Mullah Mohammad Omar, the spiritual head of the Taliban, has vowed to bring Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, before an Islamic tribunal. The warning came through an online Ramadan message, posted on Sunday to mark Eid el-Fitr, the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. "It is the fifth consecutive year that Afghanistan, our dear country, is under Crusader colonisation," Mullah Omar said. "But this time, we also congratulate you on the defeat and the flight of the Crusader. I also announce to you that [Karzai], the Crusaders' valet, and his colleagues are in the process of looking for a way to escape ... We are going to bring them before an Islamic tribunal," the Taliban leader wrote in Arabic.
"The Crusaders are leading people into error ... They are using all media means to promote their lies, spending $100 million. It is what the Russians did ... but I am assured that they will be defeated, just as the Russians and their allies were," the message said.
The Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. But its troops were ultimately forced to withdraw after a struggle with Islamic forces that took the lives of least 10,000 Soviet soldiers according to official figures. On October 7, a man identifying himself as Abdul-Hai Mutmaen and speaking in the name of Mullah Omar said that the Taliban spiritual head was alive and in Afghanistan, where he is directing an insurrection against the government and western troops.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Omar, Omar, Omar, what will CINDY say iff she knew.
#2
The Islamists initially fared poorly against the Soviet Union. When the CIA supplied arms, stinger missles, and guidance did the tide turn. Currently I do not see any country supplying the technologicaly advanced weapons needed by the Taliban to alter the outcome of the war. Unless we become repulsed by the slaughter of the taliban, I wouldn't hold out much hope for them.
#4
True enough, JFM. That is why the Taliban used an Al-Q recruited assasination team to take out Massood on 9/9, before the Twin Towers attack. They thought that only Massood could be a viable threat against them, if or when the US demanded the Al-Q cadre be handed over. The Taliban had not counted on the power of the almighty dollar in inducing turncoats or the effects of US Special Forces acting as Forward Air Controllers for B-52s on the Taliban troops.
#5
Also Massood crushed the TAliban not one but several times. However every time they were saved by an influx of Pakistani "volunteers". Most of these "volunters" disn't speak Pashto but Urdhu and, Massod claimed a nupmber of them were Isi or Pakistani Army.
September 2006 brought an unprecedented development in the Middle East: The government of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh held open, contested presidential elections. Candidates were able to rally and campaign freely, each of the five candidates was given equal airtime on state-run television, and the international press and elections monitors were welcomed to Yemen to observe.
This homegrown move toward democracy represents a remarkable political experiment that, if successful, will provide the region with a model of a state that is Arab, Islamic, genuinely democratic.
Of course, the incumbent won. As the second-longest serving head of state in the Middle East, behind Libyas Muammar Gaddafi, it is not surprising Saleh was elected to serve another seven-year term. What is surprising is that, as an editorial in the Yemen Times put it following the elections; Yemen has "removed the 99 percent victor stereotype."
Saleh got 77.2 percent of the vote, while his chief rival, the oil magnate Faisal bin Shamlan, received 21.8 percent. This is in sharp contrast to Yemens previous presidential "elections" in which Saleh received 96 percent of the vote.
#1
This is a tremendously important in the Middle East, and George W. Bush is entirely to be credited with it.
However, we must act and act quickly to help the Yemenese continue to develop their democratic institutions, that will support and nurture their democracy.
Because of Bill Clinton's indifference, the window to do this in Russia was lost, to the consequences we see today.
Yemen, while poor, is of increasing consequence, due to its explosively growing, yet unstable population, its troublesome Islamists, its strategic naval location, and its friendship as far as it can with the US.
It could join with Turkey and Iraq as a nucleus of Arabic democracy, serving as an example of success next door to many nations who are watching the democratic experiment very, very carefully.
U.N. Secretary General-designate Ban Ki-moon will visit China on Friday for talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons program and accelerating moves by U.N. members to sanction Pyongyang for conducting a nuclear test. Ban, South Korea's foreign minister who will take over at the United Nations in January, will also visit Russia, Britain and France soon, South Korean officials said on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 15:04 ||
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Let's just hope he wears his "Deep Concern" t- shirt...
#1
--The Fire and Disaster Management Agency is planning to provide every city, town and village in Japan with receivers for satellite signals warning of a ballistic missile attack or natural disaster.--
Chicoms are taking the sats out by laser, this should get interesting.
#2
Meanwhile back in the USA it continues to be difficult to find car radios with Weather Band and automatic alert systems built-in. These should be mandatory.
#3
Weather radios can be bought at Radio Shack, and no doubt elsewhere. And most radio stations will break into regular programming in case of emergency.
#4
TW -- Your point on emergency broadcasting is good, but car radios generally can't be set up to automatically turn on in case of an emergency like some home weather radios can be. There are very few commercially available car radio/weather band combinations available in any case, people will generally not tear out their existing radios to add this feature. Mandating such radios would improve civil readiness in all kinds of emergencies, IMHO.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has told a Chinese envoy his country has no immediate plans to conduct another nuclear test but that US policy toward Pyongyang will determine the future, a news report said. Kim made the remarks to Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan during talks last week in Pyongyang to discuss the North's first-ever nuclear test on Oct. 9, Kyodo News agency reported Sunday from Beijing, citing unnamed officials familiar with the discussions.
Kim told Tang that while there is no plan to hold a second nuclear test for the moment, North Korea would have to respond if the United States continued to pressure the country, according to Kyodo.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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So is Kimmie demanding to be a [nuclearized?]Global Mafia/Criminal State, in the name of " the People" + anti-Chinese Chinese = ChiKor "sovereignty"??? Support-your-local-Warlord/Bandit-Slaver, etal. = Support-your-Global-Warlord/Bandit-Slaver, etc???
#3
What the Chinese really want is for Uncle Sam to feed their Rottweiler, saving the Chinese billions, while preserving a thorn in his side. Why Uncle Sam would agree to Chinese wishes is a mystery to me.
#5
Kim is the one that's being a problem. Kim is the one that has to make consessions. We won't play the Maddy half-bright game. Either Kimmy gives up nukes, or he gets nuked. No other options will even be considered.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/23/2006 17:24 Comments ||
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has told a Chinese envoy his country has no immediate plans to conduct another nuclear test
last week he said that another test was to be immiment?
Screw something up Kimmie? No trustworthy scientists left?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/23/2006 19:11 Comments ||
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(XFN-ASIA) - Christopher Hill, the lead US negotiator on North Korea, is in Hong Kong for talks on the latest efforts to freeze the financing of the Pyongyang regime, officials said. Assistant secretary of state Hill was meeting US consular staff and holding private talks with local officials on Washington's clamp on money laundering thought to be funding dictator Kim Jong-Il's illicit nuclear programme. 'He will be discussing issues -- including North Korean links with Macau banks -- with people on the ground familiar with the situation,' US consulate spokesman Dale Kreisher told Agence France-Presse without divulging the diplomat's schedule. 'He is just having some private meetings,' Kreisher said when asked which local officials Hill would be meeting.
The US consulate here covers Macau. Macau's Banco Delta Asia has been pinpointed as a link in the laundering of funds to North Korea, prompting the US Treasury last year to urge the Macau government to freeze the lender's assets. The Treasury in September labelled the Macau-based bank a 'primary money laundering concern' and then blacklisted eight North Korean companies in connection with the bank that it said were involved in spreading weapons of mass destruction. Pyongyang denies the charges and has cited the sanctions in its refusal to join the next round of nuclear talks with the US and other regional players, including China, aimed at ending its nuclear weapons programme.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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It was announced over the weekend that 43 baggage handlers at Roissy and Orly airports (near Paris) had their access badges suspended for security reasons. As these 43 baggage handlers were Muslims, Islamic groups picked up the story and issued accusations of anti-Muslim discrimination. Some of them even used the issue as a way to bring the closure of illegal prayer rooms in airports up again for further discussion.
On Saturday morning, French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy justified the decision to suspend the workers badges by explaining that: We suspended 43 individuals. This was not racial profiling. There were specific elements that made us forbid them entry to sensitive areas of an airport.
The badges in question allow holders to access secured areas, runways, and aircrafts, so security checks are thus naturally required for badges to be issued or kept. We have learnt that, while security checks were being carried out over the past few months, it was revealed that some Muslim baggage handlers were attending radical prayer rooms or mosques or were known to have fundamentalist sympathies or even exhibit behaviour deemed suspicious by police and intelligence agencies. Mr Jacques Lebrot, Roissy airports deputy chief of police, was more specific when addressing the grievances regarding the individuals in question: The risk of terrorism is very high in France (...) For us, when someone goes repeatedly on holiday to Pakistan, thats going to raise some red flags. According to Lebrot, several baggage handlers would have spent time in training camps.
Naturally, the security services were led to suggest the suspension of these staff members security badges. An examination of security checks carried out over the last several years-in any event, since 2001 will reveal to us that there is a clear, solid, and often precise connection between religious fundamentalism, Islamic radicalism, and terrorism. This obviously does not mean that all fundamentalists will embrace political radicalism or, even more unlikely, terrorism. However, in the process of becoming radicalised, all terrorists have gone through the stages of fundamentalism and radicalism.
When we objectively analyse threats and risks, we are thus led to believe that the decision to prevent fundamentalists, let alone Islamic radicals, from performing certain duties and tasks is well-founded. Moreover, the Interior Minister has emphasised that his duty was to make sure that the people who have access to the runways do not have any connections, either close or remote, to radical organisations.
Because six of the baggage handlers in question have referred the matter to the courts, they will soon have to rule on the appropriateness of the decision that has been made. This had led Sarkozy to state that Id rather run the risk of litigation in the court system because we were too severe when we suspended authorisation rather than ending up with a tragedy because we werent severe enough. Every country in the world does this.
But this controversy brings up another issue: seven radical places of worship were closed in Roissy and Orly over the past few months. This morning AFP quoted Mr Mohammed Seddiki, a French operations agent of Tunisian origin, as stating: In the six years that Ive been working at Roissy, there has never been a single problem. In June, they closed our prayer room, and now Im being told that I represent a danger to the airport. We need only emphasise that the airports are operated by the Aéroports de Paris; 30% of its capital was made available as a public stock offering last spring, yet 70% still remains in the hands of the French government. These airports are thus public establishments. Because France is a secular state, there is no valid reason why the existence of places of worship reserved for staff use in an establishment of this type should be tolerated. Moreover, the very existence of these places would be, quite purely and simply, illegal.
As the Movement Against Racism and For Friendship Between Peoples (French acronym: MRAP) islamo-commies
and several unions have been upset by the decision to suspend the badges, we certainly have not heard the last of this matter. Furthermore, it is likely that, in the days and weeks to come, we will witness an offensive consisting of Islamist propaganda that aims to stigmatise the anti-Muslim attitudes of the French authorities.
#1
The MRAP is a subsidiary of the French Communists Party. In fact MRAP's leader is a high ranking apparatchik of the French communist Party.
Just the old traditionn of the the first collabo party in France (the only to start collaborating with Germans before France's defeat of betraying and backstabbing France. In 1940 tehy helpled the Nazis, today tehy help the Islamists.
Oriana Fallaci, the controversial Italian journalist, who left her books and papers to a Rome university because of her admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, may have lent further strength to Muslim suspicions about the Popes perceived Islamophobia. In her last days, Fallaci, who became a bitter foe of Islam, which she saw as a destructive force at war with the West and its values, had a private audience with Benedict at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. In one of her final interviews, Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal, I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true.
A report in Boston Globe on Sunday said that Benedict was surprised by the gift of the books, which dated back as far as the 17th century. The veneration that she had for you, Holy Father, persuaded her to make this donation, which will be known as the Oriana Fallaci Archives, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateranense University in Rome said during a ceremony at the university announcing the gift of the books.
