Fires raging across California have caused more than $1bn in property damage and left five people dead, police have said. The death toll rose to five after the discovery of two burned bodies in a destroyed home in the town of Poway.
Meanwhile, firefighters said on Wednesday that a break in the weather had given them a chance to go on the offensive. Around 1,700 buildings have been destroyed in the 18 fires that have erupted since Sunday. The fires have forced an estimated 500,000 people to flee their homes and scorched 172,000 hectares of countryside stretching from Malibu to beyond the Mexican border.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/10/26/fire.wildfire.ca/index.html The number of deaths attributed directly to the fires grew to seven Thursday, after the charred bodies of four people believed to be illegal immigrants were found in a canyon east of San Diego.
Seven other deaths are labeled as fire-related: Three elderly people died during evacuations, and four others died after being evacuated.
The arithmetic between these two stories doesn't seem to add up; makes me suspect the toll will be higher still. I think I prefer my hurricanes - one has a chance to swim or climb in the attic with them, but if a wildfire comes and you are still there???? Plus a hose, shovel and new sheetrock can make a flooded house livable - won't help a pile of ashes.
#2
You gotta be careful where you buy, Glenmore. If you buy a place on the edge of a canyon you could be toast.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
10/26/2007 17:10 Comments ||
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#3
We don't have canyons on the Louisiana Gulf Coast. We have 'flat, within reach of storm surge' and 'flat, subject to flooding from moderate rainstorms.' And it is not necessarily 'either/or.' But we don't have 5% humidity and 70 mph winds pushing walls of flame.
Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-mohammadi says Washington has established centers in Afghanistan for training terrorists. Referring to Taliban-style recruiting camps used to spread insurgency, Mostafa Pour-mohammadi said the Americans, during the past years, have set up centers in Afghanistan to train and dispatch terrorists to other countries. There are comprehensive evidences proving that the United States is sending terrorists to Iran, Afghanistan and many other countries, said Pour-mohammadi adding that the second US-supported center has been set up in Iraq.
According to the minister, the US presence has had a destructive impact on Afghanistan in a way that the annual production of narcotics in the war-shattered country has reached 8,000 tons from 1,000 tons since the US invasion of Afghanistan. Asked about the possibility of a US attack against Iran, the minister said, "Each country or power which attacks Iran, will receive a crushing response. If we are attacked, we will naturally defend our territory and security.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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#4
Lies, lies, and more lies. Those are US Department of Agriculture training centers set up through a federal grant with Auburn University. Row crops, Corn, soybeans, barley, cotton, peanuts, that sort of thing. Nothing to worry about, nothing at all.
The Islamist Justice and Equality Movement announced yesterday that it would boycott Darfur peace talks due to open in Libya at the weekend, bringing to seven the number of rebel groups intending to stay away.
The JEM said it had taken its decision in the light of consultations with six other rebel groups which announced after preliminary talks hosted by the African Union and the United Nations on Tuesday that they would not take part in the new talks with the Sudanese government.
The movement is not ready to take part in the masquerade that will turn Sirte into a slave market and a place of renunciation of peoples rights, said a JEM statement issued on the groups website. UN and AU mediation has not produced a clear and precise vision of how to relaunch the peace process, said the statement signed by spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam and issued in the southern capital of Juba.
Besides the JEM, headed by Khalil Ibrahim, six factions of the secular Sudan Liberation Movement have said they will not attend the talks. The other recalcitrant groups are under the command of Ahmed Abdel Shafi, Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim, Jar Al-Nabi Abdel Karim and Mohammed Aki Kelai as well as the Northern Command faction and another group of west Darfuri rebels.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"Only when a threat arises" > meanwhile, Russia plans to test two ballistic missles, plus replace/upgrade the bulk of their ground forces armored vehics by 2015.
ROME (AFP) A Rome judge on Thursday threw out a case against a US soldier for killing a top Italian intelligence agent in Iraq in 2005, saying Italy does not have jurisdiction to try him. Took him long enough.
Specialist Mario Lozano had gone on trial in absentia in April, accused of "voluntary homicide" over the shooting of Nicola Calipari, deputy director of Italian military intelligence, near Baghdad airport in March 2005. Thousands attended Calipari's funeral in a case that strained relations between Washington and Rome, whose separate investigations into the incident came to widely differing conclusions. Calipari, who had just freed left-wing Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from kidnappers, shielded her during the hail of gunfire unleashed on their car from a mobile checkpoint. Sgrena, who was seriously wounded, was suing for damages at the trial.
The US probe exonerated Lozano, concluding that US troops were not informed that the car carrying the freed journalist was passing through. They say it was driving too fast and did not slow down when signalled. Lozano, 37, insists he merely did his duty in opening fire on the Italians' car.
A New York National Guardsman, Lozano broke two years of public silence on the eve of the trial when he told the New York Post that Sgrena's vehicle was moving at speed towards his checkpoint. "If you hesitate, you come home in a box -- and I didn't want to come home in a box. I did what any soldier would do in my position," Lozano said.
The US side maintains that the Italian authorities had informed the US forces of the operation to free Sgrena after a month in captivity and that there was a breakdown in their communications when the Italians' car was heading to the airport. Rome has never accepted these explanations and refused to sign a joint report, and its own investigation was signed by, among others, the pro-US then defence minister Antonio Martino. The Italians determined that the shooting was the result of an error of judgement and inexperienced soldiers patrolling the airport road and concluded that Lozano was probably frightened when he fired on the three Italians.
Ballistics experts found that driver Andrea Carpani, another secret service officer, was driving at a normal speed and that US troops gave no warnings before opening fire. The Italian probe also found that there were no signposts warning of the checkpoint. Reacting to Thursday's decision, Sgrena told AFP: "I find this ruling incredible. US arrogance has won." She added: "Calipari was celebrated as a hero, and now they don't want to know what happened. This is very serious."
Simone Sabattini, a lawyer for the civil plaintiffs, told AFP that Thursday's ruling would be appealed. The higher cassation court will review only the formal aspects of the proceedings. The prosecution had argued that the US military had forfeited its option of trying Lozano.
"There were a lot of reasons" why Rome does not have jurisdiction, said Lozano's lawyer Alberto Biffani, who had argued that as a member of the US military, Lozano was "a person who represented an organ of the United States" and enjoyed immunity. He also cited a letter by then US secretary of state Colin Powell that was attached to a UN resolution stating that each member of the US-led coalition "has the responsibility of jurisdiction over its own forces."
Prosecutor Erminio Amelio told the court last month that each coalition member had "concurrent jurisdiction" and that by opting not to try Lozano, the United States had "officially declined its potential active jurisdiction" in the case.
Powell's letter to the UN Security Council was "unilateral," he added, and does not have the force of law.
#1
I told you then that if you try to run a checkpoint, you would be dead no matter who you were. The signs are almost as big as the Vatican. I told you not to mess with the case then, and I AM telling you that you need to absolve this soldier now.
#4
I may be confused, but I seem to recall there was some UAV surveillance footage showing the vehicle moving fast. In any case, ignoring checkpoints will not enhance your lifespan.
MARRAKESH, Morocco (AFP) - France has set up a special arms sales task force to react rapidly to any opportunity to sell the country's weapons, a presidential envoy said Wednesday. "We have to take political and military decisions very quickly and deals need to be made as a matter of urgency," said a senior Elysees official.
France is the world's second largest arms exporter at 7.9 billion dollars (5.5 billion euros), second only to the United States at 12.9 billion dollars. Russia comes third with sales of 5.6 billion dollars.
Sarkozy set up what has become known as the "war room" a few months ago to swiftly put together attractive arms sales packages. It comprises the president, his prime minister and the ministers of defence, finance and foreign affairs, together with the commander in chief of the army and a senior Elysee official.
Sarkozy had understood the need to copy the American approach of putting together rapid arms deals tailor-made to each situation and to use arms sales as a means of entering markets, said the official.
News of the "rapid response" unit came as France admitted defeat in its effort to sell its Rafale fighter jet to Morocco at the end of a visit there by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Rabat has decided to buy American F-16s instead. The Rafale warplane, built by Dassault, is still to find a buyer outside of the French military after 13 years of fruitless marketing.
The European Parliament endorsed Thursday a resolution on the Akkas Gas Field in Western Iraq calling on the European Commission "to withdraw or amend its draft decision establishing Special Measure for Iraq", and to submit a new draft decision.
According to the EP, the special measures for the exploration of the Akkas Gas Field in Western Iraq in view of linking its output to the Syrian gas pipeline network are not in line with the EUs Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI)'s main objective which is poverty alleviation.
Belgium's Supreme Administrative Court, the Council of State, has suspended the dismissal of a teacher of Islam because she refused to take her headscarf off outside of the classroom. It ruled that an individual school may not impose such restrictions, Belgian media reported Tuesday.
In 2006, a primary school teacher in the Brussels district of Sint-Pieters-Woluwe, refused to take off her headscarf, was allowed to keep it on inside the classroom, but was told not to wear it outside the class. According to the school management this went "against school regulations", and she was fired.
The Council of State ruled that an individual school or group of schools may not impose a ban on religious symbols. Only the umbrella organisation of the state or public schools has the authority to do so. There is already a general ban in public schools in Brussels on students wearing headscarves.
Schools in Belgium provide special Islamic classes for Muslim pupils.
A coalition opposed to a new Arabic-language school in the city has filed a lawsuit against the New York City Department of Education. Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition is attempting to shut down the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn, which opened this fall under intense scrutiny.
The coalition is taking its case to the New York Supreme Court following a Freedom of Information Law request. It claims the Department of Education failed to provide sufficient information about the charter school's curriculum and text books.
The group is asking for all records relating to the school's staff, including Debbi Almontaser, the founder who resigned as principal following a controversy that erupted after she was quoted in the New York Post defending the use of the word "Intifada" on a T-shirt. uh huh..."but it's all the rage!"
In the past few months, the coalition has increased its efforts to close the middle school, a college preparatory program with an emphasis on Arabic language, culture and history. It claims the school indoctrinates students with a radical Islamist agenda.
The coalition has also requested all documents and records relating to the citizenship, race and religious affiliation of the school's students and those seeking to enroll. It said the Department of Education had until November 6 to respond.
"We don't comment on pending litigation," Department of Education spokeswoman Melody Meyer told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday. "I can say nothing!
but...."
But the department's press secretary said: "All you need to know about Stop the Madrassa is that the lawyer who represents them has a Web site that rejects democracy and suggests that America has declined because it has become less white." attack their lawyer instead of defending the school, classy
The group behind the coalition has also established a nonprofit organization called Citizens for American Values in Public Education Inc., which intends to "halt the imposition of radical Islamist agendas" in curriculum, Arab-language programs, history classes, textbooks, teacher training and charter schools nationwide.
