Note this young Christian girl is drugged twice. First by the kidnappers and next by the police. Also, that the other girls in her family are threatened and the family ordered to move. No help in there from the Egyptian police.
Jailed fanatic Abu Hamza has made a fortune while in prison by buying a £220,000 house and renting it out to immigrant workers. The hook-handed Muslim cleric paid cash for the three-bedroom property when he was being held at maximum security Belmarsh Prison.
Egyptian-born Hamza is then believed to have raked in more than £1,000 rent a month, which was collected by an associate. And in the two years since he orchestrated the deal, the house, in Greenford, west London, has seen its price rocket by £40,000.
Earlier this year, the Daily Express revealed how Hamza transferred ownership of a former council flat in nearby Hammersmith, to his 24-year-old son after buying it for £75,000 under the right-to-buy scheme. His son then sold it for £228,000 a £150,000 profit. Hamza was able to make the deal due to a loophole that allowed him to transfer homes he owned to someone elses name. The properties could then be sold without the sale being classed as a business deal for Hamza. Ironically, that loophole was closed by a law that came into force yesterday.
Hamza is estimated to have cost taxpayers £4 million in Legal Aid, court costs, state handouts and policing for his sermons at Finsbury Park mosque in north London.
The United States' attempt to have the self-styled cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri extradited on terror charges was put back for a month Wednesday, the court ruled. Hamza, 48, appeared by video link from Belmarsh Prison at Westminster Magistrates' Court, central London, for a hearing lasting less than two minutes.
The US Government is to seek Hamza's "temporary surrender'' under the 2003 Extradition Act which would allow him to be tried across the Atlantic for charges including providing support to al Qaida and involvement in a hostage taking conspiracy in Yemen. Once tried in the US he would then be returned to the UK to complete his jail term before being extradited again to serve any sentence received in the US.
But last July the Court of Appeal, in central London, gave Hamza leave to appeal after lawyers on his behalf argued that because of a long delay in bringing the prosecution it had become "impossible" for him to have a fair trial. Judge Anthony Evans was told by his clerk that lawyers had informed the court that there was a possibility of an appeal to the House of Lords, the highest court in the land. Judge Evans told Hamza, who was not represented at today's hearing, that under the circumstances the matter would be adjourned for 28 days until November 8.
Japanese television reports on Wednesday that North Korea may have conducted a second nuclear test stirred new anxieties, but one of the networks later issued a retraction and officials said it was most likely a false alarm.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK and Nippon Television, a commercial network, reported that "tremors" had been detected in North Korea, leading the government to begin investigating whether a second blast had taken place. The reports cited unidentified government sources.
Nippon Television later apologized. "At this point, we have not yet confirmed that North Korea has carried out a second nuclear test," the network said. "While we will continue to gather information, we would like to make a correction and offer our apology."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
President Bush demanded stiff sanctions on North Korea Wednesday for its reported nuclear test and asserted the U.S. has "no intention of attacking" the reclusive regime despite its claims that it needs atomic weapons to guard against such a strike. Still, in a Rose Garden news conference, Bush said the United States remains committed to diplomacy but also "reserves all options to defend our friends in the region."
He also vowed increased military cooperation with allies, including bolstering ballistic missile defenses in the region and increased efforts to prevent Pyongyang from importing missile and nuclear technology. Bush rejected international appeals - such as one made as he spoke by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan - for the United States to hold one-on-one talks with North Korea, something the U.S. has refused to do.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Just gave away the biggest leverage for no gain.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2006 0:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Or helping to expose Kimmie for who he really is.
#3
What leverage? The NKors know we won't sacrifice Seoul for a strike on them, unless it is a full-blown retalitory strike for a nuclear attack, or they have crossed the DMZ in a major attack. Otherwise, they have a few million hostages in Seoul, thanks to South Korean internal politics which prevented the moving of the capital further south.
#5
Reading comprehension 101. Parse this for 10 points:
"...reserves all options..."
C'mon, folks. This is the Seattle PI. What they "report" usually bears only a passing resemblance to reality. Journalism 101: compose the headline you want and then write the story to fit. Bury or just omit the inconvenient bits.
Here's the same story as reported by the Chicago Tribune: Bush warns North of `repercussions'
Sure, it's not a barn-burning leather-slapping nuke 'em today response, but it's certainly taking the middle road between. Right?
#6
It's more clever than that -- the NKors have been screeching for years about their 'need' for a 'non-aggression' pact with us, the obstensible reason being that they're afraid we'll attack them.
GWB just took that off the table. No need for a pact, we don't plan to attack you.
Now then, about those nukes and the counterfeiting ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2006 10:22 Comments ||
Top||
#8
It's said the US has never lost on the battle field and never won at the negotiating table. All the president's statement about ruling out attacking NK does is reset the negotiating bar by taking away the ultimate and, in the final analysis, the only threat the US has.
The mistake in US negotiating tactics is to assume all actors have a desire to come to agreement and meet somewhere in the middle. False and deadly conceit. For most of the world, negotiations are just another way to defeat your enemy; all the better if no shot is fired in the process.
And it's not "We won't attack you, now about those nukes." It becomes "So you won't attack us. Now let's talk about giving me new plutonium producing reactors and all the other goodies."
All this NK fiasco has done is show Iran that it has nothing to fear from the US. It's now nukes for everyone who wants them. Isn't that gonna be an interesting world?
Prez Bush conference: The United States affirmed that we have no nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula. We affirmed that we have no intention of attacking North Korea. With its actions this week, North Korea has once again chosen to reject the prospect for a better future offered by the six-party joint statement. Instead, it has opted to raise tensions in the region.
I'm pleased that the nations in the region are making clear to North Korea what is at stake. I thank China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia for their strong statements of condemnation of North Korea's actions. Peace on the Korean Peninsula requires that these nations send a clear message to Pyongyang that its actions will not be tolerated, and I appreciate their leadership.
The United States remains committed to diplomacy. The United States also reserves all options to defend our friends and our interests in the region against the threats from North Korea. So, in response to North Korea's provocation, we'll increase defense cooperation with our allies, including cooperation on ballistic missile defense to protect against North Korean aggression, and cooperation to prevent North Korea from exporting nuclear and missile technologies.
Our goals remain clear: peace and security in Northeast Asia and a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. We will take the necessary actions to achieve these goals. We will work with the United Nations. We'll support our allies in the region. And together, we will ensure that North Korea understands the consequences if it continues down its current path.
1. No attacking NK.
2. Increase defense cooperation with allies.
3. Nuclear-free Korean Peninsula: Too late. Horse is out of the barn. Coop with UN is counterproductive.
4. Prevent North Korea from exporting nuclear and missile technologies: NK is already exporting missiles and missile technologies without interference and cooperation of China and Russia. China and Russia already export nuclear tech to Iran and Pakistan which then spread further. Why would they hinder NK from doing what they already do?
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2006 13:34 Comments ||
Top||
A defiant North Korea warned on Wednesday that it would regard harsh sanctions over its nuclear test as a declaration of war and threatened further trials if the United States kept up its pressure on Pyongyang.
If the US continues to harass and put pressure on us, we will regard this as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical countermeasures...
Pyongyangs number two and its foreign ministry warned of physical measures if it was hit with the kind of sanctions proposed by Washington and Japan. The chance of sanctions grew after even the Norths main ally China said it would support punitive action.
If the US continues to harass and put pressure on us, we will regard this as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical countermeasures, said a foreign ministry statement carried by the Norths official Korean Central News Agency. It did not elaborate on the measures, but insisted it was still ready for talks to improve security and stability on the Korean peninsula. We are ready for both dialogue and confrontation.
The message was reinforced by Kim Yong-Nam, who as head of the North Korean Supreme Peoples Assembly is effectively the regimes number two. If the US continues to take a hostile attitude and apply pressure on us in various forms, we will have no choice but to take physical steps to deal with that, he said in an interview with Japans Kyodo News. He added: The issue of future nuclear tests is linked to US policy toward our country.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#3
Silly buggers don't realize that no one is concerned about further testing. Matter of fact we would like to see them test all of their weapons and keep spending that money like water. As for war, well, technically we are still at war with them. The more than 50 years of peace talks since the ceasefire have failed to produce a peace treaty. The only country they can really threaten is South Korea and the rest of the world would not shed tears if the two Koreas fought it out.