Pope Benedict greeted Fallacis nephew and his family during the ceremony, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. After an absence from the publishing scene for nearly a decade, Fallaci returned to the spotlight after the 9/11 attacks with a series of blistering essays in which she argued that Muslims were carrying out a war against the Christian West. At the time of her death, she was on trial in northern Italy, accused of defaming Islam in her 2004 book, The Strength of Reason.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Oriana Fallaci, the controversial Italian journalist, who left her books and papers to a Rome university because of her admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, may have lent further strength to Muslim suspicions about the Popes perceived Islamophobia. In her last days, Fallaci, who became a bitter foe of Islam, which she saw as a destructive force at war with the West and its values, had a private audience with Benedict at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. In one of her final interviews, Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal, I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true.
As a scientific agnostic, all I can say is; "More power to you Girl/Pope Benedict/or anybody else who has the ovaries/stones/whatever to call Islam on the carpet."
#2
The veneration that she had for you, Holy Father, persuaded her to make this donation, which will be known as the Oriana Fallaci Archives, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateranense University in Rome said ...
I believe that comment was made by her nephew.
I smile when I recall that Gunther Glass and Josef Ratzinger rolled dice in the same POW cage at the end of WWII.
Dang. I double-checked the Reuters article and it was Frischella who made the quote. Which, of course, makes the Vatican's acceptance even more impressive.
#9
waking Europe to the Islamic threat might qualify as a miracle...
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2006 21:21 Comments ||
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The Center For The Study Of Popular Culture conferred upon Oriana Fallaci the "Annie Taylor Award" on November 28, 2005. Her acceptance speech was published as a postscript in her book The Force Of Reason .
Here is an appropriate excerpt:
But there is something even worse. Because last August I was received in private audience by Ratzinger. I mean by Pope Benedict XVI. A Pope who loves my work since he read Letter to a Child Never Born and whom I deeply respect since I read his intelligent books. Moreover, with whom I happen to agree in many occasions. For example, when he writes that the West has developed a sort of hatred towards itself. That it no longer loves itself, that it has lost its spirituality and risks to lose its identity too. Exactly what I write when I write that the West is sick with a moral and intellectual cancer. In fact I often observe: "If a Pope and an atheist say the same thing, in that thing there must be something tremendously true".
New parenthesis: I am an atheist, yes. A Christian atheist, as I always point out, but an atheist. And Pope Ratzinger knows it very well. In The Force Of Reason , I dedicate a whole chapter to explaining the apparent paradox of such self-definition. Yet do you know what he says to atheists like me? He says: "Okay, (the okay is mine, of course), then Veluti si Deus daretur. Behave as if God existed". Words from which one assumes that in the religious community there are more open-minded and smarter people than in the secular one I belong to. So open-minded and so smart that they don't even try, not even dream, to save my sourl. (I mean, to convert me). This is also why I state that, in selling itself to theocratic Islam, laicism (you say secularism) has missed the most important appointment offered to it by History. And in doing so it has opened a void, an abyss, that only spirituality can fill. It is also why in the Church of today I see an unexpected partner, an unexpected ally. In Ratzinger, and in any pious man who accepts my disquieting independence of thought and behaviour, a real compagnon-de-route. Unless, of course, the Church too misses its appointment with History. Something I don't foresee, though. And I don't because, in reaction to the materialistic ideologies which have characterized the century we have just left, the century ahead seems to me marked by an inevitable nostalgia or irresistible need of religiousness.
Mid-september news, but I don't recall seeing it here.
RIYADH (Reuters) - Muslim tycoons should buy stakes in global media outlets to help change anti-Muslim attitudes around the world, ministers from Islamic countries heard at a conference in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
Information ministers and officials meeting under the auspices of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the world's largest Islamic body, said Islam faced vilification after the September 11 attacks, when 19 Arabs killed nearly 3,000 people in U.S. cities in 2001.
"Muslim investors must invest in the large media institutions of the world, which generally make considerable profits, so that they have the ability to affect their policies via their administrative boards," OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told the gathering in the Saudi city of Jeddah. "This would benefit in terms of correcting the image of Islam worldwide," he said, calling on Muslim countries to set up more channels in widely-spoken foreign languages.
Muslim stakes in Western media are minimal. Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns 5.46 percent of media conglomerate News Corp., the Rupert Murdoch-run group behind the Fox News Channel. The U.S. channel is generally seen as right-wing and no friend of Arab or Muslim interests.
Washington's response to September 11, invading Afghanistan and Iraq and tightening civil freedoms at home as part of a wider "war on terror", has created a widespread feeling among Muslims worldwide that their religion is under attack.
A row earlier this year over Danish cartoons that depicted the Prophet Mohammed deepened the sense of a divide between Islamic culture and the West.
"The fierce attack on Islam in the five years since the September 11 attacks has forced us into a defensive position on our faith and understanding of our tolerant religion," Egyptian Information Minister Anas el-Feki said in a speech. "Now more than ever we need a new Islamic media message that reaches all parts of the world," Feki said, citing Israel's recent 34-day war in Lebanon as one issue where Muslims needed to make their views and influence felt. Let the petrodollars flow! May a thousand rooters bloom! How, Gawd, the MSM will become even more of an ennemy in the years to come, not only will they be traitors, but they will be BOUGHT traitors.
#4
some Jews control the Media,But not all of the media..Besides,It better to be in their hands than In the Hands of these Islamic Monsters..Give me a Jewish Controlled Media any day..However,I see some are Falling into the Islamic Trap of Accusing Israel of being the World's Ill's etc.Shame on you Ediots..Shame on you..You are not better than the Islmamists
Israel Today represent True freedom in a Hostile Islamic Surrounding,Yet the Muslims don't know the Meaning of the word peace or freedom! Away with them i say!
#5
Some Jews control some media. Some Christians control some media. Some Muslims control some media. Some atheists... Reverand Sun Myung Moon... One of the Saudi princes bought an influential amount of stock in FoxNews a year or so ago, and boasts how nicely they respond to his little suggestions.
Buried toward the end of NYT Public Editor Byron Calame's Sunday article was this little gem:
Since the job of public editor requires me to probe and question the published work and wisdom of Times journalists, theres a special responsibility for me to acknowledge my own flawed assessments. My July 2 column strongly supported The Timess decision to publish its June 23 article on a once-secret banking-data surveillance program. After pondering for several months, I have decided I was off base. While its a close call now, as it was then, I dont think the article should have been published.
Those two factors are really what bring me to this corrective commentary: the apparent legality of the program in the United States, and the absence of any evidence that anyones private data had actually been misused. I had mentioned both as being part of the most substantial argument against running the story, but that reference was relegated to the bottom of my column.
In addition, I became embarrassed by the how-secret-is-it issue, although that isnt a cause of my altered conclusion. My original support for the article rested heavily on the fact that so many people already knew about the program that serious terrorists also must have been aware of it.
But critical, and clever, readers were quick to point to a contradiction: the Times article and headline had both emphasized that a secret program was being exposed. (If one sentence down in the article had acknowledged that a number of people were probably aware of the program, both the newsroom and I would have been better able to address that wave of criticism.)
In essence, this was not an apology for printing the article. This is more like 'I'm embarrassed by the shoddy product the newsroom put out".
What kept me from seeing these matters more clearly earlier in what admittedly was a close call? I fear I allowed the vicious criticism of The Times by the Bush administration to trigger my instinctive affinity for the underdog and enduring faith in a free press two traits that I warned readers about in my first column.
The job of the Public Editor is to objectively consider all criticism of his paper - regardless of source. It did not happen here.
#3
Filthy merde-pig. I won't dishonor an honest traitor like Benedict Arnold with any unjustified and invidious comparison to this totalitarian-loving creep
Posted by: Ernest Brown ||
10/23/2006 1:03 Comments ||
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#4
traitorous lying PC-elite crapweasels. This asshole is just trying to rebuild any credibility before he has to hit the pavement looking for a new job. 39% cut in profits? "Get rid of the things we don't need, like that guy that doesn't write corrections...whazzisname...oh yeah, Byron Clammy"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2006 8:27 Comments ||
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#7
My original support for the article rested heavily on the fact that so many people already knew about the program that serious terrorists also must have been aware of it.
Dimme trick of rationalizing away responsibility.
vicious criticism of The Times by the Bush administration.
But in the end I may have been wrong, compromised national security, endangered American lives, but its still Bushs fault. What a coward!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/23/2006 12:07 Comments ||
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vicious criticism of The Times by the Bush administration
Skinless people in a sandpaper world. I thought the criticism rather mild myself, and I'm more sensitive than most.
#11
Charge him with treason and throw him in jail. His mea culpa might sound alot more sincere when Bubba and his other cellmates turn him into their girl.
TWO leading Republican senators joined Democrats yesterday in calling for direct talks between the US and North Korea aimed at easing a nuclear standoff. Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, said direct talks, which North Korea has long coveted and which the Bush administration refuses, are inevitable if this is to be resolved diplomatically.
Calls for such talks have grown louder following North Koreas nuclear test on October 9 and as diplomats worry about a second detonation. The US says it will only have such talks during six-nation negotiations meant to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear programmes. Those talks have been stalled for nearly a year.
I'm sorry. I've finally come to the conclusion that all those bastards are either crazy or not paying attention.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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RINOs and donks wanta do it like Halfbright and fellow Clintonoids
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/23/2006 1:08 Comments ||
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Fred, great pic of Kimmy at the link. Looks like he's preparing to french kiss Madam Halfbright
Posted by: Captain America ||
10/23/2006 1:09 Comments ||
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#3
I've finally come to the conclusion that all those bastards are either crazy or not paying attention.
At this point in time, I'm equally inclined to believe that their convictions are based on embarrassing photos and disgusting IM's
#4
What is it that these morons do not comprehend about "NO BILATERAL TALKS"?
China is the "eminence grise" behind all of this and only the six-way talks even have a pretense of making headway. Bilateral talks are nothing but the equivalent of international blackmail. To embolden Kim Jong-il even another scintilla works against everything being sought.
The real call should not be for bilateral talks, but instead for severe economic sanctions against China by the global community. Unfortunately, neither any of our own politicians nor those abroad have the collective courage or wisdom to punish the communist Chinese for exacerbating Asian security and global nuclear proliferation. China must be held directly responsible for enabling Kim's crimes against humanity.
If the latest FBI hate-crime statistics are any indication, of the 1,314 verified offenses motivated by religious bias, 68.5 percent were anti-Jewish. Only 11.1 percent were anti-Islamic, despite claims of rampant anti-Muslim bigotry in the U.S. by groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Across the board, hate crimes in the U.S. dropped last year by 6 percent, according to the 2005 FBI report release last week, although violence against people based on their race accounted more than half of the reported incidents. Police nationwide reported 7,163 hate crime incidents in 2005, targeting victims based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and disabilities. That was down from 2004, when the FBI reported 7,649 incidents.
The vast majority of hate crimes in both years were motivated by race, according the reports, which detailed the data based on so-called "single-bias" incidents. That means the crime was motivated by only one kind of bias against the victim, according to the FBI. Race-based criminal activity accounted for 54.7 percent of hate crimes last year, up slightly from 52.9 percent in 2004, the FBI found.
Another 17 percent of hate crimes in 2005 targeted victims for their religious beliefs, and 14.2 percent for their sexual orientation. Victims were assaulted in more than half 50.7 percent of the hate crime cases against people. Six people were murdered and another three were raped in reported hate crimes last year. The rest of the victims, or 48.9 percent, were intimidated, the report shows. The FBI also looked at hate crime incidents that targeted property, with 81.3 percent of cases resulting in damage, destruction or vandalism.
Sixty percent of the known offenders in 2005 were white, and 20 percent were black, the report showed.
Note that in most cases, the victim's race, etc. is broken down much more than the attacker's. So, if one hispanic attacks another, that goes in the books as "White attacks Hispanic," instant racial crime.
