The United States was advised on Monday to identify common ground and seek political accommodation with the Taliban and other insurgents to bring an end to violence in Afghanistan. Writing in the New York Times, Greg Mills, who was special adviser to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from May until this month, said that the Taliban and their allies cannot be beaten by military means alone. Perhaps then, the moment has come to talk to the Taliban and other insurgents, Mills said.
It should be understood that nearly half of Afghanistans population is Pashtun, which has proved more resistant than the countrys other main groups, the Tajhiks, the Hazaras and the Uzbeks, he added. For all these groups, the Americans and other NATO members are visitors, probably temporary and increasingly unwelcome, like the British colonisers and Soviets. Mills pointed out that although the Taliban came to be loathed by most non-Pashtuns, it was important to remember that initially their efforts to restore security after the chaotic collapse of communist rule in the mid-1990s were applauded. Some Afghans maintain that it was only after non-Afghans, especially Arabs, began to exert control over the movement in the late 1990s that the Taliban became sinister and brutal. Memories of their early role might explain why many Afghans are prepared to turn a blind eye to their resurgence.
Mills argued that it was important to remember that the insurgency consists of more than just the Taliban. To describe the anti-coalition forces in Afghanistan as a single entity was to ignore their important differences, which can only hamper our ability to negotiate, he said. He pointed out that the Taliban were aligned to the Pashtun ethnic cause and their alliance with Al Qaeda seemed more a marriage of convenience than ideology, given the Afghans mistrust of the Arabs. Afghanistan, he emphasised, was driven by ethnic divisions and within each group in the insurgency, tribe, clan or family membership often transcended other loyalties. These competing objectives provide an opportunity to split and co-opt these groups, even as we seek militarily to deny them sanctuary in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is not possible if all of them are lumped together as terrorists, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Dear Greg:
"Accomodations will be possible when the Taliban decide to fast forward to mdern civilization. Until then, FOAD."
#4
The unstated premise is that most Pashtun's support the Taliban. When they are shown to be the weak horse, Pashtun support will decline. That point clearly hasn't been reached yet.
#6
To describe the anti-coalition forces in Afghanistan as a single entity was to ignore their important differences, which can only hamper our ability to negotiate, he said.
See, here's the problem. Greg thinks we're there to negotiate -- we're not. We're there to kill as many Taliban as we can.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
09/19/2006 5:27 Comments ||
Top||
#8
The problem is the writer does NOT understand the fundamentalists.
The ONLY avialble positions for any non-Islamic opponent, in the view of the Talib, is either footstool (subservience/dhimmitude) or rug (you die and they take your stuff).
These are not typical marxist or drug-lord rebels, these rre peopel on a mission from God (in thier minds). They consider death a reward, not something to be avoided. There is no negotiation.
Thats the big problem with liberals, left and others on that side, like the writer: they are NOT people of faith, so they have no concept of how faith can drive a person's life, for better or worse. And in the case of Islamic fundamentalists, it is far worse -they have distorted and warped things to where only violence is preached.
We are not trying to contain Stalin, we are fighting something as elemental as fire.
#10
Sure. Send "Special Adviser" Greg in to talk to them. All by himself.
Don't worry, Greg, they'll listen to you. And if they don't, I'm sure we'll see the video...
#14
Negotiations are for people of goodwill and reasonableness. The Taliban have neither. You issue ultimatums and then immediately follow up with decisive action appropriate to achieve your goals. THAT is how you negotiate with the likes of the Taliban, et al. What has Greg Mills been smoking or ingesting?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/19/2006 15:11 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Greg Mills appears to be one of those State Department bureaucrats that believes everything can be solved through negotiation, and war is not an option. He should be sent to southern Lebanon to carry an Israeli flag in the next Hezbollah parade. He might learn something. Probably be too late, though...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/19/2006 16:51 Comments ||
Top||
#16
With the Taleban, nothing but the Korben Dallas School of Negotiating will work.
KORBEN: Mind if I go? I'm an excellent negotiator.
COP 1: Uh... Sure, go ahead.
Korben gets ready.
COP 1: We're sending someone in who's authorized to negotiate.
[INTERIOR OF POLICE STATION]
Korben walks quickly into the room, heads straight for Akanit, raises his gun and puts a bullet through his head.
KORBEN: Anyone else want to negotiate?
COP 2: (to another Cop) Where'd he learn to negotiate like that?
KUWAIT CITY - The Kuwaiti appeals court on Monday reopened the trial of 36 alleged Al Qaeda militants who fought bloody gunbattles with police last year.
The court had been expected to issue verdicts against the suspects, six of whom were condemned to death by the lower court in December, but presiding judge Ibrahim Al Obeid allowed lawyers to file arguments. The lawyers alleged investigations conducted by the public prosecution were illegal and should be scrapped by the court, and one of them even called on the judge to reject rulings by the lower court.
The judge in May referred the case to the constitutional court to decide whether the conspiracy to commit a criminal act under Kuwaiti law applied to the defendants in the case. The court ruled in July that an article of the penal code was in line with the constitution and asked the appeals court to continue with the trial.
"Get on with it and stop stalling!"
Judge Obeid on Monday agreed to a request by lawyers to summon the investigating officer in the case for cross-examination.
The defendants are accused of being members of the Al Qaeda-linked Peninsula Lions Brigades that was allegedly behind deadly gunfights.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
London - Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into a London protest at which calls were reportedly made for Pope Benedict XVI to be 'subject to capital punishment' for his controversial remarks about Islam.
Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur said on Monday that the force had received 'a number of complaints' about the reported comments by a leading Muslim extremist at a protest in London Sunday. Many of the complaints related to alleged comments made by Anjem Choudary, who has been described as a former leader of the outlawed Al-Mujaharoun group. 'Anyone who insults the message of Mohammed is going to be subject to capital punishment,' Choudray told the gathering, press reports said Monday.
British police were 'facilitating lawful demonstrations,' but will not allow people to break the law at demonstrations, Ghaffur said in a statement on Monday. Police were investigating what took place at the protest outside Westminster Cathedral, London's main Catholic church. About 100 people protested outside as worshippers left mass Sunday morning. They said they would also examine other publicly made statements, with a view to ascertain if any criminal offences had been committed, Ghaffur said. 'We will always proportionately police all protests but equally will take decisive action where crime is committed,' he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 07:13 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Isn't a death threat now a violation of British law -- i.e., inciting others to violence?
#4
....but I suppose the late Muhammed Amin al-Hussieini the Grand Mufti of Palestine and "special Adolf Hitler Berlin guest," Jewish extermination advocate, and Waffen SS Semitar Battalion recruiter was of course...... ok.
#5
....but I suppose the late Muhammed Amin al-Hussieini the Grand Mufti of Palestine and "special Adolf Hitler Berlin guest," Jewish extermination advocate, and Waffen SS Semitar Battalion recruiter was of course...... ok.
Sorry bastards, slay them ALL!
But Besoeker, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Yasser Arafat's fave uncle (or was it cousin? I don't do well remembering complicated family relationships), was merely expressing his cultural imperative. One can't hold such things against a person.
#6
lol, he was also leila shahid's grandfather (plo delegate in France, talk shows favorite until yasser's demise, and long time and very successful advocate of the convergence with french leftists; last time I heard about her, she was to tour french schools with leftist jews to promote peace, this was early in 2006, I think she might have moved to the euro-parliament, not sure).
MONTREAL: Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer expressed concern on Monday that there was "some sympathy" within Pakistani security forces for Afghanistan's Taliban rebels. Downer said Taliban fighters were moving back and forth across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. "They're finding refuge in Pakistan," he said at a news conference alongside Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay in Canada. "There's no doubt there are people in Pakistan who support the Taliban, and we have some concerns that in the Pakistani security forces, there is some, what you might politely describe as sympathy for the Taliban," Downer added.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Downer will get branded as an islamophobe in double quick time for his clear sightedness over this matter.
#2
Well, dear sir, of course there's a great deal of sympathy from Pakland. They are creators and supporters of Talibanz. They feel real sorry the Nato troops are whacking a whole bunch of glazed eyed Pakis. The progress is not what they envisioned. What is clear is that Pakland must be struck very hard and disassembled. It is the heartland of most of the jihad problems spreading like spokes from Islamabad.
#4
I suspect the Taliban would see your question as meaningless, Cheregum Crelet7867. They are Pashtun and Allah's enforcers, and that is enough to suffice a reasonable man.
NEW YORK (AP) - Poland's president said Monday he wants his country to be an active broker of world peace and his government could send hundreds more troops than it has already pledged to a U.N. force in Lebanon. In an interview with The Associated Press in New York, President Lech Kaczynski criticized the European Union, which Poland joined in 2004, for its reluctance to commit more forcefully to peacekeeping missions around the world.
He said it was ``one of Europe's maladies'' that it was not able to muster the number of troops needed to quell conflicts. ``A union of 25 rich nations should not have trouble getting ready 100,000 well-trained and well-equipped troops,'' said Kaczynski, who was in New York to attend the U.N. General Assembly this week.
Poland now has about 200 troops in UNIFIL and has said it will raise that number to 500. ``In Lebanon, I do not exclude a possibility of increasing the mission by another 200, 300 troops in 2007,'' Kaczynski said in the interview. That could boost Poland's total forces in Lebanon to 800, he said.
Noting the strain the various conflicts are placing on the armed forces of this nation of 38 million, Kaczynski reiterated that the 900 Polish troops in south-central Iraq will serve in the U.S.-led coalition there until the end of 2007 ``and no longer.''
Despite NATO's call for reinforcements in Afghanistan, Kaczynski said Poland, an alliance member since 1999, cannot commit more than the 1,000 troops already pledged. ``No more troops can be sent to Afghanistan. We have declared the maximum that was taken into consideration,'' he said.
