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3 Gitmoids hanged themselves
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
130 more families of Afghan refugees return to homeland
One hundred and thirty families consisting on 560 individuals Friday left for their homeland under voluntary repatriation programme launched by United Nations High Commission for Refugees in 2002. All these repatriates, in buses and trucks, belonged to Afghan refugees' camp set up here along Super Highway in 1985. They were destined to Kabul, Qandhar and Sandus and would enter Afghanistan from Chaman, Balochistan, told Tahira Gulafshan, Chief of UNHCR?s City Office here, on the occasion of departure of the refugees. She said from 1,200 to 1,500 refugees were repatriating in a week from Karachi under this scheme. Three operations were being carried out over a week.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So it isn't a quagmire, then?
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2006 19:20 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Somali govt urges Islamists to hand over arms
Please?
MOGADISHU - Somalia’s interim government has called on Islamist gunmen, who seized Mogadishu from an alliance of warlords, to hand over their weapons in the hope a disarmament would allow lawmakers to return to the capital.

The government has welcomed the defeat of the warlords, who many blame for undermining it, and is in talks with Islamic leaders to persuade them to support the administration.

So far the government, formed in late 2004 in the relative security of Kenya, has failed to assert any real authority over the country.
Wonder why?
“We have asked them to hand over their weapons and are still waiting for their answer,” Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayr said on Saturday.
It'll be a while, they're laughing really hard right now ...
“If the Islamic courts and other stakeholders like the businessmen hand over their weapons it’s a really good step. The government could operate in Mogadishu within months,” he said by telephone from Baidoa, some 240 km (150 miles) from the capital where the government based itself because of security fears.
And he's not getting any closer than Baidoa, either.
Diplomats say it is too early to tell whether the Islamic militia, which controls much of southern Sudan, will help install the government in Mogadishu or set up a rival authority.
I dunno, Mr. Striped Pants, what do you think a bunch of blood-thirsty, al-Qaeda inspired Islamcist killers will do?
One Western diplomat, who did not want to be named, said attention was focused on the intentions of Ethiopia -- Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf’s main foreign sponsor and the Horn of Africa’s top military power. Somalia’s big, nominally Christian-led neighbour, is wary of overt Islamist influence in the region.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Africa Subsaharan
Africa turns its eyes to Islam
Posted by: ryuge || 06/11/2006 07:42 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "In Somalia people have known nothing but war for 15 years," says an aid worker who travels in the region frequently.

By all means, please permit them to continue.
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/11/2006 8:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Islam would be the opposite direction from peace.
Posted by: newc || 06/11/2006 9:55 Comments || Top||


Bangladesh
Seven suspected robbers arrested by RAB in N’ganj
Steve Y is going to be busy next week with Crossfires, I think ...
NARAYANGANJ, June 9:–Seven suspected robbers were arrested by Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from Madanpur area of Bandar Thana on Wednesday night, reports UNB.

RAB sources said they caught them with two revolvers while they were taking preparation for committing robbery in the locality. The arrested robbers were identified as Ratan, Siraj Khandoker, Sumon, Jilani, Salahuddin, Motaleb and Ali Hossain. A case was filed against them.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Show us where your boyz are hiding. We'll protect your identity by slipping youse out in the midle of the night. Point our your boyz, and we'll let youse go.
Posted by: wxjames || 06/11/2006 12:50 Comments || Top||


Britain
Terror raid pair may sue police
EFL
Two men released without charge after an anti-terror raid in east London are to take legal action, it is reported. Abul Koyair, 20, and his brother Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who was shot, will sue the Met, their solicitor Gareth Peirce told the Observer. Other papers speculate the pair, from Forest Gate, could claim up to £500,000 in damages for their ordeal.

The police have defended their tactics as the Independent Police Complaints Commission investigates the shooting. The men, who had been held for a week under the Terrorism Act 2000 and questioned on suspicion of terrorism involvement, were released without charge on Friday after police found no trace of a chemical device at their home.

Ms Peirce, who is acting for the family, told the Observer the two brothers would now be launching a legal action for damages against the Metropolitan Police. "It will not be enough; the emotional damage will be enormous. In similar cases, some individuals never recover from an incident like this," she said.
It's not like anyone was beheaded.
"Nobody identified themselves as police as they stormed in wearing terrifying black hoods and started bashing them over the head.

"They only realised they were officers when they saw the word 'police' on their backs."

According to reports in the Sunday Times and the Sunday Telegraph the brothers could claim up to £500,000 in compensation for Mr Kahar's injuries and for libel damages.

Meanwhile the largest of demonstrations on Sunday is expected to take place outside Scotland Yard. Organisations including the usual nobs Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the Muslim Association of Britain, and the Islamic Human Rights Commission, are among those expected to be represented.

