illegally. Today he's an assistant manager at Lowe's, and will probably move up into store manager within a couple of years. He said the first five years were miserable, until he decided to learn English. Since then, he's brought the rest of his family here from El Salvador, bought a house, and has a brother (legal) who has just bought a franchise dollar store. He said the only way he got his family to learn English was to refuse to speak Spanish, or to acknowledge what was said to him in Spanish. He said it took him almost three years, and that time was terrible for him and his whole family.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/20/2006 14:48 Comments ||
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#17
This is a no brainer from an outside point of view; a country cannot have a dual-culture, a dual language, and be viable; see Belgium, for crying it out loud, the country of malaise par excellence. No problem with the USA being multi-ethnic, but I don't see how it could be multi-cultural and hold cohesiveness. The migrant need to become "american" (that is to become anglo-saxon-ized), a *melting pot*. Slaviling Glomong9311 makes very good point, perhaps the country will become bilingual.
Btw, France used to have lots of different regional *languages* (I mean, litterally foreign languages, not just regional accents or linguos, my grandmother's father spoke one, though he could speak french obviously since he fought with the army in WWI), and thoses were ruthlessly suppressed and driven to near extinction through the educative system (children not allowed to speak their parent's language at school, and taught to mock it at home), in the early XXth.
If there really is a will to enforce english, it can be done.
#18
Note the little bomb Harry tossed in about limiting immigration to protect the environment. The greenies are very upset about immigration and now believe that the only way to 'protect' the environment is to be nativist.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/20/2006 16:45 Comments ||
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#19
Immersion is the best way to learn as OP notes. I took Spanish in High School, but only started knowing it when I went to Yucatan for a spell. It only works when you start thinking in the other language rather than trying to translate word-by-word, I've found. All teh spanish-language radio-TV and bilingual schools put off success for Spanish speakers. They stay slaves to their SEIU/CTA masters
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 16:49 Comments ||
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#20
well, Steve - have you seen the huge amounts of trash the illegals leave in the desert and mtns on their sprint across? diapers, water jugs, clothes, food containers.... Unbelieveable!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 16:59 Comments ||
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#23
Steve, I actually kind of agree w/them. If for no other reason than 12 million less illegals means a helluva lot quicker ride into work in the mornings for a lot of Americans. Less feces in the sewer, less water to treat, less trash going to our dumps, maybe a little less demand in CA/TX/&AZ for gasoline, & even less human flatulence being emitted into the air from so much mexican chow, hahahaha....etc.
NEW YORK -- Arizona Sen. John McCain received a cantankerous reception Friday at the New School's commencement, where dozens of faculty members and students turned their backs and raised protest signs and a student speaker mocked him as he sat silently on stage.
The historically liberal university has been roiled in controversy in recent weeks over the selection of the Republican and likely 2008 presidential candidate to speak to its 2,700 graduates and thousands of family, friends and faculty.
The Madison Square Garden crowd cheered loudly as Jean Sarah Rohe said McCain "does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was founded."
Rohe, one of two distinguished seniors invited by the university's deans to address the graduates, spoke before McCain did but noted that he had promised to deliver the same speech he gave at the Rev. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University last weekend and Columbia University on Tuesday.
"He will tell us we are young and too naive to have valid opinions," Rohe said. "I am young and though I don't possess the wisdom that time affords us, I do know that pre-emptive war is dangerous. And I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of mass destruction."
McCain later thanked Rohe for her "Cliff's notes" version of his speech.
Sticking to the remarks he made in earlier speeches, McCain reaffirmed his support for the Iraq war but urged debate and dissent. And he repeated the theme that drew Rohe's derision.
"When I was a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, and rightly so because, if memory conveniently serves, I was so much more eloquent, well-informed and wiser than anyone else I knew," McCain said.
As he delivered his remarks, several dozen students and faculty turned their backs and lifted signs saying "Our commencement is not your platform."
Some 1,200 students and faculty had signed petitions asking the university president, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, to rescind his invitation for McCain to speak, saying McCain's support for the Iraq war and opposition to gay rights and abortion were not in keeping with the prevailing views on campus.
Kerrey urged students to exercise the open-mindedness he said was at the heart of the university's progressive history.
"Sen. McCain, you have much to teach us," Kerrey said toward the beginning of the ceremony, drawing a smattering of boos and hisses.
#1
yawn. Spoiled children, given a diploma without having to earn it - thus they are still children trying to establish their adult independence from mommy and daddy by pouting, rude, adolescent behavior. One wonders when/if they will ever be given the opportunity to grow into real adults with a true sense of self-worth.
#8
Well I thought he'd at least get a golf clap from the commies for his attempted subversion of U.S. sovereignty wrt securing the border and illegal immigration. Heck, he just about had a circle jerk w/Hagel and Kennedy the other night. I'd have a hard time voting for him to.
#10
John McCain has only one loyalty - to John McCain. He's not even loyal to ideals or principles. Remember the words of Benjamin Franklin - 'those that will surrender a little freedom for a little security deserve neither'. John McCain has been pushing for restrictions on the liberties guaranteed in the Constitution since he was elected. He will never get my vote, or the vote of any member of my family.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/20/2006 15:13 Comments ||
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#11
He will always have my admiration but never my vote (unless he's running against Hillary or Howie or Wide-eyed Nancy).
#12
I concur w/9&11 - considering the Dem alternatives (except for Lieberman who will never again be on any Dem presidential ticket) of course I'd vote for him. He was/is undoubtedly a brave & tough as nails man for what he endured in the hanoi hilton - goes w/out saying. That a side, he sucks ass as a senator -country club rino.
#13
you're voting for the Senator with an unadmirable track record, not the POW. Nobody could say his performance then was less than honorable. Now, however, he cuts political first amendments to protect incumbents (to many exercising the rights to criticize him...), took tainted money as a Keating Five member, and now pushes amnesty and SSA funds for illegals down our throats with his Donk friends? F*&K him! Never will I vote for the jerk. I'd buy him a drink for his POW days, though....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 18:15 Comments ||
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#14
Odysseus
I agree that the POWs (and there were many more than just John) deserve our appreciation and respect.
But, let's be realistic, how many of those other POWs have leveraged their captivity for political advantage? Virtually all others prefer to remain in the shadows, even those displaying as much or more courage than John.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/20/2006 18:23 Comments ||
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#15
Frank, right on.
I'd buy the guy a six-pack's worth at the VFW for his actions in 'Nam. Like wise, I'd vote for just about anyone running against him for his actions in the senate.
"George Bush's favorite Democrat," they call him. "Republican Lite," they sneer. But liberals are no longer just venting on Internet blogs and talk radio programs about their centrist nemesis: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.
