Frances defence minister warned today it would not tolerate extortion attempts, after 30 hostages were freed from a luxury boat off Somalia and a French military operation against pirates who had held them. The pirates release of the crew members on Friday, a week after they were seized, saw six hostage-takers arrested in a dramatic French raid afterwards as they attempted to escape in a 4x4, French officials said.
A source close to the negotiations with the pirates said the boat owner paid some two million dollars to free the hostages, and that a portion of the money was recovered when the six pirates were detained. "This is the first time a country has decided not to let itself be extorted, but to take matters into its own hands," Herve Morin said on RTL, praising French special forces for apprehending six of the hostage-takers.
Morin added that President Nicolas Sarkozy had ordered that, if possible, the hostage-takers be captured alive to face justice. "The president gave an instruction that - if it was possible without any collateral damage - we tried to apprehend the hostage-takers so they can be delivered to justice," Morin said.
The 22 French crew members of the 30 people aboard the Le Ponant yacht are expected to be brought back to France soon, probably by Monday evening, Morin said. A special plane has already left for the French military base in Djibouti to collect them.
Morin also called on the United Nations to launch an "international initiative" to protect maritime shipping in areas where piracy is on the rise, such as off Somalia. That call was echoed by French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, whilst on a trip to Japan. The French foreign ministry indicated that it would like to see those six captured brought to France for trial. "The foreign affairs ministry and the justice ministry are working together to ensure that these people will be tried in France," a spokesman said.
That is expected to cause a "number of problems", a source close to the case told AFP, since the yacht was boarded in international waters, taken to Somalias territorial waters, and then the hostage-takers captured on Somali soil.
Guess you'll just have to hang the pirates at sea.
Or use them for chum.
Although the French general in charge of the rescue operation, Jean-Louis Georgelin, said yesterday no "public money" had been paid to the kidnappers, a source close to the case suggested around two million dollars had been handed over. Yesterday a local Somali regional governor said that three people were killed when French helicopters carried out a raid on pirates after the hostages were freed. Sarkozys office "categorically" denied the governors claims. "Not a drop of blood was spilt," Morin insisted today.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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I wonder if France will set aside its distaste for the death penalty for these pirates.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
04/13/2008 1:18 Comments ||
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Extremist ideas are being spread by Islamic study centres linked to British universities and backed by multi-million-pound donations from Saudi Arabia and Muslim organisations, a new report claims. I know, and bears poop in the woods
Eight universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have accepted more than £233.5 million from Saudi and Muslim sources since 1995, with much of the money going to Islamic study centres, according to the report. The total sum, revealed by Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University's Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, amounts to the largest source of external funding to UK universities. Explains a lot
Arab donors have argued that their gifts to academic institutions help to promote understanding between the West and the Islamic world. However, Prof Glees claims in his unpublished report that the propagation of one-sided views of Islam and the Middle East at universities amounts to anti-Western propaganda.
Prof Glees attracted controversy in 2005 when he claimed that up to 48 universities had been infiltrated by fundamentalists and warned that the threat posed by radical groups should be "urgently addressed".
At a conference in London on Thursday, the Government is expected to call for the opening of more Islamic study centres at British universities. Last year, ministers declared Islamic studies a "strategically important subject" and put aside £1 million for the teaching of the subject, as part of a counter-radicalisation drive. Universities that have accepted donations from Saudi royals and other Arab sources include Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, University College London, the London School of Economics, Exeter, Dundee and City. Prof Glees says Government policies "push the wrong sort of education by the wrong sort of people, funded by the wrong sorts of donor".
He added: "The Government must reconsider its far-reaching, security-driven plan to use higher education in the fight against the radicalisation of young British Muslims. If it proceeds, it will create the very situation the Government wants to avoid: the development of self-imposed Muslim apartheid in the UK."
He called on the Government to ban universities from accepting money from Saudi or Islamic groups to fund Islamic studies; for all university donations to be made public, and for a public inquiry into foreign funding. Major donations include £20 million from the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia towards the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, due to open next year, which is associated to the university. Prof Glees's report claims that over the past five years, 70 per cent of politics lectures at the Middle Eastern Centre at St Antony's College, Oxford, were "implacably hostile" to the West and Israel - an allegation denied by Oxford.
Prof Glees says universities are so strapped for cash that they risk being "held over a barrel", with no option but to accept donations. He said: "Britain's universities will have to generate two national cultures: one non-Muslim and largely secular, the other Muslim. "We will have two identities, two sets of allegiance and two legal and political systems. This must, by the Government's own logic, hugely increase the risk of terrorism." Too late
The report, to be published by the Centre for Social Cohesion, an offshoot of the centre-Right Civitas think tank, also questions the choice of Dr Ataullah Siddiqui as the Government's chief adviser on Islamic studies. Prof Glees alleges that Dr Siddiqui, who is a director of Leicester's Markfield Institute of Higher Education, has ideological links to extreme Islamic groups. He argues that by employing Dr Siddiqui as its chief adviser, the Government risks aiding the spread of extremism, rather than preventing it.
Dr Siddiqui said: "These claims are false. I deny completely that I have any organisational or ideological links with extremist organisations. I also deny that the Markfield Institute has any such links with extremist organisations."
An Oxford University spokesman said: "The university has not seen Prof Glees's report. If any allegations have been made that funders influence or bias the methods, outcomes, or political stances taken in research and teaching at Oxford, the university categorically denies them."
A spokesman for Universities UK, the umbrella organisation for universities, said: "All academic programmes in the UK, including Islamic studies, are subject to the UK's rigorous and independent quality assurance procedures."
A spokesman for the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills said: "Institutions have the primary responsibility for determining and maintaining the standards of the awards they deliver and the quality of the education they provide."