"We started that national group because we need to start educating people to educate themselves, watch their boards of education, so these things don't suddenly arise," said Stuart Kaufman, a member of the the coalition's national advisory board. "What we are doing, the government should be doing - but they aren't, so it falls to us."
The coalition has also been accused of being racist and fear-mongering. accused by whom?
The Jewish Week in August reported that one of the coalition leaders, David Yerushalmi, has condemned democracy in the United States. He said he had found truth in the view that Jews "destroy their host nations like a fatal parasite," the paper reported. Yerushalmi has denounced Zionist Israel, calling on it to "cast off the yoke of liberal democracy," according to The Jewish Week.
Yerushalmi has since been removed from the coalition's Web site but continues to be affiliated and is behind the current lawsuit.
Almontaser spoke out publicly last week for the first time since she resigned. On the steps of City Hall, she said she had been forced into giving an interview with the New York Post and resigned under pressure from "right-wing bloggers," several newspapers and representatives of the mayor.
"Leading the attack was the Stop the Madrassa Coalition run by Daniel Pipes, who has made his career fostering hatred of Arabs and Muslims," Almontaser said. "The coalition conducted a smear campaign against me and the school that was ferocious. Members of the coalition stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments. They suggested that, as an observant Muslim, I was disqualified from leading KGIA, even though the school is rigorously secular, and its namesake, Khalil Gibran, was a Lebanese Christian.
"To stir up anti-Arab prejudice they constantly referred to me by my Arabic name, a name that I do not use professionally. They even created and circulated a YouTube clip depicting me as a radical Islamist."
Kaufman said the name-calling was unjustified, but dismissed claims that the group stalked Almontaser.
"Is it racist to say we are entitled to see what the curriculum is?" he asked. "We are concerned about Islamists, a fanatic Islamic faction that says they want to destroy us. If all they can do is call us names, go ahead. They love to be victims, but we won't be victims - we are entitled to these things."
Almontaser last week submitted an application to become principal of the school and is preparing a lawsuit against the Department of Education "for violation of my constitutional rights."
The Department of Education said it would not consider Almontaser for the job.
"In August, Ms. Almontaser said she resigned as principal from Khalil Gibran International Academy to protect the stability of the school and give it 'the full opportunity to flourish,'" it said in a statement. "The chancellor agreed with her decision, accepted her resignation, and now considers the matter closed." buh-bye Debah
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/26/2007 12:53 ||
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#1
The group behind the coalition has also established a nonprofit organization called Citizens forAmericanValuesinPublicEducationInc., which intends to "halt the imposition of radical Islamist agendas" in curriculum, Arab-language programs, history classes, textbooks, teacher training and charter schools nationwide.
History books will refer to this group as "the survivors".
"We started that national group because we need to start educating people to educate themselves, watch their boards of education, so these things don't suddenly arise," said Stuart Kaufman, a member of the the coalition's national advisory board. "What we are doing, the government should be doing - but they aren't, so it falls to us."
Thus begins the rise of an honest vigilante movement in the face of government inaction and complacency. Should the current political status quo persist, expect this new movement to become quite violent. Should America's Democrats and liberal Left continue their program of treason and betrayal of Western civilization, they too should expect to become targets of that violence.
#3
They suggested that, as an observant Muslim, I was disqualified from leading KGIA
How to parse this? If she truly represents all "observant Muslims" then such Muslims are indeed a tremendous danger to America and our civil liberties. If, instead, she is lieing to conceal her anti-American radical Islamist agenda of 9-11 denial, participation with known terrorist fund-raising groups and her status as a receipient of an award from CAIRan unindicted co-conspirator in the ongoing government legal case against the Holy Land Foundationthen she is an even greater danger to America.
"To stir up anti-Arab prejudice they constantly referred to me by my Arabic name, a name that I do not use professionally. They even created and circulated a YouTube clip depicting me as a radical Islamist."
It ain't lieing when you refer to facts. Almontaser is nothing but another Muslim terrorist skank and has no place in any educational institution on American soil. Here is a link to the PipeLineNews video about Almontaser. It's well worth the five minutes needed to view this clip.
#5
Should America's Democrats and liberal Left continue their program of treason and betrayal of Western civilization, they too should expect to become targets of that violence.
There's some on the right that don't mind living in denial as well--some of them sit in high places.
#6
"vigilante movement... expect this new movement to become quite violent... they too should expect to become targets of that violence"
A coalition files a lawsuit and Zenster brands them vigilantes and extrapolates to violence. Who is out of context?
#7
You just cannot resist quoting out of context, can you, Darrell?
Thus begins the rise of an honest vigilante movement in the face of government inaction and complacency.
What part of "honest vigilante movement" don't you understand?
"What we are doing, the government should be doing - but they aren't, so it falls to us."
Stuart Kaufman is a member of the the coalition's own national advisory board and he willingly describes his actions as those of a concerned citizen who is doing what the government should be but isn't. That is a classical definition of vigilante behavior. From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
Main Entry: vig·i·lan·te
Function: noun
Etymology: Spanish, watchman, guard, from vigilante vigilant, from Latin vigilant-, vigilans
Date: 1856
: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate); broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
But of course, in your haste to smear me and make unwarranted negative connections you ascribe perjorative connatations to a word I have specifically used in its proper and worthwhile context.
Should America's Democrats and liberal Left continue their program of treason and betrayal of Western civilization, they too should expect to become targets of that violence.
You claim that my speculative statement "extrapolates to violence" instead of recognizing that I observe as to how Democrats and the Left can also "expect to" bear some of the brunt on the condition that they "continue their program of treason and betrayal". Perish the thought that you would include that important qualifier. It might make your argument seem like the useless, inappropriate and intentionally misrepresented steaming puddle of bull hocky that is it.
#8
It [Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition] claims the Department of Education failed to provide sufficient information about the charter school's curriculum and text books.
It [Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition] claims the school indoctrinates students with a radical Islamist agenda.
One would assume that if they dont know the school's curriculum it would be impossible to know if the school indoctrinates students with a radical Islamist agenda? Given the founders pedigree it is very plausible but its still just speculation.
#9
Love how the islamic supremacists have appropriated a Christian Arab's name for the madrassa. And "Debbie"? I don't think so. Kitman at it's best.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2007 18:05 Comments ||
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#10
DepotGuy, how many times must Lucy snatch the football away from you? Next time, she surely will play fair.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2007 18:08 Comments ||
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#11
Given the founders pedigree it is very plausible but its still just speculation.
DepotGuy, you may wish to check out the Daniel Pipes: Debbie Almontaser donated to Cynthia McKinney thread. It certainly appears as though Almontaser is funneling Islamic funds into the campaigns of those who are a little too friendly with our enemies. Did you watch the video that I linked to? Almontaser is quoted as saying that she would rather DIE than forsake wearing the hijab. I find it difficult in the extreme to believe that such a fundamentalist individual would not feel entirely compelled to institute Islamic indoctrination given the least chance to do so.
#12
Your donated dollars at work, for more activism please make checks payable to Islamophobes-R-US c/o People For A Secure America
Drum Stick, Arkansas 814U2
My point is simple. If they dont know the curriculum (which is what the lawsuit is about) then it is speculation (and speculation only) to suggest that the school is some sort of Madrassa. Without that little something called uhem proof it is equally plausible it could simply be a totally innocuous cultural immersion school. Furthermore, given the divide between cultures that might not necessarily be a bad thing.
#14
No argument, DepotGuy. Proof is a good thing, even if that concept eludes another of this thread's participants. However, I don't think you'll disagree that the odds are not in favor of Ms. Almontaser being entirely candid about her intentions nor that the school was likely free of Islamic indoctrination materials. I certainly wouldn't bet a plug nickel on either.
#16
Darrell, why don't you harness together your last lonely synapses and start backing your accusations with proof? Until then, I suggest you stop making a fool of yourself.
I am already hard at work doing my part to defend America. My Christian nextdoor neighbors recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. I took the opportunity to inform many of their fellow believers about Islam's threat. Many of them had never even heard of Beslan and were stunned by my detailed account of the atrocity. After explaining to him about taqiyya and other Muslim doctrines, my neighbor suggested that I go on radio and broadcast this same information due to how well I presented it.
#17
Should the current political status quo persist, expect this new movement to become quite violent.
Where do I sign up?
Posted by: Natural Law ||
10/26/2007 19:58 Comments ||
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#18
#12 Your donated dollars at work, for more activism please make checks payable to Islamophobes-R-US c/o People For A Secure America
Drum Stick, Arkansas 814U2
Posted by: wxjames 2007-10-26 18:20
I have to object: A phobia is an *irrational* fear of something that is otherwise nothing to fear. Given that over 90% of the wars and terrorist actions have Islamists as one side, and pretty much everyone else if collected as a set on the other, I think my extreme caution and skepticism about Islamist militant activity is perfectly rational and logical.
One has to wonder if verito-phobia (fear of the truth) is the underlying affliction of those yelling "Islamophobia!"
#19
"Leading the attack was the Stop the Madrassa Coalition run by Daniel Pipes, who has made his career fostering hatred of Arabs and Muslims," Almontaser said.
Background:
Debbie Almontaser, the ex-principal of the Khalil Gibran academy in Brooklyn, said she was forced out by the NYC Board of Education. Why? Because she claimed that the word "intifada" on a t-shirt referred to women's empowerment, rather than the protracted violent uprising/terror spree perpetrated by arabs against civilian Jews in Israel.
Frankly, if her decision to say what she did was purely poor judgement, it was REALLY poor judgement and she deserved to be booted. If, on the other hand, it was to further an agenda, she deserved to be booted.
Anyway, she says she's all for understanding and building bridges, against bigotry of all kinds, loves puppies, yadda yadda, blah blah.
Except, she donated TWO GRAND to Cynthia McKinney &0151; the same Cynthia McKinney who blamed her defeat in a congressional race in Georgia on a Jewish conspiracy; the same Cynthia McKinney who courts Islamists for cash and influence. Why would an educator in New York give a rip &0151; a two thousand dollar rip, mind you &0151; about a Georgia congressional seat?
Debbie Almontaser is planning on suing the City of New York. I hope ALL of this comes to light &0151; and sheds some of it on the Khalil Gibran Academy, which she fought to establish.