``We are everywhere where they need us,'' he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Noting the strain the various conflicts are placing on the armed forces of this nation of 38 million, Kaczynski reiterated that the 900 Polish troops in south-central Iraq will serve in the U.S.-led coalition there until the end of 2007 ``and no longer.''
He's probably looking at the rate at which the Iraqi army and police forces are standing up, and is allowing a more than reasonable amount of time for them to take over things. Hopefully, most of our ground troops will be out, and all we'll be providing would be air support, some logistics, and some C4I.
Paris (CNSNews.com) - Six years after the world was gripped by media images showing a 12-year-old boy's death during an Israeli-Palestinian gun battle in Gaza, a French state-owned television channel -- accused of spreading misinformation -- is defending its reputation in court.
In a series of lawsuits, France 2 Television is suing Philippe Karsenty, director of an online media watchdog agency, for alleged defamation, after he published an article urging that the network's news director Arlette Chabot and reporter Charles Enderlin "be stripped of their positions immediately."
A public prosecutor here asked the judges to drop the charges against Karsenty, acknowledging that he had defamed Chabot and Enderlin, but declaring that the accusations against them were based on serious and impartial investigations and offered "relatively convincing proof" of fraud.
The France 2 news report, broadcast in September 2000, was seen around the world after the network distributed it internationally -- for free.
#1
I think it is amazing that French TV would take this to court. Even if they win the case through a miscarriage of justice, the discussion and publicity surrounding the case is so harmful to France 2 that you wonder why they wanted to call attention to themselves in this manner.
#3
wow. Amazing isn't it. And all this time we thought we had a free press what we really had was a press that was bought and paid for by rich, anti-western manipulators. It's shocking to see just how badly we have been deceived.
#6
The trial is being blogged by one of the expert witnesses for the other side. (I think it was anonymous5089 who provided the link the other day.) He seemed comfortable that the judge was not on the side of the network, whose lawyer was apparently doing a terrible job.
#7
Ms. Tw, yes; the blogger is the scholar evoked in the article, Richard Landes, and his blog is the Augean Stables, with many interesting textes in addition to the al durah libel coverage.
It hasnt exactly been an American dream. Since Air America Radios inception, the liberal talk network has struggled to stay alive. Last week, speculation swirled that the troubled network was preparing to file for bankruptcy and its most recognizable star Al Franken revealed he hadnt received a paycheck in a while. On Friday, an Air America spokeswoman dismissed the bankruptcy rumors, saying the broadcast network was undergoing the the normal financial pressures of a start-up.
I've heard Chapter 11, but I'd bet on Chapter 7, myself...
Air America was launched with a bang of publicity, but, over two year later, its still short on bucks. So what went wrong?
It recruited a bunch of people nobody's particularly fond of, to include their Moms, utterly lacking in sense of humor or proportion, and ostentatiously set out to take over the airwaves from the hated right wingers, who've spent a generation building their audience.
People sometimes don't recognize how long Rush spent in the boonies building his skill set and experience. Most of the other conservative voices did the same. Al Franken thought he could do it without any preparation or training; after all he'd written jokes for Saturday Night Live, so how hard could it be to talk into a microphone every day?
Theres a lot of differing opinion on the matter.
I don't think there are a lot of differing opinions. You could probably count them all on a single hand...
One theory often cited is that there just isnt a market for left-wing punditry on the radio dial.
Larry King and Jim Bohannon made a good living for quite a few years precisely because they didn't try and shove their views down their listeners' throats. Even while they were making regular trips to the bank Mort Sahl who could actually be funny, when he stayed away from politix was showing that shrill doesn't sell...
America is a conservative country, said Peter Smyth, chief executive and president of Braintree-based Greater Media Inc., which owns 19 radio stations in the Boston, Detroit, New Jersey and Philadelphia markets.
Then where does the 50-50 split come from?
When you put your flag in the ground and say . . . were going to be the rebuttal of Rush Limbaugh, you have to ask Well, does the market want that, he said.
The market would take that if the guys planting that flag had some facts to back up up their rebuttal. Like him or dislike him, Limbaugh's chock full of facts. He also reserves a special whiney voice for when he's describing touchy-feely mushy liberal stuff.
Conservative talk show hosts, and even whole stations dedicated to right-wing talk, are all over the place. But there doesnt seem to be much demand for left-of-center radio, said Jason Wolfe, program director for the oft-conservative chatter WRKO-AM (680). Theres an overwhelming amount of conservative talk radio or talk radio that is more to the right than the left, Wolfe said. The view of the right . . . provides more of a compelling and entertaining product than what Air America does.
Who'd you rather listen to? Laura Ingram or Susan Estrich? The abrasively right-wing jerks, with few exceptions, don't make the talk radio big time. I can't think of lefties pleasant enough to listen to for three hours. They all seem to go nuts at the sight of a microphone.
But Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers Magazine, said Air Americas woes have little to do with its political bent and everything to do with the companys business sense. Somehow they have created the impression that they are the lone voice of liberalism in a dark sea of conservatism, Harrison said. Its not that theyre liberal, its that its radio and radio is very, very competitive.
It's not that they're liberal, it's that they're abrasively, irritatingly, shrewishly liberal.
The networks main problem is that it spends more time trying to affect elections than it does concentrating on the bottom line, Harrison said. The ultimate business plan is to generate ratings and revenue, not to get anybody elected, he added.
But that's the principle Air America was founded upon...
A shortage of real radio talent might also be keeping Air America in the red. When the company launched, it nabbed some recognizable figures, like Franken and actress Janeane Garofalo. But radio can have a way of breaking down some uninitiated celebrities, as David Lee Roths disastrous stint replacing jock Howard Stern for CBS Radio demonstrated. They thought that big names would bring big audiences, Smyth said. Great actresses dont usually make great radio talent.
Radio talent's different from talent on the terriblevision or in movies. Radio paints a word picture, you're seeing the entire scene in your mind. The picture of Al Franken smirking or Janeane Garofalo looking like that chick you wouldn't go out with in college even when you were broke and had no beer were not pictures many of us wanted stuffed into our minds.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
Their failure is a bit more complicated. Air America is blowing it simply because they can't get the "opposition" to tune in.
Think about it. Look at Rush and look at Howard Stern. They have a bunch of listeners who worship at their altar, true. But there is a nice sized group who tune in who, quite frankly, hate them and "can't believe they are hearing that sh!t" on the air. (Classic moment in the movie "Private Parts".....the market research guy said that audience members who loved Howard tuned in for two hours on average, and those who hated him....two and a half.)
Honestly, why would anyone tune in, when it was the same crap day after day after day? Say what you want about Rush and Howard, at least they don't repeat themselves endlessly.
#3
Fred - you were thinking of Simon & Garfunkle, weren't you? Mrs. Robinson
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio,
a nation turns its'lonely eyes to you
whoo-hoo-hoo
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
Joltin' Joe has left and gone away
hey-hey-hey
hey-hey-hey
(Heroes of days gone by have left and gone away)
btw - not "jotting Joe", as at lyrics link. Joltin' Joe was DiMaggio's nickname. Morons.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/19/2006 6:43 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Honestly, why would anyone tune in, when it was the same crap day after day after day?
Or from any one of thousands of other sources. The networks, CNN, MSNBC, the newspapers...
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/19/2006 8:47 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Uh...NPR has been upon us for decades. AA was nothing more than 'New Coke'. fizzle.
#7
Yes, the widow of the late McDonald's baron left a huge endowment to NPR. Bascially, we're wasting taxpayers money for sure now. They can run without funding support.
#8
Half the population never votes, that is the supreme electoral constant. The left for all its imbeddedness is about 18% of the voter base. This disproportionate representation is Never spoken about, the left loves the fact that their message gets on the air without having to deliver real numbers, that is how subversion works, as long as your louder than your opponent, you can appear to be carrying the day. The Non Voting Majority is the great American constant. One day we'll decide when to hold the political electorate accountable, perhaps this will take the form of a movement to hold the Voting Population accountable for the gross defecit, afterall, it is the shared electorates hubris which we all bear the burden for.
#9
That the vote is a given right of all Americans is the rub. Since it's not "earned" except by legal immigrants, it's simply unappreciated, as are all of the other rights, goodies, and protections afforded American citizens.
I do not have a solid suggestion about how to correct it, however... I can't (yet) bring myself to say only those who have done X (e.g. military service or "equivalent", etc) should have the right to vote, or what sort of "test" might someday be required to verify a voter isn't dumber than dirt, but I believe that there's a distinct possibility that day will come.
It will probably be a post-CWII requirement. There is no doubt in my mind that this lack is a core reason why we are under attack internally, so I believe it will have to be addressed in some qualifying manner to prevent CW-III.
Yeah, True Blue PC'ers, I'm a bad guy. Evil. Verrry evil. LOL.
#10
The portion of NPR's funding that comes from government support started dropping significantly when Mr. Clinton was in office, and I suspect it's now well below 50% of station operating budgets. Mrs. Kroc's donation went to the national organization, not to the stations, which they resent greatly.
Really good point, Swamp Blondie. Mr. Wife listens to those shows just to see what the other guys believe, whereas I can't stand all the shouting.
flyover, a great many of the people who ought not vote don't bother going to the polls. Nowadays, I think it's on the order of less than 50% of eligible voters do so. And that isn't differentiating of those who do between the quick and the dead...
#11
flyover: I believe there was a Robert Heinlein (or was it Jerry Pournelle?) story in which military service was a prerequisite to the franchise. Starship Troopers?
Posted by: Mike ||
09/19/2006 14:05 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Indeed it was Starship Troopers, by Heinline, Mike. Military service (other forms of "service", too?) was req'd to gain "citizenship" - full rights as we know them. I was thinking of it when posting... It's not a stretch to think that we may go there someday.
tw - If it was reliable that the zoners, zoomers, zipperheads, moonbats, and nuroots were too PO'd or stoned to vote, then I'd be happy to leave them to their misery. However, there are enough voting to try to drag us down into it with them, that this came to mind. Just speculating aloud.