Now, from across the nation, a determined alliance of antiwar activists is working overtime online and on doorsteps to defeat Mr. Lieberman, whose political moderation helped him earn the Democratic nomination for vice president six years ago. Their goal is not only to punish Mr. Lieberman for staunchly supporting the war in Iraq but also to protest what the activists consider the Democratic Party's willingness to accommodate President Bush.
Without a national race to focus on, thousands of activists from other states encouraged by a host of liberal bloggers have contributed money and volunteered to help the campaign of Ned Lamont, a cable television executive with little political experience who is trying to unseat Mr. Lieberman in the state's Democratic primary in August.
Although Mr. Lamont's challenge appears to be a long shot, it is roiling some quarters of the Democratic Party, just as the party is trying to regain control of Congress this year. Many Democrats assert that the vigorous challenge to Mr. Lieberman is overshadowing the governor's race and taking money and attention away from three closely contested House races in Connecticut that many strategists consider crucial to the Democrats' majority hopes. "It's absolute Democratic cannibalism," said John F. Droney, a former Democratic state chairman in Connecticut.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/20/2006 00:21 ||
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#1
Lieberman is the only Demo Senator in the NE whose hand I'd shake. The rest of them I wouldn't spit on if they were on fire. That means Lieberman will probably lose the primary because his party seems hellbent on being all-idiotarian all the time. Ol' Joe just doesn't fit in with that as easily as he should, according to Kos and the kiddies, so he's got to go.
They won't say this out loud but you know they're thinking it's probably because he's a JOOOOOOOOO and the Mossad owns him.
Posted by: mac ||
05/20/2006 5:45 Comments ||
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#2
"How can we pull out of there?" asked Bennett Millstein, a former chairman of the Bloomfield Democratic Town Committee. "We can't just leave the people to slaughter each other."
Why not? That's what your party did in Vietnam and Cambodia in the 70s. Oh, that's right, that information went down the old 1984 'memory hole'[tm]. BTW, how's Big Brother these days?
#3
Love when they eat their own, especially the young going after the adults. I'm sure Ned will be as big a jerk as Joe isn't....Goodbye Truman Democrats
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 10:17 Comments ||
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#4
Lieberman is overshadowing the governor's race and taking money and attention away from three closely contested House races in Connecticut that many strategists consider crucial to the Democrats' majority hopes
That Karl Rove, he's such a smart guy. He cracked the code on how easy it is to round sheep into the slaughter pen.
#5
The KosKid/Progressives of the party are running things. The Times-Mirror owned Hartford Courant has jumped onto the Anti-Lieberman bandwagon.
Meanwhile the state fights to keep the few defense industries they have, population is dropping, state-jobs, c*sinos, and propping up Hartford and Bridgeport are the only growing industries.
And all the while, they wonder why things are going to sh*t there.
#10
oh...um right. Senate race. Guess I should have read the article before commenting. Doh.
Yeah, that's one bad habit; at first, I took a real long time to read each and every article (granted, there was less of them back then), but now, I glance through most of them, and go straight to the comments. My bad.
#12
Lieberman is an intelligent, thoughtful person, who does what he thinks is right. The Kos kiddies can't stand that - he's not "toeing the Democratic line". Joe knows the current "Democratic Party line" leads to the unemployment line, and he's not buying their BS. I respect Joe Lieberman - the only Democrat in the Senate I can say that about, after Zell Miller retired.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/20/2006 15:18 Comments ||
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#13
I hope Lieberman loses in the primary - I'd pull the the Republicans to back him in that case. Yeah, he'd be a RINO. But not as bad as most - more in line with Regan-ish R values than Chaffee or Snowe are. Or even as an independent.
#15
As a former CT yankee, I'd suggest he jump parties. That would hurt the Kos Kids severely. I hope the Senate Repubs are already talking to him about that.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
05/20/2006 18:31 Comments ||
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Border Patrol agents discovered 91 illegal entrants who were smuggled into the country in the back of a box truck Thursday night southwest of Sonoita, an official said Friday.
Around 10 p.m., the Border Patrol received a call from a concerned citizen about possible illegal activity, said Jesus Rodriguez, a spokesman for the agency's Tucson sector. The caller said they believed the truck was picking up illegal entrants. "like a reverse clown car in teh circus, they kept going in but none coming out"
Border Patrol agents from Nogales and Sonoita pulled the truck over on Highway 82 around Milepost 26, at which time the driver got out and ran into the brush, Rodriguez said. Inside the truck, agents found 91 illegal entrants, most of whom were from Mexico but some were from Central America, he said.
No injuries were reported and the driver of the truck was not found, Rodriguez said. The illegal entrants were detained and taken to the Nogales processing center, he said. Ship em out!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 17:23 ||
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[5 views]
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#1
Everyday type occurrence down here Tucson way. Rest of nation has no idea how common this is. One would think that there would arise a demand to treat the Coyotes as peddlers of human flesh...but this doen't happen. The Mexicans tolerate them, the Americans only lightly prosecute them, and they lead lives of wealthy entitlement here in Tucson.
When laws become meaningless, what next for our faltering society? Can we then all begin to choose only those laws we wish to obey?
#2
same here in SD, but not in numbers anymore since we built the "friendship fence" in the urban tijuana area...still get American citizens killed monthly when the coyotes drive in the oncoming lanes, I-8 late at night, to avoid checkpoints at Kitchen Creek and/or Viejas. F*&kers!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 21:55 Comments ||
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Iran's Iraq Strategy; Tehran Could Retaliate Against Washington by Striking Next Door By Steven Simon and Ray Takeyh
Sunday, May 21, 2006; B02
From the moment the first U.S. warheads detonate over an Iranian nuclear installation, the United States will be at war with the Islamic Republic Finally!. A vast tableau of American facilities around the world -- as well as the streets of U.S. cities -- could be targets for retaliation by Iran's terrorist agents and surrogates. "The Americans should know that if they assault Iran, their interests will be harmed anywhere in the world that is possible," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, warned last month.
The most likely theater of operations in the initial stages of a U.S.-Iranian conflict, however, would be next door -- in Iraq. Since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, Iran has methodically built and strengthened its military, political and religious influence in Iraq Some say this. Others note that many Shia do not want to be run by Iran. Iran's Revolutionary Guard has extensively infiltrated Iraq's Ministry of the Interior and police force, both mainstays of Shiite power. The hundreds of Iranian mullahs and businessmen who have slipped across the border have a commanding presence in southern Iraq's commercial and religious sectors.
Iran's sway over Shiite militias and its considerable paramilitary presence in Iraq give Tehran leverage in the ongoing nuclear stalemate with Washington, and would emerge as a key factor should armed conflict break out. U.S. forces and prestige are vulnerable in Iraq, making them particularly attractive targets. However, should Iran decide to strike in Iraq, it would have to weigh competing priorities: a desire for revenge against the Americans, and the strategic need to both avoid chaos in its Western neighbor and bolster the political role of Iraq's Shiite majority.