Oct. 25, 2007 update: McKinney is long out of office, but her Islamist legacy continues to interest me. Indeed, I have just learned from Federal Election Commission records about a political contribution to her made on June 7, 2004:
D.S. Almontaser
719 Westminister Rd
Brooklyn, New York
Dept of Education
06/07/2004
2000.00
Educator
2000.00
Comment: (1) Another document dating from September 2006, "Volunteers Needed for Humanitarian Day - New York, NY @ 10.14.06,"confirms that this "D.S. Almontaser" is the same person who served as principal-designate of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, for it gives her address as:
Debbie Almontaser
Cultural Diversity Consultant
719 Westminster Rd.
Brooklyn, New York
11230
Home: 718-421-6299
Mobile: 917-559-8480
(2) $2,000 is a sizeable gift for a teacher to give. Note that none of those listed in the Aug. 23, 2004 update above gave as much as she did. Even Ray Irani, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Occidental Petroleum, donated only $1,000.
(3) This provides yet another indication of Almontaser's Islamist leanings, for her donation fits her in with a great number of others of this same description.
I had prepared for saying goodbye to my children. I set a calm and cheerful example, and being prepared for it kept my emotions more manageable. My kids did pretty well with it, and I'm pretty sure that being calm myself really made a difference for them. I was prepared to say goodbye to my family. It's not easy, but it's something that you know is coming. It's not a surprise, like when you know that you're going to get an innoculation... the pain isn't a surprise. . . .
But I wasn't prepared for what happened today.
As my flight from Cincinnati to Atlanta was beginning its descent, the flight attendant began her normal spiel about landing and gates, and assistance finding your connecting flights and so on. Then she announced that I was on board and on my way back to Afghanistan after spending two weeks with my family.
The plane erupted into applause. I was stunned.
I nearly burst into tears. My emotions, barely contained under the thin fabric of my ACU uniform, rushed towards the surface and nearly made it out. Somehow, I managed to keep it all together, but it was close.
We arrived in Atlanta with only about a half an hour before my report time to the USO for processing for my flight to Shannon, Ireland and then Kuwait. I had to get a quick nicotine fix and find something to eat. They formed us into a line upstairs at the USO, probably 200 or more of us, and took us downstairs in two long lines. Soldiers and Marines paired two by two in a long line snaked through the airport towards the Army Personnel Command desk to do our formalities. As we wove through the airport, the throngs of travelers began to applaud.
I wasn't prepared for that, either. Again, I struggled not to lose it. It was like cracking the seal on a warm, freshly shaken coke. All the bubbles rush towards the cap, bringing the contents of the bottle along. That's what it felt like. I managed to keep all my fluids contained; but it was another close call.
How could I be so prepared for saying goodbye to my children that I could put a brave and cheerful face on and nearly lose it when perfect strangers applaud?
I believe that this is a great demonstration that the public opinion battle over the war is not lost as some might want to claim. I am sure that not all of those applauding support the war in Iraq, and maybe not even the War on Terror, but were merely showing their respect.
But if the public opinion had truly been lost, I don't think we would see such public displays of support, even if the military is highly respected.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/26/2007 08:05 ||
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#2
Heartwarming! It also suggests that the constant stream of negativity from CNN, NPR and associated fellow travellers has not been as effective outside of enclaves like San Francisco as they might have hoped.
#4
It is good to hear such stories. Thanks for the great posting Mike. What goes on in Congress and what is generally reported in the MSM does not represent the majority of the American people.
#5
When we flew through Bangor, Maine the second time around there were bunches of civilians that greeted us and shook our hands. At the hotel bar there some Canadian guys on their way to some bike week in FLA who bought us round after round of beer. The average folk still supports the troop even if many of them can't grasp the big picture of the war.
I feel for this dude - the worse part about any deployment is kissing the kids goodbye - I was like a broken hearted little teenager.
#7
This is the unexpected fruit of the volunteer army. The Morality of the draft has been questionable before, but volunteering to put one's self in harm's way for the sake of the nation says something very profound about one's character. Contrast this with the "safe" "moral" "courage" of leftist media, academia, and politicos: as empty of substance as hard vacuum.
I made it a point, while going on a trip recently, to shake the hand and thank every soldier that I see in the terminals.
#8
Way back in 1982 I was traveling with my wife (both in uniform) from san Antonio to Sacramento on American Air Lines. When we got to the gate they called us top the podium and told us we were bumbed to first class and we could bnoard immediately. Gosh that felt good.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged in federal court Thursday the US government's refusal to grant a travel visa to Swiss-based Muslim academic Tariq Ramadan.
This is about the elebenteenth time someone has gone to bat for the innocent Tariq ...
Ramadan, one of the world's leading scholars on Islam, was forced to turn down a tenured position at the University of Notre Dame when the US government revoked his visa in late 2004 on the basis of the so-called "ideological exclusion" provision of the Patriot Act.
Washington later dropped its claim, unable to prove that Ramadan had endorsed terrorism.
Apparently they couldn't parse his writing, seeing as it was written in academese ...
But it banned the academic in September 2006 on grounds he made donations between 1998 and 2002 to a Swiss-based charity that provides aid to Palestinians. The charity was included in a US list of terrorist organizations in 2003.
"The government is barring Professor Ramadan not because of his actions but because of his ideas," ACLU's National Security Project Director Jameel Jaffer told the court in New York. "Ideological exclusion is a form of censorship and it should not be tolerated in a country committed to democratic values," he added.
Sponsoring terrorists also should not be tolerated in a country committed to both democratic values and to its survival ...
The ACLU sued the US government in 2006 on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center -- all of which had invited Ramadan as a guest speaker. "The ideological exclusion of scholars like Tariq Ramadan impoverishes political and academic debate inside the United States and violates the (US Constitution's) First Amendment rights of those who seek to meet with foreign scholars, hear their views, and engage them in debate," Jaffer said.
There is no first amendment right to meet and associate with terrorist enablers, particularly foreign ones.
The ACLU on Thursday repeated the arguments it made when it first filed its lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Although the so-called ideological exclusion provision is ostensibly aimed at those who 'endorse terrorism,' its terms are vague and subject to political manipulation," said Arthur Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Its terms are broad enough to ensure we keep people like Ramadan out of the country, an entirely appropriate response.
"Professor Ramadan's small humanitarian donations were completely permissible at the time he made them, and he had no reason to know that the charity was supporting Hamas, if indeed it was," said Melissa Goodman, a staff attorney with the ACLU's National Security Project.
He was just donating to the Widows Ammunition Fund, completely chartiable. Why he could have written it off his taxes, assuming he'd ever pay taxes ...
A controversial intellectual, Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political and social movement founded in Egypt in the 1920s. He lives in Geneva and teaches at Britain's Oxford University.
Lovely whitewash. The Muslim Brotherhood is, as all RBers know, a terrorist organization dedicated to tearing down all the Arab governments, replacing them with a caliphate, implementing sharia law, and then extending the caliphate to 'recover' all the lands ever lost by, visited by, or coveted by Muslims.
This article starring:
Hassan al-Banna
Tariq Ramadan
Muslim Brotherhood
Posted by: tipper ||
10/26/2007 02:03 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Muslim Brotherhood
#1
let him teleconference, AssholesCLU
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/26/2007 8:48 Comments ||
Top||
#2
How is getting a visa a 'civil RIGHT'? More of a civil privilege, sez I.
#4
was forced to turn down a tenured position at the University of Notre Dame when the US government revoked his visa in late 2004 on the basis of the so-called "ideological exclusion" provision of the Patriot Act.
I'd be really pissed too if I missed out on that gravy train...
#6
If there is such a crush of those wishing to "... seek to meet with foreign scholars, hear their views, and engage them in debate," let them get their fat asses on a plane and go to him.
#7
Crusader: Sure, he's an intellectual, the same way that David Duke is. If y'all haven't read Paul Berman's epic article on Ramadan & his family's long dynastic relationship with Islamism, well, you're screwed, because TNR has blown up its archives and it isn't available right now. But here's the first page, cached.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/26/2007 13:40 Comments ||
Top||
#8
"Ideological exclusion is a form of censorship and it should not be tolerated in a country committed to democratic values".
However, ideological exclusion *is* an integral part of Islam. So give us a one of your knives so we can cut you with it.
"Your laws grant us the freedom to overthrow your nation and put our laws in place of yours."
#10
Tariq Ramadan is near the head of my Terrorist Top 40 Hitjob Parade. 'Nuff said.
1. Ayman al-Zawahiri
2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
3. Ayatolla Kahmeini
4. Mullah Muhammad Omar
5. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir (Bashir)
6. Moqtada Sadr,
7. Abu Hamza al-Masri,
8. Mullah Krekar (AKA: Abu Sayyid Qutb),
9. Khaled Meshal
10. Sheikh Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
11. Ismail Haniya
12. Mohammed Abbas
13. Yusuf al-Qaradawi
14. Tariq Ramadan
15. Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali
16. imam Omar Bakri Mohammed
17. imam Abdel-Samie Mahmoud Ibrahim Moussa
18. imam Sheikh SyeSyed Mubarik Ali Gilani
19. Sheikh Abdullah al-Faisal
20. Sheik Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi
21. Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar
22. Prince Sultan Ibn Abd al-Aziz
23. Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz
24. Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz
25. Muhammad Taqi Usmani
26. Yasin al Qadi (Saudi terrorist financier)
27. Imad Mugniyah, Iranian master terrorist
28. Sheikh Abdullah bin Jibreen top Wahabbi cleric
29. Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan top Wahabbi cleric
30. Sheikh Nasser Al-Omar top Wahabbi cleric
31. Sheikh Essa
32. Abu Waleed Ansari
33. Abu Yahya al-Libbi
34. Maulana Ilyas Kashmiri
35. Ahmed Abu Laban DEAD January 19, 2007
36. Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ghaith head SAs Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
Worst of all, out of the three dozen individuals on my list, only Ahmed Abu Laban of cartoonifada fame has taken the dirt nap and that was from cancer instead of lead poisoning like it needed to be.
The Naib Imam of Lal Masjid has declared that security personnel killed in an explosion in the Swat valley on Thursday suffered the death of infidels.
Addressing a news conference in the camp office of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club, Amir Siddiqui, who was recently appointed to the job by the government on the orders of the Supreme Court, also announced support for militant Swat cleric Maulana Fazlullah.
He said Fazlullah had supported late Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was killed in the military operation on Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa in July. He criticised Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal leaders Qazi Hussain Ahmed and Maulana Fazlur Rehman for having played no role to stop the operation. Now this is our turn to support the cause of Fazlullah, he observed and warned the government against launching an operation in Swat. He accused the government of fighting the war of infidels and killing its own citizens to serve the interests of the United States.
Amir Siddiqui is nephew of Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who was the Naib Khatib of Lal Masjid. He said that the situation in Swat would deteriorate to an extent that the army would not be able to get out of the quagmire. I warn the government that the situation in Swat will be more dangerous for the army than that in the tribal areas and Balochistan, he observed. He criticised the national reconciliation policy under which, he said, all cases of corruption against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto had been withdrawn.
