A close ally of Afghan President Hamid Karzai was gunned down in southern Afghanistan in an attack provincial officials blamed on the Taliban Saturday. Haji Gilani and his nephew were killed outside their home in the town of Deh Rawood on Thursday night, said Dad Mullah, a spokesman for the Uruzgan provincial government. He said six gunmen shot the two men and fled. Police said they were investigating; but Mullah said there was no immediate evidence of a personal feud and he suspected Taliban operatives were behind the killing. But Karzai's spokesman said a tribal feud may have been the motive. They're Pashtuns, after all...
"This was not a political murder. There was some enmity, some personal differences between two villages or two tribes," presidential spokesman Sayed Fazel Akbar said. Gilani was the first man to give Karzai shelter in the province of Uruzgan as he launched his anti-Taliban revolt weeks before the religious militia collapsed under heavy U.S. bombing in late 2001. That's sufficient reason for the Talibs to take Dire Revenge®...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 11:28 am ||
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The neo-Talibanis are nothing without their Pakistan backers: Jamaat-i-Islami. The JI/MMA controlled provinces are loaded with American jihad subsidy cash.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_4-4-2003_pg7_11
President Bush despises India because that country's major religion - Hinduism - was not founded by Abraham. Americans will pay for his bigotry, in lives.
#3
Man, non-Westerners reeeally need to learn something about how religious tolerance is not even a question to most Americans - something most of us don't even THINK about - we just DO it... They might want to be careful when looking at us though, they MIGHT learn something... imagine that...
Posted by: Steve W. ||
04/05/2003 23:41 Comments ||
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Anonn,"Freedom of Religion"is part and parcile of who we are,it is even gaurantied in our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Can you say that?
Buttheads Like Pat Robertson don't speak for me.
I am a Born-agin Christian,and I don't care how you worship God,what name you call God,or if you even believe in the One,True God.That is your buisness.
This isn't a hard news item, but what is allegedly a 7-minute video from an AC-130 on a strike in, I assume, Afghanistan. It's mostly unedited. In the literal sense of the word, it's awesome.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
04/05/2003 08:22 am ||
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Hey, that was pretty cool... nice to see the tax dollars at work.
It's a 5.6Mb download.
Posted by: Mark IV ||
04/05/2003 9:34 Comments ||
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I may already have seen that one, from a french pro-israeli site; much less "cinematic" than I would have assumed - there is at least one taleb who manages to run away - but really impressive. That's probably what iraki grunts must be thinking theses times, anyway. Never could understand what the gunner (?) shouted just before each shot, though.
#3
Sounds like a gunner/loader yelling "ready" when the 105 is loaded and ready to shoot.
Posted by: John ||
04/05/2003 17:31 Comments ||
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At the risk of sounding totally stupid, it seems to me that this video was shot from something that's either going pretty darned slow or else hovering. I thought the AC-130 was a fixed-wing aircraft.
Somebody help me out here.
#5
I saw this video a while ago but if i remember correctly Rebecca, the video was actually from a UAV but i could be wrong. I believe a very effective technique in Afaghanistan was linking the UAV video to the AC-130 so they could operate in real time. So you may be hearing the AC-130 crew but watching a predator video?
Posted by: scott ||
04/05/2003 23:20 Comments ||
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The AC-130 is a fixed wing, turbo-prop aircraft - it does not hover, but it is capable of rather slow airspeeds - it can circle slowly enough and in a tight enough radius to strafe a "small-ish" area. The crew aboard the gunship are weapons loaders (my old field - though I never worked AC-130's) - they are in charge of loading the ammo for the bigger guns in-flight, loading the smaller guns before flight, and working in-flight
jams or breakdowns on the smaller guns (smaller guns being the 20 or 25 mm gatling guns - depending on the model of the Ac-130)... They do not actually fire the weapons - the officers up on the flight deck actually do that - but they can and do observe the guns at work.
Posted by: Steve W. ||
04/05/2003 23:48 Comments ||
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The Herk is a mighty versatile aircraft, and has some unbelievable stats. Most of the time the AC model is in "working mode", it's usually throttled back to about 140kt - about 155 miles per hour. It usually tilts about 35 degrees (but can hold a 55 to 60 degree bank, if needed), and "hoses" the ground. It can literally fly in circles so tight the target area on the ground doesn't change appreciably. Normal armament includes 4 7.62 quad machine guns and 4 20mm cannon, plus a 105mm recoilless rifle on the back tailgate. The book says it's weapons can place a 7.62mm shell on every square inch of a football field, without hitting anyone in the stands. There's a Forward-looking Infrared (FLIR) system for targeting, as well as a low-light television system and radar. The FLIR system is a bit misnamed, as it can also be aimed out the side of the aircraft for ground targeting. It's great for destroying enemy troop concentrations, unarmored vehicles, and with the 105mm cannon on the tailgate, anything smaller than a tank, and even a few of them. Crew of six for the regular "trash-haulers" (Cargo version), but the AC model has a crew of fourteen to seventeen.
Of all the aircraft used in the Vietnam war, the North Vietnamese hated the AC-130 (Spectre) the most, for good reason.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/06/2003 0:16 Comments ||
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The Iraqi citizen, Uday Abdulamir Hassoon, who was involved in the March 24 blast near the US Navy Fifth Fleet headquarters here, holds a rank of Major in the Iraqi intelligence services. The accused, who came to Bahrain two years ago, was working for a travel and tourism company. The nature of his job allowed him frequent visits to Iraq. He took up the job as a cover for his spying activities, which included gathering information for Iraqi intelligence. According to some local dailies, Mr Hassoon was able to join the company through mediation of certain influential persons in Iraq in conjunction with a number of Bahrainis who frequently travel to Iraq. As a result of Mr Hassoon's confession, Bahrain has ordered the expulsion of Nadhem Jawad Ali, the first secretary at the Iraqi Embassy here, for his involvement in the blast, claiming that the Iraqi official's activities did not match with his diplomatic work. The first secretary, who was a liaison officer with Mr Hassoon, had prepared the explosives and the devices at the embassy's premises, sources said. Yeah, I guess that didn't match with his diplomatic work...
Mr Hassoon had confessed to the investigation judge that he and Mr Ali had planned a series of blasts in a number of hotels in Bahrain. Sources have said that Mr Hassoon was a member of sleeping cells tasked with carrying out terrorist acts in Arab countries.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 11:56 am ||
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Sources have said that Mr Hassoon was a member of sleeping cells tasked with carrying out terrorist acts in Arab countries.
from the Jerusalem Post - cookies/reg req'd
A German man who has been under investigation in connection with a deadly attack on a Tunisian synagogue last year has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, the German Foreign Ministry confirmed Saturday. Saudi officials informed the German government in Berlin earlier this week that they had arrested a German national identified as Christian Ganczarski, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. Nice name Christian, didja understand it's meaning?
The attack, on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba, left 19 people dead, 14 of them German tourists. That bother him? Noooo
"Dey vass only Chewwws!"
Ganczarski was allowed to leave the country late last year, after German prosecutors said there was not enough information to arrest him in connection with the attack, which left 19 people dead, 14 of them German tourists. nice writing writing
Gotta admit, it's a little redundant. Might also be redundant, too.
Because there are no charges against him, Germany cannot ask for his extradition, said Hartmut Schneider, a spokesman for federal prosecutors. And we don't want him back anyway - you keep his remains him
According to the German weekly Der Spiegel, Saudi officials have not responded to appeals by German authorities to allow them to investigate Ganczarski while he is in Riyadh, raising fears the German may be turned over to the United States, who suspect him of working closely with Osama bin Laden. Oooooo....welcome to Gitmo, Christian
Ganczarski was traced as the recipient of an intercepted phone call from the leading suspect in the attack on the synagogue, Nizar Naouar, who is believed to have died in the suicide mission last April 11. German federal prosecutors have said that another terror suspect told them Ganczarski had access to the innermost circle of al-Qaida leaders and may have been responsible for recruiting members in Germany. So he's what? a Fundo sympathiser? Kept his infidel name as a cover? This guy's surely got a story to tell....start the giggle juice as soon as the Saudi truncheon stop
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 09:56 am ||
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Peter Arnett, fired by NBC earlier this week for giving an interview to state-run Iraqi television, now is reporting for pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, the station said Saturday. "He (Arnett) is an able reporter who has covered wars before and who knows Iraq well," the Dubai-based station's editor-in-chief Salah Nejm told The Associated Press. "I think he is unbiased and has a lot of experience."
Posted by: Anonymous ||
04/05/2003 09:35 am ||
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Well, there's a fit!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/05/2003 9:53 Comments ||
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Ah, Peetah must wear a coat of many colors. Just take it off, turn it inside out, put it back on, and voila there you go, he has a whole new bag!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/05/2003 11:42 Comments ||
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Where they 'are going to fight' and 'seek martyrdom', during which 'they will be killed'.
Western intelligence sources say they have detected a small group of Saudi extremists trying to get into Iraq to attack coalition forces there. A small group? Where are the others? This is Saudi Arabia we're talking about!
They say they believe the men are pretending to be aid workers and that they may be hoping to cross the border from Iran. Good old 'Islamic charity' in action.
The conflict in Iraq is deeply unpopular in the Arab world and Baghdad has claimed that thousands of Arab suicide bombers are now in the country. Where they gain substantial assistance in their quest to boink the virgins.
This week, four groups of Islamist fighters were reported to have left their hideouts in Afghanistan to join Iraqi forces fighting coalition troops. "We will fight while in a 'stan,
We will fight in this here land.
We will fight them in a cave,
We will fight and not behave.
We will fight while on the lam,
We will fight for our Saddam."
They, too, are thought to be trying to enter from Iran. All runs to Iraq run through Iran, eh? Wotta surprise.
And in Italy, an investigation by counter-terrorism officials has concluded that the country is being used a staging-post for Muslim fighters heading for Iraq. Wonder if they're coming via Milan?
So far, the number of Arab volunteers trying to link up with Saddam Hussein's forces is only a trickle and they are unlikely to alter the final outcome of this war. But, in the weeks ahead, they could well pose a serious security problem for coalition troops in Iraq. When they see what's happened they might decide to enroll for another semester at the madrassa.
It's kind of late in the game for this kind of Islamoheroics, or maybe early in it. For one thing, they've got to find transportation, unless they intend to go shoe leather express. For another, there aren't many days left to this chapter of the drama — my guess is still Wednesday. Once Sammy is gone, all these cockroaches are going to come swarming out of the woodwork to try and grab the bone from the American jaws, so this bunch is early. Time enough for stupid antics and Islamic doublecrosses (do Islamists doublecrescent each other?) in the weeks and months to come.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 02:35 am ||
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Fine. Let's get them all bundled up in one spot and end this WOT in one fell swoop. I wish them the death they seek. Just think how popular this will make us in the ME! Americans helping Arabs. Works for me!
Posted by: Dee Bates ||
04/05/2003 4:30 Comments ||
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Mr White, you have become the resident poet!
And Murat, our favourite resident Troll.
I would like to be the resident Australian, though I am willing to share that with all sensible others whose names are not Boppa
The controversial radical Muslim cleric Sheikh Abu Hamza has been stripped of his UK citizenship. Home secretary David Blunkett told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I have sent him a letter withdrawing his citizenship." It's about F*&%ing time too. We've spent too much time watching him spitting his bile on TV at the expense of moderate muslims. I think next, they parachute him into some screwed up country like Sudan or Yemen or Pakland and see how well he does there.
Go ahead and dump him. You'll feel better after you do, and Britain will be a better place for it. Send him back to Yemen and let them stretch his neck.
Posted by: rg117 ||
04/05/2003 07:53 am ||
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nice pic of hook boy here - a face even his mother wouldn't love
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 8:59 Comments ||
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I don't mean to be scatalogical, but some enemas like this for the US and UK (and other countries) will collectivly make us all feel better in the long run. Every Hamza we dump stops dozens or scores of others. 'Bout time Mr. Blunkett.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/05/2003 11:48 Comments ||
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Great news! - this POS has been spewing filth for years.
*pleeeeease* deport him to, oh, how about ... Yemen?
Posted by: Tony ||
04/05/2003 12:44 Comments ||
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abu hook gets the hook--there's a certain synergy in that--but where's the new english henry the deuce?--"won't anyone rid me of this meddlesome priest"[paraphrase}--this malevolent doucebag needs a one way ticket on the paradise express--not deportation but transcendental transportation to the 72 teeny boppers in the garden of allah--call it enforcement of the human right to die for inciting mass murder--the big 86--where are the dirtnap counter- jihadis when we need them?
