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Talibs threaten Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Mexico, Samoa
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
Page 2: WoT Background
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Page 1: WoT Operations
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Page 4: Opinion
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Afghanistan
Terrorists Militants threaten attacks on Germany, Austria
DUBAI - Islamist terrorists militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria if they do not pull their troops out of Afghanistan, in a statement posted on Sunday on an Internet site used by Al Qaeda linked militants. ‘Germany’s participation in the US war on Islam and Muslims will lead only to... endangering Germany itself,’ said the video statement whose authenticity could not be verified.

‘We wonder where Germany’s interest lies in throwing 2,750 troops (to Afghanistan)... to fight in defence of the lies of (President George W.) Bush and his gang,’ read a masked man in the videotape released by the so-called Voice of the Caliphate. ‘In standing by the United States ... You have provoked those whom you call terrorists to target you,’ the man said in Arabic, with German subtitles appearing on the screen.

Germany has about 3,000 troops in the relatively stable north of Afghanistan, where it commands the International Security Assistance Force.
It's good they're there; it'd be better to have them in Helmand.
The terrorist statement threatened also to attack Austria if its government did not withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. ‘Austria was and still is one of the safest countries in the world... But if Austria came on to the list of countries targetted by the terrorists mujahedeen (holy warriors), the situation will change,’ it said. ‘To Austria we say: Your troops in Afghanistan do not represent a real force or a real threat to our brothers, the terrorists mujahedeen, but they represent important support for Bush and his gang,’ it added.
Still a little unhappy about that whole Vienna thing in 1683, eh?
Addressing the Austrian government, the statement said: ‘Don’t destroy the security of a whole country, just for five soldiers you have sent to Afghanistan.’

‘This war is not yours. This war is between the terrorists mujahedeen and America’.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "In standing by the United States".

Hmmm. Australia, UK, Poland, El Salvador, Kuwait, Japan, Spain (for a while). They did the right thing, and pursued their interests, which meant standing by the US. Germany? Exsqueeze me? I guess we shook them down for a token contribution (that is safely out of harm's way - am I wrong that they're not really up to par, thus are best kept out of the way?). I'd choke describing Germany's performance since 9/11 as "standing by the US". Naval contributions in the Indian Ocean excepted (and I'm sure their intel guys and many in the military would love to go balls-out with us, but that's not the political class, or the country).
Posted by: Verlaine || 03/12/2007 1:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Verlaine,

I read something some time back about a US soldier in Germany talking to a local young guy he knew. Local guy, very pleased, comes up to U.S. soldier and says he just got his papers to join the Army. U.S. soldier says "I thought everybody here had to go to the army for a while."

This is the part that got me: young local looks at U.S. soldier pityingly and says, "I meant the US Army. The real Army, the one that fights."

The tenor of that story didn't say much for the current edition of the German army.
Posted by: Mac || 03/12/2007 6:18 Comments || Top||

#3  Islamist terrorists militants activists threatened to attack Germany and Austria.
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/12/2007 9:46 Comments || Top||

#4  A heartwarming story, Mac. Any idea if it's true?
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/12/2007 10:10 Comments || Top||

#5  My father told me that Karl Marx said that Great Britian would expand themselves to death, Germany would fight themselves to death and the United States would spend themselves to death.

Did Marx really say this? A citation?
Posted by: SR-71 || 03/12/2007 10:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Addressing the Austrian government, the statement said: ‘Don’t destroy the security of a whole country, just for five soldiers you have sent to Afghanistan.’

Anyone notified the Governator about this? I'd be willing to bet he'd go toe-to-toe with these jihadis to protect his motherland!
Posted by: BA || 03/12/2007 11:41 Comments || Top||

#7  A report today on a website used by angry Americans..." If I hear another Jihad gumflapper shooting his mouth off one more time...I'm boycottin' 7-11. Oh, it's happened before, my friend. I still won't eat at Popeye's Chicken and Waffles since the L.A. riots in 1992."
Posted by: Angavick the Short9612 || 03/12/2007 12:44 Comments || Top||

#8  peculiar sea story: out to sea for a brief series of workups and working in the ships library. A German naval officer comes in and was intent on starting a conversation with me. The high point was when he opened up one of the many WWII hardcovers with naval battle illustrations and said things like, "OOOhh, this is cool". One of the strangest moments of military service.
Posted by: soon to be edited || 03/12/2007 12:50 Comments || Top||

#9  Breaks my heart.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/12/2007 13:53 Comments || Top||

#10  Anyone notified the Governator about this? I'd be willing to bet he'd go toe-to-toe with these jihadis to protect his motherland!

Governor Schwartzenegger doesn't give a fig for his motherland, where he would never have been permitted to be anything more than the big, dumb peasant he was born. Like so many immigrants to the US, he fully appreciates that only here could he by his own efforts become rich, famous, married into one of the aristocratic families of the country, and elected leader of a state bigger by many measures than most countries... including the one where he was born. Not to mention that Austria disowned him when he stood by the invasion of Iraq, if I recall correctly.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/12/2007 13:57 Comments || Top||

#11 
Terrorists Militants Muslims threaten attacks on Germany, Austria
Posted by: Icerigger || 03/12/2007 13:59 Comments || Top||

#12  Wow, my first fisking by TW!

*shrugs off, licking wounds*
Posted by: BA || 03/12/2007 14:00 Comments || Top||

#13  BA dear, I would never, ever fisk you. I was merely supplying a bit of missing information. Here, have some freshly baked scones with butter and honey to help you feel better.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/12/2007 14:06 Comments || Top||

#14  I read you, TW, you keep me up to speed.
Posted by: rhodesiafever || 03/12/2007 16:00 Comments || Top||

#15  TW, I'd bet it was but I don't have any proof because I can't recall the source. I haven't read much fiction in recent years though so it probably came from someplace fairly reliable. I think the attitude it conveys about the German army is fairly common over there though. Maybe exJag can help on this one.
Posted by: Mac || 03/12/2007 18:05 Comments || Top||

#16  I've sat at the feet of people who really know things here at Rantburg, rhodesiafever, you included. Some of it has stuck. BA, I had a Swiss German teacher whose husband always referred to Mr. Schwartzenegger as "that big, stupid Austrian peasant." It made an impression on me -- it'd somehow never occurred to me in my first three decades that what a man was in the Olde Country could be held against him here. I can be awfully slow sometimes.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/12/2007 20:12 Comments || Top||


Faith will win on battlefield: Taliban
Top Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah says faith and popular support will see his men fight off an offensive in southern Afghanistan by NATO and Afghan troops. Dadullah, who is reported to be the Taliban’s military operations chief for southern Afghanistan, acknowledged the superior might of ISAF in a telephone interview on Saturday but said he was undaunted.
"Daunted? Me? Pshaw!"
“No one in the world has better weapons than NATO. They have got better weapons, but we will defeat them with the power of faith and belief,” Dadullah told an AFP reporter. “The entire nation is with us: the people give us food, fruit and money. The people are fed up with infidel, invading troops and their puppets,” he said.
"If they're not, we cut their heads off!"
He claimed to be in Helmand province. “We have enough men to fight this battle,” he said. “Some foreign mujahedin are also fighting alongside our mujahedin. Dadullah said Taliban fighters were being backed by Al Qaeda-linked foreign jihadists, including from Chechnya and the Palestinian territories. “We have relations with Iraqi mujahedin — we send fighters to them, they send to us,” he added.
This article starring:
MULLAH DADULLAHTaliban
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Ghost Dance warriors believed their faith would protect them from the US Army bullets during the Indian Wars of the American West. Didn't work. Of course I don't think our soldiers are quite as ruthless these days.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/12/2007 9:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Which one?
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/12/2007 12:09 Comments || Top||

#3  The Boxers used to think this too, right?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2007 12:11 Comments || Top||

#4  Yup. Worked real good for the Boxers. Good luck with that Allan thing Talibunnies.
Posted by: Icerigger || 03/12/2007 14:11 Comments || Top||

#5  The power of faith should not be underestimated. I have faith in prayer, but on the battlefield, I have faith in big battalions. Big, well trained, well provisioned, battalions, with good air support and good artillery support.
Posted by: whatadeal || 03/12/2007 23:25 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Ethiopia in contact with kidnappers, rules out rescue
Ethiopia said on Saturday it was in contact with an armed group that kidnapped five European and eight locals in a remote northern region -- but ruled out a military operation to rescue them. "Those who are responsible are being reached through different channels, and we are hoping that these people would be freed unharmed and safe," Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin told reporters in the northern town of Mekele.

Amid speculation British special forces were in the area, Mesfin said a rescue mission was not being prepared. "We still have not reached that stage. So let's rule out this option for the moment, because the safety and the security of these people is most important for us," he said. "We should focus on saving the lives of these people."
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Why? To validate the Jihadi game plan?
Posted by: mojo || 03/12/2007 14:23 Comments || Top||


Britain
Islamic extremists 'infiltrate Oxbridge'
Leading British universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, have been targeted by Islamic extremists who remain widely active on campuses, a prominent academic is warning, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph. The Telegraph report said that up to 48 British universities had been allegedly infiltrated by fundamentalists, and “the threat posed by radical groups must be urgently addressed”, according to Prof Anthony Glees.

The report said that Prof Glees would warn the Association of University Chief Security Officers (AUCSO) next month that the disbanded extremist group Al-Muhajiroun claimed to have infiltrated “the main campuses such as Cambridge, Oxford, the London School of Economics and Imperial College”. His speech on “radicalism in universities” also states that at its peak before the July 7 bombings in 2005, Al-Muhajiroun had a presence at “more than 48 universities and faculties”, and Omar Bakri Mohammed, the group’s founder, claims it is “still operational” in several campuses.

Prof Glees, the director of Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies, said, “We must accept this problem is widespread and underestimated.”