This article starring:
ABDUL RASHID GHAZI
Lal Masjid
AMIR SIDIQUI
Lal Masjid
MAULANA FAZLULLAH
TNSM
MAULANA FAZLUR REHMAN
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal
QAZI HUSEIN AHMED
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal
Lal Masjid
Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal
Posted by: john frum ||
10/26/2007 14:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
These scum toss around Muslim invective, but nobody every seems to respond in kind by calling them things that would really get their goat. In this guys case, the government should say they do not respond to "eaters of pork and lickers of shoes".
BACK in the summer of 2005, Shabbir Ahmad Wani had applauded as Sartaj Ahmad Shah led Wakais cricket team to a historic win against the village Chawalgam. In the last moments of his life, Wani watched Shah draw a Kalashnikov assault rifle and press the trigger, ending two hours of brutal torture in a paddyfield outside Wakai. Since the cricket match, Shah had become a local commander for the Hizbul Mujahideen and Wani, a special police officer. Less than a week after Wanis killing, the Jammu and Kashmir Police shot Shah dead.
In the crumpled photograph found on his bullet-ridden body, Shah has his arm wrapped around the shoulder of a slender young woman: a woman he hoped to marry one day, his neighbours in the small south Kashmir village of Okay say. The assault rifle that Shah fired at Indian troops minutes before his death is draped over his right shoulder.
Hours after Shah and his bodyguard, Ashiq Husain Paddar, were shot dead near Kulgam, the Pakistan-based United Jihad Council (UJC), announced a unilateral ceasefire on the occasion of Id-ul-Fitr. In an October 8 statement, UJC chairman and Hizbul Mujahideen supreme commander Mohammad Yusuf Shah commanded the mujahideen leadership and cadre engaged in armed confrontation to strictly comply [with] the directions with regard to the unilateral decision to cease fire.
In New Delhi, the three-day ceasefire which ended on October 14, Id-ul-Fitr day met mostly with derision. Union Defence Minister A.K. Antony, among others, flatly ruled out a reciprocal cessation of Indian counter-terrorism operations. Officials said that, had the UJC been serious, it ought to have opened negotiations with New Delhi rather than sending fax messages to newspaper offices. But the ceasefire suggests that what was once Jammu and Kashmirs most powerful terror group is now desperate to join in the political dialogue on the States future, an outcome that until recently seemed inconceivable. It may, however, be too late: underpinning Shahs new peace bid is the stark fact of his organisations inexorable demise.
Ever since Nisar Ahmad Bhat took charge of the Hizbul Mujahideens Kashmir Valley operations in 2004, his message to his Rawalpindi-based organisation has been simple: the terror group is comatose and its decline possibly terminal. With the termination of direct Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) funding, and with its political base eroded by competitive politics within the State, the Hizbul Mujahideen is no longer a credible military factor.
Operating under the code name Ghazi Misbahuddin, Bhat was entrusted with rebuilding the Hizb after it lost a series of top operatives in 2003-04. He discovered, though, that the organisation no longer had the popular legitimacy or political influence that it needed to remain a credible force. Internecine feuding had plagued the organisation since 2000-01, when the Hizb first aborted a ceasefire announced by the pro-dialogue commander, Abdul Majid Dar, and then arranged for his assassination. Bhats strategy rested on shipping in trusted Hizb operatives from across the Line of Control (LoC) to revive its dwindling fortunes.
For the most part, the strategy has failed: long before the ceasefire declaration, the Hizb had one imposed on it by its own disintegration. Hizb central Kashmir division commander Tajamul Islam Abdullah, for instance, has been unable to mount a single operation of consequence in over six months.
Desperate to demonstrate success, he put in place plans for a series of bombings in and around Srinagar on October 30, when Muslims across Kashmir were due to commemorate the historic battle between the forces of Prophet Mohammad and his opponents in the tribe of Quraish at Badr. However, the State Police penetrated the cell tasked to execute the bombings and arrested Shabbir Ahmad Ganai and Mehrajuddin Mir, both long-standing Hizb operatives who had been dispatched from Pakistan to help rebuild the organisations central Kashmir networks. A laboratory built by Mir to fabricate electronic circuits for bombs was detected and shut down. Ganai had last served in Jammu and Kashmir in 1996-1997, while Mir had left for Pakistan in 2001. Neither any longer commanded the kind of loyalty which could have helped them rebuild the organisation.
Abdullahs failures, similarly, were linked to his lack of local political legitimacy. His family migrated from Srinagar to Karachi during the first India-Pakistan war of 1947-1948, and although it retains ties of kinship and marriage within Srinagar, it has little direct relationship with the Islamist networks in Jammu and Kashmir from which the Hizb draws its sustenance. What influence Abdullah possesses among the Hizb cadre in Jammu and Kashmir draws on his connections in Rawalpindi, not Srinagar: his father, Malik Abdullah, runs Sada-i-Hurriyat, the radio station of Hizbul Mujahideen.
Conflicts between local commanders and lieutenants of the Hizbs Rawalpindi command have also been evident in southern Kashmir. In the wake of Mohammad Ashraf Shahs killing, his lieutenant-turned-rival Javed Seepan Sheikh moved to pre-empt the succession decision that his Pakistan-based superiors would take. He ruthlessly eliminated his rivals in mafia-style hits, notably the Bijbehara-based Mohammad Jehangir Master-ji, whose body was found dumped in an Anantnag alleyway.
Alarmed, the Hizb command responded by drafting in old hands from Pakistan. Farooq Ahmad Dar, who operates under the alias Hanif Khan, was assigned control of the south Kashmir division. With the support of his lieutenant, Pervez Ahmad Dar, who uses the code-name Musharraf, Farooq Dar set about rebuilding the Hizbul Mujahideen. Several districts were handed over to Hizb commanders drafted in from Pakistan, such as Bijbehara district commander Tariq Lone. However, Sheikhs hostility ensured that the new commanders achieved little. In one-time strongholds such as Kulgam and Shopian, the Hizb has been decimated.
Evidence of the Hizbs diminishing influence is not hard to come by. Earlier in October, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dissident Ghulam Hasan Mir made a bid to garner support among Islamists by offering prayers at the graves of nine Pakistani terrorists killed by the Indian Army along the LoC in Tangmarg not ethnic-Kashmiri Hizbul Mujahideen cadre. Mohammad Ashraf Shahs own funeral rites were ignored by State politicians, a marked departure from 2001-03, when the PDP actively courted the terror groups support. Nor did a single south Kashmir politician see it fit to condole with the families of Sartaj Ahmad or Pervez Ahmad Padder.
Just four years ago, when tacit Hizb support helped propel the PDP to power, the terror group seemed to hold the keys to power. Today, its own long-term prospects are in question. I believe, Shah told the Pakistan-based Islamist newspaper Jasarat on September 20, that Kashmir will only be freed through jehad, not dialogue.
Despite the rhetoric, Hizb insiders have long known that Shah has wearied of the long jehad he helped initiate in 1988. What is unclear is whether he has the stomach for the risks needed to transform the three-day ceasefire into a durable peace process.
An affluent apple farmer who participated in Kashmirs electoral politics, Shah was from the outset an improbable radical. His family embodies stolid Kashmiri bourgeois aspirations not neoconservative Islamist radicalism. Shahs eldest son, 35-year-old Shahid Yusuf, works as a teacher, while 30-year-old Javed Yusuf is an agricultural technologist. Twenty-six-year-old Shakeel Yusuf works as a medical assistant at a government-run hospital. Wahid Yusuf, 24, graduated from the Government Medical College in Srinagar, where the familys contacts helped him obtain a seat through a quota controlled by the Governor. Momin Yusuf, at 20, the youngest of Shahs sons, is an engineering student.
Last year, Shah gave a series of interviews that fuelled speculation that he was in search of a road that could bring him home. For instance, speaking to the Srinagar-based Kashmir News Service in August, he said the organisation was willing to initiate a dialogue with New Delhi. A ceasefire, he said, could also come about if India brought troop levels in Jammu and Kashmir to the 1989 position, adding that it should release detainees, stop all military operations, acknowledge before the world community that there are three parties to the dispute. New Delhi flatly refused to meet the Hizbs extravagant terms.
Now, however, there is new reason for hope. Pakistans domestic crisis has made President Pervez Musharraf increasingly keen to contain Islamist forces active in Kashmir. Shah was thrown out of Rawalpindi for several weeks after the Lal Masjid crisis a sign of Islamabads diminishing patience with violent Islamists.
Civilian fatalities from January to September 15, 2006, stood at 314. This year, the figure for the same period is just 136. Whereas 125 Indian soldiers, police personnel and irregulars were killed from January-September 15 last year, only 86 were lost in combat during the same period this year. Terrorist fatalities have dropped from 429 to 327 but arrests have risen from 275 to 313.
Ever since the 2001-02 India-Pakistan crisis, the ISIs slow distancing of Pakistan from the jehad in Jammu and Kashmir has been manifesting itself in the level of violence. Civilian fatalities from January to September 15, 2006, stood at 314. This year, the figure for the same period is just 136. Whereas 125 Indian soldiers, police personnel and irregulars were killed from January-September 15 last year, only 86 were lost in combat during the same period this year. Terrorist fatalities have dropped from 429 to 327 but arrests have risen from 275 to 313.
Declining violence has opened political space. More likely, the Hizbul Mujahideen does not expect immediate negotiations. On the face of it, its political position remains hostile to negotiations with India. Indeed, the UJC resolved that the struggle for freedom will continue on every front until the dawn of freedom, and condemned bilateral negotiations with New Delhi as futile.
In practice, though, the Hizb hopes to strengthen actors such as the PDP and the National Conference, which have been calling for terror groups to be eased into political power. In the wake of the UJC ceasefire, former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Saeed renewed his calls for progress towards demilitarising the State demands both New Delhi and Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad have ruled out. In addition, local Hizb operatives have opened channels to the National Conference rank and file. Moreover, the Hizb has been reaching out to moderates in the Jamaat-e-Islami moderates opposed to hardline secessionist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and inclined to back independent candidates in the next Assembly elections.
Does all this mean the long jehad is about to end? Not quite. Given the withering of both its military capabilities and its political presence, the Hizbul Mujahideen may simply lack the resources to deliver what everyone in Jammu and Kashmir wants: peace.
Ramzan murders
Waves of excitement washed over Nishat Park in Bandipora, where children participated in the most vibrant Id-ul-Fitr celebrations Jammu and Kashmir has seen since the long jehad began in 1988. An hour away, in the small mountain village of Chak Arslan Khan, Id was spent grieving for the dead. The local mosque was locked, since most families had been spending their nights with friends or relatives in Bandipora. Here, the three-day ceasefire passed unnoticed.