#4
Hate-crime enhancements are essentially unequal application of the law. It is sad commentary that attacks on certain groups are so disproportionate that specialized and discriminatory legislation was enacted to discourage them. Hate-crime laws have all the validity of the Equal Opportunity Act and minority hiring quotas.
#5
Hey, speaking of taboos and hate-crimes, I received this today from an unlikely source, a fortean-minded ML, really hadn't the slighest knowledge of it :
October 20 marks the 33 rd anniversary of the beginning of the Zebra Killings in San Francisco."
"...All of the 24 victims were targeted for death for the same reason: They were white. Their attackers were all members of the black supremacist Nation of Islam (NOI), then primarily known as the Black Muslims, and acted on its behalf. They were members of the Death Angels, a branch of the NOI which existed for the sole purpose of murdering white people. The Death Angels had a scoring system, whereby they got more points for murdering women and children than grown men..."
"...Death Angels wings were awarded to each man who killed four white children, five white women, or nine white men. Upon completion of the required quota, a new members photograph was taken and a pair of black wings were drawn extending from the neck. The photo was mounted on a board along with pictures of other successful candidates, and the board was displayed on an easel at the loft meetings at Black Self Help Moving and Storage..."
"...The Death Angels were nurtured on a steady diet of NOI theology that whites were blue-eyed devils, white devils, and grafted snakes, a wicked race that had been created anywhere from 1,000-6,000 years ago by an evil black scientist named Yacub. Actually, the Myth of Yacub was a rip-off of black journalist George S. Schuylers classic, 1931 racial satire, Black No More. Schuyler had been influenced by H.G. Wells..."
"...Note that the Zebra killings were not the stuff of a tiny conspiracy. At least one dozen NOI member/killers attended regular Death Angel meetings at Black Self Help Moving and Storage. And at the NOIs San Francisco headquarters, Mosque #26, the existence of the Death Angels, though not the exact identity of all of its members, was common knowledge... "
"...The NOIs local goal was to run all whites out of the city by the bay, and establish San Francisco (though surely with a new name) as Americas first Moslem city..."
"...there were 15 accredited Death Angels in California. With the dozen aspiring Death Angels in attending the loft meetings at Black Self help, that makes for 27. But there may have been as many as 50 Death Angels..."
"...The California attorney generals office had compiled a list of 71 execution-style murders committed around the state, either with a machete or a pistol, in which the killer or killers was always a well-dressed and groomed youngish black man, and the victim always white. In addition to San Francisco, the murders were carried out in Oakland, San Jose, Emeryville, Berkeley, Long Beach, Signal Hill, Santa Barbara, Palo Alto, Pacifica, San Diego, Los Angeles, and in the counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Contra Costa, Ventura and Alameda. The NOI genocide campaign had actually begun approximately three years before the San Francisco killings..."
#6
The problem with "hate crimes" is that the very concept is a denial of the Constitution's Equal Protection clause. If someone is murdered out of passion, and receives a 25 year sentence, and another is murdered because they are homosexual, jewish, muslim, black or whatever, and receives a 30 year or longer sentence, then the 'special' class has been statutorily given unequal protection. The law is saying their life is worth more, in such an instance, than any other citizen. This is inherently unequal. Any 1st year law student who understands contitutional basics can tell you that. It's only when people forget the Constitution and common sense, and go the leftist PC route, that unjust laws like "hate crime" bills are passed, and unjust and unlearned Judges uphold them.
Actions have consequences. Your vote matters. Vote for Constitutional constructionists, not revisionists. Guess which party represents the constructionist side. To me, the Iraq war, our foreign policy, etc is an insignificant issue compared with the need to have just Judges with strict constitutional philosophies.
America, for all its imperfections, is not fertile ground for producing jihadist terrorists
"Home-grown" terror cells remain a concern of US law officers, who cite several disrupted plots since 9/11. But the suspects' unsophisticated planning and tiny numbers have led some security analysts to conclude that America, for all its imperfections, is not fertile ground for producing jihadist terrorists.
To understand why, experts point to people like Omar Jaber, an AmeriCorps volunteer; Tarek Radwan, a human rights advocate; and Hala Kotb, a consultant on Middle East affairs. They are the face of young Muslim-Americans today - educated, motivated, and integrated into society - and their voices help explain how the nation's history of inclusion has helped to defuse sparks of Islamist extremism.
"American society is more into the whole assimilation aspect of it," says New York-born Mr. Jaber. "In America, it's a lot easier to practice our religion without complications."
it's impossible to ignore the stark contrast between the lives of Muslims in European countries where bombings have occurred and those of Muslims in America
It's impossible to pinpoint the factors that produce home-grown terrorists, analysts say. But it's also impossible to ignore the stark contrast between the lives of Muslims in European countries where bombings have occurred and those of Muslims in America.
People come to this country and they like it. They don't view it as the belly of the beast. With very few exceptions, you don't see the bitter enclaves that you have in Europe
"What we have here among Muslim-Americans is a very conservative success ethic," says John Zogby, president of Zogby International in Utica, N.Y., whose polling firm has surveyed the Muslim-American community. "People come to this country and they like it. They don't view it as the belly of the beast. With very few exceptions, you don't see the bitter enclaves that you have in Europe."
Part of what so shocked Spain about the Madrid train bombers, and then Britain after the London subway and bus bombings in July 2005, was that most of the perpetrators were native sons. In each case, the young men, allegedly inspired by Al Qaeda ideology, came from poorer neighborhoods heavy on immigrants. (By contrast, a plot foiled in August to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic involved suspects from leafy, middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhoods in Britain.)
America, too, has poorer neighborhoods with large Muslim concentrations, but they tend to be interspersed with other ethnic groups and better assimilated into society. Another difference, some suggest, is the general profile of Muslims who have come to the US and raised their families here.
Most Muslim immigrants came to America for educational or business opportunities and from educated, middle-class families in their home countries, according to an analysis by Peter Skerry of Boston College and the Brookings Institution. In Europe, the majority came to work in factory jobs and often from poorer areas at home.
European Muslims today live primarily in isolated, low-income enclaves where opportunities for good jobs and a good education are limited. In the US, 95 percent of Muslim-Americans are high school graduates, according to "Muslims in the Public Square," a Zogby International survey in 2004. Almost 60 percent are college graduates, and Muslims are thriving economically around the country. Sixty-nine percent of adults make more than $35,000 a year, and one-third earn more than $75,000, the survey showed.
In Britain, by contrast, two-thirds of Muslims live in low-income households, according to British census data. Three-quarters of those households are overcrowded. British Muslims' jobless rate is 15 percent - three times higher than in the general population. For young Muslims between 16 and 24, the jobless rate is higher: 17.5 percent.
"The culture is qualitatively different [in the American Muslim community] from what we've seen from public information from Europe, and that actually says very positive things about our society," says Jonathan Winer, a terrorism expert in Washington. "We don't have large populations of immigrants with a generation sitting around semi-employed and deeply frustrated. That's a gigantic difference."
"My theory as to why we haven't found any [homegrown Islamist terrorist cells] is because there aren't very many of them.... They aren't the diabolical, capable, and inventive people envisioned by most politicians and people in the terrorism industry," says John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University. "The danger is that we've wasted an enormous amount of money with all of the wiretaps [and] investigations, and diverted two-thirds of the FBI from criminal work to terrorism work."
The FBI calls such conclusions "uninformed," citing alleged plots by radicalized US citizens. The most notable was the case of the Lackawanna Six, so named for the six Yemeni-Americans from Lackawanna, N.Y., who went to Al Qaeda training camps in the spring of 2001.
The people who make these claims [about threats being exaggerated] are never the ones responsible for preventing these attacks
"The people who make these claims [about threats being exaggerated] are never the ones responsible for preventing these attacks," says John Miller, the FBI's assistant director of public affairs. "The point is that if you're the dead guy, or you're a family member of one of those guys, all you know is that you wanted someone to develop the intelligence and take the actions to prevent it."
Still, a lack of public evidence pointing to extensive Islamist extremism in the US is leading a small but growing number of experts to agree with Professor Meuller's assessment. Like Meuller, though, they add a cautionary note.
"There's not zero threat in any community, but it is good news and we have to hope that reflects an underlying reality that [homegrown extremist cells] don't exist here," says Jonathan Winer, a terrorism expert in Washington. "You've always got lone nuts in every imaginable ethnic group grabbing every imaginable ideology to justify terrorism."
#1
You know, for all of CAIR's bitching, and for all of the other problems America's society has, I had a feeling that the radicalism is . . . well, less of a problem here, though not for a lack of efforts on the part of the multiculturalists and the CAIRites. Despite the best efforts of the fifth column to change what America is, it remains a country which anyone can come and integrate if they so choose.
That's not to say that we don't have any problems with sleeper cells - I'm sure there are more than enough to keep the counter-ops guys busy for years, and I know for damn sure that when I see a sheet-clad woman walking the streets I get the urge to remind her that no one can put her down like that in my country. But I feel sure that, for the moment, anyway, America has a far better chance than Europe when it comes to dealing with the Muslims in her midst.
Posted by: The Doctor ||
10/23/2006 8:49 Comments ||
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#2
Thing is,I want to offer my solution to the Islamic Cancer..Destroy it,before it destroys us all! Can anyone Argue against my Point? only an uninformed Fool would disagree with me?
Tell me world,Which is the worse,Killing a few Million Dangerous People,Or allowing them to Kill maybe 50-10 million of innocent lives? Work it out? The koran should have been Banned long ago-It Pure evil.
we need to Declare war on Islam itself,As True Muslims Follow it Founder right?i mean,if you can't Follow the leader,What the Point in the Religion then?
It Founder,don't even want to Name Him Here,He was founder of the most Tyranical Idology ever fonded..God loves People,he sent His Son to Die for the World,But Islam Contradicts the God of the Bible..He,The god of Islam,is the Very Devil in DISQUISE..People,Jesus said we would know them by their Friuts..Just look at the Islamic World right throughout their History?They have always been the Religion of the Sword.. I Say Death to this Evil Religion,that is Inspired by the Very Devil Himself..
Chris
uk
It's one thing to sadly decide as some here have that we have few options other than banning Islam from Western countries. Or to recognize that the militant Islamacists are provoking a major war we may not be able to put off engaging.
It's quite another thing to talk about "destroying" Islam at the cost of "a few million" people, as you do here and elsewhere today.
There are roughly 1.5 billion Muslims globally. That is 1500 Million people, or approximately 1/4 of the world population. Many of them are women and young children.
By all means, air your concerns but understand that Rantburg is not a place where genocide is discussed lightly.
#7
It's one thing to sadly decide as some here have that we have few options other than banning Islam from Western countries.
lotp, why is this such a "sad" thing? Islam, as it is practiced in much of the world, outrightly prohibits or violently discourages the presence of any competing religions. I think that Islam should be given a two or three year (maximum) grace period to begin allowing for religious freedom in all Muslim majority countries. If after that time, any or all of those countries refuse to permit religious freedom or do not duly enforce against any intimidation or coercion shown to non-Muslim practicioners, then we should go about banning the worship of Islam in countries that do provide for freedom of religion.
Islam's violent intolerance of other faiths combined with its consistent goal of theocratic global government make it a political ideology and one that is completely incompatible with Western freedom as we know it. We have no obligation whatsoever to permit the spread of such seditious filth in our constitutionally governed nations.
#9
The last major demonstration of discontent was the LA Riots about a dozen years ago. [Campus and athletic wins/loses not counting]. Even then things quieted down quickly when federal forces were deployed and, note well, it did not spread outside specific neighborhoods in any major way. Why? Could it be because the citizens of the United States are probably the third or fourth largest armed body in the world? Rads may believe the authorities are constrained on responding to perps homes and families, but its another thing to provide that trigger moment to general public. You slaughter my women and children and watch my self control. Here, take the stick and poke it, see what happens.