The MCB's secretary general Mohammed Abdul Bari, who visited Forest Gate on Saturday, told BBC News he was relieved the men had been freed, but that it was important for Muslims to continue to work with the police. "In 7/7, many of them were blown apart, and one of the girls, Saharia Islam, was a regular worshipper in our mosque, in the East London Mosque, so we are Londoners. And anything happens in London, one-tenth of the population are from the Muslim population, so they are affected."
Posted by: ryuge || 06/11/2006 07:02 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why am I thinking of Paleo children equiped with toy gu8ns and sent toward an IDF post?
Posted by: gromgoru || 06/11/2006 8:34 Comments || Top||

#2  These assholes will be lucky if they don't end up being dragged back into this and prosecuted. Just because they let them go from jail doesn't mean they are through with them. I'm sure they are stepping on everyone they can round up and someone may still squeak.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/11/2006 14:56 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Cindy Sheehan: Zarqawi's Death Bad News
"Peace Mom" Cindy Sheehan said Friday that she's troubled by the death of al-Qaida's top operational terrorist, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, predicting that it will actually make things worse for U.S. troops in Iraq. "I suspect it's gong to make the insurgency in Iraq worse," she told Cincinnati, Ohio's 9News.

The peace crusader added that the expected increase in violence "will just prove to me that our presence in Iraq is just fueling the violence, fueling the insurgency." "The killing and the cycle of violence has to stop," Sheehan insisted.

The California traitor pacifist was in Cincinnati to join with the city's Women's Choir for a scheduled "teach-in" for peace. Sheehan was in New York earlier this week, campaigning against New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who she called "a little less evil" than President Bush.
Posted by: ryuge || 06/11/2006 00:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It'd be nice if she'd get on her cycle of violence and drive it off a cliff...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/11/2006 0:51 Comments || Top||

#2  Her son is probably getting tangled up from turning over in his grave on such a constant cycle. What a stupid ass she is.
Why is she still getting all of this attention? How dare she comment without having been to Iraq and experience and see what's actually happening. To base all of her crap on incorrect news that is written by the MSM. sigh.
Posted by: Jan || 06/11/2006 1:36 Comments || Top||

#3 
How does anyone with these views ever clear their home of roaches?
Posted by: Master of Obvious || 06/11/2006 1:36 Comments || Top||

#4  Who says she does?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/11/2006 1:44 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, yeah, considering he was such a force for moderation and was dedicated to bringing peace to Iraqis, it's a real tragedy he's gone, Cindy.

But I'm sure you can console yourself with a few of his snuff videos. Those beheadings will bring back some fond memories for you, I'm sure.
Posted by: Desert Blondie || 06/11/2006 6:02 Comments || Top||

#6  Hey, Mother Sheehan, here's one for you: What Casey Sheehan Died For.

Bitch.
Posted by: Matt || 06/11/2006 8:07 Comments || Top||

#7  People like Sheehan & Berg are counter-productive to their cause. The notion that the death of a man who would just as soon saw your head off as look at you is bad borders on insanity.
Posted by: kclark || 06/11/2006 8:11 Comments || Top||

#8  Ann Coulter questioned the motives of people who use their loved ones death as a vehicle for spreading their Bush Derangement Syndrome, and of course, is being mercilesly attacked. She hit the nail right on the head. Every word that Sheehan speaks only further dishonors her son. I'm trying to be fair, but I can only conclude that she did not love her son, and is actually enjoying his death. I've said it before and will say it again. These people have no soul.
Posted by: mcsegeek1 || 06/11/2006 11:28 Comments || Top||

#9  mcscegeek,
I don't think she hates her son, but they were probably estranged and his death means they will never be reconciled. For this she blames Bush and the US Army. It's safer than looking honestly at her relationship with her son.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 06/11/2006 14:50 Comments || Top||

#10  Her son was killed by a bunch of assholes just like Zarky, not Bush. Now she has the balls to say his death is bad news? It is amazing how far around the bend these liberals have gone after 6 years of Republican majority. What would another 4 years in 2008 do to them? Mass suicide? She should save the world and kill herself.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/11/2006 14:52 Comments || Top||

#11  Cindy Shithan is disgusting. Zarki and his friends are the ones to killed her son. Yet she is upset at Zarki's death?

No, she hated her son. I can't find any other explanation for her siding with the very people who killed him then hatred for her son and everything he stood for.

Cindy is far, far, beyond any 'grieving mother' excuses. She is actively on the side of the terrorists.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 06/11/2006 16:14 Comments || Top||

#12  She should have been on the rooftop spreadeagled nude to protected Zark in his time of need. Surely, no self-respecting civilized member of the world would have dared loosen a pair of Gut Busters(tm) on Zark and his buddies with her peace crusader body in the way.
Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 || 06/11/2006 16:29 Comments || Top||

#13  In the pic, she looks like she's having a bad trip or something.
Posted by: Korora || 06/11/2006 17:10 Comments || Top||

#14  #1: It'd be nice if she'd get on her cycle of violence and drive it off a cliff...