On the night of Shab-e-Qadr one of the holiest nights of Ramzan, when believers say the first verses of the Quran were revealed to Prophet Muhammad by the angel Gabriel Zaitoona Mir was shot dead below the walnut trees that arch over her home. Zaitoona Mirs murderers were Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists, part of a group of six known to operate in the Bandipora mountains. Her husband, Bashir Ahmad Mir, was a long-standing Lashkar operative. After he was killed in a 2002 encounter with the Indian Armys 14 Rashtriya Rifles, Zaitoona Mir sought vengeance by opening her doors to shelter Lashkar operatives hiding out in the forests around Chak Arslan Khan.
On October 3, the Lashkars top commander in Jammu and Kashmir was killed in a firefight with Indian troops. Mohammad Amjad, a resident of Wazirabad in Pakistans Punjab province, was shot dead at Rampora, just a short walk from Chak Arslan Khan. Given that Amjad had spent the previous night at Zaitoona Mirs home, Lashkar cadre assumed she had betrayed their commander and delivered retribution seven days later.
Her next-door neighbours had earlier suffered the same fate. Police constable Manzoor Ahmad Mir had walked to Rangdori behak, a high-altitude pasture where his relatives were tending their livestock. Hours after he returned to Chak Arslan Khan, two Jamait-ul-Mujahideen (JUM) terrorists were shot dead in a military ambush. Days later, Mir and his father, Mohammad Yakub Mir, were executed outside their home by the JUM.
Before the Ramzan murders, nine residents of the villages Malkhiana Mohalla had been killed. Two were terrorists who were shot in combat. One was an al-Badr operative who was assassinated by his one-time comrades after he surrendered, while six died at the hands of various Islamist terror groups.
Hours before the ceasefire ended, nine-year-old Mushtaq Ahmad Gujjar bought himself a toy pistol with the money his mother gifted him: a shiny black weapon which, somewhat surreally, plays Hindi film tunes when the trigger is pressed. In much of rural Jammu and Kashmir, peace is still a long way off.
This article starring:
ABDUL MAJID DAR
Hizbul Mujahideen
ASHIQ HUSEIN PADAR
Hizbul Mujahideen
BASHIR AHMED MIR
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Defence Minister A.K. Antony
FARUQ AHMED DAR
Hizbul Mujahideen
GHAZI MISBAHUDIN
Hizbul Mujahideen
Ghulam Hasan Mir
Ghulam Nabi Azad
HANIF KHAN
Hizbul Mujahideen
JAVED %U2018SIPAN%U2019 SHEIKH
Hizbul Mujahideen
MALIK ABDULLAH
Hizbul Mujahideen
MEHRAJUDIN MIR
Hizbul Mujahideen
MOHAMAD AMJAD
Lashkar-e-Taiba
MOHAMAD ASHRAF SHAH
Hizbul Mujahideen
MOHAMAD JEHANGIR
Hizbul Mujahideen
MOHAMAD YUSUF SHAH
Hizbul Mujahideen
Mufti Mohammad Saeed
NISAR AHMED BHAT
Hizbul Mujahideen
PERVEZ AHMED DAR
Hizbul Mujahideen
PERVEZ AHMED PADER
Hizbul Mujahideen
SARTAJ AHMED
Hizbul Mujahideen
SARTAJ AHMED SHAH
Hizbul Mujahideen
SHABIR AHMED GANAI
Hizbul Mujahideen
SYED ALI SHAH GILANI
Jamaat-e-Islami
TAJAMUL ISLAM ABDULLAH
Hizbul Mujahideen
TARIQ LONE
Hizbul Mujahideen
Hizbul Mujahideen
Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamait-ul-Mujahideen
Lashkar-e-Taiba
United Jihad Council
Posted by: john frum ||
10/26/2007 14:25 ||
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[9 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
The Jamiat Ulema-s-Islam (Fazl) Majlis-e-Shoora has recommended that the party quit the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM), Aaj news reported on Thursday.
The channel quoted a JUI-F leader as saying that the Majlis-e-Shoora also demanded Imran Khans ouster from the APDM, as he had been making statements against JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. The JUI-F Majlis-e-Amla, which meets today (Friday), will now decide whether or not to act on the Majlis-e-Shooras advice. JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, speaking during the Majlis-e-Shoora meeting, condemned a statement by President General Pervez Musharraf urging citizens not to vote for extremists, Online reported.
"This is Pakistain, dammit! If you ain't voting for an extremist of some sort then you ain't voting!"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
Top|| File under: Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
The NWFP cabinet with Caretaker Chief Minister Shamsul Mulk in the chair on Thursday discussed the law and order situation in Swat district and decided to restore public order in the area through negotiations. The cabinet members decided that use of force would be avoided as per the proposals and suggestions of the peace jirga.
When you decide to avoid violence and the other side doesn't, this is known as "surrender."
Caretaker ministers Mohammad Ali Shah, Azam Khan, Bakht Baidar and Shahzada Gastasip, Federal Minister Ameer Muqam, NWFP Chief Secretary Sahibzada Riaz Noor, Home Secretary Badshah Gul Wazir and NWFP IG Sharif Virk attended. The ministers proposed that the CM should hold talks with all political and apolitical forces in Swat to bring peace to the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
These friggin idiots deserve whatever they get, and I doubt what they'll get will be good.
#3
The intent is neutrality, but the result is surrender. Only a neutrality that is prepared to defend itself, by force of arms as necessary, can actually remain neutral.
President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday rejected the demand of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto for foreign experts to assist the probe into the Karachi blasts and said Pakistani agencies were capable of investigating such incidents.
Sources said the president and the prime minister met at the presidents camp office in Rawalpindi and reviewed the progress made by the investigators of ther October 19 blasts.
They said they were confident about the capabilities of local security agencies, as the agencies had, in the past, successfully exposed the perpetrators of attacks carried out on them, sources said. No foreign agency will be included in the investigation, sources quoted the president as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#2
He either already knows the answer or at least has a real good guess, and does not want anybody on the outside to officially find it out. In the Byzantine world of Islamic politics anything is possible; we may belive it was 'bunnies, or Bugtis, or ISI, or ..., but it could even have been Bhutto. We really just don't know for sure.
#5
FBI and ATF investigative assistance rejected Moose? He missed a rare opportunity I'd say. They'd have buggered it up properly within a few short hours!
Chieftains of the Mehsud tribe have formally requested that the Pakistan Army evacuate the political compound in Tank, South Waziristan. Tribal elders submitted a written application framing this request to South Waziristan Political Agent Hussain Zada Khan on Thursday.
In the application, the tribal elders say the Political Katchairy in Tank has been the headquarters of the Mehsud tribe since 1906. They say hundreds of citizens belonging to the Mehsud tribe, including veiled females, visit the compound daily in connection with formalities and documentation relating to national identity cards, domicile and other such routine matters. The application says the army had slowly taken over the political compound, which caused locals severe stress. The elders requested that the army evacuate the political compound to respect and restore the rights of local citizens and tribal traditions.
Tank, a small town on the edge of South Waziristan, has drawn much attention of late as it is seen to typify creeping Talibanisation in the North of the country, particularly in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. It is largely considered to be under the sway of the pro-Taliban South Waziristani commander Baitullah Mehsud.
The significantly increased troop deployment in the area, which has been in place for months now, is perceived to be part of efforts to block the Taliban commander from expanding his influence into neighbouring Dera Ismail Khan.
Local citizens and government officials have commented that military deployment and operations, along with General Pervez Musharrafs attempted reforms in the area have eroded the power of the local administration and curtailed citizens rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[16 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Pakistan, which recently witnessed a series of suicide attacks by pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, is the most dangerous country in the world, and has become a safe haven for terrorists, a media report says.
"Unlike countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, Pakistan has everything Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden could ask for: political instability, a trusted network of radical Islamists, an abundance of angry anti-Western recruits, secluded training areas and security services that don't always do what they're supposed to do," says Newsweek in an investigative report being published in its upcoming issue.
Then there's the country's large and growing nuclear programme, it adds ominously. The conventional story about Pakistan, it says, has been that it is an unstable nuclear power, with distant tribal areas in terrorist hands.
"What is new, and more frightening, is the extent to which Taliban and Al-Qaeda elements have now turned much of the country, including some cities, into a base that gives militants more room to maneuver, both in Pakistan and beyond," it adds.
Taliban militants, the magazine reports, now "pretty much come and go" as they please inside Pakistan. Their sick and injured get patched up in private hospitals there.
"Until I return to fight, I'll feel safe and relaxed here," Abdul Majadd, a Taliban commander who was badly wounded this summer during a fire fight against British troops in Afghanistan, told Newsweek after he was evacuated to Karachi for emergency care.
Guns and supplies are readily available, and in winter, when fighting dies down in Afghanistan, thousands retire to the country's thriving madrassas to study the Koran, it says.
#1
Guns and supplies are readily available, and in winter, when fighting dies down in Afghanistan, thousands retire to the country's thriving madrassas to study the Koran
The success of this instruction has been amply demonstrated by the spring and summer offensives.
In a visit billed by Turkish officials as "a final chance" for diplomacy, an Iraqi team led by General Abdel Qader Jassim, Iraq's defence minister, and including members of northern Iraq's Kurdish administration was due in Ankara later on Thursday. The Baghdad government has promised to shut down PKK camps but Ankara is aware that the central Iraqi government has little influence in the autonomous Kurdish north.
Turkish newspapers on Thursday accused Iraqi and Iraqi Kurdish leaders of dishonesty and unreliability for promising much and delivering virtually nothing. They were especially angry with Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, a Kurd, whom Turkish officials quoted on Wednesday as saying Baghdad might hand over PKK rebels to Turkey. Talabani's office later denied he said this.
Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is due to visit Turkey on November 2 to November 3 to try to reduce tensions between Turkey and Iraq. Erdogan is also expected to meet George Bush, the US president, in Washington on November 5.
The Turkish prime minister said: "As a strategic ally of Turkey, the United States has to act together with Turkey. We acted together with them in Afghanistan. "We must take and we will take steps against terrorism both on a national and an international level."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"As a strategic ally of Turkey, the United States has to act together with Turkey. We acted together with them in Afghanistan. "
But we didn't act together in Iraq, did we. In fact you did your best to f%#k it up. And your people hate America more than anyone else in the world. So I guess we aren't really strategic allies any longer. More like a hook up of convenience; and we've got a headache just now.
The parliament speaker joined Iraq's president Thursday to oppose the execution of a Saddam Hussein-era defense minister convicted of genocide against Kurds, arguing that sending him to the gallows would set a dangerous precedent for the armed forces.
"I am entirely against it," he said on Iraq's Al-Sharqiya television, which interviewed him in Damascus, Syria. "I am even against him being held to account," he said. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani's opposition to the execution of Sultan Hashim Ahmed al-Tai likely will deepen the dispute over the former defense chief execution - st becoming a major political crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
#3
That'd be the token Sunni speaker of Parliament brought in to bring ethnic balance to the Iraqi government (Kurdish president, Shia prime minister, etc) in an apparent attempt to replicate the historic stability of Lebanon's governments?