#4
Apparently, the pouffy-haired bitch has boughtr into his puppet-general's hosannas? I think "victory" might be more highly explosive (or cunningly back-stabbing) than you think, Kim
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2006 0:45 Comments ||
Top||
#5
They've said sanctions = war for years. But what "sanctions" means is tricky, I guess.
#11
There is something wrong with N.Korea if they think they could even win a war against Japan let alone the rest of the world?
Posted by: Addison, Tom ||
10/12/2006 15:29 Comments ||
Top||
#12
North Korea is basically holding a gun to South Korea's head as they taunt us. What they don't realize is how, for America, South Korea has all the status of a mother-in-law after the divorce papers are signed.
Kyodo News: Japan will impose its harshest economic sanctions yet on Pyongyang over the nuclear test it conducted Monday, including total bans on the entry of North Korean ships, imports and citizens.
The Cabinet agreed on the sanctions in an afternoon meeting to discuss the declared nuclear test and were formalized by the government's top security panel later in the day. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a news conference after the security panel meeting that North Korea's "insincere responses" to the abduction issue were among the many reasons for the decision to impose the bans. Shiozaki was referring to the unresolved issue regarding the North's past abductions of Japanese.
Wednesday's steps include a total ban on North Korean ships' entering Japanese ports, a ban on all imports from North Korea and the barring of all North Korean nationals from entering Japan...
Wednesday's steps include a total ban on North Korean ships' entering Japanese ports, a ban on all imports from North Korea and the barring of all North Korean nationals from entering Japan, with some very slight exceptions.
Japan first imposed economic sanctions following North Korea's seven missile tests on July 5, including a ban on the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92, which plies between Wonsan and Niigata ports. In September, Tokyo also banned financial institutions from processing overseas remittances to 15 organizations and one individual with suspected links to Pyongyang's weapons program.
Early Wednesday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for tough sanctions after Tokyo became jittery over what appeared to be a false report that the communist state the same day had tested a second atom bomb. "We have to take considerable measures against their announcement," Abe told the House of Councilors. "I presume (Pyongyang) also expect them to be considerable as the sanctions will be imposed by my government."
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And start deporting ethnic Koreans to North Korea. Give them a bellyfull of of the communist paradise they support.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2006 0:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Well, seeing as how Kimmie has said Sanctions mean war, I guess that means the balloon's about to go up then?
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/12/2006 0:15 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Ed I like your style! There is a LARGE North Korea fan club in Japan and it would be wonderful if the Japanese let slip their bonds and allow them to live in paradise.
WASHINGTON (Kyodo) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that Japan might develop nuclear weapons in the wake of North Korea's atomic test, saying she trusts Tokyo as a security partner. "There's no evidence that this is a position that has any particular purchase in the Japanese system, or certainly among the Japanese population," Rice said in an interview on Fox News.
I don't think there's anybody that really thinks changing the nuclear balance in Northeast Asia by having Japan go nuclear would improve the security situation...
Rice made the comments when asked about suggestions by U.S. experts and lawmakers that Monday's nuclear test by North Korea could lead to a nuclear arms race in Asia, with Japan and South Korea going nuclear in response. Some have even advocated holding out the threat of a nuclear Japan as a way to pressure China into pushing North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
"I don't think there's anybody that really thinks changing the nuclear balance in Northeast Asia by having Japan go nuclear would improve the security situation," Rice said. "We trust the Japanese. They're our security partner."
But Rice acknowledged that North Korea's emergence as a nuclear power "could set off all kinds of effects in the region," which is one reason why China has condemned the test and accepted possible U.N. sanctions against the North.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Right now, there does not seem to be the political will to go nuke in Japan. However, there seems to be a big shift going on in Japanese public opinion about just how large and aggressive their Self-Defense forces should be. What I think is most likely to happen, is that Japan will start spending more on their military and adding in a variety of equipment to extend their reach. Harrier carriers/LHPs, more of their excellent diesel/electric subs, aerial refuel tankers, a much more robust ABM system with the new X-band radars, more Aegis-capable cruisers, and a lot more training with the US, Australia, and perhaps India would seem to be the most likely candidates for spending. Plus a large increase in their APCs and tanks for the land warfare component; also, a big increase in MLRS units.
#3
Japan will do what is in Japan's interests. Japan would be foolish to rely on the USA for protection against N. Korea or Red China. Condi has become a disappointment.
My predictions: Japan and Taiwan will go nuclear in less than 12 months.
#4
Now, now, gents - need another civics lesson? This is getting repetitious. Maybe there's something to this ADD stuff.
It's President Bush you're unhappy with. Once again, he's failed to move at the speed demanded here as well as failed to say the really brilliant pithy stuff, manly stuff, as we do here.
Civics Lesson. SecState: Condi is a chess piece. In her Black Boots I'd say she's prolly a Knight. She operates in the nicey-nice world of Diplofarts, where everything is, well, farcical. Bush would reel her in if she was off-base. You don't like her words or actions? Then you prolly don't like Diplofarts and you don't agree with Bush's strategy, cuz that's what she's pursuing within that bubble.
I'm just trying to help, in my short-tempered naturally belligerent sort of way. It's the kind o' guy I am, lol. So please forgive me - or if I'm wrong, please point it out and tell me to piss off. I can take it, I promise.
Otherwise, let's just admit that Bush isn't a clone of any of us, has to operate in a world which lacks MagIk WaNds - it's a reality thingy, and has a whole army of domestic enemies who parse every word from everyone in his administration looking for anything they can bash him with. Pretty much none of us would be elected to any office, given our comments here, doncha know. Except tw. She could get elected to almost anything she decided to pursue. But, in the classic irony of politics, she has far too much sense to mess with such lowlifes, lol. :-)
#6
The Japanese can pretty quickly change their minds about almost anything. This week they are not interested in nuclear arms, next week may bring something different. They know who holds the leash of little Kimmi. There is no love lost between Japan, China and Korea north or south. That is bad blood that is centuries old.
Condi is doing the diplomat thing as per her bosses instructions. A nuclear armed Japan might not be in our interests long term. Some of us have thought about that. A Japan with nuclear weapon is just as destablizing as Kimmi with nuclear weapons in some respects. Remeber the Japanese co-prosperity shere? China, Korea and most of SE Asia do.
#7
SR-71 - Unfair? Sheesh, bro. You object to Condi's deeds ("Condi has become a disappointment."). She's not running free - what she does is at the direction of the President. You cannot have it both ways. That's so crystal clear I'm perplexed by your response. I usually enjoy and agree with your comments - you've got a great direct cut to the bone gimme the facts style, too. But this is as plain as day: No likee Condi, then no likee Bush Foreign Policy moves. :-}
#9
.com, piss off. I'm not sure we disagree, but I just couldn't turn down the invitation :-). Bush is now a lame duck. Everybody knows it. Short of a 5 seat gain in the Senate and a 20 seat gain in the House, he can't start anything now. But he is doing a good job of teeing up Iran for his successor and assuring that his successor will be a responsible trunk instead of a wacko donk.
Before he went into Iraq there were years of UN resolutions Saddam had violated while under a cease fire. But he still had to go for one last one, even after 9/11, before he could get the AfUoF over substantial domestic opposition.
Every President gets a foreign policy test early in his (her) administration. The next gut check is, I'd bet, May 2009 with Iran. Bush is laying the ground work by trying the multilateral jaw-jaw thang so that he can say, "See, it didn't work with this wacko Ahkmedinajihad. Got to whack him."
The good news about Kimmies duds, if they were, is that Iran may not be as close as we fear to nukes. If it were up to me, I wouldn't take the risk of waiting to find out, but that's not where the American people are. Remember even the Greatest Generation wouldn't go after Hitler until after Germany formally declared war on the U. S. If FDR couldn't get a war with Hitler even after Pearl Harbor, it's not surprising Bush can't get one with Ahkmedinajihad.
Patience is a virtue in that it helps keep the blood pressure down while innocent American lives are needlessly risked. But if that's what The People want, Bush has to do it. We elect a President with constitutional duties and limited powers, not a dictator who can do whatever he thinks best. And that's why if I were in the job, I'd end up doing the same thing Bush is and liking it about as much as I suspect he does.