Following a report by Prof Glees showing that 31 universities and colleges had hardline Islamic groups within their campuses, the Department for Education and Skills issued guidelines last year on dealing with extremism.

Student Islamic societies have faced growing scrutiny after it emerged that one of 12 men charged in connection with the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners was president of the Islamic Society at London Metropolitan University. Last year, AUCSO launched a “counter-terrorism” group to tackle the spread of Islamic fundamentalism on campuses. According to the Telegraph report, Prof Glees called on the government to provide extra investment in campus security.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Heh heh, a couple of 'em still troll here.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/12/2007 0:28 Comments || Top||

#2  Wel-l-l now, FREEREPUBLIC's "YALE-ISTAN"??? + DRUDGE/C2CAM.com > Global Warming: Mankind + Life on Earth all at threat.threshold of MASS EXTINCTION [circa Year 2080, etc], + INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE > GLOBAL REALIGNMENT AND THE DECLINE OF THE [AMERICAN] SUPERPOWER. America, NATO + Economy, .... etal all going down for the count. Guess the world has no choice but OWG, SWO, and getting Jean Luc Picard to build a SUN/STAR-DESTROYING MISSLE ASAP THAT WILL SCARE THE SUN INTO SURENDER, OR AT LEAST FLEE INTO THE NEXUS. IN ORDER TO STOP LIFE-KILLING GLOBAL WARMING ON EARTH, HUMANITY MUST DESTROY THE SUN. * PETER [menacing look] from FAMILY GUY > Look at you up there in the sky, Sun, all nice and safe and warm - little do you know we're coming to get ya. HEAR US, SUN, SURRENDER NOW NOW NOW OR ELSE WE'LL HAVE TO SAVE OUR PLANET BY DESTROYING YA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/12/2007 0:48 Comments || Top||

#3  Mother MacCree, Joe, what in Gawd's name is happening over there in Guam? Youah CAPS is screamin int my head. Back off a few dB!!! Whoa!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/12/2007 1:55 Comments || Top||

#4  He's attempting parody, threatening the sun, source of global warming, just like the al-q and talbs threaten, and expects the same results, the threats are ignored.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2007 5:51 Comments || Top||

#5  From my recent on-campus experience muslim extremists are still being given what they demand - separate prayer rooms for men and women/ ramadan concessions / the toleration of the bullying of other more secular muslims etc. The crunch will come when they demand to be educated separately from non-muslims or attempt to have all UK students eduacated separately according to gender. Some nutty left-wing lecturers will doubtless permit this.
Posted by: Howard UK || 03/12/2007 7:16 Comments || Top||

#6  For Joe, that was remarkably coherent.
Posted by: Steve || 03/12/2007 7:17 Comments || Top||

#7  I hear you Joe. If cutting the sun loose is the only way to save our beautiful planet and all the beasties on land and sea, well, that's a sacrifice we will have to make.
Posted by: Seafarious || 03/12/2007 7:41 Comments || Top||

#8  What they really need is a "seperate" phueching PLANET!
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/12/2007 7:47 Comments || Top||

#9  Some nutty left-wing lecturers will doubtless permit this.

Unless the Tories suggest it.
Posted by: Angaitch Cruling1154 || 03/12/2007 9:13 Comments || Top||

#10  Islamic extremists 'infiltrate Oxbridge'

They are called "faculty".
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/12/2007 9:49 Comments || Top||

#11  After reading Joes message, I almost want cuddle with my wife. Yeowww!

I can almost even hear Dr. Smith saying "Were doomed, were doomed I say, oh the pain; the pain".

Damn.
Posted by: Delphi2005 || 03/12/2007 10:05 Comments || Top||

#12  I can almost even hear Dr. Smith saying "Were doomed, were doomed I say, oh the pain; the pain".

Good God, Man! Just how old are you? I thought I was the only one that flashbacks to Dr. Smith. 8-)

That Penny, man was she HOT!!!
Posted by: Chiper Threreger8956 || 03/12/2007 10:14 Comments || Top||

#13  What they really need is a "seperate" phueching PLANET!

Besoeker, may I suggest the sun? Burns the jihadis right up, and keeps them from worshipping the moon kabbah, to boot!
Posted by: BA || 03/12/2007 11:36 Comments || Top||

#14  #8 No they don't. Parasites need hosts.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/12/2007 12:08 Comments || Top||

#15  CT8956, I take it you never watche Howdy Doody.
This doesn't surprise me at all. I'm certain there are such groups here in the US as well.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/12/2007 12:10 Comments || Top||

#16  Besoeker, may I suggest the sun?

Hey, did you hear about the jihadi mission to the surface of the Sun? Some people said it couldn't be done, that the Sun was too hot. But jihadis are clever. They're going at night!

(The classics never go out of style.)

Posted by: Angie Schultz || 03/12/2007 12:19 Comments || Top||

#17  lol, Ang! One for the ages, that's for sure!
Posted by: BA || 03/12/2007 13:58 Comments || Top||

#18  Morons like William Montgomery Watt set the path.
Posted by: Icerigger || 03/12/2007 14:38 Comments || Top||

#19  Re: #12

Penny on Sky King was pretty hot, too. I honor her for First Wood™.
Posted by: LAX || 03/12/2007 15:07 Comments || Top||

#20  I was not allowed to watch Howdy Doody. Still don't know why. But Saturday mornings were dedicated to Fury, Roy Rogers, Sky King, and even My Friend Flicka, if I recall correctly.
I was not a Lost in Space regular, though I recall some of the cast from Lassie.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/12/2007 18:08 Comments || Top||

#21  #8: What they really need is a "seperate" phueching PLANET!

Actually we have one, Mars, Sure it needs some work, but it's the closest thing in all respects, plus it's close (astronomicly speaking).
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2007 18:12 Comments || Top||

#22  #15 CT8956, I take it you never watche Howdy Doody.
Tell you how old I am, I was ON the "Howdy Doody" show.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2007 18:23 Comments || Top||

#23  yeesh! pretty soon we'll be hearing: "I knew Howdy BEFORE he was made of wood"

:-)
Posted by: Frank G || 03/12/2007 19:28 Comments || Top||

#24  Noooo! He was made of wood?

The icons fall, one by one. Call in the Rantburg Grief Counselors. My childhood is in tatters, nay - chaos!

;)
Posted by: LAX || 03/12/2007 19:35 Comments || Top||

#25  Only his head was wood, the rest of Howdy was cloth. Oh, and string. He was black and white, they all were.
Posted by: wxjames || 03/12/2007 19:45 Comments || Top||

#26  Don't leave out The Cisco Kid.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/12/2007 19:54 Comments || Top||

#27  There, there, LAX. Come sit on the fainting couch we keep in the corner, and be comforted with fresh scones. You'll feel all better soon. ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/12/2007 19:58 Comments || Top||

#28  How about some Heart Stopper™ Donuts? Got any of those? ;)
Posted by: LAX || 03/12/2007 20:06 Comments || Top||

#29  Apologies if I don't respond later - my time is running out. I actually am on Century Blvd in LA - at the LAX Internet Cafe, LOL.
Posted by: LAX || 03/12/2007 20:10 Comments || Top||

#30  Happy flying, LAX. I'm afraid I don't do donuts, only scones, and suchlike. Catch me in the right mood and I make a wicked zucchini bread with chocolate chips, though.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/12/2007 20:14 Comments || Top||

#31  Thanks, trailing wife. Perhaps I'll have the opportunity to take you up on the zucchini bread someday. It will be quite awhile, however - I'm headed for the Dark Side, LOL. The Expats in Hell reel returns to my big screen tonight. :)
Posted by: LAX || 03/12/2007 20:20 Comments || Top||

#32  OK LAX: Now you went and did it and recalled a dormant memory: even at the young and tender age of pre driving, Sky King was on my required viewing list out in the wilds of Kalamazoo; but not for Penny, no even then I was intrigued by the gleaming of polished aluminum; whether it was the Cessna 310 or the Beech taildragger, radial engines and spinning props spun mine. I love the smell of AVGAS in the morning.
Posted by: USN, ret. || 03/12/2007 22:49 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
ElBaradei to go to shore up N Korea atom halt pact
The UN nuclear watchdog chief leaves for North Korea on Sunday to broker a return of inspectors to the secretive Stalinist state under a precarious six-party pact to dismantle its atomic bomb programme. A diplomat close to the International Atomic Energy Agency said IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei hoped to secure a timetable and terms for IAEA inspectors to verify a shutdown of North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear complex, including its plutonium fuel plant, by mid-April -centrepiece of the Feb 13 accord. “This is just the first opening after years of no contact with a state whose inner workings of the mind no one can really fathom,” said a developing-nation ambassador accredited to the IAEA who asked for anonymity.

“It’s possible but not certain ElBaradei will reach closure on a date for inspectors to redeploy. If he starts negotiations on ground rules for inspections and gets a commitment to more meetings to finalise things, that would be progress,” the envoy said. A senior European diplomat noted Pyongyang’s invitation to ElBaradei lacked specifics of what was expected to be addressed.

Mark Fitzpatrick, an analyst at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies, said all parties were showing willingness to meet the minimum requirements of the February accord’s 60-day deadline. But pitfalls lurked. “The February 13 agreement does not specify that the verification must be completed before the end of that period. Another difficulty could ensue over the vagueness of the deal with regard to which facilities are to be shut and sealed,” he said.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The UNIAEA won't like this news then - KORYE NEWS > North Korea may be secretly stockpiling nuclear materials near Chinese border.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/12/2007 1:01 Comments || Top||

#2  Gift to China? Expects they're safe there?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2007 5:57 Comments || Top||

#3  LOL, ElArabei the WatchinEmGetNukesDog. Political theater.