Hashim Ahmed seems to have been a Murat-esque valiant meathead, but he was in charge of the forces which waged Anfal. His head *should* be on the block.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/26/2007 14:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Yet more proof that Iraq's current government is worth less than a sack full of dead mice.
The speaker of Iraq's parliament warned Turkey on Thursday that his government would cut off the flow of oil from northern Iraq if Ankara followed through on its threat to level economic sanctions against the country.
Mahmoud al-Mashhadani's comments came a day after Turkey's top leadership agreed to recommend the government take economic measures to force cooperation by Iraqis against Kurdish rebels who have been staging cross-border attacks against Turkish troops. "Northern Iraq cannot be pressured," al-Mashhadani told reporters in the Syrian capital of Damascus. "Iraq is a rich country, and if there are economic pressures, we will cut off the Ceyhan pipeline," he said, referring to two oil pipelines that run from northern Iraq to Turkey's Ceyhan oil terminal on the Mediterranean Sea.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
But to make it work they need a fat pipeline from Kirkuk through Jordan to the Gulf of Aqaba. That way they can still move the oil from northern Iraq to market. The current pipelines all go through Turkey to the Med.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/26/2007 10:40 Comments ||
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ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Turkey warned Thursday that U.S. objections will not stop its troops from crossing into Iraq to pursue Kurdish separatists, while a steady stream of U.S.-made Turkish fighter jets roared across the skies along the border.
High-level Iraqi officials arrived in Turkey as part of frantic efforts to persuade the government not to order an attack on Kurdish guerrilla bases in northern Iraq, and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq sent American diplomats to join the delegation.
Turkey's leaders have been demanding that U.S. and Iraqi authorities stop Turkish Kurd rebels from staging attacks across the frontier, threatening to send in a large-scale offensive if nothing is done soon.
Turkey still seems willing to refrain from a big attack until at least early next month, when it is scheduled to host foreign ministers to discuss Iraq. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to go to Washington afterward for talks with President Bush.
The session, headed by President Abdullah Gul, focused on sanctions which included cutting electric supplies to northern Iraq and reducing trade with the region by closing the Kharbur gate-point.
Turkey's National Security Council (NSC) called during their six hour session on Wednesday to impose economic sanctions on northern Iraq in a step to pressure groups cooperating with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). The session, headed by President Abdullah Gul, focused on sanctions which included cutting electric supplies to northern Iraq and reducing trade with the region by closing the Kharbur gate-point.
Recommendations also called for freezing commercial activities for President of Iraq's Kurdistan Masoud Barazani and his relatives.
Recommendations also called for freezing commercial activities for President of Iraq's Kurdistan Masoud Barazani and his relatives.
The NSC's plan for sanctions could be considered as an initial strategy to launch a large scale Turkish military operation in northern Iraq. Speaking to Anadolu News Agency, Turkish Minister of Foreign Trade Kursad Tuzmen indicated that if the current dispute with Iraq continues, Turkey would cut economic sanctions with the northern part of the country. Northern Iraq depends on Turkey for the supplies of electricity and water.
For the first time since they began working together, President George W. Bush and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice are visibly divided on two major foreign policy issues, both related to Israel: The Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, which is still sans date, participants or agenda, and Israels attack on the North Korean nuclear project in Syria on Sept. 6, which the president approved.
As she feared, the resulting exposure of North Koreas proliferation activities stirred a hornets nest against her bid to bring diplomacy on Pyongyangs nuclear program to a successful conclusion with signed US-North Korean contracts for its liquidation. Time to start looking at "wanted" ads, Miz Dr Secretary?
#2
"As she feared, the resulting exposure of North Koreas proliferation activities stirred a hornets nest against her bid to bring diplomacy on Pyongyangs nuclear program to a successful conclusion with signed US-North Korean contracts for its liquidation."
Yeah, who cares if the NK's are still cheating and will continue to cheat after the ink's dried. Does GWB really need a peace in our time moment?
File under why I hate the State Dept. version 2,357.
#3
Hey Condi, check the org chart and see who is in the BIG BOX.
(Hint: It ain't you!) Either get with the Boss's game or hit the road (IMHO, long overdue)
#6
Sometimes if the Big Boss always takes your adivce you sort of grow to expect them to always take your advice. I agree with danking70, the North Koreans have been lying for a decade, exposing their lies is far better than sweeping them under the table and pretending all is well. That's how the hermet kingdom got the bomb in the first place.
#7
FT.com > PUTIN INVOKES CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS, except its US GMD-TMD in Czech, Poland thats threatening Russia wid missles; + WND.com > IRAN PROMISES "MORE DECISIVE STRIKE/ACTION" AGZ USA IF IT'S ATTACKED. US officios say all options still on the table vv Iran, including military options -NOW DITTO IRAN vv TERROR PROXIES + AMER HIROSHIMAS [read - USG-NPE]???
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat appealed for international intervention and called the Israeli decision to cut off electricity to Gaza after each Kassam rocket "particularly provocative given that Palestinians and Israelis are meeting to negotiate an agreement on the core issues for ending the conflict between them."
Defense Minister Ehud Barak's approval earlier Thursday of an IDF plan to impose sanctions on the Gaza Strip in wake of the escalation in Kassam rocket attacks, was the first step, defense officials told The Jerusalem Post, towards a "complete disengagement" including the gradual reduction in Palestinian dependency on Israel for gas and electricity.
During his weekly security meeting on Thursday Barak approved the plan that had been formulated by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yosef Mishlav in line with the recent cabinet decision that defined Gaza as a "hostile entity."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
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#1
just take care of your gangbangers one way or another and you have power Erekat. What's the problem?
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/26/2007 10:42 Comments ||
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#6
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat appealed for international intervention and called the Israeli decision to cut off electricity to Gaza after each Kassam rocket "particularly provocative given that Palestinians and Israelis are meeting to negotiate an agreement on the core issues for ending the conflict between them."
Erekat talks as if those previous negotiations were actually respected by the Palestinians. Taqiyya only works for so long and then those who use it are placed on "ignore". Saeb's piehole needs to be shut with a .50 caliber round. The one sure lesson that the Palestinians have taught this world is how totally useless it is to negotiate with any Muslim.
Eight lower-ranking Palestinian security officers were tried Thursday for abandoning their posts during the Hamas takeover of Gaza, prompting defense complaints that they were being turned into scapegoats for senior officials responsible for the debacle.
It was the first trial stemming from the week of fighting in June, in which Hamas routed the forces loyal to moderate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the head of Fatah. Many Fatah loyalists, including security officers and leading politicians, fled Gaza. "Those who escaped first and left low-level officers uncovered are enjoying their freedom in Europe and Egypt while those low officers are on trial," said defense lawyer Abdel Karim Hamad.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[6 views]
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The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humaniitarian Affairs John Holmes said Thursday that the humanitarian situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and especially in Gaza is becoming untenable. He added, in a news conference today, that the situation inside Gaza and the West Bank too is one of increasing difficulties. Holms said that trends are worrying and creating a situation that is extremely untenable. He described the situation is a serious humanitarian crisis. Holms, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, added that the situation is getting steadily worse.
He said the situation is creating facts on the ground are not helpful for the peace process.
Holms stressed that International Humanitarian Law is applicable to the oPt and needs to be fully respected that denying freedom of movement for emergency medical reasons would seem to be in breach of normal practice and normal requirements of International Humanitarian Law. He noted that the situation needs to be brought to the attention of the International Community even more than it has been already and not least in the context of the impending political negotiations.
Holmes in response to a question on if Israel goes ahead with its threat of more power cuts in Gaza, said that it will have an effect, a dramatic effect and will affect everything. "Collective punishment for the Gaza population is not the right or the most effective response to rocket launching from Gaza," he said. It is does not seem to be, he added, an appropriate response to those continuing rocket attacks to punish economically the population of Gaza.
#1
I recall that millions of dollars were paid out so that Gazoos could maintain operations of Israeli built greenhouses. Unfortunately, local UN parasites chose to loot the structures, disemploying hundreds. Then the local idiots elected Hamas with an expectation of even more UN jihad subsidies. Germans paid heavily for backing Hitler; the Gazooks need to take a similar hit.
#3
Holms, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, added that the situation is getting steadily worse.
Awwww...that's too bad.
Is it getting steadily worse from the last time it was getting steadily worse or the time it was getting steadily worse before that?
#4
"Collective punishment for the Gaza population is not the right or the most effective response to rocket launching from Gaza,"
Coulda said the same thing about Hamburg, Schwinfurt, Berlin, Yokohoma, Osaka, Tokyo....
However, I've noticed a marked reduction in 'aggressive' behaviors in those populations since the "collective punishment" was applied, in force, without sympathy, without compromise.
#5
Reminds me of that scene in Blazing Saddles, where Cleavon Little is holding a gun to his head threatening to "shoot the n*gger" and people pity him.
Hamas brings Gaza to ruin and the UN calls it untenable.
#10
Holms stressed that International Humanitarian Law is applicable to the oPt and needs to be fully respected
Why should it be? Gaza is nothing but one massive criminal enterprise. Hamas is entirely responsible for the "untenable" conditions that currently persist.
... that denying freedom of movement for emergency medical reasons would seem to be in breach of normal practice and normal requirements of International Humanitarian Law.
Even when there is proof of Palestinians using ambulances to transport arms and healthy fighters to attack locations? Israel has every right to wash their hands of all further participation in this farce.
"Collective punishment for the Gaza population is not the right or the most effective response to rocket launching from Gaza,"
Bullshit. Islam is a pluperfect example of collective punishment. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Funny how Muslims squeal so loudly whenever their own practices are turned upon them.
It's what all the best dhimmis are wearing these days...
United States First Lady Laura Bush tries on a hijab (headscarf) presented from Saudi doctor Samia al-Amudi during a meeting with cancer survivors in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on October 24.
#2
The President lectures Russia on their security-over-liberty policies, and then makes a publicized gesture of extreme compliance with perverse Saudi shariah.
During the Berlin Olympics (1936), flag holders from EVERY European country tilted their banners toward Hitler's entourage. US athletes were ordered not to do so as it would legitimize a tyranny. When US troops were stationed in the Saud terrorist entity, female troops chose to remain on base rather than wear islamic clown suits. The President needs to take the high road.
#9
The "Prince Charles" syndrome seems to be contagious.
Why would he start now?
Perish the effing thought that our own First Man and Lady might resist the urge to publicly bow and scrape before their Saudi masters.
