Former ISI chief, Lt Gen Hameed Gul has said that US is on the way to launch military offensive against Pakistan ahead of attack on Iran... Hamid Gul warned that USA was paving way to launch military strike against Pakistan. The incidents taking place in Gilgit and Sui are linked to this possible attack. We are fearful that attempts will be made to deteriorate situation in Karachi and other parts of the country", he remarked. He regretted that Pakistan was extending hand of friendship to India by sidelining Kashmiris. Cold war like situation prevails here and it is the democratic institutions rather than strategic institutions, which fight such wars. "Our defence line has come under threat due to arbitrary decisions of single man", he alleged.
A clash like situation has emerged between the people and the rulers, he added. There is need that nation is united and dynamic to face the challenges. "We should not be fearful of US and India", he observed. Lt Gen Faiz Ali Chisti said that Pakistan and India have not an identical culture. "Our God is one and their gods are thousands in number", he added. Pakistan had come into being on two nation theory, he remarked. He blamed that the single man had done away with judicial rule and given the berths to thieves in cabinet. He went on to say that the sitting parliament and assemblies are product of rigging. PML-Q, Patriots and PML have come into existence overnight and they should be held accountable, he demanded. He held that survival of Pakistan lies in attaining Kashmir. Future wars will be fought on water issue, he cautioned. Admiral (Retd), Iftikhar Ahmad Sarohi reiterated Kashmir is jugular vein of Pakistan. Therefore, Kashmiris should be associated with dialogue process taking into consideration their ideology and philosophy, he added. Renowned journalist Majeed Nizami said that Pakistan and Kashmir are correlated. India is our foe and will always remain so, he warned. General Pervez Musharraf should return to their real job, he added. It is probably a good idea he is no longer in charge of the ISI. This sounds like a collective of fruit bats.
The United States, determined to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons, is piling pressure on European firms to stop them doing business with Tehran, diplomats say. In turn this is making it harder for Europe to offer Iran economic incentives to persuade it to abandon nuclear processes that could be used to build weapons. "They're being pressured by Washington. Major European companies are unwilling to deliver," an EU diplomat said. "This means we really have no incentives to offer Iran at this point."
Iran denies U.S. charges it is seeking a nuclear bomb and says its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes.
Although publicly the United States is saying it wants to stop Iran acquiring equipment for a military nuclear program, it is interpreting this very widely to cover any "dual use" goods which could be used for either civilian or military purposes. In November, U.S. ambassador Jackie Sanders told the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, that selling even small items with potential military use would be punished. "We want any proliferators, from multinational conglomerates to small exporters of dual-use machine tools, to understand that the U.S. will impose economic burdens on them, and brand them as proliferators," Sanders said.
The pressure seems to be working, diplomats say, by deterring European companies wary of damaging their business in the United States from trading with Iran. Among firms that have told their governments they will stay out of Iran for now are German engineering giant Siemens, French state-controlled nuclear giant Areva, German steel firm ThyssenKrupp and British oil major BP, industry sources and diplomats say.
Senior officials from some companies -- such as BP and ThyssenKrupp -- have already discussed these issues publicly. Areva has told its government that it did not want to do anything to harm its U.S. sales, a French source familiar with the case told Reuters. French electricity group EDF and the French Atomic Energy Commission are also concerned, the source said. The same applied to Siemens and other German firms, diplomats said. "German industry told the government that it will not get involved in Iran," one source said.
The new reticence of European companies in turn is blunting efforts by France, Britain and Germany to persuade Iran to abandon nuclear processes that could be used to build weapons in return for economic incentives. Among these incentives, the EU's "big three" have promised to help Iran cut deals with EU firms in civilian nuclear, aeronautic, telecoms and other industries.
European diplomats complained about the U.S. increasing pressure on trade just as the European governments were trying to persuade Iran to accept economic incentives. "We were surprised by this," one European diplomat said.
Fetch this man a blue pill.
But diplomats said European companies had also complained they had not been consulted before their governments promised Iran goods and equipment that they would be unable to provide. "The politicians should have talked to industry before starting negotiations with Iran, not after," one said.
Outstanding example of Euro "diplomacy".
One of the items promised to the Iranians was a light-water reactor of the type that does not produce large quantities of plutonium. But no European company is willing to build it.
Iran, under pressure to give up its uranium enrichment program, is also getting frustrated that the European governments are unable to offer it anything. "Iranian expectations are too high. We can't order our companies to do business with Iran. All we can do is create a political atmosphere to build confidence," an EU diplomat said.
Germany and France were the top exporters to Iran in 2003, accounting for 11 and 8.6 percent respectively of Iran's $25.26 billion of imports.
On Friday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency urged the United States to join forces with Europe to persuade Iran to give up nuclear processes that could be used to make weapons. "I would hope that the U.S. eventually would be actively engaged with the Europeans in the dialogue with Iran," Mohamed ElBaradei told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Washington wants the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran to stop it developing nuclear weapons.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/29/2005
9:47:45 AM ||
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Sucks to piss off the Great Satan, doesn't it? Fatwa against these companies in 5....4....3....
#2
What a surpise - another crooked arab (al-baradei) doing his best to protect iran and attack Bush. This the same Baradei who tried to get the idiot Kerry elected by leaking crappy info just before the elections.
#3
But diplomats said European companies had also complained they had not been consulted before their governments promised Iran goods and equipment that they would be unable to provide. "The politicians should have talked to industry before starting negotiations with Iran, not after," one said.
Dear Industrialists
You have to remember that, as the enlightened leaders of the post-technological, trans-national Humanity, we are not too conversant with the details of your nasty, polluting, profit grabing, business. In fact, we're going to abolish you, and your (spit) industry as soon as we can.
Now, shut up and deliver the goodies to our Iranian friends.
#4
well at least when it hits the fan, they were warned to get out
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 14:12
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Seems to me that Germany/France/Russia were the main exporters to Saddam as well.
My oh my, how offfering bribes to brutal regimes in order to encourage them to follow the agreements that Iranian has previously made (non-proliferation treaty) has become so complicated for the appeasers.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 14:42
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Personal disclosure: my family is also supposed to be descended from Strongbow. Maybe I'm related to Bush:)
It is perhaps not the best omen for US foreign affairs. Local historians in Wexford have discovered that George Bush is a descendant of Strongbow, the power-hungry warlord who led the Norman invasion of Ireland thus heralding 800 years of mutual misery. With a long line of Scots Irish presidents including Woodrow Wilson, the Irish are normally quick to claim US leaders as their own. But, despite President Bush's large Ulster Scots vote in the American Bible belt, Ireland had let his family escape the genealogical microscope. But now Ann Griffin Bernstorff, an artist working on a tapestry to commemorate Ireland's Norman heritage, has discovered what she claims is the Bushs' missing Irish link. Ms Griffin Bernstorff was researching Strongbow's son-in-law, William Marshal, when she discovered the connection. A descendant of Marshal married Anne Marbury Hutchinson, a famous 16th century religious dissenter who had already been linked to Mr Bush. "It is one of those bizarre developments," she said. "We traced the Bush genealogy through a Republican source in Chicago and found it was correct. People here are absolutely shocked. I'm not sure what the wider reaction will be, Bush has not been seen as a great friend of the Irish."
I understand he's also descended from Ugg the Neanderthal Slayer. He hasn't been a great friend of Neanderthals, either, so Ms Griffin Bernstorff is prob'ly right...
Indeed, when Mr Bush visited a County Clare castle last year, radio talk-show hosts asked: "Is this the most hated American ever to set foot on Irish soil?"
I'm sure that was all William Marshal's fault, too.
The US president's now apparent ancestor, Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke - known as Strongbow for his arrow skills - is remembered as a desperate, land-grabbing warlord whose calamitous foreign adventure led to the suffering of generations. Shunned by Henry II, he offered his services as a mercenary in the 12th-century invasion of Wexford in exchange for power and land.
And that was only 900 years ago...
When he eventually died of a festering ulcer in his foot, his enemies said it was the revenge of Irish saints whose shrines he had violated. The Bush clan - who pride themselves on a distinguished New England family history that can be traced back to the first English in America - may well be looking for a healthy spin on the news. But it seems that Strongbow is not the worst of Bush's newfound ancestors.
Yeah. Ugg died from scabies, I understand...
The genetic line can also be traced to Dermot MacMurrough, the Gaelic king of Leinster reviled in history books as the man who sold Ireland for personal gain. Even before MacMurrough earned the title of Ireland's worst traitor by inviting Strongbow's invasion to save himself from a local feud, the Irish chieftain had a reputation for gore. One English chronicler told how MacMurrough, recognising the features of a personal enemy poking from a pile of severed heads after a battle, snatched up the rotting flesh and tore it with his teeth in a "hideous frenzy".
Yeah. I remember when Bush did that, too. It was down in Crawford, so it did't get into the papers, but those of us who were there will never forget it...
As if it were not enough to be related to two of the most notorious figures in Irish history, Mr Bush's ancestors are also thought to have founded the settlement of New Ross, in County Wexford. A quiet place, New Ross has a stunning Norman church and another claim to fame: it is the ancestral home of John F Kennedy.
Well, see? That makes it all better, doesn't it?
During his first election campaign in 2000, English genealogists found that Mr Bush was descended from Essex yeomanry. But unlike many US presidents keen to impress the Irish-American voters, he never before claimed an Irish link.
Maybe he didn't know about it? Maybe he doesn't spend any time worrying about such things?
In the recent election campaign, the Democrat John Kerry had to deny rumours he was Irish. But Ronald Reagan and John F Kennedy played the Irish card. And Bill Clinton, perhaps aware that portraits of JFK hung beside the Pope above rural Irish fireplaces, once punched the air at a St Patrick's Day parade, declaring: "I feel more Irish each day."
"And I think I'm getting darker! Faith! And I'm the first Black Irish president!"
The jury is out on whether Strongbow had a "conquering" gene that drove him to invade. Michael Staunton, a lecturer in history at University College Dublin, felt Strongbow was simply desperate. "It was a typical colonial situation, the people who don't have much going for them decided to hop off to another country." Perhaps the most worrying question in New Ross is whether Mr Bush now has a claim on Leinster. "Yes of course, he probably does," Ms Griffin Bernstorff said. "But there are other families in the area who have a claim and neighbours and friends here would put up a pretty stiff fight."
And others who'd yawn and roll their eyes.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/29/2005
9:39:32 AM ||
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Oh, ferchrissakes.
Bush is American. Period.
I wish these clowns would give it a rest.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 13:11
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Why, yes, I'm sure he has a "conquering" gene from ol' Strongy. That explains everything about Iraq and Afghanistan. It was just a warm up for Leinster.
#5
What idiots! Bush is also related to Senator John Kerry, and to the lady currently sitting on the throne of England. We went through this several months before the election, and nobody here -- or there -- cared in the least. Fooey.
#6
Time Magazine ran an article about more than 3 years ago that Pres. Bush's Dad is related to Sadaam Hussein of Iraq ! That the late President Reagan is related to Quadafi , also ! They are both related to Pres. Nixon , too !
#7
Everybody thinks they are part of a family tree, but they don't realize that they are at ground level and their ancestors are a complicated pattern of roots. We covered this on Rantburg a long time ago when we learned that about 80% of people alive today can trace back to Mohammed -- or almost anybody else who lived 15 centuries ago.
How many live descendants does Strongbow have today? Probably many, many thousands in the U.S. alone. Maybe even John Kerry, Mike Sylwester, and Aris Katsaris. So what?
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 19:16
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Do the guardian readers really want to piss off the progeny of a power-hungry warlord, especially one associated with that unfortunate Norman incident?
Do you feel lucky? Well do you, socialist punks? Don't make us come over there and claim the right of droit du seigneur.
Posted by: ed ||
01/29/2005 19:32
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Ed, are you sure you want to claim droit du seigneur with Guardian women? Yes, yes, improve the breed and so on, but even so!
Title as at link. The BBC seems to be going into negative-spin overdrive re. Iraq for some reason...
Coalition and Iraqi troops may be responsible for killing 60% more non-combatants in Iraq than the insurgents, the BBC has learned. The civilian death toll for the last six months is contained in confidential records obtained by Panorama. More than 2,000 civilians were killed by the authorities, while insurgent attacks accounted for 1,200 deaths. The Iraqi Ministry of Health figures are usually available only to members of Iraq's cabinet. The data covers the period 1 July 2004 to 1 January 2005, and relates to all conflict-related civilian deaths and injuries recorded by Iraqi public hospitals. The figures exclude, where known, the deaths of insurgents. That would be useful to know. How many lives are saved with the premature death of each would-be serial killer?
The figures reveal that 3,274 Iraqi civilians were killed and 12,657 wounded in conflict-related violence during the period. Of those deaths, 60% - 2,041 civilians - were killed by the coalition and Iraqi security forces. A further 8,542 were wounded by them. Insurgent attacks claimed 1,233 lives, and wounded 4,115 people, during the same period. How do hospitals decide which perforated corpse is 'civilian' and which is 'insurgent'? Do they have magical insight? Or do they use guesswork and/or trust the word (Lancet-style) of whoever brings them in? Are medical staff intimidated to record dead insurgents as innocent civilians? Do most insurgent casualties fall in Sunni areas where medical staff may sympathise with their cause? How many insurgent dead never find their way to hospitals, to save their families and colleagues from Government and coalition identification?
Panorama interviewed US Ambassador John Negroponte shortly before it obtained the figures. He told reporter John "Liberator of Kabul" Simpson: "My impression is that the largest amount of civilian casualties definitely is a result of these indiscriminate car bombings. "You yourself are aware of those as they occur in the Baghdad area and more frequently than not the largest number of victims of these acts of terror are innocent civilian bystanders". The coalition has yet to respond to the figures.
Panorama's film Exit Strategy, reported by BBC world affairs editor John Simpson from Baghdad, will be shown at 2215 GMT, Sunday night on BBC One. It's unfortunate that these figures have been revealed by the BBC so close to the polling that there won't be time to seriously question their reliability or veracity before the ballots have been cast. It's also unfortunate that there's no distinction between US and 'allies'' share of the figures. All very unfortunate. But I'm sure the BBC has no intention of furthering an anti-US / anti-coalition / anti-US-sympathetic-Iraqi-politicians agenda or of being a willing mouthpiece for an Iraqi source who regards the BBC as a suitable medium for channeling such a political agenda. They have obviously had the figures long enough to make a documentary about them, and have seen fit to publicise the programme's apparent message, in good time to influence Iraqi voters, yet they won't actually show the programme, with whatever clauses and counter-arguments it may contain, until voting's finished. Which is just coincidental, I'm sure.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
01/29/2005
8:29:41 AM ||
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We can only wonder what the true totals would be if the number of 'civilian' deaths reported by Dr. Sami al-Jumaili of the Fallujah hospital were correctly reported. No doubt many of his reported 'civilian'deaths were actually insurgents terrorists.
#4
If memory serves me, isn't it U.S. policy to pay money to the families of innocent people killed in error by U.S. forces? This would be a big incentive to claim your dead terrorist is an innocent bystander. Not only does the guy (and 70 relatives) get to go paradise, but his family gets money from the infidels.
Posted by: Big Al ||
01/29/2005 15:17
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Sure are glad the Brits are an ally! Hate to see the slant if they were against us. No offense toward most Brits BD, just can't stand the BBC and their 'in-depth' reporting.
#6
If the BBC openly admitted they are against us, their attacks and sabotage would be less effective. It's one reason they publicly chant the "objectivity" mantra.
#7
One of my daughter's former boyfriends is now in Iraq. He emails me about twice a month. He says their biggest headaches come from reporters. Most Army troops have been quietly warned that anything they tell the reporters will be twisted against them. Ernie Pyle was loved by the GIs. Now all the "war correspondents" want to do is to break the next My Lai. The average grunt distrusts them on sight.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/29/2005 16:58
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The average grunt distrusts them on sight.
I am not sure what I would do with them on sight, if I were there, but distrust would be the least of their concerns.
#11
To think that we spent hours glued to the radio in the 40s to secretly listen to the BBC German Service, when anyone who overheard the famous bumbumbumbum could betray you and send you to the camps.
#12
That's occurred to me as well. I often wonder if the only reason Hollywood and the BBC supported the Allies was because we were fighting on the same side as their beloved Uncle Joe.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/29/2005 23:41
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Hat Tip: Tim Blair. Photographic evidence of Commies at the link. A Sydney polling booth for Iraqis voting in their country's historic election was shut down for an hour today after a punch-up involving protesters and a subsequent bomb scare. Organiser of Australia's overseas voting program, Bernie Hogan, said the fight erupted when a group of around 20 protesters started yelling at voters leaving the Auburn centre. "They were on one side of the road protesting against the election while voters were coming out proudly with ink on their hands," Mr Hogan said. "The next thing I knew there's 50 people and a bit of push and shove and punching in the middle of road." The incident was cleared quickly but a bomb scare followed when a backpack was found abandoned nearby. The polling centre was closed and police cordoned off the area while the contents of the bag were examined. "It ended up being water and biscuits ... but we had to be cautious."
The protesters had been granted a permit to stage their anti-election action for two hours. Mr Hogan said they were holding the same black flag with white lettering that has appeared as a backdrop in videos released by Iraqi insurgents featuring foreign hostages begging for their lives. International Organisation for Migration Iraqi adviser Thair Wali said the protesters' flag and Arabic slogans identified them as Wahabis, or followers of an austere brand of Sunni Islam practised mostly in Saudi Arabia. Mr Wali said the fight was sparked by protesters taking photographs of voters leaving the station. "This is scary for the people, taking photos of the voting" he said. Many of Australia's estimated 80,000 Iraqis declined to register for the election, fearing that their votes would make relatives in Iraq terrorist targets. By late afternoon today, organisers said around 5000 of Australia's 12,000 registered Iraqis had turned up at the polls. The polling station would remain open for an extra hour to compensate for the closure.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
01/29/2005
7:45:43 AM ||
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British troops have arrested several Iraqis suspected of plotting a bombing campaign ahead of Sunday's election. The operation on Friday involved Iraqi special forces and 200 Scots Guards in raids on four houses in Basra. The alleged large-scale bomb campaign was thought to have been aimed at polling stations and coalition troops based in the southern city. The UK troops came under fire as they raided one house, about 150 yards from a polling station. There were no casualties. The raids took place during the night curfew imposed by the interim Iraqi government in the run up to the elections. Two units from the new Iraqi army's elite tactical support unit led the raid, supported by two companies of the Scots Guards in Land Rovers.
Posted by: Bulldog ||
01/29/2005
7:23:17 AM ||
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A political rally by the militant Palestinian group Hamas turned violent Saturday, as supporters of the rival Fatah faction opened fire, sparking a melee that left more than 25 people wounded, a Palestinian official said. Color me surprised.
The incident in the Maghazi refugee camp administered by the UN in central Gaza was the first instance of violence between rival Palestinian factions since the election of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in early January. The shooting occurred at an outdoor rally staged by Hamas to celebrate a wedding its victory in municipal elections in Gaza earlier in the week. Hamas' strong showing dealt a setback to Abbas' dominant Fatah faction. The Palestinian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Hamas supporters chanted victory slogans, angering Fatah supporters in the area. Thin skinned. Wait till they find out democracy means having to listen to Barbara Boxer and Teddy Kennedy without taking a shot.
One of the Fatah supporters opened fire, seriously wounding one Hamas supporters and causing shrapnel wounds to four others, the official said. Some 25 other people were hurt by knives, clubs and beatings in the ensuing melee, the official said. No further details were immediately available. He could say no more.
While rival Palestinian factions have sporadically fought one another, such instances of fighting are rare, surely you jest!
with the various groups all saying they are committed to ending Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/29/2005
5:50:41 PM ||
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From the weblog Obsidian Order, some interesting comments on a car bombing being reported from Iraq. I'm not going to try to repost the pictures here; the last time I tried to post images, it didn't work.
...Analysis:
What do you see? A car on fire, apparently not close to anything flammable. We are told this is in front of a school, but we do not see the school. The fire looks like petrol, probably in cans in the back of the vehicle, set off with an incendiary WP shell (White Phosphorus - the white smoke and sparks). There are people running, but they are not leaning at the angle of people who're running in a hurry. There are some people standing around in the background at what would be danger-close distance for shrapnel even from a single 152mm HE shell. You can see a second photographer in one of the pictures. The stories are inconsistent: one says "flames engulf a car following a nearby car bomb blast in another vehicle", another says "a car just as it explodes".
The key and blindingly obvious point: there are at least three photojournalists from different outfits there exactly at the time it goes off! This is not a lucky coincidence. The pictures are clearly taken less than a minute after the original explosion and less than a minute apart. Also: all of the photographers are stringers, not regular staff photographers.
Interpretation: One, this was staged, the particulars of the bomb ensure it will be ineffective and safe from the distance from which it was photographed, but visually spectacular. The people running are most likely also staged. Two, the reporters were invited to see it. Three, they knew it was staged.
My only question: who are these photographers - Ali Jasim, Ali Al-Saadi and Khalid Mohammed - really working for?
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/29/2005
5:36:47 PM ||
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... A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say. The rhesus macaque monkeys also splurged on photos of top-dog counterparts, the high-ranking primates. Maybe that's like you or me buying People magazine. ... Curiously, the monkeys in the test hadn't had any direct physical contact with the monkeys in the photos, so they didn't have personal experience with who was hot and who was not. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/29/2005
5:18:33 PM ||
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Trying to explain your visits here Mike? [insert smiley here]
Source: Washington Institute
l
The limited scope of insurgent activity in Mosul during 2003 can be traced directly to the active counterinsurgency and community policing program undertaken by the 20,000-strong U.S. 101st Airborne Division and its capable local partners. The size of the U.S. force in Nineveh province enabled not only denser civil affairs, patrolling, and rapid reaction coverage, but also greater capacity to mentor Iraqi security forces and dispense Commander's Emergency Reconstruction Program (CERP) funding. This latter and much overlooked aspect of the MNF presence had made the 101st Airborne the largest single employer in northern Iraq and a recognized force for good in the community. Beginning in January 2004, however, the force was drawn down to the 8,700-strong Task Force Olympia (built around a Stryker Brigade Combat Team), with a commensurate loss of security, mentoring, and CERP capacity.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005
4:11:54 PM ||
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a US senior officer who has an intimate knowledge of Mosul said the US forces had long before realised that the local recruits were unreliable but had been unable to replace them with Kurds because of objections by local leaders who were loath to upset the delicate ethnic balance in the town, which is partly Arab and partly Kurdish.
The fiasco in November was enough to cancel out the political objections to the Kurdish militia presence, and now Kurds control all the important security positions in Mosul. - Link
Hope the Sunnis enjoy their new status as part of the Kurdish autonomous region.
Via Lucianne: The Canadians are checking in. Canadians are logging on to the Canada Free Press website in droves, and it's largely courtesy of Fox News. Liberally quoting Rachel Marsden's insightful column about Fox News versus the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), I wrote a column, Thursday about what a dramatic improvement the more professional Fox News would be over leftwing slanted, taxpayer-funded CBC in balance-deprived Canada. The letters that poured in within the first day after the column affirm my belief that mainstream Canada wants Fox NOW.
So many letters from fellow Canadians also gave me a personal boost. Ever since going daily a year ago come May, Americans have dominated CFP letters to the editor. Our next door neighbour, of course has a larger population and Canada Free Press columnist Arthur Weinreb has been chronicling for months the disturbing anti-American sentiments that seem to flourish in Canada. But while the Jean Chretiens, the Carolyn Parrishs, the Paul Martins and Maurice Strongs seem to wax anti against anything American, many--if not most--average Canadians do not feel the same way.
The anti-American ways of the Liberal cabal in Ottawa is frustrating for Canadian writers filing stories to CFP, including yours truly. While the United States, Britain, Australia and other countries in the Coalition of the willing, are out there fighting for our freedom, the sniveling Canadian government, hanging back in the relative safety of the sidelines, carps away at our noble next door neighbour and biggest trading partner. It is my personal belief that some aspects of Canadian society actively work to undermine the United States of America, and that's what newfound research genius David Hawkins and I will be writing about in months ahead. "I just happened to run across your article on Fox News," wrote Canadian Alan Ehnes. "I am now your newest fan. When I saw the incredible hatchet job CBC did on Fox I was apoplectic, especially in consideration of the fact that my tax dollars are paying for this supposed "journalism"."
"I was so happy and thrilled to read your article today on Fox News coming to Canada. My bp goes up each time I tune in to Don Newman to see how he will crucify the Conservative view today; or to Craig Oliver on Question Period with his band of Liberal cronies, patting Martin on the back all the way," wrote a resident of Bedford, Nova Scotia. I had no idea that there was any place in Canada who gave journalistic students another view. This was the best news I heard today. Canada Free Press will not allow CBC TV or Radio near CFP journalists. Can't wait for Fox News, because all I get to see now is Fox News Sunday for 1 hour."
"Canada needs a credible vehicle that will break the left wing mainstream choke hold on us here," wrote Canadian Joseph Molnar, who carbon copied his CFP letter to Fox giant, Bill O'Reilly.