Voting is not a priviledge. It's an obligation. And any of your Rantburgers who do not vote every single time you can should be ... well, ashamed of yourselves.
When only 47% of the folks vote, 23% can elect the President. Throw a Ross Perot in there, and 20% moonbats can elect a Bill Clinton. Or a Jimmy Carter. (Sorry)
In college, when only 10% voted, the 2% Moonbat crowd swept the Student Senate (There were multiple candidates for each position, but only a single Moonbat.)
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/19/2006 14:45 Comments ||
Top||
#15
"NPR is government-funded, though, correct? Think it would still be around if it relied on advertising revenue to pay the bills?"
About 20 million listeners tune into NPR each week. NPRs "Morning Edition" is the most listened-to morning show in the country and the second-most-listened-to program overall for commercial and noncommercial radio. And NPRs evening drive-time program, All things Considered, is the third-most listened-to program overall. To compare Air America with NPR is a joke.
Your rant on obligation suggests you accept political hegemony, cheating, and all sorts of dealing to advantage one after another interest group feeding at the trough of largess. Sorry champ, but by participating you stain yourself with the behavirs which follow. the cliches are no longer appropriate. Non Voters love this country so much, we would not think of our fellow citizens the same way Voters do.....seeking largess is "not" something we all aspire to, nor will we be decieved by the machinations of those who would be kings.
#19
When you choose not to vote, Hupolung Spurong7635 dear, you have chosen to accept whatever result those who press the buttons decide. So regardless the outcome I expect not to hear any complaints whatsoever from you.
Oh, and if it puts the Democrats in a majority, resulting in our withdrawel from the War on Islamofascism -- or whatever we're calling it these days -- you will keep your mouth shut and your guns holstered as your womenfolk get measured for burqas, right? And you will be so kind as to think of me and the trailing daughters, who as Jews won't be given the option of dhimmitude while your womenfolk go swanning around with their covered heads still attached to their bodies? Thanks ever so much.
#20
Listening to NPR before and after the Prez speech at the (Spit Yarrh) UN (Spit) today....
I need to say that NPR made Pravda in its heyday look objective and friendly!
Bush bypasses Iranian leaders to tell the people: We respect you
[entire article at link]
Mr Bush pledged that Washington would accept Iran developing civilian nuclear power but delivered an uncompromising message that it must abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions.
While Bush may be trying to throw Iran's people a face-saving sop in the form of continued pursuit of nuclear power generation, this is the exact wrong message to give a terrorist regime.
Nuclear power generation, as it iscurrently configured, is essentially a "dual use" technology. Any country that can master the entire fuel cycle then has direct access to the processing of weapons grade fissile material. Any nation that is at all involved in terrorism must denied nuclear technology of any sort. The ability to responsibly operate atomic power generation is an enticing carrot that must be withheld from those who refuse to comply with the bare minimums of orderly global conduct.
To date, Iran has done exactly ZERO to fulfill its obligations as a player on the world's stage. Much to the contrary, Iran has made nuclear threats against Israel and America, continued to sponsor international terrorism and meddle in the recovery of Iraq at the cost of American military lives. Until alternative reactor designs, like pebble bed technology or thorium fuel cycles are in mature operation, no Islamic regime should have access to the complete nuclear fuel cycle.
#1
Good comments, Zen. It behooves to remember at this juncture that our beloved (cough, cough) President Carter nixed our breeder reactor program because of plutonium proliferation concerns. If we can't even trust ourselves with this stuff, we surely can't trust them.
By the by, for those not familiar with commercial nuclear reactors, towards the end of the core life plutonium accounts for a significant portion of the fissions taking place. Thus, anyone running a commercial reactor can remove the fuel bundles, run them through the PUREX process, and voila! plutonium.
#2
I just saw Ahmadinejad's address.
Diabolical.
Big religious tirade at the end.
Diafuckinbolical.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
09/19/2006 20:29 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Bush's speech was pretty weak. I suspect he had something much stronger prepared but when Chiraq backed out on sanctions, there was not enough time to put something else together.
#4
No halo. At leat not for me...
Lots about sharia (interpreted as "justice").
Lot's about bad bad Israel and hegemonc USA.
Big finish about the coming "savior" and the perfection of man through "monotheism" and "Justice" (sharia) for all.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
09/19/2006 20:42 Comments ||
Top||
#5
plus the NY phonebook the runt had to stand on....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/19/2006 20:44 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Pinch just whipped out his "Chocolate The Moose" beanie babie. "Gee, guys", he whines, "Just how in the hell do we grovel to this nut?"
#7
Good stuff. I'm really, really glad to see that no one is trying to trot out the, "but Iran's a signatory of the NPT and that gives them the right to peaceful nuclear power", crap.
Iran deserves exactly, SQUAT.
They are quite possibly the single most violent terrorist regime on earth. Only North Korea's mistreatment of its own population holds a candle to this bunch of retarded psycho loons. Incidentally, I did not see Bush's speech at the UN but merely snagged on the one paragraph above while reading about it.
Nuclear power of any sort must denied all nations who participate in or sponsor terrorism. If they try to acquire it, we need to bomb their efforts back to square one, just as I hope we will do with Iran.
Iran is the posterchild for what to expect if this is not implemented as general policy.
#8
"Good stuff. I'm really, really glad to see that no one is trying to trot out the, "but Iran's a signatory of the NPT and that gives them the right to peaceful nuclear power", crap."
I'm here to get away from that crap.
ImmadandIneedajihad sure said it though, and I'm sure there
are lots of buyers.
I do believe that Iran is the only country with a "fountain of blood" as a war memorial.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
09/19/2006 22:06 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Thank you and back on you Zen.
Dude doncha know I'm yer biggest fan ?
Can't just write "yup" all the time tho'.
Posted by: J. D. Lux ||
09/19/2006 22:20 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Thank you for your support, J.D. Lux. Not many others might agree with you so readily, but I really appreciate the kind word. The level of intellectual honesty here at Rantburg forces me to drill down a lot farther then I have had to in the past. I believe that I'm up to the task and I thank Fred Pruitt and all the moderators here for the opportunity to hone my personal philosophy and learn so much in the course of doing it.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - A Saudi has been held in solitary confinement for a year at the Guantanamo Bay prison and is now so mentally unbalanced he considers insects his friends, lawyers said in a motion filed Monday seeking the man's removal from isolation.
Shaker Aamer, a 37-year-old resident of Britain, was placed in isolated confinement Sept. 24, 2005, and has been beaten by guards, deprived of sleep and subjected to temperature extremes, according to the motion filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
However, Aamer has said he had contact with fellow prisoners as recently as the beginning of June, one of his lawyers, Zachary Katznelson, said in a declaration to the court in Washington. Neither lawyer could immediately be contacted to explain the apparently contradictory information.
"He's crazy! He keeps talking to Jiminy Cricket!"
In the 16-page filing, Aamer's lawyers said that since he was put into isolation 360 days ago, except for infrequent meetings with his attorneys, he has had contact only with the Americans running the prison on this U.S. Navy base in southeastern Cuba. ``His only consistent contact with living beings beside his captors is with the ants in his cell. He feeds them and considers them his friends,'' Katznelson said in a statement filed with the court. ``There is no question in my mind that he is mentally unstable,'' he added.
He may have been unstable prior to being imprisoned.
The motion, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press, said Aamer lives in a 6-by-8-foot cell containing a steel bunk, steel toilet, steel sink, a Quran and a thin mattress. The cell is contained entirely within a wooden shack.
Katznelson said that on June 9 - the day before three Guantanamo detainees committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells - military police beat Aamer because he resisted providing a retina scan and fingerprints. ``They choked him,'' the lawyer said. ``They bent his nose repeatedly so hard to the side he thought it would break. ... They gouged his eyes. They held his eyes open and shined a mag-lite in them for minutes on end, generating intense heat. They bent his fingers until he screamed. When he screamed, they cut off his airway, then put a mask on him so he could not cry out.''
I own a Maglite. The heat isn't 'intense'. And if Aamer gave the guards any guff then he's going to get whacked. Every con in the pen knows that.
The motion said the treatment of Aamer, who is fluent in English and is known to military guards as ``the Professor,'' violates Article Three of the Geneva Conventions, which states prisoners ``shall in all circumstances be treated humanely.''
So far I haven't heard anything that violates this, even if we're magnamious enough to extend Article Three to the mook.
Army Capt. Dan Byer, a Guantanamo spokesman, denied any of the roughly 450 Guantanamo detainees are subjected to such treatment. He said regulations prevent him from speaking about individual detainees, but that detainees are treated in conformance with the Geneva Conventions.
He discounted the allegation that Aamer was kept in solitary confinement. ``No detainee is in a situation where they do not have available human contact 24 hours a day,'' Byer said, but he declined to discuss whether Aamer has been kept apart from other detainees for a year.
No doubt that solitary can send some guys 'round the bend. Happens in the state pens. The issue is what he did to land himself in solitary.
Aamer told his lawyer the air conditioner in his cell is often turned off, leaving him sweltering in the tropical heat, or turned up full blast ``so the cell is freezing cold.''
Aamer claims he was working for a charity organization when he was captured in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Just a pious, humble solicitor for the Widows Ammunition Fund.
The detainee won a measure of fame at the prison last year when he met with Army Col. Mike Bumgarner, who was then the warden, to end a hunger strike by detainees. Aamer brought together a six-man prisoners council that attempted to negotiate improved conditions and advocated that detainees be tried or sent home, his lawyers said, but the talks failed and Aamer was put in solitary confinement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
A Saudi has been held in solitary confinement for a year at the Guantanamo Bay prison and is now so mentally unbalanced he considers insects his friends
In Jammu and Kashmir spreading terrorism has transformed into an industry with an annual inflow of estimated Rs 150 million filling the pockets of terrorist commanders and Kashmiri separatist leaders.