We (rightly in my opinion) invaded and controlled Iraq, but didn't bother to rid it of the scourge that mars the rest of that region (Islamic law).
Yup, shari'a law must be banned internationally as an abject violation of human rights and then be eradicated in all places where it now exists. Nothing less is satisfactory. Shari'a is the embodiment of evil and crimes against humanity.
(AKI) - The alleged spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, Southeast Asias largest terrorist group, has revealed he wrote a letter to US President George W. Bush, asking him not to use Gods name to destroy Islam. In an interview with the online site Asia Times, Muslim cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, also called on Muslims to fight Washington with words and not with violence and bombs.
But he also declined to condemn the terrorists convicted of the 2002 Bali bombing which killed 202 people. "The bombers are actually counter terrorists because they are opposing US terrorism," he said. "They are mujahids."
Right. That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense. In an Islamic kind of way.
Bashir did not specify when he wrote to the US president. He did, however, say he had asked Bush to abandon his War on Terror and convert to the Muslim faith. The only way Bush can survive is for him to do what is being ordered by God, which is to believe in Islam, to convert to Islam, said Bashir.
The controversial religious leader claimed the US was spreading the message that all terrorists are Islamists, and that all Muslims who fight for sharia [Islamic law] are being stigmatised, arrested and imprisoned. America is instigating a war of ideas, therefore we should fight back with our own war of thoughts, issues, preaching," the cleric said. "What we try to do is counter the lies, break down the lies. This activity in and of itself is much more productive and efficient than bombing."
Bashir said that although Indonesian bombers intentions were right, their methods were wrong. He then argued that bombing 'safe' places such as Bali and the Marriot hotel in Jakarta gave ammunition to the Americans. When events occur, they (are) taken as justification by the government and US, he said. It is easy for them (Islamists) to become prey to US efforts to stigmatise all Muslims.
Bashir, aged 69, was released from prison in 2006 after serving two years in Jakarta's Cipinang penitentiary for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings. His conviction was later overturned in appeal. He has consistently denied any connection to that or other attacks blamed on JI, whose objective is the creation of a caliphate in the region. He has also often denied the mere existence of the terror group. The cleric is on a US list of terrorists.
This article starring:
Jemaah Islamiyah
Abu Bakar Bashir
Jemaah Islamiyah
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
#1
Bush should have started quite killings of these mullahs just days after 9/11.
Unfortunately they are still around....
#6
These camel-fos are the only people who need to be cautioned about a Crusade. When the real Crusade comes it will be spoken of in hushed whispers for the next five thousand years.
#7
But he also declined to condemn the terrorists convicted of the 2002 Bali bombing which killed 202 people.
It's difficult to imagine him criticizing his own handiwork. Why Australia's SAS hasn't capped this worthless shitbag is beyond me. He represents one of terrorism's prime movers in the entire East Asian sphere. Bashir needs to die very violently and in an extremely public fashion.
The only way Bush can survive is for him to do what is being ordered by God, which is to believe in Islam, to convert to Islam, said Bashir.
Were I a religious person, the ONE SURE MESSAGE my God would send me would be to destroy Islam. While I do not truly believe in evil incarnate, were it to exist, no finer example could be found than Islam.
When the real Crusade comes it will be spoken of in hushed whispers for the next five thousand years.
Only by the handful of Muslims that survive. Sane society will use it as an object lesson in dealing with other recalitrant governments and cultures. Less sane people will use it to scare their children into behaving properly.
#1
It looks photoshopped - there's hardly anything that looks like debris...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/26/2007 11:52 Comments ||
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#2
or extremely well done after-incident cleanup?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/26/2007 12:48 Comments ||
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#3
If the debris was at all radioactive, it would be far away and buried deep by now. The site would be scraped down till a geiger counter gave not one peep, too.
#4
Heh, heh...Yeah, my guess is the IAF photoshopped it but good but they didn't use a computer. Now what I'd really like to now is how those soil samples turned out.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
10/26/2007 17:26 Comments ||
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#5
No one has claimed that the reactor was loaded with fuel. It was claimed that it was destroyed early in the construction. Now to use the same redecorator on the Syrian presidential palace.
Posted by: ed ||
10/26/2007 17:32 Comments ||
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There is more news today on the mysterious goings-on at what is thought to be the site in Syria hit last month by a surprise Israeli airstrike. Earlier this week, David Albright, a former weapons inspector for the United Nations who heads the Institute for Science and International Security, identified on prebombing satellite images what may have been Israel's target: an apparent secret Syrian nuclear reactor under construction.
Now, with DigitalGlobe satellite images taken Wednesday, Albright and his colleagues at the Washington think tank are reporting that Syria has removed whatever was left at the site and has bulldozed the ground. It is not clear how close to completion Syria was at its secret nuclear reactor siteif it was that. Syria has issued denials, and the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, is doing its own analysis of satellite imagery and other evidence.
"Dismantling and removing the building at such a rapid pace dramatically complicates any inspection of the facilities and suggests that Syria may be trying to hide what was there," says the new report.
The ISIS report raises the question of whether Syria has violated its obligations under agreements with the IAEA, which maintains so-called safeguards on Syria's one declared small research reactor. Syria has denied building a nuclear reactor.
Posted by: ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#2
REDDIT > ASIA TIMES > PUTIN TO SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH KHAMEINI - Putin reportedly told Khameini THAT AN ATTACK ON IRAN WILL BE INTERPRETED AS AN ATTACK ON RUSSIA.
*D *** NG IT, leave to Eurasia/Asia, NOT Washington DC, to have the missing delicious GOP-DEM barbecues.
#3
ION, SPACE > OBSCURE COMET BRIGHTENS SUDDENLY [SCIENTISTS SCRAMBLING], by factor of a Milyuuhn. Its core has either cracked open-halved or its direction has been turned/atered towards us; + SPACEWEATHER > EARTH BEING HIT BY HUGE GEOMAGNETIC STORM. Does exlain why, besdies ultra-low and big lighting, EM BANDS WERE NEARLY FUll-VISIBLE LAST NITE, at least in cloudy rainy stormy Guam + WESTPAC. Lastly, VOLCANO ERUPTS IN INDONESIA. Indonesia Quakin', Guam is a tremorin'. SHOULD MADONNA FANS BLAME PUTIN OR MORIARTY???
The former United Nations' chief weapons inspector has challenged the US president's claims that Iran poses a nuclear threat to the world. Hans Blix, who is the head of the Stockholm-based Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, said that the US is over-reacting to Iran's nuclear programs.
Bush has recently renewed calls for a missile defense shield in Europe, claiming that Iran could have a ballistic missile capable of reaching Europe and the US by 2015. "President Bush talks about 2015. There's time to negotiate with Iran and to carry out those negotiations in a sensible manner. I think they use too many sticks and they should use more carrots, just as they've done in the case of North Korea where they are making some headway," Blix said according to the CTV website.
"If the US does move forward with a missile defense plan, it should only be done in cooperation with other nuclear powers, including Russia and China," Blix said. "Any unilateral movement could trigger an arms race over fears that any country that perfected a missile defense shield would have an incredible advantage over the others," he concluded.
This article starring:
Hans Blix
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
He then returned to his S&M session with his private dom.
#6
I'm very confused, didn't he die? I seem to remember some kind of sharks tank... I saw that in a documentary on the WOT. When did he come back? And HOW?
#10
"Any unilateral movement could trigger an arms race over fears that any country that perfected a missile defense shield would have an incredible advantage over the others."
Yup, it's the countries that are trying to defend themselves from these crazies that are to blame.
#11
That last paragraph is proof that this buffoon thinks that MAD is the proper state of the world.
Even better, he's in favor of a multi-lateral MAD instead of the binary version of the cold war. What he wants is the ability of any tin-pot madman to have the ability to initiate Armageddon.
Posted by: Hans Blix ||
10/26/2007 13:54 Comments ||
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#13
I think they use too many sticks and they should use more carrots
Blix has already demonstrated total moral atrophy in dealing with Islam. If there is one lesson to be carried away from Islam it is how the only "carrot" that works with respect to Muslims is a "stick". Islam must be rewarded with violence at every turn until it either pacifies itself or goes extinct.
Islam's use of taqiyya totally precludes all other forms of diplomacy.
There can be no deals made, truces reached or accords met with those that will lie, cheat and reneg on every single agreement they make when the time suits them. Violenceharsh and brutal at all turnsis all that can obtain any correction of Islam's deep and abiding character flaws. Anything less plays into Muslim hands and only serves to exacerbate the problem.
Islam does and will continue to abuse every single decent and honorable feature of Western civilization until we finally learn to retract such courtesies in our dealings with Muslims.
Such vast ingratitude should be all the indication we need to know that there shall be no peace with Islam save the peace of the grave. Only behavior modification through the application of lethal force or simple eradication will yield any results.
Islam's self-sanctioned treachery voids all moral calculus in dealing with it.
Showing any humanity to Islam only empowers it. To give it the least respite only permits Islam to better arm itself. To treat with Muslims as equals only legitimizes their filthy theocratic doctrine. If Islam had even a shred of decency to iteven a single redeeming featuresuch might not be the case. Instead, Islam is so morally void and incapable of being trusted in any respect that all notions of humanity must be discarded in dealing with it. To give Islam the least quarter is to enable it to commit yet one more damnable atrocity against humanity. Cause for any hesitation or uncertainty ended a long, long time ago. We in the West are complete fools to show any restraint and Muslims openly taunt us as idiots or paper tigers because of it. How can Islam make the folly of our niceity any more clear to us? Will it truly require them to commit this world's first terrorist nuclear attack before we wake up to this realization?
#17
My subject was nuclear programs, not all of Iran. I think it's clear from #13 that "lethal force or eradication" (Zenster's words) of the whole Muslim world is Zenster's preferred approach. THAT'S genocide.
#19
I think it's clear from #13 that "lethal force or eradication" (Zenster's words) of the whole Muslim world is Zenster's preferred approach. THAT'S genocide.
It's readily apparent that you really enjoy quoting out of context. I suggest you grow up and learn some intellectual honesty.
Islam must be rewarded with violence at every turn until it either pacifies itself or goes extinct.
Notice how the first alternative I present is one involving Islam's reformation over to a peacefully coexisting entity? I doubt that you even bothered to.
Only behavior modification through the application of lethal force or simple eradication will yield any results.
Notice how my first priority is "behavior modification"something that can only be applied to living human beingsand not the less desirable alternative of eradication? No doubt you were too hurriedly selecting only the most damning words possible instead of actually considering the true gist of my writing.
Reducing them to a glassy plain would be over-reacting. But I could go with it.
A "glassy plain" connotes extensive nuclear damage on a widespread basis. Many of Iran's nuclear sites are near large populations centersa favorite terrorist tactic to discourage attacks or retaliationsuch that anything but an extremely low-yield nuclear devicethe kind that DO NOT create a "glassy plain"would kill hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.