How Iran resolves this dilemma would go a long way toward determining the outcome of a U.S.-Iranian conflict -- as well as the future of the U.S. war in Iraq.
Iran's paramilitary and intelligence buildup in Iraq would put some members of the Stout members of the "coalition of the willing" to shame. Over the past three years, Tehran has deployed to Iraq a large number of the Revolutionary Guard's Qods Force -- a highly professional force specializing in assassinations and bombings In other words, jihadi terrorists -- as well as officers from the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security and representatives of Lebanese Hezbollah.
The Qods Force has a longstanding relationship with Hezbollah, which it trains and supplies in coordination with Syria through an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps unit in central Lebanon. In the words of Iranian Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, the IRGC commander, "The range of [the IRGC's] duty is not limited to our land and we have extra-border missions."
Iranian personnel have established safe houses throughout southern Iraq. They monitor the movement of coalition forces, tend weapons caches, facilitate cross-border travel of clerics, smuggle munitions into Iraq and recruit individuals as intelligence sources. Presumably, Tehran has recruited networks within U.S. military bases and civilian compounds that could be activated on short notice. Iran is also believed by regional intelligence agencies to have armed and trained as many as 40,000 Iraqis to prevent an unlikely rollback of Shiite control Didn't they help train and equip the, uh-hem, Mahdi Army? The one whose 'clock was cleaned' by a few battalions of Soldiers and Marines in Najaf and Baghdad?.
Coalition forces have suffered the consequences of Iran's military presence. U.S. and British officials contend that the IRGC has introduced into Iraq "shaped charge designs" -- powerful bombs that channel the force of an explosion into a narrow path. (Lebanese Hezbollah also has used such bombs effectively against Israeli tanks.) According to the British, at least 10 of their soldiers in southern Iraq have been killed since May 2005 by the combination of such explosives and remote triggering devices. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, noted in a March briefing with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that these makeshift bombs are "traceable back to Iran." All are Acts of War
U.S. troops have improved their force protection skills over the past three years and are more adroit at detecting such bombs. But it is just not possible to fully safeguard 135,000 troops, let alone the 30,000 contractors and civilians working in Iraq. If the IRGC activated its agents within U.S. forward operating bases, or used indirect fire weapons -- Katyusha rockets or heavy mortars -- Iran could kill sizable concentrations of soldiers in mess halls, sleeping quarters, headquarters tents and other key facilities. The overall level of violence in Iraq -- 75 jihadi terrorist insurgent attacks per month in 2006, including 144 bombings that killed more than three people each -- would give Tehran some plausible deniability Frickin' Idiot Katyushas and 120mm Mortars require a launcher be emplaced. It takes time and expertise to set up either, assuming one wants the fire to be accurate. It does take more than a prayer to allen to be successful in modern warfare.
Iran's clerical regime could complicate matters for Washington even more by pressing its Shiite allies in Iraq to demand a U.S. withdrawal Who have this option now, but vigorously want the US there. The leading Shiite cleric in Iraq, Ali Sistani, has counseled patience and refrained from challenging the U.S. military presence; he is also wary of Tehran's influence over Iraqi politics. However, Abul al-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, has closer ties to Tehran and has publicly chastised Washington for not tackling the Sunni insurgency. (The council's armed wing, the Badr Organization, musters thousands of armed members.) And the Mahdi Army of Moqtada al-Sadr also receives subsidies from Iran. Hmmm. Who would I take..... Mahdi Army? Or the 4th Infantry Division?
Although the Islamic Republic may not be able to obtain a fatwa against the United States from Iraq's most esteemed clerics, it can still count on the backing of important segments of the Shiite community, particularly those jockeying for power within it. This support could quickly produce mobs of young men in the street protesting the occupation And they would be protesting against the Iraqi government, no?.
Tehran is capable of wreaking havoc in Iraq, and it may consider such a move in response to a U.S. attack. However, as Iraq continues its descent into chaos 5-10 attacks and 25 dead daily is bad, but it is nothing even close to a civil war. The MSMs idea of "intense urban combat" is a few wild AK47 shots, Tehran must balance its desire to hurt the United States with the equally compelling objective of fostering an orderly transition to Shiite rule in Iraq.
This need for balance is rooted in Iran's wartime experience during its long conflict with Hussein's Iraq. As Iran and Iraq are both Shiite-majority nations, the historic animosity between them has had less to do with religion than politics Actually, it has to do with Arabs vs. Persians, as it has been for over a millenia..
Indeed, an uneasy consensus has evolved among the Iranian leadership that the impetus for the war with Iraq, which killed hundreds of thousands of Iranians from 1980 to 1988, lay in the Sunni domination of Iraqi politics Actually, it was Saddam's idea to cleve off the Ahwaz area (Arabistan) with it's Arabs and Oil. The Sunni minority sought to justify its rule under the Baathist regime by embracing a pan-Arabist program; ultimately, this quest for glory abroad led to an assertion of hegemony in the Persian Gulf region and a devastating war with Iran. Empowerment of the more congenial Shiites in Iraq emerged as a key postwar objective of the Islamic Republic, and that empowerment depends on a modicum of political and social stability.
Ironically, the Iranian clerical hard-liners, so adamant about suppressing the reform movement at home, have emerged as advocates of democratic pluralism in Iraq. The Bush administration's satisfaction with January's parliamentary elections was echoed by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the reactionary head of the powerful Guardian Council, when he said: "Iraq is now going through its election cycle. The election results are very good." Iran's theocrats appreciate that the surest way to advance their interests is to support an electoral process that will yield a state with strong provinces and a weak federal structure. That would keep the Shiites up, the Kurds in and the Sunnis down.
How, then, will Tehran reconcile its war aims with its determination to preserve stability in Iraq? Look back to the early 1980s, when a U.S.-Iranian confrontation played itself out in hapless Lebanon.
In that conflict, Iran did not subvert Lebanon's already brittle society by assassinating politicians and damaging the national infrastructure. Iran certainly could have done so, given its extensive network of clerical sympathizers, guerrillas and terrorists. Instead, Tehran opted for an incremental and deadly campaign of violence against the U.S. presence. It was at the behest of Iran that Hezbollah wrecked the U.S. Embassy in 1983, wiping out the CIA's cadre of Near East experts, and struck American barracks in Beirut in 1984, killing 241 Marines.
The point of this is that if we do something to stop Iran's nukes, they can kick our ass really, REALLY bad. Any yet they do not note that the prior acts of Iran, i.e. supplying personnel and weapons against our troops, if an Act of War.