#10
I told a friend of mine there would never be carbecues in America like in France because if some yoots tried to burn someones car here there is going to be a gun battle right on the street between the owner and yoots.:)
#11
the citizens of the United States are probably the third or fourth largest armed body in the world?
I'd bet the largest. By a long distance. The NRA has four million members. They are also copiously armed with lots of ammo. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there's more ammo in the hands of the civilian American people than under the personal control of all the soldiers in the rest of the world combined.
Forget the obvious "I don't want any guvmint employee determining what religion I could follow" or the "Founding Fathers" argument.
I refuse to give Islam the appearance of being a belief so powerful that we are afraid to let anyone practice it openly. I do not believe that we would be any safer if we had it's practitioners, as misguided as they are (especially the Western-born women converts), forced to celebrate their faith surreptiously as Christians and others have to do in Muslim lands.
I want them out in the open. I want to track the truly dangerous ones and make the rest assimilate, even if it is only partially and halting at best. I'll be damned if we give any of their slimy hardliners (and that includes CAIR) any true justification for "victim" status. Do not give them any excuse to hide in the shadows.
#14
I refuse to give Islam the appearance of being a belief so powerful that we are afraid to let anyone practice it openly.
Being "afraid" has nothing to do with it. Refusing to allow the existence of a fifth column within our borders has everything to do with this.
Permit me to cite a really simple example. Please try, for the moment, to do the impossible and put aside any consideration of Islamic terrorism. Now consider the many Muslims who came to America in order to escape repressive cultures or tyrannical governments in their countries of origin. Any of them should know damn well just how important freedom of speech is as it represents a cornerstone of religious freedom as well.
One question. Here in freedom loving America, where were the mass demonstrations by Muslims in support of Denmark publishing the Mohammed cartoons?
Do a Google search using; "American Muslims support Denmark's publication of cartoons".
You do not get a single hit identifying any American Muslims protesting in support of free speech. What does this connote?
It means that the vast majority of Muslims in America look forward to the day when a principal constitutional right will be overturned in favor of protecting thin-skinned Islamic sensitivities. Christians are (appropriately) supposed to put up with "Piss Christ" without trying to permanently censor all American art. Yet, the entire Muslim community is, as always, conspicuously silent when it comes to standing by their adopted nation's individual rights.
To me, this means only one thing; We have a significant segment of our population that has ZERO interest in upholding American constitutional rights and, instead, will most likely work covertly to undermine them with an undeclared agenda of imposing sharia law nation-wide.
Our country is better off without such ungrateful bastards stabbing us in the back.
Now, factor in the past five years worth of Thundering Silence by Muslims regarding the universal unacceptability of terrorism and the scope of this threat to America becomes even more clear. Please do not bother to cite the very few and insubstantial demonstrations that did occur. The dearth of major protests coinciding with every atrocity subsequent to 9-11 is damning evidence that American Muslims tacitly support international terrorism.
We need to give Islam one very brief chance to turn itself around and then begin dismantling its outposts world-wide. Free people have no use for such a noxious and abusive sub-culture in their midst. An immediate ban on wearing of the hijab and burqa would go a long way towards identifying the non-integrating Muslim members of our society. We need to do this right away and begin deporting these potential threats to the public's well-being.
#15
I'll put it another very simple way. We track down and deport or imprison any known Nazi war criminals. Unreformed Muslims are just another breed of genocidal Nazis. Why should we put up with them in our midst? Feel free to point out a single instance where an American Muslim has turned in a jihadist imam who was preaching death to all Jews at the local mosque. I challenge you to identify a single instance of this. A Google search on "American Muslim turns in jihadist imam preaching at mosque" turns up nothing.
#17
You can create all sorts of Google searches guaranteed not to get many hits.
Moderate muslims were central in the arrest and deportation of radical immigrants in Brooklyn and I believe elsewhere as well. The Brooklyn case got some publicity, as it was the imam who provided some key information to police.
#18
Zenster, to use one of your own examples, I don't recall any Christians protesting in favor of "Piss Christ" or any other affront to our faith. I sure as hell didn't participate either way, so what would you say about me? That I supported the protesters or that I supported the so-called "artist's" right to freedom of expression? (Correct answer....neither. I was offended, but didn't see the point in a public temper tantrum over that "artwork" or the one that supposedly had the Virgin Mary covered in elephant shit that came out around the same time.)
If I wasn't going to protest in favor of the "artist's" right to freedom of expression for something like that, I don't expect Muslims to support something that offends them, no matter how incomprehensible it may be to the rest of us why they are offended.
What I do expect is for them to not demand that the offenders be beheaded or tortured. And even though some very loud Muslims did call for that to happen, especially in London, the overwhelming majority did not join in. That was especially true here in America. Sure, there were protests in Noo Yawk, and San Francisco (what won't they protest there?), but for most of the Muslims in this country, they did bupkis.
It sure beats a car-b-que or rioting in the streets a la Francaise.
#19
Whoo-fricking-hoo. That's one case in over FIVE YEARS. At that rate, weeding out all of these pesky Saudi financed Wahhabist jihadi imams should only take about a million years.
I tried to select Google searches that would cover a broad base. See if you can come up with a better search terms that delivers more substantiating hits. Don't you think the MSM would have been all over such events like white on rice so that could trumpet how Muslims are our bestus friends?
If the MSM is silent about such things, you can probably bet they aren't happening. Again, feel free to show me some more productive searches.
You're proposing to deport people solely based on their beliefs.
When those particular beliefs potentially include sedition or treason, I'd say there's plenty of reason to demonstrate a healthy interest. Care to imagine just how much zakat flows from American Muslims into jihadist coffers?
I'll note that you have not responded to my observations about the lack of demonstrations corresponding to the numerous Islamic atrocities subsequent to 9-11. Nor are you taking me up on how there were no domestic Muslim demonstrations in support of Denmark's freedom of speech.
Don't these glaring deficits in Muslim response to central issues of national security and constitutional rights ring any alarm bells for you, lotp? They certainly do so for me.
#21
What I do expect is for them to not demand that the offenders be beheaded or tortured. And even though some very loud Muslims did call for that to happen, especially in London, the overwhelming majority did not join in.
Were I a member of a putative religion that is coming under so much fire, I'd certainly consider being quite active in disassociating myself from lawless or violent adherents. I'd also be rather concerned about being seen as silently consenting to that which is breeding up some of the most evil and vile crimes against humanity in decades.
To paraphrase what that Spanish journalist said:
At some point silence is no longer just consent. To remain silent is to lie.
The magnitude of horroendous atrocities being visited upon our world by Islamic terrorists has turned continuing Muslim silence into a lie.
Finally, I'll add that neither of you are taking .com to task for espousing some of the exact same ideas that I have. Funny, that.
#22
I think you've been preaching more hate and intolerance than he has.
I can only suppose you have intentionally neglected to notice where I advocate giving Islam a period in which to reform itself. I'll freely admit having problems accepting the existence of a group that has no problem with institutionalized abuse of women to the extent of it being flat-out Abject Gender Apartheid. Don't you?
If I truly hate Muslims, why am I not advocating the immediate killing of them all? Have you bothered to notice how, (unlike others at this board), I consistently come out against first use of nuclear weapons against MME (Muslim Middle East) countries? Or is that something that runs counter to how you're trying to paint tar me?
#23
you're picking fights with the wrong people, Zen. Time for a reflection break?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2006 21:58 Comments ||
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#24
Thank you for some input, Frank, but I hardly see how I'm picking any fights. I have asked people to please explain their positions and I am standing up for what I think is right, while protesting being singled out, being taken out of context or simply being intentionally mischaracterized.
I'll cheerfully admit that I find it extremely odd how, lotp, as a woman, feels compelled to come to the defense of a putative religion that promotes Abject Gender Apartheid. If challenging that is picking a fight, then I'm guilty as charged.
Poor loquacious Zenster. You're guilty of incessant verbosity. You hardly see? Lol. Somebody (besides me) gets fed up, truth-tells, and you're all hurt 'n shit. Lol. You post at least 10x the tonnage of anyone else here, greatly magnifying the target size.
Suggestions:
1) be far more selective about where and when a tirade is due
2) show some sense and just STFU once in a fucking while
3) don't be repetitive - we get it already; many got it before you came, in fact
4) be generous to others - without repeating what they said
4) wait until you actually have something new to say; it's been a long fucking time
5) take your lumps for being a loudmouth one-trick dick; learn a new trick
6) don't whine when you get the attention you crave - just cuz it's negative... picky, picky
The Endless Faux Direness that has become so tedious here is largely your gig.
Stop using me - I'm not your foil nor your shield nor your excuse nor anything else to do with you. You are responsible for what you post - leave me out of it. It's chickenshit - you're a chickenshit for doing it. I generate - and deal with - my own grief, thanks.
I actually try not to repeat myself endlessly. I don't post if my point has already been made - and that happens at least 30x per day. And most folks, except for a recalcitrant few curmudgeonly types, know I'm exceptionally lovable, cuddly, 'n stuff.
This response is for trying to use me, like some whiny-assed juvenile blame-game punk, shithead.
#26
And most folks, except for a recalcitrant few curmudgeonly types, know I'm exceptionally lovable, cuddly, 'n stuff.
Hey! I represent resent that!
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/23/2006 23:18 Comments ||
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#27
I'm not using you, .com. I have a right to point out when people are being selective, and that's all I did. I don't need you on my side for my points to have validity.
A senior State Department diplomat apologized Sunday for having told the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera on Saturday that there is a strong possibility history will show the United States displayed "arrogance" and "stupidity" in its handling of the Iraq war.
"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on Al-Jazeera, I realized that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the U.S. in Iraq," Alberto Fernandez said in an e-mail sent to reporters by the State Department and attributed to him. "This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologize," the statement said.
"Hokay, Madame Secretary, I apologized, now can I have my lips back?"
Fernandez gave the Qatar-based network the 35-minute interview from Washington, where he is director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near East Affairs.
His apology Sunday differed from a defense of his comments that he made to CNN during an interview Saturday night. "History will decide what role the United States played," he told Al-Jazeera in Arabic, based on CNN translations. "And God willing, we tried to do our best in Iraq.
"But I think there is a big possibility (inaudible) for extreme criticism and because undoubtedly there was arrogance and stupidity from the United States in Iraq." (Watch what Fernandez told Al-Jazeera -- :19)
Fernandez spoke in fluent Arabic in the interview, which Al-Jazeera said was taped in Washington on Friday. His remarks were translated into English by The Associated Press.
So did AP mess up the translation? That's not what Ferny sez. More likely:
"They translated it? I didn't know my remarks would be translated! Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle, I could be in hot water! Better prepare a denial. Yes, that's it; it was a mistake. Mea culpa."
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/23/2006 7:15 Comments ||
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#2
The ole' "translation error." This clown has been in the Middle East too long; he's picking up on the local's bad habits.
At the very least, a "Public Press and Public Diplomacy" guy who can't speak clearly, clearly needs to seek out new employment options.
#7
So, Albeto notes that the words he spoke have no meaning...either from him or State. Time to excile/reassign him to France, or better yet NYT/CNN/AP/Rooters/can get quotes from him (sources) that mean nothing. How did this diplojerk get his job?
#10
So, does this a--hole know what his job description is? Whom he works for? What he is supposed to be accomplishing?
It would appear that the answer to those three questions is "nope".
Aside from being able to speak clearly in two languages with his foot in mouth up to the knee-joint, he doesn't seem to have many qualifications at all. This artless display of incompetance is not what we pay the State Department for.
Well, it's not what the citizens of the United States pay their state department for. Dunno about other possible potential donors...