I have this mental image of Elmira Gump/Wicked Witch of the West pedaling her bicycle past Dorothy's window in the middle of the tornado.
All that's needed is green makeup.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 06/11/2006 18:15 Comments || Top||


Great White North
Cops probe anti-Muslim knife attack
A relieved MSM finally finds some Canadian "Islamophobia" to play up
Thank goodness, it was getting to be such a dry spell for them ...
MONTREAL -- A suspected hate crime is being investigated after a Muslim imam was attacked by a knife-wielding man outside his mosque. A 34-year-old man was charged in court yesterday with armed assault, uttering threats and possession of a dangerous weapon and will appear again tomorrow. Police say Pierre Brabant was arrested Friday after an incident outside of the Al Qods mosque.

Imam Said Jazeri said he and a friend were leaving the mosque around midnight when a man carrying a knife approached. The man pointed the knife at Jazeri and asked: "Do you want to die a martyr?" Jazeri said he called police while the man chased his friend down the street.

"I don't know him, he doesn't me. Why does he have a knife to kill me?" said an agitated Jazeri yesterday.
There are any number of decent folks who have the same question, though they ask it about different people. Welcome to the club, imam.
Police spokesman Benoit Couture said investigators consider the attack a hate crime. "The suspect was not only running towards the guys with a weapon, he wanted to cause them harm while at the same time making hateful comments about their religion and their clothing," Couture said.

Jazeri said it will be up to police to determine if there was a link between the incident and recent anger directed at Muslims following last weekend's arrest of 17 terror suspects in southern Ontario. "These people have prejudices and it looks like it has to do with our situation these days," he said.
Posted by: ryuge || 06/11/2006 07:47 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  One day they'll have a monument immortalizing Pierre Brabant in a central plaza in Montreal. Or, they'll have a whipping post for Dhimmies.
Posted by: gromgoru || 06/11/2006 8:32 Comments || Top||

#2  "I don't know him, he doesn't me. Why does he have a knife to kill me?" said an agitated Jazeri yesterday.


For the same reason that Osama and the assmen want to kill us. Now, exactly what do you "preach" in that mosk of your, hmmmmm? Maybe he sees an attack on you as self defense.
Posted by: AlanC || 06/11/2006 9:40 Comments || Top||

#3  "I don't know him, he doesn't me. Why does he have a knife to kill me?" said an agitated Jazeri yesterday.

Your brethren didn't know the people they were going to kill with their three tons of explosives. Ask them questions like that.

Oh, wait. This guy knows EXACTLY why they were doing what they were doing. He's a freaking imam -- he's the type that teaches them that crap.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/11/2006 9:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Not so funny, is it, Jazeri, when nutbars come at you screaming death? Like looking in a mirror isn't it? How's that feel?
Posted by: Thinemp Whimble2412 || 06/11/2006 9:52 Comments || Top||

#5  Only Muslims can be victims.

It's in the AP Stylebook.
Posted by: flyover || 06/11/2006 10:00 Comments || Top||

#6  Are the Canucks going to add "Hate crime" to the list of charges for the terrorists?
Posted by: anonymous2u || 06/11/2006 11:05 Comments || Top||

#7  Here's the part left out of that particular report:

Jazeri is a prominent voice in Montreal's Muslim community. His mosque was among four in the city to be vandalized after he organized a protest against the controversial editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Link

Random anti-musilm violence? Not so much. We've seen what happens at these cartoon protests around the world. The 34 year old still deserves to be thrown in jail. Escalating homegrown violence is the worst way to deal with this problem, lest we become another France.
Posted by: Canukistanian || 06/11/2006 14:45 Comments || Top||

#8  "These people have prejudices and it looks like it has to do with our situation these days," he (Jazeri) said.
The problem will be solved when Canada becomes part of dar al-islam.
Then when "The Religion Of Peace" is in charge immoral and disorderly conduct will cease, or so Godly Muslims believe.
Posted by: tipper || 06/11/2006 18:06 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Pak group holds funeral prayers for Zarqawi
Amidst the 'soft image' campaign launched by President Pervez Musharraf to portray Pakistan as a moderate country, hardline Islamic group Jamat ud Dawa offered funeral prayers for al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi who was killed in Iraq this week.

"President Musharraf's favourite jihadi outfit, Jamaat ud Dawa, offered a special namaz-e-janaza, (funeral prayers) in Lahore in absentia for the Shia-killer from Jordan and condemned the statement by the Foreign Office that the death of al Zarqawi was an important milestone in the war against terrorism," said a newspaper on Sunday.

The prayer was led by the head of Dawa and founder leader of Lashkar-e-Toyaba, Hafiz Saeed, "while the congregation cried their heart out for the dead man", the paper said in an editorial. Dawa, banned by the United States, styles itself as an Islamic NGO, and Pakistan said it would go against the outfit only if the United Nations initiated such an action.

The outfit, kept under "watch list" by the Pakistan Interior Ministry, was also permitted to carry out relief and reconstruction activities in the last year's earthquake-hit areas of Pakistan occupied Kashmir and NWFP.