Posted by: Steve ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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the same thing is happening here and we can be sure that our worthless Senate and House prince and princesses will do nothing to address the problem other than make it worse by accepting campaign contributions from the very same people we whose access we need to limit.
Chinese police have conducted raids on several houses in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, possibly looking for weapons, sources in the area have told Radio Free Asia (RFA).
Authorities in Yengiyer township near Gulja (in Chinese, Yili) city raided four familiy homes belonging to Muslim Uyghurs, detaining several people, the sources said. Police dug up the yard at one house, although they gave no indication what they were looking for, a Uyghur source in Gulja told RFAs Uyghur service.
Police in Gulja acknowledged that a secret operation ordered by top officials in Xinjiang had taken place in recent days, but they declined to give details. An officer on duty at the Yengiyer township police bureau said: Sorry, we cannot tell you about this without getting higher-lever official approval. You can leave your telephone number. A duty officer at the Gulja municipal police department said the topic was secret. We cant tell you about thisits secret, he said. Even some of our fellow police officers dont know about it in our own bureau. You cannot just ask me by phone about these sensitive issues.
If you want to know more detail about this, you should ask the [Xinjiang Uyghur] Autonomous Region police bureau. They are the ones who ordered the action, I cannot tell you the operation codename. It is secret, he added.
A Han Chinese resident of Alamatuya village in Yengiyer township said that at least one house had been searched by police in his neighborhood. Because the Uyghurs were causing trouble...They had explosives in their house, he told RFAs Mandarin service. Maybe someone reported it, he said, adding that he believed the Uyghurs had been influenced by recent unrest in Tibet and were possibly connected to unrest in Gulja which was brutally suppressed by Chinese security forces in the 1990s.
Some say more than a dozen were taken away...They were all hiding in the same house...it was the day before yesterday or the day before that, the man, identified by his surname, Tang, said. The family belongs to the second unit of the village. A second resident of Yengiyer said: I heard it was terrorists. But I am not very clear about this.
The raids come one week after several hundred ethnic Uyghurs staged protests following the death in custody of a prominent Uyghur businessman and philanthropist. Witnesses report protests at two locations in Khotan prefecturein Khotan city March 23-24 and Qaraqash county March 23. Several hundred protesters were taken into custody, numerous sources said, and security remains tight.
Numerous sources said the demonstrations followed the death in custody of a wealthy Uyghur jade trader and philanthropist, Mutallip Hajim, 38. Police returned his body to relatives March 3 after two months in custody, saying he had died in hospital of heart trouble. According to an authoritative source, police instructed the family to bury him immediately and inform no one of his death.
The Muslim Canadian Congress (MCC) has expressed disappointment at the move by a number of Islamic countries to force the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) into approving a resolution curtailing freedom of speech in the name of protecting religion.
The resolution approved at the UNHRC was initiated by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) under the title Combating Defamation of Religion. The MCC said the OIC resolution is nothing more than a cover to silence opponents of Islamist oppression inside Muslim countries, as well as the West. The group pointed out that the UNHRC resolution, instead of protecting the right to freedom of conscience and religious expression, will become a tool in the hands of some countries and the world jihadi movement to terrorise the opponents of extremism. The move is a retrogressive step greatly undermining the rights of individuals who believe in questioning, evaluating and challenging religious dogma, according to the MCC. Many Islamic countries have no qualms in executing their Muslim citizens on trumped-up charges of apostasy and using it to instil fear in the hearts of Muslims who reject the man-made Sharia law of the 12th century being applied in the 21st, it pointed out.
The MCC said the UNHRCs decision has little to do with protecting the rights of such individuals who are already vulnerable to threats by radicals and extremists. Very often these take the shape of death threats over perceived heresies and blasphemies against orthodox belief. It will merely strengthen the hands of fanatics who do not believe in tolerating dissent within religious discourse. The MCC is asking the Canadian government to follow the example of Britain in repealing blasphemy laws. Such restrictions on freedom of religion are no longer justified in pluralistic societies guaranteeing freedom of belief and conscience, including the right to question religious doctrine, monotheistic or otherwise. The Canadian group said that laws that justify slavery, polygamy, second-class status of women and death penalty for apostates and homosexuals, should best be left as part of history, not the future.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I get sooooo confused when all the good and bad things are phrased to be politically correct. This is a muslim group claiming the UN should allow folks to be critical of their religion?
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/13/2008 6:56 Comments ||
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#2
Yea, it's not easy to make a sense of it, but MCC and its chairman Tariq Fatah seem to be consistently anti-jihadi.
#3
More than the average number of Canadian Muslims are fleeing from extremists in their country of origin, and are dead set against things like Canadian efforts to "allow" Sharia law, and the evil Canadian "human rights" kangaroo court.
"I feel quite at ease in doing this," Carter said. "I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process."
Although he said the meeting would not be a negotiation, he outlined distinct goals. "I think that it's very important that at least someone meet with the Hamas leaders to express their views, to ascertain what flexibility they have, to try to induce them to stop all attacks against innocent civilians in Israel and to cooperate with the Fatah as a group that unites the Palestinians, maybe to get them to agree to a cease-fire things of this kind," he said.
The State Department says it advised Carter twice against meeting representatives of Hamas, which Washington considers a terrorist organization. "I find it hard to understand what is going to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is, in fact, the impediment to peace," Rice said Friday, after reports of the planned meeting surfaced.
Carter said he'd be meeting Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudi Arabians and others "who might have to play a crucial role in any future peace agreement that involves the Middle East."
Asked whether it was right to meet a group that has not renounced violence or recognized Israel, he said, "Well, you can't always get prerequisites adopted by other people before you even talk to them."