In contemplating war with Iran today, the Bush administration should remember the lessons of Lebanon. The U.S. presence in Iraq -- with its luminescent targets ubiquitous convoys, vast embassy compound, vulnerable forward operating bases and legions of civilian workers -- provides equally tempting targets. The U.S. commitment to Iraq is of course far greater than it was to Lebanon a quarter-century ago Where Reagan, in the worst FP move of his tenure, withdrew under fire. This provided 'proof' to the Jihadis that the US was weak and vulnerable.. And Washington is unlikely to redefine its interests with the alacrity of the Reagan administration and withdraw as swiftly. Nonetheless, the burden under which the United States now labors in Iraq would become exponentially heavier, with the pressure to exit threatening to overwhelm the strategic need to stay.
#1
Good old WaPo, trying to dictate US foreign policy by making everything sound like we're totally incapable of waging war against someone like the MMs. These jerkwads know nothing about modern warfare or the capabilities of the United States, just that "we're vulnerable". One strike against the United States forces and Iran CEASES TO EXIST, even restricting ourselves to conventional warfare. What a waste of oxygen.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/20/2006 18:16 Comments ||
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#2
Good old WaPo, trying to dictate US foreign policy by making everything sound like we're totally incapable of waging war against someone like the MMs. These jerkwads know nothing about modern warfare or the capabilities of the United States, just that "we're vulnerable". One strike against the United States forces and Iran CEASES TO EXIST, even restricting ourselves to conventional warfare. What a waste of oxygen.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/20/2006 18:16 Comments ||
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#3
A vast tableau of American facilities around the world -- as well as the streets of U.S. cities -- could be targets for retaliation by Iran's terrorist agents and surrogates.
In other words it would not be any worse then it is right now...
... only their ability to wage war and terrorists attacks would be reduced.
Without the MM's doling out piles of cash, many of the terrorists would bail and much of the remainder would be reduced to throwing rocks. Terrorism costs money - for people, travel, agents, bribes, arms, UN subversion, the works.
I guess the MM's are about half of the problem, with the Saudis stirring up the lion's share of the rest.
You can dismantle the MM network and: reduce the militia power in Iraq dramatically, dry up the deadly modern weapons flow into Iraq, reduce stolen elections in Iraq, cut the legs from under Syria and Hezbollah, cut Paleo terr funding and arms assistance, etc, etc, by doing what should come easily and naturally: removing the threat of the MM's.
Their nuke program and inability to STFU about it are, ironically, Godsends. They demand to be whacked for it and "misunderestimate" the US with a level of arrogance that is truly unique. Were it not so, had they any sense at all, any notion of what makes America tick, any perspective on just WTF happened in Afghanistan and Iraq and why, they would have stayed off the radar screen, developed their nukes on the sly and gone on bleeding us in all those other ways forever.
They're idjits, thank Gawd.
So is WaPo for constantly using the "fear" angle in their tripe. They think it's dispiriting and scary. For Jacksonians, it just pisses us off.
Posted by: random styling ||
05/20/2006 18:48 Comments ||
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#5
amen RS - WaPo thinks they're scaring off the American public. I think they're doing the Admin's job in preparing the public for war with Iran
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/20/2006 19:28 Comments ||
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#1
they do have a right to rally like that though, as do the aryan nations or any other freak group of people in the USA
Posted by: bk ||
05/20/2006 9:34 Comments ||
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#2
I completely agree with this. The sad thing is that if we had decent leadership, it could be easily stopped. Once again, our faux intellectuls and enlightened liberals will get the same result they will always get from their cowardly unwillingness to confront evil with anything but denial and verbal wit; bloodshed on a massive scale.
I disagree that there is any question as to the outcome. Those cheering for the demise of western society don't have any concept of what they are up against when we begin to fight back. They've spent too much time in places like our University system and with wannabees who are low enough on the totem pole to think it chic to hob nob with rich Saudi Princes and powerful dictators in order to feel smart and special. America's a big country. Too many - including Muslims, have tasted the fruits of the most propserous and free society in recorded history. They are counting on us to all nice walk into the showers. They couldn't be more wrong. Even the gangs will turn on them. It won't go as they envision.
There is still time to turn this around, but it is quickly running out.
#3
They do have a right to protest and rally if they do it peacfully. But once the rally leader speak of overthrowing the government and forcing a change from a democracy to some mulla inspired bullshit the rally has turned into sedition. this is against our laws of free speach and they can all be rolled up and jailed. these ase not Berkley types smoking pot thinking a group hug will make it OK. These are people that want to push our society back 1,000 years and destroy western civ as we know it. Hitler was a pacifist compared to this Islamic retoric.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/20/2006 10:57 Comments ||
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#4
do ya think they have a sharp eye focused on them
Posted by: bk ||
05/20/2006 10:58 Comments ||
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#5
You know SCOTUS Justice Kennedy thinks we should subordinate our Constitution to foreign laws. Maybe this is a good time to try that by applying Article 33 of the Mexican Constitution -
Article 33 - Foreigners are those who do not possess the qualities determined in Article 30. They have the right to the guarantees of Chapter I of the first title of this Constitution, but the Executive of the Union has the exclusive right to expel from the national territory, immediately and without necessity of judicial proceedings, all foreigners whose stay it judges inconvenient. Foreigners may not, in any manner, involve themselves in the political affairs of the country.
In September, a group of Muslim men praying near the main air intake duct at Giants Stadium was detained by suspicious FBI agents.
On Saturday, the federal agency and an Egyptian-American group plan to meet at the stadium in the latest FBI push to recruit Arab-Americans and repair relations strained in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It's an effort to build bridges with this community," said Les Wiser Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI's Newark bureau, who has made improving ties with New Jersey's Muslim community a priority.
The FBI accepted an invitation from the Egyptian American Group, an interdenominational organization that was formed after Sept. 11 when hundreds of New Jersey Muslims, Arab-Americans and south Asians were taken into custody as part of the investigation.
"It was thought by many people that the FBI is the enemy," said Suzanne Loutfy, a member of Egyptian American Group. "That's the perception we're fighting against."
Part of the event is aimed at interesting young Arab-Americans in law enforcement careers, particularly with the FBI, which needs their help as investigators and translators.
Loutfy's 18-year-old son will be at the event with six or seven of his friends. Kareem Loutfy, a senior at Carteret High School, says he's considering a career with the agency.
"Because of my background, I can easily approach people" in Arab-American communities, he said. "They would feel much more comfortable dealing with me because of who I am, and that would be great for both sides."
Other law enforcement agencies also are trying to better understand and connect with Muslims.
Through a new training film, officers in Union County will learn why the Arab-American driver might act a certain way. The film was seen for the first time Thursday by local police chiefs.
Union County Prosecutor Theodore J. Romankow said the 12-minute film will be shown to 1,950 police officers in the county.