The European Union has reiterated that the Iranian Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) remains a terrorist group. EU Commissioner for external relations, Chris Patten, in reply to a recent question by British MEP Chris Davies whether the MKO presents any threat to the security of the world outside Iran, noted that the EU Common Position 'contains a number of criteria that have to be met and as a result the Mojahedin-e Khalq have been included on the list in May 2002'. In reply to another question on MKO by Portuguese MEP Paulo Casaca, the EU Council referred to its decision of May 2, 2002 to include the MKO in its list of terrorist groups. Meanwhile, a report presented to the EU Council by the government of Netherlands in August 2000 on the situation in Iran writes, "The MKO seems to have virtually no following in Iran. Its stance on Iraq's side in the Iran-Iraq war has severely discredited the organization. Even now, the MKO still maintains its military structure in Iraq, with the Iraqi authorities' knowledge and support. The MKO sees no chance of taking advantage of recent democratic developments in Iran, being itself an anti-democratic organization."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 10:00 am ||
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Archbishop of Berlin Cardinal Georg Maximilian Sterzinsky voiced his support for a boycott of American and British goods as German consumer fury over the brutal US-led invasion of Iraq appears to be on the rise. Speaking in an interview with the local Berlin television station SFB, Sterzinksy said that although he believed that such limited boycott actions would not seriously affect "the powerful in the US and Great Britain," he thought it would be "good as a symbolic act." Shows which side you're on, doesn't it?
Although the boycotts are mainly symbolic, the German media did report about a growing number of restaurants and coffee bars in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt and several other cities where the owners have taken everything off their menus to protest against the war in Iraq. "I'd like a schnitzel, please."
"No schnitzel. We're protesting."
"How about some schweinehachsen?"
"No schweinehachsen. We're protesting the war in Iraq."
"Sauerbraten?"
"No sauerbraten. We're..."
"So why am I here?"
In other related news, German bicycle manufacturer, Riese and Mueller GmbH, has cancelled a multi-million euro deal with its American spare parts suppliers as a result of the US aggression in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:52 am ||
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Omigod, the U.S. economy is doomed! However will we make up that lost twenty dollar's worth of sales?
U.S. to Germany: Bite me.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/05/2003 9:57 Comments ||
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Riese and Mueller, they make those retarded folding bikes...here is a description of the Frog model from their web site...they are apparently boycotting the English language too, At car, train or boat, the Frog abscond in the puniest niche, and at the public traffic the slight parcel keeps a low profile. It is always thereby and waits for spontanious insets..... Bite me big time
Posted by: Dick Saucer ||
04/05/2003 13:56 Comments ||
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Maybe it's time to call due all those billions in unsecured loans to Germany over the last 50 years or so. Only we don't want Euros - gold or silver only, gutter freunde.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2003 17:06 Comments ||
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We can always take back Chrysler from Daimler Chrysler...hell, we can take back the Daimler part too...
Posted by: Brian ||
04/05/2003 17:13 Comments ||
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Taking everything off the menus to protest a war? Isn't this just a variation on the ol' European "let's strike on a beautiful sunny day because we don't feel like working" theme??
Of course, I *do* like the fact that the bike company named their product after Germany's new best friend.
When do we start moving our troops out??
Posted by: Former Russian Major ||
04/05/2003 17:51 Comments ||
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The US has a lot more flexibility for a trade war than Germany does. The US economy might slow and stagnate, but it's not likely to collapse. The German economy could shatter.
#7
Maybe you should not post so much irrelevant information about Germany here, especially not from sources like IRNA.
So what? Some restaurant refuse to serve Coke? Get real!
Bikes? Who knows, maybe somebody needed an excuse and this one came in handy.
A bishop? A sorry attempt to get more than 5 visitors for mass.
Trade wars are the silliest thing to do. Nobody is starting one. Not even the idiots who flush French wine down the gutter. French wine that has been paid for already, right?
I wish countries would stop acting like little children. Mummy George punched meeee. Heyyyy but Gerhard kicked meeee first!
The world economy is bad enough... everywhere.
It was the United States after all that "re-educated" Germans and taught them to hate war and love democracy. Now they do, and you should know that Germans always do things to perfection.
Yes German economy doesn't look good but Germans have had harder times than these, they come back. But not with tanks. And I guess we are all happy about that.
#8
Recent Economist has some good articles on Germany. Apparently their unemployment rate is nearly double ours, and their recent GDP growth is absolutely pathetic even by EU standards. Schroeder has a plan but probably is too Clintonesque lacks the political resolve to push it through. But hinting at any kind of trade war would give him an excuse for the continuation of his economic woes (no matter who brought it up first).
Posted by: (lowercase) matt ||
04/05/2003 21:42 Comments ||
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Edited for brevity.
Parents of Jessica "Jessi" Lynch will fly to Germany this afternoon, a day after learning their daughter had suffered gunshot wounds that went undetected for days. Gregory Lynch Sr. and his wife, Deadra, are scheduled to fly from Charleston, W.Va., early this afternoon to join their daughter, the Army private first class who was taken to the military's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center after being rescued from an Iraqi hospital on Tuesday. Family member Dan Little last evening told reporters and photographers gathered at the end of the family's dirt and gravel driveway in this tiny town that the Lynches "finally" heard from their daughter's doctor yesterday. The doctor told them that, in addition to a back injury, two broken legs and a broken right arm that had previously been diagnosed, Lynch had been shot with a small-caliber weapon, hit once each in her right arm and left leg. Lynch, 19, underwent back surgery on Thursday, and yesterday, surgeons inserted rods and pins in her arms and legs to help them heal properly. But the gunshot wounds were not found until "an extensive probing and examination" was conducted, Little said. He said he didn't know why doctors initially failed to find the wounds.
In response to a reporter's question, Little said the Lynches were "understandably frustrated" by their inability to speak to their daughter's doctor until they heard from him yesterday afternoon. Little said Lynch was placed in an intensive care unit "purely for observation." She had a low-grade infection and a temperature of 102, but that was dropping yesterday and her condition was improving.
In Gettysburg, Pa., yesterday, the mother of a Marine sergeant said she received an e-mail from her son, indicating that he was part of the successful rescue of Lynch. "I just wanted to let you know that we are finally war heroes," Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. William "Joe" Morehead, 39, wrote in the e-mail message to his mother, Bonnie Hammond. "We pulled out the POWs last night. ... Makes me feel as if it was all worth it. It's time to come home for sure. I'm tired of getting shot at."
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
04/05/2003 08:43 am ||
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I'm puzzled: An earlier post had her parents denying half of her injuries.
Goodness! She was chewed up so badly they MISSED the gunshot wounds?
#3
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31896 The November 1992 Pentagon report accused Iraqi troops of systematically carrying out grisly acts of torture against Kuwaiti citizens. ... "Electric drills were used to penetrate the chest, leg(s) or arm(s) of victims."
Edited..there's much more that is very disheartening, considering the fate of the others. But....Jessica asked her family if she made the local paper! That makes me believe that they failed to crush her spirit! You go girl!
More details have been emerging about convoys of military equipment which have been crossing from Turkey into Iraq in the past days, destined for US forces in the region. During talks in Ankara on Wednesday, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, won Turkish agreement for the supply of food, fuel and medicine across Turkish soil to its troops in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq - but not for weapons. They may not look like a significant contribution to the war effort, but the lines of Turkish-registered trucks driving through dusty border towns contain badly-needed vehicles for the 173rd Airborne Division (sic) of the US Army. According to a statement issued by the Turkish general staff, 204 unarmed Humvee military jeeps are being redeployed to northern Iraq from US bases in Turkey. Sounds like we could use those.
According to the statement, the jeeps are unrelated to Colin Powell's visit. But what did emerge from his talks is that fuel, food and medicine for US troops, as well as humanitarian supplies for the civilian population of northern Iraq, will now be allowed to cross through Turkey. Taken together, the supplies will make the opening of a northern front against Iraqi Government forces much more likely. By the same we get the northern front started Baghdad may already have fallen.
The convoys also play a symbolic role — showing Turkish readiness to support the coalition war effort, albeit as a non-combatant. Anti-war sentiment in Turkey is still strong and there's now little talk of trying to open a land corridor for troops and weapons. But Turkey, with its big ports, developed infrastructure and fleet of idle trucks, now looks set to help supply both the northern front and the post-war reconstruction of Iraq. Making amends?
More like trying to have it both ways. They appease their Islamists and the Eunochs by denying passage for troops, but still try to appear helpful allies by allowing a partial passage. This is probably the minimum the could get away with to keep us from recognizing the Republic of Kurdistan.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 02:32 am ||
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A Pakistani woman made a public appeal Saturday for her husband to be arrested for scarring her face with acid, a plea for justice that is becoming more common as a growing number of South Asians speak out against the rarely punished practice of violence against women. Identified only as Sakina, the 22-year-old woman said her husband should be given a long prison sentence to set an example. She was encouraged to tell her story by an activist group to underscore that violence against women remains unchecked. Sakina said her husband, Zahid Nawaz, threw acid in her face last year in a fight over his drinking and gambling habits. Sakina's 15-year-old sister Shahina also was burned while trying to intervene. She said police made no attempt to arrest Nawaz, who was moving unhindered in their remote village in the district of Ahmadpur East, 435 miles southwest of the capital, Islamabad. ``We are living under fear of another attack,'' she said. ``I want justice.'' "Justice? For a woman? Whatever for? Now, about that jihad..."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 04:16 pm ||
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In a sad way, I guess this is progress. At least they haven't killed her yet for daring to demand justice.
And WE'RE the barbarians?
Posted by: Former Russian Major ||
04/05/2003 18:36 Comments ||
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Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
04/05/2003 18:00 Comments ||
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We can still hang him. That would make such a nice display for the Iraqi people to observe! In fact, we should hang all the Ba'athists we catch, preferably somewhere that has good visibility. "One picture is worth a thousand words." I'm sure the Iraqis will find it very illuminating.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2003 18:09 Comments ||
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He's dead *again*? What's this, the fourth time? I don't think I'm ready to believe this one just yet.
Our friend Chuck has some thoughts on Sammy's Super-Secret Impregnable Fortress Reichsbunker...
OK, so the German designer says that nothing short of a nuclear weapon will bust this bunker.We'll see.
Everytime a bunker buster hits, dust floats down from the ceiling. Bric-a-brac falls off coffee tables. The noise is nerve wracking. The structure groans and moans. The doorframes and exits warp and stretch and wiggle.
After a while, that's got to wear on one's nerves, don't you think? We may never bust the bunker. But will the exits work? Will the people inside still be sane? And, will we ever find this secret bunker, or will it become a war time tale, like some of those surrounding Hitler's last days?
I wonder if Sammy is actually in his impregnable bunker, with Eva and Blondi the dog? The bad thing about Super-secret Impregnable Fortress Reichsbunkers is that you can't move them. What do you want to bet we know the address? If Sammy's in there, are we going to go visit? Is the entire remnant of the Republican Guard standing on the roof, guarding the entrance? If we have the blueprints, are we guarding the exits from the escape tunnels yet? What happens if we just call in the engineers and pave over all the entrances and exits?
I think if I was a ruthless evil dictator, I wouldn't hole up in Super-secret, etc. bunkers. I'd probably be more inclined to keep on the move. But then, not being a best-selling romance novelist and a real smart fellow, I'd probably have shaved off my moustache by now, and be bagging some rays on the Costa Brava, occasionally admiring my brand new passport, counting the number of zeros on the end of my bank balance, and trying to memorize my new name.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 04:13 pm ||
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He's probably in Tikrit? I think he got out of the city, that's if he's still alive.
Posted by: George ||
04/05/2003 16:39 Comments ||
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If Sammy's still in the bunker when we get there, all we need do is locate the air shafts and the entrance, then locate a couple of loaded cement trucks.
Who needs German engineering when you have Yankee ingenuity?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/05/2003 16:54 Comments ||
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Those companies who built the bunker(s) are probably trading in their information by now.It's not like Saddam is going to order another one.
Posted by: El Id ||
04/05/2003 17:15 Comments ||
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Who needs cement, there's going to be enough uses for that in reconstuction. Just set up pumps in the Tigris and flood the damn thing
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
04/05/2003 17:28 Comments ||
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A 6x8 foot blast door 100 feet below ground..
hmmm.. 100 feet of head on that door works out to 150 tons of pressure.
Equivalent to two Abrams sitting on the door.
That's assuming it's sealed, of course.
I didn't see rubber gaskets in the photograph.
Trying to wage war from below the water-table is fundamentally hopeless.
Mark Steyn finds the elusive Iraqi military machine...
As my colleague John Keegan asked yesterday, "Where is the enemy?" The answer, in terms of a formal Iraqi military presence, is that it's confined to the Baghdad broadcasting studio. On Iraqi TV, every Information Minister or Deputy Prime Minister who turns up to read the late Saddam's latest statement is wearing a uniform. In the Iraqi army, hardly anyone is.
You couldn't ask for a better visual summation: Iraq has no general, just the odd paunchy yes-man who plays one on TV. On the ground, it has no real manpower, just a few terrorists willing to push their comrades and the civilian population into the line of fire. (For the benefit of the more pedantic moral equivalists, I hasten to add that targeting the US military doesn't make you a terrorist, but using a pregnant woman as your weapon does.)
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 03:54 pm ||
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CNN said 1000's are fleeing Bagdad;including Baath party members. I think they may have the city boobytrapped with a nuke or other WMD. Today they found information about what the army should do incase of a nuclear detonation. Where is the army? I hope your right and they really don't want to perform, but I think they have something up they're sleve. But, in reality I think they never thought we were going to go in. But if they are going to pull something, what a better time for the Russian Navy to get involved. Detonate a nuke with our troops in the city.