#11
Y'know, maybe we should make the Reality Check a standard here. Every time some hothead (like me) gets all Dire 'n Stuff, the question is posed:
Is there the public political will to do that?
Before you go and grouse that it sure would cut down on the fun 'n games, apply this little trick: enclose rants in rant tags
I use 'em - or used to, anyway. Good habit. Clears up any confusion lickety-split. If the tags are there, well hell - fry 'em up! If they're missing, then get hinky with the poster if it fails the Reality Check, lol. Should cut down on the pointless repetition of Faux Direness that has become rampant here.
#12
At the risk of stating the obvious, the Japanese are not like us Westerners. It's nighwell impossible to get a Japanese to tell you what they really thinks about anything. Serve them dog food and they will praise its robust flavour. Hell, you could serve it out of the can and they would still say nice things about it.
But at the same time they have this capacity to collectively change much faster than us fractious Westerners (so I think). And it wouldn't surprise me if Japan decided to go nuclear in months under a formula like 'we are building the facilities, ready to be activated should the need arise.'
.com, welcome back. I won't ask where you've been, but I hope it was worthwhile.
#17
Remember guys, the State Department and their foggy bottomed idiots are used a lot by presidents to be the "Warm Fuzzy" in our tool chest. Watch what the NSA and military do in deployments and don't get sucked into the smoke screen the State Department is.
#18
.com, I'm with you. But once again, Bush is hampered by the leftist here and by the MSM. So will the next president, so I suggest he take out the MSM post haste. I don't mean kill them all, but he must bitch slap anyone of them who starts the blame game and the pro lefty editorals.
How ? I don't know, but it must be done so he can manuver withour constant criticism.
One is not a very convincing leader when there's a spear sticking in his back.
#19
If the Japanese get nukes it'll sure put a damper on the ole' Hiroshima and Nagasaki annual mourning rituals where they get to bash the US for the evil of it's dirty nuclear weapons....
Posted by: Japan ||
10/12/2006 11:53 Comments ||
Top||
#21
saying she trusts Tokyo as a security partner.
Besides the point. The point is does Tokyo trust us as a security partner? My guess is that if a Democrat wins in '08 (or gets the house or senate in '06) there would be some doubt.
#22
At the risk of stating the obvious, the Japanese are not like us Westerners. It's nighwell impossible to get a Japanese to tell you what they really thinks about anything. Serve them dog food and they will praise its robust flavour. Hell, you could serve it out of the can and they would still say nice things about it.
But at the same time they have this capacity to collectively change much faster than us fractious Westerners (so I think). And it wouldn't surprise me if Japan decided to go nuclear in months under a formula like 'we are building the facilities, ready to be activated should the need arise.'
That's an excellent assessment of the Japanese mindset, phil_b. I've dealt with Japanese customers and their overwhelming urge to be agreeable literally cripples meaningful dialogue.
An example; I've provided Japanese clients customer demonstrations of a large scale multi-chamber conveyer fed inert & reactive gas planar magnetron sputter deposition system that fills a large room. At every step of the way, through explanations about the load lock system, the logic state controller, the source target positions, the turbomolecular pumps, the infrared preheat chamber, the DC & RF power supplies, I would always ask for confirmation that they understood what had just been said and just as often got vigorous head nods and postive exclamations.
Once the demonstration was over, I'd double check with a simple elementary question about the machine's design or functional characteristics and always get a perfect "deer-in-the-headlights" look from all of them.
They were agreeing with me, not because they understood anything (at least anything that they wanted to admit to), but solely to be polite.
.com, you most definitely have misread my own meaning. I'm not overly displeased with the pace or directions of current policy. The critical position against bi-lateral negotiations is not being backed down on and that is important. Yes, I wish our actions were more forceful but I also recognize the limitations involved.
What I object to is how Rice's pronouncement came out, literally, within days of North Korea's possible nuclear test. Any good poker player knows to keep their hole cards hidden and Japan's potential crossover to a nuclear power certainly qualifies as that.
What would have been the harm of letting China and North Korea twist gently in the breeze for a week or two? It could have increased their caution and possibly dragged them forward into making some sort of concessions that might have benefited the situation. It certainly would have helped a lot more than promptly dismissing their combined greatest fear without the slightest reciprocation from them.
#23
When Japanese nod their heads or say Hai, it means I hear you, not I understand you. To get to an understanding, you have to ask a question requires an answer or, if they are in a volunteering mood, ask what they think.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2006 14:30 Comments ||
Top||
#27
Yes, indeed, wxjames. A Leybold-Heraeus Z600.Made of old Panzer armor plate, that monster was. During the 7.0 quake of 1989, a colleague who was in our lab swore that the thing didn't even move at all.
#29
Off Topic: To see what one of these monsters look like, please scroll down to the second item on the page at this link. I'd just about wager that they are selling the unit I used to operate.
#30
Off Topic: Rigid disk magnetic coatings (NiFe, CoCr plus graphite lube), thermal printer heads, SDI Star Wars laser optics, B-2 skin components, Euro Stealth Fighter skin sensor-emitters, first surface mirrors, optical coatings, superconductors and all sorts of other stuff.
I was the first person in the United States to deposit a magneto-optic erasable CD-ROM disk in a manufacturing scale system. The work would have been a lot more fun if it hadn't involved working with Germans. NIH (Not Invented Here) almost crippled their innovative drive. Namely, if it wasn't invented in Germany, it could not possibly be of any importance. A fine attitude to hold most places, but certainly not in Silicon Valley.
#31
This is a very interesting discussion, but how can "all options still be on the table" when W clearly said that we would not attack? One of those comments needs rewritten. Personally I think we missed the window of opportunity to do a low altitude fly by of B1s and B2s and deliver some of that ordanace that is approaching the end of its stable shelf life. And as far as the comments about NKor ships being disappeared at sea, well, kim-chee happens.......
and for that matter, would make a better president than the front runners in either party.
There, I would agree with you, RWV. Condi outshines the vast majority of the current political crop. Is America ready for a black, woman, possibly gay President? Probably not for another 100 years, if ever.
#33
Personally I think we missed the window of opportunity to do a low altitude fly by of B1s and B2s and deliver some of that ordanace that is approaching the end of its stable shelf life.
That's my own read of the situation as well USN, Ret. but what's your take on all of those superannuated artillery emplacements that Kim supposedly has at the ready to pulverize Seoul with?
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/12/2006 15:46 Comments ||
Top||
#35
#32 maybe not Zenster, but can you imagine the cacophany of LLL head detonations not just across America, but *anywhere* where statist, racist, leftist, victimologists congregate if she were elected?
As those adverts say ... priceless!
That's a pretty cool looking suit as well? (I can't believe I just made a comment on a womans business styling - more wine please)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/12/2006 16:10 Comments ||
Top||
#36
I agree, Tony. The liberals would howl about ... exactly what, again? The woman simply exudes grace and class on a par with her ample intelligence. Plus, she plays the cello and classical music, no less. Woman musicians always have a head start with me as it is.
As to her outfit, it looks like a cross between Star Trek and Chanel. I've got it! The Star Trek Chanel!
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/12/2006 18:05 Comments ||
Top||
#38
#36 - groan, don't give up the day job Zenster ;)
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
10/12/2006 18:16 Comments ||
Top||
#39
Remember, Bush said he wouldn't attack, not that he wouldn't respond to what he considered an attack. We have a long history of not being the aggressor. We also have a long history of winning wars once they start. Rice hasn't said anything I want to disagree with.
As for Japan and nukes, it takes about four months to build a nuclear device, if you have the capability and know-how. Japan doesn't have to build nukes YET. I expect that the technology, capability, and information is available in Japan, and has been for quite a while. At the moment, however, the best thing for Japan to do is to greatly expand their conventional capabilties in the air, at sea, and on land. I still say the way to get China and NKor to spin in circles at high rates of speed is to GIVE Japan the Kitty Hawk and let them purchase a squadron or two of F/A-18s.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/12/2006 23:34 Comments ||
Top||
NAHA, Okinawa Pref. (Kyodo) U.S. forces transferred Wednesday what is believed to be missiles for a U.S.-led missile defense system from a freighter in Urama, Okinawa, to the U.S. Air Force Kadena Ammunition Storage Area in the prefecture.