This aspect of illegal money transactions popularly known as hawala shot the headlines when one Kashmiri Aizaz Hussain Khwaja, a Lashkar-e-Taiba conduit was arrested with Rs 5 million in cash soon after Mumbai blasts. He reportedly told his interrogators that he used to receive money from a Dubai based Kashmiri businessman along with instructions to whom the money was to be handed over, the sources said. He used to send money through human couriers, who in turn stashed it on the rooftop of state-run buses to Srinagar to avoid physical checking and surveillance, informed sources said. Khawja said he used to get instructions from mostly through the Internet and used to bring in money mainly to the Muslim separatist leaders and Lashker-e-Taiba terrorists based in Kashmir.
Hawala is a system through which money is transferred from one part of the world to another without following the normal banking channels. Though no one perhaps knows how and when this method of money transfer started.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 07:37 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Hawala is a system through which money is transferred from one part of the world to another without following the normal banking channels."
I can't wait for the NYT to tell me exactly how Western Intelligence has infiltrated this network and is violating someones civil liberties.
#2
In Jammu and Kashmir spreading terrorism has transformed into an industry with an annual inflow of estimated Rs 150 million filling the pockets of terrorist commanders and Kashmiri separatist leaders.
LAHORE: The Islamic Emirate of Waziristan is a rebel organisation in Waziristan that gained de facto recognition from the government of Pakistan on September 5, 2006, as a result of negotiations between Islamabad and local tribesmen to end the undeclared Waziristan war, according to an entry in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia. The Islamic Emirate of Waziristan has close affiliations with the Taliban although it is a separate entity, reads the entry. Waziristan is often mentioned as a haven for Al Qaeda fighters, who will be required to either leave the area or act peacefully as a condition of the negotiated peace accord. It has also given the map and flag of the new de facto state.
Foreign Office spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam dismissed the report as baseless propaganda, adding that the government would take immediate notice of the information on the website. We have repeatedly cleared that no agreement has been signed with local Taliban, she said. Basically, the September 5, 2006 agreement is between the federal government and local tribal leaders. There is no agreement with the Taliban at all.
According to the website, the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan controls the area of North Waziristan Agency and South Waziristan Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). In practice, the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan has replaced these two agency-level governments as the political body controlling the area, although formal dissolution of the former governments was not part of the truce agreement. Partisans declared a new state, the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan, in February 2006. The Pakistan government effectively acknowledged the organisation in the peace agreement of September 5, 2006 which referred to the organisation in the agreement, however the agreement does not recognise the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan as an independent state, but only as a security body charged with fulfilling the obligations of the treaty.
There is speculation that Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders have found refuge in the area controlled by the Emirate, which is a staging ground for militant operations in Afghanistan. A condition of the truce is that the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan no longer support these operations. Local observers view the truce accord as a prelude to hot pursuit chases of Mujahideen into Pakistan by NATO forces in Afghanistan, it added. The federal government has said several times that it plans to ban several websites and web pages through the Ministry of Information and Technology and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA).
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Basically, the September 5, 2006 agreement is between the federal government and local tribal leaders. There is no agreement with the Taliban at all."
Except, of course, where the local tribal leaders are the Taliban.
#3
If it is a state, it can be warred upon. I am also reading this in a foolishly optimistic way. My God could Mushariff really have convinced them to give up Pak protection so that the US could eliminate his problem and provide an example to the various independence movements in Pakistan. Machiavelli would be proud if that is so.
Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday ruled out any immediate withdrawal of Indian forces from the Line of Control (LoC). In an interview with a financial daily here, the defence minister said that Pakistan first had to reduce terrorist infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir from its borders and to contain terrorist activities in the Valley before asking India to reduce troop levels in the region.
"Troops are needed on the borders to contain the level of terrorist activities on the ground," Mukherjee said, pointing out that infiltration levels had not come down since April. "Even the latest (official) reports on September 16 and 15 have shown that nine terrorists have been killed while trying to cross the border. There has also been a seizure of arms during these days, including some AK rifles," he said. On Held Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's proposal for a ceasefire during Ramzan, Mukherjee said that the Centre had still to receive the formal proposal to undertake this confidence-building measure.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial was replaced Tuesday amid complaints from Shiite and Kurdish officials that he was too soft on the former Iraqi leader, a move that could raise accusations of government interference in the highly sensitive case.
The government spokesman's office announced that judge Abdullah al-Amiri was removed but did not say who would take his place or why he was replaced. He was replaced on the five-member panel by Mohammed al-Uraibiy, who was his deputy in the trial, said a court source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Al-Uraibiy is a Shiite Arab, the source said.
The Arab satellite stations Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera said al-Amiri was removed after a request from Iraq's prime minister.
Hussein al-Duri, an aide to the prime minister, said one reason was al-Amiri's comments last week in a court session, in which the judge told Saddam, "You were not a dictator."
"The head of the court is requested to run and control the session, and he is not allowed to violate judicial regulations, " al-Duri told Al-Arabiya television. "It is not allowed for the judge to express his opinion."
Al-Amiri's comment angered many Kurds and Shiites, fueling their criticism that he was too lenient with Saddam. Prosecutors had already asked for al-Amiri to be replaced after he allowed Saddam to lash out at Kurdish witnesses during a court session.
The change could revive complaints that the government is interfering in the tribunal trying Saddam and his regime members to ensure a quick guilty verdict. In the current trial, Saddam faces a possible death penalty if convicted on genocide charges over the Anfal military offensive against Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s.
In Saddam's first trial - over alleged atrocities against Shiites in the town of Dujail - the chief judge stepped down halfway through the nine-month-long proceedings, saying he could no longer put up with criticism from officials that he was too lenient in allowing courtroom outbursts by Saddam and his co-defendants.
He was replaced by a far tougher judge who several times threw out defendants and defense lawyers he said were out of line.
A verdict in the Dujail trial is expected on Oct. 16.
Al-Amiri presided over the latest session of trial Tuesday, in which more Kurdish survivors of Anfal recounted chemical bombardment of their villages by the Iraqi military.
One witness, Iskandar Mahmoud Abdul-Rahman, a major in the Kurdistan security force, told the court that an attack on his village began on March 20, 1988, when Iraqi aircraft appeared over the skies.
"We dropped to the floor; white smoke covered us, it smelled awful," Abdul-Rahman testified in Kurdish. "My heart raced. I started to vomit. I felt dizzy. My eyes burned and I couldn't stand on my feet."
Abdul-Rahman said he was treated at two hospitals in Iran, and lost consciousness for 10 days.
"The doctors were frequently giving me injections and medication, including eye drops. They cut the burned skin with scissors," he said, adding that his eyesight remains poor.
Abdul-Rahman then removed his blue shirt. There were several dark scars, each about 8 inches long, on his back.
Saddam's chief lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, and prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon approached the witness to take a close look.
Saddam and six other defendants are on trial for alleged atrocities against Kurds during Operation Anfal, a crackdown on Kurdish guerrillas in the late 1980s. The prosecution alleges some 180,000 people died in the campaign, many of them civilians killed by poison gas.
Saddam and his cousin "Chemical" Ali al-Majid are charged with genocide, and the others are accused of various offenses. All could face death by hanging if convicted.
Two other witnesses also testified Tuesday, repeating allegations of abuse suffered in the crackdown.
Raouf Faraj Abdullah, a 55-year-old farmer, told of poor living conditions and a shortage of food in a detention camp in the northern city of Irbil.
"The people of Irbil tossed food over the barbed wire," said the man, who had a thick black mustache and wore a traditional Kurdish headdress.
He said he was moved to another camp, where he was separated from his 2-year-old son and his wife, who later gave birth in her prison cell.
"When I went to see her, I found out that my newborn baby had died," he said.
Abdullah said 28 people were killed in attacks on his village.
A third witness, Ubeyd Mahmoud Mohammed, said 70 people, including his wife and six children, were killed by an attack on his village March 22, 1988.
Saddam, dressed in a dark suit with a white handkerchief in his chest pocket, sat silently throughout the testimony, taking notes.
But the session was marked by a heated exchange between the senior prosecutor, Jaafar al-Moussawi, and defense lawyer Badee Izzat Aref, who accused prosecutors of misleading the court by presenting a witness who allegedly had a forged passport.
He referred to an Iraqi Kurd who told the court Monday that he sought asylum in the Netherlands where he acquired Dutch citizenship in 1994.
Saddam and his lawyers argued that Iraqi law barred dual nationality, and asked that the man's testimony be stricken from the record.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/19/2006 16:43 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
JEDDAH: Eight Middle Eastern countries vowed on Monday to step up efforts to stem the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq after an interior ministers' meeting in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. The six Arab states plus Iran and Turkey pledged to "exchange information relating to combating terrorism," at the meeting that was also attended by Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/19/2006 6:48 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Wow, this is really special. I don't want to be overly optimistic, but I'll bet this is worth almost as much as their financial pledges to the Paleos. That's worked out pretty well, right?
Democracy marches on in Gaza...
GAZA (Reuters) - Gunmen stormed an office of a Palestinian news service under the control of President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, beating up one reporter and vandalising equipment, witnesses and the news agency said. Did you curse Haniyeh's beard?
Ummmmmmmm...no? OUCH! Yes! OUCH! No! OUCH! Yes! OUCH! No! OUCH!
The attack in Gaza coincided with rising tension between Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas over the killing last week of a senior intelligence official loyal to the president, a shooting that has further complicated efforts to form a unity government. Hmmmmmm... rising tensions in Gaza. I see much seething on the horizon. Much shooting. A modern day Nostradamus I am...
