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Baitullah offers conditional talks
Today's Headlines
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Africa Horn
Insurgency prolongs Aethiop occupation, Somalia speaker sez
(SomaliNet) Somalia's parliament speaker Sheik Aden Mohamed Nor known as 'Madobe' said on Saturday the Ethiopian forces will remain in Somalia as long as the local insurgents continue the violence. Mr. Aden told reporters in the country's southwest city of Baidoa that the defeated Islamic Courts fighters caused the long presence of the Ethiopian forces in Somalia.

"The Ethiopian troops are being held in Somalia by the insurgent groups that oppose the Transitional Federal government because they continue war and I don’t think that Ethiopia forces withdraw the country until they are facing attacks from the militants," said Aden. "I do believe that if the government and the opposition groups reach agreement and work together on peace then the Ethiopians would be obliged to get home back,"

Speaking about yesterday's gun battle between the government forces and the local insurgents near Dinsor district in Bay region, southwest of Somalia, the speaker said the government will defend itself and will do all its best to restore peace and stability in the country.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Courts


Somalia: Islamist leader rejects talks with the government
(SomaliNet) The brave leader of the Somali opposition groups based in Asmara, Eritrea, Sheikh Sharif Sheik Ahmed said on Friday they would not open talks with the current Somalia transitional federal government until the Ethiopian forces are in the soil of the country.
"They're ucky, and they keep us from getting what we want."
Sheikh Ahmed told reporters while safely in Asmara that his Coalition of restoring liberation in Somalia is not ready at present to hold talks with the new prime minister and his down-sized cabinet. "Before we sit with them and discuss issues, we are requesting that the Ethiopian troops should be pulled out of entirely our country," he said. "To end the crisis in the country through dialogue sounds good, but we are indicating that this could be barrier to the government as long as the Ethiopians remain in Somalia and no dialogue could be possible at the moment," said Sheikh Ahmed who is now in Asmara, Eritrea.
Of course, his desire to evict the Aethiops doesn't extend to actually fighting them inside his own country.
The Islamist leader welcomed the recent offer by the Somali's new prime minister Nor Adde saying that they would talk with oppositions in anywhere in the world as positive step. "The premier's comment was good but before starting negotiation with the government we suggest total withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia," he stressed.

The dismissal by the Islamist leader seems to be severe blow to the efforts by the Somalia prime minister in which he wants to end violence through peaceful means. "We like to solve the problem but it is not first to think about ending the crisis before the Ethiopian occupation," said Sheikh Ahmed who is believed to be moderate leader.
Moderate compared to whom, exactly?
Some analysts say if the government and the opposition groups came together and reach agreement it would bring that the Ethiopian forces withdraw Somalia and back home. Somalia's political stalemate can not be solved with conditionalized talks, said Abdiaziz Hassan, Somali journalist safely in Nairobi. "I think the opposition needs to change their position as long as the government is open for dialogue. If they reach a consensus which all sides involve in it, it will pave the way strong African Union force deployment and Ethiopian troops to leave,"
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Courts


Britain
UK hospital porter fired in crucifix row
A HOSPITAL porter has been sacked after a row over a crucifix being covered up in a prayer room. Joseph Protano, 54, was suspended four days after the incident last month at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Pendlebury. He has now been dismissed for gross misconduct, but intends to appeal.

Police quizzed him for four hours last month, on suspicion of religiously aggravated assault, but he was released without charge. He denies the allegations and must wait to see if police take any action.

The row centres on a prayer room available to staff and visitors of all faiths at the hospital, which contains a Virgin Mary statue and a crucifix.

Mr Protano, a Roman Catholic who has worked two years at the hospital, entered the room when three Muslims were using it - two patients and a doctor. An argument broke out after he asked them to remove a cloth covering the crucifix and statue and to turn a picture of the Virgin Mary face up.
Seems reasonable, since the symbols had been there a while.
He said he was unable to comment on his sacking as the police probe and his plans to appeal were ongoing. But a friend said: "He was very shocked at the decision.

"He thinks he has been treated terribly. He loves his job and doesn't do it for the money - until recently, his employers were paying just £5.88 an hour.

"They are saying he should not have gone into the prayer room and it is alleged he used racist language, which he totally refutes. His pay has been stopped, even though he intends to appeal, and he has had to sign on for benefits."

The friend said Mr Protano went into the prayer room about six times a day to check the statue and crucifix were not left covered. He said as a Christian, he felt it could be upsetting for visiting parents to find them covered up.

The case has angered many hospital staff, who think he has been treated unfairly.
So the're upset. What are they going to do?
Police said a file had been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service to decide on any further action.
Posted by: lotp || 02/03/2008 12:48 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  let the christian riots begin!
Posted by: Frank G || 02/03/2008 13:38 Comments || Top||

#2  Poor fellow. He'll never be able to get another job in England, and will be lucky to escape conviction.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/03/2008 15:47 Comments || Top||

#3  Perhaps not...

He won't be able to get a job in the extortion funded sector (government), but I think someone in business might want someone they can rely on.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/03/2008 18:39 Comments || Top||

#4  Charge?

Not being a good Dhimmi.

Being offensive (by breathing) to a muslim overlord.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/03/2008 19:26 Comments || Top||


UK to give additional welfare to men with multiple wives
And no, this is not a satire. RTWT. Excerpt:
a harem... on the British taxpayer
Mr Grayling also accused the Government of trying to keep the ruling quiet because the topic is so controversial.
Yes, one imagines it is.
Posted by: lotp || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  unreal
Posted by: Butch Ununs2831 || 02/03/2008 1:47 Comments || Top||

#2  From Gilbert and Sullivan's Trial by Jury, when the Defendant has proposed to marry both women:
RECIT -- JUDGE

That seems a reasonable proposition,
To which, I think, your client may agree.

COUNSEL
But I submit, m'lud, with all submission,
To marry two at once is Burglaree!

In the reign of James the Second,
It was generally reckoned
As a rather serious crime
To marry two wives at a time.
[Hands book up to Judge, who reads it.

ALL. Oh, man of learning!
Posted by: Korora || 02/03/2008 1:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Our own government's blind eye regarding Mexican "anchor babies" compliments this new UK ruling nicely.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2008 2:31 Comments || Top||

#4  "This sets a precedent that will lead to more demands for the culture of other countries to be reflected in UK law and the benefits system."

The Brits are masters at understatement.
Posted by: Clem Sheck9754 || 02/03/2008 2:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Taken together with "UK state schools barred from admitting middle class kids" a woeful picture of England is painted.

This is no longer a country we can count on as an ally in the WOT, and not just for their pitiable performance in the British sailor hostage situation with Iran or their lack of support for missions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In a fundamental way they are lost to themselves and their once proud identity. Requiescat in pace, Great Britain.
Posted by: Guillibaldo Glolugum6073 || 02/03/2008 5:54 Comments || Top||

#6  The value of my Kipling collection just went up.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 8:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Expect howls of "discrimination" from UK's gay majority.
Posted by: regular joe || 02/03/2008 8:42 Comments || Top||

#8  Two wrongs don't make a right. So what does an endless, unremitting series of wrongs make? In the UK, and eventually in the US, we're about to find out...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:50 Comments || Top||

#9  Soon, welfare will include explosives and scimitars so the "immigrants" can teach us all manners...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:51 Comments || Top||

#10  At the rate that Britons are expatriating from the UK, there wont be anybody left to sign the welfare checks before long.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 02/03/2008 9:05 Comments || Top||

#11  The value of my Kipling collection just went up.

I knew it, I just knew it. Thanks to you I can quote:

There's a widow in sleepy Chester
Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
A grave that the Burmans shun;
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
Who tells how the work was done.