Pressure to drop the meeting has come from his own party. Democratic Reps. Artur Davis of Alabama, Shelley Berkley of Nevada, Adam Schiff of California and Adam Smith of Washington state wrote a letter to Carter saying the meeting could confer legitimacy on a group that embraces violence.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/13/2008 07:53 ||
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Carter said he'd be meeting Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Saudi Arabians and others Iranians "who might have to play a crucial role in any future peace agreement that involves the Middle East."
#7
why didn't they put a tracking device on carter before he went , so maybe an errant missile will hit the building the big wigs are in at the same time that would seem too solve on prob for us and alot for israel
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/13/2008 14:21 Comments ||
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#9
I'd be quite at ease revoking his f'ing citizenship, Abu.
Let him go live in one of those hellholes he loves so much, and relieve his of the privilege of living in a country he has hated for decades.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/13/2008 14:51 Comments ||
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#10
Frankly, I would be quite happy if the only story about Jimmy Carter I ever saw in Rantburg or anywhere else included the words "died of natural causes".
Actually, I would be happy if the story just included the word "died".
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
04/13/2008 15:45 Comments ||
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#11
I usually don't wish bad things on individuals, but I wonder why Carter can't come down with AIDS, Alzheimers, syphilis and dengue fever, all at the same time. Where's a good biblical plague when you really need one?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2008 16:07 Comments ||
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#12
Carter is the worst president in the last century. And you know who looks like his friggin clone? Barack. (shudder)
#13
Carter has a penchant for making the wrong call and siding with our enemies. It is useless to meet with Hamas with regards to mideast peace because Hamas cannot see any mideast picture that includes Israel. Hamas, as Israel's other similar enemies have vowed to destroy Israel.
VANCOUVER: Top Canadian leaders stayed away from a controversial Baisakhi parade, which displayed pictures of Sikh militants in the city of Surrey near here. Over 100,000 attended the parade, which is the largest such event by the Indo-Canadian community in the country.
Though there were no floats glorifying militant Sikhs during Saturday's parade organised by the Dasmesh Darbar Sikh Temple, its pro-Khalistan message was unmistakable, with its lead poster proclaiming: "We salute our great martyrs."
The organisers had put up an exhibition of pictures of "shaheeds" (martyrs) on the temple premises. On top of the entrance gate to the exhibition was written in bold letters: "Story of Sikh Genocide in India".
Among those whose photos were displayed were Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, the two assassins of former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi, Sukha and Jinda, the killers of former Indian army chief General AS Vaidya, who is blamed for ordering the 1984 Army action at the Golden Temple in Amrtisar to flush out militants, and leaders of the banned Babbar Khalsa and the International Sikh Youth Federation.
Under the headline "And those who betrayed the cause of the Sikh nation" were displayed pictures of Indira Gandhi, late president Giani Zail Singh, former home minister Buta Singh, late Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, and late Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, former Akali Dal president who had signed the Punjab peace accord with Rajiv Gandhi. Also included under this headline was the top leadership of the Akali Dal, including Parkash Singh Badal, his son Sukhbir and Tamil Nadu governor and former Akali Dal leader Surjit Singh Barnala.
The pictures of the mutilated bodies of young Sikhs allegedly killed in staged state killings were also displayed.
Since their presence at last year's parade, which carried floats depicting militant Sikh leaders such as Air India plot mastermind Talwinder Singh Parmar, later became an embarrassment for them, most political leaders decided to stay away.
British Columbian premier Gordon Campbell left for Vancouver Island. Attorney-general Wally Oppal, who is the topmost Indo-Canadian in the provincial government, too didn't show up. Opposition leader Carole James too was absent as was Indo-Canadian MP Neena Grewal.
However, former Canadian revenue minister Herb Dhaliwal was present at the main stage at the Sikh temple, as were some other Indo-Canadian leaders, including MP Sukh Dhaliwal, former British Columbia minister Moe Sihota, and Jagrup Brar and Harry Bains, both MLAs. "Everybody has a right to speech as long as it does not promote violence. So I have no problem in coming here," Brar said.
Surrey city mayor Diane Watts walked with the parade under heavy security, but stayed away from the parade organisers. The mayor and the city authorities had counselled the radical Sikh temple against displaying such floats as it condoned acts of violence.
Surrey is home to the largest concentration of Indo-Canadians, mostly Punjabis, anywhere outside of India. During the militancy in Punjab, it had become the hotbed of separatist pro-Khalistan elements.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/13/2008 08:26 ||
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Surprising they didn't include other Sikh 'traitors' and 'betrayers' like Manmohan Singh (the Indian PM) Montek Singh Ahluwalia (the planning commission chairman - most powerful civil servant in India), JJ Singh (the former Army chief and now Governor of Arunachal Pradesh state), Arjun Singh (Marshal of the Indian Air Force) or the 30% of the Indian military's Generals and Admirals who are Sikh.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/13/2008 8:33 Comments ||
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KATHMANDU - Nepals ex-rebel Maoists were emerging on Saturday as the surprise single biggest victors in early results from landmark elections to rebuild the Himalayan nation after a bloody civil war. The polls were held last Thursday to elect a 601-seat assembly which is slated to abolish the centuries-old monarchy and rewrite the constitution. In the capital, thousands of Maoist supporters staged impromptu victory rallies, waving hammer-and-sickle flags, shouting Maoist slogans and throwing red powder to celebrate their early victories.
The Maoists have won or are leading in a total of 82 seats, said election commission spokesman Laxman Bhattarai. Full results of the impoverished Himalayan nations polls -- a dual first-past-the-post and proportional representation system -- will not be known for at least a week.
But what we can be fairly certain about is that the Maoists have a strong chance of emerging as the single largest party, said Nepali Times political columnist Prashant Jha. However, he cautioned we can take the first-past-the-post as some sort of trend, but not necessarily extrapolate it fully. There will be differences and other parties are banking on that now.