The Dawa's prayers came even as National Assembly Speaker Amir Hussain averted a move by some of the members of the Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA) to offer "fateha" or prayers for Zarqawi.

Hussain 'prevented the embarrassing situation' from getting out of hand by quoting the rules which stipulated fateha could only be offered on the demise of a present or former member of parliament or his relatives. Dawa's decision to hold a well publicised 'namaz-e-janaza' for Zarqawi came as President Musharraf directed the government to launch a 'soft image' campaign to rid the 'trade mark tag' of the 'warehouse jihadi militancy'.

Musharraf issued the directive on last Friday after a high level meeting with Information Ministry officials to boost Pakistan's image at home and abroad.

Expressing apprehension that Pakistan toyed with the idea of revival of 'jihadi' militant groups, the paper said the High Court in Karachi recently acquitted two doctors of helping Zarqawi 'because the police failed to make a good case against them'.

"Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed had kept Al Zarqawi in their house in Karachi and looked after him and then sent him to South Waziristan for his journey to Afghanistan. The two Karachi doctors were revealed as Jandullah members by the Jandullah leader, Ataullah.
Posted by: john || 06/11/2006 09:52 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope the DoD got photos of every body at the service. Add them to the next batch of "Wanted" posters.

Posted by: 3dc || 06/11/2006 12:32 Comments || Top||

#2  the congregation cried their heart out for the dead man

Imagine what they'll do at Osama's service...
Posted by: john || 06/11/2006 12:41 Comments || Top||

#3  I hope someone is writing down longitude and lattitude for these events.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 06/11/2006 13:28 Comments || Top||

#4  are these guys Sunni? Why would they mourn the "Shia-killer"? Just anti-western animus?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/11/2006 14:52 Comments || Top||

#5  are these guys Sunni? Why would they mourn the "Shia-killer"? Just anti-western animus?

The sectarian differences fade when put against hatred for the kaffir.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 06/11/2006 15:38 Comments || Top||

#6  figured....
Posted by: Frank G || 06/11/2006 15:42 Comments || Top||


Opposition: no rationale for defence budget hike
ISLAMABAD: As Parliament continued to debate the federal budget for the next fiscal year, opposition legislators Friday demanded greater relief for the common man.
This being Pakistan, there's no thought for the common woman.
They dubbed the budget speech of the state minister as an election campaign speech and sought immediate announcement of a long-overdue National Finance Commission (NFC) award. But government members in both Houses of Parliament, who hailed the budget as balanced and people-friendly, ruled out any decrease in the defence spending.
"Hindoos to the right of us, Persians to the left of us, 'Merkins all 'round! We need to buy more guns 'n' ammo!"
MMA's central leader Qazi Hussain Ahmed, who advocated for eradicating his poverty and improving his living conditions of the poor, stressed just distribution of wealth in line with Islamic principles. He sought an upward revision of worker's minimum wage, which has been raised to Rs4000 in the budget, proposing imposition of 'gain tax' to end socio-economic disparity.
Qazi enjoys playing to the rubes. The rest of the article discusses the various con games the pols want to play with the Pak budget. It's like listening to a bunch of Doinks.
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Zarq autopsy results held
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A U.S. military autopsy was finished on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Sunday, but the findings were not immediately released by American officials. "The autopsy is completed. However, we are not releasing results yet," Maj. William Willhoite told The Associated Press. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said officials were awaiting the results of a DNA test. The examination by two U.S. military forensic specialists flown in specially for the autopsy was part of an investigation to reconstruct the last minutes of the terror chieftain's life before an American warplane bombed his hideout late Wednesday.
LGF noted that Time's story about Zarq's death off-handedly mentions his sixteen-year old wife...
...but she had the body of an eleven year old ...
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2006 19:45 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


US forensic experts to examine Zarqawi's remains
The U.S. military flew in two forensic specialists Saturday to examine the remains of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "to see how he actually died" and to reconstruct the last minutes of his life, a spokesman said. The examination comes after U.S. authorities altered their initial account of the al-Qaida leader's death, first saying he died outright in a U.S. airstrike, then saying he survived but died soon after.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, said the decision to fly in forensic experts was made shortly after al-Zarqawi's death. The airstrike also killed five others, including al-Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheik Abdul-Rahman. "I think if we don't do a full autopsy then that might irresponsible on our part," Caldwell said. "I think we sort of owe that just for this reason: How did he actually die?"

He said the U.S. government thought it was important enough "that we grabbed two people in the last 48 hours and told them pack up and move to Iraq."

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling || 06/11/2006 00:09 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Contractors Cleared in Videotaped Attacks
BAGHDAD, June 10 -- The U.S. military has concluded its investigation into a video that appeared to show private security contractors shooting at civilian vehicles driving on highways in Iraq and determined that no one involved will be charged with a crime, a military spokesman in Baghdad said.

Agents with the Army's Criminal Investigation Division "reviewed the facts available concerning the incident to determine if there was any potential criminality that falls within CID's investigative purview," Maj. Timothy Keefe said in a written statement. "The review determined that no further investigative effort on the part of Army CID was warranted."