Even personal hero, talk show host/columnist Rachel Marsden checked in with a letter. "Nice article! Thanks for the placement," Marsden wrote on the eve of having Ann Coulter on her radio show (listen online via www.rachelmarsden.com). The good news is that average Canadians are in the know about the insidious relationship between the Liberal government and the leftwing mainline Canadian media. They know that Fox News is coming and that it can't get here soon enough. God speed the arrival of Fox News Canada!
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/29/2005
3:41:30 AM ||
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Stout hearts, oppressed masses of Canuckistan, liberation is at hand.
#2
There goes the neighborhood , folks ! Hockey Night will be a hoot ! That is , compared to S&M on TV in Canada ! Sarcasm & Munchkins ! Hello , It's FOX NEWS ! That Channel is S& M!! What happened to Canada's News with NNN?! They didn't replace those nice nudey CHICKS for 478 pound Polar Bears ?! Maybe , FOX NEWS , has a good game plan ahead for us , huh ?! They'll give us Rosemary Church to be on the FOX NEWS ! That is , on one condition ! MORAL : SHE IS SKYCLAD ON THE SKY CHANNEL OPPOSITE WITH NAKED NEWS NETWORK ! *IT BEATS WATCHING MR. REILLY , MAYBE !! WELCOME TO CANADA ! - The Talking Penguin
#3
Hah!
Fox has Laurie "ooh ooh!" Dhue, the undoubted highpoint of one billion years of biological evolution.
Her face is so perfect, so incredibly exquisite, that it will have to be electronically obscured and revealed one pixel at a time for Canuck audiences, lest they all be struck blind or driven insane with passion and run into the streets.
#6
I watched part of 'The O'Reilly Factor' last night (I hardly ever watch 'The O'Reilly Factor' )when they showed a clip from a CBC broadcast which featured that unfunny comedian with Air America in tears because of the big bad republicans, etc. It was a smear piece against the American right and Fox. Funny sh*t.
Yep. Laurie Dhue is what we call easy on the eyes.
#11
...Laurie Dhue - a Lady who knows the TRUE meaning of 'gun control':
http://www.lindenreport.com/images/broadcasting/laurie2.jpg
And while I'm at it...
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Camera/5168/bios/laurie_dhue.jpg
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/29/2005 11:31
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I really liked Lauren Green in Bonanza. I think she's changed her hair since then, though...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005 11:57
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#13
She's Canadian, too, eh?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/29/2005 11:59
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#14
Hey Barb... seriously, I watch TV so little these days I'm on the edge of returning the cable box.
But if I did watch TV, I'd rather watch Ms. Dhue than Bill O'Really, who Really Gets On My Nerves Sometimes.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/29/2005 12:10
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#15
I like all the Fox Nexw chicks but who can't say "Uma Pemmaraju" and not get just a little aroused? Her name just sounds sexy. Welcome to the center Canada.
#18
You gents are creaming all over the web site, buck up, eh?
Our Canadian friends are refined and dignified, except when it comes to hockey. I give O'Reilly two years before his head explodes. Still, I enjoyed the segment where Stuart Smalley (or whatever) whined like a French men.
If memory serves, Lauren Green is from Minnesota, not Canada. The smart money is going to the new blood, Meegan, etc.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 15:17
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#19
I missed the CBC hatchet job but then I never watch CBC News, period. Teat suckling commies.
And with the NHL Lockout, there is no Hockey Night in Canada. Being as ad revenue from HNinC and government handout are the only sources of revenue for the Communist Bull Cooperative, they do not need another competitor. BWAHAH!
Posted by: john ||
01/29/2005 15:58
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Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) and Iran's foreign minister clashed Friday over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, with Biden hinting at the possibility of armed conflict unless fears of an Iranian weapons program were put to rest.
The rare and frank public exchange between a senior American politician and a ranking member of the Iranian government came at a dinner during the World Economic Forum (news - web sites) held in this Alpine resort town.
There are no official contacts between Washington and Tehran, which President Bush (news - web sites) has labeled part of the "axis of evil," and which stands accused by the U.S. administration of trying to make nuclear weapons — something Iran denies.
Biden, D-Del., favors dialogue with Iran and as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Comittee has occasionally met with officials from the Islamic Republic. He is at odds with administration hard-liners who favor isolating Iran for its supposed nuclear weapons plans and alleged backing of terrorists.
Biden's warning to Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi was tempered, with the U.S. senator also urging his own government to rethink its positions.
Ohh, there he is.
"You have to grow up and my administration has to grow up, with all due respect, and find out if there is any common ground," he said." We are on the course of unintended consequences."
Biden expressed hope that the Bush administration in its second term would reconsider its position and try to engage Iran, saying that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) was receptive to his "initiatives to reach out to the Iranians for discussions" in her earlier capacity as national security advisor.
"I hope we're all smarter about this, smarter than we've been," he said. Alluding to the refusal by Bush to rule out an armed response to Iran's nuclear plans, he said: "I hope our leadership is brighter because if it's not, it's a very dull picture for the region, and for humanity." I'd say glowing, but that's just me.
Biden spoke after Kharrazi had said his country's insistence on the right to uranium enrichment was not up for debate at present talks with Germany, France and Britain designed to banish fears over Iran's nuclear plans. Iran has suspended all enrichment activities during the negotiations but has refused to mothball the program, which can be used to produce fuel for reactors or the core of nuclear warheads.
"Iran cannot be ignored," (we did it to Kimmee) said Kharrazi. Repeating that his country had no intentions of producing nuclear arms, he said that nonetheless, "Iran's rights cannot be denied."
Biden said he favored a commitment from the U.S. administration "that we are not interested in regime change" in Iran in exchange for concessions by Tehran that would banish suspicions about its nuclear programon its nuclear program.
He said that both liberal and conservative U.S. government politicians believed "that it is not in our interest ... for you to acquire nuclear capability for nuclear weapons and intermediate or long range missile technology."
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/29/2005
3:07:14 AM ||
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#1
It's all there -- the ridiculous "reporting" (Iran's "alleged support of terrorists") and dim-bulb arrogant Biden silliness on parade.
Great strategy, Joe -- guarantee your enemy's safety as a first step in making a hard bargain. And what "concessions" could possibly "banish suspicions" of Iran's nuke ambitions? If you're a brain-dead techno-centric arms-control theocrat like Biden, of course, then a mish-mash of inspections and technical changes are enough. If you understand how humans, economies, technologies, and intelligence systems work, however, you know that regime change is the only solution in cases like Iraq, Iran, and N. Korea.
#2
Joe Biden is smart enough, centrist enough and, old enough to know politics end at the coastline. He is telling them what is up, get with the program, or else "shit happens."
On top of that he knows anything the Whitehouse does. He doesn't get the mushroom treatment like some on his committee do. He can be dead serious with these black turbans. He also is usually no fool and the black turbans know that.
#3
Biden said he favored a commitment from the U.S. administration "that we are not interested in regime change in Iran in exchange for concessions "by Tehran that would banish suspicions about its nuclear programing.
This is just political pandering. Did ya listen to GW's speech, Joe? Funny how you are saying just the opposite of what Georgie did.
I think this is political suicide for the Dem's. Their followers at least still delude themselves they aren't backing despots at the expense of human rights.
Despite all the hoopla surrounding it, what GW really said, very clearly, was that we are going to discontinue the policy of rewarding despots in exchange for favors.
Now "tough talking" Joe talks the "tough talk" of rewards for favors - the exact opposite. He's just staking his own political stance. No senior politician, such as Biden, has such a public exchange as this without intending to for it to be publicized for all to see.
#4
Joe Blow Hard Biden in a clash? Looks like a classic wet noodle duel.
Precisely, what did Joe Blow accomplish other than headlines grabbing?
Joe's threat: Don't make us come over there and give you what you want.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 9:15
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#5
Slow Joe Biden's looking toward '08 when he figures the plagiarized bio speech (Neil Kinnock's) will be forgotten
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 11:11
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#6
Good one, Frank. When I read sock's comment about "Biden is smart enough" that's what immediately came to mind..."say it ain't so, joe!" And then there's the hair plugs rumour, too. The mullahs must be silently cracking up every time he speaks. Don't tell me they don't read gossip on the internet like everyone else.
Via Bros. Judd - do we start popping the corn???: PM attacks Chirac's 'pathetic' power vision Tony Blair yesterday risked a fresh row when he branded the policies of Jacques Chirac, the French president, as "dangerous" and "pathetic". In a sign of cross-Channel tensions after the Iraq war, the prime minister showed contempt for two key elements of Mr Chirac's presidency: his attempts to turn Europe into a centre of power rivalling Washington and his personal relations with George Bush. Weeks before the prime minister joins Mr Chirac in welcoming President Bush to Europe, Mr Blair told the Wall Street Journal: "I have spoken on many occasions [about] my disagreement with those who want to set up different poles of power in the world. I think this is very dangerous. "I think we are best to congregate around one pole of common values. Europe and America should be an integral part of that together. They should not have separate and competing poles of power." Aris - no offense, but maybe it's time Europe listened.
Mr Blair was careful not to name Mr Chirac, whose once warm relations with Downing Street plummeted after the French leader pledged to veto the so-called second UN security council resolution that would have authorised the Iraq war in 2003. But the prime minister's choice of words will leave nobody in any doubt that he was taking aim at Mr Chirac who is deeply attached to a Gaullist vision of a "multipolar world". The French president never tires of talking of his determination to challenge today's "unipolar world", dominated by the US, by creating a "multipolar world" with equal centres of powers encompassing the US, Europe, the Indian subcontinent and China. Mr Blair has never shied away from criticising this vision because of his passionate belief that Europe and the US - with Britain acting as a bridge between the two - should work together. But the strength of his language in the Wall Street Journal may cause surprise. "Ever since the Soviet Union thankfully collapsed, and eastern Europe changed, there has been a question whether the world reunifies around a strong, common, global agenda, or whether it drifts off into these different poles of power," Mr Blair said.
"I think the next few years is a very, very crucial moment of opportunity and of danger. It is an opportunity because I think it is possible to find a unifying agenda and it is a moment of danger because if you don't, and people split into their rival powers, then I think whatever people say, that competition will be unhelpful." Warming to his theme, the prime minister was withering about Mr Chirac's regular public denunciations of Washington. Asked to defend his relations with President Bush, the prime minister said he would neither apologise nor engage in "grandstanding". He then added: "I think that is a pathetic form of leadership and I don't intend to indulge it." Mr Blair once again did not name Mr Chirac. But it was clear that he had in mind the French president who became the champion of the anti-war movement with his contemptuous criticisms of America in the run-up to the war. Mr Blair's intervention may be seen as an attempt to stamp his vision of the world on Europe and America ahead of Mr Bush's bridge-building trip to Europe next month when he will become the first US president to visit the institutions of the EU. Mr Bush is due to have dinner with Mr Chirac in Brussels on the eve of his visit. W better not invite him to the ranch.
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/29/2005
3:00:24 AM ||
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#1
Welcome noises from Blair, but I tend to doubt the depth of his sincerity - by campaigning, himself, to sign the UK up to the EU Constitution he's determined to create a pole of power to threaten the world order. One which already desires to arm the world's largest repressive state. Seems he's been spooked by the Tories' recent fillip following well-timed comments which raised the twin threats of unchecked immigration and creeping Brussels authority.
#2
This is how I see it. Will the UK stay aligned in the 200+ year love/hate adventure with the US or will the UK go with the EU? The EU seeks to be at a seperate from pole than the US. If the UK stays aligned with the US it will retain it's culutre and good economy and independence. If it goes with the EU the UK's culture will be beaten out of it by little minded people in grey suits from Belgium. It will become a nation not allowed to govern of decide it's future for it's self. I see Blair as all wrong on entangling the UK into the EU, it's constitution and monetary system.
It's late my eyes are tired and I am heading for bed.
#3
"I think we are best to congregate around one pole of common values. Europe and America should be an integral part of that together. They should not have separate and competing poles of power." Aris - no offense, but maybe itâs time Europe listened
Anonymous2u - no offense, but it's been *I* alone in this whole fucking forum that has been claiming that Europe and USA share common values and must stand together if they are to survive.
On the other hand, according to most of the rest of Rantburg, Europe is nothing but a dhimmi-infested socialist hellhole and one of the "enemies".
Such disunity will lead to the destruction of our civilization, but there you have it.
As for "not forming separate poles", what are the alternative options? People can either choose to destroy all other powers that stand in the way (that means from the USA perspective to try and destroy the EU, and from the EU perspective to try and hinder the USA), which means that our civilisation will self-destruct, or we can see all of us together joining in an alliance of *equals*.
But people here can barely stand the idea of the EU, so I somehow very much doubt USA wouldd be willing to give influence over its foreign policy to a body that contained such filthy subhumans as Ewwwropeans.
So, separate poles you have it, and let's pray that it'll be as peaceful coexistence of our two individual poles as possible. Because the *true* enemies are legion and growing, and we couldn't possibly survive more than a tiny bit of internal conflict on top of that.
Posted by: Its all about ME ||
01/29/2005 10:30
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#5
There's a line in Lord of the Rings about Sauron judging all hearts based on his own desires -- that's why he couldn't even conceive anyone would choose to destroy the Ring rather than use it.
And that's what you are doing also: projecting your own childish behaviour on me. Stop being an asshole and start accepting the fact that some of us *don't* think this to be a game of egos, and some of us *do* think that the whole of our civilization is at stake.
#6
A lot of these problems could be solved once and for all if Britain could just be sawed off of the continent and replanted off the coast of the US. The big question then would be which part of the coast. Most British would initially vie for Florida or California, but the warm temperatures would give them just horrific fog, and in the latter case it would be a major pain to get them through the Panama Canal. New England would be the most amenable, and the Brits could become a friendly liason between the US and Canada. The Irish would be close to Boston, the Scots and their scotch to the Norfolk shipyards, and Wales could join with Nova Scotia to have a real economy for a change.
#8
Britain should consider that things went well for it when it stayed off the continent and played the Balance of Power game. Then in 1905, it allied itself with France. OK, it's been a century in harness with the French. How has it worked out for Britain? Not too well. Time for Britain to withdraw from the continent except as a balancing power, and join its cousins overseas. Europe can and will do as it wishes. Britain and the Anglosphere must do what they can to protect themselves.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/29/2005 11:33
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#9
Aris, what are those "common values?" Let's get to the root of this, shall we?
Democracy and personal freedom, if you're interested. The most fanatically right-wing of Americans ofcourse ignore and trivialize the importance of these two elements, as do the most fanatically left-wing of Europeans.
According to such people, the other continent is contemptible because it doesn't share their perspective on *economics*. And so we're both doomed.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/29/2005 12:01
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#11
Aris, there are decaffinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2005 12:06
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#12
Mrs. Davis> Yes, Europe's been the fortress of the expanding freedom line, the battleground of ideologies, while USA territory itself is physically isolated from all hostile forces, reigning alone as a power of importance in a whole hemisphere.
9/11 should have taught you that physical isolation is not enough to protect you, though.
#13
Aris, you are top-down, we are bottom-up democracy. So right there, we don't agree.
I see it as Europeans prefer stability and security, we wing it a little more.
You're not free to own guns. And while you own your land, in Scotland, what some here would call trespassing is allowed and encouraged.
We're arguing about whose vision is better, which is what we've been doing for a lot longer than 228 years.
I'm sorry, but the land which gave us a lot of nasty "isms" as far as I'm concerned, is just tinkering around the edges w/that document.
From your POV - in Greece it's a win/win. From my POV - same old, same old. Your history and demographics at this point in time don't look so good.
I think we can agree that communism is inheritantly evil. However - for the peasants who had 1000 years of oppression by their church and monarchy, the ability to become a dr/lawyer/teacher and improve themselves had merit in their eyes.
We've been flying by the seat of our pants for over 200 years. That's scary to a lot of people. And your recent history works against you in some Americans' eyes.
From your POV I can understand your optimism. But in this democracy thing, Europe is still younger-- in some cases a lot younger-- and less experienced at it than we are. Italy hasn't even completed 1 post-WWII government yet.
It doesn't help when our "historic allies" want to align themselves and in effect the future EU w/the Chicoms.
When W said "you're w/US or w/the terrorists" I hate to break it to you, but he only verbalized what a lot of US thought on 9/11. I had hope that Europe would finally get it, but on the whole, they don't.
You're comments show you do. BUT - on your terms, not ours. Not this time, in my POV because your recent history - and that 228 years of scorn which you disparage - works against you. And I mean you as in Europe.
BTW, I love Greece, was there 2x, had hoped for at least 1 more time before I die.
We've always been here, Aris, waiting. But w/the internet, more Americans are paying attention. And while some, like Friedman, want W to listen to Europe, I think you fail to realize we have been. The difference is now, we're responding. And that's something your ruling class and your media really isn't used to. We're answering them back.
--physical isolation is not enough to protect you--
#14
When W said "you're w/US or w/the terrorists" I hate to break it to you, but he only verbalized what a lot of US thought on 9/11. I had hope that Europe would finally get it, but on the whole, they don't.--
Europe's stance was not a surprise to me. Same old same old as long as I remember. And my parents even longer.
W did not lose any good will. This divide has been there for a long time, just papered over.
Reading the business sections of newspapers alone over the years one could grasp that. One didn't need to follow foreign policy.
Back in the middle of the 19th century three men - an Englishman, a Frenchman, and an American - walk into a small American town, to be greeting by fighting, gun play, shouting, bodies lying in the street, and other signs of mayhem.
The Englishman cries, "Good Lord, it's a riot!"
The Frenchman says, "Oh no, m'sr, 'tis a demonstration."
The American looks around and says, "Yer both wrong, it's an election."
#16
Aris says in #3: "People can either choose to destroy all other powers that stand in the way (that means from the USA perspective to try and destroy the EU, and from the EU perspective to try and hinder the USA), which means that our civilisation will self-destruct, or we can see all of us together joining in an alliance of *equals*."
Now that's a very revealing Aris quote.
First, why would the US need to destroy the EU? I see it more a case of the EU destroying itself.
And why does Aris see the possibility of the US *destroying* the EU but the EU merely *hindering* the US? Bad overbearing 'merakins! Honestly, he needs to consider a career with the NYT or BBC or CBS.
And why are the only choices (1) destruction of civilization or (2) an alliance of *equals*. In your dreams, Aris. We are not and have never been and will never be equals. And you and Jacques Chirac are proving it daily.
The British will ultimately do the right thing. Most of the rest of you will wallow in French duplicity and EU bureaucracy until Islam takes you over and then transitions you to Sharia.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 14:45
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#17
Anon, the EU has its faults no doubt about it. But quite frankly I don't think we can ignore the EU's importance to our security. As much as Chirac and Schroeder are 2 big arrogant ninnies, a successful outcome in this WOT(I wish there were a better word for for this war)cannot be won by the USA alone or with a wobbly UK by our side or by a sometimes Israel only when the threat is geographically closeby or a deep pockets Japan who only sends $ not warm bodies for the front lines. Let's face it, the EU countries make up 2/3 of what is commonly considered Western civilization. The girly spats that come up between Blair and Chirac represent the love-hate relations between Britain and France that have spanned history. The UK and the continent are wedded by intertwined events of history, inter marriages, trade, etc and it is prudent for us to recognize that ongoing and everlasting relationship. Every British PM may grumble about the continent but they are very careful to always stay in the family, so to speak. I think we need to pay attention to the statesmanship demonstrated by the UK politicians over the years. We can have our mutual tizzy fits with France and Germany but we need to nuture the long standing assumption of alliances between Western countries as our bottom line. That's why I think you are being a little naive and too harsh on the EU without looking at things realistically.
I see it as Europeans prefer stability and security, we wing it a little more.
What's wrong with stability and security? Americans would like some peace and stability these days. Winging it gets old real fast.
I think we can agree that communism is inheritantly evil. However - for the peasants who had 1000 years of oppression by their church and monarchy, the ability to become a dr/lawyer/teacher and improve themselves had merit in their eyes.
Err, are you arguing for or against communism? I was wondering about the " however."
It doesn't help when our "historic allies" want to align themselves and in effect the future EU w/the Chicoms.
We have our own embaressing ahem incidents. Remember Chinagate? Also we've not exactly put China in the doghouse considering our massive infusion of "weapons buying $" given over to them courtesy of our massive consumption of Chinese made imports.
But in this democracy thing, Europe is still younger-- in some cases a lot younger-- and less experienced at it than we are..
Say what? The magna carta was written in the UK in 1215. Common law, which is a major under pinning of a free world, evolved from the magna carta. The US Constitution and US Bill of Rights came from the concepts in the Magna Carta. The magna carta states:"No freeman shall be taken, imprisoned,...or in any other way destroyed...except by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to none will we deny or delay, right or justice." Sound familiar?
When W said "you're w/US or w/the terrorists"
When W said those romantic noble words, he wasn't being quite honest about our own compromises with "friends" like Mushie and Saudi and Jiangi and Mubaraki etc and our willingness to forgive them their own dabblings on the dark side.
#20
Nice try with the servitude/dhimmis nonsense, Aris, but re "equals" we were talking about the alliance of nations, not individuals. For instance, Greece and the US are not "equals." Although Greece may be an "equal" in the EU (but I doubt it), no future alliance is going to give Greece one vote to each US one vote. And I am at a loss to imagine any alliance between the US and France. We bailed them out twice at great cost and got the likes of Chirac for our troubles. We have a better relationship with some Islamic countries than with France.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 16:03
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#21
Tony can study up on further Chirac statements here.
#22
Although Greece may be an "equal" in the EU (but I doubt it), no future alliance is going to give Greece one vote to each US one vote.
Ofcourse, since we only have 1/30th your population or so.
But the point is you're not even willing to give the EU as a whole one vote to each US one vote. You are not willing to see even Europe as a *whole* in an alliance of equals with the United States.
What on urdth you blathering about?
Our dhimmis? We don't want any dhimmis, in fact, it would be nice if EUros grew some spine. You don't have to be worried about being OUR dhimmis.
(Would you believe that I lived in that sorry place for the first 30 years of my life? I smelled a rat already more than 2 decades ago calling the continent a dying old whore, beside my visceral dislike of anything commi or soci despite the thorough indoctrination machine, that's why I am here and not there)
#24
Of course we would dearly love to be united with Europe in facing this scourge. But the core of the problem is a set of asymmetries in the relationship that make it difficult for us to even define our common interests in this matter.
The military asymmetry is obvious. If the Euros cannot even transport their own gear to out-of-area theaters, and in many cases are so far behind technologically and operationally as to not be inter-operative, then you do not have a true alliance but rather a US force that at best can only draw on auxiliaries from time to time.
Ideologically, there's an enormous asymmetry concerning the use of military force. Kagan has explained this clearly; no need to repeat. However it is crippling any hope of playing an effective goodcop/badcop game with Iran, or presenting a united front elsewhere. If military force is not an option, then the West's influence is greatly reduced, and the value of the Western alliance is correspondingly reduced.
Finally, there is also a huge democracy deficit, in the sense that European political and media and cultural institutions are far, far more elitist and unresponsive to the common citizen than American institutions. The EU constitution farce is one example but a far more important problem is the way that European newsmedia, especially regarding the middle east and concerning US policy, monopolize, distort and spin the news. Germany's media especially but also France's are grotesque caricatures of anti-Israel and anti-US hysteria and spin. There is little competition, and 1968er ideologues are unchecked in their efforts to slam the US and paint the US in the most ludicrously slanted extreme colors. Reading Le Monde or Der Spiegel on the US is like reading Pravda ca. 1983.
This barrage of unchallenged anti-US and anti-Israeli propaganda makes it extremely difficult for the European public to get a clear view of what unites us and the Europeans, and plays into the pathetic US-bashing tactics of failed and/or corrupt European pols like Schroeder and Chirac.
The military asymmetry will probably never be reduced, but that by itself isn't fatal. The bigger problem is the democratic and media asymmetry. The alliance is dysfunctional and will be until the 1968er generation of European political and media elites is replaced by thoughtful young pro-alliance, pro-Americans.
#25
What on urdth you blathering about? Our dhimmis? We don't want any dhimmis
Have you seen how raving angry have some Rantburgers been with Turkey? Torturing its citizens was *nothing* according to them, and when it stopped doing so seemed to trivial according to them -- according to so many Rantburgers Turkey is *now* turning into an Islamic shithole.
Why is Turkey now a "Islamic shithole" when all reports seem to indicate it's improving its human rights situations and democratic status? Because it dared to refuse a request by the USA to let troops through.
That's it. That's how the worth of nations is judged by many people here. NOT by how they treat their own citizens, NOR by how they treat other nations -- but only by one factor: how loyal these nations are to the United States.
When you only judge people or nations by their LOYALTY to you, then you see them as servants, and you as their Master.
On my part I'd rather have people around me who refused my requests, but nonetheless were kind towards their families, instead of the opposite: People servile to me who then went home to abuse them.
But tyrannical-torturing Turkey was a "good ally" all those years, and it's only now turning into an "Islamic shithole".
#26
"You are not willing to see even Europe as a *whole* in an alliance of equals with the United States."