#3
We've known for the last few years, especially since the translator debaucle, why Mueller gets a pass from the MSM. He must love being on the A-List. He sure as hell doesn't give a piss about us.
Posted by: random styling ||
05/20/2006 10:22 Comments ||
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NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Federal agents seized a Mercedes-Benz from an Army reservist who said the armor-plated, bulletproof luxury car probably belonged to Saddam Hussein.
Mighty big souvenir, Sarge.
First Sgt. William von Zehle said he bought the car while serving in Iraq. U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement agents said the car, which was also equipped with loudspeakers and hidden microphones, was being treated as a "possible war trophy." "It belonged to the former Iraqi regime," ICE spokesman Dean Boyd said. He said investigators were unsure whether the former Iraqi dictator actually owned it.
Von Zehle was quoted in news stories last summer as saying he bought the car for about $5,000 in 2003 while serving in Baghdad with the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion. "I can't prove it, but yeah, this was Saddam Hussein's car," he said.
Prob'ly not a good idea to brag about it, either.
The car was seized Thursday. Federal agents are holding the car while investigating possible violations of federal smuggling laws and an executive order barring the importation of property from the former Iraqi regime. Von Zehle was not charged with a crime.
The white Mercedes was also equipped with a series of pipes that shoot flames out the side of the car, von Zehle has said.
Now that sounds like Saddam; bet he got the idea from a Bond movie ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
a series of pipes that shoot flames out the side of the car
I believe those are popular in South Africa as an anti-carjacking defense.
#2
Yup, carjacking being so rampant there; one of my ML ran by a south-african had a story about it quite a while back, IIRC (not sure), they're pretty extreme, to say the least, and banned by the gvt. I can sooo picture Saddam wanting one of theses flamethrowers for his car, probably related to his quest for Big Guns.
#4
He paid for it. It's not a war trophie, it's a souvenir. After customes get's done with their taxes and he realizes he cant register it the thing will turn into a lawn fixture. Hope he likes it.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/20/2006 12:10 Comments ||
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Designed by an Italian company and named after the Arabic term for Jerusalem, Al Quds Jeans are baggy with a high waist to allow freedom of movement during the repeated kneeling for Islamic worship.
They have extra large pockets for glasses, trinkets and prayer beads and also feature discreet green seams at the top of the belt loops, in honour of the faiths sacred colour. The idea behind the jeans is not political, ideological or religious at all. It is a cultural act, said Susanna Cavalli, chief of product development for Al Quds Jeans.
Posted by: john ||
05/20/2006 12:36 ||
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Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri on Friday rejected Afghan President Hamid Karzais statement in which he had accused Pakistan of training militants and sending them into Afghanistan. I am saddened over whatever he (Karzai) has said, but still it is not clear whether he had said that, Kasuri said, in response to Karzais recent assertions. Kasuri said that a tripartite commission was in place and if the Afghan president had any information regarding cross border infiltration and presence of Osama Bin Laden and Mulla Omer in Pakistan, he should share this information with the commission in order that these problems be solved bilaterally.
Kasuri also ruled out handing over of Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan to the United States or any other country for investigation purposes. Yes. We are under a lot of pressure on the issue of Dr AQ Khan, but will not surrender, the foreign minister said, while concluding a two-day debate on foreign policy in the Senate. Opposition senators had accused the government of taking a U-turn on foreign policy after 9/11 under US pressure and of compromising national interests, especially those related to Afghanistan, Kashmir and AQ Khan.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/20/2006 00:00 ||
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Baghdad, 23 May (AKI) - The number two of the al-Qaeda network, Ayman al-Zawahiri, visited Iraq under a false name in September 1999 to take part in the ninth Popular Islamic Congress, former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi has revealed to pan-Arab daily al-Hayat. In an interview, Allawi made public information discovered by the Iraqi secret service in the archives of the Saddam Hussein regime, which sheds light on the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Islamic terrorist network. He also said that both al-Zawahiri and Jordanian militant al-Zarqawi probably entered Iraq in the same period.
"Al-Zawahiri was summoned by Izza Ibrahim Al-Douri then deputy head of the council of the leadership of the revolution - to take part in the congress, along with some 150 other Islamic figures from 50 Muslim countries," Allawi said.
According to Allawi, important information has been gathered regarding the presence of another key terrorist figure operating in Iraq - the Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"The Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi entered Iraq secretly in the same period," Allawi affirmed, "and began to form a terrorist cell, even though the Iraqi services do not have precise information on his entry into the country," he said.
Allawi's remarks come after statements to al-Hayat by King Abdallah II of Jordan over Saddam's refusal to hand over al-Zarqawi to the authorities in Amman.
On this question Allawi said: ''The words of the Jordanian King are correct and important. We have proof of al-Zawahiri's visit to Iraq, but we do not have the precise date or information on al-Zarqawi's entry, though it is likely that he arrived around the same time." more intel to come spread the woid!
#1
This can't be true. The MSM would have told us if it was true.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/20/2006 11:53 Comments ||
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#2
Of course, the MSM is so busy getting after Bush, the poor little folks don't have time to chase down trivia.
/sarcasm off
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/20/2006 12:06 Comments ||
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#3
I thought the bad Doctor's presence had already been documented in some Iraqi Intelligence Service papers found in April '03? I recall the specific references to picking up hotel tabs, etc. (and seem to recall he stayed at the Mansour Melia, current home to a few western media agencies and - bizarrely - location of a decent Chinese restaurant back in the late 80s). In addition to the documentation of the details of the Iraq-AQ relationship in something that even the NYT - inexplicably - reported extensively last year, or was it in '04?
Anyway, I guess I should get around to reading "The Connection" by the young Weekly Standard author, plus his updates. He's gone to the trouble to assemble and analyze the many many pieces of the puzzle that are public.
The No. 2 U.S. general in Iraq says there has been another increase in sectarian violence in the country during the last two weeks, and he blames al-Qaida for sparking it. The general spoke via satellite to reporters at the Pentagon.
Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli says there was little sectarian violence in Iraq before the attack on the Shi'ite Golden Dome Mosque in February. He says a spike in such violence at that time later dissipated. However, during the last week or two, the general says, sectarian violence has increased again, and he blames the Iraqi branch of the al-Qaida terrorist network, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He says the insurgents are trying to disrupt the process of forming a new government, and convince Iraqis that democracy is not solving their problems.
"Those accelerators are the actions of Zarqawi and his terrorists, who see this as a tremendous opportunity, a tremendous strategy that they can implement, that they can use to try to get Iraqis to concentrate on something totally different," he says.
General Chiarelli says there are signs that the insurgents will fail, and his forces, along with Iraqi forces, are doing everything they can to prevent the sectarian tensions from getting any worse.