Posted by: George ||
04/05/2003 16:37 Comments ||
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Geraldo's back on FoxNews, reporting from Kuwait. No word on his next destination...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 11:59 am ||
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He said the magic words "reporting from Kuwait" far from the front line where he was afflicted with the contagious Arnett strain of foot in mouth disease. Fox advertisers sponser a one way ticket to U.S. city of his choice with an unpaid leave of absence.
Kurdish forces have started massing troops near the southern edge of their autonomous region in striking distance of the oil-rich city of Khaneqin, while in the north, U.S. warplanes hit Iraqi positions near the commercial center of Mosul. Kurdish troop strength along their southern front line has risen from less than 400 several weeks ago to between 1,500 and 1,800 now. Mola Bakhtiyar, a Kurdish political and military leader, said it would rise to about 3,000 within days. At certain points the shifting frontier between their autonomous region and the territory controlled by President Saddam Hussein, Kurdish forces have reached to within 3 miles of Khaneqin, said Bakhtiyar. In addition to Kurdish peshmerga militiamen heading south to the front, vehicles carrying U.S. Special Forces troops have been seen headed the same way.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 11:35 am ||
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British forces in southern Iraq have found hundreds of boxes containing human remains in a warehouse near Zubayr and are investigating how they got there, military officials said Saturday. "Obviously, it's an unusual find," said Maj. Mike Edwards, a British military spokesman in Kuwait City. "Who they belonged to or how they got there is under investigation." There was no immediate indication of the nationalities of the dead, and it appeared they had died some time ago — not in the current fighting.
The estimated 200 coffin-sized boxes "contain bags, each labeled, and there's human remains inside the bags," said Capt. Jack Kemp of the Royal Horse Artillery. He told reporters at the scene that the remains were found by British forces who were searching the area within a half mile of one of their artillery pieces. "I really wouldn't like to speculate on where the bones have come from," Kemp said. He said the remains were decomposed, and thus were not casualties of the current war.
Lt. Col. Ronnie McCourt, a spokesman for British forces in Doha, Qatar, confirmed that British troops found some bodies between Basra and Zubayr. Associated Press Television News video showed the boxes stacked five high on one side of the warehouse, and other boxes were lined up on the other side. The video showed one skull that was missing front teeth and had a large hole in the nasal area. A British soldier held up folders containing lists written in Arabic. British soldiers also discovered a catalogue of photographs of the dead. The relationship between the photographs and the remains was not immediately clear. Faces in the photographs were burned, mutilated or scarred by grotesque wounds, according to Vanessa Allen, a reporter for Britain's Press Association news agency. Some apparently had been shot in the head, she added.
After permitting some journalists to look around the warehouse, British forces sealed the facility, Allen reported. "We have placed it out of bounds to all personnel and we will treat it as a mass grave," Kemp said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 10:54 am ||
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#1
Coalition troops are going to find hundreds of places like this or worse. Too bad Sammy can't be captured and tortured real slow-like.
#4
Poitiers,that last comment of yours went way over the line.In fact,it's disgusting.
Posted by: El Id ||
04/05/2003 12:14 Comments ||
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#5
Looking at those coffins, makes me think of the photographs of the shoes from WWII. A sad and mournful respresentation of life that could have, and should have, been.
#6
Let's not dis Murat until he has posted or said something ridiculous.
Posted by: Michael ||
04/05/2003 15:25 Comments ||
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#7
Michael? You mean again?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 17:19 Comments ||
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#8
The Fertile Cresent may be one of the Cradles of Civilization but civilization left it a long time ago. The barbarity of regimes that are unconstained by law and custom will know no bounds. According to CNN the remains date all the way back to the mid '80s. Some are probably Kuwaitis from the First Gulf War, some are probably Iranians and the rest may well be Iraqis from any date and time. Do we have any MIAs from GW1? Gunshot wounds to the head? Must be the only kind of marksmanship the Iraqi Army teaches.
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
04/05/2003 17:43 Comments ||
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#9
With this horrible news and the news of MSNBC positive testing for chemical/biological(field test kit) in the Ansar Al Islam/al Qaeda terror hut on the Iran/Iraq border (you know the one Colin Powell told the UN about) there can be no more doubt about the necessity and rightness of the war. These findings at 2 weeks into this are only the tip of the iceberg. Has anyone notified the so-called peace keepers, Sarandon, Sheen. Garafolo? The list of these elite hypocrites is too long, but I encourage everyone to pay close attention to them in that they will surely begin to blame Bush I for failing to stop the atrocities and never recall that they were against that campaign as well. I think one domestic way we can support our armed forces is to remember the nay-saying America hating left in Hollywood and make our soldiers volunteering to risk there lives to fight for freedom as heros and celebrities!
U.S. army troops fought street-by-street battles with Iraqi paramilitaries in the central city of Kerbala on Saturday in an attack aimed at protecting the backs of U.S. forces moving into Baghdad. Iraqi fighters took up positions on rooftops in the narrow streets of this Shi'ite shrine city and opened fire with rocket propelled grenades and assault rifles. U.S. planes and troops hit back with laser-guided bombs, artillery and heavy arms fire. "It's freaky in there. Lots of bullets flying around. It's pretty scary," said one young U.S. soldier who was evacuated after being hit by fragments from a hand grenade.
The fighting raged non-stop all Saturday afternoon as the U.S. forces progressed slowly toward the city's center. Troops from the 101st Airborne Division landed in helicopters on the western edge of Kerbala, moving in beside a tank battalion with Apache attack helicopters overhead. Iraqis offered tough resistance from one building complex, keeping OH-58 Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopters at bay with sustained fire whenever they closed in. Fedayeen also knocked out a Bradley armored vehicle with an RPG. This correspondent saw about six wounded U.S. soldiers. Some troops who were burned in the incident kept fighting. "here's been a tough fight. It is tough in there. And it's hot," said Sergeant Major Patrick Boykin of 101st Airborne Division.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 10:45 am ||
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AZIZIYAH: Cheering Iraqis handed out soft drinks and offered cigarettes to U.S. Marines on Saturday, warmly welcoming the troops and making throat-slitting gestures at pictures of President Saddam Hussein. The Marines rolled into this town, 50 miles southeast of Baghdad, to tackle any pockets of resistance from Saddam loyalists bypassed as the U.S. vanguard swept toward the capital in the last two days. Instead they saw hundreds of young men heading away from the capital, apparently deserting the Iraqi army. Senior officials of Saddam's Baath Party had fled the town. Happy crowds milled around the Marines' armored vehicles, asking in faltering English if they had come to free Iraq or take their oil, as the Iraqi leadership has repeatedly claimed. A loud hurrah went up as a Marine told the crowd that the U.S.-led forces had come to liberate them. "Thank you for coming, now I don't have to serve in the army," said Taha Ahmed, 35. "All of us have run away from the Iraqi army, we don't want to fight, we are tired of war."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 10:36 am ||
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#1
Finally, let the truth be heard!!! Let these poor people be free!
Posted by: George ||
04/05/2003 10:40 Comments ||
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Funny: our tv networks have shown us tired soldiers, messy streetfighting, close-ups of wounded children, downed helicos & drones, angry shias blocking an us patrol, the malfunctionning missile during the assault on the aeroport, etc, etc,... But almost zero footage of welcoming iraqis. Quelle surprise!
U.S. forces moved closer to Iraq's northern oil city of Mosul on Saturday, after a day of American air strikes on Iraqi frontlines on the road ahead of them. A Reuters team passed one 20-vehicle convoy carrying around 100 U.S. soldiers about five km from Kalak, which until Thursday formed the frontline between the Kurdish-ruled zone in the north and the Iraqi army. The regular forces in the convoy — one truck carried soldiers and 19 Humvees carried troops or weapons and equipment — were the first I had seen in the area as opposed to the U.S. special forces who have been operating with Kurdish fighters. The convoy later turned off the main road and divided into at least three sections that pulled up on side roads. But Reuters television cameraman Dmitry Madorsky saw a 10-vehicle convoy on the move in the Kurdish-controlled city of Arbil, about 30 km to the east of Kalak. Residents waved and cheered. I'm surprised Rooters reported that little tidbit...
Kalak overlooks two bridges over the River Zab on the main road connecting Arbil and Mosul, Iraq's third city which is a little over 40 km to the west. Iraqi forces began retreating from Kalak early on Thursday, after around 10 days of sustained bombing. They established a new frontline a few kilometers down the road to Mosul at the village of Khazer, where another strategic bridge lies in no-man's land between the Iraqi army and the Peshmerga.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 10:33 am ||
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Former Iraqi Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi is reportedly expected to lead the new interim administration after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, the weekly Focus magazine said Saturday. The 80-year-old Pachachi who was foreign minister in the government deposed by Saddam Hussein's Baath Party in a 1968 coup, was quoted as saying that Iraqi opposition had asked him to form a provisional authority called 'The Council of Sovereignty'. "I was authorized to duly convene this council which will represent Iraq in the interim phase," Pachachi added. The council will be composed of three Shiites, one Sunni, a Kurd and Pachachi himself. Sounds ever so multicultural...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:58 am ||
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A Saddam fedayeen (suicide fighter) reported seeing some 30 buses carrying American soldiers captured during intense clashes in Baghdad early today. According to the Al-Arabiya satellite TV channel, Abo Abdullah said that during a non-conventional battle, Iraqi forces succeeded in recapturing Saddam International Airport, which was reported to have been taken over by coalition forces Friday and renamed Baghdad International Airport.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:55 am ||
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Hahahahahahah! Best laugh I've had today.
Hey, Ali Fedayeen, have you considered taking your comedy act on the road?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/05/2003 9:58 Comments ||
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#2
Clearly sleep deprivation is taking its toll.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/05/2003 10:01 Comments ||
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#3
They were armored buses. With guns.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/05/2003 10:01 Comments ||
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#4
Al-Arabiya? Isn't that Peter Arnett's latest employer? They will like his type of journalism.
#5
That would be the Bradley fighting "bus", equiped with the urban renewal chain gun mounted on its turret.
Somehow I can see Ralph Kramden riding into town with one of those babies.
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
04/05/2003 10:43 Comments ||
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#6
Could be the Fedayeen weraing those American and Brit unis they ordered....watch your backs boys
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 11:34 Comments ||
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#7
I wondered what happened to all those US and British uniforms Uncle Sadde ordered; either that or the high grade hashhish has finally caught up to the suicide squads (hey, ya gotta get 'em motivated SOMEHOW, and if the virgins don't do it, the opium laced hash might do the trick).
#8
Yeah, saw Iraqi Min of Info interviewed on Iraqi satellite channel by AJ today. He kept going on how we had been pushed out of the airport to about 30-40 kms south. AJ guy did at least ask him for proof, to which Min told him the US had been pushed out of the airport to about 30-40 kms south...again, again. I guess this was last night's "unconventional" attack.
Military pros out there: The Min was standing on roof of him minstry during interview. Would it have been possible to have made a little noise during interview? Ditto for "Saddam's" walk around.
Posted by: Michael ||
04/05/2003 15:36 Comments ||
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Is "unconventional" a synonym for "imaginary" in the Iraqi dialect?
The Qatari Al-Jazeera TV channel cited an information ministry official of Iraq as saying that Iraqi troops had recaptured Baghdad airport which was reportedly fell into the hands of coalition forces early Saturday. Anybody up for driving out to have a look?
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:48 am ||
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Take the limo to the airport. That way you won't risk getting any dents on your car in the airport parking lot.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/05/2003 9:58 Comments ||
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British troops tightened the noose around Basra, Iraq's second biggest city, through capturing townships near it. According to an IRNA correspondent in Shalamcheh border strip, following heavy clashes, British forces captured Tanoumeh, Abul-Khasiband Al-Zubair townships. He said heavy fighting is still continuing in Basra front and quoted unconfirmed sources as saying that the UK soldiers entered parts of the city after they broke the Basra defense line.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:41 am ||
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IRNA -- A contingent of US Army and Marines Division,backed by tanks, has rolled into Baghdad, the TV broadcaster Fox News said Saturday. The television showed what it said were columns of tanks, belonging to the 3rd Infantry Division, entering downtown Baghdad. The footage showed the tanks pushing on a highway and passing in one point past a mural of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. CNN confirmed the reports as it said US troops had penetrated the 'heart of Baghdad'. How 'bout that? IRNA watches Fox, and our guys went downtown...
It also reported occasional stiff resistance, put up by Iraqi forces, who used rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and fired anti-aircraft weapons. Fox News also reported of five strong explosions, heard at the center of Baghdad. It also showed an Iraqi TV footage of what it said was Saddam talking to cheering citizens on the Baghdad streets. The Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera said earlier clashes were underway among the US-coalition and Iraqi forces on the outskirts of the Saddam International Airport in Baghdad. It also quoted a US military spokesman as saying that the American forces had seized the airport which renamed it as 'Baghdad International Airport'.
FOLLOWUP: From Rooters...