The proportional election results, which will take longer to calculate, were expected to give the Maoists a further boost, analysts said.
Among the Maoists rejoicing was the partys charismatic leader Prachanda,who won twice as many votes as his nearest rival in his Kathmandu constituency. I thank all Nepalese people for giving us the responsibility to make a new Nepal. I will remain fully committed to the peace process and multi-party democracy, said Prachanda, whose nom-de-guerre means the fierce one.
We are committed to working with other political parties... to make the new constitution that will chart a new course for Nepal, said Prachanda as Maoist supporters cheered him. Prachanda, a former school teacher who spent 25 years underground -- 10 of them in armed struggle to topple the monarchy --has said he wants to be the first president of a republican Nepal if the masses want to give me the responsibility.
The Maoists swept eight out of 10 constituencies in the hill-ringed Kathmandu capital region, a traditional bastion of the monarchy.
Seventeen constituencies had been won by the Maoists out of 29 seats declared and the party was leading in another 65 constituencies, election officials said. The centrist Nepali Congress had won or was leading in 28 constituencies while the left-of-centre Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) had won or was leading in 22, the officials said. Smaller parties had won or were leading in the remaining 19 constituencies being counted.
So about two-thirds of the country is Marxist. I think Nepal is lost.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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The Iraqi government has dismissed about 1,300 soldiers and policemen who deserted or refused to fight during last month's offensive against Shiite militias and criminal gangs in Basra, officials said Sunday. make sure you get back the uniforms and weapons, k?
Fortunately we have biometrics on all of them ...
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said 921 police and soldiers were fired in Basra. They included 37 senior police officers ranging in rank from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general. Too chummy with Sadr's "criminals"
The others were dismissed in Kut, one of the Shiite cities where the fight had spread.
Last month, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered the security forces to confront armed groups in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. But they met fierce resistance and the attack quickly ground to a halt as fighting flared across the Shiite south and Baghdad.
Since then, government officials have revealed that about 1,000 members of the security forces - including an entire infantry battalion - had mutinied, on some cases handing over vehicles and weapons to the militias.
Speaking in Basra, Khalaf said those dismissed included 421 police officers and 500 soldiers who had not returned to duty in the southern port city and would be tried by military courts. "Some of them were sympathetic with these lawbreakers, some refused to (go into) battle for political or national or sectarian or religious reasons," Khalaf said. or because they were pulling dual duties?
But he said that those who returned in coming days and could prove they had been prevented from doing so by the militias would be reinstated.
Let's face it: at least one infantry battalion was green and untested, and they broke. One of the several lessons from this is that in the future, you don't put green troops into an urban warfare situation. Bring your best and let them handle the job.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2008 10:59 ||
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#1
file under next best thang... 'Dualies'
Well At least Our Folks and the Maliki Gubmint have these Double Dippers's prints, pics, DNA and relatives on file now.
#4
Intel sez a lot of these defections didn't happen on the spur of the moment; a lot of the groundwork was laid in place for an upcoming 'Tet'. Many were bribed, some were threatened (reportedly the 'special groups' have IP cops' cell phone numbers). Others did for the various reasons described.
Doesn't excuse any of it. Also doesn't mean all of them 'broke'.
Secretary Gates was asked at a Pentagon news conference if he considers Moqtada al-Sadr to be an enemy of the United States. Gates said those who are prepared to work within the political process in Iraq are not enemies of the United States.
Notice he didn't actually answer the question about the Marquis de Sadr?
When asked about the prospects of arresting Sadr if he returns to Iraq, Gates said he would be surprised if that happened.
That response could apply to either piece of that sentence: I'd be surprised if Tater was arrested, too. I'd also be surprised if he returns to Iraq, certainly not while the festivities are in progress. He's not real long on physical bravery.
Someone has to stay behind and rouse the rabble ...
"He is a significant political figure. And clearly if he is willing to work within ... we want him to work within the political process in Iraq. He has a large following," he said.
"It's up to the Iraqis to arrest him."
Secretary Gates said it is important that the cleric become a part of the political process if he is not already.
"Otherwise, he's either gonna become a resident of Teheran or he's gonna become a deader."
Sadr is believed to be safely in Iran, while elements of his Mahdi Army continue to fight Iraqi government troops supported by U.S. forces. He has not been since in public since May of last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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"...of course, we wouldn't cry ourselves to sleep if he fell down the stairs and broke his neck, either."
Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says he will not enter any kind of political process that would allow US forces to remain in Iraq. Al-Sadr lashed out at US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Saturday, saying that he will always remain his enemy because he is 'the occupier of Iraq'. "You have always been my enemy, and you will always be my enemy till the last drop of my blood," Sadr said in a statement. Lot of people feel that way about Bill Gates, oh wait....
The top cleric's remarks was a reaction to comments made by Gates in which he said those who are prepared to work peacefully within the political process in Iraq are not the enemies of the United States. "Which political process do you want to involve me in when you are occupying my land," Sadr said. "I heard the statement of the terrorist American defense secretary and I feel compelled to give a decent response to such a terrorist. I have no enemy but you. You are the occupier."
On Friday, Robert Gates said al-Sadr was a significant political player due to his large number of followers in Iraq's Shia community. Gates also called on al-Sadr to take part in the political process.
The cleric also told his Mahdi Army, currently engaged in fierce battles with Iraqi and US forces that he will not accept "any armed men on the streets when they are empty of the occupier." "If the occupier leaves the cities, we should not use our weapons. Don't raise you weapons against Iraqis as long as they don't help the occupier. I also call on the Iraqi government to back its people to rid the land of the occupier," al-Sadr said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So I guess he will be "staying in Iran" and continuing to remain on his knees staying busy on the Iarnian's member.