Witnesses said unidentified gunmen smashed a computer and destroyed other equipment at the official WAFA news agency office in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The agency said one reporter was attacked and taken to hospital for treatment. Yes, but were they "masked" gunman? While there was no claim of responsibility, the gunmen accused WAFA of biased media coverage. You like them better!
No we don't.
Yes you do!
No we don't.
powpowpowpowpowpowpowpow
Okay, we like you better...
Fatah officials said later on Tuesday hundreds of armed Fatah gunmen had been deployed in Khan Younis to protect public institutions especially those controlled by Abbas. Hello, Mahmoud.
Hello, Achmed.
Could you wait til I get off shift before you torch the Ministry of Not Doing Much? I'll be doing paperwork for the next sixth months.
Lemme call the boss...
Last June, gunmen stormed an office of Palestine TV in Gaza, accusing the network, also controlled by Abbas, of favouring Fatah. Fatah blamed militants from the Hamas Islamist movement for that incident, a charge Hamas denied. They like you better!
Do not!
Do too!
Seeking to resolve their differences and lift Western sanctions, the moderate Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas last week announced plans to form a unity government. However, bickering has since broken out, with Abbas freezing talks after accusing Hamas of reneging on a deal he says includes accepting interim peace accords with the Jewish state. Bickering! Can you believe it? Mahmoud! Ismail! It's bad for business. Kiss and make up and we'll all get richer then Suha...
Hamas has said talks were only on hold while Abbas attended U.N. meetings in New York, insisting it would abide by the deals if they were in the "interest of the Palestinian people." Ah, yes, "the interests of the Palestinian people". Yasser rode that scam all the way to the grave.
In a show of strength, thousands of workers waving Hamas flags took to the streets of Gaza in a rally organised by the group aimed at urging Abbas to help pay their salaries. Protesters also urged Abbas not to give in what they saw as U.S. pressure over the unity government. The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has not paid full salaries since March, when Western powers cut aid to put pressure on the Islamic militant group. Abbas has started making partial payments using Arab funds that bypassed Hamas. It has been [7] months since our last paycheck.
Witnesses at the demonstration said protestors assaulted three journalists including a cameraman with Palestine TV. Another journalist, Mwafaq Matar, known for his pro-Fatah stance, was seriously beaten in the incident, they added. Lemme help you up there, Mwafaq.
Ouch! Ow! Ow! OUCH!
Further jeopardising the planned unity government, Fatah officials said Abbas would not agree to form the coalition until Hamas arrested those behind the killing of Jad Tayeh, a senior official in the General Intelligence service in Gaza last week. Four of his bodyguards were also killed in the shooting. Leave the guns. Take the falafel...
In a statement on Tuesday, Hamas reiterated it was not responsible for the killings and said its patience could run out if accusations of the group's involvement continued. Hundreds of relatives of the dead men marched to parliament in Gaza on Tuesday, firing rifles into the air. Welcome to Gaza: Disneyland for lunatics.
Palestinian officials denied on Monday reports that President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to appoint an exiled top Hamas leader as deputy chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Mohammed Awad, Secretary General of the Hamas-led cabinet, told Voice of Palestine radio that it is not true that some media reported that Abbas agreed to nominate Damascus-based Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal as PLO deputy chairman.
"This issue was not discussed by Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haneya," Awad said, adding "what were discussed are the political platform of a proposed coalition government and the activation of the PLO" according to the Prisoners Document of National Accordance initiated by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Meanwhile, a PLO executive committee member Taysser Khaled also denied the report, describing it as "untrue".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
it is a cesspool, we've nominated someone, but there is so much floating around we can't identify it yet.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Monday that Israel would be forced to release numerous prisoners in order to free kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit. According to Mubarak, the deal would include a prisoner swap separated into two stages. First, Shalit would be returned to Israel in an exchange for jailed Palestinian women and minors. The second part of the deal would be based upon the release of Palestinian men imprisoned in Israel. However, Israeli sources were still convinced that no such deal was in the process.
Unfortunately, they always say that just before it turns out that it was in the process. In that respect the Israelis are no more truthful than the Paleos.
Government spokeswoman Miri Eisin refused to comment on Mubarak's statement. "We have nothing to say. We respect Mubarak, and Israel does not talk about any of these issues," she said.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon insisted that a deal securing Shalit's release was not close at hand. "There is not yet a deal," Maimon told Israel Radio. "The same foreign reports give expectations and optimism that are not correct. They talk about days ... I think on this it's best to be more cautious."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
their 1000:1 swaps are the dumbest f*cking thing imaginable. Hamas comes off looking like heroes, you reinforce that taking Israelis hostage is profitable, and it reinforces that you have no spine in general. Idiots
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/19/2006 9:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Well said, Frank G. To use an unfortunate phrase: Dead on the money.
#3
Negotiating with terrorists recognizes them as somewhat legitimate. Very bad precident. What happened to Israel after Entebbe? How far the leaders have fallen.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/19/2006 23:07 Comments ||
Top||
Washington is not linking Israeli progress on the Palestinian track with forming an international coalition against Iran, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in New York Monday. During their meeting, one of a host of talks Livni held with world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, Rice said the US continued to view the Palestinian issue and the Iranian problem as separate.
According to officials in Livni's office, Rice - not Livni - raised the issue, and she did it in the presence of Philip Zelikow, one of her top advisers, who seemed to indicate linkage last week in a speech to a conference organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. In that speech, Zelikow said there was a need to form a "coalition of builders" to confront the Iranian threat, an alliance composed of the US, Europe and moderate Arab states. He indicated that progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track was an essential element for the Arabs and Europeans to get on board the efforts to stop Iran. "It is an essential ingredient for forging the coalition. I would say it is an essential ingredient for Israel," Zelikow said, adding, "It is an essential glue that binds all these things together."
He said that when building coalitions, there was a need to address concerns of other members, in this case the Europeans and Arabs. During the Livni-Rice meeting, the second between the two in a week, Livni spoke of the need for the international community to remain firmly behind the demands that in order for the Palestinian Authority to gain legitimacy, it needed to accept the international community's three benchmarks: recognizing Israel's right to exist, forswearing terrorism and accepting previous agreements.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
(IsraelNN.com) Thousands of Hamas supporters marched in Gaza on Monday night following an anti-Hamas rally during the morning hours. Haniyah on Monday morning was attacked by angry government workers whom have not been paid in over six months. They stated that over 100,000 municipality employees have not been paid their salaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
PAKISTANI President Pervez Musharraf today called for a ban on the "defamation of Islam" in a speech to the UN General Assembly in which he took a veiled swipe at Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks linking the Muslim faith to violence.
"We also need to bridge, through dialogue and understanding, the growing divide between the Islamic and Western worlds," General Musharraf told the 192-member assembly.
"It is imperative to end racial and religious discrimination against Muslims and to prohibit the defamation of Islam."
In an indirect reference to Pope Benedict XVI, he said, "It is most disappointing to see personalities of high standing oblivious of Muslim sensitivities at these critical moments".
#1
"It is imperative to end racial and religious discrimination against Muslims and to prohibit the defamation of Islam."
It is also imperative to end Islam's discrimination against non-Muslims and prohibit the defamation of non-Muslim religions, you twit.
"We also need to bridge, through dialogue and understanding..."
We need to clean up Pakistan. You're starting to look pretty worthless, Sprocket Chest. I'm thinking we might be better off to have you and your double-gaming cronies replaced with radicals. That way we can glass over Pakistan's nuke/missile facilities and terrorist strongholds and be done with it.
[Unlike Sprocket Chest, I don't do "veiled swipes", and Muslims with "sensitivities" can take a little Valium or prednisone.]
#2
You first sahib. Replace it with Judaism or Hinduism and enforce it.
Posted by: ed ||
09/19/2006 17:58 Comments ||
Top||
#3
a ban on definition of Islam?
oh.....nevermind
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/19/2006 18:25 Comments ||
Top||
#4
How rich, a tin pot dictator is attempting to tell the entire world what it can and cannot do, regardless of such niceties as freedom of speech or freedom of religion.
They keep up with this shit and I will hang Koran toilet paper in my bathroom, take out billboard ads with the Danish cartoons on them and record my anti-Islamic songs for airplay on the Internet.
These halfwit psychos DO NOT rule the world. If they keep pretending that they do, we will simply have to turn their entire civilization into rubble. It's pretty hard to plan and launch military or terrorist attacks out of smoking ruins.
1) Musharraf was obviously under pressure to make a statement on the matter; a few days ago, the Pakistani parliament voted overwhelmingly (unanimously?) to condemn Benedict XVI's remarks. Musharraf had the option of making a national address on the subject; instead, he makes a very brusque and undiplomatic presentation of the matter in front of the assembled UN delegations.
I'd equate what he did to Khruschev's shoe-bashing episode.
2) The use of the word 'imperative' is interesting.
3) Pakistan has nuclear weapons and proven delivery systems.
4) Pakistan is a putative ally. The Midget's remarks should be interesting.
#8
Does the ban on
"defamation of Islam" mean we can't say Muhammad was a pedophile? Then, no.
Does it mean that we can't say polygamy is an act of debasing women? Then, no.
Does it mean that we can't say that the Quran is not the word of God?
Does it mean that we can't argue that Allah is not the only and true God? Then, no.
Same problem here as with the term "torture"-one Muslim's torture is one Westerner's freedom of speech. I do not submit to Islam and will say why wherever and whenever I feel like it. Learn to cope, Musharraf-your belief is not my obligation to respect.
Tripoli - The elder son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has called on Pope Benedict XVI to convert to Islam immediately, dismissing last week's apology from the pontiff for offending Muslims.
"If this person were really someone reasonable, he would not agree to remain at his post one minute, but would convert to Islam immediately," Mohammed Gaddafi told an awards ceremony on Monday evening for an international competition to memorise the Qur'an.