Correct, Aris, and that's because Europe doesn't have a leader, doesn't have any cohesion, and doesn't represent any particular values or inclinations. Aris, you are dumping a load of junkyard parts at my doorstep and trying to tell me it's a car. And throwing a huge bureaucracy and a huge manual (constitution) into the deal still doesn't make it a car. I'm not buying it.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 17:40
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#27
yep, I we all want a secular Turkey beating everyone in the society, daily, if possible, and even more if they talk about making an islamic shithole. Strawmen are so easy to construct, even for the challenged.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 17:45
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#28
At this point Aris has proven to be sufficiently challenged that I'm leaving the thread. It's pointless.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 17:48
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#29
Aris, reports this, reports that...I have some turkish friends, and they all are seriously worrying about Turkie turning into an islamic shithole.
As for refusing the request for transfer of US troops through Turkie territory, it was first yes (so the planning went ahead with that as a component of the strategy), then it was no.
#30
Tom, you just figured that out? But it actually does have a point. It feeds his ego.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/29/2005 17:54
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#31
EU, ego -- it's all the same thing. Countries that can't get along with their neighbors think they can unite Europe and thereby abuse their neighbors behind cover of bureaucratic law-making. They're tribal and hoping no one will notice.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 18:02
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#32
how're those debt limits going? Everyone living up down to theirs? Jacques? Gerhard?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 18:09
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#33
At which point none of you even pretends to care about truth anymore.
"Aris, reports this, reports that...I have some turkish friends, and they all are seriously worrying about Turkie turning into an islamic shithole. "
But you see, I have more reason to trust Freedomhouse than any reason to trust your claims on your friends claims.
Correct, Aris, and that's because Europe doesn't have a leader, doesn't have any cohesion,
And the fact you always conveniently ignore is that you don't want EU to have them, hence the opposition to the Constitution.
So, Europe can't be your equal because it doesn't have cohesion, and yet at the same time you don't desire it to have cohesion. That kinda means you don't *want* it to be your equal.
and doesn't represent any particular values or inclinations
Sure it does, and much more so than any other supranational entity in the face of the world. African Union, or South American Community of Nations, or CIS, or NAFTA, it's *these* things that don't represent any values or inclinations. But the EU values of democracy, freedom and human rights are inherent in it, and consistently supported by it throughout its area and the wider region.
At which point someone here will laugh maniacally, thinking that maniacal laughter is an argument.
#34
#11 Aris, there are decaffinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.
Posted by: Robert Crawford [http://www.kloognome.com/] 2005-01-29 12:06:37 PM
All I can say is that is real genius!
Posted by: Almost Anonymous2520 ||
01/29/2005 18:21
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#35
nahhhhh we just find maniacal laughter funny Bwahahahahahha!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 18:21
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#36
..thinking that maniacal laughter is an argument.
#38
Spemble, Fred got tired of seeing comments from Anonymous4215378, Anonymous43801795, Anonymous189351782395351, etc. So he wrote a cute little name generator. If your computer allows cookies, all you have to do is type in your preferred name in the Your Name box when you post a comment. Trailing Daughter does this, and it generally takes me a few hours to get it straightened out after she posts. I am really looking forward to giving her that laptop she's been begging for, for the past two years!
#41
Sobiesky, I am the proverbial end user. I'm just happy not to accidentally blow up the internet for all of us -- I'll wait until Trailing Daughter leaves off the Latin and figures it out for me. Or I can ask one of my siblings, one who is getting her PhD in the field, the other who is professing, to do something about it when they come to celebrate TD2's bat mitzvah this spring. (That's the one y'all haven't met yet...she prefers her politics local rather than global. Clearly a throwback... or a mutation ;-) )
An official in a small tourist town sued his colleagues Friday, saying they're unfairly targeting him for recall over his refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at board meetings. "protect me from the consequences of deliberately being an asshole"
Estes Park town trustee David Habecker, who describes himself as agnostic, says the words "under God" in the pledge violate his religious beliefs and are at odds with the separation of church and state, according to his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver. so? Don't say those two words
The lawsuit says Habecker exercises his First Amendment right to religious freedom and sits during Town Board meetings while other members recite the pledge. ahhh, so he wants to make a statement by sitting
Habecker's recall election is scheduled for Feb. 15. Several board members helped organize the recall committee, saying voters have lost confidence in Habecker's ability to represent patriotism and "common decency." "he's a pretentious arrogant a-hole"
"He has his rights, and so do we," said committee member Dewey Shanks. "We're at war. And I don't think now is the time to be fighting over this. He shouldn't have brought it up at this time." or ever, if a recall is an option
Habecker sued the recall committee, the town, the board of trustees and several officials in Estes Park, a town of about 5,500 residents about 60 miles northwest of Denver that is the eastern gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. "Stop persecuting me!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005
2:38:41 PM ||
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Oh krutz, not another no-Pledge redux by the L³s, please!
Another interesting article from UPI's Intelligence correspondent.Edited for key information.
The U.S. Air Force is playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Iran's ayatollahs, flying American combat aircraft into Iranian airspace in an attempt to lure Tehran into turning on air defense radars, thus allowing U.S. pilots to grid the system for use in future targeting data, administration officials said.
The flights, which have been going on for weeks, are being launched from sites in Afghanistan and Iraq, and are part of Bush administration attempts to collect badly needed intelligence on Iran's possible nuclear weapons development sites, these sources said, speaking on condition of strict anonymity.
However, a Pentagon spokesman told UPI he was unaware of any such actions.
The air reconnaissance is taking place in conjunction with other intelligence collection efforts, U.S. government officials said.
To collect badly needed intelligence on the ground about Iran's alleged nuclear program, the United States is depending heavily on Israeli-trained teams of Kurds in northern Iraq and on U.S.-trained teams of former Iranian exiles in the south to gather the intelligence needed for possible strikes against Iran's 13 or more suspected nuclear sites, according to serving and retired U.S. intelligence officials. Both groups are doing cross border incursions into Iran, some in conjunction with U.S. Special Forces, these sources said.
Both covert groups are tasked by the Bush administration with planting sensors or "sniffers" close to suspected Iran nuclear weapons development sites that will enable the Bush administration to monitor the progress on the program and develop targeting data, these sources said.
The United States is also attempting to erect a covert infrastructure in Iran able to support U.S. efforts, this source said. It consists of Israelis and other U.S. assets, using third country passports, who have created a network of front companies that they own and staff. "It's a covert infrastructure for material support," a U.S. administration official said. The network would be able to move money, weapons and personnel around inside Iran, he said. The covert infrastructure could also provide safe houses and the like, he said.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/29/2005
2:29:27 AM ||
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I'm not so sure of that, the mullahs would be screaming at the top of their lungs to anyone who would listen about systematic airspace intrusion by the great satan.
SEAL teams running around in the dark with radiation detectors seems likely though.
#2
...This isn't all that unusual - it's an old and honored method of figuring out exactly what the bad guys are capable of. It doesn't necessarily mean we're going in after them - at least not at that time. But let's face it, it doesn't hurt to know.
Also, the Mullahs might very well want to scream bloody murder about it, much like Khrushchev did with the early U2 flights, but not dare to lest their powerlessness be made clear.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/29/2005 11:13
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I'm sure there are reconnaissance flights taking place over Iran. It would be foolish of the United States if there weren't. I'd bet, too, that most of those flights are unmanned drones flying at altitudes either too high or too low for the Iranians to do anything about. There's a good possibility that the Iranians aren't even able to detect and track most of the flights. I'm sure the problems between the United States and the Russians about selling the Syrians SA-18s was because we're doing the same thing in Syria. As for "boots on the ground", only those actually engaged in such operations and their immediate controllers really know what's going on. The "expert" in Washington can say what he wishes, but it's all conjecture. We HAVE the capability - it's existed since Korea. We used it extensively in Vietnam and elsewhere. Whether we're exercising that capability in this respect is knowledge well above my (former) pay grade.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/29/2005 17:11
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According to the article, the Iranians would have to know about this, since the whole point is to get them to switch on their air-defense systems, so that we can plot, map and understand them. Flying drones/aircraft that can't be detected defeats that purpose.
Of course, we could be doing both :-)
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2005 17:26
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radar-detectable chafe clouds distributed at periodic levels and times from undetected drones would REALLY F*&K with them heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 17:32
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#6
Not to toot my own horn, but you might want to check the funny little item on Iranian UFO's I posted in last week's Nuggets from Pravda.
If my headache lets up today, I might do another one...
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/29/2005 17:45
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#7
And I just checked... Pravda is boring this week. Sorry.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/29/2005 17:53
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Breaking - the US tracked via helicopter/ground the 3 after the rocket was launched and arrested them in So. Baghdad...hopefully they fell down ... a lot
BAGHDAD, Iraq — At least two people were killed and four wounded in an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Saturday evening. All casualties were Americans.
One civilian and one Navy sailor, both assigned to the embassy, were killed in the rocket attack, a military official said, on condition of anonymity.
Of the four injured Americans, two were military, one was a civilian and the fourth was as yet undetermined, the military official said.
A rocket landed outside the southern edge of the palace that houses embassy employees a little past 7 p.m. The embassy is approximately 350 yards from the nearest border of the heavily fortified Green Zone (search). The area is protected by concrete barriers and a 10-foot-high fence, which means the attack may have been the result of indirect fire.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005
2:21:42 PM ||
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I think it may have been an erant or very lucky hit. Not aimed where it hit.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/29/2005 14:31
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Shooting up at a high angle and hoping the rocket comes down in a place that damages the enemy. Used when you can't get a good visual read on exactly where he is.
Indirect fire is the standard procedure for modern artillery. The gun is behind a hill or obstacle and its crew doesn't see the target. It is an observer linked to the battery by a radio or phone who directs the fire. "Two hundred yards short. One hundred yards long. On target. Fire for effect". At this point the entire battery opens fire with real ammo and obliterates the target.
#9
My dad was an artillery spotter during World War II - a dangerous and demanding job. As for the jihadis that did this, killing them is too good for them. They need to be stretched out over a slow fire of mesquite and hemlock, rotated 45 degrees every 20 minutes, and liberally sprayed with vinegar. Record every word they say, and play it back for their mothers. Also tell her that they will buried in a special coffin made of pigskin, and lined with rendered pig fat. Tell her that we'll do the same for any more of her children we catch, and the only way to not get caught is to not do anything we disagree with. Instead of giving their families the coffins, we should ship them directly to the House of Saud in Riyadh, along with a little note requesting measurements for each member of the family. Being subtle is wasted on these idiots.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/29/2005 16:51
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Edited to give a taste of the article. Science junkies go read the whole thing.
According to several new studies on mercury levels in the United States, any reduction of such emissions at American power plants would have minimal impact since the factories currently produce less than 1 percent of the total mercury that ends up in our air, land and water.
The studies by the Center for Science and Public Policy (CSPP) also reveal that the mercury emissions from Yellowstone National Park and other natural sources dwarf the amount coming from the 1,100 coal-fired power plants in the U.S.
In the Jan. 21 study entitled "Fish, Mercury and Cardiac Health: A Review of the Current Literature," the CSPP reported the latest scientific data show curbing power plant mercury emissions would have no significant impact on atmospheric levels of mercury.
"This hypothesis appears supported by the presence of higher levels of mercury in 550-year-old Alaskan mummies than levels in a recent sample of pregnant native Alaskan women," said Robert Ferguson, executive director of the CSPP, a public policy research group based in Washington, D.C.
The CSPP findings come as the Bush administration prepares to implement a component of the Clear Skies initiative which calls for reducing mercury emissions from U.S. power plants by 70 percent by 2018.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/29/2005
2:19:42 AM ||
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If this doesn't rip out your heart then I don't know what will. Hat tip: Drudge. Edited for brevity.
He thought he was going to die. He was having trouble breathing. As he lay wedged under a train seat and metal debris, he scrawled with whatever energy he could summon and a heartbreaking economy of words a farewell in blood on the seat. "I (heart) my kids. I (heart) Leslie," he printed. The blood ink seemed to be running out as he got to the second sentence. Captain Robert Rosario, the firefighter who discovered that message, later choked up as he related the story for TV cameras. Of all the images, sad or brave, pulled from the mangled wreckage of Wednesday's Metrolink train disaster, few captivated people more than this finger-painted testament of love. And none was more mysterious. Who was the message writer? What happened to him? Who is Leslie?
The mystery messenger was admitted to County USC Hospital, which received more than 100 phone calls from the public asking about him. "They mainly wanted to tell him that their prayers are with him," said County-USC spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda. He was discharged late Thursday and declined requests to talk with the media, she said. This much is known: Leslie is his wife. And his name is John. And he may not want the rest of the world to know even that much about him -- no matter how much they crave that and more. Full story at link.
Posted by: Dar ||
01/29/2005
2:16:46 AM ||
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The slimeball that parked his truck on the tracks should be granted his original wish to die, preferably by firing squad.
#2
I believe he's been indicted for capital murder. (But California doesn't use firing squads for execution.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste ||
01/29/2005 10:16
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first word, since hushed up, was that this asshole was here ILLEGALLY as well. We'll have to wait and see - if the MSM decides it should be made known......
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 10:37
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Frank - If that's true, the MSM won't. Doesn't fit their agenda.
But you knew that.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 10:48
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I believe he's been indicted for capital murder.
He's been charged with eleven counts, which makes him eligible for capital punishment.
And yes, there's been no further mention of his... 'immigration status'.
A 51-year-old Marine veteran is returning to the military to serve along with his son in Iraq and fulfill a personal dream of serving overseas, he said on Friday.
Jim Flaherty put in 24 years in the Marines, retiring in January, 2001. He got an e-mail last December from a military contact in Iraq inviting him to sign up for a 12-month tour working on the rebuilding of Falluja.
Flaherty, married for the second time with 18-month-old twins, had doubts about whether to go, but figured this was a last chance to satisfy a dream to serve overseas. "I'm thinking, 'What am I? Nuts, when I've got two little kids?"' he said in an interview.
His stint with the Marines is expected to start in February or March.
In Iraq, Flaherty will join his son, James, a sergeant in the Marines who has been on active duty for about eight months. He may also be joined there by his daughter, Shannon, also a Marine, who expects to be deployed in April.
Flaherty's desire to serve overseas was almost fulfilled with a posting during the first Gulf War, but he missed out when Operation Desert Storm ended in 1991.
Flaherty said he did not think the request for him to return to active service at age 51 reflected any problems the military might have in finding enough people to go to Iraq. U.S. troop numbers were raised to 150,000 last month to strengthen security ahead of this Sunday's elections.
Flaherty, currently director of facilities for Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania, played down the danger of his mission, pointing out that he will be working on construction projects rather than being in combat. "Have you ever walked through North Philadelphia or Camden (New Jersey) at night?" asked Flaherty, referring to Camden's status as the murder capital of the United States. "It's not going to be any worse than that."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/29/2005
2:11:21 AM ||
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"Have you ever walked through North Philadelphia or Camden (New Jersey) at night?" asked Flaherty, referring to Camdenâs status as the murder capital of the United States. "Itâs not going to be any worse than that."
This man's got it in perspective (unlike the worthless MSM).
I admire him just because at 51 he's still physically fit enough to be in the Marines.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 13:16
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The new head of the Border Patrol's busiest sector said yesterday his primary duty as the Homeland Security Department's chief agent along the Sonoran border is to watch out for terrorists and terrorist activity. Chief Patrol Agent Michael C. Nicley, new head of the Tucson sector, said that although the agency arrests thousands of illegal immigrants and dozens of drug smugglers each year, since 9/11 the Border Patrol's aim is to keep Americans safe from terrorism.
If Border Patrol agents apprehend a terror suspect, the public will never know, Nicley added.
The sector has 2,200 agents.
He said it is possible that one or more terror suspects have been picked up along the Arizona-Mexico border, but disclosing that would let terrorists know too much and the safety of all Americans supersedes the public's right to know in such cases.
Nicley said unmanned surveillance aircraft tested recently by the Border Patrol proved enormously successful as a deterrent to drug traffickers and illegal immigrants. "Now they know that if they see the bird up there, a guy in a green shirt is coming to make an interdiction," he said.
He said that although the trial period for drones is over, he expects they will be used again here because they can get to remote areas and stay there, unlike helicopters, which are subject to pilot fatigue and refueling demands.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/29/2005
2:08:39 AM ||
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Patrol proved enormously successful as a deterrent to drug traffickers and illegal immigrants.
yeh, sure it did! I'm convinced. So why is it, "the Border Patrolâs busiest sector"
duh.
#2
Well it has become the busiest because of the efforts made along the TX and CA borders, channeling the traffic to AZ. The NM area isn't as busy, yet, because it is largely open desert which leads to more desert. The one major northern route is covered by BP and Customs. Everything else feeds east, TX, and west, AZ.
#3
Once again, I'll propose the "bounty" idea. To be paid for any non-Mexican trying to sneak across the border when they are caught. If they turn out to be a "person of interest", then the bounty gets a x2, x3, or x5 bonus. If you paid $1000 per head, that border would be as tightly sealed as a pressure cooker to non-Mexicans. There would be brigades of Mexicans patrolling their side, hoping to observe a non-Mexican and make a phone call. The best part is that it would be perfectly legal for a private citizen to pay the bounty! So, for maybe $20-40,000 a year, no terrorist could cross that border without fear of immediate arrest. Sounds a LOT better than a multi-billion dollar system that doesn't work.
#4
The best part is that it would be perfectly legal for a private citizen to pay the bounty
Say what? Tell that to the new Attorney General and his name isn't Smith.
Here's the very best part. You are going to love this because this may be news to you. The federal gov'ts constitutional responsibility is to provide national security, to protect our sovereignity. Unbeknowns to the folks at DC, we pay taxes for the federal gov't to properly defend our borders. So even if bounties were legal, which I am sure the ACLU and the AG would tell you in no uncertain terms are not, we are paying enough money to Senor Bush and El Congresso to provide BORDER GUARDS, BUILD FENCES, DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. Iraq has better defended borders than us.
#5
This type of bounty is perfectly legal. All you are doing is paying Mexicans to give information about non-Mexicans trying to sneak across the US border; and then that information is given to US authorities. Then once the non-Mexicans are apprehended by US authorities, you pay the Mexicans who gave you the information leading to their arrest. That is as legal as it gets. Importantly, this separates this issue, terrorist infiltration from the much broader problem of illegal immigration, which needs its own, different solutions, no matter what they are. We have been debating what to do about illegals for 30 years now, and that debate will continue, like it or not. But we need a solution to terrorist infiltrationnow, or it could cost the lives of thousands of Americans. And to stop it now, for just a tiny amount of money, makes all the sense in the world.
#6
Anon, I have no interest in US citizens like yourself paying "bounties" to Mexicans for tips on how many hundreds of terrorists are in the "regular" daily contingent of 3000 illegals coming over our border. There's something very weird and rather tragic in that image. Pardon me while I puke.
One thing you got right though. Our open southern border is a terror attack waiting to happen. It is beyond outrageous that our President and Congress concede there are terrorist threats to America and yet they lay a welcome mat at our southern border and continue to posture about how our military is out and about around the globe protecting American interests. Huh? The most obvious place to start "defending" America is to defend our own darn borders!!!!! And I don't particularly want little laymen types implementing their own hair brain schemes to protect our borders.
Don't you think it sends a bad message to terrorist wannabes that our borders are so porous that US citizens have resorted to paying out of pocket "bounties" to Mexican nationals for help because they have lost confidence in the US federal gov't?
Senor Bush and El Congress have enough $ to blow on foreign aid, 800 foreign located military bases and 2 foreign wars "to spread and defend democracy" but they have no $ for border control to defend this country's democracy? The WH could not even come up with $ to pay for 2000 extra border agents. That makes no sense whatsoever.
#7
2x: It all makes sense from many different directions. First of all, Mexican migrants are really not that threatening, so much so that an argument can be made for free passage across the US-Mexico border. Second thing is that that border area is enormous, far more than could be policed by even four full-time military divisions. Third is that these Mexicans provide a huge amount of labor to the US. Fourth is that they *do* become Americans as fast as any other immigrant group. Fifth is that any additional benefits they are now getting from living in the US are strictly at the whim of government, but on the whole, they contribute far more than they take, both to the US and to improving the economy of Mexico. Compare this to terrorists trying to cross that border. There is no ready comparison.
#8
I have no interest in US citizens like yourself paying "bounties" to Mexicans for tips on how many hundreds of terrorists are in the "regular" daily contingent of 3000 illegals coming over our border. There's something very weird and rather tragic in that image. Pardon me while I puke.
Get a stronger stomach and look in the Constitution for "letters of mark and reprisal". Same idea, applied to a modern problem.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2005 16:02
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Mexican migrants are really not that threatening,..
Not very relevant.
Second thing is that that border area is enormous, far more than could be policed by even four full-time military divisions.
Not a problem. Guards go in the areas that are less inhospitable, which naturally are easier to cross. If the mojados and terrorists try to cross in a desolate area, they gamble with their lives.
Third is that these Mexicans provide a huge amount of labor to the US.
Not an issue. They can either follow our laws or stay the hell out. It's already bad enough we have our own home-grown lawbreakers, and because some industry is hungry for cheapo labor, standards should be lowered for that? No dice.
Fourth is that they *do* become Americans as fast as any other immigrant group.
Debatable. With various businesses (and government, in many cases) pandering to them by offering up Spanish language interfaces (paperwork, signage such as those at Food Maxx, or ATMs with a Spanish option, for example), there's not much incentive to "become American" (which includes learning to speak and understand our language).
A month or so ago, I was at the local laundromat and I overheard two people talking between themselves in a manner that seemed to indicate they were U.S.-born and educated. The hitch was that every other sentence or so was in Spanish. There wasn't any apparent reason to be speaking Spanish, and the subject matter wasn't something that required one to be discreet in conversation. Not a very encouraging observation, that's for sure.
..they contribute far more than they take,..
Tell that to hospitals in AZ's border area, or in Los Angeles.
#10
RC-I wanted to heave out of disgust not because of a weak stomach. The feds' ineptitude in performing their primary duty, which is to protect our borders and our sovereignity, makes me sick. I'm paying enough taxes to the feds without having ordinary citizens doing their little hodge podge thingies to protect our border.
Anon- Mexican migrants are really not that threatening
Islam is making big strides in establishing its presence in Mexico and attracting Hispanic converts:
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Park/6443/LatinAmerica/mexico1.html "Mexico discovers Islam" Mexico may be well on its way to a monotheistic revolution. This new trend is emerging from recent developments, and reflects a similar change evident in other South American nations - people are embracing Islam by the thousands, jettisoning the Catholicism imposed upon their ancestors in Spain. The prayer congregation has tripled since Mexico City's Centro Cultural Islamico de Mexico (CCIM) first opened its doors 6 years ago. The numbers could be even higher. However, most Mexicans still have almost no knowledge of Islam. CCIM is spreading the Oneness of Allah at all levels of society and translating Islamic publications into Spanish. It also has several native-born active Da'wah graduates from Saudi Arabian universities who speak fluent Arabic. The Center's Islamic public radio program had to be suspended because of financial constraints. In the last 3 years, CCIM built two new mosques in two cities close to the capital. Its ultimate goal is to establish full-time mosques in every major Mexican city.
Also "invasions" come in versions other than just guns and ammo. There's also "attacks" on our country's social, cultural, financial fabric. Check out articles about illegals "contributions" to violent crime, drug trafficking, gangs, drain on social & medical & welfare services, crowding in schools, polluction, drain on limited resources like fuel and water.
border area is enormous, far more than could be policed by even four full-time military divisions.
We have our troops defending the sovereignity of nations around the world. Those nations' taxpayers are getting a free ride. Bring our troops home and there will be more than enough military to back up our border guards: U.S. troops in other countries:
Portugal: 3,000
Italy: 11,190
Great Britain: 11,207
Japan: 40,159
South Korea: 38,565
Turkey: 2,008
Germany: 69,203 (for 58 years post WW II)
Afghanistan: 12,000 border police and 177 checkpoints
Total: 187,332
- from columnist Mike Blair.
they *do* become Americans as fast as any other immigrant group
How can illegal Mexican aliens apply for US citizenship? I sincerely hope this is not happening!
they contribute far more than they take,..
I don't think so. Provide me with some supportive statistics of your claim. I did a quick google search and the opposite seems to be true. Here's one that came up on one statistic that came up as one of my first hits: "A recent study by the National Research Council found the average immigrant lacking a high school education imposes a net ficsal burden of $89,000 on U.S. taxpayers. Coupled with an estimated $9 BILLION spent yearly on health care for illegals, the tab is substantial."
- Investors Business Daily, February 4, 2004
and to improving the economy of Mexico
Like Bomb said - at our expense. Also this functions as a safety valve for oligarchs like Vicente Fox and his pals who are not forced to change their greedy ways to allow Mexico to pull itself up from being a corrupt Third World feudal society.
And on the subject of "migrants" coming to the US ( don't you mean ILLEGAL ALIENS?) to "fill jobs which no Americans want to do," also known Jorgas' Big Fib: A 1997 GAO report (H-2A Agricultural Guestworker Program: Changes Could Improve Services to Employers and Better Protect Workers), reported there is no shortage of farmworkers in the United States. At the peak of the employment season, about 43% are jobless.
- Report by attorney Michael Holley, Texas Rural Legal Aid,"Disadvantaged by Design ..."