On Wednesday morning, U.S. service members and other workers unloaded the cargo, which arrived Monday, after police cleared the route of idiotsrubesrustics civic groups that had blocked the road in protest of the deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 interceptor system.
The United States plans to begin partial operation of the PAC-3 system at the U.S. Kadena Air Base and the Kadena Ammunition Storage Area by the end of December, deploying all 24 missiles in the system, according to the U.S. military.
While the cargo was being transferred onto dozens of trailers from the freighter at the U.S. Navy's Tengan Pier in Uruma, idiotsrubesrustics members of civic groups shouted from outside the pier's gate, "We will not allow the PAC-3 system to be deployed in Okinawa."
Is there a special reason for your displeasure or are you just doing what Kimmie told you to do?
Meanwhile, Yoritaka Hanashiro, head of the executive office of Gov. Keiichi Inamine, expressed the office's displeasure, saying the U.S. government had not given a sufficient reason to the public for the missile defense system's deployment in the prefecture. "Deploying the PAC-3 system before definite steps are taken to reduce the burden of the Kadena Base cannot win the understanding of local people, and it is regrettable," Hanashiro told a prefectural assembly session about the U.S. bases.
It's also necessary which Mr. Abe seems to understand. Perhaps you're just not high enough on his 'to-call' list?
The missiles are being deployed as part of the agreement reached in May between the central government and Washington on the realignment of the U.S. military in Japan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
MILITARY options against North Korea cannot be ruled out, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Mr Howard today said North Korea's "seriously crazy regime" was a huge problem for the whole world following its first nuclear weapons test this week. He said world leaders until last week hoped China's historic influence on the rogue state would restrain it, but it did not seem to be the case.
"Now I do hope the world can speak through the United Nations with one voice," Mr Howard said. "But the options in a situation like this are limited.
"Nobody wants to look at military options, you can't take them off the table, you never do that, that's foolish.
"Nobody really wants to look at that as an option but they are very limited and we are dealing with a seriously crazy regime."
Mr Howard denied it was hypocritical for US President George W Bush to invade Iraq over claims of weapons of mass destruction, but prefer the UN to deal with North Korea, despite proof it had such weapons. "I don't think it's hypocritical," he said. "I think he is doing, sensibly, what his critics said he should have done further in Iraq and that is, fully exhaust the United Nations route.
"That doesn't mean to say the United Nations route is going to work."
Mr Howard said the UN's ability to intervene in Iraq had been exhausted and the coalition had no alternative but to invade. "I believed at the time, as did everybody, that there were weapons of mass destruction," he said. "The debate was about how you reacted to the existence of those weapons of mass destruction, not about whether they existed or not."
Meanwhile, Mr Howard said Australia gave North Korea some food aid, and he did not want to see it cut off. He said the country would receive more aid if it dropped its nuclear ambitions.
The comments came after Mr Bush vowed earlier today to use "all diplomatic efforts" possible to resolve the North Korean and Iranian nuclear standoffs, but said the option of military action remained on the table. "I believe the commander-in-chief must try all diplomatic efforts before we commit our military," Mr Bush said when asked about his administration's failure to get either Pyongyang or Tehran to give up their nuclear programs via negotiations.
"Diplomacy hasn't run its course, and we'll continue working to give diplomacy a full opportunity to succeed," he said. While repeatedly insisting that his government "remains committed" to multilateral diplomacy, he said the United States also "reserves all options", particularly to "defend our friends and our interests in the region against threats from North Korea".
#4
I'd keep popping off about how this weakens China because it shows they have little influence on their major client state, one that's been taking them for all the oil and food they can get. Rub China's face in it. Make em look like two-bit tinpots when they want to be considered the big boy in Asia. See how they like that.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2006 8:45 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Frank G: If you do so with the idea that China would invade Nork and set up a less-annoying puppet regime, far more intent on feeding its own people than supporting its military machine.
The trouble is in finding out what annoys China to that point. An old China hand suggested that what most annoys China is when their satellites start doing thing "not in the Chinese way". That is far more important to China than about anything else.
A good comparison is to how the Soviet Union treated Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.
Yugoslavia did everything to piss off Russia, left their sphere of influence, even showed military belligerence to them.
Czechoslovakia, on the other hand, was one of their best allies. It did anything they wanted militarily and would always back Russia.
But in 1968, the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia.
The reason was that the Kremlin could abide the annoying Yugoslavians, because Tito was a harsh dictator. The Czechs, however, were becoming far too liberal and encouraging freedom and liberty.
To the Soviet Union, this was intolerable.
In fact, doing things "the Chinese way" is probably the only thing that has prevented the mainland from invading Taiwan, a dozen times over.
And Nork, as horrific as it gets, still does things the Chinese way.
When China had a border fight with Vietnam, it was most likely because the Vietnamese government was apparently straying from the Chinese way, though this later turned out not to be the case.
Yet China still had the better part of two Chinese armies massacred to send Vietnam a message.
#6
FG: I'd keep popping off about how this weakens China because it shows they have little influence on their major client state, one that's been taking them for all the oil and food they can get. Rub China's face in it. Make em look like two-bit tinpots when they want to be considered the big boy in Asia. See how they like that.
China *is* enormously influential with North Korea. The problem is that China is using that influence to advance Chinese interests, not Western ones. There's a lot of loose talk about how this or that country will go nuclear, but that's all it is - loose talk. Wake me up when Japan goes nuclear and manages to retain the US-Japan mutual defense pact. It's great for a rant, but it just ain't gonna happen.
China has tons of credibility - when Korea started impeding the import of Chinese vegetables, China promptly slapped tariffs on Korean electronics, upon which the Koreans backed down. Something similar happened with Japan. It is clear from these two examples that China is able significantly influence the policies of countries with which it doesn't supply - for free - half of their fuel and food for free. Now North Korea is the one country that gets these Chinese freebies. Like it or not, the least complicated explanation is that China is putting North Korea up to these antics.
Nimble, please recalibrate your Quantitative Universal Irony & Pun Sensor (QUIPS).
Notice how I used the full movie title "The Land of OZ" instead of just plain "Oz"? That's the set-up for the final ironic gibe of an imaginary place being the only source of "straight talk". I knew this might zoom some people so I even tossed in the "Bless our Australian allies." as an insurance policy. You're a very bright poster, so please lighten up, emkay?
Drop the NKor side of all the spans across the river. Fuel, Powertowers, Rail and Road.
Done with cruise missles in about 2 hours tops and initiated from outside Chinese SSKor and NKor airspace.
Keep those down for 2 weeks an North Korea is completely out of petroleum, and probably completely unable to feed the military, much less supply it and control it in an offensive.
Its Chinese support for he NKors that is the big issue onthe Korean question, just like Paki support of the talib is the root of the problem in in Afghanistan.
#3
It's right under our noses, although they might not be bad people? We will only find out later...
Posted by: Addison, Tom ||
10/12/2006 15:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Oh! This is SO Smart.
Invite 3rd world alien drones into your country, give them the vote, then watch as they vote themselves bread & circuses while you become pauperized. Ultimately, they push you out of your own cities and implement sharia.
#5
At one time, Belgium was called the Cock Pit of Europe, because it was where the Catholic - Protestant wars were fought most fiercely and longest.
There is a double irony here. The French speaking nominally Catholic Walloons screw the Flemish by giving immigrants easy citizenship and the vote, because of historical emnities. And they create a new Cockpit of Europe with the native Flemish and the (muslim) immigrants facing off. This can only end badly. It remains to be seen how badly.
#8
Shit, it happens here in the US too. Every gawdamn illegal in here walks in and votes, and half don't speak English. Just as astouding here as over htere. Bye the bye, did you notice that we've located the Shitbird Murat ?
Milan, 12 Oct. (AKI) - Italy's highest appeals court, the Cassazione, has ordered the retrial of three terror suspects who were acquitted in a first trial and then on appeal on charges they recruited militants and suicide bombers to send to Iraq. Moroccan national Mohammed Daki along with Ali Toumi and Maher Bouyahia of Tunisia were judged not guilty of international terrorism. Daki - who had admitted ties with seven members of an al-Qaeda cell in Hamburg linked to the 9/11 attacks - was repatriated to Morocco last year while the other two were jailed on separate charges. The Cassazione annulled the previous sentenes for "flawed reasoning" in the high profile cases.