Far be it from you to possibly note how I have consistently come down AGAINST first use of nuclear weapons in the MME (Muslim Middle East). Yes, my position is steadily being eroded by continuing Islamic atrocities but nowhere have I reversed my consistent stand in this respect.
You, Darrell, on the other hand, have routinely used every sort of lie, misquote and smear possible to accuse me of genocide and then try to qualify yourself out of it when called upon it. You are the worst sort of hypocrite.
#22
Well, yes, Darrell. We have had this discussion with Zenster before. There are those of us who think there might be smarter ways to deal with Islam than nuking a billion or more people. But we need to wake up fast and get started on them. One way is to call bull$h!t on them whenever they start rioting or seething over cartoons. We more cartoons and need high profile individuals like the president and the pope to step up to the plate and tell them how ridiculous their reactions to the cartoons are.
We need to smack them back hard whenever they try to venture beyond their boundaries in places like Kosovo and Kashmir. We need to bomb the f*ck out Iran yesterday. Then we need to do something about Pakistan's nukes, hopefully with India's help.
That's just the beginning. In places like France when they riot they need to be hosed down with grapeshot. In places like Italy and the UK when they try to build mosques they should not be allowed to use any foreign (read Soddy) funding. This list goes on and on.
The fear is that if we don't stand up to them now we will end up in a position where extreme action is necessary later on. It's like when Hitler was violating the treaties that ended World War I. When he first stepped out of line, and before he was allowed to build up such a strong Wehrmacht, he should have been smacked. But Roosevelt and Chamberlain were asleep at the switch just like so many of our politicians are today. They thought they could avoid war by appeasing the mad man. That's how we ended up with World War II and the holocaust and it is also how we could end up with another world wide conflagration. What's that old saying about a "stitch in time"?
If and when we finally get their attention and convince them that we will not become dhimmis then we can have some rational discussions with them about the merits, or lack thereof, of the bogus and perverted religion they call Islam.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
10/26/2007 17:54 Comments ||
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#23
More unsubstantiated accusations. No cites, direct quotes or other legitimate evidence. Just your own unqualified pronouncement. Selectively administered, no less. Keep on repeating the "Big Lie", Darrell, it worked so well for the Nazis and Islam seems rather fond of it as well. Fortunately, only morons and losers will believe you.
#24
Abu, you are indeed wise and a San Diegan. Why don't you run for City Atty? *inside joke for locals*
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/26/2007 18:49 Comments ||
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#25
I'm with you on all of that, Abu.
Zenster, just bear in mind that you plainly called for "behavior modification through the application of lethal force or simple eradication" (#13). Giving the choice of "lethal" or "eradication", it is you that are homicidal at best and genocidal at worst.
#26
LOL, Frank G. You flatter me. But I am at least wise enough not to step into that can of worms.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
10/26/2007 19:47 Comments ||
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#27
Darrell, you have already demonstrated sufficient intellectual dishonesty to where engaging you further is a waste of this board's bandwidth. Either you provide some direct quotes from my past posts to prove your case or know that intelligent people will regard you as a gibbering little cretin who singles me out when many others here suggest the same as I do or far worse. Your debating skills leave entirely too much to be desired. Thank you for proving this in spades during today's exchanges. You have single-handedly done more to discredit yourself than I could have in dozens of posts.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday against new international sanctions on Iran, saying they would lead to a dead end. "Why worsen the situation by threatening sanctions and bring it to a dead end?" Putin said in a veiled reference to the US push for harsher international sanctions on Tehran. "It's not the best way to resolve the situation by running around crazily like a man with a blade in his hand."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Essentially in agreement. Sanctions may not result in any change of Iran's direction and the proper way to deal with Iran would be with massive air strikes to obliterate IRG, nuke facilities and as many members of the top mullah layer as possible.
(KUNA) -- The Italian Foreign Ministry on Thursday denied that Hezbollah was boosting its military capacities in the area south of the Litani River controlled by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The UNIFIL military leadership confirms that any potential rearming by Hezbollah is not taking place in that area south of the Litani river till Israel's borders, the Ministry's spokesman Pasquale Ferrara told the media during his weekly briefing.
Commenting on a report by a UN envoy that Hezbollah was rearming, Ferarara said the Italian UNIFIL Commander Claudio Graziano had told the Italian, Spanish and French Foreign Ministers that "the control operation by the UNIFIL on the ground went smoothly characterized by excellent relations with the people." According to the Italian official, the problem is more related to the efficiency and effectiveness of the Lebanese military. Ferrara said the Security Council resolutions 1559 and 1701 did not assign the UNIFIL with the mission of disarming Hezbollah but left it to the Lebanese army.(
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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#3
According to the Italian official, the problem is more related to the efficiency and effectiveness of the Lebanese military. Ferrara said the Security Council resolutions 1559 and 1701 did not assign the UNIFIL with the mission of disarming Hezbollah but left it to the Lebanese army.
Ah. That explains it. So keep up the good work, boys.
As you were. Back to the Beirut whorehouses and the Lebanese blonde hash...
Israel and Hezbollah earlier this month came together for a prisoner exchange brokered by a German intelligence official known as "Mr. Hezbollah."
The deal raises hopes the two Israeli soldiers captured by the Shiite militia in July 2006 (a move that sparked Israels march into Lebanon) can be released as well, German news magazine Der Spiegel says in its latest issue. Hezbollah handed Israel the remains of an Ethiopian Jew and a 1988-dated letter from missing pilot Ron Arad, who disappeared in 1986. In return, Hezbollah received a previously imprisoned Hezbollah fighter and the remains of two more militiamen.
"For the first time since last summer, there is movement in one of the key disputes in the Middle East conflict," the magazine writes. "Solving the prisoner issue is considered to be a precondition for a further detente that might eventually lead to a peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon."
Yet officials in Jerusalem are careful:
"We aren't any closer to a final deal," Israels chief negotiator on the prisoner issue, Ofer Dekel, told Der Spiegel.
The exchange, which is poised to strengthen crisis-ridden Israeli President Ehud Olmert, was organized by the United Nations and prepared by a senior official from Germanys BND intelligence service known as "Mr. Hezbollah," a man who has dealt with Shiite leader Hassan Nasrallah on previous occasions.
Stemming from Berlin and an expert in Arab culture, Mr. Hezbollah was the BNDs man in Beirut and speaks fluent Arabic, Der Spiegel said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
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#2
Bargaining with this scum only encourages more of the same. How's this for an alternative? You release these free men and we will only destroy your military encampments and not your cities as well.
#4
Hezbollah gave Israel remains and a letter. In return, Hezbollah received remains and a fighter. Is it me, or did Hezbollah get a better deal? I can only hope that the fighter is a now an Israeli agent. If not, let's start the rumor.
Yesterday, the University of Delaware asked Asaf Romirowsky to step down from an academic panel at the University of Delaware because another panelist, University of Delaware political scientist Muqtedar Khan, didn't want to share the podium with anyone who served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Romirowsky, who holds joint American/Israeli citizenship and lives in Philadelphia, had been invited to join Khan, his colleague in political science, Stuart Kaufman, a staff member of the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, and a graduate student to discuss anti-Americanism in the Middle East. The program was organized by the College Republicans, the College Democrats, and the Students of Western Civilization Club. The Leadership Institute provided the funds for the panel, which met on the University of Delaware campus on Wednesday evening. The students offered Romirowsky the opportunity to come to campus next week and speak alone, with no other panel members who might object to his presence. Large of them
Posted by: g(r)omgoru ||
10/26/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
And all these leftists have no clue they are enacting the same policies as the Nazis.
#3
share the podium with anyone who served in the Israeli Defense Forces
But he would have no problem in sharing podium with a Janjaweed, a Khmer Rouge, a member of the Interamwhe (member of the Hutu genocidiacl militas), a baby killing Palestinian or with Ahmedinajad.
What is this Nazi doing in America or more exactly how is that Nazis have taken over the University of Delaware?
#4
Nazi = national socialist. I don't think these are Nazis cause they don't support the concept of 'national'. They're internationalist, therefore much closer to neo-marxist or neo-communists, international socialists. It's all about timing. McCarthy* was just a two bit demagogue exploiting a reality, the infiltration of our society by these parasites.
* not to be confused with Senator Reid who uses the same methodology but exploits beliefs rather than reality.
#5
I don't want to call them antisemtic: some rabidly antisemitic Poles who were memebers of a party who wanted all Jews expelled from Poland risked their lives to save Jews from the gas chambers. I don't want to soil those antisemitic Poles by giving them the same name than thoise pieces of sh..t
That is whay I call the so called "anti-Zionist" nazis: you will never see militing for any suffering people (the real suffering people not the West taw-payer's fed Palestinians). You will never see them protesting aaginst any real genocider. Their compassion goes only to those who want exterminate Jews. So until I find a more offesive term I call them Nazis. But very special Nazis: those who are too coward to werar the swastika: ie still more repugnant than teh normal variety.
Academic freedom is not tyranny dictated from the left. The left promotes tyranny not freedom. These damned elitists would like to run all of our lives. Hillary is one of these lefist elitists.
#7
Anheuser-Busch did an excellent commercial on this theme a couple of years ago for the Super Bowl. At least at the party I was attending it was very well received. Nice to hear the sentiment still survives, despite all the political and media attempts to destroy it.
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.
Belgium's Supreme Administrative Court, the Council of State, has suspended the dismissal of a teacher of Islam because she refused to take her headscarf off outside of the classroom. It ruled that an individual school may not impose such restrictions, Belgian media reported Tuesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged in federal court Thursday the US government's refusal to grant a travel visa to Swiss-based Muslim academic 
The Naib Imam of 
Pakistan, which recently witnessed a series of suicide attacks by pro-Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, is the most dangerous country in the world, and has become a safe haven for terrorists, a media report says.
In a visit billed by Turkish officials as "a final chance" for diplomacy, an Iraqi team led by General Abdel Qader Jassim, Iraq's defence minister, and including members of northern Iraq's Kurdish administration was due in Ankara later on Thursday. The Baghdad government has promised to shut down PKK camps but Ankara is aware that the central Iraqi government has little influence in the autonomous Kurdish north.
The speaker of Iraq's parliament warned Turkey on Thursday that his government would cut off the flow of oil from northern Iraq if Ankara followed through on its threat to level economic sanctions against the country. 
(AKI) - The alleged spiritual leader of 
The former United Nations' chief weapons inspector has challenged the US president's claims that Iran poses a nuclear threat to the world. 
Israel and Hezbollah earlier this month came together for a prisoner exchange brokered by a German intelligence official known as "Mr. Hezbollah."