EFL
Sen. Joseph Biden and Iran's foreign minister clashed Friday over Tehran's nuclear ambitions, with Biden hinting at the possibility of armed conflict unless fears of an Iranian weapons program were put to rest. The rare and frank public exchange between a senior American politician and a ranking member of the Iranian government came at a dinner during the World Economic Forum held in this Alpine resort town. Biden, D-Del., favors dialogue with Iran and as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Comittee has occasionally met with officials from the Islamic Republic. He is at odds with administration hard-liners who favor isolating Iran for its supposed nuclear weapons plans and alleged backing of terrorists. snip
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/29/2005
2:01:21 AM ||
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Biden, D-Del., favors dialogue with Iran
especially at beautiful Alpine resorts, such as this one
Updates with BBC apology, shortens)
LONDON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The BBC apologised on Saturday for erroneously reporting that U.S.-led and Iraqi forces may be responsible for the deaths of 60 percent of Iraqi civilians killed in conflict over the last six months.
The British broadcaster said on Friday in broadcasts and a news statement that its Panorama investigative show would air a report on Sunday citing "confidential" records from Iraq's health ministry to support the contention.
Iraq's health minister said the BBC misinterpreted the statistics it had received and had ignored statements from the ministry clarifying the figures.
"Today, the Iraqi Ministry of Health has issued a statement clarifying matters that were the subject of several conversations with the BBC before the report was published, and denying that this conclusion can be drawn from the figures relating to 'military operations'," the BBC said in a news statement on Saturday.
"The BBC regrets mistakes in its published and broadcast reports yesterday."
A BBC spokesman said the statistics would not feature in the Panorama show on Sunday.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 18:48
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#2
The BBC accomplished what it wanted. Now the 60% figure will be quoted ad infinitum, especially in muslim countries. It's the same as that bogus 100,000 Iraqi dead figure published in the Lancet. The Soviets and Germans understood the value outrageous propaganda. It seems our friends in the BBC have been attentive students.
Posted by: ed ||
01/29/2005 19:20
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#3
Iraq's health minister said the BBC misinterpreted the statistics it had received and had ignored statements from the ministry clarifying the figures.
Looks as though Mary Mapes has already found new employment.
#4
How many heads need to roll at the BBC before they learn their f***ing lesson? I'm guessing John Simpson himself was responsible for this particular balls-up.
#10
That 60% figure was quoted by Air America about 15 minutes ago. The lefties are beside themselves, seems they say the U.S. doesn't have a democracy and neither should Iraq.
#11
They are still staying with the totally discredited 100,000 death figure too. I have had several of the numbskulls refuse to budge off that figure even after being shown it's wrong.
Posted by: SPOD ||
01/29/2005 22:41
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#12
They know EXACTLY what they're doing. They, (bbc and the msm as a whole), vomit these lies that they know damn good and well are lies. Then, they retract it, saying; "Oops, we're terrible sorry." They know there are no penalties that go along with their deliberately LYING to the people. They know the information is a lie when they publish it....and they do it anyway. BECAUSE THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT!
When does "freedom of the press" become sedition?
Posted by: Tom Dooley ||
01/29/2005 23:20
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The number of suicides by soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom dropped last year by at least half -- a decline that helped lower significantly the Army's overall suicide rate. Nine soldiers' deaths in Iraq in 2004 have been ruled suicides, compared with 24 in 2003, the Army told United Press International. Three other deaths in 2004 are being investigated as possible suicides.
Suicide rates are expressed as the number of suicides per 100,000 individuals per year. By that measure, the Army suicide rate in Iraq dropped from 18 per 100,000 in 2003 to 7.9 in 2004. For the Army as a whole, the number of suicides fell from 77 in 2003 to 58 in 2004, dropping the suicide rate from 12.8 per 100,000 in 2003 to 9.5 in 2004.
A cluster of suicides by U.S. troops in Iraq in the summer of 2003 alarmed military commanders in Iraq. In response, the Pentagon sent a team from the Army surgeon general's office to investigate and recommend improvements in mental healthcare.
Asked why the suicide rate fell so much, spokeswoman Martha Rudd said: "It's really not possible to tell. We think some of the efforts we've made over there are paying off, but also that the news coverage of the issue last year really elevated the level of attention paid to this." She said the military's efforts included putting mental-health workers closer to troops, training soldiers to spot those at risk for suicide and installing a countrywide coordinator to deal with combat stress.
Others point to a different possibility. Last year the Army largely quit using an anti-malaria drug called Lariam in Iraq that has been linked to depression, hallucinations, psychosis and rare reports of suicide. It was widely prescribed in Iraq in 2003.
Eleven of the 24 confirmed suicides in Iraq in 2003 were by soldiers in units where the drug, known generically as mefloquine, was prescribed to at least some soldiers. Only one soldier tested positive for the drug at autopsy, the Army said.
The number of soldiers who have taken Lariam in Iraq is unclear, but the U.S. military dispensed about 45,000 prescriptions worldwide in the year that ended in October 2003.
Since 2002 the Food and Drug Administration has strengthened the drug's official product label to warn about suicide reports and added a statement that mental problems have been reported to last "long after" someone stops taking it. The FDA also mandated that anyone prescribed the drug be told in writing about the risks -- one of fewer than 20 drugs for which a written warning is required.
The Pentagon announced last February that it is investigating whether there is a link between the drug and any soldier suicides. But it defends Lariam as both highly effective and safe for soldiers to take. In September the Army said in a statement, "We have no data that indicate that Lariam was a factor in any Army suicides in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan)."
Instead, the Army said, the deaths were linked to "failed personal relationships, financial crises, legal difficulties and mental problems like depression and psychosis" -- the same factors that trigger suicide in the general public, magnified by ready access to guns.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
01/29/2005
1:50:00 AM ||
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... a Roermond [Holland] man [has] recently been refunded EUR 2,000 for the pistol he used to commit an armed robbery. In sentencing the 46-year-old man to four years jail last week, Breda Court also ordered him to repay the EUR 6,600 he stole from a bank in the Brabant town of Chaam. But the man had the price of the pistol he bought for the robbery deducted from the amount he was forced to repay.
.... it is possible for criminals to have the cost incurred in committing a crime deducted from their sentences ... A spokeswoman for the Breda public prosecutor's office ... said the costs must have a direct relationship to the criminal offence, and be costs that a criminal otherwise would not have incurred. .... the law stipulates that the financial situation of the bank robber after the sentence is imposed must be the same as what it was prior to the crime. ....
Another example would be the costs a criminal incurs in a cannabis plantation. If the plantation is seized by police, the criminal can identify to authorities what costs were incurred in setting up the crop and gain compensation. ....
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/29/2005
12:25:38 AM ||
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#1
Great! With just a bit of imaginative bookkeeping, the convicts will soon be rolling in taxpayer-supplied dough...
#2
So.. if I paid my friend Bob $20k for a phony 10 Euro note, documented the transaction carefully, and tried to pass it to the government itself, they'd reimburse my expenses?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 1:00
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Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot announced on Monday that he would work this year to counter the image of the Dutch as "whore-mongering, coke-snorting child murderers" â a description uttered by a commentator on Fox News recently.
In the run-up to historic elections to choose a new Iraqi government, activists burned an effigy of US President George W Bush, railing against the occupation of Iraq amid doubts American troops will ever leave the country. Tens of thousands of leftist and left-leaning activists from around the world at the World Social Forum are convinced Saturday's election won't bring democracy and that American soldiers face a permanent stay in Iraq to influence the region and ensure a steady flow of oil. "The US will stay there to dominate the Middle East," Brazilian artist Jairo Silva said before an anti-Bush march on the third day of the social forum, held to protest the World Economic Forum under way in Davos, Switzerland. He added: "They'll stay there because the oil's there and so American companies can get all the contracts to rebuild a country America destroyed."
The fifth annual social forum has drawn tens of thousands of the usual suspects people to southern Brazil promoting hundreds of the usual goofy causes, ranging from opposition to genetically modified crops to free distribution of land to poor farmers and protecting the rights of indigenous populations. Joining hundreds of others in a march around the sprawling social forum grounds, Thai human rights campaigner Pornpen Khongkachonkiet said she doubted the Iraq elections will result in anything close to democracy. "Occupation is not the answer," she said. "They should have democracy developed locally, this just isn't how an election should be."
"The Iraqi people shouldn't have a voice in who rules them!" she added.
While activists criticised the spread of unfettered capitalism, many said they hold Bush responsible for the world's biggest problems. They believe he is forcing free trade agreements on other nations that will only benefit multinational corporations and the wealthy elite in developing countries. Protesters used sticks to beat the Bush effigy before setting it aflame and chanting slogans against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, a proposed 34-nation zone that would join North and South America in the world's largest economic bloc. "Get out Bush! Get out FTAA!" they yelled, banging drums and waving bright red flags emblazoned with yellow hammers and sickles.
What, no giant puppets?
American David Hartsough of San Francisco's Nonviolent Peaceforce group said he's become convinced that the United States is "destroying all the good will we had throughout the world." "This is the super ugly American who wants to control and kill countless people for his own self-interest," Hartsough said. "I'm afraid Iraq is going to turn into another Vietnam." Sammi Alaa, a leader of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance group supporting the terrorists resistance, said he expected social forum activists would be sympathetic, but was surprised that many Americans support the killing of US soldiers as a legitimate move to oust the occupying power. "There are a lot of Americans here and when I take the microphone and explain the Iraqi terrorists resistance, they come up to me afterward and say they agree with me," said Alaa, an Iraqi who lives in Denmark.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/29/2005
12:21:52 AM ||
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#1
Sounds like Bush is doing something right. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 0:50
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"Iâm afraid Iraq is going to turn into another Vietnam."... supporting the resistance
#3
How can we disbeleive them when they have a Girl named " Pornpen " spealing for them? I mean that name alone brings credibility and gravitas to them!
" surprised that many Americans support the killing of US soldiers as a legitimate move to oust the occupying power."
#4
We are on the verge of a great revolution, but not the kind these authoritarian media-cultists pretend to seek.
It will be a revolution against the authoritarians themselves, against their culture, their media, their place of power in the world.
The outlines of this revolution are only dimly visible now, as was the outline of the First World War, say, 100 years ago in 1905.
They will be crystal clear after the fact, though, in, say, 20 years.
In a thousand years, the Institutional Media Culture of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries will be studied and analyzed as a puzzling but horrible relic, long since having taken its place alongside the Spanish Inquisition and the Divine Right of Kings in the dustbin of history.
"Sammi Alaa, a leader of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance group supporting the resistance, said he expected social forum activists would be sympathetic, but was surprised that many Americans support the killing of US soldiers as a legitimate move to oust the occupying power. 'There are a lot of Americans here and when I take the microphone and explain the Iraqi resistance, they come up to me afterward and say they agree with me,' said Alaa, an Iraqi who lives in Denmark.
"Hi, Mr. Alaa, groovy speech and all, man. Meet my new friend, Gideon Phoenix."
DEATH TO TERRORISTS! DEATH TO TRAITORS! DEATH TO MEDIA SHILLS!
Thousands of enemy agents and terror-shills from all over the world publicly identify themselves in the foolish belief that Fidel Castro, Arab money, and media shielding can protect them forever from the just consequences of their actions.
#10
Apparently your "relevance" meter didn't even register, or you would have provided it.
Ya do have to "love" these people who hold their "conference" in "southern Brazil" to "protest the World Economic Forum under way in Davos, Switzerland."
#11
Jeez, Justrand - give the poor commies a break.
It's cold in Davos this time of year. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 11:02
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the cold puckers the piercings
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 11:03
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The thing that gets me about those raving lunatics is their hypocrisy. Those people do not give a shit about the Iraqi people. They never wanted to save the latter when Saddam was killing them by the thousands but now they are all heart.
Those vermin do not give a flying F*** about people dying unless they can use their deaths to further their utopian agendas or their virulent anti-americanism. I think I am beginning to like the terrorists more then those idiots.
#14
Justrand - Besides, then they can go to Rio for Carnival and relax after saving the world from all the eeeeeeeevil Bush/Halliburton/Joooos/neocon lackeys.
#15
"Theyâll stay there because the oilâs there and so American companies can get all the contracts to rebuild a country America destroyed."
As the rabid twit jumps into his petro fueled vehicle after the ankle biter festivities.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 14:45
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These guys threw a party and didn't invite me an 'ol Betsy AGAIN. Tha'ts it, I'm not gonna take it no more. The next time they have a party, Betsy 'n me are gonna crash! In the meantime, anybody got a good source for 10-gauge #1 buckshot? From the looks of that parade, I need about eight cases...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/29/2005 16:30
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#17
How can we disbeleive them when they have a Girl named " Pornpen " spealing for them? I mean that name alone brings credibility and gravitas to them!
" surprised that many Americans support the killing of US soldiers as a legitimate move to oust the occupying power."
#20
How can we disbeleive them when they have a Girl named " Pornpen " spealing for them? I mean that name alone brings credibility and gravitas to them!
" surprised that many Americans support the killing of US soldiers as a legitimate move to oust the occupying power."
EFL; via The Cracker Barrel Philosopher. *snip*
Apparently this will be another calendar year during which none of A&E's executives bothers to go out and buy a box of clues. And so the laughs are all yours as "See Arnold Run" unfolds Sunday as two of the most embarrassing, ridiculous hours of filmed television in some time. *snip*
Here's a caveat. And you should heed it: "See Arnold Run" is terrible. It's a movie so bad that even Mariel Hemingway's oh-honey-you-shouldn't-have take on Maria Shriver ranks among the very least of its crimes. Yes, if you're in the right frame of mind, the Arnold-Arianna-Barbara performances will make you howl. But that is a desperately sad place to imagine yourself. Read the whole thing. Put your drinks down first. :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005
1:16:35 AM ||
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" it's physically painful to watch. As in, rolling on the floor, covering your ears so as not to hear "
THE lawyers for former Guantanamo Bay inmate Mamdouh Habib said today there were grounds to seek compensation for his detention, although no decision had been made.
Mr Habib's US counsel Joe Margulies, speaking in Sydney today, was critical of US authorities' handling of Mr Habib's arrest in Pakistan in October 2001.
"The rendition, the transfer (of Mr Habib) from Pakistan to Egypt by US authorities was unlawful and the question is whether we will proceed with that litigation and that decision hasn't been made," he told reporters at Sydney Airport.
"For three years we have asked for one thing only and that is an opportunity to clear his name in a fair process.
"We ask only that the (US) government be asked to demonstrate the lawfulness of his detention by a legitimate means - that is by applying fixed and transparent standards in a fair tribunal.
"... that didn't happen, he was released instead and that speaks for itself and so now the question is whether the (US) government will continue to speak ill of him but refuse the obligation to come in and put up any evidence about it."
Mr Margulies said Mr Habib was exhausted on his return to Sydney on Friday and was recovering at an undisclosed location.
He said Mr Habib was suffering from emotional and psychological problems as a result of his detention in Guantanamo Bay.
Mr Habib had lost weight, but Mr Margulies did not wish to elaborate on the extent of his client's medical condition apart from saying he would need specialist treatment.
"Mr Habib has some chronic medical conditions as a result of his incarceration, that we're going to get taken care of or at least have specialists take a look at," Mr Margulies said.
"He has developed some emotional and psychological conditions that will require even more time (to recover from)."
On the day Mr Habib was due to return home he was told by US authorities he was being taken back to Egypt, Mr Margulies said.
"The United States, even the day he was going to be returned when he was shackled and already been removed to a truck that they were going to bring him to the plane on, ... continued to tell him that he was being taken to Egypt," he said.
"He didn't know for sure that he was going to Australia until he reached the plane on the tarmac at Guantanamo and saw me at the top of the stairs and then he realised he was coming home to Australia. That was a very emotional moment."
Mr Margulies said securing Mr Habib's freedom was one of his most satisfying successes as a civil rights lawyer.
"I've witnessed an execution, I have been to my client's execution, and the feeling of seeing my client, Mamdouh, with his wife when he first came back is the perfect antithesis to watching your client being executed," he said.
"(Mr Habib) was given his life back and I may never experience anything else like that."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/29/2005
11:57:13 PM ||
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Australian OPPOSITION Leader Kim Beazley today urged Prime Minister John Howard to become a voice of reason in Australia's relationship with the United States.
Mr Howard has leapt to the defence of US President George W. Bush at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
The president is not attending the meeting, and his stance on Iraq has been criticised by many leaders, particularly from Europe.
During a debate on US global relations, Mr Howard took issue with the tone of the argument against the war and criticism of Mr Bush's recent inauguration speech in which he did not mention Iraq.
Mr Beazley today indicated he would like to see Mr Howard offer the US some firm advice when it was needed - particularly in relation to Iraq.
"He needs to be the friend that the Americans need, not just the friend that they want," he said on Channel 7.
"They appreciate him, they like the fact that he has stood in behind them during the course of this conflict.
"Time's moving on. What the United States now needs is good counsel, and that's what they need from him."
Mr Beazley said Australia had not been the ally the US needed either before or after the war.
"They desperately needed warning, they desperately needed counsel and patience, and after the war they desperately needed sound advice on how the post-war administration should take place," he said.
"None of that came from Australia."
Mr Howard rejected the notion that the US had isolated itself in Europe because of its approach in Iraq, but Mr Beazley said the US had some work ahead of it in rebuilding relations with the continent.
"The whole world responded to the US position (after September 11)," Mr Beazley said.
"Old enemies of the US, Russians, Chinese, all came in behind ... what looked like the US-led fight with fundamentalist terror.
"That has frayed over the course of the last two or three years. That is not in the US interest, that is not in our interests.
"They are good friends with some European countries ... but the US, if it's going to exercise world leadership, has got to be able to embrace the lot."
In Switzerland, Mr Howard backed Mr Bush's invasion of Iraq as opposed to relying on United Nations action, which he said was not always effective.
Mr Beazley, however, said Australia and the United States should show some support for the UN.
"I think the US and we ought to be proud of the UN," he said.
"We played a major role in its creation.
"It was one of the institutions of, if you like, liberal democracy that was put in place after World War II.
"Why spurn them now? Why humiliate them? Why not just make them better?"
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/29/2005
11:55:07 PM ||
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As Iraqis prepare to cast secret ballots in Sunday's free election, terrorists work day and night to obliterate the entire project. Their political violence recalls that of white supremacists who shielded Jim Crow in the battle for civil rights. Those who block the doorway to Iraqi self-determination are nothing more than Islamo-Klansmen.
Read the Rest.
Posted by: JackAssFestival ||
01/29/2005
11:54:23 AM ||
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#1
He nails it.
I'm old enough to remember our Civil Rights struggles. It wasn't pretty, but good won out, as it will in Iraq.
I'd like to think the leftist "liberals" just don't understand, but I'm afraid they do understand - with crystal clarity.
And they just don't care.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 13:26
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Makes ya wonder if Michael Moore would have labeled the KKK "Minutemen" and "Freedom Fighters" during that time.
PRIME Minister John Howard has leapt to the defence of US President George W. Bush, who has come under fire from international leaders at the World Economic Forum.
In Mr Bush's absence from the annual meeting of political and business heavyweights, his stance on Iraq has been criticised by many leaders, particularly from Europe.
"I think some of the criticism of the Americans by some of the Europeans is unfair and irrational and I have said so," Mr Howard said.
He did so in a forthright manner during one debate on US global relations in which he grew increasingly disenchanted with the tone of the argument against the war and criticism of Mr Bush's recent inauguration speech, in which he did not mention Iraq.
"Can I just say, I mean, the negative mindset of the last five minutes is ridiculous - of course America has made mistakes and of course there will be modifications of policy," Mr Howard interjected during the debate.
He said the critics had misinterpreted Mr Bush's speech and told them the US president would not be altering his stance.
"I don't think there will be fundamental changes in American policy over the next four years," he said.
The non-attendance of Mr Bush or any of his senior administrators at the Swiss summit, which has attracted 2500 political and business leaders, has been seen as a snub by many in the forum.
Mr Howard said Mr Bush had plenty of support and denied the world was adopting an anti-Bush stance.
"No, that is not. That is the view in some parts of Europe, but not the view in others," he said.
"It's not the view in eastern Europe for example. You talk to the president of Latvia who took part in that meeting, you talk to the representative of Afghanistan, that is not their view."
Mr Howard also backed Mr Bush's invasion of Iraq as opposed to relying on United Nations action which he said was not always effective.
"The reality is, and it was proved in Bosnia, it was proved in Kosovo, that if you rely entirely on the international institutions, it won't work," Mr Howard said.
"I'm not anti the United Nations, I'm in favour of the United Nations when it works."
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/29/2005
11:51:41 PM ||
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FORMER terrorist suspect Mamdouh Habib was suffering from emotional and psychological problems as a result of his detention in Guantanamo Bay, his lawyer said today. Mr Habib's US counsel Joe Margulies said he did not wish to elaborate on the extent of Mr Habib's condition, but he would need specialist treatment. "Mr Habib has some chronic medical conditions as a result of his incarceration, that we're going to get taken care of or at least have specialists take a look at," he told reporters at Sydney Airport. "He has developed some emotional and psychological conditions that will require even more time (to recover from)."
Mr Habib arrived back in Sydney on Friday afternoon. He was first arrested on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in October, 2001. He was subsequently sent to Egypt and then to the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The US Government says Mr Habib confessed to prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks as well as being involved in training hijackers in martial arts. He says the confession was made after he was tortured. Mr Margulies said it was important that Mr Habib received the medical care he needed. "Our first consideration is to get him the medical care, both from a mental health and a GP perspective, that he demands," he said. Mr Habib's family also needed time to adjust to having him home, Mr Margulies said. "We want to give his family as much time as we can to gradually get used to having him back in their lives. "Frankly, his youngest daughter didn't even remember him." Mr Margulies said today there were grounds to seek compensation for his detention, although no decision had been made.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/29/2005
11:49:33 PM ||
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Mumbai: Unusual events "unheard of in the history of seismology" have been recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, with more than 120 such events being recorded in the last one month, according to seismologists.
The seismology department of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and the Earth Sciences Department of the Indian Institute of Technology here have recorded over 120 such unusual events in the islands following the December 26 earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale that triggered tsunamis which wreaked havoc in several parts of the country.
Of these events recorded at BARC's Gouribidnur station in Karnataka, at least over 33 events were above 5 on the Richter scale, they said, adding "this is unusual and alarming as large amount of energy is being released so frequently."
Eleven events with surface wave of magnitude 5, indicating large amount of energy close to Nicobar Islands was also recorded, the seismologists said.
"Since yesterday, 16 events which range from 5.2 to 5.8 on the Richter scale have been recorded," they said.
"Whether these events are foreshocks or aftershocks - it is not clear, and has to be taken up seriously and the data analysed as fast as possible," the scientists said.
"Both strike slip and dip slip are taking place simultaneously and these factors have to be taken very seriously both by scientists and authorities," they added.
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
01/29/2005
11:21:42 AM ||
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Actually, if in fact both strike and dip slips are happening simultaneously, that means a whole LOT of energy is being released there - major plate movements, making many day to day earthquakes look puny. That part of the world may be in for a rough geological ride for a while.
#4
Still waiting for the usual LLL suspects to explain how seismic activity deep in the earth is caused by "global warming'....
You'll notice I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 13:30
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#5
The stars are almost right, it is just Cthulhu stiring in R'lyeh.
Posted by: Mac Suirtain ||
01/29/2005 13:37
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We're talking tectonic plates here, folks. We are talking megatons of matter. Moving them around comes with the territory. Earthquakes happen when they move. Sheesh! Be thankful it's not an asteroid headin' our way, that could REALLY lower property values far and wide.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/29/2005 13:47
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Cthulhu? LOL - well the moon-worshipper swould have found someone more to their tastes and a little closer to home
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 14:08
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#8
Maybe it's a SUPER-VOLCANOE! You know, like the one which formed Yellowstone National Park!
Posted by: Charles ||
01/29/2005 14:13
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#9
Could it be that giant tsunami - quake maker Isreal and the US are testing. You know the one that caused the tsunami in Indian ocean ?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/29/2005 14:20
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#10
could be - Occams' Razor sez it's Allan, still pissed off the mooselimbs aren't listening to his demand they quit killing and SHAPE THE FUCK UP, DAMMIT!
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 14:23
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#11
Calm down Frank.
Its ok !!
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/29/2005 14:24
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#12
Are the Himalayas getting taller or shorter?
Posted by: SPOD ||
01/29/2005 15:57
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#13
Himalayas are generally getting taller at a rate of over 1 cm a year.
#14
The India Plate is currently moving northeast at 5 cm/yr (2 in/yr), while the Eurasian Plate is moving north at only 2 cm/yr (0.8 in/yr). This is causing the Eurasian Plate to deform, and the India Plate to compress at a rate of 4 mm/yr (0.15 in/yr).
So its official, both India and China are getting smaller.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 18:34
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#17
Frank G, your starting to sound like Muck. It's a phenomanon I've noticed on other blogs. Muckspeak is slowly taking over.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/29/2005 19:02
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#18
with my conversations with the distinguished Mr. Shipman, it is a deliberate affectation, one he returns. heh heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 19:08
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#19
When I was in USGS earthquake research in the early 70s we clocked er measured the San Andreas fault at 30 mm of regional strike slip per year. On Roberta Drive in Woodside, S of San Francisco, there was a 3' dia redwood stump straddling the fault that got split. The west side went 12 feet further north. That is ALOT of pent up rage. Seismic zones: why do they hate us?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/29/2005 21:00
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#20
Tectonic volcanism; why does it hate us?