"We say to the pope - whether you apologise or not is irrelevant, as apologies make no difference to us."
Gaddafi junior also hit out at "those Muslims who look for comfort in the words of a non-Muslim".
He said Muslims "should not look for charity from the infidel... but should fight Islam's enemies who attack the faith and the Prophet Muhammad".
On Sunday, the pope said he was "deeply sorry" for the reaction to a speech he made last week in which he quoted an obscure medieval text that criticised some teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as "evil and inhuman".
The speech sparked several days of protests in Muslim countries against the leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics.
Although the pontiff's apology was widely rejected as insufficient, anti-pope protests seemed to subside on Tuesday with the only planned event a rally by foreign theology students in the Iranian clerical capital of Qom.
As I said in another thread, the reaction of Muslims everywhere has done nothing but prove the points which Benedict made in his speech about irrationality.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
09/19/2006 14:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
When is everybody gonna realize that we're basically dealing with an insane bunch of people here?
What we're seeing right now are just the earliest precursors of the vaguest hints at the most tentative intimations of the actual depths of their stupidity.
Somethin's gonna go THUD soon.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/19/2006 15:28 Comments ||
Top||
#8
I think the rule is that before you kill someone in the name of Jihad - you have to extend the opportunity for them to convert to Islam. They aren't stupid, just following the rules.
#13
The quote doesn't "in any way express my personal thought." Well, at least it's a tiny bit improvement. At least I think so. The last pope kissed the Koran, much to the delight of the Islamic cleric onlooker. I kind of understood why he might have thought that was a good idea, but to the muzzies that was admitting Islam's superiority over the faith and the faithful--so it was a really bad idea. Any retraction is seen as a victory in what the muzzies consider, not a dialogue, but a test of wills. This pope isn't kissing the Koran, but neither should he kiss the boot of Islam. Just my opinion, and no offense to all you Catholics who are rallying behind him. What I think is nuts is that the Islam-icks are behaving in a violent and irrational way, devoid of reason as they attempt to force conversions of thought and action of the worldwide leader of the Roman Catholic people--which, of course, just proves his point about the need for convergence of faith and reason, and an adherence to non-violence in religious discourse.
As protests against the Pope continued to rumble around the Muslim world yesterday, Catholics began asking themselves if this highly intelligent man can really have been so crass as to have ignited the passions of millions of Muslims without realising that he was doing it.
If the alternative version is more credible - that he knew exactly what he was doing - then the next question arises: why? The gloomy conclusion of some Vatican experts is that there was no inconsistency in the Pope's choice of the words "inhuman and evil" - quoted from the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Palaeologus - to characterise Islam. Such a negative view, they say, is consistent with all his words and actions with regard to Islam.
Their claims make for a tragic contrast with the decades devoted by John Paul II to the challenge of bringing Islam, Judaism and Christianity closer together after many centuries of hatred and bloodshed. Now all that hard work, rowing against the tide of history, seems to be at risk.
Marco Politi, Vatican expert at La Repubblica newspaper, wrote: "The debacle into which the Holy See has fallen after [the Pope's speech at the University of ] Regensburg ... is much more than an accident of communication. The unhappy anti-Mohamed quotation, followed by the violent reaction of the Islamic world and the bitter indignation of moderate European Muslims, has brought violently to the light the rupture completed by the Pope with the strategy conducted for more than two decades with success by John Paul II."
Politi said John Paul II went out of his way to find points in common between the three revealed religions: "From Casablanca to Cairo, from Sudan to Syria, in every corner of the world in which there was a significant population of Muslims, John Paul II preached the common faith in the one God of the sons of Abraham, their common prayer and the common duty of Jews, Christians and Muslims in favour of peace and justice," he wrote. "It wasn't merely rhetoric. IE the fairy fable of the "Abrahamic religions"... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Massignon
Massignon was an homosexual, fascinated by the virility of islam, by the way, IIUC...
It was the wish to put together, in the name of spiritual brotherhood, a shared platform from which to repudiate religious violence, religiously motivated terrorism and any other manipulation of the name of God to justify sanguinary projects."
But his successor indicated from the start that he would not continue down the same road, Politi said. "At his inaugural mass as Pope, Benedict XVI cut out any reference to a fraternal relationship" with Islam. The Pope is also, according to Politi, "tormented with worry born from the messages of violence woven into the Koran, and doubtful of the ability of Islamic religious leaders to get to grips with the problems of secularism." But if the Regensburg address was his way of airing those doubts, it has had the effect of multiplying them. "Now," Mr Politi concludes, "the Vatican must try to rebuild its strategy towards Islam from scratch."
Writing in La Stampa, the political scientist Gian Enrico Rusconi said the Pope's apology on Sunday "was an act such as has not been recorded in the modern history of the papacy. It was an unheard-of gesture. But at the same time the discourse at Regensburg and its consequences indicate an irreversible break, not only in relations between Islam and the Catholic Church, but also in the public image of the Pope in the West."
#1
Time for the Pope to clarify his remarks. Being mis-understood, and leaving it grey is not good.
He should say that Islam is a bloodthirsty, violent, non-tolerant religion which is not consistent with Western values, as proven by their response to his original non-threatening remarks.
#2
Why is it that the Catholic church has to build bridges with Islam when Islamic Scholars/Clerics do nothing to improve relations with other religions!!!!!
Seems to me that this "reporter" has made the same mistake the Muzzies are making - completely misunderstanding the situation. Seems to me that JPII tried the "nice" approach, and we got nothing but violence. Now Benedict is throwing off the blinders and giving them the chance to confront the truth - a challenge to reform themselves and their brutal ideology.
This appears to be a logical next step. A final call for a peaceful resolution.
Uncharitably:
The "reporter" is a fuckwit hang-wringing apologist for Muzzy Hate and deliberately misstating the facts. Fuck him and the "Independent".
#9
has anyone seen Benedict XVI and Fred Pruitt together at the same place?
Nah, the Pope has more hair
Posted by: Steve ||
09/19/2006 13:13 Comments ||
Top||
#10
If the pope came out and said again that Islam is a bloodthirsty moon-god cult and Muslims everywhere could kiss his ass, I would become catholic.
Well, I would, but being a Baptist, I think we're saying it loud and clear:
Franklin Graham, Baptist Evangelist:
The Qur'an does teach it [violence against non-muslims]. It is there. You can read it for yourself. And these verses from the Qur'an are not taken out of context, it's there. So we just don't want to admit [it], in this country. We would like that everything was in a bubble and everybody's nice and everybody's happy. I'm sorry, we don't live in that kind of world. This nation has been attacked, we've been attacked by men who claim to worship Allah. We have been attacked by a people, a group, in the name of Islam, and the clerics, the religious leaders of Islam have not denounced it.
Many people after 9/11 said that "The Muslims, they worship the same god we do, they just have their way to God. Christians have their way to God. But it's the same God." No, it's not.
They've even taken excerpts out of the Old Testament and New Testament, and thrown it into the Qur'an, to sprinkle a few Bible verses throughout to give it validity. But the Qur'an is not the word of God. The Holy Bible is God's word.
Jerry Vines, Baptist Pastor:
"Muhammed was a demon-possessed pedophile. Allah is not Jehovah. Jehovah's not going to turn you into a terrorist that will try to bomb people and take the lives of thousands and thousands of people."
Dean Robinson, Baptist Pastor:
"Islam claims to be a religion of peace and tolerance when in fact it is characterized by violence and religious bigotry. It is the Christian's duty to diligently witness to, not dialogue with the Muslims. We must stand for the true Gospel and against all other false gospels. Islam has rejected the essential teachings of the Word of God. The so-called prophet Muhammed brought an erroneous message from a false spirit that is totally opposed to the Gospel of God's grace. The message of Islam is a curse, not a blessing."
Benedict is a careful theologian, and EVERY thing he said about faith, reason, God and Islam's fundamental and continued recourse to violence is TRUE.
The Pope is not worried about building a relationship with a faith that demands that we Christians become slaves and abrogate our charge from Christ Jesus to grow the Church.
In Jesus own words: "Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20)
From John Paul II himself (since they use him as an example - and do so poorly):
"No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: 'to proclaim Christ to all peoples.'"
This cannot be done under Islamic Dhimmi and Sharia law. So we are complete polar opposites.
Indeed, anyone that believes that such a compromise can be made with Islam is a damned fool - and ignorant to boot. They obviously have not read Bin Laden, his supporting Clerics, the Pakistani madrassa speakers, and the Suras in the Koran itself. Those people mean what they say. Take them seriously. Pope Benedict certainly has.
The reporter and the press have not.
Dumbasses. Sheep. Ignoramuses.
Pope Benedict is trying to wake people up and get them to realize that violent Islam is a serious problem and credible threat. They mean what they say and are readily turn to intimidation, threats, coercion and violence to achieve their ends. That's what he pointed out, and that's what the writers of that article somehow do not comprehend.
What will it take to get through their ignorant thick heads, a nuclear detonation?
#13
I wonder if these Vatican "experts" understand 1,900+ years of Christian theology even a tenth as well as Benedict does. Or if they're even Christian.
I read the speech last night. It's brilliant, it's deep, and ninety-five percent of it has nothing to do with Islam. The quote itself refers to a dialogue which took place almost 700 years ago, and Benedict doesn't even champion it. He uses it to introduce a line of reasoning which champions the idea that God is a rational God, a reasonable God, and that wanton violence is disgusting to God. Violence is inherently unreasonable, and thus you cannot hope to permanently spread a religion through the sword.