#2
I find it more interesting that Sadr found it necessary to respond to Gates with a statement. And that the best he could do was to dish out more of with last year's blather about occupation and evil US shows he's in trouble.
If his gangs could defeat IAF they certainly would, if he could have gotten his million man march off on the Anniv of Iraqs liberation he certainly would....his gangs have these infectious special groups, whom he can not control, so he's reduced to status of disc jocky pumpping out rhetoric....an on demand mouthpiece, in service to others not of the religious specie.
sadr's gang is inextricably tied with iran....the ebb and flow of this particular awareness will guarantee widespread opposition & sadrs eventual sacrifice.
#4
Whatever happened to that million madhi march? Couldn't get the Iranians to show?
Posted by: ed ||
04/13/2008 8:29 Comments ||
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#5
I find it more interesting that Sadr found it necessary to respond to Gates with a statement. And that the best he could do was to dish out more of with last year's blather about occupation and evil US shows he's in trouble.
Denial can be found at the intersection of Rage and Impotence.
#7
Mookie's beginning to resemble the Clinton campaign both in terms of substance and rhetoric. The only discernable difference is he looks better in a dress.
Posted by: regular joe ||
04/13/2008 13:27 Comments ||
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#8
That's in Egypt somewhere, isn't it, spiffo? ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/13/2008 14:42 Comments ||
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#9
HotAir has a link to Saudi Aawsat paper saying Iran's told Tater to go home. Link's hosed (probably by too many hits), so I can't see the rationale....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2008 16:17 Comments ||
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#10
Gates should be happy about this. Your place in Heaven partly determined by who your enemies are.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
04/13/2008 18:33 Comments ||
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#11
HMMMMM, GATES but NOT RUMMY or ROVE or CHENEY???
Iraq's Sadr movement says US forces have been involved in the Friday assassination of a top Sadrist in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf.
"The criminal acts of occupying forces in (Baghdad's) Sadr city and other places clearly indicate that they are ordering terror and massacre," said Rasem al-Marvani who is a cultural advisor to al-Sadr.
Unidentified gunmen shot dead Riyad al-Nuri, director of the Sadr movement's office in Najaf and the Brother-in-law of anti-US Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in the holy city of Najaf. "The criminal acts of occupying forces in (Baghdad's) Sadr city and other places clearly indicate that they are ordering terror and massacre," said Rasem al-Marvani who is a cultural advisor to al-Sadr in an interview with Iran's al-Alam Arabic news network. Marvani added that al-Sadr's statement after the assassination also held the occupation forces responsible for the incident.
Certain parties in Iraq are deliberately causing tension in the country in order to justify the continued presence of occupiers, the official said. He also criticized Iraq's security authorities for failing to prevent the assassination, saying the Iraqi government and religious authorities must find a solution to resolve the current crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Certain parties in Iraq are deliberately causing tension in the country in order to justify the continued presence of occupiers, the official said. He also criticized Iraq's security authorities for failing to prevent the assassination, saying the Iraqi government and religious authorities must find a solution to resolve the current crisis.
Maybe not, Mookie. Maybe they don't want the current "crisis" to be resolved until the Al-Sadr name is mud, that all that remains of the "Mehdi Army" are a half-dozen teens in ragged cast-offs with two AK-47s and and a disfunctional RPG-7. Maybe Iraq's security authorities realize that the one key ingredient keeping Iran from waging a more open war against Iraq is the presence of a REAL army they'd have to fight. Most of them know they'd get their a$$es handed to them in a leaky paper sack if that happened. Be careful, Mookie, of what tea you drink, and with whom.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2008 16:24 Comments ||
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"The Palestinian reproduction machine works 24 hours a day," Hamas' political leader Khaled Mashaal declared this week during his daughter's wedding in Syria.
London-based newspaper al-Hayat reported extensively Sunday on the wedding of Mashaal's daughter, Fatma to Tarek Irshid, a Palestinian residing in Syria. The event, which was schedule to take place in Damascus, was moved to a secret location at the last minute due to security concerns. The wedding was reportedly attended by many high-ranking Syrian officials, including Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, senior army officers, head of the Palestinian factions residing in Damascus, Islamic Jihad head Ramadan Salah and Arab countries' ambassadors.
According to al-Hayat, the bride's happy father entertained his guests with a "cheerful and amusing" speech. The Hamas leader claimed that the fact that his daughter, the offspring of 1967 refugees, was marrying his brother-in-law Tarek, whose family left Israel in 1948, meant that their children would be able to return to Israel, because "the sacred right of return includes the return of refugees to all the territories occupied in 1948."
Mashaal also expressed his hope that the couple would soon create a "new generation of liberation" that would succeed the old "generation of resistance." The "Palestinian reproduction machine," Mashaal continued, "works 24 hours a day." To prove his point, he noted that he himself had seven children, while Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had no fewer than 18 children, "who could form a government all of their own."
Mashaal also used the festive opportunity to thank Syria for continuing to stand by the Palestinians and support their struggle.
#6
The baby-making machine is slowing down. Palestinian women used to produce between seven and nine babies. They're now down to around four, if I recall correctly -- one reason the population count a few years ago was found to be a million people short of expectations.
The Palestinian Investment Fund says it plans to build 30,000 affordable apartments in the West Bank and Gaza to ease a growing housing crunch.
If they'd quit shooting Kassams at Sderot, perhaps they wouldn't have their current housing flattened so frequently ...
An official in the fund said Saturday that the project will cost more than $2 billion, and that private investors will be involved. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement will only be made Monday. The official added that a mortgage company would be established as part of the project.
So the Paleos, without any tradition of actually doing this stuff, let along doing much of anything constructive, are going to 1) create a mortgage industry 2) plan an urban housing development 3) get private investors to go in on this and 4) build 30,000 high quality but affordable apartments.