Posted by: Thomas Woof || 02/03/2008 9:14 Comments || Top||

#12  The rapidity of total surrender is amazing. Just like the Dutch. Is that already beginning in Canada ? Can it happen here ?
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2907 || 02/03/2008 9:30 Comments || Top||

#13  Woozle - I was wondering the same thing last night. Then this morning I see from the comments to the Telegraph (bottom page of article) the Brits feel the same way I do on this. Somehow that's comforting to me.
Posted by: Clem Sheck9754 || 02/03/2008 11:30 Comments || Top||

#14  Perhaps one of RB's British readers can enlighten me. What the heck happened to the Tories? With Labour in charge and multi-culti political correctness run rampant, I'd expect the Tories to use this to gain political advantage. Yet, I've not heard a peep from them. What happened to an 'opposition' party? Or is the 'multi-culti' thing actually supported by the general public?
Posted by: DMFD || 02/03/2008 13:48 Comments || Top||

#15  It is time to start considering how we can secure the nuclear weapons and advanced air, sea and land systems in Britain. It is clear that they are one or at the most two decades away from being a muslim nation with sharia law and a foreign policy that is dangerous to the US. For NATO, and the special relationship, to steal a line from Churchill, this isn't the end, it isn't even the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning!
Posted by: NoMoreBS || 02/03/2008 14:56 Comments || Top||

#16 
#11 "Gods of the Copybook Headings" would be alot more appropriate in the context.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 15:16 Comments || Top||

#17  Deporting the entire family, anchor baby included, is the solution. Some leave their dependent children behind and cry "unfair" but the state cannot be responsible for children of illegals when we can't take care of the legitimate needs of our own citizens with this huge deficit. Those candidates that want health care had better define their policies on illegal immigration as we can't have both.
Posted by: Danielle || 02/03/2008 15:34 Comments || Top||

#18  absolutely right Danielle, but I am sure our lawmakers will try to find a way to get *us* to pay for both pipe dreams...
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 02/03/2008 15:53 Comments || Top||

#19  Unfortunately, in the US, anchor babies are citizens, because the Constitution says so. However, nothing in the Constitution says the parents can't be deported if they are illegal. It is the liberals who cry that you can't break up a family. My response is, that they are free to take their little citizen back to Mexico with them.
Posted by: Rambler || 02/03/2008 16:34 Comments || Top||

#20  With the dems deciding funding for universal healthcare and unchecked illegal immigration, wouldn't defense and security be the first to go?
Posted by: Clem Sheck9754 || 02/03/2008 16:59 Comments || Top||

#21  @ #15
I wonder how much of the US defense industry is controlled by BAE Systems.

The next four years will be difficult for the US, too. A choice between the Dhems and McCain is no choice at all.
Posted by: SR-71 || 02/03/2008 17:17 Comments || Top||

#22  SR-71, for a foreign-owned company to work in the US defense industry, they must set up firewalls insulating the company from foreign influence. Usually this is an independent board of directors and information from the company back to the owners is restricted to financial information only. You would be amazed how many of our defense companies are owned by French, British, Canadian, and Israeli corporations.
Posted by: RWV || 02/03/2008 18:28 Comments || Top||


UK police bugged Muslim MP
SCOTLAND YARD’S antiterrorist squad secretly bugged a high-profile Labour Muslim MP during private meetings with one of his constituents.

Sadiq Khan, now a government whip, was recorded by an electronic listening device hidden in a table during visits to the constituent in prison.

The bugging of MPs is a breach of a government edict that has barred law agencies from eavesdropping on politicians since the bugging scandal of Harold Wilson’s government. There was no suspicion of criminal conduct by Khan to justify the operation.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: lotp || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Call me when they add "re" to bugged.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 8:46 Comments || Top||

#2  muzz lawyer politician = metastasizing chancre...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:56 Comments || Top||

#3  My MP is not my lawyer. I see no reason a conversation with an MP should be privileged. Assuming the security services have reason to eavesdrop on anybody - particularly someone facing extradition on terror charges - they should be listening on on these conversations.
Posted by: Excalibur || 02/03/2008 11:06 Comments || Top||

#4  That a muslims MP is friends with a terrorist suspect should be the news. The fact that they bugged the bugger is reassuring!
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 02/03/2008 18:56 Comments || Top||


Europe
125,000 Turks protest over head scarf ban
Usual arguments, usual issues. Big crowd in Ankara.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  If they sincerely believe that Allah desires they cover the hair he gave them, they can wear a wig.
Posted by: john frum || 02/03/2008 11:15 Comments || Top||

#2  CHINESE MIL FORUM > PAN-TURANISN [Turkism] TAKES AIM AT AZERBAIJAN: A GEOPOLITICAL AGENDA. Renewed calls for Ethnic Turk-specific/centric, TRansNational-Regional GREATER TURKIC UNION. CMF Posters remind that there are also Milyuhns and Zilyuhns of ethnic Turkic/Turk-related peoples-groups residing in CHINA, MONGOLIA, etc. even in NORTH KOREA!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2008 18:08 Comments || Top||


Sweden slashes asylum grants to Iraqi refugees
Sweden has slashed the proportion of Iraqi asylum seekers it has allowed to stay in the country, following the tightening of rules by the judiciary, the immigration service said Saturday. Last year some 90 percent of candidates from Iraq were granted asylum, while for January this year the proportion was down to some 40 percent, spokesman Per Loman said.

Loman said the comparison between a year and a month was not very apt, while adding, "It's too short to talk about a new trend but of course it could have a connection with the decision made last year by a court." Though the law had not changed, the conditions required for permission to stay had been "clarified," he said, referring to the fact that asylum-seekers had to prove that they were personally under threat of persecution. "The general situation in Iraq is not enough anymore to get a permission to stay in Sweden," Loman said.

Sweden is the leading European state for granting asylum to Iraqis, who now form the country's second-largest foreign community after the Finns. According to the immigration service, 18,559 Iraqis sought asylum in Sweden last year, compared with 8,950 in 2006.

The brakes began to go on in July, when some Iraqis who had settled in Sweden were told they could no longer stay.
A Swedish commision got into hot water recently for writing that some of the Iraqi and Afghan children were "like visitors from the middle ages".
Posted by: lotp || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

#1  Bout time.
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/03/2008 4:36 Comments || Top||

#2  Just might work, so it'll be recinded soon...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Loman? That'd be Ole Loman, Willy Loman's great grand nephew...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:59 Comments || Top||

#4  Bring the percentage to minus 40% and I'll cheer, (Throw out the ones you already let in)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/03/2008 13:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Feds ask to halt inmate access at Supermax after letter leaks
A group of Denver law students fighting to overturn some regulations at the Supermax prison in Colorado has found that the very rules they are fighting might bar them from continuing to represent the convicted terrorists.

letters from three men housed in Supermax were found with terrorism suspects in Spain
After letters from three men housed in Supermax were found with terrorism suspects in Spain, federal officials issued sweeping new rules forbidding inmates from writing letters to those outside immediate family, reading the classified ads in newspapers and attending prison religious services.

The government is now arguing that the rules, called special administrative measures, or SAMs, should also forbid prison visits by University of Denver law students who are representing two of the terrorists in a civil-rights lawsuit against the government. The suit, filed in Denver's U.S. District Court, alleges that the measures violate the inmates' civil rights.

In January, Judge Wiley Y. Daniel granted the students access to Nidal Ayyad and Mahmud Abouhalima over the objection of the U.S. attorney's office. But on Wednesday, the government asked the judge to reconsider and filed a motion to put the students' access on hold while an appeal is pending. The government argues that, because the students aren't yet lawyers, they might be more willing to pass messages from the terrorists to outside contacts. Even if caught, the reasoning goes, they would not lose their licenses to practice.
Would they be allowed to take the bar exam? As I recall most states have an ethics and morals clause.
University of Denver law professor Laura Rovner said that argument doesn't hold water, given that the students would clearly subject themselves to federal prosecution if they aided terrorists in Supermax, which is west of Pueblo in Florence.
Lynne Stewart thought she could pull it off ...
"There are very real consequences, and the stakes are quite high," Rovner said. "If the students were to violate the SAMs, they will never be licensed to practice law and there would be the possibility out there of a criminal conviction for passing information."

Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales first imposed the special administrative measures in March 2005 after he learned letters sent from Supermax were being used to recruit suicide bombers in Spain.

Inmates in Colorado wrote more than 90 letters to Islamic extremists in Spain with links to the terrorist cell responsible for the Madrid train bombings
Inmates in Colorado wrote more than 90 letters to Islamic extremists in Spain with links to the terrorist cell responsible for the Madrid train bombings in March 2004, according to federal reports.

One of Mohammad Salameh's letters was found in possession of Mohamed Achraf, the leader of a radical Muslim cell who is charged with plotting to blow up the National Court in downtown Madrid. Salameh is serving 116 years in Supermax for his role in the 1993 attempt to blow up the World Trade Center.