Posted by: Mark E. ||
01/29/2005 21:45
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#21
IMHO - it doesn't hate us - we just don't matter, kinda like my relationship with my first wife
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 22:45
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Two years ago I finally got to see Mount St. Helens. Since it erupted in 1980 I've been fascinated by it, read everything I could get my hands on and studied every picture. But up close and personal, that thing is awesome-- I just found myself speechless.
Tectonic volcanism may not hate us, but it sure has a bad temper.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
01/29/2005 22:59
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(2005-01-28) -- The U.S. occupation force in Iraq is placing unconstitutional restrictions on the free speech rights of Al Qaeda and former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party, according to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, who today introduced a resolution expressing "solidarity with our repressed brethren in the Iraq insurgency."
"Just as in our country, flag burning and pornography distribution are the most sacred of forms of protected speech, so in Iraq legitimate car-bombings and beheadings must be protected as political expression," said Mr. Kennedy. "The Bush administration is clearly trying to deny these Iraqis, and their foreign guests, their basic civil rights. This is the most insidious brand of cultural and religious discrimination."
The Senator said he's hopeful that "after the Iraqi people exercise civil disobedience by boycotting this week's national election sham, U.S. forces will immediately pull out so that this sovereign nation can restore the free marketplace of ideas in political discourse -- no matter how incendiary the ideas, no matter how sharp the discourse."
In a direct address to Iraqi insurgents, the Massachusetts Senator added, "Speak truth to power, my brothers."
Posted by: Korora ||
01/29/2005
11:08:32 AM ||
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And this is different from his first speech in what way?
EFL. Via Country Store.
Longtime Clinton aide Harold Ickes yesterday threw his support behind Howard Dean for the Democratic National Committee's new chief, fueling the growing belief Dean is unstoppable. Go, Deano, go!
Ickes, who heads Sen. Hillary Clinton's political action committee, said the Clintons aren't behind the move and then his nose grew a foot and his lips fell off
— Sen. Clinton's spokesman said she's neutral and other activists insist that other Clinton allies are trying to stop Dean. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Uh-huh. Sure they are. The Hildabeest's plan continues apace. 2008 will be very entertaining. Hope the Repubs are keeping records of all the leftie socialist things she said/did before she began her sham shift to the "middle." They'll need them.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005
10:59:59 AM ||
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Oh please, oh please, oh please. Select this man.
Pressure from Turkey has resulted in the removal of a reference to the Armenian genocide from a German school curriculum, reports said Wednesday.
The eastern German state of Brandenburg has eliminated half a sentence on the Armenians included in ninth and tenth grade history classes after a Turkish diplomat complained to state Prime Minister Matthias Platzeck, the newspaper Die Welt reported.
In a chapter entitled "War, Technology and Civilian Populations" the school book text said "for example, the genocide of the Armenians population of Anatolia." That passage has now been removed from school textbooks, the newspaper said.
Platzeck met regularly with Turkish diplomats and was "steeled" against their influence, the newspaper quoted him as saying. The prime minister added that genocide was too important an issue to be dealt with in just half a sentence. "Brandenburg's curriculum was the only one in Germany which up until now included a reference to the murder of the Armenians," said Die Welt.
Well, Hitler did say it was forgotten. Anyone want to put money on this being a reciprocal arrangement?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2005
10:37:43 AM ||
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#1
The Germans and Turks can always make up a chapter on the Guantanamo genocide.
A SCENT exuded by young women as a subconscious sex attractant has been synthesised for post-menopausal women, who are finding it is luring men in droves, the British weekly New Scientist says. Forty-four women took part in an experiment to see whether the pheromone - an odour received by heterosexual men as a sign of mating availability - worked for females beyond child-bearing age. Half the group added a chemical copy of the pheromone to their perfume, while the other added a lookalike dummy compound. None of the participants knew whether they were getting the real ingredient or the fake. For the next six weeks, the women kept diaries.
Dear Diary,
Tonite Henry jumped me without warning as I was serving the creamed spinach. Phil and Harriet were scandalized and the party was ruined.
Among the pheromone users, 41 per cent reported they experienced more petting, kissing and affection with partners, compared with 14 per cent among the placebo group. Overall, 68 per cent of the pheromone groups reported increases in at least four "intimate socio-sexual behaviours," such as sex and formal dates. In the placebo group, only 41 per cent reported increases. The report, carried in next Saturday's New Scientist, is based on a study in a specialist publication, The Journal of Sex Research.
I used to read that. But only for the articles.
The research was carried out by Harvard University's Joan Friebely and Massachusetts doctor Susan Rako. What exactly is in the chemical is secret for the time being.
Eye of newt, hair of bat, and a few other ingredients...
The pheromone's discoverer, biologist Winnifred Cutler, is keeping its identity confidential until patents have been granted for her organisation, the Athena Institute for Women's Wellness Research in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.
Don't believe her! She's keeping it for herself!
If the synthetic pheromone ever goes to market, joining other duplicates of human body odours - advertising specialists have a challenge on their hands. The secret odour does not come from the essence of alpine flowers or exotic spices so beloved of perfume ads to create a romantic image: it was isolated from a young woman's armpit sweat.
"Maudette! You smell so... so... sweaty! Let's have sex!"
Posted by: tipper ||
01/29/2005
10:31:29 AM ||
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#1
...I think I saw this flick on MST3K once...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/29/2005 11:36
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Mike, you're thinking of "Flesh Gordon" - you know, the one where Emperor Wang from the Planet Porno attacks Earth with the Sex Ray. :)
K Y and a new synthetic pheromone
Hillary will be happy !!
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/29/2005 13:50
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#6
It's not nice to fool with mother nature. I would not find it amiss for societies with falling populations to issue such a substance to young, fertile women; if an equivalent existed for males, likewise it should be given to young, virile men.
Because reproduction is essential to any society.
However, post-middle-aged people having sex with younger people should be limited to only those young people who *can't* reproduce for some reason or another. This could include those who are abhorred by the opposite sex, are sterile, suffer from genetic diseases or other disability making them incapable of having children. This is not as oppressive as it sounds: no one is denied anything except the use of special attractants to lure sex partners. Society should discourage the infertile from having sex with the fertile. Biologically, this also raises the point that women would prefer to have children from the "optimal" sperm donor. But only a few males have that special something, those traits, that the majority of women want in a sperm donor. So a substance of this kind helps women to have a larger pool of males from which to choose; and yet, it limits diversity in the long run, as most women will make similar choices. So one man will make 20 children, and a dozen other men will make none.
#7
" Society should discourage the infertile from having sex with the fertile "
Its nice to read comments like yours above moose.
What about " volunterily sterile " ( vasectomy )
people having sex with the fertile ?
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/29/2005 14:05
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Um Gott es will, Barbara :-)
Should this become popular -- and I can't imagine otherwise, given how many are having voluntary plastic surgery nowadays -- I would expect two things:
1) Those older women in committed relationships to have much improved sex lives, and
2) Natural selection weeding out those men overly susceptible to this particular pheromone within two generations (as they go after the infertile/less fertile females).
Long term, this will just result in a slight alteration in the species. No biggie.
#11
Bill Clinton: in a society with a declining population, it is important that they develop policies that encourage reproduction. Some of these may seem "immoral" or "irresponsible", such as favoring the fertile over the infertile, and promulgating social acceptance of "reckless" reproduction. While it is generally agreed that it is preferable for a child is raised in economic abundance, it is *not* essential. It is an opinion. Children do not *need* $500 tennis shoes, video games, and to eat dinner at restaurants every night. If parents could raise two children modestly, or one child with "high havingness", it is better for society if they raise two. And ways must be found to encourage parents to have three or four or more children as the norm. Unfortunately, most of the people who use birth control the most, shouldn't, and this is a problem.
FIGHTING broke out yesterday at Sydney polling booths where expatriate Iraqis cast their votes for today's historic election in the strife-torn country. Police cordoned-off Queen St, Auburn, after a violent scuffle broke out between supporters of terrorist leader Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi and advocates of democracy. Minutes later, a rucksack found abandoned outside the polling station sparked a bomb scare.
Hopefully the coppers are busy rounding up the Zarqawi scum even as we speak blog...
Police evacuated the polling station, the Auburn Hotel next door and the Turkish Weekly News opposite, closing the street until they confirmed the bag was harmless. A polling centre security spokesman, who asked not to be named, said: "These protestors were supporters of Al-Zarqawi and Al-Qaeda and they did not support the American invasion of Iraq. They were trying to stop people from voting and they were pulling down posters and shouting slogans.
If you shout slogans you don't have to think up any statements that make sense...
"When the punches started flying I immediately called 000. Then we had the bomb scare. With the Iraqi ambassador here we couldn't take any chances." The spokesman said at least two people received minor injuries. Police made no arrests.
Offer them donuts. Sometimes that works.
In Fairfield, where another polling station was set up, voting went more smoothly. Unfazed by the choice of 7800 candidates from 111 parties and coalitions, most were just happy to vote. Iraq Out Of Country voting co-ordinator at Fairfield, Bronwyn Curran, said 3128 voters cast their ballots on Friday, with another 3000 cast yesterday. "People have been weeping, people have been kissing the polling booth staff - there has just been a general feeling of jubilation."
Until the hard boyz showed up...
Seguan Abubakir has lived in Fairfield for two years after moving here from northern Iraq with his parents and three siblings. "I feel hope now for all Iraqi people to live together as equals. The (former) Iraqi regime killed too many people," he said. There are 11,860 Australian Iraqis registered to vote in the election, voting finishes today.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/29/2005
10:19:12 AM ||
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Jordan on high alert, king, royal family, court exit Amman, following word of planned major al Qaeda strike in kingdom on Iraq's election-day Sunday by group called "Returnees from Fallujah."
Royal vehicles disguised with ordinary number plates, extra security at government offices and hotels. Group led by al Zarqawi aide Mohammed Shalabi believed hiding out between S. Jordanian Karak and Saudi frontier. Northern Saudi Arabia on alert too after intelligence reports Fallujah terror group near military town of Tabuk.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 23:01
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#2
debka salting while prudent moving...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 23:02
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#3
Hummm -- wondering, knowing that they couldn't get pass Iraqi and American troops, as they taking their campaign of violence to other countries? That could really backfire!
#1
Support for Mosques and Islamic Centers in United States
Under King Fahd, Saudi Arabia has given support to the following institutions in the United States:
Dar al-Salam Institute
Fresno Mosque in California
The Islamic Center in Colombia, Missouri
The Islamic Center in East Lansing, Michigan
The Islamic Center in Los Angeles, California
The Islamic Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey
The Islamic Center in New York
The Islamic Center in Tida, Maryland
The Islamic Center in Toledo, Ohio
The Islamic Center in Virginia
The Islamic Center in Washington
The Islamic Cultural Center in Chicago
King Fahd Mosque in Los Angeles
The Mosque of the Albanian Community in Chicago
South-West Big Mosque of Chicago
Umar bin Al-Khattab Mosque in Los Angeles
Academic Chairs:
King Abdul Aziz Chair at the University of California, Santa Barbara
King Fahd Chair at Harvard University
Islamic Research Institutes supported outside the Arab/Islamic world:
American University of Colorado
American University in Washington
Duke University, North Carolina
Howard University, Washington
Johns Hopkins University, Maryland
Middle East Institute, Washington
Shaw University, North Carolina
Syracuse University, New York
#2
I realize it would take balls of depleted uranium, but someone should assemble a list of which mosques carry these materials, and update it from time to time.
Of course, the pamphlets would probably just disappear from the open racks and still be available "on request".
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2005 14:37
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Of course, the pamphlets would probably just disappear from the open racks and still be available "on request".
and in arabic only
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 14:41
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I live 15 minutes from one of these Islamic centers supported by the Fraudis. I might just have the ovaries to walk into it and collect some of the material.
In its 34-year history, the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland has traditionally been a place for big thinkers to discuss big concepts--and this year was no exception. Indeed, at one evening event entitled "Dangerous Ideas," participants pondered where ideas come from, the difference between bad and dangerous ideas and even how good ideas can mutate.
Yet this year, underlying it all was the sense that many, if not most, of the bad ideas come from America. This sentiment revealed itself, for instance, in a discussion of "Brand America." Richard Edelman, chief executive officer of the eponymous public-relations firm, noted that a "profound trust gap" exists for American corporations in Europe. His study showed dissatisfaction among Europeans with U.S. business values. Even the British--surely the most culturally compatible of all Europeans--said they were uncomfortable with the idea of working for a U.S. company.
American leadership was also found lacking in a slew of economic and political issues. The shrinking dollar, a source of great difficulty for European and Canadian businesses, is the result of a vanishingly-low U.S. personal-savings rate, as well as the government's seeming inability to reduce the enormous federal budget. Furthermore, America's misguided policies in Iraq were said to have led to greater violence, danger and global uncertainty. Global poverty also is caused by America's refusal to allocate more money to foreign aid. Even Bill Clinton, as much of a rock star in Davos as U2's , with whom he shared a stage, told a crowd that the U.S. could do much more. "Let's get real," the former president said. "The President just asked Congress for $80 billion for one year in Iraq. For a pittance, we could double America's [foreign aid] contribution, and it would be cheap."
FOR years it was the dream of every self-respecting Irish student: after a year denouncing British oppression in the college bar, the only way to spend the summer was sipping Guinness surrounded by plastic leprechauns in a Boston pub.
Five years ago, thousands of students camped out overnight to get a visa to spend four months in the Irish-loving paradise of Bill Clinton and the Kennedys. Now George W. Bush is begging them to visit.
Days after the President was sworn in for his second term, his Ambassador to Ireland has embarked upon a charm offensive to persuade the youth of the Irish Republic that the US is not what they just see in the headlines every day.
Irelands youth is so out of love with America that the number of students applying for a summer visa scheme has halved within a year.
As he embarked on a tour of universities and colleges last week, James Kenny, the US Ambassador, said that recapturing Irelands youth was hugely important for us and admitted that a wave of anti-Americanism was stopping many students visiting the US...
#2
I was in Belfast about five years ago and I met up with some friends I'd met on an earlier trip. All they'd watch was Jerry Springer episodes. They truly believed that's what America is all about. I remember one particular comment she (my friend) said, "Americans. All they do is drink and drive and kill people with guns." I'm thinking to myself, "Y'know I'm sitting right next to you. And we are in Belfast where bombs have gone off almost daily for 30 years. So what's the problem?" So let 'em stay over there. Let all the foreigners stay where they're at.
#3
I have been thinking of going to Ireland for a vacation this June. Sounds like I might not be very welcome. Any readers have advice for me? (Reply by e-mail, if you please.)
#4
What a shame. I foresee a shortage of waitresses, under the table house painters, and hack carpenters in the Boston area. And, oh yeah, late night hit and run accidents...
#5
Days after the President was sworn in for his second term, his Ambassador to Ireland has embarked upon a charm offensive to persuade the youth of the Irish Republic that the US is ânot what they just see in the headlines every dayâ.
Why should anyone care if Irish kids don't want to come here?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 10:37
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So the "hispanic caucus" has decided to stay on the plantation like good little Dem slaves.
Why am I not surprised?
By the way, what's with this racial/ethnicity caucus crap? Can you imagine the uproar if there were a white caucus? Guess none of these clowns remember King's words: "not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character."
But then I think the people in these caucuses are all Dems, so that would explain it.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 11:17
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#4
Just as the black racist groups were opposed to Rice, while more moderate civil rights groups supported her, the usual suspects of Democratic party and racist groups oppose Gonzales.
Of course, Senator Salazar (D-CO), former Secretary Cisneros (D), the Hispanic Conference, all support him.
#7
To tell you the truth, Bob, your career's not exactly on a roll lately either, so who really gives a shit if you stay or not?
Sucks, don't it? Tell me about it...
Posted by: Kevin Costner ||
01/29/2005 12:08
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#8
Maybe he read that article about Irish students and got scared.
I wonder how many of these Hollywood idjits actually mean it when they say they're going to move. Ever notice how it's always the ones who haven't gotten a lot of work lately who spout off about leaving? Anything to get your name in the papers, I guess.
#9
Given how many say this sort of thing on top of all the other lies they tell, I just can't see anyone believing they'd actually do it. Besides, if they stay here we can give them a far better fate. Ignore them, don't see their movies, don't buy their products and more of them can end up in bankruptcy court.
#11
Do the Irish actually want Redford anyway .. In fact if I worked at customs and excise and I had a heavy weekend , ol Bob turns up Monday morning , i would quickly usher him to the departures lounge , just where his career is waiting for him
#3
AP-
No, actually I think this is from those legendary Infinite Number Of Monkeys and Their Keyboards(TM).
I was hoping for Macbeth myself, but you gotta take what you get.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/29/2005 10:31
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There ya go, Mike. Infinite number of Monkeys learning fuzzy logic. Almost looks like a JM thread, hah!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/29/2005 13:12
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Israel has determined that Hizbullah has recruited Western nationals for espionage and insurgency operations against the Jewish state. Officials said Hizbullah has recruited nationals from several Western European countries. They cited Britain, Denmark and Germany. On Jan. 6, Israeli authorities arrested a Danish national charged with spying for Hizbullah. Authorities obtained a gag order that was lifted on Jan. 26. The Dane was identified as Iyad Khaled Mohammad Al Ashuah&ID=54975" target=_blank> Iyad Khaled Mohammad Al Ashuah, 38. A government statement said Al Ashuah arrived in Israel on Dec. 29, 2004 on what was termed a "significant" mission.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
00:00:00 AM ||
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#2
Of course Hezbollah has western spies and agents. Some of the more prominent cells are called BBC, Reuters, the Independent, ISM, Human Rights Watch, etc.
#3
I note the increasingly common intentional obfuscation between ethnic "Dane" and national "Danish citizen" identity. "American" is one of the few singularly non-ethnic identifiers around, so you can have fun at the expense of those Americans who hyphenate, such as African-American (Were you born, or have you ever been to Africa?); and you can also have fun at the expense of those individuals who, for example, claim to be "Danes" (Oh, don't you mean "Somali-Danish"?)
#4
And the stupid Danes protect the terrorists. What will the Danes do when their Muslims threaten the Danish public, like the Dutch Muslims threaten the Dutch public? Will they join the Dutch, leave home and emigrate to germany?
A BOMB blast killed at least four people, including a former finance minister, yesterday at an opposition rally in northeastern Bangladesh, police and witnesses said. The bomb exploded at a rally of the main opposition Awami League at Laskarpur, 250 km from the capital Dhaka. Around 50 others were wounded. A party spokesman said former finance minister Shah Abu Mohammad Shamsul Kibria, 70, was among the dead. Others who died in the blast included a nephew of Kibria and two party workers. After the blast, protesting Awami workers and supporters went on a rampage, attacking and damaging dozens of vehicles and shops, witnesses said. Authorities later deployed extra police and paramilitary troops at Laskarpur. Kibria who had been sitting on the dais at the rally when the bomb went off, died in a Dhaka hospital around midnight.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Crossfire ⢠coming soon to a location near this one.
Muslim nations have the responsibility to correct the world's negative perception of Islam, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday.
They could do that by catching the Bad Guyz and immediately killing them.
Abdullah said since the September 11, 2001 attack in the United States, Muslims have been wrongly portrayed as violent and intolerant.
It hasn't been Lutherans who've been chopping people's heads off. It hasn't been Episcopalians shooting up other people's churches.
"We Muslims are still unable to break free from this profiling. The profiling must stop. It does grave injustice to a noble religion whose very name means peace," Abdullah told some 50 delegates from 15 member countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
Actually, that refers to the peace of submission. Perhaps it's time for Moose limbs to start differentiating between themselves and wahhabis?
The scholars and diplomats are attending the three-day meeting of the OIC Commission of Eminent Persons in Malaysia's administrative capital of Putrajaya.
They have these conferences regularly. As far as I can see, nothing's ever actually happened as a result of them...
Abdullah, who chairs the 57-member OIC, said one way to correct this misconception was to bridge the gap between the Muslim and western civilisations, and this could be done when Islamic countries begin practising moderation in their religion. "We need to close the great divide that has been created between the Muslim world and the West," he said.
'Tain't gonna happen until somebody works up the nerve to nail 95 Theses to the door of the Great Mosque in Mecca, and somebody else has the nerve to stop the rest of the Islamic world from cutting his head off...
"In embarking on this crucial mission, we must guard against extreme motivations or extremist elements. It is our duty to demonstrate, by word and by action, that a Muslim country can be modern, democratic, tolerant and economically competitive," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama agency. Abdullah said many parts of the Islamic world are in 'deep crisis'.
I suppose that's an adequate synonym for "cesspools of self-induced ignorance and poverty."
"There are many challenges that we need to overcome. In many parts of our world, we are in deep crisis," Abdullah said. "The OIC landscape is a distressing one. Darfur is a humanitarian disaster, two of us are occupied — Iraq completely and Palestine partially," said Abdullah. "Some of the OIC countries are rich and their people affluent.
For the most part, only the ones with lots of oil.
"But they are too few and far between. The OIC landscape is littered with nations that are poor and people that are hungry. They are largely at the mercy of developed nations and of forces beyond their control."
There's the error in his reasoning. They're largely at the mercy of their holy men and forces of their own making. Had those forces not been in existence 150 or 200 years ago there would have been no colonialism. It would have been impossible.
Nearly 50 scholars and diplomats from Burkina Faso, Egypt, Iran, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Turkey, and Yemen are attending the three-day meeting of the OIC Commission of Eminent Persons in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya. The meeting in Malaysia is expected to discuss challenges facing Muslims in the 21st century and reforms to the OIC. Its recommendations will be submitted to the OIC foreign ministers' meeting in Yemen later this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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#1
"Grave injustice", indeed!!! Actually it's the natural delayed working of group Karma against a prolonged denial. Didn't the Bible speak of creating fruits after its own kind...must one be religious to comprehend? I think not. Just a touch of Spirituality beyond the material and some common sense.
#4
What is unmentioned is that this attempt to downgrade non-Muslim religions is not new. It is a strong but unmentioned plank in the New Economic Policy. Muslims are discouraged from taking part in non-Muslim religious festivals, or visiting non-Muslim homes on these occasions. About twentyfive years ago, the late Prime Minister, Tun Hussein Onn, once attended a Christmas party of the then Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Tan Sri Vendargon, in secret and incognito because of the prevailing Muslim frenzy against a Muslim attending one.
http://mggpillai.com/article.php3?sid=2050
The M`sian PM is a bloody joker if not a liar.
Look at what the Deputy says:
The political reaction is even more bizarre. "We will investigate who is responsible for this website, and action will be taken as we cannot allow such websites to sow seeds of hatred among the people of different races and religions." So says Dato' Seri Najib. The import of what he says is more frightening: the people cannot, but the muftis and Islamic religious can sow religious hatred.
http://mggpillai.com/article.php3?sid=2049
#10
The basic backbone and foundation of the country were not built up as a result of being a 'muslim' country. They owed a lot to history, the British rule and immigration of hard-working and docile, adaptable non muslim people. They are going to undermine all this (and have since the early seventies) with their vain religousity and increased discriminations masquerading as "affirmative action". A lotta hypocrisy at work. Not a lttle from islamisation.
#12
"...It does grave injustice to a noble religion whose very name means peace..."
Actually, "Islam" means "submission" -- not exactly the western idea of peace.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 15:40
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#13
It is our duty to demonstrate, by word and by action, that a Muslim country can be modern, democratic, tolerant and economically competitive
#14
âWe need to close the great divide that has been created between the Muslim world and the West,..â
More cause for LOL.
The conservative thinking among them is being promoted via religiousity to reinforce existent discrimination further. The big brother Umno ruling party promotes islamisation sneakily while the other , Pas, more overtly - something even their own people, being more lax and ignorant/liberal muslims could not accept. The equivalent of the muttawa has long existed and is given slacks lately. Try this rather naive piece(He/she wanna leave!) :http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/33162
(You'll get use to the varying English, or rather, Manglish.) More at : http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/?d=2
Warning! Malaysiakini, while serving some amount of 'free speech', is anti_Bush, was pro-Kerry. http://www.malaysiakini.com
Voters would reject the European constitution by a margin of two to one, according to the first poll to use the question the Government has chosen to put to the country. A survey conducted since the wording was published on Wednesday suggests that 45 per cent of the public would vote against the constitution, with only 24 per cent in favour. Tony Blair has staked his reputation on winning the referendum, which is expected next spring if Labour wins the general election.
The results of The Telegraph's YouGov poll show that he faces an enormous challenge in trying to turn around public opinion. But they also indicate that a large part of the electorate is open to persuasion. Twenty five per cent of respondents said they did not know how they would vote if they were forced to take a decision tomorrow. Only 51 per cent said they had made up their mind about the constitution, which was agreed by European Union leaders last summer. Others would make a final decision nearer the time. Michael Ancram, the Conservative foreign affairs spokesman, said his party was right to oppose the treaty setting up the constitution. "This underlines the very real and deserved mistrust of the British people for this attempt to punch them into a European super-state. "We must continue to make the case against the constitution to ensure the British people firmly consign it to the grave."