U.S. troops staged a foray into Baghdad for the first time on Saturday, taking the 17-day-old war to topple Saddam Hussein right into his battered capital. The Iraqi president, in a message read on television by a minister, urged his armed forces and people to step up attacks on the U.S. and British invasion forces. "The criminals will be humiliated," the message said. "To hurt the enemy more, raise the level of your attacks." "Y'all get out there and get killed! Do it for me, 'cuz I'm special!"
Iraq denied any U.S. forces were in Baghdad and said its troops had driven the Americans from the international airport â a claim that a U.S. military spokesman said was groundless. U.S. military sources said at least 20 Abrams tanks and 10 Bradley fighting vehicles had rumbled up a southern highway through Baghdad's Dawra suburb before swinging west and linking up with troops at the airport southwest of the city center. Just cruisin' the streets. Wonder if they got next to any chicks?
A Reuters correspondent who drove freely around the sprawling city of five million later in the day saw no sign of U.S. forces in areas he visited. Oh. Well. In that case, they must not have been there. Never mind.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:40 am ||
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urged his armed forces and people to step up attacks on the U.S. and British invasion forces.
What they need is a little motivation. Send in Tony Robbins!
#3
Min of Info completely denied everything during AJ interview I saw this morning. Things looked normal, or at least what passes for normal these days in Iraq. Again, could we have made it embarrassing for him given that our folks somewhere must be monitoring Iraqi/AJ TV?
Posted by: Michael ||
04/05/2003 15:44 Comments ||
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Man, but its gonna be funny when we see footage of him making an announcment, as troops from 3ID walk into the room and take the mic... "Uh, by Allah, this is NOT happening - in fact, the mighty Saddam has staged this incident so that you can see how a true soldier wets his pants in the face of the enemy... uh - death to the infi - uh - hey I'm not finished!..."
lol
Posted by: Steve W. ||
04/06/2003 0:39 Comments ||
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IRNA -- Heavy clashes between US and Iraqi forces are taking place in the outskirts of Saddam International Airport, the Al-Jazeera satellite channel reported. It quoted a US military spokesman as saying that the American forces have taken near total control of the airport which they have renamed Baghdad International Airport. Al-Jazeera reported that occupation of the airport Thursday is one of the crucial achievements of coalition forces in the current war as it may soon be used as a a platform for staging attacks to capture Baghdad. According to the channel, the US forces consider their capture of the airport as a brilliant achievement because it would deter Iraqi leaders from trying to escape the war by using airplanes. US forces have reportedly been ordered to shoot the wheels of a commercial passenger plane currently inside one of the hangars of the airport. I hardly think that's necessary...
Iraq, through its information minister, continues to deny that the airport is now totally in the hands of coalition forces. Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahaf warned the invaders during a press briefing Friday that "non-conventional acts" would be launched overnight, which the US military has interpreted to possibly mean the use of chemical or biological weapons or huge numbers of Iraqis as human shields. That was yesterday. Nothing happened. I guess that was "non-conventional"...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:36 am ||
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I think "non-conventional" might be a bad translationm of the original arabic. I think he said "pathetic and utterly ineffective".
Posted by: Frank Martin ||
04/05/2003 10:52 Comments ||
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The Iraqi southern city of Samawa fell during a heavy fight between US and British forces and Iraqi soldiers early Saturday. According to sources in Iraq, Samawa fell while the US-led coalition forces were strengthened by reinforcement after they captured southern city of Nassiriya. The US and British helicopters brought Samawa under heavy fire.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:31 am ||
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US and British troops captured Nassiriya air base in south of Iraq early Saturday. News sources in Iraq confirmed the fall of Nassiriya air base, saying the US and British warplanes bombarded the base while their troops were advancing toward it. It is not clear yet whether the Iraqi warplanes exist in the base when the coalition forces were to capture it. The seizure of Samawa paved the grounds for aggressor forces to expand their air cover in south of Iraq.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:30 am ||
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U.S. Army soldiers Saturday captured the headquarters of the Republican Guard's Medina Division in this town about 35 miles southeast of Baghdad. Two tank companies and an infantry company of the 3rd Infantry Division rolled through the headquarters unopposed and quickly took over the entire base. It appeared that the Republican Guard defenses had completely collapsed. Outside the base on a three-mile stretch of road were hundreds of bunkers and foxholes and dozens of artillery pieces, antiaircraft guns, tanks, and armored personnel carriers. All of them had been abandoned by Iraqi troops. No troops could be seen. The tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles used their main guns to destroy the military vehicles along the route. Hearing this on CNN at 2 am CST as well with some video. Looks devestated.
This is their garrison. Except for whatever equipment was on site, it's pretty much meaningless, except to run the Baathist noses in the dirt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 02:06 am ||
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Australian elite commandos are battling Iraqis in ``shoot-and-scoot'' missions deep behind enemy lines, air force pilots are pounding enemy positions and navy divers are swimming through murky waters hunting anti-shipping mines. Yet, each morning of the 16-day old conflict, Australian military spokesman Brigadier Mike Hannan opens his media briefing in Canberra on Australia's 2,000-strong commitment to the Iraq war with these words: ``I'm happy to report there have been no major incidents or casualties in the past 24 hours.'' Getting the job done at a high level with no casualties. Best compliment for any military unit around.
The U.S. casualty list is now 67 dead, 16 missing and seven captured. The number of British dead is 27. David Horner, a professor of military operations at the Australian National University, said the absence of Australian casualties is not just due to the relatively tiny commitment Canberra has made to the war. The United States has sent more than 250,000 troops and the British 40,000. The vast majority of Australian forces are in non-combat roles. Of the 2,000 personnel only 150 elite special forces troops are operating on the ground in Iraq. The other personnel considered most at risk are the pilots who fly Australia's 14 F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets. The remaining Australians are mostly well away from any action - in support roles, on navy ships, at command headquarters in Qatar, and in maritime patrol and air transport planes. ``We have the SAS (Special Air Service forces) but they are small and specialized. Their job is surveillance and reconnaissance. They fight if cornered, but their job is to avoid contact with the enemy if possible,'' he said. Horner said special forces troops also tend to be in their late 20s or early 30s, while infantrymen are more likely to be young men aged from 18 to mid-20s. ``They are older, wiser, street smart,'' he said. Horner said that in Vietnam, 600 Australian SAS served alongside U.S. forces from 1966 to 1971. Only one was killed by enemy fire. In that time they had 298 contacts with the enemy, killed at least 492 - possibly up to 600 - wounded 47 and took 11 prisoners. Sounds like the NVA really took in the chops against the Aussies.
The lack of Australian casualties is a political blessing for Prime Minister John Howard who has relentlessly supported U.S. policy on Iraq and committed Australia to the war despite overwhelming public opposition. According to polls, in the past two weeks public opposition to Australian involvement in the war has fallen from around 70 percent before the hostilities began, to just under 50 percent. Same story in the US and UK: lead, and the people will respect you for it. In the meantime, stay safe, Aussies.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 02:02 am ||
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Hurrah! Aussies to the rescue.
We are the true Allies: USA, UK, Australia! let none divide us.
Though I wouldn't know the exact figures, I challenge that it was EVER 70% opposition.
SBS and the indy left media frequently inflated the numbers and gave very biased news reports.
A rally crowd I saw with my own eyes and estimated at tops 20,000 was inflated to 250,000 on the SBS nightly news.
The Sydney Morning Herald ran a blatant anti-war campaign to the extent that if anybody in our country actually understood the issues/history of the situation it would be a blooming miracle.
Yet still I'd say the silent majority backed the USA. When I challenged the socialists and argued in the streets, complete strangers and passers by would join in and support me. Ordinary people as opposed to hippies and innalek-shills
The eight soldiers were with Pfc. Jessica Lynch when their unit, the 507th Maintenance Company, was ambushed near Nasiriyah on March 23. The Pentagon issued a statement early Saturday morning saying the status of the eight soldiers had been changed from missing to killed. The soldiers were:
-Sgt. George E. Buggs, 31, of Barnwell, S.C.
-Master Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, 38, of Cleveland.
-Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, 18, of El Paso, Texas.
-Spc. James M. Kiehl, 22, of Comfort, Texas.
-Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, 35, of Amarillo, Texas.
-Pfc. Lori Ann Piestewa, 23, of Tuba City, Ariz.
-Pvt. Brandon U. Sloan, 19, of Cleveland.
-Sgt. Donald R. Walters, 33, of Kansas City, Mo.
The ninth body taken to Dover has not been identified. Five members of the unit remain listed as prisoners of war. Shortly after the unit's ambush, the five were shown on Iraqi state-run television being questioned by their captors. Iraqi television also showed footage of at least five bodies. After viewing that footage, Pentagon officials accused Iraq of executing prisoners of war. There was no immediate word from the Pentagon Saturday on whether the soldiers were killed in the ambush or afterward.
Posted by: Anonymous ||
04/05/2003 12:23 am ||
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If there is evidence any were executed then I expect there will be a retalitory strike - and a good chance it will be against Tikrit or Saddam's home village. MOAB anyone?
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/05/2003 0:41 Comments ||
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I'm with Phil B... If it can be proven that our troops were executed it's definitely MOAB time in Tikrit.
#5
Its important to understand what this war is really about and its not WMD or oil. Its an object lesson to regimes (and other entities) that threaten and kill people (their own citizens their neighbours, and the international community).
MOAB on Tikrit will drive home the message that the disadvantages of your favourite son becoming a murdering dictator outweigh the advantages.
I don't relish killing a lot of civillians, but its a greater good thing.
Posted by: Phil B ||
04/05/2003 1:41 Comments ||
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#6
Come on, folks, get real. We're not going to suddenly start deliberately bombing civilians. That would be counterproductive. We are getting a lot of information from Iraqi civilians about the locations of the Baathists and the Fedayeen, which we are using to target the bad guys while not killing the civilians.
We will, however, spare no effort after the war is over to find ALL of the Iraqis who have committed war crimes, and bring them to justice.
Justice, by the way, should come at the end of a rope.
#7
If I was the guy who found Sammy alive, I would damn well make sure he doesn't get out of that bunker intact to face a trial in The Hague. No friggin way.
#8
I don't think killing Saddam would be the best thing to do. Shooting him in the kneecaps and elbows, however, plus a really hard smack between the eyes (and elsewhere... ) with a rifle butt, then drag him out of the bunker by his hands. Throw him on the back of a deuce-and-a-half and haul him out to the center of Baghdad. Put him in a glass box, and glue the seams shut. Let the people of Baghdad watch him turn blue. I'm sure they will feel a great relief when it's all over.
Kind of a catharsis thing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2003 13:47 Comments ||
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Two bombings killed two people and wounded eight in the southern Philippines Saturday, the latest in a string of bomb attacks in the region. A bomb exploded in a house in the city of Tacurong, killing a woman and a child. Police in Tacurong, arrested two men seen leaving a suspicious package, regional army spokesman Maj. Julieto Ando said. Earlier, a bomb at a bus terminal in Parang injured the mayor and at least seven other people, the military and police said. The bomb appeared to have been intended for Mayor Vivencio Bataga, a former army colonel known for his tough policies against Muslim separatists in the area. He suffered minor injuries, said Maj. Gen. Generoso Senga, commander of the army's 6th Infantry Division. Town council member Gaudencio Teves said the bomb was made from an 81 mm mortar shell and affixed to a motorcycle parked near a bench at the terminal. Among those injured were a 5-year-old boy, a 54-year-old woman and two army soldiers that served as Bataga's bodyguards. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. It was the second such attack in less than a week in Parang. Police blamed the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist group, for the airport bombing. The rebels have denied involvement.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 11:38 am ||
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At least five factions of the oldest Muslim rebel movement in the Philippines opened talks on reunification Saturday, seeking to strengthen the 1996 peace agreement with the Philippine government. A Philippine government representative and the governor of the southern Philippine province of Mindanao were attending the talks, scheduled to last two days. The Moro National Liberation Front fought for Muslim self-rule in the southern Philippines in the 1970s. With the help of Libyan mediation, it signed a peace deal with the government in 1996 that granted the region limited autonomy. Several factions broke away from the main group, however, after the arrest of its leader Nur Misuari, who is being tried for allegedly leading an attack on an army base in November 2001 that killed more than 100 people.
With Libyan help, four factions signed a unity declaration in January and were invited to Libya to seal the agreement. The Libyan government hopes the talks will result in Muslim groups gaining a united voice in negotiations with the government. No violent factions — such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front or the al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group — are participating in the talks.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 11:13 am ||
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A crowd of 10,000 people burned a mock Statue of Liberty and chanted "Bush is a terrorist" during a boisterous anti-war rally Friday in Indonesia. Crowds marched through the streets of the central Javanese town of Solo, holding hundreds of posters calling for a peaceful end to the Iraq war and labeling US President George W. Bush a terrorist and baby killer. Others strode through the streets holding a plastic foam replica of the Statue of Liberty but with a machine gun in her hands. As the protest ended in front of a university campus, the crowd burned the two-meter-high statue and joined in a chorus of "Bush is a terrorist." Yassss... Thousands of Islamists, burning a representation of Liberty. That sounds about right.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:29 am ||
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What do we want? LIBERTY!