In January 2005, Milan judge Clementina Forleo made headlines in Italy when she acquitted the three men questioning evidence of their terror links based on phone tapped conversations and police questioning of militants in Iraq. The judge was widely accused of bias for her sentence's motivation in which she set apart guerrilla and terrorism and said attacks against military targets in Iraq could not be likened to terror attacks on civilians.
Appeals judge Rosario Caiazzo brought her sentence a step further when he confirmed Forleo's decision the following November. Though Caiazzo recognized that the three men were "clearly recruiting suicide bombers" in his sentence he said the three could not be condemned on international terrorism charges as it was possible to convitc "only those targeting civilians" otherwise any sort of wartime military action could be labelled as terrorism.
Speaking from Casablanca, Daki proclaimed his innocence on Wednesday and claimed the Cassazione had annulled the previous sentnces "because I am not powerful," in an interview with Italy's main paper Corriere della Sera. Milan anti-terror prosecutor Armando Spataro praised for his part the high court's decision to order a retrial as it "confirmed that the previous sentences were wrong."
Posted by: Steve ||
10/12/2006 08:52 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's interesting.
Could we do this in the US? Or would it trip over double jepoardy?
Germany's High Court is due Thursday to hear the appeal of Mounir al-Motassadeq, one of only two people convicted of a role in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Motassadeq, who was not arrested until the month after the attacks on New York and Washington, has been tried twice on terrorism charges. He was sentenced in 2003 to 15 years in prison for helping three of the suicide pilots involved in the attacks, then won bail and a retrial. In August 2005 he was jailed for seven years, but released on bail six months later pending the outcome of his second appeal. At both his trials, judges said it was inconceivable he did not know what his associates were plotting. They convicted him of membership in the Hamburg terrorist cell to which the pilots also belonged but dropped charges of accessory to murder at the second trial. Prosecutors are seeking a repeat of the 15-year term handed down at the original trial. The defence wants the verdict overturned on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to convict him.
#1
What a great read. He clearly see's the US as the leader in defence technology, as he should. Too bad this kind of stuff will never reach the mainstream media.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/12/2006 13:46 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Which is why the EU can't fight its way out of a wet paper bag.
#3
Incredible the bloated amounts of money the UK is paying, all in the name of European solidarity, for less capable weapons than is available from the US.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2006 13:51 Comments ||
Top||
#4
NIH is a universal phenomenon. Unfortuantely, the US suffers from it almost as much as the Euros.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
10/12/2006 15:03 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Yes, but the US has an advantage that helps us overcome that problem : if the item in question is popular enough, US-based production companies will be built to make them. Example : M249, and the new Marine 6-shot grenade launcher. M249 is/was an FN product, but is now produced in an American plant. The new revolver grenade launcher is a South African design that is being license-produced here. And the Rhino APC is another South African design being license-produced. Also, H&K built a production facility in Georgia to produce rifles, submachine guns, and pistols for the US after one of their designs won a shootoff contract.
DIR: Hundreds of protesters marched through the citys streets late on Tuesday evening and chanted slogans against the US government and its supporters in Pakistan and called on people to wage jihad against infidels.
The rally, dubbed the night march, began at 8:45pm from Ameri Kass to mark Yaum-e-Badr. The protesters marched through Rehankot, a populous part of the city, and shouted slogans of Americas friend is a traitor. The rally ended with a public meeting at Dir Chowk where the protesters asked people to volunteer for jihad.
Wake up and train yourselves for the war these infidels will bring to you. You will not be able to fight if you havent trained...
Jihadi organisations have started resurfacing in the area despite a ban imposed on such organisations by President General Pervez Musharraf five years ago. The US and its Western allies have travelled thousands of miles to come to our land with their deadly weapons. They have been attacking Muslim countries and annihilating them and yet Muslims are the ones branded extremists and terrorists, an activist of a jihadi organisation said while addressing people at a mosque. Wake up and train yourselves for the war these infidels will bring to you. You will not be able to fight if you havent trained, he said.
He said the enemy had come close to our houses as they had reached neighbouring Afghanistan. Despite all the support offered by Musharraf they (the coalition forces in Afghanistan) continue to threaten Pakistan, he said, adding that jihad was the only way to protect Muslims from the US and its allied forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
These people have nothing to live for except Jihad/sucicide.
Maybe getting a job/career would help them?????.
Have you noticed that Muslims suffer from all this anger/frustration because they cant drink alcohol/smoke a joint etc like the rest of us!!!!
Justice Muhammad Akhtar Shabbir of the Lahore High Court postponed till October 16 a hearing on a petition challenging the detention of Jammatud Dawa (JD) ameer Hafiz Mohammad Saeed after the Punjab additional advocate general sought time to produce record. The justice asked AAG Chaudhry Muhammad Haneef Khatana why the government was unable to present the detention orders on Wednesday.
Khatana said Hafiz Saeed was in good health at Canal Rest House and he would not have any trouble spending another five days in detention.
The judge observed that Hafiz Saeed had been rearrested one and half months ago despite that the court had ordered his release. The court cannot shut its eyes to violations of the law, especially when nothing new happened to justify a re-arrest, the judge observed.
The appellants counsel Nazeer Ahmad Ghazi alleged that the detention orders were taking time to arrive in Lahore from Washington. Khatana said Hafiz Saeed was in good health at Canal Rest House and he would not have any trouble spending another five days in detention. Referring to house-arrest of late Maulana Abdus Sattar Niazi and Ghulam Gillani, Ghazi said both were brought to the court everyday during the hearing of their cases, therefore Hafiz Saeed should also be brought to the court during the hearing.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Go see the photos at the link - some might find it comical!
We serviced the engine to make sure everything ran, said Staff Sgt. Phillip Kitchen, team chief, Service and Recovery Section, Dragoon Troop, 2-9 CAV. The prop that was on it when we got it was destroyed, so we had to re-do the prop; sand it down, grind it down, make it better. The boat had a hole in it so we had to patch the underside of the boat so that it wouldnt leak in.
In getting the boat on the open water, and not the fast-moving river during previous operations, there were a few kinks that will need to be worked out.
After taking over operations from the 1st Squadron, 32nd Cavalry when the unit redeployed to the United States in August, the Hunters wanted to authenticate the tool before handing it over to its eventual replacements.
Were validating both the maintenance readiness of it and the functionality of the boat out in the lake to prove that its actually a task that we need to (hand) over to the next unit, Buehler said.
Earlier in this deployment to Iraq, the Hunters conducted similar operations on the Tigris River while at Forward Operating Base Wilson. For many, this wasnt their first time cruising the waterways of this mostly desert country, but most relished the change from the norm.
But when it comes down to it, its fun to get out on the water and do something different than a regular 1114 patrol, Lartigue said.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/12/2006 06:22 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Water-borne infantry is the Marines' function; are they going to let the Army onto their turf (so to speak)?
#2
Somehow I think we should be able to provide them with something better, lol, such as the Zodiacs that the Port Security guys tools around in here stateside.
I think Shipman retired that boat a decade ago - when he got that new-fangled fish sonar thingy, heh.
#4
It's an institutional-bias thing. For decades it wasn't 'career enhancing' to be in riverine units and other oddball/small commands. One had to get experience in ASW platforms; fire support and gator-freighters are necessary evils.
The Navy leadership was against small/cheap/littoral, because 1)the enemy was the Soviets on the open oceans, and 2) you go with small and cheap, Congress is gonna want to fund only that.
#7
Why do I suspect that very shortly that Iraqi lake is going to be populated with bass?
At least judging from some of the military bases down in the US south, there are a goodly number of followers of the religion of bass fishing in the ranks. And they regard a large body devoid of bass as being not entirely right.
#9
I go fishing a lot, I just don't go catching very often.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/12/2006 12:15 Comments ||
Top||
#10
There is a very fine line between fishing and just being drunk on a boat (or on the banks). And I speak from experience: that line is repeatedly crossed on any good fishing trip.