Bolton's take on this joke suffices.
Posted by: LAX || 03/12/2007 15:11 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Aussie sheik plans Muslim political party
Sheik Taj al-Din al-Hilali has defied a ban on talking to the media to predict an Islamic political party will be formed this year. Speaking through an interpreter, the mufti told ABC Radio Australian Muslims need proper political representation.

Sheik Hilali, who has already established a political committee of Muslim community elders, said a political party was the next step and predicted one would be formed by the end of the year. "There's a new committee with people who have some experience in politics and most certainly in the future there must be something along those lines," he said.

Last week Muslim leaders banned five Islamic clerics, including Sheik Hilali, from talking to the media after they delivered a string of "anti-Australian" messages. The letter, obtained by The Australian, demanded the imams "pause and desist" from talking to any media outlet, in particular Sydney's Arabic community radio station Voice of Islam. The Lebanese Muslim Association warned the clerics that they could lose their positions as spiritual leaders at the nation's largest mosque if they defied the ban.

Spokesman Keysar Trad said Sheik Hilali's vision was for a party founded on universal human values and open to all faiths and would attempt to win elections at all levels of Australian politics. Mr Trad said the idea of forming a party had been around for some years but had not progressed past drafting a manifesto.

The mufti's proposal was for a party to represent Muslim interests without excluding people of other religions, Mr Trad said. "It's not going to be a party of Muslims only and it's not going to be called the Muslim Party," he said. "The whole idea is to promote fairness across the board and specific values, such as honesty and dignity and equality.

"I think it's a good idea to establish a party that can act as an alternative for people who are no longer satisfied with the major parties." The party would fight to put a stop to politicians using the Muslim community as a "political football" and work on promoting greater social harmony, Mr Trad said.

It would also try to tackle long-standing legal issues affecting Australian Muslims, such as divorces and marriages not being recognised in other countries. "We've discussed this with the government on a number of instances but we've never actually found them to be able to come up with a solution," he said.
Posted by: ryuge || 03/12/2007 08:03 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We will call ourselves... Democrats!
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/12/2007 9:44 Comments || Top||

#2  "It's not going to be a party of Muslims only and it's not going to be called the Muslim Party,"

So, please. Join us...
or we'll kill you!
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2007 13:16 Comments || Top||

#3  issues affecting Australian Muslims, such as divorces and marriages not being recognised in other countries.

What? Polygamy to 12 year olds and text message divorces not recognized in Australia? The nerve of those beer swilling, barbecue pork eating infidels.
Posted by: ed || 03/12/2007 13:35 Comments || Top||

#4  Can we get Keith Ellison to move there?
Posted by: Icerigger || 03/12/2007 13:58 Comments || Top||


Europe
Three Years After Madrid Train Bombings Spain Remains On High Alert
Madrid, 12 March (AKI) - Three years on from the deadly bombings of commuter trains at the Atocha rail station in Madrid on 11 March 2004, the risk of a fresh terror attack in Spain is now higher than ever, according to terrorism experts quoted by El Pais daily. The worst al-Qaeda inspired terror attacks on European soil, they killed 191 people and injured 1,800.

Recent taped messages issued by al-Qaeda's second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri have called on Muslims to reconquer southern Spain - or al-Andalus as it was known during Arab rule - the paper notes, quoting anonymous anti-terror experts, intelligence sources, police and the civil guard. Extremist messages posted to Islamist webistes have also called for Muslims to "free" the "occupied" Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the North African coast.
Gee, you mean leaving Iraq din't satisfy the jihadists?
Spain remains a "target of choice," according to El Pais. "Generally we're worse off than before," an unnamed anti-terror source said, quoted by the paper. High profile anti-terror magistrate Baltasar Garzon has also voiced concern: "Spain finds itself at the frontline," he said in a reference to the police operations against Islamist extremists, jihadi recruitment and terrorism financing have been multiplying in Spain.

The trial against 29 mainly North Africans suspected of involvement in the Madrid train bombings also got underway in mid-February and is expected to last six months. In a complex investigation that took three years, investigators have called for jail sentences totalling over 270,000 years in jail for the 29 defendants. Since the deadly Madrid train bombings, the number of agents from Spain's national intelligence service, the civil guard, and police engaged in fighting international terrorism has increased ten-fold from 150 to approximately 1,500.
Posted by: Steve || 03/12/2007 13:16 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  They'll have to stay on high alert until they leave Andalusia and return it to the Moors.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/12/2007 18:03 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Dupe entry: Details of Seska Pelosi's Embolden al-Qaeda Now! initiative
ScrappleFace
(2007-03-12) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, today warned President George Bush not to veto the Democrat-sponsored Iraq war redeployment bill, and for the first time she released the full text of the measure revealing some previously unmentioned initiatives.

Although some Congressional Republicans complained that Democrats stuffed the bill with unrelated provisions, Rep. Pelosi insisted that “all of its diverse parts share a common thread.”

In addition to the plan to pull out U.S. troops if the Iraqi government fails to meet certain benchmarks for quelling sectarian violence on a prescribed timeline, the bill also contains language that would…

–Withdraw police from high-crime neighborhoods in major U.S. cities until street gangs put an end to shootings, stabbings and other criminal acts. The bill would allow police to remain in the neighborhood only if they were no longer needed.
– Change the law to require victims of violent crime to stand up to their attackers before the police will intervene to protect them.
– Require police to notify suspects in writing at least 10 days in advance of any planned stakeouts, crackdowns or drug busts.
– Eliminate unfair practices in the National Football League by requiring the coach of the favored to team to give the coach of the underdog team a copy of his playbook at least a week before the game. The measure would also require the quarterback of the favored team to announce the next play giving the opposition adequate time to reset its defense.
– Provide money for completion of a highway project to extend a spur of Interstate 94 northwest of Ann Arbor. The funding is intended to complete the paving of the road to Hell, a small town in Michigan.
Posted by: Korora || 03/12/2007 12:13 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


Peace activists to rally at Pelosi's San Francisco home
Barking moonbats Peace activists planned to march across the Golden Gate Bridge and gather outside the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday, demanding that Congress stop funding the war in Iraq. "San Francisco has been against this war from the very beginning," said Toby Blowme, a physical therapist who organized the event. "This is our fifth year of the war, and Nancy needs to wake up and represent San Franciscans."

The rally would be the most recent "occupation" ...
LOL! Moonbat occupiers
... activists have staged in lawmakers' offices on Capitol Hill and in their home communities. U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel's office in Chicago was targeted on Thursday, and barking moonbats peace activists dressed in pink showed up recently at the Senate offices of presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Isn't that nice. Pink.
That makes this a Medea Benjamin operation, ala 'Code Pink', the worst bunch of Stalinists in the whole parade of rubes, fools and idiots in the anti-war left.
Other recent targets include Reps. Marcy "Twinkle toes" Kaptur of Ohio and David Obey One Kanobi of Wisconsin and Sens. Richard "Dickhead" Durbin of Illinois and Barbara "lotsa love handles" Mikulski of Maryland. All four Democrats voted against the 2002 measure authorizing the war.

On Wednesday, about one million, according to the demonstrators 20 demonstrators gathered outside Pelosi's San Francisco office — but before they could enter, a staff member ushered the group down to a conference room seven floors below for goat milk and natural gaia cookies, where many voiced frustration that Pelosi was not being aggressive enough in seeking an end to the war. "They're continuing to fund the war, and it's ridiculous if you say you're against the war to keep funding it, " Blowme, a 51-year-old El Cerrito resident, said of Congressional Democrats. "It's shocking how little the Democrats are doing to stop this war."

Pelosi's staff members did not return phone calls Sunday from The Associated Press as they were busily cleaning up the crumbs.

After crossing San Francisco's scenic span, barking moonbats protesters plan to arrive at Pelosi's Pacific Heights home around 4 p.m. They say they will sit, stand, sing, chant, pray, ring bells, eat cookies and read letters from American troops sent home to their families — tactics used in similar events with other politicians.
When will we get a Pelosi giant puppet head?
Organizers count more than 140 arrests so far nationwide. Most involve charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct.
Posted by: Brett || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Superior snarkery commentary Brett.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/12/2007 0:31 Comments || Top||

#2  Guess they haven't read ANN COULTER'S article > SHOOTING ELEPHANTS IN THE BARREL - Libby conviction > ITS FINALLY OFFICIAL - ITS ILLEGAL TO BE REPUB + SSSSHHHHHHHH, RIGHTIST CONSERVATIVE. Only Mother Cindy and the Commie Airborne can save the fascist GOP-Right now, as Amerika's Fascist Lefties-for-God-based Secularism-Govt. will want nuthin to do wid the Right???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/12/2007 1:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Are they going to throw eggs and Molotov cocktails? Bitterly condemn Nancy as a "Zionist tool of the Bushitler neocons"?

If they do, can I watch?
Posted by: Mike || 03/12/2007 9:51 Comments || Top||

#4  The rally would be the most recent "occupation" ...

After five years, it sounds as though these protesters are in a quagmire.
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/12/2007 9:51 Comments || Top||

#5  "The peasants are revolting!"

"You said it! They stink on ice!"
-- History of the World, Part I
Posted by: mojo || 03/12/2007 12:56 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Terrorists Too Clever for Profiling
"Aye! Too clever by half!"
ZUTPHEN, Netherlands -- On the surface, the young Dutch Moroccan mother looked like an immigrant success story: She studied business in college, hung out at the pub with her friends and was known for her fashionable taste in clothes.

So residents of this 900-year-old river town were thrown for a loop last year when Bouchra El-Hor, now 24, appeared in a British courtroom wearing handcuffs under an all-encompassing black veil. Prosecutors said she had covered up plans for a terrorist attack and wrote a letter offering to sacrifice herself and her infant son as martyrs. "We were flabbergasted to learn that she had become a fanatic," said Renee Haantjes, a college instructor who recalled her as "a normal Dutch girl."