When do we want it? NEVER!
#5
Does that mean they are symobolically burning their desire to ever set foot in our great nation?... Please don't punish us by not attending our world class universities, living in our safe suburbs, or partaking in the most open, free, and advanced democracy on the planet...
Please, deny us the additional burden of having to celebrate your culture in addition to the hundreds of others that we recognize as part of our own...
Posted by: Steve W. ||
04/06/2003 0:49 Comments ||
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As U.S. military troops push toward Baghdad with the most modern equipment, technology and training money can buy, the Iraqi leadership will rely on a defense that is ancient as warfare itself: underground tunnels and bunkers.
Over the past 20 years, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is believed to have constructed an elaborate series of underground tunnels and bunkers around Baghdad where he, his leadership and the elite troops that guard them are able to move about virtually undetected and nearly impervious to U.S. munitions, according to Iraq experts, a former Iraqi scientist and Western construction officials whose companies helped build the warrens.
Among the more extensive tunnel complexes are those described by Hussein Shahristani, once Iraq's top nuclear scientist, who was tortured and imprisoned in Iraq. Shahristani, who escaped Iraq during the first Gulf War, said that subway plans developed by several foreign firms were actually used by the Iraqi military to hide and transport the country's chemical and biological weapons. Shahristani told CBS's "60 Minutes" in February that he believed Iraq had "more than 100 kilometers of very complex network, multi-layer tunnels."
#1
Here goes the next thing to try to predict doom and gloom. If they exist, we can locate them, if we can locate them and have control of the surface we can destroy them.
Posted by: Ralph ||
04/05/2003 16:50 Comments ||
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#2
Only a hundred kilometers? Pikers! There aren't any moles quite like the North Korean moles. They have such an elaborate system of tunnels that they have an entire air support complex under a mountain. Pyongyang is reported to have 700 MILES of tunnels and bunkers constructed underneath it. The number of miles of railroad tunnels KNOWN in North Korea exceeds 100km.
All that said, I do believe hasbeen has the tunnels. I believe one of them connected to the airport we "don't control". I'm just wondering when the 101st is going to start playing "catch the mole".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2003 16:58 Comments ||
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#3
Since (some, anyway, of) the tunnels seem to connect to the airport, I think anyone down there's in for a nasty surprise.
#4
That's where your going to find the WMD. I bet they got nukes. By the way, The subway company that build those tunnels, I'm sure they were french, the world leader in Subways is a Paris/Berlin based firm.
Posted by: George ||
04/05/2003 17:17 Comments ||
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#5
You bet they got nukes? I hope not! What makes you think that? Is that just a guess? In anycase, this is getting more and more strange by the day. God bless the troops!
#6
Those tunnels run pretty deep.. which means.. below the level of the Tigris.
The question then becomes .. can they pump water out faster than we can pump it in?
#7
No need to pump. Just find where one crosses under the Tirgis or Euphrates, and drop a JDAM or three on it. When it caves in, the rats will have to float to the top, or drown. Baghdad doesn't need a subway system, anyway.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/06/2003 0:51 Comments ||
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#8
I think they have nukes because it was reported on the French TF1 of training exercises for troops during a nuclear detonation. Plus this guy does not hesitate to drop WMD on his own soil. If all the troops are underground they could detonate a nuke and counterattack.
Posted by: George ||
04/06/2003 5:37 Comments ||
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The U.S.-led war on Iraq has cast a shadow over the Arab League, which for 50 years embodied the aspirations of millions of Arabs for unity but is now under fire for failing to stop the latest Gulf war. Disappointment at its failure to stop the war has sparked talk of scrapping the 22-member talkfest League, replacing it with something new, or introducing serious reforms. Or trading it in on a dog and shooting the dog...
Libya this week revived a request in October to withdraw from the League, in the most overt display of frustration. Other members are said to be equally unhappy. Western diplomats in Saudi Arabia said the country was distressed at the League's ineffectiveness and Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz was keen to see it reformed. "The future of the Arab League is now hanging in the balance," said Hassan Abu Taleb of Egypt's Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak raised the need for change when he said in a speech this week that it was time to start thinking about the Arab structure to make it more effective. Arab League officials acknowledge that the body is under great pressure to change but insist it should stay in business. "I mean, we need jobs, too!"
"Replacing the Arab League with another body is not easy because the League is what brought the Arabs together despite their differences and affiliations," Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told reporters on Monday. He noted that other international organisations such as the United Nations, Nato and the European Union are equally ineffectual had faced similar rifts over the Iraq war. Set up by seven Arab states in 1945 as a forum to bring Arab states together, the League enjoyed a heyday in the 1950s and 60s under charismatic Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Since then, it's all been downhill...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 12:08 pm ||
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#1
The Arab League irrelevant? How could such a thing be?
#2
If they really want to reform the Arab League they should dump the Designated Hitter and raise the pitchers mound six inches. Just kidding, what they should do is issue a statement and policy of recongnition of the State of Israel, affirm the basic rights of individuals to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, universally condemn the fanatisism that has gripped the region for far to long. require member states to endorse multi-party elections and republican or palimentary forms of government
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
04/05/2003 18:08 Comments ||
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#3
The Arab League is a political thing?...
I thought that was some sort of ethnic specific bowling club... silly me... It never occured to me that a bowling league would care about some dictator hijacking the tenets of the principle faith of the Arabic world (Islam) in order to subjugate, torment, starve, and bully a rather large group of its own religious and ethnic brothers... That's why I hadn't wondered why they didn't do something about Saddam...
But, now that I know they ARE political, uh, I'm kinda asking that question. Does the Arab League care about Arabs at all????
Posted by: Steve W. ||
04/06/2003 1:06 Comments ||
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Edited for brevity.
Wal-Mart agreed Friday to immediately suspend sales of rifles and shotguns in its 118 California stores, following nearly 500 violations of state firearms laws in six stores. In two cases, a store sold guns to felons, according to Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who announced the agreement with the retail giant.
Wal-Mart's action comes after the chain announced in July that it had implemented a rule requiring customers to undergo a background check before buying rifles and shotguns - no matter how long the check takes. In California, store employees released guns to customers before background checks were completed, Lockyer said, and failed to verify the identities of buyers through thumbprints and driver's licenses.
Other violations included failing to document sale of a firearms safety device with the gun.
Under federal law, background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System are required for anyone attempting to purchase a gun. If the results are not returned within three business days, the dealer may complete the sale. Doesn't sound like a permanent ban, and they're still selling ammo, so they haven't gone the K-Mart route yet.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
04/05/2003 11:54 am ||
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#1
Why does corporate America feel the need to cooperate with liberal gun grabbers? Why would anyone who understands the constitution want to live in People's Republic of California? Even if they are still selling ammo, who can afford to buy it if they pass the bullet tax?
#2
From the sounds of it, they're just implementing this temporarily 'til they ensure their employees and procedures are up to snuff. I don't think they're caving in to any Rosie O'Donnell-type groups or pressure, just making an agreement with the AG to fix their broken system.
Posted by: Dar Steckelberg ||
04/05/2003 16:18 Comments ||
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Two groups of Russian warships and nuclear-powered submarines are heading for the Arabian Sea, sparking speculation about Moscow's possible military involvement in the Persian Gulf area.
This is the first time Russian ships and subs have been sent to the area since the breakup of the USSR, reports Z News.
Indian Defense Minister George Fernandes visited Moscow in January, said the report, at which time the war games were planned for May. The vessels are scheduled to arrive in the Arabian Sea by the end of April.
According to a report in the Latvian news service LETA, the ships from the Black Sea fleet will include the cruiser Moskva, military transport ship Cezar Kunikov and two guard vessels. They are scheduled to leave Sevastopol within a few days. The news service says more ships from the Pacific fleet will join the armada to double its size. Three nuclear submarines also will be part of the exercise.
Hmm.... In another rantburg article today, Gorby is quoted as saying "I agree with President Lahoud on the need to work to restore the authority of the United Nations and oppose violations of international law," Hmmm, restoring the authority of the UN is hardly a threat, unless they plan to talk us to death.
But about a week ago, Russia issued a joint statment with Cuba, which I seemed to be alone in thinking was a clear shot across the bow. Combined with these "war games" and the other increasing rhetoric, they've clearly chucked a few diplomatic pretenses. But they have to know that any real aggression on their part could only result all out war, from which they have far more to lose than to gain.
Posted by: becky ||
04/05/2003 10:40 am ||
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#1
They must not have learned any thing after the Kursk disaster. You can't have a viable navy without doing some maintenence on your ships. Sounds like a good time to invest in towing and salvage companies.
#2
Got to be salvage. I would not give them a tow without cash up front, or some kind of lien from some jurisdiction with enforcement power. Their little pleasure cruise may just that, but I worry about irrational acts. After all, Pooty Poot could have said this to Bush, "Buy our Iraqi bad debts off for so many cents on the dollar. We will make a bunch of public noise about Iraq and the war, but ignore that and give us a piece of the action post war." Instead, they threw their lot in with the AOW and lost big. I would be watching them carefully, like a dog that had its head bonked by a tipping refrigerator. Don't know what it will do.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/05/2003 11:56 Comments ||
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#3
They'll probably force the US carrier groups in the region to concentrate on self-defense, thus preventing them from further participation in the actions against the Dear Russian Ally, Saddam.
#4
Hmmm, Moskva's what we call a helicopter carrier. It carries naval-configured Yak-36s (and not very many of them) the last I heard which are somewhat like the Harriers in that they can land or take off vertically (they usually take off horizontally to provide additional range though). Also the last I heard the Moskva and her sister ships had all been sold and delivered to China.
Either way, the Moskva and a couple of "guard" ships (likely small missile frigates) don;t represent a huge threat to a single US CVBG let alone the 3 we have in the Gulf right now.
The subs would force the US CVBGs to think more about self-defense, but it's unlikely they're not already on guard against threats from submarines and small missile boats already.
#5
Carrier battle groups in the Gulf are already dealing with a 360 degree threat. There is the beligerent called Iran with coast line along the entire eastern side. Secondly, the Russians would have to be suicidal to enter the Gulf and hassle our ships. Our subs would easily tag their subs as they come through the Strait of Hormuz. Finally, their YAk-36 and helo carriers just do not have the kind of fire power that can handle a CVBG and the air power present at Diego Garcia.
#6
Actually the Russian Navy has navalized the MiG29 and the SU27, both far more powerful and capable aircraft than the Yak-36.
On the plus side, the US Navy has decades of experience dealing with carrier to carrier warfare. Russian subs are more of a threat to CVBGs than surface ships. The Akula class is on par with the US Los Angeles class attack subs.
The Moskva is more of a missile platform than a helo carrier. The Russian navy has already deployed a traditional aircraft carrier although I am not certain if it is to be part of this force mix.
#7
Now that we have several Iraqi airfields, the airdales aren't really tied to their ships. They can fly to one of those airfields and let the Aegis ships provide cover for a group of carriers. I don't think Russia will do anything but play around the edges - anything else could be disasterous for them. I think this is mainly a "show the flag" voyage, saying, "We can provide force deployment, too". Other than their Akula class subs, I don't think any of their ships are much of a threat any more. We've managed to build a plausible defense against even their latest Sovremeny class cruisers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2003 15:51 Comments ||
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#8
I heard on the news tonight that Putin spoke with Bush and said, something to the effect of, it's not in Russia's interests for the US to lose the war against Iraq. That's a great sign! The worm has turned....or should I say, The Bear has turned on The Worm. Woo Hoo!
#9
This Moskva is NOT a helicopter carrier. It is a Slava class Missile Cruiser. Assuming that both the crew is technically trained, AND the ship is in a material condition suitable for deployment, exactly how many days underway has that crew had in the last 3 years? There's only so much you can do rusting next to the pier. This should be fun to watch. (Remember Kosova/Serbia when the Russians tried to sortie but had to cancel a week later due to lack of parts/training etc?)
From http://www.hazegray.org/worldnav/
Slava/Moskva class multirole cruisers (2+1 ships) (Project 1164)
Displacement: 11,500 tons full load
Crew: 454 + 51 flag
Aviation: Aft helicopter deck and hangar for 1 Ka-25/26/27 series helicopter.
Armament: 16 P-500/SS-N-12 Bazalt/Sandbox SSM, 8 B-303A VLS systems (64 S-300MPU/SA-N-6 Fort/Grumble SAM), 2 Osa-MA SAM systems (40 4K-33/SA-N-4 Gecko SAM), 1 dual 130mm/70cal DP, 6 30 mm AA, 10 21 inch torpedo tubes, 2 RBU-6000 ASW RL
Posted by: Dave ||
04/05/2003 23:27 Comments ||
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A small blast ripped through the toilets of a McDonalds restaurant on the edge of Beirut on Saturday, security sources said, the latest in a string of attacks on fast food outlets associated with the United States. At least two people were lightly injured in the blast, caused by a small chunk of dynamite hidden in the toilet of the restaurant. Security forces evacuated the building, and were checking it for any other explosives, they added.