Originally, the special administrative rules were to be in effect for just one year, but they have been extended annually since then. The inmates say that they now only receive certain newspapers, such as USA Today — but the classified ads and editorial-page letters are cut out.
Why do they need the classifieds -- planning to buy a car?
Letters to immediate family are delayed for weeks while they are translated and analyzed by the Bureau of Prisons and the FBI.
"Dear Father, life continues to go along for me here in infidel prison. Please give wishes to mother and most especially to little cousin Fatima, and make sure Mahmoud gets the detonators to Hussein on the 19th."
The prisoners are prohibited from sending letters to extended family or friends.

The prisoners, through their student legal representatives, have argued there was never a hearing to decide whether the letters they sent to Spain contained messages of violence.
Doesn't need to be. They violated the rules, so they lose their privileges. That's what a 'prison' is all about.
Colorado's U.S. attorney, Troy Eid, declined to say what was written in the letters or whether the messages incited the commuter train bombings.

After the special administrative measures were imposed in 2005, Salameh stopped eating for 89 days. When the rules were extended in 2006, he fasted for 72 days and again for 20 days, his lawsuit says. Salameh has retained his own private attorney in the suit against the rules. "Mr. Salameh was subjected to more than 100 force-feedings via naso-gastric tube," the suit says.
That's terrible. He fasted for 181 days total: that should have been 362 tube feedings, not just 100. They were under-nourishing this man!
Abouhalima, an Egyptian native serving a 108-year sentence for participating in the trade center bombing, said that he did not send mail to the Spanish inmates but that he received mail from them at Salameh's urging. He said he never got a chance to talk to prison officials about the letters before the restrictions were imposed.

Ayyad, an American citizen serving 117 years in prison for procuring chemicals used in the World Trade Center bombing, said that he wrote to a prisoner in Spain for one year and that he gave his letters to prison staff for review before he sent them.
"That's another fine mess you've gotten me into, Salami!"
"The plaintiff in his correspondence with the prison in Spain never encouraged violence, nor . . . ever condoned it in any way, form or fashion," Ayyad's suit says. "The plaintiff never received any incident reports for correspondence misconduct."
"No, no, certainly not!"
That may be because prison officials were not fully reviewing the letters until they turned up with terrorists overseas. A September 2006 report by the Justice Department's inspector general noted that the Bureau of Prisons was not "adequately" reading mail or listening to calls made by imprisoned terrorists.

Eid says the government has a responsibility to make sure that inmates do not continue to commit crimes or influence terrorist attacks. "When we have a known threat, we have to be prudent," he said. "The public expects that of us. We are supposed to see justice through from the beginning until they leave the system."
This article starring:
Mahmud Abouhalima
Mohamed Achraf
Nidal Ayyad
Posted by: lotp || 02/03/2008 14:06 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why are the "law students" assisting these animals? Were I on the bar, I'd find that behavior itself enough to disqualify them from practice.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/03/2008 15:55 Comments || Top||

#2  “…but the classified ads and editorial-page letters are cut out.”

‘Desperately Seeking Salameh’
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/03/2008 16:06 Comments || Top||

#3  The inmates are used to this by now; they probably had some dealings with Lynne Stewart in the past.
Posted by: Eric Jablow || 02/03/2008 16:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Let's see some names of these "students"
Posted by: Frank G || 02/03/2008 16:56 Comments || Top||

#5  Hey, this is Supermax. It's a place for the worst of the worst. It is not daycamp or Sunday school. Some of the people have killed for the hell of it. Supermax has been described as "A clean version of hell."
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/03/2008 17:04 Comments || Top||

#6  Inmates in Colorado wrote more than 90 letters to Islamic extremists in

90 letters is NOT a "Leak" it's planned defiance of the prison regulations, jail these wanna-be lawyers, BEFORE they have any chance at the Bar.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/03/2008 18:03 Comments || Top||

#7  Any letter from a Koranimal should have been in the round file and never left the premises.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2907 || 02/03/2008 18:25 Comments || Top||

#8  Classified ads could convey coded messages.
Posted by: twobyfour || 02/03/2008 19:15 Comments || Top||

#9  #4 Let's see some names of these "students"
Posted by: Frank G


YES!

The fucking cock sucking "law" professors are dismantling the very legal devices protecting our families..

The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots, elitist professors, professional pols, Commie legal organs [ACLU], Corrupt Media Corps and tyrants. It is it's natural manure."

Thomas Jefferson & RD
Posted by: RD || 02/03/2008 19:55 Comments || Top||

#10  RD, Sign me up.
Posted by: jds || 02/03/2008 21:19 Comments || Top||


Nuclear physicist/Muslim cleric fights to get back job, security clearance
Dr. Moniem El-Ganayni is not the only imam to have served as a chaplain inside a state prison. But he may be the only one who is also a nuclear physicist working on classified U.S. military projects that require a security clearance. At least, he used to do classified work at the Bettis Laboratory, an advanced naval nuclear propulsion technology lab in West Mifflin operated by Bechtel Bettis Inc. for the U.S. Department of Energy.

But in October, the two tracks of his life collided. His security clearance was suspended, barring him from the lab where he has worked for 18 years.

Long a respected member of the Pittsburgh Muslim community and a founder of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh in Oakland, the Egyptian-born Dr. El-Ganayni also was the imam at Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution-Forest in Marienville, Forest County, for five months in 2007. His contract was canceled in August after disputes over Ramadan observance and visiting policies.

Twelve weeks after that, agents from the Energy Department, and later the Pittsburgh FBI, began questioning him about a book he distributed to inmates at the prison as well as speeches he made opposing FBI recruitment at local mosques and prayers he led there. His clearance was suspended on Oct. 24 pending further review. His pay has been cut in half pending the outcome.

Without his clearance, and at age 57, Dr. El-Ganayni stands to lose much of what he has worked for since arriving in this country in 1980. His job and medical benefits are in jeopardy. A U.S. citizen since 1988, he won't be able to work in his field, and, if his clearance is not reinstated after an upcoming hearing, he says he'll probably return to Egypt with his American-born wife.

Dr. El-Ganayni is the second local imam to run into a wall in recent months. Kadir Gunduz, 48, who has lived in Pittsburgh since 1988 and has raised three children here, was jailed in December on a visa technicality. He was released after a public outcry, but still faces deportation to his native Turkey. His appeal is pending.

An untold number of Middle Eastern immigrants and Muslims across the country have been quietly ensnared by measures aimed at strengthening national security in a post-9/11 world, including some, like Dr. El-Ganayni, who have lost their security clearance.

There is no way of knowing just how many, said Art Spitzer, director of the Washington, D.C., affiliate, of the American Civil Liberties Union. "We've heard about a number of cases involving security clearances, so there must be a lot more we haven't heard about," Mr. Spitzer said.
Much more at link
Posted by: ryuge || 02/03/2008 06:55 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Run 'em.
Posted by: Jomosing Bluetooth8431 || 02/03/2008 7:52 Comments || Top||

#2  This should have happened at around 2pm, September 11, 2001. I am being generous for giving management a late lunch.
Posted by: Excalibur || 02/03/2008 8:27 Comments || Top||

#3  What's he got to worry about? There'll be lots of nuke physics jobs in saudi, egypt, iran and syria for years to come thanks to Bush and Rice shilly-shallying over the past several years...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:40 Comments || Top||

#4  What's he got to worry about?

Having his head chopped off when experiments fail?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 8:43 Comments || Top||

#5  Why was he there is the first place?
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/03/2008 9:05 Comments || Top||

#6  That's what makes the security establishment a joke. How does someone with this backround obtain a security clearance ? Mind boggling. Does anyone think he's not pipelining info to the muzz? The fact that these idjits haven't detonated a nuclear bomb in a major city in the west is very surprising. We've done everything but give them a working device. This sort of person on the inside makes it highly likely that we've given them plans. Totally unbelievable.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2907 || 02/03/2008 9:37 Comments || Top||

#7  Dr. El-Ganayni stands to lose much of what he has worked for since arriving in this country in 1980.

isn't that the point?
Posted by: Butch Ununs2831 || 02/03/2008 11:06 Comments || Top||


They're Heeeeeeeere.......!
Moved to Sunday for further comment. AoS.
Posted by: Uncle Phester || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [14 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Worth quoting almost verbatim.