People in Zutphen may have been surprised, but terrorism suspects from atypical backgrounds are becoming increasingly common in Western Europe. With new plots surfacing every month, police across Europe are arresting significant numbers of women, teenagers, white-skinned suspects and people baptized as Christians -- groups that in the past were considered among the least likely to embrace Islamic radicalism.

The demographics of those being arrested are so diverse that many European counterterrorism officials and analysts say they have given up trying to predict what sorts of people are most likely to become terrorists. Age, sex, ethnicity, education and economic status have become more and more irrelevant.

"It's very difficult to make a profile of terrorists," Tjibbe Joustra, the Dutch national coordinator for counterterrorism, said in an interview. "To have a profile that you can recognize, so that you can predict, 'This guy is going to be radical, perhaps he will cross the line into terrorism' -- that, I think, is impossible."

European authorities said the trait patterns of those arrested on terrorism charges are constantly shifting. In the Netherlands, officials said they are seeing an increase in the number of young teenagers and people of Turkish descent, two groups that used to be low on their radar. Among the key players in the Hofstad group, a cell of Islamic radicals that targeted Dutch politicians and cultural figures, was Jason Walters, the teenage son of a U.S. soldier.

In neighboring Belgium, people are still perplexed over what drove Muriel Degauque, 38, a blond, white Catholic, to convert to Islam and travel to Iraq to blow herself up in November 2005. Nizar Trabelsi, convicted two years earlier of plotting to bomb a NATO base in Belgium, had been a European soccer star before going to Afghanistan to attend al-Qaeda training camps.

In Britain, three of the suspects arrested in last summer's alleged transatlantic airline hijacking plot were religious converts who grew up in north London's affluent suburbs. One was the well-to-do English son of a Conservative Party activist; he worked in a bar and loved the movie "Team America."

A recently completed Dutch study of 242 Islamic radicals convicted or accused of planning terrorist attacks in Europe from 2001 to 2006 found that most were men of Arab descent who had been born and raised in Europe and came from lower or middle-class backgrounds. They ranged in age from 16 to 59 at the time of their arrests; the average was 27. About one in four had a criminal record.

The author of the study, Edwin Bakker, a researcher at the Clingendael Institute in The Hague, tried to examine almost 20 variables concerning the suspects' social and economic backgrounds. In general, he determined that no reliable profile existed -- their traits were merely an accurate reflection of the overall Muslim immigrant population in Europe. "There is no standard jihadi terrorist in Europe," the study concluded.

In an interview, Bakker said that many local police agencies have been slow to abandon profiling, but that most European intelligence agencies have concluded it is an unreliable tool for spotting potential terrorists. "How can you single them out? You can't," he said. "For the secret services, it doesn't give them a clue. We should focus more on suspicious behavior and not profiling."
We're doomed! Doomed, I tellya! More at link.
Posted by: Bobby || 03/12/2007 07:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I wonder how many of these just "drank the kool-ade" of post-modern culture and figured that turning muzzie boomer was the practical way to achieve their goal of ending Western Civ.
Posted by: Spot || 03/12/2007 8:04 Comments || Top||

#2  Age, sex, ethnicity, education and economic status have become more and more irrelevant.

They left out "religion". I wonder why.
Posted by: AuburnTom || 03/12/2007 8:22 Comments || Top||

#3  Converts, while the among the most stupidly enthusiastic, are both few and far between and have a habit of becoming known to the local authorities before they can do much mischief.

In fact this is why they have such a high profile. Not because they can slip past security, but because they are taken up long before they actually do anything.

The most effective terrorists are the ones that look like everybody else.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/12/2007 9:41 Comments || Top||

#4  In general, he determined that no reliable profile existed -- their traits were merely an accurate reflection of the overall Muslim immigrant population in Europe.

The answer is right there and he missed it. The one thing they all have in common is that they are all Muslim.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 03/12/2007 10:27 Comments || Top||

#5  It is even narrower: the worse are the "liberated" muslims who suddenly have a return to faith. They feel they have sinned in their years of "infidelhood" and fear going to hell. That is when they remind that Islam has an infallible way to go to paradise whatever your sinns or crimes
Posted by: JFM || 03/12/2007 10:35 Comments || Top||

#6  Maybe the Dutch police could start looking at airline passengers who have missing fingers or burns (bomb makers), pay cash for an airline ticket at the last minute rather than buy a promotion, are lovey/dovey outside but do not know one another at the ticket counter, do not have family meet them at the gate, or see them off on the trip, don't check in any luggage, or don't pick up any luggage, and do some honest police work.
Posted by: whatadeal || 03/12/2007 23:41 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Banned SSP seeks patch-up with JUI-F
The leadership of the banned Sipah-e-Sihaba Pakistan (SSP) urged the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl on Sunday to forget differences between the two parties.
Assuming there are any significant differences...
The differences emerged when the MMA fielded a candidate against the late Maulana Azam Tariq in the 2002 elections. When Azam Tariq won the NA seat, the MMA government in NWFP banned his entry into the province. “Dr Khadim Hussain Dhilon, the secretary general of the banned SSP, met JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and discussed the matter with him,” sources told Daily Times. The sources said both sides expressed willingness to reconcile their differences at the meeting that was arranged by Maulana Nazir Farouqi, the senior vice president of the JJ&K chapter of the JUI-F.

When contacted, Farouqi said that Dr Dhilon had only enquired about Fazl’s health at the “routine meeting”, but the sources said that Dhilon urged Fazl that both parties should resolve their differences.
This article starring:
KHADIM HUSEIN DHILONSipah-e-Sihaba Pakistan
MAULANA AZAM TARIQSipah-e-Sihaba Pakistan
MAULANA FAZLUR REHMANJamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl
MAULANA NAZIR FARUQIJamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl
Sipah-e-Sihaba Pakistan
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


CNN airing 'Divide Pakistan' ads
A maverick ‘academic’ based in Europe has been buying airtime on CNN for the past two weeks to advertise his book, ‘Divide Pakistan to eliminate terrorism’, according to a report in the Times of India The 15-second spot, which is aired every day, charges Pakistan with terrorist activities across the world and says the only way to stop this is to split the country into half a dozen separate entities, including Sindhudesh, Jinnahpur, Balochistan and Pakhtunistan, says the report.

The author of the book, which is being sold on Amazon.com for $ 15.95, is Syed Jamaluddin, who describes himself in a blog (www.dividepakistan.blogspot.com ) as a British citizen and a chartered accountant with a degree in conflict management. On Amazon, he is described as ‘’an active writer on issues concerning Pakistan’s involvement in various terrorist activities in the South Asian region’’. He was ‘’forced to leave Pakistan after the military coup of General Musharraf in 1999’.’ It says he also ‘’liased with political and religious parties of Pakistan as well as government agencies’.’

Washington’s think-tank circuit, where Pakistani scholars and commentators are frequent visitors, has no idea who Syed Jamaluddin is. The conjecture is he is a disgruntled spook out to embarrass Pakistan, which is already seen by many in the United States as the “grand central — if not a sponsor — of terrorism”. Indian officials too said they had no idea of the book or the author. One official visiting Washington from New Delhi, when told about the ad, joked that dividing Pakistan was a terrible idea. ‘’One is bad enough - who wants to deal with four or five?’’
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Divide good, quarter better.
Posted by: Shipman || 03/12/2007 0:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Giving no quarter, I may add.
Posted by: twobyfour || 03/12/2007 1:55 Comments || Top||

#3  The writer has a Muslim name. And it is a fact that the Punjabi majority dominates and oppresses minorities.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/12/2007 4:06 Comments || Top||

#4  I have been telling this for the last two years. The fact is that the Punjabis need the opther ethnias being fanatical islamists. Otherwise tehy would begin to ask thjemselves what benefits they get from being in Pakistan respective to having their own states ann Pujabi's cash cow would disappear. But as long as Pashtoon, Balochs and Sindhs think: "We are all Muslims after all", "We are threatened by infidels" or "We have to conquer more lands for Islam" Punjabis (or more exactly the few hundreds of Punjabi families who dominate Pakistan) will be able to continue sucking the blood from other regions of Pakistan.
Posted by: JFM || 03/12/2007 4:38 Comments || Top||


Musharraf creating unrest to extend govt's term: Fazl
President General Pervez Musharraf is creating unrest in the country to constitutionally extend the tenure of the incumbent parliament for one more year, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the opposition leader in the National Assembly and secretary general of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said on Sunday. “The extension of assemblies as per constitution is allowed only in two situations: when a country is in a state of war or is facing riots, but the Musharraf formula of extension is leading the country towards chaos,” he told a meeting of the Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) here on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:


Pakistan being 'scapegoated' for failure in Afghanistan
Pakistan is being “scapegoated” in Washington for its failures in the war against terrorism, but lacking here is any recognition of Pakistan’s security concerns or its limitations, according to a commentary published here.

Ken Silverstein, who edits the Harper’s Magazine blog ‘Washington Babylon,’ writes that it is now the conventional wisdom in Washington that American efforts to defeat Al Qaeda are being undermined by Pakistan. There are factions within Pakistan’s political and defence establishment, especially in the intelligence agencies, that are sympathetic to the Taliban, and to a lesser extent Osama Bin Laden. He asks: but is Pakistan really to blame for our failures to stomp out Al Qaeda?

He quotes former CIA official Michael Scheuer, who told him that one must not look at the world from the same point of view as the United States. “The first duty of any intelligence agency,” he said, “is to protect the national interest. Pakistan is not going to destroy the Taliban because at some point they would like to see the Taliban back in power. They cannot tolerate a pro-Indian, pro-American, pro-Russian, pro-Iranian government in Afghanistan. They already have an unstable Western border and have to worry about a country of one billion Hindus that has nuclear bombs.”