Hell, if they can do that bring them to Baltimore ...
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Maybe they should figure out a way to operate a refinery, to prevent the humiliation of waiting in line first.....
#2
They'll probably be affordable because they won't have heat, light, gas, or water.
Shit, somebody will probably steal the money before they get built anyways...
#11
maybe we should send our mexican friends too help out , even though they do shotty building it couldn't be worse than paleo construction. it's a win win situation as long as they keep them
#12
This is snark, but it's still a great idea for West Bank and Gaza I followed the sidebar ad and found a bunch of pie-in-the-sky dreamers with NO actual construction, just dreams and hopes.
http://www.bicyclecity.com/
Definately well meaning moonbat territory, fun to read.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/13/2008 15:47 Comments ||
Top||
#13
...the project will cost more than $2 billion, and that private investors will be involved.
Ooh, how can buy shares in that?
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
04/13/2008 18:42 Comments ||
Top||
Israel plans to transfer fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip via the Nahal Oz depot within the "next couple of days," a government official told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday night.
Let the Gazooks bust out into the Sinai again ...
Israel also dismissed as "Hamas spin" Palestinian claims that fuel was running low and that electricity supplies in Gaza would have to be cut. The director of Gaza's only power plant, Rafik Maliha, warned on Saturday that the installation would be shut down in two to three days unless Israel resumed fuel shipments. He cautioned that half a million Gazans would be left without electricity.
Israel halted supplies last week after Gaza terrorists attacked the Nahal Oz fuel depot on the border, killing Oleg Lipson and Lev Cherniak, employees of the Dor Alon energy company.
Typical Paleo mentality, of course: kill a couple Israelis at a fuel depot, and then demand that the Israelis supply them with fuel.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#5
Olmert's government is on an appeasement policy, which is suicide. Well, if Israel wants to collectively end itself, there is nothing much anybody can do, outside of the Israelis themselves. It seems to me that Olmert is a symptom of a bigger malaise in Israel, not the problem, per se. We in the US are heading that way, too.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/13/2008 14:39 Comments ||
Top||
#6
#1: Add sugar to the fuel.
Posted by: 3dc|| 2008-04-13 00:13
Add 10% wood alcohol by volume. Grain alcohol more or less burns clean. Wood alcohol doesn't. There won't be ANYTHING that uses fuel working in 90 days, and I doubt the arabs will figure out why.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/13/2008 16:32 Comments ||
Top||
#7
What is this "figure out why" of which you speak? When machinery does not work, it is the will of Allan.
-- Mamoud al Chilton
Following Hamas's threat to once again breach the border with Egypt, Cairo has banned Egyptian merchants from bringing truckloads of merchandise to El-Arish and other towns in Sinai. By blocking the supplies, the Egyptians are hoping to prevent a repeat of the January 23 fiasco, which saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians pour into Egypt to go on an unprecedented 12-day shopping spree.
Sources in the Gaza Strip said the Egyptian authorities had limited fuel and food supplies to several areas in Sinai.
Hundreds of merchants have made their way to Sinai in the past few days in anticipation of another breach of the Gaza border. Financial experts estimate that the Palestinians spent at least $250 million the last time they poured into Sinai.
How much of it counterfeit? And how much from the UNRWA?
Cairo has also issued a stern warning to Hamas against breaking through the border. Egyptian security officials are reported to have warned the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip that the movement would "pay a heavy price" if it allowed Palestinians to penetrate the frontier.
A government official in Cairo said his government would not allow Hamas to "export" its problems to Egypt. "If Hamas has a problem with the blockade, why don't they breach the border with Israel?" he asked. "We will take drastic measures against anyone who harms our national security."
The latest Egyptian security measures come amid increased tensions between Cairo and Hamas. Several Hamas leaders have accused Egypt of participating in the blockade of Gaza by refusing to open the Rafah border crossing between the Strip and Gaza. Hamas has also accused the Egyptian security forces of brutally torturing many of its members who were detained after entering Sinai.
Muhammad Awwad, secretary-general of the Hamas government in Gaza, hinted over the weekend that Palestinians were close to breaching the border with Egypt once again. "The Palestinian resistance, which is part of the Palestinian people, is capable of moving in different directions to break the siege [on the Gaza Strip]," he said. "We are holding high-level contacts with Arab and Islamic countries to end the unjust siege."
Osama Hamdan, Hamas's representative in Lebanon, said his movement was not threatening the national security of Egypt or any other Arab country. "Our brothers in Egypt know very well that we are not trying to harm their national security," he said. "They also know that Hamas does not serve the agenda of any external powers."
Taher a-Nunu, spokesman for the Hamas government, said an "explosion" was expected any moment because of the blockade. "No one is threatening Egypt, but our people have the right to defend themselves against the unjust siege," he said, urging Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries to help the Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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The administration of the Islamic University in Hebron decided Saturday to suspend studies until further notice following fierce clashes on campus between students affiliated with Fatah and Hamas.
The clashes erupted after students belonging to the Hamas-affiliated Islamic List distributed leaflets accusing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's forces of arresting four of their colleagues. Several students were wounded during the riots, eyewitnesses told The Jerusalem Post. They said the rioters also damaged furniture and equipment.
Sources close to Hamas accused the Fatah students of instigating the clashes. "They have been provoking our supporters on campus for a long time," the sources said. "Members of the Islamic List were only trying to stage a peaceful protest against the arrest of their colleagues."
According to the sources, the university administration and the Fatah students summoned the PA security forces to intervene in the fighting in a move that further exacerbated tensions.
The university administration accused the Hamas students of violating regulations banning the dissemination of "inflammatory" material on campus. It said the Hamas students tried to hang anti-Fatah posters and placards denouncing the PA and Mahmoud Abbas. A university official said studies would not be resumed unless both Hamas and Fatah apologized for the riots on campus.