Islamist 'Trojan horse' in Pentagon, say experts / FBI: Top defense advisers linked to radical Muslim Brotherhood

Federal authorities say a high-level Muslim Pentagon aide, who led a campaign to silence a Pentagon intelligence analyst for taking a hard line against Islam, is running an "influence operation" on behalf of U.S. Muslim groups fronting for the radical Muslim Brotherhood.

Hesham H. Islam, a special assistant to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, recently criticized Maj. Stephen Coughlin, one of the military's leading authorities on Islamic war doctrine, for making the connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism.

After Islam lodged complaints, Coughlin's contract with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon was not renewed.

Islam also was upset with briefings Coughlin recently prepared for the U.S. military warning that major U.S. Muslim groups were fronting for the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihadist movement based in Egypt.

Islam, who was born and raised in Egypt, is heavily involved with one of the groups – the Islamic Society of North America, which U.S. prosecutors last year named as a member of the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and an unindicted co-conspirator in a major terror-funding case.

Islam has persuaded his boss, England, to conduct various outreach with ISNA, including hosting the group's leaders in the Pentagon and speaking at its annual convention.

Speaking during ISNA's 2006 opening ceremonies, England proclaimed, "There is no contradiction between the peaceful religion of Islam and America's values and principles."

Coughlin reached the opposite conclusion in a 329-page report submitted to the National Defense Intelligence College, in which he warns that Islamic law sanctions violence. That finding, among others, has put him at odds with Islam, whom England describes as "my personal close confidante."

"I take his advice," England said, "and I listen to him all the time."

Islam is closely associated with a Muslim military chaplain trained at a radical Islamic school that federal agents raided after 9/11 in connection with terror-financing.

The chaplain, Abuhena M. Saifulislam, studied Islam at the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Virginia.

Recently declassified FBI documents reveal its sister organization, an Islamist think tank known as the International Institute of Islamic Thought, or IIIT, is involved in a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to wage a cultural and political jihad to eventually take over America from within – most notably, through infiltration of government agencies.

Islam works closely with Saifulislam (Arabic for "sword of Islam") on Pentagon outreach projects involving Middle Eastern embassies and the so-called Wahhabi lobby in Washington.

"He's a Muslim brother," an FBI official said of Islam. "He's a bad actor. He's well-positioned to be where he is, and that doesn't do us any good."

He also said Saifulislam is "definitely Muslim Brotherhood," while noting that Islam "is a lot smoother than Saifulislam," who as a chaplain at Gitmo lobbied for special meals and other privileges for al-Qaida detainees.

The official hastened to add that, at this point, belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood is not criminal, and neither Defense Department employee is the subject of a formal counterterrorism or counterespionage investigation. Both men have refused interviews, and the Pentagon had no comment.

However, the FBI official warned that the Muslim aides are part of a conspiracy by Muslim Brotherhood fronts to run "influence operations" against the U.S. government.

"Their M.O. is to make nice for the very purpose of penetrating us," he said, "and we just roll over for them, at least at the top levels."

He says England, who also recently dedicated an Islamic prayer center at Quantico on the advice of Saifulislam, is blind to the threat.

"England doesn't know it's an influence operation that's been laid at his door," he said. "His lack of awareness is irresponsible."

A senior U.S. official who has met with England says he was not even aware that a convicted terrorist and al-Qaida fund-raiser created the Pentagon's Muslim chaplains corps.

Adurahman Alamoudi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader and founder of the American Muslim Council, placed Muslim chaplains throughout the military. He is now in jail on charges of terrorism. However, most of the chaplains he trained and sponsored are still in their current positions.

"The Islamic chaplains who serve were trained by a known terrorist," said terrorism expert Steve Emerson.

Emerson says Islam, like Alamoudi, has invited "subversive" elements into U.S. military headquarters.

"Hesham Islam is an Islamist with a pro-Muslim Brotherhood bent who has brought in groups to the Pentagon who have been unindicted co-conspirators," he said.

Emerson said a "Trojan horse" of subversives and potential spies have penetrated deep inside the Pentagon, and they are now bearing fruit with the ouster of Coughlin. Sources say Islam has high security clearance.

A former Pentagon colleague of Coughlin described Islam as a "gatekeeper," who at a minimum, is blocking candid discussion of the religious nature of the threat posed by Muslim terrorists. Such action, William Gawthrop says, thwarts the U.S. war effort, because it denies military brass and rank-and-file the information they need to effectively fight the Islamist enemy.

"We still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by (the Muslim prophet) Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered," Gawthrop said.

He says Coughlin was trying to bridge that gap before being pushed out.

Supporters of the respected contractor say Islam had a direct hand in his firing. They say that on Jan. 3 Coughlin was told his contract, which ends in March, would not be renewed because his message had become too "politically hot."

They say that in a meeting late last year between Coughlin and a member of England's staff, which Islam unexpectedly attended, Islam asked Coughlin to "soften his message" regarding Islamic war doctrine. Coughlin refused.

Islam was heard referring to Coughlin as a "Christian zealot with a poison pen." The conflict resulted in his contract being terminated.

A well-placed Pentagon insider described it differently, however. Islam and Coughlin were present at the briefing, but there was no direct confrontation between the two. It was not until Hesham returned to England's office suite that he remarked that Coughlin had a "poison pen."

"He clearly doesn't like him," the source said.

Also, Coughlin was let go in part because his contract was up, and at $440,000, it was too steep to justify renewing, the insider says. And though he had written a 329-page thesis on the subject, he was not effective at briefing the J-2 intelligence staff of the Joint Chiefs.

"He's brilliant, and he knows his stuff, but he couldn't teach it," the source said. "It went over everybody's head."

Still, England has not properly vetted his long-time aide, Islam. "Gordon is so trusting of this guy because he's worked for him for so long," the same official said. "But he's got questionable contacts, and he (England) needs to have his antennae up."


We have to find a way to counter this, rather sooner than later. Taking names is the first step.
Posted by: twobyfour || 02/02/2008 19:11 Comments || Top||

#2  Gee... how about stop hiring the very people we are at war with. It would be like hiring nazis to run the war effort against them.

Fucking asssticks.
Posted by: DarthVader || 02/02/2008 21:00 Comments || Top||

#3  Darth, good, but what about the people that were already hired?

They need to get fired. Or defenestered. I'll prefer the second, but would be content with the first.
Posted by: twobyfour || 02/02/2008 21:21 Comments || Top||

#4  How about we also fire England, then arrest him for treason? He's part of the problem.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 02/02/2008 21:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Wheee! Undersecretary England is toast, and those paying attention will soon track down Mr. Islam's friends -- they will be pretty obvious to those who only look, I suspect. The jihadis just lost a major, major battle in the war.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/02/2008 21:24 Comments || Top||

#6  A small correction, TW .... Gordon England is Deputy SECDEF, second only to Gates. He is, by law, "delegated full power and authority to act for the Secretary of Defense and exercise the powers of the Secretary on any and all matters for which the Secretary is authorized to act pursuant to law".

(Undersecretaries are two echelons lower.)
Posted by: lotp || 02/02/2008 21:32 Comments || Top||

#7  Thank you, lotp. It's important to be accurate about such things. He's still screwed, though.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/02/2008 21:50 Comments || Top||

#8  "I take his advice," England said, "and I listen to him all the time."


First the traitors, then the enemy!
Posted by: Graviling Dark Lord of the Welsh1001 || 02/03/2008 0:51 Comments || Top||

#9  Let's see. Muslims want special privileges for their European enclaves, and they want separate legal systems even where they are a minority. But they don't want the existence of Judaeo-Christian Civilization in the Middle East. Two million Christians have been coerced to leave the Holy Lands since 1948, and Jews are under constant threat of extermination. Ethnic cleansing is like breathing to the slaves of allah. We need to give those under our sovereignty, a one way ticket back to the rat holes from which they came. As for Western leadership who allowed them to pollute our homelands, we need Nuremburg style trials to decide what to do with them.
Posted by: McZoid || 02/03/2008 1:05 Comments || Top||

#10  Zoid spot on!