The investigation, which officials have not released or discussed publicly, began after the video was posted on an Internet site purportedly run by employees of Aegis Defense Services, a London-based firm with a $293 million U.S. government security contract -- the largest of any security firm working in Iraq. The initial online version of the video, posted in late 2005 on the site, appeared to have been taken from a camera mounted in the rear window of a sport-utility vehicle. It contained several brief clips of cars being strafed by machine-gun fire, set to the music of the Elvis Presley song "Mystery Train." A version posted months later contained laughter and the voices of men joking with one another during the shootings.

The scenes were aired widely on Arabic-language satellite television and prompted denunciations from several members of Congress. The military said it was investigating, as did Aegis. Keefe said that the "alleged shooter" in the video was determined to be South African and that the military would share the results of the investigation with British and South African authorities. Investigators said they believe that those officials "will come to the same conclusion that CID did as to the lack of probable cause to believe that a crime was committed," Keefe's statement said.

"It is correct that the State Dept. conducted an investigation--as it does with all such events involving State contractors," embassy spokesman Dennis Culkin said at the time, in a written statement. "However, as is also standard, the results of such federal investigations are not made public. So we're not able to share any investigation results."
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "alleged shooter" in the video was determined to be South African

Why do they hate the Boer?
Posted by: Besoeker || 06/11/2006 17:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe the boer poops in the woods, Besoeker?
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2006 19:23 Comments || Top||


Zarqawi recruited hundreds for attacks abroad
Before his death, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had recruited hundreds of people who received terrorist training in Iraq and then returned to their home countries to await orders, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions. Citing high-ranking security officials in Jordan, the Times said that in addition to recruiting volunteers and suicide bombers to fight in Iraq, Zarqawi had recruited some 300 people who received terrorist training in Iraq before returning home to await orders to carry out strikes.

The Jordanians' assessment of Zarqawi's reach was the first to offer firm numbers and details about such training, the Times said. While U.S. counterterrorism officials said they too had seen movement of terrorists from other countries including Saudi Arabia and Egypt into Iraq for training under Zarqawi and his associates, they said they believed the number of those trained and sent home to await orders was probably significantly lower than 300, the Times said. "My sense is that the next step might have been mobilizing his recruitment networks to attack Europeans," the Times quoted Steven Simon, a former National Security Council staff member now at the Council on Foreign Relations, as saying. "That's one reason I think his death makes a difference."

The Times said that Jordanian intelligence officials had been particularly focused on Zarqawi, who was born there. Their scrutiny increased after he took credit for sending suicide bombers into three Jordan hotels last December, killing dozens, it said. The officials said Zarqawi had managed to set up logistical operations in Syria, Iran and Libya that funneled volunteers into Iraq, and that as the insurgency became increasingly driven by Iraqis, he wanted to spread it global reach and mount a challenge to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri as the leader of a global terrorist war.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Is it me or there a palpable sense of admiration from Rooters and the NYT?

BTW, the Steven Simon quoted, was a Clinton NSC member who co-authored stories with Dickie Clarke and the book "Are We Safer?" with Daniel Benjamin, so I'm thinking he's another ex-fuckup who's gig nowadays is blathering about how things would be so much better if only...

There's no magic in this story. People recruited are what they are, are where they are, and Zaqi's death just as likely means they are without funds and leadership as it does some dire mobilization is imminent.
Posted by: flyover || 06/11/2006 0:35 Comments || Top||

#2  This is of course consistant with the reports in Iraq of family members being kidnapped and people being forces to drive/deliver devices upon threat of death of their loved ones. Yep, that's called 'recruiting'. When the Big Guy is dead as compost and the authorities are raiding one cell after another in quick follow up. I don't see a whole lot of these types of volunteers in the near future.
Posted by: Omins Ebbereth3699 || 06/11/2006 8:55 Comments || Top||

#3  "Mount a challenge to Osama ... ... Ayman" > is this article implying that Osama andor Ayman had a role = stake in offing Zark by US air attack, as opposed to ordering him, or any other real-potential challenger or follower, to die vv a PC/PDeniable suicide mission??? Wid Osama > dead? = medically indisposed? and in hiding, can AYMAN ably pick up the mantle from Zark!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 06/11/2006 22:57 Comments || Top||

#4  There has been speculation -- we've seen some of the articles posted here -- that Zarqawi's fanaticism had become a threat to Al Qaeda's ability to recruit beyond Iraq's borders, and therefore he was set up by upper management. But with Zawahiri apparently limited to the Pakistani borderlands, I don't see how he could effectively manage the very active organization in Iraq. But then, I'm really not cut out for management -- I can handle the theory well enough, but actual practice is beyond me. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2006 23:02 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel could target Hamas leaders
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz raised the possibility on Saturday of renewing attacks on Hamas leaders after the group announced an end to a 16-month-old ceasefire. “We will definitely act against any organisation or element that is planning operations. No one has an insurance policy. No one endangering Israelis can turn his name or title into an insurance policy,” he said at a base in southern Israel.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  No one has an insurance policy.