According to Silverstein, that point was echoed by a second retired CIA official, who said, “The United States has never recognised the essential security concerns of Pakistan, which are on its eastern border. India can be in Islamabad in three days. We tell them India would never do that, but they have fought three wars against India. Pakistan cannot be put in a position where it might have to fight a war on two fronts, from India and Afghanistan.”

Silverstein maintains that the conduct of the Pakistani intelligence agency has been a source of concern, and not without reason. It has “a strong radical Islamist influence due in part to its primary role in protecting Pakistan from India, a conflict framed in religious terms”. Furthermore, the agency has a heavy contingent of Pashtuns, the same tribe that is the Taliban’s base of support across the border in Afghanistan. Partly because of its family, clan, and business ties to the Taliban, the agency, even more than Pakistani society in general, “became increasingly enamoured of radical Islam”.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  You DO know the desired end of Scapegoats? Don't you?
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2007 5:55 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, you're not a scapegoat if you're actually guilty of the charge. Then you're just the enemy.
Posted by: Spot || 03/12/2007 8:09 Comments || Top||

#3  RJ,

8-)
Posted by: Glolurong Jones1696 || 03/12/2007 13:28 Comments || Top||


Islam forbids suicide bombing, say clerics
Yeah, yeah. Heard it all before. E pur se muove.
DARRA ADAM KHEL: Tribal ulema said on Sunday that suicide bomb attacks were haraam (forbidden) and that Islam did not allow anyone to force people to keep beards. “Militants issuing fatwas and forcing barbers not to shave people’s beards are not right. It’s an un-Islamic act. It’s against Shariah,” said ulema, while addressing a public meeting at Darra Adam Khel in Kohat.

Qaumi Tehrik, Darra Adam Khel, organised the public meeting aimed at discussing law and order in the area, suicide bomb attacks and fatwas for murders. Sheikhul Hadith Maulana Hassan Jan was the chief guest, while Qaumi Tehrik President Said Wazir Afridi presided. The ulema said it was the duty of every male and female Muslim to acquire knowledge and that nobody had the right to compel someone not to receive education. However, they said, female students should wear Islamic dresses and fully observe purdah (veil).

Prominent among others who attended the public meeting were Shiekhul Quran Maulana Amir Badshah, Maulana Mufti Abdur Rehman and Shiekhul Hadith Maulana Akhtar Munir, patron-in-chief of Darul Islamia Darra Adam Khel. A committee, comprising ulema, tribal maliks and political administration officials was formed, to root out crimes from the area. The committee would also work for the elimination of hashish. Local Taliban have been issuing fatwas to murder barbers if they continued shaving beards of their customers.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Issue a Fatwah against all imams who preach murder, then I'll believe you.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 03/12/2007 6:03 Comments || Top||

#2  The quran also demands that muzzies become liars to probigate islam.

Good read: Jihad Watch: Suicide bombers follow Quran, concludes Pentagon briefing" Suicide bombers follow Quran, concludes Pentagon briefing: Tasked with ... "Suicide in defense of Islam is permitted, and the Islamic suicide bomber is,
Posted by: Icerigger || 03/12/2007 14:31 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Millions of Shiite pilgrims on the road to Karbala
Hat tip Gateway Pundit, who has some great pics from various sources.
KARBALA, Iraq: The Shiite pilgrims came here carrying bread and walking sticks and jugs of water. Adel Abdul Mahdi, the Shiite vice president of Iraq, carried three shrapnel wounds from a recent suicide bombing. "I feel dizzy sometimes," he said. But he stepped from his armored sport utility vehicle on the outskirts of this holy city on Friday afternoon and waded into the sea of pilgrims, brazenly defying, like the millions of other Shiites converging here this weekend, the threat of snipers and suicide bombers, gunmen and guerrillas.

Some had walked 10 days from Basra, in the far south; others had taken donkey carts from Najaf, the ayatollahs' power center. Old men and women were pushed along in wheelchairs. Open- back trucks brimming with black-clad Shiites rumbled down the highways, pictures of turbaned clerics on their sides.

Estimates of the number of pilgrims ranged wildly, from three million to seven million, but Iraqi officials said one thing was clear: This was the largest celebration in decades of Arbaeen, the Shiite ritual commemorating the killing of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, in A.D. 680.

Militant Sunni Arabs had tried to turn this year's event into a death march, using bombs and bullets to kill at least 150 pilgrims on the roadways through the week. But it seemed that the more they tried to wipe out the Shiites, the more the Shiites were determined to come.

"You see the people; you see the thousands of people," said Abdul Mahdi, 64, a white skullcap perched on his head and a checkered scarf around his bearish frame as he began an 8-kilometer, or 5-mile, walk toward the golden-domed shrine of Imam Hussein. "They're so peaceful," he said. "It's to show the unity of the people, the tightness of the people, and this is a very strong message."
More local color in the article. Get the message here: yes, 30 to 50 people were killed by Sunni boom-boyz. Out of 3 to 7 million! This is the largest and clearly most successful Shiite gathering in decades. The IHT reported it, but don't expect it in your local MSM paper.
Posted by: Steve White || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  It's like a migration! What about feeding and sanitation facilities for hundreds of thousands? The logistics just boggle the mind.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/12/2007 1:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Here comes the whips and chains, and slashing of craniums with swords. And every year our media suppresses coverage of Shiite savages.
Posted by: Sneaze || 03/12/2007 4:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Al-Aska Paul -
I don't think they require a whole lot in the way of sanitation facilities, with all the logistical hassles of dispersing and maintaining thousands and thousands of Port-o-Lets.
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/12/2007 10:42 Comments || Top||

#4  Arbeen? Never heard of it.
And how big can it be when they don't even have a stampede over/under?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2007 11:23 Comments || Top||

#5  Go! Go! Sunni!
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/12/2007 12:04 Comments || Top||

#6  The Pilgrim Game is a serious money-maker... and the Southern Iraq Shia mullahs have been fighting and offing each other over this cash cow for 1400 years.

Road to Karbala... alBob and alBing?
Posted by: LAX || 03/12/2007 15:31 Comments || Top||


Iraqi court denies judge who sentenced Saddam has fled
The Iraqi High Tribunal on Sunday denied reports that the judge who sentenced former dictator Saddam Hussein to hang for crimes against humanity has fled to Britain to seek political asylum. “This report is not true, he is having an ordinary vacation outside Iraq,” the tribunal said in a statement. “Judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman called us personally from London and he denied this report completely.”
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sounds right. He fled IRAQ (as in, he lives in Kurdistan) - no need to flee further .....

I'm surprised/pleased to see the tribunal issued a statement - their media operation has at times made this White House look like masters of public affairs by comparison, to give an idea.
Posted by: Verlaine || 03/12/2007 1:57 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Hamas Legislator demands kidnapping of more Israeli soldiers
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
"Fathi Hamad, Hamas member of Palestinian Legislative Council, demanded the kidnapping of more Israeli soldiers in order to force Israel to free the [Palestinian] prisoners… Hamad said this at a gathering of the "Waed" organization for prisoners and released [prisoners] in Khan Yunis ... Hamad stressed it was the responsibility of the government, the Legislative Council, the [armed] factions and military arms to dedicate all the efforts at their disposal to free the prisoners. He argued that the kidnapping of the soldier Gilad Shalit hit Israel very hard." [Al Ayyam, March 10, 2007]
This article starring:
FATHI HAMADHamas
Gilad Shalit
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 03/12/2007 14:59 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I think more Hamas "legislators" should be gunned down in the street myself...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2007 16:14 Comments || Top||

#2  This will end well.....
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/12/2007 16:20 Comments || Top||

#3  You can bet there will be more kidnappings, as opportunity presents. Look at how well it works for them - lots of PR, and seemingly 100:1 prisoner exchange rates (which is still a bargain for Israel on a 'value' basis).
Posted by: Glenmore || 03/12/2007 16:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I think every kidnapping of an Israeli soldier should be followed by an "untraceable" truck bombing in a WB or Gaza neighborhood. Make it on the scale of the bomb that brought down Khobar Towers. Kill 100 or more for every kidnapped soldier and see if that brings them to their senses. If it doesn't, drive them into Jordan and Egypt and be done with it. PALEOS OUT! NO MUSLIMS, NO TERROR!
Posted by: Mac || 03/12/2007 17:51 Comments || Top||

#5  So since it seems to be sanctioned by the PA this means that any kidnapping from now on is an actual (and unilateral) act of war of by the Palestinian Government against Israel and Israel can go total war on them right?