The PA's governor of Hebron, Hussein al-A'raj, ordered the Palestinian security forces to stay away from the campus to avoid escalating the tensions. He said the PA would take measures against any individual or party that tried to "disrupt the academic process in Palestinian universities."
The incident is the second of its kind on the Hebron university campus in the past few months. Other campuses have also witnessed similar confrontations between supporters of Hamas and Fatah, prompting the administrations to suspend studies temporarily. Last week classes were suspended at the Al-Azhar University in Gaza City after violent clashes that were blamed on Hamas supporters. The university is one of the last Fatah strongholds in the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Hamas would target Israeli ministers if Tel Aviv orders the assassination of its ministers, a senior Hamas official has threatened. In case of "any Israeli stupidity of targeting Hamas leaders or ministers, Hamas will likewise take action," Mushi al-Masri said in a statement.
The statement was issued after the regime threatened to assassinate senior Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip. "Vis-à-vis the Israeli threats to target ministers, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya or any other leader, al-Qassam Brigades would treat the Israelis on the principle of head for head and minister for minister," the statement read according to DPA.
Israel considers Gaza as a 'hostile entity' and has imposed a suffocating blockade on the impoverished coastal region in a bid to counter Hamas which refuses to consider Israel as a legitimate state.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Trying to raise their popularity among Israelis?
#2
Qaradawi too announce the coming islamic conquest of Europe (and so do qa-daffy, cf his tumbuctu al lizz speech), through dawa and not through warfare, for its good, of course... this is not quite true, conversions to islam are a real phenomenon among europeans, but remain marginal, and may actually be outnumbered by the (discreet) conversions to Christianity (evangelicals & charismatic Catholics, often wimmen), the actual existential threat is demographical, from uncheckered and even encouraged immigration and higher birthrates coupled with european denatality.
Note the conquest of Rome is an established prophecy from old mo' himself, and fits nicely with Nostradamus and other supposed seers' own prediction (several 19th century french Catholic seers announced the conquest of western Europe by muslims, with lots of turmoils and bloodshed, with France being humbled and chastized for its repudiation of Christianity since the revolution, and going back to being a believing and missionary country afterward).
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/13/2008 16:34 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Let's see...
Abrams tanks - check
Bradleys - check
F16s - check
F22s - check
nuclear bombs - check
enough rifles, shotguns & handguns to hand one out to every citizen in the entire country - check
veterans to form cadres - check
bomb-making know-how - check
chemists & engineers - check
historians - check
I think we pretty much have all our ducks in a row. Bring it on Islam.
Sadly (for him), Allah is not willing to have them conquer Rome. Indeed, the days of conquest for Islam ended centuries ago. The entire Muslim world cannot deal with even a regional power like India or China, far less a superpower like the US.
There will be no more loot, no more plunder for the forces of jihad. No more victories.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/13/2008 17:32 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Western Europe, maybe. Central/Eastern Europe, no fucking way! People there still have embedded in their genetic memory the resistance to Islam. It is not that far removed in time that they would forget the appropriate responses. Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians. The Keep will hold.
#9
REDDIT > WORLDPOLITICALVIEWS.com - IRAN'S IRAQ STRATEGY MIRRORS OUR OWN. USA's Sunni policies = Iran's Shia - AL QAEDA IN IRAQ's [AQI]strength is dwindling and ITS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE THEY TURN ATTENTION TO ANOTHER FOREIGN POWER [wid a mil presence in Iraq]???
Also from same > BRITISH, RUSSIAN SUPPORT MAY NOT SAVE AMBITIOUS NUCLEAR POWER CLUB.
When he emerged from prison four years ago, Anwar Ibrahim was a weakened and gaunt figure all but written off by the Malaysian political elite. On Monday, Anwar, resurgent and confident after leading opposition parties to their strongest gains in a half-century, will celebrate his political rehabilitation in front of an expected crowd of thousands of supporters at a soccer stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
During his nearly four decades in politics, Anwar, 60, has gone from being a radical Islamic student leader to deputy prime minister and then Malaysia's dissident-in-chief, imprisoned after a highly politicized trial. A ban on holding political office, imposed by the judge who in 1999 sentenced him to six years in prison for abuse of power, expires Monday, allowing Anwar to pursue the job he has coveted: prime minister. "There's no rush," Anwar said in an interview at his office. "I don't need to be prime minister tomorrow."
Yet he and his allies have done anything but dawdle since capturing five of Malaysia's 13 states in the March 8 elections. The governing coalition won an uncomfortably slim 51 percent of the vote in that election, and Anwar says he is wooing defectors - he needs only 30 members of Parliament to cross over to bring down the federal government. He also recently forged a pact among the three main opposition groups called the People's Alliance to jointly govern the states they control.
The opposition's gains have thrown the United Malays National Organization, which has governed Malaysia since its independence in 1957, into disarray. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the prime minister, is fighting for his political life. UMNO delegates from his home state of Penang, which the opposition captured in the March election, have called for him to step down, as have other influential figures inside the party, including Mahathir bin Mohamad, the long-serving former prime minister.
Since his release from prison, Anwar has rarely missed an opportunity to call for "accountability and good governance" in Malaysia, where dissidents are regularly jailed without trial, students are banned from politics and government contracts are handed out to friends and allies of those in power. He says his goal now is to put this rhetoric into action.
Although Anwar is a Malay Muslim and his coalition includes a conservative Islamic party, one of the first major initiatives of the People's Alliance was the approval of a giant, modern pig farm for the Chinese community. Muslims consider pigs unclean, and the decision has been enthusiastically attacked by the governing coalition. Anwar says he and his allies are trying to prove that they can reach decisions on the country's thorniest issues. "We will defend that," Anwar said of the pig farm. "Even relatively contentious issues of the Muslims we are able to deal with."