Is that a hint to Mutual of Gaza?
Posted by: xbalanke || 06/11/2006 18:51 Comments || Top||


Abbas announces Palestinian referendum
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas set up a showdown on Saturday with the governing Hamas movement by calling a referendum on a plan that would implicitly recognise Israel’s right to exist. The first-ever Palestinian referendum will take place on July 26, according to the decree signed by Abbas and read out to reporters by Tayeb Abdelrahim, secretary general of the Palestinian Authority. “The Palestinian people in Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are asked to give their verdict in a referendum on July 26 on the document of national unity — the prisoners’ document,” Abbas said in the decree. The document calls for a national unity government, an end to attacks in Israel and the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel on land conquered by the Jewish state in 1967.

“The idea of a referendum carries serious dangers for the unity of the Palestinian people and I fear that it may provoke an historic division that will take decades to overcome,” Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said in a letter to Abbas on Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has dismissed the referendum as “meaningless” and said it would have no bearing on the prospects of reviving the bilateral peace process.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Rafsanjani’s Speech Disrupted
Every year since the Islamic revolution of 1979 Iran has been celebrating 14 Khordad, a day that is said to have launched the Islamic revolution in 1962 when ayatollah Khomeini protested regime policies and was arrested and subsequently exiled.

This year as former president and current chairman of the powerful State Expediency council (which oversees the workings of the three branches of government) gave a public speech in Qom, some attendees shouted "Death to Velayat-e Faghih" slogans, meaning death to the supreme religious leader.

The incident took place right in the beginning of the televised speech and disrupted the meeting, leading to violence among the participants. After one person was carried out of the place by a security guard, a supporter of ultra-conservative cleric ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi got up and openly made charges against Rafsanjani. He was surrounded by others who repeated the slogans that included accusations of Rafsanjani being against Velayat-e Faghih, being counter revolutionary and being an appeaser.

The incident is important because it reflects the growing differences within the ruling circles of the Iranian regime.

The official media completely ignored the incident while covering the speech that Rafsanjani gave. Fars news agency did report that a man had disrupted the meeting, which led Rafsanjani to cut short his speech and abruptly leave the meeting. Keyhan newspaper attributed the incident to “possible extremist and suspicious elements.”

Etemad Melli newspaper wrote that after former president Khatami, now Rafsanjani was attached at Khomeini’s tomb. It should be noted that Rafsanjani along with former Majlis (Iran's Parliament) chief Mehdi Karoubi and former president Khatami now lead the internal opposition to the hardliners in power.

A close associate of Rafsanjani said that the chairman had cancelled all his public events and doubted whether the group that intended to hold rallied in Rafsanjani’s support would be allowed to do so by the hardline government.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 06/11/2006 18:18 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rafsanjani too warm an fuzzy for these guys?
Geesh!
Posted by: Angavinter Angoluns7845 || 06/11/2006 19:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Isn't Yazdi Dinnerjacket's spiritual advisor?
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/11/2006 20:38 Comments || Top||


Iran team face mass protest
Iran's Football team will be met with a series of protests across Germany during their World Cup campaign as anger mounts against the country's viciously anti-semitic President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Senior politicians, Jewish groups and a prominent German TV host will join a demonstration today in Nuremberg hours before Iran play their opening match of the tournament against Mexico in the city. They are furious that Ahmadinejad's deputy, Mohammad Aliabadi, has been allowed into the country after the Iranian President called the Holocaust 'a fairytale' and called for the destruction of Israel.

'Aliabadi has not distanced himself in any way from the statements that his President has made,' said Sacha Stawski of pro-Israel group Honestly Concerned, who are helping to organise today's rally. 'It's highly unlikely he thinks any differently. Until he distances himself from the regime we will protest against him.'

Aliabadi went to Friday's opening ceremony and first game in Munich and is due to watch his countrymen in their opening fixture in Group D in Nuremberg at 5pm.

A cross-party group of German politicians is due to speak at the protest, including Gunter Beckstein, Bavaria's right-wing Interior Minister, and Claudia Roth, the co-leader of Germany's Green Party. The country's most famous Jewish TV personality, Michel Friedman, will also attend. He has threatened to take legal action against Ahmadinejad if he comes to Germany, where Holocaust denial is a criminal offence.

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Nimble Spemble || 06/11/2006 09:07 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Coming up in 30 min on ESPN2.

Just watched the Nederlander match.