For planning purposes, the Army is gearing up to keep current troop levels in Iraq for another four years, a new indication that conditions there are too unstable to foresee an end to the war.
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, cautioned against reading too much into the planning, which is done far in advance to prepare the right mix of combat units for expected deployments. He noted that it is easier to scale back later if conditions allow, than to ramp up if they don't. There are now 141,000 U.S. troops there.
At a Pentagon news conference, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, said that as recently as July he had expected to be able to recommend a substantial reduction in U.S. forces by now. But that plan was dropped as sectarian violence in Baghdad escalated. While arguing that progress is still being made toward unifying Iraq's fractured political rivalries and stabilizing the country, Casey also said the violence amounts to "a difficult situation that's likely to remain that way for some time."
Appearing with Casey, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he and other senior Pentagon officials are still studying how the military might keep up the current pace of Iraq deployments without overtaxing the Army and Marine Corps, which have borne the brunt of the conflict. Rumsfeld said one option is to make more use of the Air Force and Navy for work that normally is done by soldiers and Marines.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday that the advance planning Schoomaker described was an appropriate cautionary approach. However, he added, the Pentagon should increase the overall size of the military to reduce stress on troops repeatedly sent into combat.
"I applaud the new realism but I think they also have to recognize that this (war) is going to put a huge stress on our forces," said Reed, a former Army Ranger. Reed and other Democrats have called on President Bush to start bringing home troops within a year to force the Iraqi government to take more responsibility for security.
At his news conference, Rumsfeld was asked whether he bears responsibility for what has gone wrong in Iraq or if the military commanders there are to blame. "Of course I bear responsibility," he replied in apparent exasperation. "My Lord, I'm secretary of defense. Write it down."
In recent months the Army has shown signs of strain, as Pentagon officials have had to extend the Iraq deployments of two brigades to bolster security in Baghdad and allow units heading into the country to have at least one year at home before redeploying.
The Army is finding that the amount of time soldiers enjoy between Iraq tours has been shrinking this year. In the case of a brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, its deployment to Iraq was delayed by about six weeks because it otherwise would have had only 11 months to prepare instead of the minimum 12 months. As a result, the unit it was going to replace has been forced to stay beyond its normal 12-month deployment.
In separate remarks to reporters, Gen. Richard Cody, the Army vice chief of staff, said soldiers need more than 12 months between deployments to Iraq so they can do a full range of combat training and complete the kinds of educational programs that enable the Army to grow a fully mature officer corps.
That kind of noncombat experience is necessary "so that we don't erode and become an Army that only can fight a counterinsurgency," Cody said. He added that North Korea's announced nuclear test "reminds us all that we may not just be in a counterinsurgency fight and we have to have full-spectrum capability."
#1
Once again, a misquote for readership. Gen. Schoomaker said it is easier to plan for troops to stay and pull them out when appropriate than plan on pulling them out (read, timetable) and having to bring them back.
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/12/2006 0:52 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I hope we have troops there for a long, long time. Iraq would make a superb place as the HQ of the US Africa Command.
#4
However, I do agree that we need to have a larger military, especially the Army - and we need to commit to traingin and maintaining about a division more than we have right now.
The world is a dangerous place, and you'd rather have a bullet left over than come up jsut one short.
#5
Before enlarging the Army, I wish the US leadership had a plan to actually defeat the islamics and then size the force to accomplish that task.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2006 13:49 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Agreed OS. Another Division would really ease the strain. How about a Division with a Stryker BDE, a Ranger Regt. and an SF Group. I think a division of Marines is needed also. The last thing we need is more fighter jets.
What I found interesting was Cody's remark about needing non-combat time to develop and mature our leaders. Of all problems to have in the military this is a good one.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/12/2006 14:02 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Dammit ed - there you go placing the horse before the cart again.....
#10
No one here is saying not to take into account other congencies. But at least have a plan for victory that doesn't depend on the cooperation of our enemies. To paraphrase Rumsfeld, the first priority is to fight the war we are in, not the wars we wish we were in.
Posted by: ed ||
10/12/2006 19:25 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Also not clear infantry is what we need. We don't have any trouble winning wars with the combat soldiers we have. It's occupation, peacekeeping and civil affairs that we need more of. More infantry may cost a lot more to equip and train than is necessary for these tasks and it may be the wrong kind of training. We need to recognize we are in the nation building business. We are going to be in Iraq a lot longer. We should get the right kind of personnel, possibly not even Army, in place or pull out now and just send in the rifles the next time we need to kill some people.
A witness in Saddam Hussein's genocide trial said Wednesday that the ex-president's agents ran a human trafficking ring that "sold" his sister and other Kurdish women in the 1980s. Defense lawyers and one of Saddam's co-defendants immediately challenged the charge as hearsay based on a forged document.
Saddam and six other defendants are on trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in a 1987-1988 crackdown against Kurds. The prosecution says about 180,000 people, mostly civilians, died in the offensive.
Witness Abdel-Khaliq Qader presented chief Judge Mohammad al-Oreibi with an account published in an Iraqi Kurdish newspaper of a document purportedly showing the intelligence department in the city of Kirkuk had sold 18 women to Egypt's intelligence service. The document listed his sister's name and included women as young as 14, Qader said.
Defendant Saber al-Douri, who headed military intelligence under Saddam, told the judge the purported document misidentified the intelligence service and was clearly a fake. The witness testified after Saddam had accused the court of preventing him from defending himself. "When the accuser and prosecutor talk, the world listens. When the man called 'the accused' speaks, you switch off the microphone. Is this fair?" Saddam told Oreibi in a calm voice. "You won't lose anything by listening. This is the duty of a judge."
The judge replied: "The microphone issue is to bring order in the court, if you say anything within the law [and I silence you], then you can complain."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
The Iraqi Parliament on Wednesday approved a law that sets out the mechanics of forming federal regions, an issue the Sunni minority and some Shiites leaders and fear might tear the country apart in sectarian civil war. On the ground, militiamen firing mortars overnight detonated a US ammunition dump in Baghdad, sparking a barrage of explosions that continued to shake the capital on Wednesday morning.
The largest Sunni coalition in Parliament and two Shiite parties tried to prevent a vote on a bill by boycotting Wednesday's session to prevent the 275-seat body from reaching the necessary 50 percent quorum. But the quorum was reached with 140 lawmakers, who voted on each of the bill's some 200 articles individually, passing them all unanimously. The law includes a provision that regions cannot be formed for another 18 months, a concession to Sunni concerns.
Sunnis fear a federal Iraq would hand northern and southern oilfields to ethnic Kurds and Shiites respectively, and would leave them trapped in a poor, desert rump state in central and western Iraq.
The federalism law sets up a system for allowing provinces to join together into autonomous regions that would hold considerable self-rule powers, a right given to them under the Constitution adopted last year in a national referendum. Sunnis fear a federal Iraq would hand northern and southern oilfields to ethnic Kurds and Shiites respectively, and would leave them trapped in a poor, desert rump state in central and western Iraq.
Legislators loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the smaller Shiite Fadhila Party stayed away from Wednesday's vote, showing Shiite support for federalism is not unanimous. "This is the beginning of the plan to divide Iraq," said Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Sunni National Accordance Front, which boycotted the vote.
Posted by: Fred & Seafarious ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The Sunis dragged the war on too long. Arabs never seem to know when to fold their cards.
#2
I would be all for this years ago, but the country , the sunis, kurds, shia is going to have a hard time splitting up oil revs. I hope it's that easy but , I doubt it
Imagine Kurds and Sunni protecting slivers into the southern oil fields, they can't(won't) protect their own interest let alone a indefensible oil trac.
#3
The Kurdish zone has quite a bit of Iraq's oil in it, which is one of the reasons Saddam tried to exterminate the Kurds. Also, the Kurds have been bringing in Western oil firms to explore and develop new fields in the past year or so. The Sunnis are just SOL if the Kurds and Shiites decide to form federal regions that keep the lion's share of oil revenues in the region that produced it.
#4
You know, I doubt that Iraq has been fully explored. To presume the Sunnis are going to be shit out of luck for harboring and sponsoring a murderous killing spree for 2+ years resulting in effective partition and leaving them out of the oil money, cold, broke, and finally facing up to the fact that they're congenitally stupid, might be wrong. There could be spice worms in the western desert.