Take back all of the Gaza strip and West Bank and *never* give it back right?
Posted by: CrazyFool || 03/12/2007 21:40 Comments || Top||


Palestinian minister admits aid millions lost

I know, I'm as shocked as everybody else...
A former World Bank official who is about to become the Palestinian finance minister has warned foreign donors that he has no idea where much of their money has been spent.
Nope. Sorry. Don't have a clue...
In the 14 months since Hamas won elections, Palestinian finances have descended into such chaos that there is now no way to confirm whether aid is going to its stated purpose, according to Salam Fayyad, 54, who is poised to start his second stint as treasury chief once the rival Hamas and Fatah factions finalise a "unity" government.
Hey. "Unity" in bullshit quotes. I like that.
An estimated £362.5 million has flowed into Palestinian government coffers from abroad since the election that brought Hamas to power and ushered in a period of internal conflict that came close to all-out civil war. The European Union alone provided £59.5 million last year and sent a far greater sum directly to hospitals, power generation projects and to families in need.
They know a good investment when they see it. Like Airbus...
Now, Palestinian Authority spending is out of control, salaries are being paid to workers who never turn up, and nobody can track where the money is going, according to Mr Fayyad. There was no way to be certain that aid was being used as intended, he admitted. "Please write this: no one can give donors that assurance. Why? Because the system is in a state of total disrepair."
Jesus, it's worse then Massachusetts, fer crissakes...
Five years ago, Mr Fayyad - who had worked at the US Federal Reserve Bank - was asked to create order out of Palestinian finances by the president at the time, Yasser Arafat. Now, he is confronting the fact that his accounting reforms have all unravelled, there is a ballooning wage bill, a yawning budget shortfall and an international financial boycott of Hamas.
Damn. All that hard work. For nuthin...
Mr Fayyad conceded that until he assumed office he could not be sure of the depth of the crisis or how to fix it. He expected it to take weeks to regain enough control over Palestinian funds to restore oversight over new donations. It would take several months to begin reining in the inflated salary bill.
Weeks? Months? New donations? Talk about an optimist...
Hours earlier, the World Bank had published a 197-page report warning the Palestinians to control a wage bill that totals two thirds of all spending, and of a "dire'' budget deficit, estimated at £57 million per month.
Suuuuuure. We'll get right on that...INFIDELS!
Hamas refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist and is widely viewed as a little more than a terrorist faction. Last year, a ban on funding it was enforced by the EU, the US, many Arab states and international banks. Ironically foreign aid to Palestinians increased, either carried across the border into Gaza in cash-stuffed briefcases by Hamas officials, or through a special financial channel to the office of President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the rival Fatah faction with whom the West is prepared to work.
Proving that there's idiots all over the planet...
As a result, Mr Fayyad said, incoming funds have been widely dispersed with no central authority to monitor them. Some have gone to people who do not appear on the Palestinian budget ledger. "Where is the control?" asked Mr Fayyad. "It's gone. Where is all the transparency? It's gone."
Why don't you ask "the boys" about it? Then hire some guy to start your car every morning.
He said his first objective would be to make the finance ministry the sole conduit for incoming aid, and to reinstate proper audits. That meant no more financial back channels or border smuggling, he said. "It's not my intention to manage the Palestinian budget system through the brown bag." The Palestinian Authority's unchecked proliferation of government jobs - growing by 11 per cent a year - is another threat to its existence, the World Bank said. Mr Fayyad acknowledged that the problem of thousands of absentee employees was "serious", but said it would take up to five years to bring wages into line with income.
Maybe you could just...print more money.
He was reluctant to say how he would do that, perhaps understandably, given that unpaid security forces have a habit of barging into government offices with guns blazing, and that gunmen recently shot up the outside of his office.
Oooookay. Maybe this isn't such a good plan.
Now some of Mr Abbas's presidential guard is assigned to his premises - a stark reminder of the connection between restoring security and bringing finances under control. "This will be extremely difficult," he said. "It's virtually impossible."
But that's okay. Keep sending that money along. It's "for the children"...
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2007 13:23 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the 14 months since Hamas won elections, Palestinian finances have descended into such chaos that there is now no way to confirm whether aid is going to its stated purpose,

From Hamas' and Fatah's perspectives that's a feature, not a bug.
Posted by: xbalanke || 03/12/2007 14:56 Comments || Top||

#2  Did they check under the seat cushions?
Posted by: LAX || 03/12/2007 15:35 Comments || Top||

#3  I think a lot of Universities in this country are in not much better shape accounting-wise than the PA. They get more every year from govt,; more every year from alumni; more every year from parking tickets and they still raise tuition faster than the general inflation rate.
Posted by: mhw || 03/12/2007 18:03 Comments || Top||

#4  "Hamas refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist and is widely viewed as a little more than a terrorist faction."

I know it's the Telegraph, so not a total shock, but still bracing to find something so obvious and true actually written in the press these days. Two almost unheard of heresies: use of the word "terrorist" and reference to the obvious corruption and idiocy of the Palestinians. Next thing you know, they'll let slip that the apartheid wall has, uh, stopped terrorist attacks.
Posted by: Verlaine || 03/12/2007 21:27 Comments || Top||

#5  I especially liked the part about the system is in a state of total disrepair. This implies that the system was in a state of good repair in the past, which, I am afraid, is not the case.

So long, suckers, see you in the funny papers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/12/2007 21:45 Comments || Top||

#6  Palestinian secrets to making a small fortune.....

First, start with a large fortune.
Posted by: WTF || 03/12/2007 22:35 Comments || Top||


Abbas says Schalit will be freed soon
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas promised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at their meeting in Jerusalem Sunday that he will work for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit before the establishment in the next few days of a PA unity government, senior government officials said. The officials said Abbas's comments came after Olmert called for the unconditional release of Schalit. Despite Abbas's assurances, diplomatic officials expressed skepticism at his ability to deliver.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  In the JPost, this headline and most of the rest of the article is generated merely by hitting the F6 key.
Posted by: mhw || 03/12/2007 17:57 Comments || Top||


Qaddoumi: "Resistance is the only way to Liberate Palestine"
Another performance of the One Note Samba.
(SANA)- Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization Politburo Farouk al-Qaddoumi has stressed that the resistance is the only way to liberate the occupied Palestinian territories and the establishment of the Palestinian state on all its lands of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In an interview to the Syrian satellite Channel broadcast yesterday, al-Qaddoumi said that the imbalance between the Palestinians and the Israelis blocked reaching a solution to the struggle through peaceful means. Qaddoumi expressed a hope that the Palestinian people could be forming government of a national unity as soon as possible according to Mecca accord to face the Israeli occupation.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Peace in our time???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/12/2007 0:29 Comments || Top||

#2  "Resistance is the only way to Liberate Palestine" Terrorist Jimmy Carter Farouk al-Qaddoumi
Posted by: Flolumble Elmuling1667 || 03/12/2007 1:17 Comments || Top||

#3  Actually, a straightforward military conquest would also liberate "Palestine" from the current Arab Islamic occupiers. Drive them out (kill them if necessary) and return the area to its original Judeo-Christian people.

That is what he meant, right?
Posted by: Jackal || 03/12/2007 8:50 Comments || Top||

#4  Not much of a dental plan at the PLO, is there, Farouk?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2007 16:23 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't know Jackal. It seems as though that has been tried in the past a few times :)
Posted by: Texhooey || 03/12/2007 18:01 Comments || Top||


Israel ready to consider Saudi peace plan
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said he was ready to “treat seriously” a dormant Saudi initiative calling for a comprehensive peace agreement between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle East War. The Arab League is expected to discuss the Saudi initiative, first proposed in 2002, at a summit later this month in Riyadh.

Olmert told his Cabinet on Sunday that Israel is following developments in the Arab world “with the utmost attention” and noted “positive developments” among moderate Arab countries.

“We have said more than once that the Saudi initiative is a matter which we would be ready to treat seriously and we have not altered our position,” he said. “We hope very much that at the meeting of heads of Arab states to take place in Riyadh, the positive elements expressed in the Saudi initiative will be revalidated and will perhaps improve the chances of negotiation between us and the Palestinian Authority.”
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Who needs enemy with a PM like Olmert?
Posted by: twobyfour || 03/12/2007 1:58 Comments || Top||

#2  [Waving a piece of paper.]

I bring you peace in our time.
Posted by: PM Olmert || 03/12/2007 8:51 Comments || Top||

#3  Arab Israeli relations are in a thaw because of the Persian threat. But previous thaws have all been temporary.
Posted by: mhw || 03/12/2007 10:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Olmert is saying hes ready to discuss the initiative.

Anyone expecting KSA to agree to face to face talks? Im not.

This is just a variant on the old line "we will talk with any arab state, at any time, in any place"

Israel loses nothing by Olmert offering to talk.
Posted by: liberalhawk || 03/12/2007 12:53 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Mahmoud Wants to Address UNSC
UNITED NATIONS - The world's most powerful nations failed to agree on new sanctions against Iran amid reports that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to put Tehran's case for a nuclear program before the U.N. Security Council.

The surprise announcement about Ahmadinejad's intention to fly to New York came in the throes of intense debate Sunday among the five veto-wielding permanent council members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — and Germany on additional measures to pressure Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, whose country holds the rotating Security Council presidency, said Ahmadinejad had not made a formal request to address the U.N.'s most powerful body, but if he did, "it would be very difficult to deny him that opportunity."

Kumalo said he would "be open to consulting" with the other council members on scheduling Ahmadinejad's appearance. "I would be surprised if they said they don't want to hear him," he told The Associated Press.

Whether an appearance before the Security Council by Ahmadinejad would affect the contents or vote on a new U.N. resolution remains to be seen.

Iranian TV on Sunday quoted government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham as saying Ahmadinejad "intends to attend a U.N. Security Council meeting to be held on Iran's nuclear case in order to defend the rights of the Iranian nation in exploiting peaceful nuclear energy."
Posted by: Bobby || 03/12/2007 06:17 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Another chance to glow for Ahmadinnerjacket. Maybe he'll introduce the Mahdi to the audience too.
Posted by: Jonathan || 03/12/2007 8:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Some people can dig their own grave with their tongue.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 03/12/2007 9:42 Comments || Top||

#3  Teleconference it so he can dub in the halo.
Posted by: Phineter Thraviger || 03/12/2007 11:41 Comments || Top||

#4  Will he bring his own halo, or can he rent one ?
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2007 11:42 Comments || Top||

#5  The punk wants to come out of his hole. Let him! It's a great opportunity to take this bastard out. He just needs to have one of those Iranian flying "accidents"...you know, the type that are so common these days.
Posted by: Mac || 03/12/2007 17:59 Comments || Top||


France still sees diplomatic way out of Iran nuclear crisis
Of course they do. They're French.
ABU DHABI - French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Sunday that a diplomatic solution was still possible to the crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme.

‘Very frankly, I think the diplomatic path is possible. I believe that,’ he said at a joint press conference in Abu Dhabi with Emirati Foreign Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahayan. ‘I don’t want to believe for an instant that Iran, after having isolated itself politically and economically, can afford to take further risks,’ the French minister said.