Anger at Washington has swelled in Lebanon since the start of the U.S.-led war on Iraq last month. Anti-American sentiment had already been building up over the course of the 30-month Palestinian uprising and attempts by U.S. ally Israel to crush it. There has been a string of bombings at fast food outlets associated with the United States since May 2002, when one person was injured in the bombing of a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet in the northern port city of Tripoli. Sorry, Fred, I've been waiting to use this headline for years!
Posted by: Anonymous ||
04/05/2003 10:56 am ||
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#1
Man that Big Mac really gave me the screaming S***s
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
04/05/2003 18:10 Comments ||
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This one's for you, Al-aska Paul. From the JPost The Palestinian Authority's mufti, Ikremah Sabri, issued a fatwa (religious decree) Saturday banning US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair from setting foot on "the sacred, holy land of Palestine." This is the first time that the mufti, who was appointed by Yasser Arafat, issues such a ruling. The fatwa was announced at a press conference organized by the Palestine Media Center in al-Bireh. Palestinians said the decree is an indication of growing anti-American and anti-British sentiments in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It comes at a time when tens of thousands of Palestinians continue to stage protests denouncing the US and Britain and burning effigies of Bush and Blair. I think the "roadmap to peace" shows an asphalt strip where Gaza was
The unprecedented religious decree forbidding Bush and Blair from visiting the Palestinian territories comes only days after Christian leaders in Bethlehem announced that the two leaders would never be allowed to visit the Church of Nativity. I hadn't heard that. I guess arrogance is a mutual-opportunity vice in the "holy land"
In his religious decree, Shiekh Sabri urged Muslims to confront the US-British "aggression" on Iraq. But he stopped short of calling for a jihad (Holy war) against London and Washington. Other preachers used Friday prayers to urge Muslims to wage a holy war on the US and Britain. Spittle-wipes at the door, thank you for coming
"Muslims are obliged to rise in the face of this aggression," said the fatwa, which was read by the mufti. "This war is aimed at taking control over the Iraqi people and their oil resources and reshaping the Arab region to serve America's interests." uh, the ooiiillll thing is so, like, 2002? And does it never occur to these aholes that serving America's interests and serving the people's interests are not mutually exclusive?
The mufti, who is the highest religious authority in the Palestinian Authority, ridiculed Bush and Blair for declaring that the purpose of the war is to free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein's regime. "The ongoing aggression is aimed at stealing Iraq from its people and not liberating the people," he argued. "Who appointed the Americans as guardians on Iraq to liberate its people," he wondered, adding that his decree also prohibits Muslims from providing any kind of assistance to the US and Britain in their war.
Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip demonstrated rolled their eyes, spewed..... over the weekend in support of Saddam Hussein and against the US and Britain. Chanting "Death to America" and "Death to Britain," thousands of protestors took to the streets in several towns and villages after Friday noon prayers.
In Gaza City, thousands of worshippers streamed out of the Omari Mosque in one of the biggest shows of support for the Iraqi leader. The Palestinians, chanting, "With blood, with soul, we redeem Iraq," marched towards the monument for the unknown krazed killer soldier in the center of Gaza City, where a tent had been set up to express solidarity with Saddam. Since that's all he has to his name now
Carrying two coffins - one with the words UN Security Council on it and the other with Arab League - the crowd chanted "Bush listen very well, the Islam fighters will send you to hell." Top Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders who led the rally saluted the Iraqi army for its fierce resistance against the American and British soldiers.
Hamas's spiritual leader, Ahmed Yassin, reiterated his call on the Iraqi people to follow suit with Hamas and launch suicide attacks against the American and British troops. The demonstrators retorted by chanting, "Oh Iraq we are coming, and we are prepared to sacrifice millions."
Hamas representative Mahmoud Zahhar told the crowd that, "It was inevitable for the American and British invaders to arrive at the gates of Baghdad because that's where they are going to be buried." He added: "If the crusaders insist on storming Baghdad, they will lose thousands of soldiers. Baghdad is a graveyard for invaders, whose destiny will be hell."
In Ramallah, Palestinian officials joined thousands of Palestinians who took to the streets following Friday prayers to protest against the war in Iraq. Waving Palestinian and Iraqi flags, the protestors shouted slogans denouncing Bush and Blair, as well as pro-Western Arab presidents and monarchs.
The PA mufti in Ramallah, Jamal Bawatneh, called in his Friday sermon for a jihad against the US and Britain. He told thousands of worshippers at the Jamal Abdel Nasser Mosque in al-Bireh that it was the duty of all Muslims to participate in a holy war against "the Americans and British infidels who are perpetrating massacres against Iraqi children and women on a daily basis."
In Nablus, masked gunmen belonging to the Hamas military wing spearheaded a large crowd of demonstrators carrying Iraqi flags and photographs of Saddam. Spokesmen at the rally emphasized the "special bond between Iraqi and Palestinian blood." We should allow them to be shed together
Thousands cheered as the masked gunmen set fire to a huge wooden emblem of an American F-18 warplane and effigies of Bush and Blair.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 10:04 am ||
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#1
From the above article I conclude:
1.) it is all right with the religious leaders if a MUSLIM committs rape, torture, theft of a country's resources and religious suppression of other muslim sects if the alternative is a democracy that is enabled by the US. Who do you suppose supports these muftis if not the dictators and brutal rulers of these countries?
2.) considering the way the Palestinians seem to reason, maybe the Saddamites and Palestinians deserve each other. The Paleos do seem to have a real talent for picking the loosing side.
3.) Would anyone, let alone Blair and Bush, ever WANT to go to Palestine? Sounds like punishment to me. On second thought, maybe there is a new use for all the human shields that wanted to (at first) be part of the Iraqui defense system. If the Isralei bulldozers and tanks didn't get them, the PLO would. That way there would be some good out of all of this for everyone!
#2
If President Bush and Prime Minister Blair have in fact been banned from the Church of the Nativity(and there's some question as to whether they actually have), this Christian urges Israel to storm the church if the Palestinians ever try to occupy it again. And they might as well knock down the Al-Aqsa mosk while they're at it.
Posted by: Christopher Johnson ||
04/05/2003 13:46 Comments ||
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#3
I think that was the last straw. I believe our next course of action should be a military campaign through Syria to Lebanon, followed by the total resettlement of Palestinian Arabs in the inhosiptable and empty Sinai Peninsula. The borders of Israel should be re-defined to what they were in the original Balfour Treaty, and any Arab attempting to change them should be dropped from the belly of a B-52 at 52,000 feet.
Egypt may object, but there's always the threat of a "dirty nuke" on the Aswan Dam to "persuade" them to assume a different tack. I am really sick to death of the islamofascist "imams" and their "fatwas". We should bring them to Baghdad and show them what an American Fatwa looks like. Islam, the "religion of Peace", needs a house cleaning.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2003 13:58 Comments ||
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#4
Let these folks fall on their swords from humiliation once the job is done in Iraq. Making policy based on fantasies is the Palestinian and too a great degree, the Arab govt's/people's way. Remember the Madrid Conference took place ONLY because the Palestinians/Jordanians had no place to go in the wake of their support for Iraq after GWI. If we have a spine, we will insist that THEY will have to adjust to the new realities of a post-war Iraq, and thus new ME situation. Let's not take our cue from Old Europe appeasers. Their idea is for us to go running to them for advice on ME politics since we will have had our way in Iraq. They believe this tit-for-tat is only just. HUH? George and Tony: Don't go wobbly
Posted by: Michael ||
04/05/2003 15:58 Comments ||
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#5
Another day, another fatwa. (Yawn.) I'm starting to think it doesn't mean "religious decree". It seems to be more appropriately translated "temper tantrum".
Although, I do like the twin coffins with UN and Arab League on them. Even the Palestinians realize they are dead ducks.
Posted by: Former Russian Major ||
04/05/2003 18:30 Comments ||
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#6
Why don't these unbelievable a**holes put up, or shut up - if they're so keen on dying in Baghdad, why are they 'demonstrating' in Ramallah?... Baghdad is some number of miles east if memory serves guys... You may need to ask for directions in Syria, but you'll get there - if you want, we can have the Army and Marines wait for you, so you won't miss the party - what an incredible bunch of crap this idiots spew - if you're willing to 'sacrifice millions', get to it!!! we're waiting!!!...
Posted by: Steve W. ||
04/06/2003 1:15 Comments ||
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#7
Sounds like the Paleoticks are ticted-off,no more sucking at the Saddam teat(re:$25,000/suicide bomber).
"No more goodies in the pipeline"
(Ten C.C.70'srock band)
Iran's ministers of foreign affairs, intelligence and defense will participate at the Sunday session of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) to discuss prevailing developments in neighboring Iraq. Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, Information (Intelligence) Minister Ali Younessi and Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani will also examine the Islamic Republic's stance on the US-led war as coalition forces reportedly push on their invasion into the heart of Baghdad. The Islamic Republic has strongly condemned the US-led invasion of Iraq but it has taken a position of 'active neutrality' and reiterated that it will not back one side or the other in the US-led war. I imagine this is going to be a pretty worried consultation. Iraq and Iran fought for ten years to a stand-off. We beat up Iraq the first time in 100 hours, and this time we're taking the entire country in three weeks. That doesn't bode well for a country with about the same military capabilities.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:45 am ||
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Remember we're talking about Islamist lunatics here.Connecting with reality is not their strong point.
Posted by: El Id ||
04/05/2003 10:28 Comments ||
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#2
bodes even worse for Syria, Saudi, etc....
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 11:18 Comments ||
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The secretary general of a political party here on Friday equalled the Turkmen President Spar Murat Niyazov's "Rouh-Nameh" (Letter on Souls) with "prophets' books", including the Holy Qoran, except that it is "written at the end of the 2nd millennium!" Oooh! Lookit! Another entry on the dictatorial laughingstock list. See, first you become a dictator and then you lose your mind. Because you can have all the people around you shot, they lose their minds, too...
The Secretary General of Turkmenistan's Democratic Party Onjuq Moussayev who was speaking at a conference entitled "The Holy Rouh-Nameh and the Religious Beliefs of Turkmens", described President Niyazov's book as "a divinely inspired, material work that is closer to immaterial stuff." He added, "next to the Holy Qoran, Rouh-Nameh is the best book ever written for the mankind!" Mao had his Little Red Book. Qadhaffi has his Little Green Book. Hitler had Mein Kampf. The commies had Marx and the Collected Works of Lenin and the collected works of Stalin, and Brezhnev had Tselina. Sammy had Zabiba and the King. You can't be a dictator without writing The Greatest Work of the Age™.
Moussayev who is also the first deputy of Turkmenistan's National Uprising Movement, in his lecture that was all praise for President Niyazov and his book, Rouh-Nameh, described the Turkmen president's job in writing that book as "a miraculous act" and "a mighty move." He added, "a great source of divine power exists within this great book that is both promising and inspiring for the Turkmen nation and the whole mankind!" "We just lo-o-o-o-ove our dictator!"
Another speaker at the conference, the Grand Mufti (topmost religious authority of Sunni Muslims) of Turkmenistan Kaka Galdi Vafayev, approved the previous speaker's comments on the president's work. Referring to the opening sentences of Rouh-Nameh, in which President Niyazov has claimed that the book is the result of of God's revelations reflected in his heart, he said, "Based upon God's orders, sacred books are inspired onto the hearts of human beings that are equal in value to Prophets of God!" The Grand Mufti, too, whose lecture was all praise for the Turkmen president and his book, said, "This book has attracted the broad attention of the international community is in fact a bright lantern that will lighten the golden ear of the Turkmen nation, eternally!" It's attracting international attention, alright. Just not for the reasons Turkmenbashi had in mind...
The 21st century is labeled as "The Golden Century of the Turkmen Nation and the Rouh-Nameh is referred to as "The Holy Book" in state owned media of the country and the official texts.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
04/05/2003 09:25 am ||
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The Islamic concept of "finality of prophethood" is a pillar of the murder-rape cult. Both the Ahmadiyah and Nation-of-Islam groups are generally condemned in Islamania, for issuing new prophecy. The penalty for "innovation" (bidah) in Islam is: death. Yet the Wahabis permit the Farakhanites to attend "pilgrimage" (haj) because that Islamo-fascist group is subversive, and contributes to the debilitation of American security. The Turkmen crackpot will get similar kid's gloves treatment.
Israeli troops uncovered an explosives laboratory and arrested a senior Islamic Jihad militant yesterday during a sweep in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, the army said. Huh, bomb lab? I thought the Roadmap to Peace⢠was ready to be passed out....
Nearly 1,000 men and teenage boys were rounded up and questioned Wednesday in Tulkarem. Information gleaned from the interrogations tipped forces off to an explosives laboratory in an abandoned building, the army said. Book em all, Dano. Let em sweat and they'll talk
The troops pulled out of the town yesterday, and nearly all heh heh except those few, the proud, the boomers
those rounded up were allowed to return home. The residents were kept out of the town to make the search easier, the army said. During yesterday's raid, troops arrested Anwar Alian, whom the army called a top figure in Islamic Jihad. AKA Illegal Alian
Alian, 22, has been wanted by the Israelis for more than a year. Troops blew up his home in the Nur Shams refugee camp outside Tulkarem about six months ago. The army says it demolishes the homes of militants in an attempt to deter Palestinians from carrying out attacks against Israelis. The Palestinians condemn the policy as collective punishment and a violation of international law. That damn international law thing again? Like attacks against civilians aren't?