#5
Can someone explain to me how this would be different from us having States in the US.
Virginian's are not mad that we don't have the Mississippi running through our backyard... or that we don't have the Alaskan oil fields...
If Iraq is truly going to be a democracy won't that mean that citizens can move where they want to and partake in any of the benefits that they percieve to be associated with a particular reigon?
I'm sorta new to this subject so some enlightenment would be appreciated.
#6
Sunnis fear a federal Iraq would hand northern and southern oilfields to ethnic Kurds and Shiites respectively, and would leave them trapped in a poor, desert rump state in central and western Iraq.
If I were the Sunni's I'd get some concessions and take it. They have the organizational skills, education, and know how. Look at what the Jews were able to do in Israel. Look at the Dutch. Look at the Mormons in Utah. I supsect that in a short while, the Sunnis could turn their little desert rump into a paradise.
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal agrees to the establishment of a Palestinian national unity government based on the prisoners' document, and allows the PLO to hold negotiations with Israel for two years, based on the international agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported Wednesday morning.
According to the report, which is based on Palestinian sources, this stance was presented by Mashaal to Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor al-Thani, in response to Qatar's proposal for a way to end the political crisis in the Palestinian Authority. According to the report, Qatar offered a stance including five principles: Accepting the international decisions, accepting the agreements signed between the PLO and Israel, accepting the principle of two states for two people, renouncing terror and violence on both sides, and authorizing the Palestinian president to negotiation with Israel for two years.
According to the Palestinian sources, the Qatari foreign minister asked the Hamas leadership to examine the ideas and give him an answer. The sources claim Hamas' first position was to reject the initiative because its principles constitute "a rewording of the Quartet conditions, which call for recognizing Israel and renouncing terror."
However, in order for the foreign minister not to leave empty-handed, Mashaal held a consultation over the weekend with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and the two formed an alternative proposal. According to the Palestinian sources, the new offer constitutes, "a fundamental change in Hamas' stance, as it includes a certain recognition of the agreements signed between the Palestinian Authority and Israel."
They also noted that Mashaal's offer does not include the word "resistance." According to the same sources, the proposal Mashaal submitted to the Qatari minister includes principles similar to those in the Qatari proposal, but worded differently.
Hamas agrees, according to the report, to the establishment of a national unity government based on the prisoners' document; authorizing the Palestinian president to negotiate in accordance with several principles, including honoring the UN Charter, the international law and the international decisions in a way that will guarantee the Palestinian people's rights; honoring the agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority and the PLO in a way that will guarantee the Palestinian people's rights and top interests; and stressing the Palestinian people's right to fight for liberating its land and ending the occupation through legitimate means. The report added that Qatar views the document as positive progress, and that the Qatari foreign minister was encouraged to continue his efforts to bring about a calm in the PA.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
AMMAN - Jordans King Abdullah warned feuding Palestinians on Wednesday that their hopes of statehood could be permanently wrecked within months unless they step back from the brink of civil war.
Palestinians had to put aside internal differences and face other challenges, he said, citing what he described as a growing right-wing camp in Israel pursuing an uncompromising fortress Israel mindset rather than integration in the region.
All of us have to work to reach out to our Palestinian brothers and get them to take a step back and see that this is not the time for infighting, King Abdullah told Reuters in an interview at the royal palace in Amman. A lot is at stake today and if we fail now, we risk pushing Palestinian aspirations so far behind that it will take a long time to bring us back to where we want to be, and in the process, risk the future of Palestine, the monarch added.
Not to mention the future of Jordan, since the king remembers that 60% of his population is Paleo.
King Abdullah said time was fast running out to forge an Arab-Israel peace based on two states, Israel and Palestine. I really think that by the first half of 2007 we might wake up to the reality and realise that the two-state solution is no longer attainable, and then what?, he said.
The Paleos decamp for Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon and settle down to lead productive lives?
My view of a two state solution is a viable Palestinian state, and this is becoming more and more blurred for me. It was much more concrete, recently, the monarch said.
Jordan, which hosts the largest number of Palestinians outside the West Bank and Gaza, is worried Jewish settlement and expropriation of land will leave Israel with substantial parts of the territory it seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. I think we are really running out of time. Physically on the ground and geographically, I think there is less and less of a West Bank and Jerusalem to talk about, said Abdullah. ...We want to go back to the 1967 borders. We are talking about that today. Are we going to talk about that tomorrow though? This is the danger, he said.
If the Paleos had kept the lid on last year Sharon and then Olmert would have started a pull-out from the West Bank. Iran and Hezbollah made sure from the north and Hamas made sure from the south that there would be no inkling of peace whatsoever. Abdullah knows that but won't say it, of course, 'cause he doesn't want to end up like Grandpa.
Rising Iranian influence and the spread of Islamic fundamentalism had also brought more regional instability that dimmed peace prospects even further, he said. A few years back one could reasonably predict what was happening. Now its much more difficult to read the map. There are so many more players, he said.
Abdullah said a peace plan drawn by Arab states including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, envisaged speeding up a 2003 US-sponsored road map for peace and offered a window of opportunity to resolve the core Middle East conflict. If we dont engage the Israelis today what will the landscape be two years from now? he said.
The Arab peace plan also envisages Arab moderates for the first time assisting in the negotiating process and helping the Palestinians seek better terms from Israel, the monarch said. The Arabs have to step in. They need to be close to the negotiating table when the Israelis and Palestinians sit, he said. There is a great opportunity (in the plan) but there is a great danger of missing it ... especially if civil war happens.
Because the Arabs are so good at negotiating solutions to problems, everyone knows that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I really think that by the first half of 2007 wethe world might wake up to the reality and realise that the two-state solution is no longer attainablethe Palestinian movement is a fabrication, and then what?, he said.
CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit took a fresh swipe at the Hamas-led Palestinian government and leader Ismail Haniya in an interview published Tuesday by the top-selling daily Al Ahram. "There is an Arab initiative of land for peace, which the Palestinian prime minister rejects. So let him find a solution on his own. I say this with no equivocation," Abul-Gheit said.
The initiative the foreign minister referred to was adopted by the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut and offers peace to Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from Arab territories it occupied in 1967. On Sunday, the Islamist Palestinian premier described the initiative as "problematic, for it entails recognizing Israel, while we have already made it known that we refuse such recognition."
Abul-Gheit criticized Haniya for refusing to endorse the agreements previously signed with Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization and warned the Palestinian government that it should "take responsibility for its acts."
"When the Palestinian prime minister says Arabs should play their part, we tell him that Arabs and Palestinians should do this together. The Arabs cannot play alone a part that you reject," Abul-Gheit said. Western donors have cut aid to the Palestinians following Hamas' victory in elections earlier this year, demanding that the radical movement officially renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist. Egypt has been struggling in its mediation of the crisis that erupted when Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas, captured an Israeli soldier in the southern Gaza Strip on June 25.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Yeesh! The Arabs don't like this group even though Hamas is playing the Israel card! Time to go crawl back under the rock they came out from under.
#2
I would be even more impressed with his sentiment if the Arabs would quit supplying this pond scum with ammunition. If they have money for gun sex, then they can't be that hungry.
Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan accused Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction Wednesday of hampering Qatari mediation of efforts to form a unity government and providing political cover for Western-imposed sanctions. "We welcomed the Qatari mediation from the start ... We were surprised when Abu Mazen and his team said their agreement to any plan was linked to US backing for it," he said, using Abbas' nickname.
Hamdan called on Abbas to resign, saying the president was preventing the formation of a national unity government.
During a news conference held at the Press Federation headquarters in Beirut, Hamdan called on Abbas to resign, saying the president was preventing the formation of a national unity government. "In reality, Abu Mazen's team insists on preventing the creation of a government of national unity," Hamdan told journalists, saying Abbas was the one holding up an agreement that could end six months of political stalemate. "No one has the right to call for [early elections]. If they think there's a political impasse, they should resign and the president of the Palestinian Authority should also resign."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
OK, suppose Abbas goes away and is replaced by Nasrallah or whoever. Then what? Continued denial of the right of Israel to exist, continued international isolation, and more of that "cashless economy" they seem to like so much. What have they gained? Klooless!