I miss the excitement of curling.
Posted by: flyover || 06/11/2006 11:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Oops, on ABC.
Posted by: flyover || 06/11/2006 11:29 Comments || Top||

#3  Same difference.
Posted by: Pappy || 06/11/2006 12:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Because baseball is soooooo exciting.
Posted by: Rafael || 06/11/2006 14:00 Comments || Top||

#5  Apparently the American men's team is rated #5 in the world going into this World Cup, the result of a generation of American soccer moms. Just because we don't have a domestic professional league doesn't mean we don't do well, or that the youngsters aren't watching. Our guys just have to go overseas if they want to go pro, is all, just like our young opera singers. It's the U.S. vs. the Czech Republic tomorrow morning -- let's see how that goes, shall we?
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2006 15:05 Comments || Top||

#6  Mexico 3, Iran 1. Time for a cerveza...
Posted by: PBMcL || 06/11/2006 15:06 Comments || Top||

#7  Apparently the American men's team is rated #5 in the world going into this World Cup

Mrs TW, unfortunately the ranking system is flawed when considering world teams. There are supposedly top 20 ranked teams that did not qualify for this World Cup. Nonetheless, I'm not saying the U.S. should be disregarded. It's gonna be the Czechs, though :-)

Btw, that was a nice gesture on the part of the Iranian team, giving the Mexican goal keeper flowers :-)
Posted by: Rafael || 06/11/2006 16:04 Comments || Top||

#8  The commentator on ABC mentioned the ruins of Hitler's staging area for Nazi rallies outside the stadium there in Nuremburg. (There was a long pause, then...) "Knowing how [Iran's] national leader feels about that horrific time [the Holocaust], I have to wonder if they felt the same kind of chill we did as we walked into the stadium."
Posted by: eLarson || 06/11/2006 16:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Incidentally, if they were looking for the kind of sanction on Iran that would have really put the screws to the regime, they would have insisted that Iran not be allowed to play in the World Cup.
Posted by: eLarson || 06/11/2006 16:15 Comments || Top||

#10  NASCAR Pocono 500's on...you're watching soccer?
Posted by: Frank G || 06/11/2006 16:27 Comments || Top||

#11  ;-)
Posted by: Frank G || 06/11/2006 16:29 Comments || Top||

#12  tw -- once had a customer who had played pro for the Dallas soccer team. (Retired for medical reason) And some Internet research proved him to be the successful player. Before that, and being a big sports fan, I didn't know we had pro soccer, but we do. And some of those guys are playing in the World Cup.
http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/index.jsp
Posted by: Sherry || 06/11/2006 17:27 Comments || Top||

#13  Rantburg University strikes again! Thanks for educating me, Rafael and Sherry. :-)

There's soccer on, and you would rather watch cars go round and round, Frank? ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2006 19:28 Comments || Top||

#14  Because baseball is soooooo exciting

We can't all have the luck to grow up in the States and enjoy the Game of Games. ;-)
Posted by: lotp || 06/11/2006 19:55 Comments || Top||

#15  I thought the Game of Games was the first 20 minutes after the bars close. I've heard it called the Dance of the Mayfly...

My bad. :)
Posted by: flyover || 06/11/2006 20:05 Comments || Top||


'Nukes for all Muslim states'
Iran's top nuclear negotiator has urged all Muslim countries to follow in the Islamic republic's footsteps and develop a nuclear energy programme.

"The nuclear issue affects the future of all Muslim countries," said Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters at Cairo airport as he arrived in Egypt, Larijani called on Muslim countries to "choose the path" of nuclear development.
Posted by: ryuge || 06/11/2006 01:14 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I agree; there should be nukes used on all muzzy states. Let's start with Iran.
Posted by: mac || 06/11/2006 2:07 Comments || Top||

#2  Please use non-residue H bomb, as I live in the neighborhood.
Posted by: gromgoru || 06/11/2006 8:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Curse Iran and that God Damned Islamic state.
Posted by: newc || 06/11/2006 9:55 Comments || Top||

#4  If we don't make an example out of Iran, you can bet your ass every Mulsim country will have nukes.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 06/11/2006 12:37 Comments || Top||

#5  They will all have nukes, and being the geniuses they are, one or more will feel brave enough to use one. Just wish they would target Brussels or Paris instead of Tel Aviv. We'll probably have to witness an outrage of this proportion until we will feel guiltless to annihilate the entire area and be done with this scum once and for all.
Posted by: SOP35/Rat || 06/11/2006 13:22 Comments || Top||

#6  Who shall stop them, and when?

Or will the question be, in a few years: why did nobody stop them, so we lost our major cities?

Have you read Dan Simmons' letter?
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 06/11/2006 14:38 Comments || Top||

#7  Neutron bombs would be fine. Eliminate the population and leave everything else intact.
Posted by: Random Thoughts || 06/11/2006 20:15 Comments || Top||

#8  Man, this'll make for some big ass work accidents...
Posted by: tu3031 || 06/11/2006 21:14 Comments || Top||

#9  No, Moud-Mullahs want IRAN-ONLY to have nuclear weapons, NOT all other Muslim nations. Larijani is just being PC as Iran knows Dubya is NOT going to give them the many chances Saint Bill and the UNO gave Saddam, not after 9-11. IRAN'S DEADLINE IS CIRCA JUNE 27th, 2006. Failure to accept limits or Sanctions = referral to the UNSC for military action, which Dubya & Co. has already made clear the USA is prepared to act unilaterally. Not to argue that Dubya will attack on or shortly after June 27th, but it must be said that Dubya > generally a THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE OUT kind of Leader-Moralist, i.e. once the chances for mutual peace-resolution are used up, its over and t'aint gonna be offered again.
Posted by: Fleager Spinenter4931 || 06/11/2006 21:42 Comments || Top||

#10  JosephM, I think you've misplaced your cookie, dear.