#11
There was an editorial in the local newspaper on Sunday that tore the rear end of one of our city employees a new one for defaming and saying derogatory comments against an elected official. The newspaper said that the employee, speaking in a public place, was wrong, and needed to either resign or be fired. This idiot belongs in the same category. He should have woke up this morning to a pink slip on his desk, along with instructions on how to clear the building in one hour. People who use their office or position for political purposes should be shown the door, post-haste.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/23/2006 22:13 Comments ||
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Former chief of army staff Gen Mirza Aslam Beg has said he was one of a group of army officers trained by the CIA in the 1950s as a stay-behind organisation that would melt into the population if ever the Soviet Union overran Pakistan. Gen Beg was interviewed by Elizabeth Rubin for a report headlined In the land of the Taliban in the New Work Times Sunday magazine.
Rubin writes that one thing you notice if you visit the homes of retired generals in Pakistan is that they live in a lavish fashion typical of South Americas dictatorship-era military elite. They control most of the countrys economy and real estate, and like President Musharraf, himself a former general, they do not want to relinquish power.
She notes that although there is a secularist strain in the Pakistani military, it has been aligned with religious hard-liners since the armys inception in 1947. She quotes Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times, who told her that military officers often have a degree of self-disgust for selling themselves to the Americans, and they still bear a grudge against the United States for abandoning them after the Afghan jihad and, more recently, for sanctioning Pakistan over its nuclear programme. The standard army phrase about the Americans was, he said, They used us like a condom.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"Assuming that Afghanistan will prove to be the Americans Vietnam..."
This is one of the biggest problems that arises when people substituted cant for thought. Afghanistan was the Soviet Union's "Vietnam". Vietnam was America's Vietnam (whatever the heck that is supposed to mean).
#5
lol .com, take it easy. I'm starting to think I broke a rib when I fell the other night. It hurts on the first line. True pain on the internet question mark deficit. Now gas is under $2.00 but we're out of question marks and exclamation points are off the shelves like TP before a wild hurricane flies.
we have a punctuation gap lol so many posts recently prove the point i fear for our children will there be none left for them i blame the nea and prez shrub of course everyone knows they have conspired and stuff like this isnt radical its mainstream and i was a flower of the mountain yes when i put the rose in my hair like the andalusian girls used or shall i wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the moorish wall and i thought well as well him as another and then i asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would i yes to say yes my mountain flower and first i put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes i said yes i will yes
India has made it clear that Pakistan ought "to deliver" on persons and hideouts found involved in terrorist activities for the success of the joint terrorism pact. The bottomline was clearly spelt out in an interview to a private TV channel by national security adviser M K Narayanan when he said India will present "pretty good evidence" on the role of Pakistan in the 7/11 Mumbai train blasts in which the police have implicated top Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Azam Cheema as the mastermind.
'Action' on names and addresses, as stated by the NSA, could be interpreted liberally from a crackdown on anti-India terror shops to extradition of suspects. The NSA said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh believed the terror was routed through Pakistan and Bangladesh as he went on to dismiss charges that Singh had dropped his guard on terrorism by calling Pakistan a "victim of terror" in Havana.
The bid to clarify that the Havana statement did not aim to put India and Pakistan on the same footing, laced with assertions that the "PM is not naive" and a categorical implication of ISI in anti-India operations, is significant. "I don't think any leader who has met him (the PM) or any person across the world has misunderstood what the PM has wanted to say," the NSA said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Good proof of Pak hand in 7/11
This shocks me nearly as much as finding out that Hulk Hogan used steroids!
Ja, sure, and I'm a 6'3" ski instructor named Sven with bushy blond hair.
India and the United States regard his charity as a front for a terrorist group blamed for bombs that killed more than 180 people in Mumbai on July 11. But freed on Wednesday from house arrest in Pakistan, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed says that he is the victim of an Indian smear campaign.
Seems like we've read a thing or two that he's written. It didn't read like a charity.
Saeed heads the charity organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which was at the forefront of relief work after last years earthquake in Pakistan that killed 73,000 people. Yet in April Washington added the group to its list of terrorist organisations. Were all about relief and social work. Every child in Pakistan knows about our activities, Saeed told Reuters, following his two-month incarceration by Pakistan authorities. Were spending huge amounts on such projects, and terrorists cant do this, he said.
Saeed is better known as the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a banned jihadi group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. But Saeed says he is a charity worker and that the rest is Indian propaganda - although members of the intelligence community, including Pakistanis, still regard him as the moving spirit behind LeT.
#3
Lose the hat, stand on an Interstate off-ramp and hold up a cardboard sign
VETERAN WILL WORK FOR FOOD
Good for a few hundred bucks from suckers.
By the way, a few years ago in Montgomery (Ala) the cops arrested two of those signholders, one had $480 the other $390, all in bills under 20, it got in the newspaper headlines, don't fall for those scamsters.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/23/2006 19:37 Comments ||
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Indian national security adviser has said Sunday that investigators don't have strong evidence of Pakistan's hand in Mumbai train bombings. "I would be hesitant to say that we have clinching evidence," M.K. Narayanan told US television news channel.
The Pak version...
Narayanan's statement came as India and Pakistan prepared to resume official-level talks next month, which India put on hold after the train bombings that killed more than 200 people. Narayanan said in his interview that some information was missing. "We have connectivity, we have linkages, we have confessions, we have a number of arrests made on the basis of confessions which is pretty good. But there are pieces of the puzzle which are not available," he said. "If the court thinks that it requires a foolproof picture, maybe it will be difficult," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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It's CBS and '60 Minutes' so who knows if it's at all true?
NEW YORK (AP) - Iraq's former finance minister alleged in a U.S. television report aired Sunday that up to $800 million meant to equip the Iraqi army had been stolen from the government by former officials through fraudulent arms deals.
The former minister Ali Allawi told CBS' ``60 Minutes'' that $1.2 billion had been allocated from the Iraqi treasury to the defense ministry to buy new weapons. About $400 million was spent on outdated equipment, while the rest of the money was simply stolen, he said. Allawi said the arms fraud is ``one of the biggest thefts in history'' and that corrupt former Iraqi officials are now ``running around the world hiding and scurrying around.''
He did not name the officials who allegedly stole the money during the CBS report. But Iraqi investigators are probing several weapons and equipment deals engineered by former procurement officer Ziad Cattan and other officials including former Defense Minister Hazim Shaalan.
A lawyer defending one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants in the al-Anfal trial is boycotting the court after his documents were stolen from the lawyers' room at the court building. Badia Arif Izzat, lawyer of former Iraqi intelligence director in northern Iraq, Farhan al-Jubouri, and Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, told Aljazeera.net that he would not attend the next session scheduled for October 30.
Speaking to Aljazeera.net from Syria, Izzat said: "Around 1,000 documents have been stolen from my desk in the lawyers' lounge at the Iraqi supreme court building." Izzat's office in Baghdad had already come under attack last month when armed men raided the office and kidnapped his secretary, stole computers and documents. Izzat left Iraq last week, but he declined to say whether his departure was based on seeking personal safety.
Iraqi lawyers defending Saddam and his co-defendants are usually based in Jordan and go to Iraq only to attend court sessions. They usually fly to Baghdad and are transported under US army protection until they leave Baghdad again. Last month, the US army refrained from providing protection to the defence team, causing resentment among them. Three lawyers acting for Saddam's co-defendants have been killed since the series of Saddam trials started last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
It would be truly ironic and quite fitting if Saddam were to be killed in a suicide car bomb attack on his convoy while going for a courtroom appearance.
Hamas will thwart any attempts by Palestinian Authority Chairman to form a government without their agreement, Palestinian Authority Interior Minister Said Siyam said in an interview with Al Jazeera Sunday night.
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10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that Israel should explore the possibility of making peace with Syria. "
Israel needs to demonstrate its willingness to make painful concessions.
Israel needs to demonstrate its willingness to make painful concessions if our main interests are [to be] maintained," he said, while stressing that Israel has to be "ready for every scenario of military confrontation" with its neighbor along the northeast border.
Peretz noted that Syrian President Bashar Assad has recently made overtures of peace as well as threats of military confrontation in interviews with the international press. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has dismissed Assad's remarks about peace with Israel and recently declared that he would never give back the Golan Heights. But Peretz said the government should "consider" each of the Baathist leader's positions. More broadly, he said that Israel needs to be engaging moderate Arab leaders, specifically Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday downplayed the Russian foreign minister's observation that it was "unrealistic" to demand that the Palestinians' Hamas rulers immediately recognize Israel and disarm.
That's what rational people would do.
Those demands, which enjoy Israeli support, were made by the so-called Quartet of international Mideast negotiators, to which Russia belongs. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, should be given more time to accept these demands.
They're expected at some point in the undefined future to become rational.
"In the end, the policy will be set by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," an Israeli government official quoted Olmert as telling Cabinet at its weekly session. In the meantime, Olmert said, "there is no change in the principles laid down by the Quartet and Russia," said the official, who took part in the meeting.
'Nother words, the requirement remains, but nobody's going to push it.
Western powers and Israel have imposed crushing international sanctions on the Hamas-led government in an effort to pressure it to accept the Quartet's demands.
I'd be a lot happier if the Western powers and Israel had stated that Hamas is an outlaw group that rejects norms of governance and international relations and that no one's going to deal with them.
So far, Hamas has remain unbowed, even though the sanctions have rendered it unable to pay 165,000 civil servants who provide for one-third of Palestinians. Olmert said Russian officials did not urge Israel to soften its stance regarding Hamas during his three-day visit to Moscow last week. At the same time, he acknowledged that while Russia has become more evenhanded in its approach to Israel, Moscow could not be expected to totally reverse its historical support for the Palestinians.
Wipe your chin, Ehud.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Anyone who knows anything about the Predictions in the Bible knows that Russia is Gog of Ezkl38 & 39..Here we Read of The Power to the remote North of Israel Making an Alliance With Persia And the Islamic world,then Invading israel in the latter Days..God will wipe them all out though..
if anyone had a Bit of Discernment,they Would Conclude we are Living in those Times? Read Zech12..here again,we read of the Nations Refusing to Accept Jerusalem as Israel's Capital City,And we read How God Will destroy the World Over This Very issue..Read also.joel3:2..Anyone Who Divides Israel will be destroyed by God Almighty..Be Warned World,Be Warned Russia and Iran...be warned Muslim World..God Will Fight you! Interesting how Russia is Supporting Iran in our day,And how Iran's mad man Has Vowed to Wipe Israel off the Map..Psalms 83 is so Accurate..
Chris
Wales
#2
Chris in Wales, dear, do try to relax, or you'll burst a blood vessel, and that would distract you from more important things. Truly! Whether or not these are the End Times of Christian eschatology -- and every generation of Christians has looked for signs in their own lifetime -- you need to live as if Jesus Christ might come back at any moment, while acting as if your worldly duties will continue throughout your normal lifespan. Those worldly duties including not bursting blood vessels; might I suggest taking up a course of exercise to work off the stress hormones flowing in your veins... perhaps one of the martial arts, which gives the added benefit of teaching you to defend yourself from Satan-inspired attackers.
#3
...the Russian foreign minister's observation that it was "unrealistic" to demand that the Palestinians' Hamas rulers immediately recognize Israel and disarm ...
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, should be given more time to accept these demands.
Just a few more big armament sales to Hamas that haven't been inked yet, eh Lavrov?
Big hint for Chris in Wales: Bolding your entire post is often taken as an invitation to ignore.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have stepped up their efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Palestinian Authority, PA and Hamas officials said on Sunday. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal is in Saudi Arabia for talks with government officials on the crisis with PA President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, while Hamas delegations have been invited to Qatar and other Arab countries that are acting as mediators between the two parties, the officials added. Mashaal is also expected to visit Qatar on his way back from Saudi Arabia. On Saturday night Abbas phoned the emir of Qatar and urged him to resume mediation efforts to resolve the impasse.