"The good news is that we are not seeing Iraqis in neighborhoods picking up arms against each other, he says. We continue our presence patrols, our joint patrols in the neighborhoods to give the people a feeling of security."
General Chiarelli says the formation of the new Iraqi government, expected on Saturday, is a 'historic and decisive' moment that will enable the country to deal with the issues that are behind the violence, so the country can move toward stability and self-sufficiency. He says the security forces are improving and are doing what they can to fight the violence, but the general believes the long-term solution to the Iraqi insurgency lies in non-military areas, like improving the economy, that the new government will be able to address.
"Finally, we have a government that can concentrate on doing exactly that, he says, and that is absolutely essential, to take the angry young men off the street, to give them an alternative. And, believe me, they want an alternative. And, I honestly believe, as this government begins work on the policy that will be required to put people to work, that you're going to see a decrease in violence."
The new Iraqi government has been five months in the making, as politicians bickered over Cabinet posts. U.S. officials say the atmosphere of uncertainty during that period contributed to the continuing violence. They hope that the swearing-in of the new government will be a major turning point in efforts to build the Iraqi security forces, and to address other problems, including the economy and sectarian tensions, and also the role of private militias, the delivery of basic services and a wide range of other urgent issues.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/20/2006 00:31 ||
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Yasser Arafat transferred millions of dollars in international aid and taxes transferred to the Palestinian Authority by Israel to purchase large quantities of weapons, the PA chairman's former financial aide, Fuad Shubaki, has told the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). Some of the Israeli money, Shubaki told his investigators, was also used to fund Palestinian terror groups.
Shubaki was apprehended two months ago during an IDF raid on the Jericho prison where he was being held together with Ahmed Sa'adat - leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - and the other assassins of former Israeli tourism minister Rehavan Ze'evi. Prior to his imprisonment in Jericho, Shubaki served as the chief financial officer for the Palestinian security forces and as such was the mastermind behind the Karine A weapons ship caught by the IDF loaded with advanced weaponry in the Red Sea in 2002 as it was making its way to the Gaza Strip.
Under Arafat's direction, Shubaki, 64, told his interrogators, high-ranking PA security officials were involved in manufacturing and purchasing weapons in addition to funding terror groups in their war against Israel.
Shubaki estimated that $7-10 million were used every two years to purchase arms for the Gaza Strip, and another $2 million were spent on weapons for the West Bank. The money, he said, came from international aid to the PA, tax money Israel routinely transferred to the PA and taxes collected in the Gaza Strip. Shubaki confessed to involvement in the purchasing of weapons for the head of the Tanzim terror group in Gaza, used in attacks against military installations and Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.
He revealed that several senior Palestinian officials were involved in the allocation of the money to military purposes. Among them was Jibril Rajoub - head of the PA Preventative Security Force in the West Bank - who together with the other officials received payments for his part in the weapons purchases. Following the outbreak of violence in September 2000, Shubaki told his interrogators that Arafat ordered the appointment of PA officials in various Arab countries to facilitate the arms purchases. The PA officials would transfer Shibaki their arm-deal proposals and he would then take them to Arafat for final approval.
In 2001, Shubaki said, Iran offered to assist the Palestinians in training soldiers, providing weapons and funding the construction of weapon factories. Arafat, he said, rejected the offer - made to Shubaki during a meeting with Iranian officials in Dubai - fearing it was an Iranian plot to undermine his rule.
One of the largest weapon deals struck between Iran and the Palestinians was the attempt to smuggle over 50 tons of armaments aboard the Karine A ship in 2002. Shubaki revealed that the transaction was coordinated between the PA, Hizbullah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
In addition to the light weaponry used by the Palestinians at the time, the Karine A also carried Sagger guided anti-tank missiles used by Hizbullah against Israeli armor in Lebanon, LAW anti-tank missiles, long-range mortars, and mines. Also on board the vessel were short and long-range Katyusha, including 122 mm rockets with a range of some 20 kilometers. The ship was eventually intercepted by Naval commandos en-route to Gaza 500 km off of Israel's coast.
Rival paramilitary forces are creating a dangerous situation in the Palestinian territories and must be brought under control under President Mahmoud Abbas, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
Rice said the deployment of armed contingents from Abbas' Fatah faction and the militant Hamas group that has formed a new government had created a "very tense" climate in the territories. "We obviously believe that President Abbas, who we believe has the confidence of the Palestinian people, should be able to exercise his responsibilities as president of the country," Rice said. "All Palestinian parties ought to respect the need of the Palestinian people to have a secure environment and not to have a situation in which there is violence in the streets. The Palestinian leadership has every obligation to get control of it."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Yea. But, for the first time in recent history, more dangerous to Paleos than to Israel.
#2
It's not a bug, it's a feature. What is the problem with the Paleostinian Situation, Condi? They had an election and they chose Hamas. It is NOT our obligation to protect them from themselves.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/20/2006 10:58 Comments ||
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#3
I agree AP this is a self inflicted gunshot wound to the Paleo's face. Not my fault and as long as they keep shooting each other I see it as a good thing. Sorry about the fact that some who should not die will die. But then they voted for death and destruction by voting in the Hamas. All I got to say is good luck, there will be no voting them out.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/20/2006 11:53 Comments ||
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MANILA, May 19 (Reuters) - Muslim envoys visiting the Philippines to review a 1996 peace deal with Islamic rebels have said they were disappointed over Manila's failure to carry out promised reforms on the restive southern island of Mindanao.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a group of 57 Muslim states, sent a five-member delegation to the Philippines this week to look at obstacles holding up a peace agreement between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and Manila.
Insurgencies by four Muslim groups and communist rebels have killed more than 160,000 people and delayed development of the Philippines' resource-rich south since the late 1960s.
"The treaty has not been fully implemented," Sayed Kassem el-Masry, an Egyptian diplomat and head of the OIC mission, told a meeting of government officials and leaders of the MNLF on Thursday.
"We have to sit down and resolve the problem."
The Muslim envoys visited Mindanao this week before heading to southwestern Jolo island on Saturday to see how communities scarred by nearly 40 years of conflict are faring.
During their stopovers in five cities in the south, some local Muslim leaders petitioned the OIC mission to work for the freedom of MNLF founder Nur Misuari, who has been detained since 2002 while on trial over a failed rebellion on Jolo in late 2001.
The OIC was worried the peace deal may soon collapse due to growing frustration among former Muslim guerrillas about Manila's failure to provide social and economic assistance to the families of 50,000 MNLF members.
Jesus Dureza, the president's adviser on the peace process, said the government had completed the first part of the accord by absorbing 10,000 former rebels into security forces, adding the implementation of the agreement remained on track.
The MNLF leaders have been complaining to the OIC since 1999 that Manila had reneged on its commitments under the peace deal after Filipino lawmakers watered down a law creating a Muslim autonomous region in the south.