What I find most amusing about this whole situation, aside from the fact that the media obviously doesn't understand half of what he actually said, is that in reacting the way they have - in reacting unreasonably - Muslims have proved both their ignorance and the Pope's insinuation that an entity which seeks to promote and spread itself violently is inherently irrational. Benedict knew damn well what he was saying - and the subsequent reaction just proves his points true.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
09/19/2006 14:42 Comments ||
Top||
#14
TR, I've always like the clairity of though that comes from Texas! Get a rope!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/19/2006 21:18 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Pope Benedict is trying to wake people up and get them to realize that violent Islam is a serious problem and credible threat. They mean what they say and are readily turn to intimidation, threats, coercion and violence to achieve their ends. That's what he pointed out, and that's what the writers of that article somehow do not comprehend.
Oldspook, I think they know damn well what the Pope is saying. They seek to intentionally subvert Benedict's words so as to continue their campaign to palliate Islam.
What will it take to get through their ignorant thick heads, a nuclear detonation?
Yes, it will. Nothing short of the simultaneous death of thousands of Americans will wake these subversive morons up. Even then, they will cry, "America deserved it!" Too bad we can cluster up all of these fifth column journalists wherever Islam is going to light off this puppy.
If Islam suceeds in detonating an atomic bomb in America, we should start stringing up these slimebag reporters and editors from lamp posts.
Employees of the state body that organizes Muslim worship in Turkey asked the authorities on Tuesday to open legal proceedings against Pope Benedict and to arrest him when he visits the country in November. Employees of Ankara's Directorate General for Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, presented a petition to the Justice Ministry asking it to launch a probe into the Pope's remarks and to detain him when he arrives, the Anatolian news agency said. They said the Pontiff had violated Turkish laws upholding freedom of belief and thought by "insulting" Islam and the Prophet Mohammad. The protesters held banners that read "Either apologize or don't come".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 11:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
They said the Pontiff had violated Turkish laws upholding freedom of belief and thought by "insulting" Islam and the Prophet Mohammad.
The Mad Tea Party is appropriate indeed. No more comment necessary. That says all you need to know.
The EU issued a robust defence of Pope Benedict's position, warning that fundamental European freedoms were at stake. As a candidate for EU membership, Turkey would be expected to follow Brussels' line.
Johannes Laitenberger, the chief commission spokesman, said: "Reactions that are disproportionate and tantamount to rejecting freedom of speech are unacceptable. Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of the EU's order, as is the freedom of all religions and beliefs."
Contrary to many media reports, Pope Benedict XVI did not apologize on Sunday for his September 12 discourse at the University of Regensburg. He did not retract his words, and did not say he regretted his speech. Unless, of course, you consider an apology his expression of remorse that some misunderstood him, took offense, and reacted violently and irrationally, thus proving, ironically, the accuracy of his original thesis; that cultural dialogue is a pipedream unless all sides reject religiously-motivated violence.
#1
Be nice if you could remove the "Dupe Headline" thingy.
As for the article - it points out how the entire Islamic world seems to be using ad hominem attacks on the Pope, and is refusing ot address his words.
Mindless rage. Thats all Islam seems to be these days.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
09/19/2006 14:23 Comments ||
Top||
#8
As I have been pointing out form the start, an apology that amounts to "I am sorry you are ignorant and behave in an ugly barbaric way" is not an apology .
#2
It depends. He's speaking very carefully and not being listened to carefully. I expect he is sorry about the reaction. I am too. Because it brings us one step closer to the resolution of this in the manner in which it must ultimately and can only be resolved. Benedict will now go to Turkey. Very possibly that will be another step. If that ain't brave, I don't know what is.
#3
The day comes when the islamonut faschists will drag the whole world into a bloodbath.
Millions of other less extreme moslems are going to pay with their lives for not having the guts, wisdom and the inclination to confront and contain the rabid parts of Islam that have sprung amongst them.
They will pay for their "sin" of ommission.
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
09/19/2006 8:35 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Millions of other less extreme moslems are going to pay with their lives for not having the guts, wisdom and the inclination to confront and contain the rabid parts of Islam that have sprung amongst them.
The present incarnation of Islam is its default one. Just examine the 14 centuries of its history. This crap runs in cycles, MAYBE, just MAYBE, we'll finish the job this time. Because if we do not, this may be the last cycle.
Yes, I am advocating the destruction of an entire belief system and all its followers, not too extreme an idea if you consider all of the civilizations and societies that have perished under Islams advance. Once vibrant societies, crushed and consumed by Islam, now pitiful shells of their former selves. That is the retrograde force that Churchill speaks of in the passage from River War.
And this current cycle we're in now, well, it is our turn at the plate, Western (Modern) civilizations turn that is. And we are fucking it up royally! Hopefully, when/if we go Viking on them, there will be a small window of opportunity to gut the Leftists and 5th Columnists here at home.
#6
The way I see it, all you Catholics should be damned proud of this guy.
I am very impressed with what he has accomplished with a simple quote - and only slightly regret the fact that the asshats are too intellectually stunted to realize the facts... on the flip-side, they prove even to the witless who may have been on the fence and still hoping for the Moderate Muslim thing to be true that it was foolish. The whole MM dream is a bust.
Today, we're all Catholics - and I'm sticking to it, too. Good on ya, Benedict.
#9
So Papa quotes 14th century guy saying:
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
And CNN reports the quote as:
"Show me just what (the Prophet) Mohammed brought that was new,... "
I guess that was for the benefit of those who were confusing Mohammed Ali the the other one.
#12
Millions of other less extreme moslems are going to pay with their lives for not having the guts, wisdom and the inclination to confront and contain the rabid parts of Islam that have sprung amongst them.
They will pay for their "sin" of ommission.
I predict this as well. The unquestioning and un-selfcritical Moderate Muslims will be the death of themselves. We are not obliged to hold their hands as they slit their wrists.
DUBAI: Al Qaeda in Iraq warned in an Internet statement no Monday in reply to remarks by Pope Benedict XVI linking Islam with violence that it will wage jihad (holy war) until the West is defeated. "We say to the servant of the cross (the pope): wait for defeat... We say to infidels and tyrants: wait for what will afflict you. We continue our jihad. We will not stop until the banner of unicity flies throughout the world," said the statement attributed to the Mujahedeen consultative council. The authenticity of the statement could not be verified.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Islamic countries asked the UN Human Rights Council to examine the question of religious tolerance on Monday, saying that Pope Benedict's remarks on Islam threaten to alienate Muslims from the West.
There's obviously something wrong with my mind, since I can't seem to make it figure out why it's so important for us to worry about each and every little word for fear of alienating them, while they have no worries whatsoever about alienating us.
Masood Khan, Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said Muslim countries were "reassured that the Pope has expressed regrets, distanced himself from the text that caused offense and renewed his invitation for a frank and sincere dialogue with mutual respect. But Khan, speaking on behalf of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the speech was nevertheless a mistake - a sentiment echoing the response of many Muslims around the world to Benedict's reading last week of a medieval text that characterized some of the teachings of Islam's founder as "evil and inhuman" and referred to spreading Islam "by the sword."
"The statement was regrettable as it showed lack of understanding, albeit inadvertent, about Islam and its prophet," Khan told the 47-country council, the United Nations' human rights watchdog. "Such a tendency also threatens deeper alienation between the West and the world of Islam and hurts the ongoing efforts to promote dialogue and harmony amongst religions."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Islamic countries asked the UN Human Rights Council to examine the question of religious tolerance on Monday, saying that Pope Benedict's remarks on Islam threaten to alienate Muslims from the West."
Good point, we'd better not alienate the 17% of British muslims who believe that their bretheren were in any way involved in 9/11.
#5
Let's all agree how an institution capable of ignoring genocidal crimes against humanity is uniquely qualified to request that a peaceful faith-based organization issue some sort of apology for identifying exactly which murderous group is foremost in its responsibility for modern terrorism.
#7
"Pope Benedict's remarks on Islam threaten to alienate Muslims from the West."
In other news:
--- 'Jewish remarks on Anti-semitism threaten to alienate Nazis'
--- 'Dr. King's remarks on segregation threaten to alienate white southern democrats'
--- 'FBI profiler's remarks threaten to alienate serial killers'
--- 'Jungle explorers remarks on diet threaten to alienate cannibalistic tribes'
ROFL. Ya sure, you'll probably get a resolution through the GA. Won't mean anything, of course. Nothing the UN "decides" ever does.
But in individual Western countries we should be waking up to the dangers inherent in allowing Muslims, who believe all "democratic" things are haram anyway, to feverishly work the levers.
French President Jacques Chirac said Monday that the UN peacekeeping resolution for Lebanon must be carried out "without reservations" so that the Lebanese government can regain control of its territory. Chirac suggested there is a place in Lebanon for Hizbullah - but in politics only, not as an armed guerilla group. Chirac expressed confidence that Israel would withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. He said the first aim of UN Resolution 1701 was to bolster the authority of the Lebanese government.
"I want it to be carried out without reservations. It is in the interests of Lebanon and peace in the region," the French leader said in an interview on Europe-1 radio. "No country can live if a part of its territory escapes the authority of its government," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Precisely, Chirac said (in an interview on Europe-1 radio):
"It is totally normal there be a wing that expresses politically what the Hezbollah think".
Sure: and it's totally normal that Ahmadinejad expresses politically what he stinks, oh sorry, what he thinks.
As it was normal for the nazis to express politically what they thought.
The commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Monday that his troops will not try to disarm Hizbullah, saying that was a matter for the Lebanese government. Major-General Alain Pelligrini told reporters that the main task of the beefed-up UN force, known as UNIFIL, was to ensure that southern Lebanon could not be used as a base for attacks on Israel.
"The disarmament of Hizbullah is not the business of UNIFIL. This is a strictly Lebanese affair, which should be resolved at a national level," he said. "Our mission is to have a zone between the Blue Line and the Litani (River) where there is no illegal army and from which you cannot launch hostile acts." Pelligrini said, referring to the area between the UN-demarcated border with Israel and the river.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Fred -
I was going to suggest the Surprise Meter, but I think you have a better idea here :)
Posted by: RIcky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/19/2006 0:32 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And if they (the Hizbots) tell you to FOAD General Pelligrini, whan then? Pizza?