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005
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#1
Looks like the brits ain't as dumb as the EU thinks they are.
#2
Woohoo! Looks like the Brits are not as dumb and compliant as Comrade Blair thought that they were. Next stop, defeat Blair and the Labor Party at the upcoming UK election. Although Michael Howard is not as "dashing" as Blair, I think he would do well by the Brits. It's time for a change and new faces at Downing Street.
#6
You know... if you people were one bit interested in the survival of Western civilisation you'd be doing the utmost to keep and strengthen the institutions that bind its nations together in peace and freedom. Especially one of the few ones like the EU that (unlike NATO) actually gives a damn about democracy and human rights, the virtues that make our civilisation our civilisation. The organization that in the last 15 years has done the most in encouraging the growth of said democracy and human rights in the whole of Eastern Europe.
You would not be following the anti-Constitution line that everywhere in the continent is being led by the communists and the fascists that hate you and Israel even more than they hate the EU.
Except in Britain -- there the anti-Constitution line is being led by the xenophobes ofcourse, the ones who haven't met a paranoid fear they haven't liked.
As your world collapses around you, and as the various fascisms dance on the ashes of what was once called "the West"... you boys go on fiddling.
#7
Especially one of the few ones like the EU that actually gives a damn about democracy and human rights, the virtues that make our civilisation our civilisation.
#9
-- if you people were one bit interested in the survival of Western civilisation you'd be doing the utmost to keep and strengthen the institutions that bind its nations together in peace and freedom. --
Aris, the UN, Kyoto and the ICC does none of those things.
We keep trying, but you guys don't agree. Basically, we've gotten scorn for 228 years. We were liked, when? After the Revolution, WWI and WWII, but as my grandfather said, gratitude is only 1 generation."
Check out this at LGF:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=14502_Anti-American_Nights_in_Paris&only=yes
#10
You would not be following the anti-Constitution line that everywhere in the continent is being led by the communists and the fascists that hate you and Israel even more than they hate the EU.
#11
I do care what happens in Europe.
Unfortunately, I see the EU Constitution as being, at best, a rearranging of deck chairs. More likely I fear it will create a horrible bureaucracy that muzzles the lookouts and locks the rudder.
Most of us here see trouble coming for Europe, independent of the constitution. You MUST be able to adjust in order to deal with it.
Given time, the democratic process might sort out the bureaucracy... might. I don't think you'll have time, though.
#12
The western civilization that Aris say would be defended by the EU is the civilization who gave the world ideas like Democracy or Freedom of Expression. Westerners have gone to battle in ships called "Constitution" or "Parhesia" (the right to say what you want). In the EU there are sharp and growing sharper restrictions to Freeddom of Expression (cf the growing number of hate speech laws). We also have the EU paying people (with public money) for influencing public opinion, newspapers who firmly lock away any experssion of dissent with the EU.
And don't forget about those little differences between the American constitution and the projected EU one: "We, the people of the United States" versus "The King of Belgians, the Grand Duque of Luxembourg, the President of the Czech Republic... have designated the following plenipotentiaries". Ie nobody elected the people who made the Constitution. I wasn't asked if I wanted Gicard, that pompous, corrupt and blood-stained ex-president as my representative.
But the people will be asked by referendum isn't it? Except that there are massive tax-payer funded propaganda campaigns for the "Yes" (and, at least in the case of Spain this is completely illegal), except that there is huge pressure for the "Yes": "If you vote NO it will destroy nthe EU", except that everything is done to keep the people uninformed: in Spain the text of the Constitution will be published just two days before the referendum. Did I mention that the Spanish Minister of Justice has said: "There is no need to read it in order to know it is good"? Did I mention that it cannot be amended for twenty years, ie the people will have itrs right of amendment restricted for twenty years?
That is the spirit of Europe: a constitution made by unelected people and forced down upon the throats of people through brain-washing, intimidation and ignorance. And jusyt in case the pople could awake it is made non-amendable.
The EU has no relation with those Athenians who manned the trireme "Parhesia" at Salamina. If any, it is the spiritual child of the Persian Empire.
#13
ones like the EU that (unlike NATO) actually gives a damn about democracy and human rights, the virtues that make our civilisation our civilisation. The organization that in the last 15 years has done the most in encouraging the growth of said democracy and human rights in the whole of Eastern Europe.
As in, say, the heroic efforts of the EU in Bosnia and Kosovo, right???
#14
LOL Aris - that's just Grate! Why, you almost sound upset! You've said yourself plenty of times that you'd like the UK to leave the EU. This news should make your weekend.
A few comments: i) It's YouGov, which is internet-only. Respondents don't comprise a good representation of the electorate at large. ii) Internet users tend to be better informed than non-internet users (and, to use the EU's own logic - more sympathetically inclined towards the draft Constitution than the general public, ha ha ha). iii) There's still a year or more to go until the referendum is actually held, which leaves plenty of time for the Government and the EU's propaganda machines to work on voters. iv) There's also a very high chance that one of the other countries due to hold a referendum on the Constitution will vote 'No' before we get the chance (e.g. France). That would be most annoying, and is also the scenario that our own Government no doubt hopes will happen. In that case the Constitution would go back to the drawing board and the British public wouldn't have had a say on the project.
#16
Bulldog> You've said yourself plenty of times that you'd like the UK to leave the EU. This news should make your weekend.
Yeah, too bad that this vote is about the constitution, not about the UK leaving the EU.
After the UK did its utmost to impose a sucky watered down constitution on the rest of us, now it'll use a negative vote NOT to leave, but rather to water the constitution down some more.
Yes, I'd rather see one nation leave, rather than see a union of 25 be destroyed by the saboteur actions of one. The ideal would be to have UK voluntarily stay as a non-saboteur, but once again we can't have ideal solutions in the real world.
As in, say, the heroic efforts of the EU in Bosnia and Kosovo, right??? Pfah.
Once again, read last few years' Freedomhouse reports on eastern European nations, why don't you? Scared what you might discover if you actually investigated some facts?
Dishman> More likely I fear it will create a horrible bureaucracy that muzzles the lookouts and locks the rudder. Most of us here see trouble coming for Europe, independent of the constitution.
The constitution increases the democratic functioning of the Union and its functioning in general. It allows easier cooperation of the EU in foreign policy matters, but at the same time it forces no nation to go along with any policy it doesn't want.
Basically, we've gotten scorn for 228 years.
Well let's ignore for the moment centuries past and let's focus on the present. Ooh, you get "scorn" from Europeans. Poor little yous.
Well get over it: From people in Middle East you've recently gotten the Twin Towers down instead, from China you have threats against Taiwan, from Russia you have missiles sent to Syria and nuke technology to Iran.
If the worst thing you get from Europe is "scorn", then you have it lucky. We've gotten no less from you.
And as a sidenote what about all that gratitude you people occasionally claim towards the Polish that supported you and sent troops to Iraq? Towards the Czechs, towards the Hungarians, towards all that "New Europe"? "We will not forget it, you said" And yet you do.
Now grow up. all of you, and start supporting the EU as one of the most valuable organizations that exist for the survival of our Western civilisation. If I wanted the US dissolved into its constituent states, that'd be as foolish as what you people are doing -- namely not understanding that disunity will lead to our destruction.
#17
I think the problem with the EU Constitution is that the Eurostanis have decided to write in the CFR with all the addendant bureaucratic mazes before having a basic understanding of what a constitution should do, which is as little as possible.
#18
BD - obviously you are ignorant or you would be in favor of turning over your country's sovereignty to the enlightend minds in Brussels.
While your caveats about the YouGov survey are noteworthy, the results appear to track with the other tea leafs that indicate a plurality opposed to the EU constitution. If you have a better study, let's see it.
It's continues to amaze that any country would turn over the soverneity keys to the EU bureaucrats.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 9:38
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#19
Duke Nukem> Let Bulldog alone. His nation is the only one in the EU which seems undemocratic enough that its people supposedly don't want to be part of the EU but nonetheless they are.
In the rest of the continent, the majority desire their membership, you see. As such we can probably not understand the frustration that the British are feeling, we people living in free nations.
It's continues to amaze that any country would turn over the soverneity keys to the EU bureaucrats.
MEEEE! It's all about MEEEE! My ego neeeeeeds maintenance!
Posted by: Its all about ME ||
01/29/2005 10:32
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#21
those awful ignorant Brits! Why if they'd just listen to Aris their betters they do as they're told
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 10:34
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#22
Wow, Aris....what's with the venom today? Bad ouzo last night at the taverna?
And, yeah, goofy little me tends to think that NATO did a better job of insuring at least part of Europe's freedom....if for no other reason without it you wouldn't even have a EU. Is it perfect? Hell no, but then again, neither is your beloved EU.
#23
Now grow up. all of you, and start supporting the EU as one of the most valuable organizations that exist for the survival of our Western civilisation.
Drama queen.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2005 10:45
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#24
If the majority of Brits are against EU constitution, then the majory of Brits are deluded---and must be ignored, for now (they'll have to be reeducated later).
#26
sure Aris, and the EU prevents tooth decay as well. NATO is dead and the EU will follow. At least you'll always have half of Cyprus....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 10:57
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#27
Aris, "the survival of Western civilisation" (#6) will certainly not be assured by either your verbose EU constitution or your verbose self. Bloated bureaucracy is hardly a survival tool.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 11:00
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#28
Bloated bureaucracy is hardly a survival tool
except as a flotation device in case you have to ditch
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 11:04
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#29
Ok, it's official....I give up.
It was kind of fun, for a while.
Sorry for wasting your bandwidth, Fred. I'll go atone at the tipjar.
#30
I'm not playing games, Tom & Frank, unlike you. I'm deadly serious. As for my "verbose EU constitution", no it won't assure it. But it'll do a far better job at it than the *current* verbose EU treaties. For starters it'll allow UK to secede from the EU peacefully, without needing to either violate nor renegotiate the treaties it has already accepted.
Frank, once again, if you don't believe me on Turkey, check what Freedom house has to say on the issue. You don't need to take my word on it.
Posted by: Its all about ME ||
01/29/2005 11:20
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#32
If the worst thing you get from Europe is "scorn", then you have it lucky. We've gotten no less from you.--
No Aris, you got our our treasure - our men, blood and our money. 2x. Those crosses aren't there for nothing.
You get our scorn now because of this wonderful invention of Al Gore's. You're finally getting back a little of what's been dished out for a couple of centuries.
Our papers aren't filled w/a smidgeon of the venom coming from your side.
#33
I love how the people of the UK choosing not to want to be under the EU's Articles of Fealty Constitution makes them "undemocratic."
Sounds downright... Soviet.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/29/2005 14:35
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#34
'But it's not NATO that's improved Turkey's democracy and human rights situation. That's the EU's influence.' -- eh ?? Its the will of the Turkish , not some Eurocrat outsiders . Once Turkey came out of the dark ages , and folk found a way of life that could work , they voted on it . With that , slowly and surely , came a better life for all Turks . Ask your Dad Aris , perhaps he can remember .
#35
I love how the people of the UK choosing not to want to be under the EU's Articles of Fealty Constitution makes them "undemocratic"
Really? Who said that?
Read more carefully next time.
MacNails> Its the will of the Turkish, not some Eurocrat outsiders.
Yeah, it was the will of the "Turkish" to become acceptable by the European Union, according to the standards for human rights that the European Union has set.
"One area that has seen real change is Turkey's human rights practices. For example, the EU has always been insistent that the use of torture by the police must be eradicated. It has been a slow process that has had to force changes not just to laws but to entrenched thinking. I remember being told a story five or six years ago about a Turkish human rights activist who returned back to Turkey after a number of years abroad. Apparently, she felt that things were improving in the country and that it was now safe enough for her to work from within. Anyway, not long after arriving back her flat was broken into. She reported it to the police. No arrest was made. A while later it happened again. She went back to the police to report it and see if there had been any headway with the investigation on the previous case. The policeman told her that the police were finding it increasingly hard to deal with crime as the EU had demanded that they now 'respect' prisoners' rights. 'What can we do when faced with these restrictions from Europe?', he asked. The human rights activist, appalled at the comment, decided that there was no hope for her country. She packed her things and left. Six years later, there are still problems, but most observers agree that under the watchful eye of the EU, and with the continued lure of EU membership, there have been real improvements."
One day, the nice people of Rantburg will be brave enough to say "Thank you EU, for bringing Turkey closer to Western civilisation and distancing it from the Middle East, the way NATO never managed."
#37
Does this mean that you EU guys are planning to use "the continued lure of EU membership" on Turkey indefinitely?
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 15:35
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#38
" One day, the nice people of Rantburg will be brave enough to say "Thank you EU, for bringing Turkey closer to Western civilisation and distancing it from the Middle East, the way NATO never managed.
I thought NATO was a military assistance Treaty Organization between member nations of Europe and the USA, as a bulwark, a combined command structure to oppose the Warsaw pact, one which had actually zero impact of human right policy, as should have been.
Or maybe Aris is trying to mix concepts up, so he can spin them any way he wants?
" One day, the nice people of Rantburg will be brave enough to say "Thank you EU, for bringing Turkey closer to Western civilisation and distancing it from the Middle East,
#39
I thought NATO was a military assistance Treaty Organization between member nations of Europe and the USA, as a bulwark, a combined command structure to oppose the Warsaw pact, one which had actually zero impact of human right policy, as should have been
As should have been? Thank you, you made my point.
Or maybe Aris is trying to mix concepts up, so he can spin them any way he wants?
EU cares about human rights, freedom, democracy. In NATO these things were incidental - examples of Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey. My point again.
#40
whatever Aris :) We could dissect your bull all day long and not get any closer to enlightening you . TUrkey wanted to join EU > dictated by a general consensus or the population of Turkey . The EU has laws and regualtions which , being a backward state that you WERE ,you needed to ,at least, acheive before your Application was accepted by majority of the nations in the EU .
Anyway , am off out for a game of poker with some friends , of which one is TURKISH !
#41
Does this mean that you EU guys are planning to use "the continued lure of EU membership" on Turkey indefinitely?
"We EU guys" hold a dozen different opinions on Turkish membership and what should be done about it.
As a sidenote, another good about the Constitution is that (for the first time I believe) it allows the possibility for member-states to have their participation partially suspended they start violating the basic principles of the EU.
#44
Perhaps MacNails confuses you with Murat. It would be easy to do.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 16:06
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#45
One day, the nice people of Rantburg will be brave enough to say "Thank you EU, for bringing Turkey closer to Western civilisation and distancing it from the Middle East, the way NATO never managed."
Talk to us when Europe gets them to cop to the Armenian genocide, rather than caving into their demands to cover it up.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2005 16:08
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#47
"'We EU guys' hold a dozen different opinions on Turkish membership and what should be done about it."
Decisive bunch, aren't you! And if we had an alliance and needed your help, how many years would it take you to reach a decision? Oh, wait, that sounds a lot like how the UN "handled" Saddam, doesn't it?
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 16:13
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#50
Talk to us when Europe gets them to cop to the Armenian genocide, rather than caving into their demands to cover it up.
MMmmm. It may be sooner than you think, that one. If and when it happens and I refresh your memory concerning, what will you do in return? Will you acknowledge your error?
Turkey should Acknowledge Armenian Genocide says European Parliament
http://www.europaworld.org/issue10/turkshldacknowlarmeniangenoc241100.htm
European Parliament Calls On Turkey To Explicitly Recognize The Armenian Genocide
http://www.armeniaforeignministry.com/news/inthenews/041215_europe_genocide.html
That one is just last month. Hmm, yeah Europe seems to be caving into their demands to cover it up alright.
http://globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=319
"At the end of December, the Foreign Minister of Turkey, Abdullah Gul, met MPs and stated, in particular, the following: the issue of admission to the EU comes to that of recognition of the Armenian Genocide."
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 16:21
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#52
Boy, Aris, you should be reading Rantburg *today*:
Thread: "Turks Force Erasure of Armenian Genocide from German Textbook"
"Pressure from Turkey has resulted in the removal of a reference to the Armenian genocide from a German school curriculum, reports said Wednesday..."
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 16:25
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#53
Decisive bunch, aren't you!
Perhaps where you live, "you USA people" have a single opinion. Here, where people are still free, 400 millions Europeans have 400 million different opinions on the issues.
So I can't tell you what "we EU people" plan to do about Turkish membership.
And if we had an alliance and needed your help, how many years would it take you to reach a decision?
Well that kinda depends on the process that our treaties or Constitution would command before decision-making, wouldn't it? If you want speedier decisions, support it -- it's a step in the right direction, allowing much more flexible and quick decision-making.
#55
So, to sum it up, your position seems to be: "We nations in the EU don't have a single position, can't reach decisions, and edit our textbooks to Turkish taste, so you in the US should make alliances with us and treat us as equals because we are cleaning up Turkey using our never-ending chance-at-membership lure." Okay.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 16:36
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#56
I'm tired of your games, Tom. You are intentionally ignorant and you will remain such.
You accuse us for not reaching decisions? That's kinda what most of the point of the Constitution is, making Europe more able to reach decisions by removing veto from a wide range of issues?
Oops, but I guess you didn't know that one either. Never mind. Every single word you say accusing Europe for not "reaching decisions" is in fact a word in support of the Constitution -- you are simply too much of an idiot to know it.
Thank you for supporting the Constitution so eloquently.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 16:54
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#58
Re #55 (Tom): so you in the US should make alliances with us and treat us as equals
I don't understand your point, Tom. The USA is in a military alliance, NATO. We treat our European allies as allies. What do you think should be done differently?
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/29/2005 17:03
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#59
treat them as they are: some are back-stabbing assholes (France and Schroeder) who would undermine us for their own gain while hiding under the protective wing America provides. Any answers you have, Mike? Or just rhetorical question bullshit as usual?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 17:18
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#60
Any answers you have, Mike?
Not for you. Ever.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/29/2005 17:24
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#61
haven't seen you provide any for anyone else, either, just the patented MS rhetorical: "and what would you have done differently?"â¢
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 17:25
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#62
Frank, he does not have any, but instead of admitting it, he resorts to childish postures.
#66
The textbook thing no longer stands. Armenian genocide will stay in the books... the topic "genocide" will be enlarged though to include other examples (like the killing of the Hereros by German colonial forces).
Are they going to wake up and do something about the society that produces this sort of thing? Or are they just going to write it off as an aberration? My guess is the latter...
The grisly slaying this week of a 13-year-old Kuwaiti girl by her father as her siblings watched has sent shockwaves across the emirate. The father, a 38-year-old government employee identified as Adnan Al-Enezi, killed his daughter, Asma, because he thought she was not a virgin. Forensic examinations later proved his suspicions false. Al-Enezi has confessed to murdering his eldest daughter for "improper" behavior. The public prosecutor was investigating the mental health of Al-Enezi before filing charges.
He's a nut, but not that kind of a nut...
The man blindfolded and handcuffed the child before committing the crime late Tuesday as she begged for her life, Al-Rai Al-Aam reported. After slashing the girl's throat a first time, the father then used a sharper blade as his daughter screamed in pain, bleeding, as her two brothers and a sister were forced to watch, the daily added.
This was his child? I used to feel bad when I spanked my kids...
According to press reports, Al-Enezi was separated from his wife two months ago. During the investigation, Al-Enezi told police that he was jailed in Saudi Arabia for 18 months for his extremist activities before he returned to Kuwait a year ago.
That probably had more to do with it than being separated from his wife.
He also said that he had established relations with militants, such as Jaber Al-Jalahema and Fouad Al-Rifae, and expressed his support for jihad.
So it was really a very wahhabi thing to do...
"The murder report was the talk of the town in Kuwait especially after people learned that forensic tests proved the girl was still a virgin and that she had not suffered any sexual assault," Al-Arabiya channel reported.
What if she hadn't been a virgin? Would she have still deserved to be slaughtered like a sheep?
"I was shocked when I saw documents presented by the girl's uncle showing that she had won an award for the memorization of Qur'an and excellence in studies," said Osama Al-Manawer, an attorney who described the murder as appalling. The girl's mother had also won a best mother prize for bringing up her children, including the slain girl, in the right manner and in accordance with Islamic teachings. "What frightens me most is the mere knowledge that the killer of this good girl was her own father," the lawyer said.
Just think of him as maybe a little more devout than most...
Kuwait's Al-Qabas Arabic daily reported the man committed the crime while he was mentally sound. "He has been answering queries of investigators without expressing any regret. He was found eating food greedily during the investigation," the daily reported, quoting security sources. The man had taken leave from a government department to complete his higher studies in Jordan, one report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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But I want to win Best Mother prize, too.
On second thought, never mind. It looks like a lot of work, helping all the kidlings memorize the Qur'an and behave in the right manner and all.
#7
Well in the Religion of Peace all would be forgiven if she had not had her virginity intract. Women are after all just breeding stock and property in the religion of allen.
Posted by: SPOD ||
01/29/2005 22:39
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#8
Please stop calling it the Religion of Peace.
"Islam" translates closest as "submission", not "peace".
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 22:48
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#9
I posted the first articles about this, hoping some CAIR/Arab League/Pseudo Islamic Org would jump to condemn this behavior - to date NONE HAVE. I'm so F*&king sick of this death cult demanding "understanding" that I might just make the next press relese - EXCEPT for the fact I have children to properly raise. I feel like doing a Dean yell! Aggghhhh
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 22:50
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Chief of the banned militant organisation Jamiatul Ansar (former Herkat-ul-Mujahideen), Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, resigned from the top slot of the organisation because of government pressure and health reasons. "Khalil submitted his resignation at a meeting of the executive committee of the organisation and asked the committee to elect a new chief," sources said, adding that Maulana Badar Munir from Karachi had been elected new chief of the organisation.
Even though they're "defunct."
"The pressure from the government on the militant organisation is one of the major reasons behind Khalil's resignation," sources said. They also said that this was the first phase of the government's new policy to exert pressure on militant organisations in order to dethrone their popular leaders. "Eight months in detention by security agencies took its toll on his health, leaving him unable to run the organisation capably," sources said.
My heart bleeds... No. Wait. That's the chili.
They said Khalil had been detained in a seven by seven foot cell along with another militant.
"He was a very large, very horny man with a turban, named Big Mahmoud. They let Khalil go after Big Mahmoud died of exhaustion."
During the eight months, he was detained in Islamabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi, they added. "Khalil is also suffering from peptic ulcers and some massive hemorrhoids, which exacerbated during his detention. The detention also affected his memory," sources said, adding that Khalil had also lost 50 percent of his bodyweight.
"Khalil, as a result of your experiences have you suffered any memory loss?"
"Why do you ask? Who're you? Have we been introduced?"
"It's me, your Mom."
"Oh. Yeah. Hi, Mom. Say, where's the Preparation H?"
"His sight has also weakened as he was kept under powerful lights all day long," the sources said.
"He also seems to have grown hair on his palms."
They observed that security agencies had arrested Khalil on May 20, 2004 from his residence but his detention was disclosed in August after the arrest of Qari Saifullah Akhtar from Dubai. "The security agencies of the country investigated Khalil over the last eight months on allegations that he was involved in sending militants to Afghanistan," sources maintained. "The second major allegation on Khalil was that some militants involved in the suicide attempt on President General Pervez Musharraf in Rawalpindi in December 2003 belonged to his organisation," sources said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Didn't the guy in the photo have a famous hit song: The Devil Went Down To Islamabad?
Now, keep in mind who these "ghost" prisoners are...
The official wall of silence surrounding the Central Intelligence Agency's so-called "ghost prisoners" who are being held at secret locations has sparked legal concerns here among human rights groups that denounce the practice as abusive. It is not publicly known exactly how many ghost detainees the CIA is holding, who they are or where they are held, but senior Al-Qaeda figures are known to be among their ranks, including Ramzi Bin Al-Shibah and Ron JeremyKhalid Sheikh Mohammed. Bin Al-Shibah is one of the presumed coordinators behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, while Khalid Sheikh was Al-Qaeda's third highest ranking member prior to his arrest.
And the warm milk set is worried about their "human rights."
"Ghost prisoners have had their identities and locations withheld from relatives, the International Red Cross and even (the US) Congress," according to US human rights lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Although the US spy agency does not disclose where it is holding its ghost detainees, several locations have been leaked to the US media: Bagram air base in Afghanistan, the remote island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, and in a restricted zone at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Or the bottom of the Marianas Trench...
The ghost prisoners at Guantanamo are not kept in the same area as the hundreds of war on terror detainees held there by Washington whose detentions are a matter of public record. "The Bush administration has not wanted to prosecute them (the ghost detainees) because it wanted to interrogate them, and frankly to be able to torture them, or 'coercively interrogate them,' as they say," Kenneth Roth, a director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said.
If they need some help, I'm available. But I imagine there's a lot more giggle juice involved than being stretched on the rack...
The anal sedatives will kick in real soon now.
"Unless we can get access to information about who these people are and where they are being held, they will remain completely vulnerable to abuse and even torture," said Rachel Meeropol, a CCR lawyer.
Sounds real good to me...
"Vulnerabilty" is not a trait I typically ascribe to al-Q bigs...
The CCR delivered an official request to the US government in December, based upon a US freedom of information law, seeking the identities of the CIA prisoners, which also sought where they were being held and under what conditions. "We have not received any document yet," Meeropol said of the request. However, she said the Justice Department had sent CCR a response indicating that its request would be evaluated on an urgent basis. Despite this, the rights' lawyer is not holding her breath.