"Wheee! Undersecretary England is toast"
Really think so TW? With Dhimmi Bush in office I just can't see that happening. But hope so.
Posted by: Icerigger || 02/03/2008 4:39 Comments || Top||

#11  It is better that this is revealed now than in a year when Barack Hussein Obama may be in office.
Posted by: Guillibaldo Glolugum6073 || 02/03/2008 5:37 Comments || Top||

#12  Hmmm... Wanna bet Coughlin quietly gets hired by some other agency to keep watch over the islamization of the DOD?
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 9:01 Comments || Top||

#13  I felt good when I got up this morning, but the further I go down this column, the sicker I feel.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2907 || 02/03/2008 9:39 Comments || Top||

#14  He's still screwed, though.

I hope so. Because if he isn't, we are.
Posted by: lotp || 02/03/2008 9:39 Comments || Top||

#15  "Ethnic cleansing Genocide is like breathing to the slaves of allah."

Fixed that for ya', #9 McZ.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/03/2008 10:20 Comments || Top||

#16  We are unlikley to prosecute them and firing them is too good for them. I suggest staffing positions in one of the many fine research bases in Antarctica. Let Mr Islam get through Ramadan when the Sun never sets (If I have the seasons wrong an Arctic weather station will do)
Posted by: rjschwarz || 02/03/2008 11:08 Comments || Top||

#17  No, youre right, it's summer down south."The land of the Midnight Sun" indeed.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/03/2008 14:08 Comments || Top||

#18  Hesham H. Islam, a special assistant to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, recently criticized Maj. Stephen Coughlin, one of the military's leading authorities on Islamic war doctrine, for making the connection between the religion of Islam and terrorism.

Show me there is not a connection between islam and terrorism! If one looks around at terrorism acts in the world, who is doing them, eh? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/03/2008 16:11 Comments || Top||

#19  "Gordon England" > Any relation to the namesake of the USS ENGLAND, famous WW2 sub-killer DD/DE?
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2008 16:42 Comments || Top||

#20  No, more likely a relation to Lynndie England. The IQ of both seems to be roughly on the same level.
Posted by: twobyfour || 02/03/2008 21:42 Comments || Top||

#21  "Wheee! Undersecretary England is toast"
Really think so TW?


I'm sorry about the delay in responding, Icedigger. Yes, I do. The article said he was naive about his favourite's associations and history. At that level, people can be wrong, but being labelled naive leads to one's dinner guests smiling the wrong way when one renders an opinion. When I am naive people tend to be gently amused. But I'm not given important responsibilities, and I don't live in a snakepit where too many are happy to pull down anyone whose foot slips ever so slightly on a higher rung of the ladder.
Posted by: trailing wife || 02/03/2008 23:46 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Mehsud offers conditional talks
Militant commander Baitullah Mehsud has extended a conditional offer to the government to stop his aggressive activities, a private TV channel reported. Geo News quoted official sources as saying that Mehsud has told the government that he could halt terrorist actions if the key commanders and militants arrested by security forces were released. Senator Saleh Shah told the channel on Saturday that Mehsud had authorised him to negotiate with the government, adding that he would discuss the matter with the government at NWFP Governor’s House today (Sunday). Separately, the Interior Ministry did not confirm or deny any such contact between Mehsud and the government.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [14 views] Top|| File under: Taliban


18 militant hideouts in Swat
An Interior Ministry report says militants have established four “major” and 14 “small hideouts” in four Swat areas. The report says that the majority of militants were hiding in Kabal, Khawanza Khola, Matta, and Minogra. It said the militants had also set up “small hideouts” in 14 valley suburbs – Totano Bandi, Bagh Dehrai, Manja, Salanda, Sarkhorai, Manosar, Guli Bagh, Shakardara, Sambat, Namal Gat, Shawar, Pewchar, Chupriyal and Manglawar.

“Kabal, Khawanza Khola and Matta were cleared on December 3, 2007, and law- enforcement agencies have established 13 checkposts on strategic locations in these areas,” the report said. But it said the three areas had still been placed in the category of “remaining militant hideouts”. Shangla district, according to the report, was secured and reoccupied on November 29, 2007.

104 attacks: The report said that 104 incidents of bomb blasts and rocket and suicide attacks had taken place in Swat from January 1, 2007, to January 23, 2008.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under: TNSM


Iraq
Fighting Three Wars in Iraq
WaPo concludes we've pretty well won two of the three. Shiite extremists (Mookie and the Medes) remain problematic.
Three separate but related wars are being waged in this country now, and the third one, against Shiite extremists, is the most worrisome, according to the commander and senior staff of the U.S. Army division patrolling Baghdad.

The first, against al-Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group that U.S. officials believe is foreign-led, is going well despite occasional spikes in violence, such as Friday's dual bombings of Baghdad marketplaces. Al-Qaeda in Iraq is "frustrated" but "not defeated," Maj. Gen. Jeffrey W. Hammond, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, said in an interview last week.

The second fight, against the domestic Sunni insurgency, has become dormant in many places in the past year, as about 80,000 armed men, many of them former insurgents, switched sides and came onto the U.S. payroll with groups that officers here call "Concerned Local Citizens."

The third conflict, and perhaps the most vexing for U.S. commanders, is with Shiite extremist militias. More than two-thirds of U.S. casualties are caused by roadside bombs, particularly by high-tech anti-armor devices, planted by those groups.

Overall, senior U.S. officers find the state of the wars unexpectedly good, and are allowing themselves to begin speaking optimistically. "A year ago, I didn't see any way it was going to work out to our advantage," said Col. James Rainey, the 4th Infantry Division's director of operations, who is on his third tour of duty in Iraq. The difference now, he said, is "remarkable."

A major reason for the change, he said, is the increased effectiveness of the Iraqi army and police, to which the U.S. military refers collectively as Iraqi security forces, or ISF. "The ISF, when I was over here last time, couldn't do anything," Rainey said. Now, he continued, they frequently show tactical competence. That's crucial for future security here, because as U.S. troop numbers drop by about 25,000 between now and midsummer, to roughly 130,000, Iraqi forces will be handed a greater share of the burden.

At the same time, the officers are conscious that the fighting here has morphed several times over the past five years, as adversaries have adjusted to changes in U.S. tactics. Some officers worry that various factions, taken aback by how effective U.S. operations proved in the past year after several years of frequent counterproductive effect, are lying low as they try to devise new ways to attack.

For example, as measures such as checkpoints outside marketplaces have made car bombs less effective in inflicting mass casualties, said Maj. Jeff Jones, the division's deputy chief of intelligence, al-Qaeda in Iraq has begun to turn more to suicide bombers.

Car bombs killed 206 people in the Baghdad area in January last year and 253 in February, according to Jones. The number remained high during the summer, with 186 people dying in such attacks in July. But since then the numbers have come down sharply, with just 13 killed by car bombs in November and 12 in December.

Lately, Jones said, al-Qaeda in Iraq has begun to attack local armed groups who are cooperating with U.S. forces. The majority of those groups are Sunni, and the attacks now mean that al-Qaeda in Iraq is "the single largest killer of Sunnis in Iraq," he said.

The most challenging part of the war in early 2008 appears to be roadside bombs planted by Shiite extremist groups.

The U.S. military calls those organizations "special groups," to distinguish them from other Islamic fighters under the sway of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. U.S. officials hope Sadr will give up violence as a political tool altogether, rather than declare a six-month cease-fire, as he did in August.

The U.S. government believes that the special groups are heavily supported by Iran. The groups have been especially effective in using explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs, sophisticated bombs designed to destroy armored vehicles. "It's high-end technology," said Rainey, the division's operations chief. "It's not four dudes making them in a basement."

Attacks using those bombs were a near-daily occurrence in mid-2007 as the groups reacted to the U.S. military counteroffensive known as "the surge." From April through October, detonations of the powerful weapons happened nearly every day, on average, with a peak of 36 in July.

The U.S. military's ability to find the bombs has not notably improved. In January 2007, before the surge began, 31 such bombs were planted. U.S. troops found 14 before they were detonated; the other 17 went off. Last month's numbers were similar: The same number were planted, and U.S. troops detected 16, with 15 exploding.

The continuing success of those attacks is forcing U.S. troops to attempt to look two ways at once. Al-Qaeda in Iraq's car bomb attacks against civilians "are the biggest threat to our mission," which is to protect the population, Rainey said. But, he added, "the biggest threat to our soldiers is the EFPs."