I can't help but thinking that if these diplomats from the OIC manage to screw up the peace deal, they're not going to be the ones to suffer. The people they're pretending to act on behalf of on Mindanao will suffer.
Posted by: Phil ||
05/20/2006 0:49 Comments ||
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#2
ameture hour continues...
Posted by: bk ||
05/20/2006 11:10 Comments ||
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#3
What peace deal - iff the articles in the Manila news and blogs is accurate, the Muslims violated the peace deal before it was even signed.
IRAN'S only Jewish MP strongly denied reports in a Canadian newspaper overnight that Iran may force non-Muslims to wear coloured badges in public so they can be identified.
"This report is a complete fabrication and is totally false," Maurice Motammed said in Tehran. "It is a lie, and the people who invented it wanted to make political gain" by doing so.
The National Post newspaper quoted human rights groups as saying that Iran's parliament passed a law this week setting a public dress code and requiring non-Muslims to wear special insignia.
Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear a yellow, red or blue strip of cloth, respectively, on the front of their clothes, it said.
Mr Motammed said he had been present in parliament when a bill to promote "an Iranian and Islamic style of dress for women" was voted. "In the law, there is no mention of religious minorities," he added.
MPs representing Iran's Jewish, Christian and Zoroastrian minorities sit on all parliamentary committees, particularly the cultural one, he said.
"This is an insult to the Iranian people and to religious minorities in Iran," he said.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said overnight, during an official visit to Ottawa, that "anything of that kind would be totally repugnant to civilised countries, if it's the case, and something that would just further indicate to me the nature of this regime. It would be appalling."
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he had only seen reports about the law but that he would not be surprised by them.
"Unfortunately, we have seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action," he said.
"It think it boggles the mind that any regime on the face of the earth would want to do anything that could remind people of Nazi Germany," he added.
"The fact that such a measure could even be contemplated, I think, is absolutely abhorrent."
Harper's parliamentary secretary, Jason Kenney, told the House of Commons that Canadian officials were trying to verify the claims.
#2
Mr Motammed said he had been present in parliament when a bill to promote "an Iranian and Islamic style of dress for women" was voted. "In the law, there is no mention of religious minorities," he added.
Then Mr Motammed didn't attend the full meeting. Being a Jew, he was probably asked to leave.
The law does not apply to just women. the Iranian and Islamic dress code applies to men. And the ban on western clothing applies to all. Which does present the problem of identifying the infidels if all are in Iranian Islamic garb.
The cloth strips story was probably an idea bandied about by the lawmakers. More likely end result will be an approved "infidel costume" that looks islamic but will provide a visual queue of infidel status. Whether they go all the way to separate "jew", "christian", etc fashion looks, or just a one-size-fits-all-infidels costume, it's the same thing.
#3
Thin - I suspect you are right. Allowing a visual clue other than arm bands will allow the rest of the world to sleep well with their decision to ignore the equivalent of yellow arm bands.
BEIRUT: A prominent Syrian human rights lawyer who was arrested this week is being subject to beatings, his brother said Friday, even as the European Union condemned Syria's latest crackdown on dissidents.
The official Syrian press announced Friday that 17 "Syrian traitors" have been arrested this week - including lawyer Anwar al-Bunni - in connection with the signing of the "Beirut-Damascus Declaration," which urged the Syrian government to recognize Lebanon's independence and called for better relations between the two countries.
"It has now become forbidden to even think in Syria," Bunni's brother Akram told The Daily Star in a telephone interview.
Late Wednesday, Anwar Bunni was taken from his home by Syrian security personnel.
"He called out to me for help as we live in the same building, but by the time I got to him, he was gone," said Akram, adding that he had been informed by lawyers who visited his brother that "he was beaten, with visible marks on his face."
The EU issued a statement criticizing Syria and urged the "Syrian authorities to reconsider all cases of political prisoners and immediately release all prisoners of conscience."
"The EU expresses its deep concern about the recent widespread harassment of human rights defenders, their families and peaceful political activists, in particular arbitrary arrests and repeated incommunicado detention," said the statement.
Contacted by The Daily Star, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the arrests were "a clear message by the Syrian regime that it has zero tolerance toward any form of dissidence in Syria."
HRW's representative for the Middle East, Nadim Houry, said: "The arrests of activists and intellectuals by Syrian authorities have been happening over the past year, with increased intensity over the past few days, to declare there is no room for a third middle opinion, one between the official Syrian line and the international community line."
Akram al-Bunni cast doubt on the official reason given for the arrests, saying that "there are tens of other writings and petitions of this nature, so why such a strong reaction to this particular petition, which in no way offends the regime?"
Akram, a journalist, spent 17 years behind bars for some of his writings, which were considered "against the regime."
"This new campaign is probably a local reaction to the international pressures on Syria, such as the new UN Security Council Resolution 1680," he said, "but what is the logic in that? I don't know."
Akram Bunni said he expects to be arrested soon, adding that "the wave of arrests will continue until all Syrians who signed the petition are behind bars."
"The sentencing can take up months, if not years, as has been known to take place in Syria's judicial system," he added.
The petition was signed by at least 300 Syrian and Lebanon intellectuals and was published in Beirut last Thursday.
Denunciations of the arrests were also launched by Lebanese officials such as Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and former Prime Minister Salim Hoss, who sent a letter to President Bashar Assad requesting the release of the detainees.
Jewish leaders, the Israeli government and chancelleries of free countries are scrambling to find out whether there is truth to a report that Iran is readying a law that would require Jews and Christians and members of other minority religions to wear special identifying marks on their clothing.
On Friday, the Jewish Community's representative in Iran's parliament, known as the Majlis, Morris Mohtemed spoke with the secretary general of the Iranian American Jewish Federation in Los Angeles, Sam Kermanian, and told him the story reported by the National Post in Canada today was false. "We have not been able to confirm the accuracy of the report, nonetheless we are pursuing this issue with concern," Mr. Kermanian said in an interview with The New York Sun.
The National Post story reported that, "Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth," if the legislation winding its way through Iran's parliament passed. Already, the report has invited scorn from western leaders. Speaking Friday in Ottawa, Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "Unfortunately, we've seen enough already from the Iranian regime to suggest that it is very capable of this kind of action. We've seen a number of things from the Iranian regime that are along these lines. And the fact that such a measure could even be contemplated is absolutely abhorrent."
Canada's leader said that in a press conference with Australia's prime minister, John Howard, who said he had not previously heard the report, but "If that is true I would find that totally repugnant. It obviously echoes the most horrible period of genocide in the world's history -- the marking of Jewish people with a mark on their clothing by the Nazis."
At the State Department, the spokesman, Sean McCormack, said in his press briefing Friday that America has yet to confirm the content of the law in question, but that if it was true the legislation was "despicable."