Why do you posit a June 27th deadline? (Not that I'm arguing, I'd much prefer sooner rather than later -- I'd just like to understand your thought on it.) Thanks in advance for explaining!
Posted by: trailing wife || 06/11/2006 22:57 Comments || Top||


Iran could make counter-proposals
Iran said on Saturday it has started to study the West’s offer to resolve the nuclear crisis and could make counter-proposals through shuttle diplomacy, as Iraq mounted a mediation effort. “We have opened the package, and we are studying it, and afterwards we will officially reply to the Europeans,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying following talks with Palestinian counterpart Mahmud al-Zahar. “We hope ... a shuttle diplomacy will be started for the Islamic republic’s proposals in the form of amendments or counter-proposals to be studied seriously by the Europeans,” he added. “We are in favour of discussions which are fair, unbiased and without preconditions, that will result in an understanding satisfactory for all sides,” he said.
Posted by: Fred || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rope-a-Dope II.

Won't work. The Europeans can piss up a rope.
Posted by: flyover || 06/11/2006 0:23 Comments || Top||

#2  I thought Iran already made counter-proposals to the Europeans, something along the lines of "Submit or die."
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 06/11/2006 1:00 Comments || Top||


Lebanon speaker wants Arab mediation with Syria
Would you buy a used camel from this man?
CAIRO - Lebanon’s pro-Syrian parliament speaker Nabih Berri on Saturday asked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for Arab help in defusing the simmering crisis between Beirut and its former powerbroker Syria. “The aim of my visit to Cairo is to seek an Arab mediation that would ensure the implementation of decisions” reached during Lebanon’s protracted political roundtable talks, Berri told reporters after meeting Mubarak.
And to save his job, and his neck ...
Berri said he had received “a very positive response” from Mubarak and informed the Egyptian president of the latest developments in Lebanon’s rocky political consultations.

Berri later met Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa for discussions that focused on tensions with Syria. “The Arab League is fully ready to exert every possible effort in the service of this file,” Mussa told reporters after the meeting. “What’s important to us is that relations between Syria and Lebanon should be exemplary. There are foundations for relations to be as excellent as they were over the past decades,” the Arab League chief said.
During the time in which Lebanon was a colony.
“Arab efforts will continue and resume forcefully at the right time,” he promised. He also said that he was prepared to travel to Syria and Lebanon “at the right time to discuss these matters.”
Posted by: Steve White || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Schroeder meets with Assad
Assad looking large and in charge all of a sudden...but Schroeder is EX-chancellor, he's ostensibly at the economic forum, what's he doing on a state visit? Maybe he's representing Putin at this thing.
Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder met here Saturday with President Bashar Al-Assad and discussed the situation in Iraq, conditions in the Palestinian territories, terrorism and the political role of Europe in the Middle East. A statement by the presidential palace said both men discussed the Syrian-UAE economic forum, which was kicked off earlier today, and the investment opportunities in Syria. Al-Assad and Schroeder affirmed need that security prevailed in the region thus reviving economy, said the statement. Schroeder also met vice-president Farouk Al-Shara and discussed the Middle East peace process and bilateral relations.
Posted by: Seafarious || 06/11/2006 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Former German chancellor meets with (soon to be) former Sirian president.
Posted by: gromgoru || 06/11/2006 5:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe his glass frames needed adjustment.
Posted by: DMFD || 06/11/2006 22:43 Comments || Top||



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In no particular order...
Steve White
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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2006-06-11
  3 Gitmoids hanged themselves
Sat 2006-06-10
  Paleo Car Swarm for Abu Samhadana
Fri 2006-06-09
  50 dead in post-Zark boom campaign
Thu 2006-06-08
  Zark Zapped!
Wed 2006-06-07
  Iraqi army takes over from US in Anbar
Tue 2006-06-06
  Islamic courts vow to make Somalia Islamic state
Mon 2006-06-05
  Islamic courts declare victory in Mogadishu
Sun 2006-06-04
  Islamists defeat militias in Mogadishu
Sat 2006-06-03
  Canada Arrests 17 in Bomb-Making Plot
Fri 2006-06-02
  Man shot in UK anti-terrorism raid
Thu 2006-06-01
  State of emergency in Basra
Wed 2006-05-31
  Malaysia captures 12 suspected terrorists
Tue 2006-05-30
  Death Sentence for Bangla Bhai
Mon 2006-05-29
  Israeli air raid strikes Palestinian sites in Beqaa, southern Beirut
Sun 2006-05-28
  Plot fears prompt Morocco crackdown


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