"The biggest thing that makes this difficult to defeat is that the Iraqis don't care" about roadside bombs, said Col. Allen W. Batschelet, the division's chief of staff. "They don't turn in a lot of tips. We don't get a lot of help."

The key to defeating roadside bombs is having U.S. troops living and patrolling in the city's neighborhoods, the officers noted. Hammond said he intends to continue the 2007 pattern of moving U.S. troops off big forward operating bases, or FOBs, and into small outposts in the city.

"If I have it my way -- and I'm going to get it my way -- I'm going to move every brigade off the FOB," with even their headquarters located in small outlying stations, Hammond said.
Posted by: Bobby || 02/03/2008 06:40 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  Just as the surge came late (but better late than never) the eventual liquidation of mookie will be seen as a case of "why did we wait as long as we did to do it?"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:43 Comments || Top||

#2  *cough**cough*cleaning up after the British*cough*.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/03/2008 9:38 Comments || Top||

#3  Having to clean after the British was ever the unpalatable task of American troops since 1776 inclusive.
Posted by: JFM || 02/03/2008 11:47 Comments || Top||

#4  Am I allowed to dare to hope that our action against Iran re the EFPs is not limited to raids inside Iraq and stern looks at meetings involving Amb. Crocker (a good guy who probably is not an obstacle to real action, IMHO)?

Nah, didn't think so ....
Posted by: Verlaine || 02/03/2008 12:54 Comments || Top||


Iraqi PM: Time to fight terrorism
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday warned of an imminent fight against Al-Qaeda, a day after two mentally impaired women bombers killed 99 people in two markets in the Iraqi capital. The Iraqi leader was speaking after a meeting in Mosul, which was attended by military and political leaders, the premier's office said. "It is time to launch a decisive battle against terrorism," Maliki said, according to a statement, cited by AFP. "The battle that our armed forces will launch will destroy terrorism and the criminal gangs and outlaws in Nineveh."

Maliki urged all Iraqis to support the security forces "so we can get rid of terrorism and the remnants of the former (Saddam Hussein) regime who use Nineveh because of its geographical location as a base for criminal actions against the people." In a statement earlier on Saturday, the prime minister said "I swear on the blood (of the victims), we will achieve all our goals in securing a stable Iraq. Our forces will continue to ... crush the terrorists and target their strongholds."
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1  Why do I have this image: Maliki's organizer; time to fight terrorism 1200 to 1215?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 8:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Maliki sounds thoroughly pissed off.

I was in Iraq when they blew up the school and killed twenty something kids lined up for exams. The Iraqis were in a rage. I was told by many that Al Qaeda was making a mistake to target women and children. It was one thing to wage war on soldiers, police, tribal leaders and security guards. IT was another thing entirely to blow up kids and women.....I think AQ is driving nails in their own coffins with this one.
TO fight an insurgency or terrorists you have to eliminate their ability to, as Mao said, "swim in the waters", I think we'll see a general turning away from AQ.
NOW if we can only get Tater to do something really stupid to use against him....like come back from Iran.
Posted by: Junior Assistant Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/03/2008 9:37 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Israel Tests 1st Radar-Imagery Satellite
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli defense and industry leaders anxiously are awaiting the planned operational certification of TecSAR, the nation’s first radar imaging satellite, which was inserted into orbit Jan. 21 by an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. By Feb. 3, sources here say, initial streams of TecSAR-generated synthetic aperture radar imagery are expected to reach the government’s secure ground station on the campus of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), builder of the 300-kilogram satellite and its multi-mode payload.

...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 18:38 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Hamas protest attempt to close Gaza border
Apparently didn't get the memo from Warty Nose.
RAFAH — Hamas militants hauled away metal spikes that Egyptian soldiers had placed at sections of the Gaza-Egypt border, defying attempts to reseal the frontier and stop the influx of blockade-weary Gazans.

Ever since Hamas-allied militants toppled the border wall Jan. 23 with a series of explosions, Hamas militants have stopped several attempts by Egypt to reseal the frontier. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have rushed into Egypt, shopping and visiting relatives, but most have returned to Gaza.

It remains unclear whether Gaza’s Hamas rulers will use force to keep the border open. They want a role in running the border with Egypt, a demand rejected this week by Egypt and Hamas’ rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said he would not allow the border to be resealed. “The Palestinian people have many options,” Haniyeh was quoted as telling the pro-Hamas daily Palestine in an interview Friday. He did not elaborate.
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Well, the metal spikes don't appear to be working.
Bring the land mines, Anwar...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/03/2008 13:13 Comments || Top||

#2  ISRAELNN/COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG/TOPIX > HAMAS PLAN: CONTROL EGYPTIAN BORDER [Gaza] AS GATEWAY TO ARAB WORLD. Egypt in alleged interim agreement to participate in joint Egypt-HAMAS control of Gaza border - HAMAS desires to reduce Israeli control of Gaza fuel supplies and electricity in favor of Egypt. PLAN REPORTEDLY TO BE FUNDED BY ARAB-MUSLIM NATIONS. Some senior IDF COmmanders reportedlt in favor reduction or elimin of Paleo fuel, electricity, etc.dependency vv Israel.

OTOH, HAARETZ > ELBARADEI: UNIAEA BRUSHES OFF CONCERN FOR ARAB/MUSLIM NUCLEAR DEVELOPMENT.
SO-o-o, by this scope dare ISRAEL ONE DAY SEE A NUCLEARIZED PA, + EGYPT NO LONGER "OVER THERE"???

TOPIX > MIDDLE EAST/ARAB ECONOMIES SEE GROWTH.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2008 21:26 Comments || Top||


One killed, two injured in family clashes in Khan Younis
Ma'an – A twenty-eight-year-old man was shot dead during a family dispute in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Friday, medical sources said. Jasser Jarghon was killed and two other local men were injured in a family clash. Dr. Mu'awiyah Hassanin, head of ambulance and emergency services at the Palestinian ministry of health told Ma'an that Jarghon's body was taken to the European Hospital in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  "Always remember Jasser, you are not alone---you have a family!"
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 8:36 Comments || Top||


Likud would win if Israeli general election called
Ma'an - A public opinion poll, published by the Israeli daily newspaper Ma'ariv on Friday, indicated that the centre-right Israeli Likud party, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, would win if national elections were held today. Meanwhile, the poll found that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party would come in third place after the Labor party and with only one more vote than the Shas.

If elections are held in the period immediately following the Winograd report, according to the poll, the seats at the Knesset would be divided in the following way:

Likud: 32 seats
Labor: 21 seats
Kadima: 11
Shas: 10
Arab Parties: 9
Right Union: 9
Billionaire Geidmick: 7
Meretz: 6
Yehdut Hetura: 5
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Now you know why Kadima MKs remain "loyal" to Olmert.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 8:37 Comments || Top||

#2  That's the problem with all our politicians - they have great hard-ons for winning elections. Winning the war against western values, not so much...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  I was in Israel a few years back. I was surprised at that time to find the Knesset had arab representation in the jewish government. Unlike Israel and other democracies, you will not find this kind of government in islamic countries. There is little tolerance for opposition, free expression, or other religions in islamic countries.
Posted by: JohnQC || 02/03/2008 16:08 Comments || Top||

#4  ION, RAW STORY/REDDIT > SY HERSH CONFIRMS: SYRIAN FACILITY BOMBED BY ISRAEL WAS NOT NUCLEAR. As previously alleged, IDF only struck a cache of NOKOR missles which Syria intended to marry/use vv CHEMICAL WARHEADS???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2008 18:54 Comments || Top||


More than 5,000 Gazans remain stranded in Al-Arish
More than 5,000 Gazan students, patients and businesspeople remained stranded on Saturday for the eleventh consecutive day in the Egyptian border town of Al-Arish.

On Friday evening Egyptian authorities allowed around 2,000 of the stranded Gazans passage to Cairo airport to fly to their destinations abroad but those remaining in Al-Arish say they are still suffering.

Many told Ma'an they were shocked by news reports which said 2,000 people had already left the country for their destinations. A Palestinian student said the number of those still left are sleeping in mosques and are living under extremely harsh conditions. One Palestinian woman, who gave her name as Nada, suspects the harsh weather has exacerbated her arthritis.