That's too bad...
"I think this is a case that we will likely have to litigate... to really get access to these documents."
But naturally. Coincidentally, she'll get her name in the papers and feel a sense of self-worth for a brief period.
According to Meeropol, the cases of "ghost prisoners" are particularly hard to crack. "It is really hard. If you don't know who the people are that are being held, and you don't know how to get in touch with their family members, how to get authorization to represent them, that insulates the government actions from the (legal) review," Meeropol said. "That is part of the problem with the secrecy" cloaking the CIA detentions, she said. However, she said the CCR's information request was a first step, and that it may well be followed up by a lawsuit.
Which Constitutional rights does KSM have, exactly?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Barkeep, a round of menstrual blood for all me terroris ghost buddies. Set 'em up, will ya.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 0:23
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#2
I am quite certain I don't really want to know, but tell me anyway, please: what are these anal sedatives you keep mentioning?
BTW, whatever you do, DON'T Google the words "anal sedative".
At least not before breakfast.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/29/2005 10:38
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#8
Emily: please? No more "Giggle juice" and "anal sedatives" in adjacent comments? Makes me queasy thinking about the girlish giggling "I can't feel my asshole, tee hee"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 10:47
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#9
Sobiesky---That is what I said, Flight Level 25000 feet. These guys are scum. We should never have let ANYONE near the Gitmo Guyz.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/29/2005 13:19
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#10
KSM would make a nice mohair carpet.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 14:50
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#11
I remember that thread now. Thanks, Mike K.! I thought that perhaps they were some kind of special sedative for the anus (ick). I've no trouble with this -- in Germany that's how they give Tylenol to small children. It doesn't irritate their little stomachs and make them vomit the meds back up, you see.
#12
If the CIA is holding top Al Qaeda guys responsible for 911, torturing them and not telling anyone where they are, that does raise a serious human rights concern, namely: when do us ordinary folks get our chance at the bastards? I'm sure the CIA guys are doing a very professional job of it, but I suspect the widows and widowers from 911 could come up with some small way of increasing KSM's discomfort, possibly involving a blowtorch.
So, we should all write our Congressional representatives and ask them to pass the "Equal Rights to Torture Islamist Scumbags Act of 2005." Maybe the ACLU would help.
Posted by: Matt ||
01/29/2005 16:14
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#13
The guy obviously needs an Extreme Makeover. Drop him on Hollywood.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 16:18
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#14
I think it's time to open a new front in the war on terrorism. We need to declare war on all the bleeding heart liberals, moonbats, nutjobs, idiots and traitorous scum that feel that the enemies of the United States and of freedom deserve more rights than anyone else. I propose they be treated just as the islamonutcases treat their enemies - car bombs (remote-controlled instead of suicide), beheadings, knifings, and the really wonderful cutting off of the left hand (after seriously pounding the right hand into hamburger - without anesthetic) of anyone caught aiding and abeting the enemies of freedom and truth. We have a nation full of them, but they do tend to clump together into colonies, so that makes it easier. If nothing else, it's sure to start a real estate boom.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/29/2005 16:43
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Protestors were carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans Go Musharraf Go, establish the rule of law, restore religion column in passport, stop "army operation" in the NWFP and Balochistan, etc. Prof Ghafoor Ahmed, deputy chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), accused President Musharraf of establishing one-man rule in the country, saying it had harmed vital national institutions.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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#1
Don't these people know how to make fists? Leaving the thumb sticking up like that is almost as ideal as tucking it under the fingers if you want it to be broken the first time you try to punch. (I just knew all those white belts would come in handy some day!)
#3
accused President Musharraf of establishing one-man rule in the country
Really? You must be kidding, no way, not the mush. He's so sweet looking everytime he speaks in his little military costume.
In another step toward a truce with the Palestinians, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is slated to meet with former PA security minister and senior Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan on Saturday evening to discuss the Palestinian Authority's request for security control over certain West Bank towns. The defense establishment has already expressed its inclination to consent to such applications, yet has stressed that the process would be gradual and would depend of the maintenance of quiet in the areas, Army Radio reported.
In a major policy reversal after more than four years of fighting, IDF Chief of General Staff Moshe Ya'alon ordered the army on Friday to reduce offensive operations in the Gaza Strip to a minimum in order to enable PA forces to carry out their mission. According to an Israel Radio report, the IDF will halt all offensive missions in areas where Palestinian policemen have deployed to prevent the launchings of Kassam rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel and Gaza settlements.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Hope For The Best ! Get help from The UN , too ! HELLO , WORLD ! Let's Give Peace A Chance !
Senior Indonesian officials and separatist rebels have met to discuss reconstruction of the tsunami-devastated region of Aceh. Leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), fighting for the region's independence for three decades, and Indonesian officials held talks for the first time in two years in Helsinki, Finland, on Friday. United in grief, both sides discussed how to work together to rebuild after the 26 December disaster in which 230,000 Acehnese died or went missing. Malik Mahmud, prime minister of GAM's government-in-exile, which has been based in Stockholm since the struggle began in 1976, said he was pleased by the talks. "Everything is going good. At the moment I cannot reveal the content. I am happy," he said after 12 hours of talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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A US army reservist accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners has agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges as part of a deal with military prosecutors, his attorney says. Sergeant Javal Davis, formerly of Roselle, New Jersey, had faced up to 8 1/2 years in prison and a dishonourable discharge on three charges connected with the maltreatment of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. "There is a pretrial agreement," said attorney Paul Bergrin on Thursday. Under the deal, he will be charged with simple assault and rendering false official statements, Bergrin said. He declined to comment on what penalties Davis now faced. Davis, 26, was scheduled to face a court martial in Fort Hood, Texas, next Tuesday. He faced charges including maltreating detainees, dereliction of duty and assaulting prisoners by stomping on the toes and fingers of Iraqi inmates.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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The French embassy in Kuwait has advised its citizens in the Gulf state to avoid shopping malls and to move around only when necessary after clashes between suspected insurgents and security forces, sources said. The embassy contacted its wardens asking them to convey the new warning to French nationals, the sources said, adding that the advice was precautionary and not based on any specific threat. Two Kuwaiti security officers were killed and four others wounded in two gun fights with suspected insurgents on 10 and 15 January. Two suspects, including a Saudi, were also killed in the clashes. Threat The French warning followed an advisory from the US embassy on Thursday warning of the danger of more unrest, saying residential complexes for Westerners could be targeted.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Wonder if this is what they want to do with their industrial park?
Palestinian insurgents have been developing components for the production of car bombs. Israeli military sources said the components were developed and produced by Palestinian insurgency groups in the northern West Bank. The sources said the components were meant to enhance car and other bombs for attacks in Israel. Fatah was said to have led the effort to develop car bombs in the West Bank. The sources said Hizbullah provided the funding and expertise for the production of the car bombs.
And who knows car bombs better than Hezbollah?
Hizbullah was said to have provided 80 percent of the funding for insurgency cells in the northern West Bank. A senior Fatah operative, identified as Majdi Mohammed Merai, was said to have been responsible for the production of car doors meant to explode when opened. The sources said Merai, killed in a November 2004 military operation in Nablus, manufactured the booby-trapped car doors in August 2004. They said the doors were meant to have been used in an attack in Tel Aviv.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Let us hope Palestine becomes an country founded by Common Grounds Of Peaceful Diplomacy ! That is , instead of Car Bombs , they'll , make cars to export without resorting to violence ! We'll gladly drive an Fatah , Jihad , anytime ! Cars , That is , folks !!! C'mon , General Motors ! Help Them , TOO, Prosperity !
U.S. officials said the Defense Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have determined that the stability of Saudi Arabia would be a priority over this year. They said Saudi stability and improved U.S. relations with Riyad were vital for Gulf regional security and American interests in the Middle East. The U.S. agenda has been relayed to Saudi Arabia by both the Pentagon and military. Officials said that over the next few months the Bush administration would seek to accelerate efforts to improve military and security cooperation with Riyad.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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#1
"The U.S. agenda has been relayed to Saudi Arabia by both the Pentagon and military."
The Department of Redundancy Department was also involved...
I hope not. I hope that we learned our lessons in dealing with the Royals. They cannot be trusted.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/29/2005 0:45
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A major source of instability worldwide is Saudi money flowing into Wahabi missionary activity. Cut off Saudi money by relieving them of their oil assets. Give Mecca and Medina back to the king of Jordan, and boot the House of Saud.
#8
I'd like us to "stabalize" the oil fields. (And the Shias living in that area get the oil money, not us, of course.)
To hell with the rest of the country. Let them rot.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 11:05
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#9
Guess they read Woosley's report.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/29/2005 11:14
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US been stabilizing Saudia for 40 year, before that GB been stabilizing Saudia for 40 years. Maybe, just maybe, it would've been cheaper to buy "expensive" oil from elsewhere?
#11
I'd prefer a Saudi Arabia so unstable you can't get any oil out. Ever. That would mean no money for the wahabi outreach program. Let them go back to the desert and slice each other's throats.
Good piece in the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago by Peter Huber pointing out that the supply of oil is for all practical purposes limitless. Alberta alone has known reserves locked up in tar sands good for another 100 years of global consumption at current rates. You can get that oil out for about $15/barrel. What prevents the investment to ramp up new production sources like this is the threat that the Saudi's can open the spigot on easy to refine oil that comes out of the ground at $2-$3/barrel. Huber contends that we won't see oil over $100 a barrel over the long haul under any circumstance. $100/barrel wouldn't kill us. We'd adjust pretty quickly, though the short term disruption could be a bear.
Nice to know the strategic petroleum reserve is just about full now. Gives a nation options...
Sudanese officials prevented African Union monitors from investigating reports Khartoum had bombed villages in Darfur this week in violation of a cease-fire to deal with rebels, an African Union source said yesterday.
Comes as a surprise, huh?
Sources in Sudan's aid community said on Thursday the government had bombed Al-Malam on the border between North and South Darfur, where the government says rebels killed dozens of people this week. The rebels deny the charges. "AU observers in Darfur were denied access to investigate the death and damage caused by aerial bombings," the African Union source told Reuters at the organization's headquarters in Addis Ababa. The source said there was also a report from AU observers in Darfur that they had heard of bombing in the El-Fasher and Nyala areas this week and that violence in Darfur seemed to be intensifying.
Well, sure. All those black guys aren't dead yet...
"The Darfur situation is getting very serious. All AU reports indicate that the situation in Darfur has been worsening since the beginning of January," he said. The Sudanese government says that although the cease-fire signed last April bans bombing it does not prohibit the government from sending its planes on reconnaissance missions over Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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The new chief of the ruling Fatah movement has sought an alliance with Hamas in an effort to pressure the new Palestinian leadership. A report by an Israeli think tank asserted that Fatah chief Farouk Khaddoumi has been preparing to establish an alliance against the Palestinian Authority. The report said the alliance would include Hamas and Islamic Jihad. "Arafat's Tunis-based, hardline successor as Fatah leader, is striving to form a new center of influence with the cooperation of radical Palestinian factions -- including the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leadership abroad -- in order to serve as a watchdog on the elected leadership," the report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs said. The center, in a report authored by [Res.] Lt. Col. Jonathan Halevi, said Khaddoumi represents a challenge to the new Palestinian leadership in the aftermath of the death of PA Chairman Yasser Arafat. That leadership has been composed of PLO and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and PA Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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I'm beginning to believe that the best thing to happen would be for the Paleos to battle it out between themselves. Once done, whenever that is, the situation can then be evaluated as to the best way to proceed.
Ehud Olmert, Israeli deputy prime minister and trade minister, said yesterday he was prepared to turn the Erez industrial park, which straddles the boundary between Israel and the Gaza Strip, into an autonomous Palestinian industrial area. "We are ready to immediately engage in making a deal with the Palestinians about the Erez industrial park in Gaza, which may become the basis for an independent industry in Gaza, of the Palestinians and for the Palestinians," Olmert told the World Economic Forum taking place in this ski resort. "In my capacity as minister of trade and industry, I'm ready to immediately engage in a series of contacts in order to work together with my counterparts on the Palestinian side," he said.
In Israel, the army chief of staff said yesterday that the park, which lies on a strip of land between Israel and Gaza, would be reopened next week and that workers would be able to resume their jobs. Erez is officially open but not active because thousands of Palestinian workers have been barred from entering since a suicide attack at the beginning of the year. Israeli owners of businesses there are able to enter, however, as are Palestinian owners aged over 30.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Any bets there'll be a preponderance of 'metal-working shops' in a few months?
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the proposed sale of surface-to-air missiles to Syria was still under discussion despite U.S. and Israeli opposition, in an interview published here Friday. Putin told the English language Jerusalem Post that Russia would never upset the Middle East's regional balance but said any sale of the controversial anti-aircraft missiles could be allowed for "defensive purposes." "While we're talking about supplies of weapons to countries in the region, such a supply should be understood in the light of supporting defensive capacities, as in Syria," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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A police surgeon in Karachi has confirmed in her medical report that Dr Shazia Khalid was raped, according to the BBC Urdu Service. The police surgeon has written to the Sindh health secretary that Dr Khalid was raped at a hospital in Sui, according to BBC. The medical report identified eight wounds to Dr Shazia's body. Nasirabad district police chief Ghulam Muhammad Dogar brought the lady doctor to Civil Hospital, Karachi, saying she was sexually abused on January 13. Medical Officer Rohina Hassan admitted Dr Shazia to the hospital and examined her, according to BBC.
Online adds: Three senior Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) officials have been arrested in Sibi in connection with the gang rape of Dr Shazia, police said on Friday. Naseerabad Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Ghulam Mehmood said the three officials — a Sui gas field manager, a chief medical officer and his deputy — were apprehended and presented before the Sibi sessions court on Friday morning for confirmation of interim bail. However, they were denied bail and arrested, he added. The three accused were named in the FIR registered by the female doctor, the DSP added. He said further investigations were being made. He also said the female doctor was currently in Karachi and under the government's protection.
That's because the jirga suggested she should be killed to avenge the honor of... ummm... somebody or other. It's the Pashtun thing to do. Meanwhile, the newlywed military officer who was originally named as the rapist would seem to be off the hook, which is a good thing for his feet.
Posted by: Fred ||
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To be fair, the lady doctor and the tribe that threatened to murder her are ethnic Sindhis. Moderate religous wise, unfortunately they are just as afflicted by tribalism and feudalism.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/29/2005 0:20
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Yeah , it's interesting ! Trial By Fire ! You walk on hot coals and blister wounds on feet ascertain the guilt compounded ! Well , what other Customs one think of this time ?! Joan Collins standing barefoot at Heathrow with 5 inches of barefeet ! Now , that is an oucher, if you're a poster child, for Barefoot Maniacs ! We hope justice is served on those there !! Not the Joan Caper ! Nice interesting toenails , Joan !!!
#4
Afaik the Pashtun thing to involves killing the raper. The beginning of the carreer of Mullah Omar involved rescuing two girls who had been kidnapped by a local warlord, hanging the bastard and bringing the girls to their families.
In most other parts of Muslim world they don't seem to have similar commitment to punishing rapers, only for killing the raped girls.
#5
The story is that Mullah Omar hanged a local warlord who had raped some boys, not girls.
If the warlord had raped some girls, then Mullah Omar would have hanged the girls, not the warlord.
Such is the will of Allan, as revealed to Muhammad (PBUH) by the Angel Gabriel.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester ||
01/29/2005 8:56
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I wouldn't swear that the girls weren't killed later by their families (like it would hgave happenned in Turkey) but they were girls not boys and in an unrelated case I can certify first hand that when they heard about a girl having beeen sentenced to be raped by a tribal tribunal in some part of Pakistan the reaction in a Pahstun internet forum was of uninamous repulsion: there were Afghans and Pakistani pashtuns, some were pro-taliban, some were for Pashtun law (those who say: we need no stinking sharia: this is Arab) and some were pro-democracy. Everyone was appalled
and I doubt anyone of them would have spared the perpetrators lives.
A six-member tribal clerics' jirga on Friday returned after meeting militant Baitullah Mehsud, but gave no details of daylong talks for the surrender of Abdullah Mehsud. A tribal source in Tank told Daily Times by phone that the tribal clerics had returned after the talks and held a closed-door meeting with South Waziristan Agency chief administrator Asmatullah Khan Gandapur. "The clerics are tight-lipped about their negotiations with the two militants," said the source who asked not to be named. "Secrecy is being kept about the talks."
The sources said the jirga accompanied by a 21-member peace committee was likely to hold another round of talks with the militants. Brig (r) Qayyum Sher, member of the committee, told Daily Times by phone from Dera Ismail Khan that Baitullah had asked the clerics to bring the committee members along because he wanted to resume talks with them. Baitullah told the clerics that he could not talk to them alone and demanded members of the peace committee representing various Mehsud tribes be part of the talks, the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Congress has been pressing the U.S. intelligence community to investigate claims by an Iranian defector that Teheran planned to crash an airliner into a nuclear reactor in the United States. Several members of Congress were said to have been alarmed by the information and one has met with CIA senior officials to press for an investigation. So far, the CIA has refused to question the Iranian defector, a former senior official in the 1970s. Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has met the unidentified defector several times in Paris over the last 22 months. Weldon said the defector has been accurate in predicting several important developments in the Iranian regime since February 2003. The developments were said to have included those in Iran's nuclear weapons programs and support for Al Qaida. The informant, dubbed Ali, was said to have been in contact with two dissidents in the inner circle of the Islamic republic. They were said to have reported a secret government directive by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei who presided over the nation's strategic weapons programs and financed and controlled groups deemed terrorists.
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#1
I'm speechless
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 0:38
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I've heard about this guy, or someone like him.
Since they don't listen, he's getting the word out any way he can.
#3
YES OF COURSE NOW WE ARE GOING TO READ A LOT ABOUT IRAN SO THAT THE USA-ISRAEL PLANNED OFFENSIVE ATTACKS ARE JUSTIFIED LIKE WE USED TO READ AND HEAR ABOUT IRAQ AND ITS THREATENING WEAPONS.
#5
WE ARE GOING TO READ A LOT ABOUT IRAN SO THAT THE USA-ISRAEL PLANNED OFFENSIVE ATTACKS ARE JUSTIFIED
Reading is one of the ways that we learn, Melika. It's good to read. It's even better to read something other than anti-American and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, as peddled by Le Monde and Liberation. But perhaps you have read somewhere that Iran's nuclear programme is a peaceful project? You shouldn't believe everything you read. The people who write such things are bad. They think you are stupid.
#6
But perhaps you have read somewhere that Iran's nuclear programme is a peaceful project? You shouldn't believe everything you read. The people who write such things are bad. They think you are stupid.
Could you tell me so Intelligent Bulldog what about the Israel nuclear programme- maybe you could indicate to me an intelligent source of learning-it should be of course in conformity of what the USA-ISRAEL want the world to know in spite of the eyes piercing realities- that Noble and Intelligent people could not deny Muslims are being attacked in every corner of the World-either verbally or physically- and always a good reason is found to justify the deeds - in fact they represent a potential enemy of Israel but Israel forgets it own history: Pharaon has slaughtered the Sons of Israel because of a premonitory dream that one of them will be the cause of his ruin- but as you know his dream was realised in spite of his precautions and thanks to his own care(he brought up Moses )
#8
Your noble and intelligent people are anti-Semites and liars, Melika.
Israel does not spout genocidal rhetoric like Iran and has never threatened to wage unprovoked and preemptive unilateral nuclear war on its neighbours. Iran's catchphrase "Death to America" and its constant threats against Israel, the US and the West in general do not lead genuinely noble and intelligent people to believe that nuclear weapons would be safe in the hand of such irresponsible, aggressive and ignorantly superstitious sociopaths as the Iranian mullahs. Iran currently is a barbaric terrorist state. As such it cannot be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.
Muslims are being attacked in every corner of the World
A total inversion of reality, moron. Tell me who was raping and murdering school children at Beslan. Tell me who cut the throats of innocent passengers and crew on the flights on 9/11 before using the aircraft to kill thousands more. Tell me who shoots Sudanese villagers from horseback in Darfur. Tell me who murders the critics of Islam, now, on the streets of Europe. Your Islam is despised and regarded as a bloody death cult by increasing numbers of people around the world. It turns its adherents into unthinking slaves and spreads itself through violence - which is why the majority of the world's terrorist organisations are commiting murder in the name of your Allah. It is neither intelligent nor noble to support or believe unquestioningly in a metamorphosed moon god and be part of a community responsible for so much human misery.
#9
Melika? Tool of the tyrants and anti-Jooooo. Thanks for your advice. I prefer self-preservation. FOAD
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 10:32
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#10
Melika is a city in Algeria. Nuff said.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 10:53
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#11
Melika honestly, you can't equate the Biblical benevolence of an Epyptian Pharoah to the modern political siuation. Israel has been attacked 3 times since 1948. Two of those times it was almost history for them. Nixon dismantled half the armor we had in Germany to prevent a Soviet invasion and sent it to Jooos while they hung on by their toenails. Muslims hate Jews and they long for the days of the gas chambers when Lutherans did their dirty work for them. I srael's denial of a nuclear program is laughable and the internment of Vananu is even more ridiculous. But look at it from this persepective - the nukes have not been a reason for Israel to try to destabilize the region, invade it's neighbors and set up Zionist Empires. They have been an effective deterrent so they can live their lives in Peace. Iran can't wait to get nukes so they can pound Israel to dust. Khomeini will take the counterstrike from Israel because he encourages his people to maytrdom anyhow. Let's get it right here - the Muslims are the bad guys and we are the good guys. It's clear cut, I don't understand this sympathy for people trying to kill us. Was Hitler not the enemy? How about Stalin or Mao - these people have an ideology which wants all those that don't toe the mark to be killed or converted. There is no free thought only their way or a ditch. Stop applying the freedoms that so many good Americans died to give us to people in the world that will use your freedom of thought against you. Nukes in the hands of mad men - they make movies about this stuff.
#14
that Noble and Intelligent people could not deny Muslims are being attacked in every corner of the World-either verbally or physically-
Ahhh, yes, they felt threatened on 9/11 because some were glared at.
We're Americans, you have any idea how tough it is to be one? Glared at is the least of our problems. It should be so easy.
And if they're so noble and intelligent, then they should have learned by now not to kill or threaten to kill US AND they should be turning them in to the authorities.
But....they're not so noble or intelligent yet.
It's easy, they stop attacking US, we stop attacking them.
A child understands consequences if corrected enough, yet they still don't get it.
#15
Melika...you would do well to take Bulldog's message to heart. Islam has lined up against the entire world and is headed for the Mother of All Smackdownsâ¢.
Also...do not fear the Lizard People. They do not dislike Moose-limbs. On the contrary - they consider them......savory.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/29/2005 11:38
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#16
Rex-
That's 'sssssssssssssssssavory...."
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/29/2005 19:22
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#17
There are two factors at work in many cultures: one is Islam, the other is Arab tribalism. Together they have, in many places, left people with both inflated pride and dangerously poor skills for coping in the modern world.
The result is an attitude like Melika's - that Muslims are being attacked around the world.
I haven't heard Melika write about the genocide by Muslims against black Christians and animists in the Sudan. I haven't heard Melika acknowledge that in the US Muslims are free to worship as they choose -- but that in most Muslim countries, Christians are either forbidden to worship openly or physically attacked and often killed.
Bulldog is right, Melika -- much as it may hurt your pride desperately to admit it. I've been in the Middle East and I've dealt with Arab men. They are dangerously out of touch, in many cases, with reality. Their demands that they be respected without EARNING that respect work at home, and perhaps in places like Holland -- but it won't work here. We fight back.
#18
I'm also speechless. Because of the dumbass story.... must have been 'planted' in the media. Wow! iran nuking the US. What a laugh. Another media spin. Like the weapons of mass destruction. Oh yeah, it was announced that the US had called off a search of them. Imagine!....
Libya is expected to unveil a vast reform program aimed at making a rigidly-controlled economy more market-friendly and open to privatization, Libyan officials said in an interview appearing Friday in the International Herald Tribune. "The old times are finished and Libya is ready to move onto a new stage of modernization," Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, told the paper.
Seif is Muammar's smarter son...
"This will be conducted in a well organized manner that ensures new ownership and ownership by the people of Libya, not just a small class of oligarchs like Russia or Egypt." The paper said that Western advisers, including university academics, business executives and economist Daniel Yergen, had been working with Libyan authorities who hoped to implement the reforms over the next two years. "These people are world experts," Gadhafi said. "There may be some reaction against them inside Libya, but they are the best." Added Abdulhafid Mahmoud Zlitni, chairman of Libya's National Planning Council: "They will study the structure of the civil service and find ways to streamline bureaucracy and reduce the number of employees."
Muammar's been working up to this for awhile, probably at Seif's urging. He has no idea how to go about it, of course, since he doesn't really have the concept of free markets down, nor, probably has he made the connection between a free economy and personal freedom. I imagine the initial results are going to look pretty bizarre, but I wish them luck.