But in an interview Thursday {posted at Rantburg here} the French daily La Croix, General Alain Pellegrini said UNIFIL would act on its own if necessary. If the (Lebanese army) fails to act, we must assume our responsibilities as a UN force, he said. Someone will have to intervene, with all the consequences that this might have for the Lebanese authorities.
So I don't see any conflict between the two statements - Monday "The disarmament of Hizbullah is not the business of UNIFIL. This is a strictly Lebanese affair, which should be resolved at a national level," he said
and Thursday - "If the (Lebanese army) fails to act, we must assume our responsibilities as a UN force, he said. Someone will have to intervene, with all the consequences that this might have for the Lebanese authorities.
Two statements taken out of context used to make two big headlines. MSM Wankers.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/19/2006 6:34 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I wish someone would ask this cheese eater the following....
"When (not if) the first rocket flies from Leb to Israel what are you going to do??"
#8
If it is strictly a Lesbian affair why are the UNFIL troops there? I bet this Commander (sic) will be the first to whine about being caught in the crossfire.
Posted by: North American Insect Lobby (NAIL) ||
09/19/2006 10:52 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The interesting thing is that all IDF troops are withdrawing today. The French and the other suckers are in the middle now. When Hezbs crawl out of their holes and resume launching missiles, they either go after the perps or suffer the incoming artillery rounds. I suppose Koffeee & his group think the result will be only a shield for Hezbs, no return fire allowed. This time, there should be massive response including napalm. If Frogs are in the middle, they better hit the pond, or suffer the consequences. Now, I realize why they all brought so many ships offshore. Want to extract their boyz when the shooting resumes.
#10
If UNFIL forces do not aggressively act to interdict Hezbollah missile launches into Israel, the IDF should have no compunctions about blowing them all straight to hell along with Nasrallah's thugs. After UN forces were caught acting like forward observers for Hezbollah in the most recent conflict, they are persona au gratin in Israel.
President Jacques Chirac proposed a compromise Monday to kickstart talks between Iran and the international community, suggesting the threat of U.N. sanctions be suspended in exchange for Tehran halting its uranium enrichment program. "I don't believe in a solution without dialogue," Chirac said in an interview with Europe-1 radio. He suggested the international community suspend the threat of U.N. sanctions and that Iran, in turn, suspend enrichment while the two sides talk. "I am not pessimistic," Chirac said. "I think that Iran is a great nation, an old culture, an old civilization, and that we can find solutions through dialogue."
Upbeat about the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program, Chirac said in the wide-ranging radio interview that he was pessimistic about the outcomes in Iraq and Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region. Chirac spoke before leaving for New York to attend the annual U.N. General Assembly, which opens Tuesday. Asked about Iran, the French president noted that "Iran for years developed a clandestine nuclear program." However, "I am never favorable to sanctions" and, should they be unavoidable, they should be "moderate and adapted," he said.
Not real long on substance, but I guess it plays well with the rubes. Someplace.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
While there is undoubtedly much going on of which we are unaware, this backing off from sanctions a couple of days before Bush is to deliver a speech to the UN presumably calling for sterner action on Iraq is another major and significant betrayal by France. Were it not for the reaction to the Pope's anti-Protestant speech, this would be getting much greater reaction in the press and here at the burg.
We need to recognize that France is becoming more deceitfully and actively hostile to American efforts to establiush global security. They are whorishly selling their veto to the highest bidder in order to tweak the nose of the Americans and reduce their power without regard for whose power is increased as a result. France is an enemy and should be booted from NATO. If that means the end of NATO, so be it. Its successor can be constituted from those members interested in and ready to contribute to true global collective security. But without doubt, France is in league with our enemies if only to be against us.
#2
France has never been - and never will be - particularly good to the U.S.A. Since the late 1600's we have been seen as a colony of crude unrespectable people. The support we received during the Revoltionary War was not to support us, but to hose the English.
It does not matter how many times we save them from their own arrogance, they will never be our friend. At some point it would be nice to hear a U.S. President call a duck a duck.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/19/2006 9:10 Comments ||
Top||
#3
France, thy name is perfidy.
OT but related: France wasn't even the best of colonialists in that era of colonialism. The British was the most benevolent by comparision with the best. What a mean mess in IndoChina e.g.
#4
This is lame. They're trying to resurrect the dead so they can play their usual triangulation game. No one but the diplos will even notice.
The only thing I find surprising about this is how long it took them. It has been clear for months that Russia and China would scuttle sanctions. Heh, the French are off their normal game, it seems. They used to define triangulation, now they're mere footnotes to the event. To think the ham-handed Russians have made them irrelevant, preempting any notion of a last-second anti-US back-stabbing move, must really offend their sensibilities and sense of self-importance.
#5
must really offend their sensibilities and sense of self-importance.
Nah, our Enlightened Elites are way too self-deluded to take notice. Besides, foreign policy is where the Grandeur is to be found, but real fun is at home (IE grab as much loot before the whole house of cards that is the Vth collapses).
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.
KUWAIT CITY - The Kuwaiti appeals court on Monday reopened the trial of 36 alleged Al Qaeda militants who fought bloody gunbattles with police last year.
London - Scotland Yard has launched an investigation into a London protest at which calls were reportedly made for Pope Benedict XVI to be 'subject to capital punishment' for his controversial remarks about Islam. 
MONTREAL: Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer expressed concern on Monday that there was "some sympathy" within Pakistani security forces for Afghanistan's Taliban rebels. Downer said Taliban fighters were moving back and forth across the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. "They're finding refuge in Pakistan," he said at a news conference alongside Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay in Canada. "There's no doubt there are people in Pakistan who support the Taliban, and we have some concerns that in the Pakistani security forces, there is some, what you might politely describe as sympathy for the Taliban," Downer added.
It hasnt exactly been an American dream. Since Air America Radios inception, the liberal talk network has struggled to stay alive. Last week, speculation swirled that the troubled network was preparing to file for bankruptcy and its most recognizable star 
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - A Saudi has been held in solitary confinement for a year at the Guantanamo Bay prison and is now so mentally unbalanced he considers insects his friends, lawyers said in a motion filed Monday seeking the man's removal from isolation.
In Jammu and Kashmir spreading terrorism has transformed into an industry with an annual inflow of estimated Rs 150 million filling the pockets of terrorist commanders and Kashmiri separatist leaders. 
LAHORE: The Islamic Emirate of Waziristan is a rebel organisation in Waziristan that gained de facto recognition from the government of Pakistan on September 5, 2006, as a result of negotiations between Islamabad and local tribesmen to end the undeclared Waziristan war, according to an entry in Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia. The Islamic Emirate of Waziristan has close affiliations with the Taliban although it is a separate entity, reads the entry. Waziristan is often mentioned as a haven for Al Qaeda fighters, who will be required to either leave the area or act peacefully as a condition of the negotiated peace accord. It has also given the map and flag of the new de facto state. 
The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial was replaced Tuesday amid complaints from Shiite and Kurdish officials that he was too soft on the former Iraqi leader, a move that could raise accusations of government interference in the highly sensitive case.
Palestinian officials denied on Monday reports that President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to appoint an exiled top Hamas leader as deputy chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Mohammed Awad, Secretary General of the Hamas-led cabinet, told Voice of Palestine radio that it is not true that some media reported that Abbas agreed to nominate Damascus-based Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal as PLO deputy chairman. 
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Monday that Israel would be forced to release numerous prisoners in order to free kidnapped IDF Cpl. 
Washington is not linking Israeli progress on the Palestinian track with forming an international coalition against Iran, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in New York Monday. During their meeting, one of a host of talks Livni held with world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, Rice said the US continued to view the Palestinian issue and the Iranian problem as separate. 
Employees of the state body that organizes Muslim worship in Turkey asked the authorities on Tuesday to open legal proceedings against Pope Benedict and to arrest him when he visits the country in November. Employees of Ankara's Directorate General for Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, presented a petition to the Justice Ministry asking it to launch a probe into the Pope's remarks and to detain him when he arrives, the Anatolian news agency said. They said the Pontiff had violated Turkish laws upholding freedom of belief and thought by "insulting" Islam and the Prophet Mohammad. The protesters held banners that read "Either apologize or don't come".
Islamic countries asked the UN Human Rights Council to examine the question of religious tolerance on Monday, saying that Pope Benedict's remarks on Islam threaten to alienate Muslims from the West. 
French President Jacques Chirac said Monday that the UN peacekeeping resolution for Lebanon must be carried out "without reservations" so that the Lebanese government can regain control of its territory. Chirac suggested there is a place in Lebanon for Hizbullah - but in politics only, not as an armed guerilla group. Chirac expressed confidence that Israel would withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon. He said the first aim of UN Resolution 1701 was to bolster the authority of the Lebanese government. 
The commander of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Monday that his troops will not try to disarm Hizbullah, saying that was a matter for the Lebanese government. Major-General Alain Pelligrini told reporters that the main task of the beefed-up UN force, known as UNIFIL, was to ensure that southern Lebanon could not be used as a base for attacks on Israel. 
President Jacques Chirac proposed a compromise Monday to kickstart talks between Iran and the international community, suggesting the threat of U.N. sanctions be suspended in exchange for Tehran halting its uranium enrichment program. "I don't believe in a solution without dialogue," Chirac said in an interview with Europe-1 radio. He suggested the international community suspend the threat of U.N. sanctions and that Iran, in turn, suspend enrichment while the two sides talk. "I am not pessimistic," Chirac said. "I think that Iran is a great nation, an old culture, an old civilization, and that we can find solutions through dialogue."