Since last Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of Gazans crossed the newly-opened border into Egypt, mainly to shop for supplies made scarce by the Israeli blockade of the territory.

Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under: Hamas

#1  Define "stranded"...
Posted by: Large Elmaish6307 || 02/03/2008 0:18 Comments || Top||

#2  Uninvited guests, etc...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 8:39 Comments || Top||

#3  'S OK, unwra is anxious to cultivate some new "clients"
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 8:47 Comments || Top||

#4  One Palestinian woman, who gave her name as Nada, suspects the harsh weather has exacerbated her arthritis.

Never doubletime to a closed border crossing or detention facility. Try Walgreens Thermophore Moist Heating Pads. They work for me.
Posted by: Besoeker || 02/03/2008 8:47 Comments || Top||

#5  ...but those remaining in Al-Arish say they are still suffering.

Am I 'mean-spirited' for not giving a flying fuck?
Posted by: Raj || 02/03/2008 9:59 Comments || Top||

#6  ...but those remaining in Al-Arish say they are still suffering.

Are they ever not "still suffering"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 02/03/2008 10:03 Comments || Top||

#7  "still suffering.."

maybe, cuz you deserve it?
Posted by: Frank G || 02/03/2008 10:11 Comments || Top||

#8  "More than 5,000 Gazans remain stranded in Al-Arish"

And we're supposed to care because....

You clowns illegally and violently broke through the border wall of a sovereign state not your own; that ain't "stranded," that's "invaded." Be grateful the Egyptians didn't shoot the lot of you on the spot. I'm not, but you should be.

Oh, yeah - and to the arthritis woman, everything is allan's will, so quit whining about the blessing arthritis he gave you. Besides, Western medicine is haram.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut || 02/03/2008 10:33 Comments || Top||

#9  I wonder how they can turn this around and blame the Jews, or a Jew.
Posted by: Cravith Poodle2527 || 02/03/2008 13:12 Comments || Top||

#10  "We have said from the days of our election campaign that we want to move toward economic disengagement from the Israeli occupation...Egypt has a greater ability to meet the needs of Gaza."

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - Feb. 3, 2008

BwaaaHaahaa!

Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/03/2008 16:42 Comments || Top||

#11  I wonder how they can turn this around and blame the Jews, or a Jew.

Well, if the Jews of Medina just chopped Muhammad & his 20 followers into dog meat when they first arrived...
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 19:53 Comments || Top||


Warty Nose: Hamas will help close border with Egypt
Egypt will close the breached border with Gaza Strip on Sunday, and Hamas will not try to prevent it, a senior Hamas leader said after holding talks in Cairo. "Tomorrow (Sunday) is going to be the last day for the border to be open like this," Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, told the Arab satellite TV station Al-Jazeera, after returning to Gaza. "We will work towards sealing the border between us and Egypt... this has to be done gradually,"

According to the AP, Zahar said Hamas would not prevent a closure of the border. However, he said in exchange Egypt agreed to allow thousands of Palestinians currently stuck in Egypt to travel to third countries and would coordinate with Hamas on border issues.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Hamas


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
A Frail Economy Raises Pressure on Iran’s Rulers
Great thing about this is, pretty much everyone in Iran knows that the economy is the killer for the Mad Mullahs™. There's no way they can fix the economy without loosening political control, and no way they can stay in power if they do that. They're vulnerable and they know it. So Iran will, at some point, fall apart even with $100 a barrel oil. And they say George Bush is dumb.
TEHRAN — In one of the coldest winters Iranians have experienced in recent memory, the government is failing to provide natural gas to tens of thousands of people across the country, leaving some for days or even weeks with no heat at all. Here in the capital, rolling blackouts every night for a month have left people without electricity, and heat, for hours at a time.

The heating crisis in this oil-exporting nation is adding to Iranians’ increasing awareness of the contrast between their growing influence abroad and frailty at home, according to government officials, diplomats and political analysts interviewed here.

From fundamentalists to reformists, people here are talking more loudly about the need for a more pragmatic approach, one that tones down the anti-Western rhetoric, at least a bit, and focuses more on improving management of the country and restoring Iran’s economic health.

“Their harsh reaction to everything shows they feel very vulnerable. They arrest 10 students because they think if they don’t, 100 will come.”
The mounting domestic challenges, the most serious of which is a grinding period of stagflation, with inflation growing and the economy weakening, have apparently deepened tensions between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the religious establishment he ultimately answers to. And they have helped spur a collective rethinking of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s stewardship as Iran prepares to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution this month and to hold parliamentary elections on March 14.

“I think the Islamic Revolution is going through an identity crisis, and is trying to mature,” said Nader Talebzadeh, a filmmaker who supports Mr. Ahmadinejad. “We are maturing, gradually.”

Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  sometimes you get what you asked for. Fuck em, let em starve in the dark til they figure out what century they wanna live in and overthrow the religious kleptocrats
Posted by: Frank G || 02/03/2008 7:08 Comments || Top||

#2  Pressure to start a war?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 02/03/2008 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  We need to be funding rebellion there.
Posted by: OldSpook || 02/03/2008 11:57 Comments || Top||

#4  No, they're doing fine without help, stay out and cheer.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 02/03/2008 14:16 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm with OS, but we just have to make sure our fingerprints are never found on anything.

There are a couple of Iranian gas refineries that are absolutely needed to keep their economy going. Refineries are funny things, you never know when someone is going to have a work accident. Darned shame if something were to happen...
Posted by: Steve White || 02/03/2008 15:40 Comments || Top||


U.N. to help Lebanon in probing Eid assassination
The U.N. Security Council approved a request from the Lebanese government for help in investigating the assassination of security intelligence officer Maj. Wissam Eid. The pan-Arab Al Hayat newspaper said a letter from the Security Council president stressed the Council's determination to help to the Lebanese government find the truth.

The UN investigation is already looking into 14 other apparently politically motivated attacks in Lebanon since the 2005 assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri. Al Hayat said the Council's approval came in response to a request by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's government asking for "technical help" in the investigation into the murder of Eid and his bodyguard which were killed in a massive car bombing on Jan. 25.

Lebanon’s "Al-Nahar" newspaper found out from very high-level security sources that Captain Wissam Eid paid a heavy price of his achievements. In addition to finding out that Fatah al Islam was behind the Ain Alaq twin bus crime he also discovered the link between Fatah al Islam terrorists and Syria’s top intelligence chief, Major General Assef Shawkat, Shawkat is the brother -in -law of Syrian president Bashar al Assad Eid also had a major role in the investigation of the murder of former Prime minister Rafik Hariri and has been involved to a great extent with the UN investigation team.
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Syria

#1  Chief Inspector Claude Cleuseau?
Posted by: Large Elmaish6307 || 02/03/2008 0:22 Comments || Top||


Aridi: Sunday riots confirmed threats by Hezbollah & allies
"Sunday riots confirm the threats made by Hezbollah -led opposition in the event they did not succeed in forcing a the formation of a government of national unity in which they will have a veto power, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said.

Aridi added : “They threatened either a third of the government plus one more for veto or an escalation of the protests that could lead to more violence and riots and this is exactly what happened.“

Aridi said : The fact that the Arab league initiative did not include a veto share in a future unity government upset the Hezbollah -led opposition and led to the riots last Sunday.

Aridi continued: “what is happening right now is extremely dangerous and we will all end up paying a high price for it . Those that were killed last Sunday during the protests against the living conditions and the power cuts are our children . Every Lebanese has the right to express own opinion , but resorting to undemocratic and unpeaceful means and targeting of the army is totally unacceptable.“
Posted by: Fred || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: Hezbollah


Mookie The 'Manchrian Mullah'
IRAN'S EDUCATION OF MUQTADA AL-SADR

*It normally takes at least 12 years of intensive studies to become a "mujtahid" (who can offer religious guidance). And the title "Sign of God" can't be secured solely by studying: Ayatollahs bestow it on only a few individuals in each generation. The candidate must author a "resaleh" (dissertation), with at least one grand ayatollah publicly acknowledging its theological value...

*Sometime in 2012 or so, we may meet Ayatollah al-Sayyed Muqtada al-Sadr al-Mahallati al-Tabatabai. By then, Najaf's four aging grand ayatollahs could have passed on, thus making it easier for Tehran to market Muqtada as a religious authority for Iraqis...