Asked about the military option, he said the United States, which is at the forefront of international opposition to Iran’s programme, ‘acknowledges that the strategy (of) using dialogue and pressure are bearing fruit’.
It's very useful to us whilst we align our forces and allow certain other 'programs' to bear fruit.
The five UN Security Council permanent members, including France, and Germany are currently discussing a draft resolution to tighten sanctions against the Islamic republic for its controversial nuclear fuel work. The council in December agreed a first set of measures penalising Iran for its refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment activities.
The new sanctions will be more completely ineffectual.
France’s policy is centred on ‘firmness and dialogue’ as well as achieving unanimity, said Douste-Blazy, warning that ‘if there is no unanimity, there will be no effectiveness to the Security Council’s position’.
Grandmaster of the Obvious, specially trained at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration.
A military strike, which the United States has refused to rule out, ‘would have unpredictable consequences which would prove deeply destabilising for the whole region,’ he said.
We could predict a few of those consequences ...
Douste-Blazy was winding up a tour of Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, which like the other Gulf Arab states have also warned against the regional impact of any strike on Iran.
Mostly 'cause they don't want to get hit with the splatter ...
Posted by: Steve White || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [12 views] Top|| File under:

#1  WORLDTRIBUNE > Both IRAN + RUSSIA have a common prob in that both IRAN + Russian consortium ala BESHEHR nuke plant HAVE NO MONEY, ergo Iran wants delivery of nuclear fuel and techs while Russia wants the $$$ first???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/12/2007 0:14 Comments || Top||

#2  IF Iran is out of money there is none to be slipped to France so why does France care?
Posted by: 3dc || 03/12/2007 2:00 Comments || Top||

#3  3dc---France does business with Iran, so when things get better, they are in the catbird seat again. Remember it was France that let the Ayutollah C***hola Komeni live in exile until the Shah was deposed. Just like they cuddled up to Sammy in Iraq. The French govt likes lucrative business contracts with despots.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 03/12/2007 2:06 Comments || Top||

#4  We need a graphic of a waving white flag so we can include it whenever we post an article on France.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 03/12/2007 11:28 Comments || Top||

#5 
We need a graphic of a waving white flag so we can include it whenever we post an article on France.


Jean Maridor, crashed his Hawker Tempest on a V1 heading to hospital. Source (Tempest over Europe by Coommander Beamont).
Posted by: JFM || 03/12/2007 12:28 Comments || Top||

#6  France still sees a diplomatic way out of the Napoleonic Wars.
Posted by: Infidel Bob || 03/12/2007 12:42 Comments || Top||

#7  France’s policy is centred on ‘firmness and dialogue’ ...

France's policies are about as firm as a subject in a Salvador Dali painting.
Posted by: xbalanke || 03/12/2007 13:32 Comments || Top||

#8  JFM,
That's very brave, but it's also 60+ years ago. The French were also very brave at Verdun, but unfortunately anyone with any balls died in the trenches.

Al
Posted by: Frozen Al || 03/12/2007 13:49 Comments || Top||

#9  hell never would have guessed this one. i didn.t even have too read it it has been done so many times
Posted by: sinse || 03/12/2007 14:49 Comments || Top||

#10  Well, I guess full surrender IS technically a diplomatic way out...
Posted by: DarthVader || 03/12/2007 16:10 Comments || Top||

#11 
Posted by: doc || 03/12/2007 17:16 Comments || Top||

#12  At Dien Bien Phu, weel after it became evident that it had become death-trap (BTW Dein Bien Phu full idea was about as bright as the 1940 campaign) there were people who had never jumped in their life, volunteering for a combat jump in the cauldron.
Posted by: JFM || 03/12/2007 19:07 Comments || Top||

#13  The problems the French Army faced in the latter stages of their involvement in Vietnam were very much like our on expierience. Mounting opposition at home, dwindling support for the war from the French Government, press coverage much like our own. We were giving the French military support but the climate at home for them was too much. We didn't do much better.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 03/12/2007 20:00 Comments || Top||

#14  Considering this is talking about the French government, rather than soldiers, I think the white flag is appropriate.
Posted by: Jackal || 03/12/2007 22:19 Comments || Top||


President al-Assad and Delegation of International Crisis Group in Talks
(SANA) - President Bashar al-Assad reviewed Sunday Syria's vision of the current events in the region and peace process in the Middle East. That came when the President received a delegation of the International Crisis Group ICG headed by former Australian Foreign Minister, Gareth Evans.

President al-Assad underlined necessity of continued communication between the two sides to crystallize mechanisms and means that serve achievement of the desired aim that is the just and comprehensive peace based on the international legitimacy resolutions and land-for-peace formula. In the same framework, similar talks were held when Vice President Farouk al-Shara received the delegation. " The tension and crisis the region and the world are witnessing nowadays are because of the defect in the international relations due to the unilateral policy and ignorance of the international legitimacy," Shara said. He renewed Syria's adherence to cooperate with the efforts aiming at achieving security and stability in the region and putting an end to the crisis it had suffered from for a long time.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:


International warning against the American scheme in the region
(SANA)- Leader of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) Wael Hussineya has warned against the Amereican-Israel scheme in the region.
So, y'see, it's not quite a National Socialist party. It's a Social Nationalist party. There's a diffo. Really.
Hussineyya stressed in a meeting in Tyre, South Lebanon that the US policy in the region aims at protecting Israel through disarming the national resistance, pointing out to the dangerous effects of the American intervention in Lebanon's affairs.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste Blazy stressed the importance of holding Iraq's Neighboring Conference for acheiving peace and stability in Iraq. During his meeting with Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Mohammed Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah in Kuwait, Blazy stressed the importance of the political solution in Iraq based on reaching accord among all Iraqi parties.
Posted by: Fred || 03/12/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  These creeps have a Canadian party. It beggars description they are not all in internment or deported.
Posted by: Excalibur || 03/12/2007 9:48 Comments || Top||