In the explosives lab, forces found 88 pounds of explosives, 44 pounds of fertilizer used to make bombs, gunpowder, two pressurized gas canisters, and a large number of metal pellets often used on explosives belts. The lab then was destroyed. Of course, the pellets, along with bolts, nails create shrapnel to maim and kill even more civilians...cowards
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops backed by tanks and combat helicopters moved into the Nusseirat refugee camp, hunting Islamic militants and setting off a two-hour gun battle that wounded four Palestinians and one soldier. Residents of the refugee camp said Israeli snipers took up positions on rooftops as troops searched houses. Troops surrounded the house of Abdel Hakim Jahjooh, a member of Hamas. But the man was not there, camp residents said. Better luck next time...tell him we'll be back
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 09:10 am ||
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Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Friday that he would be interested to learn whether Iraq has chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Now you're interested? What the hell were you doing before? Vacationing?
"Now we are curious, we are the most curious of all to know, are the Americans and Brits and others going to find some weapons of mass destruction?" Blix said nervously after speaking at a seminar on postwar Iraq. One step at a time Blixie.
"That is the $64 billion question today. We were the $64 million question, because that was what we cost per year," he said, referring to the U.N. weapons inspection team. And worth none of that money.
"And with 200,000 men there and $64 billion, I hope [the coalition] finds [weapons], if there are any," Blix added in a reference to the approximate amount that President Bush asked Congress to provide for war funding. If Iraq does have weapons of mass destruction, Blix said, he doesn't believe Baghdad would use them against coalition troops. "My guess ... is that they would not because ... there are many people who were critical towards the war and felt that this was too sudden or that it was too brutal, and if [Iraq] did use any chemical weapons now, people would say, 'So, they were liars. They lied about this and there was a justification for the intervention,'" Blix said. Huh? Ok Blixie go back to sleep now. Newsflash: they always were liars. If you didn't see that before then...well.. oh why bother..
We've got the airport, and 3ID went for a drive through Baghdad last night, and Mr Information Minister denied it on live teevee this morning. What would it take to make someone like Blixie admit the Iraqis were liars?
Posted by: RW ||
04/05/2003 06:41 am ||
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#3
Oh how I'd love to see someone paint a little "Kilroy was here" on that giant Saddam portrait the InfoMin stands next to. Something subtle... maybe peaking over his shoulder.
#5
I understand Swedish lawyer jive; let me translate.
What Blix is saying is that if you want a politically correct whitewash "inspections" process, then it'll cost you $64M per year for every year that the charade goes on.
But if you REALLY want to get rid of Saddam's weapons, well...that comes a little more expensive.
#6
There are no Americans at Baghdad Airport. You think they are there but they are not. It's just another bloody lie. But our suicide squads are out to blow the non existant Americans up
There are no WMD in Iraq. You think they are there but they are not. It's just another bloody lie. But our suicide squads....
This special message was brought to you by the Iraqi Information Minister.
Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev called here Friday on the United States and Britain Friday to end the "bloodbath" in Iraq and allow the United Nations to resolve the crisis. "Those that think they are leading themselves towards victory and will achieve their goals are wrong," Gorbachev said, following talks with Lebanon's President Emile Lahoud, in an allusion to the US-led coalition invading Iraq. "This is only the beginning and it is time to end the bloodbath and return to peaceful solutions under the authority of the United Nations." We're ending it, Splotch, check out the tanks in Baghdad today.
"I agree with President Lahoud on the need to work to restore the authority of the United Nations and oppose violations of international law," said Gorbachev, on his first visit to Lebanon. Ah, the Mantra of International Law. Always amusing to listen to a Commie leader talk about international law.
Gorbachev, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, although as president he fell in line with the United States during the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait. On March 24, he drew a parallel between the US-led invasion of Iraq and the ill-fated Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and said he believed the war was the result of a domestic economic and social crisis in the United States. Better parallel is our invasion of Afghanistan, but we understand Mike, it hurts to make that particular comparison.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 02:18 am ||
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#1
Of course, he said this in Lebanon, one of the worst of the state sponsors' of terrorism in the Middle East. I'm sure they'd like to see an end to the blood-letting. I would suggest that they pay very close attention to what is happening in Iraq. There are those of us who have never forgotten the blood-letting - and subsequent dancing in the streets - perpetrated on our marines.Those who now demand that we continue to "respect" and underwrite that pack of thugs and back-stabbers that make up the UN are eventually going to have to recognize the little noticed American street - which is thoroughly disgusted with the whole lying system.International law, indeed. When I see them applying this supposed "law" objectively and even-handedly, I'll give it a good think. Otherwise, the hypocracy has been vividly exposed for what it is: the international equivalent of "it depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."
Posted by: Dee Bates ||
04/05/2003 4:24 Comments ||
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Ummm.....Misha, baby, we ARE stopping the bloodletting by Saddam's thugs.....but it is nice to have a world leader admit that the UN needs to have it's authority restored. (snicker)
Posted by: Former Russian Major ||
04/05/2003 10:03 Comments ||
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gorby is actually quite unpopular in Russia today; having him spout off against us is a positive there; of course there are the idiotarians in the US itself who still worship gorby but their brains are inpenetrable in any case
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry lashed out at top congressional Republicans on Friday after they assailed him for saying the United States, like Iraq, needs a regime change. "The Republicans have tried to make a practice of attacking anybody who speaks out strongly by questioning their patriotism," the Massachusetts senator said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "I refuse to have my patriotism or right to speak out questioned. I fought for and earned the right to express my views in this country." However, you did make an odious statement, Johnny.
In a speech Wednesday in Peterborough, N.H., Hair-boy Kerry said Bush so alienated allies prior to the U.S.-led war against Iraq that only a new president can rebuild damaged relationships with other countries. We didn't alienate them, they alienated us.
"What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States," Kerry said. That's the odious part.
Several leading Republicans said Kerry's comments were inappropriate with U.S. troops fighting in Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said the statement amounted to "petty, partisan insults launched solely for personal political gain." House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called Kerry's words "desperate and inappropriate." Said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., "Once this war is over, there will be plenty of time for the next election."
So they weren't impugning his vaunted patriotism, but his judgment.
Kerry dismissed the attacks, telling an Atlanta political gathering Thursday that patriotism is not mutually exclusive with questioning the war. One day later, he delivered an even sharper rebuke to the GOP complaints. "If they want to pick a fight, they've picked a fight with the wrong guy," Kerry said in a telephone interview. The wrong guy because he won't get the nomination?
The lawmaker said this round of charges and countercharges is not the first time Republicans have made a "phony issue of patriotism." He cited last year's campaign against former Georgia Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in the Vietnam War. Republicans didn't question Mr. Cleland's patriotism, they pointed out his lack of common sense.
Kerry also mentioned recent GOP criticism of ineffectual Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-Ineptistan S.D., who said Bush's diplomatic efforts had failed "miserably" because he didn't secure a U.N. resolution for the war.
Yep. They were pretty deserving of criticism, too...
Following a speech to the New York State United Teachers convention in Washington, Kerry said, "I'm not going to let the likes of Tom DeLay question my patriotism, which I fought for and bled for in order to have the right to speak out."
"I've been riding the fact that I was in Vietnam for years, and I intend to keep riding that fact. I'm going to make all the political hay out of that fact that I can!"
Neither Hastert, Frist nor DeLay served in the military. In response to Kerry, DeLay spokesman Jonathan Grella said, "There's a difference between loving your country and leading it. Demanding regime change in America isn't unpatriotic - it's vile."
Not having the Vietnam bike to ride, they're not allowed to say that, of course...
Kerry said Republicans have no right to criticize him when they are cutting funds to veterans hospitals. His comments come on the eve of a trip to Iowa, where rival Howard Dean's strong anti-war stance has played well with the state's leftists Democrats. Dean also has been critical of Bush and Kerry, suggesting that the senator waffled in his position on the Iraq war.
Not the first time, either. During Gulf War IThe Washington Times reported that
A constituent who wrote to Senator John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, about the Gulf War received two replies, one out of each side of the âKennedyesqueâ senatorâs face. Walter Carter wrote during the Congressional debate to urge Kerry to support the request that Congress approve the âuse of all necessary meansâ against Saddam in Kuwait.
The first reply he received, dated January 22nd, thanked Mr. Carter for expressing his opposition to the war and added, âI share your concerns.â The letter went on to point out Kerryâs January 11th vote against the resolution giving President Bush immediate authority to go to war against Iraq.
The second, dated January 31st, thanked Mr. Carter for expressing his support for Mr. Bush and stated that Kerry wholeheartedly supported the President. âFrom the outset of the invasion, I have strongly and unequivocally supported President Bushâs response to the crisis and the policy goals he has established with our military deployment to the Persian Gulf.â
Mr. Kerryâs press secretary said the two letters were the result of a computer malfunction.
Dean also addressed the New York Teachers group Friday and said although he probably would not have used the words that Kerry did, "I have not criticized Senator Kerry for that, nor am I going to. It certainly would be unusual for me to line up with Tom DeLay, and I don't intend to start now." Is this the best the Democrats have to offer?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 02:08 am ||
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#1
Kerry is wrong.
The budget for the Veterans Administration is being INCREASED in FY 2004 from $57,486,000,000 to $60,692,000,000. How do I know this? I went to thomas.loc.gov and read up on "H.CON.RES.95 - Establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2004 and setting forth appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2003 and 2005 through 2013. (Reported in House)." The relevant information is on the third page:
(15) Veterans Benefits and Services (700):
Fiscal year 2003:
(A) New budget authority, $57,597,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $57,486,000,000.
Fiscal year 2004:
(A) New budget authority, $60,710,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $60,692,000,000.
Any claims you hear from Democrats about the Republicans cutting funds to the VA are, to put it bluntly, lies.
#4
Unlike much of the ruling cabal in this country, Kerry put his life on the line. He is right in his assessment that those who speak in opposition to the policies of this administration are branded as everything from un-American to treasonous by the political right and their radio and television apologists such as Limbaugh, Novak, et al. For now we still have the right to speak our minds, but the unusual secrecy of this administration makes it clear that they don't feel the need to involve everyday people in their thoughts. The ambitions of Reichsfuhrer Ashcroft and his secret police are contrary to the very freedoms they claim to defend. Their goal is to shame everybody into silence until the habit of speaking our minds is lost.
#5
Agreed here as well. This isn't the first time he's tried to have things both ways - recall his "heroic" protest when he threw his Viet Nam war medals back to show his anti-war bonafides? Turns out they weren't his! His are nicely mounted in his office to be brought out and shown at politically benficial times. D-Masshole indeed!
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 8:35 Comments ||
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Anonymous, you can clearly speak your mind if you hadn't already lost it...
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 8:37 Comments ||
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Regime change? Sounds like Kerry is engaged in a "martyrdom operation" himself.
Now, Anonymous and his fellow American fedayeen should realize that unusual secrecy is quite usual during war, especially terror war. Involving "everyday people" in war plans is not exactly a formula for success. Just for perspective, to earn the title "Reichsfuehrer" generally requires stronger methods than "shame".
Posted by: Mark IV ||
04/05/2003 8:52 Comments ||
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Anonymous - Free speech cuts both ways. Big Ketchup has discovered that the Left no longer has a monopoly on the media outlets in this country.
I don't think he should apologize, for the record. I think Big Ketchup should keep talking so that the people of this nation can understand full-well what he's about.
As for regime change... we got it in the Congress in 1994 and in the White House in 2000.
#9
"Their goal is to shame everybody into silence until the habit of speaking our minds is lost."
Damnit! Where's that habit of speaking my mind at? I had it just yesterday!
Posted by: John Phares ||
04/05/2003 10:23 Comments ||
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Okay, the instant that the seal on the podium says "President FOR LIFE of the United States of America," I'll start to worry. But until that instant, no reasonable person could use the word "regime" to describe American policits, when that word conjures up certain images of places like Cuba, NK, just about any ME / African country, etc.
Kerry's just looking for some headlines and pretending to be populist along the way. He's got more faces than Clinton/Gore combined, he just doesn't stand a chance of getting an Oval Office BJ, that's all.
Posted by: (lowercase) matt ||
04/05/2003 10:25 Comments ||
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4/5 Anonymous: Their goal is to
shame
everybody into silence until the habit of speaking our minds is lost.
Shame can only exist as long as someone does something bad that they know is bad, and they are called to account for it. If one has nothing to be ashamed of, then one cannot be silenced.
Shame, in fact, is the coin of the realm of the Liberals, with their "morally better than thou" attitude and accusations that are calculated to "shame" people into giving in. Why else would Kerry try to deflect criticism off of himself by FALSELY accusing the Administration of cutting VA funds ("SHAME ON THEM!"). That accusation is CALCULATED to try to shame into silence his accusers! Thus, while defending Kerry, Anonymous throws out an accusation of the Right of using bad tactics, when KERRY HIMSELF commits the very same tactics Anonymous condemns!