#1
Btw, IIRC, the firewall protecting the Vatican network is named "Gabriel"; don't know if the public website http://www.vatican.va/ is protected by it, though.
#1
I'm for making the imagined insult into a real one. How about banners around the top of the cube that say, "No this isn't Mecca. We'd never try to recreate something so ugly."
#2
If our politicians won't take the Cartoonifada seriously, maybe they'll treat this assault on our free market system with a little more concern. Probably not though. Just look at the fuckall they're doing about China.
#5
The ignorance of the Muslim world knows no limits. I suppose it comes from endless generations of marrying cousins. I'm waiting for the Muslim version of "Deliverance".
Security and terrorism won't be an issue if Chicago wins the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games because, by that time, there'll be a surveillance camera on every corner, Mayor Daley said Wednesday.
"By the time 2016 [rolls around], we'll have more cameras than Washington, D.C. ... Our technology is more advanced than any other city in the world -- even compared to London -- dealing with our cameras and the sophistication of cameras and retro-fitting all the cameras downtown in new buildings, doing the CTA cameras," Daley said.
"By 2016, I'll make you a bet. We'll have [cameras on] almost every block."
The mayor talked about the steady march toward a Big Brother city during a free-wheeling exchange with the Sun-Times editorial board after unveiling his proposed 2007 budget... Unlike in the novel 1984, they will learn that amazingly intrusive surveillance achieves little. However, they will have to find out the hard way. Some people just have no grasp of the obvious.
#6
This is CHICAGO!, There will be no cameras to steal since the money for these cameras will go into someones pocket. Just as well since somew punk would have stolen them waste not, want not.
Posted by: bruce ||
10/12/2006 16:03 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Sounds like a vision of utopian idealism. If you'll excuse me now I need to go stick my finger down my throat.
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi met his Lebanese counterpart on Wednesday for talks on the UN peacekeeping operation in south Lebanon to which Italy is the leading contributor nation.
Prodi, who arrived in Lebanon late Tuesday, was expected to fly to southern Lebanon later Wednesday to inspect Italian troops serving with the UN peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL.
After his talks with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, Prodi was due to meet the speaker of parliament, Nabih Berri, a political ally of the Hezbollah group.
Italy is contributing 2,500 troops to the UNs expanded peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, assembled under the UN Security Council resolution that ended the July-August conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. About 1,000 Italian troops already have been deployed in a coastal area from the Israeli border to the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) north of the border.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Got balls?
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/12/2006 0:56 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Picture looks like a caricature of Sandy Berger. I'm sorry, but I can't generate any respect for the decision to commit troops to the UN human shields for Hezbollah.
A shocking television commercial showing bodies exploding during a suicide bombing has been screened across the Middle East in a bid to prevent terrorism. The £800,000 advert shows people, cars and broken glass flying in slow motion through the air.
Packed with special effects, the graphic commercial uses the time-suspension technique made popular in the Hollywood film Matrix. The 60-second clip opens with a young boy watching a man walk through a crowded market. The man stops and exposes yellow explosives strapped to his body. He detonates the bomb seconds later, sending cars flying and people crashing through the windows of a cafe.
The advert then shows victims weeping amid the fires and wreckage, before ending with the words "Terrorism has no religion" in Arabic.
The identity of the commercial's backers is shrouded in secrecy, prompting speculation that the US Government is attempting to deter potential terrorists away from violence. The Amercian Government has refused to clarify whether it is linked to the commercial, which hit television screens this summer on Al-Arabiya, Lebanese Broadcasting Corp and several Iraqi channels.
Filming for the advert took place in a Los Angeles warehouse district earlier this year, according to California-based 900 Frames, which helped produce the commercial. Its intention is to deter Islamic extremists from terrorising Israel and the West, but critics believe the clip will not have the desired impact on young Arabs.
Lawrence Pintak, the director of the Adham Center for Electronic Journalism at the American University in Cairo, said: "When this kind of advertisement is sandwiched between footage of Lebanon and Iraq, it's going to fall on deaf ears."
Blogger Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi-Palestinian who currently lives in the United States, is equally sceptical. "Dealing with suicide bombers is way more complicated and is usually linked to fundamentalist religious beliefs that have political implications," he said. "Portraying it as a loony tune who goes into a market to kill civilians - I don't know if this will work.
"The assumption is it has to be made by the Americans or the Saudis."
Go to the web site and screen the video ad against terrorism (WMV high resolution version here, 11.5 Mb). The other video ad offered is equally effective to anyone who is human (WMV hi-res here, 8.4 Mb).
It isn't clear to me who is sponsoring this but it's a horrific ad. I don't know that it will work; we know that terrorists are without conscience. At the same time, one has to push back against the culture of terrorism. It's easy to dismiss this sort of thing as the 'experts' have done but propaganda, particularly shocking and well-done propaganda, has its place in that push-back.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/12/2006 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2006 17:25 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I just read about Nobel prizes this week - you can't nominate yourself, and no one knows who was in the running.
Which suggests she's as crazy as we all thought, or her nominator told her - which just might wreck the deal, anyway. (Ihopeihopeihope)
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/12/2006 17:49 Comments ||
Top||
#7
She'll win.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
10/12/2006 17:56 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Should Sheehan win, this will certainly be the biggest boost to the prize committee's credibility since they awarded Yasser Arafat. Who's the next front-runner, Ahmadinejad?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/12/2006 22:17 Comments ||
Top||
#23
#10 "She hasn't got the body count to win. Peace Prize requires as blood on your hands as shit in your brains."
Recall that a previous winner, Rigoberta Menchu, didn't have any blood on her hands either. She fabricated her life story and of course was (and still is) a thorough-going communist asshat.
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.
Jailed fanatic 
Japanese television reports on Wednesday that North Korea may have conducted a second nuclear test stirred new anxieties, but one of the networks later issued a retraction and officials said it was most likely a false alarm.
President Bush demanded stiff sanctions on North Korea Wednesday for its reported nuclear test and asserted the U.S. has "no intention of attacking" the reclusive regime despite its claims that it needs atomic weapons to guard against such a strike. Still, in a Rose Garden news conference, Bush said the United States remains committed to diplomacy but also "reserves all options to defend our friends in the region."
A defiant North Korea warned on Wednesday that it would regard harsh sanctions over its nuclear test as a declaration of war and threatened further trials if the United States kept up its pressure on Pyongyang. 
Kyodo News: Japan will impose its harshest economic sanctions yet on Pyongyang over the nuclear test it conducted Monday, including total bans on the entry of North Korean ships, imports and citizens.
NAHA, Okinawa Pref. (Kyodo) U.S. forces transferred Wednesday what is believed to be missiles for a U.S.-led missile defense system from a freighter in Urama, Okinawa, to the U.S. Air Force Kadena Ammunition Storage Area in the prefecture.
MILITARY options against North Korea cannot be ruled out, Prime Minister John Howard said today. Mr Howard today said North Korea's "seriously crazy regime" was a huge problem for the whole world following its first nuclear weapons test this week. He said world leaders until last week hoped China's historic influence on the rogue state would restrain it, but it did not seem to be the case.
Germany's High Court is due Thursday to hear the appeal of 
DIR: Hundreds of protesters marched through the citys streets late on Tuesday evening and chanted slogans against the US government and its supporters in Pakistan and called on people to wage jihad against infidels. 
Justice Muhammad Akhtar Shabbir of the Lahore High Court postponed till October 16 a hearing on a petition challenging the detention of 
detonated a US ammunition dump in Baghdad, sparking a barrage of explosions that continued to shake the capital on Wednesday morning.
Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal agrees to the establishment of a Palestinian national unity government based on the prisoners' document, and allows the PLO to hold negotiations with Israel for two years, based on the international agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported Wednesday morning. 
CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit took a fresh swipe at the Hamas-led Palestinian government and leader Ismail Haniya in an interview published Tuesday by the top-selling daily Al Ahram. "There is an Arab initiative of land for peace, which the Palestinian prime minister rejects. So let him find a solution on his own. I say this with no equivocation," Abul-Gheit said.
Hamas representative in Lebanon 
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Italian Prime Minister 