Terror Networks
Episode at Guantanamo Leaves Family at a Loss

By Faiza Saleh Ambah
Washington Post Foreign Service
Manolo! I need every violin you can find!
MEDINA, Saudi Arabia -- Mishal al-Harbi's brain was deprived of oxygen for several minutes on the evening of Jan. 16, 2003, while he was in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As a result, he cannot stand, his speech is slurred, and he has a twitch that periodically causes his head to shake and his legs to jerk.
Awwwwww...
U.S. authorities say Mishal's brain was damaged when he tried to hang himself at Guantanamo. But his brother Fahd says a beating by prison guards cut off the flow of oxygen, leaving Mishal unable to walk or talk properly.
Reading from the al-Q playbook on claiming torture at every opportunity ...
Fahd said his brother needs intensive physical therapy and costly medicine to control his seizures and hallucinations -- side effects of the injury --and he wants the U.S. government to help pay for them.
What's "Fuck you" in Arabic?
One of his hallucinations is that he's a brave, Islamic warrior ...
Mishal's family says it is seeking not only financial compensation but also concrete answers from the U.S. government -- either an admission that Mishal was injured by guards or proof that he tried to kill himself.
"Well ma'am, there's the photo of him swinging from his bedsheet."
"NO, damn you, I mean real proof!"
But given the intense secrecy surrounding the detainees at Guantanamo, finding out exactly what occurred that day in 2003 appears almost impossible. "He was just like the rest of his brothers before he left," said Mishal's mother, Hamida Owayid, her head covered with a blue scarf and her feet decorated with henna. "What did the Americans do to him?"
He was a...quiet boy.
The exact problem here is that he was just like his brothers when he left. They were all jihadis, too.
Mishal was captured in late 2001 and transferred to Guantanamo a few months later. Because he also has memory lapses, Mishal said, he is not sure how he was injured. But former detainees -- about 400 men have been released from the facility, and nearly 400 remain -- have reported regular beatings, and Fahd said he believes his brother was attacked by guards.
And who ya gonna believe, the US government or some terrorist's family looking to make a buck? If some Arab writing for the Washington Post, I think we already know.
Again, it's the al-Q playbook, and WaPo buys it every time.
Mishal's devotion to Islam would have prevented him from attempting suicide, Fahd said. "With the strength of his faith, which took him all the way to Afghanistan, it's impossible that he tried to kill himself. He knows that you spend eternity in hell if you do that."
Oh...well, I'm sold. Let's cut him a check right now.
Fahd, 32, has watched over his younger brother since their father died when they were children. Perhaps if he had been more vigilant, he said, Mishal might not have ended up in Afghanistan in 2001. But as a government employee supporting their mother, two younger brothers and a sister with Down syndrome, Fahd was consumed with work and out of town for months at a time.
I blame myself. Well...not really. Not with a potential big settlement on the line.
Mishal dropped out of school when he was 14 and began holding up liquor stores working odd jobs to help support the family. When he had saved enough money, he bought a used truck and picked up passengers at the airport, his mother said. In his free time, Mishal played soccer, listened to pop music and sneaked cigarettes, Fahd said. Then, suddenly, Mishal stopped smoking, a habit that ultra-devout Muslims consider a sin, and replaced his music cassettes with taped Koranic verses and sayings of the prophet Muhammad, Fahd said.
Yup, got bit by the virus, he did ...
About a year later, around June 2001, he disappeared from the family home in Medina, Saudi Arabia. He called a month later, saying he was in Afghanistan and asking for forgiveness from his mother and brother for traveling without telling them.
I'm...ummmmmmmm...getting religious training. It's very noisy.
"I thought he was becoming more devout. There's nothing wrong with that," Fahd said, sitting in the family's house on the outskirts of the city. "I didn't expect him to end up in Afghanistan. He wasn't even old enough to travel without my consent." Saudi law prohibits anyone younger than 21 from applying for a passport without a guardian's permission.
If he was a woman and did this, I figure at least an acid bath...
When the United States started bombing Afghanistan in October 2001, Mishal called his family and said that he was trying to find a way home but that the borders had been closed.
Right up to 9/10 he was fine there, really, having a ball ...
He said all Arab men were being arrested and handed over to the Americans.
Because the Afghans were more than fed up with the Master Race™ telling them what to do and how to behave ...
Fahd did not hear from his brother again for six months, when the Red Cross delivered a letter from Guantanamo Bay.
"Greetings from Beautiful Gitmo".
Mishal said he had been detained in late 2001 near Mazar-e Sharif in north-central Afghanistan, along with other Arabs fighting with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, led by a secular U.S. ally, Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum.
Another "victim of coicumstances", I tells ya.
He's lucky Dostum didn't run over him with a tank.
Mishal was transferred to Guantanamo in early 2002 and was injured less than a year later. According to interviews with half a dozen men released from Guantanamo Bay, soldiers at the camp quickly saw how important the Muslim holy book, the Koran, was to the detainees and used it as punishment and reward.
Awwwww, not the Koran shit again...
Former detainees said guards would disrespect the Koran when they were unruly or did not cooperate during interrogations. Recently released FBI transcripts indicate that persistent allegations of abuse, including guards kicking Korans against a wall and an interrogator squatting over one, were brought to the attention of the authorities in 2002. "Word of the Koran's desecration quickly spread around the camp, and the brothers were all very agitated," said Saad al-Azmi, a former detainee from Kuwait.
I hope the interrogator shit on it while he was squatting over it.
I hope they didn't, I want to be able to point to our guys at say, "we're better", like I know we are.
Some of the detainees started refusing to hand over the Koran during searches and went on hunger strikes to protest its mistreatment, Azmi said. They also cursed and screamed at the guards, he said. According to Pentagon transcripts, Mishal once spit at a guard.
First he spit fluid, then he was spitting teeth ...
It was during this fraught period that Mishal was injured, several days after being transferred to isolation block India, said Hammad Ali, a former detainee from Sudan who was in the same isolation block at the time.
The "fraught period"? Is that like the "wonder years"?
Ali said that one night around evening prayer time, a guard commander walked into India block and ordered lights out. He also demanded that the guards close the small openings through which the prisoners received their food and that gave them a view from their cells. Soon afterward, another prisoner, Hammad al-Turkistani, Koran in hand, shuffled into the block accompanied by guards, Ali said.
So, who's our next contestant, Johnny?
Prisoners are not allowed to keep their Korans in the isolation blocks, and the routine procedure was for the Muslim chaplain or the Muslim librarian to come and take them, Ali said. Muslims believe it is a desecration for non-Muslims to touch their holy book.
They believe all sorts of other funny stuff, too.
They think women are better off without pubic lips and that marrying close relatives is rilly kewl...
The guards unshackled Turkistani, left him in a cell and walked off with his Koran. Turkistani started screaming: "The Koran! The Koran! The MP's took my Koran," Ali recalled.
Ya dirty screws! Gimmie back my Koran! I'm warnin yas!
For half an hour, the detainees banged on their cell doors in protest and shouted, "Allahu akbar," which means "Holy Shit God is great." Then riot guards entered the block, Ali said. The guards started beating prisoners in their individual cells, according to an account given to the Gulf Daily News last year by Abdullah al-Nuaimi, a former detainee from Bahrain who was also in India block at the time. A short while later, Nuaimi recalled, one of the guards shouted, "Turn on the lights!"
There's some solid gold sources. Which the Post eats right up.
Then Mishal was carried out of his cell, Nuaimi said. Later that evening, guards confiscated all the blankets from India block. Ali said that when he asked why, he was told that the prisoner in cell No. 17 had tried to hang himself with one.
I'd have passed out more. "Mahmoud, ya need a blanket? A couple?"
"Gets mighty cold at night here at Gitmo, Mahmoud. Here, take another blanket."
The next day, Mishal's cell was sealed off, Ali said. Several days later, men wearing overalls, goggles and hair bonnets, and one of them carrying what looked like a ruler, went into the cell to investigate, Ali and other inmates recalled. Fahd said a doctor from the Red Thingy Cross office in Geneva told him later that his brother had tried to hang himself and was in a coma, being kept alive on artificial respirators.
So I guess they're lying too?
Mishal was unconscious for three months and spent an additional eight months hospitalized at Guantanamo. He was released into Saudi custody in July 2005, Fahd said, and sent home nine months later.
Well, he won't bother us anymore. He's all yours...
Sitting cross-legged and drooling on the carpet in the family guest room, his frayed black leather wheelchair to his left, Mishal said he remembers that after the desecration of the Koran, a guard entered his cell. "He was carrying a shield. He pushed me with it. I don't remember anything else," he said, speaking with a heavy tongue. His head jerking back and forth several times, Mishal said he had gone to Afghanistan "for jihad, for the sake of God."
How'd that work out for ya, kid?
Fahd said the time his brother spent at Guantanamo may have irrevocably damaged his future. "All the men who were released from Guantanamo, they are now leading a normal life," he said. "But Mishal can't walk, get himself a glass of water or go to the bathroom by himself. I just want him to go back the way he was before Guantanamo."
Too bad, so sad...
This article starring:
ABDULLAH AL NUAIMIal-Qaeda
Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum
HAMAD ALIal-Qaeda
HAMAD AL TURKISTANIal-Qaeda
MISHAL AL HARBIal-Qaeda
SAAD AL AZMIal-Qaeda
Posted by: tu3031 || 03/12/2007 10:08 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  But as a government employee supporting their mother, two younger brothers and a sister with Down syndrome

Typical Saudi family then -- 25% of the offspring with visible genetic damage due to inbreeding... perhaps another 25% with unnoticed problems that result in running off to do jihad.
Posted by: trailing wife || 03/12/2007 11:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I just want him to go back the way he was before Afghanistan Guantanamo."
Posted by: Besoeker || 03/12/2007 11:53 Comments || Top||

#3  he cannot stand, his speech is slurred, and he has a twitch that periodically causes his head to shake and his legs to jerk.

Twitch is bad. Twitch may cause him to activate a suicide belt prematurely.
Posted by: gromgoru || 03/12/2007 11:57 Comments || Top||

#4  If it's desecration for a non-Muslim to touch a Koran, how to converts learn about the religion before they convert?

Why aren't Muslims protesting in front of every library and book store that has copies of the Koran? Or printing companies that print it?

Posted by: Rob Crawford || 03/12/2007 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  ..Simple solution here - cut him a check for $1 million.

Then bury it inside a roast pig.

Mike

Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 03/12/2007 12:06 Comments || Top||

#6  Years after 9-11 and still the only Mooslimbs that have been hung are the ones doing to themselves.
Posted by: Icerigger || 03/12/2007 12:30 Comments || Top||

#7  Rx: A .22 to the brain stem will fix him real good.
Posted by: ed || 03/12/2007 12:44 Comments || Top||

#8  Why did Allah do that to him in the first place ?
Posted by: wxjames || 03/12/2007 13:22 Comments || Top||

#9  Inshalla, right? So why do they think the US has to pay. I'd just answer all questions with "Inshalla."
Posted by: jds || 03/12/2007 15:18 Comments || Top||

#10  Shoot the lot of them and feed the bodies to the sharks. There's not ond Muzzy son of a bitch incarcerated at Gitmo who should EVER draw a breath of air as a free man again.
Posted by: Mac || 03/12/2007 17:55 Comments || Top||

#11  let him be. He's a message to all the other brave Jihadis.

"Maaaahhhh! he's doing it again"
*drool*
Posted by: Frank G || 03/12/2007 19:22 Comments || Top||

#12  Mishal's devotion to Islam would have prevented him from attempting suicide, Fahd said. "With the strength of his faith, which took him all the way to Afghanistan, it's impossible that he tried to kill himself. He knows that you spend eternity in hell if you do that."

Uh . . . is it just me or are there jihadi suicide bombers detonating themselves somewhere in Islamistan every 30 seconds or so out of devotion to their faith. I call bullshiite.
Posted by: Tibor || 03/12/2007 21:38 Comments || Top||

#13  The Dems and Dubya's critics wanna close SSSHHHHH GITMO THE BASE, i.e. USA out of Cuba, NOT MERELY GITMO THE DETENTION CENTER ONLY.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 03/12/2007 22:16 Comments || Top||

#14  If he had received a summary trial and execution, none of this would have happened. We need to follow the Geneva Convention and the Hague.
Posted by: Jackal || 03/12/2007 22:21 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Mon 2007-03-12
  Talibs threaten Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Mexico, Samoa
Sun 2007-03-11
  U.S. calls Iran, Syria talks cordial
Sat 2007-03-10
  Captured big turban wasn't al-Baghdadi. We guessed that.
Fri 2007-03-09
  Ug troops arrive in Mog
Thu 2007-03-08
  Pentagon Deploys more MPs to Baghdad
Wed 2007-03-07
  Split in Hamas? 2 Hamas officials move to Syria
Tue 2007-03-06
  CIA Rushing Resources to Bin Laden Hunt
Mon 2007-03-05
  Iraqis say they have Abu Omar al-Baghdadi
Sun 2007-03-04
  US and Pakistani agents interrogate Taliban leader
Sat 2007-03-03
  Chechen parliament approves Kadyrov as president
Fri 2007-03-02
  Dozens of al-Qaeda killed in Anbar
Thu 2007-03-01
  Judge rules Padilla competent for trial
Wed 2007-02-28
  Somali police arrest four ship hijackers
Tue 2007-02-27
  Taliboomer tries for Cheney
Mon 2007-02-26
  3 French nationals murdered in Soddy ministry
Sun 2007-02-25
  Boomer tries for Abdul Aziz al-Hakim


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