Anonymous, you are so F**king stupid, it's a miracle you know enough to breathe...
#12
"If they want a fight, they've picked a fight with the wrong guy". I must say I absolutely agree with Kerry, He is the wrong guy. Thank goodness we have the right guy in the White House right now. So you see Anonymous sometimes, we can even agree with the opposition .We're not shaming you into silence,you have the right to speak and you did, and you will, just as we have the right to speak. The problem is you didn't like what you heard. As far as the unusual secrecy of this administration, I 'm one of those everyday people who is as curious as you are and wants to know what's really going on, and that's OK ,normal human reaction for all of us. We're a bunch of intelligent americans but sometimes just plain common sense is enough to figure out that sometimes some secrecy is needed for our success and security. I want to know some,but I don't want to know everything because the wrong guys will probably know it too.
#13
The problem is his wording - a "regime change". That indicates a revolution, or another type of change in government. Kerry was stupid (cubed) to issue such a statement, and even more stupid to stand behind it. As another here pointed out, a change of President would be an "administration" change, not a "regime" change. Kerry's mouth has put him in deep hot water, and not for the first time. He deserves all the attacks he's the target of. His mouth is his most dangerous weapon, and it's often used for self-inflicted wounds.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2003 12:50 Comments ||
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Once again the Chicken Hawk GOP politicians--most of which NEVER served in the military ("Daddy, can I get into the Texas Nat'l Guard?") wrap themselves in the flag and disparage anyone who questions their actions by calling them unamerican and unpatriotic. I'm sure the unusual secrecy is justified--yep, just like no one knew what was going on in Dachau "Ve thought it vas a faktory" Never underestimate the American citizenry's desire to be hoodwinked by the GOP and their big business fatcat masters
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 14:02 Comments ||
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#16
Once again the Chicken Hawk GOP politicians--most of which NEVER served in the military ("Daddy, can I get into the Texas Nat'l Guard?") wrap themselves in the flag and disparage anyone who questions their actions by calling them unamerican and unpatriotic.
#18
Anonymous:
This morning I drove my son to his HS for three hours of detention since he skipped class a few weeks ago to walk around town with like-minded people against the war. He's better than you tho, because he reads, knows his history, etc. We've had good discussions where I've explained my side and he, his. He's never called any pro-war person a Nazi, howerver, like you called Ashcroft Reichsfuerer. If the US were a Nazi state, I'd have dropped him off at the local GESTAPO HQ, and he knows that.
But you still haven't answered anyone's comments on your statements. Why? Please justify why JFK used "regime change" Nobody's questioning JFK's patriotism, just his judgement and two-facedness. Please refer to 2 different letters sent to constituent. JFK's problem is that he listens too much to his Old Europe wine and cheese crowd.
Vituperation and bile is your MO.
Posted by: Michael ||
04/05/2003 15:15 Comments ||
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Every time 'jfk' opens his yap, just remember he's been known in MA as Sen. Spaceshot for a great many years!
#20
For Anonymous, we should be clear: every American should thank the Vietnam vets. They suffered, they worked hard, and it wasn't their fault that the war was lost. We should honor these men and women every day.
I don't even care that Kerry uses his service in his political life; hell every politican who can do so will.
However, Anonymous, you might do well to recall that our liberal-left friends are equally adept at using the shame game, the race game, the shout down game, and the silencing game to further their ends.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 22:51 Comments ||
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Wotta surprise!
As the United Nations Security Council prepared to discuss North Korea's suspected development of nuclear weapons, the communist state warned Saturday it would ignore any U.N. resolutions on the issue. ``The nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is not something that should be discussed at the United Nations,'' the state-run KCNA news agency said. "'Cause we're crazy, that's why!"
North Korea ``would not recognize and pronounce null any resolution or document on the nuclear issue,'' said KCNA, monitored by South Korea's Yonhap news agency. "We won't recognize it, we won't read it, we won't even be in the same room with it!"
The Security Council is due to discuss the nuclear dispute on Wednesday. North Korea rejects U.N. involvement in the standoff, saying the North's dispute is only with the United States. Pyongyang demands direct talks with Washington. Washington, which wants multilateral talks, has been pressing the council to adopt a statement condemning Pyongyang for failing to meet its obligations to prevent the spread of nuclear arms. China, which has ties with the reclusive North Korean regime, has refused to even discuss such a statement. Though they did turn off the oil briefly. Bet that starched Kim's shorts.
The 15-member council could eventually discuss imposing sanctions against North Korea if a political solution is not found - a move the North has warned it would regard as a declaration of war. But both China and Russia have said they oppose international sanctions. For weeks, North Korea has shrieked claimed that the United States planned to attack it after Iraq. Washington says it seeks a diplomatic end to the North Korean regime, but has not ruled out a military solution. On Friday, Bush called South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to pledge continued cooperation in resolving the nuclear standoff. ``The two leaders reiterated their intention to resolve the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully and pledged to continue their close consultation,'' White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. Also Friday, Roh's national security adviser Ra Jong-yil said both Russia and China had indicated they would work toward a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear issue. Though they won't do sanctions and won't talk about the matter at the Security Council. Guess there's nothing left but talk!
Ra visited Moscow and Beijing this week. Meanwhile, 15 ruling and opposition lawmakers of South Korea suggested on Friday that Seoul consider economic sanctions against Pyongyang. The proposal came as North Korea showed no indications that it would attend Cabinet-level talks with South Korea, scheduled to begin in Pyongyang on Monday. South Korean officials had hoped to use the talks to try to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions in return for aid and better ties with the outside world. Depends: how much were they planning to pay the North?
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 01:50 am ||
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Economic sanctions? Ha ha ha ha! I wish them luck.
As I see it, there's no way this won't get ugly in some fashion as long as "Dear Leader" is calling the shots in the North.
This is a very tricky issue for the South Koreans -- they don't really want to be downwind of the potential fallout when the North starts flaunting nuclear-tipped missiles. Be it by mushroom clouds or "dirty bombs" (NK supplies the radioactives, outsiders supply the bombs), South Koreans are well advised to start making civil defense preparations.
That said, I want to add that I don't see this as a job for GWB anytime soon. Let the locals stew in it and sell them whatever weapons they want.
Posted by: Tom ||
04/05/2003 9:51 Comments ||
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Doesn't Kim Jong-Il know that the only ones who can legitimately declare something "null and void" at the UN are the French?
I guess he can forget about that Champs-Elysee shopping trip with Bob Mugabe if he keeps that up.....
Posted by: Former Russian Major ||
04/05/2003 18:18 Comments ||
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Fears are growing that a dispute over a remote village could reignite the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea that ended three years ago. An argument over Badme, a mountain hamlet in a barren border zone, provoked the 1998 conflict, which in more than two years of trench warfare claimed at least 80,000 lives. Ain't worth it, guys.
Both sides subsequently agreed to accept the findings of an international panel to determine the border issue. The Boundary Commission, based in The Hague, said last month that Badme belonged in Eritrea. That decision angered the Ethiopian government, which threatened to renege on the deal on borders.
"We'll abide by the decision of an impartial mediator, as long as it goes our way..."
The ruling was unacceptable, an Information Ministry spokesman said, adding that the commission's failure to correct its "mistake" was viewed with grave concern. In contrast, Eritrean state media has carried reports proclaiming its victory in Badme. Observers are concerned that the stand-off could deteriorate and bring an end to a peace deal struck in Algiers in 2001. Most of the 620-mile border is now peaceful but Badme remains a sticking point. The commission failed to pinpoint Badme's location when it issued its findings one year ago; then clarified that, under a 1902 Italian colonial treaty, it belonged in Eritrea. This ruling provoked Ethiopian officials, who issued veiled threats of violence if physical demarcation of the new border went ahead in July. "It is possible there will be trouble when they come to put the pillars in. We cannot imagine the consequences," Tsirgay Berhe, President of the Tigray region, said. The threats have alarmed peace workers in the region. An official working for the United Nations in Asmara, the Eritrean capital, admitted: "We are a bit lost. It is not clear where to go from here." That sounds like a UN official.
One possible solution under consideration is to put Badme under international supervision while the remainder of the border is demarcated. But those behind the plan were not optimistic. "Personally I don't think it would work. But we don't have any better ideas," said the UN official.
"In fact, we don't have any ideas at all..."
Badme has crystallised rivalries between the neighbours, who once fought together to overthrow the Communist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991. Both countries can ill afford further confrontation. More than 11 million Ethiopians and 1.4 million Eritreans â 40 per cent of the population â are at risk of starvation this year because of a severe drought. "We Can't Afford Another War" read the headline on an article in the Addis Tribune newspaper.
You'd think they might have more important things to worry about, but apparently they don't...
Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, is under intense pressure to claim Badme. Ethiopia won the war, but at a massive cost â his army lost an estimated 60,000 troops. Opposition politicians have accused President Zenawi of being "soft" on Eritrea â partly, they say, because his family comes from there. It's a gawd-forsaken hamlet, a pile of stones. It's not worth a single life.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 01:40 am ||
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pretty obviously badme isn't the issue at all - it's rivalry and internal politics in Ethiopia. These idiots will fight another "honor" war over the pile of stones, and another, and another....
pathetic
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/05/2003 8:29 Comments ||
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The US president, George Bush, is to visit Northern Ireland next week to discuss the situation in Iraq, Downing Street announced last night. Mr Bush will meet the prime minister, Tony Blair, at an undisclosed location on Monday and Tuesday to assess the progress of the military campaign, plans for the future of a post-Saddam Iraq and how to screw the French the Middle East peace process.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/05/2003 01:34 am ||
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Too much to hope for a "screw the IRA" declaration on the side, I guess?
#2
If they issue a "screw the IRA" declaration they ought to include the Provos too. Whether the six counties of Northern Ireland remain in the UK or eventually join the Irish Republic should be decided by the people who live there and not undully influenced by any organization using or advocating terrorist tactics
Posted by: Someone who did NOT vote for William Proxmire ||
04/05/2003 17:24 Comments ||
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#3
That's an interesting point, 'someone.' Why Northern Ireland? If Blair & Bush wanted an "undisclosed location" for comparing notes, there would seem to be plenty of stately homes/conference centers within England that would seem to combine better access with sufficient security. A Northern Ireland venue could set the stage for a "never happened" meeting between Bush and IRA representatives in which the IRA gets told that "we know what you've been up to (in South America, for example), and if you don't knock it off we'll do to you what we're doing to Al-Quaida. And don't count on Ted Kennedy or John Kerry to bail you out."
Or is British intelligence's assessment of the terror capabilities of England's resident islamists sufficiently worrying that the IRA seems managable by comparison?
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
04/05/2003 17:43 Comments ||
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#4
Darn... Rantburg stripped my [tinfoil hat] [/tinfoil hat] tags off the last paragraph. (whines) But it worked in preview!
Posted by: Old Grouch ||
04/05/2003 17:52 Comments ||
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Just two weeks into the conflict with Iraq, media commentators are already floating the dreaded Q word. Quagmire, military officials shoot back, popped up as a concern early in the conflict with Afghanistan, as well. And look how that one turned out. True. But what if this conflict does drag out through the week summer because allied troops get bogged down in house-to-house combat or endless skirmishes with outmatched diehard guerilla fighters. I've gotta believe this was written at least a week ago... Otherwise, this guy is a blithering moron.
Posted by: Targus ||
04/05/2003 01:17 am ||
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I hate these armchair strategists who have never studied military history, never served, and believe the military should be used as a meals on wheels program.
Posted by: TJ Jackson ||
04/05/2003 1:38 Comments ||
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#2
This war has progressed so rapidly it's gotten way inside the "publishing loop". News reporting has a tough time keeping up; pundits have an even tougher time; and for perfidious bastards like this guy, who are engaged in an organized campaign to demoralize the public by sowing fear, uncertainty an doubt, they're left frantically trying to "spin" something that's become ancient history.
"Quagmire", my ass.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
04/05/2003 6:52 Comments ||
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#3
It looked like there was cause for concern a bit, and maybe there will be cause for concern in the future. But there seems to be little cause for concern at the current time.
Let's face it, the economy was going to suck whatever happened with this war.
#5
Quagmire?---That's why the 1st MarDiv has amphibious vehicles.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
04/05/2003 12:05 Comments ||
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#6
I never expected this to be an 'easy' war, and I'm still a bit nervous with how well things have gone for the US. I'd love to believe that the Iraqi army folded like a wet dishtowel. I'd love to believe that the entire thing will be over next Tuesday, at the latest. But until the entire nation has been eradicated of Ba'ath party members, it's still going to be a dangerous place for Americans. I don't want us to drop our guard and allow some 'martyr' a chance to kill a barraks-full of young Marines or Army troops.
Civilian oversight of the military is a good concept, but not often well-implemented. I hope no one in the Bush administration declares "victory" too soon. We can declare victory once the last shot has been fired, and everyone's safe.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/05/2003 13:06 Comments ||
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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.
IRNA -- A contingent of US Army and Marines Division,backed by tanks, has rolled into Baghdad, the 