"Hamas does not care about the fate of the Palestinian people. They are smuggling all types of weapons, including heavy machine guns, into the Gaza Strip. They are also bringing a lot of cash."
The crisis, meanwhile, has been put on hold as Muslims celebrate on Monday the three-day Id al-Fitr feast marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. Both Qatar and Saudi Arabia are hoping to achieve an agreement between Fatah and Hamas on the formation of a national unity government with a political platform that satisfies the demands of the international community, including recognition of Israel's right to exist. The two countries are also hoping that their efforts will lead to the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held in the Gaza Strip since June.
"These mediation efforts are designed to prevent a further escalation between Fatah and Hamas," explained a top PA official in Ramallah. "Qatar and Saudi Arabia are hoping that an agreement will avoid a scenario where Abbas is forced to fire the [Hamas] government and call early elections."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
LOL, that's the best photoshop I've seen for a long time!
The Hamas politburo chief traveled from Damascus disguised as a pilgrim. Saudi rulers offered him and his movement generous terms for breaking away from the Damascus-Tehran bloc, freeing the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit and signing a cooperation pact with Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The Saudis last week invited to Mecca the heads of the Syrian opposition in exile. This act is seen as Riyadhs warning to Asad of dire consequences if he tries to disrupt this Palestinian reconciliation move.
In a back-up move, the Saudis last week invited to Mecca the heads of the Syrian opposition in exile: former Syrian vice president Khalim Haddam, today a sworn foe of Syrian president Bashar Asad, the leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood Sader e-Din Ali Bayanouni and Bashars uncle, Rifat Asad, who aspires to oust his nephew and take his place. This act is seen as Riyadhs warning to Asad of dire consequences, including punitive financial measures, if he tries to disrupt this Palestinian reconciliation move. To demonstrate its importance to the oil kingdom, King Abdullah granted Meshaal a private audience.
DEBKAfiles Middle East sources describe this as a direct Saudi challenge to Iran and its schemes - in contrast to the inertia displayed by the Egyptian, Jordanian and Israeli governments. The Hamas politburo chief is not generally expected to reject the Saudi proposition out of hand certainly not the handsome remuneration on offer but neither is Hamas inclined to turn its back on Syria and Iran, its principal suppliers of weapons and fighters.
On a single day, Sunday, Oct. 22, Fatah and Hamas staged 26 reciprocal assassination attempts of each others commanders in a further escalation of tension.
On a single day, Sunday, Oct. 22, Fatah and Hamas staged 26 reciprocal assassination attempts of each others commanders in a further escalation of tension. Fatah was horrified to see a Hamas parading 500 new recruits in the West Bank town of Qalqilya, a Fatah stronghold. DEBKAfiles military sources comment that if Hamas was capable of lining up 500 armed recruits in a small Palestinian town on the West Bank which is surrounded on three sides by Israels defense barrier, it betokens a much larger Hamas militia numbering thousands ready to go a nasty surprise for both Abu Mazen and Israel.
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#1
Fatah and Hamas staged 26 reciprocal assassination attempts
Several Israeli cabinet ministers have called for a military operation to retake control of Gaza's southern border with Egypt. They said the operation was necessary to stop Palestinian fighters smuggling in weapons from Egypt. Eli Yishai, the Israeli industry and trade minister, told reporters on Sunday: "Action must be taken without hesitation. Any hesitation is dangerous and we must act immediately. When we left the Philadelphi corridor, I said that abandoning it is a doorway to hell."
The Philadelphi corridor is the Israeli term for the 12km-long border zone. Yishai's call to move back into the corridor, a year after Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip, was echoed by two other cabinet ministers and a senior commander of military forces in the area.
Ghazi Hamad, a Palestinian government spokesman, denounced the proposal as a potential ruse for an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza. He said: "The call to retake the border is a serious escalation and an incitement for more Israeli aggression."
Israel claims that tonnes of munitions, including advanced shoulder-fired missiles, have been smuggled from Egypt in a network of underground tunnels since their withdrawal from Gaza.
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#1
Every bit of that land belongs to you, Israel. You were told that you are in charge of borders.
#2
Long Overdue,,This time,Israel should never be so Stupid as to give these Terrorist Bandits a Buffer zone to Attack Israel!!!!!!! You give these people an Inch,Thay Take a mile.."Feed the Monster,And it Appetite will grow!!!
When is the World going to learn? Giving in to the Islamic Palestinian Facists..Time for a reality check,Israel,Go in there and Scare the Hell out of these Demented People..
Chris
Wales
Jeez, violence during Eid. Can ya beat that?Where's my tissues?
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Women in southern Lebanon wept at the graves of loved ones killed in the Israel-Hezbollah war, while many Iraqis stayed home amid fears of violence Monday at the start of a major holiday marking the end of Ramadan.
The three-day holiday of Eid al-Fitr is customarily celebrated with family gatherings, presents and lunchtime feasts, but fighting has cast a shadow this year across much of the Middle East. This year? I thought this was part of the festivities?
In the bombed-out villages of southern Lebanon, the mood was somber and the festivities muted. "There is no Eid. There is only sadness and desperation and fear for the future," said Salma Salameh, a 43-year-old teacher in the predominantly Shiite village of Blatt. Sound like Blatt took the splatt. You're breakin my heart, Salma...
Many Lebanese gathered in cemeteries to pay their respects to the more than 855 Lebanese who were killed during the 34-day war, most of them civilians.
In the southern village of Qana, where an Israeli airstrike on July 30 killed 29 Lebanese, women dressed in black wept over the graves. In Aitaroun, which lost 41 villagers to the war, families laid flowers and read Quranic verses at the graves.
In Beirut, many Lebanese left mosques after morning prayers and went to the grave of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a February 2005 car bombing that continues to haunt the country as U.N. investigators pursue the perpetrators. Yeah, a regular whodunnit. Here's a hint. Look for a pinheaded Syrian...
Celebrations in the southern village of Halta were replaced with the funeral of a 12-year-old boy who was killed Sunday by an Israeli cluster bomb. U.N. demining experts say about 1 million cluster bombs failed to explode when Israel dropped them during the war this summer. Johnson! Start leaning on those folks in quality control...
As if to underscore the tensions, Lebanese security officials said Israeli warplanes conducted overflights Monday as far north as the outskirts of Beirut a rare occurrence since a U.N.-brokered cease-fire halted the fighting Aug. 14. Happy Eid, Mahmoud! ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM...
The commander of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon has called Israeli overflights a clear violation of the U.N. resolution ending the war, but Israel has said it would continue them because arms smuggling to Hezbollah guerrillas has not stopped. Which, I would guess, is not a clear violation of the U.N. resolution ending the war.
The start of Eid al-Fitr, which means the festival of breaking the dawn-to-dusk fast during the month of Ramadan, is determined by clerics based on the sighting of the new moon. While the holiday began Monday in most Arab countries, it will start Tuesday in Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Some Shiites in Lebanon and Iraq also will begin the holiday Tuesday.
In peaceful parts of the Middle East, the festivities Monday were joyous. Children in Kuwait and Bahrain dressed up in their new holiday clothes and received sweets, cakes and money from neighbors and relatives. They must mean the parts where they're not trying to kill each other...
In wartorn Iraq, however, many Sunni Muslims stayed inside out of fear that they would fall victim to car bombs or gunfire from Shiite militiamen in Baghdad. Bombings and mortar attacks in markets packed with shoppers over the weekend killed at least 28 people and wounded scores.
Nadhim Aziz said there were fewer worshippers this year a local Baghdad mosque to perform the early morning prayers on the holiday."We were 50 to 60 in the mosque. Last year, there were about 400," Aziz lamented.
Violence also plagued other parts of the Arab world. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops shot and killed seven Palestinians and wounded 14 in one of the deadliest days of fighting in months.
Security was tightened in the Jordanian capital of Amman ahead of Tuesday's celebrations, with armored personnel carriers manned by gun-toting soldiers being positioned at the main intersections and in front of luxury hotels. Suicide bombers killed 60 people in blasts at three hotels in Amman last November. Happy Eid..INFIDEL!
Shiite and Muslim clergymen across Lebanon said they would not be receiving celebratory greetings at their homes or offices this year because of the Israeli-Hezbollah war and the violence in Iraq and the Palestinian territories. Closed for Eid. Sorry, come back later. Unarmed.
Lebanon's most senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, warned worshippers in his sermon Monday of the perils facing the Arab world as a result of the "rising international campaign against Islam." Yes! We must kill each other because of the "rising international campaign against Islam"! And don't you forget it, or I'll kill you!
#1
Shit I'm tired of this. For the record Ramadan is not a muslime holiday. Muhamhead (pieces of pork be upon her) adopted a pagan holiday for his one desert cult.
For that matter some of Muhahead's first organized gang thefts were from caravans during Ramadan. This was seen as a terrible cowardly thing to do. Which pretty much sums up Muhamhead as a man. Coward for Allen Ackbarned.
Ignore this trend but it won't go away unless the churches respond
When Zulayka Martinez left the Roman Catholic Church and converted to Islam six years ago, she was happy and at peace with her decision. But she felt like an outsider in her new faith.
Looking back, she realizes her problem was more of a cultural and language barrier. Most members of Houston mosques were of Arab or Pakistani backgrounds. She didn't know any Spanish-speaking Muslims. And as a single woman, she found it especially hard during holidays.
"My first two Ramadans, I felt very alone," she said, referring to the holy month. At first, she was afraid to tell her parents that she had converted. "But after I did, my mother would fix me food to break the fast."
What a difference six years make.
In that time, Martinez has become the center of a close-knit group of Latina Muslims who support each other throughout Ramadan and the rest of the year. For today's festive Eid al-Fitr, the day that ends the month of fasting, she is organizing the women for morning prayers and a celebratory brunch.
"She is the mole that holds us together," Adriana Castillo-Shah said. "She is like me, always saying we are doing this or that, always supportive, always getting us together."
During Ramadan, the women often met for sunset prayers at local mosques and to break the daily fast. They gathered weekly at different homes for festive Iftar dinners.
As the early evening sky began to darken from rosy pink to deep blue on a recent Saturday, Martinez anxiously looked at her watch. "They're always late," she said. "We work on Mexican time."
No sooner had she spoken than her Iftar guests arrived, several holding small children by the hand. As they entered, each woman took a date from a bowl and ate it to break the fast, then took a sip of water.
In the corner of the living room they set up a prayer rug. Castillo-Shah whipped a compass out of her purse to determine the direction of Mecca. At 7 p.m., she called out the prayers as the women bowed, stood up and bowed again.
"We each take turns calling the prayers," Castillo-Shah said. "I'm terrible with directions so I take my compass everywhere. At home I have an alarm clock that sings out the call to prayers, so I can't forget."
Reasons for conversion
The lively group chatted in Spanish and English while Martinez prepared chicken enchiladas and lamb in her sister's kitchen, borrowed for the evening. No one seemed bothered by the large picture of The Last Supper behind the table or by the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the wall.
Castillo-Shah said that removing pictures like that from the walls of her home was one of the hardest things she did after converting three years ago.
They told a visitor of their reasons for converting: they were attracted by the simplicity of Islam; the fact that they could pray directly to God without an intermediary (something they could do under Catholicism as well); Islam's focus on close family ties, similar to that generally found in Latino culture; and respect for women. Some felt they were discovering lost roots from Islamic Spain.
"Before I was Muslim, I used to wish I was covered," said Maria Franco, a native of Monterrey, Mexico. "Back home, people would say, 'Oooooh, you good-looking girl,' and make many other rude comments. I hated that."
Franco was a single mother with a son when she converted to Islam in 1998. Her father once made fun of her decision, but became so impressed with his daughter's devotion that he eventually converted to Islam, as did one of her brothers.
Castillo-Shah converted to Islam seven years after marrying a Muslim. She had not planned to convert and said she never felt pressured to do so by her husband, a native of Pakistan.