Anwar still needs to win over detractors from all three major ethnic groups, who call him a chameleon and say that his transformation from Islamic radical to champion of ethnic minorities smacks of expediency. Anwar has long cultivated a diverse group of friends and allies, including Paul Wolfowitz, the former World Bank president; Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president; Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister; and leaders from across the Muslim world.
Hizbullah's top military commander Imad Mugniyah, mysteriously killed in a blast two months ago, has been the subject of lively discussion in the Arab press in recent days. Lebanon's Al-Shiraa magazine reported Saturday that two weeks ago Syrian intelligence broke into the houses of two Syrian officers in Damascus and executed them with shots to the head, apparently due to their involvement in Mugniyah's assasination. That's a little sloppy. I'd have waited until they came in to work and arranged for them to fall down the stairs.
I think they wanted to send a message, and 'shot in the head at home in bed' does that better than 'tripped and fell down the stairs elebenteen times at the coppe shoppe' ...
The officers' families were reportedly warned not to inform anyone of what had happened. You don't leave witnesses behind
The story came in the wake of a barrage of recent reports involving the Head of Syrian Military Intelligence, Assaf Shawkat. Former Syrian Vice President, Abdul Halim Khaddam claimed that Shawkat, President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law, was placed under house arrest after revealing information about the circumstances of Mugniyah's death. This I've heard elsewere
Other reports claimed that Shawkat's wife fled the country along with Assad's sister in order to seek political asylum in France or one of the Arab countries. French officials denied the country's involvement in the issue.
Al-Shiraa further reported that intelligence officers this week opened fire on a military vehicle driven by an officer who was reportedly in league with Shawkat. The officer was not injured. More sloppy work. Perhaps they've run out of field operatives. Or the pros are staying out of it.
On Sunday Syria was scheduled to release for publication the conclusions of the investigation into Mugniyah's death, but officials said the statement was delayed due to the large-scale home front drill that took place in Israel. The officials did not provide a new date for the report's release.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
Was there anybody who didn't want this guy dead?
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Chief Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh is due in Vienna for talks with IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Aghazadeh will be accompanied by Mohammad Saeedi, the IAEO deputy for international affair, for the meeting, which comes only days after the Iranian nation celebrated Tehran's nuclear achievements.
Last week Iran's President Mahmood Ahmadinejad unveiled Tehran's plan to install 6,000 new centrifuges at a key nuclear plant in the current year.
However, Washington has cast doubt over Iran's capability to install the centrifuges. Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at a press conference on Thursday that "Iran has not yet mastered the ability to enrich uranium, although they are obviously working very hard to do this."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Iran says its forces have killed a senior commander of the outlawed Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) near the border with Iraq. The senior commander who has entered Iran to conduct terrorist activities was killed on the 8th of April, near the village of Nejmar 10 kilometers from the Iraqi border, an informed source told Mehr News Agency. PJAK is considered an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has been fighting Turkish troops for more than 3 decades.
Iran has on several occasions reported clashes between government forces and members of the terrorist group in Kurdistan. The Islamic Republic has slammed the White House for supplying PJAK in Iran's province of Kurdistan to stir up ethnic unrest in the country. Although the US has provided Turkey with both diplomatic and military intelligence against the PKK, it has been aiding PJAK against Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
Frances defence minister warned today it would not tolerate extortion attempts, after 30 hostages were freed from a luxury boat off Somalia and a French military operation against pirates who had held them. The pirates release of the crew members on Friday, a week after they were seized, saw six hostage-takers arrested in a dramatic French raid afterwards as they attempted to escape in a 4x4, French officials said.
"I feel quite at ease in doing this," Carter said. "I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process."
Secretary Gates was asked at a Pentagon news conference if he considers Moqtada al-Sadr to be an enemy of the United States. Gates said those who are prepared to work within the political process in Iraq are not enemies of the United States. 
Iraqi Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says he will not enter any kind of political process that would allow US forces to remain in Iraq. Al-Sadr lashed out at US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Saturday, saying that he will always remain his enemy because he is 'the occupier of Iraq'. "You have always been my enemy, and you will always be my enemy till the last drop of my blood," Sadr said in a statement. 
"The Palestinian reproduction machine works 24 hours a day," Hamas' political leader Khaled Mashaal declared this week during his daughter's wedding in Syria. 
The Palestinian Investment Fund says it plans to build 30,000 affordable apartments in the West Bank and Gaza to ease a growing housing crunch. 
The administration of the Islamic University in Hebron decided Saturday to suspend studies until further notice following fierce clashes on campus between students affiliated with Fatah and Hamas. 
Hizbullah's top military commander Imad Mugniyah, mysteriously killed in a blast two months ago, has been the subject of lively discussion in the Arab press in recent days. Lebanon's Al-Shiraa magazine reported Saturday that two weeks ago Syrian intelligence broke into the houses of two Syrian officers in Damascus and executed them with shots to the head, apparently due to their involvement in Mugniyah's assasination. 
Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Chief Gholam-Reza Aghazadeh is due in Vienna for talks with IAEA Chief Mohamed ElBaradei. Aghazadeh will be accompanied by Mohammad Saeedi, the IAEO deputy for international affair, for the meeting, which comes only days after the Iranian nation celebrated Tehran's nuclear achievements. 
Iran says its forces have killed a senior commander of the outlawed Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) near the border with Iraq. The senior commander who has entered Iran to conduct terrorist activities was killed on the 8th of April, near the village of Nejmar 10 kilometers from the Iraqi border, an informed source told Mehr News Agency. PJAK is considered an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has been fighting Turkish troops for more than 3 decades. 