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Maybe my eyes are going but doesn't Mama's topmost left ribbon look like a Presidential Unit Citation (with one device)? I suppose that rates higher than the "Jesus, Bush means business and will crush me like a bug" ribbon. Heh
Bangladesh's opposition Awami League yesterday called for a 72-hour nationwide strike from today to protest the killings of a top party leader and former Finance Minister A.M.S. Kibria and four other party workers in a bomb attack on Thursday. While three were killed on the spot at Habiganj, Kibria and another party worker succumbed to their injuries later. Awami League acting Joint Secretary Obaidul Qader announcing the shutdown said the opposition would take further action "if the government does not resign by this time." The Awami League gave the call as thousands of mourners attended funeral prayers for Kibria. The attack came just over a week before Dhaka hosts a summit of South Asian leaders. Kibria's widow Asma told reporters she did not expect to get justice for her slain husband. Asked about the perpetrators of the attack, she replied, "Better ask the alliance government," the private UNB agency quoted her as saying.
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Sudan's air force killed or wounded about 100 people and forced thousands to flee when it bombed a town in western Sudan this week, the UN has said. UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri quoted the African Union (AU) as saying Sudanese forces had bombed the Darfur town of Shangil Tobaya on Wednesday. "(The AU) said there are around 100 casualties. They are not talking about a specific death toll," she told Reuters in Cairo by telephone. The fighting had forced the UN to withdraw staff from the area, she said. "Whenever we have incidents like that we withdraw our people," she said. The AU is monitoring a shaky ceasefire signed in April between Sudanese government and rebels in the Darfur province.
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French President Jacques Chirac, who received on Friday Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, reiterated France's attachment to the full implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1559. "Chirac reiterated France's attachment to the full implementation of this resolution ... Therefore the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary elections are a crucial step that will be closely watched by the international community," said Jerome Bonnafont, the Elysee's spokesman. The private meeting between Chirac and Sfeir, who also met with Pope John-Paul II earlier this week, was followed by a luncheon and took place at the Elysee Palace in Paris. The reunion mainly focused on "the relationship between France and Lebanon, the Lebanese internal situation, the position of Christians in the Middle East and the means to respond to the demands of the International community expressed by the 1559 Resolution," said Bonnafont.
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Newly appointed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Israel in the Palestinian areas in early February to assess prospects for assisting Israel with its disengagement plan from Gaza and helping the Palestinian Authority reform. Her first trip abroad in her new post is slated to take place February 3-10 and include stops in Europe, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian areas. Rice will then travel March 1 to London to take part in a conference on Palestinian institution building.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Oh boy, it must be the inagural blame America tour.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 0:31
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#2
Whatever ! Don't offer Ham Sandwiches as an token of Peace ! Just bring the money ! We'll have Kosher Pickles Factory for peace soon in USA , Baby ! Cars from Palestine ! Wine from EUROPE , cheap ! Turkey gives us the Fez ! Party Time , AMERICA ! Goose Dinner With Chips , from Queenie !
Hamas has won Gaza municipal elections as a Palestinian minister warns if Israeli occupation continues, then violence in the region will soon return. Speaking on Friday Ghassan al-Khatib, Palestinian Labour Minister, told Aljazeera: "We have to remember that violence is a result of the conflict, but not a reason for it. If the Israeli occupation continues, the violent conflict will then return."
Al-Khatib made his comments as Palestinian security forces widened their control in the Gaza Strip on Friday under orders from President Mahmud Abbas to prevent attacks on Israelis in another important move towards reviving peace talks. But in a sign of challenges ahead for Abbas, Hamas won seats in seven of the 10 councils in the first-ever municipal elections held in the Gaza Strip; including seats in the three largest councils: Bait Hanun, Dair al-Balah and Bani Sayla, Laila el-Haddad, Aljazeera's Gaza correspondent, reported. Hamas won 76 out of the 118 seats, a step that could be seen as a test of strength between the resistance group and the new leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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#1
Condom anyone?
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 0:32
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#2
Quelle surprise.
ROP, my ass.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/29/2005 0:53
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Syria was said to have deducted a portion of the salaries of its government workers to help the Palestinian war against Israel. Western diplomatic sources said the initiative was launched by regional authorities in Syria to deduct the salaries of public sector employees and divert the money to Palestinian insurgency groups based in Damascus. The sources said at least one region has begun such an effort. In the northern province of Aleppo, authorities ordered the deduction of 50 Syrian pounds, or $1, from the monthly salary of each government employee. The practice began in December 2004 and involved several thousand employees. The Levant News Service said the proceeds from the deductions were pooled in a lottery offer. The first prize was a German luxury car. The rest of the money would be sent to Palestinian insurgents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Israel accused the Iranian government of supporting Hizbullah and supplying it with a new arsenal of long-range surface-to-surface missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv and its surroundings. Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told reporters in London during an official visit to Britain that the missiles are shipped or flown by cargo via Damascus on a monthly basis. Mofaz said Israel was under "serious threat" because Tel Aviv and its surroundings were within the range of those missiles if they are fired from the Bekaa or the South. He accused Syria of continuing to support terrorism and of being deeply involved in terrorist operations against U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq. "The leaders of Palestinian terrorist organizations are still in Damascus, and the Syrians do not allow the Lebanese government to send its army to its Hizbullah controlled southern border" said Mofaz. The claims were seen in the Beirut press as part of Israel's ongoing campaign to convince the U.S. that Hizbullah constitutes a threat to Mideast peace.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Yes exactly like Israel convinced USA of the presence of Mass Destructive Weapons in IRAQ Stop this comedy please -All of us know that all these accusations are in the framework of the USA preparation of its coming war against IRAN that enters itself in the large plan of the Christian Sionists- the religious Sect in which Bush is member - to massacre all Muslims and bring them to a slavery states -After usurpation of their wealth -and Americans wonder why the USA is such hated in the world.
#3
...and Americans wonder why the USA is such hated in the world.
And I'm wondering where in the world raving lunatics are given access the internet. We know they are in Western Australia (thanks, Antigum) - now France? Wow. Those craaaazy French.
#4
It was actually Mubarak from Egypt and Hussien from Jordan that finally convinced the President that Saddam had these weapons and would use them. Israel didn't have very much at all to do with it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/29/2005 8:32
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Melika,I believe it is the Koran that demands death or Dhimmitude to all the Non-Muslim"People of the Book".Just death for the rest.How do you reconcile this Fact with your accusation about America?Are you saying that The people of America have no right to defend themselves from a life of servitude and death?
#6
Raptor you know very well that such a thing does not exist in the Quran that your only purpose is to traumatize the Americans and frighten them about the Muslim threat-we have lived for centuries with you Jewish People in North Africa-in Andalousia-in the middle east and without mentioning the Othoman Empire that saved the Safardi Jews by sending special ships to take them to the Muslim Empire where they had the possibility to leave in peace and KEEP THEIR RELIGION a thing that was not allowed in the Spain of Ferdinand
#7
Where is this andalusia that you speak of? Is it a muslim fantasy like palestine?
Posted by: Its all about ME ||
01/29/2005 10:38
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Melika lies to cover the atrocities, lies and sick sins (8yr old wives) in the Qoran. Andalusia, huh? Well at least you've advanced slightly from the 7th century.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/29/2005 10:44
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Raptor you know very well that such a thing does not exist in the Quran
You are LYING, LYING, LYING!!!
9:29, Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
01/29/2005 10:55
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Posted by: Tom ||
01/29/2005 19:01
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8:12 When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.
8:39 And fight with them until there is no more persecution and religion should be only for Allah; but if they desist, then surely Allah sees what they do.
9:5 So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate [jizya], leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
9.38 If you do not go forth [to go on Jihad], He will chastise you with a painful chastisement and bring in your place a people other than you [to go on Jihad], and you will do Him no harm; and Allah has power over all things.
There are so many more verses in the Koran and Fred's bandwidth bill is high.
Posted by: ed ||
01/29/2005 19:10
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Young suicide bomber Irfan's head has been handed over to his father for burial. Irfan had blown himself up by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's vehicle in Fateh Jang in October last year.
I can see why they gave it to him. It was really getting ripe after four months in the fridge...
Muhammad Mukhtar, Irfan's father, had made a request to an anti-terrorism court for possession of the head after identifying his son by his blown up head. Mukhtar was overcome with emotion when he received the head. It will be brought to Lahore under special security arrangements and will be buried in the Miyani graveyard.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Thousands of exiles started voting yesterday in 14 countries across the globe in historic Iraqi elections. At home, insurgents kept up their campaign to intimidate people ahead of tomorrow's vote, killing eight Iraqis and five American soldiers in bomb and mortar attacks. The interim Iraqi government claimed capturing two more aides to Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi. In countries ranging from Australia to the United States, via the Middle East and Europe, voters turned out to elect the 275-member Transitional National Assembly, two days ahead of the poll in Iraq. In Jordan, 60-year-old Lamia Jamal was the first Iraqi of the 20,000-plus registered there to make her choice on how to fill the vacuum left by Saddam Hussein, removed by US-led troops 22 months ago. "She was very proud, very happy and wanted to be the first so she could tell her grandchildren," said Astrid Meister, a spokeswoman for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), organizing the expatriate vote. "So far so good," was the verdict of Jean Philippe Chauzy, an IOM spokesman at its Geneva headquarters, who predicted a good turnout among the relatively small numbers who had signed up to vote.
"Of the 280,000 people who bothered to go in person to register to vote, we believe that the participation over the three days... will be high," he said. The figure of 280,000 is only around a quarter of those eligible to take part, and far below estimates made at the start of the nine-day registration process on Jan. 17. The first vote was cast by Shimon Haddad, manager of a polling center in the suburb of Fairfield, Sydney. "I'm proud to vote for the election. We have been looking forward to this time (for the) last 50 years," he said. The heaviest polling was in Iran, where more than 60,000 people from the large population exiled from its neighbor to the west were registered to vote.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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#1
I don't see the quagmire party listed? You know, the one with Imam Teddy Ali Z Kennedy.
Posted by: Duke Nukem ||
01/29/2005 0:29
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There would've been more, but the ones living in Israel were not permitted to register at their polling site in Jordan.
#3
That's Incredible , folks ! They've got Polling Booths in Ameica , Europe , and anywhere else in the world helping Iraq ! That is , PROGRESS ! Why didn't America accord this to Americans voting in this fashion during the American Presidential Election ?! What was it America and The World ?! Was it an Money Crunch Factor For Us , America ?! Yoo-hoo, Where was Kofi Anon And The Gang , huh ??!
#4
That's Incredible , folks ! They've got Polling Booths in America , Europe , and anywhere else in the world helping Iraq ! That is , PROGRESS ! Why didn't America accord this to Americans voting in this fashion during the American Presidential Election ?! What was it America and The World ?! Was it an Money Crunch Factor For Us , America ?! Yoo-hoo, Where was Kofi Anon And The Gang , huh ??!
#5
Gee EG you must be a foreigner, cause us Americans know that voting is done by states, not the federal government. You know like in the United States of America. While the states may not abridge the right to vote based upon race or gender, the remaining mechanics of who is qualified and the method of voting is up to each individual state.
Lebanon's domestic divisions, including the 15-year civil war, were not caused by the inability of 19 sects to coexist but by regional interference, said former army commander General Michel Aoun Friday. Aoun said that although Lebanon had a pluralistic society, the country could have avoided a civil war in 1975, if it weren't for the Arab, particularly the Palestinian and Syrian interferences in domestic affairs. "In fact, the Lebanese war was transformed in 1975 to a Lebanese-Palestinian war, in 1976 to a Lebanese-Syrian war in Beirut, in 1978 and 1982 an Israeli-Palestinian war in the South to end into a Lebanese-Syrian war in 1989 and 1990," Aoun said.
As for the Lebanese struggle, which he said occurred in phases, it was always tutored and encouraged by the outside. Aoun played a significant role during the civil war. He was appointed interim prime minister by former President Amin Gemayel in 1988. But, his appointment was not recognized by the Muslim community.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2005
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Yep, yep, yep. We all hear the cry of how the Israelis are screwing over the Paleos, but notice how quiet everyone one of those enablers are about the Paleos big part in the Lebanese Civil War. In the process of Freudian projection, the Paleos did everything they claim the Israelis do to them.
#2
If it weren't for Zionists, there would be oil under all Moslem countries! And it wouldn't be so hot and dry. And Moslem women would know their place. And the she-goats would be a lot sexier.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Militia, armed by the government, are blamed for killings, rape and pillaging in Darfur. Some 1.8 million villagers have been left homeless, 70,000 are estimated to have died. Rebels, fighting for power and resources, have looted relief trucks and attacked Sudanese officials.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Former ISI chief, Lt Gen 
A Sydney polling booth for Iraqis voting in their country's historic election was shut down for an hour today after a punch-up involving protesters and a subsequent bomb scare. Organiser of Australia's overseas voting program, Bernie Hogan, said the fight erupted when a group of around 20 protesters started yelling at voters leaving the Auburn centre. "They were on one side of the road protesting against the election while voters were coming out proudly with ink on their hands," Mr Hogan said. "The next thing I knew there's 50 people and a bit of push and shove and punching in the middle of road." The incident was cleared quickly but a bomb scare followed when a backpack was found abandoned nearby. The polling centre was closed and police cordoned off the area while the contents of the bag were examined. "It ended up being water and biscuits ... but we had to be cautious."
British troops have arrested several Iraqis suspected of plotting a bombing campaign ahead of Sunday's election. The operation on Friday involved Iraqi special forces and 200 Scots Guards in raids on four houses in Basra. The alleged large-scale bomb campaign was thought to have been aimed at polling stations and coalition troops based in the southern city. The UK troops came under fire as they raided one house, about 150 yards from a polling station. There were no casualties. The raids took place during the night curfew imposed by the interim Iraqi government in the run up to the elections. Two units from the new Iraqi army's elite tactical support unit led the raid, supported by two companies of the Scots Guards in Land Rovers.
A political rally by the militant Palestinian group Hamas turned violent Saturday, as supporters of the rival Fatah faction opened fire, sparking a melee that left more than 25 people wounded, a Palestinian official said. 
... A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say. The rhesus macaque monkeys also splurged on photos of top-dog counterparts, the high-ranking primates. Maybe that's like you or me buying People magazine. ... Curiously, the monkeys in the test hadn't had any direct physical contact with the monkeys in the photos, so they didn't have personal experience with who was hot and who was not. ....
The Canadians are checking in. Canadians are logging on to the Canada Free Press website in droves, and it's largely courtesy of Fox News. Liberally quoting Rachel Marsden's insightful column about Fox News versus the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), I wrote a column, Thursday about what a dramatic improvement the more professional Fox News would be over leftwing slanted, taxpayer-funded CBC in balance-deprived Canada. The letters that poured in within the first day after the column affirm my belief that mainstream Canada wants Fox NOW.
Tony Blair yesterday risked a fresh row when he branded the policies of Jacques Chirac, the French president, as "dangerous" and "pathetic". In a sign of cross-Channel tensions after the Iraq war, the prime minister showed contempt for two key elements of Mr Chirac's presidency: his attempts to turn Europe into a centre of power rivalling Washington and his personal relations with George Bush. Weeks before the prime minister joins Mr Chirac in welcoming President Bush to Europe, Mr Blair told the Wall Street Journal: "I have spoken on many occasions [about] my disagreement with those who want to set up different poles of power in the world. I think this is very dangerous. "I think we are best to congregate around one pole of common values. Europe and America should be an integral part of that together. They should not have separate and competing poles of power." 
An official in a small tourist town sued his colleagues Friday, saying they're unfairly targeting him for recall over his refusal to recite the Pledge of Allegiance at board meetings. 
... a Roermond [Holland] man [has] recently been refunded EUR 2,000 for the pistol he used to commit an armed robbery. In sentencing the 46-year-old man to four years jail last week, Breda Court also ordered him to repay the EUR 6,600 he stole from a bank in the Brabant town of Chaam. But the man had the price of the pistol he bought for the robbery deducted from the amount he was forced to repay. 
In the run-up to historic elections to choose a new Iraqi government, activists burned an effigy of US President George W Bush, railing against the occupation of Iraq amid doubts American troops will ever leave the country. Tens of thousands of leftist and left-leaning activists from around the world at the World Social Forum are convinced Saturday's election won't bring democracy and that American soldiers face a permanent stay in Iraq to influence the region and ensure a steady flow of oil. "The US will stay there to dominate the Middle East," Brazilian artist Jairo Silva said before an anti-Bush march on the third day of the social forum, held to protest the World Economic Forum under way in Davos, Switzerland. He added: "They'll stay there because the oil's there and so American companies can get all the contracts to rebuild a country America destroyed."
FORMER terrorist suspect 
(2005-01-28) -- The U.S. occupation force in Iraq is placing unconstitutional restrictions on the free speech rights of Al Qaeda and former members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party, according to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, who today introduced a resolution expressing "solidarity with our repressed brethren in the Iraq insurgency."
A SCENT exuded by young women as a subconscious sex attractant has been synthesised for post-menopausal women, who are finding it is luring men in droves, the British weekly New Scientist says. Forty-four women took part in an experiment to see whether the pheromone - an odour received by heterosexual men as a sign of mating availability - worked for females beyond child-bearing age. Half the group added a chemical copy of the pheromone to their perfume, while the other added a lookalike dummy compound. None of the participants knew whether they were getting the real ingredient or the fake. For the next six weeks, the women kept diaries.
FIGHTING broke out yesterday at Sydney polling booths where expatriate Iraqis cast their votes for today's historic election in the strife-torn country. Police cordoned-off Queen St, Auburn, after a violent scuffle broke out between supporters of terrorist leader 
Israel has determined that 
A BOMB blast killed at least four people, including a former finance minister, yesterday at an opposition rally in northeastern Bangladesh, police and witnesses said. The bomb exploded at a rally of the main opposition Awami League at Laskarpur, 250 km from the capital Dhaka. Around 50 others were wounded. A party spokesman said former finance minister Shah Abu Mohammad Shamsul Kibria, 70, was among the dead. Others who died in the blast included a nephew of Kibria and two party workers. After the blast, protesting Awami workers and supporters went on a rampage, attacking and damaging dozens of vehicles and shops, witnesses said. Authorities later deployed extra police and paramilitary troops at Laskarpur. Kibria who had been sitting on the dais at the rally when the bomb went off, died in a Dhaka hospital around midnight.
Muslim nations have the responsibility to correct the world's negative perception of Islam, Malaysian Prime Minister 
Voters would reject the European constitution by a margin of two to one, according to the first poll to use the question the Government has chosen to put to the country. A survey conducted since the wording was published on Wednesday suggests that 45 per cent of the public would vote against the constitution, with only 24 per cent in favour. Tony Blair has staked his reputation on winning the referendum, which is expected next spring if Labour wins the general election.
Chief of the banned militant organisation 
The official wall of silence surrounding the Central Intelligence Agency's so-called "ghost prisoners" who are being held at secret locations has sparked legal concerns here among human rights groups that denounce the practice as abusive. It is not publicly known exactly how many ghost detainees the CIA is holding, who they are or where they are held, but senior Al-Qaeda figures are known to be among their ranks, including 
The 
In another step toward a truce with the Palestinians, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is slated to meet with former PA security minister and senior Fatah leader Muhammad Dahlan on Saturday evening to discuss the Palestinian Authority's request for security control over certain West Bank towns. The defense establishment has already expressed its inclination to consent to such applications, yet has stressed that the process would be gradual and would depend of the maintenance of quiet in the areas, Army Radio reported. 
Senior Indonesian officials and separatist rebels have met to discuss reconstruction of the tsunami-devastated region of Aceh. Leaders of the 
A US army reservist accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners has agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges as part of a deal with military prosecutors, his attorney says. Sergeant Javal Davis, formerly of Roselle, New Jersey, had faced up to 8 1/2 years in prison and a dishonourable discharge on three charges connected with the maltreatment of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. "There is a pretrial agreement," said attorney Paul Bergrin on Thursday. Under the deal, he will be charged with simple assault and rendering false official statements, Bergrin said. He declined to comment on what penalties Davis now faced. Davis, 26, was scheduled to face a court martial in Fort Hood, Texas, next Tuesday. He faced charges including maltreating detainees, dereliction of duty and assaulting prisoners by stomping on the toes and fingers of Iraqi inmates.
Sudanese officials prevented 
A report by an Israeli think tank asserted that Fatah chief 
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the proposed sale of surface-to-air missiles to Syria was still under discussion despite U.S. and Israeli opposition, in an interview published here Friday. Putin told the English language Jerusalem Post that Russia would never upset the Middle East's regional balance but said any sale of the controversial anti-aircraft missiles could be allowed for "defensive purposes." "While we're talking about supplies of weapons to countries in the region, such a supply should be understood in the light of supporting defensive capacities, as in Syria," he said.
A six-member tribal clerics' jirga on Friday returned after meeting militant 
Congress has been pressing the U.S. intelligence community to investigate claims by an Iranian defector that Teheran planned to crash an airliner into a nuclear reactor in the United States. Several members of Congress were said to have been alarmed by the information and one has met with CIA senior officials to press for an investigation. So far, the CIA has refused to question the Iranian defector, a former senior official in the 1970s. Rep. Curt Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has met the unidentified defector several times in Paris over the last 22 months. Weldon said the defector has been accurate in predicting several important developments in the Iranian regime since February 2003. The developments were said to have included those in Iran's nuclear weapons programs and support for Al Qaida. The informant, dubbed Ali, was said to have been in contact with two dissidents in the inner circle of the Islamic republic. They were said to have reported a secret government directive by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei who presided over the nation's strategic weapons programs and financed and controlled groups deemed terrorists.
Libya is expected to unveil a vast reform program aimed at making a rigidly-controlled economy more market-friendly and open to privatization, Libyan officials said in an interview appearing Friday in the International Herald Tribune. "The old times are finished and Libya is ready to move onto a new stage of modernization," 
Sudan's air force killed or wounded about 100 people and forced thousands to flee when it bombed a town in western Sudan this week, the UN has said. UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri quoted the African Union (AU) as saying Sudanese forces had bombed the Darfur town of Shangil Tobaya on Wednesday. "(The AU) said there are around 100 casualties. They are not talking about a specific death toll," she told Reuters in Cairo by telephone. The fighting had forced the UN to withdraw staff from the area, she said. "Whenever we have incidents like that we withdraw our people," she said. The AU is monitoring a shaky ceasefire signed in April between Sudanese government and rebels in the Darfur province.
French President Jacques Chirac, who received on Friday Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, reiterated France's attachment to the full implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1559. "Chirac reiterated France's attachment to the full implementation of this resolution ... Therefore the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary elections are a crucial step that will be closely watched by the international community," said Jerome Bonnafont, the Elysee's spokesman. The private meeting between Chirac and Sfeir, who also met with Pope John-Paul II earlier this week, was followed by a luncheon and took place at the Elysee Palace in Paris. The reunion mainly focused on "the relationship between France and Lebanon, the Lebanese internal situation, the position of Christians in the Middle East and the means to respond to the demands of the International community expressed by the 1559 Resolution," said Bonnafont.
Newly appointed US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Israel in the Palestinian areas in early February to assess prospects for assisting Israel with its disengagement plan from Gaza and helping the Palestinian Authority reform. Her first trip abroad in her new post is slated to take place February 3-10 and include stops in Europe, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian areas. Rice will then travel March 1 to London to take part in a conference on Palestinian institution building.
Hamas has won Gaza municipal elections as a Palestinian minister warns if Israeli occupation continues, then violence in the region will soon return. Speaking on Friday 
Syria was said to have deducted a portion of the salaries of its government workers to help the Palestinian war against Israel. Western diplomatic sources said the initiative was launched by regional authorities in Syria to deduct the salaries of public sector employees and divert the money to Palestinian insurgency groups based in Damascus. The sources said at least one region has begun such an effort. In the northern province of Aleppo, authorities ordered the deduction of 50 Syrian pounds, or $1, from the monthly salary of each government employee. The practice began in December 2004 and involved several thousand employees. The Levant News Service said the proceeds from the deductions were pooled in a lottery offer. The first prize was a German luxury car. The rest of the money would be sent to Palestinian insurgents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel accused the Iranian government of supporting 
Thousands of exiles started voting yesterday in 14 countries across the globe in historic Iraqi elections. At home, insurgents kept up their campaign to intimidate people ahead of tomorrow's vote, killing eight Iraqis and five American soldiers in bomb and mortar attacks. The interim Iraqi government claimed capturing two more aides to Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi. In countries ranging from Australia to the United States, via the Middle East and Europe, voters turned out to elect the 275-member Transitional National Assembly, two days ahead of the poll in Iraq. In Jordan, 60-year-old Lamia Jamal was the first Iraqi of the 20,000-plus registered there to make her choice on how to fill the vacuum left by Saddam Hussein, removed by US-led troops 22 months ago. "She was very proud, very happy and wanted to be the first so she could tell her grandchildren," said Astrid Meister, a spokeswoman for the International Organization of Migration (IOM), organizing the expatriate vote. "So far so good," was the verdict of Jean Philippe Chauzy, an IOM spokesman at its Geneva headquarters, who predicted a good turnout among the relatively small numbers who had signed up to vote.
Lebanon's domestic divisions, including the 15-year civil war, were not caused by the inability of 19 sects to coexist but by regional interference, said former army commander General 