But the more she learned about Islam, the more convinced she became that it was the right path for her. She converted and surprised her husband. "He was so excited and called all his family," she said.
Over dinner, the women chatted about the upcoming wedding of fellow convert Nyelene Ismail. Others talked about the challenges of fasting from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan.
Castillo-Shah, for example, has diabetes and under Islamic law is not required to fast. But she wants to please Allah, she said, so she has fasted since converting. Her friends keep close watch over her and her blood sugar.
Also on their minds was fashion, and what they might wear on Eid al-Fitr.
Martinez, who is known for her color-coordinated, sparkly headscarves, will choose one that matches the outfit she wears. It might be a stylish hijab made by her mother.
"At the beginning, I didn't want to wear the scarf and long dresses," Martinez said. " ... When Hurricane Rita was coming, the first thing I packed was my scarves and my pictures. Clothes I can buy, but I can never replace all those scarves."
It took more than a year for Martinez to make her first Hispanic Muslim friend. Then, three years after her conversion, a class in Spanish for female converts and others interested in learning about Islam began at El Farouq, the mosque she most frequently attends.
Now, Martinez said, she is meeting Latino converts, both new and old, almost weekly. Just recently she was at Starbucks when a young Hispanic woman asked about her head scarf. The stranger said she had always been interested in Islam. Several days later, she accompanied Martinez to evening prayers at a mosque.
At the Iftar gathering, several women said they had converted because they were searching for something they could not find in Catholicism. That was not the case for Martinez, who initially tried to convince a Muslim acquaintance that Catholicism was a better choice.
"Before I could do that, I felt I needed to find out more about his religion," she recalls. "So I got a Quran and some books."
Looking for answers
During a Catholic retreat, she found herself reading the Quran instead of the Bible. To Martinez, the Quran was similar but more descriptive. It also answered questions she had not found in the Bible.
"I was scared, though my heart felt so at ease and I thought: 'Is this from the devil?" she recalled. "I went to the priest to make confession, and I started crying. That's when he said: 'I have read the Quran. I understand it. But you need to follow your religion. Muslims are not bad people, but they are not right. We are correct. Don't question your religion; practice it, but don't question it.' "
Martinez didn't like the answer. As she continued her research, she realized that Islam respected and honored Jesus as a prophet. That removed the last stumbling block. "To me, I didn't abandon Christianity, I discovered a religion that continued it," she said.
The women are sometimes criticized by other Hispanics about their decision to convert. That's why Martinez felt it was important for them to be united as Latinas and Muslims.
#3
You can't prevent ignorant people from doing stupid things. Whatever becomes of this bitch, she so deserves. She's now heading into 7th century hell and won't be able to escape, due to her simplistic outlook.
#6
What this article should tell you is just how fucked up Latino culture is in the way it treats women. The machismo mentality is one of the most abusive there is to females. Hispanic women I have worked with have told me about how they are expected to bring home a paycheck, cook, clean, shop, do the laundry and look after the kids while the husband sits and watches television. Any protest on the woman's part is greeted with "Shut up, bitch."
Fortunately, I have also had the privilege of meeting a few really decent and honorable Hispanic men, so I know that not all of them are like this. However, living in one of the largest American Hispanic communities here in San Jose, California, I can also tell you that I've seen just what violent scumbags Latino males can be.
The Catholic church needs to get over its sexual repression a bit and begin telling these prospective Hispanic woman converts about how the majority of Muslim females are treated, including some vivid descriptions of female genital mutilation, institutionalized spousal abuse, revenge gang rapes plus the complete and total legal inequity experienced by women in the Sharia judicial system. Specific note of how Muslim apostasy is punishable by death also should feature prominently in any such discussion.
I doubt this is happening and because of it, the church is surrendering its turf without much of a fight. Pope Benedict's admirable frontal assault on Islam needs to trickle down to the parish level if this is to be stopped.
#7
That's when he said: 'I have read the Quran. I understand it. But you need to follow your religion. Muslims are not bad people, but they are not right. We are correct. Don't question your religion; practice it, but don't question it.' "
I call BS. No Catholic priest would ever say that; they're taught the reasoning behind the faith, and to pass on that reasoning.
It sounds more like an imam.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/23/2006 12:59 Comments ||
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#8
I am shocked that any woman would ever convert to Islam. That just boggles my mind.
No mystery here. Put a Hijab on Lady Liberty, and change the inscription to read as follows:
"Bring me your frigid, your sexually repressed, your neurotically shy, your ignorant, your self-loathers, yearning to hide behind the veil."
Barnum was right. There's a sucker born every minute.
#9
Sung to the tune of Anticipation (Carly Simon)...
Indoctrination, indoctrination
Is makin' me a tool
Is keepin' me a foolin'
And tomorrow we might not be together
I'm no prophet and I don't know Mohammed's ways
So I'll try and see into your eyes right now
But it's hard cuz my hijab has slipped over my eyes again
(Slipped over my eyes again)
But it's so hard cuz my hijab has slipped over my eyes again
(Slipped over my eyes again)
(Slipped over my eyes again)
(Slipped over my eyes again)
(It's so hard... slipped over my eyes again)
#11
I call BS. No Catholic priest would ever say that; they're taught the reasoning behind the faith, and to pass on that reasoning.
Even that wouldn't be so bad; here in secular France (the Republic is thee God), the Catholic Church is so PC-fied that the minority (small, but quite real) of muslim wishing to convert to Christianity are gently led away; no kdding, there were reports of muslims (often girls or berbers/kabyls wanting to return to their european/christian roots and escape the arab identity) being turned away by priest telling them "they should stay muslim", or "need to talk with their imam". Barf!
So, the only christians who do welcome and encourage conversions are the Dreaded Evangelists (whom I wouldn't oppose, if they went on to re-evangelize post-christian Europe, better protestant than muslim), or the traditionalist catholics (quite small in numbers, but the only remaining active catholics in France, the only ethnic french who have large families - 6, 7 or more children is common -, the majority of young people willing to enter priesthood while the french clergy is aging, the only ones who still do pilgrimages,....).
#13
Zenster's onto this one. The Church (not just Catholics, but those evil Evangelicals too) needs to respond to this with truth and love ASAP. While I don't expect wholesale abandonment of the Catholic faith by the Hispanics, a few here and there can hurt. What I don't get is the quote about wanting to be covered up. You can do that yourself in Catholicism. Maybe not a canvas tent over you from head to toe, but feel free to cover yourself as you see fit. Meanwhile an immigrant from Somalia (or maybe Egypt) here in an Atlanta suburb has been brought up on charges of female "circumcision" (genital mutilation) on his 5 year old daughter with freakin' scissors! This, in a very small town about 40 miles outside of Atlanta (think "redneckville" until about 5 years ago when development hit)! I just can't believe ANY self-respecting woman would convert to Islam after seeing how they're truly treated.
Posted by: BA ||
10/23/2006 14:12 Comments ||
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#14
Yeah compliments suck. I bet she would've loved them saying 'Ooooh, look at that fat ugly pig' instead.
Scooter, have you ever heard the suggestive tone in which such comments are typically being made? It is usually far from complimentary and often just as hurtful as the alternative you provided.
#15
being turned away by priest telling them "they should stay muslim", or "need to talk with their imam".
If there is a Christian hell, those priests who intentionally redirect willing converts back into Islam's withering embrace surely need to eternally rot in a firey afterlife.
No. MTV (I pronounce it "Empty V") is some of the most worthless trash there is. As a musician, I hold MTV largely responsible for the ascendency of style over substance in the music industry. There are many excellent musicians who, because they are not photogenic, are passed over for consideration because they will lack marketability in music videos.
Ever heard of rap or heard of freak dancing?
Sadly, yes. Obviously you missed my post in the Burning Cars thread the other day. I'll repost it here for your edification:
If the black community ever wants to know why they continue to be societally marginalized, they need look no further than gangsta rap. The glorification of violence, promotion of conspicuous consumption and routinedegradationofwomen positions it as a significant and universally retrograde force in our modern world.
While there is some intelligent rap music being produced, even that material's near total absence of musical complexity make listening to it a jaw-clenching experience at best. This latter category represents such a minor fraction of all rap music that the entire genre is fundamentally without redemption.
That black parents allow this music into their homes, permit their children to watch it on television, condone its emulation in dress or behavior and do not instead propose moral arguments against its intensely negative (lack of) character is a central reason in their continuing role as an underclass in America. That parents of any race permit their children to buy into this distorted world view goes a long way towards explaining the prevailing lack of intelligence and ascendancy of criminal gangs in our inner cities.
Whenever you pause to wonder why modern art and culture in general is so pathetically shallow, look no further than gansta rap for a wealth of explanation.
#18
The author of the article, Barbara Karkabi, is the Houston Chronicle's religion writer. Writing stuff like this is what a lot of religion writers do: they find and report on fringe elements looking to fit into mainstream society.
Next week it'll be former Episcopalians who are now Hare Krishnas.
Look, some of these poor gals can't even take down their wall hangings of Our Lady of Guadalupe. This is more sad than threatening.
#20
you are showing your age, Zenster ;-) Was a bunch of stuff about "freak dancing" in Massachussets and elsewhere in the country on the radio the other day. It's dancing that is boys behind the girls ...how shall I say this nicely ... doing the doggie up close and personal at the JR. High School dances as the chaperones stand by. Abd it's not just Massachussets, my sister in law in small town Kansas said she was one of the only chaperones breaking it up in her school. She said at other dances she's heard of parents literally using spray bottles of water. That is not a joke. This isn't a white/black/hispanic thing. It's 13, 14 year olds just picking up the MTV legacy that we left for them. It's not your Patrick Swayze type dirty dancing, it's more your local strip clubs lap dance dancing.
So is it any wonder that some are tired of the degrading sexuality and looking for some shelter from having to out sex the professional strippers at the local truck stops?
As for me, I think this article and that article the other day where that woman made up about 100 incidents of really mean things that happened to her when she wore her veil for one day - I think this is being churned out by that million dollar funding that was given to CAIR (or whoever) to promote Islam and fight against Islamophobia. And we are taking the bait hook line and sinker.
I say that because this article seems as bogus as that one did. These just strike me as made up stories that could be true but are just a little to perfect to the point. Friend of mine used to call the "preachers stories".
Its not that this isn't a valid discussion - I have some thoughts about this - but don't have time to go there right now. Maybe later.
#2
The usual way: ignore what they said and don't do the bad stuff. Think about how damn silly any religion would be without the hypocricy born of changing times. A Moslem could become as peaceful as a Methodist.
#3
A Moslem Could not become as Peacful as a Methodist? who said Such a Foolish thing? These People Don't have any concept of Peace..Their Book is a Declaration of war,a War Manifesto on All the World..i agree with the Person who said Muhammad was a Rapist and a Murderer..But i would go Further to the truth,He was Satan's Right hand man..Amen to that..
Zech 12
Chris
UK
Tehran, 23 Oct. (AKI) - After two decade of policies by previous Iranian governments to contain the growth of the country's population, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called on Iranians to have more children. After the initial demographic boom, when the population doubled following Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran initiated a plan in 1988 to control the birth rate, based on a major campaign promoting the use of contraception. The country succeeded in reducing the growth rate of the population from 3.2 to 1.4 percent per year. Now however Ahmadinejad has said he would like to take u-turn in this policy.
"I don't agree with those who say that there is no need to have more than two children," said Ahmadinejad speaking to parliamentarians in Iran. He then went on to say that the government intends to reduce the number of hours women are required to work, in relation to the number of children they have. "I am not saying that women shouldn't work but they presence outside of the home should not in any way compromise their principal mission which is to educate their children," said the Iranian president.
Gonna keep them barefoot and pregant
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he is convinced that Iran "has the capacity to satisfy the needs of 120 million of its citizens." "The West fears more than anything else, our population growth and we must defeat them in this battle," he said.