It is unclear whether the report that such a law would require non-Muslims to wear different colored badges is correct. There is a legislative proposal that has been considered by the parliament for two years that would impose dress codes on Muslims and non-Muslims.
The executive vice chairman of the conference of presidents of major American Jewish organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein, said yesterday he has yet to confirm the report. "We have gotten word about Mohtemed's reaction, and we heard it from another leader in Tehran," he told The New York Sun. "It is still unclear whether the legislation will require a uniform code of dress or for Muslims or whether it will extend to non Muslims having to wear some identifying marker." Mr. Hoenlein added that it is not inconceivable such regulation, reminiscent of the Nazis, would be contemplated under President Ahmadinejad, a man who has publicly questioned whether the Nazi atrocities ever occurred.
Iran's constitution already carves out special status for non-Muslims. For example, it prohibits non-Muslims from obtaining senior posts in either the army or government. A national ordinance made into law in 2000 and 2001 requires all non-Muslim butchers, grocers, and purveyors of food to post a form in the window of their place of business warning Muslims they do not share their faith. At the time the code was defended in order to enforce Islamic dietary law. Muslims in Iran officially enjoy preference over non-Muslims in terms of admission to universities and colleges.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/20/2006 00:01 ||
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#1
I think this report has been claimed to be false
Posted by: DanNY ||
05/20/2006 0:06 Comments ||
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#2
An ex-Iranian ex-coworker of the Christian faith told me that Christians in western Iran were not permitted to buy red meat as they did not want them to grow up strong.
#3
What difference does it make? They've already expressed their desire to wipe Israel off the map. Christians and Jews might as well be wearing arm bands the way their society is structured. Yet the fussy handwringers finally get excited by a mere symbol that causes them cog dis. This whole confirm/deny of something, that might as well be true, is just to allow the Iranians a chance to move away from such a powerful symbol.
#4
It's really amazing how a simean belief system can get the entire planet in such a uproar.
Let me get this straight, my group of humans(simeans) thinks they know that there is an all powerful force out there, however, this other group of humans think they know that there is an all powerful force out there that is slightly different from our version of an all powerful force that is out there somewhere.so in order to satisfy out tiny little thinking organs we or they MUST kill any who dont think the same way, I think thet the bald monkeys ( humans ) will ALL get what they deserve, whan you shit in your own bed too long it doesnt make for a very restful place.
Posted by: bk ||
05/20/2006 11:22 Comments ||
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#5
Confirm/deny...hmmm....seems to be a pattern here.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/20/2006 11:41 Comments ||
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Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani promised that Tehran would cooperate with UN inspectors, in a meeting late on Thursday in Vienna with International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohamed ElBaradei. "The discussion was that of course Iran is continuing its cooperation with the IAEA and that inspectors will continue their work in accordance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty comprehensive safeguards," Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said on Friday.
IAEA Spokesman Marc Vidricaire said Larijanai and ElBaradei had "talks about the usual things, issues that are still unanswered and of course the requirements of the IAEA board of governors to provide some confidence-building matters."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/20/2006 00:00 ||
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BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union said on Friday it was deeply concerned over the recent deterioration of human rights in Syria, and called for the release of all political prisoners.
The 25-nation EU said the situation has substantially deteriorated in Syria, where six activists - including a leading rights lawyer - were arrested on Wednesday. Their arrests brought to nine the number of people detained this week in what was described as the largest crackdown on democracy campaigners in Syria in years. The EU expresses its deep concern about the recent widespread harassment of human rights defenders, their families and peaceful political activists, in particular arbitrary arrests and repeated incommunicado detention, it said in a statement.
The EU urged Syrian authorities to reconsider all cases of political prisoners and immediately release all prisoners of conscience, and to adhere to its own constitution, which provides for freedom of expression and assembly rights for citizens.
Human rights groups said most of the detainees were arrested for signing a petition calling for an improvement in ties with Lebanon.
That would do it allright.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/20/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
EU is a state of mind
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/20/2006 11:39 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said there was not a "second to lose" if the world was to save hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan's conflict-ravaged Darfur region from starvation and disease. "The region is undergoing the worst humanitarian crisis gripping the planet," Annan said in an opinion piece in the French daily Le Figaro published on Friday. "Without massive and immediate support relief organisations will not be able to continue their work, and hunger, malnutrition and sickness will claim hundreds of thousands of victims," he wrote.
RIYADH - Saudi authorities said on Friday that 15 Saudi former inmates of the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba returned home overnight and that they hoped others would follow soon. Fifteen Saudi citizens who were detained at Guantanamo Bay have been repatriated, landing in the country early Friday, Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said, quoted by the state SPA news agency.
NEW YORK--As a major importer of Iranian oil, Japan's commitment to nuclear nonproliferation could be severely compromised, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has warned.
North Korea may be preparing to launch a long-range ballistic missile that could reach parts of the United States, Japanese media reports said on Friday, but Japan's government said it did not believe a launch was imminent. 
carries out the wishes of parliament in the matter of former congresswoman 
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A Somali-born former member of parliament who resigned this week after admitting she lied on her asylum application 14 years ago will stay in the Netherlands until her citizenship is reviewed, her spokeswoman said Friday.
An Egyptian who has twice been jailed under Canada's controversial security-certificate process, repeated in Federal Court yesterday that he is not a terrorist and that his only conversation with a senior al-Qaeda operative was over a cup of tea.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called a proposal to make English the official language "racist" on the Senate floor yesterday. "This amendment is racist. I think it's directed basically to people who speak Spanish," the Democrat said during the already tense debate over immigration reform.
NEW YORK -- Arizona Sen. John McCain received a cantankerous reception Friday at the New School's commencement, where dozens of faculty members and students turned their backs and raised protest signs and a student speaker mocked him as he sat silently on stage.
"George Bush's favorite Democrat," they call him. "Republican Lite," they sneer. But liberals are no longer just venting on Internet blogs and talk radio programs about their centrist nemesis: Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Federal agents seized a Mercedes-Benz from an Army reservist who said the armor-plated, bulletproof luxury car probably belonged to Saddam Hussein.
Foreign Minister 
Rival paramilitary forces are creating a dangerous situation in the Palestinian territories and must be brought under control under President Mahmoud Abbas, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
Jewish leaders, the Israeli government and chancelleries of free countries are scrambling to find out whether there is truth to a report that Iran is readying a law that would require Jews and Christians and members of other minority religions to wear special identifying marks on their clothing.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani promised that Tehran would cooperate with UN inspectors, in a meeting late on Thursday in Vienna with International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Mohamed ElBaradei. "The discussion was that of course Iran is continuing its cooperation with the IAEA and that inspectors will continue their work in accordance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty comprehensive safeguards," Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said on Friday.