*To win control of Iraq after the Americans leave, Iran needs to control Najaf. But none of the senior clerics there now is prepared to accept the authority of Iranian "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenei (himself the product of a similar political project for manufacturing an ayatollah). So Muqtada's makeover is of vital importance to Iran's strategy in Iraq...
Posted by: DepotGuy || 02/03/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Iran

#1  Sounds veily like they are getting ready to market a hybrid Grand Ayatollah.
Posted by: Thomas Woof || 02/03/2008 7:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Could someone tell me why we haven't flamed this asshole yet?
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 02/03/2008 9:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Agreed, TADAR needs a vital make-over!
Posted by: Cravith Poodle2527 || 02/03/2008 12:52 Comments || Top||

#4  MANCHRIAN, or MANCHURIAN [Net]???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 02/03/2008 16:38 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Why nobody trusts the media anymore (one of a series)
Forty Years of the Tet Offensive
David Warren, Real Clear Politics

. . . The tide was actually turned within a few days by the U.S. and South Vietnamese armies. As they re-took town after town, they discovered massacres the Communists had committed while in possession. The enemy's real object had been to decapitate a whole society.

My friend, Uwe Siemon-Netto, a German Lutheran pastor and also life-long journalist, was there as a reporter. Entering Hué as the smoke was clearing: “I made my way to university apartments to obtain news about friends of mine, German professors at the medical school. I learned that their names had been on lists containing some 1,800 Hué residents singled out for liquidation.

“Six weeks later the bodies of doctors Alois Altekoester, Raimund Discher, Horst-Guenther Krainick, and Krainick's wife, Elisabeth, were found in shallow graves they had been made to dig for themselves.

“Then, enormous mass graves of women and children were found. Most had been clubbed to death, some buried alive; you could tell from the beautifully manicured hands of women who had tried to claw out of their burial place.

“As we stood at one such site, Washington Post correspondent Peter Braestrup asked an American TV cameraman, 'Why don't you film this?' He answered, 'I am not here to spread anti-communist propaganda'.” . . .
Posted by: Mike || 02/03/2008 11:03 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is the work of the US Congress.
Posted by: newc || 02/03/2008 11:29 Comments || Top||

#2  I personally was stunned and amazed to learn Tet was not an overwhelming military victory for the Commies, but rather a last dying gasp. Of course, back then we all got our news from the mainstream media and Walter Cronkite.
Posted by: SteveS || 02/03/2008 12:45 Comments || Top||

#3  If we had the same type of reporters in WWII we might have quit after the Battle of Bulge and certainly after Iwo Jima.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge || 02/03/2008 13:00 Comments || Top||

#4  It is tragic that he didn't say who that "American TV cameraman" worked for. I would love to know which network. It had to be ABC, NBC, or CBS.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 02/03/2008 13:14 Comments || Top||

#5  mini rant, 2¢ worth:
Because we are at WAR with every Commie, Socialist, Leftest, every Islamist, every EU-bureaucrat, and almost every Media Clone new or old....

About year ago or maybe more I began to challenge every leftist or Paleo by first casting them as HATERS of America and depending on the topic HATERS of Israel. Right off the bat, as the first order of business in most cases.

I no longer begin by relating to these folks that I may have personal knowledge or attempt to lay out some historical facts to them unless some individual truly desires to exchange ideas [a rare situation indeedy].

Surprisingly this armchair battle-strategy works on a couple of levels.

1) It feels good to honestly nail the fuckers even if they are only brainwashed fools without malice.

2) It rightly re-orientates the conversation to the salient facts concerning the motives of the Haters.
Posted by: RD || 02/03/2008 13:59 Comments || Top||

#6  Therre's a famous (or maybe not so famous) story of Robert Tregaskis, the author of Guadalcanal Diary commenting to David Halberstam about the mendacious conduct of the American press (ptui)in Viet Nam: "I don't know how you people sleep at night."
Posted by: M. Murcek || 02/03/2008 15:05 Comments || Top||

#7  “As we stood at one such site, Washington Post correspondent Peter Braestrup asked an American TV cameraman, 'Why don't you film this?' He answered, 'I am not here to spread anti-communist propaganda'.” . . .

My, how the press has changed. Today, you can't find one who would ask the question in the first place.
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 02/03/2008 15:46 Comments || Top||

#8  If we had the same type of reporters in WWII

We did and they often were the same reporters. The difference was the Nazis attacked the Communists in June 1941.
Posted by: ed || 02/03/2008 16:08 Comments || Top||

#9  THe Communists tried a takeover of Hollywood after 1945 for its capacity in molding public opinion. Thay were clumsy, alienated the even lef wing people like Bogart and ended failiing.


Wouldn't have been logical to infiltrate something who is far more influent than Holywood ie the press.
Posted by: JFM || 02/03/2008 17:48 Comments || Top||

#10  I feel exactly the same way SteveS. I will *never* trust the media for anything ever again.

I was even more stunned when I found that soon after Tet the NVA were ready to talk peace but Hanoi Jane talked them out of it and Walter Cronkite's outright lies (that we, the USA, had suffered a 'stunning defeat') on the nightly news convinced them to continue.

Walter Cronkite and his MSM (along with Hanoi Jane) were responsible for the extension of the war and the deaths of hundreds of soldiers and most likely thousands of civilians.
Posted by: CrazyFool || 02/03/2008 19:35 Comments || Top||

#11  Hell, I even question the ads, and I know what they're selling
Posted by: Frank G || 02/03/2008 20:26 Comments || Top||

#12  About year ago or maybe more I began to challenge every leftist or Paleo by first casting them as HATERS of America and depending on the topic HATERS of Israel. Right off the bat, as the first order of business in most cases.

Interesting, I've only recently started doing the same thing. Amazing how well it works. I've also taken to telling Libtards and traveling companions they are Patriotically Incorrect. You should see their eyes roll around in their heads as they parse that.


First the traitors, then the enemy!
Posted by: Grease Dark Lord of the Algonquins9226 || 02/03/2008 22:28 Comments || Top||

#13  I got to Viet Nam the first time about six weeks after the 68 Tet.
Everyone in the 4ID was talking about how we kicked their butts....hard.
The VC never were able to field anything much larger than a squad sized unit thereafter. The fight was fought exclusively by the NVA.
There were articles in Time Magazine about the mass graves in Hue. We heard all about it. I was surprised how several thousand Vietnamese in a mass grave wasn't newsworthy. Of course, it was who did the killing. We accidentialyy napalm a group of refugees and it is on the front page of the Times.
We gave away that country and we gave away thousands of lives. Much as the leftist and communists in the news media are doing today with Iraq.
It is funny how a major victory by the US forces in the Tet could get spun into a defeat by a few television correspondents who never left Saigon.
Posted by: Junior Assistant Sock Puppet of Doom || 02/03/2008 22:43 Comments || Top||

#14  My motto regarding the media is the same motto a good banker uses in processing loan requests - "Don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see."

Well, that was the motto until a few years ago when anyone could get a loan, and now they have a mess on thier hands.
Posted by: www || 02/03/2008 22:50 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2008-02-03
  Baitullah offers conditional talks
Sat 2008-02-02
  British bishop gets police protection after Islamist death threats
Fri 2008-02-01
  Yemen: Al-Qaeda fighting rebels 'at government's request'
Thu 2008-01-31
  Abu Laith al-Libi titzup?
Wed 2008-01-30
  18 Orakzai tribes form Lashkar against Taliban
Tue 2008-01-29
  Egypt starts to rebuild Gaza border fences
Mon 2008-01-28
  9 killed, dozens injured during Hezbollah-led riots in Leb
Sun 2008-01-27
  Gazooks foil attempt to seal Rafah: day 4
Sat 2008-01-26
  Mullah Omar sacks Baitullah for fighting against Pak Army
Fri 2008-01-25
  Beirut bomb kills top anti-terror investigator
Thu 2008-01-24
  Mosul kaboom kills 15, wounds 132
Wed 2008-01-23
  Gunnies blow Rafah wall, thousands of Paleos flood into Egypt
Tue 2008-01-22
   Musharraf: Pakistan isn't hunting Osama
Mon 2008-01-21
  Darkness falls on Gaza
Sun 2008-01-20
  Spain arrests 14 over possible Barcelona attack


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