For which you'll need more cannon fodder. And they'll need "Lebensraum". We've heard this all before:
"A people can grow only when its prosperity is assured. That is the Führer's true goal. When gray misery was the regular guest at the table of most workers, they lacked the courage to begin a family and raise healthy children. A decline in population threatened us in 1932. The birth rate had fallen so low that there was a danger that the death rate, increased through countless desperate suicides, would surpass it. The unlimited confidence of the German people in their Führer is shown by the fact that even in 1933 numerous citizens found the courage to begin the family they had long postponed. The number of marriages reached record heights. There were 122,000 more marriages in 1933 than in the year before. !934 showed the tremendous success in reducing unemployment. 223,000 more young German men took brides than in 1932. 6,521,400 men and women were married between 1933 and 1937. Nearly 460,000 more families began than in the five years before the National Socialist takeover. That is probably the best proof of the absolute confidence the German people have in the Führer's policies and in the future of the Reich. The Führer's main concern is for healthy growth by the German people."
Posted by: Steve ||
10/23/2006 12:34 ||
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#1
As per Males-only mortlity rates, the post-Cold War Russians are only slightly better off than Muslim nations in the great die-off of teeney and adult males. Hence the Muslim need = requirement for high birth-rates by any means, including sexual slavery.
#2
Secular SOcialist or God-based Socialist, we Clintonian/Clinton Age-Era Male Brutes t'war all doomed. DOOMED, they tell ya, DDDDDDOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOMMMMEEEDDDDDD......
Iran admitted on Sunday it was heading for UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, warning it would take "appropriate measures" in retaliation for any punitive action. "Imposing sanctions has repercussions on both sides, regionally and internationally. They already know this. If they impose sanctions we will take appropriate measures," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
His comments came as momentum picked up among world powers to find agreement on sanctions against Iran, after the UN Security Council rapidly secured agreement for action against North Korea over its announced nuclear test. Asked if such "regional repercussions" would have an effect on the Strait of Hormuz, a vitally important channel for transporting oil, Hosseini replied: "it depends on the kind of sanctions."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:01 ||
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See SPACEWAR.com > MYTH OF SHIITE REVIVAL. Other > UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE, including ARMED, to Mullahocracy slowly gaining strength within Iran.
An exiled former Syrian vice president said Sunday that President Bashar Assad's regime is on the brink of collapse and called on Syrians to prepare for the day when he will be overthrown. Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who is wanted in Syria on treason charges, said in an address to the Syrian people that Assad's "oppressive" regime will soon be replaced with a democratic civil government, but he did not elaborate.
"After six years of his taking over the administration of the country, what has Bashar Assad done except spread corruption, increase suffering and make wrong decisions that have led to weakening national unity and subjecting Syria to Arab and international isolation."
His address was on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Islamic feast marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, and was broadcast on Lebanon's Future TV, an anti-Syrian station owned by the family of slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. "Ask yourselves, my brothers, after six years of his taking over the administration of the country, what has Bashar Assad done except spread corruption, increase suffering and (take) wrong decisions that have led to weakening national unity and subjecting Syria to Arab and international isolation," Khaddam said. "I assure you that the corrupt and tyrannical regime is on the brink of collapse and in the near future, the ruler will see the opportunists and hypocrites that rallied around him fleeing. He and his corrupt family and entourage will find themselves in the hands of justice," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/23/2006 00:00 ||
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Yeah, sure. Iran and North Korea are on the brink, too.
Amazing how long a country can sit on the brink and continue to do enormous damage.
#2
But...but...but...the opposition is Islamofascist, specifically: Muslim Brotherhood terrorists. In September, Condi Rice hinted at new relations between the US and Sunni majority states. Given the Saudi hate for Persian Shiites, they would probably move to turn Syria against Iran. That would require both the removal of Assad and US acceptance of a new Baathist regime. The Saudis and Egyptians, etc would like to see moves against the Brotherhood, Hizbollah and al-Qaeda suspects that Assad has tolerated.
I think the above is somewhat in the plans of the Bush administration, but would require breaking down of reluctant parties and: elimination of the Ahmadinejad tyranny. A huge US fleet is moving toward the Persian Gulf. Around 80,000 or more Rapid Deployment Forces could shift to the Iraq Theater. But they couldn't do much unless Iran took some huge hits that smart bombs couldn't touch. In the 19th century, England controlled the Straits of Hormuz. An Anglo-American force has to repeat that policy, and depopulate some north Gulf regions, of any potential hostiles. The south is already somewhat in control of friendlies. We would have to look the other way, when the Saudis finally move against their own Arab Shiites. The above will not likely play out in that exact manner, but there can be no scenario that permits the Ayatollahs to continue their savage and aggressive rule in Iran.
Egypt has accused Hezbollah of provoking conflict with Israel in order to justify the Shia group's continued existence in Lebanon. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said that Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, sought war with Israel to foil plans by the Lebanese government to disarm the group. "There had been an agreement, through discussions in Lebanon, to implement the 1989 Taif Accord, which calls for the disarming of the militias in the country," the minister said in an interview with Egyptian public television late on Saturday. "Perhaps through the operation [against Israel] Nasrallah wanted to find a way out of the situation," he said.
Abul Gheit also condemned Nasrallah for launching what he called a "not very calculated" operation which had exposed the country to "great losses, even if some feel pride or victory".
"Any military operation must have a political goal. This operation did not achieve anything," he said.
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Nomani is an American Islamic "troublemaker," i.e., she thinks. She has previously petitioned to have women pray with men in her mosque and have women lead prayer services. She's had death threats (naturally).
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. When dealing with a "disobedient wife," a Muslim man has a number of options. First, he should remind her of "the importance of following the instructions of the husband in Islam." If that doesn't work, he can "leave the wife's bed." Finally, he may "beat" her, though it must be without "hurting, breaking a bone, leaving blue or black marks on the body and avoiding hitting the face, at any cost."
Such appalling recommendations, drawn from the book "Woman in the Shade of Islam" by Saudi scholar Abdul Rahman al-Sheha, are inspired by as authoritative a source as any Muslim could hope to find: a literal reading of the 34th verse of the fourth chapter of the Koran, An-Nisa , or Women. "[A]nd (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them," reads one widely accepted translation.
The notion of using physical punishment as a "disciplinary action," as Sheha suggests, especially for "controlling or mastering women" or others who "enjoy being beaten," is common throughout the Muslim world. Indeed, I first encountered Sheha's work at my Morgantown mosque, where a Muslim student group handed it out to male worshipers after Friday prayers one day a few years ago.
#1
If this ignorant fool is just now discovering that women are forever nothing but chattel in Mooselimb universe, why doesn't she leave ? She thinks it's going to improve ? The women participating in this cult are the dumbest to walk the face of the earth. Said it before, and it is truer than ever. They could end the cult overnight if they chose to.
#2
I am so tired of these stupid lies. "Islam is enlightened and does not permit slavery." "Islam does not permit violence against women..."
How do you get captive women who have just had their families slaughtered to have sex with their captors without the use or the threat of violence. Mohammed never hit anybody. No I guess not. Just killed their husbands and brothers and raped them gently.
#3
As long as the beating of women is acceptable in Islam, the problem of suicide bombers, jihadists and others who espouse violence will not go away; to me, they form part of a continuum.
End of story. Loreena Bobbit needs to start opening some spousal abuse advice clinics in Muslim areas. A few at-home surgeries and Muslim men would STFU about this "beating lightly" horseshit.
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.
Mullah Mohammad Omar, the spiritual head of the Taliban, has vowed to bring Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, before an Islamic tribunal. The warning came through an online Ramadan message, posted on Sunday to mark Eid el-Fitr, the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. "It is the fifth consecutive year that Afghanistan, our dear country, is under Crusader colonisation," Mullah Omar said. "But this time, we also congratulate you on the defeat and the flight of the Crusader. I also announce to you that [Karzai], the Crusaders' valet, and his colleagues are in the process of looking for a way to escape ... We are going to bring them before an Islamic tribunal," the Taliban leader wrote in Arabic. 
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has told a Chinese envoy his country has no immediate plans to conduct another nuclear test but that US policy toward Pyongyang will determine the future, a news report said. Kim made the remarks to Chinese envoy Tang Jiaxuan during talks last week in Pyongyang to discuss the North's first-ever nuclear test on Oct. 9, Kyodo News agency reported Sunday from Beijing, citing unnamed officials familiar with the discussions. 
(XFN-ASIA) - Christopher Hill, the lead US negotiator on North Korea, is in Hong Kong for talks on the latest efforts to freeze the financing of the Pyongyang regime, officials said. Assistant secretary of state Hill was meeting US consular staff and holding private talks with local officials on Washington's clamp on money laundering thought to be funding dictator Kim Jong-Il's illicit nuclear programme. 'He will be discussing issues -- including North Korean links with Macau banks -- with people on the ground familiar with the situation,' US consulate spokesman Dale Kreisher told Agence France-Presse without divulging the diplomat's schedule. 'He is just having some private meetings,' Kreisher said when asked which local officials Hill would be meeting. 
Oriana Fallaci, the controversial Italian journalist, who left her books and papers to a Rome university because of her admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, may have lent further strength to Muslim suspicions about the Popes perceived Islamophobia. In her last days, Fallaci, who became a bitter foe of Islam, which she saw as a destructive force at war with the West and its values, had a private audience with Benedict at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. In one of her final interviews, Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal, I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same things, there must be something true. 
But freed on Wednesday from house arrest in Pakistan, Hafiz Mohammad Saeed says that he is the victim of an Indian smear campaign.
A lawyer defending one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants in the al-Anfal trial is boycotting the court after his documents were stolen from the lawyers' room at the court building. Badia Arif Izzat, lawyer of former Iraqi intelligence director in northern Iraq, Farhan al-Jubouri, and Tariq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, told Aljazeera.net that he would not attend the next session scheduled for October 30. 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday downplayed the Russian foreign minister's observation that it was "unrealistic" to demand that the Palestinians' Hamas rulers immediately recognize Israel and disarm.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have stepped up their efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis in the Palestinian Authority, PA and Hamas officials said on Sunday. Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal is in Saudi Arabia for talks with government officials on the crisis with PA President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, while Hamas delegations have been invited to Qatar and other Arab countries that are acting as mediators between the two parties, the officials added. Mashaal is also expected to visit Qatar on his way back from Saudi Arabia. On Saturday night Abbas phoned the emir of Qatar and urged him to resume mediation efforts to resolve the impasse. 
The Hamas politburo chief traveled from Damascus disguised as a pilgrim. Saudi rulers offered him and his movement generous terms for breaking away from the Damascus-Tehran bloc, freeing the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit and signing a cooperation pact with Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. 
Iran admitted on Sunday it was heading for UN sanctions over its nuclear programme, warning it would take "appropriate measures" in retaliation for any punitive action. "Imposing sanctions has repercussions on both sides, regionally and internationally. They already know this. If they impose sanctions we will take appropriate measures," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.
An exiled former Syrian vice president said Sunday that President Bashar Assad's regime is on the brink of collapse and called on Syrians to prepare for the day when he will be overthrown. Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who is wanted in Syria on treason charges, said in an address to the Syrian people that Assad's "oppressive" regime will soon be replaced with a democratic civil government, but he did not elaborate. 
Egypt has accused Hezbollah of provoking conflict with Israel in order to justify the Shia group's continued existence in Lebanon. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said that Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, sought war with Israel to foil plans by the Lebanese government to disarm the group. "There had been an agreement, through discussions in Lebanon, to implement the 1989 Taif Accord, which calls for the disarming of the militias in the country," the minister said in an interview with Egyptian public television late on Saturday. "Perhaps through the operation [against Israel] Nasrallah wanted to find a way out of the situation," he said. 
